Oh darlin' . . . I've been busy!

O H,   T O  F I N I S H   A N   O L D   P R O J E C T  ! 

It's sooooo gratifying !

This month I've been catching up on unfinished projects . . .

and Sassy was the first thing I completed ! 

Yes ! 

I've been working on him, Sasquatch, on and off, for the last 18 months.

Oh the shame of it.

But . . . sweet Sassy !  

He's done . . . and I am loving him !

Your curious, aren't ya ?

You want to know if I believe in Sasquatch, don't ya ? ! !

Should I tell you ? 

Hmmmm.

No, I don't believe there are Sasquatch out in them there woods.

It's  fun.

It's  folklore-y.

It's kinda  scarey.

It's  mysterious.

And . . .that's all it is for me . . .

that's why I like the legend !

It's just fun!

By the way, I love those "messin' with Sasquatch" commercials,

and that Finding Big Foot show.                          

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N E X T   O N   M Y   L I S T   T O  F I N I S H . . .  

was a sweet, little, chubby bunny !

I started this project last January !

Yes.

One year ago.

Sad but true.

She sat . . . 

unstuffed . . .

no ears

no legs

and no arms . . .

for one year !

So rude . . . I'm so sorry sweet little chubby bunny !

Well, she is now complete . . . made from an old pair of corduroy pants.

She has been mailed out to my little 3 year old niece in Florida.

She now has a happy home  !

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A N D . . . C U R R E N T L Y   I ' M   W O R K I N G   ON . . .

this awesome sail boat, children's quilt !

This one takes the prize for how long ago I started it ! ! 

Let's see . . .

I started this when my son Easton was 5 years old . . .

he's now 10 years old !         

Yes, he's still a children . . . a child . . .  

but, this won't quite cover a 10 year old boy.

His feet will stick out the bottom.  

His head will stick out the top . . .{ that's a good thing ! } 

However, he is still excited to see me working on it.

He says he can't wait to sleep with it.

He can definitely cuddle with it.

Heck, I've even curled in a ball and covered with it whilst napping on the couch.

I pieced this quilt on the sewing machine . . . 

and I am hand quilting.

I have machine quilted before, but I have found, that over time . . . 

the stitches have pulled snapped and broke.

Very sad.

The quilts I have hand quilted, have withstood the test of time . . . 

and even the washing machine !

However, I am not a professional machine quilter by any means . . . 

so, I am not knocking machine quilting.

I'm just knocking MY machine quilting ! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mousey Valentines

I just wanted to show you my son's valentines. They are so adorable. He has made these before and just loved them...so he made them again!

We cut out hearts from card stock, wrote from Easton on the inside...no valentine-y phrases so as not to be embarrassing for a 4th grade boy...and a chocolate lollipop on the inside creating the tail of the mouse with the stick.

The lollipop mold is a flat strawberry...it's all solid chocolate..he thought they would look like chocolate covered strawberries. I don't think kids like chocolate covered strawberries, but...solid chocolate that looks like a strawberry...well, I think they would love that!

Teeny Tiny Doll House Embroidery

How do you like this teeny tiny embroidery piece? My mom made this years ago for her dollhouse.  My mom has made many dollhouse miniatures over the years. So very adorable! The embroidery hoop is made from a small coil from a key chain, and the needle is made from a straight pin with the ball removed from the top. As you can see, there are a couple of rust stains on the fabric. I'm not quite sure how old this is. She probably made it at least 20 years ago. My mom has so many talents it's not even funny. You wanna talk about creative...she's probably one of the most creative people I know.

winner for lucky leaf giveaway!!!!!

The winner for the Lucky Leaf pie filling giveaway is Suzanne from Window On The Prairie! 

Congratulations Suzanne! 

I know you will bake up something great with these premium pie fillings from Lucky Leaf! 

Please email me your address so your giveaway package can be shipped out to you right away. 

Thank you all for participating in this giveaway!

It was a lot of fun!

chocolate covered Bugles

Here's a sweet treat's that neat! These are absolutely delicious! The salty, crunchy, crispiness of the Bugle, combined with sweet chocolate is just heaven! One bag of Bugles...one pound of chocolate. I use the round, real chocolate wafers that are meltable and shiny...I buy mine from a candy and cake supply store. If you have one in your area, I would suggest buying there. In my opinion, the chocolate is better quality. Also, they are usually independently owned and I love to support local businesses. I melt my chocolate in a double boiler. Just drop a Bugle in the chocolate...flip it around with a fork to get it all coated...scoop it out with the fork...place on a sheet of waxed paper...sprinkle some Valentines jimmies on top {jimmies are sprinkles...that's what we say here in Pittsburgh}...and you are done! Easy peasy! Warning, you can't eat just one!

