Birds, Cats and a JSS Bee

Posted on March 3, 2011 by Barb

Not exactly a birds and bees blog today….. but there certainly was an interesting group of animals at our JSS Bee Day in February!  Who knew that cats and birds could live together in such harmony?  In fact, I found out that the birds are quite protective of the cats.  But that’s a whole other story…..

 

See how close they live together?  And although you might be inclined to think that the birds stay safely nestled in their cage to be protected from these vicious cat beasts, you’d be wrong.  First, the vicious cat beasts are not at all vicious.

In fact, Ozone tried to climb my leg the minute I walked in the door.

And I wanted to take him home with me.  Isn’t he beautiful?  And quite cuddly, I might add.

But I was talking about cats and birds…. and harmony……

The birds, parrots actually, spend a lot of time on the outside of the cage.  Unless they misbehave with company around.  And the cats and birds are totally nonchalant about each other.

Here is Maggie’s other parrot.  I never did get the birds’ names.  Hmmmm – wonder if that says something about me?  And check out this guy’s beak.  Looks pretty ominous, doesn’t it?  Not something you’d want say…… clamped around your finger, right?  Notice the duck in the background.  Wonder if the parrots ever wonder what happened to him…. and worry?  Hmmmmm……

Here’s Maggie with the gray bird.  Sad to call him “the gray bird,” isn’t it?  Too bad I don’t have his name.  Notice how close she is to the cats.  Beautiful beasts that they are.  And totally uncaring about that bird.  Maybe they’ve seen his beak?

And Maggie did tricks with Mr. Gray Bird.  She even taught me a cool way to hold him.

See?  And it seemed that he would lay that way, unmoving, forever.  Feet straight up in the air.  Cute!  Wait…. check out those talons……  I don’t think I even saw them as I held him.  Probably a good thing.

Look what Maggie had on her counter in the kitchen!  If she knew how badly I wanted a bright red one of these, she’d have hidden it from me.  And she should probably consider herself very lucky that it wouldn’t fit in my purse.  Isn’t it pretty and bright and shiny?

But I should move on to breakfast!

Maggie fixed this fabulous breakfast bundt cake drizzled with sugary topping.  Doesn’t it look yummy?

Thankfully there was also lots of fresh fruit for those of us who were trying to eat healthy.  That would be me.  (See previous blog posting.)

But this was a JSS Bee Day!  And we had quilts to show ‘n tell!

Always a cute smile from Cindy as she shows us a little wool snowman she made.

Susan brought her knitting along.  Very pretty scarf!

Suzanne shows us a new holding technique as Tracy, Maggie and Nancy look on.  You’ve seen this quilt before (made by Judy Roybal from Suz’s Brown Bag fabric last year), but I’m certain you have slept since then and don’t remember.  You probably needed to see it again, didn’t you?

LaNelle showed a really fabulous paper piecing project she’s been working on.  She must have taken lessons from Vicki.  Remember Vicki’s fabulous blocks that LaNelle shared with us last year?  Fabulous work, LaNelle!

My show ‘n tell was this fabric flower I made for Suz.  To celebrate her birthday (again!) and our special day with Pioneer Woman.

Here’s Maggie with her very first ever quilt project.  She decided to start with a really, really easy one.  Not.  Her appliqué is spectacular!  But then again, she was taught by a master appliquér…..our own Susan.  (Who just became a Grandmother yesterday – Congratulations, Susan!)

Here’s a closer look.  It’s wonderful, Maggie.

Nancy had some great Baltimore Album blocks to show us.

Beautiful work, Nancy.

And a partial Rose of Sharon block too.

Peggy and Susan check out Peggy’s “piping” quilt as another neighborhood friend of Maggie’s looks on.  Hi, Dorothea!

Before we knew it, it was time for lunch!  JSSers are all about eating.  But you already knew that, didn’t you?

A beautiful, colorful salad in a beautiful bowl.

Yummy lasagna made by Maggie.

