Gingersnaps!

I love a good Gingersnap, it has to be crunchy on the outside, and soft on the inside. My father-n-law also loves Gingersnap. We had my mother-n-law and father-n-law over for dinner Sunday night and to decorate the tree. I re-discovered the recipe when looking for a cooking recipe other than chocolate chip cookies. This is a great easy recipe and one of my tried and true. Thought I would share this recipe since it is that time of year when you are invited to cookie swaps! Enjoy!!!!

I should note that this recipe was in a publication called The Dinner Bells which was a collection of recipes benefiting St. Jame's church here in Richmond.

The Inn At Little Washington's Gingersnaps

3c flour

1 1/2 T. baking powder

2 tsp. cinnamon

2 tsp. ginger

1 1/2 tsp. ground cloves

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup plus 2 T. unsalted butter, softened & cut into pieces

1/2 cup dark molasses

2 eggs

Extra sugar for dipping dough

Mix all ingredients together. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Roll dough into 1 inch balls. Roll balls in sugar. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes. Loosen cookies with spatula. Cookies will be soft but firm up as they cool. Cool for 30 minutes then transfer to paper towels. Freezes well.

Yields 3 dozen.

Days Til Christmas & Give away

I loved viewing some great advent/Christmas countdown calenders recently on a few blogs. I had one that was victim to a stomach bug last year (you don't want to know, trust me) so I needed to replace it!

Always up for a challenge, I wanted to create one too. I decided to restrict myself to using only items I had on hand. I used some leftover fabric, my Cricut Expression machine with scrap paper, paint, ribbon, glue gun and magnets. The only challenge now is to find items small enough to fit in the 1/2" "bag"! I am hoping stickers, and mini candy canes will work. I also used a secret craft item to get the bags to be removeable from the countdown! One hint, I used them in another craft project I worked on.

Since I haven't done a give-away recently whomever can guess how the magnets on the back of the bags stick to the canvas, I will send them some handmade Christmas tags found in my July post




Hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving! I was so thankful for jeans with stretch afterwards! :-) I had visions of Joey on Friends when he borrowed some maternity pants!

A little rock and a LONG story!

I love giving gifts, actually I love creating gifts to give. When my daughter was less than 6 months old God decided to bless me with an encounter with a new Mom. Lori had just formed a playgroup and invited me. These girls have been my most cherished friends ever since. Lori also invited me to her church and had a large part with me re-discovering my Christian faith. I have been creating different gifts for Christmas for them for a few years now. Last year I made aprons out of vintage handkerchiefs. These turned out great and were a very fun project.
So this year I am a little hesitant or lacking confidence I should say and would love your feedback.

A little background first . . . We vacationed in Topsail, NC this year. It was a particular hard week for me as Mr. Jackpot had to work (the wonderful side effect of being your own boss) so I was on my own with my two kids for most of the week. I discovered that Topsail beaches have some wonderful polished rocks. These are thin and smooth and each has their own shape. Being that I was in a particular contemplative mood, I began thinking how God shapes each of us just like these rocks. He works constantly and lovingly to shape us into his image. Sometimes there are rough times just like the sand but it works for His glory to smooth us. Each individual rock gets his attention being placed in the right area of the vast ocean to be shaped, and made in the image he has of us.
I got to thinking that each of my precious girlfriends have been shaped just like each rock. We each carry our own story of how the Lord has worked in us. God is in control of each little tiny grain of sand and controls the vast expanse of oceans. I wanted to create a reminder for my girlfriends of how God’s hand is in everything and working for our good. I decided to pick a rock out for each of them. I took them home and painted a cross with a pink cloth on it. My thought is they could put it in there purse, nightstand, drawer and hopefully each time they see it / feel it they would think of this. I found myself holding a rock in my hand while on the beach and roll it, rubbing it and praying.

Here is the story I am going to place in a handmade pouch along with the painted rock:

I found this rock for you on the beach. It has been touched and created by God! He created this rock, placed it in the ocean and let the sand smooth it. He let the ocean turn it over to smooth and shape each edge against the sand. He let the ocean current carry it from place to place. He then delivered this rock on the beach, where I found it. When you hold this rock remember that God is in the details. He is in control of each grain of sand, each rock, each ocean, and each beach. He does all this for His glory and out of love.
During this Christmas time I am so thankful that His gift, given out of Love has made me holy in His sight, free of accusation. That His Love works on me every day to shape me. Remember that He is in all things both visible and invisible and that even the rough times are meant to shape us in His image just like this rock.
Your sister eternally in Christ.
Please give me your feedback. I am not sure if my “deep thoughts” and the rocks should be kept to me left plain or trust that God is in control and has given me this idea so I should follow through.

Thank you also for allowing me to post this without worrying about being judged or ridiculed!

Fibromyalgia . . .some random ramblings

At my first post for October after being "absent" from the blogging world for a while I commented on some on and off health issues. I am not sure why I haven't shared that I have Fibromyalgia before but I am now. I have had a couple months of some severe "flares" as they are called. For those of you not familiar with the condition, the only way I can find to describe what it feels like is to wake up one morning feeling like you have the flu, & not the 24 hour kind! The run over by a mac truck, hurt from your head to your feet and feel like you are walking through quick sand type of flu.

