Mickey and Minnie Mouse Christmas Ornament Pattern

by Kelly

Sorry for the brief hiatus - it's been a very busy week here. But I did find time to  make some cookie ornaments.

These are super easy and very durable. So durable they might even be pet proof, although pets will certainly try to eat them. I used this easy recipe from allrecipes, which is my goto online recipe book. If you'd like to make these cookies water proof for outdoor use, I'd suggest spraying or painting them with some kind of polycrylic sealer (the kind you find at the hardware store). Speaking from experience, they do tend to dissolve easily if they get wet (for example, if you happen to knock over your morning beverage on the counter where they are lying), and there's nothing sadder than a soggy cookie ornament.

And if you don't have time to make your own, they're available in our shop for a limited time.

I also crocheted some cute Mickey and Minnie Mouse ornaments for the tree.  These are very simple and take about three minutes each, so they're perfect if you need a last minute stocking stuffer.

This is a free pattern, and if you wish to make these for your own use please feel free. You can not reproduce this pattern in any part for profit, or claim it as your own.

Mickey and Minnie Mouse Christmas Ornaments

Materials:

Black worsted weight yarn

size G crochet hook

optional: 1" wide fabric ribbon (I used red with white dots) and red sewing thread.

Gauge isn't super critical for these. You can easily adjust the size by using different yarn or hooks. Mine came in at about 5" (measured across both ears).

Pattern:

Main head (make one)

1. Make a magic ring and sc 6 into the center.  Pull tight and mark your first stitch (I use a paper clip). Ch 1.

2. Work 2 sc into each stitch around to your marker and join with a slip stitch. Ch 1.

3. *Sc into first stitch, work 2 sc in next stitch. Repeat from * around to your marker and join. Ch 1.

4. *Sc in first two stitches, work 2 sc in next stitch. Repeat from * around to your marker and join. Cut yarn end and fasten off.

Ears (make two)

1. Make a magic ring and sc 6 into the center. Pull tight to join and mark your first stitch. Ch 1.

2. Work 2 sc into each stitch around to end. Join with a slip stitch, cut yarn end and fasten off.

Sew ears to head (with yarn or black sewing thread) through two or three stitches only. This will help your ornament look like Mickey or Minnie, and not a teddy bear.

Optional: Make Minnie's hair bow.

Cut about a 5" length of ribbon. Fold a flat bow with your ribbon and sew it to Minnie's head with red sewing thread. You could use black thread, but I found it showed up against the red ribbon, while red thread disappeared into the black yarn. For a great tutorial on how to fold flat ribbon bows, check out this YouTube video.

That's it, you're done! Add a hanger of some kind and add it to your Christmas tree to proudly show your love of all things Mickey and Minnie.

Only eight days 'till Christmas. But who's counting?

Chicken Scratch Skull and Crossbones for Talk Like a Pirate Day

by Kelly


Arrr...so, me mateys, today be Talk Like a Pirate Day. Landlubber that I be, this one would have slipped right by, but I be married to a pirate, you see...and we have the cutlass to prove it.

via Wikipedia

No, not THAT kind of cutlass! THIS kind of cutlass...

But this be a crafty blog, and the prize we seek is always handmade. So behold, all you scurvy dogs...and cats, if there are any...a bit of craftiness for this special day :

A Chicken Scratch skull and crossbones? Aye, that's right! It was either that or sing the 'yo ho, yo ho' song again...or show you a few things I learned from The Captain (*picks up cutlass*).

Aye...that's what I thought! You're welcome.

Sunshine Cake

by Kelly

It looks like the heat wave may be over! It's only supposed to be 83 degrees tomorrow. Brrr! That's almost twenty degrees cooler than Thursday.

