my obsession

I am obsessed with Old Glass Christmas ornamentsThis is one of the ways I use them. I have been collecting pictures of ornament wreaths for YEARS! I noticed up here that all the senior citizens are "downsizing" and getting rid of all their old ornaments. So happily I buy them.
I have quite a collection.
I pull the silver hang tags off of them and glue them to a greenery wreath.
I love the SHINNY ones.
then after they are all glued and no sparse areas or holes, I quickly "blow dry" them so all the hot glue hairs are melted.
I have recently begun to use the ornaments with flocked prints on them. They look cool too.


This one was made using a hanger, something I saw on a blog here at Eddie Ross. I LOVE THE PINK AND SILVER. actually I have about 6 boxes of silver and pink to use to make a REALLY LARGE heart wreath for Valentines day. I think I finally have enough pink to finally make it!
This is a Really Large wreath (about 40 inches round) That I am still working on. Hopefully I will be done in a couple of days and put it over the fireplace.

do do do, lookin out my front door

This is the view out my front door this morning.
beautiful
clouds of pink & gold
A beautiful Thanksgiving day.
I was feeling gloomy about not having my girls here for Thanksgiving. We are having only 2 of the boys (Mr. produce now has someone to watch Football with). We have a VERY LARGE turkey and we are a small group.
I am thankful that everyone is in good health, and fairing well.
Maybe a fun get together next year.
signed,
gloomy gus

Happy Thanksgiving

what I'm working on

Just a hint of what I'm working on.
Service project. for the community shelter..
there is a due date and that is STRESS

My Turkey Tutorial

I now have a gaggle of Turkeys
A package of Oreos made 18. Here's what you need:
Reese's, Malt Balls, Candy corn ( I used carmel candy corn-brown- frosting in a bottle, Chocolate chips
For ease, I used frosting in a bottle and put just a little in the top of the oreo to stick the candy corn in.
Here's my counter top.
Melt the chocolate chips and put a dab on the bottom of the Reese's pieces and malt Ball and stick it on the cookie. Better to let it harden this way (gravity helps)
Then you want a big dab of the melted chocolate chip on the bottom of the Reese's and stick the whole top on the cookie.
Now lets talk about the "face" You can use the white tip of a candy corn for the beak. (I didn't have enough so for the rest I just put frosting.) Then you can use a toothpick and put on eyes.
So here are the 3 ways they turned out:
1. Frosting for beak and eyes
2. Candy Corn tip for beak and no eyes
3. And.. oh yea, another Candy Corn tip for beak and no eyes.
* I like the eyes*
yep, made 18 of them and only have 2 more people for dinner, great WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH 14 Turkeys?

Food Fun Friday (sad face)

It’s back to the low carb/no carb for us… so there’s no more food fun Friday for us..

Ahhhhhh who am I kidding.

Ok, these are what I am planning on making for Thanksgiving dinner, for ALLLLLL our company.

I have all the ingredients.. and plan on making them the last minute so we don’t snack on them! (yeah right)

Craft Night- heirloom pictures

We are making heirloom picturesAnother fun night with friends and neighbors... and Projects. The above picture is what we were trying to achieve. You print out a picture on fabric.
Then you get all sorts of fabric and lace and jewels and ribbons and figure out your placement.
and then you start over again and find just the right match.
You sew pieces together
and then you can add items to glue on, or sew on yourself or applique or embroider....
and your final outcome is a cool, one of a kind heirloom picture. If you put it in a shadow box you can add misc. trinkets!
It was fun AND creative!

My latest project

Its been great to have a weekend to create.
We have a new store in town, a recycled goods store, people bring their old construction stuff and since it is a non-profit store things are pretty cheap. I saw these signs and wanted to make some (since I only have 3,000 of the tags)
for the lettering I used the tags, then cut a a little strip of colored/printed paper and glued it on the bottom I distressed it using ... what else... distressed ink (love it!!)
I found some stick on letters ... only they were blue, so I just felt tip painted them!

I got two pieces of wood. One is actually a cabinet door, and the other is molding.
I originally painted them ivory but later painted them black, then a red, then black again.
here the wood is painted black, then red, then black top coat.
I sanded the black so some of the red would show thru.. and some of the white showed thru too. All in all it was a LOT of trouble for something that wasn't too visible behind the tags. I placed the tags evenly ... and hammered in upholstery finishing nails .. but if I had it to do over I would tape or use adhesive spray so that the tags would stay in place.
Pretty snazzy if I do say so myself!!
I decided to add some torn "scraps" to the wire. The other one doesn't have a wire (yet) I was going to use it on a easel but?? don't know if that works for me. It looks great on a wall. I am thankful! and I hope that seeing this can make me MORE aware of all the blessings in my life and help me to be a little more ... thankful and appreciative for my joys in life.

