Children's Apron

One of my best friends in all the world inherited recently from her mother two aprons that were made for her mother by her grandmother. That's 6 generations ago in case I've confused you!! In any case, she decided that she wanted to give them back to her mother for Christmas this year, so she had them displayed in the most beautiful shadow box. They were already wrapped and ready to give for Christmas and I begged her to unwrap it and allow me to photograph them for you. We just don't do work like this much anymore...especially for a child who may not appreciate or value the time and effort that goes into such beautiful handwork. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

Boys Version of a Quilt Retreat!

Every couple of years, Mr. Live Well and some of his brothers and nephews go on a 'boys trip'. They plan and pack and measure and weigh every single thing that is going in these packs for month after month! They read maps and talk and study and about drive the rest of us crazy with their 'anal-yzing'! (Just in case you don't believe me, I'll mention only one little tidbit...they saw their toothbrushes in half so they don't weigh as much!) This is the vehicle that held the precious packs.

Our oldest son adjusts his dads pack and gets the weight balanced. They spend oodles of money on packs, sleeping bags, boots, and freeze dried food.

This is the original crew and then they added the neighbors. Now that I think about it, it's not that different from a quilt retreat. Don't we spend all kinds of money on the perfect fabric, sewing machines, pack the car to the gills, gather as many friends as possible, etc. etc.? We just prefer to be a lot more comfortable!

Food From StarValley

Everytime we go on a trip together, 'the girls', always ask me for recipes and I am sloowwww in getting them posted. Today I was told I was in BIG trouble if I didn't post the recipes tonight...so I am repenting! This seemed to be everybody's favorite salad. (I served 2 salads for lunch and a fresh limeade with a touch of mint)

Sesame and Cilantro Quinoa Pasta Salad (Gluten Free)

Ingredients:

Honey Soy Dressing

1/4 c. grapeseed oil

3 T. dark sesame oil

1/2 t. crushed dried red pepper

3 T. Agave

2 T. Soy Sauce (make sure it's gluten free)

Salad:

8 oz. Quinoa Pasta

1/2 c. coarsely chopped cilantro

1/4 c. chopped roasted peanuts

1/4 c. thinly sliced green onions

1/4 c. sliced and chopped red bell pepper

1 T. toasted sesame seeds

Cook the pasta in a large saucepan in salted boiling water, according to package directions. Drain, but do not rinse.

While the pasta is cooking, prepare the dressing. Heat the grapeseed oil, sesame oil, and red pepper, in a small saucepan. Add the honey and soy sauce and mix well.

Combine the drained pasta with dressing in a large bowl until the pasta is well coated. Cover and chill for several hours.

When ready to serve, mix in the cilantro, peanuts, green onions and bell pepper. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds.

Serves 4

What I've Spent the Last 2 Months Doing

Our oldest daughter Jena got married on Saturday the 5th and it was a beautiful ceremony, a perfect day in terms of weather and it was everything I had hoped for in the reception. They are such a darling couple and so happy to be together. I personally am exhausted. More tired than I can remember being in a very long time. I'm going straight to bed for the week! Then I hope to get back to quilting! Live Well, Judi

Raw Carrot Cake

I have been taking a class on Emotional Freedom Therapy for the last few months on Saturday and we had a all day class this last week. This is the class of wonderful women I have come to respect and admire so much! It's always so wonderful getting to know people so intimately and they love you warts and all!

I wanted to take something the entire group would enjoy snacking on without having to worry about who was on a diet, who might be allergic to gluten, who didn't eat sugar, etc. etc. (Am I the only one who's noticed how difficult it's getting to bring a food item somewhere?) Anyway, the class started in an hour and I needed to be speedy about it...so here's what I did...

Raw Carrot Cake

3 cups grated carrots

1 cup soaked, chopped dry fruit (I used raisins, goji berries, & AJ sweetened cranberries)

1 cup chopped nuts (used pecans)

1/4 c. honey (I used a chokeberry honey I bought in Star Valley with RaeAnn)

1/4 c. agave

1 t. pampered chefs cinnamon blend

4 T. ground flax seeds (this would get adjusted to how much water was in your carrots)

Mix ingredients together, adding flax seeds if necessary so mixture is not too moist. Press into a rounded bowl or the shape of your choice (I made it look like a cake roll, long and skinny). Chill well to set shape (thru it in the freezer as it was an emergency!). I frosted it with plain greek yogurt and sprinkled with more chopped pecans. Live Well, Judi

It's RaeAnn's Fault!!

