Mail and more

I received this adorable post card in the mail from my blogging friend Gina over at Patra's Place all the way from Australia.  I send her one of my dress/apron postcard's in exchange you can see it here.

This is a Christmas cracker I received from the exchange I am doing with the International crazy quilt group on yahoo. You can see the two that I sent here.  We are supposed to wait until Christmas to open them, but I know that's not going to happen ' cause that's not how I roll.  I already opened one of the little gifts, but that's because it was wrapped in cellophane so I thought it might be candy and I was really hungry.

This is what I'm working on today.  My goal is to get all  of the 2.5 inch squares sewn of the corners.  Four down and 44 more to go.

Welcome December

Nothing too exciting going on here.  I just finished the December circle of the month for my welcome sign. I really like these so I am managing to stay right on top on them.  Most of them anyway, I still need to go back and get Novembers done.

Continuing the Lefsa Tradition

Lefsa has been a long standing tradition in my family and I remember my mother and aunt making it when I was a child. So after begging for a lefsa griddle for Christmas a few years ago, I thought I should continue the tradition. I convinced my sister she should be a part of this wonderful tradition and she honored to be asked. (At least in my mind) We had fun doing it for a couple of years and one year she even brought a Krum kaka iron and really went crazy. The last couple years it hasn't worked out with her and now with her being in Kurdistan it's not even an option so I have had to continue the tradition with out her. One year I tried to make it myself and it was just too difficult and no fun at all so what's the point in that? So the next year I tried to co-horst my lefsa loving husband into helping. Well, he wasn't as attentive as I thought he should be, and he thought he could make up his own rules so I had to let him go before things got ugly.

This year I found a new partner. One that knows her way around a kitchen and took her job every seriously. Our daughter, Michele, turns out she a natural when it comes to making lefsa. Perhaps it that Norwegian from both sides of the family.

The lefsa gets rolled nice and thin.

 

Then baked on a hot griddle and is gets laid to rest.

 

Lefsa resting.

Lucy resting.

Warm lefsa with butter, cinnamon and sugar, yummy, it  just doesn't get any better.

Happy Thanksgiving

I thought this year for Thanksgiving I would try to make something special and different so when I saw some cute little pumpkins on Marsha's Kitchen blog I decided to give it a whirl.  I have all kinds of cookie cutters so I found my pumpkin shape one and proceeded to make them only to find that I could only put 1 teaspoon of pumpkin on each little pumpkin shape and it would take me days to use up all the pumpkin mix at that rate.So I made one batch with the cookie cutter, then rolled out another pie crust and made the rest into pumpkin pie.

They turned out cute and very tasty, but then I dropped the container on the floor and now they don't look so pretty.Good thing I took a picture first.

 

Opps, I forgot to take a picture before my hubby cut into it.

Well, the truth is, I don't really like pumpkin pie so I decided to do what I know and love.

Yes, that would be cookies.  Since I had spent so much time with the pumpkin and such, I decided to keep it simple.  I used the Toll House recipe and used M&M's instead of chips.

I used the holiday dark chocolate and holiday mint.

Raw cookie dough.  Yum.  There's nothing better.  I know you aren't supposed to eat unbaked cookie dough but I have been doing it all my life and don't actually know of anyone that has died from it and if it happens to me.... well, I can't think of a better way to go; with a big ol' spoon full of cookie dough in my mouth.

Yes, I did bake a few, just for fun.

Happy Thanksgiving and remember to be thankful.

Chrsitmas Crackers crazy quilt style

These are Christmas Crackers crazy quilt style.  The tradition of Christmas Crackers can be found here. I joined a Christmas Cracker swap on the International crazy quilt yahoo group.  Instead of wrapping them in paper we are wrapping them in a crazy quilt block.  Then they are filled with buttons, beads, silk ribbons and other goodies used for crazy quilting.

 Here is a sample of the things I put inside.  I signed up for two so I made the outsides very similar then varied the insides to meet the receivers taste.

These were so much fun to make and gatherings the little goodies for the insides is almost as fun as opening the ones I will receive.