Break the Cycle

Wow - the last day of Jan, 2011.  Time is certainly flying by !  This week, I've got plenty to show for my DWM - while dh is still stuck in Egypt, I've been keeping my hands occupied so that my mind doesn't wander to places it shouldn't go.  Last I spoke to him, he had made it safely to the airport, and is expecting to fly out today - praying that everything works out that way !  Anyway - on my design wall this week are some of the stars I've been working on. Last week, one of the other bloggers that posted on the DWM hosted by Judy at Patchwork Times posted a link to the quilt that was on her design wall - and I immediately knew I'd make that quilt and surround it with my maze blocks that I posted last week. So, thanks to Kate and her blog Life in Pieces -  I've gotten the first 2 stars done ! The pattern can be found at the Coun'try Junk'tion web page. I also used the scraps from my SIL's quilt that I completed last year, to make 2...

I love, love, love banana bread.  Very hard to find a good one out there that is moist, and gives you a nice serving size (have you ever cut a loaf of banana bread into 14 slices?  Get real!)  This recipe makes a nice, large loaf, and I ran it using 9 servings.  If you make a dozen muffins instead, they are 4 points each. First Attempt today turned out pretty well.    I used 4 Bananas 1 large egg 1/2 cup egg beaters 1 1/2 cup flour Tbsp Vanilla extract cinnamon 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda 1/3 cup Splenda brown sugar 1/3 cup Splenda 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce. I mixed the bananas, egg beaters, egg, applesauce, and vanilla until the bananas were pretty well smashed.  Added the dry ingredients - until everything is moist - dump it into a sprayed loaf pan (I just LOVE the Pam spray for baking !) and bake at *350 for about 40 minutes.  It turned out awesome.  So good that the first loaf disappeared before I could...

Now that I'm back to WW again, and since they've changed they way you figure points, I'm going to have to start making new recipes again.  Yesterday I found a 4 lb boneless roast of lamb on sale (it was actually 4.5 lbs, but I cut off at least 1/2 a pound of fat!) Since I already had sweet potatoes and onions, I figured a stew would be good.  I could have used my crockery from Egypt to make it more authentic - but since I wanted to brown the meat first, and I didn't exactly want to wash dishes all morning ... I did everything in my iron skillet ! The Ingredients 3 or 4 lbs of lamb (the points are for 4 pounds) 1 large onion 8 cloves of garlic 4 TBS of tomato paste 6 tsp olive oil 3 large sweet potatoes and the spices cumin corriander paprika salt and pepper Those were the amounts that I ran through WW to get the points, but I don't really measure anything when I'm cooking.  First I used the olive oil to brown the meat.  I had cut it into ab...

Thanks to Judy at Patchwork Times , I'm encouraged each week to have something new to show on my design floor (most people have a design wall ..... one day when I grow up, I'll have one too !) This week I'm taking out some UFO's from 2 years ago - I love these blocks, I made plenty of them for a wall hanging, but then I just kept making more and more, until I knew I wanted a bed size quilt.  I was going to lay them out in a 5 by 7 blocks, but since these are 9" blocks - and since the blocks I want to make as a border block are 13" blocks - I thought maybe it'd be easier to do 6 by 6 - so I need to make one more of these.  Gotta figure out how to get this block into my EQ program, because this is the block I want to use as a border I was going to make a bunch of these, all with blue star middles, but with different batiks on the outside color.  Of course, I could do THESE blocks for the main part of the quilt and use the others as a border ....  eit...

In keeping with my New Years Goal to not buy much new fabric, I'm keeping track of exactly how much of my stash I'm using.  This past week I haven't gotten much sewing done, matter of fact, yesterday was the first day I even took out my fabrics.  I did get one block cut out, and strips cut for a few more, so I'll count that all as 1 yard used this week.  Definately will be using more next week - right? Used this Week: 1 yards Used year to Date: 8 yards Added this Week: 0 Added Year to Date: 5 Net Used for 2011: 3 yards Those 5 yards that were added in the beginning of the year is backing fabric for a UFO top.  I found an awesome sale on this pink/brown fabric while doing the Quilting Is Murder Mystery, and I figured what were the chances that the exact same color scheme I needed would be on sale again?  So, I bought some.  But I'll use it - and when I do, it'll get subtracted right back out of that New Used num...

www.Well, my first week back on Weight Watchers was a success - down 2.2 lbs!  I kept to my goals, went to the gym, tried to eat healthy (yes, I did have pizza and chocolate cake, but I had much smaller servings then I normally would have)  Still drinking my diet Zero's though .... No sewing this week - but I do have a plan.  I've been watching my favorite blog - Patchwork Times - and she gets so much accomplished each day, and I think it's because she creates lists.  So I'm going to try that with my crafting - I know this week I want to work on something in yellow (a monthly challenge at that same blog).  So that will head the list.  Also need to go buy some more elastic - everyone has decided they need yet another pair of pj's .... and since I have plenty of flannel and fleece leftover - might as well ! Oh, and I had to share these pictures -  Judy at Patchwork Times was sharing a picture of her son using a drill to open coconuts on her kitchen ...

It's going to be a great year.  My first resolution - was to spend more "me time" so today - I've actually gotten out fabric and sewed !  First - fabric for a monochrome quilt challenge that Judy at Patchwork Times is hosting.  This months color is yellow - I'm mixing mine with orange - not sure what to make yet, but everything will be stash for her challenges this year, so it definately will be a challenge ! This past week - lots of time was spent at swim practice - it's getting hard to see small needlework - so I decided to make a pair of fingerless gloves.  Couldn't find a pattern big enough for my hands - plus I wanted to use yarn I had on hand (stash busting) so I ended up using sock yarn.  Glove #1 turned out a bit tight - but already dd#2 is laying claim to it ... so it's all good. This morning I decided it was finally time to make those pj's I've been promising the kids - 2 pairs down, 2 to go ! The Sponge Bob fabric on the back o...