Tweetle Dee Design Co.: April 2021

Thursday

Deseret Drifter Floral Embroidery

We are so excited to share with you our newest hoop-art embroidery pattern, The Deseret Drifter Floral Embroidery Sampler. The Deseret is a term we hear in the west often. It is associated with the values of hard work, perseverance, inspired vision and strength. The name of this pattern, the Deseret Drifter came to me one night as I was journaling.

I love reality journals, you know the journals we scribble our hopes and goals into, our honest failures and glimpses of the paths we trudge along to a better way. The word "drifter" gives me the image of someone who is trying to stay on a path, but often walks through other "creative" paths. I am for sure a drifter. I can never stay on one straight or sure path at a time. As much as I can imagine and dream, so many different paths call to me.

I trust myself and the paths I drift to. I have had to learn to trust myself in the absence of parents or stable guides. I am a Deseret Drifter. I love to dream inspired visions and I love to work along with my husband to see them happen. Some do and sometimes the path changes along the way. No matter where we drift with trust in ourselves, each other and God, we always find a more beautiful dream than what we had hoped for.

This design turns and twist with florals, all perfectly wild. The two hearts in the center pointing together represent our hearts pointing towards hope together. The moon is for our dreams and the stars give us direction, both in perfect balance.
All of the stitches in this hoop-art piece are simple, yet varied slightly to bring extra texture and color to the stems and leaves. All of the stitches are in our stitching guide included in the pattern and many of the stitches can be found on our YouTube channel.
You can purchase the pattern as a PDF or as a color print ready to ship. Also in the shop are full kits of the Deseret Drifter Floral Embroidery Sampler. Each of the kits comes with everything you need to make this sampler as well as an unfinished ready to paint Hoop Art Box Frame. We love these Hoop Art Boxes! They hold your embroidery stitch in the hoop for perfect display of your embroidered piece.
Happy stitching and dreaming & drifting!

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Monday

Orchard Tree Barn Quilt

The buds are popping out in all of the orchards around our mountain community with bright swatch paths of pink, peach and red. We are so excited to release our newest original barn quilt design, The Orchard Tree.

The Orchard Tree

We love this design with it's half square triangles all pointing to the heart of the tallest orchard tree in the field. The little burst of color are the fruits of the orchard, apples, peaches and cherries. Dry brushed on farm wood and framed in a black wash, it has the look of wood fruit crates. Our Orchard Tree is available in four sizes, 22" through to a big 55" and it sealed for years of outdoor use.
All of our barn quilts can be adapted to any of our Prairie Paint colors to show off the colors of your orchard or even painted in a simple black and white...it is stunning!

We also offer this design in a pattern which can be mailed or sent as a PDF download, as well there are lots of ready to paint barn quilt kits in the shop for our barn quilt friends who love to paint their very own! Which ever you choose, this fabulous Orchard Tree Barn Quilt stands alone in design, color and symbol.

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Tuesday

Celebrating Easter

This past weekend we celebrated the Easter weekend with family in sunny and surprisingly warm Utah! It hit 83 degrees here on the mountain and gave a few of us sun kissed noses. We love this weekend to gather and remember the blessings and gift that have come to each of us because of the sacrifice and resurrection of our savior, Jesus Christ.

Over the years traditions have grown and now as many of us are apart in other areas of the country, we love to share pictures and screen time celebrating in the same way only apart. This Easter weekend was also the General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints which we are members of. This conference comes twice a year and is recorded and broadcast around the world, with messages of hope and faith for Christians.

General Conference Cinnamon Rolls

This spring conference they recorded testimonies of people from around the world in their native countries. Music was sung by children and adults in their native tongues. It was so wonderful to watch and share these messages of faith in Christ with our family where ever they were. If you missed the conference, you can still find these recording on YouTube.

Elder Hick and companion in California.

Millie and Taylor watching General Conference.

After General Conference was over our family in Utah gathered up at the house for a outdoor Easter Egg Hunt. Gracie found Sadie the bunny and Mollie loved her so much she claimed it was all hers.

Gracie and Sadie the Bunny

One of our traditions is to bake Grandma's Pineapple Coconut Carrot Cake with it's amazing glaze and Orange Cream Cheese Frosting...Oh my! We bake it only for Easter, so it is one of the things everyone looks forward to having. The recipe is on the blog, and believe us...it is worth the wait for spring!

Little Felix had his first Easter and wasn't too sure about the egg hunt. His little bunny bib was adorable. We filled over 300 eggs with chocolates and a whole bunch of money eggs were hidden by Mike in small nooks in the rock walls and up in the trees.

We also made Robin Egg Bird Nests from the No Bake Chocolate Cookie recipe my Grandma taught me to make as a little kiddo. We used to think we were so amazing to make such yummy chocolate things as littles...now our littles love to make them. To adapt the recipe to create nests, we substitutes the oats for dried chow mien noodles. We formed them into round flat nests and added a couple of Robin Eggs to them. When they cool they firm up and keep the "eggs" in place. They are so cute and fun to make with the kids.

Mollie finding her first eggs!

We aren't quite sure who found the most eggs, or who ate the most eggs! We do know that we had so much fun together. We hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend too. For the recipes follow the links or use the blog search and they will come up. We love you all and are so thankful to share a little of our love with you.

Happy Easter from our family to yours!

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Friday

Grandma's Pineapple Coconut Carrot Cake

For years our family's favorite Easter dessert has been my Grandma's Pineapple Carrot Cake with Brown Butter Glaze and Orange Cream Cheese Frosting. I can honestly say that I have never tasted a better carrot cake...ever! I think our grandma's knew how to do it right. Their cakes may not have been the prettiest, but they sure knew how to make home style moist deliciousness. Each component of this cake is fabulous on it's own...but together is is just plain sinful. I think the Brown Butter Glaze makes it..just saying!

Grandma's Pineapple Coconut Carrot Cake

2 Cups Flour

2 Teas Baking Soda

2 Teas Saigon Cinnamon

1/2 Teas Salt

Sift dry ingredients together and set aside....

3 Eggs

3/4 Cup Vegatable Oil

3/4 Cup Buttermilk

2 Cups Sugar

2 Teas Vanilla

Mix well. Add the dry ingredients and mix well.

2 Cups Drained, Crushed Pineapple

2 Cups Shredded Carrot

1 Cup Flaked Coconut

1/2 Cup Chopped Nuts

Add pineapple, coconut, carrot and nuts and mix well.

Pour into a greased 9" x 13" glass cake pan and bake at 350 degrees for approximately one hour or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Just before your cake is done, make the glaze....

Brown Butter Glaze

1 Cup Sugar

1/2 Teas Baking Soda

1/2 Cup Buttermilk

1/4 Pound Butter

1 Tablespoon Corn Syrup

1 Teaspoon Vanilla

Place butter in a medium hot pan and melt. Let it get a little browned in the pan. Add the buttermilk, sugar, corn syrup, and vanilla. Boil for 1 minute. Add the baking soda and whisk.