Friday, September 30, 2011

Day 4 - On the Edge

So....is the darn song still stuck in your head?  I HAD to take it off the blog, it made me feel a bit like this...


And yes.  It's still stuck in my head.

THANK YOU for ALL your comments!  Wish I could answer them all individually, they cracked us up!  And it's fun to imagine your famous person twins, gives us an idea of what you all look like.  What a FABULOUS lookin' bunch, I might add!

So I didn't tell you yesterday who I've been said to look like.


I've been told I look like a more "funky" Annie Hall.  Hmmm, not so sure about that.  Haven't worn a tie since, well, the '80's!

However, when I first met my husband I told him he looked like....


Yep....John Boy!  (minus the mole thingie...)

I KNOW!  And I still married him???

He was once traveling through Jordan and while sitting in the business lounge got the "Hey, you look like John Boy Walton!" from one of the staff.  In JORDAN.  It's a big joke around here.   A couple of years ago he was going to be out of town for about 3 weeks and after he left, I found THIS under my pillow...


...so I wouldn't forget him.  

I also think it's kinda funny my name is Elizabeth.... 
Good night John Boy!

Ok, enough of that.  I ALSO forgot to tell you our all-time fav TV show!  (No, it's NOT the Waltons.)

I'd have to say for BOTH Beth and I, 
our favorite TOGETHER has to be: 


Oh how we loved that show!  Once we were traveling together (um, like we often do!) and we were trying really hard to get to our hotel in time for 24.  We wanted our jammies, the chips 'n salsa we'd snagged from lunch, and our hand applique all ready to go.  BUT, we got STUCK in traffic.  So we totally pulled a Jack Bauer zooming down side roads, pulling in and out of traffic and made it to the room with 5 minutes to spare!  

My other all time fav is:


We all wanted to be one of Charlie's Angels when we grew up!  I always played Sabrina...first, she had a cool name.  Second, it didn't take me long to figure out that she was the smart one!

What's YOUR favorite TV show of all time???

And yes, I promised another recipe.  This one is seasonal and perfect for RIGHT now!  And no, there are no funky ingredients.

Just.....

Classic Pumpkin Squares

4 eggs, beaten
1 15-oz can pumpkin
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil 
(although I like to do 1/2 cup oil, 1/2 cup plain yogurt)
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  
Beat together eggs, pumpkin, sugar and oil.  



Add flour, and the rest of the ingredients.  Mix until smooth.  Spread batter in a 10x15-inch baking pan.




Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.


Meanwhile, mix up the best part...the cream cheese frosting!


You'll need:
1 package of cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar


Cream together the cream cheese, butter and vanilla.  Slowly add the powdered sugar until nice and smooth.  
After the bars cool, go wild with the frosting!




And what you'll get is....





Delish!!!


Now don't forget to visit these bloggers today:


Dawn at Spring Water Designs

and


Emily at Carolina Patchworks



Thursday, September 29, 2011

Day 3 - On the EDGE - IT'S OUR DAY!!!

WOOOHOOO!  IT'S OUR DAY! 
Notice the music playing??? This has been going thru my head ALL week on this hop!  So of course I had to share.  
Please, feel free to turn the darn thing off! ------->

First, the important stuff....


These are the amazing rulers I got from Sullivan's to try out for this hop.  I was sooo EXCITED to get them in the mail.  I mean, who isn't excited to try out a new tool?  Especially since Miz. Pat Sloan, our pal, put in so much work to design it just for us quilty folk.

This is what I've learned.  First, that it's not so easy to design a new ruler as Pat will tell you!  There were lots of patents out there, so she had to completely re-think this project.  It wasn't a piece of cake for the peeps at Sullivan either, they had this idea to use Diamond Carbide (sounds fancy!) to sharpen rotary blades just like a knife sharpener.  Great idea!  But they had to make the edge JUST right.  It was a year in the making, and I'll tell you what I LOVE!


I've been working on a black/white/yellow beauty....


I made sure I had the sharpening edge on the right side, and just a word of warning, it's LOUD when you run your blade against it!  
LOL, it made me jump the first time, but I quickly got used to it...
the sound of my blade being sharpened.

See how shiny the edge got?

Aside from the obvious sharpening bonus, I LOVE the way Pat designed the rulers.  The markings were so well thought out, and my fav part?  The frosty finish on the rulers!  I hate totally see through rulers.  In fact, I keep the paper on the back!  How many times do you go to cut a busy piece of fabric only to lose the markings on the ruler?  Too many times to count.  With the frosty finish, you can see everything perfectly, and the bold red/black markings just add to the overall pros of this handy-dandy tool.

Great job Pat and the peeps at Sullivans!

Now aren't y'all ready to win one too?  By now you should know that each of us bloggers in the hop gets to choose a winner!  So make sure to leave us a comment today to be in the running from our blog.  

NOW....
The fun stuff.

We're supposed to answer these two questions:

1. If you looked inside our fridge, what would you see?

YIKES!  This was scary.  Wanna peek?


Ok.  That's Beth's.  Although I noticed something missing here.  I've been to her house before and seen a big tub of Nestle Chocolate Chip cookie dough....with SPOONS inside.  After all, why bake it?

