Festivities, Family, Food, Failure

Well, it's been a couple of packed days around here, but good days.  On Wednesday we met up with my husband's family at Wasserbahn water park/hotel.  My son had a great time with his cousins and it was a pretty good deal. 

These are random strangers, but you get the idea.

play area

 We then headed to Cedar Rapids for Thanksgiving dinner with more of Andrew's family.  As usual, all the food was delicious and it's always good to see family.  One of Andrew's cousins and his wife somewhat recently got a dog so they brought her over to meet the family.  We all got a good laugh watching the dog herd the children into a group. 

Obie loves herding children

It used to be that my husband's grandmother made those cookies made from Ritz crackers and peanut butter and dipped in chocolate, but she hasn't been in good enough health to do that for a few years.  So when I joined the family, Andrew and I took that job.  The first year we made them, I melted the chocolate almond bark in a pan, but there was scorching and while the task was still accomplished, it was not great.  I was then given a double boiler as a gift and those make the whole process much better. 

Melting chocolate almond bark in the double boiler

Oh, these cookies are so yummy

Let's see...we've covered festivities, family, and food.  My failure was in my fun sewing attempt.  I love the Anna Maria Horner Feather Pattern, so I thought I'd give it a try, especially since it's a free pattern.  I'm not sure if the directions are not super clear or if I didn't read well or what, but I messed up.  And this was even after reading another blogger mention how she made these and messed up.  I should have learned from her error. 

sewing strips together and cutting them up

This is not correct.  The diagonal stripes on the left side of the feather are supposed to angle upward toward the middle.

Oh, well.  I'll just have to sew some more strips together and do those pieces the right way and I'll have more feathers.  No problem.  I was thinking of making a table runner or pillow, but now with as many feathers as I'll end up with, I might make a whole baby quilt or something.  I dunno.  Any suggestions?