I finished my first quilt! When we returned home to Japan last month, I had a package of fabric from the Fat Quarter Shop waiting for me that I ordered before the earthquake. It had a variety of goodies in it that I didn't really have plans for, but they were so pretty .One was a charm pack of "Amelia" by Me and My Sister. I had to have this, of course, since my sister's daughter is named Amelia. She is a week younger than Rhino and just the sweetest little girl ever! I didn't want to make a huge first quilt so I figured something that a toddler can cuddle up with on the couch or have a picnic on is the perfect size. And viola!

I used one charm pack of "Amelia", some white sashing, and purple and green for the back. It's about 42×45". I didn't use a pattern, just sort of got an idea in my head and went with it. Not technically awesome, but I made it work!

Front

Back

I've seen a lot of quilts with pretty patchwork on the back where two large pieces join. I wanted to do one between purple and green, but didn't have enough leftover pieces, so it went diagonally for something a little different.

I quilted it with diagonal lines through the patchwork and lines and swirlies along the white strips. At one end I wrote Amelia's name over and over and at the other I wrote "Made with love by Aunt Melissa … 2011."

Ohh, and I don't have a good close-up shot for you, but there is one glaring problem. After I got half the binding attached, I left the quilt and my supplies out on the table. The boys were eating breakfast and Rhino comes into the living room saying (I thought) "I touched Amelia's blanket!" "No, 'Rhino', don't touch Amelia's blanket." "No! I cut Amelia's blanket!" Yep, he took my shears and made a nice cut right through the binding and into the patchwork. Considering how slowly I hand sew, I didn't want to remove the whole binding and do it again. So I whipstitched around the cut, making an ugly black seam in the binding. I'm going to patch together a matching "Band-Aid" to applique over the "boo boo". And just let Amelia know that her cousin helped out a bit.

This isn't actually my very first quilt. I started one for Raven while I was pregnant but stopped when the earthquake hit. I followed a pretty pattern for piecing it, but had no clue about quilt construction. I do that sometimes … just kind of jump right in. I was really sloppy with my quilt sandwich and didn't pin/baste well at all! To add to that, I had no idea what a walking foot was. I read to use a walking foot and just thought "ohh, they must mean presser foot. Check." So I quilted the whole thing with my normal presser foot and it was so hard! Things were bunching up all over the place! In some areas I had no idea what to do and just folded little flaps of "extra" material and sewed right over it. Hahah! It's pretty awful. And the top/batting/back do not line up at all, but if I trim it down I will lose a whole lot of the quilt. So I never made a binding for it. I didn't even finish completely quilting it. So technically, that's my first quilt. But it's not finished, so I'm not counting it. Now I just don't know what to do with it.

It could have been pretty cute if I hadn't been so clueless.  

Well, those are my adventures in quilting so far! I have another one in the works and am also resisting starting a different quilt project. I don't want to have multiple unfinished quilts sitting around, so I'm making myself finish quilt #2 before I begin quilt #3! Check back soon, though!!

Matt's favorite dessert is cheese cake. We've been married more than six years and I've never attempted to make one. I feel like a terrible wife! Well, it's time. My brother's fiancee, Adria, makes cheesecakes often and gets rave reviews all the time. She baked one for us while I was in Colorado with the boys and it was fantastic! She shared a couple of her cheesecake recipes (from Junior's Cheesecake Cookbook) and I decided it was time to try it out. She baked us a chocolate raspberry swirl that was to die for, so I set out to copy it. There isn't an exact recipe for this in the cookbook, so I changed up the white chocolate & raspberry cheesecake recipe to match what I had in my kitchen.

