Here is the sign out in front of my friend, Jamie's quilt shop. There's her phone number too if anyone wants to call her and buy from her or get her to quilt for you since she has 2 long arm quilting machines. I bet she is less expensive than some you may know! Cute sign huh? This is where I am taking my Beginning Quilt Class on Tuesdays from 10:00 - 2:30. Next week I will post the quilt we will be making....also very cute!

Here is my quilt material for my new quilt that I will be making in my Beginning Quilt Class! I am so excited because although I have tried almost every type of craft...quilting is one I have shied away from. I love these colors and the fabrics. We were to pick out 10 fabrics in darks, mediums, and lights. I had the hardest time with the lights since I LOVE the darks! They kept telling me to "go towards the light" but I kept wanting to go "over to the dark side"! LOL!

It is time for Spring cleaning or rather ANY cleaning around my place would be an improvement. I have WAY too many irons in the fire but I digress. I am going green and today is St. Patrick's Day...how symbolic! I am replacing my chemical/store-bought cleaners with homemade "green" cleaners. PBS has been having their "pledge week" and of course they bring out all the BIG GUNS and one was Graham Haley of "Haley's Hints" so I ordered one of his cleaning books but also wrote a few recipes down to test before ordering and the above was his carpet and upholstery cleaner. Well......my BIG dog just happened to throw up BIG TIME on my beige carpet the other day. IT was a big mess to clean up and it smeared into the carpeting and left a yellow stain even after using commercial carpet cleaner on it. So, I whipped up Haley's recipe which is the following and you can see the result...FANTASTIC!!!!

CARPET & UPHOLSTERY CLEANER:
1 tsp vinegar
1/2 tsp ammonia
3 Tbs dish soap
3/4 C water

Put in a "foaming" bottle and mix. He said you could get "foaming" bottles at the drugstore but being the PACKRAT I am I had saved a foaming hand soap bottle from Bath & Body! It worked perfectly! Now, I need to go back and clean all those new "free" chairs I got! A woman's work is NEVER done! Happy Spring everyone! OH......forgot to mention one of the handiest gadgets I have that I highly recommend. For about $20.00 I got a label making handheld machine at Wally World. I label everything with it....files, bottles and containers, even drawers! LOL!
Trust me...I need all the help I can get!

Saturday was baking day with my sourdough starter and here are the results. The cake is carrot cake with the infamous cream cheese icing. I am not a big cake person because many times the frosting etc, is just TOO sweet for me but this turned out excellent I must say! It was Julie's (Willowcreek) recipe from Mary Jane's farm blog on "Bread, the Mary Jane Way" . It called for raisins but I don't care for them so I left them out and instead of walnuts I used pecans. I didn't want to eat the whole thing (and I very well could have it was THAT good!) so I took 2 pieces to each of 3 neighbors....I keep telling myself "be the change you want to see in the world" so that's a start!

The pizza was also great. I had Italian sausage, red onion, tomato sauce, fresh mushrooms, red pepper (on sale! and cheaper than the green can you believe it?) and Provolone cheese and Italian 5 cheese blend on it. I used my parents old stone for baking it but the bottom was a little too soft for my taste (I like crispy crust) so next time I think I will just put it directly on the oven rack without the stone. It's the best pizza I have ever made so I think my Italian relatives were helping me from above!

One question...does anyone know how I could "dress up" the cake a little for company? Like should I sprinkle some grated carrot on top? Cooked or raw? It looks a little plain and I know sometimes chefs put something on items to tell the "eater" what is on the inside. Any ideas would be appreciated to "gussy up" my food....they say you eat with your eyes first but personally....my food goes straight to the mouth!

Okay...there is LOTS to blog today! I have been a busy little bee.....here is a before picture(s) of my guest bathroom and here is after...I certainly hope you can tell the difference! LOL! Anyway...I tried removing wallpaper from drywall that had not been sealed properly....what a mess....but finally researched and asked around and found out how to fix it all....VERY proud of the result and I have never mudded or messed with drywall compound before plus there were deep holes in the drywall too. I still have a lot to do in there but the worst is over!