Thoughts Of Warm Weather

A couple of years ago our guild held a summer day camp where I made this "Snow Sweetie" quilted wall hanging. It was a wonderful sunny hot day in August and as we were sewing we were all dreaming of snow and cold weather. Now we are having the cold and snowy weather that we were all dreaming about and all I can think about is the good old summertime! I guess we are never happy are we?

First Day Of Winter

I am not a fan of winter, so you won't see a lot of "look at the beautiful snow" photos on my blog. What you might see is a lot of grumbling about cold and snow, but I will try hard not to complain too much over the next three months. I can't guarantee that I won't ever complain about the weather, but for today I will try to turn snowflakes into sunshine and say "Woohoo! There are 88 quilting days until Spring!"

Two From One!

This is my family's all time favorite Christmas cookie and I like it because I can get two different cookies from one batch of dough!

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sifted confectioners' sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract
2 cups flour
1 cup miniature chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cream together butter and confectioners' sugar until smooth. Stir in vanilla and almond extract. Mix in the flour, and then one cup of the mini chocolate chips.

For Chocolate Dipped Shortbread Cookies:

Shape dough into 2 x 1/2 inch logs. Place logs 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. Bake for 10 to 13 minutes in preheated oven, or until firm. Let cookies cool completely before removing from pan.
Melt the remaining cup of chocolate chips and 1 tablespoon of shortening over a double boiler, stirring frequently until smooth. Dip one end of each cookie into the chocolate. Place onto waxed paper until set.

For Kris Kringle Cookies:

Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball. Place cookies 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. Bake for 10 - 13 minutes in preheated oven, or until firm. Remove from cookie sheets and cool slightly. Roll warm cookies in powdered sugar and cool on wire rack.

Who Doesn't Love A Good Giveaway?

I found a great new blog the other day and it's too good not to share with everyone. A Giveaway A Day is a blog does just that...there is a new crafty giveaway each and every day! The giveaways are only for US residents, but I think everyone will enjoy seeing the different craft that is featured each day. I've added a button to my sidebar that links directly to the blog, so if you love giveaways as much as I do, be sure to visit there often!

Mittens...Maybe

I needed a break from baby projects, so I decided to try knitting a pair of mittens. I made a practice mitten a few weeks ago with fairly good results for a first try. This pattern is similar, only larger, so I'm hoping that they will actually turn out looking like mittens too! I found the pattern free online at woolworks.org. According to the information on the site's homepage they are in the process of shutting the site down, so if you find a free pattern that you are interested in, I strongly suggest that you print it off as soon as possible.

Cowboy Car Seat Blankie

I fell in love with this Alexander Henry "Tumbleweed Tots" fabric when I saw it in my local quilt shop. I knew as soon as I saw it that the large print would be perfect for a car seat blankie. I backed it with a very soft bumpy minkee, but I'm not sure I love the bias striped binding. I think a plaid or bandanna print might have looked more "cowboyish", but maybe a candy cane stripe is better for a little cowboy who is due on Christmas anyway!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

The tree is finally up and decorated. Between all of the cookie baking, the tree and decorations, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here!

Most of my tree decorations are handmade, either by me, our children, grandchildren or talented friends. This snowman is one of my favorites...it is made from a burned out light bulb and uses a tea dyed child's sock for the hat. It's a great way to recycle light bulbs and anyone can make them!

While I'm on the subject of Christmas, I want to thank my friend, Melanie, at Jellybean Angel for this Christmas Spirit Award.
Here are the rules for the Christmas Spirit Award...

You must be a true Christmas lover to receive this award. The person to whom you give the award must also be in love with Christmas. You must link back to the person who gave you the award. You must list 5 things that you love about Christmas. If you can't limit it to 5 things, then keep going till you run out of space! Pass the award along to as many people as you like. That can be 1 or 50. It's up to you! But, you must pass it on to at least one person in order to keep the Christmas cheer going! Let your recipients know that you have tagged them by leaving them a comment.

These are five things that I love about Christmas...

1. Baking Christmas cookies (and eating them!)
2. Classic Christmas music (Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra...)

3. Working on Christmas projects next to the fire.
4. Shopping and more shopping.

5. Seeing my grandchildren so excited about the holiday.

I'm going to bend the rules a bit and rather than nominating specific blogs for this award, I would like to pass it on to all of you who love Christmas! Just leave a comment saying that you love Christmas along with a link to your blog if you choose to accept this award.

Rosenmunnar

I guess I have been spending a lot more time in the sewing room than the kitchen because I'm way behind on my Christmas cookies! You can expect to see more cookie recipes over the next several days as I try to get caught up on my holiday baking.

I always use raspberry filling for these Swedish thumbprint cookies, but you can use any fruit flavor that you like.

Rosenmunnar

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1/2 cup any flavor fruit jam

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add flour and mix well. Shape dough into 1 inch balls and place on cookie sheets. Imprint your thumb in the center to make a 1/2 inch indentation. Fill with your favorite preserves. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown at the edges.

Taggie Blankie

Our granddaughter, Miss Three, has an addiction... to "silkies"! She loves anything satin (blanket bindings, hair ribbons, nightgowns or even a tag in the back of a shirt), so when I found this pattern for taggie blankets I knew I had to make one for her. I used flannel backed satin for the back and flannel for the front. The pattern called for 5 inch pieces of ribbon for the tags, but I thought that made the loop a little too large, so I cut mine 4 inches instead. I love the way that it turned out and I'm really excited to see Miss Three's reaction when she opens it on Christmas!