Day Camp at Nana & Grandpa's

The last Thursday-Saturday before school started was a fun time around here. We started out with Grayson and Maddux on Thursday night spending the night. Madduxwasn't feeling the sleeping thing after 4:30a.m., so he and Grandpa hung out in the recliner snoozing off and on together.



Clara and Aela showed up early Friday morning as they got dropped off when their parents went to work. Grayson and Clara ate peanut butter toast with me for breakfast.



Payton, Cael, and Nate showed up late morning.....and then there were seven! Luckily it was Bud's day off, so I wasn't init alone. :)
The kids had a great time riding the scooters and riding toys around the sidewalk. Nate even tried to ride with his broken leg. (he might just be too big for that one!)



They had races.



With the occasional crash, burn, and then pounce!



Grandpa spend time entertaining a few of them while I made lunch.



Tanner showed up late after noon and luckily Tasha showed up with pizza for supper. After eating they both took their kids and headed home, Bud took Trilby's boys back and I had a minute of downtime before Travis and Co. showed up to spend the night. We were in charge of Chance and Colby in Saturday morning as the parental figures went to the State Fair. Colby was entertained by Cuddles.



Somehow Chance stayed away from the camera.:(
We took the boys to Trina's to spend the night and we headed home, tired, but with work to do! I worked at school until 8:30 that night, and Bud painted buildings until dark, then came to school to give me a hand. Needless to say, we were two pooped grandparents!
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Yet Another T-Shirt Quilt!

I don't really like making these t-shirt quilts, yet here is another one!! Actually this was the first one I ever started. I put the top together for Mom one time a few years ago when I was in TX. I left it with instructions on how she could straight line quilt it.


I even made the binding and left it for her. It didn't get finished.
These are t-shirts from her travels. Iowa, of course!


And New York City just to name a few.


I did some straight line quilting and some meandering.


It did come to me spray basted together, at least. I will say, this was the easiest one that I put together.


Now this absolutely, positively is the last one I'm making!!!

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A Little Christmas Decorating!

No, I'm not actually decorating for Christmas--yet. My nephew is getting married in two weeks, so we had a shower for his fiancé. I decided to give them some Christmas items to decorate with.

First I made them a table runner. I used a charm pack and a fat quarter of Countdown to Christmas by Sweetwater for Moda.


I meandered around on the blocks.


And I used a fancy stitch on my machine to edge the strip at each end. I used white thread, so it is hard to see.


Then I decorated a little tree with some lights, ribbon, and red berries. I put it in an aged bucket and surrounded it with pine cones. And made a big ribbon to put on it.


Merry Christmas, Clint and Kayla!
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Taco Seasoning from Pinterest

I don't know about you, but I pin A LOT of things on Pinterest....recipes, crafts, quilts, books, educational, sayings, etc.


I do try to use the ideas I have pinned. Several recipes have looked better than they actually were, but I recently found a good one. Taco seasoning is something that I use often. I usually buy the packages of seasoning but since I'm always looking for ways to cut my grocery budget I decided to try the recipe for taco seasoning.
I gathered my spices.



Taco seasoning mix
Ingredients
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
In a small bowl, mix together chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, red pepper flakes, oregano, paprika, cumin, salt and pepper. Store in an airtight container. Season to taste.


I tripled the recipe so that I can have it on hand and ready to go. This is definitely a keeper! Have you found any good recipes on Pinterest?
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State Fair 2012 Edition

The Iowa State Fair is a nationally known fair. It is on many "must see" lists, and the movie, "State Fair" with music by Rogers and Hammerstein was based on the Iowa State Fair. We go to the fair every year, and this is not the first time I have written about it on my blog. I am always amazed by the Iowans who have NEVER been to the fair. I did not grow up going to the fair, but Bud and I started going when we were dating and have gone almost every year since. Some years we go for a couple of days, some years just one, and every now and then I don't go. We have seen some great concerts at the fair on the main stage and on the free stages.

