Amy Currioman » Crafts

The candy making

Amy — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:45:49 +0000

My sister and I went ahead and experimented with the candy melts last night. We poured an entire bag into one of the large glass measuring cups and put it in the microwave oven. My microwave oven has a soften/melt button so I used that button and just watched the little buttons melt down. I took the cup out of the microwave oven and stirred it, put it back in and let it melt some more, stirred it again, and then I decided to go ahead and just pour the melted candy into the candy mold.

The cup was a two cup measure, and I felt that it was a little bit cumbersome to pour just a little bit out at a time so I decided to use a plastic tablespoon measuring spoon and dip that into the cup and then pour the candy into the mold using the spoon. Each little mold took about one and a half tablespoonfuls to fill up.

I was worried about whether I should have sprayed the molds with cooking oil, but decided to try it without the oil, since the instructions that came with the candy melts did not indicate anything about greasing. We stayed up until 2am working on those candies!

Candy molds

Amy — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 21:22:25 +0000

My sister bought some lollipop candy molds and wants me to take some time later this week to practice melting some candy melts and fill the molds so she can have some lollipops to give away in the near future. I’ve never done anything like that before, it sounds like it could be fun, but I’m a little bit worried about having to use a frosting pastry bag to squeeze the candy out. I’m not quite sure that I have the strength in my hands to be able to do that.

I don’t even have any pastry bags, and I’m wondering if I should go out and buy some, or if there is a quick and easy way to make one ourselves from parchment paper or coffee filters. I’ll have to spend some time online to research that. Have you done anything like that before? How did you do it?

Feel Like Painting

Amy — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 21:12:23 +0000

The weather is starting to get much warmer and nicer. I think the sunshine has inspired my creative juices. I feel like a painting – maybe something outside in the spring air. I just feel a pressing need to get out all my painting supplies and spend a couple hours working on a new project tonight.

Comfort sells

Amy — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 20:58:16 +0000

I was so tickled when I saw Helen put on her Facebook account that she is now selling tie-dye scrubs in her tie-dye store! For several months now I have suggesting that she find an online source like http://www.blueskyscrubs.com/ to buy some and try selling them. There are several hospitals near her store, and there are so many people that be-bop around town wearing scrubs that I think that she would sell a ton of them!

Now that she’s posted that she has a lot of them to choose from, I will have to make a point to squeeze in a trip to her store to check out the selection and try to get a set. I love to wear them as pajamas and lounge wear around the house! Helen won’t have any trouble selling them; comfort is one thing that will sell quickly around here. Especially comfort that is easy on the wallet and looks great at the same time!

Buggy corn

Amy — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 16:38:24 +0000

I bought a bag of corn from the feed store to use to sew into micro-wavable heating pads. I brought it home and opened it up to fill the bags I had sewn, and I was totally grossed out because it was full of bugs! I ended up scattering the corn in the back yard for the deer to enjoy. Now I don’t know where I can go to buy the corn, they don’t sell it at the health food stores anymore!

Fun

Amy — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 18:57:39 +0000

What I did enjoy about my trip to Monhegan Island was when we took a walk through the woods along a trail and we looked off into the woods. We could see where other people had gone into the woods and had made tiny little fairy houses of twigs and pieces of bark and moss, pebbles and acorns. They were very whimsical and very cute. I like to think that maybe one day I’ll have a granddaughter to play with and we can go out into the woods behind our house and use found materials to make our own little fairy houses. I think that would be fun.

Mr and Mrs Claus

Amy — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 18:40:06 +0000

One of my favorite decorations for the house at Christmastime is a pair of handmade Mr and Mrs Santa Claus. I remember buying them the Christmas of 1974 for $25 for the pair. They were being sold by a friend of the lady who made them and brought them to the office to try to sell them. Well, being a sucker for handmade items, and being young and newly out on my own I grabbed them up! They’ve held up very well considering how old they are, and I love them dearly. They grace a space of honor in my house every Christmas

Decorating for Christmas

Amy — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 16:38:26 +0000

Our Christmas tree this year – most of the ornaments were hand made, mostly by myself or family members or friends. Isn’t it pretty? I even crocheted the angel topper and the tree skirt myself! This year the tree is a small 3 1/2′ artificial tree that had light bulbs already strung on it. I just didn’t want to bother with stringing lights this year myself! And we decided on a small tree to put on a table to help keep the dogs from bothering the tree. The last couple of years one of our dogs decided that chewing the strands of lights was a good idea!

Sewing a quillow

Amy — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 14:29:56 +0000

I’ve spent most of the last two days sewing a quillow. Do you know what a quillow is? It is a quilt with a pocket sewn in so that the entire quilt can be folded into the pocket. Once that is folded in, the quillow now looks like, and can be used as, a pillow. So it is a quilt/pillow, therefore called a quillow. I’ve made several quillows in my life. I’ve sold some, and I’ve given some as presents.

This one I just made is being sold to one of my husband’s friends. He is planning to give it to his wife as a Christmas gift! I made a matching pillow case for it, so he can get a pillow form from the local fabric store to put inside it, or they can insert a throw pillow that they already own inside it.

Anyway, here is a picture of my lastest quillow! I hand-tied this one instead of machine quilting it. I thought that the pattern of the fabric lended itself to hand-tying. When I make a quillow, I let the fabric “tell me” what type of quilting would be the best suited. I hope the wife enjoys it!

A t-shirt quilt

Amy — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 18:55:57 +0000

I got an email from my sister N today, asking me if I would be willing to make a quilt out of old T-shirts for some friends of hers. I assume that they are willing to pay to have it done! So I said yes, I’m interested in doing it. I wonder how many T-shirts they have, and what size quilt that they are going to want made? I’ve made a lot of quilts out of woven fabric, but none out of knit fabrics; I think that T-shirts are knit aren’t they? So it will prove interesting to see what they have and how it goes!