Glitter Houses

Grab a cup of tea and a Christmas cookie and sit back for a bit. I have quite a few nice things to share with you today!

Ya'll know I love old things. Anything with that 30's/40's feel to it is my style. Shabby Chic Cottage is so soft looking and soothing on my nerves! And of course, I love my glitter!!!

I decided a few months back, that because of what happened last year on Christmas Eve (my birthday), if I was going to put out any Christmas decorations at all, they had to be new and they had to be pink. I told my husband that I can't deal with a real tree this year. I can't tolerate the smell. Anything that smells like a pine tree takes me right back to last Christmas Eve when I had lightening bolts & fireworks shooting off in my brain and that is an absolutely horrible memory for me. He agreed that we would not do a tree this year.

So instead of my normal Christmas decorations that I usually put out, I made some new things for this year. I'll start with my pink pinecones:



I bought a bag of cinnamon scented pinecones at WalMart and a can of pink spray paint. I took them over to my mom's house and told dad that I'm spray paint challenged! Ha, ha, ha! I'm just not good with it! So dad sprayed my pinecones pink. When they were dry, I sponge painted them (by hand) and piled on the glitter! The little angel was made by my mom quite a few years ago. I always put her on the top of my tree. I decided she would look cute with the pink pinecones. The tablecloth on my coffee table was another of my mom's projects. Mom made this about 3 or 4 years ago. She also made the pink crocheted doily.

The pink pinecones were fun and are very pretty but my absolute treasures are my little Glitter Houses and Bottlebrush trees:



I have always loved little Christmas Houses. My grandmother had a set when I was little but after my grandfather passed away, they seemed to disappear. I would have loved to have them.
I found some at flea markets over the Summer but the colors were very bright. I remember my grandma's house were soft and pastel. So guess what? I decided to make my own!

The original vintage houses were called Putz Houses. Named for the company in Japan that made them. They were quite inexpensive, found mostly in dime stores from what my parents tell me.

Anyway, I gathered up some little bits & pieces from my craft supply stash, got out my cardstock and my glitter and had myself a good time with these!

Here's more:







Yes, my snow is pink! I put some quilt batting down and then I covered that with some pink tulle. I arranged my houses and the trees and then sprinkled some chunky glitter around them.

I made the trees too. Well, sort of. I decorated them. I bought the white ones and piled the glitter on those. Then I glued the tiny shiny glass balls on them. The green ones were in with my Christmas decorations so I pulled those out and did the same.

My mom made several houses too. I have mom's in my garden window. Mom's theme was "candy-land". You can kind of see them all in this photo but my favorite is the gingerbread man house:



Isn't that sweet? I have some pink trees with the candy houses. I found those at Hobby Lobby. I didn't decorate them. They already had pink glitter on them so I let them be. Kind of surprising for me, huh?

Anyway, that's my pink Christmas. I did hang my vintage Christmas towels on the doors of my Hoosier cabinet and I have another embroidered tablecloth that mom made on my kitchen table. But this is all I can handle for this year.

I must say, I loved making these houses more than I enjoy making cards! The wheels are turning!!!

There are more photos over on my Flickr site. Just click on one of the images to head over there and see them all.

In other news, the drawing for my Mason Jar filled with Christmas Tea Cookies will take place tonight when my husband gets home from work. If you haven't entered yet, there's still time. See this post for more details.

Here is the Mason Jar filled with my homemade cookies:



And here it is decorated with one of my handmade, glittery labels:



I will announce the winner in tomorrow's post.

I thought you would enjoy seeing this lovely angel ornament that Mary Anne sent to me:



Isn't she sweet and beautiful? I have her hanging on the mirror of my antique dresser. You know, I have met so many lovely and talented ladies in blog-land, gifted people that I never would have had the chance to meet had it not been for my computer and my blog.

Which reminds me, I'd like to ask the following ladies to drop me an email:

Sheila
Sandy G
Ann F
Cheryl
Jan

You have all left multiple comments for me but I have no way of reaching you other here. Please email me so I have your addresses for replies.

Finally for today, and ya'll know how much I love this (not) it's snowing outside:



This is view of my backyard from my deck. I will spare you all my complaints.

Well, I'm off to stitch on my Garden Quilt. Updates coming tomorrow.

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!