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****Hey everyone! Stop by my Food Diary!! I've got some great new entries! I've decided to NOT date each entry because I don't always remember to take photos of what I eat...this way, I will just post what I can and give a brief description!****My food diary is located just beneath the header next to "home" and "the story behind the name".****

Lucky Leaf Pie Fillings and Giveaway!

Have you tried Lucky Leaf pie fillings?

They are absolutely delicious and so easy to work with!

I was recently contacted by a representative for Lucky Leaf, and was asked if I might be interested in baking with their premium pie fillings.

I was very excited about about this, as I know Lucky Leaf has a great reputation and has been in business for many years! I was able to choose the pie fillings I wanted to bake with, and I chose strawberry as well as apple.

Later in my post, read about my Lucky Leaf giveaway!

By the way, Lucky Leaf has fantastic recipes on their Facebook page. Here is the link.

Facebook Lucky Leaf pie filling recipe/videos  The recipes look fantastic and I plan on trying each of them.

Inspired to create my own recipes, I decided to make apple hand pies.

They turned out fantastic! Soooo delicious! The cinnamon and apple, combined with the flaky and sugary pie crust was perfect together! It made me think of those golden, sunny days of autumn!

{One 21 ounce can made 12 apple hand pies}

I made the pie crust from scratch, but you can also use unbaked, ready-made pie crust dough from the grocery store. Click here  for my double-crust, pie dough recipe.

First I rolled the dough and cut a 5 inch circle with a paring knife using a cereal bowl as a guide.

Place 3 or 4 pieces of apple slices from the pie filling into the middle of the circle.

Wet the edge of half of the circle with water.

Fold the circle in half over the pie filling.

Crimp together dough at edge with a fork to seal hand pie.

Next, brush hand pie with egg white wash...{one egg white beat with 1 Tbsp. water}

Sprinkle white sugar generously on top of hand pie.

Cut 3 small slits in top of hand pie to allow steam to escape while baking.

Place hand pies on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake in 400 degree oven for approximately 20 minutes. Hand pies will be light golden brown when done.

Allow to cool and enjoy!

***

The next recipe I created was Chocolate Bottom Mini Strawberry Pies.

These were so fun to make and tasted like heaven!

It brought back memories of the strawberry festivals my mom took me to as a child!

Just look at that!

That is a tiny work of art!

A work of art that I want to eat...right now!

{one 21 ounce can made 8 mini pies}

First, make a double pie crust recipe..click here for recipe...or you can buy ready-made pie crust dough in the grocery store. Roll out pie crust dough and cut 8, five-inch circles with a paring knife using a bowl for a guide.  These will be used for the bottom crust.  Next, cut out 8, three-inch circles. Use a drinking glass for a guide. Cut a small hole or a small heart in center of each of these circles. These will be the top crust of your mini pies. Set aside.

Ease one 5 inch circle of dough into each cup of a muffin pan. Sprinkle semi-sweet chocolate chips to cover the bottom of each dough-filled cup.

Fill with Lucky Leaf Premium strawberry pie filling, mounding slightly.

Next, wet the edges of the 3 inch circles of dough, and place {wet side down} on top of each strawberry filled cup. Press top crust and bottom crust together gently at edges, and either crimp edges with fork or flute edges with your finger tips to seal.

Brush top of mini pies with egg white wash. {one egg white beaten with 1 Tbsp. water}

Sprinkle generously with white sugar.

Bake in 400 degree oven for approximate 20-23 minutes.

Pies will be golden when done.

I am so pleased with how these turned out, and how delicious the pie filling was!

I think I am in love!

Well, I know I am in love!

I will definitely use Lucky Leaf pie filling again.

I was very impressed with the taste of both the apple and the strawberry filling.

Trust me, I am a "from scratch" kind of girl...so for me to say that, you know it's worthy!

I was also very impressed with the minimal amount of ingredients in the pie filling...no high fructose corn syrup and no long list of chemicals and preservatives that I can't pronounce.

Very impressive!

And now for the giveaway!

Lucky Leaf has graciously offered to give one of my readers a fantastic giveaway! 

This giveaway includes: 

one can Lucky Leaf Premium Apple pie filling, one can Lucky Leaf Premium Cherry pie filling, Apple Crisp mix, recipe booklet and a pot holder!! To enter this fabulous giveaway, please leave a comment below! That's all you have to do! I will pick one random reader on Monday, February 6th, and announce the winner here, on my blog! 

Thank you Lucky Leaf!

*P.S. My blog is printer friendly now. Look for the print button at the end of each post. It will bring you to a window where you have the option to eliminate the images so you can print and not have to use up all your ink. Also it gives you text size option. You can also highlight content that you don't want printed by putting your cursor on the sentence. You will be asked if you want that particular part deleted so you don't have to print the whole post. You will be able to just print out the recipe, or whatever it is, specifically that you want printed. Awesome! :)