GROW YOUR BLOG 2014 -- Welcome!!

Greetings, blog guests!  Welcome to my tiny little corner of cyberspace.  My name is Barb and I’ve been blogging since about 2009.  My blog focuses on the multitude of hobbies and crafts that I’m interested in, including cross-stitching, sewing, quilting, scrapbooking, card-making, other paper crafts, and photography, as well as cooking and recipes.  In general, I do NOT blog about my personal life or include personal photos in my posts.  At the top of my blog, you’ll find tabs separating the recipe posts, as well as crafty tutorials and cross-stitch finishes.  A "Gift Ideas" tab is in the works. 

With respect to cooking and recipes, my focus is on things that taste good!  Well, I guess there’s a little more to it than that.  I work full-time outside of the home as an attorney (I work in tax policy), so I love recipes for quick and easy dinner entrees, and I especially love good recipes for the slow-cooker.  Beyond that, I am always collecting recipes for interesting finger foods, appetizers, and desserts – these come in handy when I’m planning to make snacks for the big game, as well as those times I need to bring a treat into the office.

So that you can see what I’m all about, here’s an example of one of my crafty posts, a tutorial I posted awhile ago on how to make adorable painted plant pots.  Polka Dot Flower Pots  And here’s an example of a recipe post, showcasing a delicious and easy muffin recipe I discovered over the holidays: Cranberry Muffins  Finally, here’s an example that will eventually appear on the “Gift Ideas” section of my blog – a recipe and cute presentation idea for an easy and budget-friendly spiced tea mix, perfect if you like to give just a little something to your co-workers at Christmas:  Hot Spiced Tea Mix 

If you like my blog, I’ve tried to make it easy to subscribe or follow.  There is a subscription gadget to the left, as well as a separate gadget if you’d like to follow my blog by e-mail.  I love following blogs by e-mail, as I’m more likely to take the time to click a link right from my in-box, especially if the title of an update post has really caught my eye. 

So, welcome to my blog, and I sincerely hope that you’ll find something you like here.  Please feel free to leave a comment to let me know what you think -- I would love to hear from you! 

Thanks for visiting!
Barb

Caesar Salmon

I work full-time, so I am a big fan of easy dinner recipes that are also quick to prepare, even on a busy weeknight.  This is one of those recipes.  In fact, it is so simple that it really isn't even a "recipe."

We love salmon at my house, but it's pretty expensive, so we don't have it as often as we'd like.  But, when it's on sale in the seafood case, I always take advantage!  This is one of our favorite ways to enjoy salmon.

You only need three things for this entree, and they're shown in the picture above.  You need a nice, big salmon fillet (I prefer fresh, but frozen and thawed salmon is fine, too), some Caesar salad dressing, and bread crumbs.  Now, you can really "do your own thing" with these ingredients.  If you want to use low-fat Caesar dressing, that's fine (but I wouldn't use the fat-free).  If you want to use panko bread crumbs, or Italian bread crumbs, or if you want to make your own bread crumbs, great.  It's all good.  But the Caesar dressing is the key to this preparation.  Caesar dressing is full of yummy flavors like garlic and pepper and Parmesan.  So really, the dressing is doing all of the seasoning for you!

First, pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees.  Place the salmon in a shallow baking pan (you can spray with cooking spray first, if you like).  Then, spread some of the dressing right from the bottle onto that beautiful salmon fillet.  How much?  Well, that depends on how much salmon you have.  I usually use about 1 to 2 tablespoons of dressing for a pound of salmon.  But more or less is just fine.  Oh, and you don't need to brush any oil or butter or anything else on the fillet first.  The dressing has enough fat in it to keep the salmon moist.  I don't even salt and pepper the fish, because I think the dressing provides enough of both, but if you want to add salt or pepper, this would be the time to do it.

The next step is to sprinkle some bread crumbs over the dressing-coated salmon.  Again, use as much or as little as you like.  Now, if you want the top of the salmon to be all brown and crunchy, you can combine your bread crumbs with a little melted butter and toss before sprinkling them over the fish.  I actually prefer to do this, but my very weird children like it when I use just plan bread crumbs, right from the container, no added butter.  (Yeah.  Ever wonder if your kids are really yours?  This is one of those times.)

So, that's it!  Now all you do is pop the pan into the oven and bake for about 20 minutes or so, until the salmon flakes easily and is done all the way through.

  
I like to serve Caesar Salmon with either buttered noodles or some kind of rice, and a green vegetable or salad.  Oh, and if you have any salmon left over, it is delicious for lunch the next day, chilled and flaked over top of (dare I say it?) a big Caesar salad (or any salad, really).  Yum!!

