coming up ...

I'm coming up on 100 posts soon.  
What should I do to celebrate?


Cast your vote now:
(a) treat myself to an extra long nap
(b) treat myself to ice cream and an extra long nap
(c) treat myself to ice cream, an extra long nap, and ask my husband to make dinner
(d) other (please give detailed explanation - and it better be convincing.  I love my naps almost as much as I love ice cream and the Mr. making dinner.)

Whoops

Where have I been for the last three months, you ask?  Well, for one, I've been growing a baby (if this part of it is so exhaustingly hard, I REALLY have a lot in store for once it comes).  I also started tending to the garden a little more (errr ... well ... weeded once, watered a few times, and put up some deer fence).  Along with that came produce.  And more produce.  We've got tomatoes out our ears and are hoping to eek out some peppers before the first frost.  Then work started back in full force and I could no longer continue my blissful experience of sewing for 30 hours a week at work.  My machine got serviced in North Carolina at the end of July, and then it was visiting my mom.  I've got it back now, but still have yet to bust out anything incredible.


But also, I've been working on finishing up commissioned quilts.  I ended up doing SIX commissions this summer - yes, six.  One baby quilt, two large rectangular lap quilts, one wall hanging, one large square lap quilt, and a twin.


Pictures, you say?  OK, fine.  I guess it's the least I can do, since I've left you hanging for months now.  


Here is the large square lap quilt - I think it ended up being somewhere around 50"x50".  I made it for my college friend Lauren F. and was able to give it to her in person, when we had a girls' reunion at Lauren's family's lake house in Tennessee.  She did all the hard work in picking out the fabrics, and I had the fun job of putting them together.  

I opted for a modified "rail fence" pattern - modified because the strips in each block are different widths.  The most challenging part of the whole thing was placing the blocks in such a way that the patterns in each block did not touch the same pattern in any other block.  


And the back - I really love it ...

(feel free to ignore the fold/crease lines.  Whoops.)


And kindly, Lauren sent me a picture of the quilt in its real, live home (which sounds awesome and tempts me to visit):

I have to confess, I am WAY more interested in this inviting rug than I am in the quilt, but that's just me.


I.  Will.  Post.  Again.  Before.  The.   Next.  3.  Months.  Have.  Passed.  I promise.

Appropriate Cake

Sock It To Me Cake - recipe from here

Streusel topping:
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 c. chopped pecans (optional)
Combine and set aside.

Glaze:
1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
2 Tbsp. milk
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
Whisk together glaze ingredients until smooth and set aside.

Cake:
1 box yellow cake mix
4 eggs
1 c. sour cream
1/3 c. vegetable oil
1/4 c. water
1/4 c. sugar
2 Tbsp. flour
Preheat oven to 375.  Combine cake ingredients in a mixing bowl and beat at medium speed for 3 minutes.  Pour half of batter into a greased and floured bundt or pound cake pan.  Sprinkle streusel filling on top and swirl through batter.  Spoon remaining batter evenly over filling.  Bake for 35-45 minutes or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool in pan for 25 minutes then invert onto a plate.  Cool completely.  Drizzle glaze over cooled cake.

Your guess is as good as mine as to why this cake is called a Sock It To Me Cake.  I have visions of cake-battered socks being thrown around kitchens by 50s housewives in pearls and heels, but I doubt that's the real origin.  I can imagine, though.  I feel like it's an appropriate cake to make during a busy time ... you know, when life is just socking it to me and I barely have time to catch my breath before the next thing comes around!

The pace of life has been a little wild for the Mr. and me recently with another semester starting, work routines to settle into, a baby to plan for, and weekends of travel.  Oh, and a garden coming in, friends to visit with, a dog to entertain, a new church home group to get to know, and a water aerobics class to attend.  Oh, and did I mention the 5 meals I have to stop and eat per day, and the 9+ hours of sleep I need a night?  Life gets busy, people.  Makes me hungry just thinking about it. 

Just to show that I am still eating enough for both myself and Baby rhymeswithsmile, here's a recent photo of us at 23 weeks:

Warning: if this busy-ness continues, the next picture you see of me will probably show me sprawled out on the couch, asleep.