Easiest fudge ever

Yesterday I decided I wanted to make fudge so I went to my favorite on-line recipe site, Allrecipes.com to check out recipes. I found the following recipe, it's fast, easy and it turned out great (DH says I'll need to make more before Christmas).

 

 

Fudge:

 

3 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1 (14 oz) can sweetened condense milk

1/4 cup butter

1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

 

Directions:

 

1. Place chocolate chips , sweetened condensed milk, and butter in large microwaveable bowl. Cook in microwave on medium until chips are melted, DO NOT BOIL! Stir once or twice during cooking. Stir in nuts, if desired.

 

2. Pour into well-greased 8x8 inch glass baking dish. (I buttered the dish AND lined it with foil which I also buttered, it made it easy to remove from the pan) Refrigerate until set.

 

NOTE: In reading the reviews I learned that many people thought using semisweet chocolate chips made the fudge taste too dark and suggested using a mixture of milk chocolate chips and semisweet chips. I don't care for dark chocolate so I used all milk chocolate chips and was very pleased with the results.

 

Getting ready to watch Michael Buble's Christmas special---can't wati.

First Block of Month Club-Wool

I ordered a wool block of the month club from Primitive Gatherings. This is my first ever block of the month club. I decided on this one because it is not a quilt, each block stands on it's own. There is a wooden display piece to display a single block each month which makes it unique. Anna from Wooly Mammoth told me about it and I signed right up.

I received the blocks for December and January and the backround last week so today I decided to work on January's block (I can do December later to display next year).

January's block:

First I had to trace the pattern in reverse, you'll see why in a minute

 

Then I had to trace the reversed pattern on fusible web, I used "Lite Steam-A-Seam 2"

 

 

I traced all the pieces on the fusible web and assembled my block to make sure I had all the pieces:

 

 

Then I peeled off the backing, I must admit I forgot to do this with the snow drops and had to cut more out of the fusing.

 

 

Then using an iron I pressed it to my fabric to fuse it and cut out each piece.

 

 



I peeled off the top protective sheet, leaving the fusible web exposed.

 



 

I put the fusible side down on the backround fabric:

 

 

I put all the pieces in place and fused them together. (This is the reason you reverse the pattern)



 

 



 

Now I have stitch down all the pieces and do the embroidery work. It's going to be so cute, can't wait to see how it turns out.

 



I won my first blog giveaway!

Imagine my delight when I checked my email and learned that I had won a giveaway from "vicki-2BagsFull.blogspot.com'"s ETSY-Shopping Extravaganza. I won a "glam" necklace from Roaslind's etsy shop "Glam Dezign". Whan I receive it I'll post a picture. Thanks to Vicki for hosting the extravaganza and to Rosalind for donating the necklace.

Today I went to a church holiday boutique just north of Oakhurst. The boutique wasn't very impressive but the grounds where it was held were.

There was a small lake:

 

 

I loved this old pickup, all decked out for Chrismas.

 

My next stop was the Dollar Store and grocery store. Because we are so close to Yosemite tour buses often stop at the shopping center. I think this one was lost:

 



They are west of the Grand Canyon, way west. I don't think the tour company will be able to pass off Yosemite as the Grand Canyon.

After shopping I came home and made lasagna for dinner and ginger cookies for dessert.

I guess I get to keep my hedgehog pin cushion because I didn't make it to The Modern Quilters meeting. Decided to stay on the mountain and out of the Christmas traffic.

JACKPOT-Thrift store shopping

I have decided I want to try wool rug hooking and in reading about it I saw you can take apart wool garments and recycle the wool to use in the rugs. That sounded like a good idea because buying wool can be expensive. Living in California there aren't a lot of used wool garments to be found, until today that is, I went to a thrift shop in Oakhurst and scored several wool skirts. I guess I could have taken a picture of them but I wanted to get them in the washer ASAP in case little critters were hiding in them. (Yes you wash the wool to remove any sizing, dry cleaning fluid and the aforementioned critters). By the way wet wool doesn't smell very good.

