Monica's Tree Wall

My two bff's and I are notorious for crafting late into the night while discussing, well, everything. I am in awe of these two gals and they inspire me to do so many craft-a-licious things. For example, Monica recently repainted her entire office. On one wall, she made her own stencil and put the coolest pattern across the whole thing (that's another post for another time). On the opposite wall, she free-handed a tree. Yeah, a whole tree. Are you dying to see it?
She found these adorable bird hooks at Hobby Lobby so she could "hang" stuff from the tree branches. How freakin' cute is that? Seriously, Monica, stop being so adorable! You're making the rest of us look bad!

How to jazz up a jarred pasta sauce

Recently, I got a request for manicotti from the hubs. (It was delicious - recipe to come, I promise.) He also wanted chicken Parmesan with some, and I quote, "fun noodles." I didn't want to make my own pasta sauce, so I bought a jarred natural sauce from the local market. Total fail. It tasted like tomatoes, a little basil, and sugar. Ok, mostly it tasted like sugar. That is not what I am looking for in a pasta sauce. I don't know anyone who's looking for that in a pasta sauce, but apparently they still make it anyway. Regardless, it called for some doctoring. The results were so much better than what we started with. In fact, the hubs has requested that I now doctor all pasta sauces we buy. So I decided it might be helpful to throw out some ideas of stuff to put in to doctor the sauce.

• a teaspoon of red pepper flakes heats it up a little bit and makes it much more flavorful
• a teaspoon of basil is always a welcome addition
• try a teaspoon of oregano, too - it adds another depth
• try a half a teaspoon of chopped fresh garlic, or
• sprinkle in a teaspoon or so of garlic powder
• half a teaspoon of onion powder
  
• a fourth cup of chopped, sauteed fresh mushrooms
• if you like rosemary, try throwing a half teaspoon of that in the mix

Have you doctored your spaghetti sauces before? What else do you add to make them sing?

Easy home solutions - banana hanger

I don't know about you, but I always have bananas laying around and getting in the way of everything. So my hubby came up with THE easiest solution ever, and you can make your own in less than 3 minutes. Enter the banana hanger.
Take an old wire hanger, and cut a piece off the straight edge. Bend the ends over on themselves - one should look like a small loop and one should make a fishhook. Nail a small nail on the backside of your cupboard and stick the small loop edge over the nail. Then, hang your bananas on the fishhook edge. Voila!
Linked up at Little Brick Ranch and Tatertots and Jello

Okay, okay, I don't have any directions for this. I basically combined two ideas I saw over at Tatertots and Jello to make something I think is really fabulous for the Christmas season. One of the bloggers over there made a Christmas tree shape out of the scripture found in Luke 2: 13-14. Another showed of her ornagami skills (get it - ornament origami) by making a 3D star. So I put the star on top of the scripture tree, and its' probably my favorite part of my Christmas decor.

Raspberry Sunrise

It's been awhile! Oh my goodness, work has been crazy and I've been exhausted. Sigh! One day, I'll be able to quit and stay home and blog and craft all day. Anyway, on to the crafts!

Time Needed: 5 minutes
Level of difficulty: easy
Materials needed: 1/2 carton vanilla ice cream, 1/2 carton pineapple sherbet, 1/2 bag frozen raspberries, 3 sliced bananas, blender

Directions: Put all the ingredients in the blender. Blend until smooth. It'll turn pink and delicious and fancy. This would be amazing to serve at a fancy party or event. Have fun!

50th Birthday Book

Time Needed: 90 minutes
Level of difficulty: easy
Materials needed: blank scrapbook, scrapbooking paper, glue stick, stickers, photos, 50 memories, printer, printer paper, shaped edge scissors
Directions: Because this is for a 50th birthday, there are 50 memories. If you are going to do this for another birthday, just adjust your memories accordingly. Have everyone involved in giving this gift split up the 50 memories. Have them typed, put them in cute font, and print them onto the printer paper. Cut the memories with the shaped edge scissors. Set your memories and photos on top of the scrapbook pages to get an idea of how you'd like the layout to be. Then, remove these and back each page as desired with the scrapbooking paper. Glue on the memories and photos and accent with the stickers.
My siblings and I have done this for both of my parents' 50th birthdays, and these books now display prominently in their home. They are some of my parents' most prized possessions. I've included several pictures with this one so you can see more of what the finished product looks like.

