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::A Little Help::

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Luckily the amount of stairs at our house is limited to the three I managed to trip down. I’ve gotten my upper body workout on crutches. Wednesday night I was questionably burnt out and frustrated, and by Thursday convincingly so.

I needed to do something besides throwing things to where I needed them.

I found help in the functionality of some IKEA products in my studio.

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The little blue cart is like a little black dress, everyone needs one, or four.  I can still collect all the crap everyone leaves around the house and push it ahead of me.

0287229_PE423571_S3Snille Swivel Chair 

I bought these for the studio and providing you don’t have a maxi dress on they are extremely convenient at limiting the amount of time on your feet while still allowing you to travel.

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But these things don’t travel and we headed to Vancouver for the weekend to eat and take in a Whitecaps game, so I was saved by the boot, glow in the dark stickers and all;)

Good things can happen when you have a bum ankle including, but not limited to, not carrying luggage, being dropped off at the curb while others look for parking and packing twice the amount of shoes since you only need one;)

Studio pictures next week, I promise;)

Happy Tuesday.

 

::Home::

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magic number quilt/sewkatiedid

Sigh, there’s nothing like it.  Sleeping in your own bed after time apart.

 Spain was dreamy.

After World Cup was over we really had no where we had to be.

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Roan became efficient at finding anyone in a square to kick a ball around with regardless of a language barrier and it being posted as a deviant activity.  You know what they say about rules?

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We’d sip a vodka tonic, make a half-ass plan and walk to see what we would find.

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Most of the time it all came together.

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Roan and his cousins from Northern Ireland kept each other company.

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We also spent an amazing amount of time just sitting.

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People watching is just fascinating.

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So was our view.

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And then we’d all usually walk to the square and sit some more.

Jet lagged did me in.  I’m just starting to feel that life is regaining some rhythm here at home.  I taught all last weekend, cleaned my house like mad this week and am just gaining some ground on new samples for classes coming up.

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I stalled on what color to make my stitch and flip triangles.

We have a new couch, so if I don’t make a pillow in the next week Jefe’s going to start worrying that something’s wrong with me.  Curtains eventually might be a good call too.

Bainbridge Island Quilt Festival’s deadline to submit for the show is Friday the 15th, so I need to make a decision on finishing something new or entering something done.  I love non-juried shows.  Anyone else submitting?

My yard is out of control so I know what I’ll be procrastinating this weekend.

Have a great weekend;)

::Hot Stuff::

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Once the family leaves this blog will move back to its regularly scheduled program of quilting, not food.

But we’ve been cooking, not quilting.  I have some pies for the fourth, but we always fall back on our lip-smacking, beer gulping starter.

Perfect for the 4th.

The photographed version is made with sweet peppers for those who don’t like it hot!

Introducing our version of Jalapeno Poppers.  I use to make these in Mexico on our travels to Guerrero.

1)  Cut your jalapenos (or sweet peppers) in half lengthwise and deseed them with a spoon.  Wear gloves or plan on not touching any sensitive body parts later.

2)  Stuff full with a salty feta.  My favorite is from Trader Joe’s and is packaged in a yellow/green bag.

3)  Grill on a hot grill till undersides are pretty toasted.

Some will be mild and some super hot.

I recently had the sweet peppers at my friend Noelle’s, stuffed with goat cheese and wrapped in proscuitto.  Trying those this round too.

Enjoy your 4th, I hope you are surrounded by friends and family!

::Corn Beef?::

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My Grandmother was Irish, my Grandfather German.  I’ve eaten my lifetime supply of cabbage and potato dishes, but still eat my weight in cabbage laden with white vinegar.   This year I was asked to bring the corn beef, but my slow cooker bit the dust.

Any good tips or links out there for the oven?

I generally opt out for the beef and make this Irish Soda Bread recipe in celebration of the date.

The recipe is from Saveur Magazine’s March 2001 issue. I’ve always baked it in a butter cast iron with a little more flour mixed in. I like Golden Raisins, but had to settle for what was in the cupboard for this loaf.

