Mountain Musings

1,600!

Mountain Musings hit a record 1,600 posts earlier this week when Granny wrote about preparing for her craft show. Today's post actually marks our 1,602 post!

As promised, we think that milestone calls for a giveaway! How about something that each of the ladies here at Mountain Musings had a part in making?

No, we can't ship you any of Sarah's delicious desserts, and I didn't have time to make you a quilt...but this is what we can send you if your name is chosen:

A Jelly Basket* ~ made by Granny, of course! She told me to pick one of my favorites just for this giveaway. It was a hard choice! This basket is made with dyed red and green reeds for added color and dipped in walnut stain as only Granny can do!

And look what's inside this basket:

Two bars of Hannah's handmade cold-process soap (I selected Citrus Patchouli and Sweet Lemon Basil for this picture, but you can pick your favorite two scents from her Pleasant View Soaps website if you win).

A tube of Chocolate-Orange Truffle lip butter (made by Hannah) is also included.

Two handmade washcloths knitted by Deb and some of Sarah's favorite recipes tucked in the back complete the gift basket.

Ooh, wait...an antique key is also hanging from the handle for an added touch of whimsy. I love it!

Would you like to win this 1,600-post giveaway? Wouldn't it make a nice Mother's Day gift...or maybe a gift for yourself?

Just leave a comment on this post telling us something nice about your mother.

Deadline for entering is one week from today--next Friday, May 6, at midnight EST. We'll draw a random name from all entries next Saturday, May 7.

Have a delightful weekend! See you on the blog next week.

~Deb

*A variety of baskets are for sale in Granny's Basket Shop and can be found here and in her Etsy Shop here.

Bloomin' Tuesday!

MsGreen Thumb Jean has recently begun another year of hosting Bloomin' Tuesdays and each week will show us beautiful flowers all around the country.

I'll try and participate as often as I can so you can see the blooms around my garden.

First up: Yellow Rose of Texas. This is the flowering shrub I purchased for 50 cents at a yard sale years ago. It almost bit the dust when we were building on the new addition for Granny...but the excavator salvaged it and hauled it to a new location, and it's still blooming with lots of little yellow roses!

Hyacinths: A new flower this year purchased from a Walmart display table for cheap. The delightful fragrance that I smell every time I walk out the front door makes me wonder why I've never planted these before. (Another first this year were pink tulips! They are past their prime so no picture shown, but they were beautiful!)

Bleeding Heart: This flower has such a different bloom that I marvel at God's creativity every spring when it shows its colors.

Lily of the Valley: Another spring favorite because it grows by a huge rock in this flower bed.

A sea of Candytuft:

Allium: these bulbs are the miniature variety and when fully opened will be medium-sized rather than the giant allium bulbs that I thought I purchased.

The azaleas are full of buds and a few have finally opened up. Here's one of our first to bloom this week. I've always planted azaleas every place we've lived!

Last on this week's tour: Solomon's Seal. And this one was a freebie plant given at one of Andre Viette's garden tours. I like this plant because Solomon is my maiden name, and I love the dainty blooms hanging from the stem. Hopefully, they will spread and fill in the area.

That's what's blooming around Mountain Musings this week. See other flowers over at MsGreen Thumb Jeans!

~Deb

Preparing for a Craft Show

After several months of hard work, I've made enough baskets to put on display. Hannah and I put our names in to participate in a craft show and sent in the best pictures of our crafts--baskets and soaps. In a few days we were signed up for the Apple Blossom Days Craft Show which is taking place at Willow Oak Plaza in Waynesboro, Virginia, this coming weekend.

Here I am making an egg basket, and you can see Deb's garden cart is full of other baskets I've made.

And they're hanging all around the shed, too:

And hanging from the rafters!

Some of the baskets I've made include:  market, magazine, Jeremiah, ribbon, egg, mustard, linen, cottage, apple, and lots of gift baskets. It will be fun setting up our display.

Hannah and I will travel to Waynesboro next Saturday morning, April 30. I hope to meet a lot of the nice people who wrote to me about my baskets.

Hope to see you next Saturday!

~ Granny

He Is Risen!

"He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly,  and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead..." ~ Matthew 28:6-7

We pray that your Easter Sunday has been a blessed day with your family. He is risen indeed!

Work-in-Progress Wednesday ~ "Proof"

Last Friday I wrote about my intention to "get right on it" this week with our newest Saturday Sampler block after we received the pattern in class this past Saturday.

One of our faithful readers and commenters said she needed some "proof" that it happened as I said it would. I guess this is a good argument for positive peer pressure.

Here tis, Block 4:

And here are all four blocks together--the first three are Sarah's, and the bottom right corner block is mine. Looks like by the end of the year Sarah and I will each have a beautifully pieced quilt.

And the best part of finishing early is I don't even have to think about this block anymore between now and May 14--our next Saturday Sampler class! It's all done!!!

