HELLOmynameisHeather

You Scream, Ice Cream

"Ice cream is exquisite.  What a pity it isn't illegal"
--Voltaire (1694-1788)

Summer.  Where we live, summer is indoor-season, just as winter is for so many others.  It is hot!

We have a Father's Day tradition of making homemade ice cream.  Breakfast for Mother's Day.  Ice cream for Father's Day.  A couple of years back I decided to create an ice cream recipe from my favorite childhood dessert -- Strawberry Pretzel Dessert -- or that's what my mom called it.  Huge success!  The mere fact that I love this ice cream as much as any chocolatey ice cream speaks worlds of it.  I think it's those salty pretzels in there (they're candied too).

One year we invented Pumpkin Cockroach Cluster ice cream in honor of the latest Harry Potter release.  Candied pecan clusters for cockroaches.  Yummy.  But, no where near as remarkable as my Strawberry Pretzel Dessert ice cream. 

If you're new to homemade ice cream, don't be intimidated.  You won't believe how straight- forward & easy it is to use an electric ice cream maker.  Your ice cream ingredients go in a metal cylinder that fits down into a bucket you fill with layers of ice & salt.  A paddle is inserted into the cylinder, then a motor fits onto the top.  The motor spins the cylinder around and around in the bucket, mixing the ice cream with the paddle and chilling the mixture until it's at a soft-serve consistency.  When the ice cream hits this stage, our machine turns off (it's designed to).  We then mix in the remaining ingredients & freeze the container over night. 

Ice cream machines come in different sizes.  Ours is 4 quarts, I believe, and I picked it up at Walmart for $25-$30 a few years back. They may be seasonal items though, so don't assume you can find one at Christmastime.  The salt can be found in the baking aisle usually, or on display with the ice cream makers.  It's a coarse, gray salt usually labeled as "Ice Cream Salt" or "Rock Salt."

That about summarizes the technical stuff.  Read your ice cream machine's own instruction manual for more specific info.

Onto the fun part.  Check out these recipe cards.  I must have needed a work break, cuz I had perhaps too much fun with these.  I designed the Vanilla Ice Cream recipe card in the style of an old-fashioned ice cream container.  And the Strawberry Pretzel Dessert ingredients are on the the floral card. 

Click here to download the print-ready pdf.  It's a two-page document.  Print one side onto cardstock, then flip the sheet over & print the stripes on the back.  Then cut out the recipe cards, using the crop marks on the front as cutting guides.  The printed area that extends beyond the crop marks is called 'bleed.'  It's meant to be cut off.  Laminate, if you like.

Once you're familiar with the general ice-cream-making process here, you can get creative & come up with your own crazy ice cream concoctions.  My Vanilla Ice Cream recipe makes a great base for all sorts of experimentation.  I'm wanting to see what I can do with brownie mix next time.  And wouldn't it be neat to make a batch of ice cream as a birthday present -- in a flavor that's specific to the person you're celebrating.

Speaking of, I need to do some research on lactose-free ice cream for my younger brother.  He's been missing out on ice cream for a few years now.  I'm going to fix that for him.  "For you, this year, I give the gift of... ice cream."

What are some original ice cream combos you're dreaming of?  Like I said, it's mighty hot here.

Pincushion Class - June 28th

What an awesome response -- thank you all for your enthusiastic feedback on my new fabric collections.  I'm thrilled to release them; it's painful to keep such an exciting secret to myself for so long.  I'm going to keep the contest going through the weekend so everyone will get a chance to participate, so expect news on the winners come Monday or so.

And yes, I'm back in the blog saddle again, as promised.  I have tons of things to post about these days, one of which is the class I'm teaching next weekend at Blissful Living Studio (part of Domestic Bliss).  We're going to have a summery, pincushion-y, strawberry-y fun-fest, making luscious, velvet strawberry pincushions, chatting with girlfriends & sharing my favorite Strawberry Pretzel Dessert ice cream (homemade!) -- recipe coming up next. 

The class includes a pattern for a pear, an apple, a tomato & two strawberry pincushions (yes, my pear design now has friends -- and they'll all be available in the same sewing pattern in the next couple of weeks).  I'll bring the supplies for making our strawberry pincushions -- and I'll bring the ice cream.  While everyone's busy stitching away on their strawberries, I'll go over the instructions for making the other fruit pincushions included in the pattern.

Kristin has an amazing talent for putting events together.  I'm pretty sure she has some other fun flourishes to add to the class as well. We'll have a good time. 

So, if you're in the area & would like to attend, contact Blissful Living & sign up.  Here's their adorable invitation.

I'll see you there.

