{Recipe} Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies

Today I am going to share with you my favorite cookie recipe. These Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies are great for a snack or for a quick breakfast! The original recipe comes from Paula Deen's The Lady & Son's, Too! cookbook. Yes, 2 sticks of butter are used, but who's counting?

What you will need:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature (Use real butter, margarine doesn't work very well, I have tried)
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar (I just use whatever I have on hand)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg (Do not use ground nutmeg. If you don't have fresh, omit the nutmeg)
• 2 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats
• 2 cups dried cranberries (or raisins)

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Get your baking sheets ready by either greasing or lining them with parchment paper.  In your stand mixer, cream the butter & both sugars together until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well.  Stir in the vanilla.  In another bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt & nutmeg. Beat the flour mixture into the creamed mixture. Stir in the oats & dried fruit.

Your dough should look like this.

For uniformity in size, I like to use my ice cream scoop to spoon the dough onto the cookie sheets. If you make sure all the cookies are the same size, you will have the same doneness throughout the whole batch. If not, the smaller ones will be dry and the larger ones may not be cooked enough.

Drop the dough by uniform scoops about 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. 

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. With the pans I use (Pampered Chef Baking Pans or my Pampered Chef Large Bar Pan) and the size of my cookies, it ended up being more along the lines of 15-17 minutes. The outside of these cookies is crunchy and the inside is gooey! Perfection!

{Cleaning} Old English

I am hosting people three times at my house this week, and, like any homeowner,  I want the house to look as good as possible. I say "as possible" because we've had some plumbing issues and there are still holes in the ceiling of the living room. After that incident, we decided to save up to repipe the entire house with copper. Not cheap. Alas, the holes remain. I suggest you get some of your own; they are wonderful conversation pieces.

Our house is also almost 30 years old, so it takes some major upkeep.  The kitchen cabinets are original to the house. Despite them being old, they are VERY nice classic hardwood cabinets, and they are a great color.  The frequently-used cabinets were a little worn out and grubby:

I had tried everything to get this stuff off: All Purpose Cleaners, Goo Gone, furniture/wood polish, etc.. It was really frustrating that my cabinets looked like that! I like clean!

Today, on my weekly shopping trip, I was in the cleaning aisle (No surprise there. I love it.) when I saw these things:

I put them in my cart:

I immediately went to work when I got home. I couldn't wait to see what would happen! I was not disappointed! I used the Scratch Cover on the worn/grubby parts and just the lemon oil on the rest of the cabinets and my dining room table. They look refreshed and pretty nice! I suppose we can put the kitchen renovation on hold for now!

This stuff is now on my list of favorite cleaning supplies. What are your favorite cleaning supplies?

{Sewing} Class, Part 2

Session Two: Napkins with Fully Mitered Corners Yes, this is the project I made them start with. I know, I am crazy. But guess what? They’re coming back next Saturday and were super troopers for this napkin-making class.

Why did I choose the fully mitered corner? Well, I was going to have them start with the half miter, but the one machine that the daughter is using won’t do a zigzag stitch (it’s my old $200 Singer that I’m not paying $150 to have fixed) to finish the edges of the fabric. I couldn’t bear to have them finish their napkins with pinking shears (not the cleanest look and I can’t stand it!) so I was left with no choice.

I fed them into the fire at day 2.

I do think, though, that the focus of this project is more on exacting measurements and angles rather than actual sewing. I always tell people that sewing itself isn’t difficult, it’s making sure your measurements are spot on so that your project comes together nicely. I believe that my mind for math and OCD tendencies have served me well in sewing.

The girls did splendidly with this project!

Skills they learned:
~Rotary cutter, ruler & mat use
~Pressing up hems using the seam gauge
~Mitering corners
~Stitching a straight line & pivoting

Next session, we’ll be making some felt Christmas ornaments using some hand embroidery & embellishing techniques. It’s not the most sewing-intensive project, but it’s what they wanted to do! (For these sewing lessons, I left the projects up to the ladies--with some guidance of course). They’ll also be bringing whatever of the napkins they haven’t finished during the week. We’ll finish those up, hopefully.

{Sewing} Class, Part 1

I was asked several weeks ago by someone if I would teach her and her daughter to sew. I’ve been asked this question many times, but no one has been really serious about it. They have just never pulled the trigger on actually doing it. Until NOW! Boy, was I excited! I will blog about each session, so you can follow their/our progress. I have teaching experience, just not in sewing! I’m blessed to have a pair of students who understand this and are willing to give it a shot!

I decided to do a project-based series of classes, using Deborah Moebe’s book, Stitch by Stitch. We’re not working on every project in the book, but it gave me a jumping off point to make sure I teach most of the basic sewing skills. My students having the book will also give them a wonderful reference to look back on when they are not in my classroom dining room. 

During the first session, we reviewed the project/supply list, winding a bobbin, threading the machine, sewing a straight line and backstitching. I almost left out the project/supply list overview, but I am very very glad I didn’t. Why? Because this mom & daughter were not familiar with any sewing items. I’m not sure why I think everyone knows what I seam ripper/seam gauge/etc. is! They found it very helpful that I brought out my supplies and tools to show them exactly what I was talking about. I suppose it worked because they bought all the right things...and came back for session two. :)

Shopping Small { I'm Featured! }

With Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday already under our belts, there are only 26 days left to finish your Christmas shopping! Yikes! Personally, for me, this year has flown by. I’ve been looking forward to the Christmas season because I love giving unique, one of a kind items that my friends and loved ones treasure.

I also love to help {YOU} give unique items! It fills my heart up to hear that the items I have created found such wonderful homes. It makes what I do worthwhile.

Today, my new friend Stef has featured me on her blog! It’s Shop Small Tuesday over there and she is featuring my shop!

Stef and I just “met” through Twitter about two weeks ago,and we have a lot in common! She homeschools just like I do! So head on over and check out her blog!

Also, over at Overcoming Busy, is a good list of why Shopping Small is a great idea!

Pinterest Wish List for Kids

My husband had the greatest idea ever. He set up a Pinterest page for Kendall (our 10 year old boy) and allowed him to start pinning things that he wants for Christmas and his birthday. His list consists of Nerf & other toy guns and video games. It's not only helpful, it's entertaining! Check out these captions. They were too funny to keep to myself.

Poor Ryan & Eric. They don't know what they're in for. They deserve it. (They are my little brothers!) ***Evil laugh***

Christmas Napkins for My Mom

I've been in quite the festive mood lately. Our trees are already up, stockings are hung (even though I have plans to make new ones) and I've sewn some napkins for my mom with some Christmas fabric she bought last year. She never decided what she wanted me to make out of it, so I made the executive decision for her! I hope she appreciates my assertiveness.

Just look at those sweet snowmen. They say "wipe your mouth on me!" Yep, these are fancy napkins will fully mitered corners!