Food and Drink Thumbs Up and a Cautionary Tale

Hi everyone and happy Sunday evening.  I am going to begin by telling you about some wonderful food and drink ideas I found on blogs.  First, I tried a hot strawberry drink I found on Joyful Homemaking.

I am not usually a huge fan of artificial strawberry flavor, but the addition of other ingredients and making it hot made this drink a welcome change from tea or hot chocolate.  I served it with a breakfast-for-dinner meal and it went over big.  It also made a relaxing hot drink to sip while I perused my craft books trying to remember which one had my project for today in it!  I also made Heidi's sloppy Joe's.  I don't eat hamburger so I can't say personally but my family was extremely enthusiastic about these.  They sure smelled amazing and they were super easy to prepare.  They are on the "make again soon" roster! 

Now onto the cautionary tale.  I don't know about you guys, but crafting keeps me sane.  I tend to get anxious over things and sewing  or painting or knitting(you get the point) keeps me quite a bit calmer.  It gives me such a fulfilled sense.  I usually spend all day Sunday in my craft room working on whatever project is on my radar that week.  I also like to have a finished project at the end of the session.  It isn't always possible but most of the time, I select a project that can be finished in that amount of time.  I mentioned last week, I feel rather stressed with everything that my youngest son has going on right now.  I have quite a few appointments this coming week as well as work and the usuals that we all do day-to-day.   Today I got up extremely early so I could get my chores done and get an early start in my craft room.  I was feeling particulary stressed and anxious to get in there.  Well, one thing led to another and it was almost 2:00 by the time I got in there.  I tried to rush getting started and almost ruined my project.  It required a walking foot be put on my machine.  I only used this foot once before and put it on wrong.  My quilting bunched all up and I had to remove 2 rows(which made me more frustrated) and I still finished with it installed wrong.  I caught it on the second project.  So, I guess the morals of this story are: make time for what you need to feel good even if you have to lock your door and tune everyone out and when you do get a chance to do what makes you happy, take your time and enjoy it no matter how long you can spend doing it.

    So here is what I made.  They are curling iron cozies.  I made two because I also use a curling brush.  When I was off for the week, hubs and I went away for the night.  I had to wait for my curling iron and brush to cool and I just put them loose in my toiletry bag.  I thought this would be nicer.  It has Insulbrite batting so it is practical.  The black check one is quilted perfectly.  The star one is my bunched and puckered quilt job.  Can I live with the imperfection?  Not happily, but yeah.  Oh and I got the instructions in Sew the Perfect Gift.  Don't they look like cute Barbie sleeping bags?  I would have so used them for that as a kid! 

Well, I hope you have a great week.  The weather here is supposed to be off-the-chart crazy.  It was in the 20's today and snowed a little last night.  Wednesday it is supposed to be in the 50's.  Go figure!  Take care.  Nancy