Thanksgiving Recap

Sorry, this is a few days after that event, but I’ve been pretty under the weather lately.

This year Jason and I hosted Thanksgiving at our apartment for his family. It was a lot of work to make this feast, but an awesome time, none the less.

We started cooking early. Jason made the cider for my mom’s cider ham Wednesday night. He made more than the recipe called for, so we were able to drink the extra. It was fantastic!

This photo of Jason is at about 6:30 in the morning. He was a little scared to start on the turkey.

You can just barely see the sun coming up over the building. We finished setting up the table in between the turkey and other food preparations.

Since we only have 8 place settings and Ella got her special green plate, fork and spoon.

I made these placecards on the computer. The turkey is the same turkey that we used on the invites.

Jason made these coasters Thursday morning. He did an ink transfer onto basswood squares. Pretty cool, eh? A few of them soaked in a bit too much water and warped, but for a one day use, they worked beautifully.

Thursday morning at 4 a.m., Jason climbed out of bed to put our ham in the crock pot.

We both got up somewhere around 6 a.m. to start the rest of the cooking. This is when we discovered that despite pulling Mabel, our turkey, out of the freezer on Saturday, she was still slightly frozen. We tried to stick her in some water to thaw her a bit more, but since it was our first turkey we were a little nervous. We decided it was time to call for help about 7:30 when we couldn’t figure out how to get Mabel’s feet out of her rump. It took a little bit of work to decide which end was up, but eventually we got it. Mabel went into the oven about 15-20 minutes behind schedule.

These photos are probably 2 hours after Mabel went into the oven. Jason is putting the glaze on her.

Or maybe he'll eat it instead. We're not quite sure.

At some point during the morning, I went for a walk and brought back these branches. I thought it made a neat little arrangement. The Christmas cactus was a gift from Mel (Jason's sister-in-law) that day.
Jason’s mom (momba) came over around 10 o’clock to help us cook. She brought her thanksgiving turkey apron. Is this not pure awesomeness?

Everyone else started coming over around 11ish.

We had some munchies sitting out on our sideboard for people to snack on. Sorry, I forgot to take pictures of these before they got eaten on. The deviled eggs weren’t put out until later, so there are quite a few left.

We made a feta and pine-nut roll-up. It was quite tasty. It was garlic and herb feta cheese and pine-nuts rolled up in a pre-made pizza dough. They were quite tasty.

Momba made deviled eggs. I don’t like deviled eggs, but they seemed to be eaten up quickly.

We had some baby carrots with veggie dip.

We couldn’t pass up the opportunity for a cracker tray with some pub cheese and sausage.

I made my Aunt Joanie’s specialty, a cheese log.

Finally, around 2 o’clock it was time to eat the feast!

Mabel turned out to be fantastic. She was done up with a cranberry-orange glaze.

Our ham was the best dish in my opinion. It was so tender and so sweet.

Momba made us some cranberry sauce. It was very tasty.

This is one of Jason’s specialties. His Three-Potato Gratin is fantastic.

The crescent rolls weren’t all that good, but they are very pretty.

Momba also brought two different stuffings. I don’t recall what was in them. I think one had some fruit; maybe peach, but I don’t know about the other.

Our green-bean casserole was delicious as always. My mom got us this casserole dish a while ago. It has the green-bean casserole recipe written on the inside. It’s very cute, but somehow doesn’t work all that well when you put the ingredients in on top of the text without reading it completely.
Real mashed-potatoes. Nice and creamy.

Jason made these spiced carrots. They were not kidding on the spiced part of the name.

Everyone is enjoying the meal except for Momba (Jason’s mom) and Ella. Momba got up for something in the kitchen and Ella was taking a nap. Josh (Jason’s brother) seems to be making a goofy face. I am not sure I’ve ever seen a picture of him not making this face.

Luke (our nephew) tried mashed potatoes for the first time. He wasn’t so sure about them.

Terry (Jason’s step-dad) is trying to get Luke to calm down a bit. I think he was probably excited about it being his first Thanksgiving.

Lily liked the ham as long as the sweet stuff was sucked off of it. She prefers Black Forest Ham, though.

Ella is up from her nap in time to catch the tail end of dinner. She came dressed as a pumpkin fairy.

Forgive me for being a poor photographer, but I forgot to take pictures of the deserts before they got cut into as well.

This Bundt cake was amazing. It was a Pumpkin-Spiced Bundt cake with Buttermilk Icing.

This was the best pumpkin pie I’ve ever had. Jason and I made it Wednesday night and then drizzled the third and final chocolate on right before serving. It’s a Triple-Chocolate Pumpkin Pie. It was so rich and creamy.

