Baby Virginia's owl

Isn't she just the prettiest little thing? Thank you, Lauren, for sending me the pictures of Virginia. I'm so honored that my creation was able to be used at her photo shoot!

Uncle Chuck's chuck

I did a good bit of cooking today with beef from my Uncle Chuck. YUM. His cows make some goooood meat. Brett grilled sliders on the grill for lunch, and the girls loved eating them on the little buns. Plus, I made a big pot of chili for dinner. Follow that with a fresh batch of banana muffins, and the house has smelled wonderful all day!

The owl has flown and the Janome moved in

Lots of people have seen my latest project, the owl quilt, as I've been working on it. I'm just, well, I'm just tickled with this quilt. It was so much fun to make.

I designed the applique, that just turned out great. It's got to be one of my best satin stitching jobs. I cut all of the squares, which lined up perfectly when I pieced everything together. The only hitch I had was with the free motion quilting that I wanted to do around the edges. It just didn't work out, so I ended up framing with straight lines around the edges. It looks fine, but I would have liked the free motion quilting better. These straight lines do look nice from the back though. All in all, a wonderful quilt. I hope Lauren and her new little daughter Virginia enjoy it.

So in trying to do the free motion quilting on my regular machine, which I had done before on a previous quilt, I figured out that my machine just couldn't keep up with what I wanted to do. I tried new needles. I tried playing with the upper thread tension. I tried the bobbin tension. I tried new needles. I tried new thread. I even tried three different bobbins. I love my little Brother machine. It sews great, but as my mom says, I sew like a bat out of hell. I like to go FAST, which isn't a setting on my Brother machine.

I'd been debating if and when I wanted to buy a new machine. I decided I wanted to get one that would last for, oh, the next thirty years or so, which meant I would have to fork out some major money (and use it until I'm 60). And then the quilt shop in Noblesville had to up and advertise that they were having a huge sale on their in-stock sewing machines. I went in the shop, and I walked out with a machine...that will last me the next thirty years. I spent a lot on it, but I got almost $1000 off the original price, plus a free one-on-one class with their sewing specialists to learn everything about the machine, plus a free cleaning in a year, plus 10% off my other purchases for a few months. And the thing I like about it the best is that it's not one of those fancy, computer screen sewing machines. It just sews, and it sews well. (And it has two alphabets for embroidery.) That's exactly what I wanted. And it has a longer arm on it so you have more room to sew and quilt. It's a Janome 6600P. I talked to almost every person in the quilt shop, and three of them own one, while the rest of them want one. And these are people that sew on $5000 machines. I think I made a good purchase. Now all I have to do is pay off the credit card I put it on.

And life wouldn't be fun if you didn't make brownies for Daddy while he was on the way home from work. Perfect thing to do on a rainy day. I love watching my girls try to mix things up to bake. So much effort and concentration in such little packages. And faces shmeered with chocolate aren't bad either.

Grandpa would be proud

Oh, Grandpa, you would be proud.

I got back in touch with my Hungarian roots today. The girls and I made some food for the annual Labor Day Hungarian food gathering that my Suppinger side of the family has at the lake.

I decided I wanted to make tarhonya, which is a small egg noodle, dumpling-type of pasta. If you could cross orzo with couscous, you get tarhonya. Honestly, tarhonya is better. My Grandpa Suppinger would make his homemade tarhonya and drench it in sauce from his chicken paprikas. I remember seeing trays of it drying on towels in the back room of the basement. It always seemed a little beyond my reach to make, so I decided to tackle the challenge. You look at the ingredients, and it seems brainless: egg, flour, salt. Seriously? That's it?

So the girls were really excited to tackle the tarhonya challenge with me. They dug in to the dough and mixed with fork and hands. They loved it. Nine batches later, I thought we were set. I never saw what kind of grate my Grandpa used to make his dough crumble in to little pieces, so I decided to use a good cheese grater that I had on hand. After grating two "loaves" of pasta dough, the next seven looked huge. How did my Grandpa make enough of this to feed all of us when we visited? It took forever. I finally figured out that I needed more flour in my dough to make it grate faster. Score. Still, those nine loaves of dough took me all afternoon to grate.

Mixed in between the tarhonya grating. Sophia and I made a loaf of Hungarian white bread topped with poppy seeds. Honestly, I've never made a loaf of bread by myself without killing the yeast. I either put it in water that's too hot when I make the starter, or I have yeast that has gone bad. Either way, I end up with bread that won't rise. But in THIS case, everything worked out. I think the new stove helped too. I braided and baked this loaf of bread, and it looks amazing. The thing is over two feet long. I can't wait to cut in to it!

Mixing their own batches of tarhonya.

Tarhonya dough drying.

Tarhonya dough grated in to small pieces.

"I want to help knead!"

Braid dough...

Let dough double in size...

Sprinkle with poppy seeds...

And yum! Can't wait to cut in to this. It's HUGE!

Our kitchen has been transformed in to a tarhonya drying center.

Had to make some. It tastes just like my Grandpa's!

Claire turned 2...not 3

So did anyone receive this invitation and wonder about it?

Yeah...can you tell that I used the invitation from Sophia's last birthday party? Hence, the "3rd birthday" references. Claire turned 2, not 3. Hey, people. I have three kids now. The fact that I organized two parties in less than one week's time is a feat within itself. Don't blame me for screwing up my kid's age. Besides, she's the middle, forgotten child, right? And so it begins...

So we celebrated Claire's SECOND birthday on August 27th. A little late, but we were pretty busy with a new baby over Claire's birthday. And since we waited to have her party, she was able to celebrate her birthday with her cousin Dominic, so that was pretty special. All of the family and some good friends gathered at the spray park in Westfield for lunch, Elmo/Kung Fu Panda cake, and some waterpark fun. The weather was amazing!

Thanks to all who came and celebrated with us!

Kung Fu Panda cake for Dominic, who turned 9, and Elmo cake for Claire, who turned 2!

YAY! An Elmo backpack! Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!

"Put it over there!"

This is how we open presents in the Suppinger family - with a whole lot of helping hands!

I made Cookie Monster cupcakes too, so there were plenty of blue mouths running around.

Passed out after a fun afternoon.

Claire, in the buff, modeling her new backpack and looking at her new stickers.

Alana's Baptism

On August 21st, Alana was baptized at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Carmel, IN. She was joined by Kathy Brickler and John Meluch, her very special godparents. The Bricklers and the Meluchs played an important roll in our lives when Brett and I were growing up, so it's an honor to add them to our little family!

We're all so happy for her! Although, wouldn't you know it, she screamed during the whole ceremony. Poor kid was so hot! She got to wear this beautiful dress that my Aunt Sandy made from fabric from my late grandmother, so it had special meaning. She then peed and pooed all over said dress when we got home, so she didn't really get to wear it all that long. We were able to squeeze her in to the traditional baptismal dress that everyone since my grandmother has worn for baptisms. My great-grandfather made it from my great-grandmother's wedding slip. (Do I have that right, Mom?) Babies must have been smaller back then because our last two kiddos barely fit in to the dress.

Alana was much happier when we got her home and fed. We had a good gathering of family and friends and had a nice luncheon afterward. Thank you to everyone who helped!

Blessings from Alana's godparents, Kathy Brickler and John Meluch

Alana with her godfather, John.

Alana with her godmother, Kathy.

Yummy cupcakes!

Alana in her baptism dress made by my Aunt Sandy.