I was spoiled...

These are the beautiful gifts I received from The Great Knitted Purse Swap, my first swap, on Ravelry. Look at the gorgeous color and design of this purse knit by carolannb! And she so sweetly packaged everything and filled my bag with all kinds of goodies, including something for January Baby. You spoiled me, carolannb!

Hot Drinks for Hot Mamas Apron Swap

This is the apron I sent to my swap partner Tammy for the favorite hot drinks swap. She loves coffee, and I found this neat coffee bean print fabric and geared my complementary fabrics to a mocha/cappicino-like color. I also sent her some coffee cup cozies, and one of my handbound books with a vintage food print on the covers.

More with Less...

This is the title of a new cookbook I've been gifted, and my new focus for meal planning these days. I received it from my mom who is trying to help along my endeavor to save money on groceries and still cook wholesome meals. The book came out in the 1970's when there was a lot of attention given to fears of over-population and future scarcity of food resources. Put together my Mennonites, it tries to encourage the mindful use of food in our cooking, which sounds good to me! We have recently cut back on our meat consumption, and I can now stretch one package (what used to be one meals worth), to several meals.

This picture is of the first recipe I made from the book, Wheat Germ Balls, which turned out O.K., but they really need to be slathered with peanut butter to make them really delicious! Which is totally acceptable if you want a sweet, high-protein snack. DH is just very suspicious of anything with "wheat germ" in the name, so I had to make chocolate chip cookies the next day:)




I think you can buy this book on Amazon, it has lots of good nutritional information, and I look forward to trying some more casseroles to stock the freezer for Baby's arrival. I'll let you know how it goes.

Destash: Scrap Fabric Wreath

In an effort to continue cleaning out my stash of craft supplies, I made this festive wreath for the basement door. I pulled all my red, pink, and green colored fabrics, and used them up to make a new decoration!

First, I cut the fabric into strips that are about 1 1/2" x 6"; any size really will work, just make sure you can tie the strips in a knot.



Then, with your purchased wire wreath frame, start tying the strips onto the frame, packing them pretty tightly to cover all the space.



Continue in this way until you've covered the frame and the wreath is pleasing to you. I finished it by tying a pretty ribbon on one side to use as a hanger.



Easy! And now you have an (almost) free new holiday, or anyday, decoration!

Peach Gobbler

This is the peach cobbler (or gobbler!) I made with those beautiful fruit farm peaches a couple of weeks ago. I used the Cook's Illustrated New Best Recipe formula, and it was worth the extra effort. My beef with Cook's recipes are that they use so. many. dishes. So my goal, whenever using their recipes, is to reduce the amount of dishes, preferably to one bowl or pan. Maybe it's the artist in me, but I don't mind missing ingredients and usually just try to substitute something similar:) I'm not sure that would make the Cook's people proud!

To Market

I've started utilizing re-usable grocery bags when doing my shopping, and I love eliminating the clutter of plastic bags, as well as helping the environment. I still haven't found a solution to the plastic produce bags, but this little market bag above is a first attempt at creating something re-usable, practical, and pretty (of course!) for holding fruits and vegetables. I modified a wonderful pattern from Knittique.com, making shorter handles, and held two strands of linen yarn together to make it really strong. Now, I think it's just about perfect for carrying those heavy fruits and vegetables. This one in the picture is destined for a new friend, so I have to get busy making more for myself!

And the winner is....

Kelli...who's favorite Audrey movie is Breakfast at Tffany's! Kelli, if you would send me your snail mail address to bibliosophy@gmail.com, I will pop your present in the mail.

Thanks to all who entered, it was fun hearing all the different movie favorites, and I appreciate your participation. And stay tuned for another giveaway soon!