Homemade Gift Idea #5- Gourmet Chocolate Dipped Spoons

Hello everyone! Sorry it's been a while since I have posted a gift idea.If you've been reading my blog , you know why. Today's homemade gift idea is gourmet chocolate dipped spoons. If you've gone to coffee shops or candy stores I'm sure you seen these. They're great and be can expensive.I've seen some be as high as $3 a spoon! When you consider the actual amount of chocolate on each one, that's pretty high. These are great to use in coffee or hot chocolate and make a great little extra something added to a gift basket .If you are giving a package of gourmet hot chocolate or coffee this year as a gift, add a couple of these along with it. They are also a great party favor. Now let's get on with it!






Supply list:

-Sturdy clear plastic spoons- they look the nicest but hey,it's Christmas , you could use green or red
-variety of chocolate candy bars or chocolate chips - I don't recommend the Melties chips as they take way too long to disolve in the cups
-variety of liquid flavorings- if you don't want to use those, use a flavored chocolate such as Ghiradelli or Lindt, they have some great flavored ones
-waxed paper
-lollipop wrappers- can be found in the candy making section of a hobby/ craft store, party store, or grocery store
-ribbon
-crused candy or finely chopped nuts, optional





1. Melt down chocolate. Mix in just enough liquid flavoring to flavor chocolate. Adding too much will cause the chocolate to not harden.

2.Dip spoons into chocolate until the entire bowl part of the spoon is well coated. Place on waxed paper.If desired or needed , you can re-dip the chocolate letting it set between dips until you get the right coverage.If you are re-dipping. BE SURE to dip in the same flavor or you will get mixed flavors. Hey there's a thought for new and interesting flavors.

3.If you want to add extras to the chocolate spoons, you'll need to do so while the chocolate is still wet. This is where you can really get creative. If using a white chocolate , you can take another spoons and dip it into a milk or dark chocolate and while it's dripping from the spoon in a long drip, move it back and forth across the white chocolate to make angled stipes. You can sprinkle on finely chopped almonds, pecans, or walnuts. I think dark chocolate dipped spoon with crushed candy canes sprinkled on top would be yummy!




4. Let spoons set to dry and harden. You can place them in the fridge on the waxed paper if you'd like.

5. Place spoons in the lollipop wrappers and tie with a ribbon. You're done!


Hope you all like this idea. I know you will amaze those you give them to.
"til next time,
happy stitching,
Sharlotte

Some more mail and ornaments

Hello everybody! Yesterday brought another ornament in the mail from the Ties That Bind exchange. My partner was Leeanne . It reminds of a vintage Christmas post card. The fabric is sort of a salmon colored pink which adds to the vintage look.Very nicely done Leeanne!

I got my tree in the kitchen set up. I mainly decorated it with things that you'd find in a kitchen. I used gingerbread men cookie cutters, little tiny candy canes that my sister made me, the cookie and s'more man ornaments that I made, along with other things that would compliment the tree. Yesterday I felt that the tree needed a little something else so ...

... I made this little gingerbread man. I just adore him! You can't see it in the picture very well because of the flash, but his nose is pink and not white like the rest of the 'icing'. I didn't have any garland for the tree but I did have some ribbon with candy on it that I thought would be perfect for it. I also had some Christmas candy fabric that I used as the tree skirt. You can kind of see it in the picture above.

I've been working on ornaments for our own tree in the living room inbetween the stitching for exchanges. This first one is one I'm sure a lot of you recognize from Blackbird Designs. I used a 'B' initial as that is what our last name starts with. The stitching was faster than putting it together!




This next one is a freebie pattern from The Drawn Thread titled 'Home for the Holidays'. I just love how it turned out. I wish I had gotten a closer shot of the beadwork...maybe tomorrow.

This last one is from Little House Needleworks that was in last years JCS ornament issue. I'm usually not keen on religious designs because so many of them seemed to be on the tacky side.Shouldn't something like that be more on the elegant side? I think so anyway and I find very very few I like. I think Diane did a great job with this one.

Well that's it for today. I hope you are able to fit some stitching or other crafting into your life today.It makes the day so much brighter! Thank you all for all your wonderful comments. Keep 'em comin' !

'til next time,

happy stitching!

Sharlotte

December is here!!

