Honey Do's

My husband has been after me for a year to make him "gun quilts".  These are really gun mats rather than a quilt.  They are to cover the top of the shooting tables at the gun range so the guns don't get scratched up.  He keeps everything looking new and I mean everything.  No wear and tear for this man - he has me for all the wear and tear items.



I was suppose to only make he and I one, but somehow he put in orders for his friends too, so I ended up making 4 of this style.  I still need to make 3 of the other style.

Our "hunting" dog had to get in the picture to help me model these.



They are made out of canvas of which I really don't ever want to quilt again...and I won't even mention doing the binding with canvas to you.

Happy Memorial Day!

Thank you to all the men and women who gave their life so I can live in freedom. That I can vote, that I have free speech, that I can choose my religion. Thank you each and everyone of you and your family. I come from a long line of military people, both parents, both brothers, uncles, cousins, great uncles. They all gave part of themselves for this country.

This year I got to spend the evening with my little family.



The hubs made me my favorite, homemade hamburgers! yummy. All the food groups - one meal. I made some jalapeno poppers out of some home grown peppers to go along with them.

While the hubs was sleeping today (he worked 2, 24 hour shifts since Friday) I worked in the back yard - rewind to last Sunday to see the damage.

I put in a couple rows of perennials to start filling in the area and sometime I'll add some seeds and some annuals to start filling in the gaps, but for now this is what I have.



For some reason the grass looks horrible in this picture, but it's not as bad looking in real life. It is slowly sending out runners to fill in the area where the lavendar overhang killed off the grass. So by 4th of July I expect a full recover.

Here's one of the tomatoes from the garden.



We are going to be overrun with tomatoes this year I'm afraid. Maybe I'll can some homemade salsa.

I also made this duffel. I will blog more about it at a later date. I have some pattern comments I would like to write about.

Finishing Up the Bathroom

Today was a long a day for a Saturday. Our painter Lance, was here at 6:45 to do the last few touch ups to the bathroom and work on the paint of our front door. He wanted to be done with the bathroom before Patrick the handy man got here to do the sink.



A couple things on the pictures, I don't like my soap and lotion dispensers in the bathroom anymore even though I love them. They don't work now that the bathroom is so much lighter. Same for the rugs and the towels. I need to get some soft greens and taupe's I think. Overall, I am happy.


I'm not entirely thrilled with loosing all the towel bars or the fact that the hook on the back of the door is so high now. This is what happens when I get put between Mike and the handi-men.

I think I'll get one of those counter stand hand towel racks and go ahead and put the towel bar back under the window.


I was able to line the shelves and put everything back away so tomorrow I can move back into to using my owner bathroom again. The painter said shelf paper was an old lady thing. I don't use contact paper, but either scented papers or that no slip stuff. Do any of you still use shelf paper? or did I become an old lady and not know it?

Note, this was a minor remake as one day in the life of owning this home, I want to turn our kitchen and when I do, I will move the main wall of the bathroom out and completely redo everything in there. But until I have a cool 70 grand laying around, this will have to do.

Because I didn't get enough done yesterday

I had an early start yesterday weeding the front flower beds. I try to walk through everyday either in the evening or early morning and pull a few weeds. This just helps keep it from looking out of control. But yesterday, I was down and dirty weeding. I have one of those long weed tools that I meticulously pulled weeds with yesterday. For the record, whomever lived in our house and planted the mondo (aka monkey) grass - I'd sure like to have a word with you. That stuff will NOT go away.

Then the hubs came home with a laborer to help removed the lavender hedge in the back yard. But then he also had him remove 4 perfectly good plants around the pergola. I was not thrilled.

Where the lavender was is along the back wall of our house and the dogs loved to tunnel under it, but poor Dazzi is allergic to the blooms and would just itch and itch every year. So we are taking it out.

Break here - the husband took me to the farmer's market to get some fresh veggies - found some yellow peaches and made a cobbler. He also got me some beautiful flowers for the house. :)


Anyone know the name of these? I just loved them.

