Cinnamon Christmas Stars

We're kicking the holiday season off with some fun crafting :) I had ran across some twig stars on flickr and thought that it would be fun to make some with the kids but instead of using twigs we used cinnamon sticks so that we could have a little bit of christmas scented aromatherapy *grin*.

We headed outdoors after breakfast to cut some fresh cedar branches and collect any miniature pine cones we could find that the squirrels hadn't already striped and hidden away for winter. We were lucky to find a few out by the chicken coop and I had some star anise, bells and red berries from last Christmas still in the craft cupboard for gussying up our stars :)

To keep things moving quickly so the younger two wouldn't loose interest by waiting for glue to dry I pulled out my trusty hot glue gun *grin*. I swear everyone should own one of those! LOL. We had our cinnamon stars assembled in not time and were ready to add our greenery :)

They each took turns picking out which pinecones, bells and such they wanted to use and I helped them glue everything on to their stars. We even made a couple of extras to share with my mom and friends :)

They smell awesome! We have five of them hanging all along our big picture window in the family room and they have scented the whole area. Now we just need a garland to go with them :)

Looking for more crafty ideas or inspiration? Pop over to Natural Suburbia's Creative Friday and see what others are up to :)

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

Picking Blueberries

A few weeks ago when picking up my eggs from the lady down the road I learned that she grew blueberries and every year after she picked what she needed for the winter she let others come and pick. Well you knew that I was going to be all over that! *grin*

So this weekend we headed over with our buckets and I brought along my oldest son to help out and we set to work.

They were giant bushes nearly 7 feet high as I had to stand on my tippy toes to reach the berries on the very top branches and they were just loaded with berries. I've never seen such big berries and even the slightly under ripe ones were sweet :)

So far we have picked two pails full and I'm hoping to get another 1 or 2 if I can but if not I'm still happy with what we were able to get :) One great perk to picking our own is I know they weren't sprayed with any pesticides and I was able to pick out all of the stems if we pulled any off the bush. That way I know I can just use them later without worrying about checking for any unwanted bits :)

I see a lot of blueberry muffins & pancakes in our future *grin*.

~ Rosina

Recipe ~ Raspberry Strawberry Scones

These scones are a huge hit around our house and they're entirely whole wheat which is an added bonus :) This batch will make 18 large scones so there is plenty to warm up for the following day.



Ingredients:

• 6 cups freshly ground soft wheat berry flour milled on your finest setting or 6 cups of whole wheat flour
• 1 cup sucanat or white sugar
• 4 teaspoons baking power, preferably aluminum free
• 1 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 3 cups milk or buttermilk
• 1 cup sliced strawberries
• 1 cup raspberries
  

Cut the cold butter into your flour until it resembles a course texture similar to corn meal. I actually like to use my food processor to do this as it only takes a couple of pulses to cut the butter in nice and fine :)

Next add your sugar and baking powder and use a fork to sift it through your flour/butter mixture. Once you've done that you can add your raspberries and strawberries and gently coat them with your flour mixture. I had the berries frozen in the freezer from last summer but you can substitute any sort of berry in their place. Blueberries are lovely also :)

The final step is to add your milk and blend it all together just until your flour is moistened. Don't over mix it! Using an ice cream scooper or spoon similar in size scoop nice plump balls of your scone batter onto parchment covered cookie sheets and bake at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for approximately 15-20 minutes or until nice and golden brown. You can test them by inserting a knife into the center of a baked scone and if it comes out clean then it is done. Another way to test if they are finished baking is to gently press down on the top of the scones and if they spring back up after you release your finger then they are finished :)

Enjoy devouring these delicious goodies!

~ Rosina