Recipes worth Sharing: Lazy Day Cookies

I love my mom's Lazy Day Cookies!  I think the "lazy" comes from the fact that you use a cake mix as your only dry ingredient.

Without further ado...the recipe:

Ingredients:
German Chocolate cake mix
1/2 c. packed brown sugar (I use 1/2 c. white sugar and 1 1/2 tbsp molasses sometimes)
6 tbsp. shortening or butter, softened
2 eggs
1/4 c. water

Toppings:
1/2 c. each of: pecan pieces, butterscotch chips, and chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Grease and flour a large jelly roll pan or 9x13" metal pan.  (I like the taller sides, sometimes it will rise over the sides of the jelly roll pan).

Mix the wet ingredients (sugar, butter, eggs, and water) with 1/2 the cake mix and beat well.  Add the rest of the cake mix and beat until smooth.
Spread over the cake pan.  (This is easiest if you flour your hands and press it out into the pan gently...it's a pretty sticky mix)
Sprinkle with chips and pecans and bake for 20 minutes.  Cool in pan.

Mmmm...the smell is the best part...until you get to taste them :)

So much catching up to do!

So I've been away from the blog awhile, and a good friend told me I had to get back to it.  I have no more excuses--school's out and I've actually been spending my "free" time making things again!  Now, my problem is that I have so much to share!  So, I think I'll hop around the last few months of happenings as the spirit moves me.

This past Sunday was my dear husband John's birthday.  It was a crazy day.  We were in Ohio visiting his very sweet grandparents and got an email from our realtor (yep, we're buying our first house!) saying a place just went on the market in the neighborhood we love.  We left Ohio earlier than planned, went to the open house, wrote an offer, and then heard today that we unfortunately didn't make the cut (three offers!...the house was on the market for 3 days total).  But, we have lots of time left in the summer to shop.  We're a bit disappointed, but not crushed.

So...getting back to crafty things...I always love to mix yarn and fabric trips in with my travels.  I squeezed in two shops over our weekend trip to Ohio.  The first was Traditions at the White Swan in Hagerstown, MD.  They have great precuts, awesome samples, and kits (I think there was a kit for every sample in the store!)

Then we were back on the road to Youngstown, OH.  On Saturday I had the absolute pleasure of taking Grandma Rene to a new quilt store in the town she loves.  She's so proud of Youngstown and talks about their art gallery and symphony constantly!  She's even been a part of getting the author of Downton Abbey to come speak at their library.  Anyway, she's actually the quilter that got me started on the quilting bug that has not stopped since I slept in her craft room and admired all the handmade quilts on her walls two years ago.  She hasn't quilted in a while so it was a treat to see her admire all the new bright fabrics.  She's so precious!  I wish I had a picture with her!  I do have a picture of the fabric.

Anyway, if you're ever near Canfield, OH you have to check out the Village Quilter.  They have a selection of bright and more muted fabrics because two sisters with opposite tastes own the shop together!  I've been in a lot of quilt shops, but I really felt at home in this one.  I got the feeling people just stopped in to have a conversation with the owners--I would!  They have lots of great notions, hand-dyed wool felt and embroidery floss, and many patterns to go along with their fabrics and precuts.

The highlight of the trip was going into Rene's storage locker.  They recently downsized and she had a plastic tub full of quilts that no longer had a home.  And the very last quilt at the bottom of the tub was the beautiful quilt that was my original inspiration.  It's now at home with us where it will be treasured for the beautiful handiwork that it is.

 

Science Olympiad, School, and other things that keep me from having the time to blog...

Wow...it's been a long time.  I'll jump right in.

1.) Science Olympiad--I've been heading up our school team this year.  They've been passed from teacher to teacher and I stepped in with the hope that I'd enjoy it enough to be their sponsor for more than one or two years :)

Well, the year is nearly over, and I do LOVE this team.  If you're not familiar with SO, it's a competition that involves a team of 15 competing in 20+ science and engineering events (Anatomy,  Boomilivers, Robot arms, Chem lab, and Experimental design to name a few.)

Here we are at States with our 1st place trophy!!!

They did so well, and I'm so glad I can be there to support them.  At dinner, they went around the table and thanked me individually.  Apparently the things they appreciate most are my organizational skills, care and concern, and my cookies (I'm not surprised they like the cookies...who doesn't love cookies?)

Now we're headed to Nationals next weekend.  SO exciting and overwhelming!  I helped design our t-shirt and am in the progress of working on a banner.  Any tips on easy ways to finish off the edges?

2.) School.  The life of a teacher...let's just say that Teacher Appreciation Week falls in May for a reason.  We need it.  Personally I'm trying to deal with some ethics violations (cheating).  It's really unfortunate and very disappointing and is totally NOT my favorite part of the job.  Overall, I LOVE this new job and TJ and know that next year will be so much easier.  I can't wait to be able to focus on adapting my lessons instead of creating new ones. (Actually, I should be typing up a new "body systems" project right now.)

3.) There are some fun projects in the works.  I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.

John took me to Needle and Thread in Gettysburg for some shopping therapy just this weekend.

Jumping back in time, we went to my cousin Emily's wedding in Austin, TX.  It was SO great to see family and they had the most hilarious photo booth.  Steph and the other bridesmaids were beautiful.

Over spring break (in March) we also went to the George Washington Hotel in Winchester.  If you can catch a Living Social deal like we did--it's an unbelievable deal!  That was the same weekend we went to the quilt museum. 

Then Mom came to visit.  Here we are on a House tour.