 

Sponge Cake Crust

Ingredients:

• 1/3 C cake flour
• 3/4 t baking powder
• 2 large eggs, separated
• 1/3 C sugar
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 1/4 t cream of tartar
• 2 T butter

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 and generously butter the bottom and sides of a springform pan (8 or 9 inches.) Wrap the bottom and outsides of the pan with foil.
2. Sift together flour and baking powder in a small bowl.
3. In a large bowl, beat egg yolks with an electric mixer (high) about 3 minutes.
4. Slowly add 2 T of sugar and beat until thick, about 5 more minutes. Then beat in vanilla until blended.
5. Sift flower mixture into the batter and stir by hand. Blend in melted butter.
6. Wash another mixing bowl and the beaters well. Beat the egg whites and cream of targar until frothy.
7. Gradually add remaining sugar to the egg whites and beat until stiff, glossy peaks form.
8. Fold about 1/3 of the whites into the batter then add remaining whites.
9. Gently spread batter over the bottom of the pan and bake until set and golden, about 10 minutes. (It should spring back when touched.)
10. Transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool, leaving the foil. Prepare cheesecake recipe, below.

Chocolate & Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake

Ingredients:

• 1 sponge cake crust, still in pan (see above)
• about 10 ounces frozen raspberries, thawed and drained
• 5 T cornstartch
• 4 oz semi-sweet chocolate
• 3 packages of cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 1/3 C sugar
• 1 T vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2/3 C heavy or whipping cream

Method:

1. If you just made the crust, the oven should already be at 350. If not, preheat your oven to 350.
2. Pulse raspberries in a food processor or blender until pureed. You need about 3/4 C of puree.
3. Stir 1 T cornstarch into the raspberry puree
4. Melt the chocolate in the microwave or a double boiler, checking it often and making sure not to burn it
5. Mix one package of cream cheese, 1/3 C sugar, and 4 T of cornstarch n a large bowl. Beat with a mixer on low, about 3 minutes
6. Beat in each remaining package of cream cheese one at a time, scraping down the bowl after each one.
7. Beat 1 C sugar and vanilla with the cream cheese on medium speed
8. Mix in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each one
9. Mix in the chocolate, then cream just until blended (do not overmix)
10. Gently pour batter on top of the crust.
11. Drop teaspoons of raspberry puree onto the batter, smooshing it down slightly.
12. Use a sharp, thin knife and cut through the batter and puree in a figure-8 motion, twisting the knife as you go.
13. Put the cake pan into a large, shallow pan of hot water. The water should rise up the cake pan about an inch.
14. Bake about 1 hour and 15 minutes until the edges are slightly browned.
15. Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and set on a wire rack. Let it cool for two hours.
16. Leave the cake in the springform cake pan, cover with cling wrap, and refrigerate at least 4 hours (preferably overnight)
17. Carefully release cake from springform, decorate with berries or chocolate shavings if desired, and refrigerate until ready to serve!

My friend, Keri, and her family are coming over for dinner tonight, so I'll be serving this then. I'm really pleased with how it looks, but I'll have to wait a few more hours to see how it tastes! If it's even half as delicious as Adria's cheesecake was, then this will be a success. I hope it lives up to Matt's cheesecake standards! Let me know if you try the recipe and how it goes!

I've made up a few different batches of ice cream and have been mostly pretty happy! They've been a little boring — vanilla, chocolate (well, with pecan and fudge), etc. My vegan sister mentioned a while ago about really liking coconut ice cream and I knew I had four cans of coconut milk slowly going bad in the pantry. I just never knew what to do with them (they're leftovers from a Jamaican rice and peas dish I made for the church's international banquet years ago!) So … coconut ice cream, of course!

Well, it doesn't use any milk or cream, so it's not really ice cream. Coconut sorbet. I found a recipe that turned it chocolate and I was all over that. 

Here's what I did: 

ingredients:

• 2 cups coconut milk (not cream of coconut!)
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup sugar
• 8 ounces of bittersweet baking chocolate (though if I were to do this again, I think I'd only use 4 ounces)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

the method:

1. finely chop the chocolate (or throw it in the food processor like I did)
2. heat water and sugar (low) in a small saucepan until sugar is dissolved
3. add the chocolate and whisk until melted
4. remove from heat and add vanilla
5. chill completely
6. freeze in an ice cream maker according to your directions (about 20 minutes using my KitchenAid ice cream maker attachment)
7. it will be pretty soft, but transfer to a freezer container and let it firm up
8. enjoy!

