Watercolor Friendship Stars

Friday is normally my day off.  It's the day of the week when my teaching partner comes to the classroom, takes over, and gives me a little time with my own kids.  My kids' school district does an early release every Friday, so it's nice that I get to be home when my kids come home early.  I spent the morning sewing with my daughter's second grade class.  Then, at dismissal, I picked up 9 eager Girlscouts to come to my house for some Friendship Fun!  Our theme this week was friendship, and since I've been sewing Friendship Stars, I decided that the girls should make their own Friendship Stars.  I had originally planned to help the girls sew their own pillows, but at 8:00 on the night before, I just ran out of steam.  Watercolor paints to the rescue!!!



We used a crayon resist method to paint our Friendship Stars on watercolor paper. I sketched the block onto the watercolor paper ahead of time.   The girls chose a crayon to do their outline.  I asked them to use a heavier line around the border and around the star.  Then we painted.

They turned out very pretty.

Each star was different, just like each of our friends are different.

If you don't have time to sew Friendship Stars, painting them is the next best thing. 
I'll show you what we turned them into on my Literacy Blog tomorrow..

The Class Quilt - A Little More Progress

Remember the class quilt I told you about?  I'm helping my daughter's second grade class sew a quilt for the upcoming auction.  We're using Moda's Double Chocolat fabric.  I'm in love with the colors!  Apparently, the kids' teacher feels the same way about the pretty fabric.  She told me that she's been having nightmares about someone else finishing up the quilt and using horrid fabrics that don't go with our pretty Double Chocolat.


The kids finished sewing their stars during our first sewing session.

This week we started work on the sashing, sewing all of the stars together.  I had help this week.  Yes, I called in the reinforcements.  Thanks for coming to help the kids sew, Jenny!  As the kids were sewing, we kept giggling to ourselves. (giggles with a slight bit of a panic) You see, when kids take over the sewing, perfection is not the name of the game.  There were blocks that finished up at a half of an inch larger than other blocks.  We did a lot of scooching as we tried to line the blocks up. In the end, they'll never notice the small imperfections.  They'll just have good memories of sewing their friendship quilt.

One more sewing day and I'll be able to show you the finished quilt.  I can't wait to take pictures of the kids cuddling in the finished quilt!

Happy quilting!

Baby It's Cold Outside - Time For Soup

We've had nothing but really cold weather and lots of fog for the past week.  Usually, we all get super excited about the cold temps, because it might mean a rare snow day.  Sadly, the only moisture in the air is in the form of REALLY thick fog. 


I couldn't resist snapping a few photos of the frozen trees.

A cold day, combined with feeling under the weather, calls for some homemade chicken soup. I used my new electric pressure cooker.  I'm kinda loving this new appliance.



Here's what I did:

I used the saute feature first.
I put a little olive oil in the pot,
followed by 1/2 a diced onion,
2 cloves diced garlic,
1 diced carrot, and
1 diced celery stalk.

Then I added some leftover chicken I had in the freezer,
6 cups of chicken stock,
 about 1/2 cup uncooked brown rice,
and turned the pressure cooker on high for 9 minutes.
After 9 minutes, I let it cool for about 15 minutes to release the pressure naturally.

Maybe it's because it's cold outside, or maybe it's because I don't feel too well, but that soup tasted so good!  I asked my hubby if he loved it as much as I did because it's really good, or if I was just loving it because I'm feeling pathetic.  He thought it might be a little of both.  My kids on the other hand, thought it was the best soup they'd ever eaten.  They both went back for seconds.

(Side story:  When my son was just learning to feel himself, as a baby, if he really loved something, he'd start kind of humming as he was eating.  You could just tell he was perfectly content and loving his meal. I was almost like he was saying, "Yummm, yummm, yummm." as he was eating. To this day (he's almost 12 now), when he eats something that he really loves he does the humming thing when he eats.  At the dinner table tonight, my hubby and I just looked at each other and burst out laughing because my son was in his humming mode as he was eating this soup.  Needless to say, he really enjoyed this recipe.)

Stay warm, friends!