Thursday, August 23, 2012

DIY Wine Holder

A Pinterest find that I pinned in my “quilty pleasures” board were these adorable quilted wine bottle holders.

I have a couple of weddings coming up this fall, so I decided to whip one together. I probably shouldn't use the word "whip" because it took me longer than I had planned and was a more challenging than the tutorial lead on.

The one I made has too many flaws for my liking, so it will stay with my collection. But I'm excited to know how to put this together now and will be whipping up a few more K-State ones for friends in the near future!

KState Wine Bottle Holder

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Beef Sticky Buns Recipe

This recipe brought me back to my elementary through high school days where Colorado Beef Rolls where the most popular school lunch meal. Basically, they were a cinnamon roll with beef in the inside (instead of cinnamon/sugar) and covered with cheese. So when I saw this recipe for Beef Sticky Buns from the Texas Beef Council, I immediately pinned it on Pinterest.

Source: txbeef.org via Kelsey on Pinterest

This grown-up version of the Colorado Beef Rolls I grew up with were excellent with the combination of beef, spinach, cheese and pizza dough.
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I filled my dough up a little too much so the dough had a hard time keeping it all in, but they tasted great regardless!
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Recipe found here.

Monday, August 20, 2012

August Garden

I must admit, I’ve been neglecting my garden – but it must still love me because it has been producing some great cukes and zukes.
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Hanky can attest – he really likes when I cut them up and “accidentally” drop some on the floor.
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My sister, Emily, came for a weekend visit and she – the horticulture girl – gave my garden and bushes some love and discovered this little carrot growing. In a few more weeks I should be able to harvest the rest.
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We also are officially a one-pumpkin family after our effort with the DIY Vertical Pumpkins. And a weeny pumpkin at that. At least  he turned orange, but Ronny was pretty disappointed. 
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I was able to slice and freeze three of my zucchini’s and will look forward to lots of recipes this winter I can use them in.
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Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Baby Kate

Ronny and I are a new uncle and aunt as of last week! Ronny’s brother Bill, and his wife Heather, had a baby girl – Kate Abigail, born August 8th weighing 8 pounds, 6 ounces and was 22 inches long. Big girl!

We were able to to drive to Hays, KS to see her this past Sunday and it was such a treat getting to hold this little sweetie!
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The brothers. Bill, Kate’s Dad, is in the middle and Ronny’s oldest brother, Russell with my adorable nephew, Rhett.
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The girls. Mama Heather with Aunt Misty and Aunt Kelsey.
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Congrats Bill and Heather!

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Christmas in July

To keep myself cool in this hot summer, I worked on a quilted Christmas wall hanging. I purchased this Moda kit, “In A Manger” at a quilt fair a couple of years ago and just hadn’t taken the time to get it done.
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It was a pretty easy kit to put together, but it did stretch me with challenges like appliquéing the star and baby Jesus, and my first time embroidering with the halo.
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I decided to machine quilt this myself.
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I just took it to the county fair this last week. I had some tough competition, but it was fun to display. Ronny said he couldn’t believe the judge gave baby Jesus third place. :)DSC02872

I also took my Modern Maze quilt to the fair and got a red award which I was happy with – look at the amazing quilts on either side!
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Friday, August 3, 2012

July via Instagram

Even though my work life hasn’t been busy in July, it seems my social life has – so I’ll update you on what’s been going on via my Instagram collection.

On our trip to Michigan after the 4th of July, we stopped at the Amana Colonies and I was in love with this adorable quilt shop.
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I’ve been enjoying walks in the morning with Hank. This particular morning it was only 60 degrees and felt so good! Hank treed a squirrel and was SO proud of himself.
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Dog play. Hank loves playing with his new ball, and his friend, Avery, loves sweet corn.
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Drought. The corn picture is from around Newton, Kansas. We got some much needed rain in Nebraska – this was a moment I wish I had my nice camera as the cloud was just breathtaking. The subsequent rainbow as a fun gift as well.
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I’ve gotten a few sewing projects done this summer and just entered three of them in the county fair. I’ll blog about them later, but this picture was my first time attempting to machine stitch on my binding instead of hand stitching. I was successful!
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Vancouver, Washington. I traveled to Vancouver for the U.S. Grains Council meetings the last week of July. More to blog on that later. These were photos from the Columbia Snake River. The grain port below is the tallest grain silo in the U.S.
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life rearranged