This turned out great! It's a little chocolately for my taste and sort of overpowers the coconut, so I will probably half the chocolate next time. It's still a delicious chocolate coconut sorbet. I also toasted up some coconut flakes to add into the mix during the last two minutes of stirring, but they were all ready sweetened and it just seemed like the overall sorbet would have been way too sweet. If I get some unsweetened flaked coconut, I might do that with some chopped almonds. And rather than melt the chocolate, just throw the chunks in later with the coconut and nuts and call is Almond Joy sorbet.

I saw this post on One Crafty Mumma about a young Australian girl undergoing chemotherapy. She is a sticker collector and has recently received stickers (and notes, Blythe doll clothes, and other gifts) from people around the world. I thought it was so sweet! Unfortunately, her tumor has returned. I want to send her some Japanese stickers and snacks, an encouraging note with some scripture, and prayers her way. I picked up some cute stickers the other day and encourage you to do just a little something for Emma that could brighten her day as well! Read more at this blog post and for Emma's mailing address.

Of course I'm sending Hello Kitty stickers. So girly and Japanese! And these are itty bitty stickers that are just too cute.

Japanese food/restaurant/cat tiny puffy stickers. Tiny food is the best!

These look like too much fun! Puffy sticker faces, hair, eyes, etc. So goofy!

I don't know if these guys are from a show or something or if they're just fun characters, but they made me smile! (Although now that I'm looking at the photo, is that yellow dude holding a glass of beer? No, we'll say it's a cupcake.) I hope these will encourage Emma by letting her know that people are thinking of her all around the globe. <3

We've been making ice cream for a few weeks now and have had some successes and some failures. We've only tried recipes out of books and I decided to improvise a little bit this time. I've been on a Nutella kick lately and decided to do a Nutella Ice Cream! I'm sure this has been done before, but here is my version!

Ingredients:

• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 C sugar
• 2 C heavy cream
• 1 C whole milk
• 3/4 C Nutella

Process:

1. Beat eggs about 2 minutes
2. Whisk in sugar
3. Pour in cream, milk, and 1/2 C Nutella; whisk until blended
4. Freeze in ice cream maker, according to your directions (I ran my Kitchenaid ice cream maker attachment about 20 minutes)
5. Transfer to a container and freeze in freezer
6. After about two hours, drizzle and fold in 1/4 C Nutella to form ribbons
7. Freeze overnight

So far this was my biggest ice cream success! I need to practice my ribbons and would love to include some chopped hazelnuts in the future. Give it a try and let me know what you think!

I like traditions. There are plenty that Matt and I have carried on from our childhood, especially around Christmastime, but it's nice to make up our own as well. Right at Rhino's second birthday I saw a bunch of people online that embroidered their kids handprints as wall art and thought that was pretty cool. On his birthday I traced his hand. Instead of just embroidering the outline, I decided to try out my first reverse applique. I hung it on the wall and wasn't really sure what I would do with it in the future, but decided that I would trace the boys' hands on each of their birthdays.

I traced Heron's chubby hands on his first birthday, then Rhino's when we arrived home after his third birthday, and when arrived home in Japan two weeks ago I traced Heron's two year-old hand. I just decided to turn them into quilt blocks!

(They actually have their real names embroidered, of course!) I'll do this for as long as they let me (or get married?) and then plan to sew them into a quilt. Or maybe three quilts (baby Raven hasn't had his hand traced yet) to pass on to them when they move out. At first I thought that my grown man boys wouldn't appreciate a quilt of their baby hands nearly as much as I would, but someone pointed out that their future wives and families probably would. So we'll see. Either in 18ish years I'll be selfish and make us a big quilt of all of the boys or they'll each get their own!

I just know that it'll always drive me crazy that I didn't think of this early enough to get Rhino's Age 1 hand. For a moment I considered using a copy of Heron's, but the lie would drive me just as crazy! I'll just have to get over it. In the meantime, I'll keep collecting handprints and making them into applique blocks. Check back in a few years to see how it's going!

As you probably know, I have a house full of little boys. Oh, and I'm trying to learn to sew and find little projects. For a while I was a little discouraged because it seemed like there were so many amazing free tutorials online for adorable things to sew for little girls, but I was coming up short on good projects for young boys. Then last year I discovered Made by Rae's Celebrate the Boy and was blown away by so many awesome things to sew for little fellas! Since then, I've been collecting (mostly on Pinterest) great tutorials to try for my little men.