Greetings all! Can you believe that it is December already? Christmas is right around the corner! I have alot to do to get ready for it how about you? We've only got a little shopping done. I had planned on putting up my kitchen Christmas tree today but the lights that I was going to use on it stopped working. They were working a couple of days ago when I tested them. I won't be doing the tree today. It will have to wait until tomorrow.Rats! I thought I needed a little something Christmasy for the blog. I scrounged around and found some Christmas songs that I hope you'll like while reading.If not, just turn off the sound. If you like it, turn it up! :o)

I had joined 3 Christmas ornament exchanges and thought I would share some photos on those that I have sent out that have already recieved them.

I stitched one for Leeanne for The Ties That Bind exchange. That lucky duck is going to get two with this exchange! She already had a partner and then when one dropped out, she graciously offered to be my partner so I would have one. Bless her dear heart! The one I stitched for her is Winter Frost from Patricia Ann Designs found in last year's JCS Ornament Issue. I didn't realize until after I had stitched it that I had just the perfect fabric for the back. I should have taken a picture of that. It is a light purplish blue with silver snowflakes and stars.

Here's a little closer shot.

Yesterday I posted a pic of the ornament that Sadie stitched for me. Here is the one that I stitched for her. I stitched Let It Snow from CCN found in that same issue. I modified the pattern to make it into a stocking ornament. I will have to stitch me one too but it will wait until next year.

A wee bit closer peek.

So what are the rest of you working on? Are you making ornaments, pillows, gift boxes, or other things? I'd love to hear from you . Hope you all are having fun with all that the season brings. Well ,with the exception of traffic and searching for a parking space! That's never fun! LOL!

'til next time,

happy stitching,

Sharlotte

A little Christmas decorating & some mail arrives

Hello everybody! First off I must apologize for not posting the handmade gift idea on Friday. I have had lots of things on my mind. We went shopping for some stuff, not Christmas shopping per sey, and the city was so crazy! I have forgot about the Friday posts I guess with the guys being gone and all. I promise I will post this Friday!

I hope those of you that celebrate Thanksgiving, that you had a wonderful one. Ours was slow and easy. We decided to stay home and have our own this year and it was very relaxed. The only things I had to do was make a pecan pie the night before and stuffing the day of. Hubby took care of everything else! Here is the wonderful bird he cooked.

It was a 23lb. turkey and we have lots leftover up in the freezer for other nights.

I also got some wonderful mail. I received this beautiful ornament from the lovely Sadie http://stitchingupastorm.blogspot.com/ It is LHN's Holly & Berries and is so so pretty! She added a very pretty cording with gold and deep red around the edge and she chose the perfect fabric for the back that had cardinals on it. Thank you so so much for the beautiful ornament and for all the hard work! I'll treasure it always my friend!

I dabbled with some ornament making this weekend. I will be making a few others for the little tree in the kitchen. So far I have a cookie and a little s'more man done. Here was the outcome.

Up on the Housetop.... that was the song that was going through my head when I went outside to check on the guys to see how the outside lights were coming along. I brought them out some hot chocolate. It was quite nippy outside while they were putting up the lights. It had started to rain before they got them all up so the rest of the lights will wait 'til later this week when they have a chance.

....and here's the tree. Still have room for ornaments from a couple of other exchanges and the tree will be all set. I just can't get a good closeup shot of the whole shabang so maybe I will take closeups of sections later. We even have a few presents under there already! There're kind of tucked away in the back.

I had wanted to make a tree skirt this year but we couldn't stand to fight the crowds at Jo-Ann's the other day. Hubby thought that a fabric store wouldn't be busy on the day after Thanksgiving! I told him that he must not know women very well and he said that no he didn't . We got there and it was almost wall to wall shoppers. There was a lady there that was practically crying because they wouldn't give her a certain percent off of something she wanted just because she had driven a hundred miles (so she said and no one believed her) to get there. I'll tell ya , the nutcases really come out this time of year don't they?

Well, that's it in a nutshell! Thank you all for all of your nice comments on American Star. Now I just need to figure out a way to finish it.

'til next time,

happy stitching,

Sharlotte

American Star

Hello everyone! Just a quick post to show my finish of American Star from Blackbird Designs. I had most of the stitching of it done for quite some time. I just needed to fill in the background. I finally got around to finishing that part over the last couple of days. I think I will finish this into a stitching box of some sort. For lack of space, I store my stitching and other crafting supplies in the family/game room. Because of that I try to disguise my storage containers with stuff that will fit the room nicely without looking to hodge- podge. I say "try", I'm not quite there yet. It's a small room that is actually an exta bedroom with two entrances. There is no bed in there, just family stuff. The things that stick out like a sore thumb in there are my stackable drawer units. I have no place to put them. I'd take a picture for all of you crafty people so I could get ideas on how to disguise those, but it's such a hideous mess right now, I'd be too embarassed! The projects that I will be focusing on between now and Christmas is getting my winter stitching done and finishing up Alex's quilt.It's a not a Christmas present so no need to worry about him visiting my blog. I may get around to making a tree skirt too that I have wanted to make for some time now. Here's hoping this is the year! I won't be doing quite as much stitching for a while other than that. I need to give my eyes a break, the eye doctor informed me yesterday that the iritis has reared it's ugly head again. I'm not a bit surprised, it's been a real bugger to deal with.

