Chewy Gingersnaps

I want to share a few of my favorite things about Christmas.  Some of them do not even have to do with sewing...

And one of them is my favorite gingersnap cookie.  I got this recipe from my dear high school/ college/ forever friend whose mother fed me and taught me quite a lot.  We used to make these all the time and she may not even know how many times I have made them since being able to regularly see her.  I think of her every time.  Love you Lynette and Myrna!  

As the recipe card says:  "Chewy, the very best".  It is truly the best chewy gingersnap recipe on the planet.   For reals. 

I beat the softened butter and sugar first.
Then throw in the eggs, keep beating, then the molasses, keep beating.
Then I scrape the bowl.
Next, add the dry ingredients and beat until a nice sticky dough forms.
But not too sticky that I cannot roll balls without a gooey mess.
If it is too sticky, I add a little flour.

Then I put it in the fridge for a good hour or longer (overnight is good).

Then I roll it onto balls with my hand palms.  Or if I am feeling lazy or in a hurry, I use my small Pampered Chef scoop (with the spring release) and just make balls that way.  Either way, the balls go into granulated sugar.  They are covered and placed on my Silpat/ cookie sheet.

Bake exactly 10 minutes in 350* convection oven.  The flatten a little and crackle just right.  And they stay soft for a good week.  If they stick around that long...

Try the recipe, hope you love it!

Also, try another of my favorite recipes for Eggnog Cookies.  Ooh, I need to make those this year, too...

Hope you are enjoying the season, take a break from your holiday sewing and bake up a bit of love!

OH!  Here's a sneak peek at another favorite thing I made last year and finished this year:

How did I make this Mickey Mouse wreath?  Stay tuned for an upcoming post...

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STUDENT SHOWCASE ~ October - November 2013

We had fun these last few months making some beautiful projects.   

This is my Zippy Pouch that I teach.  My students can easily customize the size to their liking.

One of my adult students made this for her niece attending Duke University - isn't it cool?  You could obvs do this with other college prints and send them to your favorite college students.  She also made a tote bag to match.

It is fully lined (sorry no picture of that - but it is solid blue).  But I really wanted to show off her BE-YOO-TIFUL zipper ends!  These are very hard to do to make them look nice and I have finally mastered the technique to teach it!  She nailed it!  And there are even little "D"s, on purpose, at each zipper end.  Awesome or what?  And the bottom boxed corners are perfect as well!  Great job!!

This little student was making her first Basic Skirt.  She chose this cute print just in time for Halloween.  Elastic waistband casing.  She could hem it right here and be done.  Simple.  Basic. Easy.

Here she is proud to show it to her mother.

BUT she needed to learn gathers and what better way than as a ruffle at the bottom of the skirt?

What an accomplishment!  Great job, sweetie!  It is so exciting to complete a project and have skills for future projects!

Now, these two sweet girls are (were - one of them had to move away) in a group sewing class together.  They are best friends.  So when we started our apron project, they wanted to make something to remember their friendship.  Best Friend aprons!  They chose an embroidery design and chose their fabrics and colors.  After the embroidery was done, they sewed them up.  They are reversible, too, and have ribbons for ties.

I did the embroidery, just as requested, on the apron piece before they sewed it.

Here is a better close-up.

Then, they also made matching doll aprons, for their "best friend" dolls!  (These doll aprons are also reversible, sharing their fabrics.  As best friends do).  Great job girls!

Would you like to learn to sew?

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VIRTUAL PAMPERED CHEF PARTY!

Hey everyone!

I am having a virtual Pampered Chef party tonight at 8pm MST!  If you are interested at all on Pampered Chef products, they make great Christmas gifts (or for yourself)!!  You are invited to join us!

It just dawned on me to invite my bloggy friends, too!

And no, there will be food served through your computers (the one downside) BUT more on the upside is that more of you can join me!  I guess this is new thing they are doing and they would really like feedback too. So even if you don't want to order a darn thing, just watch the party and give your feedback.  My sweet consultant Kiley would really appreciate it :)

So click on the 1st link below and get to my party facebook page, and the direct link will be at the top of the page OR click the 2nd link below and go straight to the party!

Remember it's at 8pm tonight MST!

https://www.facebook.com/events/1377667862481940/

https://meet.fm/kileyferons

Hope many of you can join me there!

~ Julie 



I link up to these parties. ~If you are interested in receiving updates and future posts from this blog, please sign up to "FOLLOW" on the top right of this page. Let's keep in touch!~