Cheese Cookies

Some good friends of ours threw a Christmas party last year and made these cookies for the event. They were so yummy that I had to make some of my own!

Here is the recipe for these yummy bites!

Cheese Cookies

1 pound sharp cheddar cheese, grated (room temperature)

2 cups plain flour

½ pound butter, melted

Dash salt

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or to taste)

Sprinkle flour on cheese and pour on melted butter. Add salt and cayenne pepper to taste. (Note: these are a little hotter after baked, so don’t put too much pepper in the dough.) Knead together by hand until well blended. Roll into quarter-size balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten with fork. Bake at 300° for 30 minutes. Yield: About 100. A great cheese straw replacement.

These are some pictures we took at the Botanical Gardens in Birmingham, AL.  We got some pretty good pictures that day and the weather was glorious!

A Maternity Dress!

My sister is preggers, so I am making her a couple of maternity outfits to help out with the new wardrobe. Lucky for her, these A-line billowy dresses are now in style! This dress really isn't maternity wear, but there is plenty of room inside for a tummy to grow. I can't wait to see my new niece/nephew (although I think it will be a niece, but I don't know why). Stay tuned for updates on maternity wear and baby crafts!

Lookout!!

These are pictures I took with my new Nikon D80 that my husband so generously gave me as a wedding/anniversary gift. A year ago, when we got married, his gift to me was a beautiful letter that I will cherish always, but he felt that he needed to get me something to add to it. I don't feel like there was a good enough reason, but I do love the gift and won't be taking it back!!

Take a look and let me know what you think! I took these photographs while on a nature hike in the University of Alabama Arboretum. I took zillions (ok, about one hundred) and these are the ones that I liked the most.

There were several clumps of these little yellow flowers and this clump just stood out from the rest because the sun was falling on it just right.

This is probably a tie for my favorite picture. It was a pretty shady spot on the trail and there was one patch of sun that was shining directly onto one bunch of these blossoms. It was so pretty and I think I actually captured the feel in the picture, so it makes me happy.

I love this picture and it is my other favorite. I just happened to see this tiny ladybug as I passed by and thought she (oh yes, I am sure it was a girl, haha) was just too pretty not to take a picture. This photo actually had the potential to be blurry and awful because the branch kept swaying wildly in the wind, but I like how some of the leaves ended up not being in focus while the ladybug and other leaves are in sharp focus.

I Discovered Polymer Clay!

Ha ha, I am finally jumping on the polymer clay bandwagon, and I must say that I am addicted. It's not only fun to make small trinkets, but I've found a use for the clay that is even better. I have long saved old jars from everything that comes through my house: from pickles to pizza sauce to jelly.

And it drives my husband nuts. "Why do you need all those jars? What are you going to do with them?" And until now, I have only been able to say, "You never know when you will need a jar!!"

Well, now I have a better reason. I can use polymer clay to "repurpose" my jars and actually make them useful in a variety of ways! Now, I have all of my family saving jars for me . . .

Here's some not so good pictures of a few of my latest creations. My favorite is the rose jar, but I also love the tiny night and day jars made out of repurposed baby food jars. I don't know what I will put in them yet, but that is going to be just as fun as making them! I'll keep you posted as I make more fun and cute polymer art!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our lives have been crazy in my household lately and we are having the best and worst year of our lives. My husband's mother was put in hospice care two months ago after her 9 year battle with breast cancer. As you can imagine, our lives have been turned upside down and we were saddened by her passing on October 22nd. The time was all too short and we miss her dearly. Please pray for us as the holidays arrive, especially as Thanksgiving will be the one month anniversary of her "graduation" to heaven. She was an amazing woman who touched so many lives that we know she must be organizing the welcoming committee in heaven already.

On a lighter note, I have finally gotten back into some crafting. Andrew's sister requested that I make a couple of dresses for her 2 year old for the holidays and I have completed the first one. I made it by copying a dress that we saw on Ebay and I must say I think mine turned out cuter. Haha. Really, though, the cutest part of this picture is the adorable baby girl in the dress! I used brown gingham, which was nearly impossible to find for some reason, and made the turkey from fabric remnants and this magical stuff called "steam a seam." This was my first attempt at some sewing machine embroidery and I think it turned out pretty well. My sis-in-law wanted her name to be stitched on it, so I figured I could do a better job on the machine than by hand. Tear-away stablizer is amazing! The cutest part is that when everyone asked Mary what was on her dress, she said, "A big flower." Cutie Tootie!!

Prepare to stay tuned for pictures of her Christmas outfit coming early in December!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers young and old out there! Mothers are such an important part of our lives, whether they've been there for us or not. They are the very first people that we are introduced to when we come out of the womb, and they might be the most influential part of how we turn out as people. I am saying "Happy Mother's Day" to my own amazing mom as well as my new mother-in-law today. It's amazing when you join your life with another person's and you're able to see just how much you are like your own mother and how much your partner's mother has made them who they are.

In honor of a holiday, I am going to take the chance to introduce you to a wonderful book that I have fallen in love with called "Holiday Treats." This book is a compilation created by several different authors who have joined forces to bring us a rounded perspective that covers the holidays that most homes in America celebrate.

The book starts out with Halloween and ends with summer holidays and birthdays, covering in between a variety of holidays including Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter, and a variety of Jewish holidays in a format that is informative and fun. Each section is filled with creative recipes, crafting, games, and helpful tips that are sure to make it easy to create traditions in your family that your children will remember for years to come. It's a valuable resource for moms and grandmoms to look to, if only for a reference or to spark ideas for other crafts and creative recipes.

These pages are filled with colorful pictures and step-by-step instructions that often include tips for when children can help out and when adult supervision is recommended. The instructions are easy to read and often the authors use anecdotes from their own experiences to guide you as you attempt to start your own traditions.

The crafts presented in the book range in difficulty from easy-peasy to mildly advanced *(these are my personal ratings and are not contained in the book), but most of the time the crafts are kid-friendly and just as fun to make as they are pretty to look at. The recipes are generally simple and elegant, with most of the focus being on presentation.

I highly recommend this book, but if I had any complaints about it, it would be that it seems to focus only on Judeo-Christian and Jewish holidays and I would have appreciated a few holidays from other culturally significant backgrounds such as Chinese New Year or Cinco De Mayo. A significant portion of the book is dedicated to Jewish holidays, which is wonderful, but it might have been nice to see a little more cultural balance in the book.