I’m not a big fan of the Christmas hustle and bustle–I don’t count the days until I can sing Christmas carols nor do I break out the Christmas decorations the hour after Christmas dinner! I love the family time and evenings by the wood stove. The homey, woodsy part is the best part of the season for me. And midnight mass. I’ve never been to a midnight mass but I think it would be special.

But, by far my favorite part of the Christmas season is the careless abandonment to spicy fragrances. I love cinnamon and cloves and nutmeg–all the lovely smells bombarding my nose are a “scentual” delight. With that in mind, I’ve already bought several bags of scented pine cones. They smell so nice but James did make the off comment that he couldn’t believe I bought pine cones!  Granted, I only paid 75 cents a bag (Pensacola folks–Christmas decor shopping at St. Vincent de Paul.  Stat!) but they were still pine cones.  Kind of like buying sticks, I guess…

With his comment in mind, I began an online search for making my own scented pinecones.  What luck!  I found several recipes immediately.  One of the recipes required a seasoning period of 8 weeks, so I didn’t even bother with it. The other three were seemingly much easier to do in a short amount of time.  Without further ado, here are the recipes:

Variation 1: Clean and dry pinecones.  Cones can be dried in an oven on low setting.  Spray cones with water into which you’ve mixed several drops of essential or perfume oils.  Allow cones to dry.

Variation 2: Dilute white glue with water, paint pine cones with glue mixture and sprinkle spices.  Close in plastic bag for 24 hours.  Remove cones from bag, shaking to be sure that all loose spices are gone.

Variation 3: (my favorite)  Place cones in large plastic bag in a single layer.  Spray with spray on adhesive–being careful not to inhale fumes.  Close bag and shake cones.  Open bag, spray cones again.  Close bag, shake again.  Re-open bag, sprinkle cones with spices of your choice (cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, etc…)  From this point, proceed just as you would in variation 2.

I hope you have found some great ideas for your own craft time.  I’ve provided links to all my sources so be sure to visit them to get the exact measurements you need.  Have fun!

PS–looking for a cheap source for spices?  I always buy the cheap ones at Big Lots or dollar stores.  That way, you can save some money and still have a great product!

It’s that time again…

The Advent Conspiracy.

Thank you to all of you who stop by, who comment and brighten our days with your kind, thoughtful, wise and funny words. You are special to us and we give thanks for you!

I’m so excited! I just completed my first custom apron for someone I met at the Old Farmhouse Craft show. If she doesn’t like the apron, you can find it for sale in my Etsy shop, The Home Gnome. Or, you can find me wearing it. It’s super comfy and I love the alterations she had me make to the original pattern. Check out that bias tape: I totally made it by hand–never done such a thing in my life…   The colors will be great for holiday cooking–machine washable.  And, did you see those pockets?  You could fit a small child and leftovers in them!  Okay, maybe I exaggerate about the small child but those leftovers will go right in…

This past weekend, I scouted out a great sale here in Pensacola run by Leigh Shell and associates. It was advertised as being a “unique shopping experience” and boy was it! Turns out, the estate was that of a vintage/antique textile and clothing dealer here in town. She also was a home economics teacher at the local community college. What a great combination to find some great merchandise!

So, what did I find at the estate sale?  We found so many great things that I thought I would dress it up as my Thursday 13 post for this week!  The sale itself was inundated with Edwardian and Victorian style clothing.  Many beautiful items in near mint condition.  Of course, most of these antiques were beyond my budget–but I did manage to come away with a few very lucky finds!

Most of these beautiful finds will be making their way to my etsy shop, The Home Gnome, but others of them have found their home with us!

Some of you may recall the unceasing moaning I did last year about our lack of a working oven.  I was reduced to cooking biscuits on the stove top or griddle.  Stove top biscuits, let me tell you, do not cut it.  They were more like thick pitas or tortillas.  But, the story ends well.  James was able to find the part for the stove and now it works again–like the wonder of modern technology that it is.

Unfortunately, during the time of no oven, I forgot how to make cornbread.  Before the lack, I had become quite adept at golden delicious cakes of cornbread that folks just loved diving into.  To my shock, after a year-long hiatus, that touch was lost.  I made cake after cake of cornbread–most of which was fed to the dogs.  It was pretty sad times for me and for James.  Happy times for the dogs but definitely sad for us.

Last night, all that changed.  In desperation, I pulled out Jane Brody’s Good Food Book, sort of as a return to my roots.  I had begun my cornbread salad days using a recipe of hers and then improvising.  Maybe I could do it again.  Friends, I must tell you that it was a shining success.

I started out using her Corny Corn muffins recipe (page 600-01), altered it to our tastes and ended up with something roughly resembling this:

1 1/2 cups cornmeal

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 t salt

3/4 T baking powder

3/4 t baking soda

(In a large bowl, mix dry ingredients together with a whisk.  In medium sized bowl, mix together:)

2 eggs

1 1/2 cup buttermilk

3 T butter, melted

(add liquid ingredients to dry, blend.  Add:)

1 cup frozen corn

Mix all ingredients thoroughly and bake in greased cast iron skillet at 425 F until cake is golden.

We all congratulated ourselves on how well the cornbread turned out.  Jennifer said she was glad to have missed all the bad cornbread days, James said we should definitely stick with this recipe.  I simply buttered another slice and smiled.

Okay, surely enough time has gone by that I can write this post without any feelings of guilt, shame or mortification.

Several weeks ago, I was writing to someone when I typed the word dilemna Yes, that’s exactly how I spelled it and–yes–the little red line provided by spell check appeared below the typed word. I looked at the red line in amazement. Why did it not like the way I spelled dilemna? Wasn’t that the way I always spelled it? Didn’t I even have a silly joke/pun/play on words I always used when someone said that word? Wasn’t I a great speller?

Yes, I’m a great speller–a stickler if you will. For a time, I made a conscious effort to never even speak a word if I couldn’t be sure of its spelling. You never know when someone may say: “That word you just used, gorgeous, can you spell that for me?” It’s really better to be safe than sorry, I feel. Yes, I do have a dumb joke using the word dilemna and, yes, that is how I’ve always spelled it. My point is, I’ve always spelled it incorrectly and my little joke was less funny than even I thought it was. It was meaningless because it hinged on spelling the word incorrectly. Oh, the shame!

So, I decided to do a little research on how I came to spell dilemma with an “n.” After visiting a few forums and conducting my own non-scientific poll I discovered that other people do spell dilemma with an “n” but it appears to be an anomaly and no one is sure where the alternate spelling originated. As for my poll, the only person who spelled it with an “n” was someone who attended grade school with me. Yikes! Sounds like we may have pinpointed that spelling glitch right there!

So, mystery solved. Or not. To those of you who were gracious enough to answer my little poll and wait so long for the great reveal, I deeply thank you. May all your days be happy and all your spelling be precise.

ETA: whoa-ho-ho…just checked the poll results–five people voted for dileMNa.  Not so alone after all!