I've Been Stitching!!!

Well, I thought I'd be dragging out my Christmas boxes this whole week, but all I've wanted to do is work on my penny rug projects!! LOL  I've been playing my Christmas music, and it has just been inspiring me to stitch!  I'm LOVING it!! :-D
I finished all the pennies for my mom's, and pinned them in their "spots"......

Now tomorrow I can start blanket-stitching them to the backing! :-D

ALSO, I've been having such fun stitching MY penny rug!! (remember it from a few posts ago, the triangle of single circles?)  I started with the dark green center.....

I pinned half of them so I could fit them in my hoop -- these are going right onto the black backing, so it would be easiest to use a hoop frame to keep them in the right positions!

I finished this first part tonight!! :-D  I will pin the rest of the dark green in place and work on them on and off with my mom's, unless I feel like finishing hers.....I probably will.  Getting those pennies on the backing will be quicker than doing mine!  And I'd like to get it to her by Christmas!  Since I am only using single circles for mine, I'm stitching a little star in the center of each one......

They will all have one, and I'm going to use the brown thread for every color circle -- it matches the brown that will be around the edge.  I am really enjoying this stitching!! :-D

For the rest of my week, appointments are threatening to detract from my happy homemaking.....dentist for the kids and a knee doctor for Brian.  Nothing is serious, it's just NO FUN.  How can I play in my house if I'm running people around to appointments??? :-P  I'll be bringing my stitching with me, that's for sure!  I've done that many times before - stitching, crocheting, beading.....you should see the funny looks I get while I'm working away on something in the waiting room! LOL  Actually, people love to look at what I'm doing and talk about it, their grandmother used to do it, or they made something when they were younger, etc.  One guy joked with me about it and said, "isn't there an app for that now?"....hahaha!!  I wonder if he knew that the reason it is so satisfying to DO these projects is because there ISN'T an "app" for them.....? 
*SIGH!!*  What kind of world will there be for my grandchildren???

One more day until Brian is home again!! :-D  This weekend we will be getting our tree and pulling all the decorations out!  Oh, fun fun fun!!  I can't wait to see all my Christmas treasures!! ^-^

A Little Grungy Flower Pocket!!

.....Or at least that's what I THINK it is.....! :-D

I saw this on Pinterest a few days ago......

......and thought that I'd like to make one!  I have all the scraps around for it.....I DO want one!!! :-D

So I looked over our scraps from my cabinet and found one the perfect size, and I cut some squares of tea stained muslin I had, but they weren't grungy enough, so I dipped them into my "staining" mixture (paint/water), and it was perfect.....

See the difference?  GREAT look!!
Here's the wood piece I picked.....

It's already stained because it was for my cabinet, so it's ready!
I had Brian drill two holes for the twine, and tied the knots for a hanger......

I like it already!!!!! :-D
I used my new favorite hot glue gun to attach the muslin -- it worked GREAT!!

So cute already!! :-D
Now for something to put in it, I have some dried things around here I've been saving, but WAIT -- I know the perfect thing......Lavender!.....

Two years ago, I planted two lavender plants, and only one lived!  I keep forgetting that I have it back there!! LOL  Not this time, I think fresh lavender is just what this "pocket" needs! :-D
I clipped a few stems (they smell soooo good!)....

And you can see that I added a little "patch" to my muslin -- I just used fabric glue to stick a little square of fabric on there.  See my lavender stems?  I'm going to have to clip more for other stuff, they are so great!
All I did was stuff them in there.....

I LOVE it!!!  Can you see some writing on the top right of the fabric?  I used pencil to write "1883 Ida Ojerholm" on it (like the date on the Pinterest one) -- remember she was my great, great grandmother that got married in 1883??  I thought I'd write that on there in honor of her.....maybe she would have made a flower pocket like this back then....? :-)

It's hard to see in the picture -- in real life, I made it light, but you can read it.  I like it! :-)  I'm feeling really connected to her lately! LOL

Here it is, hanging up......

