Archive | October, 2008

Babylegs

Leggings are fabulous, and even more 80s fabulous when on chubby baby legs. I found an excellent, fast tutorial on how to make your own baby legs from adult socks. I was a little hesitant to make them, mostly because I didn’t think they would look that good without a surger seam. Fortunately I was wrong. They’re fast, easy and look great even with regular sewing machine seams. I’ve made 6 pairs thus far, and from start to finish, they take fewer than 5 minutes to make. Check out the tutorial HERE.

If you’re looking for more tutorials, check out my delicious.

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Halfsies

Happy Half Birthday, Penelope. I’m very proud to say you’ve survived your first 6 months of life with little incident. You haven’t had a runny nose yet and you’ve only blown out one diaper which somehow got me out of some work responsibilities. I can’t complain. You truly are a fabulous baby and we love you more and more every day.

I have to admit, it’s been nice to find you in the same place we left you. No longer! You rolled over yesterday. Three times. I guess you’ve finally decided to move your chubby baby body. You’re also getting better at sitting up on your own. I think you managed to sit up for about 3 minutes yesterday! Solid foods have been the easiest thing for you so far. You’re a champ at eating peas (although not alone, yet), carrots and pears. You’re even trying to feed yourself. I can’t believe how grown up you are.

By far this stage is my favorite. I feel like I know you now. We’re friends even. Your mom and dad love you. A LOT.

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Spooky Prints + Tutorial

Carol, a woman in my watercolor class, mentioned in class last week about making prints from styrofoam. GENIUS. It’s not nearly as painstaking (or dangerous) as linoleum block prints. It stuck with me, and a woman in my church asked me if I had any ideas for a school class activity for a Halloween party, well here you go, Wendy. Hope this works out!!

Styrofoam Printing

In a nutshell, here’s what you need:

  • Pencil
  • Styrofoam plates
  • Scissors
  • Bone folder or tongue depressor
  • Brayer
  • Printing ink (any color)
  • Paper (not pictured)
  • Newsprint (to manage the mess)

Cut the bottom of the plate out. I chose a circle, it’s easy. You can cut any shape you want.

Draw on the surface of the Styrofoam with a pencil. After you’re done with outlines you can depress large spaces (these spaces will end up white) with a bonefolder or tongue depressor.

Squirt ink on a “throw away” sheet of paper to get your brayer evenly coated with ink. Roll ink over the surface of your print. Be sure not to press too hard or you’ll ink up your white spaces.

Apply the paper face down onto your “plate”. With the palm of your hand or side of your fist, rub the back side of the paper to transfer the ink. Remove the paper.

All done!

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Delicious Pumpkin Minicakes (or Pumperdoodles)

I’m not sure what I want to call these, but whatever their name may be, they are delicious. These minicakes were one of those happy little accidents that (for me) rarely ever happens in the kitchen. I had far too much pumpkin pie filling left over after baking 2 pies, and decided to make a little concoction of pumpkin filling and snickerdoodles. The results, well, too bad you weren’t there to eat them with me. I think I ate half the batch in two days. Thanks to the park days ladies who helped me polish them off.

Download the printable recipe card HERE.

Without any further ado, I give you The Pumperdoodle (or Pumpkin Minicake)

Pumpkin Minicakes

Makes about 18

Dough:

  • 6 tablespoons butter, softened
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 1/4 cup flour
  • pinch of salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon soda
  • 1 teaspoon cream of tartar

Cream butter, sugar and egg. Beat well. Sift together dry ingredients and mix into butter and sugar mixture. Press about 1 large spoonful of dough into bottom of cupcake cups.

Filling:

  • 1 cup pumpkin puree*
  • 1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
  • 3 tablespoons all purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
  • Pinch salt
  • 2/3 cup heavy cream
  • 1/4 cup maple syrup
  • 2 eggs, slightly beaten
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325º. In a large bowl, combine pumpkin puree, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt and whisk until smooth. Add the cream, maple syrup, eggs and vanilla and whisk until just smooth. Pour 2-3 tablespoons of filling onto dough.
Bake cupcakes about 20 minutes, or until lightly browned. Chill and serve with maple whipped cream: 1 cup heavy cream with 3 tablespoons of maple syrup until soft peak forms.

*Notes: I used fresh pumpkin. To prepare, preheat oven to 425ºF. Cut the pumpkin in half and place it cut-side down on a baking sheet. Roast until tender, 50-60 minutes. Remove from oven and puree in food processor or blender until smooth. Also, if you don’t have maple syrup on hand, a traditional pancake syrup works well, too.

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Recycled Wedding Announcements

My mom had a bunch of extra wedding announcements from Jake’s wedding, and put them to excellent use. What a crafty woman. If you’re lucky enough to get a card made from my mom, you know what I’m talking about.

Mom, thanks for the card & giftcards. Chris feels loved. We both do.

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