Grandma Oma's World

 I am so excited that this quilt on which the ladies of my quilting group, Scraps, worked for almost a year ended up in the the Bridal Suit of the Queen Anne Mansion in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Here is the story: This quilt was made entirely from bridal dresses. My quilting group got the dresses from an organization called Brides Against Breast Cancer.  The idea was to make a quilt then return it to the organization who than auctioned it of. The profits would then go for breast cancer research. Working on this quilt was fun and challenging. Most quilts are made of cotton; cotton is durable, easy to work with and easy to control. The bridal dress quilt was made of satin, lace and silk - all delicate materials hard to work with, slippery and stretchy. On the other hand it was fun for the group to work together and see the quilt become this beautiful piece of art. Once the quilt was finished in 2009 we entered it to the annual Quilters Anonymous quilt show in Monroe, Washin...

 Occasionally, I buy one lottery ticket, and than I don't check whether I won for days, weeks and sometimes even for months. I do this on purpose because then, I can spend all the time  fantasizing of what I would do with all the winnings - - the mega millions that suddenly will fall into my lap. First, I would get a good financial planer and a trustworthy lawyer to guide me and protect me from unscrupulous solicitors and relatives that I didn't even know I had. Then, my fantasy would start: 1.  I would gather my children and their families and take them on a fantasy trip on every continent of the world.  Whatever their wish would be we would do. 2. I would buy a vacation home large enough for the whole family. The location would be decided by my children so that they could go there whenever they want to. 3. I would completely remodel my home, or maybe buy a new home that would have everything in it that I always dreamed to have. 4. I am not going to for...

Someone told me  this a long time ago and I used it to guide many of my decisions: "If you think you can, or if you think you can't  you are right".

This is what I made today Today was my day to bake breads. I do not like bread machine because they take up to much space in the kitchen and the bread does not come out as real as if it were made by hand. I found this awesome bread recipe called Monsieur Montfort's French Bread   in an old Time-Life Cookbook and my breads are coming out perfect.Making these breads bring back memories of my Mother's weekly bread making rituals. We always made sourdough breads. My Mother would get up at about 4am and start the dough.  She would put the starter dough in a big bowl, add some water, yeast and some flour then let it rest a little bit. After that she would  add more flour and salt and start kneading.  After a while she would cover the bowl and let it rise. At about 6am she would punch the dough down make three loaves each about 2lbs, place them in bread loaves baskets lined with a floured towel and let them rise again. The baskets defined the shapes of the loaves. T...