I think I may like this feeling so much that I'll never procrastinate again! :)

~Deb

Mexican Fiesta!

In our family we usually pitch in together to make the meals; however, sometimes Hannah or I will have a night that we are totally in charge of everything. Recently, I had a few recipes to try out, so Mom gladly consented to turn supper over to me. :) Except Granny, we all like Mexican food, so I was hoping the new recipes would go over well.

First, I made the empanadas for dessert. I filled some with apples and some with chocolate ganache. I used a tart cutter/sealer to make the edges pretty. They baked for 15 minutes or so and then were rolled in cinnamon sugar. The pastry was definitely a keeper - it was easy and tasted great!

I found the main dish in the latest Taste of Home magazine - Terrific Turkey Enchiladas. The filling was just a general enchilada mixture, but what was different was the green sauce that was poured over the top. It had cilantro, corn, green chilies, cream, salt, and pepper all blended up. Very yummy - although I don't think it was Dad and Jonathan's favorite! It also calls for black olives sprinkled over the top, but only Hannah and I care for those, so only a small corner had them.

Granny actually liked this meal, so I consider that a success. :) For sides I heated a can of refried black beans and made some Spanish Rice. We also had some pineapple for a fruit side dish. For a refreshing drink, I wanted to make some limeade, but there wasn't enough lime juice. It turned out to be half limeade and half lemonade.

Delicious!

~Sarah

Saturday Sampler Quilt Block

Tomorrow Sarah and I will attend our monthly Saturday Sampler quilt class at our local Patchwork Plus Quilt Shop.

We missed the March class when we were out of town; and as a result, we picked up our fabric a little late for this month's block. This week we both managed to get our blocks finished in time for tomorrow's check-in.

 

I'm enjoying each month's new pattern; but I have to admit it seems hectic getting it done, and I'm always glad when the project has been completed. I think to alleviate some last minute stress I'll start on next month's block right away--on Monday!

In other sewing news, the extra fabric for sashing and the center piece for the Block-a-Palooza quilt-along arrived yesterday, so now I'll be able to work on putting the 16 blocks together.

Enjoy your weekend!

~Deb

UFO Progress...or Not...

Friday has rolled around again, and it's UFO Progress Report day.

As much as I wanted to report that several more items had been crossed off the list, it just didn't happen this week--I've been outside painting the inside of the picket fence--must.get.it.done! 

So today I thought I'd just glance over the original UFO list and see what had gotten accomplished so it would encourage me that "yes, it can be done!"

I just have to keep plugging along!

~Deb

Thursday Thirteen ~ Thank You x 13!

Well, it's been forever since I participated in a Thursday Thirteen post, but I thought what better way to show you some wonderful blog winnings in 2011 and say "thank you" to my benefactors and link to those bloggers who were so generous! My cup runneth over, truly!

1. Thank you to Shawna over at 1Choice4Quilting for sending me 4 yards of Sunkissed fabric!! I won it! It's beautiful, and I can't wait to decide which pattern to use! Thank you for your generosity, Shawna!

By the way...for anyone interested, Shawna is having another giveaway of 4 yards of fabric--this time it's Happy Flowers, and the deadline to enter is Sunday, April 10.

2. Thank you to Sabrina over at Doodle Quilts. She was giving away a fat quarter bundle of the "Carriage House" collection from Wyndham Fabrics. Wow, it's a big bundle of fabric! I'm not sure yet how I will use it. Thank you, Sabrina!

3. Fabric designer, Sandy Gervais, had a giveaway over at her blog, Pieces From My Heart. Sandy sent me a layer cake of her new fabric line, Lovely  and also a small petit-four pack of the same fabric. Love it! I can't wait to use this and ordered some lovely Lovely yardage from Burgandy Buttons to complete the quilt I'll make.

4. Rose in Australia, who blogs over at Greening the Rose, gave away 4 skeins of beautiful yarn recently. Yes, you guessed it! She mailed it to me!! And, being the generous person that she is, she also sent something to the girls--Hannah was delighted with some handmade paper, and Sarah received a watercolor flower picture for her room. Thank you so much, Rose! We all love our treasures!

Karla Dornacher Book Giveaway!

Karla Dornacher is having a Grand Re-Opening of her bookstore and is giving away two sets of five of her books. If you're not familiar with Karla's Korner and website, take a look here.

So there's 2 WAYS to WIN and  3 WAYS to ENTER...

• 1. Leave a comment over on Karla's blog through April 2nd 
  telling her what your favorite form of creativity is.

• 2. Promote her giveaway on your blog and get 2 EXTRA ENTRIES! Comment again with your blog link where you posted about the giveaway.

• 3. Be a friend on FACEBOOK... one winner will be drawn specifically
  from her FACEBOOK fans.

Hurry! Her winners will be announced on Monday.

~Deb