mmm, I would really like some of these right now…

… but since I need to be good and cut such things out of my post baby diet I will blog about them instead!  It’s almost as good, right?

First, I must explain my love affair with snickerdoodle cookies.  Pretty much the main reason why I love these babies so much is because I always have the ingredients for them. Keeping chocolate in the house for a quick whip up of classic chocolate chip cookies is impossible, by the time I get to them they have been scarfed or I find an obligatory quarter of the bag remaining!  The same principal holds true for any other special ingredient I may pick up and not use right away.  Now, I am not blaming it all on Mr. K, I have been know to spoil the best of my plans too, but what I have learned is that I can’t stock the pantry with special things to bake with unless I do it quick!

With that being said I have gone through my share of snick-recipes, and it is due time I share my fav with my freindly bloggy readers.  Only problem is I am not sure about the legality of sharing such a thing, as it isn’t my original design but from a fairly famous lady who’s name is similar to Bertha Mewart.  It would all be much easier if she just had the recipe on her site so I could easily link to it for ya’ll!!  Not all snick-recipes are created equal, you know, this one and this one come up very short in my opinion… and those are the only two she has listed. GRRRR!

It is from Bertha Mewart’s Holiday Cookie magazine from 2005!

(oh, yes and check out the preview of my latest project!  I spy a bit of Anna Maria Horner goodness!)

I love, love, LOVE this $5.95 purchase!  Please excuse the bit of smudgy pumpkin on the cover!  There are no adds, except for a couple plugs for other Bertha publications, the pictures are beutiful, there are TONS of beautiful packaging ideas for all the sweet treats too, and just look at the table of contents.

YUMMMMY!

Now since I do not believe you can get one of your very own, perhaps Bertha’s Cookie book published a few years later would be a good second??  I don’t know, I haven’t even thumbed through it.  Let me know if you have it and like it!  I would love to know!  Otherwise, you are welcome to borrow mine for some inspiration, but be warned, it does not leave MY HOUSE!

Back to the cookies… My dear friend, Mrs. Clemons as Ella calls her, had Ella over for a couple days a few weeks ago so I could go to some last minute dr. appointments.  Not a huge deal, right?  Well it is to me considering my doc is an hour or so from my house and rarely runs on time.  Needless to say it meant a lot to me, and by-golly she needed some cookies as payment!

Two baker’s dozens should do the trick!

I’m stalling with the recipe… can you tell.  Still not sure about the sharing part… The magazine is 3 1/2 years old, what are the limitations on something like that?? Blah!!   Here it goes!  And if anybody out there can clear up the confusion for me, PLEASE DO!

Best Snicks EVER… at least until I find another one!

2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon coarse salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 ½ cups plus 2 tablespoon sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt, set aside.  Put butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.  Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Mix in eggs.  Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixtures.
2. Sift together cinnamon and remaining 2 tablespoons sugar in a small bowl.  Shape dough into 20(1 3/4 inch balls); roll in cinnamon sugar.  Space 3 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
3. Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until edges are golden, 12 to 15 minutes.  Let cool on sheets on wire racks.  Cookies can be stored between layers of parchment in airtight containers at room temperature up to 3 days.

As always I have a couple hints/tips/you-have-tos to add

1. Whip the heck out of the butter and sugar for a FULL 3 minutes like step one says and even a bit longer if you aren’t chicken. Which brings me to #2…
2. Use a stand mixer if at all possible, I cannot fathom how to get the butter sugar mix fluffy enough without one.
3. Lastly, if you don’t already use parchment paper to bake your cookies with like in step two.  DO IT!  I love it!  Not to mention zero clean up.

So there you are!  Try it out!  Let me know if you have an EVEN BETTER one, I am always on the hunt!

Thank you Mrs. Clemons!

Mr. A’s Birth Announcement

So by now most of you who actually read this little blog have received your very own owl announcement!  But for those of you who haven’t I thought I would share the ins n’ outs of it.

