Lately I've been hearing the song "Sleigh Ride" on the radio a lot. It's a good song. I especially like the lines that say, "There's a special feeling nothing in the world can buy, when they pass around the coffee and the pumpkin pie." That is exactly how I felt last weekend, when I celebrated Thanksgiving.
Now Thanksgiving has passed, and Advent has begun. Our family put out our Christmas decorations, including the tree, on Sunday. I have a new ornament on the tree this year, and it's very different from the cross stitched ornaments that I've been sharing recently.
Supplies: green paint from DecoArt, red paint & glitter from Ranger, star ribbon from Scrapbook Fantasies.
I made this ornament in a free class at the library. The class was on how to use a 3D printer, and each class participant could design one small item and print it.
The ornament was white (as pictured above) when it came off the printer. After I brought it home, I painted it and glued on the ribbon hanger. As the ornament indicates, all this happened in 2014. However, our family didn't put up a Christmas tree in 2014, so I'm hanging the ornament for the first time in 2015.
I hope that the first day of December is off to a good start for you. Take care and have a happy "T-Day"! :)
Looking for my T-Day post? Click here. Lately I have been showing a lot of Christmas embroidery on my blog. Today I want to change gears slightly and show some autumn embroidery. Here is a cheerful autumn acorn ornament.
Supplies: perforated paper from Mill Hill, embroidery floss from DMC, ribbon from Offray, cross stitch pattern adapted from Flowers2Flowers.
Thanksgiving, a major autumn holiday in the United States, is coming up on Thursday, so I want to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! This post is pre-scheduled, but I look forward to visiting everyone's blogs again after the holiday. :)
Hello again, everyone! Today I'd like to show you another cross-stitched Christmas ornament that I made last year. It's a flat ornament, which made it easy to slip inside a Christmas card. Here is the front of the ornament...
Supplies: embroidery floss from DMC, perforated paper from Mill Hill, ribbon from my stash.
And here is the back...
Additional supplies: striped paper from American Crafts, mitten tag from Bo Bunny, pen from Zig.
It was fun to be able to use some scrapbooking supplies in an embroidery project.The pattern for the snowflake came from a back issue of PieceWork magazine. (Side note: I'm sure that no one will be surprised when I mention that I checked out this back issue from the library.) The snowflake motif was actually part of a larger, more complex pattern, but I chose to use just the snowflake shape on my ornament. In fact, I hardly ever stitch patterns just exactly as they are printed. I change the colors, or I stitch just part of a pattern, or I combine different patterns. I guess you could say that I view cross-stitch patterns as suggestions, not as hard and fast instructions.
Now that I've shared a blue ornament with you, I thought I'd share a blue (well, blueberry) recipe with you. This blueberry crumble cake recipe comes from the British YouTube channel of "Cupcake Jemma." If you cook using British measurments, you can simply follow the instructions in the video.
And here is my "translation" of the recipe, using American measurments:
Streusel topping: 3-1/2 Tbsp MELTED BUTTER + 1/2 c. BROWN SUGAR + 1/2 c. FLOUR + 1tsp CINNAMON.
Wet ingredients: 3/4 c. plus 2 Tbsp SUGAR + 4 Tbsp CANOLA OIL + 1 EGG + 1/2 c. MILK.
Dry ingredients: 2 c. FLOUR + 2 tsp. BAKING POWDER + 1/2 tsp. SALT + 1 tsp. CINNAMON (my addition).
Blueberries: 8-oz. package FROZEN BLUEBERRIES. No need to thaw first--just fold the frozen berries gently into the cake batter. If you have access to fresh berries, by all means use them in place of the frozen berries.
Drizzle ingredients (I used this in place of the cream that Jemma used): 3/4 c. POWDERED SUGAR + 1 Tbsp MILK + 1/4 tsp VANILLA.
See video (linked above) for assembly instructions. Bake cake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 50-55 min., or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean.
My husband is gluten-intolerant, so I used gluten-free flour, and the cake turned out delicious.
I can say from personal experience that this cake tastes great accompanied by coffee, tea, milk, or juice. (In this photo I had coffee in my cup.) Since I'll be linking this post up with the T Stands for Tuesday blog hop, I want to wish you all a Happy T Day! :)
Hello, everyone! Today I'm joining in with the T Stands for Tuesday blog hop, as I often do on Tuesdays. Today I actually am drinking tea, too. It's pumpkin spice decaf black tea.
Last time I mentioned treating myself to a pumpkin spice latte from a coffee shop. That kind of "designer coffee" is too expensive for everyday consumption, though. This tea is a nice alternative for getting that autumn flavor at home and not blowing the budget. :)
The little hang tag on each tea bag says "Cup of Joy," which I hope you can see in the above picture. It's appropriate, because drinking the spicy, warm tea really does give me feeling of autumn joy.
The path from autumn joy to Christmas joy is short, and I have already started working on some handmade Christmas gifts. I can't show any of the gifts that I'm making now (just in case the gift recipients read my blog, which would ruin the surprise), but I thought it might be fun to show you some gifts that I made for last Christmas. Today, I'm showing you a Christmas ornament that I cross-stitched. I adapted the design from the book Cross Stitched Cards for the Holidays. The two robins and the word "joy" were actually three separate patterns in the book, but I thought that they would look good all together.
What kinds of projects have you been working on lately? I look forward to catching up with you when I visit your blog!
