smores on a stick for papa's day

smores on a stick, a photo by Kindred Crafters on Flickr.

A sweet confection for a sweet man. One of two desserts for Papa's Day! A bbq planned for later with friends, ribs and baked beans and potato salad, oh my! (There'll be some green things there I'm told, to balance out all the rest!)...sun is shining. I'm just so happy to have some a wonderful father for my kids! Hope you are all enjoying Father's Day today too!

- Donna

Hoppy Easter

I remember saying that as a kid . . I thought I was so witty.

Hope you are all enjoying your Easter weekends. It's a four day weekend here which has been so great. The Easter bunny tapped me on the shoulder while I was sleeping to ask if he could use those easter eggs I made last year to leave a trail for the kids to help them find their easter treats. I agreed; what a smart bunny to think of those little eggs all forgotten in the basement.

That's my story and I am sticking to it. I think next year we'll make a point of putting them out for the Easter bunny to use. I may smell a tradition in the making!

I am working on a quilt that isn't going super well. More of that to come . . .

. . to assuage myself I've signed up for the FQ swap over at Sew Mama Sew. Swap is open until Monday.

Off for a little walk around Hog's Back Falls with the family. Trying to distract M from her easter candy ..I didn't buy very much but the sugar intake has already been quite high this am, topped off with some of my husband's famous crepes for breakfast. Yikes!

- Donna

One more Valentine's Day Craft

I made a few of these totally last minute as we were heading out to a dinner party on Saturday. Two little girls, the same age as my M were going to be there so I did up little bags with a few chocolate kisses, some stickers, and a barrette. Cute to see the girlies put them in right away. I used 100% wool felt and what a treat to work with it is. Craft felt now just feels wrong. I should probably plan on winning the lottery soon so I can order many, many felt bundles from here.


- Donna

Valentine's Day - not just for lovers

I'll admit that I've always thought that Valentine's Day was a bit of a commercial grab - I've never been a fan of giving gifts on Valentine's Day to my sweetheart, and I've never felt this rush of love on February 14 just 'cause Hallmark says I should.

But, but.

I do remember the pure joy of making or writing on store bought valentines (depending on my mom's energy or my willingness to get crafty), and handing them out to friends. Sometimes little candies would accompany these. . conversation hearts or cinnamon hearts.

Thing is, I have kids now! I can relive these FUN parts of holidays and be innocent again. Yippee!!!

I decided to make some sugar cookies and decorate them for my daughter to gift to her daycare buddies. I have been meaning to try slightly fancier royal icing decorated sugar cookies, and so I turned to my trusty friend, Baking, by Dorie Greenspan. I love this cookbook - I feel as though Dorie is leaning over my shoulder guiding me. She write very conversationally, which I enjoy. And her recipes (at least the ones I have tried so far, have been bang on).

I think they turned out pretty well, and I can't wait for Big M to give them out at daycare.

(Can you tell that by the last cookie I was trying to use up the red icing? Those are some BIG polka dots!)

Here's Dorie's Sugar Cookie recipe. One of the best I've tasted:

Grandma's All-Occasion Sugar Cookies

Excerpted from Baking: From My House to Yours by Dorie Greenspan (Houghton Mifflin, 2006). Copyright 2006 by Dorie Greenspan

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 stick plus 2 tablespoons (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature (I think we keep our house too cold . . room temperature in our house requires a quick zap in the microwave)

1 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1.Whisk the flour, salt and baking powder together.

2. Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter at medium speed for a minute or so, until smooth. Beat in the sugar and continue to beat for about 2 minutes, until the mixture is light and pale. Add the egg and yolk and beat for another minute or two; beat in the vanilla. Reduce the mixer speed to low and steadily add the flour mixture, mixing only until it has been incorporated — because this dough is best when worked least, you might want to stop the mixer before all the flour is thoroughly blended into the dough and finish the job with a rubber spatula. When mixed, the dough will be soft, creamy and malleable.

3. Turn the dough out onto a counter and divide it in half. If you want to make roll-out cookies, shape each half into a disk and wrap in plastic. If you want to make slice-and-bake cookies, shape each half into a chubby sausage (the diameter is up to you — I usually like cookies that are about 2 inches in diameter) and wrap in plastic. Whether you're going to roll or slice the dough, it must be chilled for at least 2 hours. (Well wrapped, the dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months.)

4. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.4. If you are making roll-out cookies, working with one packet of dough at a time, roll out the dough between sheets of plastic wrap or wax paper to a thickness of 1/4 inch, lifting the plastic or paper and turning the dough over often so that it rolls evenly. Lift off the top sheet of plastic or paper and cut out the cookies — I like a 2-inch round cookie cutter for these. Pull away the excess dough, saving the scraps for rerolling, and carefully lift the rounds onto the baking sheets with a spatula, leaving about 1 1/2 inches between the cookies. (This is a soft dough and you might have trouble peeling away the excess or lifting the cutouts; if so, cover the dough, chill it for about 15 minutes and try again.) After you've rolled and cut the second packet of dough, you can form the scraps into a disk, then chill, roll, cut and bake.

5. If you are making slice-and-bake cookies, use a sharp thin knife to slice the dough into 1/4-inch-thick rounds, and place the rounds on the baking sheets, leaving about 1 1/2 inches of space between the cookies.

6. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 9 to 11 minutes, rotating the sheet at the midpoint. The cookies should feel firm, but they should not color much, if at all. Remove the pan from the oven and dust the cookies with sugar or cinnamon sugar, if you'd like. Let them rest for 1 minute before carefully lifting them onto a rack to cool to room temperature.

7. Repeat with the remaining dough, cooling the baking sheets between batches.

Storing: The cookies will keep at room temperature in a tin for up to 1 week. Wrapped well, they can be frozen for up to 2 months.

