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Showing posts from September, 2010

Wall Pegboard Storage

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Use Wall Space for Storage!    Empty wall space can become a useful storage area, and it's a great way to keep scissors and other scrapbook tools out of little hands. Go to the thrift store to save big bucks and dig through the wall art for a frame whose shape or texture you like. Don't worry about color, or even if it has glass. You can change the color, and you don't need the glass anyway. Now go to the hardware store and cut a piece of pegboard to size, and secure the pegboard inside the frame. Give the wall hanging a coat of paint for a uniform look. Paint the frame in a contrasting color if desired, and decorate to suit your personal tastes. My mother, a veteran of both oil painting and stained glass art, changes frames the way we change clothes. one frame of a seascape is covered with an old thick rope she salvaged from the beach. For another, she recycled a few silk flowers to match the painting in the frame. Use your imagination and indulge your senses in

Spinning Tool Caddy

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Spinning Tool Caddy Craft an inexpensive desk caddy for go-to tools and supplies. Clean up cans of all sizes and stick them to a lazy Susan with heavy-duty adhesive . Wrap the cans in patterned paper for a personal touch. (To eliminate sharp can edges, cover them with masking tape or the colorful duct tape now available in many craft stores. Add a little bling with rhinestones, buttons, beads and bows if you desire. This is all about you!

Recipe: Spicy Cheese Soup

I think I'll treat them with some cheese biscuits to go with their Spicy Cheese Soup Spicy Cheese Soup 1 lb processed cheese, cubed (like Velveeta) 1 lb ground beef, cooked and drained 1 can (8-3/4 oz) whole kernel corn, undrained 1 can (4-oz) green chiles, chopped 1 can (14 oz) diced tomatoes with green chiles 1 can (14 oz) stewed tomatoes 1 envelope taco seasoning Corn chips for garnish, optional Combine all ingredients in slow cooker, and cook on Low 4-5 hours. Serve with corn chips if desired. Original recipe in Rival Crock Pot 3-in-1 Cookbook. ISBN: 978-1-4127-2584-2 Coming Soon! A Haunted Halloween Blog Tour Lena Austin http://www.LenaAustin.com http://depravedduchess.blogspot.com

Recipe: Apple Caramel Pie in the Crock Pot

Apple Carmel Pie Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook Revised and Updated , p. 248 Sue Hamilton, Minooka, IL Makes 8-10 servings Prep. Time: 5 minutes Cooking Time: 3 hours Ideal slow-cooker size: 4- to 5-qt. 2-crust refrigerated pie dough pkg. 2 22-oz. cans apple pie filling 1 tsp. cinnamon 12 caramel candies 1. Press one crust into half the bottom of a cold slow cooker, and an inch or so up half its interior side. Overlap by ¼ inch the second crust with the first crust in center of slow cooker bottom. Press remainder of second crust an inch or so up the remaining side of the cooker. Press seams flat where two crusts meet. 2. Cover. Cook on High 1½ hours. 3. In a bowl, mix together pie filling, cinnamon, and caramels. 4. Pour mixture into hot crust. 5. Cover. Cook on High an additional 1½ hours.   Coming Soon! A Haunted Halloween Blog Tour Lena Austin http://www.LenaAustin.com http://depravedduchess.blogspot.com

Quiltfest-- What I learned from Bonnie Hunter's Trunk Show

Wow, it's really amazing where you can find a fellow Flybaby. This past weekend, I went to Quiltfest 2010, and I eagerly ran to hear the featured speaker, Bonnie Hunter. While I'm not much on trunk shows, she was famous for her organizational techniques for scrap management and stash control. While my stash isn't out of hand yet, I didn't want to get that way. We arrived for the trunk show in plenty of time and happily took our seats. How shocked and pleased I was when Bonnie opened up her show by asking how many of us in the room were Flybabies! My hand shot up eagerly, and she picked me to ask if my sink was shiny! I nodded, grinning. Yes, I'd shined my sink and done all my morning routine including hanging out a load of laundry. I was a proud Flybaby! Women all around me asked "What's FlyLady?" and I gave out lots of little scraps of paper with www.FlyLady.net written on it. (grin) OMG! Bonnie's whole scrap management system w