Revisited: Frayed Fabric Rose

Remember the frayed fabric rose? This one's about two times as big and made of a silky polyester. Just thought I'd show a different version to you...
Due to the last several posts... can you tell I spent my evening in my fabric flower garden? :)

Helpful Hints - Design Transfer

When working with fabric, you're often left trying to transfer a design from paper to the fabric. I haven't tried this idea personally, but one of my coworkers swears by it. What you do is you buy cheap laminating paper at the craft store. You put that in your printer and print your design on it from your computer. Regular ink works just fine. Anyway, then you put your newly printed design face-down on the fabric and you use an iron on a cool setting to transfer the ink to the fabric. Then, sew or paint or whatever on the fabric, and then send it through the wash. Supposedly, the ink comes out in the machine with just regular detergent. Now how's that for an idea!

Hand Embroidery - How To

I was reading that last post and realized that, if you've never done stitching before, those directions are hard to follow. So, I've created a picture tutorial of how to "trace the line" with your embroidery needlework. Let's see what we've got here:

We start with the fabric already drawn on and in the hoop, like this:
Then, draw the thread up through the fabric at the beginning of the design:

Move a few millimeters forward, and pull the thread back on through the fabric:

Now, on the back of the fabric, move a few millimeters forward still and that's where you're gonna pull the thread through. Think of it like this: From here on out, you'll be working backwards. Only that first stitch goes forwards:To connect the line, work backwards and poke the needle back down where you ended your previous stitch:Once it's pulled all the way through, it'll look like you've traced the line, like this:
Continue the process until you finish tracing your design.

And now you know how to do a simple trace with your embroidery designs. Yay!

Also, for your information, it's typical that embroidery thread comes 6 strands thick. Usually, unless you want a really thick line, it's standard to take two of the strands out, thread those through the needle, and use only those. But, do whatever you want to make your project how you'd like it to be. After all, these are just ideas for you to run with. :)

Upgrading Existing Products

Today, I went into Michael's craft store, and all their plastic gourds and pumpkins were on sale. I bought a green and white one to go with my orange one I already had at home. Problem is, the orange and green ones have frillies on the top, and the white one was plain. It started out like this:Well, if you'll remember my Flavors of Fall Door Wreath, I have a few little things laying around that I can use to froof things up a bit. I punched some holes in the top of the pumpkin near the stem and inserted a few leaves and curled wire. I then superglued them in place so they wouldn't fall out, and now it looks more like this:
Now it matches the other two pumpkins just perfectly. See?

Flower Arranging Made Easy

Do you ever get a beautiful bunch of flowers from the store or from your love, only to have them look all floppy and awkward once you put them in a vase? Well, I found this great, new product the other day.What this is is a wire arrangement holder. You put it on the top of your vase, bend it over the edges, and stick your flowers in. This holds the flowers in place without having them flopping around.
Once you get all the flowers in, your arrangement looks much more like the following shot than the average floppy vase flower placement.
Isn't that nice? I bought my wire holder for about $4 at my local super store in the plant/flower section. Definitely a worthwhile investment!

The Power of Tin Foil

We all know that tin foil can be a kitchen creator's best friend. However, tin foil has about a bajillion other uses. The best list I've found was at Life Hackery, and I've reposted their list here, plus a few extra uses that I've found around the kitchen. Feel free to leave your tin foil ideas in the comments section!

1. Frosting a cake but you’ve run out of pastry bags? Just grab a double thickness of aluminum foil and roll it into a cone shape, leaving a small opening at the point. Fill with frosting of spreading consistency. Twist the top to close the cone and use the device to make pretty frosting designs on your cake. Admittedly, this whole process is easier with a plastic zip-close bag with a corner snipped off, but when aluminum foil is all you’ve got it can be a lifesaver!

