Another Year Flew By

Highlights of this year:

Finalization of our daughter's adoption in October!!!! (we waited two years and 4 months)
Conversations with my mother about my Vovo
Sewing, Scrapping, Crocheting and Quilting with my friends
Scrapbooking Retreat in November
Weeks at the beach with my awesome Husband and 6 kids
Carol Ruvolo Bible Study with the women in my Church family
10 Standard Poodle puppies born on December 10th.
Going to the BirdMart with Pegi
Cookie Day in December
Reading Christian Historical Fiction with my daughter
Long walks on the Coast with my Husband, little coffee shops along the way
Camping with our good friends and family throughout the summer
Seeing how much my kids have grown in home schooling and music lessons
Getting closer to Jesus by attending to the excellent preaching at our church
Watching God gently bless my friends that are close to Him

God bless you everyone; may you all have a wonderful 2011 and may you taste and see that He is good.
~Amleht

Did I mention we have a new litter of AKC Standard Poodle Puppies?

My Dumpster Is Coming!!!

OOH I just cannot wait for the dumpster to arrive. I have so many things I want to throw away ( to hopefully make more room for my increasingly eclectic and creative lifestyle)!!!!!! Goodbye old textbooks, home school stuff, pillows, clothes, yada yada. Hello more simplicity and focus on the many wonderful things I love like scrapbooking, knitting, sewing and painting... I am planning on this being more liberating than exhausting. If you are reading this and you have faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior and King of everything, please pray for me because I am handicapped and it is hard for me to do lots of physical work, but I desire a home that is a little more simple and pleasing to Him. I have so many things I want to accomplish while I am still mobile.... a bucket list if you will. I love to create things, and for so long I have kept everything so as to always have it at my disposal  - for example "oh - I might use this one day, or I can't throw away this shirt because that is good quilt material" yes pray that my brain expands.... I saw the Hoarders show and I thought oh boy, I can see my own pathology in those people. Don't worry I am not that bad. lol.

As we plow through the season of stress, family, baking and endless parties, my encouragement to you is to take time every day to be at the feet of Jesus and as Psalm 46:10 tells us: be still and know that He is God. Forgive others as He has forgiven you.... Visit the widows and orphans.... Serve at your local church... Meditate on the Ten Commandments... Love God with all of your heart..... as Christians we will give account for the way we live our lives...

Christmassy Aprons for 18 Years of Cookies

I guess I just love aprons... I am trying to recall what Vovo's aprons looked like. I shall check with my mother I suppose.

I got a bug In my bonnet to make some aprons for my dear friends, the Cookie Girls. The Cookie Girls and I have been spending the second weekend in December together for the last 18 years. We met in college and started making cookies together... now we have over the years added dinners, movies and even a couple daughters to the mix. Together we have supported each other through trials and triumphs, illnesses, aging parents, sick children, TEENAGERS, marriages, divorces and I consider them to be a part of my family. I laugh with them, cry with them and pray for them regularly. We store up a lot of conversation all year long for this very weekend, and I am so blessed that they love me like I love them.

FOR CLARITY: I made one apron especially for my Cookie Gal Terri who is somewhat recently divorced and officially a wonderful candidate for a relationship. I had a dream that she got married and when I spotted the 'Young Lad Christmassy Fabric' I just had to use it for her apron.

                                                                      Terri's Apron                                                  

             THE COOKIE GIRLS!!!

Make Your Turkey Perky Apron

I just had to make a Thanksgiving apron. The turkeys were too cute.

Watercolor Painting of Vintage Apron

I was looking at some of Vovo's old ( and now "vintage") hankies.. and looking at the colors, I was inspired to paint some vintage colored paintings.  I miss Vovo. Seeing her stuff makes me miss her so much more than the regular everyday void.

It's CLIPPY

What fun to have a little project called: Altered Clipboards! I am making these for my fellow Scrappers at the upcoming Scrapbook Retreat. At this retreat everyone makes a little something special for each of the other Scrappers. It is a work in progress, but I am enjoying the embellishments and certainly these gals will be able to add their own photos and embellishments as well, so as to personalize their own clipboards.

a special clipboard in progress for my hunny....

