Holiday Gifts - the cookie project

I've been busying myself with crafting an assortment of holiday gifts this year. It's been an especially tight one for my wallet which might mean cutting back on quantity but fortunately not quality.  This year a selection of family and friends will be receiving white boxes filled with homemade cookies.

I mentioned my cookie project a few weeks back and have since added this wonderful holiday magazine, A Taste of Home Best Loved Cookies & Candies, to my recipe repertoire.  It's been a super resource as I've worked my way through their extensive collection of tasty treats. My personal favs are the Chocolate-Tipped Butter Cookies (shown below), if you close your eyes they taste just like Milano cookies, minus the nuts, yummm!

The boxes I mentioned are now jam-packed with tasty treats and soon to be on their way.  I chose to do several layers of different cookies within each box and placed wax paper between the layers, adding in a few miniature Vanilla Butter Cookies with green and red icing for a colorful surprise.  I lined the boxes with a vinage-y printed tissue paper and finished them off with this printed announcement on the top.

Here is the actual announcement image which you're welcome to click on and save to use in your own holiday treat packs.

I have to admit I almost felt like Martha Stewart which made me laugh but in truth I'm so happy with how everything turned out.  It's amazing how a little extra work can enable us to make such a lovely and personal gift.  I think that's the best part about handmade ~ there's so much added "soul" put into everything we create. That's the fun part about sharing with other crafter/artists too, we understand what's behind the creation and appreciate it even more.

Best,

About time.... new themes

Don't you think it's about time I posted a new theme?? I certainly do. It's true that custom orders have sky rocketed over the past several months but still no excuse to go so long without a new prefab theme.

Granted I love working on custom themes ~ after-all, there's nothing better than hearing "OMG! It's just what I wanted!" but I also enjoy working on prefabs so much because the energy to create just flows; there are no boundaries, no checklist to stick to, just pure unadulterated creativity.

So here is my newest theme with loads of fun cooking delights for those of you who love to spend time in your kitchens ~ help me welcome...

La Cucina Bella

This theme offers 3 different colored backgrounds in two sizes, all free of course, and features a set of free sidebar tags and a lovely personalized banner in two sizes. To view all of the elements with the La Cucina Bella theme simply click the title or image above and as always...

Enjoy~

While We Wait ~ a recipe

My husband's had some promising leads for work already this week and so we're currently playing the waiting game. To take a break from the stress I like to play in the kitchen sometimes, plus it helps save money and keeps us eating healthy too.

My husband used to have a bit of a weight problem, probably brought on by those 'hearty' farm meals he grew up with and the high school job he held at a local pizzeria. Whatever the case, he's managed to loose a good bit of weight over the past few years and one of his favorite weight loss tools has been my homemade salsa. He loves it because he can eat loads of it with a few tortilla chips and gain little weight.

Here's the recipe which I've created as an image so you can easily click to enlarge and either save it to your computer or print it out.

Personally I can't eat super spicy foods since I had my gallbladder out a few year back, so the basic recipe works great for me. The nice thing is it can be easily altered for hotter taste buds by simply adding more chili powder, garlic, or even a few hot peppers for a really spicy version. During the holidays I like making it look a bit festive by substituting green peppers for red. You can really have some fun playing with the recipe so I hope it brings a little spicy enjoyment to your day!

Enjoy~