Another Saturday...Another Church Bazaar

The last few weeks of November are a wonderful time for church bazaars. The weather is slightly cooler and the excitement of another Christmas is in the air.

There were so many booths inside that it was necessary to spill over on the church lawn.

Part of the fun of attending a local craft fair, is becoming acquainted with new people and new ideas. Inside, the meeting room was packed with craft booths, displaying a wide variety of the local talents.

These brightly colored handbags caught my eye....

How To Felt

They were first knitted... then, "felted". Aren't they gorgeous?

My next stop was to visit with a lady who designs and makes note cards. I was simply fascinated with her techniques. She introduced me to Iris Folding. If you are not familiar with this art of paper folding, check out the link.

 On this card, she did the iris folding with fabric.














Click on Photo

Another card had a photo of a precious cat, sleeping. At the lower half, the card-maker has knitted the beginning of a project. How sweet is this?

After talking with her for quite awhile, I bought several cards. I also bought these lovely hand knitted dish cloths that I have already placed in my kitchen.

And, I couldn't resist buying this pillow for my bedroom. An old embroidered dresser scarf has been used to decorate the pillow top.

Of course, no bazaar or craft fair is complete without food, especially brownies.

So I lunched on a home-made chicken salad wrap....

And, a brownie. How could I resist?

Meggie Mac

'Tis the Season for Fruitcake

Because I still have a full time job in the city, time isn't always on my side. I enjoy cooking and baking, but many times I need to take a few shortcuts.  I believe there is a popular cooking show that relies on "almost from scratch".

I saw this recipe on a box mix for a Date Quick Bread Mix and thought it might be a solution for a quick fruitcake for the holidays.

The recipe called for two boxes of the mix to make a Bundt cake. I decided, because the added ingredients were so expensive, I might cut the recipe in half and use a loaf pan.  That way, if it didn't turn out as good as I expected, the mistake would only have cost half as much.

A note: Half the recipe takes one egg, not two as in the photograph.

Ready for the oven

After all was said and done, looking at the dirty dishes, maybe from scratch would have been just as easy. I'm sure the results would be the reward!

Do you have a favorite fruitcake recipe? If you do, and would like to share it with me, add it in the comments at the end of this posting.

The timer just beeped. It's time to take a look.