Homemade Christmas

I thrill at an after Christmas sale as much as the next person.  The opportunity to buy a holiday gem at half price and get to decorate with it the following year.  I do let my children choose an ornament each year, but that is probably the only thing we buy during the actual season at full price.

What I love even more than sweet savings, though, is to create my own Christmas crafts.

I have been known to get really crazy, and make wall hangings that take years to complete, but I really enjoy something simple that can be made from start to finish in an evening or less.

Here are my favorites.  Most use simple felt, thread, embroidery floss, ric rac and the occasional button embellishment.  Oh, and a pile of beads and wire, and some serious help from the bead lady.

Santa has special stockings that he puts goodies in for my crew.  They are ones that Mama made special, and sets aside Christmas Eve for him to fill.

Construction is simple enough.

Cut out two pieces of felt in the shape of a stocking.  This took me a few times to get the size just right, so they were big enough to fill with presents or coal.   Decorate the front of the stockings with whatever adorable pictures your imagination can come up with....or in the case of Daddy's stocking, and you are tired and just want to get it done...a Christmas tree and dots.  Embroider a name at the top then whip stitch the front and the back together, and, done!

Back in the days before I had any money to buy Christmas decor at half price, I made my own decorations. Again with felt.  The mittens are just two pieces of felt, blanket stitched together, with a piece of faux fur glued to the top.  The stocking ornaments have ric rac sewn decoratively down the front.  Easy and cute.

Then you graduate from felt and move on to beads.  These are our Christmas spiders.  There's a lovely story behind them: They say an impoverished family had nothing to decorate their tree with one Christmas, and so when they went to bed, a family of spiders spent the entire night, Christmas Eve, weaving and spinning their webs all over it to make it beautiful for them come Christmas morn. Santa came in and knew how hard the spiders had worked, but that the people might not see the beauty of a tree covered in spiders web, so he touched the web and it turned into tinsel.

Everyone, please have a Merry Christmas this year and if you don't celebrate Christmas, please have a wonderful holiday season.  And get out the glue gun and your pile of felt and see what you can come up with. You'll find you love what you've created so much more than anything you've ever bought.

Happy Crafting!

Heather

It's a Steal! Heather "knocks off" Natalie

Hello!  It's Heather from The Beating Hearth here with you today and I can't wait to be share a little something I whipped up.  It's a project I've been wanting to make for a long time, but didn't really have a need and so I kept it simmering in the back of my mind for a long time.  Well, guess what, I have a need now and am so glad I did a little thieving.

 A couple of weeks ago we started a new series, "It's a Steal"...where we "steal" or 

"knock off" a fellow blogger's idea and show you what we come up with.

 Natalie kicked off the series, knocking off Mary from Sweet Little Bluebird

Then it was Mary's turn and she knocked off Danni from Silo Hill Farm.  

Now it's my turn and I got to steal an idea from Nat from NorthShore Days!

Well, to be fair, I stole two ideas.

Here's Nat's original post: Up-Cycled Painted Tin Cans 

"I love tin cans! I love painting them and storing bits and bobs in them...."

 Now, I cannot compete with her awesomeness.  Give me a pile of fabric and some thread, and I feel fairly competent...some paint, a bucket and embellishments? Completely out of my comfort zone.  So don't judge me too harshly compared to what Nat did, but, I really like what I ended up with.

This is my gardening bucket.  The Mister and I have a deal.  If I pull the weeds, he picks them up.  So typically what happens is, I go on a rampage and there are piles of weeds all over the yard, he comes home after a hard day's work and has to clean up after me.  This bucket may become his new best friend.

First it is going to store my gardening equipment.  I love having my digger, snipper and gloves all in one place, waiting for me to get the gardening urge.

 And second, I might...might think about putting my weeds in the bucket as I go about my gardening duties.

 

Ummmm...apparently I fancy myself Grounds Keeper of the estate.

I saw these keys at the craft store and thought they would be a fun touch.  So yeah.  Head gardener, and I am off to trim the hedgerows in the secret garden...Downton Abbey may have gone to my head.  At least in my imagination I am not conceited enough to think I'm the Countess or something. I mean, I could have gone out and made a beaded dress and over the top, be feathered head-band instead.