To start I have to say that I am LOVIN’ my new Canon iP4600 printer!  It’s no sexy Epson R1900 wide format dream machine, but I had to compromise ($80 vs. $500) and this trusty Canon is what I settled on!  One of the many things I LOVE is that it can do borderless 8 1/2 x 11 print jobs, like I did here, making it possible to create a full bleed 8 1/2 by 5 1/2 flat card announcement.

This was truly my first project using any sort of Photoshop product, I have been putting off cluttering my brain with one more thing/project for quiet a while now.  To my demise I decided to “invest” in a *new (I haven’t had one for a couple years now) color printer rather than purchasing birth announcements this time around, so there was no getting out of it.  I purchased Photoshop Elements 6.0 for mac, and got to it.

I used some .psd files I purchased from twopeasinabucket.com by tia bennett for the owl and details on the envelopes.  I also had wallets printed to attach to the announcements rather than printing directly on them.  I did this with Ms. E’s professionally printed ones and it seemed to be a hit two years ago as well.  As I am in the habit of doing, I used my favorite textured paper (luxe fino white) from paper-source and as always I just love it.

For Ms. Carly’s 1st Birthday

Wow, really it has been a bit hasn’t it since I have posted anything… it’s not that I haven’t been doing anything. honest. I have just been a bit sidetracked/overwhelmed/sleep deprived– all complements of my brand-spankin’ new baby, Mr. A! The good news is… there really isn’t any bad I guess… I feel like I am coming out of my three month newborn baby slump.  I am getting back into the swing of things, starting with this tote I made up for a special little girl Carly who turned one last weekend.

I used the same dimensions for this one as I did for Ms. Haislea a year ago. This time when I cut the patterned fabric I cut salvage to salvage 5 1/2” wide, the same as before, and used the extra to make a pocket inside, so there was no waste. Score.

I know the pics aren’t all that great, I wasn’t able to give the linen the attention that it needed, but it is a miracle I was even able to get pictures!! I finished this one up in just the nick of time, thanks to my rock star sister taking care of fussy Mr. A.

everybody’s doing it…

It seems fatquarter month over at sew,mama,sew got a lot of us crafty types excited about made by rae’s free buttercup bag pattern.  And since everybody’s doing it, even soulemama, I gave it a try too… four times.

The idea is that a perfect little pleated purse can be made out of one fat quarter with the pattern, not including the lining & pocket.  I didn’t exactly take advantage of that fact since using linen for everything is still not out of my system, but when I find something worthy enough of a whole purse that fact will be great!

I used stabilizer on the linen for the first time hoping that it would make it less wrinkly after a few uses, I think it worked, but linen is linen and that means wrinkly to some degree.  I also used magnet clasps on these and I am HOOKED!  LOVE THEM!  Easy, inexpensive, and ubber functional.  I learned how to use them over at u-handbag, which by the way is a fantastic little corner of the internet you should check out.  Oh, and I finally got around to making some quick little sew in tags too.

The first one…

…I think I made for myself, although I am not sure which one I am keeping now because I am smitten with this one that has been hanging in my hallway for a couple days…

… there is something about the 70’s inspired red, orange and turquoise that draws me.  I do know however, that I made the strap a bit wide for my liking the first time around and perfect on the following three so practice does make sorta perfect.  This weekend the other two went to a couple very generous ladies from church who hosted a perfect brunch/baby shower for me this past Saturday.  Thank you Betsy and Laurie for a wonderful afternoon of fantastic food, conversation, and love.

Kelli, YOU ROCK!

So look what got dropped off at my door yesterday!

Upon reading my obsessive cupcake blog from last June she decided it was high time for me to partake in one of her favorite places.  So as a thank you for lending out my husband to fix their drywall, SPRINKLES cupcakes are what I…err…we received!  Holy smokes!  What you may not know is that it is a good hour drive to get these babies, and I still had never had them!  OH MY, YUMMY!   They are all I thought they would be and more!  Moist, cakey, not-too-sweet-goodness!  I am always in search of cupcakes to try, and these for sure take the cake– pun intended.  I am hooked.

THANK YOU KELLI, MATT, and IVY!  It was so considerate of you.  Do you have anything else Mr. K can fix?  We work for cupcakes.

