Holidays

Tim and I have had one of those rare weekends that we stayed home... alone. Doesn't happen often, and it is also the beginning of a week long vacation for Tim. YAY! Being behind after the trip to the kids, I finally got Halloween put away, and we decided to kind of skip over Thanksgiving and shift directly to Christmas. Tim has long since given up trying to understand my obsession with Christmas, and simply good-naturedly, indulges me. Between working on a craft I hope to publish tomorrow, I've slowly been getting out some Christmas wrappings. I must admit, my holiday preparations have been trimmed back the past few years as we've become semi-empty nesters, BUT I still love every moment of the holiday season, and can't seem to focus on anything else. Today I was reminded of a blog I wrote for One Generation to Another back on December 4, 2007. I hope you enjoy!

“You’re nuts,” she said.

“Yep,” I agreed.

“No, I’m serious. You have a problem,” she continued.

“I’m not arguing with you. You’re right,” I concurred.

“You should get help,” she belabored the point.

“Probably,” I acknowledged.

“Does look great in here, though,” she conceded.

“Thanks,” I said, as I continued to swag say, hmmm, at least a mile of evergreen roping on my living room rafters.*

She was referring to Christmas, or more to the point, my obsessiveness with the Holiday. I will be the first to admit I’m obsessive, but genetically speaking, it’s in my blood. My father was obsessive…just ask my mom; use to drive her to distraction. Didn’t matter what he got interested in, he obsessed. It could be his new stereo, playing bridge, collecting big band music, outwitting neighborhood squirrels or to her total vexation, “That damn computer!” Obsessive people totally get it when others become fixated on their latest interest, but non obsessive people (yes, I would go as far as calling them “normal” people) don’t understand how we lose the total capacity for rational and appropriate involvement with our most recent pursuits.

Case in point…my daughter, also possessing the obsessive gene, has recently become fixated on baby carriers, even after using them and making her own for several years. Undoubtedly, the general public would say it isn’t necessarily time well spent. This particular carrier is for her third child, she doesn’t plan to have any more, and her toddler will only be in it for the next couple of months, BUT, to an obsessive person, this doesn’t matter. Once bitten, all that matters is that she acquires information and an impressive understanding of the structural, historical, safety, and fashion worthiness of ALL carriers; past and present. She can identify which styles originated in Central America, the Far East, or with the Plain’s Indians. She knows which carriers are manufactured in this country, those hailing from China or Europe (ah, those elusive and highly sought after Scandinavian models), and those being sewn by half-crazed women trying to find ways of making money, while staying at home with their children. These women, btw, are the ones that she prefers to support, herself being a half-crazed women trying to find ways of making money, while staying at home with her children! Birds of a feather!

Anyway, most obsessive people could give you a fairly comprehensive list of their lifetime obsessions. For the non obsessive, let me explain that there are two distinct forms of obsessions. The first is what I refer to as “A passing fancy.” These are the interests that totally consume us for a time; you might say they are the spice of life, providing variety and interest, not sustenance. In days of old, these obsessions lead us to libraries and museums or taunted us to take classes and consult “professionals”. Today, the Internet has eliminated the necessity of moving from the comfort of our homes as a world of information is now available for the taking 24/7. If you live with an obsessive individual, you can wait for these phases to pass. Sooner or later, usually sooner, when we’ve acquired enough information to sate our curiosity and provide us with just enough data to be hence forth insufferably knowledgeable on the topic, we become bored and move on to our next fascination. The more diabolic of obsessions, which I refer to as “life long passions”, do not go away; EVER! These are seen in the guy next door that loses sleep because a mole has attacked his perfectly groomed lawn or the woman who would rather miss her child’s graduation than the latest issue of People Magazine. (Good Lord, how would you know whether or not Angelina Jolie’s new tattoo is written in Arabic or Swahili?) Then there is the guy who will play golf in a thunderstorm, or yours truly, who goes slightly (uh, slightly, extensively, why quibble over semantics, right?), overboard preparing for Christmas! (Ah, bet you never thought I’d get this back to Christmas!)

