Crafting for the Holidays

If you love making gifts for the holidays, as I do, you know that it's never too soon to begin planning your holiday giving list.  (In theory..I do have a tendency towards procrastination and have found myself in previous years pulling all nighters with a pot of coffee and several skeins of yarn ;-)

I have vowed, however, that I will be organized this year!!  In this spirit, I have started sorting through some of my pins on Pinterest to identify what I would like to try my hand at, and who the gifts would be suited for..because, truthfully, I do sometimes find something I reallllyyy want to make that would only be suited as a gift for me :-)

Here are a few things I'm thinking about so far:

For her

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 These gorgeous origami fabric butterflies would be perfect for hair accessories, brooches or as an accent on a necklace.

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Hand scrub, great in a gift bag with a nail file and some pretty nail polish!

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Embellished cardigans..soooo easy.  (Incidentally, this is also an adorable blog with several other fantastic ideas!)

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Cozy sewn felt slippers (also a great idea for kiddos!)

For Him

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My husband LOVES these.  They're pretty easy to make..I may enlist the children to create a few for their Dad and uncles ;-)

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Despite his protests about the "Fudge Handles" he acquires every holiday season, The Man loveeesss some homemade fudge.

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Create a playlist, could be songs for your sweetheart, running songs, songs to brighten your day, type the list out on fun paper and attach to an itunes gift card..it's like a mixed tape for the 21st century ;-)

For the Kids

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Create a bunch of these.  Use to embellish overalls, sweaters, hats, mittens or stitch them all together to make a scarf.

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Rice filled heating pads to snuggle up to on a cold night!

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I'm a sucker for a cute hat, and this one's about as cute as they come..

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This link is for 25 Christmas Books and crafts to go with them, but you could do this with any book for any age!  My oldest daughter loves the Hunger Games, and I thought a neat combo would be the Hunger Games books and a craft project to make arrow hair sticks out of chopsticks and feathers or felt feathers.  My youngest loves Diary of a Wimpy Kid, so to go along with that, a craft for making your own diary. 

So that's my (preliminary) list!  What are your ideas for the holidays?  Do you make gifts as well?  What sort of items are on your crafting list?  Feel free to share here or over on facebook!

Home Ec - Mackinac Island Fudge

It's here!  The second in the home ec post installment!

A little while ago, I reviewed "A Very Vintage Christmas" and promised you all a post on some of the yummy candy recipes included in the book.  Sadly, I neglected to remember the corn syrup for the caramels so we're just going to make fudge today (but I'll include the recipe for caramels at the end!)

Ingredients

First thing to do is gather all your igredients together.  Fudge making is a finicky business (though, fortunately, this recipe is old enough to not require a candy thermometer!) and you'll want to have everything handy.  Here's the list:

I would also add, a medium to large sized pot, a measuring cup and measuring spoons, a spoon for stirring, and a large rectangular pan.  You can also double the recipe, which is what I did, if you want to give some as gifts.

First you are going to combine the milk (I used cream because I prefer the texture, but you can stick with the recipe if you're more comfortable!) brown sugar, white sugar, butter and salt in your pot  and begin heating it on medium.

I would suggest a slightly larger pot than this one..I underestimated and made a (yummy!) mess

Mmmmmm...butter and cream...

You're going to need to stir frequently during this process.  Once the mixture comes to a boil, set your timer for 6 minutes and keep on stirring.  (It helps if you have an obliging elf handy to help with this part..)

My oldest daughter Shann the Ham ;)

Once your six minutes are up, remove the pot from the burner and add in your vanilla, cocoa powder and powdered sugar.  Keep on stirring and blend, blend, blend!  You want a nice smooth consistency.

After it's all blended, pour it out into your pan to cool.  It should look like this:

Put it in the refridgerator to chill for 20 min.  Then you can take it out and cut it into bricks to wrap in wax paper and put in pretty boxes for gifts!

..or you can cut it into cubes for a snack ;)

That's all there is to it!

Annnnnnd... as promised, here is the caramel recipe, in case you're feeling ambitious ;)

Ingredients:

• Line a 9x9 inch pan with parchment paper.  Allow some of the paper to hang over the sides.
• In a heavy sauce pan, combine all ingredients except for the vanilla.
• Gradually bring to a boil, starting on low heat, then medium, then med. high as the ingredients come together.
• Stir continually, remembering to scrape the sides and the bottom.  Using a candy thermometer, monitor the temperature.
• When the mixture reaches 250 degrees F, remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.
• Pour into the pan and let cool completely until set.
• Lift the caramels out of the pan using the parchment paper, cut into cubes and wrap in waxed paper or cellophane to give as gifts.

Happy snacking!

Hugs and Smooches,
D

Book Review - Have Yourself a Very Vintage Christmas: Crafts, Decorating Tips, and Recipes, 1920s-1960s

This fabulous little book was one of the recommendations that popped up on my Amazon page a few weeks ago.  Christmas AND Vintage??  Count me in!

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The book is set up by decade, beginning in the 1920's and ending in the 1960's.  The first few pages of each decade covers a little history of what was going on at that time (ie, the depression, WWII, etc.) and how it affected the holiday.  It discusses color schemes, decoration preferences and the reasons for them and then goes on to offer a few project ideas geared towards decorating your own home.  A few of my favorites:

• Paper Cones (made from pretty patterned paper and decorated with ribbons and maribou) used to hold treats
• Tulle wreaths in bright 1960's colors like pink and teal with little bird decorations
• Candles with glitter stripes made to look like candy canes
• Matchboxes made from Christmas cards (one suggestion is to fill them with M&M's and give them as party favors!  Such a cute idea.)

The back of the book has a section on recipes for candy and treats.  Mackinac Island Fudge, Caramels and Butterscotch Haystacks are a few of the really yummy offerings.  There are also color templates included with the book to use in making some of the projects, or for gift tags and Christmas cards.

This was such a wonderfully sweet, nostalgic book with really easy to use craft ideas and recipes.  I highly recommend it for the vintage Christmas lover!

(Because I liked the recipes for the fudge and caramels so much, they will be the subject of the next Home Ec post!)

Hugs and Smooches,
D