Painted Wooden Spoons

Hi everyone, have I been busy! Aren't we all this time of year? I am trying to clean and decorate the house....hate the cleaning part, love the decorating for Christmas!
I have been doing some more crafts, too, and also I now have a booth in an antique shop that just opened here.
So I am meeting myself coming and going!
These wooden spoons are painted like gingerbread faces with a cute little bow glued at the top with a button in the middle! I have sold a lot at the bazaar and craft shows and will have them in my booth, as well as use some for package decorations.

This makes me think of that little rhyme,

"Run, run, as fast as you can...you can't catch me; I'm the gingerbread man".

I guess this is a gingerbread girl, though.

Have a great day!

Taking a Walk around the Garden

Hi everyone, I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We did! It is beautiful weather here in the sunny south and around the garden, lots of things are blooming and growing! So here are some photos of what I saw today. It is a quiet walk, so I'm not going to comment! Just Enjoy!

Floral signs of Christmas

Hello everyone and welcome to Ten Gables Cottage,

It is almost Thanksgiving, but the Christmas plants are already blooming! My white Christmas cactus is always earlier than the pink one, so it already is full of bud and has one big blooming hanging down. I have heard that you shouldn't water them when in bud, as the buds will drop. Does anyone out there know if this is true?

The poinsetta I planted after Christmas last year are blooming, too! Poinsetta are tropical, so I guess that is what they are supposed to do! In my view, one can never have too many poinsettas and I plan to get some light pink ones and some white ones this year, too, but of course, red is always the most striking! Which is your favorite color?

This one is really red and to my delight a wild white periwinkle just happened to come up right behind the red poinsetta. Ah, nature!

It's a glorious day here today, in the 70's, beautiful and sunny with a nice breeze.

By the way, for you who don't know...I have another blog, where I show my paintings and try to post one every few days. Check it out at http://egrettawells.blogspot.com/ . I am excited, too, because I will be showing my paintings now in my own gallery at DailyPaintworks.com

Hope you are having a great day!

Chenille Snowmen...Create your own!

Hi everyone,



All kinds of things are being created here at Ten Gables Cottage. Last week and this week have been very busy! I made a little group of chenille snowmen for an arts and crafts show last weekend and an busy creating more (Last weeks group all sold!) for my church bazaar this Saturday.




I made my own pattern out of newspaper and just pinned it on an old chenille bedspread, cut them out, sewed around the edges and left an opening in the bottom, then stuffed them with fiberfil.



The really fun part was creating different faces and hats....decorating them. I used buttons for their eyes and mouths and made the noses from Sculpey clay. It was fun to make them and I am now making more!








I know this is not a tutorial or very clear instructions, but to me anyone can make these without much help at all. Probably finding an old chenille bedspread is the hardest part. I look for them all the time at thrift shops and so I have several I have found over the past few years. They make very cute pillows, Christmas stockings, jackets, pumpkins and hearts as well as
Snowmen! Happy Creating!

Painted Rocks......Cats

Hi everyone,

What a gorgeous day it was in South Florida. I did a holiday craft show called "Crafts in the Woods" today and it was way back in the woods on a ranch (yes, there are lots of cowboys and ranches in Florida, if you haven't heard!) in a very beautiful setting. I took some of these little rock

critters that I painted and some painted guords, as well as many of my fine art paintings. If you haven't looked at my painting blog, it is http://egrettawells.blogspot.com// , so check it out. I also have a gallery at www.dailypaintworks.com .

" Cherry Cheesecakes"

Yum! My nice neighbor, Margaret, brought over these lovely and delicious little cheese cakes the other evening. And the best part is that they are a Weight Watchers recipe and they taste like the most decadent sweet in the world! And they do not contain artificial sugars, which I do not eat. I try to limit sugar and I definitely do not want to eat the man-made stuff that causes all sorts of problems in your body!

Anyway, these were very nice, so she gave me the recipe and here it is!

Cherry Cheesecakes

Ingredients:

3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs

2 Tbsp. light butter melted

2/3 cup low fat cream cheese

6 Tbsp fat free cream cheese

3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

2 large egg whites

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup light fruit pie filling, cherry

Place 12 cupcake liners in a cupcake pan. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.F

In a small bowl, combine cracker crumbs and butter, mixwell. Spoon 1 Tbsp. of crumb

mixture on bottom of each liner and press down gently; refrigerate until ready to use.

In a medium bowl, using an electric mixer, beat both types of cream cheese until fluffy. Add lemon juice, egg whites, vanilla and sugar and beat til smooth.

Spoon cream cheese mixture evenly into muffin liners; bake until set, about 15 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Top each cheesecake with 1 Tbsp. cherry pie filling. 12 servings. One counts as Value 3 in Weight Watchers. I don't know how many calories, but one couldn't be that many. And they are soooooo good!

Decorated for Thanksgiving

Hi everyone, don't you just love the colors of Autumn? I do, and I love to decorate my home with Autumn colors! It is only two weeks or so til Thanksgiving and I am all decorated for it.

Two pretty pots of yellow mums welcome folks to my front door.

The mums are in full bloom, so I hope they last until Thanksgiving Day!

My grandmother's carnival glass punch bowl and cups are on display on the sideboard in the dining room. I will have some fruit punch in the bowl and then in the kitchen I will also have spiced apple cider simmering in the crock pot. Unless it gets cooler here, most of the family will opt for the cold fruit punch!

Another side board with a Fall display.

Little Pilgrim salt and pepper shakers...

An adorable Annalee Pilgrim. Now all I have to do is plan the menu!

Felt Snowmen gift card holders....

Hi everyone,
I am already way ahead on my Christmas projects. I've been making some cute gift card holders. Or you could put treats in them or even stick silverware in them at each place setting!















I love working with felt because it doesn't ravel and it looks so finished! I love making each snowman different and this is something I can do while watching T.V. My type 2 personality just hates to do ONE thing...I have to multitask!














I thought they would make a good bazaar item to sell, too, so I am striving to make MANY.



What do you think?

To make your own, just cut a circle of white felt and sew around the circle leaving an opening at the top. You can do a regular running stitch around the circle or do a blanket stitch. Then start cutting out little parts to decorate him with, such as little circle ear muffs, hats, ovals for eyes, an orange "carrot" nose, etc. I embroider the mouth with 3 strands of floss. The parts are attached with embroidery thread as well.