♥ Tea on Tuesday: Cranberry Lemon Sandwiches ♥

Ingredients:
* 1 cup butter
* 1 cup shortening
* 1 cup sugar
* 1 cup confectioners' sugar
* 2 eggs
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 4 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
* 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 3/4 cup dried cranberries

FILLING:
* 2/3 cup butter, softened
* 2-3/4 cups confectioners' sugar
* 1/4 cup milk
* 1-1/4 teaspoons grated lemon peel


Directions:
* In a large bowl, cream the butter, shortening and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine the flour, cream of tartar, lemon peel and salt; gradually add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Stir in cranberries. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours or until easy to handle.
* Roll into 1-in. balls. Place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Flatten with a glass dipped in sugar. Bake at 350° for 12-14 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool.
* In a small bowl, combine the filling ingredients; beat until smooth. Spread on the bottoms of half of the cookies; top with remaining cookies.

Yield: about 4-1/2 dozen.

~~yummy recipe and photo from: Cranberry Lemon Sandwiches published in Best of Country Cookies~~

♥ Crochet: Vintage Crocheted Apron ♥

original photo from Star Book Gallery of Crochet and Knitting

This free pattern and photo originally published in Star Book Gallery of Crochet and Knitting, No. 89.

Material:

"PURITAN" CROCHET COTTON, Article 40 (2 balls White, 1 ball Pink, 1 ball Nile Green)

OR "DE LUXE" CROCHET COTTON, Article 346 (2 balls White, 1 ball Pink, 1 ball Light Green)

Size of Needle: steel 7

1 ¼ yds. ⅞" ribbon.


WAIST BAND: With Pink, ch 14, 2 d c in 6th st from hook, ch 2, 2 d c in same space, ch 3, skip 3 sts of ch, s c in next st, ch 3, skip 3 sts of ch and work 2 d c, ch 2, 2 d c in last st of ch, ch 5, turn.

2nd Row. 1 d c, ch 3, 1 d c shell in center of shell, ch 5, 1 d c, ch 3, 1 d c in center of next shell, ch 5, turn.

3rd Row. 2 d c, ch 2, 2 d c shell in ch 3 loop, ch 3, 1 s c over ch 5 loop, ch 3, 2 d c, ch 2, 2 d c shell in next ch 3 loop, ch 5, turn.

Repeat the last 2 rows until there are 67—ch 5 loops across side of band, ending with the 3rd row, cut thread.

Attach White in 23rd loop, ch 3, d c in same loop, ch 2, 2 d c in same loop, * ch 5, 2 d c, ch 2, 2 d c shell in next loop, repeat from * 3 times, ** ch 5, 3 d c, ch 2, 3 d c in next loop, * ch 5, 2 d c shell in next loop, repeat from * 4 times, then repeat from ** twice, ch 5 to turn each row.

2nd Row. * 1 d c, ch 3, 1 d c shell in next shell, ch 3, s c over next loop, ch 3, repeat from * 3 times, 1 d c, ch 3, 1 d c in next shell, ch 5 (lace section), skip 1 d c of next 3 d c shell, 1 d c in each of the next 2 d c, 1 d c in next loop, ch 2, 1 d c in same loop, 1 d c in each of the next 2 d c of same 3 d c shell (solid section), ch 5, repeat from beginning twice and complete row to correspond. There are 4 lace sections and 3 solid sections in row.

3rd Row. Work 2 d c shells with ch 5 between shells in each shell of lace sections and work solid section same as previous row.

4th Row. Repeat 2nd row.

5th Row. Repeat 3rd row for lace sections and increase in solid sections as follows: 2 d c in 2nd d c, 1 d c in next d c, 1 d c in next loop, ch 2, 1 d c in same loop, 1 d c in next d c, 2 d c in next d c.

The 3rd and 4th rows of lace pattern are followed for en-tire apron and will not be referred to again. Following directions given are for the solid sections only.

6th, 7th and 8th Rows. 1 d c in 2nd, 3rd and 4th d c, 1 d c in loop, ch 2, 1 d c in same loop and next 3 d c.

9th Row. 2 d c in 2nd d c, 1 d c in each of the next 2 d c, 1 d c in next loop, ch 2, 1 d c in same loop and 1 d c in each of the next 2 d c, 2 d c in next d c.

10th, 11th and 12th Rows. 1 d c in 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th d c, d c in next loop, ch 2, 1 d c in same loop and next 4 d c.

Repeat the last 4 rows, having 1 more d c on each side of each solid section every 4th row until there are 40 rows made. There should be 12 d c in each side of each solid section. Increasing in same manner, work 18 more rows in the following color scheme: 2 rows each of Green, White, Pink and White, 4 rows Green, 2 rows White, 4 rows Pink and 2 rows White. Press apron and lace ribbon through waist band.

♥ Friday Flickr Inspirations: YoYo's ♥

scrapnchick: "YoYo Pillow"

BigIslandRoseDesigns: "YoYo necklace"

bonimoo: "YoYo Pomander"

RubyRed06: 'YoYo Hair Bobbles"

sunshinescreations: "YoYo tree"

docjen69: "YoYo earrings"

Jenn(knits alot)

carykornegay: "YoYo Tree Skirt"

Happy Thanksgiving!