And there was yummy garlic bread too.

And cute little bite-sized cheesecakes for dessert.  Also made by Maggie.  We each ate 10 of them.  OK, five.  How many did you eat, girls?

And also these fabulous truffles and chocolate-dipped strawberries.  YUM!

In the midst of making a very simple, easy (not) appliqué quilt, Maggie decided to teach herself to paint.  No, not the walls…… these……

I believe she said these eagles were her very first project with oil painting.  What a talent this gal has!

And how about this one?  Oh, my!  Maggie is indeed a talented addition to the JSS Bee!  And you read correctly.  She taught herself to paint.  Using the internet.  And going to Hobby Lobby for all her supplies.  No class.  She’s a wonder, that Maggie!

After lunch we took a tour of the house.

This is the downstairs TV/Exercise/Massage room.  Maggie did not paint that plane on the wall.  Although I’m pretty sure she could have, if she’d have wanted to.

We nearly lost LaNelle forever in this fabulous deep massage chair.  If you can’t find LaNelle next week, look for her in this chair at Maggie’s.

Magnificent windows looking out into the tree-filled back yard.

How about this cool media room?  We decided we all wanted to return for a slumber party.  LaNelle will sleep in the massage chair, but I think the rest of us will make popcorn and fall asleep in these cozy chairs while watching some chick flick.  Sounds like a party to me!

I forgot to mention there were also fish!  Cats, birds, fish and a quilting Bee.  There was even a Nemo fish in this fabulous aquarium.

Beautiful fish.  Very soothing to watch.

And as we were leaving the kitties were languishing in the sun.  Is this Ozone?  Or the other kitty?  Brain freeze on the names again.  My bad.

Kitties, fish, parrots and JSS Bee gals.  All living in perfect harmony for one day.  Well, almost.  I forgot to mention one tiny little mishap with one of those birds……

…….. when my finger somehow got caught in his beak!  But it’s fine now, Maggie.  Didn’t need to have it amputated after all.  Healed up quite nicely.  I only spent 4 days quarantined in the “bitten by parrot” section of the Centers for Disease Control.  It’s almost good as new now.

And you all do remember how I exaggerate, right?

Hugs,
Barb

Posted in airplanes, food, quilts | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Healthy Eating 101

Posted on February 27, 2011 by Barb

It all started with new health insurance after the first of the year.  And cholesterol of 224.  Oops.  Next thing I knew, I was “that nasty vegan woman” who sends everyone fleeing to the hills whenever they see her coming.  Although I’m not really vegan.  But you understand what I mean.  I can hear their thoughts.  “Oh, no.  Here comes that nasty vegan woman again and she’ll be talking all about her diet.”  Healthy eating, thank you very much.  It’s not a diet.

And look what I have for breakfast:

 

Looks pretty yummy, doesn’t it?  Those are waffles.  Topped with lots of fresh fruit.  And they are very yummy.  I bet you’ll be surprised at the ingredients.

Wednesday is Waffle Day at our house.  Because I work Monday and Tuesday.  So I have an easier breakfast on those days.  But Wednesday……..yummy waffles.  It’s also “Stay in My PJ’s Until at Least Noon” Day.  For the same reason as Waffle Day.  I love Wednesdays.  But I bet you already guessed that.  Last Wednesday I made an extra batch of waffles.  Because then I can just put them in the toaster and have them every day.  With yummy fruit on top.  The above picture is Saturday Waffles.  Leftover from Wednesday.  Nice.

I had to show you an up-close pic of the fruit topping.  Because up-close is just the kind of gal I am.  I made the topping by putting a handful of blueberries, blackberries and strawberries in the food processor.  Then I pulsed it with a little honey.  I then chopped up some extra strawberries and put them in a bowl with some blueberries and poured the puréed stuff over the top.  Stir and top off the waffles.  I’m getting hungy again just typing about it.  And I bet you are too.

So maybe I should show you how I make the waffles?