Using copious amounts of super glue, I placed on the twine trim...which I love, and these cute little brads on top of the twine.  I didn't know they were brads when I bought them.  This made gluing them slightly awkward, but I like the effect.  I also attempted to glue myself to...everything.

I love that I took this plain metal bucket, and painted it...yes, school bus yellow.  Look, when I saw the paint can, it looked much more like... warm spring day daffodil yellow....and I have to confess to having a hard time when picking paint colors.  They typically border on cornea searing.  We have learned to take whatever paint color I like...go to the next color down on the paint chip...and reduce it by 50%.

 So, take it from me, it's fun to step outside of your comfort zone and make something you've admired from afar.

I also made Nat's Condensed Milk Cookies 

I mean, who can resist a sweet treat?  Not me...and not my family.

 They were the perfect dunking cookie.  Simple and sweet and oh so yummy.

Thanks Nat for letting me steal your ideas and put my own spin on them.

And everybody, start thinking of who and what you want to knock off, for our next Link Party!   

But be sure to ask permission where necessary and always provide link backs.

Next week it's Danni's turn... 

we are so excited to see what she comes up with!

Thanks for reading!

shared here:

Make it Pretty Monday 

Mop it up Monday 

Heather

Rebel Mormon Cinnamon Buns

Hi everyone, it's Heather from The Beating Hearth and it's my turn to share a recipe that has special meaning to my family.  For the next 3 weeks, we will each share a dish that comes from our heritage, culture or has a special meaning to us. On the 6th week, we'll be hosting a link party and will be asking you all to link up your special recipes!  So start thinking about what you want to share.

I am a history buff.  I love it.  I love it even more when it's my own family's history.  I am also a native Utahn and come from Utah stock, mostly...so I should have, I know, made a green Jello recipe.  I am still tempted....my family makes one with pears and topped with mayo and shredded cheddar, placed delicately on a lettuce leaf.  Straight elegance!  I'll save that keeper for another time though.

Instead, I am going to make a recipe that was invented by my...Great, Great Grandmother Margaret.  They are what my family knows as Cinnamon Buns and they probably aren't what you would call cinnamon buns, as I was always perplexed, growing up, by the cinnamon buns with gobs of white frosting at the local mall.  This ain't them, but they are soooo amazing.

To get the scoop on this recipe, we called my Grandmother Evelyn, and her two older sisters, my Great Aunts.  Aren't I lucky that I get to call them up for a visit any time I want!!  I cherish my Grandma and love to hear her talk about the "olden days".  Here's what we know, Margaret was the daughter of a polygamist, and a rebel child at that!  Her family had to send her away to live with another family because she was too difficult!  Sometime in the late 1800's she came up with this recipe.  She made bread 2 or 3 times a week and one day decided to make a treat with her bread dough and these buns were born.  In my family, you just say you're making "buns", and everyone comes knocking!  

Margaret taught her son's wife Catherine how to make buns.  Catherine taught my mother how to make buns (Grandma Evelyn makes pies, but respects the buns), my mother taught me and now I'm teaching my girls.  As far as we know, none of the other children of that old polygamist made these buns.  I am the lucky progeny that gets to pass them on to my young and am sharing them with you.  Respect the buns. 

This recipe really isn't hard to make, it does require yeast, which scares some people, and if you happen to have a starter, feel free to use it as that is what my relations always used.  I do not have a sour dough starter, so I use active dry yeast.  It does take some time, as with homemade bread, you have to let it rise, punch it down and rise again, but it is so worth it.  And, it takes some imagination.  Let's get to it!

