Tuesday 13 December 2011

CHRISTMAS WREATH TUTORIAL

WELCOME

I had just bemoaned the fact, to my husband, that I would not be able to make a big wreath for my front door this year when a terrific wind storm came up overnight. Making a nice full wreath takes a lot of boughs, too expensive to purchase the trunkful needed. One year my daughter noted a gardner pruning a large fir on the campus of a local college. She asked if she might have a few branches and he offered her a whole truck load and delivered it to her door as well! We made wreaths, swags, center pieces, baskets and boxes of fresh boughs, and gave armloads to our friends and neighbours. That doesn't happen every year. This year looked grim and I thought I might get a few free boughs from the tree farm where we get our tree. The ground is usually littered with tips from the trimming process which gives the trees their perfect shape. After the wind storm I gathered two trunkfuls and had boughs for wreaths, baskets and some to share with friends.

After aquiring your pile of fresh boughs, spruce, fir or pine, you'll need a comfortable stool and a warm place to work. I bought my wire frame a couple years ago from a florist. I always go to the trouble of disassembling my wreath to save the frame and the roll of wire. I wear rubber gloves as working the boughs and wire is hard on your hands. You may need scissors or clippers if your boughs don't snap easily to the length you want.

First secure your wire to the frame. Your wreath will be made up of many handfuls of small bunches such as is pictured here. The foundation of each bunch may be made up of boughs which are missing their tips as pictured.

Each foundation will be covered with 4 to 6 nicely tipped pieces. Now you have a nice tight bouquet

of boughs approxametly 6 to 8 inches long. Wire the bouquet onto the frame at the base making sure each twig is held in place by the wire. I generally wrap it 2 to 3 times per bunch. Your next prepared bunch or "bouquet" will go on top of the previous one, though an inch or so further along the wire frame. This is repeated until you have completely filled in your frame. The tighter your bunches are together the fuller your wreath will be.

The back of your wreath should look like the picture below, very little green, but many tightly wired stems.

COME AGAIN!

1---2---3 CHRISTMAS TREE STAND TUTORIAL

Several years ago my husband and I decided to have a fresh oversized Christmas tree and skip the 4 foot artificial one we had been using.
We have made a family tradition of going out to a tree farm and cutting our own ever since. I make up goodie bags and hot chocolate for the kids and play their favorite Christmas carols. After much hunting for the perfect tree they coach Grampie as he lays on the ground to saw down the chosen tree. We discovered an easy and efficient way to put our tree up:
1-2-3
This year we have a modest 8 foot tree. Last year I convinced my husband that we needed a huge 14 footer. Well our tree stand does not work for that height as we found after much trial and error. Eleven feet would seem to be the best working option. Sadly we had to cut 3 feet from the bottom of the 14 footer. I did however gain a good supply of boughs from those 3 feet, enough to make swags and to share with my neighbors.

First trim the lower branches to allow the trunk to fit well into the container,

Measure and cut out a piece of plywood to fit the bottom of your container.

Nail the plywood to the trunk with several good size nails.

Once inside choose your location for the tree. Two people is all that is required to hoist the tree into the container. While one holds the tree steady the other starts fitting rocks into the container all around the trunk. As you can see we are using fist sized and slightly larger rocks to hold the tree in place. It does not move! Before all the rocks are in place we take turns eyeballing the tree, from several angles, to make sure it is straight. Once your rocks are in, water the tree and start decorating. I always place a plastic drop cloth or table cloth under the container just in case it develops a leak. I also line the container with a couple of garbage bags to keep the water where I want it and not on my floor.
Just reverse the order when it is time to take the tree down.

Monday 12 December 2011

CHRISTMAS CANDY & POPCORN

My Grandsons love getting their hands into the peanut butter and confectionars' sugar to make dozens of "PEANUT BUTTER BALLS" These little treats are good for any occassion and you can add to them most any dried fruit or nut. I add chocolate chunks, raisins, coconut and sometimes a marshmallow center as a fun surprise. My measuring cups and spoons are set aside when I'm making these and I go with the feel of the ball. I want it to be fairly dry which you can adjust by the amount of confectioners' sugar used. It does however need to be moist enough to form into a ball. Once we have all the balls formed we dip them into our waiting melted chocolate which has been in a warm oven around 150 to 170 degrees. I use a BBQ skewer inserted into the ball then dip it into the bowl of melted chocolate, encourage the excess chocolate to drip off the ball then placing it on a sheet of wax paper to cool using another skewer to help release the inserted skewer if necessary. If you want to add sprinkles to the top it must be done before the ball begins to cool and harden. If however, you want to add an additional color like white chocolate you must wait until after the ball has hardened to dip a second time to get a white top.
Needed: Peanut Butter confectioners' sugar melted chocolate

MOLASSES POPCORN

Using a skillet add brown sugar, butter and molasses with a pinch of salt, bring to a boil stirring to prevent it from boiling over until it reaches the forms the soft ball stage. My Mom, many decades ago, in the 1950s taught me to test this by dropping a small amout of the candy from a spoon into a cold glass of water and with your finges try forming it into a ball. If sucessful you know your candy is ready to remove from the heat. At this time you can pour your hot mixture over the popcorn. I have my popcorn ready in a large roasting pan with the bottom and sides greased to prevent the candy from sticking. The kids can get in on this part using a wooden spoon to mix the candy with the popcorn. The candy is very hot until it has been mixed with the popcorn and I would suggest adults only for heating and pouring the candy molasses mixture. Again I leave my measuring cups aside and use approxametly equal portions of molasses, butter and brown sugar.

