Let’s Make Some (Wool Dough)Christmas Sugar Cookies!

Is there anyone who doesn’t like Christmas cut-out sugar cookies?  They are so much a part of our Christmas holidays baking, that I really can’t imagine not having them.
Ever since last Christmas Holiday season I wanted to make some wool Christmas Cookies.  I couldn’t fit the “baking” into my work schedule until now. 
I started with the background “plate”. ….
With this background, like the backgrounds on “Witchy Things”, “Jacks & Cats” and “Just Pumpkins”, no measuring is required for the shape placement since the shapes are all ready cut out in the background wool “plate”.
My cookies are ready to be pinned on and stitched now.

MMmmm, sugar cookies!

I used thick, coat weight wool for the cookies.  The thickness makes the cookies look almost real.

All the cookies are blanket stitched in place in no time at all!

But I like my cookies with icing!

  The icing is whip stitched on!

But, I also like some sprinkles on my Christmas Sugar Cookies …

Does this not make you want to go in the kitchen and bake now?

I liked how this turned out so well, that I wanted to make a plate full of cookies to go with the candle mat …

These cookies could be used as bowl fillers, or as ornaments….

But make sure you tell the grandchildren to not eat them!

Of course this Sugar Cookie Candle Mat would look nice with a candle in the center, but a plate of Christmas Cookies would be absolutely yummy delicious too.

I have to write the instructions for this new design pattern but it should be ready to sell by early next week. 

Watch for the updates!

Happy Day!

Seeing is Believing!?

A big huggable thanks to my email friend and reader, Marla, for giving me that final kick "in the roost" to blog today.
I'm here!  I'm alive!  :)

I'm working on a new wool project and it's definintely Christmas related but I'm not telling you anymore about it until it's closer to completion ... which will probably be either tomorrow or the next day. 

SO, the other day, late morning, I happened to glance at the thermometer that we have on our kitchen windowsill.
This is what it said the outside temp was ....

Now, I did hear that Los Angeles was hit with a heat wave of temps over 100 degrees yesterday, but I live in Pennsylvania, where we should be having Fall temperatures.

Imagine my shock at seeing that it was 107 degrees!

I must be really slow on thinking/reasoning skills because my first thought was "I better turn the furnace off and the air conditioner back on." 

Then it occurred to me that we never get temps this high, especially not in early fall.  Something must be wrong with the thermometer. (DUH). 

All it took was one step outside to find out that indeed, our indoor/outdoor thermometer had gone berserk.  I was very gullible for about 10 seconds.

I Googled Our House

Before I type about my googling experience with our house, I have to send out a big thank you to all who have ordered my newest pattern, “Witchy Things”.  You should be receiving the patterns in the mail shortly.

I’ll still keep the pattern at the special $8.50 price for another day, so if you’re interested in purchasing it, just click the Paypal button over there to the left. The pattern will still also include the gray wool that is used for the witch’s socks too.


So, the other day, Rachel discovered that Google had updated their maps for our area.
We typed in our house address in Google Maps just to see what our house looks like from the sky.
I’ve some problems with what we found….

Do you see where that red flagged "A" is pointing? 
According to Google, that's where we live. .... out in the middle of a field.
This new update indicates that we've improved our living area, because the previous, old map had us living in the woods to the left, right by the road.
I much prefer the sun shining over us.
For those who don't know us, no, we aren't homeless and we don't actually live in the woods or out in an open field.
The map requires us to scroll up a bit to find our house ....

OK, good.  There's our house and we estimate that this picture was taken sometime in June because there's our new roof and our new car.
Let's take a closer look, shall we?  I can show you some issues that I have with this picture that is shown to people around the world....  (If you click on the picture, it will show it bigger)

I wish that Google would give us advance warning that they will be taking a picture of our home.  That way we would have an opportunity to make ourselves picture pretty and perfect.  I could even cut a special message in the grass like, "Hello Google!" or "OUR HOUSE IS OVER HERE" with an arrow pointing from the orchard over to our house.
As it is now, there are some major flaws that I would like to have fixed ...
See where I've marked the "A" and the arrow?  That's my car, parked wonky on our driveway.  Normally, I NEVER park my car like that.  Actually, normally, my car would be parked in the garage.  Had I been given notice, I would have had my car parked more carefully, either with it in the garage, or lined up nicely in front of the garage. 

See point "B" with the arrow? 
Point B looks like an odd blob in the lawn but it's a chaise lounge chair with a little kid's wading pool beside it.
Had this picture been taken just a little earlier, it would have been hilarious because it would have shown our daughter, Rachel, laying out in her bikini, in the chair, with her feet dangling in the pool water.
Gosh, that would have been funny.
I bet there are lots of embarrassing Google map pictures out there though.

Point "C" with the arrow and ?? means that area should be showing my really nice circle of planted flowers in that spot but because of their bad camera angle, the tree shadows it and it can't be seen.
I think if they are going to show our personal property to internet people around the world we should have a say in what is shown and darn it, I want my pretty flowers showing in this picture.

