Box of Friendly Plastic

 
Yesterday, I found a box of Friendly Plastic hidden on the top shelf of my spare bedrooms closet. I bought all of this plastic many, many years ago, when the Ben Franklin craft store was closing in North Dartmouth. I had never used FP, but it was such a great deal...I bought all they had. I think I only paid $2.oo for the whole box.  I have no idea what to do with it, and am wondering...is this plastic still good?  I don't know anything about this stuff. Oh my, what will I do with all these plastic strips. Have you ever bought something, just because it was cheap? I can't tell you how many times I've done that. :-)
The box is full ( I guess there is around 5 pounds) and has solids, snakeskin, iridescent, metallic's, striped, mottled and glossy pieces. The photo's  don't show how pretty some of the pieces are. I need to do a Google search to see how to use this stuff. Seems like I remember you needed an electric fry pan to heat water to warm the plastic so it could be molded and cut. The box full of FP is 9  1/2  x  3  x  12 inches.
jumbled in the box before I separated the strips
solids metallic's patterned patterned
bagged one gallon zip lock bags full of the strips
Have you ever worked with FP? Is it easy and are there still books with how to projects being sold? Any ideas you have to share will be helpful. I don't know if I will ever do anything  with this stuff. 
If you work with FP, I'd love to see what you do with it.  What are your favorite colors? I will hold a challenge..I will share some with you, but you must send me a photo of your finished project so that I can post to my blog or we could even swap pieces with those that participate.  If interested email me..EAkers@aol.com with your address.
Since I wrote this post several have shared these FP sites...
http://www.sunshinecrafts.com/body_friendly_plastic.html
http://rarelizzie.wordpress.com/
http://friendlyplastic.blogspot.com/
2011 has been one very hectic and upsetting/sad year, and I didn't get to create a lot of art to share on my blog. I mostly shared photos and recipes, but hopefully in 2012 I will find more time to create art. Goodbye 2011, you seemed to pass in a flash. Maybe because I as I get older time just flies..I don't know, but time seemed to stand still when I was a child, and now the days just roll one into another.
 Wishing all of you a very Happy New Year.

 

Christmas photos

Christmas Eve, Tom and I went to my younger brother Richard's house for dinner. After dinner, gifts were exchanged. Cody and Kyle opening their gifts
little Cassie playing with her new purse
Christmas Day, Tom and I had dinner with my sons, daughter in law, grand children and my daughter in laws mother. Great meal and fun family time.
  you caught me  hard to snap a photo as Bella is always on the move.
Bella getting tired
grand daughters..Lily and Bella
grand daughter Katie
Bella and Lily
Lily and Bella
Christmas night we went to my niece Trish's for another big meal. I snapped some fun pictures. My sister in law, Terry's sister, Lisa brought a fun Elf hat that was actually quite heavy. When you pressed a button lights flashed and bells jingled. We had a lot of laughs fooling around with that silly hat.
   Cody..looking panicky when the hat first started to move on his head
   Kyle not sure if he is liking that elf hat or not.
my 93 year old dad getting in on the fun
I even put the crazy elf hat on my 88 year old mother. Mom and I
    Christmas night...Mom and Dad.  I really like this picture of my parents. Mom has Alzheimer's and she was having a very good day. It is so sad to see your aging parents decline mentally and physically.
the silliness continued..I put a huge blue bow on mom's head.
then of course it was Dad's turn.
Thankfully everyone has a good sense of humor. I can't take posed or serious pictures all of the time. One of my all time favorite pictures I've taken is of my Dad when he was 80 riding a  around the cranberry  bog on a bicycle.                                                                                                                          We had a wonderful Christmas even though Tom wasn't feeling that great, and I still had my cough. I'm feeling so much better now.
Getting ready for the New Year..no big plans. We use to go to parties, but now we prefer to stay home. Tom and I will probably just go out for Chinese food and then come home to watch a movie. I probably won't even be able to stay awake to see in 2012.  What do you do on New Year's Eve?

