One a penny, Two a penny

Not my picture- credit goes to http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/real_food/article3574489.ece

This week, I am busy making hot cross buns for Easter at our church here. Apparently, it's a tradition to eat hot cross buns at Easter (though, I've never done it before. I'm more of a gorge myself on chocolate eggs kinda gal.). Hot cross buns are a spiced bread with dried fruits inside and a lovely, icing X on the top.

Apparently, the tradition goes all the way back to the Greeks who offered spiced buns with a cross on them to the goddess Eostre (aka Easter), but the buns became popular in Tudor England. A law enacted by Elizabeth I in 1592 that said hot cross buns could only be sold on Good Friday (as part of Elizabeth's anti-Catholic crusade- take that, Catholics! NO delicious baked goods for you.).

The real kicker is the superstition surrounding these buns. Many people believed they had special properties; thus, the buns were hardened in the oven and kept in the home all year. Basically, the bun then became a good luck charm: it would protect a house from fire and rats, would prevent shipwrecks, and would be ground and mixed with water as a medicine. Kind of puts the rabbit foot to shame, don't you think?

Anyway, you should try to find a hot cross bun- or just come to California, and I will give you one for your trouble. We can sing the song together, too!

The darker side of crafting

Thank you all for your kind comments. This quilt was quite an undertaking, but it was also a labor of love. I thought of my niece with every stitch.

But there is a darker side of such a long (2 1/2 months!), labor intensive project- and that darker side looks a little bit like this (cue sinister music):

Yes, my friends. I became a wee bit negligent about putting things back in their proper place once I'd used them. Also, I began chronically forgetting to take my reusable grocery bags to the store, which explains the overflow of plastic grocery bags.

Once I finished the quilt, I knew I would have to address this ever-growing problem. But it required making some tough decisions. Which scraps of fabric to keep? How many plastic bags to recycle? Richard suggested that I just store the things there wasn't room for in the garage, but I knew they would just take up space out there, only to be donated/tossed the next time we moved.

That's the problem with holding on to "things": they get out of control. So here's the new, much more under control craft closet. I can breathe again.

Annive's Bedding

I finished all of the bedding for my newest niece's room a while ago, but my sister just opened the package a few days ago.

Here is the quilt, the main attraction- which took the longest. The big flower is a quilt square made by my maternal grandmother, Annive, my namesake (as well as my niece's namesake).

It was my dad's idea to incorporate the quilt square, and I think it makes the quilt extra special.

Another one of my favorite features on the quilt are the ruffles I used for grass at the bottom.

I embroidered the ric-rac on the ruffles and the stems on the flowers.

And of course, the bird is pretty cool, too, if I say so myself.

I also made bumper pads using all of the fabrics I used in the quilt.

I think they are my favorite part of all.

Last, I made this bird mobile using the embroidery hoop I used to embroider the quilt.

You better believe that it feels good to have finished this- I feel like it's a huge accomplishment, and I'm really pleased with how everything turned out!

Happy Birthday to me!

I had a lovely day yesterday, starting with shirking my responsibilities and ending with this lovely dahlia topped cupcake. Thanks for all the texts, calls, and facebook messages!

We had our first noticeable earthquake last night (or so they tell us)- but it was a total non-event as neither Richard nor I even woke up. Also, nothing seems to have moved in our apartment.

Richard's beautiful and talented sister, Cara, is getting married tomorrow! She and her fiance, Danny, are having a small ceremony, and then will be having a bigger reception in a few months. Since we can only make it to one event (flights from California are expensive!), Rich and I are only going to the reception.

That means we won't be there tomorrow, but you'd better believe we'll be thinking about Cara and Danny all day tomorrow.

My room for March isn't even in my own house! March has been dedicated to finishing all of the fixings for my newest-niece-to-be's room in my sister and brother-in-law's house- three states away! It turns out that making a quilt, bedskirt, curtains, penant garland, and mobile is rather time consuming. Who knew?!

I plan on posting pictures once I'm finished, but I don't want to ruin the surprise (since my sister has no idea what this stuff looks like. Hope you like orange and black, Amanda!).

April will be dedicated to cleaning up the hall closet that houses all of my craft supplies. And oh, man, does it ever need it. You will be amazed, dear friends, at just how messy I can make a closet. It's a spiritual gift (a rather embarrassing one, come to think of it).

I'm taking a big math test on Saturday- five hours of mathiness- so this week has been dedicated to a major cram session and practice test after practice test. Wish me luck!

A Room a Month- Kitchen Update

Now that it's March, I thought I would update you on the kitchen progress. This room required a lot of work without much visual reward. Case in point, here's the before picture of the kitchen:

And here's the after (from the same angle):

You can tell it's the "after" because of the calendar on the fridge. January was the Texas flag in a field of bluebonnets. March is a much more disturbing picture of an armadillo. We like to scare the crap out of people when they visit! Come over anytime.

There are visual changes in the kitchen, though you can't really see them from this angle.

See? It is different. I took the doors off one set of cabinets so we could have some open shelving and display our very colorful (and pretty!) dishes.

Then I lined the back of the cabinet with wrapping paper, and voila! Instant color. It really does brighten up the space, despite what it may look like here.

Additionally, I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. A lot. I took every single thing out of every single cabinet and wiped every available surface. I cleaned the coffee maker, the oven, the refrigerator, and the microwave. I labeled.

Oh, how I labeled.

I also rearranged a couple of cabinets to make things more functional. I didn't show a before picture of this cabinet because it was just too embarrassing. Let's just say, for sake of argument, that this cabinet looked like a Tupperware party and a cookbook store got married and started procreating willy-nilly. Now, it's organized bliss.

One last thing, I decided to make the big switch from plastic tupperware-esque containers to glass ones since "they" say you shouldn't microwave things in plastic anymore. I bought a set of nesting glass containers with lids at Costco for $20, and so far, it has met all of our food-storage needs.

I would have loved to get a new rug for the kitchen, but I couldn't find one I liked enough to spend the money on. For now, the one we have works fine. Mainly, February was all about cleaning and discovering just how dirty a kitchen can get in six months (the answer is pretty dirty).

March's room- here we come!