happy stuff.

tonight, i made myself a peanut butter sandwich and my bread had a hole in the middle.  every time i get a piece of bread like this, i am instantly transported back to the kitchen of my childhood home, having a conversation with a family friend who asked me “do you want a half or [...]

i am finally done with the final details of this quilt!  here’s the label: i chose to embroider the label this time.  do you label quilts?  if so, what’s your favorite method?  i chose a font on the computer, printed it off and (sort of) traced it onto a piece of the same fabric that [...]

this weekend was my church’s annual winter retreat and you may remember from year’s past that it’s one of my favorite activities all year long, but this year…. we just had to skip it.  mr. happy stuff and i had both come down with the dreaded cold that’s been crashing through the country and with [...]

the current common threads quilt bee challenge is to help jacquie create a modern, minimal, masculine quilt for her son to take to college. i love, love, love this dot fabric, so i decided that for me, “minimal” meant using only two different fabrics.  and a minimal number of seams.  you could also view the [...]

a work colleague and friend of mine sent out a plea for a storytime sub a few months ago and promised me a pair of hand-knit socks when i agreed to do her programs for her.  i got the socks today and i just love them.  look at that fantastic yarn*!  look at those tiny [...]

a few weeks ago, i hosted a craft club meeting at my house.  it was the perfect excuse to finally clean out my craft room.  my craft room is my happy place.  it’s where i go to re-charge my creative batteries.  but usually when i’m in a creative mood, i’m not in a cleaning mood [...]

my parents came up to visit the weekend before last.  while they were here, my dad helped us to replace the door that was damaged in the debacle described on this past post.  the two of us spent a chilly afternoon outside working on this new door that we found at the local habitat for [...]

last week i made some delicious meyer lemon curd (goes great on fresh english muffins!) and that recipe calls for three egg yolks.  so i had three egg whites leftover.  not being one to throw away perfectly good egg bits, i decided to try an angelfood cake.  i’m sure there are other, easier things to [...]

last weekend, i needed some time to re-charge.  i had an evening at home all by myself and i knew exactly what i wanted to do with it: when i first saw this bunny wallet in the zakka sewing book i laughed out loud.  how could you not?  it totally looks like the bunny is [...]

over christmas break, i was lucky enough to get to spend half a day with my grandma on the way home.  she used to live all the way on the other side of the country, but she recently moved and is now a short, five-hour drive away.  while i was there, i asked if she’d [...]