Quilting Class

I am taking a quilting class!  This is something that I have wanted to do for years.  Our local activities center is offering affordable classes.  My teacher, Lori, brought some of the quilts she made.  Aren't they gorgeous?

She even quilts beautiful bags.

I love the colors that she uses.  Quilting is such an awesome way to be creative.

There are a lot of supplies that I could buy, but I only had to buy a couple of special rulers, the big one and small one.  Rulers are very important to ensure accuracy in cutting and sewing.  The small ruler is to ensure that my needle on my sewing machine is set exactly on 1/4 inch to make 1/4 inch seams.  I also bought special curved safety pins for pinning the layers together and special quilting needles for my machine.  The most expensive thing was the batting, which is very expensive!

The above quilt is the first quilt my teacher ever made and it is the same pattern I chose also.  I have some blocks sewn but I forgot to take a picture.  I'll be finishing my wall hanging tomorrow and can't wait to share pictures with you!
Don't forget to check out my other blog to win Davis Bunn's newest book!  The contest ends tomorrow night.  bodaciousbookworms.blogspot.com
Missy
Here is one more quilt she has made.

Book giveaway

I'm having a book giveaway over on my book blog, so be sure to hop on over and enter to win Book of Dreams by Davis Bunn!
bodaciousbookworms.blogspot.com

I've had a pretty busy week and I have a lot to blog about!

Last week an acquaintance passed away.  He was the brother and son of very dear friends of mine at church.  Our church came out to support them in this tragic time of death.  The funeral was on Monday, I helped with the reception following the funeral.  I was grateful for the distraction it provided.  Praise the Lord he had asked the Lord to come into his heart and to save him from his sins.  ""For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.  For the scripture saith, whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed.  For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."  Romans 10:10, 11, 13

Tuesday I had quilting class.

Wednesday I taught a baking class to two young ladies from church.

Thursday I was home and cleaned and rearranged my living room with church that night.  (I know weird night to have church  LOL)

Friday I helped and fellowshipped with a friend from church. 

I have had a busy week, but I promise to download all of my pictures, sort through them and blog about them next week!

Don't forget to enter my book giveaway and have a great weekend ya'll!  I'll share a picture of my cats, ya'll don't mind do ya'll?
Missy

I'm kitten sitting Pippi's two brothers.  Here is Pippi (the black calico) and Splash and Frosty.  She's the only odd ball of the bunch!  This also means that I have eight cats running around my house this week!  Talk about total chaos on top of the rest of my week, but that's ok, it's been fun.

Chicken and Dumplings

I love chicken and dumplings!  It is the only type of "soup" I can get my husband to eat.  My good friend Cara first taught me how to make it about 14 or 15 years ago.  Over the years I have adapted it.  I have always used Bisquick for my dumplings, but the past couple of years I have been trying to find a healthy, from scratch alternative.  I finally found one!  My husband bought me a great new book.  I'm Just Here For More Food-baking by Alton Brown.


He takes the science behind the ingredients and explains why they work.  I would recommend this book to everyone because it is much more then just a cookbook.  I used his dumplings recipe with a tad alterations.  I hope you enjoy!

Fill your pot (stock pot or dutch oven) with liquid, enough to cover your chicken.  I used a box of organic chicken broth ($2 at HEB or Central Market) and the rest water.  You can also use canned chicken stock, but it is probably full of msg and a bunch of  other unhealthy stuff.  You can use either a whole chicken or chicken breasts.  I don't measure my spices, just add according to your taste.  A couple of bay leaves, 3 cloves of pressed garlic, couple teaspoons of salt, ground sage, thyme and rosemary.  Add diced carrots and celery.  I make the dumplings while the chicken and vegetables are cooking.  Be sure to use a slotted spoon ( I have a flat one I use) or some type of skimmer thingy to get the yuckies from the chicken floating on the top.  You can also use a paper towel.
Dumplings
1 cup organic unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sage
Whisk the dry ingredients together to aerate as you combine.  If you use wheat flour be sure to sift it together.
Grate 1 1/2 tablespoons of frozen butter into the flour.  Add 2 teaspoons lard.  You'll want to mix it together the way you would a pie crust.  You can use either a pastry cutter or your fingers to make it into a coarse-like texture.  Add 1/2 cup chilled buttermilk ( I used soured milk) and mix thoroughly.

Remove chicken from broth and cut in small pieces.
I used my small scooper to drop the dumplings into the boiling broth.  Make sure it is boiling or the dumplings will disintegrate.  If you don't have a scooper you can roll the dough into about 12 small balls before dropping it into the broth.  Cover and cook for 10 minutes over medium-low heat.  You may need to lower the heat if it starts to over boil. 

