Thankful

Settling down for a post Thanksgiving lazing around and I'm trying to think of how to use up all the cranberry pear chutney I made. Whole cinnamon sticks are waaaay better than ground cinnamon. I am now thinking about how to bake an apple pie with whole cinnamon sticks. Maybe I could put a little trap door opening in the top where I could extract the cinnamon sticks post baking. Or maybe I could just make some cinnamon extract. The powder stuff just seems too bitter for my taste.

Anyway, my sister and I have been crafting like crazy. We sewed our own tea bags out of coffee filters and mixed up our own tea blends with lavender, black tea, oolong, green, chamomile... the works. We got three different flavors together and put color coded strings and handmade tags in each of them. With all the hand labor that went into each tea bag, we ended up putting enough in each bag that they can be reused about 3 times. Or maybe I should just say that one bag makes a quart mason jar full of tea. Either way, they're pretty delicious.

This week we worked on handmade evergreen wreaths. We pilfered evergreens from friend's houses with only a few purchased pieces to really stand out. With just some wire, wreath forms, time, and some pricked fingers, we made 7 pretty darn good looking wreaths. They were really fun to put together. I think I might put them up at the vineyard to see if they sell. They are very unique and just as pretty, if not moreso, than the ones that are at every home improvement store now.

Next up, I'm not sure. Soap? Slippers made from the sheepskins? Winter is much less boring when there's something to do. This weather sure does help too. :)