It took me 2 years to be diagnosed and am still struggling. These last couple of weeks have been extremely rough. I know all those crafters out there can relate when you can't craft it actually adds to your stress. I also know that stress is a trigger for this condition but sometimes life stresses can't be avoided. So anyone else out there suffer from this? I am struggling with trying to find a treatment that provides me more "normal" weeks that not. It is truly a journey especially being used to a very active lifestyle and only requiring usually about 6 hrs of sleep. I now require at minimum 8 sometimes more and with a 3 & 7 year old home it is hard to get more than that. My hubby (I love how everyone has nicknames for their hubbys) so to quote someone in my bible study I will forever more call him my "jackpot"! As I was rambling . .Jackpot has been so supportive but also at the same time feels so helpless.

Anyway I wanted to post this out there as I know we all struggle with issues in our daily lives. If you are struggling too I am right along there with you. Funny since I have barely had the energy lately to lift my butt off the recliner your bloggers have been a creative life-line for me. So I guess this is a thank you and a motivation! Please keep crafting and posting because you really are providing a blessing to everyone out there!

I have plans on posting again soon but hey . . .as we all know the best laid plans . . . . .

Up-cycle and add some bling!

Warning this project does require for some knowledge of sewing. However if you are able to sew a button on and work an iron . .you could sew (he he, sorry I couldn't resist this) do this !
I have been coveting these jeans from Coldwater Creek at the time they weren't on sale. Being that they were $150 these were not in my budget! So I decided to put my education to some use and create my own embroidered jeans. Off to good will where I purchased two pairs of jeans for a total of $6.99 (These were gap jeans by the way). Then off to Jo-Ann fabrics where I found pre-embroidered items that you can iron on. Which most craft stores have a great selection of iron on items these days. I knew that just ironing on wouldn't hold up to wash and wear or denim. So after ironing on the applique (on sale for $3.00/each) I used a blanket stitch to secure them to the denim (you could just use some small stitches and forgo the blanket stitch). I know a little tedious but I also added some bling and the same time, I had purchased some seed beads too. This is not usually me, I am not the bling type . .my Mother-n-law is and I love her style. So we all need a little "out of the box" moment and this was mine. I love how they turned out and for less than $12.00 (including tax) I got a pair of custom "blinged" jeans.



I highly recommend shopping for jeans at goodwill, they are all usually laundered (I actually did find a couple still with tags on them) and you can search through a variety of sizes and styles.

Boys will be boys?

Having had my first child be a girl I am just really getting to discover the differences between boys and girls. Like having to say please don't climb the 2" overhang on the stairs until you are hanging 6 feet in the air. Or how did you get to be hanging from your wall shelf with nothing under you and it is 5 feet off the ground?
So now I get to say remember don't stand on the windowsill or you might break your arm. The pull of seeing a fire truck I will admit is probably strong but seriously. Stand on a windowsill, that is maybe 4" deep? So one fractured humerus later we have a 3 year old boy in a cast. The next dilemma was what can I dress you in!
So for those that need to know now or will need to know in the future here it is. By the way he has a cast that goes from below shoulder to around the thumb. I have found the fake layered t-shirts are working pretty good as I can cut off the sleeve at the short sleeve seam. This allows his good arm (argh I hate saying that) to be warm and use the short sleeve side to go on first over his bright red cast. The bonus is absolutely no sewing as the fake short sleeve is already hemmed! :-) Take a closer look at the photo at the top for the finished shirt! The white arm si the one with the cast. He wouldn't let us take the sleeve off the cast they put on when we left.
Hope this adds some help to other Moms of boys who love to climb and break arms!

Sorry , ,so sorry

I apologize for the time between posts. I have good reasons though! The good and bad news is we are in the process of hopefully moving! :-) My husband has his own business which is great . .especially since he has been able to work from home for 8 years. His business is growing and he is needed in Nashville TN! So we have a wonderful house for sale in a suburb of Richmond VA.

In addition to being gone most of August, getting kids ready then settled into school, some off and on health issues and preparing a house for sale I have been a little distracted. Our home has been on the market for not quite 30 days and while the interest has been great no offers yet.

So I am soliciting advice on how to cope with two kids, a hubby who is traveling and keep a company afloat, all while trying to sell a house! :-)

If you have lived, or do live in Nashville some local information would be awesome. We are looking at houses sporadically but it is hard to do util we have a contract on our home here.

Here is a picture of my home for 10 years!

We have done some great updating and I will post later on some of our house features I love! But first could use some advice! Here are two areas in the home that I am debating to paint over. I hate to as they were both labors of love but I am realistic that it doesn't appeal to everyone.

The first up is in my family room. We have a large wall over the sofa and couldn't afford a large piece of art or many frames to fill the space at the time. I painted a block of color then highlighted the edge with a freehand detail to bring in the colors in the rest of the house. I have all intentions of conveying the frames with the house so the future owners could put their photos into the frames. But realistically I know not everyone likes these colors. My hubby is voting for putting a sign that says we could paint over it prior to closing. What do you all think?

The second area in question is the dining room. It is one of the first rooms I finished in the house. I stenciled the border (10 step process) but so worth it in my book. Our realtor is afraid potential buyers might think it is a wallpaper border. I haven't wanted or had the heart to paint over it! What is your opnion paint over it or leave it and offer to paint over it upon purchase. (By the way we have all the paint to paint over or have provie the future owners).