.....my grungy little flower pocket!  It smells SO good, too!!
I'm going to make another one, once I get a different color stain.....I think I'll make that one for some pine stems and red berries....!!!  Oooooh! :-D

So I hope anyone who wants to make one of these can feel inspired by me posting this here!  It's really easy and takes only a few supplies, so everyone who likes them should have one. :-)

I had such a wonderful, relaxing Thanksgiving weekend!!  Brian has to go back to work tomorrow, after being home since lunchtime on Wednesday.....I'll definitely miss him, but I have something great to look forward to -- his Christmas vacation and our NEW FLOOR!!!!  He'll have the whole week off, and we will get the new flooring down! :-D  Plus I'm going to pull out the Christmas stuff this week, and that's always exciting.....and don't worry.....I'll take pictures so everyone looking on my blog can watch me!! LOL ^-^

Let the Christmas Season Begin!!!! :-D

I hope everyone had a wonderfully happy Thanksgiving!!! :-D

Anyone who read my last post will be happy to know that I defeated the CLEANING monster (that I battle regularly!), and got it all done on Wednesday -- vacuuming, some dusting, cleaning the (horrid, plastic) white kitchen floor (which will soon be covered! YAY!!), and picking up my STUFF from all the corners of our living space!!  It actually didn't take me that long, and just like Amy (Bumble Bee Designs) said in her comment -- I was SO happy when I was finished! (thanks Amy!! :-D)

Our meal came out deliciously - all our favorites: my Yankee Nana's stuffing, TWO yummy turkeys, stuffed yellow peppers that I froze from my garden this year, homemade cranberry sauce that I canned myself (everyone loved it!), my personal favorite of mashed butternut squash (YUM!!), mashed potatoes, peas, carrots, hot rolls, and applesauce that I made a couple of weeks ago!  For dessert, I made pumpkin pie squares......

.....and I made Swedish apple pie (in honor of my great, great grandmother, Ida Ojerholm, who married my great, great grandfather, Sten in 1883 when she was 17 -- she was born in Sweden and came to America to work as a servant in her teens, until she was married!)
ANYWAY....the Swedish apple pie is so easy and yummy, it's one of my favorite apple desserts! :-)

I fill a buttered (or sprayed) 9x13 pan with peeled and cored apple slices......

I sprinkle them generously with sugar and cinnamon, and then mix up the batter.....

2 sticks of melted butter, 2 cups of sugar, 2 cups of flour, and 2 eggs.....
Pour it over the apples.....

And bake it for 40 minutes at 375.
YUMMY!!!......

I served both of them with homemade whipped cream (it's cheaper!)......SOOOO good!!! :-D
Now the apple recipe is actually doubled, because I want a 9x13 size, so if you want to make one smaller, go for it!  And if anyone wants the recipe for the pumpkin pie squares, just let me know! :-)

Phew!  I was tired after the meal, I had spent the whole day on my feet in the kitchen (I loved it, though!), and I was so happy to put on my favorite Christmas music disc, and sit and relax and sew the "pennies" for my mom's rug together!  I'm almost done, and I spread them all out to see how it would look.....

I like it!  It's not really "drab" enough for ME, but my mom's tastes are different -- she's more like Farmhouse-lite!  She has a great flair for decorating, I've always loved her slightly cluttered way of displaying her favorite things, my parents' home always feels so warm and welcoming!  I hope that that's the kind of feeling my kids will have when they grow up and come back to visit me - cozy and homey!! :-)
As you can see from the picture, all that's left for me to do with the pennies is to sew a few on the outer edge together, and then I can sew them to the bottom.  Then I'll work on MY penny rug!

So now the Christmas season of 2012 is officially upon us.....WOW!  Where did all that time go??
This year will be leaner than last year, which I didn't think was possible!  But I have a few ideas for the kids that I think they will like, and won't cost too much.  I'm so glad that they are older and can understand about not getting much - they don't even mind, they say.  But I mind, I want to be able to do more, give more, that's where the joy is for me.......so it's going to be a little struggle within myself.

I haven't pulled out any of the Christmas decorations yet, maybe tomorrow or Sunday -- I CAN'T WAIT!!! :-D  I love all my Christmas treasures, some I just love being able to LOOK at again!!

I did work on something fun today......

My gingerbread sleigh!!!!  I used cans to prop up the sides and hot glued them together.  I went around in my mind about the best way to attach the pieces, and I decided to try the glue gun first, because it cools quickly (so sticks faster) and it isn't messy.  Plus there were some gaps in the edges (of course, being cookies and not wood!), and hot glue could fill those in better than drippy white glue, or gorilla glue. 
I did go over each seam several times, on either side, and it did work great!  I love how it looks!! :-D
And as usual, since it's a project of mine, I ran into (another) snag.......

