Wordless Wednesday- Goodbye Christmas!
Tag: Christmas
Wordless Wednesday
Christmas Sewing, Flamingos, And Tea
It’s time, it’s time! I can show off my Christmas sewing!
My parents and my aunt each got a table runner made from the same fabrics, with different buttons. The buttons are from my Grandma Shirley’s button stash. I shamelessly absconded with them when I moved out. 🙂
Grandma would have approved. She liked things being used. Here are the buttons up close.
The top button was for my parents, and the second one is for my aunt. I accidentally bought a ridiculous amount of fabric by forgetting how much I actually needed at the cutting area. Table runners for everyone!
We’ll have one too for next year. I have some gold buttons set aside.
I also tried to make a skirt for Christmas Eve, but discovered I had a non-separating zipper right after I had attached it.
I cut the zippers, but I need to file down the edges and line it. It was ridiculously staticky when I put it on and stuck to my leggings. I’ve had the fabric for two years at least, all the while intended to be a zippered skirt. I used a self-drafted skirt as a pattern and changed the waistband. It has a wide purple lace on the bottom. I’ll get better pictures when it’s completely done.
To switch gears, my family knows me very well. I received 5 flamingo items and several kitchen gadgets!
Here are the flamingos! Fancy is trying to steal the blanket already, but I’m keeping it!
She has her own flamingos, from my sister-in-law. 🙂
The Husband got me a coffee and spice grinder, a kitchen torch, and 5 fun tea infusers! The book is from my parents for both of us and it looks like a lot of fun to read. It includes recipes based on books that were meaningful for the author.
Here’s more pictures:
The mittens have already been used. I’m going to have a cup of tea before bed tonight and use another one! I’m going to have lots of tea in my future. The Nessie one is part of the set of Nessie utensils that the Husband also bought. I’d given up hope of getting it because it was always sold out. He remembered though and now I have it.
The green spoon is a colander, the blue is the original ladle, and the baby one is the tea infuser. I’m excited to use them. They’ll certainly make me smile.
Fancy was so excited for her ginormous tennis ball, but ended up mostly just ripping the fuzz off. It looked like the Grinch was murdered in the living room after she was done. She was extremely suspicious that we were going to take it. She could also barely fit it in her mouth, so it was funny to watch her try to carry it.
I hope you all had a lovely Christmas! I have to go extricate my snuggly blanket from the dog. She keeps creeping closer and closer on my lap, which happens to be covered with said blanket. 🙂
Stay warm!
Simple Sunday- Christmas Edition
Luke 2:8-20 New International Version (NIV)
8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
Thoughtful Thursday
It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!
I slowed for a minute on cookie baking, but would prefer to think of it a strategic retreat to regroup. 🙂 I have to decide on what to bring to the Husband’s Grandma’s house for Christmas. Peppermint bark may make an appearance.
I have been sewing, but it’s been Super Secret Christmas sewing, so can’t be shown until after next week.
In the meantime, here is some of our Christmas decor to make it a little more festive!
Christmas trains! This wouldn’t fit with our village on the mantle. Next year, we’re going to set up a table for it.
Another train! Also, the ornament from the in-laws for Fancy’s first Christmas. They couldn’t find a queen one, so it says “King of the House.” It totally fits. How could we be expected to refuse this face?
Here are our Firefly ornaments. I thought it was appropriate for them to fly. The black one has a “firefly” license plate on it.
We like to think of our decorating style as electic. 🙂
Icicle lights in the kitchen window. We found these at a summer rummage sale and I forgot about them until I was sorting presents. They look so pretty when the lights hit them.
We didn’t get a bigger artificial tree this year because Fancy has started guarding everything in sight. This is up on the table where she can’t get to it and it seems to be good.
I did some organizing yesterday. My sewing area is crazy again. It’s not completely put away yet, but this bin and some other piles are at least sorted and ready to be put away.
Here are the piles of neatly folded and sorted.
The fat quarter piles look so pretty!
I also got a present for myself in the mail today! It’s “Rainbow Quilts For Scrap Lovers” by Judy Gautier. I know, I know… But I’ll use at least four of these quilts!
This one is partially appliqué, but the background is pieced, so I might be able to get it done.
Reverse appliqué on this one. But it looks easy enough.
So pretty! And it could use up a lot of weird scraps.
I saved the best for last….
