Tilda Love

I have become a huge fan of Tilda and I bought Sew Sunny Homestyle just for the project below. As soon as I can find the right black fabric, I hope to make these for my pantry. I love her books not just because of the projects, but also the rooms in her photos have so much detail, lots of inspiring ideas I can use. A feast for the eye.Thanks to Sweet Tidings, I found out Tilda has an idea page. Oh if you are looking for more Tilda inspiration there is a flickr group.

So I just finished my last knitting project for a while. I think I will move on to something different. I made a beautiful wreath for next Christmas (Yes, I am working on next Christmas and still my petite-magazine, I know I am weird). So what are you up to ? Do you have craft plans ???

 

PS. I forgot, thank you Tarnished and Tatteredfor the Sunshine Award. I am honored xoxo

 

Winterizing

In trying to embrace winter I am,

Making these AMAZING cereal cookies (bacon, orange, grape nuts). I thought these would be a strong bacon flavor but they are not. Really the orange is what stands out. But everyone is loving these. I made them with spelt and whole wheat pastry flour, fresh orange juice and rapadurah instead of brown sugar.

Beautifying my pantry for winter baking, love it Tracey xoxoxox

Make gloves from socks

Making homemade bouillon for soups, this is sooo brilliant, I am kicking myself for not thinking of it first ;-)

Keeping my skin soft

Dieing buttons to jazz up sweaters

Instant Vanilla Sugar

 

Winter will be going for us for a while. It will probably not feel like spring till April, so I always try to embrace this time of year. Which is not always easy to do. I do it by winterizing my home, cozening things up. I always set up a little beverage corner. It is nice to have everything together, handy, ready. I have honey, lavender honey, sugar, agava, vanilla sugar, candy canes, marshmallows and coco mixon-hand. I keep a thermos of hot tea or water going. It does seem to cheery a cold, gray, veryyyyy rainy days.

I wanted to let you know for the next month or two I will only be posting once or twice a week. I have decided I need to get my act together if I am ever going to get my next issue of my petite-magazine done. I can not do posts for the blog and the petite-magazine at the same time. Sorry, but hopefully if I really focus on it, I will get through it fairly quickly and be back. By the way it is called HandnHand. I will share more later xoxoxo

Instant Vanilla Sugar

1/2 vanilla bean * note below

and 1/2 cup of sugar.

 

Put vanilla bean in a coffee grinder (or a food processor, but coffee grinder works better) and process till vanilla is finally chopped. Then add sugar and process a few seconds, till all is blended. Your sugar will be more like powdered sugar. Pour through sieve to catch any large pieces.

*note,

make sure you use a dried vanilla bean. I know some of you readers store your vanilla beans in brandy or vodka to make extract like me. But you can not use the wet bean in this, the liquid would melt the sugar. So I keep a few beans also dry, for recipes like this. I hope you like it xoxox

 

Return To Cranford

Hello everyone, in case you missed it last night, Return To Cranford was on. But for a short time (till Sunday I assume) you can watch part 1 on PBS. We set up tea last night and of course we loved it, I hope you enjoy it xoxoxo

(Hi it is me, (again) I just went to youtube and it seems the Return To Cranford is there to, so now you have a second alternative, especially when PBS pulls it !!!!)
 

Birthday Girl

Just a quick post to say I will be back soon. We are busy celebrating Auberne`s birthday. The girls got to go to Anthropologie for the very first time, they are ready to move in. Auberne` requested Asian dumpling soup and cupcake milkshake. Happy 19th birthday sweetie-pea, we love and adore you, you are our sunshine xoxoxo

 

PS Theresa is having a wonderful give-away. You should check it out !!!!

Hamemade Gift Bags

I know this is not a new idea, but I was hopping seeing my fabric gift bags, would inspire you to make some. (Here is a great tutorial on how to thread a drawstring bag)They were soooo easy to make. I made myself only use fabric I already had. I took large scraps I had, found two different fabrics that complement each other (but not too match ;-). I let the size of the fabric dictate the size of the bag. I just use twin for a closer, add a pine cone. I plan on making a bunch this month to keep on-hand. It is a great reuse of fabric and can make even the simplest gift feel special. I am I the only already thinking next Christmas ??? xoxoxo

Pantry Gifts

 

One of my favorite Christmas gifts this year, was the homemade pantry items my mother made me. There is nothing like a homemade gifts. I know my mother has been very interested in herbs this year and how to use them to help stretch her budget. Everything was really good and don't you love that red jar for the tea !!!! Thank you mom, I can not wait to see what you make next year ;-)  xoxoxo

Cinnamon basil vinegar

Greek spices, I used it on a roasted chicken the other night and it was soo good.

Candy cane tea, with my candy cane syrup to sweeten it a bit more, perfect winter treat. Wouldn't the tea and the syrup be great gift.

Rosemary maple glazed nuts, which is not in the picture, becuse I was too busy eating it. Oh this is my favorite. She made it with smoked chili powder for David, but left it out for me. It is just barely sweet, with the rich browned butter and then the bight rosemary. Heaven and veryyyyy addictive !!!