Who Knew??

Do you love pomegranates??
Me too.

Do you hate peeling them??
ME TOO!!

You have simply got to watch this video by Martha Stewart.
It will change your life!!

Ok, maybe it won't change your whole life, but it is sure gonna free up a lot of time.
And eliminate those sore, purple finger tips.
My guy is outside right now picking a pomegranate
(in the dark!!) so I can try this for myself.
How exciting.

Update: It really works!
Martha Stewart ROCKS.

It's Giveaway Time!!

Guess who has a brand new website?
Yep, it's me. And I want to share it with you.
So hop on over there and take a look around. (Link here.)
And while you're there, take note of your 2 favorite patterns. Cause that's what I will send you when you win this giveaway!!

How to enter??
1- leave me a comment letting me know what you think about the new site. (1 entry)
2- let me know if you spot any problems (ie: broken links or spelling errors, etc). (5, that's right, five additional entries for your editorial time and talents!!)
3- write a little post about this giveaway on your blog, and let me know that you did. (1 entry)

Winner will be drawn at random and announced on Tuesday, 12/27.
I hope you win!!

Inspired by...

Pinterest!!
Or, more specifically Fresh, as pinned on Pinterest.
She made (and photographed) these:

Oh my, oh my, oh my.
I knew when I pinned this that it was in my very near future.
And today, the very near future has arrived.

The directions and ingredients were simple enough.
So was the process. Except getting the salt to stick. I had a little bit of trouble with that part.
Mine don't have that pretty dusted look that Fresh's does. But that's ok.

I am going to a Christmas party tonight, and these little beauties are going with me. They are part of the gift for my secret name. Oh, I hope she likes them.

If you want to make some Salted Carmel Pears too, click here for the recipe.

I am also giving her this.

Cute, huh??
This is one of the patterns in the pattern shop. It comes with the words THANKS, MERRY and LOVE. You can find it here. There are also a few kits and ready made pillows left from fall market. You can find those here. (Quantities are very limited!)

Follow THIS LINK for a sweet little Christmas read by Susan Branch.

Block 4: Simple Stars

It's time to add another little bit to the Autumn's Bounty BOM.
This month it will be 3 little stars. And you can download the pattern here.

These are pretty simple, so I don't really have any tips for you.
Ok, maybe just 1.
Make them!!
Don't put them on the to do list.
Don't think "Oh I will catch up next month", or "I'm too busy, it's Christmas time".
No, no. Just make them!!

And one little sneak-peek into the future: Next month will be our last month of just making parts. After that, we will start assembling all of these lovely little pieces into a lovely little quilt.

And one more sneak-peak: a give away is coming very soon!!

A follow-up note: For some reason, Internet Explorer does not always want to open the pdf downloads. I have no idea why. But, if you are having trouble opening the pattern in IE, you might want to try opening it in Firefox. It is a more reliable browser.
And if there are any techies out there who can tell me what I can do to minimize the problem, well then bring on the advice!!!

Wreaths

Way back when I was in high school, I took a class in ornamental horticulture. It was a great class. We did all kinds of things like grow giant cabbages and celery, study citrus diseases, and memorize the latin names of everything green. I remember no latin, have never grown celery again, and I avoid disease ridden citrus!! But there were 2 things about that class that have stayed with me my whole life.

First was a pumpkin field that another student and I planned, managed and made a little money from. I think that adventure was probably what started my absolute love of pumpkins, (and my dread of driving anything blue, with multiple gear shifts, and 2 different sized tires. But that is a story for another day!!)

Second was wreath making. A young student teacher showed up one day, out of the blue, with lesson plans and a permit. She loaded us all up into pick-up trucks and drove us up into the national forest where we proceeded to cut boughs and boughs of beautiful pine and fir. We hauled it all back to the greenhouse at school and the next day she taught us to make wreaths!

It has been a beloved part of my Christmas Season ever since. Except, I use bay now, since it grows prolifically around here.

The process goes something like this:

And they smell as good as they look!

I should have made you a tutorial, but I forgot to take pictures of each step!!

Advent

The Advent season is here!

We love Advent calendars of all kinds.
We have used many over the years, always homemade.
And to us, Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas without an Advent.
Of course, Jesus is the reason for the season, so ours always focuses on presenting Christ.
Here are the ones that we have pressed into service this year:

This one is hanging at our house.

This one is at my brother's, made it for my little nephew.

This one hangs at Courtney's.

This one is Becca's.

And this is the newest one. I made it for Kyle, our future son in law.

Each one contains 24 verses about Christ and 24 little candies.
If you would like a PDF copy of the verses, you can download it here.
They are all printed on pretty small tiles, so they will fit into most advent calendars.

Enjoy.