We Whisk You A Merry Kiss-mas!

Are you looking for a simple, inexpensive, and original gift for the ladies in your scrapbooking club, bowling league, or for your children's teachers? Head over to your local dollar store to pick up the supplies for this sweet gift.

Materials:
Cloth kitchen towel
Metal whisk
Hershey's Kisses
Clear plastic sandwich bag
Bow

Directions:
Put a generous handful of Kisses in baggie. Open the loops on the whisk and tuck in the bag of candy. Wrap the towel around the whisk and secure with a bow. Add a little card that reads "WE WHISK YOU A MERRY KISS-MAS!"

What are you doing to prepare for the holidays? Please head over to Basketmaster's Weavings to share your projects and recipes on "What We're Working On Wednesdays". I can't wait to see what everyone is doing :-)

Hugs and blessings~
~~~Anne

How to Make a Ristra

Okay, I’m totally late for Nancy’s “What We’re Working on Wednesdays”, but better late than never, right?

I, once again, had a hard time sleeping last night. I finally decided to get out of bed at around 4:30 this morning. I put on a pot of coffee and cleaned up around the kitchen for a bit (I was already miserable, so why not add to the pain!). Anyway, I noticed that the last huge pile of peppers from our chile harvest were ripening at an alarming rate, right there on the counter in my(now clean) kitchen. “Lazy Anne” thinks they’ll make a good addition to the compost bin. “Crafty Anne” knows she can absolutely do something fun with the chile. “Crafty Anne” thinks a lot faster than “Lazy Anne”. Guess who began making her first-ever RISTRA at 5:00am???

It was actually an easy project. Tying all the knots was strangely relaxing, and knowing I’ll have plenty of dried chile pods to use this winter made the process that much more satisfying.

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Want to make one of your own?

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Ready, set, go!
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Gather your materials:
- Chile peppers
- Twine
- Scissors

- Raffia

Cut a long length of twine (l-o-n-g, about 10 feet or so.) Double the twine and tie a knot at one end. Begin making a series of slipknots with your doubled “rope”, as pictured above. Try to make the knots fairly close together, but don’t worry about the placement too much. You’ll fill in any “holes” later.

Begin poking the stems of your peppers into the slipknots. Tighten each knot as you add more peppers.
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After about every third pepper, weave the twine around the stems several times and knot to make a cluster.

Continue the process until you have a “foundation” for your ristra. The length of your foundation depends more on your personal preference and the number of peppers you have. (I had a lot of peppers! My ristra is about 22 inches long.)

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Cut more pieces of twine in lengths of about 6 inches. Begin attaching more peppers by simply tying double-knots to secure them to your foundation. Snip off the ends of twine to about ¼ inch. ( I have also tied in some raffia in the picture above.)

Hold up your ristra often to check for gaps. Add more peppers as needed, attaching to the foundation AND the stems of already tied-in peppers. (Always include the twine part of your foundation when adding more chile.)

We’re getting there, but you can still see “bald spots”. Add more peppers. As your ristra becomes more fuller, you’ll have to dig around a bit to get the ends of your string through your arrangement. Don’t worry. If your knots are tight, your ristra can withstand quite a bit of manipulation.

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Tie in more raffia for decoration and texture.

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Whew! We’re almost finished. We need to add a loop so we can hang our ristra.

Wrap and tie tightly the remaining end of your doubled twine around the pepper stems at the top of your ristra. Wrap until you are left with a loop about 2-3 inches long. Attach raffia to the top of the loop by knotting. Wrap the raffia around the twine, and finish by tying the raffia into a bow. Add additional raffia or other embellishments, if desired.

Here is my finished ristra. Not bad for a project I finished before the sunrise! Not too bad at all. (Okay, really. I totally LOVE it and am feeling very impressed with myself right now!) I’m thinking I may have to get an earlier start on making ristras next year. They’d make awesome and unusual Christmas gifts for family and friends who don’t live in the Southwest.

Hugs and blessings~
~~~Anne

Recycle a Light Bulb into a Reed Diffuser

My friend Nancy over at Basketmaster's Weavings has started a new meme called "What We're Working On Wednesdays". Just in time for the holidays, it gives us the opportunity to share our current projects and recipes with the blog world. Please visit Nancy for more details on how to participate in this fun project.

OK. On to my Recycled Lightbulb Reed Diffuser...

I'm going to show you how you can get from this:

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To this:

Ready, set, go!

Mix Your Diffuser Fragrance:
In a bowl or jar, mix 20 drops of essential oil or other fragrance with 6oz. high-proof vodka or grain alcohol (100 proof or higher). Add a couple of drops of food coloring if you wish to tint your fragrance. Set the mixture aside. (I used Christmas Forest Fragrance Oil from Bramble Berry and a couple of drops of green food coloring in this project.)

