Yarn Pirate Shop →

This is our favorite cookie recipe. It is totally evil. I only make them a few times a year, usually Halloween and Christmas. My mom used to make them, and I think she got the recipe from my grandma. It might be true that my husband married me because I know how to make these cookies. When I had a paying job, my coworkers would request these cookies for every occasion. They are super good. And also evil.

The Best Sugar Cookies! (that is exactly what my grandmother’s recipe card said <3 )

2 cups sugar
1 cup shortening (yeah, i know. gross. it isn’t the same with butter though. i’ve tried)
1 cup sour cream
4 beaten eggs
2 tsp vanilla

cream these ingredients together in a large bowl. then in a seperate bowl sift together:

1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
4 tsp baking powder
about 8 cups four

mix this into the sugar mixture. you might need to add a little more/less flour. it shouldn’t be too sticky. chill the dough for a few hours then roll out and bake at 350 degrees for 7-10 minutes.

Enjoy! Have a cookie decorating party if your kids are old enough to enjoy that. Our 3 and 4 yr old buddies loved decorating one cookie, eating all of the candy off of it, and then redecorating it. And then licking all of the frosting off of it and handing it back to the moms. Yum.

Have a peaceful Solstice.

2011 will forever be remembered as the year I made 22 superhero capes (only 7 of them were made in November). They’re such a great gift to give. I think I’ve made a cape for all of our friends now. Gosh, I’m going to have to figure out a new quick and easy handmade birthday gift to give.

Capes are very easy to sew. If you make 22 in one year you can practically make them in your sleep. It’s really fun to customize them for the kid receiving them. I like to do an initial. You can also find free templates online for any superhero logo. I made a pretty kick-ass reversible Superman-Batman cape this summer:

Here’s my favorite cape tutorial. You’ll need 2 yards of fabric per cape. I like to use quilting weight cotton but you could use lots of different fabrics. I’ve made some very cute capes using vintage thrifted sheets.

What’s your favorite go-to pattern for gift giving? Do you like making variations of the same thing over and over, or do you prefer always trying something new?

I love a nice holiday bunting. In a few years I’ll have one for every holiday. I made a Thanksgiving bunting a few years ago and started a Halloween one, but didn’t finish it until this year.

When we first looked at this house and I saw this room I imagined cheery Christmas buntings hung over every window. Well. As it turns out, that requires a LOT of sewing and turning and pressing. Much more than I had time or patience for this year. I made about 25 feet of bunting this year though, and I’m happy with the results. They’re hard to photograph in this winter light, but I have a strand of them outside in front of our house, inside above the living room window, above the entryway to our dining room, and a double swoop over the 4 big windows in the picture above. It’s a whole lot of bunting.

This is the tutorial I used. I like that it’s double sided. I think the flags hang better when they are double sided. And they look pretty from both sides.

I am all bunting-ed out for now, but after Christmas I want to make a generic birthday bunting. Living with my inlaws, we celebrate 6 birthdays a year here. We don’t make a big deal about birthdays for the adults, but I think it will be a fun decoration to use and re-use birthday after birthday. Plus, it will let me keep buntings up pretty much year round.

TIP: If you are going to make a threaded bunting like mine– you can get FIVE flags out of a quarter yard cut of fabric. You can get TWO flags out of a fat quarter. Don’t use fat quarters for this project!

Boy, I am running out of time. I’m not going to be able to post all of the things I’ve made before Christmas. Hell, I might not even finish everything I need to make before Christmas. How it is already less than a week away? I’m already thinking ahead to all of the things I want to make for myself once this madness is over.