All in all, it was a good day. We had a lot of fun cooking. I had a lot of fun coming up with how to display the food and how to arrange the apartment to get everyone to fit. We ended up moving Jason’s desk into the living room and moving the couch into our bedroom. We shoved the dining room table against the wall to use as a buffet. Our sideboard was used as the appetizer table.

I had got a pair of gold curtains from the goodwill I was going to cut up and make fabric napkins out of. We decided a while ago that it was more work that what it was worth. So, instead the curtains ended up being tablecloths. You can see one of them on the food buffet. The other went over our coffee table that was used for our beverage table.

It was a lot of fun and I look forward to hosting another holiday soon.

Gingerbread house contest?

Yes! That's right! A gingerbread house contest. This year is a the 2nd annual gingerbread house contest at my parents' house. Last year we all brought supplies, baked the bread, and built the houses on Christmas day. It was awesome! Here's some photos to introduce you to the idea. I'll be sure to post photos of this year's contest after it's over. Hope you enjoy!

The only real rules for this contest were that the main structure of your house had to be made from gingerbread. Everything except the tray you built it on had to be edible.

This was the house I built. It's a beach house. The address, #519 is the numbers of our wedding date.

I used gum for the roof. Dry, blue Jello for the water. Goldfish crackers for the fish. The driftwood is pretzels. My door is made from the chunks from a hershey's bar. My windows are melted lifesavers. My shutters are scored tootsie rolls.
The purple triangular thing is my boat.

This is the house that Jason built. He made a tudor style home.

This is my sister hoping her swing set will stay up.


Yes! It did.

We developed a scoring method, so that we could rank each house based on different things. If I remember correctly, it was on a scale from 1-10, 10 being the highest. We scored each other on craftsman ship, creativity, and favorite overall. There may have been a few more categories, but they have escaped me for now.

All five houses are lined up.

This is my beach gingerbread house.

This is Jason's tudor house.

This is mom's "Woodcutter's cabin". I don't have a good photo fo the woodpile she stacked on the left side of the house. There is the ax on the bottom left side of the tray. She had a bird bath on the back left side. It turned out very cute.

Dad made himself a solar house. Two cars in the garage. He even figured out what kind of angle was necessary on the overhang by studying the sun using the mini-blinds. He tried to convince us that because the dog went to his house first, he should win. he used beef sticks for his trees, so of course the dog is going for the meat.

My sister, Katie is studying to be a teacher. Her house was a school house. She had a table with books lined up on the inside. There was a chalkboard on the wall. You can see her swing set didn't make it very long. I loved her roof. I think it was Chex mix.

My parents were being goofy about something during the judging.

After the scores were tallied, mom won. Congratulations again, mom on your win at the First Annual MacDonald Gingerbread House Contest. Please note, I did make plans for my house. How could I not? It's what I do.

This year's theme for my house is going to be "Santa's Workshop." If you have any suggestions on things I should be sure to put in and edible supplies I should use, share them with me!

Handmade Christmas gifts are the best.

I just had to write a quick blog about this Christmas gift we received last year. My parents teamed up to make this angel for Jason and I. The year before last, our poor angel got herself decapitated. I can’t remember if that was one of the days Lily climbed into the tree and that’s why she took her fatal fall or not.

I think my dad took the lead on this project. He made her wings out of clay. I think he did the majority of the assembling of her body structure. I think my mom made her dress, but he did the bodice ribbon part.

They have an angel that they made several years ago. She is similar to this one, but has a purple dress, different belt, different face, and store bought wings. She used to hold a candle (I think) and a bible, but somewhere along the way, she tossed those out.

I love when people make us gifts. This one was awesome. Hopefully people appreciate the gifts Jason and I make for them as much as we appreciate theirs.

Pincushion project.

Here’s a project I worked on not long ago. It’s a super quick pincushion I stuck together about a week or so ago. I love the black with red.


Enjoy!

I love Thanksgiving Turkeys.

I worked on this gal last weekend. She’s hanging on our front door right now. I would love to hear what the neighbors have said about her.

Jason’s mom stopped by the other night and started cracking up out in the hallway. It made me happy that she got so much enjoyment out of her.I think the turkey needs a name. Any suggestions?

In my mind she's a girl, but I don't think that's obvious to everyone. If you have a boy name suggestion, please share it as well. I'm not sold on the gender just yet.

A sneak peek for Christmas.

Hi. Welcome to the new address!

It’s been a strange week so far for Jason and I. We’ve been really slow at the office, so we’ve left early twice this week. The first day we worked in the studio on Christmas gifts. Jason’s family decided this year to make gifts for everyone. He is one of four children (who now all have spouses or fiancés), so things can get expensive. Last year we made calendars for everyone. We did the calendars in the CD case thing. We picked a different theme for everyone.

