Texas Quilt

I just thought I would post real quick a quilt I finished a while ago. I started this when we lived in Texas. I wanted to add a block with a Space Shuttle because that is what brought us to Texas, so I designed one. I am not a very good artist, I kinda keep it simple. So this is how it turned out.

The pattern I used had, I think about 24 squares. I think I lent it out to someone because I cannot seem to find my patterns. I just wanted mine to be 9 squares instead of something huge. The quilt had to include the Alamo and a nod to the bluebonnet fields. The fabric around the borders, I bought that at a shop in Texas years before I actually sewed this together. I just kinda guessed and bought a few yards. I absolutely love the fabric and wished I had bought more. My friend quilted it for me to finish it all off.

I loved our years in Texas! It is such an amazing place to live. The people in Texas are so friendly! Yeah, it's pretty hot in the summer, but the winter and early spring and late fall are amazing. If we had family there I would happily stay there forever.

 

 

DIY Cupcake Stand plus free pattern

My son is getting married! It turns out that he found the perfect girl for him, whew! It is always so fun to see your kids with a companion that is just right for them. That being said, we are now in the process of planning another wedding. His cute bride is from a city about an hour and a half north of us, so we (ok, I) decided that we will also host a small open house so our friends and family can more conveniently come by and wish the new couple well. And I really like to host a party.

I love to bake! I love to bake so much that I volunteered to make the wedding cakes for my first son's wedding.

That was a little too much. I won't make that mistake again. The cakes were gorgeous and yummy, but it was just too much stress, even for the Mother of the Groom. So for our open house for my second son, first, it will be two weeks after the wedding and reception, so way less stressful, right? Second, it's not 2 wedding cakes, it will just be a little bit of "refreshments". I like the idea of making cupcakes and having a small cake on top so it resembles the look of a wedding cake.  

Well I looked all over the web for the right cupcake tower. The only one that I really liked I couldn't find a pattern for. So I combined a couple of different ideas and came up with my own pattern. Yes, I have copied someone else's look, but just in my own ability to draw. Hopefully no one gets upset at me. And I don't draw so well, you could always try your own style.

Here are the materials I used:

3 2' x 4' x 1/4" sheets MDF (it is way easier to transport 2x4 sheets instead of a huge 4x8. I didn't quite use all three sheets).
4 cans spray paint
Jig saw with blade
Hand held sander and sand paper

The sheets of MDF were $7 something at Home Depot, so I paid $22 something there. Then the spray paint, I ended up getting a nicer one instead of cheap, so I spent about $20 on 4 cans of spray paint. You could always get a better price than I did. So around $50 and I have a cute cupcake tower.

I was surprised at how easily the MDF cut. I grew up in a house with a Dad that loves woodworking. He has all the tools. But he lives an hour away so I wanted to see if I could just make it without taking a long car ride. Years ago (when we were doing toll painting, some of you remember those days), my Dad bought me my very own Jig Saw. I have cut a few things out with it I am proud to say. So I got out the old saw and went to work.

The sizes I decided to go with are : 24",  20", 16", 12" then 8.5". I ended up also making a 10" one just in case. My idea is to have the small cake on top, but I also host bridal showers every year or so, so just in case I want cupcake on top instead of a cake,  I made a 10". I made the circles the old fashioned way, with a pencil and string.  The side supports were the part that had me a little nervous. I didn't just want plain blocks. I wanted it to be cute and functional. Once all my circles were cut out I designed the side supports. More on that later. Oh, and my circles are less than perfect. I hope only I will notice.

 

Here is a picture of the 24" and 20" circles, sitting on two Home Depot buckets, ready to be cut out.

And the smaller circles. I just couldn't decide if I wanted an 8" circle on top for a small cake, or a 9" for a 9" cake, or maybe I would another time only put cupcakes, so I opted for both since I had plenty of wood. Just choose one if you are not as indecisive as myself.

 

The circles cut out super fast. I think each one only took me 5 minutes or less.

 

The side supports took me a bit longer. First, I decided I wanted each one to be 5" tall. Then for each support, I took the size of the circle and subtracted a couple of inches. So the length of my supports are: 7", 10", 14" 18"

 

Here  is a pattern for the supports:

So, cut out the pattern, place it on the edge of the rectangle you have drawn, trace it and cut. The inside scroll is a little tricky. I found if I went really slow that I could maneuver the curve better. I also found the hardest part was actually the long edges. If I were at my parents house I could run it through a table saw and they would be exactly even and straight. But I wanted to just complete it with my little saw without help from my dad or husband.

