Project of the Week - Applique

If I keep making things and still enjoy doing it after the newness has warn off, I'm hoping to some day have an embroidery machine...nothing fancy, just a basic one. Until then, I have to come up with other ways to personalize things. That brings me to this week's Project of the Week....Appliqueing things. My first project was a kitchen towel. I just grabbed one of ours that we already had and some scrap material that was left over from another project. I decided to outline the "i" in red since our kitchen colors are red, black, and white. I can't decide if I like it better with the red thread or if I like a more subtle look where the thread blends in. Anyway, this is what I'll be working on this week. I'm starting to make my list of things to applique. If you have any requests, let me know!

Sunday

Sunday we went to First Christian Church in Miami followed by a matinee showing of Transformers 2. It was such a nice day out, so Chad and I went for a bike ride. He took me somewhere a little past Baxter Spring, KS. There's a little gas station/diner with an old tow truck out front. This is the tow truck that inspired the creation of Tow Mater. While we were there, the guy that runs the diner part came by and told us all about it and I'm glad he did. He took us inside and let us look around. It was so neat! Here are a few of the pictures we took.

Saturday

This was such a fun weekend! Friday night Chad worked late and we just ordered pizza and watched a movie. Saturday we went to Tiffany's wedding (a girl that Chad works with). This was a picture we took before we left. Then we had a nice lunch out and softball games later that night. We had an hour break between our softball games and decided to try our luck. We had received a promotional flier (spellcheck just told me it was flier, not flyer??? Is that right?) earlier in the week for a local car dealership. They were giving away several prizes, including a new truck. So we stopped by...yes we were incredibly sweaty and dirty from playing softball and I'm sure we probably didn't smell that great either. It was a little embarrassing, but since Chad's truck hasn't been running for a while, we thought we needed to give it a shot and that was the only time we could go. The lady that was working with us asked us all sorts of questions and I'm sure she could tell we weren't there to buy a vehicle. She was surprised to learn how many miles both of our vehicles had and said "so you're probably going to be looking for something soon." I said "Oh no. I plan on driving mine until it dies." She got the idea and moved on to Chad. He told her he walks to work and doesn't really need a vehicle. Then he confessed that we just came by because we had a little time to kill between games and we wanted to see if we won anything. Poor girl, she was getting a dead end every way she turned. We didn't win the truck, but we did get a Walmart gift card. I'm not sure how much is on it, but the lady that gave it to us said most of them were $5.

Friday's Freebie

The Glidden^™ National Paint Giveaway Click Free Paint! and pick out your favorite color and they will send you a free quart. It's only good through July 2nd, so don't wait too long. I'm not sure what I'm going to paint, but surely I can come up with something if it's free, right!?

A Favorite of Mine in Miami

Hamburgers the KuKu is one of my absolute favorite places to eat in Miami. Basically they are like an old hamburger diner. It's pretty small, but they have really good burgers, blizzards like Dairy Queen, and fried anything you can think of (pickles being my favorite). The building is a big kuku clock. Miami has several unique things, this being one of them. I'll share some more throughout the summer and give you a glimpse of where I'm living.

Also, if you'll notice over on the left of my page there's a link to ecompliments. This is a great place to write and read reviews of places near you. I think it's fairly new so if you don't find your favorite place, go ahead and add it. It's also a great site to read reviews and see what other people think.

Project of the Week - Etching Glass

Last week my thoughtful dad sent me a package in the mail with all sorts of sewing stuff. One of the items was a collection of buttons. I've just had them sitting around in plastic baggies the last few days and then I got an idea. I wanted to get a jar to keep them in, but I thought it would be fun to etch the jar. I had never done this before, but I thought it was worth a try. It was a little tedious, but I really enjoyed doing it. I can't wait to etch some more...I'm thinking personalized baking dishes, canisters, drinking glasses with an initial....my mind really hasn't stopped. I'll probably be adding these items in my store soon, but here's my project of the week....

Sopapilla Cheesecake

YUM! I love this stuff! I'm not sure where the recipe came from originally. I wish I could give credit to whomever came up with it. I've had this several times, but I can't remember the first time I had it. I kinda think it may have been Stacy who made it in college, but forgive me if that's wrong. In any case, if you don't already have the recipe, here it is...