Katie, my sister – A Little House on the Prairie theme
Mom (mine) – Sewing machines
Dad (mine) – Jed Ortmeyer (an NHL player from Omaha who my dad reffed years ago)
Alex (Jason’s dad) – Architectural drawings
Momba (Jason’s mom) – Noses (she has a thing for nose stuff.)
Terry (Jason’s step-dad) – Trap shooting stuff
Amber (my friend) – Grey’s Anatomy
Tammy (my friend) – A photographer she really likes
Michael (my friend) – Beatles
Dean (Jason’s friend) – Video games
Gramma (mine) – Iowa Quilt Barns images
Papa (mine) – RV’s
Elle (Jason’s sister) – running shoes (she’s a marathoner)

I can’t remember the rest of the themes we did, but they were a lot of fun to make. They were really easy to do once you had one set up. Everybody loved them. We’ve gotten a few requests for replacements for this year, but we'll see if we get around to making any.

Instead of calendars, we have a different project. We’re going to make stationary for everyone. (I’m pretty sure none of them read my blog, so I’m comfortable putting this out there.) We’re thinking of doing somewhere around 16 cards per couple each with a different theme. Jason worked on some images yesterday when we left work early.

I went shopping yesterday. The little fabric store down the street from us is closing this Saturday. I went to check out there sales. I came home with 5 fat quarters. Sadly, their sales weren’t anything spectacular, so that’s all I ended up with. I also went to the thrift store where I found a tie (I’m thinking about making a few tie purses) I really like. I got a whole bunch off of eBay that just came in the mail on Tuesday. I also found a miscellaneous fabric bunch for a dollar.

It's been fun leaving work early to go do our usual weekend things.

Catching up on the week...

It's been a busy week in the studio! I wanted to add some pictures of the few things I've gotten done recently.

I made this quick and easy headboard for our bedroom last weekend.

Yes, it is electrical tape. Yes, electrical tape comes in brown.

(Side note: Jason's grandmother made the quilt on our bed for our wedding. Isn't it beautiful?)

I've been wanting to make one of these for a while now. It's made from the McCall's pattern # 3982. My mom made one for a girl getting married a few years ago and I made fun of her for it. ("Mom, only old ladies would have a casserole dish cover. Young brides don't want that. That's dorky.")

Mom, I'm putting this out there for the world to find. Your casserole dish pattern rocks. I made two of them for myself and I no longer find them dorky. I think you should start making them for every bride, except I'm not sure I'm willing to give you back your pattern. I like it too much.

I decided to make these now because Jason and I are hosting Thanksgiving dinner for his family this year. Since we only have a single oven and are planning on making a lot of food, I thought these might help keep food warm so we can have a little extra play while timing how to cook all the food and still have it hot when people are ready to eat.

We're really looking forward to cooking. I can't wait until all the wonderful smells from making a great meal fill our apartment. We're so excited, we sent out invitations the other day. Everyone has already been invited, but we like to make stuff, so we sent these out.

I've blocked out our address because I'm not really comfortable posting that online.

I have one last image to leave you with. Lily has found a new niche in my lab. She has decided the green section of my newly reorganized closet is the perfect place for her to snuggle in while keeping me company.

A day at The Wooden Spool

Hello everyone.

I took an awesome class today at The Wooden Spool in Excelsior Springs and am super psyched about how my project turned out. I wish I would have taken my camera so I could show you some of the quilts Jane Kennedy has done. Or a picture of the jacket she made and had on today. It was incredible.

It still needs to be quilted, but I had a lot of fun learning this new method.

I’m excited to try to machine quilt it. It’s a small wall quilt, so I should be able to get quite a bit of stitching because it should be easy to maneuver.

I’ll try to write about my other projects this past week over the next few days. I’ve had a really productive week in the laboratory! Hopefully that productiveness will carry on into tomorrow’s projects.

Come back later this week for the next few entries!

And we're back!

So, sorry it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything. We got our camera back from the Geek Squad last week, but it’s been kind of hectic for Jason and I. He had surgery on the 22nd of October to correct his sleep apnea. He’s been hanging around the apartment taking it easy the last week and a half and I’ve been playing “Nurse Jessie” when I’m not at the office.

I did finish the last quilt recently. I’m pretty happy with it and I think our friend will like it. These photos were taken before I finished it.

I just entered two of my quilts in an online quilt contest. I’m excited to see what people say about them. They aren’t up on the website there yet because they have to be approved or something first, so I can’t post a link to my entries. These are the two images I entered:

I went to a quilt show in Excelsior Springs last weekend with my parents. I discovered this really cute little quilt shop called The Wooden Spool in downtown Excelsior Spring and have signed up for a class there next weekend. I’m excited. The shop doesn’t have a website or I’d post a link for you. I’ll be shopping for the fabric for that class probably tomorrow.

