A new mini quilt exploring textures

We are working with textures and rubbings and this month we are concentrating on fruits and veggies. This is my first one, I am working on another. Avocados, done with collage, puffy paint, gesso, inks, paint.

Almost done with the dishes!

I have been working on this pastel for awhile and I thought I was done but then I photographed it. Sometimes when you get back, take some time or look at the painting from a different viewpoint you will see the areas that are weak or missing. I have a few areas that need some work so I will be spending some time finalizing my painting! I will be glad to not have to look at silverware for awhile! Randy has agreed to unload the dishwasher for a few months!

Custom Collage and mix media workshop- March

I have decided to do workshops here at my studio due to the requests from my amazingly wonderful students. I find that trying to do these types of workshops and classes where so much "stuff" is required makes me almost have to disassemble my studio and try to transport it. I find I always forget something that would have worked too! I am planning on doing a different workshop each month and based on the response I will add classes or adjust the schedule. This first class/ workshop will be on creating your story. To read more about the workshop and sign up visit my website;
www.desireesdesigns.com . To assure my students have adequate room to work and all they need to be successful I am limiting the size of the workshops so we can be in a more intimate environment and learn to focus and get into the "zone". I hope to see you in March! Watch for more workshops signup soon.

A gift from me to Karin

Karin Jurik's blog has been inspiring and amazing since I first found it. Different strokes for different folks has never failed to inspire me to try different things. Not only did I except many of the challenges that were outside my comfort zone but I was always awed by the variety of styles and techniques that other artist used to translate their own interpretation of the challenge photo. Due to her busy schedule and an upcoming artshow she had to call it quits. One of the artists in the group,Jill put together a thank you project. She asked each of the artists that participated in the portrait challenge if we would paint a portrait of Karin from a photo she had, we were all more than happy to participate. 118 artist send our jpgs to Jill who compiled all the images into a book and sent them to Karin as a thank you. She just received the book and, well, I think she loved it! Here is my "thank you" portrait to Karin for all of her hard work and efforts to keep us inspired and seeking to paint our own voice! pastel 8"x 10"

WDE for Wet Canvas

I enjoy the weekly challenges of the weekend drawing event. Unfortunately I haven't had the time to participate for weeks. Every Friday I will venture in to the site to see the photos that the weekly host has posted. I usually can't resist and have to save one in hopes of painting it that weekend. This week the photos were amazing and

WDE for Wet Canvas
Originally uploaded by ddhabicht

I loved the grape picture along with several others I saved in hopes of painting
at a later date. I find that there are never enough hours in my day to do all the things I want to do! Tonight, with Randy gone for a sleep test, I stayed up and painted the grapes.Watercolor 9"x12"

Temecula Winery

We had so much fun down at the Ponte Winery in Temecula, having lunch in celebration of Aimee's birthday. We shopped, tasted wine, had lunch and visited for hours.

The weather was amazingly beautiful and our party of 11 joined the hundreds of other people that felt the same way. Randy brought his camera and continued to practice his photography, a great day all around. Here are some pictures from our day. The dog was a photo I took on our way down, everyone seems to be enjoying the warm weather.

photo.jpg

photo.jpg
Originally uploaded by ddhabicht

Our Italy trip was a dream come true for Randy and I. It was the trip we were planning for our twentieth anniversary, the year Jennifer was hit by the drunk driver. That trip never happened, nor did any traveling after that horrible day. We feared that traveling for us might be only a dream until last year. My latest piece , a memory and journal quilt of Italy. I saved pieces of ephemera while we were on vacation in Italy and Paris last May. I had plans and hopes of using them somehow to remind us of special parts of our trip. We took tons of photos and I journaled also but putting it all together here was such fun. Each piece of saved paper brought back wonderful memories. The piece of paper off of the candy that our landlord in Italy placed in our room, or the tickets to the Borghese Museum where we spent the day enjoying the treasures inside and out. I incorporated pieces of wrapping paper, some ticket stubs transferred to fabric, sketches from my journal, and a posterized picture of us to create this collage of our Italy trip. I still may add the Colosseum sketch to the back ground. This may be one of a few then it will be on to Paris.