Caesar Salmon

1 lb. salmon fillet (fresh or frozen and thawed)
2 T. (or more) Caesar salad dressing
3 T. (or more) plain or seasoned bread crumbs
2 tsp. melted butter (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Place salmon in a shallow, greased baking pan.  Brush with dressing.  Combine bread crumbs with melted butter (if using) and sprinkle over top of salmon, or sprinkle with crumbs right from the package.

Place baking pan in center of oven and bake for about 20 minutes, until salmon is cooked through and flakes easily with a fork.  Be careful not to overcook!

Christmas (Cards) in January

I don't know about you, but every year, I plan to make all of my Christmas cards, and then somehow, I end up not doing it.  But, you know, it's NOT just "somehow" -- there 's a definite reason for this yearly failure.  I have plenty of supplies and plenty of ideas, but what I always run out of is time.  You too, right?

The thing about Christmas for me is that, while I love the whole season, I'm always wary of losing some of that love if I start "doing" Christmas too early.  Making someone something that will be Christmas gift (a rag quilt, for instance) is perfectly fine to do many months ahead, but doing something with an overtly Christmas theme, such as making cards, doesn't feel right until, say, after Thanksgiving.  Kind of like decorating the house doesn't feel right 'til then.

Well, I'm going to try to abandon that mindset this year, because there simply isn't any way that I will ever be able to make even a small number of Christmas cards between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  The only way it will work is if I start making those cards earlier than what "seems right."

So, in that vein, I've already started thinking about Christmas card designs for next Christmas!  I like to make a couple of different versions of a basic design, so I started looking for a simple design that could be adapted in any number of ways, and came across a basic tree design made with different Christmas-y papers.  It occurred to me that not only could this cute little tree could be made out of many different combinations of papers, but the resulting card could also be embellished in a number of different ways.

Above is the first card that I made.  I used a little gold adhesive gemstone on the top of the tree, and the "joy" is a die cut I made using my Quickutz (yes, I still use mine!).  I really love this combination of papers and colors, and the contrast of "joy" done in white.

I like how this one came out, too.  Three different green papers for the body of the tree, and since the background was so simple, I figured I could get away with using a really busy print for the middle part of the tree.  A star brad tops the tree, and the snowflakes were made using a Martha Stewart punch.  (BTW, she has GORGEOUS snowflake punches!!) "Holiday" is a punch-out from some random set I had, but you could use most any type of sticker, or print out a greeting on the computer using a favorite font, too.

And here's the last version that I made.  The tree is embellished with different sizes and colors of star brads, then I used one of the gemstones for the top of the tree.

I"m happy that I've at least gotten a start as to what I want to do for cards this coming year.  I can't promise when I'll get around to actually making them, but I"m going to try to let go of that self-imposed "no activities 'til after Thanksgiving" restriction.  So, I'd love to know -- which version of my card do YOU like best?



  

WIPocalype 2014 -- First Post!!

Although I don't make New Year's resolutions, I am definitely a goal-oriented person.  And I am also the kind of person that likes to have goals with respect to hobbies.  Not to stress myself out, or to make my hobbies into things that "have" to be done, but simply because, for me, goal-setting works.  I get more done when I've thought about my goals, and written them down, than when I just "wing it.".

That's why WIPocalypse 2014 is perfect for me.  I want to make sure I keep up with my overall goal of cross-stitching more in 2014, so WIPocalype will help me do that.  I love the idea of checking in once a month with progress pictures, and being free to change my list of things I want to work on, or finish, in 2014.

So, without further ado, here is the list of cross-stitch projects that I intend to work on in 2014.  Some of them are current WIPs, but some will be new starts.

1.  Spring Queen by Mirabilia

2.  Liza’s Bouquet by Ginger & Spice

3.  Tyler’s Lion by Long Dog Samplers

4.  Angel of the Morning by Lavender & Lace

5.  Christmas Flourishes by Mirabilia

6.  Apostle’s Creed by My Big Toe Designs

7.  Afternoon Nap (Bucilla kit)

8.  Seasonal Birds (Bucilla kit)

9.  Albero Felice by Alessandra Adelaide

10.  Little Sheep Virtues by Little House Needleworks

11.  “My House” ornaments (Little House Needleworks) for Brandon and Brian

Spring Queen, Liza's Bouquet, and Tyler's Lion are all current WIPs.  I have all of the supplies for Angel of the Morning, Christmas Flourishes, and Apostle's Creed, and I just ordered fabric and pattern for Albero Felice.  For the Little Sheep Virtues, I want to stitch these all on one piece of fabric, so I've ordered the fabric and a couple of the patterns to get myself started.  I have a mini-goal of stitching one of the Little Sheep patterns each month.

