Holiday Bake-A-Thon

We have begun our holiday cookie/candy bake-a-thon. Every year I always tell myself I will make a bunch of treats, then package them up for friends and hand them out. I remember doing the same thing with my Dad when I was growing up. However, I don't think I realized then how hard that actually is to make, wrap and deliver so many treats to such a long list of people you want to spread some holiday cheer too. So most years, I start out with the intent to deliver holiday Joy to those I love but somewhere along the way i give up. I'm posting now to prevent that from happening this year. And to share this kid involved idea with those of you who might play this same game as me year after year.

We did Gingerbread candy cane cookies. The kid involved part was the candy cane dusting.

1. I did the cookie cutting on my own
2. While I did that I let the kids stomp the candy canes into dust. (I put the canes in a ziplock baggie and gave the kids something to hammer it with. Every once in a while there would be too many holes in the bag and we'd have to put it in a new bag.)
3. When the candy canes were made into a small/fine dust I put it into a cereal bowl.
4. Once the cookies were cool I striped frosting with a slanted icing tip (I used wilton #47)
5. Then as soon as a cookie was frosted I gave it to one of the kids who dipped it frosting side down into the candy dust and then put it back onto the cooling rack.

It went great. I'm happy because they look so cute and the kids were happy because they got to help. You can see in the picture our first cookie (The one in the top right corner) has candy chunks that look a little bit too big. After we did it we realized that we needed to crush the candy up into finer pieces.

I also made homemade caramel and I gave fudge a try again.

Last year I made batch after batch of flops with fudge. I wanted to learn how to make it without just melting down a bunch of chocolate chips as part of the recipe or using marshmallow cream, I wanted to make "real" fudge. I had one that I think I burned, another that never set (like hot fudge for ice-cream) and one that was so dry it was just a bunch of crumbles.

Well this year my fudge turned out almost perfect (My Dad would be so proud :) my one and only problem was that at the very moment I turned off the mixer to pour my perfect fudge into the pan to cool, Gwen's school called to tell me that I missed Gwen's bus. In the 10 seconds it took to take that call the fudge began to set. I scooped it out of the mixing bowl and pressed it into the pan as fast as I could. I know that it will still taste great, but the top just doesn't have that beautiful look that fudge has when it is poured before it sets up.

So I guess next time I just need to pay better attention to the clock, otherwise Gwen's bus driver will hate me.

Happy candy making

Cookies and winter Hat

I made some new cookies this week for one of the girls little friends. It was her birthday and she and her sister have been asking their Mom for Strawberries all month, so I made some for her :)

To make the strawberry I used a fairy want cookie cutter and a heart cookie cutter. There is a tutorial here on how to combine cookie cutters to make a new shape of cookie.

This pattern is one I used to make Maggie's Winter Hat. She desperately wanted an adorable dress coat at Macy's for her birthday. She was so cute in it that I wanted it too. but it was expensive enough that I felt it was a bit wasteful when she did not NEED another coat. Well, I found a similar coat at the thrift store for $3, I think it was even the same brand as the coat at Macy's. Then I came home and recycled 2 old sweaters into a hat to match my thrift store find.

The pattern was fine, but Maggie's not a baby anymore so her head was a little big. I had to use the largest size and the smallest seam allowance I could. The sweaters that were reincarnated into the hat were a beige fleece sweater and a pink knit sweater I had tried to felt a few years ago.

The whole thing is cute, inexpensive and warm.

I also found a dress coat for Gwen, but I've been doing so many projects, I think I will wait a month or so before I begin a hat For Gwen.

Alice in wonderland costume

Maggie changed her mind about a hundred times regarding her Halloween costume this year. Anything Gwen suggested to her she said she would like to be. So we sort of made a game out of it. But for a long time she wanted to be a pioneer just like Gwen. But when we went to the store to pick out the fabric for her costume she saw a picture of Alice in Wonderland and told me that she wanted "to be a girl" (She has never seen Alice in Wonderland.) Luckily we already had black shoes, tights, a white apron from an old costume and some black ribbon. So all I had to do was make the dress. I'm hoping that now that she has the costume, she won't change her mind again.