-- & a link to the Blissful Living blog --

Introducing Pop Garden & Bijoux

• • • Splashy • • •       • • • Colorful • • •       • • • POW! • • •

Introducing Pop Garden & Bijoux, my new fabric collections for Free Spirit -- 'sister collections' to mix & match.  Click on the photo above for a fabulous & not-so-shy preview of all of the prints in the combined collections.

Fresh flowers in three playful palettes to keep your projects lively and your sewing spirits high.  Inspired by the first burst of Spring, Pop Garden captures the energy of a garden in fresh bloom.  Mix prints for a custom bouquet of fabric.  Lively & fresh --- you'll love these!

 
bi•jou [be-zhoo];  n. pl. bi•joux  [French]
1.  a jewel or a trinket
2.  anything small and of elegant workmanship
A collection of "jewels or trinkets" to customize your bouquet of prints and add a bit of sparkle.  Designed with quilters & crafters in mind, Bijoux presents a wide palette of small-scale, cut-able prints to mix with today's modern, large-scale florals.  a.k.a. "almost-solids," "mix-ins," "palette-builders," "pretty ditties," etc.

• • • Coming to Independent Fabric Stores -- End of July 2008 • • •
-- for wholesale information, click here --

And I've re-designed my blog -- it's a blogiversary tradition.  But, this time I had some serious fun & added all sorts of bells & whistles.  So, re-fresh your page or clear your cache if needed. Here's hoping everything is in working order. 

I'm feeling thankful this week -- just so grateful for the goodness that exists in the world.  My last attempt at a post (it was never posted) sounded something like the Gettysburg Address.  I can't decide if it's powerful & poetic or just plain sappy, so it'll have to wait.  And, seeing as my blog has now turned two and I'm feeling gushy & grateful -- well, I'm thinking a giveaway will suit the occasion.  Three giveaways!  What do you think? 

This time I won't ask you to suffer through your embarrassing stories or tell me a dumb joke (though you really should go have a read through those horrifying stories & stupid jokes  if you haven't already).  Leave a comment & I'll ask the random number generator for help in choosing.  I wish I could do a thousand giveaways.  Wouldn't that be cool?  Perhaps one day. 

Each box will be a mish-mash of hoo-hahs & what-nots (good ones), whatever I'm feeling like when I pack them up, but I'll be sure to include your favorite color of Trash Ties, a new pincushion & some Freshcut.  I'll even include a precious couple of bits & scraps from my own samples of Pop Garden & Bijoux (I only have a small piece of each fabric until the first print run hits the states on big barges next month).

Thank you for hanging around & for going out of your way to send kind notes, leave thoughtful comments, & name my dogs.  Thank you for your friendship.  I wish you all lived on my street & we met up for play dates at the park or lunch on the town twice a week -- or we could hang upside down from trees together & knit.  I've always wanted to try that.  (Perhaps I should I explain that one, huh? -- I had a dream once that I was hanging upside down with my legs hooked over a tree limb & knitting -- some half-awake amalgamation of childhood jungle-gym memories & a my love to make stuff.  It was a pleasant dream.  Would be so much nicer with friends though ; )

So, I guess this post is now a fabric-release-, new-blog-look-, mushy-giveaway- extravaganza.

This will be an exciting next month.  Lots of big debuts in June/July! Have a hunt around my new links & see if you can discover some previews of what we've been up to the last while & what's about to pop.  I'll feature the new fabric collections in more detail over the next few weeks -- just needed to catch up with you guys first.  I'm back in the blog saddle now -- whoa, Nelly!

Immunity?

I went out of town for most of two weeks and came back to a backlog of everything.  We did kick off summer with an awesome day in the rain at Disneyland (lots of rain, but that was kind of fun -- no complaints).   

At home, we've had puppies to train, more summer plans to secure, patterns to complete (THAT'S RIGHT -- I have four patterns written -- they're out with pattern testers).  I figured I could secure myself some absent-blogger immunity with that news.  Granted?  Say yes.  They should be available before the month is over.

Then I sat down yesterday with the goal to post a preview of my two new fabric collections, but my computer kept crashing -- probably a dozen times.  I finally gave up & decided to embroider something -- on the couch -- I hardly ever make my way to the couch.  (Have I mentioned how much I love to embroider?  It's like coloring in slow motion -- very soothing -- great for when your computer is on the fritz.)  Now I'm set up on a different computer & back to assembling images for that fabric preview.  Just popping in for a Hello. 

Hello.

Two? We're Such Softies

Back in town again.  Went to pick out our puppy this week & really couldn't decide between our favorite two.  We took them both home for the night & still couldn't decide.  Sheez.  So it looks like we're going to have two dogs now.  One girl, one boy.  We're still in the naming cloud.

They're cute, no?