Fw: Pokey's Sharing a Cool Secret for making Holiday Ornaments

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From: Quilting Daily <quiltingdaily@interweave.com> To: voiceomt2002@yahoo.com Having problems viewing this email? View it in a browser window. Share this on:   Quilting Arts Gifts is a special issue of Quilting Arts Magazine devoted to the art of gift-giving! September 9, 2010 My Recipe for No-sew Snowflakes It's no secret I'm a surface design junkie. Over the years, I have amassed an overflowing stash of fabrics that have been dyed, printed, screened, stamped, and stenciled. Not only do I despair of ever using these fabrics up in art quilts, I have to admit that some of them aren't quite art quilt-worthy. I also have to admit that, being a surface design junkie, I also collect a ton of objects that could be used in surface design. A category of those objects is cookie cutters—implements that I can assure you will never be used in the presence of butter and sugar. Soy wax, maybe. So you can imagine my delight wh

The Recessionista’s take on Bus Riding

Call me spoiled. I deserve it. I've ridden a bus once in all my fifty-one years of life. That time about eight years ago, I paid my change, rode down the street to the shopping center, got what I wanted, got back on the bus, and rode home. One stop, no changes, no major hubs. Dante held my proverbial hand like a baby and led me the entire way. Yeah, I was that clueless. Frankly, I still am that clueless. Well, I'll fix that as soon as possible. There's no reason that I should be this ignorant of how to ride a bus, especially when I'm well aware of how to use the Trip Planner feature on the bus company's website. What I need is practice. A simple ride down to the bank and back, just to get familiar with the procedure, and then continue to expand my horizons a bit. Perhaps even meet Tuesday at Regency Mall or perhaps make my way to the library for a peaceful day of typing in quiet. That does have a certain appeal. Lena Austin http://www.LenaAustin.com Do you love

Buffet Buckets

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Here's a Quickie Craft for any Season! Take small metal buckets and wrap them with paper! The example in the picture shows them with a map for a Bon Voyage party, but I can see holiday wrapping paper, birthday paper, scrapbook paper, and even fabric! What a fun and easy way to make those utensils readily available for a picnic, cookout, or buffet table. After the party, just slip off the paper and store it for next time. If you use fabric, iron a stiff interfacing onto the back so it stays upright. Next up: Cloth napkins in a flash. It's going green! -- Posted By Lena Austin to CrafteeChix at 9/02/2010 01:43:00 AM

Fabric Scraps Bowl--Make a Gift!

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Fabric Scraps Bowl Crafts Supplies for Fabric-Scraps Bowl What you'll need: Crafts Supplies for Fabric-Scraps Bowl 45x1 strips of fabric 100-percent-cotton rope, approximately 1/4-inch diameter Decorative thread for bobbin Regular sewing thread for top Instructions for Fabric Scraps Bowl 1. Cut fabrics into 45x1-inch strips. (The number of strips needed is determined by how much they are overlapped on the rope.) Wrap a fabric strip over one end of the rope, slightly overlapping fabric so the rope does not show through. Coil fabric-wrapped rope; hand-tack at center. 2. Continue wrapping rope with fabric, adding strips randomly or in a pattern, and coiling fabric-wrapped rope, machine-zigzag-stitching to secure the coils together. Shape bowl by angling coils upward while zigzag-stitching. 3. When desired shape and size is reached, cut rope, wrap end with fabric, and secure with zigzag stitches. Trim off fabric. -- Posted By Lena Austin to CrafteeChix

Fw: [CrafteeChix] Embroidery Project-- Mason Jar Pincushion

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OMG!! I so fell in love with this project, I just had to share. (see pic below) Look at this project! A pincushion using a mason jar for those pesky wandering supplies. I'm sure the quilters and even non-seamstresses can find cute fabrics or mini-foundation piecing projects to make this work a million ways. http://www.emblibrary.com/EL/elprojects/SimpleProduct_ELP.aspx?CS_ProductID=PR1605 It has a PDF file you can download to save.  Lena -- Posted By Lena Austin to CrafteeChix at 8/11/2010 07:04:00 AM