Free Collage Sheet site

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas Day. We had a busy day spent with family. There was so much good food and I had lots of fun watching the little one's open gifts and playing with there new toys, but, this morning I have just been relaxing.

I want to share this site with you that has page after page of free collage sheets to use for your personal art projects. Hope you like it. Enjoy!!!

http://www.flickr.com/groups/freecollagesheets/pool/with/4586915256/

Chocolate and Lemon Rolls

  
chocolate roll with Tip Top Filling, cake dusted with confectioners sugar.

  I wasn't planning on baking anything to bring to the two Christmas dinners we will be attending, as I had already made strawberry dessert and snow pudding to bring for dessert. But, yesterday my granddaughter asked if I could make a chocolate roll. Well, how could I not make one to bring.

I use the recipe that is in my old Betty Crocker cookbook. For the filling I have no idea where I got the recipe so many years ago. You can use a whipped cream filling, but I prefer the Tip Top filling which is kind of like what is used in store bought Hostess cupcakes.

Chocolate Roll
1 cup cake flour or 3/4 all purpose flour
1/4 unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 eggs (1/2-3/4 cup)
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup water
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Line a jelly roll pan ( 15 1/2 x 10 1/2 x 1 inch) with parchment paper, wax paper of aluminum foil. Grease the paper. Stir together...flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt..set aside
In a small mixing bowl beat eggs about 5 minutes or until very thick and lemony colored. Pour eggs into a large mixing bowl, gradually add in sugar.  On low speed of  mixer, blend in water and vanilla. Gradually add in the dry ingredients, beating just until the batter is smooth.
Pour the batter into the jelly roll pan, spreading batter to the corners. Bake 12-15 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Loosen cake from the edges of the pan.  Invert the hot cake onto a cotton/lint free kitchen towel that has generously been sprinkled with sifted confectioner's sugar. Carefully remove the paper from the bottom of the cake.  Trim off any stiff edges if necessary.
While the cake is hot, roll the cake and towel from the narrow end. Cool on a wire rack. Unroll cake, remove towel, spread with either sweetened whipped cream or tip top filling.  Roll up the cake and sprinkle with confectioner's sugar. Or if you prefer you can frost the cake with a chocolate glaze frosting.
Tip Top Filling
2 1/2 Tablespoons flour
1/2 cup of milk.. Cook in a small saucepan until it thickens like a pudding. Cool completely.
When cool-add the above mix to a bowl with 1/2 cup of granulated sugar, dash of salt and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat well.
Then add 1/2 cup solid white shortening
1/2 cup margarine=1 stick
Beat ingredients with mixer until mixture is fluffy.
unrolled, cooled, baked cake with tip top filling spread on it.
all rolled up and ready to be eaten

That's it now for holiday cooking for me.
Merry Christmas to all of you!!!!

 

P.S..I was really good about not eating any sweets Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to the dinners and parties we went to. I had no sweets in the house and on the 28th, I craved something good.

 

I made a Lemon Roll.

I used the recipe from my Betty Crocker cookbook which is basically the recipe above without the cocoa powder. The cake is a yellow sponge cake. For the lemon filling I used

the box has a recipe for pudding and for lemon meringue pie..I followed the directions for the pie filling

 

    ready to go into the refrigerator to set up.

Day 12 AAWA 12 day swap

  packaging
Well, this is it..the last day of opening gifts each morning from our 12 day swap. I have thoroughly enjoyed each and every handmade gift that the swappers in group 3 created. Thank you!!!!!
Day 12 gift was created by Anne
front of ornament from Anne
back side of the ornament
This collaged ornament is so colorful. I love butterflies and smiled when I opened the packaging to see one on the front of this ornament. Thank you Anne for the lovely gift.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and I hope you all enjoy a wonderful holiday season of peace, love and joy. Thanks for visiting my blog throughout the year...I truly appreciate it. Also I want to extend a special thank you to all of you who take the time to leave me a comment. I really enjoy reading them. If you do visit and haven't left a comment in the past, I'd love to hear from you. Let me know what you think of my projects, photos or just say hi. :-)   Happy Holidays!!!!

