Tis the Season for Snowcream Sundaes!

Happy holidays everyone!  Tis the season for all things winter here at Silo Hill Farm and we are loving the snow this time of year! For all of my friends who live in tropical climates...you're missing out on this dish of lusciousness that only comes with the freezing kind of precipitation....

 Nothing makes my heart happier than snow, except when my grandson Jacob spends the night.  When both things happen together...well, I'm ecstatic!  Such was the case last week.  He wanted to play in the snow.

We talked about how there is magic in snow and how that is what you see sparkling in the sun.  (It's a grandmother's job to perpetuate magical myths, right?) I asked him if he had ever eaten ice cream made out of snow.  He had not.  I promised we'd make some as soon as sledding was over.  Took a while, because sledding is just way too much fun and I hope all of my tropical climate friends get to try it at least once in their lives!
Before we came in, we gathered about 6 cups of clean, fresh snow and left it out on the back deck until we were ready.

We rounded up our ingredients.

1/2 C. milk
1/2 C. Half & Half or cream
1/2 C. sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla

And now...6 year old Jacob will show you how easy it is to make!

Pour it all in a bowl.

Stir it up until the sugar dissolves.

Bring in your 6 cups of fresh clean snow and add it in one cup at a time.

Stir it up some more.  Stirring is serious business.  When you're done it should look kind of like this....

Throw it in the freezer for a few minutes and get your bowls and spoons ready.

Fill them up, adding the toppings of your choice. Believe it or not...Jacob is a purist and likes his ice cream and his snowcream plain.  (All of those toppings like coconut, chocolate chips, whipped cream and a cherry, were for me!)  Now...take a taste.

A good chef will savor the flavor and wait just one moment before giving his  review.

Chef Jacobs opinion of his first ever snow cream?

Wonderful!  There is magic in snow.  You can even taste it!

Saturday Weekly Wrap Up 48

Hey Everyone,

Can you believe how close Christmas is? Yeah us neither, well we have just a few things to show you this week, so enjoy ...

  Danni at Silo Hill Farm

LIVING IVY CHRISTMAS WREATH

Mel at Mellywood's Mansion

We Love Melbourne - Werribee Zoo

A Christmas Dress

Name Bracelet

Entry Update

Funky Tween Sunglasses Case

 

Heather at The Beating Hearth

Rebel Mormon Cinnamon Buns, if you want your house to smell like Christmas

S'more Cookie Bars

Natalie at NorthShore Days

Cork Tree Ornaments

Our lovely contributor:

Snow Globes - Spittin' Toad

 And this week Heather continued with our series ...

'Tis The Season

 with Homemade Christmas

Have a great weekend

xxx

 Nat, Mary, Heather, Danni and Mel

 

Inspiration Cafe is looking for guest posters and contributors. 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.
 

Junkin Jewels - Snow Globes!

What a thrill it is to be here at the Inspiration Cafe!!  This is my first time being a guest blogger. So I hope I don't disappoint!

First of all let me introduce myself;  My name is Denise and I am a part of the "Junkin Jewels" series, here on the second Tuesday of the month....(Just love that name).  

Anyway, I blog over at Spittin Toad, so hop on over and see what my blog is all about (because even I haven't figured that out)  :) 

With that being said I had a tough time deciding what to share with you all....Snow Globes, Junky lamps or the TV we turned into a Fish Tank...

In the end the Snow Globes won out...After all "Tis the Season"!

Not to mention we had such a great time making them.  :)

I'm hoping this will inspire some of you to have your own creative little party!!

So lets get started;

The first thing I did was gather materials....

It was kind of like Christmas threw-up on my table...But who knew what this creative group of friends would need.....

Jars and snow and trees and....

Glitter and little ornaments both from the Dollar Store and garage sales....

Some of the trees I bleached some I did not...

It was so fun to see the different designs everyone came up with!!

Jessie put glitter on a reindeer (that was once a cupcake topper) by first coating it with watered down glue and then covering it in glitter...

She then glued it onto a delightful little dish from the Good Will...

added the tree and some snow and then placed a plain glass jar on top....

