courtney rebecca

I finished my first quilt top today! I think it turned out pretty cute. Now the only thing left to do is baste it, quilt it, and bind it. Ha, only. I did forget to buy binding fabric and backing fabric when I bought the original fabric, so I'm going to have to wait until it gets here to do it. I'm thinking of the back being all the polka dot fabric, but with a cream background instead of black. And then the binding I'm thinking... yellow. Or maybe green. I wanted red, but I couldn't find anything that worked. I probably won't finish this until the end of July, since my family will be in town next week and then I'm going back with them to Texas the following week. I'm sure I'll have plenty of things to blog about between now and then though. For now, it feels amazing to have made (half of) something that looks like a real thing!

These pictures are awful because they're from my phone, so bear with me. I promise I'll take much better pictures when I finish this project . I cut out squares for my first patchwork quilt today. Can you tell what I'm making? It will be 4 inch squares once it's sewn together, and it is 8 squares by 9 squares. That should make it about 32" x 36" when it's finished. Won't that be the perfect size to put in Kingsley's crate for him to snuggle? Yes, my friends, I'm making a dog quilt. I need to make something small to practice and I don't have any friends here expecting babies right now, so I can't practice on baby quilts. Hence, the dog quilt. It also may not be perfect, so I won't mind if he tears it up or gets it dirty eventually. Hopefully he will enjoy snuggling it, and I know for sure that Kingsley won't mind my mistakes!

I've had a lot of success recently with a few basic recipes and things I've found on Pinterest. This first one, I feel like it changed my LIFE. In a silly cooking kind of way. Shredding Chicken in a Stand Mixer Guys. You can throw chicken in your mixer and use the paddle and it will shred it. In like 20 seconds! What?! I cannot believe this works, but it does. I will never shred chicken again! I used this when I made my chicken tortilla soup last week, and it saved so much time. Baked Tortilla Chips I made these the same night as the shredded chicken. I actually cut my corn tortillas into strips instead of triangles and they were great. So much healthier than bagged chips and they taste great! Mini Taco Cups Mini Taco Cups! These were fantastic! They're made with wonton wrappers, taco meat (I used my Alton Brown taco seasoning recipes as usual), and cheese. Super simple but they tasted great, and ended up only being 37 calories for each cup. Wow, it appear...

For every great recipe or idea I've found on Pinterest, there are at least twice as many attempts that have completely flopped. Here are a couple of the things that have been complete fails. Blackened Chicken with Cilantro Lime Quinoa and Avocado Cream Sauce Looks delicious, right? I pinned this a long time ago and I tried to make it last week. Oh man. First of all, I'd never had quinoa before, so I was pleasantly surprised when I tasted it after it finished cooking, and I liked it! Unfortunately, the quinoa got ruined pretty fast when I put in the lime juice and cilantro. Sick! It was way too much lime and it totally ruined it. Also, and this is my own fault, but I overcooked the chicken to the point that it was inedible. I was following the directions though! This is a problem I have. I don't like to deviate from recipes, so I guess this was just a terrible recipe. Oatmeal Cupcakes I thought this would be a great way to have oatmeal on the go. Unfortunatel...

I took my first sewing class a year ago. I really wanted to learn how to sew, but even more, I wanted to learn how to quilt. My grandma, Tutu, made a lot of quilts when she was alive. She even taught my older cousin Michelle how to quilt. By the time I had any interest in learning, Tutu was too old to teach me. Or I at least assumed, because I never asked. Tutu passed away two years ago this month, and I am finally learning how to quilt. I have to believe that she would be proud of me! I took an Intro to Quilting class yesterday at this adorable local fabric store, Fabric Bliss. I've taken two other sewing classes there, and I absolutely love it! Today we made a tiny little quilt called a "mug rug." I couldn't believe that it came together so fast! We only did one block, but we pieced it all together, did the batting, and did the binding. So now I know how to do everything I need to do for a large quilt as well! I think the tiny quilt turned out pretty cute. It...

I've been looking for a good recipe for homemade granola bars for a long time. I finally found a great recipe and I can't stop making them! And these are even better than store bought granola bars because there are only 5 ingredients and they're super easy to make. Recipe adapted from Whole Foods : Ingredients 2 cups of quick cooking oats 1/6 cup (8 teaspoons) canola oil 1/3 cup honey 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I don't measure, I just pour it in!) 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips Preheat oven to 350°F. Spread oats on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. Allow oats to cool to room temperature. Combine remaining ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Add cooled oats. Spread mixture into a 8x8-inch baking dish that has been sprayed or oiled, pressing down hard to compact it. I use a smaller pyrex on top of wax paper to make it all flat. (I have tried this in a larger 13x9 dish, and it did not turn out as well.) ...

Oh I know you've been anxiously awaiting Level 3 of 30 Day Shred, but I'm going to disappoint you. I haven't done it even ONCE. After I finished Level 2 of the 30 Day Shred, summer started! Summer didn't mean that I stopped working out... but it did mean I had a lot more time. Instead of doing 20 minutes of the shred every day, I've been working out consistently 6 days a week for an hour. It is fabulous to have so much time! I'm actually still doing all the strength moves in 30 Day Shred. I skip the cardio minutes and do another strength exercise during that time. Then I do cardio outside in the park OR I spend my cardio time with my very favourite... Leslie Sansone. I've been working out with Leslie's videos for about 10 years now. Oh yikes, that's a long time! That's right, since I was in high school. The very first time I lost significant weight was by walking 3 miles with Leslie every day for weeks. It works! I'm back to using h...

Today was my first day of summer. I closed down two libraries this year, and it went great! I'm happy that it all ended up being easier than I thought. And I brought in summer by making it all official... I went swimming! My friend from work, Mala, who is our art teacher, invited me to come swimming with her family at their country club. It was a beautiful day, and I had so much fun! The lovely pool. It was heated, which was so nice since it was only in the 70s outside up there today. The incredible view! The club was up on Mt. Vernon and it was so beautiful. I couldn't get over the red barn you can see in this picture. It was an excellent way to start the summer! I'll be back hopefully tomorrow to post about my summer goals.