Re-purposed wool sweater = new handbag

When I saw the lovely cabled and embroidered wool sweater at the Goodwill I knew I had to felt it and make it into something--plus it was 1/2 off! So of course I bought it, felted it--and wow! did it shrink....and then decided this sweater would make a very nice new purse. I used a thrifted pillow case to line the purse and made the shoulder strap out of the sweater's arms...really happy with this one because it is roomy and I added some pockets to the lining for my cell phone, pens and other small objects.

I needed some way to close the purse--so I added a crocheted edge with button loops and used some nice vintage mother-of-pearl buttons.

and now I have a "new" handbag for spring! so far I'm liking it...and it took me one afternoon to make! Once I felted the sweater, the sewing went pretty fast. I sewed the lining in by hand around the top edge.

Aunt Esther's Motto (one of them) : "A stitch in time, saves nine." I guess this is more about mending--which she was an expert at doing---but this recycled sweater purse made me think of her. She would have like this concept, as she was very thrifty. She was my Great Aunt (grandmother's sister) and I learned alot about life from her--so I'm calling this Aunt Esther's Handbag ;-)

Is it really lost?

If any of you are wondering why I have not posted much here lately--it is not only traveling and moving that has kept me from posting--BUT in all the traveling and moving I have misplaced (or lost???) my camera!!!! and I like to post photos with my musings...hopefully the camera will turn up soon...where do "lost" things go anyway? do the "Borrowers" have them?

Meanwhile here are some images from my archived  photographs....just some photos I took that I like. A little Alaska, a little art/crafts...

this is what I keep telling myself while I job hunt ....

crochet doily rug...with really fat yarn...

socks on 2 needles!  really fun technique....

trail to my sister's cabin in Alaska...I love this image..and I used it as my screensaver for a long time...

 beadwork on vintage hankie....

my cabin in Alaska....

a watercolor design.....for my portfolio....

More Cookies!

Now that the packages are in the mail...it is time to bake cookies...here is another of the cookie recipes I bake every year --this one came to me from my (Great) Aunt Esther. Aunt Esther was my Grandma's sister---and in their later years (after my Grandfather died) Grandma and Aunt Esther lived together---it was like having 2 grandmas in the same house and they lived about a block away from us, so I saw them often. They both baked the best cookies ---and my Grandma had an old cookie jar on her kitchen counter--which ALWAYS had homemade cookies in it (just like her purse always had Chicklet gum for us kids).

Orange Crispie Cookies

2 cups sugar
2 eggs beaten
1 cup butter
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 cups flour
5 tablespoons frozen concentrated orange juice
grated rind of 2 organic oranges

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar, beat in eggs. Add flour, baking powder, orange juice and grated peel--mix well. Chill dough. Make the dough into small balls, place on a well greased cookie sheet, and flatten each small ball of dough with a glass dipped in soft butter, then sugar. Bake at 350 degrees about 8-10 minutes, until cookies just begin to brown on the edges.

Someday, Perhaps

It begins long before the first frost -
Somewhere between memory and reality.
It touches us with compassion
and whispers to us of hope.
It tiptoes into our hearts with elation
and opens our souls to faith.

Its name is Christmas and we have yet to learn
How to keep it close for more than
this one brief, shining moment.
Someday, perhaps... with love.

------Judith A. Lindberg

Holiday Elves in the Kitchen

Not content to stay in the art studio, the holiday elves have now taken over my kitchen! they are "helping" me bake cookies, and cook up some candied orange peels. Ummm...the whole house smells delicious!

I have learned over the years that the very best cookie recipes are those handed down from generation to generation through families. When I taste someones cookies--and they are yummy, yummy---and they tell me it is an old family recipe--I always ask for the recipe. Tried and true---old family cookie recipes. Here is an old family recipe of mine from my Grandma: CHEWY MOLASSES COOKIES. My Grandma got this recipe from her Mother and so on down the line...so it is a simple recipe, with simple ingredients.

Now these are not just run-of-the-mill molasses cookies--these are really nice and soft and chewy and tasty! and they have no fat--yes--you read that correctly--zilch fat of any kind!--yet they are so good...this recipe makes a big batch, but watch them disappear.

