Brillante Weblog Premio-2008

I have been nominated for the Brillante Weblog Premio-2008 award by Amanda of Amanda's Musings, Rhonda of Doxie's on My Quilt, and Deb of Somebody's Mum. It is so nice to have been accepted as a friend by such special people. Amanda was one of the first bloggers that I met, and we started blogging about the same time, I have learned a lot about a lot of things from her. Rhonda's blog is a delight and so is she, her quilts and her children and their adventures are always so interesting. Deb I have met a little more recently, but her blog is so interesting with her quilts, her little guy, and the pictures of winter when it is so hot and steamy here. Quilting bloggers are a wonderful thing.

The rules are as follows:
1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog/
2. Link to the person you received your award from
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs
4. Put links to those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the people you have nominated.

My winners are:

I must preface this by saying that I don't really have favorite blogs, I have probably over 100 in my Google Reader, and I enjoy every one of them. I could take any and nominate them for any blogging award, I guess that these were just the lucky ones today. We all have our days when we have more or less to talk about and share, and sometimes there are e-mails going back and forth due to common interests, and sometimes it gets a little quieter. Unfortunately, the number is seven, and here they are:

Calidore Catherine- I enjoy reading about her family and their adventures, and of course seeing her quilts. She is one of my Australian friends, and I enjoy all their blogs so much, and learning about their country.

Four Wise Monkeys Rachel- What can I say, quilts, stitchery and cute kids.

Heart in His Hand Quilting Margo- Beautiful furnishings, beautiful quilts, Christmas has already started, and an adorable bluebird just to start.

I Live on a Farm Firefly- If you want to read a very heartwarming beautiful tribute go to her blog and read her post for today. Also, if you like kittens and flowers and beautiful things, starting with her own sweet face.

'Tis the Gift Tracy- She has beautiful quilts and a beautiful child, and puts in time doing such nice things like heading up the Mystery Quilters Blog ring, and organizing thank you's to Bonnie, etc.

Okperi's Place Perry- She has beautiful quilts, and a beautiful garden. Her blog is a pleasure to visit.

Applique Today Joanna- Cute kids, beautiful quilts, gardening and traveling. Lots of pretty scenery from out west, USA, although she was originally from New Zealand.

I haven't been able to include so many excellent blogs, written by special ladies who are quilters, but so involved in life, and who share a bit of that with us. I wish I could share my whole list. Wait a minute, I can, it's on the side of my blog, and they all deserve an award.

Ginger Update

A few people had mentioned their intentions of trying to grow the ginger also, and so I wanted to let you know a little more that I found out. I had stuck my ginger cut side down, and wondered if that was correct, or if it should be cut side up. I was lucky enough to have La Gringa clarify it for me, and it turns out that neither was correct. Her answer:

"I'm sending a quick response here because of your ginger question. The ginger will grow roots from the uncut part that still has the peel. The cut ends should be to the sides. It's tough to describe. In other words if you have a large flat piece of ginger, the the flat, uncut, unpeeled side should go down. Think of it like your hand. The palm side would go down into the soil. Does that make sense?"

Ginger Continued, Stashmystery

I didn't know that I was finished with the last post, but blogger wouldn't let me add more, so I guess that I was. Anyway, if you would like to know more about starting your own ginger growing, you can go here. This is what hers looks like, and she says that not only is it good for cooking, but for lots of medicinal uses, too.
I downloaded Mozilla Firefox today, and it has a mind of it's own with blogger.
This is the first 2 sets of blocks for the Burger Queen Have it Your Way Mystery. My way was as easy as possible, so you can see that it is just nine patches. At least, it's colorful. The first step was 5 blocks each of 2 different sizes, the next step is tomorrow. it would be good if I could actually keep up with this one.

