Some crafting, some mail and coffee!

I recieved this fabric from my mom a few months ago and I've been wanting to make a sewing machine cover for some time. I didn't have a pattern, so I sort of winged it. I think the next one I make will not be so boxy. Angela wants me to make her one for her Janome. Please excuse the cluttered table. It's kind of been that way since I've moved into the office.

Last week I received my etsy order from junecraft. I love these little recipe cards, all her illustrations are charming.

And then one of our latest purchases was this single serve coffee maker, which I love so much! I think because it's easy too clean and leaves no mess what so ever. A little on the pricey side, but well worth it.

Braun Tassimo

Hopefully I'll be able to post tomorrow, I'm driving up to LA for the day and visit family.

Have a great weekend!

Ack!!

flowers, originally uploaded by tweetysnest.

. . . . another birthday! Well, at least I can show off these beautiful flowers my daughter gave me. We celebrated last week on the 17th, oh yeah, and to top it of by going to the midnight showing of the Dark Knight. That's okay, I enjoyed the movie. Anyway, I apologize for the absence, but I've been on sort of a vacation and I do have quite a bit to post about, I just need to get my head around blogging again.

I shall return.

Last of the kitty cat capers

thursday, originally uploaded by tweetysnest.

and what a sweet one to end it on. Okay, I am going to have get my hands on some blank tea towels and stitch these cuties up!

What I'm up to ...

It's been pretty quiet around here, I don't know why I haven't been able to sit at the sewing machine. I guess because it's in an odd spot and all my goodies are stashed in assorted places. I'll try to before the night is over, because I have a few things I want to finish and put in my shop. In the meantime, I did list my vintage Desert Rose pattern cups and saucers, a beautiful set, but I have no where to put them. I have enough things on display.

You'll also find one of my handmade comfy pillows made from reproduction barkcloth. I have several of these pillows in different sizes. This is the smallest size, 16x16 inches. I was busy in the fall making pillows and tote bags, but I didn't go to my usual craft fair as much as I thought I would. So now I think it's best to put my wares on etsy and go to the craft fair when time allows.

Before I leave you I have Tuesday and Wednesday transfers for you.

Take care and good night.

Monday

I have a "days of the week" vintage transfer for Monday to share. You can find it here. I didn't want to clutter my blog up anymore than it is, but it's another cutie of Mama and her baby kitty!

Oh, just a side note, the vanilla ice cream I made the other day did get firmer in the freezer after the next day. I was wondering why it was still soft after 5 hours. Seems to need more time in the freezer, but it doesn't affect the taste at all. I found a coffee ice cream recipe I want to try. Mmmm, sounds yummy too!

Well, I haven't had a chance to do a any sewing of any kind. My room is still upside down with stuff! All my fabrics, machine, odds and ends., etc. are in the office and not all that organized. After I moved most items out of the room, I managed to paint two walls, then I ran out of paint! I didn't know those walls were going to need more, it seemed like it just absorbed alot, I didn't have that problem in the kitchen. Anyway, back to my "sewing room" dilema, I'm kind of in the middle and I'm not sure I'm going to move my sewing stuff back in there. Still trying to figure that out. I kind of like it here near the living room and at the front of the house. I can easily look out the window and see who's flying down the street or what's going on outside. Plus I want to downsize a little, I tend to clutter up the bedroom real fast with all my sewing projects going at once. I don't think I will be like that here. I like this picture, I took it two weeks ago when we were having a heat wave and the sun was starting to go down. It was still very warm outside and inside, ugh.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sunday

sunday, originally uploaded by tweetysnest.

Here's another vintage transfer of Mama cat with her little kitty. How sweet, I think she approves of her kitty toying with the fish.

Homemade ice cream

As you can see it's a bit creamy after 5 hours in the freezer, but still yummy for low fat.

I topped it off with whipped cream after the photo shoot - so much for low fat! Next time I'll make real ice cream!

