Easter Embroidered Tea Towels

Here are my finished little tea towels.  These are going to my daughters for Easter!  I want them to use them between now and Easter so I'm giving them to them early.  I'm hoping to make some more for me!!

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One of these days I'll get enough nerve to try the BIG TOWELS!!!  LOL

Spring Break!

It's spring break in Oklahoma AND Texas, so my Texas grandkids came to spend the week with us.

Jake and Paige have been so much fun to have and they love playing with their cousins Kayley and Lyndey.

The weather has NOT been cooperating much and it's been pretty chilly most of the time.  Papa and Jake did try going fishing (which Jake loves to do) but it was just too cold.  We did make it to the three parks around here all in one day.  The three girls couldn't make up their minds what they wanted to do.  We also went to a nearby city to play at Leonardo's, an adventure discovery place.  Paige and I have done some embroidering on tea towels for Easter gifts.  (I'll be posting pictures of them later.)  She loves to choose the colors and watch the machine do it's thing!

Of course, we've played the Wii a lot, rented videos and even squeezed in some reading this afternoon just to please Mom.  Yesterday Paige and I made Apple Orchard Cookie Bars (good--see recipe below and today we made Molasses Cookies with the majority of them going to my son-in-law, Mike, who sprayed our yard the other day.  He loves those cookies and the kids do too.  Hope they leave him some!  Tomorrow we're going to see "Diary of a Wimpy Kid".  That should be fun for them.

They go home on Saturday and Friday night we are expecting snow.  Yuck!  I believe that is the first day of spring.   Snow on the first day of spring--that's just wrong.

Here's the recipe:

APPLE ORCHARD COOKIE BARS

1/2 c melted butter
1/2 c sugar
1 c brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
2 beaten eggs
1/2 c rolled oats
1 c peeled chopped apple
2 c flaked coconut
1 1/2 c flour

Melt butter, add the sugars and stir.  Add baking soda, salt, baking powder, vanilla, cinnamon, and beaten eggs.  Mix well.  Then add the oats, chopped apple and 1 1/2 cups of coconut. (Reserve 1/2 cup for on top.)  Add the flour and mix it all thoroughly.

Grease a 9 x 13 cake pan.  Spoon the dough in and smooth it with a rubber spatula.  Sprinkle the remaining coconut evenly on top.  Bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes.  This was more like a cake than bars to me, but still delicious especially on the second day.  You can really taste the apples more and it is so moist!

"Big Shaggy Bag"

I should have been  making those two other Easter purses I need to make BUT I wanted to make this quick bag from a pattern I got in Australia.  It is a very, quick project and I used a charm pack from Moda (At Water's Edge).  Love those muted fabrics.   I've just washed it once so it should fray more when used and washed more.

The pattern was a little different than what I've done before, as it is very flat--no inserts.  I thought it would be great for carrying patterns, papers, small sewing kits, etc.  Being an Australian pattern, all the measurements were in centimeters.  Ugh!!!  I converted and made some adjustments as I wanted to use the charm pack and everything turned out fine.  If you'd like to check out some other bag patterns plus other quilt patterns from this company in Australia, check out their site at: http://thebirdhouse.com.au