Homemade Soft Pretzels

I had a craving for some Auntie Anne's pretzels, but really didn't want to leave the house. I found this recipe from CDKitchen online and it turned out really well.

A few things I changed in this recipe based on the suggestions in the comments were to double the brown sugar and add 3 tablespoons of melted butter to the wet ingredients when making the dough.  I have to say that these were the best homemade soft pretzels I've ever had.

I made half cinnamon and sugar and half with rock salt.

 Ready to bake

 Fresh out of the oven.

Salted pretzels. So pretty and so tasty!

ChirstmasTree Skirt

I did not get to making my tree skirt before Christmas, but with the week off, I decided to tackle this project. Using the Small Plates pattern from Elizabeth Hartman's The Practical Guide to Patchwork, I came up with this 25 block mini quilt. Rather than making a round skirt, I went with a square shape.  If I were to do this again,  I think I would work on making the quilting a little tighter and perhaps in a less loopy pattern. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of it around a tree since I finished it after Christmas.

One of my favorite squares. I love these owls.

Tree skirt back.

Christmas Gift Recap #2 - Homemade Vanilla

Each year my husband's family does a stocking-stuffer exchange. Each gift must be $10 or less. This year we decided to make our own vanilla.  The idea came from a link I found here at Whipperberry.  My husband was in charge of label design, I think that what he came up with is beautiful. Here are a few tips we found and some ideas for where to source things:
-Whipperberry suggests vodka as the alcohol, we used vodka in some and bourbon in others, if I were to do this again I would just go with the bourbon, it has a richer smell and comes out darker immediately, which is think is more aesthetically pleasing.
- We sourced our bottles from an online company, Specialtybottles.com, which actually turned out to be located in Seattle, so shipping was super cheap. They have a wonderful selection in all shapes and sizes, I would definitely recommend them.
- Our labels are printed on velum and we used a spray adhesive to attach them to the bottles.
-We did not strain our vanilla, we both decided that we like the little bits in there.

I'm pondering homemade grenadine for next year....yum!

Christmas Gift Recap #1 - Cameron's Cape

My two year old Nephew has recently developed an imagination. It is awesome, he runs around making his dinosaurs roar (while telling them not to bite), pretending he's a gorilla and changing his stuffed animals diaper. It is so fun to watch.  We all think he's the most amazing child ever, of course.  How many just 25 month olds do you you know who can say "Stegosaurus" and "Triceratops", while identifying them correctly from the pile of dinos in front of them?

For Christmas I made Cameron his own superhero cape. I had plans for some kind of utility belt, but things got busy at the end of the year and I didn't get to make it.  That's in the past though...I'm just going to celebrate my success on this one.

This picture shows the back of the cape. With the help of my husband, who drew the flames for me, I was able to applique this black C on to the silver fabric with double sided Heat N Bond.

In this picture he's saying "Fire. Hot." He immediately knew that these were flames.

Here he is wearing the cape, a perfect length for now, and as he gets taller.

Happy New Year - Resolution #1... (Advent Quilt)

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I took the week between Christmas and New Year off this year and it was awesome. I don't think I've had that many days off in a row since I started my job four years ago. I managed to finish my Advent  Calendar Quilt (started 2 years ago), and I am super happy with the way it turned out. I have also started a square tree skirt.

The Advent Quilt pattern is from a SewMamaSew post that Elizabeth Hartman of OhFransson did for them a few years ago.  I think that I got the fabric in a Christmas fat quarter bundle at some point. This is the first real machine quilting that I have ever done, which was very exciting, in a really dorky way. The feed dogs on my machine don't lower, so I just unscrewed the plate covering them and took them out while I was doing the quilting. This actually worked very well. When I was done I just screwed them back in and everything was good to go.

Applique detail.

Quilt back

Celebration Garlands

I have seen these garlands around, but never got around to making them until recently.

I made up my own pattern, the top of the triangle is 7 inches, each side is 9 inches. Cut two triangles for each flag and sew, right sides together. Turn and press, making sure to clip the tip of the triangle to get a clean point.  

I used one package of double fold bias tape to form the garland. The bias tape can hold 12 to 13 triangles spaced 1 & 1/2 inches apart.

When you're finished you get a lovely garland. Take it out for every celebration, or give it as a gift!

Grandma Wilma Noodles

I recently made these egg noodles - Grandma Wilma style. We used them in homemade Chicken & Noodles, YUM!

You'll notice they are extremely yellow, this is because we used our backyard chicken eggs.