2. Sharpen your scissors. In between professional sharpenings (or for those 99 cent pairs of scissors that you don’t want to pay to have sharpened), use aluminum foil to keep your scissors in top form. Cutting through 6-8 layers of aluminum foil will improve the cutting surface of most scissors.

3. Make an Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie. You know, for protection from mind control enemies.

4. Shine up rusty chrome. With a bit of water on a wadded-up piece of aluminum foil, you can rub most rust spots off of chrome car parts.

5. Keep your oven clean. Tired of scraping burned-on food out of the bottom of your oven? Line it with aluminum foil before making something particularly messy. Don’t leave it in there permanently, however, because it can lead to oven damage over time.

6. Protect the heating element in your electric oven. For those times when you have to scrub burned-on crud out of your oven, cover the heating element with long strips of aluminum foil before spraying the inside of the oven with oven cleaner.

7. Make your soap last longer. Put a piece of aluminum foil on the bottom of your bar of soap to keep it from sitting in a puddle of water and wearing away quickly.

8. Make interesting cakes. Novelty cake pans in odd shapes are expensive. Get the same effect by using a regular cake pan but making a shaped liner for the inside. Make sure the liner is at least as tall as the edges of the pan and several thicknesses so it will hold its shape. This makes it easy to make that snowman or heart-shaped cake without spending a lot of money on a new pan.

9. Make a sun box for seedlings. If your plants are growing crooked or looking less than healthy, cut off the top and one side of a cardboard box, then line the bottom and remaining sides with aluminum foil. Place your plant inside and put the entire operation in the window with the open side facing the window. The sun will reflect off of the foil and cause your plant to grow up straight.

10. Make a portrait reflector. Forget those super-expensive professional photography reflectors. Just cover a sturdy piece of cardboard with aluminum foil and you’ll have an excellent light reflector for portraits and still lifes.

11. Keep birds out of your fruit trees. Hang twisted strips of aluminum foil all over your fruit trees using fishing line. The light reflections and the sound will keep birds away from your fruit.

12. Protect saplings. Rodents and other animals sometimes chew on young trees in the winter. Protect your saplings by covering their bases with aluminum foil. Remember to change the covering periodically as the tree grows.

13. Re-soften hard brown sugar. Many people put hard brown sugar in the microwave to soften it up, but this can actually backfire and make the sugar harden even more. Instead, wrap the block of hardened sugar in some aluminum foil and bake in a 300° (Fahrenheit) oven for 5 minutes.

14. Keep the bottom of your fireplace or charcoal grill from becoming encrusted with soot. Line the bottom of your fireplace or grill with aluminum foil before starting a fire, then dispose of the foil after the fire is out and the coals are completely cooled.

15. Protect your furniture. Pets can’t stand the feeling or the sound of crinkling aluminum foil. If you want them to stay off of your furniture, cover the seats with clean aluminum foil whenever you’re not using the furniture. Your pets will learn within a couple of days to avoid sitting up there. You can also prevent them from scratching or biting furniture legs by covering them in aluminum foil.

16. Avoid moving the heavy furniture. When you want to quickly shampoo your carpets but don’t want to lug all of the furniture out of the room, simply cover the legs with aluminum foil to avoid getting shampoo on them.

17. Although we haven’t tested this tip (and it seems a bit dubious), it’s said that you can put a wadded-up ball of aluminum foil in your dryer with a load of clothes to reduce static cling.

18. Get creative and make fun sculptures with your aluminum foil.

19. Remove daily buildup on silver jewelry. With some common kitchen items you can make a simple but effective way to clean your jewelry at home.

20. If your TV and DVD player are stacked one on top of the other, you may find the picture is a bit fuzzy. This often happens when the electromagnetic fields from both devices interfere with each other. Place a sheet of aluminum foil between them to cut down on the interference.

21. When ironing, put a piece of aluminum foil under the ironing board cover. The foil will reflect the heat from the iron so you can essentially iron both sides at once.