Cinnamon Buns
1 quart milk (a quart is 4 cups, but I gotta use old timey measurements! Also, this is how my family makes the milk, you boil 2 potatoes really well in 2 quarts of water, then you take out 1 quart of the potato water, remove the potatoes and set aside to be mashed, to the quart of potato water add whatever amount the directions call for on a box of powdered milk to make a quart of milk...why don't we just use regular milk?  I don't know!  My Mom says this makes it taste better and is what her Grandma did.  Okay.)
1 C. Sugar
1 Tbl. Salt
2 Tbl. Shortening plus more for greasing the pans and dough
2 packages Active Dry Yeast
1 Lb. raisins 
Light corn syrup (like Karo)
a bunch of white sugar and cinnamon

Place your raisins in a bowl and pour over them the hottest tap water you've got and let them sit and soak until needed.

Grease a 12 quart stainless steel bowl with shortening and set aside...if you don't have a 12 quart bowl, then use a couple large bowls and/or dutch ovens...like me.

Mash the potatoes in a stand mixer and to them add the "milk", sugar, salt and shortening and mix well.  Once this mixture has cooled to luke warm, add the yeast and let it dissolve. Mix to combine.

***here's where you've got to go with the flow...this is a pioneer recipe after all***

Using paddle attachment on your mixer, add enough all purpose flour so the dough is like a stiff cake batter.  Drain your raisins and add them in (they don't have to be patted dry, just drain them.)  Mix.

Now, continue slowly adding flour and mixing with the paddle attachment until it just pulls away from the bowl (My mother thinks it took about 12 cups of flour, but she is just guessing as she was using her sifter and sifting it in).  At this point, switch over to your bread hook and knead for 5 minutes.

You could of course, go full pioneer woman (not that pioneer woman) and not use a mixer and just use brute strength, in which case you stir until you cannot stir any more. 
 
Place dough into greased bowl.  Spread shortening on top of the dough.  Cover with a tea towel and let rise until doubled in size.  This will probably take a couple of hours.

Punch the dough down.  You do this to de-gas it.

Let rise again until doubled... now, this is where you get all old timey again, you know your dough is done when you stick two fingers in and the marks stay!  If you look up at the picture at the top you can see where my mom tested her dough!

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Grease a bunch of 9" x 13" cake pans...and by a bunch I mean, as many as you've got.  This recipe will make approximately 4 dozen buns.

Mix up a pile of cinnamon and sugar.  Sorry for the vagueness.  I would say get 3 cups of sugar and enough cinnamon so that the color is light tan.  Take half of this mixture and put it in a small sauce pan.  Measure it because you need exactly the same amount of water that you have cinnamon and sugar.  So, if you have 1 1/2 cups cinnamon and sugar, you need to add 1 1/2 cups water.  Add in a large dollop of corn syrup.  This is to make your cinnamon syrup that gets brushed on top of your buns.  Place on stove, stir and bring to boil.  Once it has boiled, reduce heat to low and keep at a low simmer until needed.  The rest of the cinnamon sugar is going in the buns!!

Spoon a bunch of cinn/sugar onto your very clean counter tops.  Cut off a hunk of dough.  How much is a hunk...well...let me put it like this, take your hand, grab some dough, that's a hunk.  Now's the fun part.  You are going to roll out snakes with your dough in the cinn/sugar.  Make sure to always have your dough snake rolling in the cinn/sugar.  Once you feel it is long enough and cinnamon-y enough, then you coil it up and place it in a greased 9 x 13 cake pan. 

Now you need to let the rolled buns rise for a little bit, so here's what you do.  When you get a pan filled, set aside and cover with a tea towel. Fill some more pans and set on top of each previous pan, cover with tea towel.  Now that you've got your pans filled, take the bottom one and cook it while the others continue to rise.

Bake buns at 350 F for 15 to 20 minutes until GBD (golden brown and delicious).

Once done, brush on your cinnamon syrup over each bun.

And then dump, upside down onto a piece of parchment or wax paper.  Hopefully if you greased them well enough, they'll just fall out easily...if you didn't grease enough...you might have to pry them out.

Let cool until you can't stand it any longer!   Unwrap the luscious coils a few inches at a time and devour.  The best way, is warm from the oven...and maybe dunked in hot chocolate!!  My Great Grandma would dip her's in her tea. 

p.s. These freeze really well!  Put them in a freezer bag, squeeze the air out and you will have buns at a later date when the craving hits...and it will, oh it will.

