Happy Thanksgiving!

Video of me kneading my refrigerator roll dough

I can’t believe I forgot to make my refrigerator roll dough!

I try to keep the clover leaf roll tradition alive that my father began close to 70 years ago. I found that this Betty Crocker’s recipe from my favorite cookbook, a wedding gift from over 38 years ago, tastes as close to his as I’ll ever get.

The thing is, this recipe has to rise in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours, but the best part is that it will keep up to 5 days. I usually make it a couple of days ahead of time, but I totally spaced this year. Looks like it’ll be late tonight or tomorrow before we get to taste them. So worth the wait.

The cutting board I'm kneading the bread on is actually a sort of island on wheels. My sister-in-law gave it to us, and we've had it for probably 20 years. Someone in her family made it, possibly her father, I forget, but it's been one of the handiest pieces of furniture we've ever owned.

I cooked a fairly small meal this year because it was just Deni, Dawn and myself. Valerie had to work. We were invited to a couple of different family gatherings, but we weren't feeling that well, so we opted to stay at home. The turkey breast I cooked turned out to be chicken, and not very good. *sigh* But the other things I cooked were yummy. Then my niece dropped off a feast, so we'll have that with the clover leaf rolls tomorrow.

I hope you had a wonderful day of lots of good things to eat and great company with which to gather. 

Arting

My daughter Dawn and I did our first Artist Trading Card (ATC) collaboration!

Dawn created the background with the amazing technique we learned from Tim Holt's Creative Chemistry Class-3. She brought them to me and said, "Now that I've done this I don't know what to put on them. You're good at that, here."

I was nervous at first because I didn't want to ruin her beautiful art. It took me a bit to come up with ideas, but after rifling through my die cuts and stamps, I came up with these. She kept the bird, I kept the other one. Maybe next time we do it, I'll do the background and she can put the other side of her creative brain to work.

I've done several Instagram ATC swaps and having so much fun! This is my latest, which will be going out to jolly old England. I borrowed Dawn's mermaid die-cut and used some scratch watercolor paper on which I was trying different art crayons. I feel like there's something missing, but at this point, I'm afraid I'll mess it up. Plus I have to decorate an envelope in which to mail it, so I'm calling it done. 

I belong to a Facebook paper doll crafting group that consists mostly of making Julie Nutting paper dolls. I joined their Christmas ATC swap and will find out who my partner is at the end of this week. This is the ATC I made using one of the smaller Christmas sets by Prima. I wrote JOY on the Christmas ornament confetti, but it was a challenge to photograph.

I'm working on a few other things, mainly my ornaments for our annual ornament swap, which is this Saturday! I've never cut it so close, but I didn't like any of the ideas I was considering. I finished the prototype last night around 1:00 a.m. I'm still not feeling it like I usually do, but maybe it'll grow on me. Happy holidays have begun!

Decorating Happy Mail

I've been on an envelope-decorating kick lately using our often ignored but very awesome stencils. Here are a few I've done for craft swaps on Instagram.

I'm in love with this process, the result of which are very satisfying. I'd love to hear how you decorate your mail!

Halloween 2016

We Had A Happy Halloween!

I haven't posted in too long. I seem to have putting more effort into Instagram than here, which disappoints me. The blog books my daughter publishes for me each year are such a highlight, but they won't be if I don't sit up and pay more attention.

Dawn and I made these candy boxes for hers and Valerie's co-workers. Molly approved of them and so did everyone else. We made them using We R Memory Keepers candy box punch board. They're super easy, but punching them does require some stamina of the hands. These are so versatile, I hope we make some at Christmastime.

I've been doing a lot of ATC (Artist Trading Card) trades on Instagram. We also include other crafty things like tissue paper, die-cuts and other little tidbits we can use to make more ATCs. Here a just a few I made.

I won something on Instagram! A bunch of Faber-Castell products, woo-hoo! This box was full of great products I'll definitely use.

And then my husband and I celebrated our 38th anniversary! I can't believe we're that old.