A Custom Christmas: Time for Tea, Winter Conversion

When I saw this cute little design, my mind started spinning with ideas for conversions. I went back and forth for quite a while, trying to decide whether I wanted to do a Christmas conversion, or a more general winter conversion. I finally settled on a winter conversion that I could display for several months, instead of just at Christmas. 

Here's my winter take on Time for Tea by Country Cottage Needleworks!

I stitched this design on 28 ct. Twilight/silver evenweave from Fabric Flair, available at 123 Stitch, using DMC and DMC Etoile. The snowflakes are tiny buttons with the shank clipped off. For the berries, I simply rounded the corners of the blossoms (see the second picture) and I replaced the center roses with leaves. Ta-da! It's winter time!

My winter conversion details:

words, berries, dots on teacups: DMC Etoile C816
branches: DMC Etoile C3799
leaves, borders on teacups: DMC Etoile C318
teacups: DMC Blanc
steam: DMC Etoile C415

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For years and years I searched for a spicy chicken soup recipe, after that glorious concoction saved me during a bout with pneumonia. It was made for me and delivered and I never got the recipe. Last year I stumbled across a good base recipe and fiddled with it just a bit. I call this Emergency Chicken Soup, for a couple reasons, and there are three versions of it, or I should say, three heat levels. It's emergency soup because you can keep all the ingredients on-hand all the time (everything is frozen), and because you can put this together while you're sick. Yes. If you can drag yourself to the kitchen and function for about 10 minutes, you can make soup. Also great if you're taking care of someone and have your hands full, and you don't have the time or energy to stand in the kitchen chopping ingredients to make homemade chicken soup. Also great if you just want to throw some stuff in a crockpot and go stitch. Needing to stitch can be an emergency, too.

Emergency Chicken Soup
Heat level: you probably want to start (and stay) here

2 c. frozen cooked & diced chicken
1 bag frozen mixed vegetables
1/2 c. frozen onions
4 oz. can chopped green chilies
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp. fresh ground black pepper
1/4 tsp. cumin
2 dried bay leaves
2 Tbsp. chicken powder
8 c. water

Add all ingredients to slow cooker and cook on high 2-3 hours.

Version #2, heat level: spicy, but not fatal
*increase red pepper flakes to 1/2 tsp.
*add 1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper

Version #3, heat level: have your affairs in order
*1 tsp. red pepper flakes
*1/2 tsp. fresh ground black pepper
*1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

Version #3 is the way I first tried this recipe. It is delicious, but it will take the hide off your mouth. Through trial and error, I finally ended up at version #1 for my go-to recipe, but it's great to finally have a recipe for a spicy chicken soup for when my quadrennial cold rolls around.

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Come on back tomorrow for the Grand Finale of A Custom Christmas! You'll want to see this one!