I found a lot of bow tie patterns and have wanted to try them out. They all seem to produce close to the same result, but with slightly different methods. So I just picked papernstitch's Cutest Boy Bowtie tute and jumped right in!

I went with sort of boring-ish blues but want to try for something a little more exciting next time! I'm not going to go into all the things I think I did wrong with these. They are first attempts and not perfect, but I think they turned out pretty great anyway! Rhino and Heron think they're fun and will wear them without even having a shirt on. They'll definitely be sporting these on Sunday! They didn't take long at all and I'm definitely not an expert with my sewing machine and they still worked out. So I recommend heading over to papernstitch's tutorial to make your own for the little guys in your life!

I saw this somewhere on Pinterest a while ago and just had to give it a try for the boys!

All you do is slice up cold hot dogs and stick raw spagetti through them. I did about 7 pieces of spaghetti per hot dog. Then boil it up for ten minutes. I stuck on little peppercorn eyes (with baked bean "juice") and served over baked beans. The boys are loving it!

I love any silly food idea that makes the boys enjoy their meals.

Ohh, and here's an awesome site showing the whole thing in more detail. I love the jellyfish version and definitely think we'll try that out someday too!

I'm going to a baby shower this afternoon and wanted to whip up and quick, handmade gift. Hopefully she doesn't all ready have too many burp clothes. But hey, can you have too many?

I'm not too skilled at sewing yet, but it didn't seem like these burp cloths looked too hard. I printed out the pattern at Happy Together after the boys went to bed last night and got stitching!

The baby is a girl and I just don't have a lot of girly fabrics laying around. I pieced together some leftover scraps from a quilt I'm working on that are girly to make the cotton backing to one cloth.

I had a bunch of gender neutral receiving blankets that I cut up. The tops are receiving blankets, the backs are quilters cotton, but I also put an extra layer of receiving blanket flannel in between, for extra absorbency.

I flew through ten of these last night, but they were actually pretty sloppy. I guess they don't have to look perfect, they do get spit-up on after all! I want to make more in the future (I go to a lot of baby showers!) but will take my time next time around.

I thought they were cute! If you want to make your own, head over to Happy Together's tutorial for oval burp cloths.

We've had some troubles getting home to Matt in Japan. Finally, we are on our way! Jen and Mom will be flying with us back to Colorado on Monday, where we'll meet Matt! We'll all fly home together on the 28th.

It didn't all work out the way I envisioned. We were attempting to get a free flight on the Patriot Express from Seattle straight to Misawa. In order to get on that, Raven had to have the proper paperwork. We've been trying to get that paperwork for months. I finally found out that we could get it done, after having him checked out by a doctor then having an in-person interview at the nearest base (at least 4.5 hours away.) Then it would be processed for a few weeks before moving on to the next step. The in-person part pushed me over the edge. He's two months old, not a terrorist. We've all ready been waiting for months and new obstacles keep appearing. If we were to pursue this paperwork for Raven, what other problems would arise in the weeks we waited to get it approved?

Our alternative was to accept a commercial ticket home. The route is a little more roundabout than the Patriot Express's. My ticket would be from Denver to Seattle to Narita (in Tokyo.) From there we'd have to take the hour drive over to Haneda, spend the night, then get a flight up to Misawa in the morning. And Raven doesn't get a seat. And I have to check my double stroller. How am I supposed to manage all these kids (with Raven on my lap the whole time)? It seemed way too overwhelming.

Tickets to and from Japan can be expensive. We decided to just go for it and get Matt a ticket out to Denver and try to get him on the same flights returning. When he booked my flights through the Air Force, they wouldn't book him as well and have us pay them. All they could do was (days later) give us the itinerary and then we could hope there was still space for him on my flights. Thankfully, there was. Unfortunately, there's no flexibility and we just have to shell out the many thousands of dollars that the ticket costs. I don't know how else I could manage, though. It's a very long trip for three planes, three seat, two days, two toddlers and an infant and me. We really need Matt. And we need to get home. It's been almost four months now since we've been apart and I don't want to wait another month or more.

I'm so excited! In just five days, our family will be whole again!!