Crafty Confessions

Dear Friends,

The entirely too extravagant praise we've received both in comments on this blog and in direct e-mails demand that I make a few confessions. First, I only made the quilt top--I'm hosting the shower mentioned and thought we ought to put all that womanpower to good use by having a major project going on--so that small fact probably reduces the feat by at least 30%. Furthermore, this is a strip quilt and an easy pattern ("Trip Around the World in a Day" is the name of it; that's a link to yardage and cutting instructions, and then I just googled for instructions on putting it together. Try one! It's a snap!), and experienced quilters can apparently accomplish the whole thing, including actually quilting the thing, in 8 hours. Finally, undertaking such a project while home alone with two small children may seem like superpowers or insanity to some, but really, this is the best time to do it. Julia and Eli never cared sharing their dinner table with my sewing machine or mounds of fabrics; Julia and Eli didn't complain at all when I stopped their hungry mouths up with animal crackers rather than breakfast or dinner so that I could get just a few more rows done; and Julia and Eli LOVED being babysat by Belle while I worked away. I can't say that Justin would have indulged me so much.

On another note, the Halloween cookies we made were our first exposure to egg yolk paint, but it was so fun! You just mix one egg yolk and 1 tsp of water, divide the substance between cups, add some food coloring, and then paint your cookie before baking it. Voila! Beautifully decorated cookies without all the extra sugar, and perhaps only a bit of the fat and cholesterol of normal icing and candy!