I don’t want you to think I’m going to neglect Hey Lucy, just because I have another blog. I made a lot of things in December, so I’ll tell you all about them this month. I decided to do a little quilting, and made a log cabin pillow with some of my favorite shades of pink & green.

It was part of my annual Christmas swap with Yvonne of Yvestown (I am a lucky duck, we’ve been doing this swap for four years now? or is it five?). Yvonne is a super good swapper, so I wanted to make sure I sent something worthy of her beautiful home.

I mentioned this in November, but now I'm serious. I've launched a blog for iPhone people that I think you'll like, if you are an iPhone user. If not, it may convince you that you should become an iPhone user. I aim to post lots of useful and sassy information. Anyway, it's fun and I would love it if you would visit. Oh, it's right here. I moved it from the original Typepad site, I like it much better this way. And there's even a matching twitter feed!

Red

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Things are hopping in my little house studio. Today I made this:

I followed this tutorial at Creature Comforts, so easy and so cute, I think! I used a bit of silk and raided my mother-of-pearl buttons to dress it up a little. It's light and comfortable to wear. I might have to make some more for gifts. 

I have lots more to share all week. Who else is making gifts this weekend?

So this pie in a jar thing has been making the rounds on a few blogs. I first saw it here, but also here and here.

I wanted to do pumpkin pie, which I didn't see anywhere else. I was taking a chance, because I wasn't sure it would work, but they came out beautifully. They came out of the oven all puffed up, but flattened out as they cooled, so the lids went on with no problem.

For the crust I used the shortbread crust recipe in The Joy of Cooking, which is a crumbly crust, perfect for patting into the jar as it doesn't roll out well. It's supposed to be a pre-baked crust, but I didn't bother and it cooked through just perfectly along with the pumpkin filling. 

For the filling I used the recipe from Eagle Brand, which is my favorite pumpkin pie filling. It's so easy, just requires a few ingredients (pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk, eggs, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, salt), and comes out perfect every time. I really like its custard-y texture.

Two crust recipes and one pumpkin recipe was enough for a dozen pies. I used the tiny, four ounce Bell jars. Just pat the crust into the jar, keeping it even with the top of the jar, don't go over! Fill them with about a third of a cup of the filling, just a little under half an inch from the top. Bake at 400 degrees for 35-38 minutes. 

I think I always want to eat my pie from a jar now. 

I've wanted to make fleur de sel caramels since I first read about them, but I'm more of a cookie baker, not a candy maker. It seemed simple enough, though; cook up some sugar, add some cream, sprinkle with salt. So, armed with a candy thermometer and some fancy salt, I decided to give it a try. 

 The first batch, well, it seemed quite delicious. I poured it into a buttered dish to set for a couple hours, but when I went to pop it out it was rock solid. Mr. Heylucy enthusiastically smashed it to bits so we can use it to sprinkle on ice cream or maybe use it cookies. Batch number two was going well, and then my mother-in-law called. While I was busy trying to convince her that she wasn't going to be thrown in jail for running a red light equipped with one of those cameras, my caramel once again cooked just a touch too long. I refused to give up, so I tried one more time. This time I took it off the heat just after it reached the soft ball stage, and it worked out just perfectly. I used this recipe, substituting the corn syrup with honey. I had some of this fancy sea salt, so that's what I used, so they've got a nice honey flavor, perfect with the caramel and salt. 

I'm baking the rest of this rainy afternoon, so there will be more pictures later. First up are these quick and easy lemon cornmeal cookies: 

Also on the list: marshmallows, pumpkin-pie-in-a-jar, and my usual cranberry-oatmeal-butterscotch cookies. I think that will be a nice selection of treats for the gift boxes I've got. I'll be sharing them with some co-workers tomorrow. More pictures to come! 

Do you have this problem? I'm making and shopping for Christmas, and trying to stick to a tight budget, and then I find super cute things that I want, like this pincushion/spool, from this etsy shop:

Or this hat, for which I have a single skein of yarn that might just be perfect:

I don't have time for this nonsense!