CHEWY MOLASSES COOKIES

Preheat oven to 300 degrees

1 cup molasses
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 teaspoons soda
2 teaspoons powdered ginger
1 teaspoon salt
about 3 1/2 cups unbleached white flour

In a saucepan heat the molasses and sugar, but do not boil. (Note : heat this enough to dissolve the sugar, though) Cool until just warm. Mix the soda, ginger and salt with 1/2 cup flour and add to the beaten eggs. Add this mixture to the warm molasses mixture---this will foam up some. Then add enough flour to make a soft dough--about 3 cups. (Note: This is the tricky part--if you add too much flour the cookies will be crisp instead of chewy---they will still taste good ---but will not be that nice chewy cookie we are looking for.) Roll out the dough--but not to thin, about 1/4" thick---and bake. Use as little flour a possible in rolling--the dough will be very soft and the board for rolling the cookies out must be well floured. (Note: also flour the rolling pin) Cut into triangles or circles, place on a well greased cookie sheet and bake at 300 degrees for 10 minutes. Cool a few minutes on the pan before removing.

If you hate rolling out cookies--you may roll the dough into 1 inch balls with your hands, and place on a cookie sheet, then flatten each ball with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar. Bake the same.

Holiday Blog Meme & Fruitcake

The folks at the inspiring website SEW, MAMA, SEW ! are sponsoring a holiday blog meme about traditions and gift-giving.

Gifts

• Do you have a favorite gift that you love to give?

One favorite gift I give every year is homemade fruitcake made with dried fruits.

• If you’re making gifts this year, what are you making? (Post photos if you have some!

I am making almost all my gifts--but my family reads this blog, so not photos here until after Christmas! (check back in early January)

• Name one thing on your personal wish list.

high on my list is : either YARN or a gift certificate to a yarn store
NEXT is : travel money ( or plane ticket) to visit my daughters

• Do you make and sell things that would make fantastic gifts?

Yes--I make bead crochet jewelry and fiber art brooches--available at my Esty shop:
Borealis Beads.

Traditions

• What is your favorite family holiday tradition?

Throwing a small Solstice "Return of the Light" celebration--with folk music, homemade cookies, fruitcake, eggnog, mulled wine and the lighting of my collection of over 40 white candles.

• What do you love most about the holiday season?

Making gifts

• What do you like least about the holiday season?

The commercialization of the holidays---which is why I make gifts each year--or only purchase handmade gifts---the only exception is when I purchase books as gifts or give a magazine subscription as a gift. This year I even made my holiday cards and gift tags.

• What is your favorite holiday food?

Homemade holiday cookies, of course! I make many of my family recipes--I think those handed-down-through-the-family cookie recipes are the best! I will be posting great cookie recipes here all month--so do check back.

• Do you have a great recipe to share?

Yes! Today I would like to share the homemade fruitcake recipe I have been making each year for over 30 years. Now, lest you turn up your nose and say "ew! I hate fruitcake!" I must tell you that this is no ordinary fruitcake! This is the fruitcake that avowed fruitcake haters love--- (once they can be persuaded to taste it)---so I call this recipe:

The Fruitcake Haters Holiday Fruitcake

Preheat oven to 300 degrees

1 big bottle brandy or rum
(one year I used very dark Jamaican rum --which my folks brought me from Jamaica---to soak the dried fruit in---and when we first tasted the cake we discovered --to our great disappointment!---the rum taste was so strong it was inedible. But when I told an elderly friend about this--she said--"Honey, you just but that fruitcake away until March and then try it." So we stuck the fruitcake in the back of the refrigerator for a few months and when we next tried it--that rum fruitcake was really delicious!)

About 7 -8 cups pitted, chopped, dried fruit
(I use a mixture of raisens, prunes, dates, dried cherries, dried pears, dried apples, dried peaches, dried apricots---all organic, natural and unsulphured if possible)
1/2-1 cup candied orange and lemon peels
(you can purchase these, but I make my own candied citrus fruit peels--recipe follows--these are great in other holiday goodies, also--so I make a big batch each year)
(Note: whatever you do --DO NOT use those commercial candied fruit mixes in the recipe--it ruins the recipe)
2 cups coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans
2 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground mace
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cup honey (or molasses for a dark cake)
1/2 cup softened butter
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4-1/2 cup brandy or apple

cheesecloth

Chop all the dried fruit and citrus peels into about 1/2 chunks---sometimes it easiest to cut the dried fruit with kitchen scissors---and place the fruit in a big bowl. Pour the brandy over the fruit--enough to cover the fruit totally. Cover this with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 3-4 days---the fruit will soak up all the brandy.
(Note: if you don't cook with alcohol, you may use apple juice to soak the fruit in)

After the alloted time, thoroughly drain the fruit in a strainer--but save the juices. Stir together the dry ingredients, pressing out any lumps. Cream honey, butter, and eggs. Then stir in the dry ingredients. Fold in the soaked fruit and the nuts, adding enough of the liquid from soaking the fruit to make a pourable batter (not too runny though--like a cake batter). If you don't have much fruit soaking liquid--use apple juice or brandy. (Note: there will be less batter than fruit--but it will be ok)

Grease breads pans and line the bottom with greased parchment paper. Pour batter into pans--filling only halfway.

