Favorite Projects of 2012

In the background I can hear Julie Andrews singing: "My Favorite Things" with my new verse:

Cross stitching projects and felt ornaments

Quilting with elephants, caterpillars, and color  

Note cards and sewing and felt nesting dolls 

These are twelve of my favorite things

Below are my twelve favorite projects of 2012.

Heart Felt Ornament 

Felt Monster 

Folk Art Heart Cross Stitch

Hummingbird Cross Stitch

Felt Matryoshka Doll

Nine Little Elephants Quilt

Elephant Note Card 

 All You Need is LOVE Quilt

Very Hungry Caterpillar Quilt in Blue

Very Hungry Caterpillar Quilt

Yellow Block-of-the-Month Quilt

Lavender Sachet

Peace Postcard

My December postcard for my year-long postcard project. 

  Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu; Om Shanti Shanti Shantihi 

Translation: May the entire world know peace, happiness, and love;
Om peace, peace, perfect peace

May all beings be happy

May all beings be healthy

May all beings live in peace and harmony today, in 2013, and always.

Bear and Polar Bear Toast

What a cute and simple way to serve toast!  I turned regular whole wheat toast into bear toast with soy butter, bananas, and chocolate chips, then added powdered sugar to create polar bear toast.  You could even substitute the chocolate chips for raisins, make a circular bear head with an English muffin, or change the soy butter to peanut butter.  What's on your bear toast?

Leek Potato Soup with Coconut Milk

On Christmas morning I made leek potato soup, thanks to some inspiration from my Dad.  It's a hearty winter soup with (you guessed it) - leeks, potatoes, and coconut milk, which reminds me of home and Thai food all in one bowl.

It's delicious.  Unfortunately, I don't think the picture does this soup justice.  


For this recipe you'll need:
several tablespoons of vegetable oil 
3 cloves of garlic, minced
small onion, chopped
1 stalk of celery, chopped
3 leeks, cleaned and chopped
2 14-ounce cans of chicken or vegetable broth
1 cup regular or light coconut milk (I used light)
salt and pepper, to taste
1 pound potatoes, chopped in bite-size pieces, cooked
1 tablespoon Trader Joe's garlic and herb butter, or regular butter

Servings: Makes 6-8 bowls  

Directions:
1. In a stock pot, add the vegetable oil and sauté the onion, garlic, and celery for several minutes.  Salt and pepper this layer. 

2. Add the chopped leeks and garlic butter* and sauté until they wither down. Again, add salt and pepper.

3. Next add the broth, coconut milk, cooked potatoes, and another dash of salt and pepper.  Simmer for 30 minutes.  Remembering to stir often so the coconut milk does not burn or stick to the bottom of the stock pot.

4. Serve hot and enjoy!

Note:
* We bought some Trader Joe's garlic and herb butter for our Christmas Eve lobster ravioli so I decided to throw some into the soup for another layer of flavor instead of regular butter.  Who am I kidding, we only had one stick of butter left and I needed the whole stick for Yum-Yum Cake. 

Felt Monster Ornament

While I was making our felt ornaments for our Christmas card tree, I asked M which ornament I should make next and he selected this monster from my Pinterest board. Isn't he so cute with his one off-center eye, red spikes, jagged tooth, and blue foot? There's a tutorial for a fabric and felt monster here. However, I didn't follow the tutorial; I made a few adjustments from the original picture/pattern and only used felt. 

What should we name our little felt monster?

Christmas Card Tree

Merry Christmas!  This morning I finally put the finishing touches on the birch tree and displayed the last of our Christmas cards and felt ornaments.  Thanks to Martha Stewart for the inspiration; now our cards hang like ornaments on the branches.  

Macadamia Nut Cookies with White and Chocolate Chips

M and I made these Macadamia Nut Cookies with White and Chocolate Chips for my Christmas Cookie Exchange.  The original recipe was here, but we tweaked it a bit. We tested the recipe first, which stated that it yielded 4 dozen, but those were TINY cookies.... so the second time around we formed much larger cookies - about 20. 

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup shortening
3/4 brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped macadamia nuts
3/4 cup white chocolate chips
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Directions: 
1. Preheat oven to 350° F. 
 
2. In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to cream the butter, shortening, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. 

3. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs with a fork.  Then add them to the above mixture. Stir in the vanilla extract. 

4. Combine the flours, baking soda, and salt; gradually stir into the creamed mixture. Mix in the macadamia nuts and chips.

5.  Roll the dough into balls and place on ungreased cookie sheets. Flatten and shape the cookies with your hands or fork. 

6. Bake for 10 minutes, or until golden brown.

Noel Cross Stitch

Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel.... 

This NOEL tea towel for my Mom was inexpensive and quick to stitch - I completed it in one night.  While I was Christmas shopping I saw a cross stitched NOEL ornament  (around $20) in a little French boutique and knew I could replicate it on a tea towel for much less. A package of three blank towels was around $8 at Joann's.  Even with the cost of the water soluble canvas, which I used to stitch the red DMC thread onto the towel, the price was still no way near $20. 

I found the letters here.

Felt Christmas Tree Ornament

I'm on a roll with my ornaments - three in one night.  For this felt Christmas tree, I used three pieces of olive green felt for the tree tiers and magenta felt for the heart, similar to the design for this envelope; and I cut a circular piece of pink felt for the background like this simple felt tree. The rick rack, heart, and stitching around the outside all match. 

Heart felt ornament

'Tis the season to decorate the Christmas tree and this year I am making felt ornaments.  

Here's my first one - a felt heart in red, olive, and white with an olive button. 

 I was inspired by this picture.