Janet of All Trades

Merry Christmas from my Home to yours!

Merry Christmas! I would like to give you a gift of a recipe that I have been making for years. It is super easy and will get  rave reviews from all your Holiday guests. I call them Cheese Pennies, although they have been called Gold Doubloons or Homemade Cheez its. Following is recipe that (be warned) will make this a request for every party from now on. Ingredients 3 Sticks of Butter 1 1/2 Packages of Onion Soup Mix 1 1/2 Teaspoons of Salt 1 1/2 Pounds Grated Cheese (about 6 cups) 3 Cups of Flour Directions: Mix Butter and Cheese well in a mixer. Add remaining ingredients and blend. It will be very dry and may need to be kneaded. Shape into 1 inch roll in wax paper and chill (2 hours) Slice into 1/4 inch thick Place on ungreased cookie sheet Bake at 375 for 10 to 12 minutes This makes about 6 to 7 dozen Serve while hot or cold with fresh apple slices! Enjoy!

I love decorating and Christmas is the perfect holiday for me since I can re-decorate the whole house temporarily with old and new items. I especially like trees and in the past few years I have either made or found some of the most amazing renditions of Christmas trees to decorate my house.  It all started about 40 some years ago when I really wanted a Christmas tree for my bedroom. Reason being that one of my older sisters had this huge magnificent artificial tree in her room and I wanted one too. So my little brain started to work on how I could build my own. I proceed to cut some evergreen bows from a tree in our backyard and stuck them in a coffee can with a little dirt. I made a paper chain and ornaments out of felt. It was perfect and so the obsession begun. Since then I have always had a real tree for Christmas up until a few years ago when it just did not seem right to be throwing a tree to the street every year.  I then became obsessed again with making tr...

Merry Christmas! I found myself wanting to make Santa hats for my twin nephews this year at the last minute. When I found this super cute flannel fabric for a steal and thought it would be perfect for the hats, but change them to Elf hats since it fits the boys personalities better! I was going to make my own pattern since it seem like it would be easy, but ran out of time and used a tutorial from Fun Fleece It has all sizes of patterns from baby to adult, and was super easy to follow. I tweaked it a bit since I was not using furry fabric and my color scheme was different. I started my making a white pom pom for the top. This is pretty easy and had to call on my skills from when I was a child and made these with washers from my Father's tool bench. Now all you do is cut two circles about the size of the pom pom you want, cut a circle from the center and a side opening and start wrapping yarn. They come out a little irregular but nothing a trimming with scissors wo...

For some reason I wait until a few days before Christmas to think of some quick Christmas crafts. It causes me much stress since why didn't I think of these back in July? Here is just a Sneak Peak at what I have been working on and will post in the next few days... Some very cute Christmas fabric that will be made into something really cute! A bit of cheap bling that I couldn't resist transforming into something lovely. Check back the next few days to see what I have created..or not! Enjoy!

It all started with this little paper punch that I bought a few weeks ago of a Snowflake.  It actually is a stamp and a punch in one! Very clever Martha. I intended to use it to create my Christmas Cards and it still might be in the cards (ha ha). But it also started me on this whole obsession with Snowflakes.. I then bought these super cute pajamas on Black Friday at Target for $10! They are so worth the $10 even if the pants shrunk and barely cover my ankles. Then I found this crazy plastic ring in my Holiday decorations. I might have to wear a few times before Christmas, although wearing gloves over it will be a challenge. And of course I had to create something to wear with a Snowflake theme. So I cut a few pieces of Encyclopedia paper and made a few pendants. And added a button and a key. They could be ornaments as well..But I didn't get that far... I think I will need to wear them first! Enjoy

Every Christmas the decorating spreads to another room in my house. This year I am thinking about a small tree in the bedroom, just a little one with a few lights. While thinking about that tree I came up with some quick and easy trees for my craft room. I started with fabric scraps in my favorite colors and a 10 inch $1.00 foam tree. After ironing the fabrics, I started to wrap it around the tree, securing it with a pin. Wrapping it until it was completely covered and then securing the back with pins. Next I trimmed the bottom straight across. Then I secured the bottom with a pin. Now the pin was also used to balance the tree on a spool. No Sewing or glueing needed as my scraps can be used for another project it I want to. The perfect trees for my Craft Room Simple and easy. Festive and match my decor.  And the fabric can be reused! I love them.. Now just three more trees to decorate! Enjoy!