HOME MADE MARSHMALLOWS
My boys love their hot chocolate and marshmallow and have discovered their fondness for these marshmallow treats which I often include in their after school snacks. The kids can get involved once the cooking portion is complete and the marshmallow is ready to be cut. The cookie cutters come out and they get to make all their favorite shapes. The treats pictured here I have dipped in melted chocolate followed by sprinkles.
DIRECTIONS:
About 1 cup confectioners' sugar
3 &1/2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
1 cup cold water divided
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup of light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla
Oil bottom and sides of a 13 X 2 inch pan and dust well with confectioners' sugar. In a large bowl sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup of cold water, and let stand to soften. In a heavy saucepan cook granulated sugar, corn syrup, second 1/2 cup of cold water and salt over low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon until sugar is dissolved. Slowly increase heat to bring mixture to a boil, no longer stirring, until it reaches 240 degrees on a candy thermometer. (about 12 minutes) Pour over gelatin and water mixture that have been standing, stir until mixed. Using an electric mixer beat for about 6 to 10 minutes until it is white, thick and nearly tripled in volume. Pour into your oiled and dusted pan, dust top of marshmallow with confectioners' sugar and let stand until set. Mine is usually set with in an hour though some directions say to wait several hours or overnight. Once set turn out on a surface dusted with confectioners' sugar and start to cut the shapes you want. Dust all cut edges well with confectioners' sugar to prevent from sticking.

Saturday 10 December 2011

ANTIQUING PAPER

My Grandsons and I had fun making Christmas decorations by antiquing paper song sheets which we thank;

raidensgrammie21's photostream

for allowing us to print all these wonderful old Christmas Carols. We have aranged them on the mantle. You could also print them out to a smaller size, attach a ribbon to the top and use them for tree ornaments. We so enjoyed making these that it inspired us to have an old fashioned Christmas theme for this year. Many of our decorations are boughs, baneberries, rose hips, gingerbread men and candy canes.

After printing off the size sheets and songs that we wanted we taped the full sheet to the counter.

The boys dipped their paint brushes into a cold cup of coffee and started painting being careful not to be too even.

A second or third uneven coat adds to the old and worn look. Careful not to over work the paper as it could cause it to tear.

We used a hair blower to help speed up the drying process in between coa

ts of coffee

We very sparingly coloured small areas of the pictures on the song sheets with fine tipped markers. We used a little yellow on a candle flame or lighted window or a touch of red and green on holly or a tree.

After gluing our songsheets onto cardboard we used an ink pad to give the edges a used look with first a bit of black followed by a hint of gold. Both colors are applied unevenly. We generally get a medium weight cardboard paper from super markets where they use large sheets of it to separate rolls of T.P. or paper towels set out on pallets. They don't charge for this paper which has many good uses for all kinds of craft projects.

The glued paper tends to curl but flattens out nicely if placed underneath some heavy books for a few hours.

Our final addition is a wedge shape piece of the cardboard glued and taped to the back of each finished song sheet to allow it to stand by itself.

I Spy Bottles

I SPY BOTTLES

I put a little food colouring and a little alcohol in a plastic bag filled with macaroni and another with chick peas. I shook the bags until everything was evenly coloured . I poured it out onto a cookie sheet and placed it in a warm oven for an hour or so then let it set out to air overnight to make sure it was completely dry.

The

I spy items are photographed, the photograph is laminated and then attached to the "I spy" bottle.

My grandchildren will be able to see what items are hiding in their "I spy" bottles (soda pop bottles) and endeavor to find them all.

I used my hot glue gun to glue the bottle tops in place. The fabric covering the top is tightly sewn on as well and then finally a ribbon or cord is knotted over the sewn area.

These bottles will go into my grandchildrens' car caddies to keep them occupied on longer trips.

1920s cloche felt hats

I was having difficulty finding a pattern for these 1920s flapper style cloche hats, so I set out to make my own. After some trial and error I came up with a pattern I liked and allows for all kinds of variation.

Working with felt is easy and forgiving as well as inexpensive. Decorating these little hats with buttons, feathers, ribbon and in this case an old watch that no longer works, gives you room to express your creativity and your individuality.

This is my basic pattern made for my head size, easily changed by changing your seam width. Also it can make a better fit if you cut the top bell portion into quarters instead of two pieces, depending on your fabric.
Cut four pieces for the brim sewing them together then turning inside out. The pattern is very basic and can be finished in any number of ways, depending how your fabric is "behaving" and what suites your tastes.