So in honor of the extremely hot and sunny weather which has now come to an end, I thought I would put up a certain recipe. Not that long ago, I posted a review for Mary Meade's Kitchen Companion, a 1950's cookbook that recently came my way. In one of the chapters was a mysterious, off-hand reference to a 'sunshine cake'. Specifically what she said was, "The egg leavened cakes: This group includes angel food, sponge cake, 'sunshine cake', jelly rolls and others...they contain no fat or baking powder."

I couldn't help but wonder why this was called a sunshine cake. Was this just a fancy name for ordinary yellow cake? Was it lemon or orange flavored? Orange in color or usually frosted with orange icing? Something that could only be made in the summer because of ingredient availability? A cake to brighten a rainy day?

I have always been a lover of mysteries, and there was no listed recipe for this cake, so I began to search. Google presented me with a few possibilities, and many of them did involve oranges, pineapple, and lemons, and modern ingredients like Cool Whip. But I knew the recipe must pre-date 1955, when The Kitchen Companion was published, so I looked for very old cookbooks on Project Gutenberg, and began to browse through them online.

Surprise! I found 'Sunshine Cake' in a very old cookbook entilted 'Good Things to Eat as Suggested by Rufus'. So here it is, in all its glory. Oh, and why is it called 'Sunshine Cake'? Well, the answer to that question is in the recipe. Have a look and see if it jumps out at you.

Sunshine Cake -- Cream one cup of butter, add two cups of sugar and beat, add one cup of milk, the yolks of eleven eggs beaten until very light and smooth, and three cups of flour sifted with four teaspoons of baking powder three times to make it very light. Turn into a tube baking pan and bake three-quarters of an hour in a moderate oven.

No wonder this recipe didn't survive to the modern day! Eleven egg yolks for one cake would make any modern dietician choke on his decaf coffee.

For another version (without the baking powder, which Mary Meade suggested in her book) visit this link to my man's belly. Her recipe is from the 1900's, and there is a beautiful photo of the cake itself.

So what do you do with the remaining lonely egg of the dozen, after you make this cake? Well, if the weather is hot enough, you could try to fry it on a sidewalk and see what happens.

Fourth of July and Herbie

by Kelly

Red...

White...

and Blue...

Happy Fourth of July!

(Insert fireworks here, unless your town is lame like ours and already did them. Oh well.)

P.S. Yes, Herbie payed a visit to our town. How cool is that?

Chicken Scratch Embroidery or Depression Lace

by Kelly

Chicken scratch embroidery is basically Smyrna stitch (a cross stitch with an extra cross, so that it looks like an asterisk) done on gingham fabric. When done right, it looks like lace and is a cheap and easy way to decorate the edges of ordinary gingham aprons and curtains, and jazz them up a little. That's one reason why it was so popular during the Depression, I guess.

via Tie One On

I have been wanting to try chicken scratch embroidery for quite a while now, but didn't have any gingham fabric. So a few days ago, I broke down and actually bought some, instead of waiting for it to magically appear in my crafting bag. Two dollars worth of fabric and I was all ready to finally give this a try.

It's very easy to do, if you already know how to cross stitch. The results aren't the same, because it's usually done with only two colors - white and the darkest shade of the gingham you're using, whether it be red, blue, or whatever. On the other hand, there's no fooling around with charts or multiple colored skeins, either, which is a plus.

The fabric I bought is pink. My mom would laugh if she found out that I bought pink fabric, since I was so vehemently anti-pink for so many years. Even in the thick of the '80's I wouldn't wear pink, and no amount of persuasion by the mighty fashion industry would break me down. Luckily, my mom is as anti-computer as I was once anti-pink, so she will never read this.

I'm using size 30 variegated crochet thread, which is working out really well. I have come up with what I think will be a really neat idea using this graduated color scheme, so we'll see how it turns out. Stay tuned :)

Meanwhile, if you have some gingham and want to use it for something other than Chicken Scratch embroidery, Tie One On (a blog about aprons and making aprons, in case you're wondering) is currently running a sew along with a gingham theme. Check out her blog for more details.

