In The Crafting Zone (Nov.24, 2022)

We've been having very mild temperatures the past few days and I'm just loving it.

I think it was 8C out there today.

So I made sure to get out there for a walk this morning.

This memory popped up on Jason's phone today.

Awww, she was so cute.

I told Jason I wanted him to make me some lanterns so he found a few ideas of what to make.

I think I like this one more but either will be fine.

We are just in the crafting/building mode over here.

I got this finished up last night, I brought it in to work today to show the girls.

I stopped at the Hardware on my way home after work and dropped it off at my booth along with the white one Jason made yesterday and that one sold before I even had a chance to put the price tag on it which was nice.

When I got home at lunch time, I glued the Believe sign to this.

I had to let it set and it was ready to go when I got home.

I'll take it to the Hardware tomorrow.

We are going to decorate the office tomorrow so I decided to make us some cookies for that.

I made chocolate chip cookies and then I've been craving these chocolate peppermint cookies that we get at the office at Christmas.

I didn't have a recipe for them so I just altered my chocolate chip cookie recipe.

I replaced 2 tbsp. of the flour with cocoa, replaced the vanilla with peppermint extract, replaced half of the chocolate chips with mint chocolate chips then finally smashed up some candy canes that I had on hand and sprinkled that over the tops when they came out of the oven.

I think they turned out not too bad.

I decided to make my Christmas crack as well.

This is just some of the stuff that goes into it.

I like little mini crackers.

I got this chocolate chex on sale so I used that, normally I would use just regular Chex.

I actually prefer Chex Mix but you can't get it in Canada.

If we are in the states later in the year, I usually pick some up but that hasn't happened for the last few years.

I added a bag of Teddy Grahams.

I like thick cut plain ripple chips in it.

This was a huge bag so I only used half of it.

I like the Christmas colored M&M's. 

I always through a bag of regular ones and a bag of peanut ones in.

I did run down to the store to get a couple more bags but they didn't have the Christmas ones so this had to do.

I also added pretzels, peanuts and cashews in there.

I bought six white chocolate bars this year then some of the white chocolate melting wafers from Bulk Barn.

The chocolate bars didn't really melt that well so next year I think I'll just stick to the melting wafers from Bulk Barn.

I ended up adding the chocolate to the mix and it was really clumpy so I just had to kind of mix it in by hand.

I wore gloves of course but the chocolate was pretty hot - I managed to get it done and it worked but not the best.

It will do though - it still tastes good.

I got another sign finished that I was working on - I'll take this down to the Hardware tomorrow as well and add it to my booth.

I had all these birdhouses on hand - I used to have them on top of my cupboards when I lived in Dartmouth but I can't do that here so they've just been sitting collecting dust.

Since white villages seem to be trending this year, I thought I'd turn these into little white birdhouses.

I gave them all a coat of black paint.

Then tomorrow after it dries, I'll go back and give them all a white coat.

That way, when I sand some of it back, it will give it the rustic look that I like.

I may add a sprig of Christmas color or a little bird or something or I may just leave them, we'll see how they look at the time.

It feels so good using things I have laying around the house and cleaning up some of the clutter.

That's all for today, until next time, be happy!