My Journey 2016- Time to tackle the piles

I mentioned before that I lack the skills to actually ask for what I want.  I have over the years written out detailed plans for ideas that I would like to do.  I usually loose the napkin I wrote them down.

I am going to try something 'new' to me.  My focus this week is to specifically edit my spaces and clutter.  (Insert all your images of a hoarder here!)

While I manage to pretend that I am moving piles around and have a plan, truth is I don't.  I get many ideas and really don't have the physical ability to implement them all.  (Another reason to continue getting stronger)

Special thanks to Deny for reminding us that 'cleanliness is next to Godliness' is not in the Bible. That helped a so much to take the pressure off-  just kidding.  Maybe he was deeper then he intended to be and meant "god-liness"  making the act of cleaning into an idol.  I have no plans to convert to a worshiper of anyone/.anything other then our Creator.

Healthy living is still my mantra for the month.  I plan to explore different parts of what makes me tick over the course of these posts.

First the moving piles around is not a joke.  For years I have been collecting items for future projects.  My dad use to say if you see something buy it b/c you will spend 10x  as much money and time collecting the supplies to make it yourself.  This is advice is so true.  Like many students of life, I always fail the test and the make-up test.  The bulldozers and dump trucks have not lined up at the door (yet) so maybe there is hope that I can get a handle on it.

Here are my specific visions for the basement.  (Reference is to a vision board not a cosmic experience)  Starting in no particular order.

Back store room:  convert to mosaic room.  Move Jesse's blue desk to the west wall.  Move all holiday storage items to another location to be determined later.  Use north wall for shelves and edit supplies to specific projects.  I will keep the cat's litter boxes in this room and promise to keep them clean.

Glass room.  Sort, clean and edit materials.  Remove all items that are not necessary for the creative process to work/design with glass.

Laundry room.  Move washer/dryer to east wall.  Install toilet and sink and counter tops.  Consider the area where washer/dryer are currently and see if this area can be converted to holiday storage. Address concerns  for the overhead pipes.

Sewing room-  finish putting stuff  away.  Pat on the back, this room is closest to being usable the way it is.

Furnace room.  Clean out and install cabinets/counter tops to make into a Kitchenette area.  Use the cabinets for storing overflow kitchen stuff, large pots/pan etc...

Fireplace room.  Clean out and add shelves to east wall.  Move quilting machines and materials from church building back home.

Gun room  Install cabinets and counter tops.  South side of room, clean up and add shelves or cabinets on south wall and/or east wall by fireplace for misc storage.  Keep room open, maybe couch or chairs and small table.  Do a stained glass piece for window.

I am thankful for the space we have in the basement.  I have wonderful memories of the many different ways we have utilized these spaces.  Walls have gone up and been taken down.  Just about every room has been used as a bedroom for a bit.  Kids have moved in and out.  Stuff has been stored, sorted and stored some more.  As much as I have enjoyed each phase of use in our downstairs areas I am ready to ask for help in meeting goals for how it is used now.  I do not want the basement to be a junk area, I want to use it as a space to be creative and spend time with family and friends doing good works with our hands.

I know there will be a lot of physical work needed to make my vision a reality.  I hope family and friends will bear with me as I hint, and hint and hint and finally work up to asking for help.

Anyone available to help me get started?

My Journey- 2016 5th Sunday (May) Veggie Lasagna

 On the 5th Sunday of the month, our church group gets together for a pot luck lunch after morning services.

Kelly and I traded ideas (and I googled) on how to make a veggie lasagna.  Mine turned out pretty good.  Several ladies asked for the recipe.  My plan was to get up and cook and finish early and make it to class.  Kelly beat me to church---I think she cheated-  she fixed her cake last night.  And she only had 5 kids to get ready,(cousins spent the night) and a 30 minute drive.  I had to wake up by myself--enough said.  Kelly rocks!

My version of Veggie Lasagna:  I didn't write an ingredient list but will try remember the order in which I did things.  All mentions of amounts are guess-ta-mations-  I didn't really measure ingredients..

