Recycled bows

A couple weeks ago I followed a link for bows made out of recycled magazines.



Since then, the elves around here have been busy. Most of these are Julianne's but Allison eventually got in on the action.

Whenever the girls make something, my brother, Earl, tells them they should make whatever it is in camo for their dad. Earl hadn't seen any of their bows yet, but Allison anticipated his advice when Earl's 50th birthday rolled around last week. (You didn't hear it here.) The Bass Pro ad provided her with enough camo to make a bow for Uncle Earl's gift.

I love the unique, bright, multi-colored look of these bows. If you've got colorful magazines (or even junk mail) around, you, too, could become a bow-making fanatic. You'll be in good company.

Hey, I think this qualifies for Kathy's Handmade Holidays, doesn't it? If you got here from her site, jump back over and wish my brother a belated happy 50th, won't you? Thanks. (Don't tell him you heard it from me, though.)

Holiday Season Haiku

Julianne has a favorite pair of jeans. Make that had.

Her experience a few days ago inspired her to write a haiku. She gave me permission to share it here, appropriate as it is for the holidays.

Zipper on pants broke

Sadness overwhelming me

Thankfully alone

She makes a good point. It could have been much worse.

Cream-Filled Confetti Cookies

I've been planning, for a few years now, to convert all my recipe cards to 4x6 inch cards. I bought a nice, new box and some pretty recipe cards but I've rewritten only a few recipes in all that time.

It's an overwhelming task; my small box is packed tightly with cards. I find I'm more likely to copy an old recipe into MasterCook than I am to copy it to the new, larger cards.



When Allison and I got ready to make cookies Sunday afternoon, I knew the time had come to copy at least one recipe onto a new card. Looking at the old card, you might think I've had it a long time or that I'm a messy cook. Yes, and yes. I have those cool plastic sleeves designed to keep your cards clean but obviously, they came too late to save this one.

One down, only 32,593 left.

Cream-Filled Confetti Cookies


1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup shortening
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup candy sprinkles

FILLING
3/4 cup butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg (see note)
food coloring


In large bowl, combine sugar, 1/2 cup butter, shortening, vanilla and eggs; beat well. Add flour, baking powder, & salt, mix well. Stir in candy sprinkles. Cover dough, refrigerate at least 1 hour for easier handling.

Heat oven to 400º F. On lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/8" thickness. Cut with 2 1/2 " cookie cutter. Place 1" apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 5-7 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 1 minute, remove, cool completely.

In medium bowl, beat 3/4 cup butter until softened. Gradually add sugar, blend well. Add vanilla and egg, beat until light and fluffy. Add coloring, blend well. Spread 1 heaping teaspoon of filling between 2 cookies. Store filled cookies in refrigerator.

Note: I get a little queasy at the idea of raw egg in the filling so I use powdered egg. The flavor wouldn't be the same without the egg so I had to either find an alternative or buck up and eat raw egg. The powdered egg gives a great result, without any queasiness. Also, we skipped the food coloring this time.

First Sunday of Advent

We have some Advent traditions around here.

Allison starts us off, since she's the youngest. She gets to light the candle and choose the special treat we will have after our Advent devotional reading.



As the girls have gotten older, they have started helping with the treat they choose. Allison didn't even hesitate when I asked her what she wanted for her treat today. I was a little worried because I forgot to check with her ahead of time but she knew just what she wanted. Thankfully, we had everything on hand to proceed.

She chose Cream-Filled Confetti Cookies as her treat. They are a festive-looking, delicious sandwich cookie.

She and I worked together on getting the dough mixed but she did all the rolling out, cutting, and baking by herself. We worked together on the filling, then I left her to do all the work of frosting and putting them together. It's a beautiful system for me as I get tired of the tedium of the steps she handled alone.

I'm planning to share the recipe. Stay tuned!

Handmade Holidays Snowman

I didn't plan to participate in Kathy's Handmade Holidays because I'm not very crafty. Then I remembered this guy and decided to give him his moment in the spotlight.



I made several of these a few years ago, complete with matching fleece hats and scarves. The one I kept for myself never got matching accessories so he gets whatever is floating around in the box at the bottom of the coat closet. We dressed him for hunting season while Clarence was away, hunting at Uncle's cabin. Clarence, of course, didn't notice until I mentioned it.

He is made from a cedar fence post, cut in half, nailed to a square of scrap wood to help him stand. Clarence drilled a hole, cut a piece of dowel, and rounded the end of it somewhat by sanding to make our carrot nose. I painted him with acrylic paint, then put Thompson's water seal over the paint in hopes of making him somewhat weatherproof.

For the hat and scarf, I think I used about a half yard of fleece for each snowman. (As a heads up: I think fleece is on sale at Joann Fabrics for Black Friday.) The scarf is a strip (~4-5 inches?) made from the fabric leftover after making the hat. I eyeballed everything so just go with what looks good to you. You can fringe the ends of the scarf or not.

For the hat, I measured a piece of fleece that would fit around the post. I cut it to size and hand stitched it to form a tube. I then took some thread and tied it around one end of the tube, a couple inches down from the top, similar to closing a bread bag. I snipped the fabric above the thread every 1/2 inch or so, so it looked like fringe. Fold the bottom edge up to make a hat brim and put it on the snowman.

This is a simple project if you have access to a couple power tools, especially if you can sweet talk someone into helping with the cutting and sanding like I did. If you're quite ambitious, you could even drill holes in his sides and add some twigs for arms. You could also save the sewing and use a hat and scarf you already have, like I've been doing.

I like that he's a winter decoration, rather than just a Christmas decoration, so he can stay for a long visit before being stored away.

November Quiz

The girls quizzed last Saturday and their forgetful mother didn't take her camera. You might also notice how many days it has taken their forgetful mother to take pictures of their awards and post about it on her blog.

Thankfully, they don't have faulty memories like their mother and did very well.



Their teammate is older so they have to quiz in the Senior Teen division when she's there. It didn't seem to be a problem. Their team took first place.

For individual competition, they both quizzed in the Young Teen veteran division. Julianne took first, quizzing out on the 11th question. Allison took second, quizzing out on the 12th question. She was making Julianne nervous, let me tell you.

Julianne quizzed out in every round she was in (as is her goal every month). Allison quizzed out three times, the most exciting time happening when she quizzed out ahead of Julianne in one of the team rounds.

You're probably tired of hearing me say how proud I am of them.

Traditions

My girls learned when they were little that if they uttered the words "But Mom, it's tradition!", I often succumbed to whatever it was they wanted at the moment. Needless to say, when something comes along that they really like, it quickly becomes "tradition" in their minds.

When Clarence goes deer hunting each year, we girls have a few traditions to uphold. We rent a movie or two (because Clarence never wants to watch movies), I buy eggnog for them, and I make biscotti. Yeah, I know that's a bizarre combination but somehow those are the things that carry over from one year to the next. I don't remember what got us started on the biscotti but it's a tradition they won't let me forget.


Lemony Almond Biscotti

(One trick I learned somewhere is to stand the biscotti up as pictured above for the second baking. It saves turning them halfway through the baking time.)

I didn't remember to buy eggnog yet but we watched our movie this afternoon and I made biscotti this evening. And those pumpkin chocolate chip waffles I made for lunch today? I think they're destined to become a tradition.