But there you have it. I totally and completely obsess over Christmas. (A book is required on that topic, a weekly blog simply won’t do!) But who can blame me? In my opinion, Christmas is the ultimate legal, feel-good, addictive drug. I love the colors (uh, my house is predominately red and green, so you kinda feel like you’re at the North Pole, even in August!), I love the smells, and I love the way people act. To quote Frank Cross in the movie Scrooged, Christmas is…”the one night of the year when we all act a little nicer, we-we-we smile a little easier, we-w-w-we-we-we cheer a little more. For a couple of hours out of the whole year we are the people that we always hoped we would be.” And that, my friends, justifies all the prep and planning. While preparing for Christmas, I enter a euphoric state. I think of how people will feel when they’re snuggled on the couch, wassail in hand, taking in the room. I can hear friends and family giggle as they unwrap gifts. (I wrap EVERYTHING separately…even dividing up pairs of socks into individual boxes…let’s face it, opening gifts is as much fun as owning what’s inside!) And I love how the child in all of us surfaces each Christmas Eve as we slyly scan the evening sky, still wanting to believe! And although the Holidays can stress us out, there is indeed something magical about the season. Strip away the commercialism, extended visitations with in-laws, and increased waistline girth, and the essence of the Holiday shines through, like the Christmas Star. Christmas is a time for all of us to be the people we always hoped we would be. Come on, obsess a little or a lot…it’s allowed, and in my opinion, desired!

*That year I hung EXCESSIVE amounts of greenery from the rafters, filling the room with not only the smell of the great outdoors, but enough allergens to keep us rubbing our red, itchy eyes throughout the month! BTW…Safety note…NEVER throw what amounts to a quarter acre of dried boughs in a fireplace and try to burn it all at once. This falls into the realm of scathingly brilliant mistakes and fodder for a future blog!

At the end of October we invited readers to share their favorite pumpkin recipes. Because the markets are overflowing with the fall harvest right now, it makes sense that pumpkin is such a common ingredient in fall cooking. The smell of spicy pumpkin dishes always makes me think of cool autumn days, and of family, friends and the holidays.

Our plan was to tuck in a recipe here and there as they came in. Well... things got crazy and we had lots of wonderful recipes, and here we are, days before Thanksgiving, and many recipes we have yet to share. We decided to have a Pumpkin Recipe Marathon. So throughout the day, we will be posting several pumpkin recipes. New recipes can be viewed directly under this post. 

We again want to thank everyone that shared a recipe. And, we hope all readers take the time to look over the recipes, visit our contributor's blogs, and enjoy yourself baking some luscious pumpkin recipes! 

Oh, btw... wonderful Timothy got our recipes organized. Just a wee bit of tweaking needs to be done BUT they are now visible and in an order that is useful. Check out the new format HERE!

EDIT: The contest is now closed. The winners will be announced Monday, November 15. Good luck to all!

Back in 1980 I first caught a glimpse of a fabric garland in the book Treasury of Christmas Crafts and Foods. It was a large garland, strung around an entire room, and I vowed to make it. Well, here it is, 30 years later, and each and every year I'd pull out the old book, which always opened to that page, and I'd say "This year!" 

Finally, swallowing a hearty dose of reality, I realized I would never make a fabric garland that spanned an entire room, BUT, I could redesign one that spanned my mantel! So, using my beloved garland as an inspiration, I designed a garland that was just right. Plus, given my love of working with felt, I created felt poinsettias to embellish the garland. This year, I made the garland, finally taking it off my to-do list after 30 years!

So you can well imagine, when Michelle and I teamed up with Julie, from Prairie Point Junction, and started talking about a Give-Away, I knew immediately what we wanted to do. I wanted to share the pattern for my Poinsettia Garland and Julie agreed to provide materials for 2 kits! YAY! Each winner will receive materials to make approximately 9' of Poinsettia Garland. The kits include: 

1 Wee Folk Art Garland Mini Kit
Kit includes 1/3 yard each of Barnyard Red and Red wool blend felt, six wooden buttons, and four skeins of coordinating floss. (A $9.50 value)

AND

1 Wee Folk Art Garland Fabric Selections:
Choose from the following 100% cotton green prints to complete your garland. Each garland requires 1 1/2 yards (1.5 yards) of fabric. (The value varies slightly depending on fabric selection.)

