Vintage Hats Vintage Millinery Flowers

I'm back and I must say, I'm so looking forward to having my routine back to normal!  It's been a busy week and I'm worn out.  But now things can settle down and I can get back to stitching, sewing and glue-guning!  LOL!!!

We've done some shopping this week and I found 4 Vintage Hats with Vintage Millinery Flowers in the antique mall.  I buy these old hats and then take them apart and use the Vintage Flowers on my projects:

And here are the Vintage Millinery Flowers that I end up with:

I save everything from these old hats that I can.  If there's trim or usable fabric, I save it.  Waste not, want not! Would you like to see how to take these old hats apart?  See my Taking Apart Vintage Hats Tutorial.

I use these Vintage Flowers on my Crazy Quilts, Fabric Cuff Bracelets and other projects.

In other news, my sweet friend Cathy Scalise of Treasured Heirlooms included one of my Crazy Quilt pieces in a beautiful Etsy Treasury.  If you have a free moment, please see that Etsy Treasury and please leave a comment.  If it gets enough views and comments, it may make it to Etsy's front page!

Happy Christmas!

Just want to take a few moments to wish everyone a very Happy & safe Christmas Eve & Christmas Day. 

Scott is taking me out for breakfast tomorrow and then to the antique mall.  Hoping to find some new little goodies for my stitching projects! 

A New Litter Of Crazy Quilt Cat Dolls!

I just finished wrapping my gifts and now I'm making soup.  Smells good!

I'll keep this post short today as I know everyone is quite busy.  I just thought you'd like to see my latest Crazy Quilt Cat Dolls.  Perfect for Valentine's Day Gifts!  Yes, I am already thinking Valentine's Day!  I love the pink and the cupids and the hearts!  Anyway, here are the kitties:

These are all available in our Boutique.

I'm off to check on my soup.  Have a great evening everyone!

Toffee Squares - Cookie Recipe

For today, I wanted to share my absolute favorite Christmas Cookie recipe.  My mom has been making these cookies since I was little.  Not only are these my favorite, but they're my aunts favorite of mom's cookies as well.

TOFFEE SQUARES

1 cup Butter
1 Egg Yolk
2 cups Flour
1/2 cup Chopped Nuts
1 cup Brown Sugar packed (dark brown sugar is best)
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1 - 6 ounce package of Chocolate Chips melted

Cream butter and sugar.  Blend in egg yolk and vanilla.  Add flour and mix well.  Spread in greased 15 X 10 inch jelly roll pan.  Bake in moderate oven, 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.  Remove from oven and immediately spread with melted chocolate and nuts.  Cut into 24 squares.

Enjoy!

Christmas Week

I have been stitching but I know everyone is busy so I haven't worried about blogging too much this week.  I've also been helping mom out.  As you know, she had gallbladder surgery last week and is doing well.  Surgeries aggravate her depression though, so she's having a tough time with that.

My Simba is doing better.  He's still too thin in my opinion but he has put a little weight back on:

He's been playing more!  It's good to see that.  He used to play all the time and still chased his tail until the Colitus set in.  Now he lays on the sofa and plays with that little pink fuzzy ball all the time!  The only problem is, he knocks it on the floor and then I have look for it!  LOL!!!

Here's one of my latest finishes:

The design is from my collection of vintage iron-transfer patterns.  I've crayon tinted it and bordered it with a white and blue pin dot fabric.  I just added it to the shop.

At the moment, I'm working on some little baby things using my vintage patterns.  I thought it would be fun to offer some baby items in the shop.  I plan to start on Block #5 of my Marie Antoinette quilt later this week.

As for Christmas, I just have to wrap my gifts!  I put my little tree out yesterday, and my little glitter houses that mom & I made last year so my living room is sparkly but not overwhelming to me. 

If you've been a long time follower of my blog, you know that I deal with ADD/ADHD, Depression, Anxiety and Seasonal Affective Disorder.  This is the most challenging time of year for me.  But I'm glad to say, that after tomorrow, it starts staying light out longer.  I know it won't be noticeable for a few weeks but it's good to know that we'll be gaining a minute of daylight every day!

If you cope with any of the disorders that I mentioned, or if you deal with the holiday blues, you might find this article on Coping The The Holidays helpful.

I hope you're having a nice holiday season.  I'll be back tomorrow with my favorite of mom's Christmas cookie recipe.  If you basic baking supplies on hand and a bag of chocolate chips, you'll be able to whip these up!