See the white piece of paper?  That is the pattern piece for the runner supports, and the pieces next to it are the actual supports that I cut and baked......what the heck happened???  How did I miss an INCH of batter?  I think what happened is that after I rolled out the dough and cut the piece, it tightened back a little when I moved it to the cookie sheet.  Whatever -- obviously I have to make MORE dough....again! :-P
So I didn't get to finish this, of course....I tried to make it work, but just putting them together I could tell just by looking at it that the runners were way too narrow to support the sleigh.  SOOOO.....I will make a whole batch of dough for two tiny pieces 1 inch larger! :-P
Since I didn't get to finish it, I added something just for fun.....

The gingerbreads want to take a ride!! :-D  Don't they look cute in there? LOL  I'll be fixing the runner problem this weekend, then we'll see if they get to stay in there....! ^-^

Creativity THWARTED!!!! :-P

I know what you were expecting to see when you came to see my newest post --- a gingerbread sled, right??  Yeah, and I was fully expecting to be able to post about one, yesterday.....but I woke up to something that looked a little OFF yesterday morning.....

....notice anything missing???
Let me give you a hint if you don't -- there needs to be TWO runners and small rectangles to assemble this sled properly....!
Want to guess where they went....??  Here's another hint.....

My little Minnie has doubled in size since she first got here, and now she can stand up on the edge of the counters and reach things that aren't way back on them.....and she loves my ornamental gingerbread!!!!  She's also decimated my gingerbread-garland-men population -- she's eaten at least 4 or 5, and only when my back is turned!!!  She doesn't even care if they have urethane or glitter on them - to her, they are precious forbidden treats, and worth the extra stealth that is required to grab them!  Naughty, naughty Minnie!!!

So then I decided I would at least put together the sled part, and while I was holding them in place and trying to fit in the back piece before gluing them (at least!), I did THIS.....

WHOOPSIE!
So.....I glued the broken piece together again and decided to back away from the gingerbread sled project for the day! :-{
Today I used the rest of my dough to make the extra pieces, and to make more of the "men".....

See how they have the flour on them?  That would go away if I wiped them with a wet sponge, but I'm going to urethane them instead, so I don't have to.  Maybe these guys will go in a glass jar like on the blog where I got the recipe?  Well, they are going on top of the fridge tonight!! LOL

I DID have some fun this weekend, the wool that I bought on ebay came in!  One of the sellers sent it like this.....

I loved it!!  I felt like I was opening a present! :-D
I am thrilled with the colors, just as I was hoping I'd be.....

Look at that red!  Wow!!  That's for the penny rug I showed in my last post.  And the brown is for the first penny rug I planned out a few weeks ago, it's going to replace the rust.....

This picture is from a week ago, I'm just figuring out how to arrange the pennies evenly -- it's trickier than you expect it to be!  I think the brown will be JUST the look I want for it - more drab than the rust wool.  I'm saving those for another penny rug, a waaaays into the future!! LOL
Now the tedious part comes.....the sewing!!  I got a little done last night......

I love the quiet, purposeful act of hand sewing, and crocheting and embroidery -- all the handwork crafts!  They are so soothing to me, peaceful and satisfying.  Women used to do these things out of necessity, we do them now as "Crafts", for enjoyment!  What does that say about our ultra-modern, ultra-technology world that we live in?  Obviously it isn't meeting the real NEEDS that we have as women, as humans! 
A long time ago, when my kids were tiny and there were no computers or i-phone things, and I was alone ALOT while my husband worked (I didn't have a car then, either), I used to dream about how wonderful it would have been to live in an Indian tribe!  You know, all the men went hunting, and all the women sat around sewing the animal skins and gardening, and caring for the children.  Now, we would think of that as "getting together", but it used to be a way of life!  *Sigh!!*  I definitely missed my time period.... :-)

This week will be spent CLEANING.  I cook for Thanksgiving, and it's only us, but I like it to look nice and clean for the start of the holiday season!  I get lots of yucky dust and clutter that accumulates around me (usually because of me), and now is the time to dispel it!!  Brian only works for 2 1/2 days this week (YAY!! :-D), so that's when I will make a real effort to vacuum and dust and put things away.  It should really only take me one full day, if I devote myself to it.....the problem is that I hate to clean -- it is the opposite of anything fun at all for me.  I have spent my life trying to appreciate the benefits of it, but it never gets through to me.....something inside me always rebels, and blocks me from getting my cleaning jobs done!  So, if I can get it done tomorrow, it will be a real victory for me!!......I'll get back to you! LOL ^-^

Creativity Unleashed!!! LOL

Well, I'm almost ready to put my gingerbread pieces together!

