Projects and Christmas Morning

I've got 25 or so band aid blocks done. I'm just waiting for more orange fabric to arrive.

I cut into my some Munki Munki Alien pj's.

While I'm waiting for more orange fabric I started this Scrappy X quilt. It's to go with my Mermaid Duvet. The above blocks are just the trial ones but this is basically what it will look like. I got the inspiration from Katelyn's quilt seen here.

I think they go together nicely (the blue mermaid one is what my duvet is made out of).

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Christmas morning. I thought I had video taped the girls coming out and seeing what Santa left but I didn't. I must not have pushed the button down all the way:( I got other video of them just not not any good ones.

Trying to take a picture of the shirts my sister sent Emily & Ava but Ava is being a turd.

Book from Pappa J and Grammy Dar (the infamous rap duo..)

The Queen and her subjects...

The two smaller dinosaurs are from Kelly. They are adorable! (The others are not new).

Emily wearing a stocking stuffer from Aunt Julia and Uncle Steve. Kitty-ear hair clips from Disneyland.

Christmas Eve pictures of the stockings filled by Santa.

Bulleseye from Toy Story 2 for Emily (was supposed to be Woody in the stocking but it arrived yesterday).

Right now Bullseye has on an orange ski vest, pink tutu and brown tights (all doll clothes).

Jesse from Toy Story 2 for Ava. There has been some intense fighting over these dolls!

Merry Christmas!

Crochet Lovelies

My lovely Auntie Karen in Oklahoma commissioned her niece Tina to make me (and the girls) these crocheted lovelies. Does she know me or what??

The kitties look just like Piggy and Frank!

And pirate pandas! They have removable eye patches and hats-so detailed. This makes me want to crochet sooooo bad. I want to make cute things like this. Thank you so much Aunt Karen and Tina! I am so impressed at how well they are made! I wish I could take lessons from you, Tina:)The girls love them too and are right now playing with them:)

This is the quilt I'm currently working on. It's just like Ava's quilt but not:) Which by the way, is almost done. I'm waiting for a piece of fabric that I ordered to finish one border and then I'll quilt it. That's right, I said I'LL QUILT IT!!! I'm going to take our long arm class some time in January. I'm so excited! I'll be able to quilt my own quilts and save a ton of money! The fabric line (above) is called Girl Friday by Cosmo Cricket. I'm throwing in some other fabrics that coordinate.

Corinnea, Ava & Kelly. Ava looks like a chocolate gnome.

My girls:) Doesn't Emily look so grown up? And Ava and that bottle...don't be surprised if she shows up on this blog with rotten teeth from sucking on that bottle all day. She rarely gets juice, (it's milk she loves) and when she does drink juice it's that V-8 fusions stuff. It's her Binky.

I just got all the oranges to make this quilt below. I emailed Jennifer at bettycrockerass for the measurements. I LOOOVE this quilt!! It's called a Band Aid quilt. See how it looks like a band aid??

And I ADORE this wool felt stocking from madebyrae.com I have to do this!

The log and it's family is another toy I had as a child. I somehow stumbled upon it on eBay and almost peed my pants! I had completely forgotten about it. SO I won the auction and it's on it's way..for one of the girls. Probably Ava's birthday in January.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

I will be back to post pictures from the big day.

I love Chili's

This is what I have been doing (craft-wise) the last week or so. Four rectangles of little trees. It's from here. It was supposed to be a wall hanging but I know I won't be able to clear wall space for a couple of months just to hang it and I cut too many pieces so I had to make 3 more. This will now be a throw quilt for the couch. I've never made a seasonal quilt (not that I've made many quilts) but I never thought I'd make a Christmas quilt..anyway, It will pretty much look like this when done, with the white all around it, except possibly have another light green print border and binding or just a printed binding but not dark like the inspiration one. The dark binding takes away from the trees.

The trees are not paper pieced and they took forever! Each rectangle measures

approximately 27" long x 14 3/4" wide

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Tonight Santa visited the base on a fire truck. The event is sponsored by The American Legion Stuttgart Post 6, with the help of the Stuttgart Garrison Fire Department and D.A.R.E.

This is a just a tiny bit embarrassing but I'll tell anyway...I get teary-eyed every year they do this. This year I actually thanked one of the men who walked along the side of the truck personally (as opposed to yelling, "bye Santa, thank you!") and got weepy. I told Jon that I think the guy thought I had been drinking because he did a double take when I scrunched my face trying to stop myself from actually crying. I truly am grateful that they do this. It makes the kids soooo happy and it adds to the magic of Christmas and most of all these people don't have to do this. They don't have to give up hours going to each base on different nights, visiting hundreds of buildings. They don't go in the buildings but drive down the streets in the housing areas honking and yelling Merry Christmas and then Santa gets off the truck and asks all the kids what they want. They start at 6:30 pm but I wonder when they get done? It has to take hours just to do one base.

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And the best thing of all is that we went to Ramstein Airbase today!! They have a new "mall" (PX). It's like a Target. I was in Heaven. I actually didn't buy much but I did score this Martha Stewart cake stand for $15.99.

I can't stop looking at it!

oh wait. The best part was actually going to Chili's restaurant!!!