Add the chicken back to the broth to reheat it.  Stir it gently in to prevent  disintegrating the dumplings.  Cook an additional five minutes uncovered. 
Enjoy your comfort food!
Missy

Old Wedding Dresses

My mom and I went to the Texas Tech Museum yesterday, it's a small museum, but it's free!  They had wedding and trousseau dresses on display.  I thought I would share some pictures with you, did you know white wedding dresses were not popular until Queen Victoria got married in a white dress?

I love the ruffle on this dress!

 The pearls down the front on the right are so pretty!











These dresses are from the late 1800s and early 1900s.  Most of them are the Gibson girl style.
Can you imagine wearing one of these petticoats to make your behind look big?

They even had some veils I could try on!  Of course I couldn't resist!

Can you imagine making all these dresses with a sewing machine like this?

Then of course you would have to vacuum up all those loose threads and pieces of fabric with this vacuum cleaner (about 20 years later).

I hope you enjoyed this blast from the past with me!
Missy

A New Skirt and the Fair

Sorry I've been so quiet on here.  I was getting my house clean and in order before I went out of town to see my family in Lubbock.  My sister's birthday is Thur. and mine is Fri..  We go to the fair in Lubbock every year I'm in town for my annual visit.  My sister went the first time when she was two days old.  The first time I went I was a year old.  This is not a great picture, I was in the fun house.
I made a new skirt that I wanted to wear to the fair this year.

I bought this denim material back in June and I tried to make it into a pair of culottes.

The material was too heavy and bulky.  Pippi likes this material!  So I had to take out the inner seams and make it into a skirt, then I made it too big and had to take it in.  It took me three months to finally finish this skirt(I only worked on it off and on).
Here is a picture of my niece Johnna and I on the Merry Go Round.

Here is one of the rides my sister and I rode, that's us way up there.  We both decided we are getting too old to ride those rides!  LOL

We rode the swings and I was very dizzy when we got off!

 Here is a picture of my mom and Johnna sharing a corn dog.

Johnna's favorite ride was the canoe.

We like playing with the hats too!

Here is a picture of all of us as we were leaving, we were tired and hot but had a great time!

Johnna fell asleep on the way home.

One of the materials had "patches" on it, so I built on that theme and made more patches on the bottom of the skirt using the rag quilt.  I didn't have enough material and added some other denim I had.  I added more patches all around to bring the two materials together.
You can see the patches better in this picture even though it is a terrible picture of me.  It's kind of hard to take a good picture in a moving barrel.

I won't be home until Monday, my husband stayed home with the cats.
Have a great day ya'll!
Missy

My new mixer!

"But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus."  Phillipians 4:19 
As ya'll know, I have been borrowing mixers from my friends.  I borrowed the Bosch  http://missyscakesandaprons.blogspot.com/2011/08/bosch.html  which I liked, but there were several things that I did not like.  I borrowed two different Kitchen Aids, I wrote a review on one of them,  http://missyscakesandaprons.blogspot.com/search/label/mixer%20review  where I showed you the difference in sizes, The wattage and sizes of the bowls and attachments did not compare to my Cuisinart.  They worked fine, but I still prefer my Cuisinart.
My Cuisinart has a seven quart bowl, 1000 watts, and a timer that turns itself off.  It also has 12 speeds to give you better control.  As you can tell from my previous post, the paddle, whisk and dough hook are also better and bigger.  This is probably the closest thing you can get to a professional model for your home. 
I got my original mixer over four years ago on Black Friday.  I did a price compare at Bed Bath and Beyond, used a coupon and got a free blender attachment all for about $280.  It was a great deal!  About two years ago I broke the spring on the mixer and would have to hold it down to get the bottom of the bowl.  This break was totally my fault though.  Then the motor quit in July.  I must admit I have used this mixer and put it through the wringer in the years I have owned it.  When I bake, it is usually for church so I always double and sometimes triple my recipes. 
I was heart broken, how could I ever afford to buy a new mixer?  I decided to sell cupcakes one week at church and Twinkies another week to raise money for my new mixer.  I paid $15 to send my broken mixer back to the company with a $10 check for return postage.  I figured I would have to wait until Black Friday and find another great deal.  I knew the Lord would provide, I just did not know how.  I never heard back from Cuisinart until today when UPS delivered me a brand new WHITE Cuisinart!  What a blessing, I like the white better!  Since I had kept all the parts when I sent the mixer back I now have two of everything, even two 7 qt bowls!  I had registered my mixer when I first got it, so make sure you always register your products.  And remember that God will always provide in some way, you just have to have patience and faith!