Bake at 3oo degrees for about 3 hours with a pan of hot water on the bottom shelf of the oven. The tops will be golden brown and cracked and a toothpick will come out clean when they are done. Cool for 20 minutes in the pans before carefully removing. After the cakes are completely cooled pour brandy over them, and wrap each cake in cheesecloth you have soaked with the brandy. Seal up in tinfoil and place in the refrigerator to age. This fruitcake improves with age, but also can be eaten right away.


Grandma Beth's Candied Orange & Lemon Peels

My grandmother taught me to make these--when I was a teen. (thanks Gram!)

Thinly slice the peels from 6 organic oranges and 4 organic lemons.
Place in saucepan, cover with water and bring to a boil---immediately pour the water off. REPEAT this step 3 times. Drain the peels thoroughly in a strainer.

Make a simple syrup of equal parts sugar and water (here use about 1/ 1/2 cups sugar to 1 1/2 cups water)---make enough syrup to just cover the peels. Mix the sugar and water in heavy bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil--once the sugar has dissolved add the peels. Cook on low heat for several hours until most of the syrup has been absorbed by the peels--do not get this to hot--you do not want the sugar to carmelize. Cover a few cookie sheets with wax paper--sprinkle sugar on the wax paper---remove the peels from the heat and carefully lay the hot peels out on the wax paper in a single layer to dry. Dry in the open air for about 2 days--then store airtight. Optional: roll the peels in sugar before drying.

These also make a great holiday candy ---just dip one end in melted chocolate chips and refrigerate until the chocolate is hard....ummm...

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Also---for you paper and collage artists out there---do check out this blog TEN TWO STUDIOS
As special treat for those who have supported her web sites she has created a countdown to Christmas that reveals a new surprise each day. Each day brings a new lovely FREE printable collage page of images...just in the month of December...

Holiday Cookie Recipes

"Something precious is lost if we rush headlong into the details of life without pausing for a moment to pay homage to the mystery of life and the gift of another day." ---Kent Nerburn



Over the years, I figured out the very best cookie recipes are ones which have been handed down through a family from generation to generation. This makes perfect sense--the best tasting cookies would be the ones you would want the recipe for and you would remember with the most fondness, and yearn for when the Holidays came around--right? Most families (at least the ones that still cook) have these secret family recipes---and mine is no exception. In fact, my maternal grandmother was a great cook--and really did ALWAYS have homemade cookies in the big fat cookie jar on her cookie counter. When I was about 12--one day she told me, "You come over next Saturday--it is time you learn how to bake a pie." When I dutifully showed up at her home the next Saturday, she taught me her method of pie baking. Since she lived close by, I visited her frequently and as I grew up, she taught me much of what I know about baking and cooking. She grew up on a farm in Wisconsin, so her cooking reflected that upbringing and farm life.

So, here is her old fashioned recipe for CHEWY MOLASSES COOKIES---which my (now grown) children always request we bake during the Holidaze--a family favorite, for sure. A curious fact about these cookies---they have no fat of any kind in them--but still are delicious! Enjoy!

CHEWY MOLASSES COOKIES

1 cup molasses
1 cup brown sugar
2 egg, beaten
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground ginger (best if this is fresh---not ginger you have had on your spice shelf for months)
1 teaspoon salt (or less, if you prefer)
about 3 1/2 cups unbleached white flour

Heat molasses and brown sugar in a saucepan--but do not boil, remove from heat. (I think the idea here is to melt the sugar). In a large bowl, beat the eggs with a wire whip; mix the soda, ginger, and salt with 1/2 cup flour and add to the beaten eggs---mix well. Now add the warm molasses and sugar to the egg mixture gradually, stirring all the while (at this point, you do not want the eggs to be cooked by the warm molasses mixture). Then stir in enough flour to make a soft dough--about 3 cups.
Roll out cookie dough on a well floured board--cut out with cookies cutters and bake. Don't roll the dough too thin---the rolled out dough should be rather thick. This dough will be soft and somewhat tricky to handle--but use as little flour as possible in rolling, as too much flour makes the cookies hard (not chewy). Bake on a well greased cookies sheet--with plenty of room between cookies---at 300 degrees for about 10 minutes. (if you over bake them they will be hard, so don't wait for them to brown)
If you prefer, instead of rolling and cutting the dough, roll the dough with your hands into balls, place the balls on the greased cookie sheet, and flatten with the bottom part of a glass dipped in butter, then in sugar. My Grandma would place a small slice of fresh apple in the cookie jar with these cookies to keep them soft and chewy.

If you have a favorite family cookie recipe--I would love it if you shared it by leaving it in the comments...