Have I ever mentioned that I love this place??? Oh...it was so good.... we then went to the PX and got a cinnabon and a Baskin Robins mocha blast. I haven't been back to the States in 4 years (Christmas 2005) so I'm a little home sick for trivial things like food and shopping:)

The funny thing is that the restaurant has been here for a couple of years but I've never gone. I thought they had closed it a year or two ago but it was actually T.G.I Friday's that closed. ooops. I could have been eating there. But it's 2 hours away. Now that they have this new mall I might be going more often:)

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Below are some items I got the girls for Christmas. They are from here. I am in love with this persons art. One day I will commission her to make a viking doll for me.

The lady lives in Germany so when I ordered them I had them sent to my German address and got them the next day. Not used to that kind of mail service!

They are melamine plates and the ones below are small rectangular platters/plates with no lip so you couldn't put an item on it that could roll off. Good for toast which I eat every morning:)

Lorelei

A stocking for my friend Jocelyn's kitty, Lorelei. She also has a kitty named Oliver. I love their names!

This is the best picture I could get (at the time, which was at night) of the stitching. It was my 1st time embroidering a name like this. Took a long time too! I got the idea from this post.

As promised, pictures of the girls with Santa. That's not really a smile on Ava's face. More like a grimace.

Isn't she beautiful?

And this picture....caught me..doing something..I'm holding Ava while Emily gets more picture with Santa.

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I have some crafting I need to show and also some presents I would love to show but can't till after Christmas.

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I'm reading a really really good book right now called Sara's Key. Sooo good! I want someone I know to read it so I can talk about it with them!

A deck of cuteness

I made two Matryoshka wool felt ornaments. One is for me and one is for a friend...she gets to choose which one she wants. Ive already made something Matryoshka for this person before so she should know who she is:) The book I got it from is called "Fa La La La Felt". It's full of really cute decorations and ornaments. One of the few books out there where I want to make most of the stuff in it.
Stocking for Deana. She picked out the fabrics.

Playing cards for Emily's stocking. I am so impressed and happy with these! I got them from artscow.com. They are in Hong Kong I think. Sign up with them and get lots of freebies. You still have to pay shipping (which can be $5-7) but the item is free.

How cute are these?? We just taught Emily how to play Go Fish and she loves it...when played with her rules..

Last Christmas I got the girls some playing card holders (like these but round) from Jacko downtown. My friend Lisa was getting them for her kids and I thought it was genius so I had to get them too. I'm so glad I did because it makes it so much easier for Emily to hold the cards.

The dragon picture is the one on all of the backsides and then each card has a different picture.

More cinnamon ornaments made by Mary A.

Remember the cookie cutters I posted about here? These are them!

So stinkin cute and they smell good too! They are for sale at the store FYI:)

Seeing Santa

Yay!! i FINALLY finished Ava's stocking. All I had to do was sew the stocking together. I already had everything else done but it sat for a year...I guess I just needed to see it again to be sure it was what I wanted. Jessica drew the Spotted Elephant for me-Thank you!. I think he's adorable, if not diseased looking. But that's what makes him a misfit:)


I decoupaged a St. Nicolas clog for Emily. I still need to do Ava's.

The paper I used is Sassafras Lass (can't remember the line name)

Last night we hosted Santa at our Store. After seeing Santa me and the girls walked around the Winter fest and then over to the large lighted tree in Washington Square. Emily took the picture of me and Ava. And yes my stomach area looks weird. Looks pregnant..it's just the angle and lighting, etc.

The big lighted tree.

Emily on the carousal at the Winter fest. I don't know who put that on (the rides and such) but the rides were free! Free!!! Really cool. Was it MWR? I want to write an ICE comment. Seriously. I'm so thankful and the fact that our store had Santa...for free!! I love the military!

Emily on Santa's lap. Where's Ava you ask? She had already hopped off! She was having none of it! The guy taking photos got one of her so I'll post that later when I get it. Emily was SO excited to see Santa and when asked what she wanted, she said (of course) a dinosaur. And when asked what her baby sister wanted, Emily told Santa that Ava can have a dinosaur too.

Waiting amongst the fabric for our turn with Santa.

I had to post this because of who Ava looks like. The Joker (Heath Ledger Joker). I can see it. The red mouth the hair...

I just noticed how pink Jon looks. He had just shaved his head and face. Last night was his unit Christmas party.

I've been meaning to share this chicken recipe. It is to die for! Super super flavorful.

You will need:

• 3 regular-sized boneless chicken breasts (not super huge-if you have more chicken you must double the recipe)


• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese from the container (Kraft 100% Parmesan cheese, the really finely grated stuff)


• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese from the stick (the reason I use both is because the stuff from the container is finer and will fill in the gaps of the grated stick stuff. I just like both. You can use one of the other)


• 1 envelope (0.6oz) of Zesty Italian salad dressing mix by Good Seasons in the packet.
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder

Prepare

1. Mix cheese, garlic powder and salad dressing packet (just the contents of the packet. Don't actually make the dressing and mix that in!)
2. spray an 8x8 glass baking dish with cooking spray. Take a tiny bit of the mixture and sprinkle all along the bottom/sides. Don't use too much because you might not have enough to coat the chicken.
3. Moisten chicken with water; coat with cheese/dressing mixture. Place in dish side by side. Pour any remanig mixture over chicken.
4. Bake at 400F for 20-25 minutes. or untill chicken is cooked through. I like mine crispy so I keep it in a little longer.

I usually make Au Gratin potatoes or mashed potatoes and brown gravy to go with it. And rolls. No vegetables.

I want to hear if anyone makes this dish:)

*i'm not going to use spell check since when I do it messes up my format and I then have to go back and correct spacing and what-not.