Crafts and Cookies

Allow me to make this disclaimer: I don't blog because I am an expert at anything and want to share my knowledge with the world.  I don't have millions of "followers" who are waiting with bated breath and saliva dripping to see my next amazing creation or delicious meal.  I blog so that family and friends who are far away can feel like they are closer.  And to keep for myself a virtual diary of my life.  I don't think they will be making a reality tv show of my life.

That being said, I enjoy making things.  I like to cook, and I like to do crafts.  I'm usually pretty good in the cooking department, but I will be the first to admit that often the craft I envisioned in my head isn't exactly what the finished product looks like.  

Last Christmas I strung a ribbon across the top of the opening between our living areas, and hung all the pictures we received in Christmas cards from the ribbon.  Since most of the pictures are of loved ones we don't see often, I left it up after Christmas, so I could see their smiling faces.  Round about September, Scott started asking me when I was going to take that thing down, since Christmas was over...I finally took it down  some time this fall.

This year instead of the ribbon, I decided to make one of those crafty things with the clothes pins that are so cool, if you know what I mean.  I've seen some pretty nice ones.  Here's what I did.

Break out the clothes pins.  We have a whole bag of them, and since we NEVER dry clothes on a line or a drying rack, they have not seen much use. (Not that I'm against drying clothes on a line...we just don't have a line to dry them on!)

First I spray painted them white.  Then I did a light dusting of metallic gold spray paint, followed by a quick spritz with the sparkles.

I took a 5 x 7 frame I had in the closet, put a picture of our family in it, sprayed it with some glitter around the edges, glued the clothes pins on, hung it on the wall, and voila!  Art!

 Ok, it's not the coolest thing ever.  In fact, I would point you to someone else's blog if you are looking for a tutorial!  But, I hung it up anyway, because I made it.  Good thing my husband puts up with me.

Tonight I made some cookies for our Christmas cookie exchange at church tomorrow night.  I decided to try two new recipes: Peppermint Patties, and toffee almond sandies.

I got the peppermint patties off of a blog, and here are the pictures they posted:

This is the lovely "dough" or filling of the patties, prior to dipping in chocolate.

Aren't they beautiful, all dipped in chocolate and sprinkles?

I am not sure that the proportions on the recipe are quite right.  I made my dough, and even after adding nearly a full cup more powdered sugar, my dough was barely solid enough to handle.  I do sometimes take some liberty with recipes, but I swear, I followed this one to a tee.

I did manage to get the dough rolled together (try that with sticky, gooey dough that is sticking to the wax paper!), and then put it in the freezer for about 3 hours to harden so I could slice it.  Note how my dough is pink...there are three boxes of food coloring in my cupboard, and the red was gone out of two, and only had 4 drops left in the third.    Also note how my roll is not circular, but more ovaly.

Dipping the dough in the chocolate, I was reminded how much I dislike almond bark!  I had to melt one square at a time, because the coldness of the dough caused the chocolate to immediately congeal...and if I tried melting it again, it would just get gross.  And each time I melted a new square of almond bark, I first had to clean all the unused bark out of the bowl, or it got extra gross.

The good news is, it's tastes ok.  I am not sure if I can bring these to the cookie exchange tomorrow.

Look at all the little turds...um, I mean, peppermint patties.

The toffee almond sandies turned out just fine!

I hate it when my cookies aren't right!