Taking Apart An Old Hat Tutorial

Bubba & I hit 2 Flea Markets yesterday!  I didn't find anything all that exciting but I did pick up this ugly old hat for $6.00:

I buy these these old hats for the vintage flowers.  Many times, they're velvet and silk and usually in very good shape.  I buy them when I find them for around $4 - $6 and then I take them apart.  This may seem like a rather dumb tutorial but I thought someone out there may like know how to do this.

In most cases, the glue on these hats is rather brittle and the flowers will come off easily but I have had a few that were a big old bear to get off!!!

First, I started on this one by removing the leaves:

The leaves & flowers are usually glued to each other.  Find a starting point and carefully start pulling the leaves or flowers away from the mesh base.

Silk flower petals may tear a little.  Do your best to carefully pull them off and keep in mind that if they tear, it adds to the charm and raggyness of the flowers.  I for one, love the raggy look of vintage things!  They can always be slightly trimmed with a pair of scissors.

There may be areas where you just have to cut the mesh base to get the flowers off.

Once I had the flowers off of the sides of the hat, I cut the mesh base on the top off.

This just makes it a wee bit easier to get the rest of the flowers off.

Continue to carefully pull the flowers off the top.

I pulled them all off the top of the hat and then I pulled them off of each other.  And now I have a nice bagful of silk & velvet vintage flowers & leaves!

It takes about 1/2 an hour to tear one of these old hats apart but it's well worth it.  The flowers can be used on crazy quilting, art quilts, cards, art dolls...just about anything!  They can be sewn on or glued on with a glue gun.  The can also be glittered!!!

If you find one for a few dollars, give it a try!  It's fun to re-purpose these old flowers on new projects!

If you would like to see some the projects I use these Vintage Millinery Flowers on, please visit my Shabby Chic Boutique at Etsy!

When I finished tearing that old hat apart, I did some baking!  My Kitchaid was calling to me!  LOL!!!  I made some Banana muffins with chocolate chips:

I just used a regular Banana Muffin recipe and replaced the nuts with chips.  Scott always laughs at me because I put chocolate chips in everything!!!

Then I made a batch of Sugar cookies with cinnamon and chocolate chips:

This is my basic Drop Sugar cookie recipe.  You can find it in my sidebar.  I added 3/4 of a teaspoon of cinnamon to it.

By the time I was done baking, it was late afternoon and Bubba had gotten the headlights on our Model A:

Is this incredible or what?  He's been working on this car for 7 years now and it's really starting to come together.  He has the running boards on it now too!

Finally for today, I'll leave you with an update on my Autumn purse block:

This is ready for beading now.  I'll start on that later today!

Before I head out and start my day, I wanted to say thanks to everyone for all the sweet comments that you've left for me on my depression & anxiety discussions.  If any one would like to share a link to the articles on their blog, please feel free to do so.  I truly feel that if I can help even one person who's going through a horrible depression experience, then my energy in writing these articles is so worth it.  My next article will be available this week.

Trash To Treasure - Repurposed Junk

I really have to start taking photos before I start a "trash to treasure" project.  There is just a huge difference between what I start with and what I end up with.

As my long time readers know, I love flea markets.  I also love junk stores, garage sales and resale shops.  One never knows what little treasure might be hiding in the shadows waiting for me to come along and re-purpose it!

This was the most ugly tealight holder I've ever seen.  But I saw potential!  Note to self:  MUST REMEMBER TO TAKE PHOTOS BEFOREHAND!!!



Just look at my little Cottage Teapot now!  I painted it pink, added flowers and glitter and now it would be the prettiest little centerpiece in a cottage style kitchen!

Here's another of my re-purposed objects:



Again, this was ugly as sin!  It was a music box but the music didn't work.  The cage was wood & broken and the bird was red, black and white.  Not anymore.  My Cottage Birdcage is now white, the bird is pink, white and blue and I've adorned it with flowers & glitter.  It's like night and day!

Friday is garage sale day and Sunday is a huge flea market so I expect to find something that I can alter from junk to pretty!

