Giveaway Winners! And Cranberry Sauce

Oh, wow, has it been a busy week! Sorry that I'm back here with the results a little later than planned. But, without further delay, here are the winners:

The Random Integer Generator gave me 4, 3, and 1, which means that Rachel wins the ornaments, Andrea wins the wrapping paper, and Kristina wins the cards. Ladies, email me your addresses and I will get those off in the mail to you!

Thanks to everyone who entered. I'm sorry that I don't have something to send to all of you, but I'd love to share a little something with you as a treat if you didn't win (or even if you did!).

I love cranberries, and this is the time of year where I cook with them a lot. Cranberry sauce and cranberry pies are my favorite!

I always make this cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving, and sometime for Christmas, too. It's very simple and fast. This is my mom's cranberry sauce recipe:

Cranberry Sauce

* 3 cups of cranberries

* 1 cup of sugar

* coarsely grated rind of one orange

* 3/4 cup orange juice

Put all the ingredients in a medium pot and cook on high heat, stirring regularly, until all the berries pop (about 10 minutes). This will thicken as it cools. That's it! (I told you it was fast).

The recipe can easily be doubled or tripled. I usually triple it. :) I also like to use fresh squeezed orange juice with it, though it tastes good either way.

Enjoy!

Happy December (and a Giveaway!)

Today is the first of December, and that means:

I put up the advent calendar (handmade and bought years ago by my parents - this is the one I grew up with)...

Put out the Christmas books...

And chose a tree!

(I knit that hat myself! More about that soon).

Twinkly lights at the tree place.

The lights are on the tree now, and so is the angel, but the rest of the ornaments will have to wait till the weekend.

But now, on to the giveaway! I have three, that's right, three different prizes you can win. And three ways for you to enter - read on.

One prize is a set of three ornaments made by me (inspired by ornaments in the December 2008 Martha Stewart Living).

The set includes:

a wreath,

a candy cane,

and a snowflake.

Remember the handmade wrapping paper I posted about here? Well, I am also giving away two yards of hand stamped wrapping paper, in two different patterns:

one yard of candy canes,

and one yard of trees.

And finally, I am giving away a set of ten hand stamped cards (similar to the ones in this giveaway):

with ten matching envelopes.

The set of cards will come tied up with a pretty ribbon. The cards feature red, poinsettia-esque flowers with a little glitter in the center. The winner will have a choice of what else is stamped on the cards. If you win, you may choose to use them as thank you cards:

Or Christmas cards, with a stamp on the outside that says 'Merry! Merry!':

Or a stamp on the inside that says 'Merry Christmas':

The words are shown stamped in red, but can be stamped in green if you prefer. The cards can also be left blank.

So here are the three different ways you can enter:

1. Leave a comment on this post telling me something you've made for Christmas, or something handmade that you hope to get for Christmas (links to your blog or elsewhere on the internet are more than welcome!).

2. Follow me, and then let me know that you did by leaving a second comment. (If you already follow me, let me know that with a second comment!).

3. And finally, link to my giveaway on your blog, and then leave me a comment letting me know you've done so.

Three prizes. Three ways to enter. Your chances of winning are great!

Happy December to you all.

Edited to add: I will leave comments open for a week, and draw the winners on Wednesday, December 8th.