HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Wishing all of you a Happy New Year!! I hope everyone has a happy and blessed new year. Have a wonderful day spending it with family and friends! Hope everyone had a great holiday season! 

Colleen :)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Halloween! I have been busy trying to get ready for all of the local Christmas shows and spent a few weeks visiting family so I know I haven't been on here for awhile. Hope to be back soon. :)   Anyway...hope all of you have a good Halloween and if you and your little one's are out trick or treating be safe. 

Colleen :)

Time For Strawberries

One of the things I like about summer is the wonderful fruits available even up here in the north country. So many wonderful recipes for using fruits. One of my favorite fruits are strawberries. Love the strawberries! So being that said I thought I would share this stuffed strawberries recipe with you.

What you will need:

24 large strawberries

1/2 cup strawberry flavored cream cheese

3 tbls light sour cream

How to make it:

1.   Rinse and remove stems from strawberries.

2.   Place strawberries on cutting board point side up.

3.   Cut a deep "x" in the top of each strawberry.

4.   Carefully spread berries apart. 

5.     In a small bowl, beat cream cheese and sour cream until smooth.

6.    Spoon filling into each berry.

7.   Refrigerate until ready to serve. 

So needless to say....these would be eaten in one sitting! LOL!!! :)  Looks pretty easy so why not give it a try. :)

Enjoy! :)

Colleen

More Things Your Mother Should Have Told You....

Mother's never told us anything did they....well here are a few more things your mother should have told you..... 

Ants, ants, ants everywhere … Well, they are said to never cross a chalk line. So get your chalk out and draw a line on the floor or wherever ants tend to march. See for yourself.

Use air-freshener to clean mirrors. It does a good job and better still leaves a lovely smell to the shine.

When you get a splinter, reach for the scotch tape before resorting to tweezers or a needle. Simply put the scotch tape over the splinter, then pull it off. Scotch tape removes most splinters painlessly and easily. I will have to try this one because hubby gets splinters all the time. I will let you know if it works. :)

Now look what you can do with Alka Seltzer. Clean a toilet. Drop in two Alka-Seltzer tablets, wait twenty minutes, brush and flush. The citric acid and effervescent action clean vitreous china. Clean a vase. To remove a stain from the bottom of a glass vase or cruet, fill with water and drop in two Alka-Seltzer tablets. Polish jewelry. Drop two Alka-Seltzer tablets into a glass of water and immerse the jewelry for two minutes. Clean a thermos bottle. Fill the bottle with water, drop in four Alka-Seltzer tablets, and let soak for an hour (or longer, if necessary). Unclog a drain. Clear the sink drain by dropping three Alka-Seltzer tablets down the drain followed by a cup of Heinz White Vinegar. Wait a few minutes, then run the hot water. WOW!! Who would have thought of all the uses for Alka Seltzer!! Guess it isn't just for an upset stomach is it. 

Just a few more little tidbits to know. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day! :)

Working On New Product

I have been sewing my little fingers off! Trying to get some new products in my Etsy shop and getting ready for the summer markets around here. 

Awhile back I blogged that I had purchased the EQ7 quilting software  because I wanted to design my own quilts . Well I did manage to get a few mug rug/candle mats designed and made....a few you say......how about 24 of them! I was a sewing fool. LOL! :)  Here are a few of them that I made. 

I also have been cranking out the fabric bowls. I just keep buying fabrics and making bowls! I love all the fabrics that I can turn into bowls. They are time consuming to make, but when they are done I think they turn out really good. Making lots of them for the shop and the summer shows too. 

You can see everything I made right  here. Still have lots of fabric to use up so guess I will be adding to my pot holders soon. :)  So what have you been working on? :)

Have a great rest of the week everyone!

Let's Get Those Kids To Embroider

I know a lot of you out there are sewers, crafters, quilters and embroidery people. Now for those of you that embroider do you have children that you would like to get started with embroidery? How about having them start with this Burlap Embroidery for Kids from AllFreeSewing that I found the other day. They will use colorful shoelaces to make these designs and it looks like a great way to get them started. Wish I still had my grandkids around to do this project. :)

Happy embroidering and have a great day!!

Redecorating For Spring

For some of you it has been a long winter and I am sure you are glad Spring is here. Now that Spring is here let's get those windows open and let all the fresh air in. Now if you are me.....can't open the windows yet as it is still a little bit chilly up here. :)

It is also time to change things around in the house and get ready for Spring. So let's get started......

1.   Change your dark fabric pillows and replace them with pretty spring colored pillows.

2.   Freshen up bed linens with linen spray. If you have springs sheets and pillowcases available then use them for bedding. 

3.   Spring is time to change the wreaths and ornaments hanging by the outside front door. Use a wreath of flowers for this.