Added a ribbon, a pink poinsettia and she was done...Easy Peasy!!

Don't cha just love the combination of pink and green??

Gillian placed a Snowman in a tall canister adding some sheet music for the back ground....

Although the photo's don't show it well there is also a sparkly snowflake behind the little man...

Here's some of the girls showing off  their globes...

Isn't it amazing how uniquely different they all are?

Kory's is so sweet and tiny..

Gillian has her jar standing upright and Savannah painted a window on her's and had a little fire place, presents and a tree in it.  (I'm so sorry I didn't get a better picture of that one)!!   

I love the little red pom-poms going around the one above...

Autumn placed her jar on a vintage pedestal dish after painting Happy Holidays on it...

And...

I set mine on it's side...

So...What do ya think...Did you get some ideas??

I hope so!!

I also made a Snow Globe Cake out of a fish bowl...but that's a story for another time!!  :)

Thanks for having me!

Denise

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

Saturday Weekly Wrap Up 47

Hey Everyone,

We're back to the bustle of December and we're busy again. The countdown to Christmas has begun!

Lets have a little look at what we've been up to this week...

 Danni at Silo Hill Farm

WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!

Mel at Mellywood's Mansion

Keep Your Baby Fresh and Clean With WaterWipes - A Review

Wooden Advent Calendar

Wooden Christmas Signs

Glitter Gem Choker - Or it was time for a disaster!

Christmas Fudge

Paper Straw Stars

Heather at The Beating Hearth

 

Cranberry, Orange and White Chocolate Love

Triple Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies with Fresh Cranberries

 

Natalie at NorthShore Days

Sweet Snowman Pendant

Wire Wrapped Ring Tutorial

Our lovely contributor:

Wool Dryer Balls - Mammy Made

 And this week Mary continued with our series ...

'Tis The Season

 with Horseradish Cheese Spread

Have a great weekend

xxx

 Nat, Mary, Heather, Danni and Mel

 

Inspiration Cafe is looking for guest posters and contributors. 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.
 

Wool Dryer Balls - Mammy Made

Hi everyone. I'm Adele and I live in England with my two gorgeous babies, Leyla who is 4 and Naomie who is 3. I am so excited to be contributing to Inspiration Cafe again today!

I usually blog over at Mammy Made. I like to write about crafting, cooking and homeschooling, although I am only homeschooling part time at the minute. I have tons of tutorials on there so come by and say hi, I’d love to see you!

This month I would like to share a tutorial for some wool dryer balls I made a few years back. I wanted some for my tumble dryer as I heard that they made the clothes softer and reduced drying times! They also cut out the need for dryer sheets, saving even more money.

I should add that this is by no means my own pattern, people have been doing this for years and years, I just thought I'd share how I did it in case someone else wants to make some too :)

I used about half a skein of wool for each ball, about 50g. Make them whatever size you like, I went for tennis ball size since I figured they'd shrink a little bit when being felted. Make sure you use 100% wool, and make sure its not machine washable or it wont felt properly!

Make a ball in whichever way you find easiest. I wound some round my fingers, wrapped the middle with the yarn, then folded that onto itself and wrapped again. I found that this made a good base for my ball. Do it whichever way feels most comfortable. 

Make sure to hold the ball close to your lap so if you drop it, like I did a million and one times, you (hopefully) won't drop it onto the floor and have to watch it roll around unravelling while you madly try and catch it. When you're done making your ball, weave the ends in with a wool needle, knotting several times to secure the ends. 

I used an old pair of tights to felt my dryer balls. I cut one leg off an old pair of tights then put a ball into the foot. I tied it off with a scrap of acrylic yarn then added the next ball. I made five in one sitting before my hand started hurting and I gave in and chucked them in the wash. Put them on a 60 degree wash with a couple of towels or jeans to roughen, then put them in the dryer on full heat for 1hr.

If they do not seem felted enough after the drying time, you can put them in a second wash and dry, without the tights.

I hope you all enjoyed this tutorial. Thank you so much to everyone behind Inspiration Cafe for letting me contribute again. It's been fun.