22. Steam your silk or wool garments by placing a piece of aluminum foil on top of the ironing board and under the garment. Pass the iron over the garment from a few inches above the fabric while holding down the steam button. The steam will remove wrinkles without harming the cloth with direct heat.

23. Use it as wrapping paper in a pinch. You can glue or tape interesting cut-out pictures onto the aluminum foil to make it even more personal.

24. Make interesting Easter eggs.

25. Reflect heat into your house. Put a layer of aluminum foil behind your radiator when it is off and completely cool. When the radiator is turned on, more of the heat will be directed into the living area and less will be absorbed into the wall behind the radiator.

26. Keep pie crusts from burning. This may be one of the oldest aluminum foil tricks in the book, but it’s a good one. When baking a pie, cover the edges of the crust with aluminum foil at the very end of the baking time to keep it from browning too much.

27. Make a cool noisemaker with your kids.

28. Make a solar cooker. You’ll cut down on energy costs and experience a traditional way of cooking.

29. Use strips of aluminum foil to wrap your hair, then coil them up to make impromptu curlers.

30. Cover doorknobs and hinges with aluminum foil to avoid having to take them off while painting.

Bonus Tip: In many locations, aluminum foil can be recycled along with all of the other household recycling. When you’ve used it for cooking and all of the other interesting projects listed here, just throw it into the bin along with all of your other recyclable materials to keep it out of the waste stream.

Create-A-Torium Tips:

• Have a full-sized bread pan but want small bread loaves? Use a folded piece of tin foil to separate the two loaves within the big pan. You'll end up with super cute square loaves.
• Want to save a bit of money? If you trust yourself to do this, buy an at-home highlighting kit and use tin foil like they do at the salon to keep highlighted and non-highlighted hair separate.
• Cover a piece of patterned or shaped cardboard with tin foil (maybe even colored foil). You now have a cute serving tray that you can chuck when you're done.
• Doing other crafts like beading, glittering, or using buttons and having a hard time keeping things in their place on the table? Bend a sheet of tin foil so that there are substantial edges and put your tiny pieces in your makeshift foil holders. Cheap and easy!
  

Bagel Re-Mix

You will, I'm sure, remember the bagels I made a few months ago. That time, they were white flour bagels and bagels topped with asiago cheese. And they were inhaled and enjoyed and have become a favorite in our house.

Well, I've been experimenting a bit lately. This post, though it is about bagels again, is about how to do a few variations that I've been having fun with.

Variation 1: Whole Wheat Bagels

Just switch out your bread flour for wheat flour. You'll probably use a few more tablespoons of water, but that's no big deal. Not ready for whole wheat but still want to include more whole wheat in your diet? Well, go half and half! Just substitute half of the bread flour for wheat flour.

Variation 2: Cinnamon Raisin Bagels

Substitute 3 T of flour for 3 T of cinnamon. Then, before you add the water, pour in 1/4 to 1/2 cup of raisins (or as many as you feel like). Stir all the dry ingredients together, then add the water and prepare as per the original recipe.

PS: Here's a link to the original recipe on hubpages.

Dry Erase Calendar

Time needed: 30 minutes (the fancier you make it, the longer it takes)
Level of difficulty: easy
Materials needed: picture frame (I used an 11x18, but pick a size that works for you), cute scrapbook paper, permanent marker, dry erase markers, tape, cork board (which, by the way, they sell at Office Depot in tiles of many sizes - I used a 6x6 that I cut down to fit), push pins

Directions: Choose the paper you'd like to be the background of your calendar and cut it to fit your frame. You can write the calendar or any of the events on the paper, but then you have to switch it out at the end of the month. You choose - it's your calendar! If you're doing a section for notes (see the left bottom of mine), choose a background paper to go there. Tape these together, and stick them in the back of the frame. Then, if you haven't written anything on the paper, graph yourself a 7x5 chart on the glass for your calendar. Do this in permanent marker so that the chart is always there - you can write the days in as the months come. Leave a space for the month at the top. Then, take your dry erase markers and fill in your chart! If you are looking for something more permanent than a dry erase marker but not something as permanent as a permanent marker, I'd recommend vis-a-vis markers (the kind teachers use on overhead transparencies). They stay on till you take them off with water. To stick the cork board on the calendar (and, by the way, that's optional - if you don't like it, don't do it), all you do is use the 3M stickies the cork boards come with. To cut the cork board, I just used scissors. And obviously the push pins are for things you want on your cork board. And, voila! A cute fun calendar! If you'd like to see a different version (this one's magnetic - I couldn't find a piece of metal small enough, hence the cork board), check out my cute cousin Krystal's fun blog!

