A Little bit of Lorene: September 2014

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Stash Report 25

Hi everyone! welcome to my crazy life! I feel like I am so behind in posting here. so much has happened, so many trips, so much life happening. All good! so all this entails a couple of weeks of sewing a little here and there!

bobbins used this week: 7
bobbins used year to date: 62
Thread spools emptied this week: 0
Thread spools emptied year to date: 14
Fabric used this week: 7 5/8 years
Fabric used year to date: 52 3/8
Fabric added this week: 0
Fabric added year to date: 32 yards

I finished and mailed off some 3 1/2" 9 patches, civil war fabric. 50 sets. a set was 2 9 patches. no pictures.

I finished 12 maple leaf blocks for a swap. and will be mailed on the first of October.

I quilted a quilt for my granddaughter, Isabelle. she turned 8 and was baptized last week. yeah Belle! My dear sweet friend mardi made the top. She is not a pink or purple girl! She knew I had lots of granddughters who are in love with pinks and purples. So she gave it to me a while back. Thank you Mardi! Belle loved her quilt. I used a Baptist fan panto on it. it seemed appropriate, don't you think?

I did the last stitching of the binding while in the car!

I also made a towel for her to use to dry off after her baptism.

So I am off to download more pictures and write up more blog entries!

hugs....

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Sugar cookies!

Do you like sugar cookies? soft ones? Oh boy, I sure do. I have spent years looking for the perfect sugar cookie. When my children were little, we would make them and they would LOVE to decorate them. they loved them. they tasted good, but, not soft. I LOVE soft cookies!!!

I want to make an announcement..... I HAVE FOUND THE PERFECT SUGAR COOKIE RECIPE!!!!!! My children, and my grands will thank me forever!

this recipe is easy, pretty quick to put together AND no putting it in the refrigerator before you roll it out.

I found the recipe at its always autumn blog. she has some really good hints. you need to check it out.

In her recipe there was no vanilla! yikes, I have to have vanilla in my recipe and a secret ingredient!

So please go over to It's always autumn to read up on the hints.

The BEST sugar cookie, ever!

2 cups sugar                                     5 tablespoons baking powder
1 cup butter, softened                     1 teaspoon vanilla
3 eggs                                              1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (secret ingredient, shhhh)
6 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together sugar, butter, eggs milk and vanilla. Stir all dry ingredients well. Add dry ingredients to the liquid, mix until just blended. DO NOT OVER MIX!

Liberally flour the work surface and rolling pin. Keep some extra flour close by. if anything sticks, add a little bit of flour. Roll out 3/8" thick. use your favorite cookie cutters and cut out your cookies.

Bake for 9 - 12 minutes. for my oven at home it was 10 minutes. for my son's home it was 9 minutes. DO NOT let the cookies get brown. let them cool completely on a wire rack. Frost with your favorite icing. They store well......

Now you are probably wondering, how in the heck do you measure 3/8" of an inch? Well, I will tell you....

These little rubber rings are wonderful! They keep your dough even. the rings fit on either end of the rolling pin. where have these been all my life? I love them. I brought a set up for Elena. it was about $8. I bought them ABC cake Decorating supply. It was my first time there. OH. MY. GOSH!

look at all those cookie cutters! from 1" to 12" and bigger. I bought several for the grands. fun, fun, fun!

enjoy, hugs.....

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

A little rain......

Hi everyone! as you know I live in the desert. the Sonoran desert. we get an average of 5 - 7 inches a year in rain. I think closer to the 5". The last time I was out of town the Phoenix area - especially the northwest side of Phoenix, received a huge amount of rain. lots of flooding and damage. My mother and I were watching the news and amazed of the destruction.

So, I am out of town again. this time Mesa, gilbert, chandler get hit hard. Like in over 5" of rain in some places!!! How is that possible? Our home is fine. And our children's homes are fine. everyone has had an adventure in getting to work and kids to school. This all happened on September 8th. The freeway is still closed in some places.

As you go into our neighborhood, there are retention areas on both sides of the street, as well as in other parts of the neighborhood. after the rains stopped, Bruce found this

What a mess! a friend of mine, posted that her ceiling in her garage was about ready to come down! Yikes!!!!

our neighbor at the end of the block took these pictures. her home is right next to the retention area. Same retention area as the pictures that Bruce took. just the other end.

This is about 1/2 mile from my son's home. My parents use to live in the neighborhood many, many years ago.

This is a friend's home! can you see the diving board? there is a pool there somewhere!!!!

This is another friend's home. This is her front yard. Cute quilt, huh!!!! She has a desert tortoise. Sure hope he got to higher ground!

so thankful no lives were lost. and my family is safe! I am a AZ native, I have never seen anything like this. They started recording rainfall and temperatures in about 1901. BEFORE we became a state. there has never been this much rain in all that time! I wonder what winter will bring us......

hugs....

Monday, September 15, 2014

More 1st day of School Pictures

here we are with some more 1st day of school pictures.

Logan, I believe he is in 9th grade and playing football. He looks so very grown up.....

Lowell and Belle. 4th and 3rd grade, I think! It's so hard to keep it all straight.

And Maddy! 1st grade! wow, she is growing fast. Can you tell the difference between the AZ, CA and ID kids?

Maddy is wearing a jacket! it's already getting a little nippy in the mornings in Idaho! This AZ gal is cold!

hugs.......

Saturday, September 13, 2014

Chalupa

What in the heck is chalupa? Yummy, delicious, want again and again food! I have made the recipe forever and made it again the other day for Ashton and his family. soooooo good.....

darn if I didn't get a picture of the finished dish! sorry. The onion is from Elena's garden. sooooo sweet.

Chalupa

1 3 1/2 lb pork roast or beef roast, or a mixture of both

2 cup dry pinto beans, or 3 cans of pinto beans

4 cloves of garlic, minced

2 tablespoons chili powder

1 teaspoon oregano

1 tablespoon cumin

1 small can diced green chilies

1 small can picante sauce ( I used homemade salsa!)

water enough to cover the roast 3/4 the way up

Put all ingredients in a dutch oven pot. olace in the oven at 350 degrees for 5 hours. Check every 2 hours for water level. add water if needed. After 5 hours, remove roast, shred and place back into the pot. stir well. Bake for another hour.

if using a crock pot, do the same thing, but cook on medium for 6 hours. if using canned beans, it will not take as long. still shred the meat and cook for another hour.

to serve: place a handful of chips on your plate. add the chalupa over the chips. top with lettuce, chopped tomatoes, grated cheese, sour cream, salsa, and chopped onions. also great in flour tortiallas and rolled up like a burrito. or tacos! yum!!!

enjoy......

Friday, September 12, 2014

A little adventure!

Sunday morning around here is a little hectic. Ashton and Elena's church starts at 9 AM!! Mercy, ours at home starts at 3PM.

But we made it to church by 8:50, we were doing good. only problem was, there were no cars in the parking lot. What? They are really new to this area, and didn't get the word that it was Stake Conference. So all dressed up and no where to go, because Ashton didn't know where the meeting was...... too funny....

so we came home and Grandma took pictures!