We used New Look Pattern 6448. I didn't have any trouble with it and actually wished I bought nicer fabric so after Halloween I could add some colorful details so she could wear it to church and stuff because it looks cute on her. I will keep this in my pattern box and probably use it again.

I did deviate from the pattern a little on the sleeves. I'm all for an easy Cap sleeve, but Alice obviously has a sleeve with a little more umph. I'll have to do a tutorial on how I did it, but that day is not today.

pioneer girl costume

I have been working on SO MANY projects now that I have a space to do them. Many of them might be 1/2 done, but I love being able to create again! Here is one of them completed. Gwen's Halloween costume. I think I was thinking I'd make her an apron to wear with it, but now I think it doesn't need one.

I used Simplicity pattern # 3725. I didn't find it difficult other than the waistline. It was supposed to come to a point in the center of the skirt, but mine didn't work out. That has happened to me before. I guess I need to read the pattern more closely next time. There is a pattern for a bonnet, the one we are using is store bought.

Some of the other things I've been making:

-A winter bonnet for Maggie to match a dress coat we found for her at the thrift store

-A Mary Engelbreit embroidered quilt top

-A duvet cover to go with the the down comforter Grandma is getting Maggie For Christmas

-An Alice in Wonderland Costume for Maggie (She has never seen the movie, but she thought Alice was cute when we were flipping through the pattern books at the store)

Wish me luck, I got into so many projects because life was getting frustrating. I was feeling like the hamster who looks out of his glass cage while running on his wheel never getting anywhere and I wanted an escape. But now I feel like I've made more frustrations for myself because I've been ignoring the house for a few days and it will take me a while to catch up on housework. So goes my never ending battle to find time to nurture myself.

Spaghetti Sauce Recipe-Attempt #1

I always have a hard time finding spaghetti sauce that I like (I don't like the tomatoes to overpower it and I just want the sauce my mommy made when I was a little girl.) Going organic has limited our choices to pricey and expensive jars regardless of taste. So I went on Amazon and signed up for their subscribe and save program. I'm getting a few things including basic seasonless organic tomato sauce and I'm on a mission to search the web for a sauce recipe to spice it up, because I don't really like the taste of tomatoes, but always enjoy a flavorful spaghetti dinner.

I started with this recipe I found on allrecipies.com I tweeked it a bit and enjoyed it at dinner, but thought it was a bit too hot. So I added another can of the seasonless tomato sauce and saved it in the fridge in an attempt to save the leftovers. And here is my game plan for my next attempt at some sauce. It is my version of the recipe link.

Spaghetti Sauce

3 -8oz. cans tomato sauce

1 bell pepper Pureed or minced

1 TBPS Garlic

1 tsp Onion Powder

1/4 cup Pureed Carrot or 1 carrot Minced

2 beef boulion cubes/ better than Bouillon or some meat depending on what you are serving with the sauce

1 bay leaf (To be removed just before serving)

1 tsp dry thyme

1 tsp dry Oregano

1 tsp dry Basil

1/8 tsp red pepper

1/4 tsp Black pepper

2 tsp sugar

simmer for up to 2 hours and serve or can.

Wish me luck for the next attempt!

Okay, so this may look dark and dreary, but this is my new work space at our new house. The guy who owns the house did a lot of wood working and actually built a lot of the house himself, so he has a ton of work benches and shelves down stairs in the unfinished basement. So I claimed some of them. I've decided that it doesn't look pretty, but on a hot day it is nice a cool down there and there is nothing else that goes on down there, so if I don't have time to finish my projects, I can just leave them right where I left off with out having to put them away and then pick up right where I left off when I have time for them again. And THAT is a beautiful thing.