I love owls! I will definitely be making this one. Sometime… after I get the other thousand projects done…
For now though, I have a dog sleeping on my foot and should probably go to bed too. Have a peaceful night!
Recipe Roundup
I blinked and the week was done! I only got two cookie recipes done this week. We had a lot of snow and my night commutes got very long.
I made up a recipe and we had chicken divan, which is the Husband’s favorite meal. He had his work holiday parties this week too and one of the prizes was an Instant Pot. I’m going to have to dig out the Food Network magazine with the Instant Pot recipes in it. I know it’s the hot gift this year (no pun intended) so it’ll be fun to try it out. It’s basically a pressure cooker, so anyone have any good recipes?
Here are the recipes!
1- Honey Sugar Cookies from Food Network December 2017.
I found my Christmas cookie cutters! I have a just a few, which is fine. I don’t often make cut outs. This dough was easy to use though. I haven’t made the icing for them yet and I got meringue powder specifically for it. The second batch will have icing. I was empowered by the recipe which just had cut out circles with icing and peppermint candies. That’s my kind of cookie decorating.
2- Mexican Hot Chocolate Crinkles from FN December 2017.
These need more cinnamon, in my opinion, but they are nice and tender and taste good. These might be made for the party as something different to try
3- Crockpot Taco Soup, recipe by me.
No pictures and it was loosely based on a recipe given to us for our wedding. Here is what I did.
1lb ground beef, browned. I can diced green chilis, 1 can tomatoes, 3ish cups beef broth, half a cup of frozen corn, cumin, garlic and onion powder, salt, pepper, and chipotle chili powder. All the spices were to taste.
I put it all in the crockpot and cooked it for 8 hours. We had it with fritos and cheese. It was decent for a quick dinner. The Husband doesn’t like beans, otherwise I would have added black beans.
I have no idea which cookie to make next. I have a bunch of recipes including peppermint truffles, walnut cardamom crescents, and chewy coffee crinkles. I might go to bed early tonight though. I am exhausted. Baking cookies while tired is not good. I forget things like sugar or baking powder.
Tomorrow is my long distance baking day with my Mom, wearing our matching shirts. I may be baking with a friend as well, assuming I’m feeling okay. Hopefully an early night will help.
Wordless Wednesday
Recipe Roundup
I did it again. I made a freezer recipe and lost the original. This one was Barcoa Beef, based on a Chipotle recipe. I really need to figure out where these recipes are saving themselves. I checked both the work and home Ipads, favorites, Pinterest, and bookmarks. Nowhere to be found. I did remember to take pictures though.
1- Barcoa Beef
It was pretty good. Nice and spicy. The rice helped cool it off spice wise. We might try it as a taco filling.
We had soup and grilled cheese and some leftovers as well.
2- Stuffed Italian Meatballs from a Food Network insert.
I stuffed them with marinated mozzarella balls. We had them with a homemade marina sauce, garlic bread, and noodles. They were very good! I would make these again.
3- Basic Corn Muffins from Pillsbury Best Muffins and Quick Breads. Section: Savory Muffins
No pics, I froze them right away. They were good. I didn’t have canned corn, so left it out.
Now for the good stuff! My cookie progress.
I’ve made many cookie recipes. My list so far is 4 cookies from the December 2017 issue of Food Network, and 5 from other sources. I kept running out of things like brown sugar and chocolate chips. I wasn’t completely prepared for this marathon.
Here’s the ones from the December 2017 Food Network.
4- Peppermint Sugar Cookies- from the insert.
Delicious! So crispy and soft in the middle. Light peppermint flavor, not overpowering. They have been added to my party list.
5- Chocolate Shortbread
A little dry for my taste. They dough was a dream to work with. I normally hate cutout doughs, but this was nice and smooth. I don’t think I have a set of Christmas cutters, so hedgehogs and snails it was.
6- Hibiscus Ginger Cookies.
Fresh ginger hurts on dry hands and I’m a little bitter that it didn’t just call for bottled ginger juice. They were alright, very lightly flavored. Kind of a cross between a snowball and a shortbread.
7-Crispy Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies.
These smelled like heaven. It called for browning the butter before adding it in. I wanted to lick the pan. I forgot to take a picture before sending them with the Husband for work.
The other 5 recipes I’ll talk about on Monday. I have a very playful puppy leaping on my Ipad. Apparently it’s playtime. 🙂
Wordless Wednesday
(Narwhals are everywhere this year! Why??)
