Soup and Sneak-Peeks!

Last week at school some of us did a soup-exchange.  We each made seven quarts of soup, then swapped them!  This is my Meatball Minestrone.

Meatball Minestrone Soup
(this makes 7 quarts)

2 large tins tomatoes (I used diced)

2 tins black beans

1 pkg. frozen corn

1 cup chopped onions

1 cup chopped celery

1 cup chopped mixd peppers (can use some jalepenos if you like spicy, otherwisde just juse green, yellow and red)

1 large box chicken stock (4 cups)

1 pkg. frozen meatballs

salt, pepper, and Italian seasonings to taste, several splashes of  Worchestershire sauce 

cook for several hrs.  Put in quart jars at this point...leave room at top if you plan to freeze them.  ADD 1/2 cup of tiny pasta when you heat it up....don't let the pasta get soggy.  I wouldn't re-freeze with the pasta in it!

And, here is a sneak-peek of my apron for Shawnee's Spring Fling Apron Swap.

He has little yellow spindly legs that are hard to see, and a little yellow beak.  They show up much better in real life!  (I didn't have orange).  And how about this little tuck-in critter!!

sneaky-peaky!!

Well, my Easter Basket swap partner should have received her parcel today if the US postal services are running correctly!  So I thought it would be safe to post a sneak-peak of the basket I made for Paula!  I really liked how the buttons on the side turned out...they are good old "shrinky-dink"...the same stuff my girls spent one entire summer at the cottage making "Betty and Veronica" figures with!

Easter Basket with Shrinky-Dink Bunny buttons

and here are some of the tuck-ins I sent her!

Easter-y decor!

Look who lives at my house now!  He flew off my knitting needles last night, and now is happily residing in a basket with the bunny that Debbie made for me!

Knitted lamb

My hubby says he looks like a sock monkey!

Swap pacels!



My mug and mug-rug from Denise



It was an exciting Friday for me...not one...but  two fabulous swap parcels arrived for me!  First I opened up my Easter Mug Rug parcel...from Aunt Pitty Pat's swap.  This was crafted by Denise.   Here is my lovely Easter mug-rug...and she didn't even know my favorite color is pink!



Mug-rug and all the goodies

Denise did a super job; she tucked in all sorts of treats, some sand-dollars and a shell from beaches near where she lives, a really cherry polka-dot mug, with a little daisy tea-bag tray, and of course the mug-rug.  It has a little napkin inserted into a holder on the side!  I can't decide if I'll risk taking it to school (and having some poor child inadvertently spill my coffee on it!) or just enjoy it at home.

Next I got to open my Easter Basket Swap parcel!  I felt a little badly getting to open mine up, as I have still to mail mine tomorrow.  But it is all boxed up and ready for the post at least!  So this fabulous "basket" came from Debbie, and here is what all she sent me.



Easter Basket from Debbie

She used the garden hat as a basket!  Very clever!  Inside was this adorable "chocolate" nbunny...he has a sparkly pink "W" charm on his bow, socks, an Easter kitchen towel, the cutest little owl tags ever, (I actually snooped on her blog...and knew she has made them...tee-hee!!), some sewing machine tags...also really cute and so well made, jelly beans, and cream-filled eggs galore!  What a wonderful Easter Basket!  Here is a closer look at the bunny:

Chocolate Easter Bunny made by Debbie

He is just so cute!  And now a photo of me modelling the hat!  I just love wearing hats in the summer, and Debbie didn't even know!

I'm having a "deer in the headlights" moment!