OMG! This recipe for English Toffee is absolutely delicious! I made it for Christmas gifts this year, and I have to insist that you make some. I adapted the recipe from Bertha C. at English Toffee Recipe – Food.com. Bertha knows what she’s doing!
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I always get Christmas gifts for my granddogs, but this year I have avoided unnecessary shopping due to Covid-19. So, poor dogs, this year they get my cooking. This recipe was given to me by Dan the Man, who has made these before, complete with rolling out the dough and cutting them into bone shapes. My dough was too wet to roll out, so I settled for scooping them onto parchment-lined cookie sheets. They don’t have the same uniformity or iconic shape as Dan’s, but by naming them Bowwow Bonbons, I think they’re just right! Here’s the recipe.
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A Piece of Work
America the Beautiful
Bonfire Hearts
Celebration
Modigliani
Pull Up a Chair
You Are My World
Dan the Man and I have a favorite local brewery, and when Dan was there several weeks ago, one of our favorite bartenders was ready to discard some custom-made beer coasters that contained old info. Being the good husband, Dan brought two big stacks home to me. Read the rest of this entry
Full disclosure: Neither of these bottles are my work; I saw them at a gift shop in Baton Rouge (The Keeping Room on Perkins next to Trader Joe’s). But aren’t they a cute and easy idea for a gift? A bottle of champagne or prosecco, a little paint, perhaps some string and a charm, ten minutes (maybe), a gift bag, and a card. Voila! A perfect celebratory present for someone you love.
One of my favorite holiday crafts were some gelli plated earrings. They were so easy to do, very inexpensive, and loved by all the recipients. I bought Shrinky Dink materials at Hobby Lobby and then gelli plated over one large sheet using acrylic paints. I then made assorted marks with paint, a cork, and the edge of a credit card. Finally, I cut them into assorted shapes, used a corner punch to round out each corner, and added a hole with a regular-sized hole punch.
I followed the directions on the Shrinky Dink package to bake and shrink each earring. I used a metal one-cup measuring to flatten each one down once it came out of the oven. To finish, I added a jump ring and earring hook to each, and paired the earrings up into matching sets.
Here’s Princess M modeling a rectangular pair. Now I have an incentive to get my ears pierced!
Dan the Man and I have recently returned from a three-week trip to the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. We had such a good time, and the scenery was one stunning sight after another. We were lucky to see this beautiful mountain, Denali, on a gorgeous day. Read the rest of this entry
It’s been about six weeks since I’ve last posted on this blog. I haven’t lost my crafting mojo, but my motivation to write has been sorely missing. I’ve finally decided to get back to it — writing can be hard work, but it’s an excellent mental exercise. So here goes! Read the rest of this entry
I’ve been crafting many, many holiday gift tags, and these tea bag tags are one of my favorites. A tag with a gift inside attached to a gift. What could be better? Because I made several of these tags for all my tea-loving friends and family, I started with a template so that I wouldn’t have to measure each one. Read the rest of this entry
In general, there are two approaches to Christmas prep. One approach is to buy gifts throughout the year, prepare early, and roll into Christmas with ease. The other approach is to freak out in mid-December about all the things you still need to do. I belong to the first camp. I have many of my gifts bought, I’ve made a number of them, and I’m working on using my crapsmanship skills to make one-of-a-kind Christmas wrappings. Read the rest of this entry
crapsmanship 