Happy Birthday Mom, Part 2

If you missed Part 1 of Mom’s birthday celebration, you can find it here.

The second surprise for Mom was a “girls only” day trip to Mount Dora, FL.  Mount Dora is a historic little town located in Central Florida.  It sits on a lake (duh) and in spite of only having just over 10,000 residents, there is always something happening there.  It is a well known spot for antiques as well as its art and craft fairs. The entire town also decorates for the holiday season and the best way to view its splendor is by one of the many boat tours around the lake.  You can read more about Mount Dora here.

This past weekend was one of their largest craft fairs and I’m sharing a few photos with you... this is just a sampling (are 51 photos too many?), believe me it occupied street after street after street...

The Methodist Church opened it doors to feature their stained glass windows.  I didn't take pictures of all of them but here are a couple.

 

 

Baked goods 

Planters



Jewelry

 Glass

 For our furry friends

 Primitive

 That little Olde Quilts sign came home with me!

 Holiday items

 Knitted items

Fall

 Creepy fall

Baskets

 Wood

 A little of the town's architecture

 The Donnelly House

 Gourds

 A chicken man...yep, I have one of these too!

 Many people on EVERY street

 Aprons

Magnetic boards for pictures...we bought two. 

Pottery 

 ?

 Cork...now that takes LOTS of wine...

So Florida 

Painted Glass 

One of the few quilts we saw...this was just a prop 

Music of all kinds



The Lake



 More gourds

 Pumpkins

 This quilt was pieced, appliqued and embroidered.

 Snack

Wood

 Concrete

 

Creepy!

Four tired gals at the end of a long day! I'm the cat in the hat on the right :)

I hope you enjoyed the pictures from Mom's birthday weekend.  We had a great time!

 

Happy Birthday Mom, Part 1

We celebrated my Mom’s 70^th birthday for four wonderful days!  It started with an early birthday dinner last Thursday evening at her favorite restaurant.  Her first surprise was my sister flying in from Houston.  She came to the table at the restaurant, ready to take our order.  My mom was so surprise that it took her a second to figure out that it was my sister.  (In her defense, the place was a bit dark)

A couple of the gifts that I have been working on and couldn’t share were for her birthday.  First, I made her and my sister these ruffle scarves.  They are both HUGE University of Alabama football fans which will explain the scarf colors…

This one is my sister's...a little shorter to wear in a single layer

This one is my Mom's...a little longer because she likes to double hers

Then, I gave her a free standing lace church that I made using the embroidery attachment to my sewing machine.

 The bottom of the church has an opening to place a battery operated tea light.  The light shines through all of the lace...so pretty.

This church is one of several buildings in a village.  I made myself the Victorian House as a test.  I was told that this piece is the most difficult to assemble so if I could do that then the rest would be a breeze. 

House front

 

House side 1

 

Snow-capped roof

 

House side 2

 

House back

 

I adore this little village and plan to make the entire set for ME!

 

On Friday evening we had a pretty low key dinner where we revealed her second surprise.  I’ll share that tomorrow evening as it will be pretty photo heavy.

Until then, I’m super happy we made over the….well, you know J

Hump Day!!

 

Short and Sweet

Still not a lot to share since most of my time has been making gifts.  However, I do have one item that is for ME that I can show you J

The Fat Quarter Shop’s Deck-Ade the Halls Quilt…

 

See my very tall DH’s head over the top of the quilt? It was a bit windy and he had to let the bottom of the flimsy touch the ground so I could get a somewhat decent photo.

 

FQS does an amazing job with their kits…plenty of fabric left for something else. 

This was an It’s Sew Emma pattern and for the most part, a beginner can make this.  I did have some issues in that a few of my blocks did not measure as the pattern indicated and it DID matter in the end.  I was able to find a way to make it all work though.

This one is off to the long-arm quilter.  It will be bound and laundered the next time you see it….woohoo!

Next weekend is my sweet Mother’s 70^th birthday and we have a couple of surprises for her… I’ll be back to share photos and a story or two J

Have a wonderful week my friends!

From the Recipe Box: Pumpkin Tarts and An Update

Wow, time has really gotten away from me.  It’s been a month since my last post!!

Life has been busy…my job and yes, I’ve been very busy in the sewing room too.  However, most of what I am working on is either a gift or an experiment for a gift so I won’t be able to share photos just yet.

I am happy to report that I have TWO quilts at the long arm quilter’s and one more will be going this week J

Knitting needles have been humming also…again, gifts so no pictures yet.

I thought I would pop in and share a recipe that I found on a butter box.  Yep, I’ll try recipes from ANYWHERE… do you do that, too?

This one sounds labor intensive but it is really super easy!

I hope you try it and like it!

Pumpkin Tarts

Preheat oven to 375^o

For the topping:
¼ cup       all-purpose flour
¼ cup       brown sugar, firmly packed
¼ cup       pecans, finely chopped
2 Tbs         butter, softened
Combine all ingredients in a bowl, mix until it resembles coarse crumbs.  Set aside.

For the Crust:
¾ cup       butter, softened
6 oz            cream cheese, softened
1 ½ cups  all-purpose flour

Combine the butter and cream cheese in a medium bowl, beat at medium speed until well mixed.  Add the flour and beat until it forms a dough.

For the Filling:
14 oz. can     sweetened condensed milk
1 ¼ cups      pumpkin (I had to use canned)
1                     egg
1 tsp              pumpkin spice

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and whisk until smooth.

Assemble:
Divide the dough into 36 pieces and place each piece into an ungreased mini muffin pan cup.  Press dough onto the bottom and up the sides of the cups.

Add approximately one tablespoon of the filling to each cup and sprinkle with the topping.

Bake for 25 – 28 minutes

Yields 36 tarts (I make 24 at a time because I only have one tart pan)

Smells wonderful

Can you smell them?

Enjoy!!!

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