Which means, my long sides were not straight. So when my engineer husband came home from work I showed him the great project I had undertaken while he was gone and said I just needed a little help from him; how to straighten my long sides, and how to make sure that the notches I cut would nestle correctly so they would make a stand. This is how he straightened the sides for me:

He sat the two sides together on a work table, then used our little hand sander to make them even. He flipped them over and did the other side as well. They really need to be exactly even or your circles will wobble and fall. No one wants cupcakes to fall. Then I used the sander to finish off the edges of everything.

 

To cut notches so they will stand up, my husband measured 2.5" from the top of one and the bottom of the other, then he cut them out with my little saw 1/4" strips.

 

 

 

This is before paint. Also, I wanted a cupcake tower that I can fully disassemble. That thing is way too big to store like this. With this style everything comes apart and will just sit in a corner in my pantry until ready to be used. I also decided not to make a bottom stand. It is already pretty tall. If you decide to add one, I would just cut out a  1x2 and make an X or you could also make a little box or frame to hold the base.

And here is after. The spray painting was a total pain by the way. Once we have our open house I will put in a picture of it with a cake and cupcakes, but that is not until June and I want to get this posted in case some cute bride wants to try and make this before her wedding. Hope this helps someone!

 





 

 

Log Cabin Quilt

For my oldest son's wedding I decided to make the cute couple a wedding quilt. Since I have 6 kids, I realize this is starting something. But that is ok, I enjoy making quilts. So I talked to my future daughter in law and found out the colors and style she prefers and then I got started. Let's be serious, the quilt is more for her than him. She chose blues and grays and a Log Cabin style quilt. The Log Cabin pattern is from this book. It is rather old and some of the quilts are seriously outdated, but I have made 3 quilts from this book that are timeless and I still love.

So here is how the quilt turned out:

Nightmare in a Pumpkin Patch

Since this blog is titled "Adventures in LynsieLand", I figured I should include a few Lynsie stories. All the photos in this post are from two years earlier, I only took a couple of pictures on this trip in which this story takes place.

Life with a child with Down Syndrome is an adventure. There are good days, and there are bad. Lynsie is rather low functioning. I think her mental age is 2 or 3 but she is 14 years old.

Lynsie is the youngest of 6 children. I was 32 when she was born. My other 5 children have always been so good with her. I could write an entire post about the siblings of disabled people.

We have a lot of family traditions. Some we have been doing for 25 years! Some even longer since they were going on when I was a child. One tradition we have adopted recently is our annual hayride to the pumpkin patch. There is a nursery in the area that offers this event to their customers. The cost is a canned good for each person.  I assume it is a tax write off for them. We love it and have been going for several years. They even let everyone take home a pumpkin. I have spent a great deal of money there, so I am a happy return customer.

Lately the word has gotten out and the line has been getting longer. So I told my kids what time we needed to leave so we could get in line early and not be stuck waiting for the hayride for all perpetuity. As luck would have it, we left 15 minutes later than planned. Once we arrived I could see the line getting longer each passing second. I told my older kids to grab Lynsie and get in line. Unfortunately I forgot to send them with their admission; canned goods. So they trudged through the jammed parking lot trying to find me and my vehicle in order to retrieve the canned food. Of course, the line doubled in the time it took for them to find me and get back in line. Sigh.

Like most 2 or 3 year olds, Lynsie doesn't like to wait in line. In fact, she hates it. Now if I were a smart mother, I would have just told the kids we would just bag it for this year. But the thing about having a child with disabilities is, well, I try to prevent my other kids from having to miss out too much because of their sister. I know they would never resent her, but just the same, I want to try to avoid it when I can.  Because hindsight is 20/20, I can now see that all of us having a miserable time is not exactly building great family memories either.

We spent an hour waiting in line to get on that silly hayride. Way too long! The cute young family in line behind us was very kind to us. The mom said she had a sibling with disabilities. Lynsie was maybe a bit too close and invading of space with her little boys, but mom was understanding. Now the family in front of us, they didn't come off as quite so tolerant. Lynsie prefers to keep moving, and would often walk in front of them to look at something or to try and move the line along. Of course, the rest of my family waited patiently behind them. The dad, every time Lynsie started wandering into their "space", he would take a step and block the way. So it wasn't an "in-your-face" we don't like your kid kind of thing; but it was his way of making sure to mark his territory. Like we would say, "Hey, Lynsie just got in front of you, now our whole family will move there too!"