Festive Fourth Flops

Time needed: 30 minutes
Level of difficulty: easy
Materials needed: 3 swatches of fabric in red, white and blue, felt, scissors, glue gun, flip flops
Note: The entire cost of this project was $4.25, and I had enough leftover fabric to make at least one more pair for just the cost of flips, which I got at Michael's for $1.

Directions: Cut 18 circles of the white fabric (I used the bottom of a soda can as a stencil), 18 circles of the red fabric (I used the bottom of a hairspray bottle as a stencil), and 18 circles of the blue fabric (I used the bottom of a nail polish bottle as a stencil) and get that glue gun heated up. Start with the white fabric. Lay down 2 circles to be the base of your white flowers. This pattern is very similar to the foursquare flower pattern, so take a look at that if you need more help. Instead of folding the circles in half, fold them in thirds and glue them down. This way, you'll have 6 poofy petals rather than four. After you do this to both base circles, you should have four circles left. Using two per flower, crinkle these and glue them to the middle to continue the poofy petal effect. Follow the same directions for the red and the blue fabrics. (If you wanted, you could mix the fabric colors for a multicolored flower or two.) Then, cut 6 squares of felt to fit the back of the flowers and glue them to the back of the flowers for some extra support on the backing. Take the large white flower and glue it to the thong of the flip flop. Place the red and blue flowers just to the side (or, what the heck, place them wherever you'd like as long as you think it's cute), being sure to glue them to the thong as well. Then, take a few strips of the felt and glue them to the back of the flower and around the backside of the thong to add some extra staying power. And there you go - cute summery flips that are going to be just perfect for your Fourth of July celebration! And, this technique is so cute, who needs those expensive flips you see at the store? You can make your own, feel just as cute, and be so proud of what you came up with. Woo hoo!

Dissectable recipe - Cafe Rio(ish) chicken burritos

This is three recipes in one (one for the rice, one for the chicken, and one for the dressing), and you just feel free to dissect this and use it as you will. Also, there's no picture with this one because we ate it all before I even thought of my camera. Next time we make it, I'll snap a pretty one for ya!

Poached Mexican Chicken
Time needed: 10 minutes
Level of difficulty: easy
Materials needed: pot, 1 cup chicken stock, 1 T cumin, 1 t garlic, 1 t cayenne pepper, 1 t lime juice, 1 t red pepper flakes, 4 chicken tenders or 2 chicken breasts

Dump everything in the pot except the chicken and bring to a boil. Once your mixture is boiling, stick in the chicken, and poach until cooked through. Flip the chicken halfway through to ensure even cooking. Once poached, take out and let cook a bit before shredding. Keep any extra poaching liquid to use next time you make this stuff. Feel free to adjust any seasonings according to your taste.

Jessica's Mexican Rice
Time needed: 10 minutes
Level of difficulty: easy
Materials needed: 1 cup water, 1 cup chicken stock, 2 cups instant rice, 1 t lime juice, 1 diced tomato (juices, seeds and all), 1 t cumin

Dump everything but the rice into a microwave safe container and mix (you're using half water and half chicken stock to add a bit more flavor). Then add your rice, microwave according to package directions, let all the water absorb, and there you go!