Somewhere between spring break and now we went to Greenwood, SC for a wedding.  It was a short weekend trip, but we had a great time!  I'm always amazed how many people I still haven't met in this very small town.  They all know John and have great stories from his childhood. :)

I also got to spend an afternoon at the zoo with Cynthia.  It was my first time at our National Zoo, and I'll definitely be back.  We had a great time.  If you haven't, be sure to check out their Amazonia exhibit.

I have had time to get a few projects underway...

 

Over spring break I finished the charity top (finally!) and made this "Sweetheart Chic" apron.

Started the cosmos sampler to get some practice at embroidery.  I believe I took this picture while I was quarantined in bed with some kind of vicious bronchitis...winter in a room full of sick kids with unfamiliar germs was not kind to me this year.

Spent one morning rearranging fabric.  Now I'm ready if our guild hosts another scrap swap ;)

And finally started a project with a beautiful jelly roll Mom bought for me in Florida.  More of this to come as soon as I can get back at the sewing machine.

For now...I'm going back to fixing fajita bowls (YUMMM) for dinner, studying up on immunology, and grading the statistics part of the kiddos' research papers.

Quilt Along #36 and #39

This weekend's trip to Nashville was WONDERFUL!  So great to see Mom and Dad...and it will be even better to see Steph too at Christmas.

Mom and I discovered two great shops: Haus of Yarn (beautifully organized, great service, very knowledgeable) and Stitcher's Garden (an incredibly diverse shop...totally organized, but so full of fabric it can seem overwhelming...go with a plan and ask or wander for hours...either would work well here.)

Yarn for a new sweater.

During the moments I could snatch tonight and last night I did a few more practice squares of FMQ.  Among the many great things at Stitcher's Garden, I found Angela Walter's FMQ book.  So a few squares are inspired by her book and some are Leah Day's Free Motion Quilt Along.

#39 Quilt Busting Matrix

#36 Trapped Paisley

I love the purple and the paisley...of course I like most patterns involving paisley and love the color purple.  So I'm probably biased.

Linking up with WIP Wednesday and the Free Motion Quilt Along.

 

I also made a jar of red pens as "flowers" while watching Castle tonight. I'm hoping now they won't walk away when students borrow them.  I was going for obnoxious to hold but pretty to look at in a group.

I'm also looking forward to starting Leah Day's class on Craftsy! So much to do and so little time!

An experiment

The event that kicked off a whirl-wind of quilting in my life was an evening spent with my soon-to-be grandparents-in-law.  I got to stay in the quilting room of a thirty-year quilter and see the Canton County Fair Quilts.  I had quilted and sewn as a little kid with my mom, but had never seriously attempted quilting as a young adult.

With the inspiration, I instantly picked up a quilt I'd tried to start a few years back.  I finished a quilt top only to realize on my old Singer I couldn't free motion quilt.  I was not picturing straight line quilting.

After some research I found the machine I wanted...a Janome MemoryCraft 6600.  Little did I know that a 6500 was under repair at a nearby store in preparation to be sold used.  Everything worked out in a perfect way--I snatched up the machine...and then Dad won a killer scratch-off lottery ticket and helped me pay for it (so sweet!)

Well, the same grandma-in-law that started it all came to town this weekend and brought lots of fabric!!!  She's clearing her stash and her fabric is beautiful.  The only downside is the old smell.  That brings me to the experiment...I don't want to wash the stabilizers and UV protection and all the other things that are used to treat fabric out of fabric that may stay in my stash for a while.  So...I'm letting nature do the job...

I hope 12 or so hours of sunshine and a breeze will eliminate the musty smell without bleaching the fabric.  PS-If you have plastic containers that are stained red from tomatoes...direct sunlight will remove the stains.  Thank you Mother Nature!

Saturday and Random...

So many things have happened since I've last written:

1.) Spring break arrived, and Mom, Steph, and I went out with my wedding photographer for my bridal portraits.  It was a 10-4 sort of affair on Good Friday--I took an hour long nap as soon as I got home.

2.) Packed up all most of my worldly belongings.  Then, the following weekend, Dad and I drove them to Virginia in the U-Haul.  Here's a shot of me driving:

And our new kitchen:

3.) The next weekend was a garage sale with Katie!  We had a blast chatting with her neighbors and selling some old stuff.  It was the perfect day for a sale--great weather, their garden was taking off and the neighbors wanted to see, and best of all, an auction in the neighborhood brought in fantastic amounts of traffic!

4.) The next week was our extreme fundraising event for March for Babies--I'll save you the details, but basically it couldn't have been done without two hours of crazy each day (collecting and receipting money).  I could have NEVER pulled it off without my excellent volunteer(s) (THANKS MOM!) and support from my Key Club students.  We raised over $2000 in a week...excellent!

5.) And that brings me to last weekend, which is really the reason I've been wanting to blog.  I gave Mom an early Mother's Day gift of a free motion quilting class.  Unfortunately, she did have some sewing machine issues, but she had the entire staff at Viking Says...Sew and Quilt helping her out.  My Janome and I were going to town.  Here's some of what I came up with:

 

I've come to a few conclusions:
A.) I love Aurifil thread and prefer to quilt with thin thread.
B.) I still need a lot of practice before I have consistent stitch lengths.
C.) Leaves are extremely fun to quilt.
D.) Bubbles are not hard or terrifying--but they are a lot of fun and they take focus.  They are also now one of my favorite patterns.
E.) I need more quilt tops prepared so that I can quilt something other than a practice swatch!

Here's my latest plan:

Quilting plan for the borders:

and the fabric to match:

And finally, I still need to block and bind (or create a pillow), but here is my finished wholecloth quilt from Leah Day's Quilt Along.