...Hello, my name is Kathy...
{support group chants..."Hi, Kathy."}
...and I'm a fabriholic.

I don't know what it is about the stuff...I love the way it feels, the way it smells...the possibilities!  I recently signed up for a really cute BOM for next year.  I'm so excited about it!  It was created by my friend, Cori over at Creativity Amongst Chaos.  You can look at it here.  It involves a lot of applique...something I'm kind of new at...but hoping to get better at.  One reason I love it so much is because of the fabric!  Feast your eyes on this palette!

There are also some light blues involved that haven't come in the mail yet. 

I've also been collecting fabric for a Christmas quilt that I've been wanting to do for, um, uh, next year.

I love that color of red and the vintage-ness of the Christmas photos.  I just bought the red fabric the other day.  I had been stalking it at the fabric store for a few months, and it was finally on sale!  50% off!

I've also had these little numbers for a while.

There are more prints than this.  A lot more.  I have about 250 total 4" blocks.  Why on earth would I buy fabric if I didn't have a specific project in mind, you ask?  A few months ago, my husband had to go out of town.  For.  two.  weeks.  It was the first time he had ever been gone for such a long time and I didn't realize just how much I liked having him around. :)

To fill the empty void, I turned to e-bay.  

We collected all kinds of fabric during that time.  I love a deal, so I didn't buy anything horribly expensive.  I also love collecting things that go together...which is why I now have 250 blocks from the Amy Butler Lotus collection.

I can't decide what I want to do with them, but I love them all together. 

Anybody got any good ideas for me?

I started decorating for Christmas the Monday after Thanksgiving...and I can't stop.  It seems like I just keep adding and fussing and rearranging.  I think I'm almost done though, and thought I would share a few pictures with you.

So, I decided that I needed to spend more time blogging, and, since I am so scattered in my interests {decorating, crafts, cooking, writing, quilting, travel, photography, etc. etc. etc.} my posts will probably be on different things each time.  Today I thought I would share a quilting project I've been working on.  For the past few months, I've been learning to piece and learned how to make a new block {or two or three} each week.  I am hoping to get them put together in a quilt really soon.  These are some of my favorite blocks.  What do you think?

Taco Salad

Nothing is easier than throwing some chicken in the crock pot with your favorite salsa, letting it cook all day and then serving it over lettuce with cheese and ranch.  And maybe some tortilla chips or quesadillas.  mmmmm.

Spring Snow Girl

We got a little bit of snow the other day and had to make one last snowman...er girl before the end othe the season.  She was gone by afternoon.

Stuffed Chicken

I've been experimenting lately with different stuffed chicken ideas.  I used three boneless chicken breasts, cut thin...(there's a word for that type of cutting, but I can't remember it right now), then I put them in a large ziploc bag and tenderize them, until they are about 1/4 inch thick.  Next, I dipped them in olive oil, put a slice of swiss cheese, some garlic, onions and mushrooms.  After filling the chicken, I rolled them and secured them with a toothpick.  I then put the rest of the sauce over the chicken.  The chicken baked for about 45 minutes at 350 F.   Not too shabby!

Omelettes for Breakfast!

So recently I bought some sweet potato fries from Costco.  I'm not really a vegetable person, and rarely have I enjoyed sweet potatoes, but my brother Dave tipped me off to these and they are really, really good.  I had some left over, so when we were pulling out leftover potatoes to fry up on Saturday morning to go with our omelettes, I pulled these out and fried them up.  They were so great, that I may never go back to regular fried potatoes with my breakfast. :)  P.S.  The omelette was good, too.

Happy 1st Birthday to my Bella!

Recipe-Easy Pie Crust

My husband really loves cherry pie, and for years and years I used store-bought crusts.  Once, though, I wanted to be extra domestic and make the crust instead of just buying one at the store.  I turned to Martha Stewart's Pate Brisee (french for pie crust) recipe and was so impressed with the outcome and relative ease, that I haven't used a store bought crust since.  I usually double the recipe and freeze half, so that I have some on hand.  You can find the recipe on marthastewart.com.

February Visiting Teaching Message

So, in my calling as a Visiting Teaching Supervisor, I like to make a special handout for each of the girls on my list.  February's message was about managing finances, so in this cute pillow box is the message from the Ensign, a few pamplets on money management, a recipe for brownies and some candy!  Happy Visiting Teaching!

It's that time of year again...Science Fair Season.  I appearantly didn't learn my lesson last year and have put it off till the last minute again.  This year, we are testing the energy levels in fruits and vegetables.  The idea is that you put a penny and a galvanized nail in a potato, hook up the wires that are connected to a lightbulb, and the lightbulb lights up.  After several hours of placing and replacing pennies, nails, and wires, we learned that we weren't getting enough power for our lightbulb, and that we needed smaller lightbulbs that would actually light.  So tonight, we will try, try again, but this is what our poor potato looked like last night.

Kitchen Facelift

Before

After

So a few months ago, I decided that I was fed up with my crappy old kitchen cabinets and that it was time to give them a much needed facelift.  I had been thinking about it for about 3 years and it took me about that long to convince my husband they would turn out okay, but I finally convinced him that even if I messed up, they couldn't possibly look any worse than they did.   In the end, he caved and let me do it!  I painted them white, sanded the edges, then stained over the top with a dark walnut stain. (I hear gel stains work well, too, but I haven't ever tried them.)  It was messy and time-consuming, but totally worth it!  And as an awesome Christmas present to myself, we topped them off with beautiful granite countertops!

As a busy mother of 5 (!) I'm always looking for great ideas to make my life, and the life of my family more beautiful and simple. Hopefully, you can find some good ideas here, and you will share your thoughts and ideas too!