In other news, mom & I have started on some July 4th things.  These are mom's little USA Heart Ornaments:



Aren't they sweet? I love the 4th of July!  I'll be at mom's tomorrow and Friday and hopefully will finish up on a few of the patriotic do-dads that I started on.

In the meantime, I've been working on my "Spring Song" Mixed Media Art Quilt:



I'll be adding a little nest with eggs to the bottom right-hand corner.  It will also get just a twinge of glitter.  I have one more sewn up to stitch on and I plan to sew up a few more next week.  I will be writing some tutorials on doing Mixed Media Art Quilts.  How to layer fabrics, how to embellish and what you can embellish with (just about anything) and so on.  It's really not all that different from Crazy Quilting.  Just no seams to cover.  Anyway be sure to stop back for those articles.

Let's see, what else did I do today?  Oh, galletas pour mi padre!  Sorry, just practicing the little bit of Spanish that I know.  I made some Chocolate Chip Sugar Cookies for my dad:



You can find the recipe here if you would like to try them.

Before I head out for the day, please drop me an email if you would like to be added to my mailing list for our upcoming Kitty & Me Designs newsletter.  I'll add you to the list right away and send you a coupon for free shipping.

That's for today everyone!  Have a great evening!

Chocolate Orange Shortbread Cookie Recipe

I've kept myself quite busy today!  Ran errands, stopped at a garage sale (will share those treasures tomorrow), been doing laundry and made some cookies:



Here's the recipe:

CHOCOLATE ORANGE SHORTBREAD COOKIES

1 pound salted butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoons vanilla
grated rind of 1 medium orange
4 cups + 2 tablespoons flour
1 bag mini Chocolate chips.

Mix butter & powdered sugar together.  Add vanilla & orange rind.  Add cocoa powder.  Add flour 1 cup at a time.  Add mini chips.  Mix well.

Roll into 1 inch balls and place on cookie sheet (I use Parchment Paper on my baking sheets).  Press with a glass dipped in sugar.  Add pretty sprinkles.  Press again with glass dipped in sugar.

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes or until done. 

Heaven help me!  These just melt in your mouth!

In other news, I've been stitching on a few small Crazy Quilt blocks.  These 2 are ready for sewing together:



And this is what I'm stitching on now:



These will be 6 inch ornaments. 

Finally for today, I thought I'd share my mom's latest projects with you:







These are crayon tinted, embroidered and beaded! 

Tomorrow we have a nice Flea Market to go to.  Oh, how I love my flea markets!  Scott & I will pick mom up around 8 am and we'll head up there in hopes of finding some nice vintage treasures. 

See ya tomorrow!

Altered Purse, Baking & More

I think I mentioned a week or so ago, that I was playing with a vintage purse that I purchased at a Flea Market back in November.  Well, I finally finished that up today.  Here is the before photo:



And here is the after photo:



It's really not THAT altered.  I sewed some fringy beaded trim at the top then added the trim with the roses to that.  Once I had that on, I sewed the ribbon on, gathering it and sewing it down as I went along.  Yes, the alterations are done completely by hand!  Quite a challenge to keep the thread from getting tangled in the sequins!

Anyway, I then made the bows for the sides and sewed them on.  My dilemma was with the handle.  It was in good shape but quite dirty.  I wanted to do something that was removable in case I ever wanted to change it or in case it got dirty from my use.  Mom suggested that I take some wide grosgrain ribbon and blanket stitch it over the handle.  Voila!  Perfect.  It's pretty, it's changeable and it's pink!

So that's my altered purse.  I really just plan on using it for my Flea Market trips.  My Crazy Quilt purses aren't big enough to put my purchases in and when I saw this, I thought it would be perfect as there are pockets for my wallet, my keys, my cellphone and then lots of empty space for my junkin' finds!  It just needed some pink girl-y stuff on it!

