Guess Who Came to Tea !

It's Miss Claire Elyse Tiemessen, looking so well dressed in her denim skirt with polka dots and all of 7 months!! This past weekend was so lovely - a perfect fall weekend, so I decided to have the family over to celebrate. Well, only the girls arrived, but that's ok - we had fun!

I made a pumpkin spice cake (check my pinterest for the recipe), red berry juice, some real nice Fall napkins mother brought and some Hydrangeas from my front garden (in for the winter) finished off the table, and I finally got to use one of my many china vases! Needless to say, Claire was the most popular girl at the party. She is totally fascinated by her great grandma :) Claire is almost crawling, and I'll bet she will be by the next time we see her. What fun to watch this young one grow :)

In case you think this is all I did ..... no, I managed to get the binding on the latest Christmas table topper. Overall I'm pleased with the end product

Saturday I spent most of the day on the patio and in the garden - almost have them ready for ol'man winter (shhhh). Here's a quick pic of the glass flower my cousin in Sarnia makes. I've put it in an old sap bucket filled with sand.

I think it will look nice on the patio next summer - oh ouch, that hurt to say. As much as I love the Fall with all the colours, I hate to say goodbye to summer.
TTFN

What's a day without sunshine ?

Boy, yesterday was an absolutely perfect Fall day :) at least in my neck of the woods. Hope you enjoyed the best of Fall weather also. The b-i-l and nephew were here last weekend. We got the mini ties in the front replaced - woohoo!

I should be good for another 10 years. I decided to move the bird bath to the back patio, and switch up the Milk can and iron planter. Not sure about this - will see how the winter goes with that big planter. Now that I think about it this winter will be tough to shovel the step! Uh oh - guess it will have to be moved again!

While I had men in the vicinity I took advantage of them and we got the shrubs trimmed and the patio put to bed for the winter!
I have, as usual, been tres busy ... work wise is starting to calm down - a bit, and our Sewing group is slowly getting organized. I am continuing on my Christmas theme and today hope to quilt a Christmas table topper. Here's the top, (pattern link can be found on my Pinterest)

and the back

 

which will be trimmed to shape and quilted hopefully today. This one is made from the leftovers/scraps from the Peppermint Twist table runner. I'm hoping to binding it in the red polka dot fabric - if I can squeeze it out of what's left! I must admit I still have Christmas fabric ....

This was my "gift" from last year's sewing group Christmas exchange. It's on the design wall now hopefully I will be inspired shortly to make either a short table runner or place mats - or both!!
Next weekend is a visit from the family. My niece, great niece, sister, mother and the guys are coming. Plan on making something pumpkiny - must go through my recipes to find a good one. Got to go clean the house now, baby coming to visit!
TTFN

The week I wish wasn't

 Well, they're back - the University students :(. Last week was one of those - you know, a week you wish you could either avoid or live over again. Tuesday morning I "thought" I might just miss some of the insane pedestrian traffic @ the University gates by detouring. Ok, not a bad plan except for the STUPID bicycle commuter who "thought" he could save himself 2 seconds, cross in front of 2 lanes of traffic, against a red light and come at me as I'm making a left turn on my advanced green. YIKES - first day of class and I almost kill someone! So much for missing insane traffic. I gave the bicycling commuter a very long toot of my horn, and the middle finger - he deserved it. Hope I scared him as much as he scared me! The week I wish wasn't actually started on Friday last when I "thought" I had left my invoice and spare keys at the car dealership. So Tuesday afternoon I give the car dealership a call and it was politely suggested I check my purse - again. Really? Well, my face is red and my excuse is a new purse - zippered pocket, something I almost never do! So there!

I did mange to get some sewing time on the Labour day weekend. Here's the Peppermint Twist table runner being quilting. I started with the walking foot for my Husqvarna, but for some crazy reason it decided to not function properly - hmmmmm. So, on the off chance that it might work I dug out the walking foot for my Kenmore - Hurrah it works just fine on my Husky :) Consequently I was able to finish the job - here it s with it's binding!

And, since we quilters are total recyclers, here are the 2 mug rugs I made with some of the leftovers!

Hoping to have an hour or two today to get working on the third (last) Christmas runner. Wish me luck!!
TTFN

P.S. At our Sew What's group last week our hostess presented a delicious cake, and she shared the recipe with me - so here it is ...

 

11 oz can of Mandarin oranges

1 box yellow cake mix

2 eggs

1/3 cup of oil

1 package of instant Vanilla pudding

1 8oz can of crushed Pineapple

1 9 oz carton of whip cream

Combine undrained Mandarin oranges, cake mix, eggs and oil. Beat for 3 minutes.

Pour into a 9 X 13 baking pan. Bake as per time on box.

Combine Vanilla pudding and Pineapple with juice, mix well. Fold in whip cream. Spread on cooled cake. Refrigerate iced cake until served.

YUMMM.