Mmmm....Fudge

Last night ended up being just as productive as I needed it to be, which was unexpected. M took the girls Christmas shopping (gotta love the procrastination) and I got all 3 batches of fudge done while he was out. Here they are:

White Chocolate Peppermint (my new fav, just lovely)

Butterscotch


and Rocky Road

Topped off with a nice sugar cookie, tied with ribbon and a tree ornament. Yep, all set for Christmas festivities tonight!
Hope everyone has a truly blessed Holiday!

Christmasy Goodness

Today has been a wonderfully productive, stay at home and get some crap done kind of day. I have finished two knitting projects (that were practically done, but still on the to-do list), blogged (now twice), baked 5 dozen cookies with L, did laundry and cleaned up my kitchen (which is now and utter disaster). So, since I am in the spirit on getting things done I thought I would go ahead and post these ornaments I made last week.

They are made using khaki pants from the thrift store, vintage buttons, Ecospun felt, ribbon from my stash, and cookie cutters for templates. My original idea was to make them look like sugar cookies, with pastel felt frosting and bead sprinkles, but then I thought these up when I was going to sleep one night and just had to get up the next day and make them.

Here are my sweeties frosting away, P mostly just licking the frosting off of everything she could get her hands on. We usually just use white frosting due to L's red dye sensitivity, but this year we purchase these and these and had a blast.
Left on the agenda tonight is 3 batches of fudge and ack more cleaning.

Wee Little Purses

So as you can probably tell, I haven't been around very much this past couple of weeks. This was only a little to do with Christmas, and a whole lot due to having my wisdom teeth removed. Totally not fun, I was kinda out of it for about a week and a half due to the after pain. I rocked it though with only local anesthetic (gotta keep breastfeeding) and Motrin. Doing much better now, and back in the crafty spirit of things.

This week has been much the crafty catch up, that and my wonderful hubbies birthday. M didn't get anything crafty for his birthday, just a commuter mugs with a picture on it from Snapfish and a new pair of drumsticks. His mom threw him a party (I did just have surgery you know) and we went down there and had a great time.

Anyways, I just finished up these children's purses for my aunt last night, made the pattern myself the night before. I've been pondering an Etsy shop for children's toys and accessories, but so far I just sell to my relatives.
Here's P modeling one (you have no idea how hard it was to get this picture)

And here they all re laid out on my floor. The panels in front are nice pockets. I'm not exactly sure what lead me to pockets in the front it's just what I imagined when I thought these little cuties up. I think the purple one with little lambs is my favorite, it's just so sweet. I think my little girls will be getting one of these in there Easter basket (Oh yes, I did just go there).

I can't wait to show you some of the other things I have been working on!

Tasty and Healthy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

My camera is (again) not working so I thought I would offer up one of our favorite recipes. These cookies are great for kids, something sweet, but at the same time pretty dang healthy.

1/2 cup softened butter
1 cup honey
2 eggs
1/2 cup unsweetened blackberry applesauce (can use raspberry, but I really wouldn't recommend using plain this is what gives them the extra kick)
2 cups of rolled oats
1 1/2 whole wheat flour (hard white wheat if you have it, if you don't you should really give it a try, it's awesome stuff)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 cups raisins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter, honey and eggs together. Stir in the applesauce, oats and the baking soda. Then add the flour , spices, and raisin just until moistened. Scoop tablespoon size dough onto grease baking sheet and bake for 1o minutes or until slightly golden. Let cool 5 minutes and enjoy!

I Love Knitting

The other day I was frantically looking for my spare #7 double pointed needle when I realized just how much I love knitting. When there is something I truly enjoy doing, I tend to ration my time with it. Like saying only in the car and on outings and only on certain days, which is what I also have to do with reading. Otherwise it's all I will do, I will devour a novel or knitting project in just a few sittings. So, back to the other day, I was frantically searching thinking "it's just been a really stressful day, I really need to knit a few rows, just few rows and then I will stop". Of course you can guess that I succumbed to the temptation and finished the whole darn thing (hey, at least it was just a small project). This is what I was working on:

Some fingerless gloves that my Mummy requested from Christmas. I made them in her favorite color and I truly hope that she loves them. They are almost done, just about 20 minutes on them tonight and the pair will be complete.

I believe everyone should have a truly loved hobby, something that you could practically get a bumpersticker for. Something that takes your mind off the problems at hand and gives you that simple pleasure of accomplishment. What ever your crafty hobby is, I hope there is much endulgence this holiday season. It is so wonderful to share hand crafts this time of year.

It's Beginning To Feel A Lot Like Christmas

All the holidays seem to spilling into each other this year, not ready for one to end and then boom there's another. Barely enough time to deck the halls and craft it up. Yesterday it hit me, it's time to decorate for Christmas NOW! Not wanting to miss another moment I devoted my entire day to whipping up stockings for the whole family. We plan to do the rest of the decorating tomorrow when M is home to help. These took about 6-7 hours including drafting my own pattern. I tried a pattern the day before, and frankly it sucked and I threw the stocking in the scraps pile. So after a few choice words these cuties were born.

Mine is on the left and M's is to the right.

P's is to the left and of course the one on the right is L's she just loved this fabric. I love the little girl hiding on the toe of L's such a perfect little detail.

They are all fully line with unbleached cotton, no yucky raw seams.

So that the adorable fabrics can be fully appreciated, here are some closeups. M's and L's are my favorites. M's uses my favorite fabrics, so loving those Christmas trees and who doesn't LOVE candy cane stripes?

I love L's because A. It's adorable and B. Because she absolutely squeeled when she saw it. She was so sweet beaming from ear to ear.

The rest of Christmas is on it's way, I'm nearly done with my last Christmas gift, the cards arrived in the mail yesterday, and we will be decorating this weekend. Oh, I'm just so excited!

Nature Walk

Two weekends ago M and I took the girls to the park to snap some shots for our Christmas pictures. We brought a picnic basket and made plans for a nice nature walk. It started out with a lot of this...

Remedied with a bit of this....

...Then having fun, and catching glimpses of this...

and this...

Hope everyone had a turkey-tastic Thanksgiving!!!