I Made It Monday! Falling Back on the Cookie Thing

Just the leftovers after I mailed four dozen.

The hours I spent in the cold and damp on campus on Saturday really cut into my crafting time this weekend. And I was behind in the cookie making for my grandmothers! Tragic! What will they eat? How will they live?

I used this recipe for pumpkin oatmeal cookies (practically health conscious!). They smell heavenly. Really, it will make you want all the things to be pumkin spiced (as if they all weren't already). (I'm looking at you Trader Joe's.) Unfortunately, they basically taste like a moist oatmeal chocolate chip cookie. Not that there is anything wrong with that. Just not quite up to the divine scent.

I Made it Monday--The Masquerade Edition

This past weekend was my library's masquerade gala and silent auction. You've heard me complain enough about running the silent auction to know that I ran it again this year. I did have a lot of help, but somehow we ended up with fewer items and thus, lower returns. We did well, and I know the librarian who runs the homebound book delivery program will be happy with the money. And it's all profit since everything was donated. I guess I just want to do better year after year.

Anyway, I was left with the conundrum of how to wear a mask that would work with make-up and not obscure my vision too much. (You should watch people wearing masks try to drink out of a glass; you don't realize how important the ability to look down is to drinking!)

First, I want to apologize for not taking the picture before this project ended up at the bottom of a bag! The legs were a little wonky by the end of the night. These are a Martha Stewart design, and the project couldn't have been easier. You trace the spiderweb onto the glasses with white paint pen. (And the next time I do this, I will keep the orientation the same between lenses, although the cock-eyed look may add something special!) Then you hot glue chenille stems that you have trimmed at the ends. Eh, voila!

If your eyes are over 40, and you find you need a lot of extra light to see, you will find this mask a little dark, especially in the dim light of a gala. (Plus, those are not my prescription lenses for obvious reasons.) But putting them on and taking them off was easy (just ask the people who had masks tied to their heads) and it didn't mess with my hair or makeup. Altogether I think the project ran about $3--and you should see how much white paint and how many chenille stems I have left over.

The committee is thinking about The Great Gatsby as a theme for next year, which seems appropriate for a library. (I don't know why they haven't been doing book themes for years!) What other book themes could we do?

I Made It Monday: Back to Stamping

Every summer my stamping group stops meeting. It feels like I don't stamp a single card, but surely I have? Friday night was our first gathering. It was a small but dedicated group, and I'm happy that rubber is meeting paper once again. I made two cards that I found on Pinterest both intended to use up scraps.

The first is a series of dots glued onto a background paper and then the whole piece is run through the embosser. This card uses the Stampin' Up! lattice folder. It gives the card such neat texture. This card sketch may make another appearance at Christmas time.

The second card also aims to use up scraps, and while I like it well enough, I think it needs a big round thing on the left hand side. The three cards hiding under the top one don't actually have a greeting stamped on them. How many autumnal birthday cards does a person need? I am thinking thank you notes since someone has a birthday coming. ;)

Maggie Monday

My aunt sent an email about a conversation my 92 year old grandmother, Maggie, had with her doctor. In order to understand the whole dialog that follows, you have to know that Maggie was recently prescribed a cream--for what I will not say because it will make you not want to get old--that cost $90. The next day Maggie asked my aunt if they should shop around at other pharmacies so they could get it cheaper. And away we go:

Maggie to doctor: Do you have a black pill for me?
Doctor: A magic pill?
Maggie: Something that will put me out of my misery.
Doctor: You have many good years left.
(Aunt relays story to me)
Me: Many?
Aunt: Good???
Me: It's a moot point anyway. The pharmacy would charge her too much for it.

Ba-dum dum. We'll be here all week, ladies and gentlemen, making fun of old ladies. (If you are new to my blog, please click on the Maggie Monday label. It should explain some things.)

I Made It! Cookies

I Made it Monday; I Photographed it Tuesday

I alluded to making cookie of the month club for my grandmothers last Christmas but haven't actually said much about that project. I could not for the life of me come up with gift ideas for these old ladies last December. Nothing. And then my aunt was complaining about how Maggie eats nothing but cookies and I thought, "Eureka!" Which is probably not what she wanted me to think. She wanted me to think about how to get complete nutrition into her without resorting to Ensure.

