Danish Pastries time!

It is that time of year, when between Christmas and New Years eve, we wonder what to do. Clearly, by looking at the state of my house, cleaning is out of the question! If anyone mentions dust that might be lingering, then I simply tell them to "have at 'er" with the vacuum. My feeling won't be hurt to see someone else cleaning this place. I shall do that later. But, today folks, is our annual Danish Pastry day. It is a whole day project. I am not sure what other name there is for them, but they have been a tradition in our house for years. The recipe is from 1969!  Here is the finished product from last year.  Despite it being an all day project, we do have fun while doing them.  The first year we made them, we cut the rolled out pastry lengthwise, not width wise. They turned out huge and didn't quite make as many as I remembered as a child.  I phoned my mother and we talked about making them and she asked how many we made. I told her about 36. She said..and I quote  "WHAT??" . oh. Then I told her how we cut them. She said no wonder, we had cut them the wrong way. So, last year we cut them the correct way and got over 114!
    While we were making them last year, we decided to kill time by watching Sherlock series. It was fun. I am not saying that we smile the entire way through. Currently, out of three kids, one is hiding in his room mad at his sister. So, he vows never to come out again to help us twist and roll the pastries. Sigh.  My "Kids" are 21, 19 and 18!  Some things never change. ha ha

Even the dog gets into the act. She has a wonderful floured hand print on top of her head.
 I can just hear here say "every year they do the same thing...every, friggin, year". ha ha ha  This year, we are entertaining ourselves with a game on facebook called "trivia crack". Each time I get a history question wrong I think of two people. 1st being my old history teacher, of course and the 2nd would be my friend, Melanie. Man she loves her history and I wish I could channel her for these questions. Unfortunatley, it is a timed game, so there is no chance of me doing that.

 The final photo I am including..now that I have figured out how to add photos, is of the kiddies smiling while making them. This was also taken last year.
   I am glad we have carried on this tradition from my childhood. Hopefully, my kids will also carry on this when they marry  or can't make it home for Christmas. Another thing, is to freeze some right away because they don't last long. Our saying is "all day to make, 3 seconds to eat all! "  Later, eh.

Things are a changing...

The sewing machine has been put on hold for now. I have sewed so much over the past month. I still have yet to begin the Jammie bottoms I said I would make. Honestly, I must stop wasting time on Pinterest. Too many projects, so little time.  I did manage to make something really cool. I saw one can sew a card holder. It holds up to 38 cards and I decided that would be a neat idea. So, I made one for myself.  Here is what the real one looks like. Mine has a bit more crooked lines from my sewing, but you get the idea of how neat this is.  



While on Pinterest, I came across a photo of a chicken pin cushion I could make. Hang on a minute, I have one of those. Mine was made by a friend years ago. The funny thing about the chicken is that I didn't know it was a pin cushion!  I had it in my kitchen as  a country decoration for years. I am happy to report, it is now in my sewing room being used as ...you guessed it.. a pin cushion. Good grief!! 

After the Jammie bottoms, I plan to make myself a makeup bag. 
Looks simple enough to make. Who knows, maybe one day I will sew myself a purse. Hahahahahaha, I make myself laugh. This is one dedicated purse addict that will never make myself one. Or will I?? Leave that addiction to another one? Perhaps a whole closet of handmade purses? Leave Coach, Michael Kors, and Kate Spade behind and just have home made ones? Hmmmm, can't see that happening.

Today is my baking day. Making 3 different kinds today. I am baking some of my grandmother's shortbread cookies. They are so good and taste even better when sneaking them from the tin in the freezer. Also making some chocolate chip and then some greek yoghurt chip/dried cherry cookies. I feel using Greek yoghurt chips are almost healthy as well as adding cherries. Right? One can have maybe 2 or 3 of those! Shhhh don't tell my trainer.

  My latest thought (I know..my brain never shuts down)  is to, once and for all, stop colouring my hair. Eeeek. I have decided to go grey. Now, a thought like this would have been helpful when my hair was blonder, right?!  Hell no, I wait until I dye my hair a reddish brown. My poor stylist is going to shoot me when she hears what I want to do now. I can just see her rolling her eyes at me. I change my hair colour as much as I change my socks...wait a minute, I don't like to wear socks, so that saying doesn't really apply here. Been on official business on Pinterest looking for ideas about going from this colour to grey. I don't think I want to go the "growing out the roots" look. I will get highlights done to gradually have the grey look all over. Hang on..that didn't make sense. I will have a blending of light highlights to help with the transition. There, that's better.
  Alrighty, this is not getting any baking done what so ever. Merry Christmas!!!  Later, eh.

Christmas stress load

     So, about a month ago I decided I would be saving $$ by making some gifts myself. It really all started when I went to my first Christmas market. I would see some items and think "hey, I can easily make that!".  First project, a home made heating bag.

 Before I even began, I decided to check out what was suggested on Pinterest. Huge mistake. I should know once I get on that site, I am  on it for hours. Man, it is addictive. Took myself off it a few months ago. My friend wondered where I went, so I just wanted to go back on to see what she messaged to me. Again, huge mistake. Now I got on there daily. Back to the heating bag. Saw the words "easy to make"  and went for it. Yup, they were not kidding. This looked like I could whip this up in about 10 minutes. Perfect!!  Of course, by the time I got off Pinterest, it was far too late in the evening to start this project. Besides, I needed to buy some rice.
  The next day, after shopping for more material and grabbing my rice, I sat at my machine to begin. I had my measured out pieces and was ready to begin. First, I put on my music. Something has to drown out the odd swear word that will eventually come out. I got my bobbin full of the colour of thread I was using. Loaded the machine with it and proceeded to thread the needle. Holy crap, has the hole always been this small?  How the hell would I put this teeny tiny thread through that? Small swear word escaped. I got a magnifying glass and tried to use that. That ended up being a huge pain in the you know where, so I gave up.  Finally, got the needle threaded. THAT alone took up the whole 10 minutes I had planned to use to make the whole thing. Sigh.  I got it all done and then had to fill the channels with rice. Easy Peasy!  Except for one thing. I over filled it and when I went to try it out in the microwave oven, it wouldn't bend. It was too long for the plate and got stuck on the sides of the microwave. The plate under it went around and around. The bag itself, hung onto the sides of the microwave almost afraid of letting go. I took it out and tried to bend it. It bent a tiny bit and I figured that was better. At least some of it was on the plate and I thought the plate might force it to move around. Nope, it moved a bit, then stuck again on the wall. I knew in my heart of hearts, that it had way too much rice in it. I was just so determined not to go back to the machine and change it. The more I placed it different into the microwave, the more I started to laugh. This was getting dumb.
   I went back to the machine and opened up the end and took some rice out. Now it works perfectly. I have decided to make another one for a friend. Plus, while on Pinterest, I came across loads of more projects to do to make gifts for friends. My list now includes 4 small tissue holders, another heating bag, 3 totes, and just for kicks and giggles, 3 pair of jammie bottoms! What was I thinking? So, it is Dec. 9th and I am sitting on the computer when I could easily be sewing all these things. Must stay away from Pinterest...Must walk back upstairs, plug in the music and sew! Wish me luck. Later, eh.