Happy Birthday, Paul!!!

Quote for the Day:

"Son, you outgrew my lap, but never my heart." 

 ~Author Unknown

Today my son, Paul, caught up with me in age.  Today he turns 29 years old!

My firstborn child...and only son...

Sept. 4, 1984 

6 pounds, 15 ounces

Being rocked by my mom so I could make supper... 

Enjoying the paper with Andy...

Some things just defy explanation...

He will forever by my little boy in the blue fleece, footed sleeper.  When I think of him as a child, that's how I picture him...

He ADORED baseball...the only sport he ever truly enjoyed...

 ...and made the cutest little Cub Scout you ever did see.

First time he ever caught a fish...age 13...

He was always clowning around and trying to make people laugh...

In 2005, he married Trinity...

In 2007, he graduated college...

and is now the father of two beautiful boys...

Andrew...

...and Alex.

He is so smart and witty, and I am proud of the man that he has become!   

But he'll always be my little boy in the blue, footed sleeper!  :)

Happy 29th Birthday, Paul! 

Love, 

Mom 

Let me also wish TRINITY a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY as it is HER BIRTHDAY, too! 

Yep...that's right.  She's exactly one year younger than Paul!   Makes it easy for me to remember her birthday!  LOL

Loretta

Homemade Applesauce...

Quote for the Day:

"If all the cars in the United States were placed end to end,

 it would probably be Labor Day Weekend."

~Doug Larson 

Hope everyone is enjoying their Labor Day holiday...which is basically your last day off till Thanksgiving!  Unless you are a government employee...which means you will have a half-dozen more holidays between now and Thanksgiving.  Or a nurse...which means you are probably working TODAY and are scheduled for Thanksgiving, too!  :(  

I'm lucky that even though I'm an RN, I work in a department that is Monday through Friday, with weekend call 3 times a year and a holiday call every other year.  :)  Since Labor Day is neither a "work day" nor a "call day" for me, I'm off today!  YAY!

I put the last of the pears and apples into the crock pot yesterday afternoon with one 3" cinnamon stick and about 3 tablespoons of white sugar.  I cooked it on "low" for a few hours and then turned it to "warm" overnight.  

This morning they looked like this...

Had I not have left the peels on the apples and pears, I would have just taken a potato masher and mashed them up a little.  (I kinda like a few chunks in my applesauce.)  However, because I didn't want the peeling just floating around, I went ahead and used my immersion blender and blended them a LITTLE bit.  (Yes, the $2.00 thrifted Braun immersion blender!!!)  

There are still a few chunks, but I tried to blend up the peelings as best as I could.  I got 3.5 pints out of this batch and water-bathed canned the 3 full pints.  

I didn't have any lemon juice to add to the apples/pears to keep them from turning brown, so before putting them in the crock pot, I soaked them in ginger ale soda, which contains citric acid...the ingredient in lemon juice that helps keep fruit from browning.  It kinda worked, but they still turned a little bit brown.  Oh well, I can tell you that it TASTES DELICIOUS!!!   I had some with my lunch today while the sauce was still a little warm!   Mmmmmm!  :)

I'm heading into my sewing room to work some more on the Blue Ridge Beauty quilt.  I'm very close to being done with it!!!

There is a feeling that comes over you when you can see the end in sight!  It's a feeling of satisfaction but also anticipation as you look forward to the NEXT quilt to go into the frame!!!

Loretta

Kitchen Organization...

Those of you who use Pinterest will understand that!  :)

A long while ago, I purchased some items to help organize and make the best use of the limited cabinet space in my smallish kitchen.  One of the items was a pot lid rack made to be mounted inside of a cabinet door.

When I went to attach it to the door, I noted two things:  1)  the screws to attach the rack were too long and would go all the way through even the thickest part of the door;  and 2)  the inside of my cabinet doors are NOT flat, so finding an area to attach it so it was flat and all screws went through the thickest part of the door was not possible.

Because of these two unfortunate turn of events, the rack has sat unused...mocking me.  Well...let it be known I will NOT be beaten by a simple lid rack after I saw something similar on Pinterest and pinned it.  

Ta-da!!!  3M Command Hooks!!!  

No holes in the door, the rack can be mounted on even the thinnest part of the door, and they are easily removable if I decide to move it!!!  (Yes, Erin, I know that some of the Command Hooks are not straight, but my OCD can live with it!  Take a deep breath...)    :)

I just noticed from the pictures that it looks like the second and third lids are not in order of size.  Now THAT will have to be corrected!  LOL  


And now...for the Grandma section of the blog...
Two new pictures of my grandsons, Andrew & Alex!!  

Andrew is an EXCELLENT big brother...very loving with Alex.  Loves to give him kisses and hold him!  :)

Alex has learned to smile!!! 


I put the last of the apples and pears in the crock pot to make pear-apple sauce!  I'll let you know how it turns out!

Loretta

My First Try...

Remember me telling you about the apples that our neighbor gave us from their tree???  Well, I decided to try my hand at home made apple butter!  But since I'm not one to stand outside over a hot fire and kettle in the August heat...or anytime, really...I did what I always do these days and consulted the internet!  I found some crock pot recipes for both apple sauce and apple butter.  I decided to try my hand at the apple butter!!!

I started by washing the apples...I used about 20 in all...