photo.jpg

photo.jpg
Originally uploaded by ddhabicht

Working on some fun fabrics for Friday! FFFF lol

photo.jpg

photo.jpg
Originally uploaded by ddhabicht

Finished, will review tomorrow and then it's onto the next. I would
love comment on my blog thanks
This is pastels on wallis board 8"x10"

photo.jpg

photo.jpg
Originally uploaded by ddhabicht

I am working on another demo video, it is coming along nicely but now
I am running out of daylight and my battery died. Ahhh I hate stopping
when you're in the zone.

photo.jpg

photo.jpg
Originally uploaded by ddhabicht

I had to laugh as I saw this in my house tonight and decided I had to
share it. In our house, after being out all day we can't wait to get
home and get our shoes off. I take off my heels, Jennifer takes off
her leg! LOL

photo.jpg

photo.jpg
Originally uploaded by ddhabicht

We lost our Internet today, it reminds me how dependent we are. It
provides us access to the world via email, blogs, facebook. I worked
on an incredibly detailed pastel today from a picture posted on wet
canvas last Friday. I hope this posts!

My book arrived

I received my copy of the 500 quilts book that I have two quilts in, wow , I am in such wonderful company. Some beautiful quilts in this book, I am so honored, I hope you will all buy one so you can be inspired as I was! There is a link on the right side of my blog that will take you to the Barnes and Noble link. Thank you Lark Books for all your hard work in putting this book together

New work

I am working on a new art quilt, it is by invitation only so that adds to the pressure to perform. The theme is a secret so sorry, can't share, but have been struggling with it. I usually get a theme and think about it for awhile and then "POOF" something comes to me and I start designing and construction or painting, depending on what I am doing. But this time I think and think but nothing.... until the other day. I did a self portrait two years ago I thought would work. It is more of a portrait of how I was feeling about my life. I haven't shared it outside of the group of people who were doing the challenge at that time. ( See of this happens to you) So as I am looking for this portrait, digging through tons of sketchbooks, loose paper, drawers, closets, even under beds and I can't find it! AHHH as I am skimming through one large sketch book I find this other sketch I did in a life drawing class that I have always loved, she has this eery look on her face. When I see the picture I always wonder what she might be thinking or what was going on in her life that gives her that far away look. I remember the model and she was good, but she looked nothing like this picture. So I often wonder if it was her I was drawing or was I drawing myself as I applied that charcoal to the paper. Another cool thing that happened was that it left a soft, faint impression on the opposite page of the sketchbook. A mirror image, a ghost of the original looking back at herself, even creepier!! Now I am figuring out how to translate her and my ideas to fabric. Here is my sketch.

Sub-Q Quilt entry

I belong to an art quilting group called subterranian quilters, or Sub-Q. It is a group of talented art quilters. Sadly we lost our founder suddenly last March. The group was unsure about staying together after Sally's death. This quilt was our first group project after we decided to keep going to honor her vision for the group. We dedicated the quilt to her.

The project was to recreate a section from a photo. I had a picture of orchids and I divided it up into 6 sections and changed it to black and white or grey scale. Everyone who wanted to participate took a section and enlarged it 400%. Their challenge was to put the color back into the quilt and recreate the picture using any techniques they wanted to. The group used so many different techniques it was amazing. And I love the colors that everyone choose, no one saw the original, color photo until all the pieces were finished. The participants were Nancy M., Kay D, Phyllis C, Me, Ann T., Carol C. Thanks for all of your hard work!

This is Phyllis at the show and this is Phyllis' picture, standing in front of the quilt. Her piece is number three. She used inks and paints along with some applique.