Also when Lynsie is feeling inpatient she will maul her older siblings. The poor kids were climbed on, spit on, dragged, hair pulled, screamed at, well the list goes on. An hour is a very long time.

Finally it is our turn to get on the flat bed trailer loaded with hay and ride out to the pumpkin patch. Lynsie loves this part. She also loves to throw as much hay off as she can. Hopefully they don't mind. Once we finally got there I realize that the line back was pretty long as well. The idea of repeating the same hour we just passed just made me feel exhausted. So I told my older kids to go find their pumpkins and I would get back in line and watch Lynsie from where I was standing (my husband had too many home repairs and couldn't join us this time-I think he was secretly very happy to have a good excuse).

Lynsie loves the actual pumpkin patch. She usually doesn't wander very far, she will look in her immediate area and find the smallest and most deformed pumpkin around. I always kinda chuckle because her favorite dolls are the same, small and broken.

This time Lynsie wasn't really interested in looking for a pumpkin, instead she discovered that the recent rains made plentiful dirt clods in the field. She loves the feel of picking it up and being able to crumble them in her hands. I watched as she picked one up and threw it back-handed behind her.  I run, knowing I am losing my spot, in order to stop her. By the time I get to her she is chucking her third dirt clod which successfully smacks a little 3 year old square on the head. The poor kid screamed. Mom was sweet and saw my horror and assured me that no damage had been done, no rocks involved, he would be fine. Of course, he continued to scream. So now I am trying to drag my 85 lb daughter back into line so I could keep her from hurting anymore little kids. She doesn't want to go. Chucking dirt clods is way too much fun. Lynsie is just too big and strong for me to pick up and carry her anymore. By the time we get back in line, the line has grown significantly. But she doesn't want to get in line, she has had enough of that for one day. She keeps running away from me and picking up more dirt clods. My older kids are way in the back of the pumpkin patch and can't see my situation. By this point I am beginning to think I will be stuck in this pumpkin patch forever. Finally my kids make it back and once again we get in the back of a very long line. I have had it at this point.

Can I just interject right here; I believe most people are good. There are always mean and bad people, but I think most want to help.

There was this sweet family in front of us. It just so happens that they have an autistic son. The dad approached me and asked how he could help. I tried to remain calm but by this time I am at my wits end. This dad then asked if he could go talk to the workers and ask if we could get in the next hayride back. By this point I am starting to lose it. Tears start running down my face and I nod yes. He gives me a side hug and heads up to the front of the line. You know how it goes, you're stressed, trying to hold it together, "just keep it together, you can do it". But then someone realizes that you need help and offers, and that is what causes the dam to break lose. The water works are activated. I just started crying. I think I was just exhausted from fighting her, and then embarrassed because she hurt a small child, and unsure how I would endure another long line. I just wanted to get home and let her play on her iPad.

Of course they allowed us to skip the line and get on the next ride out. Here I am, walking past all these people, feeling like a line cutter, tears rolling down my cheeks. I hope they were feeling compassion and not disdain.

It turns out we got on the same ride back with the lady I was originally standing in line behind.

Unfortunately, that will be the last time I ever take the kids to the Annual Hayride and Pumpkin Patch event. They are getting a little older, so I guess it's ok. When the kids get older and start to leave home, I suppose it makes me want to hold on a little and grab a few last memories. We worry if we have added enough happy, fun family memories to make the difficult ones seem not too bad. I think this one I tried to get in the happy memories file, but it ended up in the stressful memories file instead. But you know, all of these things are what makes a family. My kids have learned so much about tolerance and compassion. They are some of the most selfless people I know. That is one of the benefits that often families with disabled family members learn. It just can't be all about them, because there is a family member with so many needs. I am grateful that Lynsie is a member of our family. She truly brings so much to us that we could never learn otherwise. I always say that my job as a mom is to raise good adults, not necessarily good children (kids that can think for themselves are often strong-willed). What better adults could anyone ask for than people that are aware of others, look for opportunities to serve and help others and improve the lives of those around them.

I am so grateful for that stranger that saw a need and helped to alleviate my stress. He could tell I was lacking in the ability at the time to go and handle the problem myself (there was no way I was in a condition to walk up and ask for cuts in line). He has a disabled child himself. May God bless him and I hope that sometime when life is hard for him and his family, that someone will step up and help them as well.

God Bless! Thank you for reading.

Apples, Apples, Apples!

