The Smell of Fall is in the Air...From a Crock Pot

Don't you love the smells of autumn...apples, cinnamon, pumpkins. Well, here's a quick and safe way to enjoy those smells.

I made more apple pies today. One pie is for home (home nothing, my husband will eat the whole thing himself) and the second pie is for work.

I had all the cores and apple peals left over and I knew just what to do with them. This is also great time to use those apples on the bottom of the fruit drawer that are all bumped and bruised!



Place all your apples into a small crock pot and add your favorite spices. I used ground and whole cinnamon and some whole cloves.


Add water about half way up...

Cover and slow cook on low and it will last all day....just add more water and spices as needed. You can also simmer it on high and the smells will start faster, but watch how fast it cooks down.

It will start to cook down over time. This was just after an hour....mmm it smells so good!

Happy fall,

~Karen~

Tool Time Tuesday...Doorway Theater

Or how about Doorway Theater or From The Doorway To Broadway...

What ever name you give this project, your children, grandchildren, nieces or nephews will be glad you turned 2 tension rods from the hardware store into...




a Doorway Theater!




This is more of a technique, rather than exact measurements, because every one's doorways are different sizes and well, so are your children! lol. Just as a reference, my doorway is 34 inches wide.
I used 2 strips of fabric that I had. Each pieces is 28 inches wide and 72 inches long. I also had a piece of red and white polka dot that you'll see later.

The process for this is really easy. I didn't even hem anything. If you don't sew too much, it just took 3 straight lines and that's all...oh yeah and some hot glue. If you don't sew at all, just hot glue everything!!

First step is to fold over the top edge down about 13 inches.

Now from the top folded edge, go down about 2 inches.

The 2 inch mark is where you will sew, hot glue or use that stitch witchery iron on stuff (that's the technical name!!)

I sewed the channel for the tension rods in each of the long pieces.

Here's a quick peek of what it looks like. It's a quick step in making a valence. The only way this works is if your fabric is the same color on both side. The perfect fabric for this is a cheap flat sheet.

This is the piece of fabric I used for the lower portion of the theater. See, I didn't even turn the edge on the hem...I just used pinking sheers!

Add one tension rod through the top valence and the second tension rod through the lower portion and your theater is done.

I closed the door so you can see the fabric better without the light shining through from the back, but your little ones will be in the door way behind the curtain with a fantastic puppet show for you.

This is a close up of some of the hot glued trim. A cute little button on the ribbon tie backs

and some ric rac hot glued to the valence edge.

This was the driving force behind this project. The finger puppets I bought back during my trip to Ikea. Aren't they the cutest and I think only $4.00.

Here are the stars of the show. Wish my girls were here to demonstrate rather than leaning these finger puppets up against the door. On second thought, even if they were home, they wouldn't do this for all of you to see. I think they're glad they are away at school right now!

You know I tried these on...I just couldn't snap the picture at the same time!

Let the show begin.

Here it is with the door open. If your little ones don't want to do a puppet show, you can remove the lower tension rod and they can do theater by themselves.

I have another little tip for the kids to sell tickets.

I borrowed this from the girl's bathroom. It's a stand up toilet paper holder.

Great to sell tickets from.

Enjoy the Show!

Have a wonderful Tuesday,
~Karen~

You're Invited To A Baby Shower...

A virtual blogging baby shower that is. I became blogging friends with Zlaty last year. She joined a few of my fabric swaps and has always been there for me with a kind word on every one of my posts.

I know a lot of you know her through her wonderful blog Zlaty Sews. Well, she recently announced on her blog on this post that she and her husband are expecting their first baby in January...and it's a girl !!! Woo Hoo!

I was thinking, wouldn't it be fun if we had a Blogging Baby Shower for her! I've never done this before, but I was thinking we could:

• make, create or share something with Zlaty for the baby
• maybe knit a pair of booties or blanket, sew a little quilt or wall hanging or buy a cute little baby frame or how about those onesies, boy do babies go through those!...just something small to share with the new baby.
• she is due in late January, so we have plenty of time to make something
• I will have a reminders in the months to come
• in Zlaty's family, the tradition is to have the baby shower after the baby is born, so I will send everyone who wants to make something for Zlaty the address where to send it, probably in February.

I have spoken to Zlaty about this idea already, so it's not a surprise. I just think it will be so much fun to get little packages in the mail from all her blogging friends during that special time.

If you'd like to come to a Blogging Baby Shower, just leave a comment here. Hope you can join in the fun. Maybe we'll have a few baby tutorial posts along the way.

Thanks in advance for joining in on the fun,

~Karen~

Added A Few Things To My Sewing Room...

The title of this post should have been...

How To Fit 2 Pounds of Crap in a 1 Pound Bag!

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(psst...there's also a reality check photo at the end)

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This first picture was when I first moved into my sewing room last year. Click link for last years post.

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This is my sewing room today...now that's a lot of crap, oh sorry "stuff".

I changed the blue accents to red and added some more furniture.
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You may remember some of these ideas from an earlier post,

but I'll share again for new comers. This is my cutting table.

I painted an old mug tree for all my scissors and rotary blades.


I use a plate rack to hold all my quilting rulers.

This is a BEFORE of the blue boxes of "stuff".

This is today with the boxes covered in black and white polka dot.

Everything is labeled and filled with "can't live without" stuff. lol
I know you have that stuff too!

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Here's a before of the blue boxes.

Now cute in black and white.

and filled with computer ink.

Remember I used pipe straps for the handles. So cheap by the bag!

They just screw into the box.

Don't forget...all the boxes are from cases of water.

This is the before of the supply cabinet.

This is today with a touch of red and some Tool Time Tuesday projects.

Click link for all TTT projects
See I really do use those ideas!

Love my label maker!

The before of the wall unit...

And today with a few more red things.

Painted my Sew Many Ways...

and added some plastic popcorn bins to hold scrap fabric in the same style.
Like 1930's in one, civil war in another, Moda in another.

Here's my desk. Moved it from the other side of the room and covered the blue cork boards.

You've seen this chair in a current post.
This is the best addition so far.

Everyone, especially my hubby, comes in and visits in this chair.

Next to the chair and on the back side of my cutting table

is an old sofa table that I painted black...what else!
This is my mailing center.

I mounted a curtain rod to hold paper and all the tape.

Perfect scale to weigh the packages too.

This is a price chart for postage all over the world.

An old leather brief case holds all my boxes and envelopes.
The cans hold packing peanuts and bubble wrap.
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The third table is a crafting table...gluing, painting and all the messy stuff.
That's Hallie the cat sneaking around under there.
She's actually carrying a packing peanut around in her mouth.

Here's a old antique school desk for my GO cutter.

and here's my new desk that I just posted about yesterday.

I have a little tip for you. When you are sewing and need to iron as you sew,
lower your ironing board to your chair level...you won't have to get up!
A lowered ironing board also helps to hold the weight of your quilt as you are machine quilting.

Here are the last 2 pictures of my room a few weeks ago. My "keeping it real" photos!
I may be organized, label every thing and have every thing in it's place,

but when I'm working on several projects at the same
time...my room looks like THIS!!

Holy Mackerel...what a dump. I won't even try to explain myself on this mess.
I do think I need a new philosophy though.
"FINISH ONE BEFORE YOU START ANOTHER"
This is my new motto

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I think I'm really going to try to act on this new concept of finishing something, now that I have a nice clean sewing room to start out with.

We'll see how that goes (wink wink)
~Karen~