Thursday, April 15, 2010

A Little Late On The Flea Market Finds And Another Sweet Treat Recipe!

Better late than never!  I've been busy as a bee these last few days.  A little too busy actually.  Been rearranging some things in my home, stitching, finishing and junkin!

On Sunday morning, Scott and I picked up my mom and we went to the Grayslake Flea Market & Antique Show.  The theme for this month was "Everything Vintage".  That's right up my alley!

Here are my Flea Market Treasures from Sunday.  As you know, I just love vintage hankies:

Flea Market 1

Flea Market 2

I only paid $1 for each of those hankies!  I really don't "need" any but I love them so I keep buying them.

Next, I found some buttons:

Flea Market 3

Check out those green rhinestone buttons!  They're mint and gorgeous.  So sparkly!  And, then a bagful of little white rose buttons.  Last but not least, I found some pink buttons.  I'm always on the looking out for old pink buttons.  If anyone has any they don't want, I will gladly give them a good home!

The little pink pieces are flowers.  It was hard to open them up so you could see them but when sewn down, they'll make these cool little flowers.

Next, a bag of lace and trim:

Flea Market 4

Again, I have plenty of lace but I just can't help myself!  I love it!!!!  And I adopt all unwanted lace and give it lots of love!!  :)

I just spent some time photographing our newest projects.  I'll save those photos for over the weekend.  Very time consuming actually.  But as you've probably noticed, my photos have improved greatly!

And speaking of time consuming, I've finally had enough of dial-up and have decided to get a high speed connection.  Next week, I'll make the phone calls and get the process going.  I like to read a lot of blogs (see my sidebar) and those blogs are very graphic intensive.  I get tired of waiting for pictures to load so high speed, here I come!

Let's see, what else have I been doing?  Oh, I baked this afternoon.  Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting!  YUM!!!

Cupcakes

I did indulge!  And I don't feel guilty in the least!  Ha, ha, ha!  The recipe is from one of my vintage baking booklets:

Bakers Chocolate Cookbook

This little book is by Walter Baker & Company, Inc.  The copyright date is 1931.  And here is the recipe if you would like to try it:

CHOCOLATE FUDGE CAKE

2 cups Cake Flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter (real butter)
1 cup sugar
2 egg yolks, well beaten
3 squares Baker's Unsweetened chocolate melted
1 1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 egg whites stiffly beaten

Sift flour, once, measure, add baking powder, soda, and salt, and sift together 3 times.  Cream butter thoroughly, add sugar gradually, and cream together until light and fluffy.  Add egg yolks and chocolate, then add flour, alternately with milk, a small amount at a time.  Beat after each addit;ion until smooth.  Add vanilla.  Fold in egg whites.  Bake in 2 greased 9 inch layer pans in moderate oven (350 degrees) for 30 minutes.

Well, I didn't make mine into cake.  I made mine into cupcakes with pink Cream Cheese frosting and they are quite yummy!  Do give them a try!

Over the weekend, I'll share a low carb sweet treat recipe.  Perfect for a warm Spring day!

For now, I'll leave you with a photo of my Nightmare:

Nightmare

I swear, there is no creature on this planet who can make themselves more comfy cozy than a cat!

Saturday, April 10, 2010

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:

Chocolate Orange Shortbread 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:

Crazy Quilt Button Blocks

And this is what I'm stitching on now:

Crazy Quilt Button Blocks

These will be 6 inch ornaments. 

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

Bunny Pillow

Bonnet Lady Pillow

Violets Pillow

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!

Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Crazy Garden Quilt is now Complete!!!

Here is my Crazy Garden Quilt:

Floral Crazy Quilt Finished 1

Floral Crazy Quilt Finished 2

As my long time readers know, I deal with Seasonal Affective Disorder Syndrome, among other things, and I decided that I needed a nice Winter project to help me get through the dreadfully cold, gray Winter days.  What would be more helpful than to make a crazy quilt with a garden theme!

I started this back in October (I think) and my timing was perfect!  I finished stitching the last block in March and yesterday, completed the quilt!  I used a vintage machine-embroidered handkerchief as the focal point for each of the 9 blocks.

I'm so pleased with this quilt and it very much suits my "shabby chic" tastes and "cottage style" decor.  Heaven knows I love pink!  If you would like to see close-ups of all 9 blocks you can find them here.

So now that my Crazy Garden Quilt is done, what's next?  Well, I have tons of projects planned.  Art dolls, mixed media projects, more re-purposed items, more CQ cat dolls....the list is endless.

I'll leave you today with my latest Etsy additions.  First, this gorgeous original by Mom:

Teddy Bear Pillow

And another project by Mom, a re-purposed perfume bottle:

Vintage Perfume Bottle

Last but not least, my latest birdbath, created from a vintage sundae dish:

Sundae Dish Birdbath

Sunday, April 04, 2010

Happy Easter!

Wishing every one of my sweet blog readers a very Happy & Safe Easter!

Saturday, April 03, 2010

Happy Easter Weekend!

Good Morning everyone!  Well, I'm almost done with my Crazy Garden Quilt.  All I have left to do is to put the back and sleeve on, top stitch it and hang it!  I'd like to get the back on tomorrow morning before we head over to mom's.  Still not sure if I will try to do that or not.  When I do the top stitching, I'll do that on mom's machine.  Hers is much newer than either one of mine and it's electronic so there's a bit more precision there.

In the meantime, here is an Easter card that I made:

Happy Easter Card

Happy Easter Weekend!

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