More from Quilt Market 2009

I know I said I would share more about quilt market and a whole week has passed since I made the promise to share more tomorrow, but wow - what a week it has been! I have been on the school carnival planning comittee, planning a BIG school carnival for the past 6 months or so and the carnival was this past Saturday. And, crazy person that I am, I scheduled Olivia's big 4 year old birthday party for the next day! So, needless to say, I'll be working on playing catch up quite a bit over the next week or so!
Quilt Market was a whirlwind trip for me and Liz. We had so much planning and fabric shopping to squeeze into such a short period of time. But, as usual, we managed to pull it off!

One of our very favorite booths to visit each year, is Melly&Me, a fabulous pattern designer from Australia. They have the most fun little critters and we always fall in love with the little guys on display. We wish we could take them all home with us. But, we always take some new patterns home with us. This year, they even had a new book on display! I can't believe I don't have any pictures from their booth itself, just of Melly and her guy with his "man bag"!






We spent some time visiting the Windham Fabrics booth. We checked out all of the new lines, and were very impressed! We had been asked by Bari Ackerman to create a sample for her new fabric line and were happy to create a patchwork skirt for her.






Of course, we HAD to visit with our very favorite fabric designer (and all around fun lady to know) ever - Paula Prass, and her uber-fashionable and fun daughter, Jenn Storey. We bought some of the new line and cannot wait to use it!






As the co-leader of my daughter's daisy girl scout troop, I was delighted to see that Robert Kaufmann provides licensed girl scout fabrics and kits! How cute is this fabric??!!




Okay, enough for today... more quilt market in the next few days!

Cowpie Cookies

By popular request, here is the recipe for the Cowpie Cookies that I made for Sophia's poopy party. If you google for a recipe for cowpie cookies, you will find some other versions as well, and many of them seem to include peanut butter. Maybe I will have to try those sometime too!

Cowpies:
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup cocoa
1/2 cup butter
pinch of salt
2 1/2 cups oats
1 cup shredded coconut
1/8 tsp vanilla and/or almond extract
1/2 cup chopped nutes (optional)

In a saucepan, combine the sugar, milk, cocoa, butter, and salt. Bring to a boil and boil for one minute. Remove from heat and add oats, coconut, extract(s), and nuts, if using. Using a large tablespoon or scoop, drop mixture onto wax paper and let harden for 1/2 hour to an hour.

Just so you know, the way I figure, this recipe includes oats, so that makes it a breakfast food - right?

Loved this at Quilt Market

If you are a sewer or quilter, then you have heard of Moda Fabrics. And, you probably also know about the Moda Bake Shop blog. But in case you don't know about it, or like me, don't always have time to check it regularly, I want to share this.
I saw the Princess and the Pea Blanket in the Moda Bake Shop booth at quilt market in Houston. It caught my eye, because the Princess and the Pea story is a favorite in my household. I was delighted to discover that the tutorial for the Princess and the Pea blanket is available online, and is printable if you want to save it for sewing sometime in the future!

Quilt Market 2009

Time flies when you are having fun! Fall quilt market time is here again! Liz and I headed off to Houston, Texas last week for our annual visit to fall quilt market.
Liz has the absolute worst luck flying of anyone that I know. Everytime she flies, something happens to make it an unpleasant experience. Every time. It has approached the level of comical. Well, comical to everyone except for her!
So, she leaves Tallahassee at the crack of dawn, to fly to Charlotte, and then to Houston. I leave San Diego at the crack of dawn, but am flying direct. She should arrive about 30 minutes or so before me. Houston is having a raging storm. Bad weather - so bad that they stop allowing planes to land. So, Liz's airplane goes into a holding pattern. They stay there until they are too low on fuel, and then divert to New Orleans. I also have to go into a holding pattern, but only briefly, and end up landing almost on time. Granted, it was not a pretty landing. It was one of those landings where the entire planeload of people burst into applause.
I hung out in the Houston airport for awhile waiting for Liz, but she was still stuck in New Orleans, so I went ahead and took the shuttle to our hotel.
We stayed at the lovely Hilton Americas, and will probably stay there again next year, as it is so convenient. Liz finally arrives, 5 hours late.
We headed off to fabric 2.0, hosted by the fabulous and witty, Caroline Devoy of JCaroline fame. There are few people who make me laugh as much as she does! She is such a fun person to be around. You must read her blog!
We met up with our roommate for the weekend, Anna Garner, of Sweet Dreams Designs and Grandmother's Joy, a children's boutique in Birmingham, Alabama. We also visited with Jona of fabritopia




and I met the adorable, Tracy of hipfabric. Tracy and I posed in our brassyapple scarves and she taught me a super easy way to post pictures to ubertwitter using my blackberry. Thanks again, Tracy!

After the cocktail party, we swung over to the convention center to visit Sample Spree. Sample spree is such a fun event, but it can be hazardous to your health! There were literally HUNDREDS of people in line for the event. So, Liz and I sat down and waited for the line to dissapate before going in. I mean, we love fabulous fabrics and goodies as much as the next person, but it isn't worth getting run over by a motorized scooter for!!



here is Liz, waiting for sample spree to start.

more tomorrow...

Olivia's Birthday Party

Olivia's birthday invitations are completed and mailed out.

I worked with the uber-talented Kim, of Tom-Kat Studio on just the right invitations!

Poopy Party

Our youngest daughter, Sophia, has been potty training for awhile - months, and months, and months it seems! She had watched her older sisters and was showing interest and indications that she was ready to begin training, so we got out the little potty and parked it in the family room. Thank God for wood floors. For several months, we let her experiment with the potty. We didn't get serious about the training until more time passed and we were pretty sure she was ready to get serious. Then we pulled out all the tricks that we had used successfully with the two older sisters. She mastered #1 (hereinafter called tee-tee) in short order. Granted, we had a few accidents, but she mastered it in what we would consider a normal amount of time. However, #2 (hereinafter called poopy), we had NO success with. She wouldn't try it. She wouldn't even consider trying it. We discussed it. We discussed it with all the parents we know, asking for advice. We discussed it with her. No. Bear in mind that she is about 2 1/2. No is a word we hear alot. No. No. No. She had made up her mind. There would be no poopy in the potty. She was wearing panties except for at naptime. So, she would save up the poopy for when she was wearing a diaper at naptime. Lovely. We begged. We pleaded. No.

There would be no poopy.

We promised her that if she would go poopy in the potty she could have a party. This sparked her interest. She asked for cupcakes. She asked for balloons. She asked for all of her friends to come. We said, "Yes!" We said, "If you poopy in the potty, you can have all of those things!" Still, it was weeks before she would attempt it. Finally, she did. Thank God!

So, we had a party. We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends who came and participated in the poopy party. We promised them that there would be no actual poopy at the party. That might have helped to convince them to come.



At the time we held the party, she had only pooped in the potty once. The day after the party, she did it again. You know what happened, right? Yep. She looked at me with that cute little face and said, "Can I have another party?"

No.

I made chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting and served ice cream to the kids.



For the adults, I made cowpie cookies! No kidding! Really, you have to keep your sense of humor about all of this!!
They were very good, no-bake cookies!