It has been a crazy busy week this past week. Every one of my clubs had their holiday event, and one club had two. Tuesday night we went to a party, Wednesday was our guild tea, Saturday was a car club breakfast, followed by a drive out to Balsam Mountain for a party and overnight with breakfast event with the MINI club. We had planned to do a holiday stroll on Friday night but it was just too bloody cold to walk around outside. Back home, this little table top hanging said it all – I just want to Bake Stuff and Watch Christmas Movies. I made it last year, and it fits my little stand. I put my favorite Santa figure next to it with a wax tree, and a little moose. The reindeer on the right is warming his hooves over a chimney, too cute. Maybe I can bake stuff this week.
My birthday was last weekend, and I made myself a nice breakfast of ring poached eggs (recipe on Perfect Breakfast Eggs) and Canadian Bacon on sourdough. I didn’t make Hollandaise sauce, or it would have been a Benedict.
My cake this year was a slice of a layered chocolate cake with whipped cream. I bought just the single slice. It was OK, but not my favorite. The store didn’t have any single slices of my first choice of vanilla cake with a thick layer of dark chocolate frosting.
Snacking that day while watching football games was better. I found a goat cheese brie that was divine! I paired it with crackers and prosciutto.
Before Thanksgiving, I mentioned cooking the little pie pumpkin I had on the table. Lee commented that she roasts the seeds, and I thought that was a great idea. I took it a step further, and collected seeds from both the pumpkin and a butternut squash I wanted to cook for lasagna. I cut both in half, and scraped the seeds.
Then, I washed them using a colander to get off all the muck. The clean seeds were spread out on paper towels to dry completely. I’ll roast them next week.
I put the squash and pumpkin cut side down on a baking sheet.
They were baked one hour at 350º.
I let them cool, then scraped out the pulp into two separate containers. The pumpkin will be baked into bread. The butternut squash will be baked into a Butternut Squash Lasagne like this one this coming week.
In the closet, while looking for a holiday sweater, I came across a lovely cashmere wool sweater that I stopped wearing. The buttons used to be a dark brown matching the wool, but they have faded to a rust color. I just don’t like the look of that with the intricate black beading on it.
I combed through my four button tins and found nothing that would work. These buttons are tiny, just 3/8 inch in diameter. So, I went to my friend Patti, who has the most amazing collection of buttons. I took my bins so she could select something to trade. We found these tiny black, oval, faceted buttons in her stash that fit the buttonholes and were perfect with the beading.
It took less than an hour to replace the faded ones with the new ones. I’ll keep the rust ones for another project. It looks a lot better to me, and will be wearable with more colors without the rust.
The guild holiday party last week had a really delightful game. I do not know who came up with this, but it made for fun conversation. There was a little book on the table, and our hostess at the table started the game.
Each of the 10 pages had a poem with an instruction on who got the book next. The book is handed to the next person, and then she reads the next page. Some were easy to figure out, like this one.
Some were really funny, and gave us all something to compare notes about. When this one was read, we all laughed when one member pointed at another and said “hers!!!”
In the end, the person who had the book last got the table centerpiece. It was a set of five fabric trees on wood bases. I won it, but gave them to others at the table. I don’t need five fabric trees, and giving them away made everyone happy. I didn’t get a photo of them all, but my friend, Diana, sent me a picture of the one she took home. I am sure I can adapt this idea to our MINI club for a fun party game next year.
At the tea, my friend Jill was wearing a refashioned denim vest that a friend of hers made. It was amazing. The vest had some of its panels cut out and replaced with embroidery on tulle or something similar. Having just done the refashion of the sweater above, I was inspired to do something similar. I stopped by the thrift shop, and got a great deal on this denim jacket, as it already had the bottom band cut off. As I planned to do that anyway, I didn’t mind. I’m going to play with adding some bits and trim, and see what happens. Jill says that this kind of item should sell well in the gift shop at the show next year, so we’ll see! I may make two or three, but I’ll be sure that they fit me, in case they don’t sell.
On the longarm, I am working on this Santa panel that I got from the re-home table a couple of months ago. I decided to custom quilt it, since it won’t have any piecing. I’ll show you that project start to finish when I get it done.
I’ll share more on our holiday weekend in a few days. Are you having fun this weekend? What are your holiday plans?
******************
Fat Quarter Shop’s December specials include 20% off the Basic of the Month Sparkle Elements by Art Gallery, 30% Off the Notions of the Month Cutterpillar products, 30% off featured Patterns of the Month from Wendy Sheppard, and book of the month Simply Jelly Rolls Quilt. Then, check out Today’s Flash Sale and see the Precuts of the Week.
From My Carolina Home 
Happy belated birthday, Carole! Your sweater looks great with the new buttons, and I look forward to seeing your denime upcycle.
I hope you get to bake and relax more this week!
Happy belated birthday. I am planning on continuing this baking streak. Next will be more yeast rolls and sweet potato pound cake. I may bake some cinnamon rolls, too.