My piece is the one next to, and after hers or fourth from the left. I used saved, used paper towels and did like a collage of them to make the flowers and the leaves. I had to put my sewing machine on suede to get it to sew through the thickness. I also used tissue paper and paints and acrylic inks.

Prayers for the people of Haiti

I have been so heartbroken from the reports coming out of Haiti. The insurmountable obstacle that these people face as they attempt to rescue and help those still trapped in fallen debris is shocking. Where are the emergency people, ambulances, heavy equipment to help? There isn't any, just neighbors helping neighbors. People dying everywhere because they weren't rescued in time. I always picture myself , or my family, in that position since it could easily be us. Now our relief is stalled due to the airport damage and the countries lack of experience in coordinating such a huge effort, I can only imagine the frustration on that end of the disaster. With all the talk of our struggling economy and all the people here loosing their homes, people are still opening their hearts and sending money to relief centers, neighbors helping neighbors.

Its amazing how this will bring out the best and the worst in people. Now they are warning us to beware of relief scams, another unbelievable thing, when people take advantage of the tragedy of others. We need to be smart when donating to any organization. ABC News has a list of organizations, and that site also links to this list of responding organizations. Making a mark, an art blog site is sharing some different options for donating to the cause, like donating artwork for an online auction. The blog has a lot of information that I wanted to share with everyone. The blog shares links to the Red Cross, doctors without borders etc., well know organizations that are some of the first responders at the scene.

I hope you will join me as I donate what I can and then I will be praying, praying, praying and watching

Day Two of abstract design class with Katie Paquini

photo.jpg
Originally uploaded by ddhabicht

Day Two of abstract design class with Katie Pasquini
Today we got back our blown up versions of the tiny macro drawing we did the day before with our tiny view finders. My eyes feeling like sandpaper still struggled with all the drawing we did today, but I think today went much better. We moved into more of the designing aspect of art quilting and how to crop paintings to get many good possibilities for quilts. We went over many different aspects of how to approach getting a good design also. Many of the women were just loving the class and I know some were a bit surprised by it. I think that most of the women were excited in some of the possibilities for quilts that they produced painting! I think I would have liked to take something home, some small project, instead I have lots of cut up paintings, which I may or may not use. It made me think about watercolor paintings I have at the house that were unsuccessful, now I will cut them up and re look at them for quilts. I loved the frame that we cut in half and could slide up or down to adjust the size of our crop. Its an old trick I had totally forgotten about. I think that most of our time was spent helping people get comfortable with painting and creating. I am already there, so hoped for more design input. It was a ton of information and exercises to do in two days. One of the women in class was so excited about her design that during lunch she went down and bought all the fabric to make it! That's what a class is supposed to do, inspire us. I do love her work, I appreciate her strict work ethic and the amazingly beautiful quilts she produces, its a testimony to her methods. I learn something new and exciting in every class I take and I did take some new ideas away with me from this class too. I think the possibilities for some very unique quilt options my be in my bag of cut up paintings. Thanks Marilyn for reminding me that sometimes we just need time to digest the information and make it our own before we can put it to use! Thanks Katie! She even signed my books.

After two intense days a few of us signed up for the pincushion class! It was from 7pm to 10pm! I don't know what I was thinking, probably that a fun class would be a perfect finish to all that design. I forgot the fact that we might just be plum tired! We ran over to the hotel to shove a hamburger in our faces before running back to make our class. Oh did I mention that we ran through the quilt show, tried to quickly shop, see the quilts we had entered before eating? We made it to class right at 7 and saw that it was a very full class. We all found our seats and were pleasantly surprised by what the next three hours held. The class was called Pin cushion Party, and it was! Debbie Busby, the owner of the wooden spool in Oregon taught the class and had made up the cutest bags of already cut and in some cases sewn pincushions for us to sew. We received thread, buttons, felt, wool, stuffing, bags, etc, etc. The gifts kept coming and she did a drawing for a free pattern. Although it was a bit expensive I loved it. I think because it was fun, it was easy, it was doable in the three hours and we all left with 5, yes 5, pincushions. I finished 3 of them there, started the fourth and took home number 5. Plus we got all the patterns to make more. Thanks Debbie for making it a great evening, and my eyes could handle this!

