With just two months to go until Christmas Day, not only must we continue to carefully budget our dollars but if we are planning to complete handmade gifts for those on our list, we will also need to budget our time wisely. Inspired by the one hour table runners I made during October’s Friday Night Sew In, I thought I’d…
I call this my one hour version of the 10 minute table runner. First, because I defy anyone to cut panels from two different fabrics, pin and sew those panels together, press the seams either open or to one side, turn right side out and press again; centering the narrower fabric over the wider fabric, pin and sew the ends,…
Tonight is Friday Night Sew In; the monthly virtual sewing bee co-hosted by Heidi from Handmade by Heidi and Bobbi over at Crafty Vegas Mom. For last month’s sew in I had planned to work on my version of the 10 minute table runner but by the time I got done figuring out how to sew this little purse onto…
Did your pear or apple trees produce an over abundance of fruit this year? In this post, I’ll show you how dehydrating pears or apples is such an easy way to preserve them to have them to use all winter long. When our neighbors across the street gave us a plastic grocery bag full of pears from a friend’s pear…
There has been a lot of secret sewing and embroidery happening here. But those will all have to remain a secret until after my parent’s 50th Wedding Anniversary, a certain December birthday and Christmas. What I can show you are the fabrics I’ve picked out to make a stocking for the Stocking Drive being held by Lyanna from Purple Panda…
Earlier this week, Dawn over at Sweet as Cinnamon invited her readers who have blogs to write a post explaining how they came up with the name for their blog. I explained how the name of my blog came about in my very first post back on March 12th, 2008.  However, since it’s likely that only my family has been…
The second year we lived in Germany, I took some evening cooking classes where we were taught a selection of the traditional dishes served during the Christmas holidays. Our instructor told us that her family served Schweinefilet im Blatterteig (Pork Tenderloin in Puff Pastry) on Christmas Day. Our family always cooks a big turkey for Christmas Day and we weren’t…
One fall day back in 1986, Dave and I came home to our second floor apartment in Kurzell to find a plastic wrapped plate with slices of what looked like onion “pizza” placed in front our apartment door. Beside the plate was a small flask of Neuer Wein (new wine.) Our German landlady would often leave baked treats in front…
On Saturdays, when we lived in Germany, one of things we used to do for fun was get in the car and drive through some of the small villages surrounding Lahr. Then when we got hungry we’d stop for lunch at one of the local Gasthauses. My favourite lunch menu item to order was called Jaegertoast. This is my interpretation…
Spaetzle is a German type of egg noodle that is as likely to be served as a side to the main course than say mashed potatoes would be in North America. It didn’t take long after we were posted to Germany for it to become a favorite dish to add to our meals so it was a must that I…