Taffy Apple Salad (A low-cal twist that's yummy as can be!)

 Lots of variations of Taffy Apple Salad on the web, many having been passed from generation to generation and all sounding delicious. I wanted to share a recipe for Taffy Apple Salad that is quick, simple and just as yummy as it's higher calorie counterparts. Enjoy!

Taffy Apple Salad

• 1 20oz can crushed pineapple (in it's own juice) Do Not Drain
• 4 Granny Smith apples, cored and diced (use 2 green and 2 red for a bit more color)
• 1 lemon (for juice)
• 1 small box Instant Sugar Free Butterscotch pudding mix
• 1 small container Fat Free Cool Whip (thawed)
• 1 cup Nuts (your choice) I like walnuts, but any nut will do.

Core and dice apples and toss in lemon juice.
The lemon is just to keep the apple from turning brown.

Put pineapple (with juice) in large bowl, stir in dry pudding mix. Add apples. Add Cool Whip. Stir gently to mix. Fold in nuts. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. How easy is that!!

Bias Binder Attachment

Available at www.yoursmineandhers.com

Using a bias binder gives you a clean, neat finished edge on many projects from large quilts to hems for garments and other projects.

We love bias cut bindings, however, if you are not binding around a curve you can also use straight cut fabric in our binding attachments. Just be sure you cut the width of your binding exactly to the size of the binder you are using or your finished results will not be satisfactory.

 We love the 6th Finger Stilletto and include one with each binder.

It is very handy for use with the binder, as well as, many other projects

that might require a delicate touch.

The binder mounts to the machine at the 2 threaded holes to the right of the pressure foot.

 

 

Cut the end of your fabric strip at an angle so it will be easier to slide into the binder.

 

 

  This is one place the sixth finger stiletto comes in very handy to help feed the fabric through the binder. Note the wrong side of fabric facing out toward you.

Insert your project into the binder between the metal as shown. Begin to sew and have the stitching fall where it catches the binding fabric. If your machine has  the left/right needle position you can position it perfectly!  I also use different decorative stitches to attach the binding. The serpentine stitch looks great on many projects.

Whether using bias or straight cut bindings, our binder attachments can help you achieve a professional finish (in short time) in a variety of widths and on a variety of projects. Mom has a much more detailed tutorial over on her blog. You can check it out here.

 

Away far too long and A Little "Peanuts" Fun

As you all well know, certain things in life take precedence and can prevent us from doing all we normally do... that having been said, I have been away from our blog far too long. Thanks Mom, for the post on your "reclaimed luggage rack", sew creative! (I have always admired that piece and think it epitomizes recycling at it's best). 

A huge sewing job, that did not utilize a computer one iota, took up the entire month of January (practically every night and day... sure am glad that job is finished).

 A dear relative whose is being consumed by cancer has taken precedence in February. It is most difficult to idly sit by and watch a loved one who is experiencing quantity of life, as opposed to quality of life. One can often feel so helpless.

I have taken a much needed respite today to share some history on a subject that is near and dear to my heart. I grew up with the "Peanuts" gang and have come to appreciate many of the comics even more as I have grown older. Reminiscent of a simpler time, maybe? Enjoy!

Charles Schulz was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and grew up in St Paul. He was the only child of Carl Schulz, who was German, and Dena, who was Norwegian. When he was two days old, his uncle nicknamed him “Sparky”, after the horse Spark Plug in the Barney Google comic strip. He’s was known by that name all his life.

http://www.comicvine.com/charlie-brown/29-20165/

Shortly after his mother’s death, he was drafted into the army in February 1943. After he left in 1945, he took a job as an art teacher, having taken correspondence courses before he was drafted. After a tough beginning, Schulz’s first regular cartoons, Li’l Folks, were published from 1947 until 1950, when the cartoon was dropped. Later that year, Schulz approached the United Feature Syndicate with his best strips from Li’l Folks, and Peanuts made its first appearance on October 2nd, 1950. The rest is cartoon history.