The Design wall

photo.jpg
Originally uploaded by ddhabicht

I am taking an artquilt class from Katie Pasquini. Today we worked on design with shapes and lines and in the abstract. I am not really an abstract artist so this took me way out of my box, a good thing, or should be according to my own mantra. I did find it a bit uncomfortable as we attempted to design and create within a set of guidelines set up by the teacher! LOL I have never had creative rules before, its always been a fairly casual environment with lots of chatting. In this class she doesn't want any talking during the designing process. You need to be focused and in your Right brain area, she doesn't even want us talking to ourselves, lest we disturb our neighbors. LOL that gave me stress in its self since I am a notorious self talker. She says its the left side of our brain trying to ruin the creative process or right side of the brain. She doesn't know that I am taking to myself as a cheerleader, often saying things like, oh that looks good! Oh put the blue over there, yeah thats good. So several times I had to shhh myself in class. The first exercise was design with shapes, this is a photo of the classes paintings displayed for all the see what they like and what they don't like. Then we did a series with line only, no shape. Then we worked on some macro type designs that she is enlarging and we should get back today. After not sleeping the night before, not eating all day and coming off of a week of solid painting for my fabic line I didn't find the painting fun. Most of the women in the class had not painted much so it was alot of basic instructions on putting water on the paint to get it soft to use etc. I think that everyone enjoyed the painting part, it was a good basic, beginner painting class and I think for a nonpainter it helped them ease into the process. Then one exercise was to blind fold us and listen to different musics and paint to the music. Hmmm, I was for sure this was a recipe for disaster since we had a plate full of acrylic paint, a sheet of paper in front of us and then a blindfold on. Yawn! What a waste of paint! I ended up with a ton left on my plate I had to throw away. It was rated an intermediate class but it is a basics class. I am hoping for more information into the design part today, we will see! Anyway, its probably my bad attitude from no sleep. As we were drawing those tiny drawings, and I mean tiny, 1 1/2" x 1 " squares my eyes kept trying to roll back in my head, screaming for me to stop. I had forgotten my OTT light so the flourescent flickering wasn't helping either. I am taking a sleeping pill tonight, going to bed at 9 and trying to start again in the morning,although this is being written at around 4am, my stress hour. My husband said, hey what happened to the sleeping pill? I guess when going to bed that early I need to take a whole sleeping pill. More photos later.

Getting Ready for Road

I am getting all of my supplies packed up and ready to go to Road to California. Its a big quilt show and I not only have some quilts hanging in the show but I am taking some classes. I am so excited to see all the quilts, its so inspiring and motivating to create! I found out tonight that although I didn't place, my friend Lauretta received a third place and money! Congrats Lauretta! How exciting, I will post a picture tomorrow from the show!

photo.jpg
Originally uploaded by ddhabicht

Friends and gossip

Marta took Dawn and I too have high tea at the Huntington Gardens for our Christmas gift. We had such a great time there. While we were having tea I noticed these two women in deep conversations. They had wonderful expressions as they were completely focused on each other and their conversation. I want to do a painting of them and the table etc. I was doing some sketching and playing with the angle of her face and trying to figure out how her glasses are sitting on her nose etc.

When I look at this picture it immediately reminds me of our great afternoon together before Christmas.

I changed the picture on the top of my blog. Its time. I designed a fun logo for my blog and never painted it, I am going to finish and post it soon. So what do you think of the mushrooms, think it implies that something funny is going on while being creative??

Jim's Preserves

As many of you know that follow my blog, my brother Jim did some canning this year and sent the preserves to us for our Christmas Gifts. The most beautiful package arrived and we all loved it. Well I wanted to do a pastel painting of it and decided to paint the photo I had taken and shared with you in the other post. Here is my pastel of "Jim's Preserves". After I posted it on Wet Canvas, Mario, from Pastel News asked if he could feature it on his blog, what an honor!

