Kelly

AQC wishlist

I was really taken with the work that Kim Bradley does with Cretacolor pastels – just beautiful. The pastels, however, are very expensive!

I had set myself a budget but ended up spending very little as the miser in me tends to kick in and disallow frivolous or impulsive purchases. Some of the above may be attainable sometime. I did buy a little purse kit from Nikki’s stall, a few more buttons to add to the collection I’m saving for my girl’s treasure boxes and a little bit of fabric to make the purse. So now I have money left over to buy some nice batting for the Maisy quilt, which is coming along quite nicely thank you!

Happy and holy Palm Sunday to you all, I’m looking forward to a great Holy week.

In support of Nikki M

by Kelly 1 Comment

Disappointing isn’t it? People steal things all the time but this is pretty personal. This bag was designed and handmade by a talented artist. It has sentimental value. Perhaps the person who took it will have a change of heart and pop it in the post back to it’s owner? I hope so.

Winner

by Kelly 1 Comment

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

Timestamp: 2011-04-16 10:46:16 UTC

m.e (Cathie) said…

definitely very nice of you! love the “bloggy gift karma”
♥

Congrats to you Cathie, I’ll be in touch!

Today is a good day!

by Kelly 2 Comments

Sometimes it can feel that the happy days are few and far between but when they happen it’s a wonderful thing!

The sun doth shine.

The tired grouchiness of a certain 5 year old that made yesterday so awful is gone and has been replaced with smiles and good cheer. Pheeeeewwww!

The little one is having a long sleep to respite from her teething troubles.

Before husband left for work we teamed up so that most of the housework is done and I can have some relaxation ie. stitching time this afternoon. Hooray for good, selfless men!

Something about sticking my hands into a beautiful piece of soft and sticky dough makes me happy.

I’ve baked fruit bread and pikelets for the Lord’s Day and roasted a fresh batch of coffee beans.

I’m looking forward to the Quilt Convention tomorrow. I’ve saved my pennies and set myself a budget. It’s so long since I bought some nice new fabric, so that’s a priority!

I hope you’re having a good day too.

I’ll be back later to draw the giveaway, good luck!

Cinnamon Rolls

by Kelly Leave a Comment

My history with cinnamon scrolls is not very inspiring – often trying and constantly failing. Always too dry! For the sake of the children I went on an extensive search for a recipe that would produce moist scrolls. And found it!

Now, these scrolls are super unhealthy with a large butter content, but considering I will make them as a treat for the children (and the occasional nibble for myself!) I think it’s acceptable. The beauty of this recipe is the caramel sauce the dough sits in to bake. When they’re done baking you flip the scroll…..

and it looks like this! These are best eaten warm from the oven or re – warm them later.

I know you want to try these for yourself, so the recipe is here. Enjoy!

Quilts and sugar paste

by Kelly 3 Comments

Not much doing here creatively. The Maisy quilt saga continues with me making use of my seam ripper and pulling all my work to pieces because I didn’t like the “busy-ness” of my fabric choices. Now I’m playing safe with white sashing. Much better.

I’m focusing on indulging in another of my passions – baking and cake decorating. Perfect weather now that it’s cooler and I like having the oven on.

I’m experimenting with sugar paste and am quite taken with Mich Turner’s work, so lets see what I can do with Easter just around the corner.

Don’t forget to enter the “Pay it forward giveaway” which ends Saturday.

Thanks for dropping by!

Pay it forward giveaway

by Kelly 15 Comments

I have been very blessed as a blogger to receive gifts and giveaways from others but I don’t always end up using everything and thought it a good time to “pay it forward”. So, for this giveaway I have some books:

1. Toys to sew

2. Knitty Gritty Knits

3. Teddy Bear Redwork

and some patterns:

1. Goodies and Baddies – Jodie Carleton

2. Summer Fling – Make it Perfect

3. Sleep Well – Favorite Things

Just leave a comment to enter. Sorry – Australian residents only for this one!

I’ll draw on Saturday evening.

Good luck!

Saint Gemma Galgani

by Kelly 4 Comments

Today is the feast day of Saint Gemma Galgani. As one of our girls is named after her we had a little tea party to celebrate.

Not suprisingly, her favourite colour is pink! In addition to the pink cupcakes we had strawberry milkshakes.

I made little sugar frosted flowers out of fresh geraniums and discovered that a geranium in the bud stage looks marvellously like a miniature rose bud!

Hope you’re having a great day whatever you’re doing. God bless.

Be kind always

by Kelly 7 Comments

One of my mother’s favourite sayings (I’m sure we’re all familiar with this one) was “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all”. I couldn’t agree more. It doesn’t take much effort to keep your mouth closed rather than ruining someone’s day (and may be even more).

I’m writing this in support of Tracy. Tracy has a wonderfully large family and is a talented sewer, quilter, knitter and spinner to name a few things. She spends a lot of time sharing her own patterns and tutorials and if you visit her blog you can see what I mean, she is very generous.

Lately some bloggers have left unkind and negative comments on Tracy’s blog, specifically about her patterns and fabric choices. Now, one of the great wonders of God is that He created us all different with individual tastes. He didn’t give us these differences in order to judge one another but in order to appreciate one another!

What I’m asking today is that we all be a little kinder. We don’t have to be fake or over the top, just kind.
Happiness can be spread so easily, but so can hate.

Blessings and happy faces to you all!

What are you going to do when you grow up?

by Kelly 5 Comments

Image source

This question has been playing on my mind a little lately. You see, I’ll be 35 this year and still haven’t decided on the right “thing” for me. When I say “thing” I’m referring to some sort of a career or occupation other than being a wife and mother.

When I was little I wanted to be a hairdresser (feel free to roll your eyes) but the novelty of that idea didn’t last. When I completed high school I was strongly encouraged (pushed) to go to university. Unfortunately my scores were not high enough to go into my 2 choices of either Psychology or Nursing so I ended up in a course I loathed and subsequently quit. I’ve quit a lot of things since then and find it very difficult to stay with one thing.

I realise that as my children grow older I need to be able to have some sort of an income. And I do relish the idea of one day having a bit of extra money. The thought of working in the types of jobs I did pre – babies does not thrill me in the slightest. I no longer want to work just for money – I want the fulfillment that comes from using your skills and talents to support yourself. I want to be excellent rather than mediocre.

So here’s a bit of fun.

When I grow up I’m going to live in the country in a grand and beautiful old home. I will offer classes from my home in various arts including embroidery, cake decorating, bread and patisseries. My husband will not need to work as we have a collection of sought after farm animals and are proficient in their husbandry. Our children are all happy and superbly educated (ahem!) Sounds good hey?

So how about you? Have you decided what you want to be when you grow up yet?