Charles Schultz created a character that almost everyone can relate to at times and turned him into America's favorite son whose endearing qualities have endured for more than 60 years. Schultz could tell a sad story and make you laugh all the way through it, as you wept inside for poor Charlie Brown who seldom did anything right.

50 years of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Woodstock, Linus, Lucy, Sally, Schroeder, Pig-Pen, Peppermint Patty, Marcie, Joe Cool, good grief, little league baseball, football,  the Flying Ace, summer camp, dear pen pal, kite-eating tree, unrequited love, chuck, sir, the great pumpkin, the psychiatrist is in, the little red-haired girl, and a security blanket…

Every bit a gem now as when it originated, Peanuts was created October 2nd 1950 and ran until the day after Charles Schultz died in February of the year 2000.

Reclaimed luggage stand

 

Reclaimed Luggage Stand

One more use for Sew Creative's quilt binder and your sewing machine.

I found this luggage stand at an auction several years ago. The strapping was worn and broken in places. I loved the wood (real wood) and it was very sturdy. I took two contrasting green frabics, cut them into 1.5" strips and put it through the binder and sewed it without attaching it to anything.  This gave me several inches of flat folded and sewn, three-quarter inch wide "fabric tape" that I wove into a new seat for the stand. It has been used for many things in it's second life. From an extra seat at the table to a make-up dresser stool to a suit case stand.

Ha! Still going strong!

Happy New Year

Merry Christmas

Happy Winter Solstice

theportuguesewaterblog.blogspot.com

Today marks the day many ancient peoples all around the world celebrated the Winter Solstice. Although it marks the beginning of winter, Spring is just around the corner. There may be plenty of bad weather between now and spring flowers, but today is the shortest day of the year, so starting tomorrow the days will begin getting longer.

The Winter Solstice marks the turn from the shortest day of the year towards the return of light and in many cultures this return of illumination is celebrated, welcomed and revered. 

The solstice itself may have been a special moment of the annual cycle of the year even during neolithic times. Astronomical events, which during ancient times controlled the mating of animals, sowing of crops and metering of winter reserves between harvests, show how various cultural mythologies and traditions have arisen. This is attested by physical remains in the layouts of late Neolithic and Bronze Age archaeological sites such as Stonehenge (pictured above) in Britain and Newgrange (pictured below) in Ireland. The primary axes of both of these monuments seem to have been carefully aligned on a sight-line pointing to the winter solstice sunrise (Newgrange) and the winter solstice sunset (Stonehenge). Significant in respect of Stonehenge is the fact that the Great Trilithon was erected outwards from the center of the monument, i.e., its smooth flat face was turned towards the midwinter Sun.

For Pagans, Solstice is symbolically the night when the Sun Child is reborn out of the womb of Mother Night. For the Mayans, this year marks the end of a 30,000-year calendar cycle. For pop culture, somehow this has become the end of the world.

"We might laugh at that idea, but then something stops us. This year, we’ve seen the skyline of New York grow dark. We’ve suffered record droughts, floods, enormous storms: to some it seems all the predictions of the climate change scientists are coming true.

Deep inside we sense that we are, indeed, approaching some kind of end. Maybe it's the end of our current way of life, fueled by cheap oil and the illusion that we can endlessly and thoughtlessly exploit the living systems of the earth without dreadful consequences

We desperately need to make an end of our destructive practices, lest we leave our children a world that is at best impoverished and at worst, uninhabitable. And yet we often seem paralyzed, knowing what we need to do and unable to marshal the will to do so.

May this Solstice mark an end to the era when we saw the world as a bunch of dead, separate stuff and ourselves as isolated, and the beginning of a new day when we understand the world as an interconnected web of relationships."  by Starhawk founder of reclaiming.org

My winter wish to all as the days begin to grow longer is for convivial companionship, sweet  dreams, and peace on earth. It will be spring before we know it.