Pastel demo- Pear on Glass

I am doing a demo for a painting group I belong to called Painting Friends. I decided to do a video for the actual painting part of the demo instead of writing all the information down. I realized I am terrible as a videographer but I muscled through it. I choose two pictures that had high contrast, it gave them a choice and allowed them to do the one that matched the pastels they had on hand. I had them get sand paper to play on, its cheap and easy. This is my the painting, on La Carte. Available for purchase

Pastel demo

I was asked to do a demo of pastel painting. I thought I would do a few different techniques. I am not an expert but I have taken some classes from experts. It is another one of those practice things, the more you do the better you get. I was trying to find a cheap surface that everyone would be able to get their hands on quickly. I was reading on WC where one of the pastel artist, I think colorfix, told them to get sandpaper. I thought I should try it out first to see how it holds the pastels, erases etc before I send them to the hardware store. I tried to do a WIP and a video but the battery kept running out and so I will post the WIP here soon. I need to put it all together

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I received a wonderful gift from my brother today. He has had some time to enjoy his yard and garden this year. He is a wonderfully amazing cook and decided to can a bunch of his season fruits and vegetables for gifts this year. It arrived in a beautifully wrapped red, round container, as I opened it I found a letter and all the goodies. There is Caramelized Onion and Fig preserves, Salsa, Mon Peri and cauliflower Acher. He even included some cooking uses and suggestions. We are serving the fig preserves on a pork tenderloin for our Christmas Eve dinner. My sister came in last night and the five of us are excited about spending a quiet Christmas Eve together, enjoying good food, Family and the holidays. Randy contributed to the holiday table with his beautiful roses, still trying to bloom. I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas filled with family and friends as we celebrate the greatest gift of all, Jesus Christ.

WDE challenge Siamese

Did this for the WDE on Wet Canvas. Pastel 8"x 10" on suede mat board.

Fall Color

Where I live the trees are still holding their leaves that have now all turned to a brilliant red, if they are going to turn at all. Its cold and crisp and the wind threatens to tear them from the limbs everyday. My hubby is looking for a tree for our east side, we both want something that will color up brightly in the fall so we need to buy it in its color! Yesterday he and my mom came across this lovely maple tree called a fernleaf fullmoon maple. Oh, it is so lovely, they snuck me home two leaves. He would have bought it except for the fact that it is $200 for this small tree.

Helen's Bentley

I couldn't sleep last night and I have been itching to play with pastels on suede board more. I am going to order some Ampersand pastelbord to try also. I like the way the suede board holds the pastel and still allows for lots of layering of color. I am not able to use my really soft pastels though, not as well as the Nupastels seem to go on. I think I am going to do the WC challenge, where you take one image, simplify it and then paint it 100 different ways! I will start next year and I have the picture in mind already. Anyway, here is Helen's adorable King Charles Spaniel, Bentley! Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas

Pastel 8"x10"

My portrait for the challenge on DSFDF

I was so excited to be a part of Karen's portrait challenge. Over 180 people signed up to participate, Karen takes people and pairs them to do each others portraits. It is challenging and great fun, I love the variety of styles and faces! Here is my interpretation of the photo I received. Soft pastel 16"x 20"

My last post for Christmas Traditions

I thought I would save our Gingerbread party for last. We actually just had the party yesterday so the photos are current. I started this holiday tradition for the kids when they were older. They would invite a friend over and each child would make their house then decorate it. That first party was such a bust since the houses wouldn't stay together so we resorted to hot glue and toothpicks in an effort to hold them together. Then when they started to try and decorate them the houses couldn't support the weight of the candy and many collapsed. That is when I decided to find a local bakery that would bake and assemble the houses, which I did. Every year since then we have ordered the houses and then we go and pick them up, each in a pretty box. All that is left to do is make the royal icing for the glue to hold on the candy. It has made for a successful party ever since. As the kids grew it became their friends and their kids, then friends with kids, or grandkids. As of 3 years ago, I turned it over to my oldest daughter, Kimberly, to have for her friends and their kids. Everyone brings two bags of candy to share, that allows for a lot of variety. It is a wonderful family project and you leave with a beautiful house for the holidays. This year Kim even provided lunch for everyone, what fun!