For our little trip to Star Valley last month my friend RaeAnn from Cutie Pinwheel bought me the cutest little tea cup and saucer and confessed that she found it at Deseret Industries. So today I decided that I would stop by D.I. to get a couple of ties to let the kids try and dye eggs like Nedra did on her blog (Cactus-Needle). I'm wandering thru D.I. looking for ties and decide it would be fun to stop over at the pottery section and see if I could find a tea cup like RaeAnn did. And low and behold, I see the most beautiful set of dishes I've ever seen!! They jumped off the shelf and landed in my cart and insisted on going home with me! I have been looking for plates for the longest time thinking I wanted to replace my everyday dishes. I thought these would be it...then upon returning home I looked them up on the internet and found out they are from the 1940's and worth lots of money. So I won't be using them for everyday, but I'm definately serving Easter dinner on them. I got 13 dinner plates, 12 salad plates and 6 saucers...paying about $26 for the entire set!! One plate on the internet goes for $18 on Ebay, but the replacement value is $29 for a dinner plate. I forgot to say I also got a platter for $1.50 (retails for $70 on the internet) and a serving bowl. They are so me and Shabby Chic and I'm tickled pink!! Thanks RaeAnn for inspiring me!

A Couple of Recipes from our Quilt Retreat

I recently returned from a quilt retreat with RaeAnn from Cutie Pinwheel and Nedra from Cactus-Needle and they have asked me to put a couple of my recipes on my blog. I was the cook a couple of days and really enjoyed myself. It was fun to open a refrigerator and figure out what could be made out of what was in there. Sometimes when I quilt all day, cooking is a great way to relax and stretch my back anyway.

I was in charge of all the food on Monday and made a bunch of gluten free recipes because RaeAnn is allergic to gluten. We had a couple of great salads for lunch and I'll put those recipes on later. For dinner, we had marinated Maui Maui, brown rice, salad, steamed broccoli, roasted tomato salad and a fabulous chocolate pudding made without dairy for dessert.

This salad recipe comes from the Barefoot Contessa, Back to Basics cookbook. I've made it again and again and it's what RaeAnn has asked for instead of birthday cake!!

Roasted Tomato Caprese Salad

12 plum tomatoes, halved
1/4 c olive oil
1 1/2 T. balsamic vinegar
2 large garlic cloves, minced
2 t. sugar
1 1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. black pepper
16 oz. fresh mozzarella
12 large fresh basil leaves, julienned
Preheat oven to 275 (I'm always running behind, so I turn the oven to 300 and cook for a shorter period of time.)
Arrange tomatoes on a sheet pan, cut sides up, in a single layer. Drizzle with the olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Sprinkle with the garlic, sugar, 1 1/2 t. salt, and 1/2 t. pepper. Roast for 2 hours until the tomatoes are concentrated and begin to caramelize. Cut the mozzarella in 1/2" slices and put between layers of tomatoes on a platter. Scatter the basil on top, drizzle with olive oil. If you put the cheese and tomatoes together right away, the cheese melts slightly and it is delicious!!

Tofu Chocolate Mousse

This recipe comes from a great new cookbook I've been enjoying lately called, The Eat Clean Diet Cookbook. Everything in there is perfect!
3/4 c. dark chocolate, broken into pieces (I used a great candy bar from the health food store that is made with rice milk and NO gluten.)
12 oz. silken tofu at room temperature, drained
1/2 c. warm almond milk
1 t. vanilla
Melt chocolate in microwave. Make sure to let the chocolate melt slowly, stir until chocolate is smooth.
In food processor, combine tofu, melted chocolate, warmed milk and vanilla. Process until smooth. Place tofu mixture into small serving bowls. Chill and Serve. I topped mine with chocolate dipped strawberries.

Ruby's Inn Part 2

Part of one of our meetings is sharing what we started last year at Ruby's. I've included many of the show and tell quilts for this post. I really like how the above quilt is put together. It's often difficult to get random blocks to fit and make it actually look cohesive. I think Krisanne did a really good job of it!

Since many of us are trying to use up scraps this year, I thought the above was a good use of going thru all kinds of scraps.

These landscape quilts are always so beautiful. I've never done one, but I think this gal did a great job.