Create Your Diffuser:
***Wear protective eyeware and rubber gloves for the first step.***
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Wrap your lightbulb in a towel. Smack the end of the lightbulb with a hammer to break the seal and release the filament and innards. (You’ll try to be gentle at first. Don’t be. Apparently, lightbulbs are not nearly as delicate as they look!)

Pull out the innards with needle-nosed pliers and rinse out the lightbulb with water.

Attach feet (I used clear glass “vase gems) with glass-friendly adhesive.

Cover the neck of your diffuser to clean-up the look. You can wrap it with raffia, ribbons, fabric, cork… I used a bit of embossing copper on the project pictured.
Glue on embellishments, if desired. Fill with fragrance mixture and insert reeds. Enjoy!

Hugs and blessings~

~~~Anne

Carving a Pumpkin to Look Like My Dog

OK. I was not going to carve a pumpkin this year. But last night, Dave hauls in a good sized pumpkin from the garden, plops it on the table, and trots away. I did my best to ignore this orange beauty, but she's absolutely begging to be carved. "No. Back away from the pumpkin," I tell myself. "Go to bed." I went to bed and both the pumpkin and I survived the night.

What do you know? The very first e-mail I received this morning had a bunch of pictures of dogs posed next to pumpkins that had been carved into their liknesses. The one above is the spitting image of my 4-legged baby! Are you kidding me??? I, of course, have to carve this design into the pumpkin! So I set off to find a chihuahua pattern. Lo and behold, I hit the jackpot of FREE dog themed pumpkin patterns!

Here's one for Nancy and her sweet Cindy:

Here's one for Miyuki's precious Dachshund:

And one for Miss Yo-Yo's little Jack Russell:

Do you want to carve a pumpkin in the image of your own 4-legged family member? The free patterns are available here at BHG. There are many different breeds available and the pictures they have posted are totally sweet. I especially love the pumpkin carved like a pug!

Happy Halloween.

Hugs and blessings~
~~~Anne

Free Berry Basket Pattern from Basketmaster's Weavings!

My friend and "mentor basket weaver" Nancy Jacobs has generously posted another free basket pattern and tutorial on her website, Basketmaster's Weavings. Even better... She has created a video tutorial to guide you in the weaving process! Click here to visit her on YouTube.

I've not had time to weave for a few months! This sweet "beginner" basket might just be the thing to get back into my "weave".

Hugs and blessings~
~~~Anne

How To Make Gift Bows From Old Magazine Pages

How cool is this idea? Making your own gift bows from old magazine pages has got to be one of the best "upcycle" ideas I've seen in a long time. There are so many different scrap materials that could be used for this project, right? (I'm thinking my staff members are going to be receiving Christmas presents decorated with bows made from old Kumon worksheets!)

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Please visit Jessica at How About Orange for her simple tutorial. Be advised that simply viewing the directions for the project might cause you to stop what you're doing and head off to find some glue dots and a stapler!

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Hugs and blessings~

~~~Anne

October is National Book Month - Be a Reading Role Model

The latest word from educators is that reading aloud to kids may help them in school and later in life. That’s because children who are read aloud to often become readers themselves.

Experts say reading aloud makes reading more fun for kids and, therefore, something they’re more likely to do on their own.

The more a person reads, the better he or she becomes at it—and students who read the most tend to stay in school longer and achieve more.

I strongly encourage families to read together as much as possible. Here are some tips for parents to become reading role models:

Make it a family thing. Set aside time to read at lease one night a week as a family. It can be after dinner or homework or right before bedtime. Join your local library and make family trips on a regular basis. Talk with your children about their books so that they will see you’re interested.

Make your home reading ready. Create a reading area in your house that has comfy furniture, good lighting, and most importantly books. Stock this area with books that your family will enjoy, such as how-to books, mysteries, comedies or fairytales. You’ll be surprised how often you and your children read when the materials are immediately available.

Do it together. In addition to reading as a family, invite your children to read with you. Show them how we use reading in our everyday lives by asking them to read the back of the cereal box, street signs, or the synopsis of their favorite movie on DVD. These simple activities work anywhere and will show your children that reading is an essential life skill.

Read on the go. Next time you take a family road trip, encourage your children to open a book along the way. If your children get carsick or are too young to read on their own, audio books are a safe and educational alternative for everyone. This will ensure a quiet and entertaining trip for the entire family.

Do you need help selecting books that appeal to your child’s interests or reading ability? Kumon offers a free Recommended Reading List, which includes a range of 350 titles for any reading level. Parents can select books to read aloud to children that help build pre-literacy skills. Students can find books on anything from sports to science or adventure books. Ask your local Kumon Instructor for a copy, leave your request as a comment on this post, or e-mail me at barksmommy@gmail.com.

Hugs and blessings~
~~~Anne