Christmas Traditions Day 10- Giving

The season is all about gift giving, our example is the gift of life that God provided for us. Its with this gift in mind that we are inspired to give to others. Every year our family would do some type of community service gift. For me personally, I was always trying to remind the kids that it wasn't just about them and what they wanted, it is about giving to others. This time of year can become a wonderful opportunity to teach our kids compassion and about giving to others and about being a volunteer. We have all served the homeless, hosted dinners at our church, we have gone and celebrated with the elderly, giving gifts to a senior center, the kids have gone to a local tore and picked a name off of a tree of another, less forunate child to buy a gift for.

What could be better than helping a child during the holidays. We also try to reach outside of our community, being involved with Samaritans Purses Operation Christmas child, a Christian organization that provides shoeboxes full of much needed items to children in other countries. My kids would each work on filling a shoebox for a child their own age. When you turn in the shoebox you label it for a girl or boy and what age. The kids could also include a Christmas card, written to the receiving child in hopes that a penpal relationship would form. Sometimes a return letter was received, but often they are too poor to write back or they are not able to write back.

World Vision, another Christian organization comes out with a catalog at the end of the year, you can buy animals, water wells, gardening tools etc for villages and poor families in other countries. Jennifer, Randy and I love when this catalog arrives and we can go through and pick out some things to give that we know will fill a huge need.

This year I saw another wonderful opportunity to get involved in making a difference in a childs life. It seemed to be a perfect fit for me this year. We have a friend who's daughter has been fighting the battle of Luekemia. She has been in and out of the hospital for years and as of today is cancer free! Then my fabric line was released, so how would this go together? ConKer Cancer is an organization founded by a mom who lost her son to cancer. She says that on each of his numerous trips back and forth to the hospital for treatments she would make him a new pillowcase. This small, simple gesture helped make the trip tolerable, each pillowcase signified another successful treatment. They started to provide other kids battleing cancer in the same hospital pillowcases and thus Conkerr cancer was born. I saw this on "The Quilt Show" blog and I heard she was on Martha Stewart. So this year I am making pillowcases. I was already making them for my family as gifts, now I am enlarging my family group and will be sending pillowcases to kids with cancer. I want to challenge all my quilting friends to make a difference in a childs life who is battling cancer. Such an easy thing for us to do, check out the website, all of the instructions are under "help out". Merry Christmas

Christmas Traditions- Day 9 Party time

There are so many types of parties that are going on during this time of the year. Church parties, family parties, company parties, cookie parties so if you are wanting to host a party the secret is to plan early. October is not too early to be planning and organizing all the things you might need for your successful holiday party. Last year, we had just finished our backyard and I wanted so much to throw some sort of outdoor get together. I knew that the chance of having a good turn out was probably pretty poor but I just couldn't resist. I made some invitations up and hand delivered to all the neighbors and then we called some friends. I made some Wassail punch, sangria and some easy finger foods, cheese, dips and chips. We had the outside fireplace going along with some space heaters that the neighbor loaned us. We had a great time with the people that showed up and they loved the yard. We huddled in groups around the fireplace and punch, sharing stories of the area, the people, the projects we were all involved with. Some of the neighbors hadn't met each other so it was fun to see how much all of us had in common. It was fun to talk to some of the people we see everyday but don't have time to stop to talk to. We had fun reconnecting to the people we live so close to and were invited to several parties during the year that they threw! Although planning and timing is critical to the success of your party this last minute get together was great. How does that saying go, if you want good neighbors, be a good neighbor!