Grandma explaining that she expects these girls to carry on this tradition of making buns...

Something tells me they will!!

Thanks for reading and remember to start thinking about the recipes you would like to share!

Heather

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No green, no problem. How to avoid the pinch this St. Patrick's

Hi, it's Heather from The Beating Hearth and I don't own...well, let me think about it for a sec...yup...anything green.  This is a problem come St. Patrick's Day because my family likes to pinch me for it.  I have a solution.  You've probably seen these fabric rosettes all over the place and I figured they'd be just the thing to keep the pinches away.  I'd never made them before, but dang, are they easy...and fun!  All you need is some fabric and some glue and some way to affix them to your person, whether you attach them to a barrette or make them into a brooch or a bracelet!  Aha!  Take that pinchers!

Here are the easy instructions and the best part is...NO SEWING...unless you make them into a barrette...and even then you could probably glue it.  They will look a bit rustic as you are not fnishing the edges so there may be a bit of fraying.  I'm okay with this.  Remember to customize these beauties to suit your likes.  The rosettes above are what I would call medium.  Here are the instructions for a medium-sized rosette.

1.  Cut a strip of fabric approximately 40" x 2"
2   Fold that piece of fabric in half, lengthwise.  The reason for this is you are going to be twisting the fabric around and around itself...if you didn't fold it in half, half the time you'd see the wrong side of the fabric...not good.  I also like to twist the fabric around itself quite loosely, this gives your rose more definition and gives it the look of individual petals...sort of.  You can twist it tightly, it just looks a bit softer.  Personal preference here.
3.  Tie a knot at one end.
4.  Start twisting the fabric around itself and around the knot.  Gluing every quarter turn, I would say.

When the rosette gets to be the size you want, you have to finish it.  Just make a final twist around the strip of fabric and then fold the remaining tail underneath the rosette and glue this in place.  You will have a bit sticking out (most likely) so just trim it off. Done and done!

I like the look of the roses when I combine two different fabrics.  To do this, just sew two strips of fabric, right sides together....and proceed.  The glue I used is Fabri-Tac...it's like a hot glue gun...without the hot and the gun.  But, as you can see...you might end up with glue finger.

Finished products.  I made myself a brooch.  I would recommend using a brooch pin, instead of the safety pin I used, but it worked.  For My Youngest, I took a length of ribbon and made 3 tiny rosettes and turned them into a bracelet.  For these I cut my fabric 15" X 1" and then glued them onto the ribbon.  Easy.

And you could make a barrette.  I just took a clip, used some embroidery floss and sewed the rose to the barrette.

Now for the outtakes...thanks to my lovely model...Enjoy.

Oh wait...there's more.  Oh, there's more.  I'm not going to say it's a miracle that I got any good shots...but it's a bit of a miracle.  My kids were busy turning my living room into a spider web...right then.  Very bad timing on my part.

Hopefully you enjoy this little tutorial and try making these rosettes.

Thanks for reading!

Heather

 
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xxx

 Nat, Mary, Heather, Danni and Mel

 

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Vanilla Shortbread Cookies with Peanut Butter and Chocolate Frosting...Oh my!

Hi everybody, it's Heather from The Beating Hearth and I am so happy it's my turn here at the Cafe, today. We have had such amazing posts from our Guest Posters and our regular contributors lately that I want everyone to know how lucky I feel to be a part of this talented group of women. I feel a bit like Wayne and Garth...not worthy!!

As is probably clear from the title I am giving you a cookie recipe...but not just any cookie recipe. This recipe is seriously good...and not just good, it is so pretty.  More and more I am realizing we don't just eat with you mouths.  Our eyes take in the beauty of something and it adds to the pleasure of the experience.

The Mister loves anything that has chocolate and peanut butter in it. I love anything that has shortbread in it....what? Butter. Sugar. A touch of flour. What's not to love? My daughters...they love anything with frosting.  So this is clearly the dessert for us.