These apples are not the "beauties" that you see in your produce aisle because these have never been sprayed with chemicals so they look like REAL apples!  Spots and all!  But you know what???  Those spots are just surface blemishes.  There was no damage underneath. 

After washing the apples, I did this to them...

...and threw them in the crock pot...peelings and all!!!

I added two 3" sticks of cinnamon, a teaspoon of cloves, 3/4 c. white sugar, 1 c. of brown sugar (packed), and 1 teaspoon vanilla.

I let it cook on low for about 10 hours, then turned it down to "warm" setting for overnight.  This morning it looked like this...

I used my thrift-shopped, $2.00 Braun immersion blender....

...and then it looked like this...

...nice and smooth...even though the peelings are in there, too!  (Forgive the orange color...it's my cheapo camera.)

This made 3.5 pints of the BEST-TASTING APPLE BUTTER ever!!!  I water-bath canned 3 of the pints for later use, and put the 1/2 pint in the fridge for use now!!!  

I'm thinking I'm going to take my dear neighbor up on their offer of more apples and make some applesauce, too!  :)

In other news, I want to give a shout-out to the West Virginia University MOUNTAINEERS football team for pulling it off against William and Mary College, 24-17!!!  GO 'EERS!!!

Loretta

Quilter's Yard Sale...

Bonnie Hunter over at Quiltville.com is having another Quilter's Yard Sale!  Since I have some items that I don't need/will never use, I'm linking up to in the hopes of clearing some of these items out of my sewing room.  :)

All prices include postage to the USA.  If you are outside of the USA, we will need to figure out what postage will be and see what we can come to an agreement on.  I use Paypal for my transactions but prefer to have the money sent as a "gift" under personal, so as to keep fees down, thus able to keep my prices low.  

Thanks in advance for looking at my items for sale!  Now...let's get started...

Fabric panel called "School Days" by Classic Cottons.  

It measures 27" X 32".  

$6.00 ppd.

"Pumpkins & Spice" by Whimsicals/Terri Degenkolb (book).  41 pages of 14 prim designs using her fabrics, but other fabrics can be substituted on the ones that don't use the panel. (Five of the designs use pieces of her pre-printed panel.  The other designs can be used with any fabrics.)  This book has never been used!  All applique templates are still attached inside!  Lots of cute patterns/designs!  If you are into "primitives", this book is for you!  

$5.00 ppd.   SOLD!

"Seasons Under Heaven-Fall" by Prairie Grove Peddler, pattern for 17" X 20" quilted wall hanging.  CUTE!  Get a jump on your Fall decorating!  

Brand new.

 $4.00 ppd.

"Acorn Harvest" by The City Stitcher, pattern for 3 different wallhangings.  All 3 designs are lovely!  Can't decide which one is best?  Make them all for one low price!  

Brand new. 

 $4.00 ppd.  SOLD!

"Thankful Harvest" by The City Stitcher, pattern for 32 3/4" X 39 3/4" wallhanging.  

Brand new.

$4.00 ppd.

"Kit Naps" by Mary Gendreau, pattern for  21 3/4" X 19 3/4" wallhanging.  

Brand new.

 $4.00 ppd.

"Fabric Approval Department" by Kelly Gallagher-Abbot, pattern for 32.5" X 17.5" wallhanging.  Any quilter with cats is familiar with this Fabric Approval Department!  This committee of five is carefully checking out the stash and definitely approve!  

Brand new.

$4.00 ppd. 

"Old Field Road" by Moda University, pattern for 74" X 85" quilt.

Brand new.

$4.00 ppd.

Thanks for looking!  If you are interested, you can either leave a comment below or email me at aorlflood at comcast dot net.

Loretta

Just Keepin' It Real...

Quote for the Day:

"In real life endings aren't always neat, whether they're happy endings,

 or whether they're sad endings."

~Stephen King 

If there was an award for "Butt-Ugliest Pie", I would have won it today.  

I TRY to cook.  Really, I do.  But I just seem to end up messing it up, somehow.  :(   With this pie, I forgot the "pats" of butter in the filling, the crust was too dry, and I obviously had the oven temperature up too high.  But in my defense, our oven is crazy and tends to run about 50 degrees hotter than what you set it at.

BUT...the pie STILL tastes DELICIOUS!  :)   Even the crust doesn't taste burnt.  Just dry.  But that is easily taken care of with a dollop of whipped topping!  :D

The pie is an apple pie made from apples given to us by our neighbor!  (They gave us pears, too!)  Andy went over to get the fruit and he said they only have a couple of semi-dwarf trees but they are LOADED with so much fruit that the branches are almost touching the ground!

This year we have been blessed with all kinds of produce from friends and neighbors...zucchini, tomatoes, corn, green beans, apples and pears!  :)  What a blessing we consider these gifts of garden abundance!


This past weekend I started adding the sashing and cornerstones to the "Sherbet" quilt.  I think that's what I'm going to name it.  I know the colors look darker in the pictures, but they are really quite pastel-ish.  

I'm continuing to add the sashing and cornerstones to it today...

And now, I have an EMPTY CONTAINER that used to hold the blocks while I was making them!

(I buy pizza boxes from a local pizzeria to store my projects in while I'm working on them.  It allows the blocks to be stored flat.)

Loretta