My first memory of baking it was before road tripping down to Tucson from Flagstaff. Not sure why I chose Soda Bread. It certainly doesn’t invoke thoughts of the desert, maybe it was St. Patrick’s Day and I just have no recollection.

Not into the beef or baking?  Here’s my new favorite easy easy easy Green Pasta recipe from Dishing Up.

::Running…in circles::

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I’ll just warn you that this isn’t a very crafty post.

The folks are gone, and we’ve slowly come back to normal here in the Pedersen household.  It only took me just shy of a week to clean the bathroom and vacuum.  My lame excuse was needing the time to catch up on my quilting bee blocks, of which there is still one for the Ten Make Two Bee ( just this instant I realized I have to do two blocks, not just one, thus the name).

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And today I got the news…It looks as though we will be putting down our old girl Fe Dog this week.  She can’t get up anymore by herself, and has a teetering deck of cards when it comes to health in general.

I love her.  We spent 10 years together before I moved to the city and she was a country dog.  She’s been living with my friend and visiting when she can.  This week will be our last visit, as Doug and I take a trip with her to the vet.

I tried not to think about it today on my run and focused instead on all the lovely places we ran together when she was young.

The track by the river in Ypsilanti when I first got her, the dirt road in Mexico where we would run through the dump when we came to the village, because all the dogs had mange, the coconut fields.  The urban trail and miles of trails in Flagstaff, Colorado, New Mexico… ahhhhh…it’s wonderful and sad.

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This is the first bend of my run now, if I so choose that direction.  Fe Dog hasn’t ever gone, and she would love the sights and smells. I love it best in Winter.  I tend to go when people are commuting home, and the city is lite up.  Can’t see it in the photo, but The Space Needle is just to the right.

I never have my camera with me when I run.  All the photos are taken by my extremely generous and talented friend Molly.

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The lake, houseboats, the Aurora Bridge, the Fremont Bridge…

The canal in Autumn.

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Then I either return via the same route, or sometimes go through our little shopping district and do the hill.

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Hold your breath.

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Can’t stop to purchase…

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Up the hill…You didn’t think Trolls existed did you?  Tell the kids it knows where they live.

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Down the hill…then I’m home.  Wish you could come Fe Dog!

::This Week::

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How can it be Thursday?

My biggest accomplishment this week?  I actually vacuumed my home from top to bottom, all 600 and some feet of it…AND cleaned the bathroom including the dreaded tub.  When I start to notice the cobwebs, you know it’s bad.  I used to be such a good housekeeper until I started sewing.

Very little sewing actually happened this week because of my growing list of neglected duties.  My Mom’s birthday is May Day, so I did whip up a little zippered pouch for her yesterday.  I’ll pop some photos in it of her Grandchild, and her 70s prescription sunglasses that I found in a coat pocket here…no, maybe I’ll do her a favor and not let her know I found those.  Believe me they have not come back in style.

My mother, who is also a quilter, and I have VERY DIFFERENT tastes in fabric, so I hope she likes it.

I also bought this pillow at the local grocery.  My original idea was to copy it and take it back, but sometimes it’s just easier to be the purchaser.  I would like to copy it sometime though.

I love the stitching.  The quality of the construction, fabric and insert is rather shocking actually.  I’m sure I don’t want to know the manufacturing ethics behind it.

It will actually live in our bedroom with these pillows.  It will go lovely with the Citron walls, or excuse me, “Cumin Spice.”

::Absorbing the World::

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I have googled away searching for the homeschooling Mama that had made these cards and posted them on her blog…no luck.  I would love to give her credit, so let me know if you stumble upon her.

Roan and I collected grocery flyers and food labels throughout the year.  Cut and glued the pictures on index cards.  Printed the word for each on, and finally laminated them the other day.

The idea is for the cards to be the shopping list.  Give Roan the cards,  have him help find the items at the store when we shop, and receive some letter/word recognition at the same time.