(My garland was made with fabric #1 but I LOVE them all!) The pattern and directions can be found HERE.

Everything is included to make approximately 9' of garland (6 poinsettias and 7 sections of roping) except paint for the wooden buttons, the batting, and sewing machine thread.

Julie has put together kits for purchase at her website HERE. And remember, as always, Julie provides Wee Folk Art readers a VERY generous 20% off their entire order... everyday! Just use the code WEEFOLKART at check out to get your discount.

NOW... about the Giveaway. There are several ways to enter this Giveaway and each gives you another chance to win.

1] Post a comment here (be sure to include a name... nicknames are fine).
2] Link to us through your blog, FaceBook, or Twitter. Post one additional comment for each link. Wow! That's up to 3 more chances to win! Make sure to include linking info.
3] Then, head over to Prairie Point Junction, visit their blog, and leave a big, juicy THANK YOU to Julie and her crew, then run back here and tell us you did, and yep, another chance to win!

So, if you were counting... you can enter FIVE times! Cool beans, right?

The contest will run from today, Wednesday, November 10 through Sunday, November 14, at 9:00 p.m. EST when 2 lucky winners will be chosen at random. Winners will be announced on our blog Monday, November 15.

Additionally... if it is possible you haven't been to Prairie Point Junction yet, it's high time you did! Since I discovered them, they have been my primary supplier of felt and other supplies. And remember, every day is a savings day at Prairie Point Junction if you are a Wee Folk Art reader! Just use the code WEEFOLKART at check out and with all the wonderful products available, I'm sure you'll be making good use of the discount... I know I do :)  

Good luck to one and all. And thanks again to Julie and her wonderful staff, for helping us say HAPPY HOLIDAYS with this giveaway!

Again, the pattern and directions for the Poinsettia Garland can be found HERE! Enjoy! 

Do you have a favorite recipe using pumpkin? Tis the season to spread pumpkin cheer far and near! If you would like to share a recipe, just follow these guidelines:

Email the recipe to weefolkart@yahoo.com .

Include a little anecdotal background.

Attach a photo.

If you have a blog and would like us to stop by and say "hi", make sure to include your URL. We will include a link to your blog when we post.

We will be sharing pumpkin recipes until Thanksgiving. We will try to feature all recipes we receive. Please understand that by sharing your recipes, stories and photos, you are giving us permission to use them on our blog.

All contributors can grab our "My Recipe Was Featured on Wee Folk Art" button, too!

Here is a recipe from Chelsie at Simply Seeking Life for Pumpkin Cake. Not only does the cake sound wonderful, but you might be surprised by how it was used. Make sure you pay Chelsie a visit. It's always so much fun discovering new blogs. Thanks, Chelsie!

Hi, my name is Chelsie Varga from Simply Seeking Life. I absolutely love pumpkin, I am so excited for your upcoming recipes, especially because I just canned 21 pints of pumpkin myself. I have worked in a summer camp kitchen for the past 7 summers and have made this pumpkin cake for our thanksgiving theme meal countless times. I got married almost a year ago do the day at the camp where we work and I knew exactly what I wanted my wedding cake to be. We got married on halloween in the beautiful Pocono mountains of Pennsylvania and we had a fun time celebrating a fall wedding. My husband's mom made a small pumpkin wedding cake for us to cut and save the top and then my friend made the rest of the pumpkin cake for everyone else to enjoy. It was really a fun time and I would like to think that people enjoyed something different than the tradition wedding cake, I know I did. I will attach some pictures of the cake and the recipe that we used is below. Thanks for everything you do.

