Gift Finishes: Covered Boxes and Cross Stitches

 

I stitched this seven-inch round piece as a Christmas gift for my eldest granddaughter, Marian. When I saw the pattern at Liberty Hill Needleworks, it immediately reminded me of Mari and her little dog. The wintry wreath reminded me of our ice skating adventure in Vermont last year. So, none other than Mari should have this embroidery.

The biggest challenge with a round embroidery is how to finish it off. I could not find a good quality round frame anywhere. The designer of the pattern had this displayed an embroidery hoop. I thought it worthy of something more substantial than an embroidery hoop display. Since I could not find a frame, my next thought was to attach it onto the lid of a Shaker box. Another exhaustive search yielded no round Shaker boxes that were the right size. Finally, I went with the idea of attaching it to a round paper maché box. I found a website (Factory Direct Craft) that carries all shapes and sizes of paper maché boxes and I ordered a few from there. 

I covered the box with some pretty, coordinating fabric in the "Merry Little Christmas" line by Tilda fabrics. I lined the inside of the box as well. For all my fabric covered boxes, I use Mod Podge for Fabric. (I fell so in love with the Tilda fabrics that I bought enough to make a quilt.)

Once I got playing with fabrics and paper maché boxes, I decided to cover some smaller boxes I already had on hand. My friend Kay had an adorable pincushion in her craft studio that she made a while ago. She told me how to make it and off I went! I needed a gift for our rug hooking group's gift exchange and I thought a set of two little boxes would be lovely. I had so much fun making the first set that I went on and made another set for me. : ) I topped the red set with a velvet pincushion and the blue set with a wool pincushion. I will fill the blue gift set with some notions before I wrap it.

 Finally, I made a little "Winter" pillow to give in another crafting gift exchange. My daughter Chelsea saw the pillow in a video chat we were having and said how much she liked and and could I send her the pattern. I decided to send her the pillow itself as a cheery little gift. She is a hard-working mother to three little boys and what mother couldn't use a surprise gift in the mail? I figured I could make something else for the gift exchange.

 So that was my busy week last week. On to more crafting adventures before Thanksgiving arrives! Claire's family will be here for the holiday so next week's focus will joyfully be food and family.

Easy and Delicious Homemade Focaccia

                                            

I keep forgetting to take a photo before it is sliced! This is a half recipe sized bread.

       

 6 1/4 c. flour
2 Tablespoons salt (You may be able to lessen this. I have not tried yet.)
1 tea. instant yeast
3 1/2 c. warm water 

Mix all ingredients together with a spoon.

Pour into a large, oiled bowl. Pour about 1/4 cup olive oil on top of the dough. Cover with plastic wrap. Put into the refrigerator. Leave for at least two days or up to a week.

Take out from refrigerator. Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Pour dough onto parchment and gently smooth out. Let rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. (Do not worry if it does not look risen very much.)

Preheat oven to 450 F. 

Before putting focaccia in the oven, pat down with floured fingers. Sprinkle with salt and any other seasonings you like.

Bake 25-30 minutes. 

*Warning- this recipe makes a very large focaccia. It fills an entire  11"x17" cookie sheet. This is fine if you want a large focaccia. Other options would be to divide the dough in half when you remove it from the refrigerator and bake two smaller focaccias (Perhaps one to keep, one to give away) or bake one today and another a day or two later. 

We like to use a little coarse salt, freshly cracked pepper, and chopped rosemary from the garden. I have also baked the focaccia for 15- 20 minutes, then topped it with tomatoes, Italian seasoning, grated Parmesan, and mozarella . Bake for another 10 minutes or so. This makes a nice pizza. My friend has made sandwiches with hers. The focaccia bakes up high and fluffy in the center so it can be cut for sandwiches if you like.

 

Dark and Blustery Nights

 The weather turned very cold this week. It was delivered on a biting wind. Combined with the dark evenings, there is no doubt that winter is on our doorstep. Lately, these things remind me of  childhood winters in the north. My mind relates the discomforts of cold and dark into comforting thoughts of our cozy little house and the safe feeling of a mother and father nearby. I do not recall ever thinking about the world beyond our snowy avenue and school. Life felt safe. After we were tucked into bed at night and the house became quiet, we were lulled to sleep by the sounds of water trickling through the radiators. The radiators made a gentle, "tick, tick, tick" sound as the metal heated and cooled. Although the wind was blowing against the windows and snow may have been falling outside, the warmth of our home and the sound of the radiators made us feel safe and secure. The possibility of waking to a blanket of snow in the morning made it even sweeter. Oh, the excitement of going to sleep with these happy thoughts! Even though the house was shut up tight, we could hear the snow at the window. The "ssss" sound snow makes when it falls and the way it muffles all other sounds is palpable and so comforting.