1st quilt… step one

This is what I have been working on…

…but before you ooohhh & ahhh too much I must confess that the middle six squares are a cheater quilt panel from Denyse Schmidt’s Country Fair line from Pink Chalk Fabrics.  Nonetheless, I LOVE it.  The catch is that I have no idea how to quilt it, nor do I know how to bind it, and I have little clue what the back is going to look like or where I am going to find fabric to do it, AND I haven’t sorted out what I want the batting to be either! HA! But it is a start and something to learn some new skills with!  I am not committing to any time frame for this to be complete, so don’t hold your breath to see the finished results, but I really have enjoyed doing something on this scale– more than I thought.  The final measurements are set to be 66″x75″, apparently a great “family” sized quilt.

Christmas thank yous by Ms. E

Ella and I made these flat card thank you notes to send out as out Christmas thank yous this year.  I tried to get them to their recipients not later than the 25th of January but it seems I am a few days late, and even if I did make my deadline of January 25th it still doesn’t seem like proper thank you etiquette?  What would Martha say??!   OH WELL!

I used the last of my A7 flat cards from my wedding invitations (my FAVORITE color they don’t make anymore!) to make it quick and easy. With the help of little brown pen’s coloring cards over at Etsy, these beauties were a snap.  Ella enjoyed coloring on them a little too much in some cases, but they were fun, quick, and Ms. E got to contribute a bit, after all she is the one who really scored this Christmas!

I used some foam stickies that I got ages ago to raise the little drawings, and the stamps are both from Impress.  If you haven’t discovered the great deals at little brown pen, you are missing out on all the print-at-home goodness.  Check out the deal were you get to pick any three items from the store for 10 bucks!  Score!  To make your printables even more lovely try printing them on a textured soft white paper like from paper-source’s luxe line.

A little quilt for my Ella & Molly too

Drum roll, please…

I am actually sewing again, it has been ages!!  Don’t get too excited though, it is nothing major, I just set out to do something new, and to learn a few new skills with stuff I already had.  The something new part is not a big stretch considering I am new to the entire sewing thing, nor was using something I already had.  So, I perused the all powerful Internet and decided to make  a little doll quilt for Ella using the brown minky she drags around with her when I am too tired to figure out how she found it again, and some charm squares I picked up from Strawberry Patches a couple months ago.  I figured, #1 it would be a small project just in case I lost interest, #2 I would give my poor daughter something proper to drag around rather than two raw yards of fabric, and #3 learn some patch work skills that did not involved squares and maybe come up with something decent where the corners matched!  This is the result using Moda’s Urban Chicks 1974 charm squares.

I found this depression block while searching, and it seemed easy enough since I already had pre-cut charm squares.  I ended up with one block and an extra row on the top and on one side to make it usable dimensions for a doll quilt.  The final dimensions are 20”x24”, and it works out quite well for baby Molly and mamma Ella.

Here are a few more pics for good measure too:

WORST news of the week

Apparently Wondertime Magazine, a great parenting publication put out by Disney of all people, is going under! No. THIS is NOT good!  According to Courtney at two straight lines, a contributing editor, the economy has done them in too. UGH!  This is the only magazine that I really enjoy reading every month, keith too.  It is the only magazine that I found with REAL parenting content, not all the fluff.  I think Courtney says it best,

…a magazine for thinking parents, not one based on alarmism or fluffy content, the two hallmarks of parenting magazines.  They (staffers) aimed to show you the good and bad of parenting, not to tell you what could go wrong, or what you were doing wrong.  It’s sad that we won’t have it to inspire us, or just make us laugh, anymore.

