Cookies and tea part 2

As promised (or maybe threatened?) here is part 2 of my recent post, Cookies and tea with Judy and Vee.  As you may recall from that post, I was inspired, both by Judy's post concerning her White Crackle Cookies and Vee's post That Promised Chat, in which she referenced her mother's very similar Oatmeal Cookies, along with some other topics.  Both cookies reminded me of an old favorite recipe for Angel Cookies, which is in my last post if you didn't see it.

I spun my Cookies and tea post off that one, with Vee's blessing (and I'm hoping Judy didn't mind, either).  At the time, I mentioned it would probably take a second post to cover all the topics.  So here goes:

First off, there's another cream-of-tartar enhanced cookie that I want to share: Crunchy Toffee Crackle Cookies.

Many years ago, the bakery in our town had a similar cookie among their cookie offerings, and I always loved these.  On the rare occasions we went to the bakery for a treat (my mother was an inspired home baker) it was always a difficult choice.  Lemon bars, raspberry bars, coffee rolls, jelly doughnuts, these cookies -- so hard to decide!

Even as a grownup, I always remembered the crackly, melt-in-your-mouth cookies with their veins of toffee running through and hoped to duplicate them.  One day in Taste of Home I saw a recipe that I thought might make a good base for these.  It was a spice cookie, but no matter.  I left out the spices, and added some vanilla, some almond extract and some toffee bits.  The result?  Very, very close to the bakery goodies I remembered.  I had my cousin (who also remembered these cookies) sample them, and she agreed.

Then, tea.  In the last post I shared about the gorgeous package of Irish Breakfast tea I found at Ocean State Job Lot.

But I would be remiss if I did not also mention the lovely rooibos tea which a friend just brought me from South Africa.

 Here is the back of the package.  (I had to open it up so that all the writing could be read, so the package looks a bit untidy.)

Such a sweet remembrance!  It was so kind of L. to think of me!

And then, Vee also mentioned a couple of unique sewing projects: bowl cozies and a petal pouch. The bowl cozies are made from cotton fabric and cotton batting, to protect a bowl of microwaved food from burning one's hands.  I had barely heard of these, and would have been quite sure that I'd never use one, but just this past weekend I came close to burning my hands a couple of different times when microwaving leftovers.  I now think it's a great idea and I plan on making some soon!

The petal pouch was made by Vee to hold her makeup.  Since the pouch will open out completely, it's easy to see the contents -- much better than a regular makeup bag.  She found the tutorial here: petal pouch.  I think this is a wonderful idea and it looks like a very enjoyable project too. 

Now what I found so interesting about this is that I actually own a petal pouch (a much smaller one) that a friend made for me.

~ closed ~

~ open ~

She gifted it to me with a pretty necklace inside.

the roses are made with rickrack

I'm sure that at the time, my friend told me how the pouch was made, because she is very generous with sharing unique crafting ideas she finds.  But I must not have been paying attention, because as I look at Linda's tutorial, this looks fairly simple ... easily within my sewing abilities. 

And I think that wraps up my thoughts on Vee's Promised Chat.  I've enjoyed this "conversation" and hope that my blog friends have enjoyed it too.