Winter Crafting Fun

The season of winter is a time of less light with shorter days, longer nights and more time spent indoors.  I like to take advantage of the winter months with the time spent indoors to catch up on all the projects I think about doing through the year.  Through the year, often I will get started on a project, but the outdoors will call me, and they get put aside.  Winter is the time of year that I focus on getting back to my crafting projects. 

A dear lady reached out to me through my blog after discovering we live close to each other. We have met several times since to visit together.  Because we both love to craft, we planned a crafting day together.  She purchased this gorgeous fabric to make 80 yo-yos.  I brought my Big-Shot and cut out 80 4" circles to make yo-yos by gathering a stitch around the outer edges.

 

I saw her yo-yo table topper and we came up with a plan for me to make one similar to hers. 

While I was visiting her, she was also working on the finishing touches for this darling snowman!  She finished it and
sent me the picture.  It is a punched needle Snowman and she made a little pillow out of it and set it on an old oil funnel.  Isn't he the cutest! In the New Year we plan to have another crafting day
and I may have to try my hand at punched needle working! 

Because we were sharing craft projects with her, after she shared the yo-yos with me, then we worked on some stamping/scrapbooking projects I had brought.  I found coasters at the dollar store,
and she stamped them with brown Staz-On ink with a lighthouse
and a stamp that says "Thy Word is a Light Unto My Path". 

The final step is to seal them with an acrylic sealer spray. I forgot to bring the sealer spray with me to show that step. 

Then we made a little stand-alone accordion photo album to put pictures of her grandchildren in. 

A picture of the little album from the back. 

Very fun and easy to make little album, and makes a great gift for someone to keep pictures of their grandchildren, children, or family members on display. We had such a sweet time of fellowship together, and sadly, my phone died and I couldn't take a picture of the beautiful lunch she prepared for us to eat.  What a blessed day of crafting it was!  And of course, we sat down after our crafting was done, and drank a cup of hot tea together. 

Speaking of hot tea, I found this darling tea pot at a thrift store, and I suspect it is very old.  I believe it is a Rockingham teapot, but I am not sure as it has no name written on it, only a hand painted number. It has the distinctive markings of the Rockingham line, but I have not been able to positively identify it as such.  Perhaps some of my tea drinking friends will know more about this teapot?  I cannot find any pictures online of one that looks similar to it.  

As I've worked on my yo-yo's I've often had a little helper trying to tangle my threads! 

We have had some days of sunshine where the mountains could be seen with the frost dipped tree line in the horizon.

Walks with the dogs on beautiful afternoons, soaking up the sunshine. 

Roger always has this look on his face as if he knows something I don't,
with a look of wonder or a knowledge of something I can't see.  He is quite a funny little fellow! 

The sunsets have been glorious!  After an late afternoon trip to Wal-Mart, I was dreading the drive home in the dark.
I exited Wal-Mart to these gorgeous skies, and I got to enjoy the beauty of the skies on my drive home! 

Because of my carpal tunnel surgery this past fall, my tomatoes had not finished ripening, so canning was put on hold.  I simply froze the tomatoes until they all finished ripening.  My husband helped me one long afternoon as we canned in one setting all the tomatoes from our garden this year.  My tomatoes did not do well this year, but I still got a good amount to put up for the winter! 

You probably recognize this picture! It is also on my blog header.  I found a company who makes gorgeous canvas art out of your photos.  

I was very impressed with the quality of the canvas print and the sturdiness of the boards too. 

 

I had two photos printed on canvas, and my favorite by far was the first one,
but I was pleased with this one as well. I wanted to do a bold bright print and a soft muted one. 
The quality of both was excellent. 

I had a hankering for cherry pie.  I had found this old recipe framed in a thrift store some years ago,
and it has been a favorite cherry pie recipe since.   

I kept the pie crust simple with no lattice crust, and it tastes amazing!
This was made with cherries we picked this past summer that I canned. 

I'm making progress on my yo-yo's! 

I was so blessed earlier this year to win a giveaway with Kim @ ExquisitelyUnremarkable.  Thank you Kim for this generous giveaway!  She sent me the cutest card and a get well card too, because the tartlet tins
came to me just as I had my carpal tunnel surgery. 

Because I was in recovery mode with the surgeries,
I set these gorgeous little tins aside for my winter projects as well. 

So this past week, I pulled the tins out of their vintage box and began to play with them.  Oh what fun!  I also had some beautiful paper that I covered magnets with as well.  Once the crafting fun starts, I never know where it will end! 

I made some of the tins into magnets as well, and some were made into hanging ornaments. 

 

Most of the magnets I've given away as little gifts for friends. 
It is a fun and easy project! I just buy the peel and stick business card magnets
and attach pretty paper to them, soo easy! 

This is a project that I've NOT made myself... yet! But it is on my "bucket list" to try.  I just love the pretty vintage look of the painted bottles.  I saw these in a local thrift store.  

I wanted to find a fun yummy treat to take to a Christmas party with some of my dear friends.  I cut pie crust with a 3" circle cutter, placed them in the mini tart pan (from Pampered Chef) and then used the fun Pampered Chef wooden tool to push the dough down into the tart pan. 

Homemade apple pie filling went into the mini tarts and baked at 400 for 15 minutes.  Sprinkled with cinnamon on top. 

 

Yum yum!  Sprinkled with a bit of confectioner's sugar... so simple, easy, and I promise... you can't eat just one! 

Making more progress on my yo-yos.  Just a few left to do now!
I won't get the table topper made until after Christmas,
but I will show you the finished project when it happens! 

Some handmade bookmarks being made as Christmas gifts too. 

What is cause for more joy than this gorgeous pillow that I also won in a giveaway! I can't believe that I was the blessed recipient of two very generous giveaways!  I won this pillow from Connie who blogs at Connie's Crafty Creations.  I was just soo excited to receive this gorgeous pillow in the mail, handmade by my very talented friend!  I have long admired her work, and was so excited to have the perfect place for this beautiful pillow in my living room.  However, you can see a lazy Mister Simba who really does symbolize total and complete joy in this picture, ha!
Cats do have the art of sleeping perfected! 

Whew! This has been a long post... I've gotten quite behind in my blogging with all the projects I have going on.  Our world finally was dipped in white a couple of days ago, and I am just loving the glorious beauty of it all.  We have an inversion of heavy clouds over us right now and we haven't seen the sun for days, but at least the snow helps brighten up our world! 

Christmas is just around the corner, and I can hardly believe it! We will be traveling over the holidays, and it is possible that I won't get back here to post again this year.  I pray that all of you have a blessed and very special Christmas, and I will see you in the New Year of 2018. 

I will leave you with a couple of fun short videos I took as the snow came down yesterday.  My daughter was playing the piano and I think you will enjoy them!

Happy hugs to all!