Chelsie

Pumpkin Cake

1 c sugar
1 c brown sugar
1 c oil
4 eggs
2 c all purpose flour
1/2t salt
2t baking powder
2t cinnamon
1 1/2 t baking soda
2 c pumpkin
1t vanilla

Cream together the sugar, brown sugar and oil, add the eggs and then set aside. In a separate bowl mix together the flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon and the baking soda. Add the dry ingredients alternately with the pumpkin to the ingredients you set aside. When all combined don't forget to stir in the teaspoon of vanilla. Bake in a 9x13 for 40 minutes at 350. It is tasty plain, but you can add whatever kind of icing or toppings you may like with pumpkin. I like cream cheese icing personally!

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love...Galatians 5:6

Are you having a gathering at your house for Halloween? Why not take one of our Ghostie Applique Blocks and practice enlarging a pattern? We took one of our 6 inch ghost applique blocks and turned it into a 4 foot tall ghost, with cut out eyes and mouth to toss bean bags through. Using the Graphing/Gridding technique explained in our post on Enlarging and Reducing Patterns, we easily transformed the small pattern into a large facsimile. Next week we will share a pattern for yet another set of bean bags especially for Halloween! Most importantly, using this technique, you can take any small image you have and turn it into any size you want. Instead of a ghost, perhaps you would like to turn our Pumpkin Applique Block into a bean bag toss game. Anything is possible! 

Materials:
ghost pattern
pencil
ruler and metal tape measure
1 - 4' x 4' (1/2") mdf or plywood for ghost
1 - 14" x 32" scrap of mdf or playwood for leg
2 - 2" strap hinges with screws
2 - 1/2" eye hooks
20" of 1/2" rope
Zinser 123 Primer or white outdoor paint

tools:
saber saw
drill
sander or sandpaper block

Make a copy of the pattern and create a 6x6 grid using 1" blocks.

Create a 6 x 6 grid on your piece of mdf. Each square will be 8" x 8". NOTE: We drew our lines with permanent marker so it would show up in the photos. Drawing the lines with pencil will be fine and it will be easier to cover with paint.

Now you need to freehand copy what appears in each block of your pattern to the corresponding block on the wood. Breaking up the image into these smaller blocks and then focusing on drawing one block at a time makes it easier to draw the pattern and keep it in proportion… even if you think you can't draw :)
 
Since we are using this for a bean bag toss, enlarge the eyes and mouth to accommodate bean bags. We made the mouth larger than the eyes.

Using a saber saw, cut out the outside of the ghost.  Drill a hole in the eyes and mouth large enough to fit the saber saw blade in the hole, and cut out the eyes and mouth.

Cut out the support legs. We cut out a "U" shape 14" x 32", with the "legs" 2 1/2" wide by 27", creating a 5" base. Obviously, you can use any design you want, just make sure that the supports do not interfere with the holes for the mouth and eyes.

Sand all the edges.


Paint the ghost and the support legs. NOTE: We used the Zinser 123 Primer because it covers EVERYTHING and it creates a barrier that weathers well. We are using this ghost outside and although it will not be stored outside, we do not want it warping because moisture reaches the wood.

Mount the 2 hinges to the support legs. Drill pilot holes first, then screw the hinges to the legs.

Position the support legs on the back of the ghost. Drill pilot holes, then screw the hinges to the ghost.

REALITY CHECK: Our crafting life isn't always as perfect or easy as it may seem in our tutorials. Below is a photo of what happens IF your screws are too long. I was in the other room when Tim was screwing in the hinge. I heard sounds that I assumed were the result of a drill penetrating a thumb nail. Nope... but this IS what happened! After backing out the screws, filling the holes, and repainting the front, he was able to move on to the next step :)

To prevent the hinges from opening too far, screw in 2 eye hooks on the back of the ghost; one on the ghost and one on the legs.

Determine a sturdy angle for the support legs, and tie the rope to the eye hooks. This will prevent the support legs from opening too far.

Your ghost is now ready to be pelleted with bean bags. Have fun!