Springerele Cookie Molds

A few weeks ago, I saw an add on Facebook for what was purported to be a very large estate sale, to be held the following weekend in Phillipsburg, a small town about 120 miles from us. Because Phillipsburg is a very old mining town, I kind of had a feeling this particular sale would hold some Great Old Treasures --may favorite kind! My dear husband was game to take a summertime road trip, just so I could go rummage through a bunch of old dusty stuff. And so it was that I soon enough found myself, along with about 20 other treasure seekers, elbows deep in somebody else's trappings from another life and time. It was wonderful!

At one point, in the third room I was sorting through, I found myself going through what appeared to be a mix of Christmas ornaments and craft miscellany. I came upon a cute little (what appeared to be) carved wooden ornament with a milk maid and the number 8 in the corner. Then I found another almost the same, but with swans and a 7 in the corner. I realized that these must represent some of the 12 Days of Christmas! I found a couple more and told myself I would consider getting them only if I could find all 12 days. Then I found a hedgehog- -wait---what the hell?? a hedgehog?? Well, my Elly loves hedgehogs, maybe I would just grab that for her...Continuing to rummage, I found what looked like possibly another one that was wrapped in bubble wrap. It finally occurred to me to use my nifty google camera search to see if it told me what I was looking at.

And here is a complete Aside. ..My lovely niece Tiffany told me about this and it has become my most favorite thing on my phone to play with...

Here on your Google Search Bar, on the right, is what is supposed to look like a camera lens. When you press on it you get a Google Lens and an option to Search with your camera. When you press on that, it asks if you want to allow camera access. open the camera and take a picture of something you want information about. I have never bothered to download the app, so i choose "only this time". I take a picture and the search leads me to other like things sold on eBay, Etsy, Poshmark, etc...! Such a Cool Tool! I use this so very often when determining the value, worth or brand of what I am looking at.

Anyway...back to my story...

I used my Google Camera to find out that what I was finding at the estate sale were House on the Hill Springerele Cookie Molds! At this point, I became determined to see if I could find all 12 Days of Christmas cookie molds. And I did...as well as the cute little hedgehog mold and a snowflake mold that I gave to my sister.

When I got home, I did some investigating. First, I found that these molds are not wooden, but made of a polished resin (to help the cookie dough imprint more easily). Also that they are made in Rosebud, MO and that they are only sold in retail stores--or eBay, if you are fortunate enough to find them there. But on eBay, they sell for $25 -$50 EACH!!! I paid $1 apiece for these I found at the REALLY GREAT Estate Sale!

Collecting Recipes

Ever since I returned to live in the US, at the ripe old age of 21, I have been collecting recipes--from aunties, pot-luck ladies, mom, grandma and lots of magazines. For years I just stashed them away in shoeboxes. The first time I decided I had to organize them, I was in my early 30s. I remember that as the summer my bedroom had a constant line of stacks of papers along one wall, each stack held down with a book so the papers would not float around at the slightest breeze, and each book with a titled paper sticking out from between the pages..."Soups", "Desserts", "Casseroles", "Breads, Quick", "Breads, Risen", etc, etc...

From there, I taped them onto black paper and then into plastic page protectors, then filled three binders; "Cooking", "Baking", and "Misc.".

Of course, I did not stop collecting recipes and sticking them into shoeboxes, so I ended up doing this entire process again in my 40s. The only difference was that I now had six binders of recipes and, because I was now into scrap-booking, I used clear-view binders and decorated the outside with pretty papers.

Fast-forward another 25 years and I again had a huge pile of loose recipes, mostly organized into big manila envelopes--but still, hundreds. Also, the six big binder I had made were getting too heavy for me to maneuver (my hands are inevitably getting weaker as I age, and face it, I'm not getting any younger!). So, this winter, I bought a bunch of 2" binders, a couple of boxes of black paper and a couple of boxes of page protectors and made a mess on the dining room table for a couple of weeks.

A few summers ago, my niece and nephew had a competition on who got what recipe books when I die (LOL), so I sorted out my favorite recipes and just mailed them the old recipe books, with plenty of blank pages for them to add their own recipes in due time. I sorted out the recipes I wanted to be certain my granddaughter gets. I sorted out recipes that fall under the "really, who am I kidding" category. And then I made all new, more detailed and lighter cookbooks. This is what my cookbooks look like now:

AND I HAVE PROMISED MYSELF I WILL NEVER, EVER AGAIN, PILE UP RECIPES!!

A Green Monster

My daughter teaches Kindergarten in a Spanish Second Language Immersive School. She asked that I make her a monster for the littles to play with when they read this book about a very emotional Monster.

I had run across some vintage chenille fabric fat quarters at an estate sale and thought they would be just the thing for this particular project.

I cut the pattern out just by using my imagination. This guy's body is about 6" wide x 7" long (plus ears/horns). I cut eyes from felt and hand sewed them on and then embroidered a loop-stitch mono-brow to emulate the picture she sent me.

The mouth was a little more difficult. I cut the front longer than the back, put the "teeth" where I wanted them and then folded some fabric over, sewing a seam all the way across. I made the legs and arms and filled them all with just enough rice that they would still bend easily, and sewed across so the rice would stay put.

Then I pinned the arms and legs to the front of his body and pinned the back (right sides facing each other) to the front and sewed everything together, leaving about a 3" between the legs where I could turn him out. It was a bit tricky and tight, but do-able. I finger pressed all along the seams of his body and then, through the hole between his legs, I used a funnel and slowly poured rice into his body. I wanted him to have enough form to be posed, but not so much that the kids did not find him "squishy".

I thought he came out pretty cute! Mishel loved him--and that's what counts!