what's cooking?

I've been very busy lately working on products for the etsy shop, but I have been cooking and thought I'd share a bit of that with you all.

Here are some of the recipes we've tried so far this week. I apologize for not remembering to take photos for you all!

Turkey Tetrazzini - was a great way to use up some of the leftover Thanksgiving turkey

Tuna Noodle Casserole - I also added some fried onions to the top of this one to give it a bit more crunch (and I had some leftover from Thanksgiving)

Easy Beef and Rosemary Mock Bisquick Bake - I loved the rosemary biscuit crust on the bottom of this ground beef casserole

I also want to share my latest creation with you - cell phone sleeves. They've been such fun to create and would be easy for you all to replicate if you're in the mood to do so.

This one has an owl design needle felted onto the front. The design is really basic - just two pieces of wool felt and two pieces of cotton lining fabric sewn together into a simple pouch design.



Again, if you really want to see it in the shop there are links in the right sidebar on the main page of the blog.

cyber Monday sale in my etsy shop

Sales are picking up and items are flying out the doors, folks.

If you've been waiting to make a purchase from my etsy shop today may be the day.

Use coupon code CYBERMON2011 to get a 10% discount. This code will be good today (Nov. 28) and tomorrow (Nov. 29). After that it disappears.

I've added these three needle felted gnomes this morning.

how to use that leftover turkey

Today we're making a batch of turkey stock using the bones from our Thanksgiving turkey. (for instructions look at this post about making homemade turkey stock that we did a while back)

But in addition to making stock we're also left with a fair amount of turkey to use. We had a small turkey this year - just a bit over 10 pounds - so we won't have a lot of turkey to work with.

I put together a board on Pinterest with links out to recipes that can utilize that leftover turkey. Come have a look!

What's your favorite recipe that uses leftover Thanksgiving turkey?

what I'm not doing today

I'm not shopping today.

I have a few more gifts to buy for the boy. Okay, I have ALL the gifts for the boy left to buy. It's only 4 gifts, though.

Remember our family buys only 4 gifts for each family member.

1. Something we want
2. Something we need
3. Something to wear
4. Something to read

We still need to buy categories 1 and 3 for the girls.

The Hubster and I are discussing how we might want to purchase one large gift the entire family can enjoy rather than buying individual gifts for the two of us.

So that means our remaining Christmas shopping for our immediate family consists of a grand total of 7 gifts left to buy.

I won't be rushing out to the big box stores today to fight the throngs for great bargains. I might look through my fabric stash and decide which flannels would be best for sewing up pjs for the girls. I might peruse etsy and see if any of the handcrafted toys could fit the "Something we want" category for the girls' gifts.

I might order some fabric for the boy so I can get started on a "Something I need" gift for him. We have a new bookstore opening in our mall and amazingly it's a local bookstore, not a chain. I might go there on Saturday to celebrate Small Business Saturday and see if I can find a suitable book for his "Something to read" gift. I might visit the local game store - again not a chain, but a small local business - on Saturday as well to see if they have a "Something I want" gift for him. Clothing is honestly the hardest gift category to buy locally for us. There are a few very high end specialty clothing shops in a nearby town and one variety store type business at a different nearby town that also carries a limited selection of clothing. To buy locally I really do need to make the clothing myself. This year that is possible because the boy is off at college during the daytime and I can sew stealthily without him detecting it.

But whatever I choose to do today it won't be Black Friday sales shopping. Despite what the pundits say I don't believe it's good for my community or for our economy.

I know lately it seems like the blog is just one big advertisement...

for my etsy shop.

But I'm really, really excited about the work I'm doing. Today I'm sharing just the pictures and not any links. That's my way to reconcile my desire to share the finished products without living my life as a freakin' infomercial. :)
(and if you really want to learn more about my work or buy something there are links in the widget off to the right on the blog's home page)

Rainbow Gnomes - it's a very simple Waldorf inspired design for a gnome. I wanted something smaller and simpler and this is what I came up with. These guys are about 3" tall.


overview of all 10 rainbow gnomes


orange rainbow gnome


pink rainbow gnome


brown rainbow gnome


light blue rainbow gnome


purple rainbow gnome


yellow rainbow gnome


red rainbow gnome


green rainbow gnome


medium blue rainbow gnome


grey rainbow gnome



Angel Cherub - he/she's loosely needle felted and I used simple thin wire to create his/her halo - stands about 2 3/4" tall











Santa Claus - he's more detailed and took me about an hour and a half to needle felt. I listened to episodes from season 5 of the tv show 24 with the Hubster while I worked on him. I'm doing that a lot lately - listening to movies or shows and needle felting. It seems like such a waste of time to just *watch*. Oh, and he's about 3" tall. Both the angel and the Santa could easily be converted to tree ornaments with the addition of a ribbon hanger in the back (like I did with the snowman)

Ellywil the gnome

Nobwocket seemed so lonely that I had to create a companion for him.