While Jason has been home sick the last week and a half, I’ve started working on my sewing table. I’ve been pulling it out onto the balcony to strip the wood. I’ve had this table for probably close to a decade. It’s been under the stairs in my parents’ basement for ages and I finally decided I needed it to come home with me. My dad helped me modify it so Lucille fits inside of it. I wanted a table to sew at that was more functional than my drafting table. My drafting table and chair are really tall, so currently I sew using a small step stool to hold my machine pedal where I can reach it. I love all the wood grains that have shown up after I pulled off a lot of the dark finish. I ran out of the stripper I was using, so I got another bottle of more intense wood stripper I’m going to try. It’s been a really fun project. I’ve never tried to refinish anything before, so I’ve been learning a lot. My dad showed me the basics and then I got a few books from the library (I’m a huge library proponent.) to show me in more detailed steps how to do this. I’ve got some oak veneer I’m going to use to replace the top that was cracking pretty badly. I’m psyched to see how it will turn out in the end.

I’ve got some other photos of things I’ve made that I have yet to post. Some are old, some are new.

I whipped these coasters up right after I got Lucille out of some fabric I had laying around. I love how fun they are.

These are what we made in the screen-printing class Jason and I took a while ago. When we didn’t have the camera (so we have no photos) I took some fabric markers and colored one of the little monster onesies for my cousin’s 3 month old daughter. For her three-year old daughter I got a white long sleeve tee and we printed one of the dragonflies on near the hip. I also colored that one on. It turned out pretty cute. I wish I could post pictures of them, but sadly, they live in Phoenix so I won’t get to.

The tote bag with the phone was one of my designs. I also did the crows on the line shown in one of the onesie photos. The dragonfly and monster were Jason’s two screens. I think I might give the tote bag to my grandma (who worked at the phone company for many, many years) for Christmas. My grandparents have a lot of telephone stuff, so it would be appropriate. They have one of the old wooden phones that you have to wind the thing on the side to use. It’s pretty cool.

I got a few free classes with my new machine. This was what we made at the second class. It’s a small pillow case. I learned how to use the zipper foot and put on piping. I had never done either!
The bag was my second project (after the curtains) on Lucille. I needed a bag I could fit all of my sewing stuff in to take to class. Jason thinks I used old lady fabric, but I disagree. And besides… I like it, so what if it is.

This I did last year. It was my first needle punching project. I thought it was kind of fun. It’s something I’d like to do again sometime.

These were a project that Jason and I started a while ago. They are hanging in our dining room. Jason is great about coming up with ideas like this, but he didn’t actually physically make any of these. They’re envelopes we have strung on a line and pinned to the wall. My favorite is the map. The beads symbolize the places we’ve lived together: Lincoln, Nebraska; Alameda, California; and Kansas City, Missouri.

Well, I apologize for this turning into such a long blog. I felt like I needed to post all the things I had been working on while our camera was gone. I hope you enjoy it and come back soon!

This and that...

So, last weekend I went back to my parents' house. I had an old sewing machine table hidden under the stairs in the basement my mom has been on me to get rid of. My dad and I modified it so that it now fits Lucille.

Last night I made a trip to Home Depot and got all sorts of supplies to refinish it. It's one of those really sweet old singer sewing tables. So, I started on that project last night. I'm excited about how it will hopefully turn out.

I have finished the baby quilt I was working on. It turned out super cute.

Unfortunately, our camera won't be back to the Geek Squad until at least tomorrow. We went to check on it yesterday, but it's in transit. So, more when I can post some pictures.

Unfortunately...

I've been waiting to blog about the things I've been making until after we got the camera back from the Geek Squad. It did come back briefly and I took a bunch of pictures of everything I've been working on, but before I took the photos off the camera we took it back for another "fixing" trip. It's gone for another 2 weeks minimum.

The good news about all of this is that if it comes back again (the third time for this problem) without being fixed, we get a replacement. I think out of the last few months we've been without a camera for a month and a half. It's ridiculous!

This weekend I'm heading home to Omaha. My cousin Christina and her family are coming for a visit. My mom and I are planning to head over to a craft show on Saturday evening, so I'm sure I'll come back with lots of ideas!

I'll post more again soon. Hopefully they call and say, "Sorry we can't fix your camera. Come in and pick up a new one today!" That would be awesome. Hopefully this time they can fix it or give us a new one so we can take photos of stuff!

So, I apologize for the gap between my blogs, but craft blogs just aren't anything interesting without photos.