That feels really good to get that all written down.  It is a very snowy and ice cold day here in Michigan, so I think I'm going to make myself a nice hot cup of coffee, and sit down and stitch!

One Little Word for 2014

Choosing "one little word" to focus on for the new year has been all the rage for the past few years.  I rather like the idea, because I am not the type of person to make New Year's resolutions -- I don't like making promises to myself that it's likely that I can't fully keep.  But the idea of "one little word" is broader, and I like that.  One idea representing a goal that is important to me, that I've decided to keep in both mind and heart throughout the upcoming year.

So what's my "one little word" for this year?  Simplify.  As in, try over the course of this year, to simplify my life in ways that are meaningful to me or truly helpful.  Here is a great quote I found from Hans Hoffman:  "The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak."  Hans Hoffman was a German-born American abstract impressionist painter of the early 20th century.  Here's one of his works:

It's pretty fitting that an abstract artist purposely focused on simplicity in his work, isn't it?  But Hoffman's was not a random focus -- instead, he chose simplicity as a means to help him get to what is necessary, to cut through the riff-raff and find what's important.  I find Hoffman's quote deeply inspirational.

Oh, and that image of Charlie Brown and Linus at the top of the post -- that's another image I am going to keep in mind this year.  I saw the Charlie Brown Christmas special this season for the first time in several years.  I had forgotten how meaningful it really is.  Charlie Brown manages to find the spirit of Christmas in a lonely, forgotten little tree, and Linus, standing under a spotlight on a stage, cuts completely through the commercialism and materialism of Christmas by reciting a few verses from the Biblical Christmas story.  "And that's the true meaning of Christmas, Charlie Brown," Linus concludes.  Yeah, it is.

Simplify.  My "one little word" for 2014.  What's YOUR "one little word"? 

Cross-Stitch: Works in Progress

Well, it's December 30.  A new year is almost upon us.  So, it seemed like a good time to take stock of where I am on the various cross-stitch projects that I currently have in process.  I kind of like the idea of having progress pictures all in one place.

My first work in progress is Spring Queen, designed by Nora Corbett of Mirabilia.  My progress is shown in the photo below.  I am stitching her on antique white 32-count Belfast linen, which I just love.  As you can see, she is pretty close to being finished.  I'm currently doing the stitches requiring metallic thread, then I have a little bit more backstitching, and then all that's left is the beading.  This is a design I really need to focus on when I work on it, so I won't go back to this one til after the holidays are over and things are back into a routine.

Here is a picture of what she should look like when she is completely finished.  (Sorry for the terrible photo --I have no idea what happened there!)  Anyway, as you can see, I don't have far to go.

My second work in progress is an out of print design called Liza's Bouquet.  It's by Ginger & Spice.  I am stitching this one on 14-count white Aida fabric, using three strands of floss for really good coverage.  I adore this design, but it is really huge and also has a lot of backstitching, so it will take me awhile to finish.  It is a fun project to work on, though, because it is so colorful and cheery.

Here is a photo of what the finished design will look like.  As you can see, I have the top part of the bouquet done, but have a LOT more to go!

And finally, my last major work in progress is a design by Long Dog Samplers called Tyler's Lion.  Here is my progress on it so far:

And this is what it will look like when it's finished:

Obviously, I have a LONG way to go on this one, but that's okay.  I'm stitching it on hand-dyed 32-count Belfast linen.  The color is called Autumn Field, and it's a great neutral.

So, those are my current three projects.  I am not a "rotational" stitcher (and I didn't even know there was such a thing until recently), but I do like to have more than one project going at a time.  It's not so much that I get bored with one project and need to put it down, it has more to do with how hard I need to concentrate.  With something like the Spring Queen design, which is fairly complex and which I'm doing on linen, I really have to concentrate when I work on it.  There's lots of counting and it's easy to make a mistake.  Sometimes my eyes get tired, and I will pull out Liza's Bouquet, because it's so easy to stitch on Aida.  Also, although there are lots of color changes in this design, there is no confetti and most areas are small blocks of color.  Finally, I started Tyler's Lion because I wanted to do a design that was all one color.  I just love this look, and the added benefit of this is that this is a super easy project to take along somewhere, as all I need are my project, chart, scissors, and a skein of floss.  This is also a good design to work on while watching TV, because although counting is required, the motifs are simple and there are no color changes.

Now that I've shown you where I am on my various projects, I hope to do a post in the next few days with some goals for my stitching (and maybe other hobbies, too) for the upcoming year. 

