Dottie's BEST Beirocks!

Ok, I've been slacking but been busy sewing that I haven't updated this week. For a quick update, I found an awesome Beirock recipe and want to share!

 

BEIROCKS

Dough:
1 pkg active dry yeast
1 c. lukewarm water
1 egg
1/4 c. sugar
1 tsp salt
1/4 c. melted butter
3 c. flour

Filling:
1 lb ground beef
4 diced green onions

1/3 head of cabbage, shredded

2 cloves of garlic

cheese to taste

¼ cup melted butter-reserve and do not mix with meat

Directions:
Prepare dough first so that it can rise while you are assembling the filling.
Dissolve yeast in lukewarm water with sugar. Wait 5 minutes then add egg, salt and melted butter and stir. Add half of the flour and stir until smooth. Add rest of flour and stir. Place in greased bowl, cover and let rise.

Brown the meat and season (to taste) with lots of salt garlic, pepper and garlic powder. Put cabbage and onion in another pan with some butter and cook (stirring often) until cabbage is limp and onion is translucent. Add cabbage and onion to the meat and toss together in the pan.

On a floured surface, roll out the dough into a big rectangle (a little thinner than a pie crust) and cut into 4 in. squares (approx.) I used a pizza wheel. Put filling in each square and pinch to close.

Place Beirock (pinched side down) onto a greased baking sheet. Brush tops with melted butter and sprinkle with salt. I made these little and think they were great for finger food!

Bake at 400 degrees for about 15-18 minutes.

These were the best I ever ever made!

Blessings to all who read this!

It's Friday!!

I love Friday's. Usually it means a couple of days with my Hubs, er, I mean Step-King without work. Both of us have felt under the weather this week. He even came home from work early yesterday- he doesn't have a history of doing that so I know he didn't feel good.
I woke up with a sore throat, but ate a couple of spoonful's of honey and am feeling a little better.
This morning I worked on Wedding stuff. I have a little side business where I have the privilege of marrying couples. It started in 2003 when my niece was looking for someone to perform her wedding - but she isn't of any certain faith so she didn't want someone that would do it with religious undertones. Personally, I'm a Christian, and I was raised in a Baptist church where women were to keep quiet. I'm not sure if you can tell or not, but I keep an open mind to the thought that maybe there is a way to make things work....so...I started looking to get Ordained. By the time I got ordained, my Niece had found an Officiant....but...I figured she wasn't the only one out there looking for and Officiant such as this and I put up a website. After that, the ball got rolling and since then, I've lost track of how many marriages I've been able to perform. I'm not totally booked, but I perform around 6-10 a year. I've started to scale down my "gigs" though to be able to focus more on my quilts.
Since I've completed writing the ceremony for the up coming wedding in a couple of weeks...I have a craving for Chocolate Cake. I know that my sweet baby quilt is waiting on me, but I'm going to get some motivation by trying to create something semi homemade. If it works out, I'll share about it. Meanwhile, It is in the oven...and my taste buds are waiting patiently.
Working on the little starts on the superstar baby quilt has taught me that I want to do needle turned applique. I've always liked the look, just been scared to try it. I'm completing getting those boogers on the quilt by tonight. Wish me luck! I'll post the cake tomorrow if it turns out well. Blessings to all who read this,
Dot

Superstar Baby Quilt

This morning I got up and got excited to work on a little baby quilt. First, I love Lilac and this material is so pretty! Next, I have the challenge of putting little cute stars on the quilt. I thought I'd blog my progress. I ordered the fabric and received it, next I washed it. This is for a baby and I didn't want to worry that the dye in the fabric would bother that sweet newborn skin. While it washed, I worked on making 3 different sized stars. Not perfect and pointy, but slightly wonky and curvy. I drew and drew till I liked them. I cut the out of soft microfiber white fabric so they will be super soft on baby's skin.
I cut the main fabric 40x50 for a crib sized quilt. Laid it on my bed and arranged a pleasing look with the stars

Next I'm going to take the little stars and sew them like a pillow to applique onto the quilt. I considered using fusible interfacing, but I didn't want the stars stiff, so I just cut 2 layers of stars to sew together. I plan on blanket stitch around them before I quilt. I'll take more shots as I go along, I'm off to play with fabric!
Blessings to all who read this....Dot

Monday Mondayyyyy lalaaaaaaaaaaa lalalalaaaaah!