This particular thrift shop had a HUGE building that was filled with Christmas items. It reminded me of the Island of Misfit Toys from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer only these items had once been loved and a part of a Christmas celebration. I know it's silly but it made me sad. I'm sure there were treasures to be found but the items weren't very well displayed, just abandoned.

Tomorrow I have a busy day, first stop is a Christmas Boutique in Oakhurst, then down to Fresno to go to the Handmade Bazaar and finally to the Modern Quilt Guild meeting. That is the plan, we'll see how much of it I decide to do.

Hope you have a fun weekend planned.

What happened to Christmas Lists?

I went Christmas shopping today but it's not fun anymore. Our tradition is that Christmas lists are due on Thanksgiving day. I must say the lists weren't very inspiring, gift cards, gift cards and more gift cards, what fun is that? Fast? Yes. Fun, NO!

In early November while I was getting my hair cut I asked my Stylist, who is in her early 30's, what type of gift she likes to receive from her Parents, her answer, you guessed it---gift cards. The Stylist working next to her, also in her 30's, agreed, gift cards is the gift of choice because they can choose what they like.

Okay, I'll admit that I put gift cards on my list to my local quilt shop or JoAnnes but I also put anything handmade so I left room for some creativity.

I'm going to have to come up with a way to make giving gift cards fun. I've decided I'll have to be creative on what I put the gift cards in. A wine glass, a makeup case? What to do for the guys?

Does anyone have any ideas on how to make giving gift cards fun?

My Christmas memories today are ornaments that I received from my sewing circle friends in 1984. At the time we were all stay at home moms and met once a week during the school year to work on our projects. Although we met for a couple of years this was the only year we did an ornament exchange.

This little snowman was crocheted by my friend Bobbie.

 

 

My friend Rose trimmed and filled this sweet little basket:

 

 

I made this ornament for the exchange and made one for our tree as well.

 

 

 

I'm almost finished with my snowman penny rug, I just have to finish the hats and embroidering their mouths.

 

They're beginning to look like snow people---not men because a couple of them are girls. Hopefully I'll finish it this weekend.







Pin cushion for exchange

The Fresno Modern Quilt Guild meets on Saturday and we're having a pin cushion exchange. I had one almost done and decided I didn't like it, so I googled free pin cushion patterns and found several. The one I chose was the Happy Hedgehog, by Fiona Marie Clark from "Piece for the Creative Mind"
website: http://www.piece.co.nz/ yes the address is right, she is from New Zealand. Isn't the web an amazing place? We can "meet" people from all over the world.

You can find this pattern at Sweet Living Magazine's website: http://www.sweetlivingmagazine.co.nz/happy-hedgehog-pincushion-tutorial/

Please forgive the pictures of my Hedgehog, I had some issues with my camera. The first picture is of the Hedgehog in progress, why it showed up as a rose color I have no idea. You'll see the actual color in the next pictures.

 

 

Here she is completed, a little out of focus so D took a couple of pics for me. He thought she was a mouse, I guess I could add ears and tail and she would be a mouse.

 

 

Here's a better pic from D's phone (isn't it sad that a phone takes a better picture than a camera?)

I still need to put a little blush on her cheeks and she'll be ready to go to her new home.

My Christmas treasures today come from my Granddaughter. The first one is a tiny handprint on a star.

The second one is an Angel tree topper she made in Sunday School, she was probably 7 or 8.

 

 

Both of these treasures have been on my tree since she gave them to me.



Nice Date

Last night my DH asked me to go out on a date with him today, of course I accepted. We went Christmas wish shopping, pointing out what we might like for Christmas-a visual Christmas list.

One of the stores we stopped at was Anthropologie, it may be my new favorie store. I gave him a lot of gift ideas, I liked LOTS of things. He bought me three things while we were there, a butter dish, salt and pepper set and a mug. I love them.

 

I told him I'd go browse in another store if he wanted to shop for Christmas but he said he wanted to get some of the things now. I've already enjoyed tea in my new cup.

 

Even after all these years going on a date is special. We treat each other differently, leave the cell phones off and focus on one another. You did good D, I had a wonderful time.

 

My Christmas treasure today ties nicely into our day, we painted the wooden ornaments below for our first Christmas tree.

 

 

 

I hope you take time to make special memories during this Christmas season.