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!!! ^-^