This meant that I had to relay the edging, clean out the old mulch, fill the holes and prep the soil for new plantings. By I, I mean me, myself, solo, uno. The hubs does not do yard work. But he did buy all the soil, manure, and some additional plants I wanted for the front yard and 4 beautiful hanging baskets to replace the ones he killed off while I was out of town for work. Where the grass doesn't meet the edging is from the lavender overhanging so far out it killed off the grass - but I'm going to change all that.


So I got the beds ready for planting and put in the new yellow lilac and sorbet peony I received last week from Gurney's. The Peony is a tuber not a plant and the lilac is a sapling. So it's a bit bear back there right now. Not to worry, I'll be browsing all my plant company catalogs this week.

Insert shower here and an apricot update.


Then his friend from work who had stored his motorcycle in our garage came to pick up and the hubs invited him to dinner. Make dinner here. Dishes.

Can you believe that dinner was consumed, dishes done by 7 pm? I liked it! I sure wish we did that every night but that would mean I'd have to get home before 7. *ugh*

So what do I do after a few motrin 800's? I work on my candy bar quilt. I get the top done! Now I need to find a backing fabric, binding and the batting to finish it.

It's to date the largest quilt top I've made.

How was your Sunday?

Whatcha thinking 'bout?

Because I'm thinking this here Dahlia is about to bust open!


I planted them this year and will be one of three varieties I ordered from Spring Hill Nursery.

Now this was a random picture I took this week of my two favorite things.
Talk about doggie trust.



Then last night's Friday Night Sew In, I did the last few rows of the lap quilt. Did get much time to sew but I did get all the strips finished.

Today I must leave,,,

my garden in the hands of my darling husband. Need I say I am a bit concerned?

I know he "can" do, now "will" he do it? It takes some discipline to water every day those hanging plants and the morning glory out on the front step. If the weather gets warm, I may come home to a bunch of twigs stuck in clots of dried up dirt.

The hydrangea is about to bloom so I guess I'll miss that, and I know that stinking Wisteria won't bloom again this year so I have nothing to worry about there.

There is something muching on the dahlia's in the front bed and I may come home to those being wiped out.

Should I really worry so much?

I'm gonna have a hard time explaining where the rice and beans went...

I made a small sachet thanks to inspiration from Denise and then a large hot pad.

I need to blog more !

I've been remiss on blogging lately. Only when I have a spare minute here or there. I apologize my blogging friends. I have one little challenge and it's called work. Lately, I've spent my early mornings on the phone with Europe, the middle of the day working with Atlanta and now I've added in Asia to my evening conference calls.

Somewhere in there I have to cook, sew, garden, clean, laundry, actually talk to my husband instead of snuggling up to his snores.

I also have absolutely get over to see Babs at Beehive to get my hair done. It's horrendous right now - really.

Look at how well this little notebook Regena sent me matches my work coffee cup. I bought the cup on our honeymoon in Victoria, BC.


Here are my Tom's under my work desk...see I do live here!

It was a great party!

Here are few pics from the party.








Plus I won the CSN Stores Gift Certificate from Val at YaniGras! Thank you so much!

It's his Birthday Tomorrow

and he may do me in. The small little dinner party I had planned has turned into a big ol' house party. 120 lbs of crawfish,

A whole mess of Korean short ribs.

A run out to pick up one of these at Bass Pro Shops

Then home to do the assembly.

and now a whole mess of coleslaw and fixins to get ready for tomorrow night.

Life from 30,000 Feet

In flight wifi. Nice to be able to blog while in transit for a change. Unfortunately, it also means you have access to work and emails and the outside world. Outside of this tube in the sky anyway. It is late and dark on the plane. I'm in the second row in economy. I have the 2 seat row to myself and I can people watch from where I am. The guy in the first row is working hard getting a buzz on with cocktails. the couple with the baby in the middle of my row finally got their child to sleep. The guy in front of me keeps looking back as I type - it either annoys him or he's too cheap to pay for his own internet access.

Work in Atlanta this week was rough, my moral is low and I am tired. I want to always help and fix and improve and move forward. When I come to the office here, I get more work, more confused, more challenges and more enlightenment all at the same time. It's emotionally draining. I'm ready to be home with my dogs and my husband.

Just before boarding, my hubs texted me saying he'd be working all night...a car hit a pole and he's working. I wont get to see him until tomorrow afternoon when I get home. It's a downer after the last few days.

