Welcome Home Racoon and Rabbit

I had a lot of fun decorating Annie's cottage. Just your basic plants and window for the most part. I also put a door and mailbox on the front of the house. Since I used a flower print for the inside I added a stone pathway and small pond too.

Of course I wanted to include a few creatures to live in the house. I modified a finger puppet pattern for the two animals. When she is older the felt bottoms can be taken off if she wants to use them as finger puppets.

Thanksgiving Contribution

I was looking for a recipe on All Recipes yesterday and came across this recipe for stuffed mushrooms. Now I personally am not a fan of the cooked mushroom, but my husband and father-in-law love them. Surely over 1,000 people couldn't be wrong so I thought that I would give them a try.

My first attempt did not go so well. The directions said to fry until there was no liquid left, taking care not to burn the garlic. How exactly are you supposed to do that???? I tried stirring frequently, but when they started frothing I suspected I'd done something wrong.

Needless to say the garlic burned. Luckily I had enough garlic for a second attempt. I used a few of the mushrooms to replace the burned ones above. Instead of a tablespoon of oil, I only used 2 teaspoons the second time. I also went ahead and pulled them when I thought that they were done and drained them on a paper towel.

They turned out well. Even if it did take me two tries.

My husband said they were the best stuffed mushrooms he had ever had. He liked them so much he even let me take his picture enjoying them. If you like stuffed mushrooms and cream cheese you should definitely try these.

While the Boys Are Away...Mom Will Play

This past weekend my husband took Joel down to visit his nana. I decided to take advantage of a weekend alone and get ahead on some Christmas presents that I wanted to make for my brother's girls.

While browsing the many sewing blogs out there I came across this fun fabric doll house at UK lass in US. I knew that I wanted to try it once I saw it. As I started looking through my fabric stash I found these three fabrics that I thought would be perfect. I'm not done yet. All the details still need to be added. More to come later.

I also knew that I wanted to make a bag for my other niece to coordinate with the dress I made her for her birthday (see previous post). I also wanted to try felt applique which I thought would mesh well with a messenger bag. I've been wanting to try one for a while. Of course as soon as I had it all cut out my sister-in-law told me that Kalena had requested a purse style bag. It's okay because I'm actually going to make her two bags.

I accidently appliqued the deer (or donkey according to my husband) in the wrong corner of the front flap so the flap is a little shorter than I would like, but overall it still turned out pretty well. I do like the applique on the front.