My Favorite Brownies

This is a long-time favorite brownie recipe at my house.

I've been using this recipe since I was a teenager. I've long since forgotten from where it came, but it's a great basic brownie with slightly crispy edges and top and a soft chocolately inside.

Ingredients:
1 stick of butter
2 ounces of unsweetened chocolate
1 cup of sugar
2 eggs
 1 teaspoon of vanilla
1/4 cup of flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup of chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Melt butter and chocolate in a heavy saucepan over very low heat. Remove from heat and stir in the sugar. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour, salt and walnuts. Spray an 8 x 8 inch baking pan with non-stick cooking spray and spread batter evenly in pan. Bake for 40 - 45 minutes. Cool completely and dust with powered sugar if desired.

Do you have a favorite brownie recipe?

New Heart Felt Brooches!

It's been quite a while since I've made any of my "Heart Felt Brooches".

They're sweet little stuffed heart shaped pins made from felted, or fulled, repurposed wool sweaters.

I'd saved some pink, rose, mauve and burgundy felted sweater wool to use for this batch of brooches. I cut two sizes of hearts and mixed and matched the coordinating colors. I then choose some embroidery thread colors to complement the wool.

First I used a blanket stitch to add a small contrasting heart shape to each brooch front. Then I embroidered a few tiny flowers, stitches and knots to embellish each heart.

To finish, I added another large heart to the back, blanket stitched around the outer edge and added just enough stuffing to make them into tiny little heart shaped pillows. Each has a levered pinback for secure placement on a sweater or jacket.
These brooches make great little Valentine's gifts and are now all for sale in my Etsy shop!

Snowy Days

It's been snowing a lot around here this week. The big snowflakes and still air last night gave us a winter wonderland to view this morning!

Merry, Merry!

Merry Christmas to All!

For the Love of Tie Dye!

We got some more 100 percent cotton, white T-shirts, ordered the professional fiber reactive fabric dye, donned the rubber gloves and made another attempt at tie dyeing.

 

twisting the fabric into the desired pattern

adding the rubber bands to hold the design in place

ready to dye

applying the dye

dyed shirts placed in plastic bags while the dye works it's magic!

 

And here are some of the results:

 

Using the permanent, professional fiber reactive dyes gave us rich, vibrant color! The color and patterns will last the lifetime of the shirt through many washings without fading.