Happy Halloween.....

Yesterday we celebrated at work and I dressed up as a domestic cowgirl....(otherwise known as Calamity kitchen..) I wore a cowgirl hat, cowgirl apron, my favorite red boots and a little kids toy holster with a red handled rolling pin on one side and a vintage egg beater in the other....Don't mess with a cowgirl in the kitchen...







It was a fun day....On a sad note, I gave in to temptation and ate Halloween treats.....One of the girls brought homemade sugar cookies with frosting. Can I hear you say sugar high? After work we went to my sister Julies so we could see little Jace Trick or Treat....I think he makes a pretty cute little Jaceosaurus...











I hope you all had a safe and Happy Halloween.....

Halloween is in the air......

One of my best Halloween memories is making popcorn balls with my neighbor lady from age 4 to 6.....She would butter up my hands and put an apron around my waist and it was so exciting. To this day, popcorn balls mean Halloween....




Mrs. Ebert, the wonderful neighbor, would make hers flavored with Jello.....I used to make them the old fashioned way boiling the corn syrup and all that. I found a super easy recipe though, and they taste sooooo good.

9 cups of popcorn
1 10 oz bag of marshmallows
1/4 cup of margarine or butter
6 Tablespoons of Jello...I used orange

Put popcorn in a large bowl

In saucepan, melt marshmallows and butter over low heat while stirring. Add in jello, stir in well...
Pour over popcorn and mix in
butter hands, tie on apron (preferable a nice Halloween apron) and shape into balls....keep hands buttered and they will shape easier...wrap with colored plastic wrap and tie a bow on......

So fun and easy. I miss making them with my babies......

I also made an Enchanted banner in bright colors and finished my Owl swap....My bernina is dying a slow death so sewing was a challenge. It goes into the shop tomorrow.....I didnt use a pattern for the fabric or clay owls, just played. I think I will make some fabric ones for my own Christmas tree. I like how these came out.

Winner of Quilt books and stuff......

hey everyone...Thanks for the interest in the Quilting Books...I finally have a few minutes to blog and announce a winner! The winner is Needled Mom! I will mail them out the end of the week......
I have received in the mail several cool things, just think I will share....Postcards from the Bird postcard swap put on by Roc, A Halloween Atc from Carmen,( from the witch swap hosted by Missy) and The Enchanted Ornament Swap for this month from Courtney...(this month is owls...)












I am working on owl ornaments for Courtney in return, a mini quilt in reds and A Halloween doll dress for my Blythe Doll. I am jumping around a lot and I am not sure why. I am usually gung ho on something until it is finished. Just busy I guess...
I now am thirteen pounds down and I am in third place in our Biggest Loser contest at work. It ends November twenty second. I am hoping to win a trip somewhere, we will see....I am still plugging away...it is hard now, those last ten pounds always are. Happy Halloween! (which is celebrated this year in Utah on Saturday....just a weird bit of Utah trivia)

Quilt book giveaway...

I love books! I love quilting and art books too...If I am not careful, I could become a hoarder of books. I would be happy weaving my way through the towers of books, but no one else would be...So I pass them on when I am done with them. By done, I mean copy the patterns I want.....I am ready to pass them on. Be sure and click on the picture for a close up, there are some great books here....
I also have some mini quilt magazines that Victoria sent me with some beautiful fabrics....I copied patterns and I would love to pass these on too....
To enter just leave me a comment...easy peasy.....I will send them out media mail to the winner.......

I love Sundays......

It is so nice to have a whole day off to putter around aimlessly.....After church, I came home and read for a while, took a nap and then when upstairs to create....Took a break, made some Carrot Pineapple bread and then back upstairs. Working makes me really appreciate my time at home. It is the best place on earth.
I finished some witch atc's first. Missy (littlemessymissy.blogspot.com) is having a little swap....I needed to make two cards but I made four. It has been months since I have made an artists trading card. These are collaged and painted and I really enjoyed myself. No time crunch today!!!






