Fall Leaf Sugar Cookies

We are spending a lot of our days embracing the beauty of fall around here lately as we watch the leaves on the trees transition to their vibrant autumn colors and we happily jump on their crunchy counterparts that litter the lanes :) The children keep bringing in handfuls of stray leaves to that they just couldn't resist because they were 'to pretty' and I keep picking up crumbled bits off of the tile floor beneath our nature table as they fall apart from all of the handling *grin*.

So when I saw a photo of some great fall leaf cookies on the Country Living website I just had to bake some with the kids. The only problem was there was no recipe so I made a batch of my favorite sugar cookie dough that I use all the time and thought I'd share it with you to. It makes a nice sized batch of dough for tons of fun :)

4 eggs
2 cup sugar
2 cup unsalted butter

Cream the butter and sugar together. Add one egg at a time and beat really well until the butter mixture is super light and fluffy.

1 tsp. baking powder
5 cups all purpose flour

Add the flour and baking powder to the butter mixture and mix just until combined. Once you've got it all combined divide your dough into four chunks. Don't worry about being completely accurate, just eyeball it up.

Now color each of your dough balls a different fall color :) I really like to use Wilton Gel colors. They create gorgeous vibrant colors and they are cleaner to work with than the old drip style liquid food coloring. You can find them at most grocery stores and walmart.

After you have finished adding your food coloring, wrap each piece in a bit of saran wrap and place in the fridge for about 20 minutes so that dough firms up and makes it easy for rolling later :) Roll out your dough on a floured counter top and bake in a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 - 12 minutes or until just starting to brown and firm up around the edges and the centers are slightly puffed up.

I set the kitchen up with three work stations so that each of the children had their own rolling pin, cookie cutters and assortment of colors and they had fun ripping off chunks of color and creating their own fall color palette :)

It actually turned into a color blending lesson on top of the baking fun as we watched the colors meld together creating new tones of oranges and greens and the surprise arrival of brown each time we balled up our dough scraps and rolled them out again. Things got quite psychedelic LOL.

So much yummy fall fun. I can see we're going to have a lot of tea parties in the coming days *grin*.

Hugs,
Rosina

Nature's Larder

I've been putting the finishing touches on my special stumpwork ornament that I'm giving to my Potholder Pass partner :) I had mentioned in my last update that it was out of one of my older inspiration magazines and here is a photo of what the original projects look like. Aren't they amazing?! Mine is considerably larger since it is an ornament for a Christmas tree but these ones are not even 2 inches in diameter.

Everything has to be in the mail by Sunday and I'm right on track to get it all shipped by the last day LOL. So much for this being the fastest swap I've ever completed! Somewhere along the way I got sidetracked... thus is my life *grin*.

The above photo shows a side view of the raspberry that is covered completely in french knots and the accented with little beads :)

For the leaves I used a special satin floss that sort of shimmers depending on how the light hits it. It's a DMC floss number S700 and I think that it gave the whole project the little extra glitz that I was looking for :)

So tonight I'm going to finish attaching my little red berries that are awaiting me all pinned in place and figure out exactly how to anchor my acorn without shifting the satin threads surrounding it. I find that the instructions in the magazine are a little vague which makes finishing the project a little tougher but it's coming together nicely and tomorrow I should have a completed photo to show you along with the potholders that are finished to :) Yay!! Then I can move on to new projects *grin*.

Hugs,
Rosina

Acorn Goodness

My little stumpwork acorn turned out fabulous!! I was a little worried that the threads I wrapped the felt core with were looking a little disheveled but I think it turned out pretty good for a first go at this kind of needle work *grin*.

The pattern called for hand stitching around the top of the thread acorn to create the cap but as it happens I have a cup full of dried acorns from last fall :) So I pried apart a few of them taking the nuts out of their caps until I found one that was a perfect fit. With my trusty rusty glue gun I glued the cap on.

LOVE it!! My mom is working on some leaf collages that she's framing and we were playing around tonight with them and my little acorn fit in just perfectly. You know what that means though... yup, she wants one to *grin*.

I think I'm going to have to make LOTS more *grin*. I'm a little nutty for acorns LOL.
Hugs,
Rosina

Stumpwork

Part of my holiday potholder swap requirement is to send along an ornament and in one of my old Inspirations magazines is a beautiful stumpwork pattern by Jane Nicholas that I have been dying to try out.

By covering the piece of felt with floss I'm going to end up with a super sleek acorn shape and I've got a real acorn top to put on it :) I've made some little red berries and a raspberry that is made up of nearly 100 french knots but I need some little beads for embellishments. I thought that I had some seed beads I could use but unfortunately they won't go over the eye of my needle :( Don't you just hate it when you start a project and you don't have everything you need to complete it?!

I'm going to have to raid my mom's craft cupboard tomorrow and see if she has anything that I can use otherwise I'll have to wait until I head into the city later this week. I'm off to let my poor fingers rest as my fingertips are burning from all of the pinching and pulling of my needle today *grin*.

Hugs,
Rosina

Flickr Favorites ~ Moss

1. The Toadstool's Secret Terrarium, 2. Birdie Abode, 3. Fairy Homes, 4. Tiny Homes For Gnomes

I have been collecting moss and tiny clay mushrooms to make my own little mossy terrarium haven and these photos are so inspiring. Just look, acorn gnome houses... fantastic!!

I am craving vibrant greens, the sweet earthy smell of forest mosses, and the peaceful feeling that nature evokes in oneself. My little terrarium is going to bring that bright spark of the outdoors in :)

Want to play along?
Build your own mosaic and visit Artmind's blog to join in :)

~ Rosina