Happy Birthday to Me!

I had a birthday this week! I turned 28 on Monday. It was a low-key birthday. And I was okay with that. Really. In the past I've been a kind of an it's-my-birthday-I-want-a-freaking-hubbub sort of gal. Maybe I turned a maturity corner this year. I really didn't want to do everything. (I realized my previous divaness when this was met with varying levels of disbelief and shock.)

I had a fabulous surprise on Sunday when my mom took me to lunch after church and there was my family waiting for me! They made a three hour round trip to come visit me. I just kind of plunked down in a state of shock. AND THERE WAS CAKE! My grandma has a signature angel food cake.

Sunday night was a great quiet night out with friends at a local restaurant. Sorry no pics. Imagine a group of 10 laughing friends in a dimly restaurant with lots of food.

Monday, my actual birthday, was rather quiet. I felt loved by the 30 facebook birthday greetings. Gotta love facebook. You never really know who would have really remembered you if not for the sidebar reminder. Monday night my dear friend, Ms. Erin, insisted on a birthday supper. The lasagna was yummy, but of course it was, she's my 26 year old little Italian grandma. However-There.Were.Cupcakes. For real. They were decorated like sunflowers! I felt an enormous amount of love, because they took some patience. And she has a squirmy 10 month old.

(This refuses to go the right way)

And due to a need to burn up some vacation time before the "use it or lose it" deadline of the end of the fiscal year. Yesterday I also had off work (yep, I was that girl who took off her birthday). A day of sewing. And some disasters. Related topics. More tomorrow.

Then, when I begrudgingly returned to work today there were flowers! A quiet birthday, but I feel loved!

So now, on with 28!

A Visit

This weekend my mom came up to visit with me in a pre-birthday celebration. We had our weekend of good food and hours of crafting. This weekend featured breakfast pizza, pj pants, a new recipe, and lots of eating out. As my birthday present to my blog, I share our recipe for breakfast pizza, along with some pics of the rest!

Breakfast Pizza

Pizza Crust
1/2 lb sausage
8 bacon slices, cut into pieces
nacho cheese
3 eggs
mushrooms
Colby Jack Cheese- 1 1/2 cups

We just go ahead a buy pre-made pizza crusts from the store. We like this to be a nice and easy breakfast and there is a quite a bit on this pizza, so these seem to be able to stay nice and crisp. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. First off fry up your sausage and bacon. We just put it all in a pan together.

While the sausage and bacon are cooking we spread the cheese onto the crust. We actually used jalapeno chedder for this weekend because we couldn't find plain nacho. It has a bit of a kick, but tasted great!

Next you are going to put on your sausage and bacon and top that with mushrooms. Up to you how many mushrooms. We are a hardcore mushroom family, so we toss only the whole freaking can. Beat your three eggs together in a small bowl, it works best if you have a little spout to control your pouring. You are going to SLOWLY pour the egg over the pizza. Be very careful not to let this egg go over the edges. It will cause your pizza crust to stick to that pan like mad.

Next you are going to put on the cheese on. Now the pizza is ready to put in the preheated oven!

Cook until the top is nice and bubbly. We only cook this at 350 to ensure the eggs get done.

Now enjoy. I promise-amazing.  It also reheats nice if you just put it back in the oven for 10 minutes or so back at 350! (I'll be having some for breakfast on my day off tomorrow!)

After breakfast and a bit of shopping we set out to make some pajama pants. Time to time our sewing projects lead to some cursing. I am not a very good sewing instructor and I feel the need not to have the swearing bouts as I would on my own in an attempt to not cause mom to panic. Here is a nice action shot of me making sure things are going okay.

And after a few hours of diligant sewing we had some new kickass pajama pants! Mom thought they were a bit baggy, but I was in love. Yeah, they definitely aren't something I will dare to ask the question of "Do these make my ass look big?", but love rarely makes sense.

Proud new pajama pant owners.

And to cap off the day we tried out a new recipe I found at bhg.com for Roasted Red Pepper Lasagna. Delicious.

As always an excellent visit.

Whatcha' Quiltin'?

It took me a couple of months to get over the PTSD of Christmas sewing this year. A little harder to bounce back than previous years, but I have taken a bit of a hiatus from sewing over the last year or so. There is a long list of excuses. The room is too dark, too hot, too cold. I'm tired, but I'm rocking this knitting. I'm tired. However, about a month ago I had an overnight shift at the shelter I volunteer at, so I came equipped with a thermos of strong coffee, my quilt layout notebook, some crayons, and my trusty desk lamp. I got some strange looks from the guys getting up throughout the night when they saw fabric and crayons spread out everywhere while I frantically drew, but in the end, the quilt I've had bouncing around in my mind finally came to life.

I present to you, Modern Contradiction. It's named so because I have long been trenched in the habit of having to have all of my fabrics match. I've been trying to break out a little creatively, so I lived a little and mixed it up for more of a folksy look in this quilt. The contradication/secret is all of these fabrics were pulled (from the stash, I was a good girl) to match the striped print making up the mitered squares. Shh, don't tell.

The design

The fabrics

After a Saturday in the sewing room, I've even got a great start going here!

And if you haven't seen enough fabric for one post. Guess who went on a fabric binge in the hopes of supplementing the spring/summer wardrobe...

Strawberry Muffins & A Little Sewing Revival

So during a ritual wandering around the grocery store yesterday I happened upon a strawberry sale. What is that you say, non-reader? This is not an exciting thing in your world? It was in mine. Strawberry sale=muffins. Lovely strawberry muffins. Careful you don't drool on the keyboard. I already have crumbs from these bad boys in mine! The recipe?

Strawberry Muffins

2 c. flour
1 c. white sugar
1 t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder
8 oz. strawberry yogurt
1 egg
4 T. butter
2 c. fruit

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2) Stir together flour, sugar, baking soda, & baking powder.
3) In a separate bowl, combine yogurt, egg, vanilla, butter, and fruit. Stir mixtures together until combined; batter will be thick. Scoop into prepared cups. Top with crumbs.
4) Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes.

Crumb topping

3/4 c. flour
3/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. cold butter

In a small bowl, combine flour & sugar; cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over muffin batter.

Sewing RevivalAfter a depressed stage hiatus I have returned to the sewing room. Crazy April decided to make a dress for Easter rather than buy one. Butterick B5181 for inquiring minds. Will she have it done in time? Not likely. I seem to like the picking out of fabric and buying patterns (and yes, alphabetically filing them) part more than the actual making.

The fabric

Ready to cut

Is this thing on?

I've hemmed and hawed over this for awhile. I think anymore if you throw a piece of anything you'll hit at least a dozen or so people with a blog and I feel a bit pretentious to think anything I have to say is interesting enough to read. But I'm bored (and yes, avoiding my work) and I think my facebook friends may be over me talking about baking, knitting, sewing, and whatnot. So, for me, I present simple eclectic. Because posting for strangers has to be saner than just talking to the cat.