Holiday Ideas

I bought a cute book today, 100 Ways to Spread Joy This Season. I picked my favorite ones besides the obvious getting presents, baking, and doing good deeds.

My favorites are:

• Hand out candy canes on your way to work. (This wouldn't be a great idea due to where I work, but I think it would be fun.)


• Tie a Christmas card to a balloon and let it go. (It is way too cold here to do this but I've always thought it would be awesome to find a card, note, or something that someone attached to a balloon and let go for anyone to find. We actually did this at camp one year. We put our name and adress. No one found mine. Or at least no one responded.)


• Forgive someone, especially if it's hard (This one is important.)


• Watch a favorite holiday movie (We watched National Lampoons Christmas Vacation the other day. It does get you immersed in the season. And it's funny!)


• Buy your pet a holiday sweater or reindeer antlers! (My kids would love to do this. I don't really approve of apparel for our pets. They are all indoor pets with exception of the dog, but I still don't think she needs to wear sweaters. If she were a small dog, I would likely change my mind. The antlers would be cute on her though. Hee, hee.)

She doesn't look too impressed!




• Put fake snow on the windows ( This used to be something we did every year when I was a kid. My brother even made a nativity scene out of fake snow. I will have to see if I can find the picture. We don't need fake snow for our windows now. We have enough leaky windows, they frost up naturally!)


• Smile more often! It will make everyone around you smile in return. (I like this because it really does work. Well not everyone smiles, but what can you do? It is Christmas!)

I hope you all have a great holiday season and you can find even more ways to bring joy to the season and everyone around you.

Caroline

Wow it has sure been a long time since I wrote something! I have been working at my real job and working at craft sales and working at home... I am not sure how some people have time for all this!

I have thought of something that I think may be of interest to others. I am going to make a glossary of terms that I tend to use in my listings on etsy. This may sound boring initially, but I will try to make it interesting with pictures of examples and processes when I can.

That is my problem with blogging though. The pictures. I don't really have much of a problem coming up with something to say, I just don't have visual aids to make it more interesting.

Here is about the only thing I could find in my thousands of pictures that is remotely interesting.

This is me making a bead. I have the mandrel in my left hand and a blue rod of glass in my right hand.

My work area is messy. My husband will tidy it from time to time but the glass shocks so often that there are constantly chunks of glass all over the place (occassionally they are stuck to me).

This is not the torch I use anymore. This one is wrecked. Don't ask.

In my glossary I will explain glass shocking and what is a mandrel. Oh I have a huge list of things to write about already started. I am excited. I just have to wait until sometime after this weekend to get started. I still have to work one more day, then make stuff for a bake sale for my kids, then go to the mall for a craft sale for three days. Oh, yeah, I get to work two or three more days right after that.

Well, when I get a couple extra minutes, I will try to add something.

I have a post all ready for Turtle Tarts though. Yum! You just have to wait for me to make a batch before I can post it. Pictures, pictures, pictures!

Time to Think About Christmas Baking

I don't do a lot of Christmas baking (or any baking for that matter) because I usually am the one that eats it all. One thing that I do make, and quite a few people like, is turtle tarts. And they are quite easy to make.

I have two recipies that I have tweeked together to get this recipe.

Turtle Tarts

36 mini tart shells (I use 24 regular)

pecan pieces

1/3 cup corn syrup

1 can Eagle Brand milk

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup butter

2 squares chocolate (or 1 package chocolate chips)

1 tsp margarine

Poke holes in ready made tart shells. Sprinkle bottoms with pecans. (I like to add some chocolate as well, a drizzle or a couple of chips). Bake tart shells as directed on package. Mix the filling of milk, butter, syrup and brown sugar. Microwave for 3 minutes (filling boils around edges). Stir for 2 minutes. Pour into cool tart shells. Cool. Melt chocolate with margarine. Drizzle over tarts and top with a pecan.

I actually don't like to use the chocolate squares or the chips. I prefer to use dipping waffers because they melt so much easier and they taste so much better. (If you use the waffers, you don't need the margarine.)

I buy pecan halves so I can reserve some whole ones for the tops and then I crush (chunky not pulverize) the others to put in the bottom.

I forgot to add the chocolate to the base of these. Oops! They still tasted good.


When I first went to make these tarts, I was not confident in the microwave step. When it comes out of the microwave it doesn't look good and you may wonder how that is ever going to turn into a filling anyone would want to eat. Stir. And keep stirring for the whole 2 minutes. It changes before your eyes. And ohhhh, they are sooo good!

This is the filling ingredients before microwaving.

This is the filling after microwaving. I probably should have broke up the butter and sugar a bit. It did turn out in the end though.

Here is one minute after stirring. Keep stirring and you will get...

Yummy carmel-type sauce!

Here is a picture of the final product. These are so good on the second day as they have set up quite nicely.

These are so simple and so delicious. This recipe is definately a keeper.

Problems with PrintScreen

I have tried to get a screen shot of my treasury and cannot for the life of me get it to work. I even found a tutorial on how it is done but my "PrtScn" button would not do anything no matter what I did. So if anyone happens to know what I may be doing wrong, please let me know for another time. I have to go to work in an hour and it will expire while I am there otherwise I would try it as soon as I could.

I will still keep on trying.

Take care and have a great day!

Music to My Ears - A Treasury

I just made a new treasury! It took me all evening to do it. All I wanted was things with music but it was difficult at times deciding which few things to pick.

Check it out:
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=92866

I will try to get a screen shot of it for after it expires.