Valentines is approaching and they'd be a great dessert to make that day, but please understand....these aren't just for Valentine's Day...they are for whenever your sweet tooth needs a fix of buttery, chocolaty, peanut buttery goodness. There's a bit of time involved as you have to chill the dough before baking and you have to melt and then chill the frosting but...trust me, put a little effort in and you will be rewarded.

The frosting looks a bit like a chocolate rose sitting there on top of the shortbread and so I thought these would be a perfect Valentine's Day treat.  

You can dress them up and present them like you would a box of chocolates and I am thinking they would go over just as well to the recipient.

You can even give your kids a special surprise in their lunchboxes.  Take some tissue paper and tie them a sweet bundle of goodness. 

And, if the piping bag and tips are beyond you...just go ahead and spread the frosting with a knife.  It might not give you that visual punch...but it still gives you all the taste.

Vanilla Shortbread Cookies with Chocolate Peanut Butter Frosting
makes 30 cookies

Vanilla Shortbread Ingredients
1 Cup butter, at room temperature
2/3 Cup Sugar
2 large egg yolks
Splash of Vanilla
2 Cups flour

Preheat oven to 300 F.

Cream butter and sugar in mixer until light and fluffy with paddle attachment.  You will notice the color gets lighter.  Add in the yolks, scraping sides of bowl as necessary.  Add a splash of vanilla...maybe 1 tsp. and mix well.  Add flour and blend until just combined.  It will look very crumbly, a lot like pie dough.  This is what you want.

Split the dough into two batches and place on plastic wrap.  You are going to compress these crumbles into a cohesive dough by pressing the plastic wrap around the dough and squeezing until it is a nice cylindrical shape and the dough is firmly compacted.  My dough was shaped more oblong, do what you like.

Place dough in freezer for 30 minutes.

Once chilled, remove dough and cut into approximately 1/4" slices.  Use a nice sharp knife for this.  Place on a cookie sheet with parchment paper, spaced about an inch apart.  Bake for 20 to 22 minutes.  You do not want your shortbread to brown in any way, really.  You want it to be light blonde in color.

Place cookies on rack and let them cool completely.

Frosting time!!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Frosting Ingredients
4 oz. semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
2 Tbl. Creamy Peanut Butter
1.5 Tbl. softened butter

If you have a double boiler, you can use it.  Or just be like me and get a pot of simmering water going, then put a glass bowl large enough to fit on top of it. 

Finely chop your chocolate.  I used a large block of Callebaut chocolate, you can also use nice quality semi-sweet chocolate chips.  If you're using the block, I find a serrated knife is the best way to chop it.

Place your chocolate, peanut butter and butter in the bowl and then put the bowl on top of the simmering pot.  Let it melt.  Stir until nice and smooth.  Once completely melted, you need to let the frosting cool.  I put mine in the fridge and stirred it every few minutes.  This is where you need to pay attention if you're going to pipe it...As soon as it has thickened to frosting consistency, you need to get it in your piping bag and get to work FAST!  It will get too thick to pipe in just a few minutes.

The frosting tip I used is an Ateco 16.  It's how you get the petal appearance in your frosting.  Fold down the edges of your piping bag so you don't make a huge mess, dollop your frosting in. Unfold the bag, twist it tightly and get to decorating the cookies. I start in the middle of the cookie and make concentric circles around and around until you get the look you want.

Let sit.  The frosting will solidify a bit more.  It won't get rock hard, but it is solid enough that if you want to wrap the cookies up and place them in decorative tins, they'll be just fine and won't lose their good looks.

Also, this amount of frosting was just enough to frost this one batch of cookies...and that's probably only because I broke a couple of my cookies.  It might be wise to make a double batch of frosting.  The frosting is so good, you'll find ways to use what's left.

This is the perfect combination of peanut butter and chocolate and it marries so nicely with the vanilla shortbread cookie.  Just wonderful!  Hope you enjoy!

Thank you so much for visiting the Cafe today.  We appreciate each and every visit. 

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Have a wonderful week!

Heather

Inspiration Cafe is looking for guest posters. If you would like to guest please let us know, we would love to have you. If you would prefer a feature instead, feel free to drop us a line. New or old posts welcome. Click here to submit!

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