Make some today. You still have time!

-Donna

Be Mine

These are my big E's valentines for her class this year. I covered AERO bars with the prettiest scrapbooking paper I could find and tied them up with matching ribbons. I had wanted to try this idea for a while now and thought that they'd be perfect as valentines. I did 20 in all and finished them in 2 evenings. Not that I spent the whole evening doing them each time, just that I stole some time on 2 separate occasions to get them finished! It was probably 2 hours work in total, but it really isn't work when you're dealing with pretties like these, is it?!

WIP - Garland for Next Year's Tree

I know, I know, it's February. This garland is an ongoing project for many reasons:

I fell in love with the tutorial here immediately upon clicking over to it. Bright, cheery, a great way to use of scraps of craft felt I had lying around, and I had no garland for my tree. I sensed the perfect project. So I dropped the mad dash I was in to get Christmas gifts done in time, (resulting in some crazy late nights leading into Christmas, I'll admit), and stitched up a garland for our tree. I didn't put the circles close together as Anna Maria did, instead choosing to space them out to get more length and I used different sizes to take advantage of scraps I had on hand. I was pleased with the result. See a poor quality photo here:

With only white lights on our tree, this garland was just the thing to jazz it up and bring a pop of colour. Problem was, I didn't have enough to go all the way up the tree.

This will soon be remedied, in part thanks to beer nights with my gal, H. H. lives around the corner from me, is a fellow craftstress (she may even post on here from time to time) and we get together often enough for a pint at the corner pub. We've both started sewing more lately, which makes for solitary activity, so we've each got some little projects on the go that are transportable. It's great - we sit, have a beer, catch up, get stared at a bit (that part I could do without!) and stitch. Lovely way to spend a few hours after the kiddies are in bed. I really miss crafting with her. With my lovely stash of stitched felt circles in abundance though I am in dire need of another transportable project. Any one have any ideas? I should add that I organized a handmade ornament swap with a bunch of friends this year and plan on doing another one next year so Christmas ornaments would be welcome!

Such lovely circles. All so colourful and ready to be strung. Hopefully before next Christmas!

- Donna

Friday Night Sewing Club

Ok, maybe not so much as a club as me alone, in my sewing room, a big pint of Bass, cold and crisp, beside me and a quiet house, with the husband out babysitting for friends, and our two girls sleeping. (and, might I add, the baby fell asleep on her own! with minimal crying! and slept for 3.5 hours without waking up!)

My sewing room has been set up for a few weeks, and I've not really had time to get comfortable in here. It's amazing to have a separate space for crafts of all kinds, and I'm super grateful to my husband for a) buying me a machine for my birthday, b) installing cupboards for storage, and an eight foot long counter for a workspace, and c) supporting me in this, in general. Yay for good men.

On to what I made. As per my usual, you will get a few lessons I learned, as a VERY novice sewer.

I've been wanting to try my hand at a little patchwork for a while, and last night the time was ripe. I had, waiting in my fabric stash, some great charm squares I had purchased a while back on ebay. (Moda's 1974 Urban Chicks - kinda retro, really cute.) I had seen a tutorial on Sew Mama Sew a while back so I surfed my way over there and tada! Here is my finished product:

- sorry about really sad lighting conditions. Pics at 11:30 pm after a pint of beer just aren't going to be good!

- This doesn't show the thing in its entirety - I used 8 charm squares, cut in half, and I used a flour sack tea towel I had in my stash just waiting to be made pretty.

Mission accomplished, I think.

**Most important lesson learned - make sure there is nothing under your fabric on your cutting mat when you're slicing away with a rotary cutter that has been fitted with a shiny new blade. This may seem obvious but I was getting excited and things were getting messy and I sliced some fusible web that had somehow slid on to the mat. No major harm done, but I might have been sad if it was fabric!

The second thing I made was inspired by two things: a garland I saw on Sparkle Power's Blog and a conversation with my friend MR as we exited a sewing shop this past Friday. I had purchased some invisible nylon thread, as Candace used in her garland, and was telling MR what it was for, and we got chatting about reusable decorations - bunting! garlands! the possibilities! and then she suggested a heart shaped decoration for Valentine's Day. The decision was made to try it that night.

I give you my garland (ok, well maybe only a photo of it - I'll be shipping one of these out East to MR in time for Valentine's day, and one will festoon our living room for February).

Make one! It's easy peasy and a great way to use of scraps.

Here's how:

1) Cut out a strip of fabric.

2) Iron on some fusible web, if you like. While this is probably not necessary, it made the shapes a bit sturdy, and made the sewing part a snap. Double-sided fusible interfacing would likely do this better, but I didn't have any.

3) Pick a fabric for backing, cut out a piece the same size, and iron it on to the fusible welb.

4)Cut out as many hearts as you can fit on your piece of fabric.

5) Repeat process until you have as many hearts as you need for the garlands. I wanted to make two garlands, and I cut out ~45 double sided hearts, in many different sizes.

6) Lay out the hearts in a line, arranging them how you want them to show up, or throw them in a pile and piece the garland catch as catch can. It's all good.

7) Sew the hearts together using invisible thread or regular thread. I did one of each. This was my first time sewing with polyster invisible thread and I found it more tricky than regular thread. Once it started giving me grief, I re-threaded and called it a learning experience.

8) If you like, tuck in a bit of rick rack between two pieces of two hearts so that you have some built in hooks. I just pried the webbing apart, folding the rick rack, inserted, and stitched a bit to secure. It was late by this point, I was tired, and my stitching is a bit wonky. I'm sure yours will look much nicer!

Et voilà: instant February cheer.

Let me know if you try this - I'd love to see other versions.

- Donna