So every month for the past year I've made cookies. These here were supposed to be applesauce cookies. (I do try to up the nutritional content occasionally.) We had opened a giant jar that we didn't want to go to waste. And then while it was waiting to be made into cookies, it moldered.

So these are Reese's Chewy Chocolate Cookies (those are peanut butter chips). I took the picture this morning, but the weather is horrible. Go look at the pretty cookies on the Hershey's site. I'll wait.

Here are the recipes I've made so far this year in case you were looking for cookies to make. (I'm looking at you, Sweetpea.)

January: Toffee Bit cookies
February: banana cookies (Fanny Farmer)
March: pineapple and pistachio cookies (Fanny Farmer)
April: Laura Bush's Cowboy cookies (small size)
May: koulourakia* I cheated; my cousin made them!
June: White chocolate chip--I used Ghirardelli chips, but I don't remember which recipe. (In fact, my aunt had to check the letter I sent my grandmother to see what they were because I forgot June all together.) I think oatmeal may have been involved, but nuts were not.
July: Lime Meltaways
August: Nutella Kiss (Maggie says, the best yet!)

*a Greek shortbread, style cookie.

I Made It: Seattle

I've been in Seattle all week for a work conference. The dude and I had one day to see the sights. Actually he had almost a week, and he made use of it. I saw the inside of the Westin...

So what I made this weekend was a photograph and good use of my time.

I did get some stitching done, and I'm excited to share that with you on Wednesday for the Smalls SAL. Until then!

I Made It: Same-Sex

A friend asked me to make a gift card holder for her friends' wedding. The boys are getting married. You can imagine that Stampin' Up! hasn't jumped on the bandwagon. (I think they should make the bride and groom stamps separate so you can use two grooms or two brides if the occasion warrants.) It's hard enough to make masculine cards, but a masculine wedding card? I thought and thought and came up with this:

The ampersand comes from a set of letters I bought at a specialty stamping store about ten years ago. But I'm sure such a thing is easy enough to find. The DSP is Stampin' Up! from about four years ago but I'll be damned if I can remember the name of it. 

Inside, the clinking glasses are from "Cheers to You" and the greeting comes from {a set I will have to check on when I get home} Sincere Salutations. The Starbucks gift card is in there just to show how this card works. When you open it, the gift pops up. Cute, right? You can find the video instructions here.

Thanks to Pamela of Hokkaido Kudasai for giving me the One Lovely Blog Award. Pamela stitches and quilts while learning Japanese and teaching English in Japan. If you thought our American winter was long, you should definitely go back and see how she spent the winter on Japan's northernmost island! (If you guessed ass-deep in snow, you'd have underestimated by a few feet.)

I need to tell you seven things about myself:
1. I seriously don't understand how people do not know dragged is a word. "I dragged my ass to work today." NOT "I drug myself to work." (Unless, of course, you are a stripper or a prostitute or some other worker who has to take drugs in order to do your job. Then, yes, you drug yourself to work.)
2. I majored in English, taught English, and am happily a pedant.
3. And yet, I can't spell to save my life.
4. I can taste recipes when I read them.
5. I have two different feet--one's had bunion surgery.
6. I love making lists.
7. I'm a Libra through and through, and I hate to choose. So you will have to forgive me for not passing this along. (Also a rule breaker!)

I Made It: Jolly!

This weekend I made caramelized bourbon peach ice cream, baked potato soup, and Russian eggplant dip (for cookbook club). And I could have shared any of those. (The eggplant dip doesn't photograph well...) Happily, I made it up to the craft room and finished Jolly by Miss Crescent's Crowne (JCS Ornament Issue).

I stitched this ornament in September 2012. I'm actually kind of pleased that it only took me two years to finish. (Seriously, wait until we get to the bottom of that FUFY pile!)

I'm not going to lie, sewing with that pompom trim was a bitch. I wish I had a walking foot, but I did make do with a zipper foot. Still some of the pompoms got caught on the wrong side of the project. I did all the things I was supposed to do (like baste the trim) and well, sometimes done is good. Yes, the ornament is displayed on the backing fabric. Bright enough for you?

I'm really pleased with people showing their stash (show yours!) and more generally with the positive comments from the changes I've made to the blog thus far. I really feel energized for crafting, but maybe that's just the change in the weather?