Happy Monday to you! I hope you all had a wonderful post-Thanksgiving weekend. I'm pleased to say that I scored some great deals this weekend, both for gifts and for me :) The best part about my weekend, though, was working on my Ruby Star Wrapping projects, the Plucky Pantry Box on page 25 and Allison's Favorite Oatmeal Cookies on page 109.


Let me start by saying that I love Melody Miller's fabric, and her book, to no surprise, is quickly becoming a new favorite. Don't have the book yet? No problem! You can pick it up at:

At first, I wasn't so sure that I'd enjoy using my prized fabric scraps as wrapping material, but after making two Plucky Pantry Boxes, I'm sold. Not only are the boxes just darling, but they hardly took any more time than wrapping a present with wrapping paper, and are way cuter.

I used Pellon's Wonder Under, as noted in the book, to adhere the fabric to my boxes and it stuck to the two boxes I used beautifully. I used a rice box and a cereal bar box, for the record, and they came apart quite easily and came back together quite well, thanks to my dusty and woefully under-used, but still functional glue gun! As far as the fabric was concerned, I used about a fat quarter each for both boxes, with lots of scraps from the cereal bar box fabric. I will definitely be making more of these boxes for the holidays!

I'm a bit of a cookie aficionado, so I was excited to try out Allison's Favorite Oatmeal Cookies. Unfortunately, the day that I made them, my munchkin wasn't quite up to performing his usual duties as my kitchen sidekick and official taste tester, so I was forced to eat several cookies so I could properly describe them. ;)

In a word, they are delicious. I added chocolate chips to the oatmeal batter, which add a nice touch of soft texture in an otherwise chewy cookie. I used old-fashioned oats, to yield a chewier cookie, but if you'd prefer a softer cookie with less chew, use quick cooking oats instead. Also, be sure to allow the cookies to cool on the hot cookie sheet for 3-4 minutes after taking them out of the oven; remove them while too hot, and they'll crumble, and if you let them cool completely, they may stick to the cookie sheet and fall apart. These cookies would make a great teacher gift this holiday season!

Be sure to link up your finished Ruby Star Wrap Along project at our wonderful hostess's blog right here for a chance to win a fab prize! Later this week, the Ruby Star Wrap Along continues with posts from Bolt Neighborhood and The Long Thread.

Happy Cyber Monday to you, by the way! If you're looking for me, I'll either be hunting through the deals on Kindle books at Amazon (up to 80% off!), picking up some new Paper Pieces for EPP'ing (with a 25% off discount), or doing some Cyber Monday fabric shopping at Pink Castle Fabrics, Fat Quarter Shop, or Intrepid Thread, all of which have some great deals today! Have a great day :)