Halloween Mug Rug Sets (Updated to add cookie recipe)

A friend asked me to make some "door prizes" for a party Saturday night. Of course, that was jut a good reason to go buy some more fabric, heh heh heh... I decided to make mug rug sets...a mug rug and little matching napkin. Then I found some cheap black, ceramic mugs at a discount store, so I bought six. I added a cello bag of assorted cocoa, coffee, and tea packets stuffed into the mug, and made some Sinfully Soft Molasses Cookies (see recipe below), which I decorated with a zig-zag of Wilton Vanilla Candy Melts. Here's a complete set, with a cute tag I made:

"Spook-A-Licious Halloween Mug Rug. Mug Rug: Bigger than a Coaster, smaller than a Placement. Just the right size for a Cuppa and a Cookie"

And here are the six individual rugs/napkins, which are all different:

All together now! They were a hit at the party, I'm told - other issues prevented me from going to the party, but I ran the goodies over there in the afternoon. I'd been so busy making these, I hadn't had time to come up with a costume anyways ;-)

 

Sinfully Soft Molasses Cookies
1/2 cup butter (not margarine)
1/2 cup shortening (I use Butter-Flavor Crisco)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup molasses
2 eggs
4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
2 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
2 1/4 teaspoons ground cloves
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
Additional sugar

Cream butter, shorteneing, and sugar til light and fluffy. Add molasses and eggs. Stir or sift together flour, salt, soda, ginger, cloves, and cinnamon. Gradually add dry ingredients to wet. The secret to good cookies is to NOT OVERMIX after the dry ingredients have been added. Roll dough into 1 1/2" balls. Roll balls in sugar. Place on ungreased baking sheet 2 1/2" apart. Bake at 350 degrees for 11 minutes - do not over bake if you want them to remain soft! Store in a tightly-closing container to maintain softness. Flavor enhances over time and they freeze wonderfully. I decorated mine with Wilton Vanilla Candy Melts (melt in microwave and pipe onto cookies in a zig-zag pattern).

Halloween Tote Swap - I Hit the Jackpot!

I signed up for Aunt Pitty Pat's Halloween Tote Swap, and I got the MOST WONDERMOUS partner, Lanette! OMG did she spoil me! I was babbling for days...actually, I Friended her on Facebook, and then proceeded to FB-stalk her, LOL! I sent her Message after Message going on and on about how fabulous the package she sent me was :-)  So let's dive right in...here's the tote itself! Look at that cute fabric, and of course, the polka-dot lining is PERFECT!

I immediately started using this for a purse, and I've received MANY compliments!

But the tote itself was FILLED TO THE BRIM with GOODIES! I've never seen so many goodies in my life, all in one package! I rushed to take pictures before I ripped into them, and every one I opened, I squealed in delight!

First of all, besides the awesome tote, she made this beautiful table runner. I love the autumn colors and it will look soooo nice for Thanksgiving dinner - I can't wait! I love the big buttons that accent it so perfectly.

Love these colors!

She sent not just the two FQs that were required...she sent THREE, plus a surprise, creatively wrapped in a FOURTH!

Lanette is a rubber-stamper, too, so her gifties had some awesomely cute tags!

A beautiful Charm Pack! I love love love it! What to make with it? Hmmm....whatever I use it for, it will be gorgeous :-)

So beautiful!

And just look at all the sewing goodies! Oh my! Thread, pins, needles, floss, pumpkin buttons, and the most adorable little six-inch squares, all folded and rolled and tied with tiny ribbons - I really didn't want to unroll them...but I did, heehee...

Have you ever seen so many sewing goodies?

Oh, and lookee see - MORE buttons...and ribbons! I LOVE buttons!

I was literally drooling over that bag-0-buttons :-)

Candy! Yum! I dove right into the popcorn ball...me loves me some popcorn balls!

And I also love anything Russell Stover

She also sent the cutest card she had made, but I was having trouble getting it to photograph right...you'll have to take my word for it - it was fabulous! Thank you soooo much, Lanette! I'm still in awe of such a wonderful, generous, beautiful swap package. You have so much heart and talent! I can only hope we may be partners in a future swap :-)

I've Been Missing...

Ugh. It's been sooo long since I've blogged! I'm blaming my vacations...a week's "staycation," followed almost immediately by three weeks in Kansas to visit my friend Aunt Pitty Pat. Well, I've got to have SOMEthing to blame my lack of posts on, right?

So let me jump right back in by throwing out a few pics...

First off, I've neglected to post a swap I received...this was Sue's Christmas In July swap over at Country Pleasures. My partner was Sonia, and look what she sent me! I love the darling shelf-sitter, and potholder...but my favorite item was the "tree" FQ set! I just can't bring myself to take it apart! Might have to make some of these myself, for future swaps. Thank you soooo much, Sonia!

And here's what I sent Sonia...thanks, Sue, for hosting this fun swap!

Next up...my wonderful son, Ben, and beautiful daughter-in-law, Autumn, are PREGNANT! Yippee! I found this out just two days before leaving for Kansas back in September! So of course, I had to make a little something-something while I was gone...just for baby :-) Since it's very early and we don't know the sex, I went with some orange and green fabrics, with some black and white thrown in. I found some pretty fabrics in Kansas at Charlotte's Sew Natural in Newton - one of my favorite shops to visit while I'm in Kansas.

I finished the quilt sandwich before heading back home, and actually sewed the binding on while flying and waiting in airports. I got many lovely compliments from fellow travelers!

And I used up scraps for the back of the quilt...

Autumn has started to "fluff" up a little bit, and her pants have become uncomfortable...so they asked if I could experiment on a pair of her old jeans to convert them to maternity pants. I found it to be very much easier than I thought...so I'm thinking I'll be doing some more conversions for her as time goes by.

And...here are the blocks I made for Aunt Pitty Pat's Halloween Quilt Block Swap. I got these completed while I was visiting her. I had intended to make something a bit simpler...but she's quite the whip-cracker (in a nice way), and she insisted I make this block after I showed it to her in the current issue of Quilts and More magazine...it did turn out nice, I have to say ;-)

 And here's me and Aunt Pitty Pat and Pitty Pat in the airport when I was getting ready to leave for home...she was very sad to see me go...partly because I was chief-cook-and-bottle-washer while I was there, taking care of her after she had some surgery on her neck/spine. Aww...I was glad to help her out :-)

I'll post some more pics of my visit to Oz and some of the things I/we made while I was there soon!