Garlic Fever

"There is no such thing as a little garlic." - Arthur Baer

My love affair with garlic started with my first taste of "Adobo", a "garlicky" dish staple to any Filipino home.  Incidentally, as I was writing this blog, my mom who is visiting, prepared this delicacy for lunch. 


Mom's version of Chicken-Pork Adobo loaded with garlic - YUM!

Mom won't always be here to prepare Adobo for me.  So on days when I need to satisfy my garlic craving, one quick way is through roasted garlic.   Roasted garlic can be enjoyed by itself or as a topping for mashed potatoes, bread or pasta. Here is one recipe from Elise Bauer who posted her idea at Simply Recipes. 

To my delight, September is proving to be the month of garlic...at least in my neck of the woods.  The Stratford Garlic Festival starts tomorrow and runs until Sunday in Stratford, ON.  Next weekend, the Niagara Garlic Festival will be held on Saturday, September 13th at Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON.   And on September 22nd, the Toronto Garlic Festival will take place at Evergreen Brickworks in Toronto, ON.  These festivals help promote local garlic growers and producers of garlic. 

For those interested in free tickets to the Niagara Garlic & Herb Festival, email me (or craftmatesetc ^@^ gmail.com, if link doesn't work) with your address, # of people attending, and I'll mail out the tickets to you.  Or, if you prefer, pick it up at the admissions tent on the day of the festival.  Note that the free tickets are limited so they are on a first-come-first-serve basis. 

Enjoy your weekend!

 

eat this!

I was planning my daughter's birthday party one year when I read a magazine article about fun creative kids party giveaways, an alternative to the usual bags of dollar store items.  On it were innovative ideas that included a variety of edible gifts including a miniature hard candy sculpture of an actual loot bag.  

Because I have no sugar sculpture skills, I developed my own version using marshmallow fondant, brownies and store bought candies and made each bag personalized.

The kids' surprised reactions when they received their loot bags were priceless!

Here's another version of the edible loot bags I did for a client...

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a sweet week!

Bebsy

Giveaway Winners

Thank you so much to those who joined my very first giveaway. There were 5 people that joined and I made 5 coffee cozies so that means everyone's a winner - Yay! 

Source: Blessings Abound Mommy

The 5 winners are - Mareth from Lime Riot, Ilda from I Love Doing All Things Crafty, Karen of Rainbow Gardens, Margaret of The Bag Lady, and June K. 

June K and Margaret - please e-mail me your addresses so I can send your coffee cozies. Mareth, Ilda, and Karen - I have mailed your coffee cozies so you should be receiving them shortly. 

I want to thank Carla of  My 1/2 Dozen Daily who also left a comment. Carla left a comment to let me know that she liked what I made and that means a lot to me. As everyone knows, Carla is an awesome sewer and I just love her creations as I mentioned here. I even ordered a custom made zippy wallet from her. If you would like to order a one-of-a-kind item, please visit Carla's blog.

I plan on having another giveaway so please watch out for it. 

Till next time.

A Giveaway

I'm very excited to announce my very first giveaway. I made 5 reversible coffee cozies that I would like to share with the Craftmates readers. If you'd like to join, please be a follower of our blog and leave a comment. Open to all, including internationals!

I will be announcing the winners next Wednesday.

Good Luck!

***Giveaway now closed***

Lucky Month

Last month was a lucky month for me as I won two giveaways - one from Leah of Sew Spoiled, and the other one from the Green Bag Lady. 

From Sew Spoiled, I won a Simplicity bag pattern designed by Leah herself. 

I've been a follower of Sew Spoiled for a long time and Leah's creations are just divine. She's not just a great sewer and pattern maker, she also shares her knowledge with her readers through her tutorials.  I received the pattern last week and Leah even included a very cute key ring. 

I love the colour!

Thanks (sew) much to Leah of Sew Spoiled for the great pattern. I can't wait to try it out and make one of her bags. 

The other giveaway was from the Green Bag Lady. Teresa VanHatten-Granath is the Green Bag Lady. As her blog states: "Teresa and her team of volunteer 'Bagettes' make bags out of donated fabric and give them away for free in exchange for the promise to refuse paper and plastic when shopping".

Very cool vintage fabric

I admire Teresa's eco-friendly effort and I plan to pay it forward by having a give-away soon. Watch out for it!
Thanks again to Sew Spoiled and the Green Bag Lady for their fabulous giveaway.