Here are the ingredients: 1 1/3 c oatmeal, 1 T honey, 1 tsp vanilla, 2 tsp oil, 1 2/3 c water, 1/2 tsp salt and 1 c pinto beans.  Yes.  You read that correctly.  Pinto beans.  In my waffles.  And if you had one, I would challenge you to taste the beans.  Except now that won’t work because I already told you what was in them.  But I had to tell you so you could make them.  But I digress.

Pinto beans soaking in water now live in my refrigerator.  So that I can whip up some waffles any time I want to.  You don’t cook them before you make the waffles, just soak them overnight and pour off the water and rinse them.  I know, I know.  It sounds very weird.  And probably very vegan to you.  Sigh.  But they are good, I tell you!  You just have to try them for yourself.  And remember the pictures up above.

You put everything except the oatmeal into the food processor.    This picture does not show the water added.  I pour that into the top after I start up the food processor.  You don’t have to do it the way I do.  It’s just me.  And my food processor.  It leaks if I pour all that water in at the beginning.  Just sayin’.

Then you turn on the food processor and whip this stuff together for 90 seconds.  You could also use a blender.  In fact, a blender would probably be better.  I don’t have one.  So I use my food processor.

Birthday hint for Dear Hubby:  Nice blender

It will look like this.  All foamy and yummy.  And not a trace of pinto beans anywhere.

Then you dump in the oatmeal.

And give it a whirl again for 60 seconds more.  By the way, I set the timer.  I got tired of doing the one thousand one, one thousand two….. way of timing.

Now it looks like this.  At this point I pour the batter into a bowl with a spout.  For easy pouring into the waffle maker.  But you probably used your blender and it’ll be easy to pour yours.

Second Hint for Hubby:  My birthday is just over a month away.  Just sayin’.

Hello, waffle maker.  My waffle maker is my new friend.  As well as my food processor.  I’ve used them more in the past 5 weeks than I have in the past 5 years!

By the way, don’t preheat the WM until after you’ve mixed the batter.  The batter needs a few minutes to sit and thicken.  And the time it takes the WM to heat is exactly the right amount of time for the batter to thicken.

Pour the batter into the waffle maker.  See?  Pourable bowl.  But you can pour directly from your blender jar.  I would too, if I had one.  And have one less bowl to wash.

You’ll need to cook these a little longer than conventional waffles.  So again, I set the timer.  6-8 minutes.  My waffle maker tries to get me to take them out sooner.  But I don’t listen to it.  I wait for my timer.

Yum.  I can’t quite figure out exactly how much batter is needed to get the waffles all the way to the edge.  So I’ve decided I like them this way better because they look more homemade.  As if you could buy perfect pinto bean waffles anywhere in the world.  Not.

Sometimes I just top them with blueberries and a little honey or agave nectar.  Doesn’t that pic of blueberries make you want a handful?  I love blueberries.  And they are very good for you too.

I should mention here that you can add loads of things to the batter when you make these.  Any combination of the following:  banana, apple, cinnamon, walnuts, pecans – use your imagination.  In the latest batch I added two small apples, cinnamon and a handful of walnuts.  They were exceptional.  I could eat them every day.  Wait!  I do eat them every day.  At least until they run out.  Then I have to wait until Wednesday Waffle Day.

Here are a few other things that live in my refrigerator now:

Almond milk.  It’s wonderful on oatmeal.  I like the “breeze” kind better than the “silk” kind.  In case you’re interested.  And it is oh, so much better than regular milk.  I’m amazed how much I love it.

I also use soy creamer in my morning coffee.  I like the French Vanilla better than the Hazelnut.  But I have both.  And on my occasional trip to Starbuck’s?  I get a soy latte.  I actually like them better than regular lattes.  Who knew?  And if you register your Starbuck’s gift card online?  You get the soy milk and any flavoring free.  That’s your Starbuck’s Tip for the Day folks.

