Autumn Mantel

When I posted about my fireplace mantel here, it was decked out for Halloween.  With Halloween over, it was time to transition to more of a harvest tone.  I wanted to hang the fabric rag wreath I made here over my mantel, but I couldn't locate my brick clips.  So what could I hang that would be light enough to hang without clips?  How about a paper banner?  We've been seeing them all over blogland and it was time I tried my hand at one.  I wanted my banner to read "Give Thanks."

First I assembled my tools:  paper, paper cutter, glue, ribbon, and diecut letters.

I wanted to maximize the number of triangles that I could get from 1 piece of paper.  I cut 6 from each piece of paper by cutting each sheet in half horizontally, then cutting 3 triangles from each half.  Here's some lines and measurements for a typical 8.5x11 sheet of paper.

After cutting out my triangles and popping out my diecuts, I glued the triangles together, partially offset, like this.

After assembling each of the triangles, I measured out how much ribbon I would need for the banners to hang from.  I applied glue to the backside flap of the triangle.

I sandwiched the ribbon between the flap and the base triangle

and cut off the excess corners.

After completing the banners, I hung them over my mantel just draped over the bricks.  The bricks are rough enough and the ribbon textured enough to grab the ribbon without any fasteners whatsoever.

I completed my mantel with mums & coneflowers from the garden and produce from the kitchen.

Thanks for popping in and check out the other projects at Between Naps on the Porch's Metamorphosis Monday, Craftomaniac's Monday Link Party, and Sew Can Do's Craftastic Monday.

Island Shrimp Skewers

It's a Sunday in November, which means it's time to trot out another Tailgating Recipe.  Shrimp can be a terrific Tailgate staple, because it takes just minutes to go from cooler to plate.  I love this quick and easy recipe for Grilled Pineapple and Coconut Shrimp Skewers because if you close your eyes you can almost feel the warm tropical breezes.  In upstate NY, you may need the assistance of a few alcoholic beverages to get you to feel the warmth, but for a tailgate it's likely you've got that covered.

Start your morning by dumping your frozen shrimp into a baggie with a can of coconut milk, a tsp of thinly sliced ginger, and 1/4 tsp of sriracha hot sauce.  If you don't have sriracha, you can substitute with a chili sauce of your choice.  Let that marinate all morning.  You'll want to thaw out your shrimp if you don't have all morning for them to thaw out on their own.

Just before kickoff, thread the shrimp alternately with pineapple chunks(ideally fresh, but canned if you don't have fresh,) on skewers that have been soaked in water.

Grill for just 1 1/2 - 2 minutes per side.  Quick, Easy, and Yummy.  The sweetness of the pineapple and the heat of the shrimp will play off of each other.

Thanks for popping in and check out the other great recipes at Tiny Skillet's Tailgating Time and Remodelaholic's Recipe Swap Party.

Stuffed Acorn Squash

I'm fortunate enough to have children who enjoy vegetables.  I've never had to hide zucchini in their brownies or cauliflower in their mashed potatoes.  (Although mashed cauliflower is wonderful, you should try it sometime.)  One of Whirling Dervish's favorite autumn meals is this Stuffed Acorn Squash.  Start with 2 acorn squash.

Cut them in half.  Drizzle the cut sides with olive oil and place face down on a baking sheet.  Roast for 45minutes to an hour at 375 depending on the size of your squash.

Towards the end of the roasting time, fire up a skillet.  Saute a medium chopped onion and 1 lb lean ground turkey.  Add 1 large peeled, cored, and chopped apple.

Add 1/4 tsp allspice, and salt and pepper to taste.  Scoop out the insides of the squash leaving 1/4 inch in the shell. 

 Add squash to the skillet and mix thoroughly.  Add 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese.  Mix well.  Fill the shells with the turkey mixture.  Sprinkle more grated parmesan on top.  Stick these back in the oven to brown the cheese on top.

I think the camera lens got steamy in the pic above.  This is a great recipe for a blowsy autumn day.  The kids love it.  For more finicky eaters, you can place a toothpick flag in the center and call these pirate ships or navy boats.  I love scraping a spoonful of the intact squash inside the shell with each bite of the stuffing.

Thanks for popping in.  I'm linking this recipe up to Gluten Free Homemaker's Gluten Free Wednesdays, Designs By Gollum's Foodie Friday,My Romantic Home's Show and Tell Friday, and Lisa's Gluten Free's Food and Health Carnival.

Autumn, not Winter

I needed to drive Snuggle Bunny to school today and what did I find in my driveway?

This.

That's right, frost.  Not just a light coating of frost - the kind that disappears when you start up the heat in your car.  A thick coating all over.  One that needed the use of an icescraper, a tool found in the bowels of the garage.  Now if I was driving alone to the corner store, I might have scraped off a little of the windshield and hunkered over my steering wheel, peering out of the tiny hole, but with SB in the car, I needed to scrape every last, vision shielding bit off.  Safety first and all.

So why didn't SB just ride the bus?  Because of the completed project he needed to bring into school.  His kindergarten class is doing a project in which every family decorates a feather to adorn a giant turkey cutout.   Again why couldn't he ride the bus with a feather?  This is why.

That's right.  It was enormous.  That's a sixteen inch ruler sitting next to the feather.  The whole family was supposed to work on this project together, but Whirling Dervish is in high school and has hours and hours of homework every night and Computer Genius was working, so SB and I completed it together.  Lots of glue, pictures, buttons, glue, stickers, eyelets, glue, beads, springs, glue, feathers, puffballs, and more glue.  I'd show a picture, but the boys' names are fairly prominent on this project and I'd have to blur out most of the feather to show it off.

Frost or not, I'm not ready for winter.  It's still autumn and I still have bunches of autumn projects that I'd like to tackle.  I took down all of my exterior Halloween decorations and my door was looking a bit bare.  I showed you some of my autumn wreath inspiration pics here.  I pulled out some grapevine and feathers and got to work.  I pulled some of the grapevine free from an old garland and arranged it in a circle.

Started attaching feathers, from my big box of random things, with floral wire.

Continued around the circle.

The wreath was still looking a bit bare when all of the feathers were on, so I wired in some berries, too.  This wreath can work for both autumn and winter with the red and golds.

Cleanup was super easy, because I just picked up the four corners of the fabric scrap that I'd been working on and shook it outside.

I also made a fabric wreath like the one I made here.  I grabbed a bunch of fabrics from my scrap pile.

You'll remember fabric #1 from my outdoor projects post here.  I used it to re-cover SB's patio set. Fabric #2 was microsuede leftover from a costume a few years back, #3 is the tone on tone damask that I used to reupholster a hand me down love seat, and #4 is more leftover embroidered taffeta from my great room drapes.
And here it is completed.

 Both these wreaths were made for free with bits and scraps from my craft room.  I love a cheap makeover, don't you?  I need to convert my halloween mantle into a fall mantle and start working on Christmas cookies.  Thanks for popping in and checking out my wreaths and check out the other neat projects at Someday Crafts's Whatever Goes Wednesday, Just a Girl's Show and Share Day, and Crazy Domestic's Linkup Party.

Vote, Vote, Vote

Just a reminder(not that you really need one with the grinding political ads every 4 seconds) for everyone to get out and vote today.

I'm not going to tell you who I'm voting for(and since you don't live here, you wouldn't know them anyway.)

I'm not going to tell you who you should vote her(your decision, not my business.)

I'm not even going to tell you what ideas to vote for.  Political talk can get rancorous.

Just go out and vote.  It's your right and privelege.  Take advantage of living in a country where your opinion matters.