I made my templates, which took awhile to enlarge (since my printer hasn't worked for months!), but I DID it -- here's the original from the book.....

Here I'm using my graph paper (doesn't everyone have a pad of that around? LOL) to enlarge it.....

Here they are cut out!.....

Then I just rolled out my dough and cut the pieces out (it's harder than it looks)......

The cutting out was easy.....it was getting them onto the cookie sheets that was tricky - the pieces got all misshapen as I tried scooping them up off the table with the spatula! :-P  So I fixed them the best I could ON the sheets, and just baked them......

They look ok....I mean, it's hard for me (as a perfectionist) to accept the uneven and rough parts....I want them to look exactly like the templates!! LOL  So I have to just put it out of my mind and keep going! :-D

This is what I did today.....

I painted urethane on them and sprinkled more cloves and cinnamon on top, and now they are drying - they are probably mostly dry already.  Tomorrow they will be ready to be glued together -- YAY!!  I can't wait to see how they turn out!

I also tried something VERY new to me......

I'm going to dry these lemons and an orange!  I stuck them with cloves and sliced the sides around and covered them in ground cloves.....let's just see how this goes, shall we? :-D  They are supposed to just dry out, but I'm a little skeptical -- no mold?  No leaking juices?  No rotten smell??  We shall see!

I also dried some sliced fruit with my dehydrator -- now that's super easy!  I've had this thing for 15 years at least, and I rarely use it anymore, so I thought I could use it for drying apples and oranges!!

There it is....it's a series of stacking trays that fit on a base where the air comes from.
Here's the fruit I'm starting with.....

I have one each, apple, orange, lemon, pear.  I already bought some dehydrated pears, but they cost $12 for a bag and I want to see if I can make them myself!......

I'd need more than one pear, obviously, but I want to see how they turn out in my dehydrator first.
I sliced everything up and laid them on the trays......

Do you like how I stuck the cloves in the slices?  I think it will look great when they are finished and hanging in a garland!! :-D
Now just cover it up, plug it in, and set the temp.......

Then it just sits there until they are done!!
I ran it for about 4 hours the first day, and maybe 4-5 the next, and that was all they needed......

See how well they shriveled up and dried?  The pears and apples are in the bottom picture, and I sprinkled them with cinnamon while they were drying, that's why they look "dirty"!  They sure smell yummy!! :-D
I'm really happy with them, and can't wait to use them!!  The cloves in the orange and lemon slices have dried tightly into their spots, so they can't fall out -- neat! :-)
So now they are sitting in a wood bowl, waiting for me to start my garland!  THAT will be fun to make!!

I also bought some fun things this past week, too!
First, check THIS out......

Have you ever seen anything like this before?  It's RED popcorn!  Look at how wonderful it looks in the glass jar, too!!  I want to get another bag so I can fill this jar with it -- I love it! :-D 

And I found THIS at the thrift store.....

It's a metal hanging basket.....an ugly pinkish (faux copper?) metal, but you know exactly what my plan is, right?!  I'm changing the finish with my trusty hammered silver spray paint...... :-D

I used the rest of the can up on this, and I really needed more, but it all worked out when I dabbed on the dark gray paint -- what a difference......

I added the close-up so you could see the darker parts better -- I love how it came out! :-D

And now for one last gem.....

Look at how cool these Acorn Squash are!!  They are the size of a small pumpkin!  I got them at the store for 84 cents each - not per pound.....can you believe that??  I LOVE them!  I'm going to put them into my wood box Brian built me!! :-D  I've been working on it, and I got some candles out and moved some things around, and here it is now.....

I'm going to move either the jug or the milk can and put the acorn squash in there, and arrange everything again.  I think I want some taller candles for this too, and I'm going to check out what Hobby Lobby has tomorrow.  Hmmmm......maybe I can make my own "grubby" candles?? :-D

So that's enough in this post, I'm sure!  I still have other pictures to share of my felting adventure, and my applesauce, and my banana bread, but they can wait.  I am going to be picking up a piece of red wool from the PO that I bought on ebay for the penny rug in my last post -- it looked gorgeous on the computer, so I hope I'll be happy with it....I've had a couple of shockers with colors, but this is from a "primitive" wool seller, so I am feeling pretty confident!  I'll post a picture of it tomorrow, and then I can get started on stitching my pennies --- FUN FUN FUN!!! ^-^