Mug Rugs and Spice Doodles

I often have quilt patterns or designs in my head that I would like to try but I don't have the time to make many full quilts.  I liked the idea of mug rugs (small quilts for your cup of coffee and a couple of cookies) but didn't know who to make them for.  Well...my in laws have cake and coffee every evening and so I thought these might work for them.  Below are the two I made.  I have no idea who makes the fabrics so please don't ask. :)

For Papa:

I made some log cabin blocks with green and yellow and then after seeing how big Mama's was I added some stripes along the side and bottom.
For Mama:

Her favorite colors are blue and red.  I had wanted to try a zig zag for a while and this was a great opportunity.  I like how it turned out.  The back is a cute print with birds on it (one of my favorites).

Now for the best part of these pictures: the COOKIES!
They are called Spice Doodles and I found the recipe in Better Homes and Gardens The Ultimate Cookie Book.  This book has lots of fun easy recipes that I usually make at Christmas.  It was different this year because my son was diagnosed with celiac this last year but I still made some of the favorites for my husband and I.

Spice Doodles

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cups flour
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Lightly grease cookie sheets and set aside.  In a large bowl beat butter and shortening.  Add in sugar, baking powder and salt.  Beat until combined.  Beat in egg and vanilla.  Beat in as much flour as possible and then stir in rest.  If necessary cover and chill one hour or until easier to handle.

Preheat oven to 375 F.  In small bowl combine remaining sugar and pumpkin pie spice.  Shape dough into 1" balls and roll in sugar and spice mixture.  Place on cookie sheet 2" apart and bake for 10 to 11 minutes or until edges are golden.  Let stand one minute and transfer to wire rack.

Yield: about 40 cookies (I usually double it because they don't last long in our house) 

a bit of christmas

I thought I would share some of my Christmas decor.  I am always looking for the perfect mantelscape and have lots of ideas in my head but it never seems to turn out as I imagined.  Instead of greenery and red or white feathers and silver it is black and red with my angels.  I collect Jim Shore angels and usually hang them on the tree where no one can see them.  This year I decided to highlight them and show them off.  In the end I love how it turned out.

I wanted to give some of the angels height and originally I wanted to cut down some cedar 4x4 posts but when I saw the price I decided that wasn't going to work for me.  Instead I headed to the thrift store and bought two candlesticks and two small saucers all for a total of $2.50.  I unscrewed the middle from one candlestick, painted all the parts black, and set the plates on the candlesticks.  What a cheap solution and it fits better with all the other pieces.

The top of my fridge:

The kitchen windowsill:

  The nutcrackers:

The Story of our Nutcrackers 
This summer we visited Leavenworth, WA for two days and the kids (my daughter especially) had to visit the nutcracker museum.  My husband and I are not really enamored with nutcrackers but took the kids.  I did not know there were so many different kinds of nutcrackers.  We (the parents) still do not like all the shiny, glittery, fuzzy nutcrackers but appreciate the handcrafted ones.  The little guy in the top picture is in lieu of the ornaments I usually buy for my husband and I each year.  We bought him at the Christmas Market in Vancouver, BC.  He is small but totally cute and hand made in Germany.  The bigger guy I bought at Michaels.  He is made in China and is not the same quality.  He is my compromise with the kids.  They soooo wanted a nutcracker.  Every store we went into they would ask for one.  I couldn't find one that was not over the top, for us parents, until I saw this one.  He has a pretzel in one hand and a beer in the other.  The perfect "German" nutcracker.

table and chairs

In October I painted our table and chair set.  The table we had bought at the thrift store and it has needed to be refinished for many years.  The kids are now at a point where it doesn't get destroyed every time they craft on it.  The chairs were from my husbands parents when we got married.  They had them for many years and both my MIL and I had slip covered the seats a couple of times.  My husband and I cleaned them with TSP and sanded the table down until it was smooth.  The table top has about 5 coats of paint and the chairs and table base 3 coats.  I tried to spray paint the chairs but after three cans of spray paint on two chairs I decided that brushing them would be easier and less work.  I used Benjamin Moore satin finish oil paint in Cloud White.  This is my favorite color for all my trim and misc cabinets.  I love it! Here is a picture of a chair before:

  This chair was one of the better chairs.  A couple of years ago I had recovered two chairs in this brown vinyl.  It cleaned up easy!  I bought different fabric in the spring (or maybe last winter) and had the foam in my daughters closet all summer while our house was on the market.  Here is a couple of pictures of the completed chairs and the set:

Since the dishes were white and the table was white we needed to add a little of something.  The kids and I headed to Homesense and bought placemats.  The have only actually been used a couple of times as they keep getting dirty and I forget to wash them when I do the laundry.  They did look pretty the first day.

The white really brightens up the kitchen, especially on these dark winter afternoons.

Perogy Update

So the perogies were a hit!!  Even my husband who didn't really like perogies was asking for more.  I guess I will be making them more often and no more store bought ones.

Dinner!

Actually this is tomorrows dinner.  I have promised my son for months now to make gluten free perogies.  Perogies were one of his favorite meals before he was diagnosed with celiac disease in May.  I knew that if he needed energy after dinner he would eat perogies.  He was a picky eater before he was diagnosed and is actually better know.  Weird.  Anyway I finally made the perogies yesterday.  I thought that since they would take a bit of work to make I would double the recipe.  I made 7 dozen.  I sure hope he likes them!  Here are the beauties:

  I bagged them by the dozen after they were frozen.  I think that the rest of the family will eat store bought so that they last longer.  It took me more than two hours to make them.
I found the recipe here: http://www.food.com/recipe/gluten-free-perogies-199482

I'll let you know how it went.

Another Finished Quilt

For those of you who still check my blog THANK YOU!!
I finished my quilt for my new niece on Thanksgiving and brought it over to my sisters.  I loved it.  I don't have pictures of the back but it turned out great as well.  Here are some pictures:

It is sooo different than the ones I made for my nephews.  Theirs were all farm ones.  This is so girly.  Love the purple and pink.

 Just because I haven't posted in a while doesn't mean I haven't been busy.  I will have more to show you soon. Please keep checking. 

Finished Quilt

I finished a quilt today!  It feels so good.  It has been a while since I made something other than cards so to finish this project is rewarding.  Here are a couple of pictures of it:
The quilt top:

Sewing the layers using wavy lines (tried something new):

All DONE!!

The back:

I love, love, love how it turned out!  The colors are calm and soft.  I also added some quilting on the back.  This is something I keep seeing on many other quilt blogs.  I think it adds something special to what is usually plain and forgotten.

I have already started on my new nieces quilt.  Look for updates on this next!