Saturday I purchased, Spaghetti squash, mushrooms, frozen spinach, a baggie of shredded stuff (Brussels sprouts, celery, cabbage and other veggies) and jar of spag. sauce.  (I looked for a chunky mix w/no meats and low carbs per serving)  I had on hand onions, peppers (red, orange, yellow), coconut oil, and homemade cheese dip (I make my dip with cream cheese, sour cream, rotel (I make my own) and grated cheese blend- Colby/Monterey Jack.  I left the spinach in the refrid to thaw over night.

Cut the squash in half length wise.  -Harder to do then what I thought it would be.  I placed both sides cut side down in a baking dish w/a bit of water and covered.  I cooked it at 425 for just less then an hour.  Google says 45 min.

While the squash is cooking I worked on the rest of the meal.  I started with a spoonful of coconut oil (b/c I couldn't get the bottle of olive oil open),melt on medium heat, added 1/2 bag of veggie stuff and stirred.  I then added 1/2 cup of water and covered so it could cook/steam.  When that mix look like it was cooking down I removed the lid and let the water cook off.  I then added sliced onions (I like purple)  I like to have several different sizes when I cut.  Cover and build back up to steam.  Uncover and add slices of the different peppers, cover and let simmer.  When this looks like a good texture I mix it up and add a layer of mushroom to the top.  I like to splash the mushrooms with Teriyaki sauce-  cover and let the mushrooms cook/steam.  When the mushrooms are done, I uncover and let the excess water cook off, you could just drain if needed.   Mix and add jar of spaghetti sauce, (I save back enough to cover the bottom of the baking dish first) Simmer this mushroom/veggie/sauce while working on everything else.

The spaghetti squash will be hot-  I put 1/2 in a bowl and ran water over it.  I used a fork and scraped the insides and put them into another bowl. Repeat with other half. When I had all the squash I could get I drained off the excess water and added a spoonful of coconut oil and a 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese and mixed (tossed?)  Then I microwaved for a couple of minutes to get it hot.

I had the cheese dip already done so I drained the spinach and added it to the dip.

In a clean baking dish I first poured enough sauce from the jar to cover the bottom of the dish to keep the squash from sticking.  Then layer squash (It is stringy so I drop clumps and spreed them out with two forks)  Next is about half of the mushroom/sauce mixture.  Then a layer of the spinach/cheese dip.  Another layer of squash,  Then mushroom/sauce mix and topped with grated cheese-

I was running late so I covered the dish with foil and brought it to the building to put in oven on low till lunch.  I think I could just heat until cheese melts and serve or better yet do the layers and freeze for later..  I was hoping to have enough left over to see how it taste after it has been the refrid. but the entire dish was scrapped clean.

I have only made spaghetti squash one other time and I seriously did NOT like it.  This was good enough that I will consider doing it again.  Maybe next time I can fake a pizza or better yet a meatloaf-  now I think Kelly needs to plant squash!

One of the benefits of eating healthy is all the wonderful flavors found in real foods.  I don't normally use salt when I cook and rarely even add pepper.  I am enjoying discovering what others have known all along.  Eating Healthy is easier to do then I thought it would be.  It had been a few months since I made this pledge--

 Ask myself this question everyday--  How can I find, prepare, and eat healthy food.?  

I am looking forward to seeing what new recipes I can make in June.

Your UFO, my UFO it's still a UFO

To make a short story long-- Erin sent me a pack of blocks intended for another friend on her site.  Lucky for me I passed them along to their rightful owner.  What a lovely surprise when these black and white beauties showed up in my mailbox!  Thanks Erin, your UFO's are now MY UFO's and may or may not be UFO's much longer.

I love the B/W and the green just pops!

I am hoping to add a yarn embellishment to enhance the flowers a bit. Several of these blocks still need appliqued to the backgrounds.  At first I wanted to make many different color flower outlines but the cheapo in me settled for one skein of yarn

 Since most of these gifted blocks are black on the left and white on the right I think I may break them up with an alternate block between them.

Took a bit of searching but I did find a pack of B/W & Pink butterflies.  These are started on 8 1/2" backgrounds I will need to figure out a way of getting down to 12 1/2" total preferably with out having to  cut new backgrounds.

I 'found' this Black and Pink and had to bring home a couple of yards just in case I wanted borders or binding.