Anyway, yesterday was our day at the fair. It was a PERFECT day weather wise. I even wore a sweatshirt for part of the morning! Usually it,s hot and I'm sweaty, so the cool temps were fantastic! We each have things we want to see. I, of course, like to see the quilts that people have entered.

This was my favorite maybe because I love fall and the colors. It certainly wasn't the most difficult, but I liked it.



I am always in awe of the hand quilted quilts. I think they deserve extra points just for the time involved in hand quilting vs. machine quilting.
Not sure why this one deserved a red. I liked it, but I wasn't the judge.


Even though I hope I have made my last t-shirt quilt I thought this one was interesting. It is a memory quilt of 4-H ribbons, photos, and activities, so not a t-shirt quilt, but similar.


The quilting had words written to tell about some of the activities.


What a great use of the ribbons.
Bud is always interested in the animals...mostly the cattle. But this year we had to take two peeks at this guy.


You would not believe the size of the rack on this elk. This would be Bud's dream trophy!
I was more interested in the moose.


The chocolate one of course! This was the first time for the chocolate moose. FYI-the butter cow was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and the Evil Queen.
On the food front we really struck out! Our first taste was crab fritters.


Waaaaaay too much fritter and hardly any crab visible. Thumbs down!
Next was the German Chocolate Cake funnel cake. We had planned on a Carrot Cake funnel cake, but when we saw this we decided to try it since Bud loves German Chocolate Cake.


Thumbs down! it wasn't freshly made and had way too much frosting in the middle. Bud ate most of it but was sorry later!


Our last taste of fair food was the double bacon wrapped corn dog. It was not an epic fail, but just not all we expected. I've had better regular corn dogs at the fair. The was a slice of bacon wrapped around the hot dog and bacon bits in the batter. That's why it looks lumpy.

Bud has a rule about not spending much money at the fair, so that is all we shared to eat all day. We had a great meal at Jethro's BBQ in Altoona in the evening, and it was worth the wait.

So, today I am nursing my sore feet, and starting to think more about school. Bud will go back to the fair tomorrow for the tractor pull while I stay home.

Fair 2012 is in the history books for me. Have you ever been to the Iowa State Fair? If so, what is your favorite thing to do?
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Canning Time!

We had planned a day of relaxation today after going to Mass, buying Bud new shoes, and getting a few groceries. But that was not to be. As I was picking up my sewing room so I could sew Bud was messing around outside and decided to check the garden. We ended up with this....


10 quarts of salsa and 8 half pints of pepper jelly. now I have my fingers crossed that the pepper jelly sets up, I have the worst luck with that. I followed a recipe exactly, but they didn't seem too thick when we took them out. I guess I just have to wait and see.
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T-shirt Quilt #4

I made a t-shirt quilt for each of my four kids. You can see the other three under the 11 in '11 tab at the top of my blog. BUT, I was having so many problems with my sewing machine that I didn't get Trina's finished until now.


Trina was into music with just a touch of sports, so used fabric with music notes on it for the shashing. The back is a little bit scrappy with music fabric down the middle, and some black fabric at the edges.


I sewed around the edges of each square and then from corner to corner.
Then I meandered the shashing.


Merry Christmas, Trina!
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Freezer Food

This afternoon was spent cooking. I haven't put a lot of effort into cooking our regular food lately, partly because we're trying to eat healthier, it's hot, and we've been busy.


This is what I ended up with-- two containers each of Taco Soup, Baked Chicken Ziti, Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo, and Mexican Lasagna, three containers of Taco Rice, and not pictured are two loaves of Banana Bread.

The kicker is that only one container of Taco Rice is staying at our house! Bud was a wee bit disappointed when he found that out!

Each time a new grandchild is born I cook them a few freezer meals.


Maddux was born in April and Trina has been back at work for several weeks, but Tanner has still been home.


Aela was born in May, and Tasha is going back to work next week. So I thought it was time to cook for them! They each get half of what is pictured, a loaf of banana bread, and a dozen chocolate chip cookies I had baked another day. That should feed them a few nights!

Most of the recipes I used can be found on my sidebar of recipes and under the recipe tab at the top.

Now I need to do this for us so we're ready for me to go back to school!

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