So Goodbuye Wondertime, I will surely miss you, and will be in search of something to take your place, if that is possible…

Acorns, the wooden wonderful kind

I just have to tell the Internet about our latest excitement and endless activity in our household– wooden ACORNS!  My little Ella has a knack for finding things to collect, be it her prized rock crayons, hair clips, or any other small choice items that I am SICK of picking up and putting back!  Aside from the constant rounding up of these small things, she always seems to choose the ones that are most nerve racking to find when in a rush, it was time to make some changes!!  It got me thinking about what I could give her with the sole intention of actually collecting and spreading about rather than put an end to her madness all together.  It had to be something I wouldn’t mind kicking about, but wouldn’t go far when I did, but also wouldn’t be a shocking hazard.  Wooden beads seem an obvious choice for little hands to collect but they don’t fit the bill and they freak me out.  Beads are too small and too perfectly round to get stuck in her mouth if she lost her senses and tried to eat them… she is still too young for me to trust her completely, and plus, because they are round there is no telling where they would end up after a good day of playing–err tripping.  The solution?  These wonderful lovelies from Casey’s Wood Products back east.  I remembered reading something about these a LONG while ago from SouleMama, so I can’t take credit entirely for the find, but I am sure glad to reap the benefits.

The idea worked brilliantly!  I purchased three dozen because it seemed like a nice number, but after all the playing, spreading, tea party and collecting that has gone on we could have easily have welcomed six dozen.  Maybe I will put in another order when their numbers start to dwindle in a few months.

What makes them perfect is that they don’t go very far when you stumble upon them, or when they get dropped/dumped on our hard floors all over the house.  They also are big enough for her to not be all that interested in putting them in her mouth, she has tried but decided that it wasn’t a good idea and I haven’t caught her since.  And of course they are perfectly safe, untreated raw wood so there is certainly nothing to worry about there.

So that’s us, that’s what we have been up too, playing tea/acorn party all the live long day and dumping them repeatedly inside and out.  FUN!  And the best part?  I don’t really care if they aren’t picked up, they are so cute, who would?

Oh, and the tea set.  I have been meaning to post about that too.  I found it on Etsy a while back, it is a little vintage set that I stumbled upon and was a steal of a price.

categories parenting & child's play | 1 comment, YEA, be #2!

Eggnog Cookie Goodness and a HAPPY NEW YEAR

Oh my my my!  No posts since September!  WOW.  Well, I do have a great excuse this time around; I am pregnant with baby #2 and have been feeling like crap for a good three months, which means I have been doing absolutely NOTHING creative, just trying to keep my little family on track with the bare minimum.  The good news, however, is that I am doing much better now, and am back to my old self and am looking forward to doing some creative things in the next few months before I am hit with more changes!  We are expecting a little boy in April so there is much to be done around here, but in the mean time I wanted to share the most fabulous find of the season.  My mother-in-law’s Eggnog Cookie Recipe… hopefully she won’t mind.  She made it herself, and they are divine!

I realize that eggnog isn’t everybody’s favorite, but these cookies are the most cakey, soft, and delicious treat ever.  My mother-in-law made up this recipe based on a buttermilk cookie recipe she has made for years upon the request of my niece last year who LOVES eggnog almost as much as I do.   It is simple and pretty difficult to screw up in my opinion.  And just a hint, they are SO much better the second day after sitting overnight in an airtight container.  I don’t know what it is about it, probably the moisture of the frosting or something, but boy-oh-boy are they GREAT!  Just to see if I could, I made a little 3×5 recipe card for ya’ll, I think it turned out pretty nifty.  I hope you enjoy them as much as me, I just had to share the love.  Please leave a comment and tell me what you think, it could just be me and my wacky pregnancy preferences, but I doubt it!!

I couldn’t keep all the yummy-cakey-goodness to myself so I sent some over to my neighbors as a New Year’s treat, plus I HAD to use these sweet little treat boxes I found at Michael’s this season!  I had every intention of doing more baking than I did and sharing the wealth, but this is all that ended up being gifted.  Better luck next year I guess.

I hope you all have a wonderfully fabulous 2009!  HAPPY NEW YEAR!

another, sorta like the first…

Upon finishing my last project and making it part of my routine and the gear I schlep around everywhere, it managed to find an admirer.  This little guy was commissioned for a Ms. Baby-Ila-to-be as an upcoming baby shower gift.  The bird is suppose to fit in with the Brooke Nursery Bedding from Pottery Barn Kids that the couple chose for their little one.  The inside lining is the same as the birds speech bubble, only I forgot to photograph that part before sending it in the mail. eek.  This pouch also received some much needed velcro on the closure that mine now has too.