Biccy Barrels, Ginger

I seem to be at the mercy of Blogger, as I wanted a different order, but what can you do except go along with the uncontrollable. I recently enjoyed a post by Helz of Blue Shadow Pony in which she shared that her 'biccy barrell' was empty of her DH's favorite treats. I told her that it made me feel like making some Snickerdoodles, and filling up one of mine. She wasn't familiar with them so I sent her the recipe. This got me thinking that maybe I would share my 'cookie jars' aka 'biccy barrels'. I love biscotti, and if I had room, every time I went to Sam's and they had another ceramic biscotti container, I would probably get one, since I don't I have settled for two, the Santa, and the one marked Biscotti. I love the colorfulness of them.
If anyone would like, I will also share my Snickerdoodle recipe. If you aren't familiar, they are delicious crunchy cookies that are very easy on the budget, and mostly things that everyone has in the kitchen already
SNICKERDOODLES

1 cup shortening

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 3/4 cups flour

2 teaspoons cream of tarter

1 teaspoon soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

Sugar

Cinnamon

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Mix shortening, sugar and eggs. Blend dry ingredients and stir in. Roll into balls the size of small walnuts. Roll in 2 tablespoons sugar and 2 teaspoons cinnamon. Bake 8 to 10 minutes. Makes about 5 dozen.

I love stoneware, and so the stoneware one is one of my favorites. My niece, Beth Ann, is very talented and handpaints ceramics that are sooo cute. She did a goose for herself and her mother, and when I admired them she was kind enough to do one for me. I think my goose cookie jar is adorable. The last is a Waterford biscuit barrell, which I would never have bought, but I got it from work for sales points, and I love it a lot.



The rather homely little pot with the odd looking little nubs is my attempt to grow ginger. If you have never been to La Gringa's Blogicito it is a very interesting look into life in Honduras. I find it very interesting as that is where my DIL is from. She had a post about growing your own ginger, and she also linked to information about crystalizing it yourself.

Giveaways

Lyn at Blue Bird Quilts is having a Christmas in July Giveaway, three different mystery Christmas parcels. You have until noon Friday 25th to leave your comment.

I keep seeing Stitcher's Angel Swap badges on different blogs. I'm going to have to check into that a little further, it looks very interesting. " 7 generous and talented designers on the one blog?". How could you go wrong.

Orange Crush Borders and Flowers

Finally, I finished the thinking stage and got on with the doing stage. I have the borders done on my OC, and am ready to make the binding, sew the back, and piece batting if necessary, and send it off to the longarmer. It is quite large, about 103 inches by 88 inches, so should fit a queen sized bed quite well. I'm now almost ready to get started on the StashMystery quilt.

The flowers my DH (he said DH stands for deadhead) brought home yesterday from the grocery store. I love fresh flowers they really brighten up the house, and I like the colors of these. Sometimes DH stands for darn husband, but now it is standing for dear husband.

A day or two ago DH came in and told me he had read my blog. He was very complimentary, which was very nice to hear. I have shared my blog with my kids and my husband now, and my kids seemed kind of semi-shocked with the blog and the fact that I have a Blackberry, I think they think I'm rather old for such things, but not in a bad way. I know I'm no spring chicken (chook), but I don't think that I am ready to give up gadgets and technology yet. I have always liked gadgets of all kinds, cooking, technology, etc., and I hope that my brain will allow me to enjoy them still for many years to come. I've been semi-coveting an Ipod, but haven't figured out any reason why I would need one. Of course, a few years ago I felt the same about computers, and now I'm an addict, I am thinking maybe I need an intervention. Have a nice day, and enjoy your technology.

Starting and Shopping

I hope everyone had or is having a nice day today, and for those who celebrate Independence Day, a happy holiday. It is a day to enjoy, but also a day to reflect on the sacrifices that have been made for us. There is a very informative and inspiring post on Julie's Blog on that very subject. It is about the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and how their lives were affected by there choice for liberty.