Garden Crazy Quilt Block #1 Completed

Before I head over to mom's for the day, I wanted to share my first completed block for the Garden Quilt:



The little blue flowers in the bottom left-hand corner are from a vintage necklace that I took apart. The hummingbird is from a pair of earrings that a dear friend of mine sent to me awhile back. They're very pretty but a little too big for me and not really my style. I thought I could enjoy my friend's gift much more if I put them on this quilt rather than having them sit in my jewelry box. The companion will also go on this quilt.

Here is block #2:



The Iris hankie is one of my favorites in my collection! I'll be starting on this block sometime this weekend. At the rate I'm going, my garden will be in full bloom by January!

Judy asked me if I would share my Shortbread recipe that I mentioned in yesterday's post. Yes, Judy, I'll gladly share it. I plan to make another pan of them tomorrow so I'll post the recipe then along with a photo.

Finally for today, be sure to enter my drawing for a Mason Jar filled with my homemade Christmas Tea Cookies! Details are in yesterday's post.

Well, that's it for today. It's 7:45 am and I never really start feeling decent until about 10:30 am. My sense of humor hasn't kicked in yet so I'll leave you will well wishes for a nice Saturday!

Christmas Drawing!

As ya'll know, I've been baking up a storm lately! How did I make cookies before I bought my Kitchenaid? I've already made a pan of Chocolate Chip Shortbread and another batch of Raisin Applesauce. I'll spare you anymore of my applesauce photos. :) My mom loved that last batch I made over the weekend so I promised her some more.

Well, I mentioned earlier this week that I was going to host a Christmas Drawing! I will be filling this plain & simple Mason Jar with pretty little Christmas Tea Cookies and decorating it to suit the upcoming holiday:



To enter the drawing, simply leave a comment on this post. Please include your first name and first initial of your last name in your message. The names will put into a basket and my husband Scott will draw one name on Wednesday, December 9th. The winner will be announced that evening. Due to the cost of postage, this drawing is open only to USA residents. I will post a photo of the filled, decorated jar and will ship to the lucky winner on December 12th. I will ship Priority Mail via the USPS.

So that's the news on the Christmas drawing!

In other news, my little Garden Quilt continues to blossom:



I didn't make the little tatted flowers. I found a bagful of them at a flea market awhile back. They were cream color so dyed them and sewed them on.

Well, it's time to drizzle chocolate on my shortbread cookies. Don't forget to leave a comment so I can add your name to the basket!

And So My Garden Grows...

Finally, after what felt like a million French Knots, I completed the stitching on my vintage Vogart Dresser Scarf with the little black kitties:



As you can see in the bottom left-hand corner, my nose-y little Lucy just had to check it out!

Here's a closeup of one end:



Now, I'm going to coat it in "Spray & Wash" and run it through my washing machine. It's at least 50 years old and heaven only knows where it's been until it came into my possession. After that, mom will crochet a simple little border on it in pink variegated thread. Pink is my new favorite color!

With that project completed, my little Garden Quilt began to sprout:



Actually, this little corner of my garden grew pretty quickly! I'm trying to incorporate all the colors of the hankie flowers into each block. Stay tuned for progress photos.

I mentioned in my last post that I'm going to be doing a drawing for a mason jar filled with something nice! I'll post that announcement tomorrow so please stop by to enter the drawing.

I'd like to say thank you to everyone who leaves comments for me. Since I like to reply to everyone, but can't always find an email address, I'll reply here.

Tina, thank you for your comment. I don't envy you for what you deal with but I'm well aware of of challenge you face as I have someone in my life who also deals with that disorder.

Sheila, so glad to hear that you enjoyed the little Gingerbread Man design. I was very happy to send it to you.

Cheryl, thank you so much for all the kind things you say about me and my blog. I'm so happy to know that you enjoy it that much! And so glad you like the lamp that my dad made for me. It's one of my favorite things!

Sandy, no, I didn't make that doily. I don't have the patience for crocheting! My mom made that one. Occasionally, I buy unusual doilies at flea markets and antique shops but most of the ones I have were made by mom.

In other news, I've decided to expand my Etsy shop a bit. I won't go into too much detail at the moment, but for anyone who doesn't like to bake but wants to dig into my cookie jar, I'll be making that an option. More details on that coming soon.

Well, that's it for now! Have a great afternoon everyone!