Embellished Wedding Photo Frame

I have remained in touch with one of my younger son's elementary school teachers, a woman named Roxanne.  So when her son got married this summer, I wanted to make a little something for her.  I have done embellished picture frames/mats before as gifts, but I had never done one with a wedding theme.  So I went to Michael's to see what I could find that looked "wedding-ish."  I was pleasantly surprised to find various types of silver flowers along with little black and white adhesive pearls and other adhesive "gemstones."

I selected a simple black frame with two slots for 4x6 photos.  I did this because I wanted Roxanne to be able to use the frame for snapshots from the wedding, and not necessarily for prints that came back from the professional photographer.  In fact, I got the idea to do the frame because of some pictures that Roxanne had posted on Facebook shortly after the wedding -- wonderful snapshots of her and her husband with the new bride and groom, one of her and her hubby dancing at the reception, another with her and her new daughter-in-law goofing around.  The pictures were so great and just expressed the total joy that Roxanne felt that day.

So, to do the embellishing, I just took the mat out of the frame and arranged my goodies in a pleasing manner around two of the corners, then adhered everything using mostly glue dots.  One thing I know about doing these frames is that you need a strong adhesive, because the embellishments will be on a vertical mat (assuming the frame is hung), and that places a lot of extra stress on the embellishments.  They really need to be on there securely!

The top photo shows a close-up of the bottom corner.  I added the date with simple black rub-ons.  I put the date and the embellishments where I did for a specific reason.  I wanted the frame to be useable for photos oriented either vertically or horizontally.  So I kept that in mind while I was designing.

I had a 50% off coupon which I used on the frame, and this gift ended up costing me less than $25.  Plus, I did not use all of the silver goodies so I can use those for another fun project in the future.  The best part is that Roxanne loved it.  She is a wonderful, upbeat, positive person, and in addition, she loves all manner of "bling" so I knew that this would not be too much for her tastes, but you could also tone it down a little for a more streamlined look.

Picture frames are one of my favorite gifts to give for any occasion, but they make an especially great gift for someone that you don't know that well, or when you need something pretty quick but would like something with a bit of a handmade touch.  I am really pleased with the way that this frame turned out!
  

Cranberry Muffins

Do you have some fresh cranberries lying around that you didn't use over Christmas, and you're wondering what to do with them?  Well, wonder no longer.  Make these muffins!  They are really simple and have a fantastic fresh cranberry flavor.  I took these in to my office a week or so before Christmas, and everyone was raving about them.  When I make them at home, they are gone lickety-split.  Yep, they are that good.  The process is pretty simple.

Measure and mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl, and the wet ingredients in a smaller bowl.

Coarsely chop the raw cranberries, either by hand or using a food processor.  Little hint here -- although the food processor is much faster, I actually prefer to chop the cranberries by hand.  They come out more evenly chopped, and I like the berries to end up in very large pieces.  But, either way is perfectly fine.

Turn the cranberries into a separate bowl, and zest an orange right in the same bowl.

Add half a cup of sugar to the berries and zest, and mix to make sure the sugar coats all of the cranberry pieces.

Now add the small bowl of wet ingredients all at once into the dry ingredients, and mix until the flour is almost all mixed in.  Don't overmix, though, or your muffins will be tough and won't have the right shape. Gently fold in the bowl of sugared cranberries as the last step.

Scoop the batter into muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full.

Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes, until the tops are nicely browned.  Allow to cool and serve with butter.

You could also add some chopped pecans in with the cranberries, if you wanted to.  I often have nuts left over from holiday baking, and I love using them up in recipes like this one.  Oh, I forgot to mention that this recipe calls for buttermilk.  I know it's a "special" thing to buy at the grocery store, but is it so worth it!  I usually buy a pint, and since buttermilk is very lowfat (weird, huh?), it keeps for several weeks.  That's plenty of time to make a second batch of these muffins, thus using up the extra buttermilk!  (Or, I have a great cornbread recipe that also uses buttermilk. Grandma's Cornbread)

Here's the actual recipe:

Cranberry Muffins

2-1/4 cups sifted flour
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup cooking oil
1 cup chopped fresh cranberries
1 tsp. orange zest
1/2 cup sugar

Stir together flour, 1/4 cup sugar, baking soda and salt in large bowl.  Combine egg, buttermilk, and oil in small bowl; stir all at once into flour mixture.  Do not overmix.  Combine cranberries, zest and 1/2 cup sugar; fold into the batter.  Scoop or spoon batter into muffin tins; bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes, until tops are golden brown.  Makes about 15 muffins.

I hope you enjoy these as much as my family does!