Point "D" is an unidentified vehicle.  We think it might be Rachel's boyfriend's truck, but we're not really sure.
The red car parked at the side of the driveway is Rachel's car and it's parked oddly too.  I don't know what was going on that day with our cars parked at odd angles but gosh, that's just not normal and I'm upset that Google caught us looking like this.  :)

So, if you haven't Google mapped your house, it's time that you did.  Just go to Google Maps , type in your address and be surprised!
If you live on a main road, there might even be a street view of your house.  That's interesting to see too.
Just always remember though, be very careful of what you do in your backyard because even when you think that no one is looking, there's a chance that someone is looking and then showing it to the world.

Happy Day!

“Witchy Things” New For Halloween!

This is my newest design called “Witchy Things”.
It measures about 12 1/2” round. I’ve shown it made with 100% wool, but just like most of my patterns, it can easily be made with woolfelt too.
When I initially drew this candle mat design, I had intended for it to be just witch hats.  I didn’t feel like stitching 8 witch hats with the same exact details though.  I easily become bored with stitching the same thing over and over. So, I came up with the idea of witch’s shoes.
I think it worked out quite nicely and I had zero boredom when it came to stitching it too. 
So…yesterday, I was watching our grandson for the day and I showed him this new “Witchy Things” mat.  He spotted the spiders first, pointing to one of them and excitedly said “SPIDER!”.  I asked him what else he saw on the mat and to my disappointment, he pointed to another spider and said “another spider”.  He continued doing this with my questioning until I gave up.  I don’t think he ever did see the witch shoes or hat.  He loved those spiders so much that nothing else mattered.

Personally, I love the witch socks the most.

The “Witchy Things” Wool Candle Mat is now available as a pattern.
To purchase the pattern, just click on the Paypal button over there to the left.
If you don’t wish to pay with Paypal, just email me at
cathspennies@gmail.com , and I’ll give you my mailing address so that you may send me a check instead.

Wool Kits will be available for this also.  If interested, just email me and I'll send you an invoice for payment.
Wool kit includes all the 100% wool needed to complete the pattern.  Price also includes the pattern and the shipping cost  (US customers only.  International customers will just pay a little more for shipping.)



Happy Day!

The Day Of The Pet Peeves

Maybe it has to do with waking up at 3 am to stumble to the bathroom because I drank too much ice tea after dinner and then waking up at  5 am and  having trouble getting back to sleep only to wake up at 6am to hear hubby leaving for work and then waking up again at 7 to hear Rachel getting ready for work.  Yea, that's why I'm grumpy right now and that's why I want to make today the very special day to talk about mine and YOUR  Pet Peeves.

To me, pet peeves are my excuse to gripe about something.  I need to gripe now and then just to help get over the grumpiness that will set in IF I don't gripe.
Pet peeves are things that aren't annoying enough to get me angry.  They're just bothersome things that I know won't ever change so I just have to either avoid the peeve or if that's not possible, then I have to accept them as being bothersome and deal with it.
For instance:
Every stinking time I go to Walmart, the deodorant aisle is always full of people.  What the heck is the attraction with deodorant?  If you go to Walmart, just stand at the end of the aisle and do some people watching.
That's what I did the other day, simply because there were so many people in there staring at deodorant that I couldn't get in to get mine.

First of all, there are just way too many types and brands of deodorant.  Since they're all small bottles/containers there are dozens of diffferent types all in one 10 foot section of Walmart aisle space, so I can understand why a lot of people can be standing in a small area of aisle space.  But sheesh,  I know what brand I use, so it's just a matter of 30 seconds to walk down the aisle, select my brand, place it in my shopping cart and walk away.
While people watching, I discovered that just about all the people standing there were confusing the deodorant aisle with the perfume aisle.
People were actually taking the lids off the bottles and sniffing.  What the heck? 
I can't understand why deodorants need to have a scent anyway.  I always buy the unscented.  I have scented soaps, scented shampoos, conditioners and lotions.  I don't need anymore scent added to those scents, especially not an armpit deodorant scent.
Apparently though, I'm the only one there in the Walmart deodorant aisle that feels that way.
Do we really want to respond to a "you smell so nice, what's that scent you're wearing?" with a " oh, that's my Soft & Dry!  It's called "Passion Flower", you should try it!".

Oh, I feel so much better now that I've expressed my sincere displeasure about  the Walmart deodorant aisle!

I feel so much better that I'm going to share with you a really fun driving tip.

When out driving and an impatient driver happens to blow his/her horn at you for some stupid reason?  All you have to do in response is excitedly wave and smile at the horn blower...giving the impression that you know him/her.  This instantly confuses the hornblower.  Their reaction is just so precious and you drive away with a big smile because you've totally messed with this guy's/gal's head.  

Oh, the fun!

Ok, now it's YOUR turn. Feel free to share one of your own pet peeves.   Get it off your chest and we can laugh about it together.

Happy Pet Peeveless day everyone!