And I even have:

The Dreaded Tofu.  Horrors.  If you had told me 2 months ago that this would be in my fridge?  I’d have said you were crazy.  I haven’t actually made anything with this yet.  But I have recipes I want to try.  I’ll keep you posted.

And here are a few more things I’ve been making lately:

Hummus.  This is roasted red pepper hummus.  It’s so easy to make with a food processor.  Did I mention I love my food processor?  I’ll show you how to make it in another blog.  It is delicious.

Roasted veggies.  Before cooking…….

After roasting.  Yum.  I love these.

Here’s Friday night’s dinner.  A heaping plate of roasted veggies.  And even Dear Hubby loves them.  Sometimes I fill my plate even more full than this one.  But I wasn’t too hungry last night.

Snacks.  Or sometimes even lunch.  Homemade salsa, red pepper hummus and lots of veggies for dipping.  Very yummy.

Wonderful veggie chili.  Loads of beans.  I’m learning to love beans more and more.  And this chili was great.

More things to do in the food processor.  Sliced cukes and shredded carrots.  For salads, or sanwiches or dipping.  Well, maybe not dipping.  At least not those shredded carrots.

Did I mention I love my food processor?

All the ingredients for shrimp pico de gallo.  Shrimp, red onions, tomato, olives, jalapeno pepper.  This was Super Bowl food for us.

Last night’s supper.  Pita bread, carrots, cukes, spinach.  And just to prove I’m not a vegan – this is all topping off some grilled salmon in the bottom.

See?  Grilled salmon.  All flaked up for the pita pocket.

And it was deeeeeelish.

It all started out with a goal of lowering my cholesterol.  Nice side effect?  I’ve lost 13 pounds as of today.  Nice.  Very nice.  In a little over 5 weeks time.  And I’m eating a lot.  Just eating more healthy.

When Pioneer Woman gets wind of this she will gasp.  And refuse to be my best friend.  Forever.  But I plan on trying to convert some of her high fat, high calorie recipes into a healthier version of my own.  It’s my new challenge this year.  And I’ll occasionally share some successful ones with you.

But don’t discount pinto beans in your waffles.  You just might like them.

This picture greets me every day on the calendar in my bathroom.  The cat is sort of a cross between Miss Kitty and Boo.  And the caption reads “I am in shape.  Round is a shape.”  I wonder if there’s a skinnier kitty on the March page?  I guess I’ll know in a few days.

Thankfully, I’m getting less and less round by the day.

Healthy eating?  It’s a very good thing.  I think I’ll go get a nice juicy pear.

Slimmer hugs,
Barb

Posted in food, healthy, recipes | Tagged , , | 27 Comments

Blogging with Bonnie Hunter

Posted on February 23, 2011 by Barb

Bonnie Hunter is my new best friend.  Forever.  She doesn’t quite know it yet, but she will one day.  I need to get busy working harder on Pioneer Woman.  She needs to be my new best friend too.  Forever.  She just doesn’t know it yet.

You see?  Bonnie posted my blog URL on her Facebook page yesterday.  And the hits came in so fast I couldn’t keep up.  You could say it went viral.  In fact, some have said that.  Viral being a relative term in my blogging world.  So I’m going to post about Bonnie every day.  She apparently has a really big fan club.  And I’m the newest member.

I thought I’d upload the videos I have of Bonnie.  I’m sure all you people in Bonnie’s Fan Club want to see the videos, right?  Actually I was going to post them anyway. Because they are so cute.  But after the blog went viral, it became an urgent necessity.  Any day now I’m going to start to sound like Sally Field when she won the Academy Award…… “They like me.  They really like me!”  Only to find out that you all really just like Bonnie.  So I’m posting about Bonnie every day.  After all, we are BFF’s.  Somebody please tell Bonnie.

So here’s a video – you’re gonna love it!