In Friday's post, I mentioned that I had made some Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding.  Yum!  I took a photo of it:



I used my own homemade bread that I had made a week ago and wanted to use up.  Here is my recipe:

Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding

4 Eggs
2 cups Milk
1/3 cup Sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon Salt
2 1/2 cups Dried Bread Cubes
1 cup Chocolate Chips

Beat together eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and salt.  Spread bread cubes out in a rectangle casserole dish (mine is about 2 inches high).  Sprinkle Chocolate Chips over the bread cubes.  Pour egg mixture over the bread & chips.  Bake at 325 for 40 - 45 minutes.

I was never that big on bread pudding but with chocolate, oh yum!  If you try this, please let me know how you like it!

I guess the baking bee was still in me today.  I made Chocolate Chip cookies:



And a Cinnamon Raisin Bread with Chocolate Chips:



Ok, so I like Chocolate!  I had one slice of bread and one cookie and they were so good!  I like to bake things for my dad.  He loves Chocolate too and has been complaining that I haven't made him any cookies lately.  Spoiled?!!!!  I mean really, mom bakes all the time!

Anyway, I also made a big pot of Chicken Soup today and some Taco Meat for salad during the week.  Now I can play all week and know that I have lunch and dinner taken care of.

While I was doing all that (along with 4 loads of laundry), I added some new things to my shop.  First are my sweet little Glittered Birdhouses:



Do they look like ice cream cones or what?!!!  Sprinkles and all!  I wanted them to look Summery.

These little cuties were made by Mom:



I don't know where she found those tiny clay pots!  These are so sweet and I believe the last of our Easter items for this year.

Last but not least, mom made 3 Gift Bags:







These are so pretty!  Mom did some hand-beading on each of these.  Remember, my mom is legally blind and only has a small amount of vision.  You would never know it by the quality of her work.  She's always had a great amount of determination in her.  She has said many times that it wasn't going to keep her from doing the things she loves. 

Well, that's my post for today.  I had wanted to put my Marie Antoinette quilt on the quilt rod today but I ran out of steam.  Yes, yes, I know.  I did plenty and I shouldn't push myself so much.  Not to worry, I've already taken a shower, had some soup for dinner and will be heading off to bed in a moment.  I'll worry about finishing up my Marie quilt tomorrow!

Crazy Garden Quilt Block #9

Tomorrow is my mom's birthday!  Well, actually, it's Monday but we're having our get-together tomorrow.  I just finished making some Sugar Cookies and some little Haystacks:

 

If you'd like my recipe for Chocolate Chip Sugar Cookies, you can find it here.  The Haystacks are really easy.  Actually, these are supposed to look like little bird's nests.  Anyway, you take a bag of Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips and melt it in a double boiler.  Once melted, you add a bag of Chow Mein Noodles.  Mix well.  Break up the noodles a little bit and spoon into mini cupcake papers.  I added a Cadbury Mini Egg to the center of each one.  I pop them in the freezer so they get solid quickly. Very Springy!

Been busy today putting orders together.  I've been wanted to do some Mixed Media Art Quilts.  I may play around with my things a little bit after my bath.  I really love the idea of mixing fabric and paper and glitter and anything else I can up with to make a one of a kind art quilt.  It should be fun!

In the meantime, I thought you'd like to see the final block of my Crazy Garden Quilt before 

I start stitching on it:

 

I plan to start on this sometime this week.  My timing couldn't have been more perfect!  It's just about Spring.  Will have to ask Scott to take me back to JoAnn Fabrics soon so I can find some pink fabric for the border.  I don't think I'm going to shash between the blocks.  I'm thinking of using some white or light pink lace.  Will see when I get that far.

Finally, I'm just about done with my altered purse that I mentioned last week.  I need to do something with the handle.  I don't want to take it off because it's in great shape but quite dingy so I need to figure out what to cover it with.  As soon as I do, I'll share photos.  It's so pretty and shabby and girly!  Very glittery too but it was a challenge as I will explain when I post photos.  I plan to use it as my Flea Market bag.

Well, I'm off to wrap my mom's birthday gift.  Have a great evening everyone!