4.   Place flower scented candles or wax melters around the house. This will give your home a springy smell. I actually have my melter going all the time. I do turn it off in the summer since I have the windows and door open most of the time. Oh my.....look at that messy kitchen! LOL! :)

5.   Sweep all the dirt and debris from your front porch and back decks and bring out the patio furniture. Yep....this is a mess....needs sweeping. 

6.   Bring out those birdhouses that you packed away and put them on your mantel or shelves. If you are like me I don't have any spare birdhouses and I feed my little feathered friends all year long outside. :)

7.   Get those spring bath hand towels from the back of the linen closet and use them in the bathroom now. This is what I do and it always makes the bathroom very springy. 

8.   And the one I like the best is.....have a vase or bowl of spring flowers. If you are lucky enough to have tulips and daffodils bring them indoors! Oh how I wish I had these in my yard.  :)

So let's get busy and bring springtime into the house! 

Happy decorating and have a wonderful day!

HAPPY EASTER!!

Just wanted to take this time to wish all of my faithful followers a Happy and Blessed Easter. Enjoy this day with your family and friends. :)

HARVEST HAPPENING CELEBRATION

It is that time of year again.....fall....so please join me along with the Old Farmhouse Gathering Team on Etsy for our Harvest Happening Celebration. There will be lots of wonderful items for your fall decorating and gift giving in this celebration. This team has some amazing artists in it and they create such great things. Just click right here to see all the goodies offered in this celebration or you can go to Etsy and type in HHCOFG. 

I have a few items for sale in this celebration also. 

This mug rug/candle mat can be found here. 

And I finished this bowl that I showed you a few postings ago. You can find it here


So sit back and get those shopping fingers limbered up and join me in celebrating fall! :)

Have a great day! :)

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!

Just wanted to wish all my American followers a HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!! And to all my non-American followers thanks for joining us on our celebration of our Independence!!

Have a great day!!

AMERICANA QUILTS

Quilting is my first love when it comes to sewing and I belong to theQuilts,Quilts,Quilts Quilts, team on Etsy. I did this treasury and wanted to share with you all the great quilts this team has.....:)

Quilted Coaster - Americana ... QuiltinWaYnE $14	Waving flag quilt / patrioti... SpoolandThimbl... $45
HANDMADE Americana Quilted T... CountryStarQui... $43	Patriotic Candle Mat Mug Rug... NeedlesnPinsSt... $8
Stars and Stripes - A Jell... PureJoyPattern... $9	STARLIGHT Star Bright silver... vintageinspira... $6
Patriotic Tumbler Flag E PAT... creativeblessi... $6	FoUrTh oF JuLy American Fla... QuiltMix $6.5
America Pillow 15" x 20... MROriginals $55	Fabric Cotton Quilt Craft 9-... Blueridgefabri... $7.99
Four Patriotic Snack Mats, R... JDCreativeHand... $16	Decorative PILLOWS PATRIOTIC... AuntiJoJos $24
Geometric quilted twin sofa ... MooseCarolQuil... $500	Full/Queen Quilt, 4th of Jul... Codysquilts $465
Attractive Patriotic throw s... PattisSewingRo... $79	Red, White,and Blue Quilt darleneshreffl... $95

Have a great day!!

STASH BUSTING....

Ok.....so....is your sewing room getting out of control?? Do you have what Stashbuster.com calls WOMBAT...."waste of material, batting and time". :) If so....it is time to clean up the fabrics, get those UFO's out of the box they have been hiding, at get busy "stashbusting". 

Here are a few tips to help you get started:

Shop your own stash first:

One of my many cabinets and tubs of "stash". :)

Sell or swap with friends:

I have a group of ladies at the hospital where I volunteer that get together once a year and swap fabrics. We live in a small community so everyone shops at the same two fabric stores so that means everyone has the same fabrics. Well so many of us are now shopping online also that we are starting to get a variety of fabrics so this swap is really neat to see all the new fabrics.

Donate UFO's and/or fabric to charities:

If you have just so much fabric you don't know what to do with it all, consider donating it to a local charity. Many communities have quilt guilds that make quilts for community projects. Our hospital has a quilt for patient program that many ladies and gents in the area make quilts for this program. This is a great way to use up that stash of fabrics.


Make quilts for Quilts For Kids:

This is one of my favorite ways to use up my stash. The Quilt For Kids program is a group of volunteer quilters from everywhere that make quilts to be given to children for comfort in hospitals while they are sick and undergoing treatments.  This project was started by one women years ago and now has transformed into a huge effort that many companies have become involved with likes of Robert Kaufman Fabrics, Proctor & Gamble, Pellon and many, many more. I really enjoy making quilts for this cause. I just wish I had more time to make more. 

So all of you quilters and sewers out there I am sure you need to "re-organize" those sewing rooms. So get busy and "stash bust"! That way you can make more room for MORE FABRIC!! :)

Happy Sewing!  :)