Here we are now. The same dark and blustery nights have followed us into adulthood. But, we have no water heated radiators and rarely any snow. There is no mother or father nearby and we will definitely not have to go to school tomorrow : ) The world is now so much wider than my little avenue and there are so many more people that I love and care about. Sleep does not come easy anymore. But, on these blustery nights, if I can't sleep because of the wind or because life is niggling at my brain, I will conjure up the memory of those ticking radiators and the muffled sound of the snow. Before I realize it, I have fallen blissfully asleep with the words, "Thank you Lord", on my lips.

 

Finishes and Beginnings- It's Time to Stitch and Hook!

 

I finished stitching and constructing the pin drum from last year's Jingle Bell Ball. It was an exclusive pattern for ball attendees. I thought the woodland scene was delightful so I stitched it up. The photo on the pattern makes the linen look like a pretty blue/periwinkle color. In reality, the called for linen is a drab gray. My friend and I were shocked when it arrived since it was nothing like the photo. Apparently a lot of other stitchers were surprised too as we have heard tell from shop owners. Anyway, I still think it is adorable. It was a lot of work, especially stitching all those single snowflakes. 

I have several stitched items that I am working on for holiday swaps, etc. So I will not post those until after they are given.

I needed to begin a rug project so I would have something to take to our monthly hooking group.  I decided to make Karen Kahle's "Compote with Camillias" pattern that a friend gave me. If I am lucky, I will hook this entirely from worms that I have saved. Pictured below is my planning process. Rug making can be messy and dusty. First I need to clean the room to make space to play with patterns and colors. Later on, after I make the rug, the room needs another major cleaning from wool dust, wool strips, and snippets everywhere. In between times, I need to clear and clean the room because it serves as a guest room when our granddaughter comes to stay. Hoping a pretty rug will make it all worth the effort.

 

Halloween

 

We had a fun Halloween with three of the four daughters and their families trick-or-treating in Fincastle with us. Our little town goes big on Halloween! The old Fincastle Baptist church is a residence now and the owners always have fun props for Halloween. This year, the bell tower was lit up in spooky colors. Sometimes there are ghosts or bats flying up there too and one year they had an antique hearse parked out front. 

The annual Halloween festivities always begin with everyone gathering in the courthouse square at 5:30pm. Each year, our town sheriff  dresses as Woody from "Toy Story". At 6:00pm he makes an announcement to officially begin the trick-or-treating. With his go-ahead, everyone pours down Main Street and then scatters throughout all the side streets. We made a point to stop at friend Karen's house and friend Eleanor's house. Unbeknownst to me, Steve went inside Eleanor's house inside to say hello to Eleanor's husband. Apparently he sat down and stayed a spell because at that point we lost him as the rest of us continued on our way trick-or-treating. 

As we walked along, a friend came up to us and told us about a very special house about a block away, at the top of the hill. They encouraged us to go up there because there was a scary maze, free light sticks, and full sized candy! Of course we had to see for ourselves! Sure enough the place was all rigged out. There was an animated monster rock and roll band, a scary maze, costumed monsters, and full sized boxes of candy. It was dark and very hard to tell the dummy monsters from the live ones. I got spooked twice and screamed in fright, much to my kids' delight.

 Somehow we all managed to find each other an hour later at St. Mark's church on the other side of town . No small feat considering Steve had no phone on him and it was pitch dark. St. Mark's always opens their fellowship hall with hot dogs, lemonade, and other snacks, all for free or donations. It is also a good place to warm up if the holiday turns out to be chilly.

Since Claire's family drove into town to spend the weekend with us and to come trick-or-treating we all headed back to our house. The three grand kids dumped their candy out onto the dining room table. They spent some time sorting and admiring all the candy. I caught Matthew before he emptied out his bag so I could weighed it. It weighed 4.8 pounds! I told them my childhood story of Halloween. I told them that knew every year I would get thirteen pieces of candy. They asked how I knew that. I told them I lived on a dead-end street out in the country. There were thirteen houses, which always meant thirteen pieces of candy. It was always great fun and I have happy memories of Halloween, the fallen leaves, the early darkness, and the chill in the air.