A new week. This morning I woke up and my mind was creating. I love that in between awake and asleep time, it seems to be my most creative time of the day. Sometimes I think I just refuse to open my eyes just in case a message from God gets whispered to me.
This morning's message was focus and also find out about submitting quilts into the State Fair. So...I will.
I also practiced my drawing some. I'm wanting to create an art quilt (well, ok, it's art to me) out of wedding dress satin. I drew a couple of pictures which in turn made me think that I could make  series of quilts. Kind of exciting! I'll reveal more in time.
This past weekend was fun. I hung out with my dear King and also got to see a sweet couple that I've been friends with forever.  As I'm living the tight unemployed lifestyle, it was kinda neat to see what I had accomplished since September of 2013. At almost the 6 month mark, I'm blessed and Rich  knowing our needs are met.
I've created some things with my hands, one of which was an ugly poopy brown dresser that transformed into a beautiful piece that I didn't realize I had in me. A friend was moving and posted she had a solid dresser (ok, I call it a chest of drawers, but I suppose it could be either) that she needed to sell. She too has a flair for repurposing so I was excited to see something I could use. Hubs and I loaded up and went and bought her poopy brown dresser...but what I had visioned was pretty big for me to do, yet, I definitely had some time to spend on it...so I did!

The wonderful poopy brown Chest of Drawers

 

I started sanding the poopy brown paint off

And there was blonde stained wood. The varnish (I guess that's what it was) was yellowed and ugly, so I decided to invest in a used orbital sander and sanded off the blonde.

 

This chest has good "bones" as my Sister would say. I love the lines and I'm a sucker for Art Deco!

Since our little house doesn't have a basement or garage,

we pulled the chest inside worked on the next phase.

 

I painted the whole thing white

 

Next I grabbed my sketch book I've kept since high school and

sketched a scene I wanted to paint on the piece.

 

 

 

I'm not sure why, but that bird reminds me of when I was in Campfire girls back in the 70's. I was a bluebird...but that's another story...

 

I took the sketch and scanned it and then folded it to make somewhat of a

graph that I could pencil on the chest.

 

I then penciled a grid lightly on the chest and drew the sketch in pencil to get painted over

 

 

on the above photo you can see the copied sketch and how I folded it to help draw it on the chest.

 

 

Next, I took my favorite black paint and got brave ...

I then sanded the edges of the drawers and outside angles and took some

Vaseline and rubbed it in the exposed wood

 

 

This isn't the clearest photo, but I almost forgot to take a picture so I shot it with my Phone. I grabbed some dark stain and then stained over the sanded parts on all the edges. I hunted on EBay and found some really pretty glass knobs I wanted, but funds were tight so I got some that will work.

Our TV lives on top of it and I find the drawers just right to store X Box games and DVD's.

This is just one of the things I've accomplished in the last 5 months. It felt good to repurpose something and it's very useful for us. I'll share other projects in the days to come.

Blessings to all who read this :)

Dot

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thread with Speghetti sauce....Hmmmmmm