♥ Hump Day Humor ♥

Friday Flickr Inspirations: Tea!

TaraBadcock: "Willow Teacup scarf"

catsmum: "Tea party quilt"

skymagenta: "Crochet strawberry tea set"

Lucy'sDaughter: "Fancy a cuppa pillow"

Andrealesleycrochet: "Rose tea cozy in apricot and tangerine"

CarriersCozyCottage: "Vintage kitchen tea towel & pot holder"

PatchworkPottery: "A pot of tea" cozy"

love,laura: "blue tea set sewing center"

♥ Hump Day Humor ♥

Happy Halloween!

Friday Flickr Inspirations: Pumpkins!

Tom Hauburn

LinderRox

kristenstein

geniusofwater

Scrunchleface

Insect anatomy

Simon & Chloe

CameraShyMom

♥ Hump Day Humor ♥

♥ Tea on Tuesday: Pumpkin Pound Cake ♥

Ingredients:
* 1 cup granulated sugar
* 1 cup packed brown sugar
* 3/4 cup shortening
* 2 eggs
* 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon ground cloves
* 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1 15-ounce can pumpkin
* 1 cup raisins
* 1 cup chopped pecans or other nuts
* 1 cup chopped maraschino cherries
* Orange juice (optional)
* Coarse sugar (optional)
* Maraschino cherries (optional)

Directions:
1. In a large mixing bowl beat granulated sugar, brown sugar, shortening, and eggs with an electric mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. In a medium mixing bowl stir together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and salt. Add flour mixture and pumpkin alternately to shortening mixture, beating on low speed after each addition until combined. Stir in raisins, nuts, and cherries.

2. Turn batter into a greased and floured 10-inch fluted tube pan. Bake in a 350 degree F oven about 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack. Brush with orange juice and sprinkle with coarse sugar, if desired. Garnish with maraschino cherries, if desired.

Makes 14 to 16 servings.

Make-Ahead Tip: Refrigerate cake, covered, up to 3 days. Or freeze, wrapped in foil, up to 2 months.

~~yummy recipe and photo from: bhg.com~~

Mindful Beauty

Five days a week, I travel from home to my job which is about a 35 minute drive. I would love to be a full-time "crafter", but it seems that's not the case at this moment. But I love to think in the future it could happen. :) It's a rather mundane type of job, directory assistance for a large university. Certainly not the job I planned when I was taking all those programming classes. But I fell into it in-between jobs about 13 years ago and here I am still today. I humorously think it must have been the state benefits that has kept me here after 13 years. I have been able to continue my education a class or two at a time and over the course of the past few years I have been training for Deaf Interpretation. The irony comes in as I found out a few years ago, during my 2nd year of classes, I am losing my hearing in my right ear, but that's another story for another day. :)

This morning as I began another 35 minute drive, as usual I began to wonder about the work day. Some of my calls would amuse you I'm sure. But today I didn't have much on my mind except trying not to think about our house situation. I still own my grandmother's home and we're looking into possibly selling it. After having a Realtor come out and appraise it, I was happy with the number if we were in a good market. But we're not...and that means at this point in our economy, I would lose about 20% of the value. Quite a chunk. So I pushed that far back into my mind since after all I am still not quite at the point where I'm ready to let it go anyhow. And we're living in our own home for now so there isn't really a great rush.

My grandmother was originally from Ireland and moved here to this country when she married my grandfather and endured the slurs of "war bride" from neighbors and family alike. My mother and I called her "mama", pronounced "momma" which is how I always spelled it anyhow. The older I get the more I think I am more like momma than I like to admit. ;)

I learned some valuable life's lessons from her after my parents died and I was a young adult. It's not a fair thing for a mother to outlive her children. We spent even more time together after my parents died. She was always full of tidbits of wisdom and I will always remember that she continued to decorate the house for Christmas the same as ever every year even though there was just the two of us after my divorce. She always said to do it for yourself, even if for no one else. She always believed I would remarry, though I certainly didn't! I think she laughed at me from heaven on my wedding day to Jeff.
She loved the outdoors and always saw the beauty in everything. That's what I was thinking of this morning before I began to ramble on. ;) She called it being "mindful". And so today, on that 35 minute drive through rural country to my "city job", I looked out over the mountains and saw the beauty of the leaves of autumn. Almost perfect as though they had been painted by an artist using such a grand palette of colors!

I wonder how often we just go on, doing our own things, and never really enjoy life. We just seem to exist from payday to payday. Maybe it's different if you have children, but I think we're all guilty of "rushing life". We all say, "one day when ______, then I will ______". What about now? I noticed someone posted on facebook today, "If you knew you could do anything without fail, what would you do?" I think the author was asking us why we don't even try, after all, you don't know if you will fail or succeed! Why not take the chance?

Hope you have a blessed and productive week!

Hugs,
Sheri

♥ Friday Flickr Inspiration: Vintage Halloween Delights ♥

creative chaos: " Halloween Gift tags"

SleepyHollowCrafts: "Queen of Halloween"

vintageimagecraft: "Vintage Halloween Chenille Basket"

vintageimagecrafts.com: "Vintage Halloween tree"

vintageimagecraft.com: "Halloween card"

matthew1UND: "Vintage Halloween Rosettes"

♥ Hump Day Humor ♥