It's that time of year again. The evenings starts to cool off a bit, sometimes we need a light jacket, the hint of color changing in the leaves, kids are back in school, and even football.

My parents live in my grandparents old home in a very small community in northern Utah. My grandpa was a dentist by occupation and a farmer by hobby. He raised a couple hundred chickens every year. I remember helping him gather eggs. One time I went without him and got pecked by a chicken, I still carry the scar, suburb girl wanna be country girl. My grandpa had about an acre of land and he was always working in his garden. He had raspberries and potatoes (I have never eaten as good of red potatoes as the ones that grew in grandpa's yard), corn, tomatoes and of course, lots and lots of apple trees.

After my grandparents passed, my parents decided to leave Southern California and buy my grandparents home. My parents do not have the same love of gardening. In fact, they hate it. We often joke that Grandpa is probably rolling over in his grave at the condition of his garden. The apple trees are still there though. They haven't been pruned in over 15 years, but they are still going strong.  The last several years I have been driving north to relieve the poor trees of their burden. I am not sure of the varieties of apples that are growing, one for sure is a macintosh. Maybe someday I will bring the apples to my local extention office and find out for sure. Some of the trees have just grown on their own, maybe a mixture of types of trees. Their location suggests Grandpa didn't plant them. Anyway, as such, I get a nice variety of apples every year! Red and green and yellow and speckled and everything in between. I love it! So every fall I bring a car load of apples home and process them to my hearts content!

Applesauce is the basic stand-by for bushels of apples. It is pretty easy to make. But I discovered something even more fun to do with the apples. I call it liquid gold! Apple cider. My friend corrected me and told me I was not making cider. I don't know, I am self taught on canning and gardening and the like. Regardless, this is how I do it:

Since I have access to lots of different varieties of apples, I like to use this variety to hopefully give my cider/applesauce a unique taste.

I fill a large stock pot about 1/3 full of water and start the heat. While the water is heating up I start adding apples. If you have made applesauce before, this is familiar to you. Cut up your apples, stems, seeds, skin and all and dump them in the pot. If there are flaws, bug holes, etc, be sure and cut the bad part away until the flesh is totally free of imperfections. I usually sort through and get the worst looking apples and use them first so they don't spoil the good apples. I am mostly careful when I pick, but in trees that are left to their own devises, there are going to be imperfections. Sometimes I will cut open an apple and find the entire inside rotted out. Dump the whole apple, its not worth it.

So get your pot full to the top of apples and water. At this point I add sugar and sometimes cinnamon to my pot. By the way, this is a mess and really wrecks havoc on your stove. Be prepared to spend significant time cleaning your stovetop when you are done. Once the apples start to soften start tasting the liquid to see if it needs more sugar or cinnamon if you choose. Simmer the apples until they are nice and soft.

Once the apples are nice and soft, strain the apples from the juice. I scoop, then set them in a pasta strainer. I dump the liquid back in the pot and put the soft apples through the food mill.  To make the apple sauce you need to use some sort of food mill. I use a Norpro Sauce Master. They cost around $65. Dump the apples into the top, crank the handle and the sauce comes out the bottom. Oh, be sure and put a large bowl under it to catch the applesauce. You also need a second bowl to catch all the apple waste. That's the stem and skin and seeds, etc. Sometimes I will take that bowl and run it through a second time to squeeze the last bit of pulp out of the apples.

So now you have a large bowl of applesauce and a pot of liquid leftover from making the applesauce.

I either can the applesauce or make it into apple butter. I'm not going to get into the specifics of canning applesauce, that can be found anywhere.

To get the cider, strain the leftover liquid from simmering the apples. I strain it twice, once through a wide strainer, then a second time through a more fine strainer. I like bit of pulp in the cider, to me that is one of the differences between apple cider and apple juice. But there will be seeds and bits of this and that in the liquid, you want those out. Go ahead and taste the cider. See if you would like it sweeter or not. One year I added too much sugar and I needed to add a little water to cut down the sweet. Of course, that dilutes the apple flavor, so try to not make that mistake. Here I usually like to pour a little in a tea cup and sit down and relax for a few minutes. Taste the cider, enjoy fall.

I think its a bit of heaven on earth. Now I have several dozen jars of cider that I will bring up in the cold months and sip on to warm up after running errand in the snow. I'm a Southern California girl and I think I have been forever softened and ill equipped for cold weather. One of my favorite things to do though is to sit and look out my large windows, sipping hot cider and watching the snow fall. Just don't make me go in it.  