Then the quick bread....The house smells so good....This bread is almost like carrot cake, but easier to make.....









1.5 cups of shredded carrots...(mine are from our garden and I put them in the food processor)
1 8 oz can crushed pineapple
3 eggs
1 c brown sugar
1 c white sugar
2 tsp vanilla
3/4 c vegetable oil
mix this all together and then add

3 c flour
1 tsp salt
1tsp baking soda
1tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
chopped nuts
raisins

mix in the dry ingredients until moist. Grease two big loaf pans and bake at 350 degrees until done....about 50 minutes. Raisins and nuts are up to you....I just throw some in until it looks right......
Walmart sells this really yummy squeeze bottle of Honey Butter....It isn't thick, it is more like a glaze..It is awesome on quick bread. Yum, yum..










I ate a small piece and then jumped on the treadmill for three miles...We are still doing the Biggest Loser at work and there are 5 more weeks...I have lost eleven pounds. I am so tired of eating food I don't like all that much all day long. Mostly I eat oatmeal, fruit and vegetables and a little chicken and albacore....it gets old. I cheated once big and ate a hamburger...Sometimes you just have too...This bread just smelled too good to resist and it is a nice break from all the zucchini bread I have been making.


After the treadmill I made some polymer clay gnomes for my friend Rianne in The Netherlands. She is the one who made me the cute little tags and cards for my swaps....She and her little girl like gnomes and had seen some I made before so I offered to make them....Hope you like them Rianne....









Happy Sunday all.......

Alphabe Thursday D is for ......

I am linking up for the letter D to Jenny and all the others, for Alphabe Thursday, round two......http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com Come join us!

D is for determination, disappointment and discovery...In that order. I am talking about my pumpkin patch...I am a gardener and I have a green thumb. What I want to grow, grows until the great pumpkin fiasco. This has been my first year to garden in Utah and it was beyond my expectations. Everything except my pumpkins did well. I became determined....I had planted three plants and they grew like crazy...They grew so much that they even made their way through the fence and into the neighbors yard. I was thrilled. They started getting big yellow blooms and I was envisioning the pumpkins we would share with everyone for Halloween...I watched the little green bulbous pumpkins form. They would get to be about the size of a radish and then they would disappear. It happened over and over....I watered, I composted, I held back water, I checked with a magnifying glass for bugs. I became obsessed. I was determined to see something orange and round growing from those vines. It wasnt happening, I was a gardening failure. Maybe pumpkins dont grow in Utah? So I thought, until I drove by a house with the elusive pumpkins growing everywhere in someone's front yard. I was disappointed and dismayed.
Last week on my day off, the whole family was out in the backyard enjoying the sunshine....By family, I mean myself, the husband and the pets. Life was good. I saw a rustling in the pumpkin vines and it all came to me.....








I have a pet bunny, Donalds, that runs around in the backyard...You know, where the garden is. He doesnt eat anything else, so I assumed he just had enough grass to fill his little belly. Apparently he has a fondness for little green pumpkins the size of radishes.....He is a happy bunny and I am happy that my green thumb is still intact. I may not plan on orange pumpkins next year. Who needs the stress?

mini quilt postcards.......

These are part of a journal exchange for a group I am in.....They had to have a bird, a letter of the Alphabet......
I never thought about the time these take to make...Time never mattered. Now it does, and I realized they are a lot of work! Next time I will plan better.

C is for Cornish Alphabe Thursday.....

Hey everyone! It is Alphabe Thursday over at http:jennymatlock.blogspot.com
Every week she features a different letter of the alphabet, and we write stories or share pictures or recipes...Come play along!
On a side note, I havent on my own had a lot of time to visit, but I promise if you visit me, you will get a visit back...I miss reading all the entries! I sure try to get to as many as I can....

Cornish....That is my maiden name and a good English name it is. When I tell people my last name, most people immediately make some kind of reference to Cornish Game Hens....Those tasty little birds that make a great dinner.








