I've been Boo-ed! My sweet friend Linnea Over at Neabear, Stephanie over at The Hearts of Hartmann and LisaJanelle over Warm Heart, Cozy Home have all Boo-ed me! Thanks ladies! I see that many folks have already been boo-ed but if you haven't please feel free to grab this and boo your friends too!!
I have kept myself very busy Behind My Red Door. Cooking and freezing meals for my folks and us, making some things for Christmas in the kitchen and lots of creating in the craft room too. I can't show it all because some of them are swaps and gifts. But I can show you the sweet little pin keep I made to keep handy when I am doing handwork as I watch TV in the evenings. I wanted something small. I can't remember where I saw the tutorial for this one, but it is made with a canning jar cover as the base. If anyone knows where that tutorial is, please let me know!
See that glimpse of the bowl on the left? That's my little bowl of lusciousness.
Here's another glimpse. My sweet friend Karen gave me 3 rolls of Valdani floss with my first order from her FarmHouse Woolens online shop. It is 3 strands of floss so once you load the punch needle tool, you don't have to stop and separate floss and keep reloading. I love it so I ordered some more from this online shop. (Karen doesn't carry it) Colonial Crafts used to have the cutest store in Sturbridge, MA (back when I didn't work with wool of course!) but now it is strictly an online shop. I have been pleased with their speedy service. Aren't these sweet? I love the variegated colors especially. I just like how these look in my little bowl!
Here is the pillow I made out of my first NP project. I wish I had left a bigger border of fabric but it is not bad for my first NP project. Now that I know better, I will do better! (that's how I try to live anyway). 
And this is what I will tackle next. Please don't hold your breath waiting to see this one done as I have many irons in the fire!
And three cheers for me! I finally finished my Father Christmas Wool Wall hanging. This is about 15 inches wide and 2 feet long. It was a LOT of blanket stitching. I made a rod pocket across the top and I will insert a dowel to hang it. It almost makes me want to decorate for Christmas now. LOL I said ALMOST. We have a Fall Harvest party here on the 8 th and I am hosting Thanksgiving, so fall will stay out until everyone leaves that night. But once the door closes behind the last person, the fall stuff gets piled on the dining room table and the next morning the Christmas boxes come out of the attic and I will be be decorating top to bottom!
Thanks to my wonderful friend Colleen over at And Baby Makes Five for saving me this weekend. I had spent quite some time last week searching through my old set of Leisure Arts Christmas books and I finally found the recipe for ornamental gingerbread dough I had used years ago. I then loaned the books to a friend. Then through a fluke, as I was getting ready to make the dough, my copy went flying and landed under and behind my stove. My GAS stove. DH was not wanting to shut off the gas and disconnect the stove just for that recipe, and he asked me to pretty please find one online. When I came online to look for a recipe, of course I stopped at my blog first and I found that Colleen had posted her recipe here. Thank you!! In her next post, she posted some great pics of her daughter Michaela helping her make mini cinnabuns. She is just adorable and the buns don't look too bad either!
Here is a portion of the dough as I am rolling it out. I have the neatest dough board that I got many years ago from QVC. It is plastic and came with 2 cloth covers. I flour the cover well and it is great for rolling out sticky dough like this. If you make biscuits, this is wonderful for those and I love it for rolling out my pie dough too. I don't think they carry it anymore so if you see it at a yard sale or thrift store with it's covers, grab it!
Here are the results. I actually had 2 more but they met an unfortunate and untimely end. They slipped off the parchment paper and cookie sheet right into the opening in the bottom of the oven right into the flame! Burn baby burn! And did they make smoke. LOL Good thing it was warm enough to open the windows! These guys still need to be dipped in wax. I am letting them dry for several days first. They are much sturdier than regular cookies. They puffed up and spread a bit more than I expected so if you make this recipe, do leave plenty of space in between. I found this dough great to work with. Here's a money saving tip - I used peppercorns for the eyes and buttons instead of cloves. MUCH cheaper and since no one is eating them - who cares! You'll have to wait for my Christmas decorating to see what I do with these.
Once again I received a goody in the mail from a sweet gal in my RAK group. This cute little Angel ornie. Isn't she adorable? Thanks Teresa!
So what have you been working on this week? Go on over to Leslie's My Country Home to see what everyone else has been doing. Thanks for hosting this each week Leslie. It inspires me to finish things in time to post them. It's worth a stop over there just to see the gorgeous photo on her header. It is breath taking!
Like many of you, I have a lot of things I want and need to do before the Holidays and so I might not be posting quite as often. Because I do some online volunteer work, sometimes I am sitting here TOO long. It so tempting to sit here all day with all the wonderful blogs, and forums and prim sites. I want to be more disciplined in finishing my projects and balancing my computer time. Isn't life always a balancing act anyway? Mine seems to be!
Until next time - hugs, Linda