This has been an interesting past several days. We received tons of snow...and I had a wedding scheduled Saturday. Thankfully we arrived there fine as well as made it home.
I don't know what it is, but the closer I get to a six month mark of being unemployed...my faith gets weak. Bills are coming due and every Monday I evaluate the cupboard and fridge to see if I might need to ask for help for food. So far every Monday we have been blessed with plenty to eat till the next funds come in. I have yet to have to ask for help with food and for two reasons, I really never want to.
I grew up with little. Government cheese, hotdogs spaghetti and milk are the foods I can remember the most. I never wanted to be an adult and have to ask for help. I'm a firm believer that if you don't work, you don't eat. I'm willing to work. I've cleaned the local Inn's rooms, scrubbed toilets and showers and chiseled off my fair share of stove gunk. I've considered working at a butcher and as a cook. When the food gets low, I keep wondering how the Lord will provide for us next. So far he always surprises me. He shouldn't, but I always am then I'm immediately embarrassed that I even had doubt.
I use to do photography. The wedding Saturday that was scheduled the bride asked if I could shoot the pictures it as well as perform it. It was a blessing and my sweet Husband assisted me when I couldn't do both. I thank God for him. This unexpected blessing again will keep me from having to ask for help. In the last three years, there's only been once that I was really scared we were going to run out of food. My sweet friend came to the rescue and put groceries in my car (I didn't ask her to). I pray one day I can repay her by sensing she might need help with something but not ask for it. It's the closest I felt to being 7 and on welfare wondering where and when we might have food again that I can remember in years.
My most recent consideration is of selling my vehicle. I've paid it way down in the last 2.5 years, I'd hate to give up on my efforts just to let it go because it's a good dependable car....but....that payment would relieve a lot of stress if it was gone. I'm waiting for a 100% message that I for sure should sell it. Meanwhile, I'll play the game of wondering what thread with spaghetti sauce might taste like if there is a choice of making the car payment or buying food. Of course I'm kidding, but as a Stitcher, long arm quilter, I have plenty of thread. It just sounds funny to say <grin>.
I've been quilting on my Long Arm the last couple of days. I think I'm getting the hang of it a bit. I'm also editing wedding pictures - I really hope the bride likes them. I've also been watching 3 quilters - one named "Eric the quilter", One Mandalei and one Mamaka Mills. I'm getting inspired by them. My crazy tie quilt has been put on hold, but it's still hanging out on my new design board my Son and Husband helped me to get for Christmas

I got the idea for it on Pinterest. I really have to limit my time on that thing as I'm hooked to cruise for quilt ideas and before I know it three hours have past!
I'm off to make contact with my three quilters I've been following. My day is good, the sun is shining, I got an order for a quilt, my photo's are getting edited and I'm feeling accomplished today :)
Blessings to all who read this! Dot

Working towards *just right* as today is Someday...

It's Friday,
I'm glad, that means Hubs will be with me for 2 days straight. This week we had 2 weeks off together due to the snow. I'm so grateful I don't have to drive in the stuff to go to work. On the other hand, another day of scary finances. Hope hope hope, Lord, you called me to do this, where are my orders. Trust, boy that is HARD.
I spent yesterday restitching the quilt I started back in 2005 for my now ex-Step Princess. It was all wrong. seams were not consistent, I had made it square and figured by measurements that it needed to be seam ripped and made into a rectangle. Then I realized it wasn't wide enough so I decided to add borders. Now it's ready. It took forever to reseam and try to figure out the border. Today, finally, I will load it onto my quilting machine to quilt my very first quilt for myself.
What is God trying to show me. Touching the fabric, thinking back at the time I cut out the pieces...made me happy. I lived on a farm...with moo cows. I was on a hill and enjoyed the most beautiful sunrises. I missed my Son terribly, but things were going good with my Step Princess and Princess...even ExKing. By this time ExKing's Oldest special needs prince had been in a facility tailored to help him as he had Intermittent Explosive Disorder, mentally handicapped, ADHD, OCD, he was missed too and occasionally came to visit. ExKing was working for a John Deere equipment place in MO. I remember the Christmas tree was decorated with home made yellow angels out of yarn and green glass drop beaded ornaments and tiny miniature tractors that year. The *good* was /short lived. Only 4 months then ExKing's former employer from KS called and offered to move ExKing back to Kansas. ExKing wasn't known for staying put long so he jumped at it....and we moved....again. I packed the quilt top up in a box and told myself "someday" I'll finish it.
I miss the farm, I miss the silly cows, I miss the sunrises, I don't miss ExKing but I do miss ExPrincess. You can't be a StepQueen for 13years and just turn your love off for a child. She has nothing to do with me now since her Dad and I split. I have no idea what he told her - and I really don't care, but I do still care about her. I have a feeling in her Dad's attempt to move forward, he told her to just forget about me. She is loyal to her Dad. There is a little hole in my heart from that loss.
So today is someday. Today is the day the quilt will be loaded onto my machine and I will stitch. I will reminisce again of the time spent on the farm, I will pray and ask God to show me what his will is again, and I will stitch.
Today is someday...

I'm not that interesting...maybe if my life was "just right"....

