Getting Creative with the Crock-Pot

Getting Creative with the Crock-Pot

Crock Pots have been around for years, following on the heels of our moms' electric skillets and saucepans.

I know exactly how long they have been around since I received a stylin' orange one for a wedding present more than 38 years ago. 

Today's crocks offer more options for the chef. Mine has a timer on it so that the pot will turn off at a certain time and then stay warm, eliminating the main complaint of overdone food. These new ones also can cook side dishes (I have used it to cook potatoes for mashing) and desserts so you could have a combination of Crock-Pots to take care of the entire meal!

There are probably a million recipes for Crock-Pot or "slow cooker" meals on the Internet, so I don't need to point you in their direction here. As the days cool off and snow is on the horizon, (and with Trick or Treaters stopping by tonight for a couple of hours), there really is no more convenient way to have a warm meal ready.

Pumpkin Carving Tips

It's time to start thinking about whether you want to carve your own pumpkins to greet Trick or Treaters or leave your rotund fruit au naturale.

Cutting into that thick skin and spooning out great globs of goo is not a great time, most of us would agree. Often I admit we took the easy way out and drew faces on the pumpkin with permanent markers, instead. Hey, they last longer that way!

But if you are preparing for Halloween and you have grandchildren excited to see a pumpkin face come to life, it's hard to avoid any actual cutting.

So if you are feeling adventurous (or guilty!), here are some tips on pumpkin carving you may want to make note of for the holiday.

Carving Tips 

Jack-O-Lanterns

Perfect Pumpkins

Pumpkin Topiaries

Wish I had thought of these!

I have several blogs that I follow because I like the way the owners write or the special things they create.

Sarah at Repeat CR-after Me always offers up crafty good ideas for creative types. I especially liked these topiaries because they are simple to make and inexpensive, with all supplies in stock for the season.

To see photos and instructions on how to make these beauties, visit http://www.repeatcrafterme.com/. and drop down to Sarah's September 28, 2012 post.

Enjoy!

Cut and run

Well, finally, after much aggravation, I was able to fashion a couple of the fabric corsages I have wanted to make for weeks. Overcoming sewing machine problems, lack of supplies, and inertia, I sat down and sewed a couple

Guess what? I don't like them! All that planning and work and they didn't turn out the way I had envisioned.

I pinned a couple of them to a basket for you to see, but they are a sad accompaniment to the lovely fairy my friend Lee made me for my birthday.

Oh well. I think I will clean up my sewing space and think about what I would like to try next. Sometimes things just don't work out. That's OK, there are lessons learned, I know. As they say, nothing ventured, nothing gained --  but a serious mess!

Creativity = Chaos

I finally figured out how to do a ltitle free motion quilting on the flower corsages I wanted to make. I cut out a lot of circles of different sizes but decided I didn't have enough "interesting" fabric to use, but I am sticking to my plan of only using what I have on hand.

I'm trying to do little projects that are fun and creative and will make nice gifts for others. It's not as easy when you can't run out and buy more stuff. Like you, I've got way more craft stuff than I could possibly use in a lifetime. What's that old line: She who dies with the most fabric (yarn, paper, etc.), wins?

Maybe not the best sentiment for these "green" times?

Friends, DVDs Great Way to Learn

As I mentioned before, I am trying to learn free motion embroidery. A friend came over last week and helped me set things up and I feel like I can go ahead and jump into this new-to-me craft, but with a lot of practice.

But since I am not a comfortable seamstress, I also borrowed a DVD from the library which featured Ann Fahl's technique for Coloring with Thread. It was very helpful as it matched what she had written in her accompanying book.

But there's something about watching a real person do something that makes it much easier to learn. I have always sought out books to learn new things, but I now think that DVDs, and to the same extent YouTube-type vidoes, are more the way to go. There's no replacement for having a person right there with you that you can ask questons of, but coming in second place are these new video learning tools.

If there is something you have being waiting to learn, get a friend to come over who knows how to do it (best of all). If that can't happen, borrow some DVDs from the library or check out YouTube offerings. You will be up to speed a lot faster on the basics, which will allow your creative self to take off!

Stop! Creativity May Have to Wait. . .a bit

Sometimes, being creative means that you have to take two steps back and put those whimsical, inspired ideas on hold.

I know, not much fun, but often, it's the only way.

I recently bought an open toe free motion spring foot for my old Viking sewing macine. This model was the first, I think, of the series of machines which had electronics built in so that I could write names on fabric bags, and do a lot of decorative stitches. (See photo above)

I haven't used the machine in years and years except for a couple of projects sewing on paper. But I have been interested in learning to do free motion embroidery with the machine for a while.

With luck, and my friend's advice, I actually ended up buying the right free motion presser foot for the machine. So I decided to try and quilt with it and ended up with a big old jam (probably one of the reasons I gave up sewing years ago.)

I decided I didn't have enough information to go ahead and try again, and for a reason that escapes me, I don't own a book that would show me how to do this type of embroidery.

So I ordered some basic books at the library and hope they come in soon so I can get back to my projects.

This is very frustrating as my creative juices were flowing last week and now I will have to get inspired again next week once the books arrive and I can take the steps to learn more. But this is the intelligent way to do things, I know, so I will do the responsible thing and wait.

Except that I hate waiting.