Who wants a pony for Christmas?

My Christmas gift to you, my friends, my stitching buds, my readers.

(Blurred intentionally) 

 

This will never be offered again.  I custom matched (the best I could) a bluish shade to paint the 5" box.   I wax the entire piece and the flash was reflecting.

 Please leave your initials or name in the comments on this post and I will draw a name Sunday evening at 8pm EST.  If I cannot reply to email you, and the winner doesn't contact me by Tuesday morning, I will draw another name.

 

Merry Christmas to you all!!

 

note - if anyone knows the designer of the Merry Christmas banner in my header photo, please let me know.

 

 

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Boxes are listed

Sorry - trouble with Paint program.  They are on the Sampler Box page HERE.

 

 

The ponies

Greetings.  Hope all is well and you're starting off a good day. 

 

I just wanted to show you that I still haven't finished my ponies.  I had planned to do a bag which is what I told the owner, promising to not make it into a wallet as her original.  I found it in the sewing heap yesterday when searching for label models and found that it would fit the top of an 8" box nicely, if padded.  Enough fabric to cover the lid sides too.  It's a possibility. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But then I thought it might make a nice label and it does, matching the gray blue paint I have.  But no box to put it on!!!  Mark went to the shop for me this morning to return what I purchased yesterday.  A sealed set of 3 square that when opened were a total disgrace.

 

Back to work.

 

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A few boxes Tuesday at 8pm

PRINTING!!  And I found a few unused older labels in an envelope.  Another trip to the store, no boxes.  I have ordered before online but I don't like to do that with paper mache.  So many boxes have areas where there is no glue and the paper is loose which means I have to cut it out, get more kraft paper, and re-line them.  Not easy to do in a small box.  The dozens of ovals that I ordered were perfect the first time, now they are flimsy and I am putting the extra time and card stock expense to line them for strength.  Some boxes are black inside, some are the newer ones and have the dark kraft lining I added.  Except for the dark blue with Eliz (top right) the others are rubber banded until I decide which it will be.  The little pink house is Anna Eliza Abe that I deliberately stitched uneven for an older look.  I think it may be too rough but we'll see.  There may also be a slight increase in prices since I got hammered on shipping last sale.  I include shipping to make it easy but even first class lightweights were over $3 plus the box cost, never mind priority prices for several.  There will only be a dozen or less.  Tuesday night at 8pm - unless I forget.

 

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Happy dance

Two posts in a short time!  But I'm so excited I have to tell you.  You won't believe it.  My old printer is working!  I plugged it in and gave it one last shot and it's working.  I can't believe it.  We worked on it for days, tried it for days afterward, and nothing.  No black ink at all. 

 

Just to show you how bad the print was on the HP 6830 Office jet, take a look at the top compared to the 6520 on the bottom.  This is why I couldn't use older labels or anything that was already in the computer.  I don't know if anyone is interested but I may have a few boxes this week.  They will all be the tall oval since no others are available.  Making a trip to Hobby Lobby this week but they usually only have one of each size since they separate sets.  It's almost 70 degrees, we went for a walk at 10pm last night - heaven!  Still warm today. 

So that's what I wanted to share.  And one more thing.

Don't forget to decorate your fridge.

 

Have a great day!!

 

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Pierogi Palace

That's what I wanted to call a little take out business, strictly pierogis.  There are so many fillings and I wanted each week to have a specialty in addition to the basics.  My father in law loved poppy seed and Bobalki is still one of my all time favorite desserts.  His mother from Czechoslovakia made pierogi with poppy filling, dried mushrooms, cabbage, cabbage with potato, sauerkraut.  There are many small cookbooks on these little pillows and unending ways to fill them.  These recipes are the ones used by our church for sales, my Dad's version for home, and my mom's family recipe.  I only make the cheese filling and I am so disappointed that the brand of dry cottage cheese locally is like gravel.  It's not the very fine curd that I was used to and these chunks of gravel were tearing the dough.  Next time I will add then to the food processor for a few seconds to break them up.  I have typed the recipes out since some of you were interested, and saved as a .jpg so you should be able to click and print the page.  Also will add to the recipe blog.  The real trick is the pinch, and since it's hard to not get the filling on the edges which will prevent that, as you pinch you kind of pull on the dough a little up from the very edge so it comes over the edge and seals well.  Hard to explain but you can easily get the hang of it, or just run your water dipped finger over the edge before pinching.