Food Fun Friday- Pumpklm Krunch

disclaimer question -- -- What is this obsession I have with Pumpkin??? -- --

I found a GREAT recipe on one of the blogs I blog-stalk Thanks Manuela here

It is PUMPKIN KRUNCH
(another disclaimer, this is a picture BEFORE I cooked it) It turns a nice golden brown! yum

Pumpkin Krunch

• 1 large can of pumpkin
• 1 can of evaporated milk
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1 box of yellow cake mix
• 1 cup of chopped walnuts (I've also used pecans, they're optional)
• 2 sticks of butter melted (I cut this down to 1 stick and I stir a little light olive oil into the melted butter but try it with the two first to see if you like it that way)

Grease a 13x9x2 pan (or equivalent). Blend the pumpkin, milk, eggs, sugar and cinnamon together. Pour in pan. Sprinkle the cake mix over the pumpkin mixture. Sprinkle the nuts on top of that. Spread the melted butter over the top. Bake at 350 for an hour or until the top is brown and let it sit for a few minutes.
ummmm mix it all up really well! (weird picture I know)

Pum-yum-kin

Being from the land of Pumpkins...... (Half Moon Bay)
There's the Pumpkin Festival, and Pumpkin Fields, and Pumpkin Pie, and Pumpkin Cheesecake, and Pumpkin Butter, and Pumpkin FACIALS, and Pumpkin skin cream and Pumpkin HATS... there's pumpkin everything...
Here's the rub..
I have never cooked a pumpkin. I cooked the seeds when the girls were young, but never cooked a 'pumpkin'. I always went for the can.
This year I bought (on super sale) two sugar pumpkins for my display outside. Now that Halloween is over, I decided (drumroll) to cook them.
WOW is it easy-sneezy

Rinse your pumpkin. Cut the pumpkin in half, and then half again,
Scoop out the in-nards
roast those seed, or not.
fill a microwave dish (with lid) 1 or 2 inches with water. Cut the large quarters of pumpkin so that they fit in the dish with the lid on.
Microwave for 15 minutes and then check to see if it is really soft. Keep adding 5 minutes if it needs to be softer.
scoop it out.
yes, that is it, EASY SNEEZY

Wednesday Wisdom

Some people can take an ordinary day, and swirl a ribbon of happiness around it,
making a gift for all who pass their way.

don't you just love those people!!!

Questions Questions, I've got Questions

What is REALLY up with Twitter?

and my big question of the day is…. WHY would I want to twitter????

I’m busy enough as it is trying to work and keep house and make stuff and then find interesting things for MY blog… let alone read all my Blog bff’s AND THEN just happen to run into MANY MORE blogs to read and get ideas about…

So please help me understand, WHY anyone would want to twitter

-also don’t get that to enter a ‘blog’ contest I have to “follow” them on twitter. Doesn’t that take time? And energy to read and update and follow on the computer on twitter??????

Who has that kind of time?

As long as we are posing questions (that I don’t have answers to)

Here’s another one.

Now that I’ve found the blogging world…. How do you have time for all the great blogs out there?????

I have sooooooooooo many bookmarked on my Explorer

Then now I’m using Firefox more.. more are bookmarked on THEM

THEN there’s all the blogs I follow... And the blogs I ‘really follow” (meaning my peeps… and you know who you are)

I am afraid of finding MORE great blogs out there but then afraid of what I am missing out on.

Guess it all boils down to

1. Time maintenance
2. Priorities.

Sill looking for an answer about that Twitter thing though…

weekend projects

There are not enough hours in a day NOR are there enough days off during the week!!!!

I have been trying to get my craft room cleaned.. (along with the rest of the house) and in order to SEE the mess (ok the mess is obvious) I needed more light.
First my before and after shot.... This was an old "spice" rack at the thrift shop for a dollar.
after, a GREAT ribbon holder (all the ribbons on the bottom row were $1.00 at a florist shop going out of business.) I just spray painted it black. Black my new favorite color.

Now on to -- let there be light-- I got this at Home Depot in OR... and Mr. Produce wired it for me while I was at church...(and yes I could make all sorts of references to Light and goingtochurch but I'll let that be for now)
Let There Be Light
yum halogen lights!!
Then for over the desk... to lighten up my paperwork.... found this Saturday at a garage sale for 5.00....
oh yeah, I need my light.

Food Fun Friday- Blessing Mix

Today you're in for a treat- literally
Today..... we are making the THANKSGIVING BLESSING MIX.
This is a fun quick yummy gift for friends, neighbors, VT's, YW, scouts.... whomever you would like to bless with your snackity goodness.
These are the ingredients we will need.
there really isn't a set recipe... but if you need something to go by.........
4 C small pretzels
4 C Bugles
2 C Candy Corn
1-2 C M&M's
32 Kisses
2 C dried fruit, (small like raisins or craisins)
2 C sunflower seeds (or peanuts)

Put them in a bowl, toss then divide them into little sacks or baggies or boxes and then put this cute poem with them.
( bare with me.....I am still learning this bloggedy blogg blogg stuff )

Thanksgiving Blessings Mix

Each ingredient in this snack mix symbolizes something associated with the Thanksgiving season.

Cornucopia – or the Horn of Plenty – a symbol of our harvest abundance

Arms folded in prayer … a prayer of Thanksgiving

Corn- food was so scarce that settlers survived on just a few kernels of corn a day

Dried fruits were a harvest gift of our bountiful land

Seeds are a promise of a bounteous harvest for the next season

Sweet memories of those who came before us.

Kisses from the love of family and friends that sweeten our lives.