Easter Basket Crochet and Knit

by Kelly

Easter means different things for different people. For me, as a kid, it was all about an Easter basket full of chocolate, jelly beans, and the occasional stuffed bunny or yellow chick. Sometimes there would be a single Cadbury Creme Egg hidden somewhere in the green plastic grass...until that memorable Easter Sunday when I discovered that Cadbury Eggs were too sweet for me. That was my first clue that I was growing up.

Creme Egg Creatures Pattern

If you're feeling brave, check out this link for Cadbury Creme Egg recipes...especially interesting is the Cadbury Creme Egg Benedict.


Of course, spring also means the first flowers of the year...

blitz68 on Etsy

and of course it wouldn't be Easter without chocolate bunnies...

Blah, blah, blahhhg

Just Crafty Enough

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Spring flowers

Easter also meant that the narcissus would soon be blooming, which was my cue to watch for the other flowers that my mom had planted all around the house. After the narcissus would come the lilacs (my favorites) and the Mock Orange, then the tulips, and so on, all through the year, until the marigolds signalled the beginning of fall and the end of flowers for the year.


Of course, sometimes it would be nice to have spring flowers regardless of the weather ...

blitz68 on Etsy

And finally, it wouldn't be Easter without a chocolate bunny, so here are two free knitting patterns from Just Crafty Enough and Blah, Blah, Blahhg. Either would be adorable tucked into a basket...

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JustCraftyEnough

Merry Christmas Eve!

by Kelly

I'll let someone else post on the big day, if they want to. In the meantime, though, if anyone wants  to track Santa's flight, click here any time after midnight on December 23rd, EST. Find out why these guys track Santa here

And if you have a smart phone, make sure to download the free santa tracking app.. Yes Virginia, there's an app for that.


So, Merry Christmas Eve! Have a safe and happy holiday and try not to go overboard.

Some Christmas Shipping

by Kelly


I did a little shipping today:

In the next picture you can see my lovely assistant helping to package the goods.

I visited the SmoothFox  site recently and read the square totals that she has listed on the sidebar.  I couldn't believe it when I read that Christine Clyburn from Florida submitted enough squares to earn 500 points for the month of November. And she's competing as an individual. Christine, I bow down to you. Seriously.

And by the way, sorry for the darkness of the pictures, but that's how things are in Illinois in the winter, even with all the lights on. Gray. Gloomy. Depressing. Unlike sunny Florida.  Sigh.

Etsy Shop Angels

by Kelly

New to our shop - gorgeous angels for the holiday season!

Visit our shop for more, plus a new selection of Christmas ornaments

Halloween

by Kelly

Some things to put you in the spirit...

Recipe for these awesome apples at Matt Bites. 
I will make these one day. I will.

A must-see Halloween light show on YouTube. Amazing what you can do with Christmas lights. Thanks, YouTube, for giving my husband ideas...

Although I'm not up to the level of either of these examples, things that I have made for Halloween include this year's  knitted devil's hat from this pattern. (now in adult and child's sizes).

And the Halloween prop I made a few years ago (with my father-in-law's help) for my husband's set in our town's Spook Hike.(The Spook Hike is basically a long walk in the dark woods, spoiled by ghosts and other scary things. Although now the Spook Hike takes place in a pleasant town park, which is quite a change from a creepy woodland. But that's a long story.)

Basically, this prop is a fake tree stump jump scare. A motion sensor trigger causes a Halloween mask to pop out of the tree stump. The lights and recorded scream help sell the whole thing.

I also made an electric chair (not pictured) for the Spook Hike. Yes, we still have it, even though we haven't used it for the spook hike for years. We're like that.

So, what was the coolest thing you ever made for Halloween? Was it a costume? A whole house light show? An amazingly beautiful or creepy looking food for a Halloween party?  Or maybe just a neat jack-o-lantern? 

Or do you think Halloween is just for kids?