Cross-Stitched Pincushion

If there's one thing I just love, it's a gift that is PRACTICAL.  And this one is a double score, because it's practical AND pretty!

I made the pincushion pictured above a few weeks ago as a gift for my sister for her birthday, using a pattern from Blackbird Designs, and 32-count Vintage Maple Sugar linen.  I used over-dyed floss, which has some color variations in it, and I really like the subtle shaded effect that the floss gave this project.

The pincushion took a little lest than 2 days to embroider, and then I got stuck a bit on putting it together.  I couldn't seem to find the type of crocheted edging that I was envisioning, and then I couldn't find the right stuff to fill the pincushion with.  But, eventually I found everything and finished this little pillow up on the sewing machine.

Size-wise, it's about 4 x 5 inches, so it's not a tiny thing.  I gave this to my sister together with a limited edition pair of patterned 4-inch Gingher scissors.  My sister doesn't do embroidery, but she has recently started sewing, so I thought she'd like a small, good-quality pair of scissors to keep by her machine to clip threads and so forth.  And it's nice to have a good pincushion, too.  It helps keep your pins nice and sharp, and I find it so much easier to grab pins from a pincushion than sticking your fingers into a box or cup of pins.

Oh, as a final little bit of loveliness, I stitched my sister's initials into the top right hand corner of the pincushion, and the year in the bottom right hand corner.  I always find that personalization makes a gift just that much more special.  

Renewing an old friendship -- Counted Cross Stitch

When I was in law school many years ago, a friend of mine introduced me to counted cross stitch.  She was making a gift for someone, and came back from a needlework store with all kinds of stuff -- a chart, fabric, embroidery floss, and so forth.  When she showed me what all of it was, and what you did with it, I was entranced.  That happenstance introduced me to what became my primary hobby for quite a few years.

Well, then life intervened.  I had two kids, developed arthritis in my hands, and found that my eyesight wasn't what it used to be.  It got harder to see those tiny embroidery stitches, and my hands would often hurt after cross stitching.  So, somewhere along the line, I stopped doing cross stitch and took up scrapbooking, card-making, and rubber stamping.  I did think about cross stitch sometimes, mostly when I had occasion to go down to the basement and see my several boxes of cross stitch supplies, all neatly packed away.

My kids are now 19 and 13, and as best I can remember, I stopped doing cross stitch within a year or so after my younger son was born.  So it's been at least 12 years since I picked up a needle and floss.

Then a funny thing happened.  In September, someone on the scrapbooking message board where I hang out posted for advice, saying she had not done counted cross stitch in many years and wanted to get back into it.  Several people posted, saying they were in the same situation, and other active stitches put in their two cents.  I recommended some designers to the poster, and later that night, as I lay in bed, I started thinking about how much I used to love cross stitching.  Although I knew most of my supplies were in the basement, I also knew that I had a few things in the bottom drawer of what used to be my stitching table.  So, the next day, I rooted around and I found the three projects that I had in-process when I had decided that I couldn't cross stitch any more.  Over the next couple of days, I found everything -- my favorite hoop, the box of floss I had all organized with the colors I needed for those three projects, my needles and scissors..

I started thinking.  I still have arthritis in my hands, but I take a daily pain reliever now and the pain is much more manageable.  My vision is still bad, but somewhere along the line I discovered reading glasses and how great they are for failing , "over-40" vision.

So I decided to give cross stitching another try.  One sunny Friday afternoon that I had off work, I took out the project that you see in the picture above, I threaded a needle, opened up the chart for the design, put on my reading glasses, and... took a stitch.  

Friends, I don't know how to put it into words, but the best I can do is to say that as I made those tiny crosses that afternoon, I literally felt calmness and serenity wash over me like a soothing ointment.  I couldn't imagine why I had ever stopped cross stitching.  You see, I love everything about it -- the texture of the tiny crosses on the fabric, the feel of a beautiful piece of linen in my hand, the orderly precision of all of those rows of Xs, all lined up, the unfolding of a beautiful design.

So, long story short, I've been cross stitching like a madwoman ever since I renewed this wonderful friendship.  The design I'm working on at the moment, pictured above, is called "Spring Queen," and it's by one of my favorite designers, Nora Corbett of Mirabilia.  I'm close enough to the finish on this design that I'm working on it exclusively.

I'll post a picture when I'm finished!  In the meantime, is there a hobby that YOU once left behind, for an understandable reason or for no reason at all?  Maybe it's time to revisit something that gave you so much joy.  I am ecstatic that I rediscovered my love of cross stitch, and I don't see myself putting down my needle again for a long, long time.