I also got a new sewing machine with some birthday money. I agonized for a long time over what brand and type of machine to get. I wanted to get a machine that I could have forever (Bernina, Babylock, Phaff...) but they all were computerized machines and I was a little bit intimidated of that. My Mom had told me about this machine listed on Amazon and after looking into it ($167 and 700+ reviews giving it 4 1/2 stars) I decided that it would be perfect for me to try out these new fangled machines. Hopefully it will last me a while, but if it only lasts a few years like my other ones I now know that I can save up and buy a nice one with confidence.

And here is my first project on it. a Friend from Port Hueneme showed me a chenille blanket that she had made and it was beautiful, so I tried one too. I was really excited about it until my husband tried to find a nice way to tell me that it looked like a torture device to put a baby into vertigo. After taking a step back I realized he was right and decided I probably shouldn't add it to my pile of projects to hand out as gifts. But I'm glad I tried out the technique. My only complaint about the technique is probably the same of any blanket, it was so heavy that I was worried it was going to ruin the perfect tension on my sewing machine. (I HATE tension problems.) Anyway, here is a tutorial on how to chenille if you want to give it a try.

While I worked on the blanket my girls were constantly asking if they could have my extra fabric, so one night when it was just Me and Gwen in the house she found some long strips and asked if she could make a scarf out of them. I told her yes. It was easy and she was excited to help with the foot pedal.

We also put together this quiet time book. I had purchased the fabric at Jo-Ann's a few years ago, it had all the pages and the instructions on the fabric. We just had to cut it out, sew it together with some scraps of batting in between each page and it was done. It was so easy, I might do it again.

Pack out of our house in Port Hueneme

Our move has been going great,

The packers came to the house a week or 2 ago and got the house packed up by 2:30 in the afternoon. Then the moving truck came a few days after that and I was pleasantly surprised at how painless the whole thing was. I had cramps one of the days and I was actually able to lay down and take a 2 hour nap with out stressing out about all of the things I should be doing. Luckily it was a day that I wasn't having to babysit the movers.

But I still left a lot of little things to do until the last minute and I didn't get out and turn in the keys until 9:00 PM. Also, I thought I had been really good about not accumulating too many flammable items while living in Port Hueneme, but I still had so many extra cleaners/toiletries/flammable items that I had to pull out of the bathrooms, kitchen and garage.

Yet while I was cleaning the house I used mostly just powdered bleach and glass cleaner

My things to remember from this move are:

• The cleaners I used were-powdered bleach with an iron handled brush, Oil soap to get off the built up grease on the vent for the stove hood and the built up grease on top of the cabinets, glass cleaner for the windows and mirrors, also the glass cleaner pads on a stick for the outside windows worked great too. And a bucket of water with a few rags. My only cleaning problem was the outside of the upstairs windows. I couldn't remember how to clean them properly.
• try to avoid moving out during your menstrual cycle. I got lucky this time, but the next time it might not turn out so well.
• Make sure to get the baby sitters for the days the movers are at the house and at least 1 day for cleaning
• makes sure to get the hotel room starting on the day before the movers come. It makes life easier. (Note to Sam- the past 2 moves you have said you thought that it was a waste of money, and both times when the day finally came you were glad we had the room a day early so we could get our bags and stuff we don't want the movers taking to be out of the house.)
• Make sure Sam takes the time off work to help out with the move. (Note to Sam-You had me do it on my own this time and I was able to do it, but you still had to take long lunches to go and get lunch for me and the movers and you told me you wished you took the time off so you could help more.)
• You will be surprised at how much you can get done if you clean while the packers are there. Make sure to request that they start in the kitchen so you can start cleaning it by lunch time.
• We had a good bye party for the girls at a near by park and it was SO much fun. It was a great way to say good bye to friends and I didn't have to worry about people messing up my clean house.
• When people ask you what they can do to help, make dinner dates with them for the last week you are in town. It is a great way to say good bye and you can clean your appliances early. Just tell them you would be happy to bring garlic bread, or a veggie platter. (Some thing that you can just pick up at the store.) You will especially want to make sure someone will feed you on Sunday so you don't have to go out to eat on Sunday.

Good luck Bri of the Future. We seem to be getting better at this every time we do it.