Perfect day for ice cream

I thought today was a good day to make ice cream, plus I needed to dust this guy off and make use of it again. I don't make ice cream often enough, but I don't think I could give up this very cool gadget. After all, ice cream is my favorite dessert!

Here's the recipe from the Ultimate Ice Cream Book, I got this recipe from the Cooking Light forum a couple of years ago. I make this at least once or twice a year.

Lowfat Vanilla Ice Cream
2 cups 1% milk
2 eggs, plus 2 egg yolks
1 can fat-free sweetened condensed milk (14 oz)
4 teaspoons vanilla

Lightly beat eggs and egg yolks in a medium mixing bowl with a whisk and set aside. In a medium saucepan over low heat bring milk to a low simmer. Slowly add hot milk to eggs, mixing with whisk. Return egg/milk mixture to pan over low heat and simmer until custard thickens slightly. Do not allow to boil or the eggs will scramble. Pour custard through a strainer into a large clean bowl, then whisk in sweetened condensed milk and the vanilla. Cover and refrigerate overnight or until chilled, then freeze in ice cream freeezer as directed.

You can throw in 1/2 cup of chocolate chips at the last 5 minutes of freezing time, if you like. It looks difficult to make, but it really isn't.

Enjoy!

Saturday

saturday, originally uploaded by tweetysnest.

Here's another days of the week transfer. I think I'm going to have to make a set of tea towels using these kitties. Mama cat and baby kitty are starting to grow on me. I'm not a big cat person, but my Mom is and I think these would be perfect for her!

Friday

friday, originally uploaded by tweetysnest.

Here's another vintage transfer, I believe it's from "Workbasket", it was stuffed inside these Vogart transfers that I purchased from ebay last year. Funny, I just realized that their were other transfers in the package.

Have a great weekend everyone! And to my fellow Americans have a wonderful Independence Day! Keep safe.

Ready for summer!

Well, we finally did it! We hired someone to take care of our pool. I don't know why we put it off for so long, I guess we thought we could take care of it ourselves, which we did for the past few years. But this past year it has been a little neglected and with the wildfires we had in the past really made matters worse. So today our new pool guy came by and did a complete service, you know got rid of that yucky green stuff (algae), clean the filters and made the pool nice and purty again. Yay, just in time for the 4th of July weekend.

I know, I know, I better do some gardening. As you can see from the looks of things, it's pretty mangy looking. I honestly feel that maintaining a home is a full-time job. Sometimes I wonder if we were better off living in a condo or apartment. Life would be a little bit easier, I suppose.

Okay, back to painting . . . .

Moving, cleaning, painting and wishful thinking

Wow, so much has happened in the past week, I was on vacation and I mostly "pitter-pat" around the house getting things done. In the meantime, Angela was busy getting ready to move out. Which yesterday she is officially out and living with room mates in San Diego. We'll miss her, but I think it's important for her to be out on her own. Besides all that, we did some more cleaning and decluttering, I have boxes that I need to run over to the Salvation Army.

Yesterday I prepared the walls in the spare bedroom to paint, I did call it my sewing room, but now I think I may just have it as a guest room. I have alot of leftover paint from the kitchen, which is pretty flat, so I'll use that. Again I had to primer the walls, but not very much. I had this horrible stenciling border across the top of two walls. I guess I thought it was cute in the 90's, it had to go! Not my taste anymore.

I haven't had a chance to sew or make anything and I so want to! I have some totebags that I need to finish.

I want to embroider this. I also want to make these napkins that I mentioned last week and then I think this transfer would look cute on a sewing machine cover.

I found this tutorial just this morning on Sew, Mama, Sew! blog. I don't think I need another tutorial, but I would love to make this bag anyway. Oh, and I have some more goodies to put in my etsy shop! Eeeek!

Embroidery transfers

bake kitty, originally uploaded by tweetysnest.

Here's one of a few embroidery transfers that I posted on my flickr over the weekend.

I'm off to work, but I'll be back to posting a "real post" later today. See ya!