MORE coaster!

Here are a few more coasters that I made these last couple weeks.  The first happy red and blue ones are for Lori and her new abode in Portland.

The second are for my gramma’s birthday earlier this month, it turns out she has been using the same corky-wooden ones since the 70’s, a gift from my uncle, so it seems they are not only useful but appreciated!

These are made from Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts, the same as the last set and the same modification of using different fabrics on each side instead of the same.  The instructions say to use a high-loft quilt batting for the interfacing, which I did for the first set, but as mentioned I thought that a layer of cotton flannel would have the same effect after being quilted.  I didn’t go that far this time around, but on Lori’s I used a single layer of some bamboo/cotton quilt batting that I had instead which was FAR from being high-loft.  Additionally, on gramma’s I used two layers of that same batting.  The verdict?  I like the two layers my low-loft bamboo/cotton in this project far more than the other two variations.  Gramma’s coasters turned out to be just the perfect stiffness, and I think they are going to turn out to have better absorption too, bonus!

This is an easy easy project with almost instant result, my favorite part is the quilting, probably because of the OCD in me making sure all those lines are straight and spaced perfectly.

Problem Solved!

My chronic condition is slowly being treated one project at a time.

PROBLEM:  How do I EFFICIENTLY carry little as possible with me on short outings while still meeting the basic needs of a messy one year old?

Obvious solution:  Throw a few diapers and some wipes along with a snack in a bit of an over sized purse and woosh, I am out the door.  Nope, here lies the problem for you childless people, or even you dads who have not had to face such an embarrassment as crunched & mangled diapers falling out of your purse a THE MOST inopportune times!  Diapers don’t stay in their vacuumed packed state, they get mushed and mangled, quickly!  Who wants crumpled diapers floating around freely in their purse or anywhere else for that matter?

REAL SOLUTION:  A pouch to hold your most valuable of wipe holders and two or three diapers!

While searching high and low the closets solution I could find was Skip Hop’s Pronto, and even it, after I saw it in person was HUGE– for my needs at least, and heavy for an on-the-go quick solution.  So here you have it, the result of a months worth of searching, plus I got to stitch a bit which I have been missing since I finishing this.

This super simple pouch is made from 100% linen, and the lining is a print from Free Spirit that Lori used on Ella’s quilt, we used on her window treatment, and these.  It is coming out of my ears, and I cannot stand it any longer as a prominent fabric in my projects, so it has been demoted to lining fabric only, which I actually really like.  PLUS I wasn’t really sure if this project was going to turn out since it was a bag with a flap that I had never done before.  I always seem to get mixed up with all the right-sides, wrong-sides, and the turning, I was sure I was going to end up with something backwards.  Must be beginners luck!

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to ella on your first christmas, *heart* mom

This is little Ella’s Christmas present from me.  A bit late, YES, BUT it has been complete for a couple months, I just didn’t get around to taking her closeup.  I feel like I must explain the delay, really I have some great excuses!

You see, I received my sewing machine a year ago this week for my birthday, Ella was just four months old!  Not the best time to start a new hobby as involved as sewing with nobody to teach me except my trusty book from Lori!  Well, I didn’t get around to sewing until October, at which time I thought I would commit myself to the loony bin and MAKE everybody Christmas and Birthday presents!  Somewhere in there I also thought I would hit myself over the head and commit myself all together and make Ella this perfect little Olive by Hillary Lang at Wee Wonderfuls.  Needless to say, I didn’t actually start until a couple days AFTER Christmas… after all, 6 month ella won’t know any different, right?  Well, Ms. Olive here turned out to be much more difficult than this inexperienced sewist expected, and after the holiday marathon I wasn’t exactly committed to hanging in there with it.  Somewhere along the way a few months into procrastinating I regained my confidence and popped it out in a night, but then her rear remained un-sewn for a good month until I figured that out too– again, not too committed to the project.  And here we are August, Ella is nine months older, Olive is finally getting photographed, and technically still has no face…

There is a bit of an explanation behind her facelessness too.

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coming soon…

almost out of the funk…

yes, those are cut band-aids!

