Crafting takes a left turn

OK, this is what I intended to post earlier today, but haven’t had the time today.  Why?  United Way.  Don’t get me started.  The bookkeeping is horrendous.

So … today is weird show and tell.  My first presentation is Callie’s Christmas stocking.  It was the project I completed in order to qualify for starting a new project.  I can just see it now - I just keep emptying and refilling the same drawer all year and nothing else gets done.

I prefer to think of this stocking as Not My Fault.  I’m actually somewhat embarrassed to show you this, and all I can say is that I must have been channeling my cat’s personality when I made this.  I wasn’t trying for … whatever this communicates.

In any case, this is an example of what turns up when I decide to embroider something.  I’m not a great stitcher, but except for the black nose backing, it’s all needle and thread.  I think that viewing it next to Callie herself is probably the best way to communicate to you the very real similarities between the personality and the stocking.

Grandma - My other show-and-tell piece is a bunny-shaped cutting board my mom brought back from Iowa - something my grandmother took out of some dark corner where it has been hiding for 72 years.  No kidding! My grandmother (by the name of Betsy Timpe) painted this in 1936 in the Timpe School on Timpe Lane, a one-room schoolhouse on the prairie in Nebraska.  So you’re starting to see about the size of the town, eh? This is completely awesome.  I don’t even have words.

So, anybody out there want to present their most embarrassing or any slightly odd crafting projects?

Dinner is Served: Rosemary Tenderloin & Orzo

I made a couple of holiday meals this year - but about that time I was in a blog slump, so I’m just now getting around to posting some of the yumminess that I concocted back then.

This particular recipe is for the slow-cooker, because I’m in a slow-cooker phase, since I have a new one. This turned out about 20X better than I hoped for. It was so good. This is actually a request from my mother-in-law (hi Jennifer!) who was one of the taste-testers on Christmas.

The finished dish, with a sprinkle of cheese.

The inspiration was a recipe from Made Simple (Side Note: would you believe this book is not available from Amazon? First book I’ve ever seen not available there.) I don’t know about you but I’m completely unable to follow a recipe, so after el jumpo you’ll find my approximation of page 64’s “Rosemary Pork.”

Continue reading Dinner is Served: Rosemary Tenderloin & Orzo…

Traditions Holiday Swap 2007

I can’t show you what my swap partner, Vickie, sent to me yet, but I thought I’d show you what I sent to her. I went a little nuts (gee, how unusual for me!) and made a booklet and things. It’s fun getting to know someone this way. Vickie lives in California, and is married with a year-old daughter names Lani (so cute!).

So here’s my package:

I sent a tradition from my husband and I, our favorite holiday music: Vincent Guaraldi’s A Charlie Brown Christmas CD. Vickie sent me Harry Connick, Jr., which is awesome, and made me want to watch Will & Grace. Also a couple of books that are timeless Christmas tales for children, from my own childhood: The Night Before Christmas and the Twelve Days of Christmas.

I sent two tree ornaments I made myself - a crocheted snowflake and an embroidered felt tree. These were both much fun to make!

The little brown wooden square is an Edelweiss cookie press for Springerle cookies. Springerle are traditional German cookies dating back to the 14th century (I’m from the “Hasenclever” family maternally - can you get more German?). I’ll give more information about these later. I gave Vickie my family’s recipe for them.

Finally, I made a booklet with recipes and information for her:

Front and back covers there. The front is a holiday card cut in half with a piece of paper adhered to the back. Same for the back. Tied with ribbon, because I don’t know how else to bind a book at the moment.

A greeting on page 2, then on page 4 a rundown of a traditional holiday dinner - one I made in 2006, in fact. The portabello bisque listed there has a long story.

Pages 5-8. That’s my tree from 2006, then three pages to explain and give the springerle recipe. With pictures!

Pages 9-12. There’s some info about my maternal “hometown” and on the right my maternal grandmother’s Chocolate Crinkle cookie recipe.

Pages 13-16. Finally, my paternal grandmother’s sage noodle recipe. Very good recipe. haven’t heard of too many families with a holiday noodle recipe.

So that’s all there is. It was a fun project to undertake. I’ve decided I need to learn more binding methods, make a few more little books like that. I don’t know what for, but I can certainly build them anyway!