Bits and Pieces...................

My Pretty Things, awwww I have not had anything to post in awhile. Today though I did do some baking and got some bread ready to pop in the oven. So I will mix todays effort along with a few pictures from my sketchbook. I have not been out to thrift stores in awhile. I think I need to go soon. The kids have broken at least two of my large outdoor pots and as those are upwards of 60 dollars a piece to replace, I think I will check out thrift stores.
Meanwhile. Today I made bread sticks. Tristen loves breadsticks and I had been scouting things on Pinterest. I did find a recipe and so off we go. I already had some pizza dough and had taken it out of the freezer last night. Today I took it from the fridge to come to room temperature. I didn't want to make pizza but had left over spaggetti sause from last night. Seemed like a good lunch for the kids. Bread sticks and Marinara sauce.

I rolled out the dough and melted some butter, to the butter I added some garlic and brushed it on the dough. I topped that with Parmesan cheese. Oven at 450 I baked for about 20 minutes. Keeping my eye on it browning.

The kids loved it. Tristen ate one piece and I ate 6. Reina had 3. It was so tasty and crunchy.

I will get more pizza dough and will do this again for sure to have with any Italian dish.



I will just throw a few sketches in between. I had been trying coloured pencils and didnt like it. The paper is not water colour paper and so is wrinkled but I don't care. I had to go back and redo things best I could.
SO, the next thing I did was to make again my hot crackers. We love these. I used to do them without baking them. In that case you need a very large bin of some kind to mix everything and keep turning until they are all coated. Several days, and who wants to wait. So now I bake them and they are ready to eat right away. Goes really well with cheese.
I have posted the recipe before so will skip that. You can always leave a note if you want it but don't want to search.

More pictures



With the same box of Saltines I made one of our favourite snacks. Sweet and salty these go down well. The kids like them and so do the adults.

Start with Saltines on a cooking tray lined with foil.Boil the butter and brown sugar.

Pour that over the saltines and pop in the oven for 10 mins. Then sprinkle with chocolate chips. Spread when they melt.

Refridgerate to set and then break them up. Soooooo good. These two things with Saltines I make all the time. Great snacks that are cheap and go a long way, plus everyone likes them.

Another couple of pictures to finish up for today.


Thats it folks, it's a wrap for today. I am going to have to get cracking and start some new projects or something, very soon.

Bread and scones..................

I was going to do more but thought about the calories. I tried some Soda bread yesterday. It tasted really good but was very dense, Gerry wasn't to keen on it. He said it was OK. That usually means not good. I liked it so thought I would try a different recipe. I didn't have buttermilk and most recipes for Soda Bread calls for it.I was looking for a recipe that used milk. The one I did yesterday had me add vinegar to the milk to curdle it. Now my friend Donna's husband Kim is a good cook, so Donna gave me the one he made that she liked. I figure if Kim liked it, it must be good. LOL. So after I spent the morning cleaning the house I got down to it.

Soda bread is very easy to make, it does not use yeast and so does not rise like regular bread. It's very basic

The basic recipe is flour, baking soda, salt and milk. Not a lot different to the scones really. The difference with this one was its put on a greased baking sheet and covered. The one I did was in a cast iron skillet and not covered. Plus mine was not cooked as long and so didn't go the lovely golden brown that this one did. We live and learn and I am still learning to bake bread. All kinds of bread. I am all for this quick stuff. No waiting hours for it the rise. Its great with soup or spaghetti. It would be great toasted with garlic butter.
Next I did the scones.
Last time I did the scones they did not turn out like Donna's did. They were good enough to try again though.

I used 1/2 milk and 1/2 cream. Butter, flour sugar and salt. This time I put in some sultanas, cherries and cranberries. I cooked them 2 minutes longer and I must say they were perfect this time.

They were very tasty.

The frosting was simply butter and powdered sugar and I thinned it with cream. Whipping cream that is. Whipped it up and it tasted very good.

I had some left over. Not enough to do anything with and I resisted the temptation to just eat it. Honest, I did not eat it. What a waste of good creamy butter.

Quilts............

Quilts that I make and quilts that I find at garage sales. Well, there was a time I didn't like quilts. I thought they were ugly. Yup..........sure did. Then I went with friends and took a class. A Nine Patch. My first quilt and my introduction to FABRIC. Oooooh boy!!!!
It is addicting. The need to collect. I am a collector of many things and fabric became #1.
I also began looking for quilts at garage sales. I found a few nice ones that were shop bought but that I liked. I decorated with those to begin with. In fact the quilts on my beds at this time are all shop bought. The idea of something that took me so long to make, being wrecked by kids, well that's not going to happen. The Poodles have a pretty one to lay on and I didn't make that one either.

My bed has a pretty quilt, didn't make that one either.

This one I did make and it sits on the back of the sofa in the other room. I really enjoyed that one, a log cabin quilt. One of my first.


I found the next one at a garage sale. Its old fashioned. It's sewn my machine but quilted by hand

A lot of work to end in a garage sale. The next one, a yellow one, is all hand done. Its not too pretty but it's all sewn and embroidered by hand. I could not leave it there.

Tiny stitches too.

This old one is all hand tied. Whoever made it used one fabric that did not hold up. I bought her with the idea of mending and replacing the worn pieces.


Bessie thought she would help

I have collected quite a few old quilts over the years. I am sure they were all well loved and should not end up in someones sale. I will treasure them and when I find a use for them I will use them. I do put some out on the front porch in summer.
I made this next one in a class.............I do not really enjoy the more complicated ones, I have no patience. Now it's hard to see to cut the small pieces. Well that's my excuse.


There are several things I would never attempt again. My friend Barb who does the long arm quilting will thank me.This Star one is one I will never do again. Oh my..........well I was only just learning and it was a bit much. I could not square it up and Barb had to hammer it down with rows of stitching haha.

I hide that one, the edges look Ok though.

The next one turned out quite well actually and I didn't mind doing it. Trouble is one can only use so many quilts and it was a very odd size when done. So it pretty much useless except as a wall hanging.


I keep all my found and made quilts tucked away on shelves as decoration. Every room has some in that we use.I have one from my friend Nancy on that shelf and will bring that out when I need a change.

I made this wedding ring wall hanging for Laura, in a class. Won't do that one again either.

This is a knitted blanket my mum made. Not my colours any more. It stretched over the years and will now fit a queen size bed haha.

Talking of knitting I rescued this knitted lap rug from a garage sale. Goodness, how can people get rid of stuff like that. I have another more intricate one that is not shown today.

All the old ones are tucked away and not forgotten.



They sit on the backs of chairs or under tables or on the benches, somewhere, still loved and displayed. The ladies who made them thought of now and then who ever they were. Me, well I am still plodding on trying to use up my stash. I can't go in a quilt shop and not buy something so I have to make the effort to use up what I have while I can still see. Right now the garden will be priority until the weather gets warm again and its too hot out there. My sewing machine is on the table in the dining room and the fabric is in boxes on the floor. I just have to get back to it.