Happy Holidays!

It's been a while, but I just want to quickly share with you what I've been working on this Holiday season...

Did a bunch of sewing!  2 Christmas quilts for my mom and dish towels (from Walmart) embellished with some fun fabric:

And of course LOTS of cookie making!  I did myself a favor this year and made all of my dough ahead and froze it.  Now I can just bake as I need them.

*I really wish I had taken a better picture of these...this one doesn't do them justice.  I still have to make more, so maybe I'll update later :o)

Here is a quick recipe for Matt's grandmother's Candy Cane Cookies:

1/2 c shortening

1/2 c butter (room temp)

1 c sifted powdered sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 tsp almond extract

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 1/2 c flour

1/2 tsp salt (if using unsalted butter, use 1 tsp)

Topping:

About 6 candy canes, crushed...as fine as you can get-the chunks tend not to stick to cookie.

1/4 c granulated sugar

Mix first 6 ingredients until smooth.  Whisk flour and salt together and slowly add to wet mixture.  Remove 1/2 of the dough to separate container and color the other 1/2 with red food color.  Chill for just a little bit.

Preheat oven to 375 and line cookie sheets with parchment paper or foil.  (This really just makes for easy clean up)

Roll about a teaspoon of each dough (Red & uncolored) into "noodles" and twist together.  Place on cookie sheets about an inch apart.  Bake for 9 minutes or until just set, not browned.

Mix crushed candy canes and sugar together and sprinkle over cookies as soon as they come out of the oven.

Yield: 4 dozen

I hope you try these!  They are a little time consuming to roll out, but they are my new favorite Christmas cookie and I think you'll love them!!!

If I don't post again before...Have a very Merry Christmas!!!!

Beware: Holiday Price Gouging

I'm sure all of you ladies are savvy shoppers.  Especially when it comes to holiday shopping.  But I would just like to take a moment to remind you to shop around before you make purchases (any time of year, really).  

I was in the market for the Aquadoodle for my niece and nephew for Christmas.  The first place I always go to is Amazon.com.  I looked at a few different versions, I think they are up to a jumbo size by now...they ranged in price from $19.99-$40.00+.  But I noticed that even with the "deluxe" sets, it only came with one pen.  OK, fine, I'll need to buy an extra.  So I clicked around and found a set with a pen, brush and stencils for $12.99 (not including shipping and handling).  Seemed kind of high to me for some plastic accessories that don't even have ink in them!  Then I found a brush and pen set for $19.99!  Woah there partner.  

Off to Walmart I went (after a lovely dinner with my siblings and husband), only to purchase the Aquadoodle Classic Mat for $15.00 (Rollback price) and the accessory kit (with brush, pen, stencils and spill-proof cup) for...wait for it....$5.00!!  I probably should have known Walmart would have had it cheaper, but sheesh!

I'm not going to bad mouth Amazon.  I've gotten some great deals from them in the past, but just do your research, know what you're buying and make sure you shop around before you fully commit to a purchase.  This was just my small example of what goes on in the retail world.  It's just shocking that stores would try to take advantage of customers in the current state our economy is in.

P.S. Stay tuned for some Holiday projects and gift ideas Tina and I will be posting over at The Clumsy Spider in the coming weeks!  I'll also be posting some of my favorite holiday recipes right here!

Does Anyone Else Get Weepy?

I am a crier by nature.  Lots of things make me cry.  Sad times, happy times, when I'm nervous or when my husband tickles me too much.  And for some reason, every year, around this time, EVERYTHING makes me want to cry!

And each year, as lives change or people pass on, I get a little more WEEPY.  I always think of my grandmother.  We would go to her house for Thanksgiving dinner.  We would walk in, the turkey already cooked, usually drying out on the stove top, naked of it's crispy skin because everyone that walked by before we got there would pick a piece off.  Even though the turkey was hard to eat without a bite of jellied cranberry sauce to accompany it down the hatch, I still miss going there.  I hope she gets to eat the most succulent bird she's ever tasted while she's in heaven!

But I get to have dinner this year with my husband's grandparents.  They are 89 and 91 and still getting around.  I can't believe gram wants to cook at all!  I think at that age, I'll have someone deliver my turkey and prepare it for me :o)

After that we'll head over to my sister's house to have dessert with her family and my parents.  It will be so nice to have JUST the family there.  No younger cousins running around, wasting perfectly good apple pie and Cool Whip (I also remember that from my grandmother's house, it seriously tweaked me to no end).  

