Twelve Days of Christmas Begins!!

 Good morning dear ones!

It's been a couple years since I did a 12 Days of Christmas celebration. With all of us staying closer to home these days, I am hoping you find time to enjoy the recipes and craft tutorials I will be sharing.  Each day for the next 12 days, I will be posting, so don't miss out.  I'd also love it if you could share my posts, so that more people can enjoy the celebration.

To me, there is nothing worse than having to scroll through pages and pages on blogs, 'gabbing' about projects or recipes, before getting right to the directions, so I am going to skip all the fluff and share my tutorials and recipes promptly, so you can get busy making them! 

So without further ado, let's begin our

12 Days of Christmas Celebration!

 Today we start our with an old family recipe, passed down through several generations of my family.  These soft and spicy cookies always bring back fond memories of my childhood.  Be warned though...once you eat one, you will want another!

Ginger Snaps

 1/2 c shortening

1/4 c butter

1 c sugar

1/4 c molasses 

1 egg

2 1/4 c flour

2 t baking soda

1 t each of cinnamon, ginger and ground cloves

Cream sugar, butter and shortening, beat 2 minutes, then add molasses and beat again until well blended.

Add egg and mix just until blended.

Sift together flour, baking soda and spices and gradually add to creamed mixture.  Chill for 1 hour.

Roll into 1" balls and then roll in extra sugar.  Place on cookie sheet 2" apart, and bake at 350 degrees for 9 minutes or just until cooked.  Do not over cook if you want these cookies to come out soft and oh so good.  If you prefer your Ginger Snaps to 'snap', you can bake for 12 minutes. 

For today's tutorial, I am sharing how to make a primitive garland.  

 

You will need the following items:

 Sturdy rusty or black wire - no thin stuff!

a variety of acorns, pine cones or other seed pods

dried orange slices 

(I always make a lot of orange slices**...they are great to use in crafts or as bowl fillers)

pine garland, cut into separate pieces

1/2 yard homespun fabric

Drill with small bit

**see notes at bottom on how to make the orange slices

Collect all of your items.  You will need to do some prep work before stringing your garland.  First, take your acorns and drill a hole through the bottom portion...if the tops fall off while doing this, just reattach them with some hot glue. (See collage photo below) Next, drill a hole in each of your seed pods and at the top and thickest part of each pine cone. 

How many of each you will need depends on the length of the garland you are planning to make.  I like to do quite a few of each and/or keep the drill handy if I need more.  Next, tear your fabric into 1 inch strips, then cut these into strips that are about 8" long...you will need quite a few, but this also depends on how long your garland is.  Once your prep work is all done, you can start to assemble your garland.

Take your wire and make a loop at one end, wrapping the extra bit of wire around the length of wire, to make a hanging loop.  Now comes the fun part...start stringing your garland elements onto the wire...I like to create a pattern, such as one acorn, one seed pod, one acorn, two orange slices, one pine cone, two orange slices, and repeating until I have the items strung to the length I want PLUS one foot of extra wire.  It will seem like you have a lot of empty wire, but once you add the garland and homespun ribbons, it will be used up.  Make another loop in the wire at this end, so that your elements stay on. 

  Once all the hard elements are strung, you will go back and take your garland pieces, wrapping them around the wire loosely and evenly down the garland.  Do the same with the strips of fabric.  The more you add, the fuller the garland will be. 

 

**to make dried orange slices, simply cut very thin slices of orange, place in dehydrator if you have one, or place on cooling rack atop a cookie sheet, and put into a 150 degreee oven until dry. You need the air to circulate all around the slices, which is why they should be placed on a rack first...the cookie sheet is to catch any drips.

Enjoy your new Garland!  Hang above a doorway or set atop a prim cupboard.

See you tomorrow for more fun ideas!

**Blessings**

 

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