Stacked Coins Baby Quilt

My cousin Shannon and her husband Matthew welcomed their third child, Matthew Jr., into their family in late March and it took me until last Thursday to visit.  I had made Matthew's cousin Leah a quilt when she was born last October and I heard through the family grapevine (OK, so my aunt told me) that Shannon would love a quilt for Matthew.  Well, I love making quilts and it's even better when I have an excuse to make one so I got right to work.  I used some fabrics from a jelly roll that I bought at Joann's, but some of the prints were too girly so I had to buy some coordinating fabrics.  I used three different Stonehill Collection fabrics, including this stripe, this polka dot, and this geometric pattern.  This was only the fourth quilt I've ever made so I used a fairly simple pattern, stacked coins found at the moda bake shop, and completed it entirely on my own!  Lorraine, my teacher, would be proud.  I did, however, have to walk down the street (luckily Blaine's is only a two minute walk!) to buy a new needle when I was mere inches away from finishing the binding.  What kind of quilter only has one needle?  Apparently that would be me.  Fortunately, there was a sale going on and I bought three packs of needles for the price of two.  I should be all set for a while, especially since I don't change my needle nearly as often as I should.  That might explain the broken needle...  Anyway, I hope Matthew enjoys his quilt!  I enjoyed making it and am looking forward to beginning a new project soon.  

Celebrating Mothers

I can happily say that all of my planning and preparations for Mother's Day paid off.  We enjoyed the afternoon with our parents and brothers (Matt's sister is away currently stationed in Kansas and his sister-in-law was in New York visiting her mother) and then later visited Matt's grandmother, Mama.  My menu evolved some since my last post... we started off with Kathleen's (of Twig & Thistle) DIY provincial cheese favors as appetizers which I served with four different kinds of crackers and sliced apples.  Next we had vanilla yogurt, almond granola, and blackberry and blueberry parfaits.  The entrees were a ham and cheese casserole found on the kitchn, broccoli garlic quiche from epicurious, baked French toast spotted here, and my friend Kelli's hash brown bake.  I served stephmodo's Blushing Pink Crush for a fun addition to the typical beverage menu, which, at my house, usually consists of orange juice, skim milk, herbal tea, and water.  For dessert we enjoyed banana chocolate chip muffins (adapted from the recipe found in Baked), chocolate chip biscotti (adapted from Giada's second book, Giada's Family Dinners), and fresh strawberries, pineapple, and watermelon.

Success!  I only wish I had taken some photos of the food, but we were all too hungry to bother...  I hope everyone had as lovely a day as we did!  

i love lemon

A few months ago I was asked to design the invitations for our youth group's annual parent teen cookout.  I took a page out of Jordan's book to make these nifty invites that only took me a few hours total, although I completed the project over the course of a couple of days.  I bought kraft boxes in bulk from Paper Mart, 5 pounds of Lemonheads from Candy Direct, and printed the invitations myself.    

I filled about half of the boxes with a layer of Lemonheads before running out so some quick thinking was needed.  I was making 50 invitations and only had about 25 boxes filled.  That meant I needed about 5 more pounds of Lemonheads and I didn't have enough time to order another bulk delivery.  I called a few local candy shops but the prices were ridiculous... $14 per pound?!  Were they joking?!  More thinking.  I knew I had seen Lemonheads at the Dollar Tree down the street from our house so I hopped in the car and was there in about one and half minutes.  Success!  I bought something like fifteen bags of candy and was able to completely fill the rest of the boxes.  My advice is this: if you decide to recreate these invitations figure that you need about 5 pounds of Lemonheads for every 25 boxes and place your order accordingly.  

My next piece of advice - print one invitation and have it copied at Office Max or somewhere so you're not babysitting your inkjet printer for 45 minutes!  These babies were double-sided which accounts for the extra long print time.  After they were printed I cut them down to size and rounded the corners.   

Rule number three is buy enough ribbon.  I don't know what kind of math calculations I was doing while in the aisle at Joann's but it was horrifically incorrect.  I only bought enough of the coordinating yellow and white ribbon to wrap maybe ten or twelve of the boxes.  That's right, I still had about forty more to go.  Instead of leaving the house to go to the store for the fifth time that day I dug into my stash of ribbons and fortunately found enough bright scraps to finish the job.    

I handed them out over the next couple of weeks and parents and teens alike were excited at the prospect of the candy inside.  I had teens begging me for extra invitations, so I directed them to their local Dollar Tree where an 8 oz. bag is, you guessed it, a dollar!    

Here is a similar project from Brooke over at inchmark that's perfect for any happy occasion.  Have a great weekend!

olga's cup + saucer

One of my favorite things to do during school vacation is go out to breakfast and lunch.  Savoring a mid-day meal at a local bistro or cafe beats scarfing leftovers in the teacher's room while small children walk by and stare at us any day.  On Tuesday Ari and I decided on a late lunch at Olga's Cup and Saucer on Point Street downtown.  After browsing through the menu in the morning I decided I was in the mood for soup and a sandwich.  My craving lasted through the morning and I ordered a cup of minestrone soup, a tuna melt, and a bottle of Orangina.  

Ari had a hankering for a Cuban sandwich (one of the adorable mini sandwiches served at her wedding to Matt) and devoured half of it and her cole slaw quickly...

Olga's also serves amazing breakfasts on the weekends.  Last time Ari and I ate there we shared French toast and a yummy breakfast sandwich.  Read more about Olga's here in the Providence Phoenix.