The best part of the week is going to be walking around my yard looking over the things I've planted and seeing how much they've grown this week. It always amazes me to see this after I've been gone for a few days.

Maybe this weekend, I can plan something wonderful for the hubs birthday...crawfish boil anyone?

Apricot Fried Pies

Debbie posted on her blog a few weeks ago about needing a fried pie recipe - one like your Mamaw would have made. Well in seven years or so that I've lived with my husband, he has coach, advised and coerced me into making fried pies like his Ninie (Thelma). So for Debbie, this is my tutorial. If you're looking for something healthy, you may as well stop reading.

I will make 9 pies with this recipe (it's only me and the hubs, more would go be wasteful). Multiple up if you want to make more. I also made all 16oz of the apricots, because half of the filling, I will put in the freezer for the next time. Total time to make these is 2 hours start to finish.


I start with dehydrated apricots. If I can get fresh they work too, you just have to adjust the cooking time to less as they will break down faster.

I put the apricots as they come in a pot with 1 cup of water on medium heat.


I let them start to stew. Once they start to take on some of the water I add in 1/4 cup brown sugar - I like it's flavor best but you can substitute honey, white sugar, etc. Then I let it stew some more. (15-20 minutes)



Here is when I add in about one shot of dark rum,

a squeeze lemon juice,

1 Tablespoon Cinnamon and a teaspoon of vanilla.

and a pinch of salt


Then let they stew some more.

I start making the crust, and to be honest I use the BH&G recipe for double crust.

2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cups butter/butter flavor criso
6-7 Tablespoons ice cold water.


mix the first 3 ingredients,

then gradually add the water, 1 Tablespoon at a time until it starts to ball up.

I place it in plastic or zip lock and put it in the refrigerator until well chilled - about 20-30 minutes.


Time for a break because the apricots are stewing and the crust is chilling.


Note: watch the apricots, if they start to dry up - add 1 cup of water at time keep them moist - when you pull a spoon back you should see thick juice start to pool in the bottom Be sure to check them and do this as many times as you need. In total, I added 3 cups of water. Also, I cover them for about 1/2 the cooking time - when I want to speed this up.

Continue to stew them until they start to break apart when you mush them with a wooden spoon. When done, remove from heat and let cool.

I have tiled counter tops, years ago I found this pastry board that I use for rolling out crusts.



Trust me that pastry cloth is clean, just stained from many uses over the years and I can't find pastry cloth large enough to make a new cover.

The cloth slips over the edges of the two pieces of wood and then it flattens out.




I rub the cloth down with flour to keep everything moving smoothly.


Then I rub my rolling pin down with flour too.


Now I take the crust out of the fridge and take off a fist size piece and roll it out.


I use a rice bowl as my size guide - about 5" in diameter.

Time to start the oil. I use Crisco (1 cup to 2 cups depending on the size of your skillet) in a cast iron skillet at medium heat. You want the grease hot other wise the pies will get soggy. Probably around 350 degrees, but I don't use a thermometer just feel the heat coming off. Not very technical.



See how deep it is?

just enough to go up 1/2 way of the pies.

Prepare an egg wash for sealing the pies - 1 egg with about 1 tablespoon of cold water beaten well.


Place 1-2 Tablespoons of the apricot filling on the cut circle of crust and brush the edges with the egg wash.


Seal the pie by crimping with a fork on both sides. Flip the Pie over and crimp from the back side too.



Now place in the hot grease (use caution for splattering and spills overs). Fry until under side is golden brown.

Then use tongs to flip it over and fry the other side. Use care so as to not puncture or break the crust.


Place completely fried pie on a plate lined with paper towels to blot any extra grease.


I make mine one at a time, but if you are making a lot of these you can prep them all at one time and then fry all at one time - if you know what I mean.

Eventually, they are all fried and they look like this.


What to avoid - over filling the pie crust so you get a blow out. It makes your grease dirty faster and it's just messy and not pretty.



You're kitchen will get messy but good things come from the hard work.

I hope you enjoy them as much as my husband does.

Good Luck, and let me know if you have any questions or if I missed anything.