Hamilton Beach Breakfast

One of the things I wanted for Christmas was a Hamilton Beach breakfast sandwich maker. My aunt got one of these marvelous inventions a while back and said the sandwiches were way better than fast food. Ever since then I have really wanted to try one. (She is also the reason I had to have a Keurig maker :) Plus it's so stinking cute! I love small space savers! Anyway I used it for the first time the other day and it is awesome!

   Watch instructional video here.

Is that cool or what!
Here's what I have found out by trial and error. When using bagels the regular ones (Lender's is what we used) they are just a little bit too big so I took a large mouthed drinking cup and used it as a cookie cutter to trim the edges down. Now it's the right size. If you want an egg on your bagel sandwich, I found the top plate to be too short. In order to get the egg cooked thoroughly with the bagel you end up burning the top of the bagel. Instead use the bottom plate (it's a little taller) to fry the egg and half the bagel and you just get a nicely toasted bagel with no burns. Once finished with that half, set aside and fix the other half with the meat, cheese then just put the two halves together for a bagel breakfast sandwich.

I love sausage, but in the spirit of sticking to New Years resolutions to try and eat healthier, we have been using, whole wheat breads, Canadian Bacon (only 20 calories & .5 grams of fat per slice), fat free cheese, an egg, and I have been putting baby spinach on mine for an extra nutritional boost.

My Favorite Christmas Present

I just received a Christmas gift a few weeks ago, and while I love all the gifts I received, it is my favorite. Look at this quilt my Aunt Lisa made for me for Christmas!

What makes it extra special is that most of the patches are made from my Grandpa's clothes and it was loving pieced together by my Aunt. She is so creative! (She is also the one that got me hooked on cross stitch to start with) What a neat way to to keep his memory alive! 

He past away in 2006. Looking at this, I recognize a lot of the patches. This is so thoughtful. This is definitely one of those quilts that you don't use but store in a very special place or display on a quilting rack and cherish forever. Thank you Aunt Lisa!

Coming Up With a Plan

OK. I think I came up with a plan that I can follow.

Sundays-Day of Rest :)
Mondays-Bedroom
Tuesdays-Living Room & Laundry
Wednesdays-Kitchen
Thursdays-Laundry Room
Fridays-Bathroom
Saturdays-Laundry

  I think this schedule will work well for me because I have a hard time staying focused when spending a whole day cleaning the house. All I can think about is what else I need to do. I find it much easier to tackle one room in the morning and get it out of the way and have the whole day left. My hat is off to those of you who can stay focused and do it all in one day. That just doesn't work for me.

 Plus, last fall my wonderful mother-in-law got me an iPhone. I'm totally in love! I don't know how I survived without one this long. Sorry, getting off subject, the point is that I created reminders for each task and have is set to go off every morning and repeat each week. When I'm done I check it off. I really like getting reminded -"Hey do this today". 

  I can always use a little extra incentive as well. Every week that I have followed my schedule I reward myself with a gift for the house such as new rug, curtains, etc. This week I decided to get a Swiffer Bissell Steamboost Mop. We have linoleum and it has those little dips that the dirt likes to stick in and regular mopping just doesn't seem to get it up. I read the reviews on this and it sounds like the perfect "reward" for this week. I'll let you know what I think of it after I take it for it's first run.

Need a Plan!

  Designing had been put on hold til after Christmas and New Years. Now it's time to find our desk and get back to work. Over the next week or so we are going to try and get our workspace and home organized and back to normal after the holidays. Trying to keep up on house work, designing, stitching, retail sales, promoting is always a little overwhelming at times. I need to make a schedule that I can stick to. I'm going to try to come up with a game plan. I'll be sure to post pictures of the progress.
 My goal is to be more organized in 2014! Now,  I have a St. Patrick's day pattern that I need to get busy on!

Happy 2014 Everyone!

New year day is the time to get a fresh start and make all those resolutions. One of Flowers 2 Flowers resolutions this year is try to keep out blog up to date. So in sticking with that resolution here is out first post :)
  2013 was a great year for us. Here is the list of publications we were in this year:

We had our Stocking Buddy on the cover of the 2013 Christmas Ornament Preview Issue of Just Cross Stitch magazine.


We were the featured designer in the 2013 September October issue of Just Cross Stitch magazine with a 2 page article about our company. Pumpkin Spice and Bat Buddy are designs also included
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Our Pumpkin Buddy was in the 2013 Special Halloween Issue of Just Cross Stitch Magazine.
Our Christmas Tree Buddy was in the 2013 Special Ornament Issue of Just Cross Stitch Magazine.
Plus we also got picked up by Hoffman distribution! We are so excited about this. Here is a link the the items they are currently caring.

Thank you so much for your support this past year. It means so much to us!