With my apples, I also make apple butter. For that one I prefer the crockpot method. I don't really use a recipe. I fill my largest crockpot up with fresh applesauce. I add cinnamon and nutmeg, cloves, and ginger. And of course sugar. Just taste it. Then turn the crockpot on low and stir it every couple of hours. I set chopsticks across the top so the lid isnt on all the way. That wasy the fluid can boil off. Last year I let it simmer for 2 days, but 24 hours should be fine too. Just stir it, taste it, adjust the seasonings, etc. It is done when it has developed pectin. You can tell this if it sticks to a spoon and holds its shape. There are several recipes for apple butter. I just like this one because it can do its things without me sitting next to a stove stirring it for an hour or more. It should also be fairly dark. I call it fall in a bottle.

I also dry my apple slices which is a nice snack during the summer.

A few times I have even made Apple Pie in a Jar. Here is the recipe:

 

 

Independence Day!

I love the ombre look! It's so fun. It reminds me of watercolor, even though I was never very good at that particular art form. What I am really good at is baking. I like to express my artistic side with my baked goods and sewing projects as well. So I decided to have fun with the ombre look and created this cute patriotic cake.

 

It is really easy to put together. I made 2 batches of white cake. You can find any old recipe or use a box mix if that is what you prefer.  For this particular cake I baked one red, one white and one blue. I would recommend making one batch with two white cakes and a second batch with half the batter colored red and the other half blue.  (Freeze the single white cake for another use). I have learned a really cool trick for getting your cake layers to be even. Use a simple kitchen scale. For the white cakes, grease and flour and parchment both cake pans. Pour your batter into both cake pans (by the way, I used 9"). Then scoop a little at a time to make both cake pans with batter weigh the same. With the two colored cake, I did not grease my pans yet, instead I just used the pans to weigh them on the scale to get them both even, then once they were, I poured them in different bowls then added the dye. From there, grease and flour, etc your pans and add the colored cake batter. It's really not good for cake to be over-mixed, so just try to not over do it.

 

Once your cakes are baked and cooled and ready for decorating, then prepare your frosting. I use a normal buttercream. I filled the layers with white buttercream and crumb-coated the cake. Once you are ready to decorate, keep a third of the buttercream white, then a third red and a third blue. Put your cake on a turntable. Using an offset spatula, spread the upper third with red, then the middle with white and the bottom with blue. Sorry I didn't get any pictures of this process. I used my small spatula in the beginning, then once I had the colors about where they needed to be I used the larger offset spatula to mesh the colors together. The trick here; I get a large juice pitcher and fill it with hot water. I keep a clean dish towel close by as well. I stick the spatula in the water and give it a second to soak, then pull it out and dry it off. Then use the long flat bottom to smooth out the colors. Don't be too particular. Its ombre, it's supposed to kinda bleed into the other colors. I was surprised at how quickly it came together.

 

It may seem like a lot of work to make the 3 colors of frosting as well as the cake, but the reaction you get when the cake is cut makes it all worth it!  I hope I have explained this well enough. I am a new blogger, have patience with me! Happy Independence Day!!! I love America!

 

 

Missionary Advent Calendar

My son is serving a full time LDS mission in Lima Peru.  Wow I sure miss that boy.  Anyhow, in order to have a package arrive in time for Christmas, I need to get it mailed before Halloween.  Yikes.  I found a cute idea here. I liked how with some of hers she used quotes or words from Christmas songs.  So I decided to put my own spin on it.  Most of my graphics came from here and some I just copied and pasted from other places.  I like how on the two by two site she had different treats for different days.  I am running out of time so I just got a mixed bag of candy.  I also wanted to have enough for him to share with his companion/roommates.  Often they have 4 to an apartment so I put the treats in multiples of four. Here is a picture of the finished project:

Once I finished with the graphics part, I printed the graphics on cardstock. Then I cut them out. Be sure and leave an edge on the side that you want to be the top so you can fold it down and have something to staple it on with.

On the file with the graphics I typed a small "fold" on the edge that should be folded so it will be easier to remember to not cut that area.  If you happen to cut it, no worries, either just staple it on without a fold on the paper or print out another page. Put the treats in cellophane bags and fold the cellophane top down. Then staple the graphics on and it is ready to go.  My son's birthday is in December, so I also included a little note on the back of the one that he will open on his birthday. I guess it would be fun to randomly hand write a few little love notes.

 

I saved the graphics as a jpeg, so hopefully it will open up and print nicely for you.  If you have any problems, send me an email.  Enjoy your phone call!