Bonnie at Trinity Valley Guild in Forth Worth, TX

Isn’t she a cutie?  If you haven’t actually seen her in person before, now you feel like you have, don’t you?  So glad I shot that video so I could share it with you all.  Here’s one more:

Bonnie Tells Why We Quilt

And now for my own fans who have been with me on this blogging journey.  Bonnie’s fans can just skip over this part.  I took a picture that I just had to share.  Prior to yesterday, my biggest number of hits on any one day was 382.  And that happened just one week ago.  When someone shared a link to the blog on a Yahoo Group called “Stashbusters.”  A group of over 5,000 members.  Before that the biggest day was in December, right after the JSS Christmas party, when there were 305 hits.

Yesterday?  The number of hits was one thousand, three hundred and forty nine.  Yes, that’s 1,349.  Which is, in my blogging world?  Viral.  In Pioneer Woman’s world?  It’s a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very slow day.  It’s all relative.  But pretty exciting for li’l ol’ me.

WordPress has this nifty little graph screen with your numbers for the last 30 days.  Well, until yesterday the number at the top of the graph was 400.  Now it’s 1,500.  So the graph changed quite dramatically.  And here it is:

The first time I saw this with the tall bar on the far right last night, it took me by surprise.  All those other little bars shrunk way down from the day before when the top of the graph was only 400!  And as you can see, I took this pic this afternoon and there were already 363 hits today.

For reference sake, the blog I wrote about Pioneer Woman posted on Feb 17.  So according to the bars, Bonnie is way more popular than PW.  Or maybe it has something to do with the fact that Bonnie herself posted the link?  New BFF, for sure.

By the way, welcome to the new subscribers to this li’l ol’ blog who are in France and England!  And one who commented from Germany!  And a great big thanks to my new BFF, Bonnie.  Love ya, Bonnie!

Off to email PW,
Barb

Posted in just stuff, quilts | Tagged , , , | 21 Comments

Scrap Happy with Bonnie Hunter

Posted on February 22, 2011 by Barb

Oh, my.  Bonnie Hunter is a great motivator.  I wanted to come home from our guild meeting last Friday and cut up my whole stash.  But I quelched that wild idea with the reminder to myself that I had a deadline.  And you know how I am with deadlines!  We’ll talk about that later.  But first:

 

Meet Bonnie Hunter!  She is the Queen of Scraps, in my humble estimation.  And boy, did she have some quilts to show us to prove her point.  And great ideas for cutting up your stash to utilize it well.

Bonnie used the quilt behind her to show how she cuts her stash into various sizes of strips, squares and bricks to create numerous variations of blocks.  And she had some beautiful quilts to show us how that technique works for her.  And I wanted to go home and cut up my entire stash and start on some fabulous quilts of my own.

I love the log cabin-y look of this quilt.  And it’s even better in person.  I wish you all could have been there.

This one was amazing too.  What a great way to use up all your fabrics.  Bonnie encouraged us that if we still had some millenium fabric lying around, use it up!  I didn’t confess to all of the milleniums fabrics I have.  Shhhh….it’ll be our little secret.

The gals who were lucky enough to spend the day with Bonnie for the workshop got up and showed their blocks too.  Nice.

This log cabin quilt was exquisite.  I love log cabin quilts!  And I liked this one so much I took multiple pics.

And you get to see them all…..

I had to put my hand in one pic.  Just so you could see how small those strips in the log cabin blocks were.  Tiny!  Now you can scroll back up to see the whole quilt again.  Remembering how tiny the strips are.  Go ahead.  I’ll wait.  Scroll up.  Actually, I’ll use this time to go cut my entire stash into .75″ strips so I can make one of these too.  But if I cut up my whole stash, I think I’d be able to make about 457 of these quilts.  Don’t tell Dear Hubby.  He thinks I only have enough fabric for 217 quilts.

This one is pretty awesome too.  Lots of squares!  I think she might have used her leaders and enders to make this one.  A great idea she gave us.  Instead of using a little scrap of fabric over and over again at the end of chain piecing, actually sew two squares together.  Then you essentially are making two quilts at the same time.  That Bonnie is one clever girl.

