Month: December 2023

Fused Glass Christmas Ornaments and other Holiday Gift Ideas

On By Erickson's HeirloomsIn Fused glass, HolidaysLeave a comment

A few weeks ago, I participated as a vendor at a Holiday Market hosted by a local church. The market was a fund raiser for local missions. I was pleased to be part of that effort. 

To sell at the market, I brought several of the fused glass bowls and art pieces that I have made. Having participated last year, I knew that tree ornaments would also be popular. So, I spent a couple weeks this fall creating several variety of ornaments.

Bells:

Christmas Sweaters:

Santas, Snowmen and Gnomes:

Penguins, Mittens and Dala Horses:

Nativity:

Assorted other designs:

And even Pickle Ball Paddles:

I also made some jewelry (pendants and earrings):

And Garden Flowers:

The Holiday Market was very successful raising a nice sum of money for south metro mission outreach programs. And, I had lots of fun making the items to sell. 

I know it is too late for this Christmas. But, if you see anything in this post that you would like me to make for you for next year, please send me a message and we can make arrangements for me to get the item(s) to you. Half of what I make from selling these items will be donated to the missions outreach.

I am also hoping to participate in a Spring Market this year and am looking forward to making more garden art and Easter items. If I do participate, I will post pictures of the items that I make.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

National Cookie Day 2023

On By Erickson's HeirloomsIn Baking, Cookies, Holidays1 Comment

This morning, I needed to stay at our house to await a FedEx delivery that required a signature. Not knowing when the delivery would arrive, I didn’t want to be sewing or working in my glass studio because the noise may have kept me from hearing the door bell. So, I decided it was a good day to do some holiday cookie baking.

After I was finished baking, I found out that today was actually National Cookie Day. So, I guess I made the right decision as to how to spend my day.

Each year, I try some new recipes as well as bake some favorites from previous years. One of the new recipes I tried this year was Soft Almond Sugar Cookies. This recipe showed up on my Instagram Feed and I since I love almond flavoring in cookies, I decided to give it a try. The recipe can be found on a blog called Broken Oven Baking. I made a slight change to the recipe. As written, the recipe makes 8 large cookies (3-4 Tbs of dough for each cookie). I really did not want cookies that size, so I made smaller ones with 1 Tbs of dough.

These cookies are really good, especially if you enjoy almond flavoring.

The second recipe I tried was Buttery Cranberry Orange Shortbread Cookies. This was another recipe that showed up on my Instagram feed. The recipe can be found on a blog called Tutti-Dolci. The fresh orange zest really makes the flavors zing. I made a minor change to this recipe as well. Not wanting to hand chop the dried cranberries, I put them in the food processor with the sugar and orange zest. This worked really well and the sugar kept the cranberries from getting stuck the the processor blade.

The flavor is amazing. I think the may be my new favorite cookie!

Lastly, I made a recipe that has become a favorite for the holidays, Red Velvet Cookies. The recipe can be found in a previous posting.

Wednesday, I plan to make my holiday candies. Each year, I make Peanut Brittle and English Toffee, recipe found in a previous post, as well as Pretzel Kiss Candies.