…wait until you see what I have planned for this guy!

A bit of strawberry cake goodness!

Another not so recent post.
Still in the Funk.
I plan to get better after the aproaching long weekend mini-vacay to Mammoth!

I have received a few requests for the recipe I used for the 4 dozen cupcakes at Miss E’s first birthday a few months back, and I just received another!  It is time to spill it, including all my hints for you non-seasoned bakers (me included)!

First off let me say that I absolutely adore Sprinkles, I imagine that they are the most scrumptious cupcakes around– but I wouldn’t know exactly because I have not exactly eaten one before. BUT, I have been promising myself a trip to Beverly Hills for paper and cupcakes, (sigh) someday!  Taste aside, I love the simplistic, elegant, homemade look of them.  The swirl is perfect.  Every one is a bit different, and the marzipan marking system is brilliant and lovely.  SO, you can imagine my absolute elation and lasting excitement when I found THIS and THIS!  The exact recipe from Candace herself, EUREKA! (I realize this may not be the exact exact recipe that is actually used, but please, don’t tell me that, I am perfectly content thinking that it IS!)

I am not going to go into any detail about the making process, who am I to think that I can do any better job than Martha herself and Candace… but I will let you in on three things:

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A bit more back project briefing

I made this hankershief for Mr. K this past Valentine’s Day after he not so subtly dropped hint after hint that he wanted something hand made by ME. This created quiet the inner conflict– what the heck do I know how to make for a man, besides a card??? I make lots of things, but turns out nothing is suited for a man! Prior to his prodding I had never taken much thought to this, and was perfectly content not ever thinking about it, but the the request was made. It would not have been wise to bow out of such a challenge, so here enters the timeless monogrammed hanky with a bit of a bright twist. It doesn’t need much explanation except that it was my first stand alone embroidery project, small I realize but oh so satisfying! I used a couple small sheets of Sulky’s tear away stabilizer to help with the puckering on the thin fabric and it worked like a charm. I am not so sure if a seasoned stitcher would need such a crutch, but for my lack of consistent tension it was appreciated.

… and then of course there is always the token card that Mr. K has come to expect.

The red and white polka dots (which I see they don’t have any more, but they were part of the luxe collection) and beautiful chocolate paper are from my beloved paper-source.

Three wrens came for a visit…

I haven’t done anything crafty lately– I should I KNOW and I really have no excuse for it except that I have been in a bit of a funk. BUT I do have this picture of a project I did a couple months ago that I never posted about.

These are the quick wall hangings I did for Ella’s “baby room,” they coordinate with the, I guess you would call it window treatment, and the quilt that Lori so generously made for Ella when she was born. I had been meaning to do something with the remaining fabric from Ella’s window project but I was having trouble deciding on what. Ella’s walls stayed naked until I stumbled upon a great and simple idea from Anna Maria Horner which was then featured on The Martha Show. I already had the fabric and Modge Podge, acrylic paint is cheap, all I had to find were the square canvases. I eventually found them at a Joann’s, but not just any Joann’s, a super store of sorts, and then it was off to Micheal’s to pick up a couple great flat paintbrushes that I have wanted to own anyway! In an afternoon the project was completed and hung. Easy breezy. I decided to use the wren that Anna Maria featured because, well… I was uninspired to do anything else, and I really do like the realistic quality, not to mention my obvious obsession with silhouettes and birds lately.

They are hung above Ella’s changing table, which poses some problems when putting on pants now that she is one! They seem to be a bit irresistible to reach up and grab and knock off the wall, but I can’t blame her, they are tempting to touch.

love love LOVE

I am absolutely in love with both of my Mother’s Day gifts this year and I got the art part of it on my walls in a timely manner, which is a record actually, I haven’t even had them for a month! It really is something to marvel at considering I have other frames on my walls that have been begging for content for months.

Keith, err Ella, so cleverly ordered two fantastic items from my Etsy Wish List, these prints from Emily at The Black Apple and these perfectly great earrings. I am in love with both equally– I have worn my earings everyday, but I am so much enjoying the new prints in my dining room as I sip my tea in the mornings, I can hardly stand it.

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