Cake Rock Beach

Skip this if repeat projects bore you...more wristlets! This is really about the tenth set I've made, and I loooooove them. It's true, there are a lot of pieces to this. Cutting takes for-EVAH, so I had a couple of hours of production line cutting. I have a stack of flannel lining and fusible interfacing pre-cut, plus several sets of fabric.   So I can sit down and get right to the fun part when it's time to make a new set. My friend Jen H recently had a big, fat birthday. As is our habit, a group of girlfriends in my neighborhood got together for a small celebration. These occasions are especially notable when Heidi bakes. I skipped dinner, and went straight to the perfect cheesecake with lemon curd OR (more honestly, AND) caramel sauce, washed down with a glass of prosecco. Swoon. Back to the wristlets: I wanted this set to be something Jen was sure to like and use, and to that end, I invited her to go "shopping" in my fabric stash to see what she liked. This confirmed what I already knew: Jen has amazing taste. She chose 3 fabrics from Joelle Hoverson's "Cake Rock Beach" line. Why, oh why, hasn't Joelle continued with fabric design? Anyway, this was not anything I'd looked at for this project, and it has turned out to be my favorite set so far.

Conversation Hearts

So my friend Tia told me about home made conversation hearts. More trouble than they're worth? Oh yeah, but so cute. Here's a link to a recipe. My tips: make sure the sugar dough doesn't try out before you roll it out for cutting. Some of mine are pretty grainy for this reason. This is a messy project. Powdered sugar was flying everywhere, and I'm kind of surprised I'm not still stuck to the floor. I also managed to kill my hand mixer (Black and Decker WITH TURBO BOOST) at the end there. If you attempt this, have an extra bag of powdered sugar on hand for the hand kneading. I added in a lot more during this step than I expected.  For flavors, I used peppermint and vanilla extracts, and a super secret ingredient (shhhh...lemon and cherry Jell-O). I would have used Kool-Aid packets, but couldn't find any. Kool Aid flavors would have been excellent.