Paula taught this Book of Mormon quilt last year. I want to make one!
If you've got a scouter, the next 2 quilts are for you. I really like this idea, but I haven't saved all my sons or husbands badges...so I guess this one is out.

This quilt is a treasure made for Bonnie Miles. For many years Bonnie has taken women on quilt retreats and on trips to museums, quilt stores, quilt shows, important quilts in history, etc. A of participant on one of these trips made this quilt as a gift of thanks. It's a memory quilt and is signed by all the attendees. Further, the outside edges are lined with the places they ate, the sites of interest, the waiter that served their food, etc. It was a lovely tribute.

Ruby's Inn Quilt Retreat..Part One

I was privileged this year to attend Bonnie Miles quilt retreat at Ruby's Inn in Bryce Canyon, Utah this year. Bonnie has been putting this event on for years and it is a race to get in. She really knows how to put together a wonderful retreat! We started out our first get together with a little apron show and tell. You'll see some of the fun examples below...

This apron has a big pocket that buttons up and when you unbutton it, you have the full length apron.

This apron was modeled by one of Bonnie's granddaughters and its so cute on her. You can see that the front is the backside of a pair of jeans.

The next part of our meeting was taught by Flora our fearless leader at Girl Gang and she had some of her friends participate in a panel to teach us to give up our paranoia's about quilting and all our guilty complexes, etc.! It was delightful. Anything Flora does is lots of fun and she had us laughing and smiling about our silly little quilting phobias. Three members of the panel shared one of their favorite quilts with us. Super Duper talented women!

This is Paula's quilt from the panel. I started one of these about 12 years ago and it's still in a million pieces somewhere in my house!

Janice showed her Girl Gang quilt called My Favorite Things and each block represents an important story in her life. Janice is one of my quilting hereos. I want to grow up and be just like her!

This is Norma's quilt and it's a new pattern coming out. It's definately on my 'to do' list. Her color choices always inspire me.

Finally at 2:00 we separated for classes and I took a class taught by Sheri. Sheri is a wonderful appliquier and she taught us a class called Halloween 1902. It's a lovely quilt and was lots of fun to start on.

This is Paula's version of Halloween 1902. Just a little bit different colorway. Paula is also amazing with hand applique, but she decided to applique this one by machine. That gave me permission to do it too.

Sheri showed us a large flimsy of her basket quilt. I can't remember what she said about how many baskets there are in this one, but I'm pretty sure it was in the 200's! It's amazing. I sat next to her last year when she was just beginning this quilt.

Another one of Sheri's beauties.

Paula is teaching a class on this quilt tomorrow. I don't happen to be enrolled in it, but wanted to show you how cute these houses are. When her children get married, she makes one of these for their new home.

Valentine's Day/Weekend Celebration

Mr. "Live Well" surprised me and took me away on a wonderful trip for Valentine's Day. When I walked into the hotel room, I found rose petals scattered on the floor!

Rose petals on the bed and dark European chocolate scattered on there as well...does it get better than that?!

Oh, yes it does when you also have a box of Rocky Mountain Chocolates...loaded with ALL of my favorites...dark chocolate toffee, peanut butter cups, and cream filled. YUMM-O

The most stunning bouquet of flowers from Bloomers. I think that sweet husband of mine thought of everything!

Besides all that love, Nedra from Cactus Needle hosted a beautiful Valentine dinner for us on Sunday. We had a wonderful dinner with family and friends!


While we were on our trip we had the opportunity to watch our daughter play basketball a couple of times. When we drove up to the gym, the first thing we saw was a large pole out front that has her photo wrapped around it. How fun!

After every game she has to have her ankles wrapped in ice from her injury I showed you back in November. She walks around with ice bags on her feet, freezing to death and dripping every where she goes. It's uncomfortable and sometimes embarrassing as water runs down in a stream from her seat.

When the players leave the locker rooms and come out onto the floor to play there is a tunnel that they run thru...the tunnel is wallpapered with this enormous photo of her dribbling.

During the game when a time out is called or there's a media break, they have fans come out onto the floor and perform funny tricks. People toss frisbee's, try to shoot the ball with a bungie cord keeping them teathered to someone else and hula hooping. Our oldest daughter tried her hand or should I say hips at the hula hoop. She won an hour massage for beating the clock and her embarrassment! Needless to say we had a wonderful Valentine's weekend and enjoyed every minute of it! Live Well