Posts tagged Christmas
liberty lifestyle poinsettia tea cozy

I'm so excited to share this fun holiday project today. tea cozy from above

Liberty Lifestyle was kind enough to ask me to put together a holiday guest post for Liberty Craft Blog.  You can follow the tutorial here and make your very own poinsettia tea cozy.

I made mine with the Mackintosh print from the Stile line.  Mackintosh has such a rich mix of colors.  They somehow manage to be nostalgic and modern at the same time.  I think the flowers looks extra festive made in this print.

tea cozy with cup and presentAnd of course, Christmas tea wouldn't be complete without cookies.  So I'm also sharing my gingersnap recipe.  It came from a dear friend of my mom's and it has always been a family favorite.

marie's gingersnaps

3/4 cup butter

1 cup sugar (plus 1/2 cup for rolling dough)

1 egg

1/4 cup sorghum (similar to molasses, but I prefer the sorghum)

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon baking soda

Cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer.  Add egg, mix well. Add sorghum.  Slowly add dry ingredients.  Chill dough for at least 4 hours but it's even better if you let it chill overnight.  Chilling the dough helps the flavors to blend and also keeps the cookies from spreading too much when they are baking.

Once chilled, roll dough into 1 inch balls, roll each ball in granular sugar.  Place on parchment lined cookies sheet 2" apart.  Bake 375 degrees for 12 minutes.  They should crack on the tops.  Makes around 2 dozen.  This recipe can be doubled.

enjoy

gingersnaps

put a bow on it

We have our Christmas tree, but we haven't put it up yet.  In the meantime, I've been decorating around the house. I usually hang ornaments from  all the windows, but this year I wanted to do something different.

This year every thing gets a bow -

frames...

doorways...

stairways...

sconces...

plates...

even plates, sconces, and frames...

and when the ribbon is gone, put a garland on it...

advent

The calendar is ready. The kids were up bright and early and ready to put on the first decoration.  Seriously, cj was up at 5 am.  He came downstairs dressed for the day, asking about getting the house ready for Christmas.  They both love peeking at the days ahead to see what ornament is next.  All the while lulu reminding cj that they have to wait for each day before the ornament goes on the tree.

Their tree will be filled before we know it.

pups on the good list

Last year I made Christmas stockings for a couple of friends.  It turned out that their dogs were jealous, so this year they will have their very own stockings for Santa to fill.

They are made with scraps of wool that have been machine pieced in a crazy quilt fashion.  I used embroidery floss to hand stitch all the embellishments.  I think my favorite stitch is the herringbone stitch on Izzy's toe.

duh

I made this advent calendar a couple of years ago.  I love it, but I'm always at a loss for what to put in it.

Yesterday as I was digging through all the decorations, it hit me, why not a kids tree?

Each day has an ornament that the kids can put on their own little tree, so by Christmas they will have fully decorated tree.