Good to Be Back

Greetings,

I had shoulder surgery and have been out of commission for awhile. I am healing slowly and my mother reminds me that Vovo would have "chicken broth and throw a handful of rice" so as to get better. It didn't help that I got the flu to add to my recovery hurdles. In between narcotics and rehab exercises I have pondered my next quilt. I am in love with the latest candy store colors of fabric. I did manage to get some Moda Happy and Dream On to add to my ever growing stash.

Love in Quilt Land~
Amleht

Making Those Jeans Longer - and Frillier

Calabacitas and Bleu Cheese Stuffed Dates Wrapped with Bacon

Antique Mall

I had the pleasure of spending a couple hours at the antique mall with my best 70+ year old friend, Gail. I love Gail because she reminds me so much of Vovo. Better yet, going to any thrift store, antique shop or even garage sale reminds me of Vovo also. Vovo's house was filled with glass knickknacks and of course every dish and furniture from her time. Truly, buying old stuff is simply a way for me to comfort myself with the past. Prayerfuly, my children and grandchildren will one day happen upon stuff that reminds them of happy nurturing times I have spent with them.....  and they will be comforted as they anticipate a day when we will all be together in heaven. Vovo would be 101 years old now.  :P

Antique glassware... do you know the difference between Pyrex, Glassbake and Anchor Hocking ????

SOPAS BABY

WELL... I opened my big mouth at Bible Study, telling them of the wonderful Sopas (pronounced  "soh-push") my Vovo used to make. Now, for the next Bible Study, we are having a pot-providence with the theme of heritage. I will be bringing Portuguese food, hoping to do justice to Vovo's Sopas. This is a tall task. You see, Sopas was my favorite food that Vovo made.

•  4 pounds chuck roast
• · 2 soup bones
• · 1 onion, chopped
• · 4 cloves garlic
• · 1 TBS whole cumin
• · 1 tsp whole allspice
• · 1 tsp whole cloves
• · 4 bay leaves
• · 1/2 cup white wine
• · 2 sprigs of mint· 1 head kale cut into four wedges· 12 cups water
• · salt and pepper to taste
• · 1 loaf French bread (plain — not sweet or sourdough)

How to make it

---

• **It is important that the French bread is day old (hard), as this helps to prevent it falling apart and becoming mush once the sopa is poured over it).**
• Cut meat into 3-by-3 inch pieces.
• Place whole spices — cumin, allspice and cloves — in a cloth bag. (Brand-new, white baby socks can be used as the cloth bag. Just put the spices in and tie the sock in a knot.)
• Boil meat with soup bones, onion, garlic, spices in cloth bag,and wine.
• Add kale to pot and simmer for about 20 minutes.
• Skim fat from top of liquid.
• In bowl, place thick sliced day old French bread with mint on top. Over this, pour hot juice from pot.
• In a bowl, pour sopa over thick sliced bread.
• 
  

Most Recent Quilt Square 3D Pinwheel Square

I am just trying out this method to see if it warrants an entire quilt...

Welcome to Amleht's Omlette

A FESTA TO CELEBRATE VOVO


I have decided to make a blog in honor of my wonderful Vovo.  Vovo went to be with the Lord in 1995 at the tender age of 86. She was always an admirer of my artwork and even did some arts and crafts of her own. She sewed and knitted and could create decorated table linens, beautiful sweaters, blankets... and the list goes on. Another aspect of her perfect handiwork was the lush garden she tended to all year round. She had every fruit tree and vegetable growing in the yard. Much of her garden was used to "throw together" her fabulous Portuguese cuisine. She would have loved to have seen all of the wonderful fabrics and yarns and art supplies that I have access to.  

Pronounced "feshta," festa simply means party in Portuguese. My prayer is that you will enjoy this party for sure - a celebration of all the wonderful things that can be put together in imitation of our Master Creator and to share some of the truly artistic qualities that God bestowed on my Vovo and has made available to all of us.

Thank you Vovo and Thank YOU King JESUS for all we ever could hope to be pales in comparison to WHO YOU ARE in us.

~Amleht