Yesterday, after doing ceramics in the morning, I made the Coconut-Cranberry Chews that Abby posted a recipe for (sorry, her blog is private, so I can't link you there). They turned out every bit as amazing as she said they were.
I made a few adjustments to suit what I had on hand. Instead of flaked coconut, I only had shredded, so I used that.
I didn't have the kind of dried cranberries that I'm sure the recipe's originator was thinking of, but I had to use up some Just Fruits dried cranberries. They come as whole berries, so I had to chop them up: 
First I creamed the butter, sugar, vanilla, etc:
Speaking of vanilla, I thought of my friend, S, as I put in one or two more teaspoons of vanilla than the recipe asks for. I never measure out vanilla. I free-hand it generously because I love vanilla so much.
Here's the dough, all ready to go, creeping up the sides of my trusty, much-loved, KitchenAid mixer:
The recipe says to butter the cookie sheet, but you know what? If you have one of these babies, you'll never need to butter another cookie sheet again:
The brand is:
and I got mine courtesy of dh's wonderful, wonderful Aunt Lee! She gave me one, and then when her sister moved into a retirement home, her oven was too small for those, and Aunt Rosemary gave me a couple more. Score!!Here are the cookies, all done. I am not kidding you when I say that these are some of the best cookies I've ever had.
So, back to ceramics. We got some more stuff done - some stunning leaf plates and a few ceramic beads.Here is ds#1's hickory leaf plate:
And ds#2's poke leaf plate:
And finally, my sycamore leaf plate:
They turned out really beautifully, and I think that over the holidays when I have some free time (yeah, I'm an optimist), I should set up an Etsy shop.Our ceramic beads, our first tries, turned out pretty well too. I'll have to decide which to make into jewelry and which to sell as plain beads.
And speaking of Etsy, here are some goodies I got from some of my blogging/Etsy friends: Gassner Custom Soaps, Spotted Cow Soaps, Twin Birch Bath & Body/One Bubble at a Time blog, and Ladybug Soapworks. Not everything I bought, nor the extra goodies these lovely ladies have thrown in, are shown because I've already started using some of the stuff. :}
As for my own gifting, I've made some stuff to give away...hope none of my neighbors are reading this blog. 
Well, this has been a long enough post to make you go cross-eyed, so I will bid you all a fond Thursday farewell. "The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet." ~ James Oppenheim