Snow Pudding Recipe

Have you ever had snow pudding? I guess the name was given to this dessert because it looks like new fallen snow. Snow Pudding has been served at our families holiday table as a light dessert for as long as I can remember.

Snow Pudding is a very white, light and fluffy lemon flavored dessert. It cleanses the palate and there is always room for a serving after a big meal because it is so light and airy. The recipe use to be on either the Plymouth Rock  or Knox plain gelatin box. I can't remember which but you can use any plain gelatin.

I first had snow pudding at my Auntie Ellen's when she still lived on Cape Cod. I watched my mother make this dessert when I was a child and now I make it for family gatherings.

Recipe...Snow Pudding...for 1 batch

1 envelope unflavored gelatin

1/4 cup cold water

Juice of 2 small or 1 large lemon...strained. I like the lemon taste and most times use 2 lemons.

3/4 cup cup sugar

1 egg...separated

1 cup boiling water

Soak the unflavored gelatin in a glass bowl with the cold water for 5 minutes. Then add 1 cup of boiling water, 3/4 cup sugar. Stir well. Then add the strained lemon juice into the liquid. Mix well and put  in the refrigerator until the gelatin begins to harden slightly.

box of the unflavored gelatin

Beat the white of the egg to a stiff froth in a large mixing bowl. I use the bowl of my Kitchenaide mixer.  When the gelatin starts to harden add it to the beaten egg white in the mixing bowl.  Start the mixer slowly and as the volume begins to build increase the speed of the mixer.  The motor will get quite warm from beating for so long. Beat the mix for 10-12 minutes or until very light and fluffy and forms peaks when the beater is lifted out of the bowl. *The mixture will almost come to the top of the mixing bowl when it has beat enough. ( the first time I ever made this I didn't beat it long enough and the gelatin separated and made a layer of gelatin on the bottom of the bowl after it had set in the refrigerator.)

Then put the snow pudding into a pretty see thru serving dish. Since I bring this to 2 houses I use 2 smaller bowls that I buy at the Dollar Tree. I don't have to worry about getting my dish back.

Now to make the custard sauce that is served with the snow pudding.

I always make extra sauce..so you may want to double or triple  the recipe. It is like an eggnog without  the spices.

In a 3 quart saucepan mix together with a wire whisk the yolk of  the egg, 1/4 cup of granulated sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch.

Scald 1 cup of milk and pour it into the egg a little bit at a time so you don't curdle your egg mixture. I stir the milk in with a wire whisk.  Cook the mixture stirring constantly until the mixture thickens. When thickened add a dash of salt and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Let cool and the refrigerate. Strain the sauce and pour into a serving container. Serve over the snow pudding.  If you try this recipe let me know how you like it.

Day 11 AAWA 12 day swap

cute packaging of today's gift from Annette

Time is flying and Christmas is almost here and this morning I looked forward to opening my day 11 gift.

   front of Annette's ornament

 

backside

Tomorrow, Christmas Eve day I will open the last of the day 12 swap gifts. It will also mean it will be the end of this wonderful swap.  I am so glad that I participated and each little gift has been a treasure to open and I will hate to have the fun end. Thank you, Annette for today's lovely ornament. I love the vintage look.

Day 10 AAWA 12 day swap

fun machine stitched packaging

close up of the machine stitched tag...pretty neat, don't you think?

Okay, now that I've shown you the package that Joanne created to send today's awesome gift in. I've been intrigued by this package and couldn't imagine what could be inside. Joanne is so creative..you can visit her blog here... Joanne's blog

   isn't this little winged girl just adorable? I love her!!

closeup

 

Joanne...thank you for the wonderful gift and packaging.

Only 2 more gifts to go.

I spent the whole day yesterday wrapping gifts. The kitties tried helping, but honestly, I could do have done without there help. Tomorrow is baking day for me and finishing up a few last minute things.  I am still coughing..will the cough never go away????