Anyway, here is the American Star.

'til next time,

Happy Stitching,

Sharlotte

Some finishes to share

Greetings all! Well the guys are back from the deer hunting trip so that means I get to use the camera again! Yeah!! For all of those who are wondering, nope ,no deer :( . There is still the muzzle loading season and the atlerless season, so hopefully then. While they were gone I did a lot of decluttering and also I got a lot of stitching done. Since I was excited that I got to have the camera ,I thought I would take some pictures of the things I've stitched. I worked a bit on Alex's flannel quilt too ,but I'll save a picture of it for when I get it done.

First , here is the Be Ye Thankful that I won from Jolene all finished. I decided to finish it in slip on style for a pillow . That way I can stitch other things for other seasons and be able to keep using the same pillow base. The cases will store a lot easier than a ton of pillows.

Here is a little closer look. The camera isn't taking very clear pictures, I think it is getting old.

Jolene is just full of surprises! I went to check my mail the other day and low and behold I find a package from her! Inside was a Pine Mountain Designs pillow sham that I have been wanting for a long time. Even though Halloween had already passed , I couldn't resist stitching it up. These things go so fast, it only took me the part of a couple of days to do. I love the way it turned out! Thanks dear one! I had so much fun with it!

Next is my version of I Love Snow from Bent Creek. The pattern was gifted to me from Dee http://tangledupinsticksandstring.blogspot.com/ She is my Monday great blog shout out today. If you like knitting as well as stitching , you will love her blog. I've enivous of her Catherine socks. I really like Dee's color choices for the nose and cheek better than the pattern colors that I used. I'm thinking about taking those out before getting him into finished form. Thank you so much for the pattern Dee. I loved stitching this little guy!






I also got the Rose Sampler from Little House Needleworks done. I stitched it on some wonderful pink linen from Silkweavers that I recieved from my beCAUSE It's Pink partner. Thanks again Caroline! This was the perfect linen for this. I will make it into a project keeper/ stitching pouch. I have the perfect fabric for it, just got to get it into finished form.

Hope you all had a great weekend! Thanks everyone for commenting on the quilt. I really appreciate it.

'til next time,

Sharlotte

Just a quick 'Hi'

Hello everybody! This is just a quick little post so that you all don't forget who I am! Below is a picture that I have had on the computer for a while but don't think I've ever shared on the blog. It is a quilt I made a few years back called 'For All Those Scrappy Times'. It was a McCall's Quilting pattern and though it was a simple pattern to do, it turned into a nightmare! I spent a few years collecting fabrics for it,no big deal there. Then when I had together all the fabrics I wanted to use , I followed the cutting instructions and cut my fabric. Well , they made a cutting 'error' and that caused a huge waste of fabric. Well , no so much a waste as I could use that fabric at some point for another quilt, just not the one I wanted to use it on. I contacted them, let them know my problem, and they stated that in the following issue they had made a 'correction'. Well a lot of good that did me. I mean who buys every single issue of a particular quilting magazine? I for sure don't! They appologized and said that all they could do was send me a free issue and took my name and address. Well , they didn't even do that. I contacted them several weeks later and asked them where my magazine was and no response whatsoever. I still have never bought another one of their magazines. Call me petty ,but I was really upset about it. Since I had had the fabrics for awhile , by the time I went to purchase fabric again to finish cutting the quilt, the original fabric choice was no longer available. As it turns out, the new fabric I bought I liked much better than the first . That led me to finding a new fabric designer that I just love, Sandy Gervais.

Sorry there's not much detail in this picture. I'll probably get around to taking a better one eventually. The dark blue fabric for the hour glass block is from the Stitches on the Oregon Trail collection from Kansas Troubles, another favorite fabric designer of mine. The yellow/gold print is the fabric from Sandy Gervais but I can't for the life of me remember what that collection was. Any guesses out there?

Ok, ok, so this wasn't such a quick post after all ! Sorry!

'tll next time,

Sharlotte