 I may have the use the print to border the flowers to get them up to size.  Really don't want to take the time to size down the butterflies.  So many decisions, no wonder we have so many UFO's!!

First- Last? Backpack

Any idea how hard it is to see/sew black fabric with black thread?   Hard enough that after I got the bag done, I decided to leave the thread trimming to the recipient!!  lol

Hard to see but I made several inside pockets out of the left over fabric.

 This fabric is so beautiful!  I started teaching a quilt class at the Marionville,  MO library, 1st Tuesdays at 1pm.   After class I asked if there was anything special anyone wanted to learn.-  You guessed it- backpacks!  Think of all the possibilities to use up scraps/ties/doubleknit/etc...


Hardware was salvaged from used purses-  another excuse to hit the thrift shops!!

No pattern, just fold and sew till it looked like a backpack.   Note to self, use a heavy duty needle and remember to bring extras.  Doesn't hurt to have a full spool of thread either--lol

Pre-Got-Ya Shower

I love to 'shop' at our local thrift store.  Many times I pick up items for future use.  Our niece is in the process of adopting her son.  Our church family threw together a toddler shower.  I normally would make a quilt, but this time I decided to 'run' with the transportation theme and see what I could do.

Play rug purchase 6 mo ago $5.00

Old blue toy box picked up last week for $5.oo!  Paint, fabric panels and new hinges-  Love it!!

Close up of top, love this print.

Closer look at the front side.

Book case was bought several years ago. Paint and a couple of packets of stickers, it looks new!  I also added  boards across the shelves to keep the books from falling through the back.  I glued felt down the back of all wood that would touch the walls

Ready to fill up with new books!

Play table was another neat thrift shop find.  I have re-gifted several over the years.  Paint and tighten up the screws was all this one needed.  Perfect size for a little one to play  with his cars.

 I enjoyed working on this play set--not pictured are the bean bags (rice)  I sewed using up scrap car/truck prints.  Hope the little one enjoys all his shower gifts.  It was a fun shower- so much so I didn't think to pick up my camera and click some pics.  Church family, aunts, uncles and cousins, young and old coming together to celebrate a new family.  God is good!

wedding quilt spinning stars

Many thanks to the ladies who sewed sections.  This top for Austin and Nichole is really coming together.  Possibly even done before the shower March 12th!!  Let's all hold our breath--just kidding.

I have really enjoyed seeing the different ways this pattern can look.  Quilt group will be working on a few more variations this year.  If you want to get in on the fun let me know.  Quilting will be on 2nd and 4th Tuesday evenings starting around 6.00.,  Additional help/catch up/etc... will be Wednesday after Bible class (11:00 ish)

We will be working on 5 graduation quilts in March along with our first couple of steps in our personal Spinning Stars projects.  Fingers crossed we get our tops done to show off at the Ladies Night this Fall.

Spinning Star, die cut using scraps (works well with fat quarters)

Part way done!!

Had to show off, Sarah's king size top.  This is a Hole in the Barn Door variation using blues/light scraps.  Very proud that my daughter shares my love of sewing/quilting!

2016 slow starts but starts- now to finish something!

Wedding quilt die cut out and bagged!  All were picked up and several have been returned already.

Interlocking star will be pieced after all the sub-units are returned.

I love greens~

Another small top for the nursing home.  I am looking forward to when the grandkids can run the machine and quilt these for me.  Nice practice size!

Wedding quilt pinned in ready to get hearts and bells.  Bride to be had this top from a family member.  Honor to quilt it for her upcoming event!

Thrift store find.  Had a 'house' applique pinned on.  Think I might want to do something different in the center.  Maybe butterflies or a Dresden plate or ......any suggestions?

The pattern was attached, instructions were for individual embroidery in each yellow spot.  No thanks- passing on that!!

thrift shop find 6 good sheets for future quilt backs!!

This rack is all tops and/or backs for future kids size projects

My back sheet inventory is getting smaller!!

On the left are the last 6 Christmas quilts for the grand kids.  On the right are the 8 quilts I was supposed to get done for Karlee's b-day party in Jan. --this project is being moved to an end of the school year slumber party TO DO!

Tops from my personal collection that need quilted.

Looks like I have a few things to work on this month!