A game hen I am not, just in case you were wondering....There is also the Cornish School of Art in Seattle....I think it would be so amazing to attend there...I love art, I love to learn and there has to be a few perks for being of the same name...I would think anyway!








There is also the beautiful Cornish Peninsula in England...I was looking through pictures on the internet and it is right on the water....I have always lived on the salt water except for here in Utah...(the stinky lake does not count, just for the record, though it is salty and there is a Cornish Salt too...)Maybe the saltwater is in my blood because it is where I am happiest.









I know all about my ancestry on my Mothers side and my paternal Grandmother's side. I know very little about my Grandfather....He died when my Dad was 16 at age 46 of a heart attack. I do know his father came in from England and came to Wisconsin and then Oregon. My Grandfather Cornish despite his young age was married 5 times. My Grandma who was a real pistol, refused to talk to me about him except to tell me that he was a $#%%%$##### you know, womanizer....I have gone to Temple Square in Salt Lake City to their Geneology library and looked up records, but I hit a dead end. Probably the most interesting "Cornish" thing that I know, is that in 1953 my Grandfather received a personal invite for Queen Elizabeth's Coronation...I wonder how she knew where he lived?











My Aunt has the invitation...It is a little bit of our history though I dont know the story behind it....I just hope he didnt "womanize" the Queen Mother or something!

Fall Basket Swap....

I joined the lovely Michelle's Fall basket Swap and my partner was Susan... sjmcdowell.blogspot.com We both had so much fun doing Baskets for each other and we both have received them so I wanted to do a quick post......Look at the beautiful basket Susan made for me.....





I love the yellow and the orange bow and she wrote me the sweetest card! Take a peek at what is in here....






ok, you better click on the photo to get a better look, Cause this baby is full of treasures....A Halloween scarf, candy corn, candles, a vintage card and the cutest pumpkin pin cushion...the fist one she ever made...under his hat is where the cushion is....






I told you all the other day I quilted something...it was for the basket I sent her....Here it is, a little tabletopper....





I sent a cute pumpkin basket, some scrapbooking goodies, a cute leaf plate, candles and some candy I picked up at a local farm....















A big thank you to Michelle again for hostessing and to Susan for being such a wonderful partner and new blogging friend!

Apple picking and proud to be Pink!

I mentioned in a prior post that Don and I went apple picking. I thought just for fun I would post a couple of pictures....It was super hot and the sky was bright blue. It felt like August, not late September. Ruth Anne, my Blythe doll, came along for the ride in her new outfit that I made. Don just rolled his eyes and humored me.....I think she is the cutest one of the bunch.
Here is the butt picture that I wrote about. I told him to take a picture of me picking apples and this is what I got.....(only a man, I swear)




I had no idea he had taken it....I got on a ladder right after and he took this one....





This one I knew he took! I also got him climbing around on the ladder...A lot of the apples had huge bug holes. We were kind of sad that the trees hadn't been taken better care of......It was hard to find good apples.






It is really hard to believe that soon it will be cold and there will be snow!

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and a lot of you know that I lost my mom to it in 2002. She was 56 so I always try to spread the word. Go get the girls checked ladies. It isn't fun, but it can save your life and life is sweet.
We had pink day at work on Friday....Everyone wore pink something, even the guys. I wore all pink from head to toe. My problem was shoes. I have pink Doc Martin's, but it had to be work appropriate. There are no pink shoes anywhere in the fall so I decided to make my own. I found a pair of Easter Egg yellow shoes at Ross for five bucks...One can of Krylon paint and here we go......











The husband came out mid painting, and let me know he thought I was crazy. Well, hello, what is new? He ate his words though, cause it worked....All day long people told me what cute shoes they are...I just smiled. Here I am at the back door ready to leave for work....all pinked up.






By the way, I look sooooo much like my mom in this picture it is kind of scary, but comforting too.....Take pride in the pink and have a good work!