JUDY'S FACE PENDANT

This is what Judy Kelly made from her face cane from the Barbara Maguire face cane class.  I love the hair.

I think she's cute.

I'm off to another computer class.  I'm over whelmed.

VELVEETA CHEESE FUDGE

I've had a lot of great emails and so has Lynda Moseley about the fudge.  Most people are still questioning the use of Velveeta Cheese in making fudge.  Trust me, once you make it, you won't make it any other way.  I had an ice cream fudge recipe that I thought was the best but it took it's place.

I have to tell you a little story about the fudge.

My neighbor across the street would not allow me to leave my fudge at her house because she was always dieting and her husband was a diabetic.  He started wearing a Santa hat all the time and she could never figure out what that was all about.  Every day when she was in the shower he would come across the street to beg for fudge.  He kept a little plastic bag inside his Santa hat.  He would put the fudge in there and wear it home and then hide the little bag of fudge in the pocket in the side of his recliner.  This was a guy who could hardly walk and didn't have much lung capacity.  She finally caught him because there was chocolate all over the seat of his recliner.  We both got yelled at but it seemed pretty funny at the time.

That's how good this fudge is.

About 20 years ago a friend gave me his wife's recipe for Velveeta Cheese Fudge.  I wouldn't have taken the recipe except that he brought some fudge with it and I had never tasted anything like it.

Every Christmas I make this fudge and a few years ago we were watching the cooking channel and Paula Dean was making it.  I tell everyone that she got the recipe from me. :0)

My friend Lynda Moseley published my recipe on her blog today and people can't believe you really make fudge with Velveeta Cheese.  This is Lynda's blog http://scdiva.blogspot.com/.  Check out her tutorials on Etsy and Artfire.  They are awesome.

So, I thought I better publish the recipe too.  It's addicting.  Keep it refrigerated after you make it.  This recipe makes about 6 pounds of fudge so you can cut it in half.  Make some with nuts and some without.

VELVEETA CHEESE FUDGE

1-POUND BUTTER

1-POUND VELVEETA CHEESE

1-CUP COCOA

4 POUNDS POWDERED SUGAR

1-TEASPOON VANILLA

NUTS OPTIONAL

MELT BUTTER AND CHEESE TOGETHER IN A REALLY BIG PAN OVER LOW

SIFT COCOA AND SUGAR TOGETHER AND PUT IN PAN WITH BUTTER AND CHEESE.

KEEP STIRRING TILL REALLY WELL MIXED AND THEN ADD THE VANILLA. STIR TILL SMOOTH. I SPRAYED A 9 BY 13 GLASS PAN WITH PAM AND POURED THE FUDGE IN IT.

THEN REFRIGERATE FOR A COUPLE HOURS. TAKE IT OUT AND LET IT SIT FOR ABOUT 20 MINUTES BEFORE CUTTING.

OK, you want something really good for Thanksgiving or Christmas?  How about some GULLIVER'S CORN?

1-Pound Corn Frozen

8 ounces whipping cream ( yes, whipping cream)

1 and ½ Tablespoons Butter

1 and ½ Tablespoons Flour

½ teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons Sugar

3 Tablespoons Parmesan

Put corn and whipping cream in pan and bring to a low boil.

Simmer 5 minutes and season with salt and sugar.

Make paste with butter and flour and add to corn and simmer 2 more minutes.

Put corn in a casserole dish and add Parmesan cheese.  Dot and butter and broil.

 Or put all the ingredients in a pan and cook on the stove.  I also put in a little pepper because I like pepper.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving and enjoy the fudge.

STROPPEL - MAGUIRE PENDANT

One of the hottest new techniques in polymer clay is The Stroppel Cane.  It was developed by Alice Stroppel and she was kind enough to do a youtube video on how to make it.  You can see it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y07zXuLZe20 .  Thank you Alice for sharing this.  It's an incredible way to use up old canes.

As I mentioned in a couple previous blogs, I was fortunate to be able to take a Barbara Maguire Face Cane class last weekend.  I decided I wanted to use some of my Stroppel cane on something other than beads.  My Stroppel cane has a lot of translucent in it.  I found that when a cane has translucent in it, after sanding, it buffs up beautiful and shinier than if it has no translucent.

This picture doesn't reflect the beautiful shine on the piece.  I'm having camera problems again and we had awnings put on the house so I lost a lot of the light that I was using for taking pictures.   If you click on the picture, you will see the shine a little better.  She's about 3 inches long and I haven't decided what to do with her yet.  Suggestions????????

I pieced the Stroppel cane around her face, I'm going to try doing one where the cane is laid out so it matches and add the face last.

PLEASE DON'T LEAF ME

My husband said I need to change my medication because he thinks I'm getting a little wild.

Since I took that face cane class from Barbara Maguire last weekend, I haven't been the same.  I told him it was the shots in the back that did it but he doesn't believe me.

Today I decided to play with my face cane again.

It's not my fault I had an old leaf cane sitting on my desk.  It just jumped on there.  I put some walnut embossing powder on her hair to make it look like hairy hair but I only baked her at 250 so the embossing powder didn't melt.  I sanded her a lot and got most of the embossing powder off.  She buffed up really well.  This obsession could get worse but I doubt it.

Yesterday my friend Evelyn came over so I could help her put her face cane together.  She also took Barbara's class and I give her a ton of credit.  She has macular degeneration and doesn't see very well.  She really hung in there.  She's an artist, a real artist.  She taught art for 30 years.  The fact that her eyesight is leaving her is so sad.  She loves polymer clay and it's great therapy for her.  Anyway, she didn't like her face cane because she thought the lips were too big but I think it's wonderful.

She needs a little more forehead and then I think her lips will be fine.  We did a pound of translucent clay and we still didn't have enough.

I was just told by Mr. Wonderful (he is) that I should make a face cane and put little hearts around her head and  call her "LOVE MY HAIR".  I told him he should stick to being an Engineer.  He didn't get it. :0)