Needle and Thread

One of the blogs I follow - clearlytangled - is written by a friend of mine. She is one of those people who I wouldn't like because she is creative (and I would be jealous) but I do like because she is a great person. She is the kind of person who designs her own graphics for her cards, makes her own fabric, and would quit her job to learn how to make paper if she could. She is also the kind of person who needs to wear a hard hat to get through the day safely.... which makes me feel better about her having all this talent :)

About a year ago, she showed me a bag she made. At first I was confused because it looked like a wallet....and then she unfolded it. Genius - a bag that folds into itself. I wanted one so bad. But she quickly described how long it took her to make this one bag and how she didn't think she would make any more. So instead of asking if I could buy one from her, I told her that these would sell well if she ever decided to make them again and she should think about it before she made any rash, final decisions......I really wanted on.

Fast forward a few months later and look what I got for my birthday.

Here is the bag laid flat.

You fold up the sides.....

then you fold up the ends.

Then snap it up to look like....

This was done with needle and thread - genius!

Want one of your own - visit her etsy shop.

What is your favorite childhood book?

A good friend of mine was having a party for her son. She wanted to do something special for his first birthday party but she didn't want gifts. More specificaly, she didn't want toys or clothes. Her son is her first and the first grandchild on both sides. Believe me when I tell you he has more toys then he will ever play with and more clothes then most adults. For example, I am pretty sure he has more shoes than I do.

She loves to read. She read to him almost everyday he was in her womb. So I thought, why not have everyone bring him their favorite childhood book. Great idea right? His library would grow and their gift would last longer than if they bought a simple toy or piece of clothing. This little boy made out like a bandit.  Guests brought varies children's books as well as young adult books. I personally bought him the Percy Jackson Series. I did not read this as a child, but I truly loved the series as an adult.

Her theme was monkey. I helped make her party invitations, which came out super cute. We did a waterfall card (similar to a previous post). A few days before the party, I decided to make a gift for her; some thank you cards.

These were so easy. Here is what I used:

The cuddlebug was used to emboss the leaf background. I used my cricut (everyday paper dolls cartridge) to cut out the monkey and a 2 inch round punch was used to add some interest to the card. I decided to use white on white because I wanted the monkey and the thank you sentiment to stand out. She loved them.  I hope you do to.

What was your favorite childhood book?

Big Brothers

I come from a big family - both in number and in lbs. :) My oldest brother discovered the South Beach Diet about three months ago. This is a man who drank diet coke for breakfast, loved his pizza, and could finish a bag of chips in less than 10 minutes. Three months later, he as lost over 45 lbs and he feels and looks great. So great that he started preaching the word (or words I should say) South Beach. Now, 9 of us are either doing South Beach or at least reducing our fat, calorie, and sugar intake. As a family we are down over 200lbs. It is truly amazing. The least likely of us is showing all of us how to live a healthy life. We send in our weekly lbs lost (and rarely lbs gained)  to him on Sunday mornings.  Throughout the week he sends us encouraging text messages and makes phone calls, seeing how we are doing. He always gives words of encouragement and he never makes us feel more guilty if we say we ate a brownie :)

Sometimes big brothers can be a pain in the butt and sometimes they care about making your butt smaller. So I decided to make my brother a thank you card.

The sentiment is a stamp image and it says "You are beautiful - inside & out'. The card itself is a standard size 4.5"x 6"made of kraft paper. I used three patterned pages from DCWV- The green stack. My embellishments are a button with a thread tied through and a yellow flower brad. What looks like twine is actually embroider thread. It's a manly card but its still adorable. I think he is going to love it.

Turning the big 30

A very good friend of mine is turning 30 this week. Normally we only go out to dinner to celebrate but with this year being such a special year, I decided he deserved a special gift. So come football season we are going to see his favorite football team - the Texans. He has never seem them live so this should be fun. Below is a birthday card I made for him. I think I might have overdone it with the embellishments. It seems a bit too busy. What do you think?

Pumpkin Doughnuts

Last night was my dinner party and we had a great time. I tried a new dessert recipe - pumpkin doughnuts. I know what you are thinking - doughnuts for dessert? I would agree that doughnuts are not the first thing to come to mind when you think about dessert but the recipe seemed simple and fast so I said why not. The recipe came from Cuisine at Home issue no. 71 October 2008.