Wow — that’s a week! And how you had time to do all the cooking and creative with the parties and such is beyond me! The jacket should be interesting and fun to wear. I like that game — I’ll have to remember that in case I’m ever “in charge!”
I hope you had a lovely birthday. My what a busy week for you. My hubby had a birthday as well, and I picked up a frozen chocolate cream pie for his celebration.
I love the remake on your sweater. It’s amazing how something so simple can make such a big change. How many buttons did your friend choose? LOL. It sounds like you have made a great start on the season and have lots going on.
Carole, what a fun week you’ve had. Our holiday events began yesterday, when we went to a local community theater to see a production of A Sherlock Carol, a cross between A Christmas Carol and Sherlock Holmes. It was an interesting mix of the two difference stories, but enjoyable. We love community theater. We have another holiday play in a couple of weeks. My plans for this week, starting today, include finish decorating our trees (we have three, all different), send out my Christmas cards, work on a couple of very quick sewing gifts, and start wrapping. I’ve started to accumulate gifts now, and once our 6 ft tree is decorated and in place in the living room, I can start loading it up with gifts! Cue the Christmas CDs, too…they always put my in a great Christmas mood! Have a good week with your holiday prep, too.
That sounds like fun! I would not have thought of putting Sherlock with Christmas Carol! I need to stamp cards this week, and finish the little bit of shopping I do (just stocking stuffer things). Good week for holiday music too.
Happy Birthday! I love that you bought your own birthday cake. I’m doing that for me next time. Looking forward to seeing the denim jacket.
I’ve done that every year for 5 years now, first getting myself a nice full size cake, then downsized to a small four serving cake for a couple of years. Last year it was an oversized cupcake, and this year even smaller. Next year I’m getting a bigger one, LOL!!
Happy belated Birthday! Your week of holiday activities sounds like a lot of fun, if a bit hectic. The sweater looks beautiful after the renovation; your friend had the perfect buttons. Thanks for sharing the game; great idea.
I have a busy week coming up, but mostly cleaning and chores. But first, today I’m excited to get started on hand quilting another quilt. I chose a simpler way to quilt this one, so I hope it will be done quicker than the last one. Still, it will be many months before it shows up as a finish in my stash buster report.
Happy Birthday! I think that slice of cake looks yummy! You have had a busy week – the guild event with the story/poem sounds like fun. I have my holiday group events this coming week. Book club tomorrow and quilt group Thursday. For quilt group, we each bring a gift and are going to pass them around according to a dice game this year. I think it will be fun! One of these days I’m going to have to try your butternut squash lasagna – it looks delicious!
that is a few parties to go to for sure – you must have been busy the whole week. I can never get the perfect poached egg the whites never seem to cook enough and keep the yoke runny!
Try my Perfect Eggs, it works every time. I like mine the same way, fully cooked whites with the yolks just a touch runny.
Thanks, I like mine with the yolk a little runny but the white cooked for sure
Carole, what a fun post to read this morning. I love what you did with your sweater – just beautiful. Happy birthday to you! I’m glad you spoiled yourself on that special day. Have a lovely week.
That’s That’s quite a fun week you had, I like the idea of the pass along book game you had at your quilt guild. I never thought of keeping and roasting my pumpkin seeds, must try that next time.
I’m glad you treated yourself for your Birthday. I always do too. You’ve also had a busy but fun week to enjoy. Isn’t it amazing how a few buttons changes a garment and makes it ‘wearable’ again? Sometimes you have something that you love to wear but it has become a little snug. Just split the side seam and add a little extra either matching or contrasting- like your Denim jacket you are going to play with.
Now comes the whirlwind few weeks leading up to Christmas when you think you’ll never fulfill the long list of things to be done. 😂🎉
Mary :))
What a fun post. Happy Birthday! You’ve been busy. Like you our arado al evento are keepingg us busy. I love your little tablescape.
Happy belated birthday, Carole. The sweater looks fabulous with the black buttons. Your week was a busy one, but fun!
Your week sounds very busy but fun. Happy Birthday! I am going to try to decorate some this week as well as start wrapping gifts. I did do one of my Christmas traditions on Friday- I like to watch the Christmas cartoon shows from when I was a kid. Many are no longer shown but “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” was on so I watched it. To me it just doesn’t seem like Christmas without that. Hope everyone has a good week.
Happy birthday a little late. Can’t wait to see what you do to the jacket.
Happy birthday Carole! My DH’s birthday is Dec.1, and I have 2 students that had birthdays last week! I baked cookies for my students last week, enough to get me through Monday, so I’m going to bake cupcakes for the Tuesday kids tomorrow. It’s recital weekend here so it will be busy.
Happy Birthday, Carole. The buttons you found for your sweater were the perfect complement for the beading. Good save! It will be fun to see how you refashion the denim jacket. Today I baked cookies with my sisters & nieces. I made a chocolate ginger cookie. Even after chilling the dough was so sticky it was a nightmare to hand roll the little balls, but after baking they were delicious. Your ‘Cluck It’ pot holders were a big hit.
First of all, Happy Birthday. Always good to have another one.
It does look like you have been busy with all your groups, but they also look like a lot of fun.