A Week Before Christmas

Every year, I seem to have one elusive gift to find. This year, the gift is a heavy flannel shirt. I went to Kohl's, WalMart and Target. No one had them. I kept thinking, geez louise! it is the middle of Winter! Finally, I tried the Sears store and there it was. The holy grail of flannel shirts! Ha, ha, ha! With the exception of wrapping my gifts, which Scott will help me do on Sunday, my work for this Christmas is done!

This morning, I put my cookie trays together for my neighbors, ran to the Post Office to mail my last Christmas package and stopped at the Dollar Tree for some pastel colored tissue paper. I would have looked around there longer but quite honestly, there was a little kid in there screaming her bloody lungs out and I just couldn't take it. You know, my mother never tolerated that from my sister and I. We were either good and quiet or mom hauled our butts out of the store and took us home. She didn't let us annoy anyone else.

Well, I don't want to bore anyone with my whining about the behavior of today's children. I thought I'd share with you my final goody of the Christmas season. Fudge!



Homemade Fudge with white chocolate icing and colored sprinkles! They look like they're right out of the Fannie May store! I included these in with my cookie trays for my neighbors and have enough left to take over to mom's on Christmas Eve.

So now, I'm pretty much free to do what I want to do. I started on stitching on Block #3 of my Garden Quilt:



If you want to see larger versions of any of my photos, please feel free to click on them. That will take you over to Flickr where you can see them enlarged. I post the small photos for my readers who like me, are still on dial-up.

Anyway, our little garden is growing quite quickly! It's certainly beginning to look like Spring. At least here at Kitty & Me it does. Outside is a grey, dreary, ugly mess! But Spring will come again and in the meantime, we have this quilt to tend to!

Shortbread Cookie Recipe

Judy asked me if I would share my recipe for Shortbread Cookies. I'm very happy to do that!

Shortbread is one of the most versatile of all cookies. There are only a few ingredients and it's a rather plain cookie so it lends itself to all sorts of variations. It also holds it's shape well so it's perfect for cutout cookies, bar cookies, refrigerator cookies and so on.

Here is the basic recipe for Shortbread:

2 cups Salted Butter
2 cups Powdered Sugar
4 teaspoons Vanilla
4 cups Flour

Cream butter & sugar. Add vanilla. Mix well. Stir in the flour, 1 cup at a time.

This is a vary stiff dough. It may seem a bit dry at first so keep mixing until it holds together. This recipe is also easy to cut in 1/2.

To the batch I made today, I added 1 12-ounce bag of mini Chocolate Chips.

The oven temp. should be 350 degrees. Baking time will vary depending on how you choose to do these.

I rolled my dough onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet:



The baking time for this variation is about 35 minutes. If you use cookie cutters or roll into balls, the time of course is much less. I want to say about 10 - 12 minutes but you'll have to use your own judgement. It's been awhile since I've made them that way.

Once baked, I let the pan cool for a few minutes:



I want to say about 10 minutes. You'll have cut them while still warm:



I have a plastic ruler that I bought just for baking. It's about 1 1/4 inches wide so I use that to make my squares all the same size.

Finally, once the pan is completely cooled off, I drizzle with melted chocolate and add sprinkles:



Aren't they pretty? My father and even my husband love these! And I confess, I do like a shortbread cookie on occasion. They're buttery and melt in your mouth:



Well, that's Shortbread 101! It really is an easy cookie to make. If you decide to try it as bar cookies, you will need to do the whole recipe but if you want to do cutouts, you may prefer to do a 1/2 recipe first. The whole recipe makes quite a bit!

And speaking of cookies, if you haven't entered the drawing for my Mason Jar filled with Christmas Tea Cookies, please hop over to this post for more details.

Happy Sunday everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving!

My garden window easily changed from Halloween to Thanksgiving! My mom made the turkey for me years ago. Actually, it's plaster and mom painted it for me.

Speaking of my mom, there is nothing more comforting than walking into Mom's kitchen and seeing her wearing an apron and running her Kitchenaid:



When I was little, my mom used to bake every single day! If it wasn't cookies, it was bread, if not bread, cupcakes and if it wasn't cupcakes, it was mom's yeast coffee cake! The house always smelled like a bakery!