Christmas Traditions Day 8- more traditions

Well, I seemed to come up with enough traditions to keep me going so far, one week down, 2 to go! That's right, Christmas is just around the corner, time to get all those last minute things done that you have been putting off. Sending cards, baking your time is running out.

My dear friend Marta has some wonderful traditions in her home. Every year she makes Tamales for her family to enjoy on Christmas eve. In 2007 I got my first lesson in Tamale making from an authentic Hispanic friend, Marta! LOL We had so much fun and I learned some of the family secrets, which I have been sworn to secrecy. Marta even took the time to make a book of recipes and family pictures which she presented to her family that Christmas. What a wonderful, personalized gift for a family. There are many places where you can just download your pictures and with pre-formatted pages its pretty easy! Check out Marta's blog and read about her family traditions. I think for a small fee you might be able to buy one of her books! LOL

Christmas Traditions Day 7- St Nicolas Day

This time of the year seems to be as much about the smells as it is about the decorations and festivities. Its during this time of year we bake all those wonderful smelling goodies, the house seems to be filled with aromas of Christmas. Cloves and Cinnamon, pine trees and fireplaces. It starts to smell like Christmas as much as it looks and feels like Christmas. I noticed that some celebrate St. Nicolas Day, where kids would put their shoes outside to be filled with goodies. This was the beginnings of our Santa Claus. I noticed on Judy Coates Perez's blog she shares one of her traditions for St. Nicolas Day, you can check it out here. She talks about the smells of the cookies and shares her recipe!

I often set out candles and actual burn them during the holidays. There is something about lit candle that is warming to the soul. The flame dancing off of the glass ornaments and silver decorations is so festive. No table should be without them. Those along with the wonderful smells of Christmas baking fills the entire.

One of the things I loved to do during the holidays was to bake for friends. I often bake breads and cookies and candies. Some years I can wrap the jelly or preserves that I prepared during the fall or summer with bows and ribbons as gifts. During the year I collect small coffee cans in which to bake the breads. Check out the pumpkin bread recipe that follows for instructions. Once the bread has been baked they are slid out of the can to cool. When the bread is cool each loaf is wrapped in plastic. The cans are washed and wrapped in Christmas paper and ribbon and the baked bread is slid back into the can to be given as a gift to a friend. Its great to make or paint some nice gift labels to be attached to the breads. The candy or cookies, are often placed in a purchased tin to keep them fresh.

I love to have a cookie jar filled with cookies for when friends stop by to have hot chocolate or tea. Its also great fun for the grand kids who also love helping in the making of the cookies. Enjoy some of my favorite recipes. These recipes are over 30 years old so their original origin is lost except for the memory of the person who I received it from.

Pumpkin Bread

Grease and flour 3 coffee cans

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

3 C sugar

1 C. oil

4 eggs

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 C pumpkin

2 tsp soda

3 1/2 C flour

1 C chopped nuts

Mix first 6 ingredients then add remaining ingredients 1 at a time, beating after each. Fill coffee cans to 3/4 full bake at 350 degrees for 1 1/2 hours. Can be frozen Take bread out of cans and wash can and wrap with a Christmas paper. Once the bread has cooled wrap in plastic wrap and slide back into the wrapped can. Decorate with hand painted labels, Christmas bows, ribbons. I often attach the recipe to the can also.

Peanut Brittle

2 C sugar

1 C light corn syrup

1 C water

1/2 tsp salt

2 C raw Spanish peanuts

1 T butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp baking soda

Combine sugar, syrup, and water in heavy light, dark skillet. Cook stirring constantly, until sugar dissolves. Add salt and nuts. Cook, stirring occasionally until it reaches the hard crack stage. (294 degrees Fahrenheit) Remove from heat and add butter, vanilla, and soda stirring to blend, it will look like its foaming. Pour onto 2 buttered cookie sheets while hot and pull and spread to a thin layer on the cookie sheet about 1/4". When cool crack into small pieces and store in tins.