And here's MINE....


What?  You don't put clothes in your fridge?


There's fruit and veggies down there too....


(and yes, shameless promotion of my fav baseball team!)

LOLOLOLOLOL!!!

I actually got this idea at Beth's house.  No, she didn't have clothing stacked in her fridge.  However, her college boys sharing a house in town DID!  After a nice sweaty game of basketball one of their friends likes to stick his shirt (yes, sweaty) in the fridge to cool it off!!!  I thought that was hysterical.  And, in a strange sort of way, made perfect sense.  But, uh, glad it wasn't MY fridge.

Just so you know, I had to do a serious clean-out for my photo shoot!  I shoulda taken a before pic, but let's just say I found plenty of science projects, including a bag full of green slimy stuff that MIGHT have been lettuce at one point....

Next question:
2. What actress would play you in the movie of your life?

No. Idea!

I mean, we ARE a bit Thelma and Louise...


Actually, I think we might be more...


Yep.  THAT'S us!  

Answer this: What actor/actress best describes YOU???  Have you been mistaken for someone famous before?  Said you looked like someone famous??? DO TELL!

Now, for the recipe portion.....whew, this is a huge post!

Thanks for all your recipe ideas.  I have two recipes to post, I'll do one today and one tomorrow, how's that?

So for today....The Lizzie B Cre8ive Cookie

This is a basic recipe with some funky add-ins you MUST try.  Seriously.  Try it.

First, you need some important ingredients...


My fav vanilla!


Yes, Rolo's...which you could roll to your friends, or you could just...


Chop 'em up nicely! (and share a cookie with a friend!)


And yes, Kettle chips.  This is the very important secret ingredient.  


Recipe:
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla (bourbon!)
2 cups flour
1 cup oatmeal (old-fashioned)
1/2 tsp. coarse sea-salt 
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup chocolate chips
2 packs of Rolos, chopped
1 1/2 cups crushed Kettle cooked potato chips

In a large bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar.  Add eggs and vanilla.  Add flour, salt, baking soda and ALL the yummy add-ins.  Mix like crazy.  Drop by tablespoons on a non-stick cookie sheet and bake at 400 degrees for FIVE MINUTES.  Yes, just 5.  They will still look doughy in the middle when you take them out, but brown around the edges.  Trust me, they're done.


ENJOY!!!

Now get baking!  
You need these.

And check out Sarah Fielke's blog while they're in the oven at

Don't forget to leave a comment to WIN a ruler!




Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Day 2 - On the Edge

Here we go Day 2! 


Who's bloggin' today in the hop?

Erin Russek over at One Piece at a Time

and

Victoria Findlay Wolfe at Bumble Beans Inc.

Thanks for all the recipe suggestions so far.  Only, I'm waaaay more conflicted.  The ONE thing that got narrowed down was definitely a dessert type dish.  NO problem!  I have those in spades.

Good thing you all didn't request a main dish, I wouldn't have wanted to compete with Victoria's scrumptious recipe! 


So TODAY I'm going to spend the afternoon at one of my favorite quilt shops...


Doesn't this look like the cutest little shop?
Well it is!  And the owners, Jan and Cynthia ROCK the house!

If you're anywhere near Exton, PA between 4-8pm today, stop in and say hi!  (And taste test the recipe I may be posting tomorrow!)



I'll be signing our new book and showing off some of the quilts inside.


PLUS...


A Fall Market Preview!  Yep, you'll get to see what's new for FALL.






Tomorrow is OUR big day on the blog hop.  I've got some crazy stuff in store!


I'm supposed to take a pic of the inside of my fridge and post it tomorrow.  Ugh.  This will be very embarrassing! 


If you snapped a pic of the inside of YOUR fridge right now, what would be the MOST embarrassing thing we'd see???





Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Day 1 - On the Edge

It's HERE!  The Ruler blog hop!


Lots of chances to WIN an awesome sharpening EDGE ruler.

Today, visit:

Pat Sloan (of course!) 

Rachel Griffith  of  P.S. i quilt 

Allison Harris of Cluck Cluck Sew


You'll get ALL the details of the hop at Pat's blog, of course, but let me just say, on this blog hop, you'll learn some INTERESTING things about each blogger!  PLUS....you get new yummy recipes each day!

AND...because that's NEVER all.....

There are 8 RULERS to be won!



Our big post goes up on Thursday, but I've got a 
question or two to put forth before that.  
So for today, question numero uno:

WHAT TYPE OF RECIPE WOULD YOU LIKE 
FROM THE LIZZIE B GIRLS???

I have SOOO many yummy recipes it's just so hard to choose!  Gotta make up my mind by Thursday, so I  thought I'd ask you hoppers for help!

Leave a comment...and get hoppin'!


(Or wait, is that leaping....??)




Friday, September 23, 2011

Back-to-School TWITTER PARTY!!!

WELCOME FALL!!!!


Can you believe it's the first day of fall?  I'm not seeing these lovely leaves yet, but here in PA it's only a matter of time.  
I LOVE the first day of fall.  I get out ALL my decorations and go crazy all over the house before the kids get home from school.