Once a child is reading the cards can come into play again.  Pull what you need for your shopping list and have them practice their spelling and penmanship by writing the list from the cards.

We punched holes in the corner so the cards can be slipped onto a ring for carrying.  At home they’ll live in a metal index box we thrifted and spray painted.

BRILLIANT!

Thanks to my friend Shannon’s Dad for the use of the XYRON machine.  What an awesome thing.  If you aren’t as lucky to have a friend with a laminating machine, Kinko’s will laminate or you can purchase sheets.

::Orla Kiely Obsession::

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Browsing through my March Country Living Magazine in bed the other night I came upon the Editor’s Pick, Orla Kiely at Target!  My kitchen is orange and green, and I had to have them!

I was tempted to get out of bed and check online, but waited until morning.  Of course living in Seattle it was already sold out in the stores.  I madly drove to South Center, already having plans of my mom in Florida picking them up if they weren’t there.  There they were.   ONE left of each canister.

Have you seen Lord of the Rings?  I became Galum.   Uttered, “MY PRECIOUS!”

Our wedding “China” is Fiesta.  Partly, because I’m practical, of course because it’s collectible, and mostly because I am a Lover of Color.  Anything that lends some graphic accent to the Fiesta is welcome in my kitchen.

::Not Really Cohesive, But I Tried::

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Since we’ve been home, I’ve been running of course…I even bought myself some new shoes.  This is one of the times in the day when I “run”  all the creative ideas through my head.  Sometimes, to my delight, I even forget I’m running and make it far beyond where I had planned with little effort.  If my brain is a bowl, it overfillith… because I’ve been thinking about what to write and can’t come clear.

Here’s an effort to be cohesive:

A) Family:

Roan somewhat bloomed into the realm of crafting in the past few weeks to my gleeful enjoyment.  (That’s probably an understatement.)  He has always been an imaginative storyteller, but has recently discover drawing Cylons…don’t ask.

This is my favorite photo of the holidays.  I loved his precision.  He must be watching.

B)  Friends:

While visiting the folks, we spent time with my fabric/craft buddy and her family in Pensacola.  I neglected to take good photos of us all, but scored at the local five and dime.  Flashback city.  The ladies at the A and E Pharmacy were the real thing.  You would have passed this fabulous fabric store by had you not been with my copilot fabric fanatic friend.  Some of which I scored at 50% OFF!

C)  Home:

Now comes the part where I don’t know where to begin, back to brain confusion when running.

My sewing table pretty much says it.  Unfinished projects, new ideas, and orders.  Did I mention I joined a sewing bee?

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You couldn’t sew here if you wanted to.

Oh yeah, then there are also the aprons to make for the PCC’s Kids Cooking Classes and the dreaded TAXES to finish up.  But on a brighter note of why we all sew, here’s the beautiful fabrics I was able to procure for the aprons.  I love the feel of Heather Ross’ fabric.

Sorry, I’ll proof read tomorrow.

::Routine is Good::

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This is what I keep trying to tell myself. It’s been a busy week. School put some routine back into our lives, and we spent more time close to home.

It made us realize we have lots of unfinished projects that we had started in the Spring and put aside to enjoy the Summer. My husband replaced the floor trim and finished up painting the hallway. A fresh face after replacing the floor, and four years of a child running laps. I love the color (Ralph Lauren in Emperor). When I wake in the morning I catch a glimpse of it from my bed. We’ve collected the Fremont Fair posters since Roan was born the weekend of the Fair in 2004. These are our current favorites.

I managed to fill some orders as well. I was pleased to pull out some older fabrics I have always loved. I am hoping to start the creative process on a quilt with some of the Charm line by Amy Butler and some Heather Ross.

I am dedicating myself to work on the days Roan is in preschool. This gives me the weekend plus to start/finish a little Fall cleaning. Closets need to be cleaned out, the basement is a disaster, and I have a few projects that include some kitchen curtains with the new Amy Butler below, and a 4 year old birthday gift.

Hope to have pictures up by Monday of finished projects.