These little four patches make a really nice quilt.  Bonnie loves putting that pink and orange together.  Very daring.

How about this one?  I had to give you a closer look…..

Looks like four patches and connector corner blocks to me.  Simple, yet very effective.

Then Bonnie showed us how to bargain shop for additions to our stash.  Big old plaid shirts from a thrift store.  And how about a hospital gown.  Memories stitched into a quilt.

The center of this quilt was made entirely of recycled items.  Shirts and such.  Very cool.  Now I not only have to cut up my entire stash, but I also have to raid Dear Hubby’s closet for old shirts.  I’m going to be in such trouble.

Here’s an up-close look.  Just because.

I love plaids too.  Seems me and Bonnie could be great friends in the quilting world.  We like the same things!  Simple, traditional, pieced quilts and very scrappy.  How about an up-close look at this one too?

Love the red check that makes up the corners.  Simple blocks make up this quilt.  And I love it.

This one is the same basic block.  Only with sashing to change it up a bit.  Have I mentioned what a smart girl Bonnie is?

See how cute?  And such a simple block.

I love, love, love, love, love, love, love, LOVE this one.  Love the brown and blue.  Love the plaids and checks.

Isn’t it fabulous?  Oh, Bonnie, where have you been all my life?  Wait.  She’s been right here!  Bonnie’s website – you must check out her website.  She has so much there to see.  Free patterns too.  And wonderful ideas for using up your stash.  That is if you can get off the computer long enough to actually sew.  You could spend some serious time at Bonnie’s website.

Even the backs are cute.  Just throw some leftover blocks back there and piece a cute back.

What a great border.  What a great quilt!  Love how the red just pulls everything together.

Another fabulous one.  Did I mention I love scrappy?

Look at all the different fabrics here.  What a great way to use up a stash!

Bonnie has such a fun, motivating way of talking about them all too.  Did I mention I’m fixin’ to cut up my whole stash?

Nice how she incorporates some fabric in the sashing that requires a shopping trip for something new too.  Like the red in this one.  That way we can feel good about using up our stash.  And we get to feed our fabric addiction by shopping for new stuff for sashing and borders.  Way to go, Bonnie.

You know me.  I can’t stop with the close ups.  Bet you thought that small red check was pink before you saw this close up, didn’t you?

Once again.  She shopped for the cheddar fabric for this one.  And the rest is just scrappy, scrappy!

Had to give you an up-close again.  Just because you needed to see those fabrics.

And this is the hand piecing that Bonnie stitches in little 15 minute segments of “found” sewing time.  Just whenever she has a bit of time to stitch.  And it’s gorgeous.

See?  Fabulous.  Beautiful.  Over-the-top gorgeous.  I have plans to make a hexagon quilt one day.  Plans.  That’s the difference between me and Bonnie.  We might like the same things, but she actually completes the quilts.  I have plans.  And without a deadline, I’m pretty dead in the water.

Maybe I need to hang around Bonnie more?

So if you hear of Bonnie Hunter doing a program near you, run, don’t walk, to see her.  Her quilts are worth seeing.  And she has a fun, lively program that will motivate you. 

Just be ready to go home and cut up your whole stash.  I’ll be starting on mine just as soon as I give myself a deadline.

Hugs,
Barb

Posted in quilts | Tagged , , , , , | 44 Comments

One Last Pioneer Woman Thing….

Posted on February 18, 2011 by Barb

I know, I know.  If you believe this is the last thing I’ll ever say about The Pioneer Woman, you don’t know me very well.  I’m sure I will be talking about her for years to come.  She is my blogging hero after all.

But I wanted to let you know today that my video of her book signing event in Dallas is online and ready for viewing!  You can see it here:

The Pioneer Woman Answers Questions in Dallas

And if you missed it, don’t forget to read the post of the entire day’s event on yesterday’s blog.

Enjoy!
Barb

Posted in just stuff | Tagged , | 4 Comments