A Fun Little Happy

I hope y'all had a very merry Christmas. We had a full house, but of course our clan wouldn't have it any other way =)

From the Christmas Eve feast of treats and then rocking out on Guitar Hero (yes, I think we ROCKED IT OUT!), to our traditions Christmas morning of eating pigs in the blanket and opening gifts, and then our afternoon dinner and annual movie trek (Bedtime Stories), we enjoyed a full season of family time celebration and just enjoying each other's company. It's the little things that we tend to treasure the most and I'm excited that next Christmas we'll have a new little one to share this with!

Also while I was away at Mom and Dad's on Holiday, Mom taught me some new sewing tricks including how to sew ruffles, make an easy pocket...and all so I could test them out on this darling apron for little Jazzy (BeeBee's friend's baby).

Isn't she ADORABLE?

Jazzy has such a sweet temperament and would willingly let us pass her around the room as she'd give sweet hugs and kisses to everyone. Asian babies are the cutest (not that I'm biased or anything!).

More to come on the trip...

Someone's in the Kitchen

Per Mom's request, "No, don't take a picture of me." So I took one from her shoulders down. That doesn't count does it?

Look at her cuteness- that colorful apron and her little red shoes all while cooking up some yummy Christmas goodies.

I just wanted to eat her up!

And while we're on the subject of cooking, let's see if I can remember her famous Cornbread recipe:

*UPDATE 1/1/09* You should probably not follow instructions/directions/recipes of a pregnant woman. We forget too many things as in here and here. Please note the corrected changes in red below =)

1. Melt 1/2- 1 stick of butter in a cast iron skillet while preheating the oven to 425 degrees.
2. Mix 1/3 C of flour & 4/3 aka 1 1/3 C of cornmeal in a mixing bowl.
3. Add 1 tsp of salt and 1/2 tsp of baking powder soda.
4. Then add 1 cup of Buttermilk (or substitute 1/3 C vinegar & 2/3 C whole milk 1 to 2 TB of vinegar and finish off the cup with milk).
5. Stir & drop into heated skillet then return to oven.
6. And then you should have beautiful, crisp Cornbread after 20 minutes!

Merry Christmas Y'all

Formal Dining Room

Here's an overview of part of the room...it's huge!

With this picture, you can see a little more of the chandelier detailing.

For some reason every picture of the tree is fuzzy, but here it is...

Back of the House

Mud Room cabinet

Powder Room sink- an old Victrola!

Sitting Room

Master Suite

Main Bath

Belle Cuisine à la Campagne

I have a special treat!

For Christmas, our family is traveling to Mom and Dad's house. They've been working diligently on their fixer-upper. Actually, to be more accurate, they bought a house, gutted everything, and are slowly, but surely seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!

I'll be featuring their work-in-progress over the next few days as they've done a beautiful job...too bad I don't have the "Before" pictures. Just imagine UGLY...and now it's GORGEOUS =)

Just Like A Good Neighbor

Well I was horrible last year and didn't do a thing, but this year I decided to put together some goody platters for my neighbors. A chocolate dipped pretzel assortment, candy canes, and my favorite Reese's Piece's candy bars...yum!

I wish I'd taken a picture of my favorite platter (that one was reserved for Mrs. B across the street) because the platter was in green, lime green, red and white with Santa's face smack dab in the middle and a candy striping rim. The towel I bought to coordinate had a lime green background with a script "Ho Ho Ho" across the top and another big Santa face at the bottom. Both Santas were adorable!

Another Homemade Gift

Dear Friend and I decided to do homemade Christmas gifts this year. And since she was in town this past weekend to host a Lingerie Shower, I went ahead and gifted early before I skip out on town for the Holiday =)

She's a huge Auburn fan so I sewed a dish towel and rag set appliqued with an orange and blue Auburn print. I think I'm getting the hang of this!

Here's the lingerie shower...can you find the preggers?

Little Boxes On The Hillside...

"...little boxes made of ticky tacky. Little boxes on the hillside, little boxes all the same. There's a green one, and a pink one, and a blue one, and a yellow one..."

Appliqued Dish Towels

Ingredients:

• sewing machine
• white dish towels
• Amy Butler fabric scraps (her fabrics are great!)
• trim of choice for the "grass"
• Heat N Bond (or a comparable fusible web)
• iron
• card paper & pencil for house pattern

Easy Directions:

1. Pre-shrink your fabrics (in the laundry) then iron the towel and fabric scraps.
2. I went ahead and applied Heat N Bond to my fabric scraps. Follow directions for your fusible web (will be on the package or on the web paper) and apply to the wrong side of your fabric scraps, leaving one side of the backing paper on.
3. Cut out your card paper using basic geometric shapes. For each towel I used 4 triangles and 8 different sized rectangles (4 small for the doors and 4 large for the buildings). These shapes will be your patterns.
4. Trace your pattern on the fabric's paper side and cut out your pattern.
5. Arrange your patterns to form houses on the bottom center of your dish towel. When you're satisfied with your layout, remove the paper backings and fuse the fabric to your towel (following your fusible web directions).
6. Here are my 4 towels so far:
7. Zig-zag stitch around your outline to secure the fabric in place (and to prevent fraying). *Note: this uses a ton of thread!
8. When all of your houses are zig-zagged, measure and cut your trim for the bottom of the dish towel. Sew this along the bottom of your towel
9. Et VOILA!

Craft Notes: There's almost a rhythm to zig-zagging the outlines and remember you don't have to cut your threads until the end; this will save you time. Also, the picture doesn't show it, but the green ric-rac is a lime green and I preferred the sunny ruffled yellow. Experiment with your fabrics and trim...have fun!

My SC chickies received theirs last night so that's why I can post today =) Mammie Kay (Mom's mom) will get one and I think the last one's for keeps.

Party Time

It's our fifth annual Supper Club Christmas Party!

And we're going a little "A Christmas Story" style with the menu. Read: a non-traditional Chinese menu. This was the faux invite first sent out; it was a joke, although I hope they don't find everything else as tacky :)

Here are the real invites: