Happy New Year

Some folks go look back at last year's happenings, and go over the high points, but I am plain too lazy for that! :)

I will, however, show you the pillowcases (pattern here) I whipped up last night out of some old fabric. I used to work at JoAnn Fabrics & Crafts part time, and have tons and tons of fabric I bought while I worked there! I haven't sewn in a while, but DH pulled out my Mom's old sewing machine that I inherited, oiled it for me, and made sure it was in running order! (He has an ulterior motive, he wants to get rid of all that fabric!) :) I know that I normally only show crochet or knitting on here, but I sew, too, and you will probably be seeing more of that in the next few posts, as I am getting a little burned out with crochet and knitting right now. (Besides, DD is having twins, and I have been commissioned to sew baby bumpers, etc......more on that later!)

I have also been cooking some, and made a cookie recipe this morning that I saw on Oiyi's blog, here. Yum!

Hope you all have a very safe and Happy New Year!

Stash Enhancement!

The title to this post says it all! Frogginqueen and I made the mad dash together at the unheard of hour of 3:00 A.M. over to "The Woolie Ewe" yarn shop in Plano, Texas, where we both happily lined up to enhance our stashes at their year end blowout half-off sale! We were done and I was back home by 8:00 A.M. !! I guess you are noticing all the new sock yarn? I have made a new year's resolution to myself that I will learn to knit socks this year - for sure! I made a small stab at working on learning it back in October, but as often happens, life got in the way, and I laid it down. Then one of the dogs got ahold of my second skein of yarn, tore it up, and my interest in knitting that pair of socks has totally died. KAPUT! But with this yarn purchase, a spark of interest has been rekindled, so there is still hope!

Bedwarmers and Pecans

My friend Frogginqueen, (in case you have been wondering where she is at) has been making a bunch of bedwarmers lately. What a great idea! I have an old one that was given to me as a Christmas gift several years ago. Mine was simply one long rectangle, folded in half, right sides together, sew up two sides, turn right side out, fill about half way with Deer Corn, then top-stitch the last side together. Heat bag in microwave for about 2 minutes, and man oh man! That puppy stays warm for awhile!

If you want a "dressier" pattern for gift giving, I found one closest to the one I have over at http://www.diamondthreadworks.com/microwave_heating_bags.htm. Also, the pattern that Frogginqueen is using can be found here, and look at this great looking one, here using the same pattern! I liked the last one made with chenille, so made a couple that looked similar for DD. Lots of great ideas out there, folks! The flat pink item under the bedwarmers is a "hair towel" that I also made for DD, copying an old one I had (probably made from a Simplicity or McCalls pattern), and sewed that sucker up in about 20 minutes.

Then, I made some sugared pecans, using Bron's recipe here (see her Dec. 15th post). My very kind BIL gave us a whole paper grocery sack full of pecans, and even went so far as to take them to the Ridgmar Farmers Market and had them cracked for us, ready to shell. Just in time for some Christmas baking! YUM!

We got to go see DD in South Texas for Christmas, and got to go across the border to Mexico. We had a great time seeing the sights and being tourists! I got a photo of the Rio Grande, below:



Hope everyone else had a good Christmas!

I'm a Millionaire!

WARNING! MESSY RECIPE AHEAD!!!

I made "Texas Millionaire Candy" or what some people call "Turtles" for Christmas. It is from a recipe that a co-worker from long ago shared with me.


Recipe:

Texas Millionaire Candy

2 Tablespoons butter
1 bag Caramel Candy, unwrapped
2 Tablespoons Water
3 cups chopped pecans
1 package (12 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/3 square Gulf Wax

Add butter and water to caramel candy in a microwaveable bowl. Heat until caramel is melted (about 2 minutes). Stir in nuts. Set aside to "firm up". Heat Gulfwax and chocolate chips in a double boiler on the stove. When caramel is firm enough to roll, butter your hands, then roll caramel into balls, dip into the melted chocolate with a toothpick (as you can see by the photos, I didn't use the toothpick method this time). Then place on waxed paper to cool.

In crochet news, still not much of anything going on. I got out one of my "Christmas" boxes and pulled out a few things I made last year, such as these snowflakes, below. I got the patterns for these from Leisure Arts Leaflet #3013, called "99 Snowflakes". As you can see, I still have about 96 to go.....................

And I also found this fast and easy dishcloth that I had forgotten I made. The pattern can be found free, here, and literally takes about 1 hour to make:

FUN, FUN, FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New magazine, some crochet and cheesecake

I Got this magazine in the mail on Friday. Nothing much caught my eye, but maybe if I see someone else make something out of it I will get inspired.

I did another mindless crochet potholder over the weekend. I made this one a little larger than my last two.

And I did some experimental cooking on DH. Yes, he's still alive!!

DH loves sweet potatoes in any form. I found a Sweet Potato Cheesecake recipe here and thought I would give it a whirl. The only thing I would change is that the cheesecake is not sweet enough for us, so I would add some white sugar to sweeten it up a little when I make it again, and instead of fresh sweet potatoes, I would use canned.

Tonight I am hoping to make some "Millionaire Candy". It is a recipe I got back when I first started working, years ago. A co-worker made them every year, and was kind enough to share the recipe. If I get them made tonight I will show a picture and share the recipe.

YARN THEFT!

Say "hi" to Maxi. He is my son's dog that we are keeping for him a couple of months. Maxi is a Pit Bull puppy, and he actually has a really sweet personality, athough he is a bit mischevious........ I had always heard the scary "Pit Bull" stories, but no one warned me that they are YARN THIEVES!

As I was trying to crochet my illicit potholder last night, he was trying to steal the yarn ball away, right out of my hands! Here is a photo of Maxi posing with some old Red Heart yarn I let him have, along with some Lion Brand that I had been using to make my Monkey sock...... He now has his own yarn "stash"!

I fell off the wagon again!

First, let me say that it's my neighbor's fault I fell off the baby blanket bandwagon for a day!

After we got home from Thanksgiving lunch at the neighbor's, I got a little crochet time in. I just made another potholder/hotpad for fast and easy crochet gratification. This time the pattern was a plain old standby. My neighbor had several of these in her potholder drawer, and I thought to myself that I haven't made one of those in a few years! Here is one version I found of it, "Origami Hot Pad", another is here with step by step pictures, and it is easy breezy, mindless crochet that doesn't take months and months to finish! Besides, you can never have enough potholders!

I have to work today (UGH), while the rest of the US goes shopping on the busiest shopping day of the year. Personally, I would rather just be home crocheting potholders baby blankets!