Speaking of school.....

IT'S TIME TO PARTY ON TWITTER!!!

That's right!  Today is the day, well, tonight really.   
The Back-to-School Twitter Party hosted by
9pm-11pm CST

Chatting with lots of fun peeps?  Meeting new ones? And...
WINNING PRIZES???
(Info at the bottom of the post to see HOW to join)

Click on the Stitchin' Heaven Twitter Party button found on the right sidebar to see who all the prizes are coming from.  Also, there's a flickr group with PICS of the prizes!  If you wanna see, 
click HERE!

Meanwhile, here's a peek at what the Lizzie B's are givin' away:


A text book!!!  Um...just kidding...


A 1/2 yd of Lizzie B laminated cotton to take your text book from DRAB to FAB!!! 
(text book not included...LOL!)


And the best part about this laminate?  Give your little student some Sharpies and...


Let them go WILD!!  How fun is THAT?
My 11-yr old is the envy of her 6th grade, I can tell you that much!

We're ALSO giving away....


Our NEW book with fun, happy, simple quilts. Ya need a book for back-to-school after all!


A pack of notecards that come in handy for 
(brown nosing...) writing those teachers a note.

AND a pattern for our awesome iPad cover! 
(uh, iPad not included...!)

But wait....there's more.
Yep.  MORE.

You can ALSO win prizes from the BLOGS participating!  Woohoo!!

So ASIDE from these awesomest prizes...there are TWO ways to win a prize from our blog:

To be in the drawing for ONE of the above mentioned prizes:
1. Leave a comment and tell us what your 
ALL TIME favorite back-to-school item is.
(this gives you two chances to win, at the party and here on the blog! If you can't attend the party, you'll still be in the running for the blog prize, so leave a comment!)

To be in the drawing for the GRAND PRIZE on our blog which will be...wait for it....The Quiltin' Happy book, the Notecards, The iPad pattern AND a KIT to MAKE the iPad cover!!!
1. You MUST attend the Twitter Party
2. Look for comments by @lizcre8sQuilts or @bethcre8sQuilts
3. At some point during the party we are going to mention OUR favorite back-to-school item. 
4. Come back to the blog and mention ONE of our fav's to be in the drawing to WIN!

Are ya ready??  Are ya feelin' lucky???

LET'S HAVE SOME FUN TONIGHT!


P.S. Don't forget to visit our blog next week for the BIG Sullivan Edge Ruler blog hop!  Sept. 27-30.  Even MORE giveaways!

Here's the party info again on how to join the Twitter Party:

We have hosted and been a part of a couple of Twitter Parties this year and just can’t resist!  We thought that there couldn’t be a better way to bring in the School Year, than with each other and with tons of really great prizes from some really great sponsors! So, here’s what you need to do to party!
Who: YOU & Some really great Sponsors
What: Back to School Twitter Party
When: September 23, 2011 -   9pm-11pm CST
Where: Twitter
Party : #SHPARTY 
Topic: Back to School

How: New to twitter? It’s easy and it’s free! Just follow the instructions below:1. Get a Twitter account. You can sign up for free at www.twitter.com2. Go to www.tweetchat.com (or the platform of your choice if you have another you prefer)3. Enter SHPARTY next to the hashtag (#) at the top of the screen.  Once you do that all conversations and party goers for our party will show up in a list just below the top of the page.4. Sign into Twitter if you aren’t already. You will be prompted to allow or deny the app to access your account. Click “allow”5. You will be redirected to the party page where you will only see conversations for #SHPARTY partyers.
6. Use the text box to write your messages. No need to put #SHPARTY in each post because Tweetchat does that for you.
7. Party! We will post messages to the party and you respond. You’ll see the conversation roll. You may want to set the speed of messages, either slower to keep up or faster to get your messages almost as soon as they post without the delay. However you want, it’s your party! You can find how to set the speed right under your message box.





Friday, September 9, 2011

Everybody Wants to RULE the World

Last week the Lizzie B Girls both got VERY fun packages in the mail.
Can you guess?
Not fabric.
Not thread.
Not scissors.
Not chocolate.
Not an all-expense paid trip to Hawaii.


RULERS!!!
It is back-to-school season after all.  
But these aren't just ANY rulers. 
(quilting rulers never are, as we know!)
These are very special rulers designed by none other than our Bestie Miss Pat Sloan
And made by Sullivans.

So I WHIPPED mine open and started CUTTING!


We're going to be blog hoppin' with Pat at the end of the month, but I just wanted to give you all a sneak preview.  Why?  Because, like Pat (we suspect...), THESE rulers have SUPER HERO POWERS!

They. Sharpen. Your. Blade. As. You. Cut.


I'm not lying!  
See the little darkened edge there? 
That's where the Super Powers are contained.


Can you see the shiny edge on my blade?  Yep, sharpened.

These babies will come to your blade rescue in a single cut!
(...0r 10)


Seriously.
This ruler RULES!

To read about ALL the Adventures of the Edge Ruler
Stay tuned September 27-30 
Same Edge time...
Same Edge place...

(Meanwhile, we'll keep checking the mail for that all-expense paid trip to Hawaii....)