I read something this morning, it was about a fellow blogger and the book she wrote. She had stated "maybe if I just wait until my life was just right"....Something about that rang within me. That's what I've been waiting for. I keep thinking no one will want to read about a forty something gal, unemployed, called from God, Remarried, overweight, totally in love with her children and Husband who sews and loves critters. My dream in my 20's was to fall in love, get married, have babies, live on a farm and bake bread. I worked in a bakery for 14+years and baked plenty of loves of bread. I married, had 6 pregnancies and 2 of them to birth. I got to live on a farm for 4 months around cows and a rooster....my dream was done. Now...new dream.
I have always wanted a quilting machine. I wanted to start a business quilting as soon as I heard of the "Kenquilt" at the State fair back in 1988.  It was this monster sewing machine that could glue (sew) together a quilt front and back and provide an income! Fast forward to 2010 in October. I surrendered to the Ministry, 2011 purchased a used quilting machine.....and divorced (Not my decision...although I had considered it more than once after 13 years...but that's another story). I wouldn't touch the machine...for 2 1/2 years. I had to debate more than once if I'd need to sell it to make my bills. Thankfully the Lord brought my Husband in my life who really believed there was a ministry with quilts. I had grown up in an Independent Baptist Church named "Messiah". It was very Missionary based and every year they would hold a Mission conference. I would be so excited to hear the stories of the Missionaries that "sold out" to God and went miles and miles away from their family to follow the call of the Lord. Messiah had quilters in the congregation that would piece and sew quilts to give the missionaries every year. There were quilts all over the word on Missionary beds that came from MY church. I just loved it. I kept thinking when we held the conference and the conference was over that if those missionaries ever got down, they would know through that quilt that the hands that touched it also folded in prayer for them and for what they did. I couldn't go, but I wanted to quilt for them. I only sewed on a quilt once for the cause...but my heart was bitten by the quilting bug. I carried the cause and the passion to want to quilt for years.
It was 2013 and I had felt strongly - through the shared calling of my Husband - that I should quit my job of four plus years and get busy with my quilting machine. But...my faith was weak. Hubs said that he felt I should quit in March, as much as I wanted to be home, I didn't think that we were financially in a position for me to quit. Both of us with Financial Peace University experience...we still hadn't completed baby step one in saving $1000 for emergencies. So....I didn't quilt. Hubs said again the believed that the fourth of July I should quit....again, we weren't ready (In my opinion).
Work started to get more stressful, headaches started to get more frequent, and to relieve stress, I would post on Facebook**my private Facebook page** about some of the calls I would take. You see, I worked answering calls for the State through a contractor about Child Support. Now that you know that, you can see how that would be a stressful type of job...right? Yes...it was. There were days I felt really good knowing I was helping kids, and there were days where the Kids parents (many may days) were not kind with the information they would hear from me about how the system worked. One day, after a very long call with a "yeller" I came home and posted  about it - no names, didn't say the company I worked for, but I did state that I needed Excedrin. Headaches were keeping me in stock with it. 2 weeks later, I was fired. I was told that it was for posting negative comments on social media and it looked poorly to the client (the State). My first thought was.....really?.....REALLY?!
I did the normal sad, mad, grieving thing...then it hit me...You Silly, you were suppose to quit, you didn't, God said STOP! God worked it out because my faith was weak.
I've been unemployed for 5 months. Guess what, God has provided. Not once have we been without something to eat. Don't get me wrong, things are tight...ok, they feel beyond tight, but God has provided.
I've sold everything I can think of to sell. Whatever I still have, I believe I could make money with it in a pinch (camera for photography, cake projector that can be used on cakes as well as walls as I paint and know how to decorate cakes). I sold all my jewelry to meet bills and buy Christmas, I really don't have anything left. Now I just wonder how God will provide. I have to have Faith. Faith, is hope. I have hope.
So, today I will re-piece a quilt and get it quilted...on my quilting machine. This will be MY first quilt. I did quilt 2 quilt tops for a gal last year who was very kind to let me as she knew that I was brand new at the craft. I have to say, they didn't turn out bad. I'm looking forward to doing my own.
I will be focusing on this today and requesting prayers that the Lord will be me orders.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight Proverbs 3:5-6. I have no way to know what God has in store for me, so today I will work on Trusting Him.
Blessings to all who read this...