a little Halloween stitching...

My mad picture taking skillz, um, not so much...



lately, no matter what I do, I can't get good pics like I used to.



anyhoo, this was a little kit from Shepherd's Bush called "Fright"...a fun stitch!



And here are my boys....my other sweeties ;-)

my sweeties

kid collage
Originally uploaded by Deep Fried Cupcake

This picture is from a few Christmas' ago, and has been on my Flickr stream for a while now, but I wanted to post it here, just because.

The loves of my life.

Even though they're all grown up now, still my babies.

I'm so blessed.

This Cupcake Loves to Stitch!

This Cupcake Loves to Stitch!
Originally uploaded by creative breathing

My newly discovered twin that lives in another state made this for me, isn't she somethin' else? Have you ever found a friend, quite by accident, who loves some of the very same things you do? Some of the very most important things like crafty goodness, sweetie pie treats and love for their family? That's Elizabeth!

It's a wonderful thing!

Check out her blog to see more of her wonderful creations!

offended

This here is what you call an unhappy Pug...



Muttley is now a little over 6 months old. We've clipped his nails once before, no problems. Then his brother Astro had a nail break off in a weird place, and we had to cut it down, which caused blood and much squirming, all of which Muttley was witness to. So when he did his nails later, he wasn't too happy, but he cooperated for the most part (although when I was done, he jumped down and actually looked over his legs and paws to see what I had done to them).

Fast forward two weeks, time to clip again. First big brother, then Muttley.
Astro squirms, but tolerates it cause he knows there will be treats afterwards.
Muttley, to say "not so much" would be putting it mildly.
I have never heard a Pug scream until now. We seriously thought he was going to have a heart attack he was so freaked out. I got one nail clipped and after that, every time I even got near the next nail with the clippers, he would scream and cry and try to fling himself out the window. So one nail is done and that's it.

And now, I'm sitting here trying to figure out what the heck we're going to do for the remainder of his life, which is hopefully a long one, where we can't even touch a nail with the clippers without him having hysterical fits....

Any ideas?

pie, again. and a queen

OK, let me just say, the chocolate chip cookie pie was AWESOME. Beyond awesome! After everyone else had eaten a piece of the buttermilk pie, this one came out of the oven and it was all I could do to not just get myself a fork and have at it, all by myself! But I waited about an hour, cut just one piece and then fell over and died from happiness. When I came to, warnings were issued to NOT TOUCH IT, it's mine. But then when I cut into it the next day, my maternal instincts took over and I shared. Reluctantly. Because, as good as it was warm, it was even better at room temp! Awesomely awesome pie, that's all I'm gonna say about that.



And here is the recipe.....

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

1 unbaked 9-inch deep-dish pie shell (I used the recipe for pie crust that I posted below)

2 large eggs

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened

1 cup (6 ounces) semi-sweet chocolate morsels

1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven 325 degrees. Beat eggs in large mixer bowl on high until foamy.
Beat in flour, granulated sugar and brown sugar. Beat in butter.
Stir in morsels and nuts and spoon into pie shell.
Bake for 55-60 minutes.
Cool on wire rack.


Go make it asap, you won't regret it!

And in stitchy news, I finished up this little cutie, Queen Sheep from Shepherd's Bush...



which is already on it's way to Deb to be finished :)



Have a good week my friends, thank you for all of your sweet comments, you make blogging fun!

all about pie

Today has been all about cooking and baking, since the weather has been cooler, I've been itching to be in the kitchen!

So for dessert, we're having pie. I couldn't decide between Buttermilk Pie, or Chocolate Chip Cookie pie, so I'm making both! YeeHaw!

First off, the pie crust. Found this recipe in an old Amish cookbook. Their recipes never fail, and it was easy as, well, PIE!

You make it right in the pie dish! It is not rolled out, so would not work for a double crusted pie, but for Buttermilk Pie, perfect.