I guess this year, being a newlywed, I am thankful for my husband and the love he gives me every day.  I am thankful for my family and friends and for all memories, old and new, happy and sad, that I will cherish forever.  *Yep, getting a little teary now, lol*

I swear, I'll try not to blubber all over myself when I see Santa coming down the street at the end of the Macy's parade on TV. 

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Awesome Weekend & Featured!

Matt and I were so excited to get away for the weekend!  He has family in Cape Cod, MA and they live right on the water...it's beautiful.  And the weather was perfect!  Here is a little photo recap:

On a side note...we at The Clumsy Spider have been featured!  Check us out at The Creative Itch and Giggles, Glitz & Glam!  Tina's cute window valance has gotten a lot of love this week and it's super easy, so check it out!!

Halloweenie!

I had a really fun weekend!  I love Halloween!  I dressed up as a witch with a hat I got from Walmart for $5.  And dressed up my all black outfit with an owl necklace from A Side of Peaches.  It was their daily deal...check them out :o)  I threw together a fast costume for Matt.  He was a flying monkey and I put my instructions up at The Clumsy Spider!  Please enjoy :o)  Here we are at the party we went to:

We had our family over Halloween day for snacky food and candy of course.  The kids had fun collecting their loot from my neighbors.  The adults enjoyed the peach jello shots we made :oP  We got around 150 Trick-or-Treaters!  We were totally wiped out of candy by 7pm...I felt terrible!  But they started so early this year because of it being on a school night.  So by the time the "Big Kids" came out, our light was off!  Oh well, try back next year :o)

I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty excited for the holidays now!  It's early, I know, but there is just something about this season that makes me warm and fuzzy.  I'm ready to get these skeletons and jack-o-lanterns back in the attic!  Bring it on Santa!

Why This is My Favorite Time of Year

It's the prefect time to hike!  

The smell of dried leaves makes me happy!  *Matt gave the tree a little shake so I could get a fun shot :o)

Halloween!!!  We didn't get to go on the spooky night time ghost tour at one of our favorite local spots (tickets sold out in September!), so we went during the day and took some creepy photos of the cemetery.  Maybe next year we'll be lucky enough to do they walk.

Enjoy the week ahead!

A Little Sad Today

It started off a happy day.  I finally managed to finish my quilt last night!  For the last couple of months, I have been talking with a family friend about it.  She was the reason I wanted to try to make a quilt.  My mother and I have been cleaning her house for years (20+ for mom and around 10 years for me), but she and her husband became such a welcomed addition to our family, even attending my wedding in June.  She has made some of the most beautiful HAND SEWN quilts I've ever seen.  I knew I didn't have the patients to do it by hand, but I was still inspired.

The last few weeks, I had been updating her on my progress and I was keeping up with hers.  She was so excited to show me the new fabric that she had bought.  It was the first time she had chosen a busy fabric, and decided to do a "Log Cabin."  She always thought they were boring, but she found a pattern she liked and decided to just go for it.  I would sneak into her basement and peak at her project wall and run my fingers over the seams, and thought that mine wasn't going to look as nice, but I was sure she'd be proud of my very first quilt, even if I wasn't happy with it.

So last night, I FINALLY got it all done.  I was determined to show it to her this morning...even if I had to stay up all night to get it finished.  It took me an hour to figure out how to join the end of the binding to the beginning, but I did it!  I threw it in the washing machine and hugged it when it came out of the dryer.  It was done.  I folded it up and put it on the banister so I wouldn't forget it.

As soon as we got to her house we knew something wasn't right.  It was messier than usual and felt off.  I told my mom that I was going to run my quilt back out to the car because the "Sympathy" card on the table gave us a clue that today wouldn't be a good day.  I came back inside and my mom said, "It's Mrs. Draper."  I said, "No it's not."  And I started to cry.  It couldn't be.  I just saw her last week and she and her husband gushed over my wedding pictures. 

Mr. Draper came down and gave us the sad news.  He had tried to call, but couldn't get through.  He told us that her heart gave out Saturday night.  It's just not fair.  

So I will cherish my first quilt forever.  I know she would have loved it, imperfections and all.  And I will keep on quilting and think of her fondly.  Hoping that one day, I will inspire someone to try something new and do what they love, just as she did for me.

I'll miss you, Joyce.