Cuisine at Home is one of my favorite food magazines. Instead of annoying and lengthy advertisements they have product feature pages. They explain the difference of a particular product - for example, a cast iron skillet. They will discuss the features, price, and uses of several name brand cast iron skillets out there.

My absolute favorite thing about the magazine are the recipe layouts.  They are very simple to follow with detailed instructions and pictures. Most of the recipes also come with a short history lesson about that particular dish which can be fascinating.

This particular recipe was fairly simple to follow. I made a few substitutions - Splenda instead of regular sugar and regular brown sugar and low fat buttermilk.

They came out ok. They were not as flavorful as I thought they would be. Full fat might be the way to go next time.  I was also thinking about adding in some cinnamon or some cayenne pepper for a kick.

Recipe
Makes about 18 doughnuts and wholes
Total time: 1 hour

1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 cup canned or fresh pumpkin puree
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 T unsalted butter melted
4 t baking powder
2 t pumpkin pie spice
1 t table salt
1/2 t baking soda

Fold in; Pat Out
3 cups sifted all-purpose flour

Fry in:
Vegetable oil

Whisk egg and yolk together in a large bowl until frothy. Add pumpkin, sugar, buttermilk, brown sugar, and butter; whisk until combine. Stir in baking powder, pie spice, salt, and soda. Fold flour in gradually until a sticky dough forms; cover with plastic wrap and freeze 15 minutes. Meanwhile, heat 2" oil to 370 degrees in an electric skillet, deep fryer, or straight-sided pan over medium heat. Pat out dough on a well-floured surface to 1/2" thick, then cut with 3" and 1" biscuit cutters dipped in flour. Transfer doughnuts and holes to a floured baking sheet using a spatula that's been dusted in flour. Fry doughnuts and holes in batches in the oil until browned, about 3 minutes, turning once. Drain on a paper towel-lined baking sheet. Coat in sugar if desired.

Simple Invitations

I love dinner parties. I love everything about them. The preparation, the selection of a theme, the invite list, the invitations themselves etc. I do have one rule; never serve the same thing twice. Of course this means I serve my guest new recipes...ones I haven't tried before....once that may require us to order pizza (that has happened only once...ok maybe twice). I look through every single cookbook I owe. I post-it all the potential appetizers, sides, main course, and of desserts. I normally have about 20 to 30 choices which get dwindled down to 10 -12 and then finally down to 2 choices of each course about a week and a half before my party. The week of the party I make my final decisions. I know this is a very tedious process but I never know what I want to eat until the week before. Then there is the table setting, the flowers, entertainment... I could go on. Basically, I love the details of a dinner party. The details make me happy.

Currently I am planning a dinner party for two friends who share a love for crafts like I do. Well, one of the two shares a love for crafts, the other is coming along because she likes to hang out with us. This will be the first time they will be visiting my home so everything has to be perfect. Beginning with the invitations.

 I thought about doing a digital invitation but how lazy would I be if I couldn't make two invitations? These are simple in nature in that they are a pattern repeat - circle and square. I stamped "you're invited" with versa mark ink and then embossed it using white embossing powdered. The butterfly and dragonfly are brads. I of course rounded the corner edges. And did you notice, I used two of my kraft envelopes from maya road. I love them. I think they will too.

New Goodies

As with many crafters, I purchase more supplies than I will every use. And if it's on sale - forget about it. I love visiting craft web pages like papertrey ink, twos peas in a bucket, and hero arts. I torture myself. I go through all the new product and add what I like to my cart (as if I could afford to buy all that my little heart desires). Once I am done, I look at my grand total, almost have a heart attack, and close the web browser. I will never understand why I do this to myself. But once in a while, once in a blue moon, when I think I see a pig fly, I actually purchase what I put in my cart. One item that I recently purchased, and absolutely love, are these maya road envelopes. Ten came in a packet - two of each size:

How cute are these?!! They are made of kraft paper which I am loving more and more. The scallop edge is to die for and the closure makes them perfection. They are small; ranging from 5.7"x 2.5" to 3.8"x 5". They would be perfect for a gift or a small card you would hand deliver. I am so excited to use them. The great thing about new products - they inspire you to creative something wonderful with them. If you are interested in purchasing these envelops you can go to either maya road or two peas. Enjoy!