I spent part of my day shopping at JoAnn's today. I thought that the needles that I purchased awhile ago would be what I needed for my 'green' grocery bag, but they were too short, so I purchased needles of different types, and yarn for my bag. I hadn't bought any for years, except for the ones that didn't work for this project, which were on sale and fancy with a tapestry case, so I had a little bit of sticker shock in the needle department. I hope I can figure the pattern out and see it through. If not, I guess I will make dishcloths. That is another knitting project I have been wanting to do.



While I was at JoAnn's, I also got the fabric for the new mystery quilt from 'StashMystery' yahoo group. I know that I have lost my mind, as I am still working on the Orange Crush and Carolina Crossroads, but this is a simpler project, and looked like a change of pace. I am kind of defeating the purpose, as it is supposed to be from stash, but I don't have a big stash, and I wanted a change of colors, too.
I thought of the Boxy Stars, but this one lured me.

1Bag - Knitted Grocery Bag

In my blogging, I ran across firefly's blog I live on a farm. I haven't done any knitting in years, but her knitted grocery bag was so pretty, and her reasons for using the 'green bags' so convincing that I thought I would give it a try. Besides, about a year ago I bought some circular knitting needles that I haven't tried, and I thought this would be a good thing to try them with.

The complete instructions are on her blog, and you'll be helping the environment, if you would like to give it a try, also.

Anniversary, Ikea, and Mail

Yesterday was my DH and my anniversary, but he wasn't feeling too well, so we decided to celebrate today instead. First we went and had lunch at Bahama Breeze, which was delicious as always and then we went to Ikea, as they were having their first sale ever since they opened in Orlando. The sale was a disappointment, but I did make a few purchases. The sale things that I got were the potholders 2 for .99 cents, and the fabric. Has anyone used the cotton fabric from Ikea. I hope that it is good, as I got 10 yards. it is 59 inches wide, and was on sale for 1.99 and I thought that it would make a nice backing on girly quilts. The little clock was 2.99, and I needed one in front of my sewing machine, so far so good it has run for about 3 hours, and the wooden box is for my paper storage by my printer.

When I got back home I had finally gotten my package from Connecting Thread. I have heard good things about their thread so I'm going to give it a try, and I got the yellow gingham for a baby quilt.

I haven't given up on my Orange Crush. I haven't exactly been keeping my shoulder to the wheel, but I have gotten my borders cut out, and my little extra blocks almost finished sewing together to use in the border. I'm almost ready to sew the borders on.

Key Rings and Gnomes and Giveaway

I hardly ever go on the back porch lately, as it is so hot, and it is so hard to get out the sliding glass door. We have 3 locks, and a rod, I guess we are security conscious or else neurotic. We don't live in a crime ridden area, but we like to be secure. Anyway, while I was out there watering my avacado tree (which I grew from a seed), I thought that I might as well take a picture of my new gnome that I got at Target yesterday on sale. I have another big one on the porch that I call John, the one in the planter is little John, and I am calling the new one Sean. John is after my father-in-law, who loved to garden and anything 'nature'. Sean is standing on top of the pot that my avacodo tree was in before we repotted it, and unfortunately the little tree isn't showing up too well, and I cut off it's top.
While I was out there, I looked up and noticed that I was being watched, so I took a picture of my visitor. The round circle thing on the left is a golfing contraption that my husband bought and never used much. It was supposed to help you have a perfect swing.

On Lynette Anderson Designs she got a new key ring, very pretty in the shape of a strawberry, and she is asking for pictures of others and then is having a giveaway of a new 'woof' pattern. The first picture is of a gift key chain from my son's youngest son Kevin, and a gift key chain from my son Robert and his wife Brenda. The second is a key chain with a flashlight that my mother 'won' at the casino. I can't understand the love of gambling, but she enjoyed her times at the casino, and so I'm glad that she had something exciting in her life. The last is my 'Hold to the Rod' key chain. It is not pretty, but it has religious significance and meaning. You can read it a little, I think.