Mary Ellen Stringham, Author at Spindles Designs by Mary and Mags

“Winter Chill” A Pattern for Pillows

November 25, 2020 by Mary Ellen Stringham Leave a Comment

I love little things. Anything, it doesn’t really matter what it is. It seam to be a family trait. This year I rediscovered little pillows. Little pillows are fun at Christmas. They are great to decorate with, I set them in my Christmas tree. I have some that are made with hangers so they can actually be called an ornament. Putting them in arrangement also works. As a result, we’d like to introduce our new “Winter Chill” a pattern for pillows. Mini pillows.

This new pattern include appliques and instructions for 6 different mini pillows. I had purchased an embroidery pattern for little pillows. After making them the thought came, I need more. Open the fabric stash….

as a Result, inspiration. “Winter Chill” was the inspired theme. All those lovely cool blue winter fabrics just called out to me. Now, what kind of pillows to make. Because I had all these great winter blues the designs came. Snow, snowman, boots, mittens, snowflake and just a pretty patchwork.

Find this great “Winter Chill” Mini Pillows pattern in our Etsy Shop. Make them to match our Snowman Table Runner for a wintery table decoration.

Our Great, Heavy Duty Fire Pit

November 20, 2020 by Mary Ellen Stringham Leave a Comment

This Summer John and I attended a small backyard wedding and admired their fire pit. As a result we decided to build one for our backyard. The big question was how big and where to put Our Great Heavy Duty Fire Pit?

Our city’s safety rules helped us find the best spot also taking care of the size issue. We kept thinking a little big for our small yard. We found the best place was just off the patio. A good central place and it extended our patio space. Good-by overgrown flower bed.

The decision to purchase an insert turned out to be one of our best. We searched the internet and found a very broad variety. The great two level insert we found made it possible to cook over the fire. It can have a fire as well as charcoal briquettes. Finding the right size and color bricks was our next challenge. Home Depot here we come.

Our backyard is really rocky so digging down enough inches to make the base was a very hard job. After a lot of hard work, mission accomplished.

The hardest step was getting the base layer level. The rest was easy after that.

Now comes the decorative part. Another trip to Home Depot . More bricks. I have to admit the trips from the car to the backyard carrying bricks and so forth gave our legs a good workout.

Place the insert. Then pour in the bags of lava rock. In the bottom and outside between the insert and brick structure.

Another trip to Home Depot. This time more rocks and sand.

As a result of two weekends time and hard work, we have our great heavy duty fire pit.

Our goal was to have it ready for Halloween night for a fun outdoor party with the grand kids. Finished early. Cooked burgers and hotdogs two days before goal.

It’ a lot of fun!

Our Great Travels Via Text

November 10, 2020 by Mary Ellen Stringham Leave a Comment

A few years ago my husband and I took a 3 week road trip to see the fall leaves in New England. We would loved to have had our grand children travel with us but they couldn’t miss school. We knew we would miss them and wanted to share our trip some how. It needed to be fun and a learning experience. So we thought of a way for them to sort of travel with us. We could “Travel Together Via Text”. They could follow our journey and learn about following a map, the states and see the different places we were seeing.

Following the journey–How to make it work.

In order to make this happen, I took a picture of our car and so they could always have the car facing the right direction on the map, I made mirror images. I bought and laminated 2 United States maps. Each family received a laminated map, 2 laminated cars, and 2 markers. The idea was to mark the route and move the car to each stop.

The Process

We wanted them to be able to follow along and mark the route on the map so our goal was to send a text and picture every day and send a post card from each place we visited. (Do you know how hard it is to find post cards?) We even sent a post card before we left so they would receive one on the first day. We knew the post cards would always be behind.

The Outcome–Did It Work

We loved the reaction from the kids when they received a text. Always cheerful and excited to hear where we were. It was fun to see the maps when we came home. both families pinned the map on the kitchen wall and marked the route. One pinned string across their map and hung the postcards close to the places they came from. The other family taped their post cards around the map.

Success

We all had a wonderful time. Our great travels together via text was a success. After arriving home a photo book was made using the pictures taken and the grandchildren still enjoy looking through the book when they come to visit.

Snowman Table Runner

September 16, 2020 by Mary Ellen Stringham Leave a Comment

We have been keeping a secret! We are excited to announce that Spindles is to be published! Holiday Crafts 2020 magazine is publishing our Snowman Table Runner Pattern. The issue will be on newsstands starting September 18.

Used with permission from Holiday Crafts magazine. ©2020 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.

The Editorial Project Manager of Holiday Crafts magazine contacted us in February. She said she had seen the patterns in our Etsy shop and would like to feature our Snowman Table Runner pattern in the magazine to be on the newsstands in September. Holiday Crafts magazine is a Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publication.

We were so excited! What a great new adventure! Let the process begin. They wanted a physical table runner for their photographers to take pictures and a copy of the pattern. Well, we didn’t have an actual table runner to send. Because it was requested that the finished runner and pattern be mailed in a little over 2 weeks time, we needed to make one… fast. It was fun we got together and picked out special fabrics. We wanted the finished product to be as close as possible to the one in the pictures she had seen. We reread the pattern to check for errors and off it went with the finished table runner to the publisher. After some paperwork and lots of emails back and forth it is really happening. The magazine hits the newsstands this Friday. WOW!

This is one of those things that you hope for but can’t believe it’s true. It is just a little scary and we are still pinching ourselves.

Pumpkin Honey Muffins

August 27, 2020 by Mary Ellen Stringham Leave a Comment

It’s getting to be that time of year with Fall just around the corner. Not that I need a special time to prepare something with pumpkin in it because let’s face it why wait until Fall. Pumpkin is a flavor we like and we use a lot of honey in our baking so when my husband found this recipe for Pumpkin Honey Muffins we thought we had to try it. I wish I knew where so I could give credit where credit is due. But at least I can share it.

Oh, and lets not forget the pecans. Pumpkin, honey and pecans…I’m in heaven.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp backing soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 ground nutmeg

1/4 cup butter, room temperature

3/4 cup honey

1 large egg

1 cup canned pumpkin

1 cup chopped toasted pecans

Shimmer Sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tin with paper liners. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices. In an electric mixer, beat butter until light in color, about 2 minutes. Add honey, egg, and pumpkin and beat until combined, about 1 minute. Slowly add flour mixture and mix until just blended and no flour streaks remain. Fold in pecans.

Using about 1/4 cup of batter evenly distribute batter into muffin cups. Sprinkle 1/2 tsp Shimmer Sugar over each muffin. Bake 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove muffins from pan and cool on rack.

Like other pumpkin treats their great for dessert but these are not super sweet so they are a great breakfast muffin. Great for after school snacks too!