This is what mom was making yesterday:



This is a Pumpkin Gingerbread Triffle recipe by Paula Deen. You can find the recipe here at Food Network.

And here are the Molasses Muffins that I talked about this week:



I have a weakness for anything with molasses in it! I love the way it makes the house smell! Here's the recipe:

MOM'S MOLASSES MUFFINS

1/2 cup Shortening
1/2 cup Sugar
2 Eggs
1/2 cup Molasses
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Ginger
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 cup Sour Milk (or Buttermilk)
2 cups Flour
1/2 cup Raisins

Cream shortening and sugar, add beaten eggs and molasses. Sift flour and spices, beating alternately with baking soda and sour milk. Add raisens. Bake about 15 minutes at 350 degrees or until done. Makes one dozen muffins.

I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Treats

I've been getting things together for our Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow at my parents house. My aunt & uncle will be there and I'm looking forward to seeing them.

I made another batch of applesauce to have with dinner tomorrow. This is Cranberry Applesauce:



My photo is a little blurry but it's enough to see that the cranberries make the applesauce look pretty!

Here's my recipe:

CRANBERRY APPLESAUCE

3 pounds Red Delicious Apples
Juice of 2 medium Oranges
1 Tablespoon grated Orange Rind
3 Teaspoons Vanilla
1 Teaspoon Cinnamon
1/2 Teaspoon Nutmeg
1 cup (no sugar added) Cranberry Juice
3 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
1 1/2 cups fresh Cranberries

Peel & dice the apples. Add the orange juice and orange peel. Add the rest of the ingredients except for the cranberries. Bake in a casserole dish in a 300 degree oven for 1 hour.

There should be some excess juice in the apples now. Pour the juice into a medium saucepan over medium heat. Depending on how much juice you have, you may have to add a bit more cranberry juice. I had to add about 3/4 of a cup more. Bring to a simmer, then add the cranberries. Keep your eye on them or they will pop all over your stove. Don't ask me how I know!

When you can see that the cranberries are soft, remove from heat and let cool. Mash the apples with a potato masher. Drain the cranberries and gently fold into the applesauce. I tried to keep my cranberries whole, so I folded them into the apples instead of stirring them in. And that's it! It's very good!!!

I just put my cookie plate and candy plate together:



Cream cheese sugar cookie dough made into turkey's and leaves, Shortbread with vanilla icing and crushed malted milk balls on top, Chocolate Chip cookies with butterscotch chips, chocolate chips and pecans (like my grandma used to make them) and Orange Chocolate Spritz cookies.



Old Fashioned Cream Cheese Mints (which aren't mint because I used maple flavoring in the orange ones and almond flavoring in the green ones), Apple Pecan Candy (these are to die for) and the easiest Chocolate Fudge on the planet!

Here's the recipe for that:

1 12 ounce bag of Chocolate Chips
1 14 ounce can of Sweetened Condensed Milk (not evaporated milk)
1 Tablespoon Butter

In a double boiler, on low heat, melt the Chocolate Chips and Butter. When it's completely melted, add the can of Sweetened Condensed Milk. Mix and mix and mix well!

Line a 7 inch X 5 inch pan (I use a Pyrex dish) with plastic wrap. Spray the plastic wrap lightly with No Stick Cooking Spray. Pour fudge into pan and spread evenly. Add colored sprinkles, cover another piece of plastic and refridgerate over night.

It doesn't get any easier than that! I confess, this fudge is way too sweet for me. My father absolutely loves it! I don't eat a lot of sweets but when I do want a little something, I prefer a cookie.

On the "Stash Enhancement" front, I thought you would enjoy seeing a little Ebay find of mine:



This is satin trim from the 1940's. I have nothing like this in my collection (devastating! :) so when I saw it on Ebay, I asked Scott to get it for me. He's a better Ebayer than I am. I don't have the patience for it. I'm the flea marketer, he's the Ebayer!

Isn't it pretty? Now if I could just sit still and stitch!

Well, I'm heading offline for now. I have mom's recipe for the Molasses Muffins that I talked about yesterday. I'll get a photo of them today and I'll have the recipe here tomorrow.