GRANDMOTHER'S SEWING ROOM: Owl Sewing Kits

I saw the cutest owls on The Embroidery Garden blog and absolutely fell in love with them!  They are made 'in the hoop', but sadly, my hoop wasn't big enough! I thought since I had a 7x7 hoop, it would work as they are meant for 5x7, but my Janome will only do about a 6x6 design.  Luckily for me, my wonderful mother has a larger machine so I packed up and went to her house to make these!  I added little mustache scissors (as they were what I could find locally to fit in the owls!), some pins, needles, a needle holder and a couple spools of thread.

I ended up making quite a few of them.  These are the ones I had completely finished. I have some more not yet stuffed and plan on making even more.  I had a blast making them!  I have quite the little Parliament of Owls here!!

 

GRANNY'S KITCHEN: Food Storage Shelves

I have always wanted those wonderful food storage shelves that rotate the food storage, but didn't think I had anywhere to put one -- I have no basement and my little pantry is not where you could get behind the shelves to load from the back.  I finally had an epiphany and decided I could put them in my kitchen at the snack bar (where I have access to both sides of the cupboard!).
First, Mark (my dear, sweet hubby) put wood strips on shelves to keep the rows of cans separated.  Then he drilled extra holes in the sides of the cupboard.  There were already holes for the adjustable shelves, but it gave the shelves too much of a slant (by putting the back of the shelf one peg higher than the front).. so he added holes in between so it would not be such a rise -- I think maybe an inch and a half taller in the back.
He also put a strip of the wood across the front to hold the cans in place.

This is the picture of the bottom shelf from the back side.  This side is under the snack bar and was a cupboard that I didn't use much. I kept large pots in there as it is not easily accessible.  I'm not sure where I'll put my large pots now!! BUT, I love my shelf!

Here is the completed side (from the front).  We're going to leave it open, but when I get new cabinets one of these days, I will have the doors on them.  Mark likes the way it looks like this! And, I have to admit, I like it, too.

This opening is larger than the back where the door was. This cupboard was originally a corner piece and another cabinet came across from here, so there was just a piece of paneling covering the hole. We took that out to make this opening. The back still has the cabinet door on it that I open up to fill.
This particular cupboard ended up holding exactly 16 flats of veggies (if I use all the same size -- less because as you can see, I have some larger cans in there. Each shelf holds 8 of 4 different cans.  With my 6 shelves, I have space for 24 different canned goods. I can tell I am definitely going to need more of these, as I have some product that didn't fit!  PLUS, I've not included ANY soups at all!  I need one just for soups and the smaller (mushroom, tomato paste, etc.) cans.
The spacing was perfect to hold 2 of the canned chicken (or tuna) cans, so there is room for 16 on my shelf.  The space seems wasted when I put mushrooms and other small cans on the shelf because of the dividers.  Our next shelf needs to have specific dividers for these cans or possible adjustable dividers -- we are thinking of how to do that. 

Now, to vacuum up the sawdust mess and plan for my next storage shelf!

GRANNY'S KITCHEN: Organized Spices

Woo Hoo!  My spices are finally organized!!  I first read about this last February HERE at the Prepared LDS Family Blog.  I had forgotten about it until I found it again and posted (again) on what a great idea it was!

Hubby was home today, so I talked him into making the stair steps.  My shelf has 4 tiers made from a 2 x 12. The bottom and top shelves are 2 x 9  and 2 1/4 (from one piece of 2 x 12) . The middle two shelves are 6 3/4  and  4 1/2  cut from another piece of the 2 x 12.  I think it turned out GREAT!

GRANNY'S KITCHEN: Stuffed Biscuits

For a quick and easy dinner idea (I'm all about quick and easy), I decided to stuff some biscuits.  The first thing I did was open a can of large (Grand) biscuits and rolled them out.

The next step is to top with filling. Be creative!  Here I just put on some ground beef, spaghetti/pizza sauce and shredded cheese. Don't get too much or they won't close.

Step 3 is to fold in half and pinch the edges together.  I have just a bit too much filling in mine.











But after baking (375* till golden), they were fine!  Next time I would put just a little less filling per biscuit. 

Other filling ideas:
~BBQ sauce with shredded pork
~ham chunks and pineapple tidbits with sweet/sour sauce
~Diced hot dogs with cheddar cheese and ketchup
~sausage & sauerkraut

I think the filling list could go on.. any other ideas????

GRANDMOTHER'S LIBRARY: "The Angel" by Carla Neggers

This book is about a folklorist from the United States who decides to travel to Ireland to find out if a story from her childhood could be based on facts.  The story includes three brothers and a stone angel. Apparently the fairies thought the angel was one of their own turned into stone.  Legend has it that the angel shows up to fight evil.

There are no fairies and no evil beings (other than humans) in this story, but it has intrigue and mystery.  Kiera, our folklorist, finds herself in danger when someone decides her story could possibly be real: ancient Celtic artifacts are apparently worth quite a bit. 

This is a story worth reading. I am looking forward to reading "The Mist" which, although seems to be a stand alone novel rather than a sequel, seems to have some of the same characters.  I'll find out when I read it!