Yummy Christmas Mint Fudge - With Recipe!

Today I did some Christmas baking and discovered a new recipe. When making fudge I always use Kraft Jet-Puffed Marshmallow Creme and I follow the directions on the back for their fudge. But, tonight I didn't have any evaporated milk and I wanted to try using dark chocolate chips. Below is my improvised recipe. It turned out sooooo yummy.

Use the Fantasy Fudge recipe over at Kraft, but make the following adjustments:

- Substitute the evaporated milk for 2/3 cup of coffee creamer (seriously! I used my french vanilla coffee creamer and it is sooo yummy. I would imagine that you could use any flavor and your fudge would come out with a hint of that flavor.)
- Substitute the Semi-Sweet Chocolate for a bag of Dark Chocolate Chips
- At this point I wanted to go with a mint fudge so I substituted the vanilla for 3/4 tsp of mint extract

Follow all the rest of the directions and you'll have some really good fudge. Happy Cooking!

Marisol The Mouse

Marisol the mouse caused quite a ruckus in the house the other day. I found the pattern here. I love love love FuzzyMittens patterns and this one is no exception. I knit this little cutie up as soon as I found the pattern. Both my daughters fell in love with it and asked for some of their own. Even my hubby thinks she is way to cute. Much cuter than the photo shows. I have a feeling that pretty soon little Marisol will have a huge mousie family.

I-Spy Quilt Project: Part 2

Yesterday was another good day of sewing. Although I did very much notice that my calculations were off for the border pieces. They are suposed to be 8" squares not 7" squares. I've made that change on the cutting list on Part 1 of the I-Spy Project. Needless to say... I had cut all my border squares at 7" already. Hmmm... I wasn't about to re-cut all the squares so I decided to make my center square on the sides longer and then add a a small piece on the top and bottom corners to make up the difference. Nothing lines up right with the squares from the center I-Spy part and the border like I had planned. But, I'm still very very pleased with how it's turning out. It has a very homey, colorful, happiness about it. Next will be the outside border on this quilt and the then I have to put both borders on the other quilt. The one pictured is for my youngest, Rachel. She loves pinks and purples so her border colors go with that. And, her backing is also in purples. Alaina's quilt will have blue and purples as the borders and backing.

I-Spy Quilt Project: Part 1

I-Spy has always been popular around our house. So, this year I decided to make my girls I-Spy quilts for Christmas. I couldn't find a pattern I liked so I decided to make my own. I wanted to keep the quilts very simple with bigger squares so they would go together fast. I wanted the size of the quilts to be smaller than a twin but larger than a throw. I'll be posting my progress of these quilts as I go with basic instructions as to how I'm doing it.
Here is my basic computer sketch of what the quilts will look like when they are done. (the colors are frightening... but you can get the general idea) Each square is a 3.5" finished size. The quilt has 10 rows of 15 squares for the center I-Spy part. The border around that will have blue and purple simple print fabrics for one quilt and the other will have purple and pink simple print fabrics. Then around that will be a plain border to finish it all off. The gray center border rectangles are undecided at the moment. I'm thinking of using either a solid fabric and then applique' on my girls initials... Or maybe using the backing fabric there... not sure yet. The backing will be flannels and I'm planning on quilting in the ditch.

Finished Quilt Size will be roughly: 56" x 73.5"

Material and Cut Lists
150 - 4" I-Spy Squares - You can find precut I-Spy squares on Etsy and Ebay
26 - 8" Border Squares - for these I used simple prints and batiks
2 - 7 x 10.5" Center Border Squares
Enough fabric to border it if you choose to do so. I'm planning a 3.5" finished border.... So I'll cut 4" strips.
Backing - I bought 4 yards of 45" wide flannel for the backing. And another 1.5 yards in a co-ordinating color to use as binding or contrast on the back. I'm thinking that I will have a yard or so leftover. Again... I'm not a quilter so you may want to do some math to make sure your getting the right amount of fabric.

Yesterday I got started with the sewing of the quilt. I was able to finish both of the quilts center I-Spy sections. Above is one of the centers... I think this one is for my youngest. Most of the squares are the same for each of the girls quilts. But, I tried to find a few that were different and specific to each girl. My mom helped with all the pressing and pinning yesterday... that was a huge help. Today we'll be doing the large block border and hopefully the small solid border too.

*An I-Spy quilt (for those of you who haven't heard of one) is a quilt with fussy cut squares that are all different. Ie: a cat, a dog, popcorn, footballs, books, flowers, bugs, etc. I'm hoping to have hours of fun with my girls searching for items in their quilts. Fun Fun Fun!!!

A Test Dress For Kaylee

I'm working on a commission for a satiny little girls Christmas dress. I wanted to test out my pattern before cutting into the satin. This dress looks nothing like the commissioned dress. It started out like it, then it evolved into something else. I still need to hem it. And, I'm thinking of adding some black tulle underneath maybe. Or, maybe just some black capri leggings. I think that next time I'll change the neckline a bit... maybe even try using jersey for the top part of the dress.

The belt is something that I've been wanting to do for a very long time. It's a obi inspired belt. I've been seeing these around in fashion a lot lately. I'll be making many many more of these for my shop. I just love how it gives this simple dress a whole new look.

Did I mention that I love love love this belt?

Kaylee: "Look At The Pretties!!!"

There was a new dollie arrival in the house today. She is a MSD Souldoll Tiffee. As Soon as I saw her little face in the box I knew that her name was Kaylee. It's hard to see Kaylee with the blond wig on and the "normal" clothing. I'll need to get her a shortish brown wig and make her some Asian print shirts and an awesome pair of coveralls. Maybe even some big ol' combat boots. But, even without all those things, she is a very pretty doll.
I love her body shape and her face. She is fuller than my Narae so she will be a fantastic model for me to have around. Her hands are pretty and her little face is just to cute. The pale face-up gives her a childlike innocence. I'm thinking that in the future it will need to be redone in less pinks and more natural tones. This doll makes me itch to create something new. I'm going to be thinking about those coveralls all night long. I might have to save some time this weekend or next week to draft up a pattern and get started.
For those of you who don't know who Kaylee is..... She is a character on the show Firefly and the movie Serenity. If you haven't seen either, I highly recommend you do. Most of my dolls have names after characters from the show.

A Witch, A Storybook Princess, & Some Weasleys.....

The Witch and The Princess:
Some Weasleys:
And, of course the pumpkins... left out of the title, but just as important.