Meet Ellywil:



Like Nobwocket, she stands about 5" tall and is constructed entirely of wool. I used needle felting to bind the fibers together and sculpt her.












Both dolls are available in my etsy shop, EarthyMamaGoods.

meet Nobwocket the gnome

Nobwocket is my latest art doll and is now available in my etsy shop.

pumpkin bread

I'm sick with a horrible cough and sore throat and the baby girl is starting to get it as well.

Yesterday the Hubster even came home from work early to give me a break. I'm not a good napper, but just having someone else on hand to care for the girls was a great blessing!

Today I have a bit more energy as the coughing is a bit less frequent so I decided to make some pumpkin bread.

I used this recipe. We haven't tried the bread yet so I can't tell you how this recipe tastes, but the aroma is heavenly. :)

I also sold my very first needle felted creation via my etsy shop earlier this week! I'm really geeked about that because while I've been selling the cloth menstrual pads really well none of the needle felted items had sold yet. I do hope the new owner loves the little doll as much as I did.

handmade holidays 2011

This year, like years past, we're striving for a simpler Christmas in our household. For a few years now we've held to giving just four gifts to each member of our family.

The gift-giving "rules" we follow are,

Something we want
Something we need
Something to wear
Something to read

We also fill stockings on the evening before St. Nicholas Day and small gifts are inside the stockings.

As much as possible I do try to purchase our gifts from small businesses, etsy artisans, and make some gifts myself. I'd love to be able to make all of our gifts, but I'm realistic enough to know that I never seem to accomplish that.

For those of you who also enjoy crafting your own gifts and buying handmade gifts you might be interested in taking a look at some of my Pinterest boards.

I pin tutorials, free patterns, free printables, and examples of handcrafted goods I'd like to purchase for my own family.


Ideas for sewists

sewing tutorials and patterns for kids clothing

sewing patterns and tutorials for home decor

sewing patterns and tutorials for sewing tools and aids

sewing patterns and tutorials for bags and purses

sewing patterns and tutorials for womens clothing and accessories

sewing patterns and tutorials for kids toys

sewing patterns and tutorials for baby items

play food patterns and tutorials


Ideas for fiber artists

needle and wet felting


Waldorf inspired gifts

Waldorf toy ideas

winter Waldorf nature table ideas

storytelling


General crafts items

hair accessory tutorials and ideas


Gifts of food

food gifts

food gifts in a jar


Paper crafts

paper crafts

printables


My personal Christmas favorites

Christmas decoration ideas

Christmas handmade gift ideas

Christmas printables

Christmas stocking stuffer ideas

highlights so far this week

I know I've been terribly neglectful of this blog lately, and I apologize. I do still have a few homemaking/urban homesteading type posts in the editing process and hold out hope that I'll actually finish them and get them up here.

For now, though, I'll leave you with pictoral highlights of this week. There has been...


cooking from scratch...


homemade enchiladas with homemade enchilada sauce - we made these with leftover beef roast - picture taken just before they were baked


freshly baked Italian bread - made with my current favorite bread dough recipe



art projects with the girls...


cornucopia mosaic by the big girl


the baby girl's cornucopia picture



etsy shop work for me...


snowman ornament for the etsy shop


more 14" pads for the etsy shop


angel in the works - for the etsy shop



and the arrival of our winter season...


our first snowstorm of the year - picture taken on Wednesday, November 9th

turkey mosaic pictures and more novel writing

Yesterday I continued writing my novel for NaNoWriMo. I forgot to grab a screen shot, but I managed to write 1679 words.

The girls made some turkey mosaic pictures. We found the idea via Pinterest.



Dinner was homemade egg rolls. I'm still working on ways to use up those cabbages my sister brought us a few weeks ago.



What happened in your neck of the woods?

new snow child for the etsy shop and more writing

I continued to have a fairly productive day here today as well.

First I wrote another 1667 words on my novel...



and then I worked on this sweet little snow child for my etsy shop...

on target and feeling productive

I managed to write 1671 words this morning and I'm on target for finishing my NaNoWriMo novel in time.

After finishing up that I went ahead and baked two loaves of bread for our dinner tonight.



Tonight we'll be hosting the missionaries for dinner and I have a dinner of linguine with choice of chicken alfredo sauce or marinara sauce, tossed salad, and fresh italian bread planned. I'm about to go make an applesauce cake for dessert.

I thought that participating in NaNoWriMo would stress me out and I seriously considered abandoning it several times over the past week. So far, though, it's actually inspiring me to focus my time and I'm feeling more productive.

Do deadlines help or hinder you?