All I need now is some of those cool vinyls to decorate my mixer with!  I'm thinking either cupcakes or orange, yellow and green flowers to match my curtains!  LOL
Missy

Tips for ready to serve meals

I feel like I always need a picture on my blog posts, since I didn't have any for this one I thought you might like this one of Pippi and Muffin.  Aren't they cute?
With fall, school and the holidays coming up we are pretty busy.  I thought I would share a couple of interesting blog posts I have found.  Unfortunately I couldn't do this first one since my husband hates veggies and soups.  She shows how she has one day of meal preparation.  She chops up all her veggies and puts them in baggies ready to pop in a crock pot in the morning.
http://mamaandbabylove.blogspot.com/2011/04/freezer-cooking-with-slow-cooker.html

This next one is ingenious!  They are great if you like to have food storage in case of a catastrophe, or your husband loses his job, or if you just want quick meals!  I thought they would be great for camping too!  She uses freeze dried food - dry milk, veggies, spices and even freeze dried meat!  You just pour boiling water over it and you are ready to go!
http://cheftessbakeresse.blogspot.com/search/label/meals%20in%20a%20jar

Something else I have always wanted to try is having meals prepared in cans.  My husband doesn't like soups and chili but I don't want to make a whole batch just for my lunches, I get sick of the leftovers after a while.  My goal is to eventually get a pressure canner so that I can make my own homemade canned soup!  Talk about convenient.  What a great gift for a sick friend, a can of homemade chicken noodle soup!  Fresh, organic and healthy - no MSGs!  Here a couple of articles I found:
http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/canningconvenfood.htm
http://thisdamecooks.wordpress.com/2009/05/15/canning-vegetable-soup/


If anyone has any other resources they would like to share I would appreciate it!

Missy

How to make a cake by the Little Rascals

I realize a lot of ya'll aren't as old as I am and might not remember the Little Rascals, but they are so cute.  In this video clip they are baking a cake.  I must admit I have never had a cake catastrophe this bad!  LOL



Here is a link also  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO6Ks77oYo4&sns=fb
I love the way they interpret the directions!

Have a great day ya'll!
Missy

Laundry Day

"....and let them wash their clothes, and so make themselves clean."  Numbers 8:7b  You would not believe how many times God says this in the Bible.  Have you ever realized how important it is to God to be clean?  As women, whether we are married or not, we have laundry to do and it won't clean themeselves.  We do have stuff that makes it easier, like washing machines and dryers.

My dryer broke about two months ago.  July was just one of those months where everything was breaking.  My dryer broke, my stand mixer broke, and I even "broke" (fractured) my wrist.  My fingers still don't always work right.
My husband rigged up a clothes line for me in the backyard.  He found some tent posts, an old metal shelf, and a bird feeder hanger to make my clothesline with.

 As you can tell by my grass, we are having a drought in TX and temps reaching 110°.  I hadn't bought clothespins yet (My husband brought some home this week after I had to chase one of my slips) so I had just been laying the clothes over the line.


There are pros and cons to using a clothes line versus a dryer.
*  The electric bill has been reduced drastically!
*  I love the smell of clothes that have dried in the sun.
*  Clothes last longer
*  The dryer is not making my house hot
*  The clothes dry quickly in the TX sun.
*  etc.

The cons
*  It takes more time
*  I'm afraid that if I forget to bring them in one day, this might happen:

Last night when I told my husband at 10:30 I forgot the laundry, he said don't worry about it, but I was afraid the raccoons might get into them.  I found this( and the cat) picture on the internet, so obviously my fears had a foundation!  Not to mention our "pet" racoon that comes to visit every every evening.

Not a great picture since we took it through our screened window.
More cons:
*weather
*stiff clothes, but wait, I found a way to fix the stiff clothes!  Just put a 1/4 cup of baking soda in your wash and it softens your clothes!  Even my husband said it works!  So yeah!
We are praying about moving, so I don't see any sense in buying a dryer until after we move, but of course I'm still trying to come up with the money for a new mixer and in my opinion that comes first!  LOL

Have a great Labor Day Weekend ya'll!
Missy
P.S.  I don't know how they got those kittens in those bags, my kittens would never go for that!  Although Muffin does like the dryer!

A new book for you!

I wanted to share a book my Pastor wrote, my husband helped to put it in book format. This is a great book on the history of the King James Bible, be sure to order a copy for yourself!

"The Word, God Will Keep It: The 400 year History of the King James Bible Only Movement."
By Joey Faust

17 chapters. 335 pages.
Did you know that “King James Onlyism” has been the most popular view among Christians for the past 400 years?
This book, filled with hundreds of quotes, takes you on a detailed journey through the past four centuries to behold the vast number of Christians that believed the King James Bible is the infallible, preserved Word of God! Many of these early Christians also warned future generations of the terrible consequences that would arise as a result of forsaking this Holy Bible – consequences that our age has seen come to pass. This book also exposes a web of occultists and false teachers – outside – as well as inside, Christian churches – that have worked to overthrow the faith of multitudes in the King James Bible.

Some of the chapter titles include:
“Conditioning for a One-World Church”
“The Originals-Only Scheme”
“The Necromancy of Westcott and Hort”
“Heretics Behind the ASV”
Etc.

Order online from http://www.fundamentalbooks.com/

Or send $16.00 to:
Fundamental Books
700 Cordes Dr.
Venus, TX 76084

If you want to know the truth, then this is the book you should have!