Sopapilla Cheesecake
Ingredients:
2 cans crescent rolls
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 pkgs of 8oz cream cheese
1 stick butter


Directions:

Use a 9 x 13 glass pan. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Press one can of crescent rolls into the bottom of the pan...like a crust. Mix all the cream cheese, 1 cup of the sugar, and the teaspoon of vanilla until it's smooth and creamy. Spread the mixture over the crescent dough in the pan. Cover the mixture with the other can of rolls. Melt the butter and stir in the rest of the sugar and cinnamon. Pour over the top and bake for 30 minutes. Enjoy!

Great Buys

Best snack in the world - I love Sam's Cinnamon sugar pretzels! They are soooo good. I think they are even better than the ones from Antie Ann's in the mall...and they are only 97 cents. This is my treat pretty much every time I go to Joplin. If you haven't had one yet, you're missing out.

Bath and Body Works - I've been trying not to spend money and it's been pretty easy, especially since there aren't any stores in Miami. However, I knew it was time for their big sale. I decided I wouldn't go, but then I got this email today for an extra $10 off and I couldn't resist any more. I got some really good deals. These little votive candles were only 31 cents! I'm burning one right now and it smells really good! :) Feel free to click on the link and use the coupon too.

JoAnn's Fabric - JoAnn's is also having a huge sale. I've been hearing great things about these scissors and I've been wanting a pair. However, they were a little more that I wanted to spend. Well, here's another coupon that saved me some money! I went ahead and bought them and I can't wait to try them out! They are special scissors that you use for appliques.




Softball - Last night we had a couple of softball games. This is a pic from before the games. We did pretty bad and lost both...oh well.
I'm going to go test out my new scissors and make something. I hope you are all having a great week!

Tuesday

I'm taking a break from sewing and thought I'd share a few things...
1. The coupon for a flatbread sandwich. I get some good coupons every now and then. I'll start passing them along to you.
2. The video at the bottom of my page. I came across this and thought it was pretty funny. I don't know how to link it into one of the blog entries, so for now it's just at the bottom of my page.
3. Here's a picture of the quilt I'm working on. It's pretty big and I couldn't quite get it all in the picture, but you get the general idea. The sashing is a diagonal black and white plaid and the back is solid black. I'm hand tying the corners this afternoon. Tomorrow I'll hand sew the binding and then it will be finished!4. I'm also adding some coupon links over in the link section. The radio stations offer a 1/2 off coupon every week. Sometimes they are really good. I did this all the time in OKC. So far I've only found one that does it in Joplin.

Free DiGiorno Flatbread Melt

Go here to sign up for a coupon for a free DiGiorno Flatbread Melts.

Softball in Kansas

We got to play in a coed softball tournament yesterday in Kansas. It was so much fun! The weather was perfect and we got to play with some really fun people. We played on a smaller field, which was nice. I played in the outfield and didn't have such a huge area to cover. We had some great players on our team and ended up winning the tournament...I even hit one over the fence. Ha! I think I was probably the most surprised by that. The only bad part of the day was the awful tan lines that I came home with. I put lots of sunscreen on, but somehow I still burned. Does sunscreen go bad? Maybe that was the problem. I don't know. It just looks like I have on red tights and white ankle socks now. I don't think the picture does it justice.

Big John's Catfish

Chad and I went on a motorcycle ride the other night and ate at this really good place in Grove near Grand Lake. I think it was called Big John's Catfish. Anyway, the food was really good and it was great to be back on the bike. We haven't been able to ride much because of all the rain. If you've never been on a motorcycle, it reminds me a lot of being on a seadoo or something. It's so fun to feel the wind all around you. I love it! Here's a pic of the toilet at Big John's... made me laugh.

New Items!!

I've posted several new items in my online store www.PlaidPeach.etsy.com I'm offering free shipping on several items through Saturday. I'll be posting some aprons tomorrow and then I think I'll have everything up to date. I hope you all are having a great week!