French Macaroons at Sur La Table

I decided to take a class on French Macaroons at Sur La Table this past week.  I have made them before and they did turn out nicely but I thought they might have some secrets to share since I love these delicate little cookies.  Here are the ones I made about 6 months ago.

Okay so they are not so beautiful but oh they did taste good.

So I took the class and well, there were no secrets to be had but it was tons of fun.  I did not take a picture of the finished tiny little macaroons mostly because they were not very pretty.  They actually had over cooked them.  I was a bit disappointed in the class but oh well, it was FUN.  We made pistachio, pumpkin and chocolate and I do have the recipes for these so when I make them I'll be sure to try not to over cook them.

They have a class in Nov. for tamale making.  I have made empanada's and enjoy making them so tamales are basically the same thing but not deep fried.  I am hoping they show easy technique on how to roll them.  I am excited about this class and am hoping not to be disappointed ....since I've not made tamales I think I will not be...:)

Here are some pictures of the macaroon class:

A much needed get away....Quilting Retreat

If you have never been on a retreat I highly recommend it.  There are so many available retreats from card making, scrap booking and Quilting but the list goes on and on and on.  Going on a retreat is so much fun, you get so much done and you get to meet like minded people that inspire you to be the best you can be!  You might even make a new friend or two or three or eleven!!!!
A friend from our quilt guild, Carla Kennedy <<<her blog  organized a quilt retreat at the most beautiful place you can imagine Retreats by Marge <<< a link to the retreat.  It was magnificent and I do mean magnificent!
I meant to get there early so I could visit the quilt museum and the local quilt shop but all the yard long beans I had picked and put in the fridge to can "later" were starting to look sad so I had to can those before I could leave.  Here are those delicious beans all canned and ready for winter munching!

Everyone had the most beautiful project they were working on.  Some would make you cringe with envy!  We laughed, talked, sewed, and of course we ate, and we ate well!  I don't know about everyone else but I had and awesome time and am so happy Carla took the time to organize it.  I can't wait till next time.

So here is that view I was talking about... Honestly it was hard to drag myself off of the porch to go and sew. The weather was awesome, the view was awesome...but so were the ladies!  So next time you want to just get away think about doing a retreat!

Spooky Halloween Cookies

Every year I say to myself that I'm going to take the time to make and decorate cookies for Halloween.  I do it for Christmas but time always seems to get away from me on Halloween.  What got me motivated to actually follow through this year is my niece.  She's been deployed and will be away for the next 6 months.  Yes, even through Christmas.  So I planned on doing several things for her to keep her spirits up during this time.  I send at least 4 letters a month to start.  For me, that is a feat in it's self.  I also found out she loves antique dollies so I went to some local shops and found a few small enough to stuff in an envelope with a letter.  I also planned on sending her a small Christmas tree with lights and ornaments.  You just can't go through Christmas without a tree!  Anyway I also wanted to be sure to send care packages and one of the care (or two or three) I told her I'd send her cookies.  So thus the reason I actually got in gear this year.

I found this video on how to make the cutest pumpkin cookies ever!  I often watch Sweetambs videos, she is so over the top talented!  She posted this video and information for Halloween for free.  She does sell videos on several technique at a low price so you should go check her out if you want to learn how to decorate cookies.  Here is the link to the pumpkin cookies I made :  https://www.sweetambs.com/tutorial/halloween-cookies/

Here are the cookies I made after watching the video, I also made some ghosts and bats just for more fun, now mind you cookie decorating isn't in my real house but I did enjoy it anyway and I don't think they look too bad.  So if I can do it so can you!

Had to share this...beautiful

Post by Interesting Things.

Bird House for Quilt Show raffle

I was racking my brain about what the boutique could donate towards the Tri-County Quilt Show raffle. I considered making another light box but they are pretty expensive to make so....I was wandering about some garden shops, I love all the great things you can find for your garden at these specialty garden centers.  I was looking at the bird houses, I love bird houses.  I've made a few very primitive ones and have been meaning to make something more special.  I even looked for patterns but there are none to be found except for very simple ones that really no one needs a pattern for.  Anyway as I was looking at these bird houses I noticed the price tag on them..WOW is all I can say.  This one here was $295.00, of course my mouth fell open when I seen the tag.  I loved it but didn't love the price tag since there wasn't more than $30.00 invested in it at most.

After spending the day visiting my favorite garden centers and looking at all the awesome bird houses I decided that a bird house might be a good auction item.  Since they are so expensive to purchase surely we could get people to by tickets to try to win one of these beauty's.

So here is a picture of my bird house creation, When the glue is completely dry I'll try to remember to put up better photos.  This is a fairly large bird house, it cost me about $70.00 to make because of all the doll house items and gingerbread and shingles.  I had lots of scrap wood so I didn't have to purchase any wood.  I added close up's of the window on the front.  If you look inside you will see a quilt shop.  That is my favorite feature of this bird house.  I painted barn quilts on the front and back and named the quilt shop "Ole Bird Quilt Shop". I am happy about how she turned out and I hope someone will love her!  I may have to make one for myself!

Glue isn't all the way dry on the little group of spools.  I'm holding them up with a drill bit..:)