Place right into the pie dish:

1 1/2 cups plus 3 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt



Mix it up with a fork.

Then, in measuring cup, add:

1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 tablespoons cold milk

Beat with fork until creamy



then pour over flour mixture in pie dish



stir together until flour mixture is completely moistened





then use your fingers to pat the dough up the sides of the pie dish, then across the bottom.




Flute or crimp the edges with tines of fork. In this case, we're ready to roll with the buttermilk part of the pie, but if you are preparing the shell to fill later, prick the surface of the crust with a fork and bake in preheated 425 oven for 15 minutes, checking often and pricking more if needed, during the baking.




For the pie you will need:

1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell (see above recipe)
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
3 eggs, well beaten
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt
nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350. Place the softened butter in a large mixer bowl. Add the sugar and cream well. Add flour, eggs, buttermilk, lemon juice, vanilla, and salt, mix. Pour into unbaked pie shell. Sprinkle nutmeg lightly over the top. Bake one hour or until the top is golden brown.

Before going in the oven:



after baking



after it's almost half gone....



you should eat this while it's still warm and then refrigerate the rest. It's good cold too :)

And now, on to the chocolate chip cookie pie. Details to follow!

come tarry, at last

A dear friend gave me this kit from Shepherd's Bush a couple of years ago and it's been a WIP ever since...



I worked on it a little bit here,



and a little bit there..



and put it away in the meantime...



it was challenging at times, the part under "Joyful Be" caused me to swear a little, under my breath



but was worth it in the end...







I changed the lettering style, thanks to this wonderful stitcher. I'm not sure that Cynthia knows me or reads my blog, but I'm so grateful to her for posting her lettering changes, as I'm not always a fan of the new SB lettering style. Thank you Cynthia, and also, for the wonderful SB finishes you post.





A friend told me how to do the hair, as the kit did not come with instructions for that part!



Astro was happy the muttering was finally over from my side of the couch, hee!



Sorry boy, Mama appreciates your concern :)

just for fun (again)

Somehow I came across this blog Cake Wrecks, and had a blast looking at all those crazy cakes. OMG, my hubby and I laughed and laughed over some of them, and we scrolled all the way back to the beginning of the blog so we didn't miss any of them. Check it out!

And I'm sorry, another doggie video from YouTube, this one just cracks me up though, especially the last doggie "talking":



It's probably a pretty sad state of affairs that a cat lover ends up with no cats, three pugs and is obsessed with dog videos. But I couldn't be happier ;-)

(and speaking of cats, this website is too funny, lol funny!)

it's all good :-)

Lots going on lately, good stuff, busy stuff. I'm feeling better after some rain and cooler temperatures...a sniff of fall in the air makes my heart happy, even though in my head, I know it's still August and there's more heat to come...there's my favorite season, just around the corner, waiting for me...

Two of our very busy pugs stood still for a few seconds so we could take their picture:



and this baby devil dog says "even though I chew on the good furniture, you still love me, right? right?"



Stitching wise, I'm working on several things at one time, trying to finish up the piece I'm doing for pay, it's had a few problems and involved lots of redoing, but I'm finally almost done with it. Also, a gift or two for upcoming birthdays, holidays, and then there's this:



No good picture of it as it was raining when I took the photo, but there it is, ready to be sent to the fnisher so she can work her magic on it.

So that's all for now. Thanks for sweet comments and emails. I'm fine. Really. Just fine and dandy :)

runnin' on empty

Maybe it's the heat...the lack of being able to bake or cook on a regular basis because it heats the house up too much...sweating is not my thing...
Or maybe it's the medication I'm on, which is helping me tremendously, but also making me gain weight...despite my efforts to lose it...
it could be any number of things, which I won't go into now,
but I got nothin'. Zip, zilch, Nada.

Except for this (my thanks to Patti for pointing it out to me)



maybe I'll have something to post about when fall gets here. In Texas, that should be about mid December ;)