Knock-Off Cafe Rio Salad Dressing (adapted from Recipezaar)
Time needed: 5 minutes prep, plus overnight
Level of difficulty: easy
Materials needed: 2 cups no fat mayo, 2 cups no fat sour cream (we're saving calories here, and you'll never know!), 12 sprigs cilantro, 3 tomatillos (they look like green tomatoes with a husk), 2 green onions, 2 cloves garlic, 1 jalapeno pepper (seeds, membrane and all), juice of 1 lime, 1-2 t salt, 1/4 t cumin (optional)

Chuck it all in a blender and blend until smooth. Be sure you roughly dice your tomatillos and jalapeno before you chuck them in the blender. It is essential you let this sit in the fridge overnight, because otherwise, you taste all the individual flavor components rather than the blend of them all. Trust me, it's so worth the wait. This makes so much dressing, but don't worry, it'll be gone in no time. You'll find all sorts of ways to use it. And, because we used no fat mayo and sour cream, we're way better off than with most dressings. This will last about 2 weeks in the fridge. Also, if you are scared of using the whole jalapeno, just use 2/3 of it and see how that goes for you.

So now that we know the directions for the components, let me tell you how I put it all together...
Cafe Rio(ish) chicken burritos
Time needed: 2-3 minutes
Level of difficulty: easy
Materials needed: poached Mexican chicken, Jessica's Mexican Rice, knock-off Cafe Rio salad dressing, 1 can black beans, 1 package flour tortillas, lettuce, shredded cheese (flavor/quantity to your taste)

Heat up your tortilla on the stovetop in a skillet just long enough to warm through. Pack as much of everything into your tortilla shell as you can, fold it up, and go in for the kill. Try not to die of flavor overload because then you won't be able to eat this again, and that would be sad.

But wait! you ask. What if I want to eat it as a Cafe Rio knock off salad? Go for it! I'm not stopping you! I love their salads, but I've found this works better as a burrito. But you do what you want - remember these are just skills you can take and use as you wish!

Per request, homemade bagels

I can't take the credit for this one. I totally siphoned it from Hubpages. So rather than put the recipe here and risk someone thinking it was my recipe or my idea, just click here to get the recipe. I'll post my tips and hints.

Here's the thing with bagels: they are so much better if you make them yourself. We are lucky if any smidgen of our batch is left by the end of the day. Plus, you get to control the salt/sugar/fat/preservatives added to your food. And, let's be honest, it's cool to say you made your own bagels. They take me just over an hour to do, and they're probably my favorite bread product to make because they are so yummy and so fast. So here are some of those recommendations:

• Do you like cheese? When you get the bagel out of the boiling water, set it on a heaping pile of Asiago, Parmesan, and/or Romano cheese (I use all three because they came in a shake bottle). The cheese crusts on when you bake them, and oh baby are they just divine!
• When you roll your bagels, you might run into the same problems I do: those ends just don't want to stick together. Well, then scrunch 'em! That's what I do on some of them. So they won't look like a perfect circle? Who cares? I think it makes them look cute and rustic, and besides, the scrunched finger marks disappear during the rising/boiling process.
• I grease my baking sheet with cooking spray. Works just great and it's way easier than massaging oil into something.
• When you let your dough rise on the counter, cover it with a damp towel. This recipe doesn't call for this, but the dough stays much more pliable and kneadable this way. I find if I don't use a towel, it gets all crusty.
• Bagels sound hard to make. Like really hard. In real life, they are the easiest bread product (other than frozen rolls, and even that's arguable with the time commitment) I've ever made. Don't be scared - just try it!
• Because there are no preservatives, any bagels that are not immediately consumed should be put in a plastic bag to keep air off them. They stay moist longer this way.

So what do you eat on a homemade bagel other than cream cheese? Well, here are some ideas:

• Chicken salad
• Homemade butter and homemade jam
• Turkey club sandwich (splurge and buy the peppered turkey at the deli counter - you'll thank me later)
• Breakfast egg sandwich
• Dip the one with cheese in warm marinara sauce
  

And now... a picture!

The previous three posts have taught you about yo-yo flowers, frayed fabric roses, and foursquare flowers. I feel it would be helpful to illustrate these various beauties in action, so here are some, ahem, obviously professional shots of what I've been using them on lately:
The black flower in the back is a yo-yo flower, the black and white one to the right is a frayed fabric rose, and the white with blue accents one on the left is a foursquare flower. Now you know what they look like when put together! This particular combo of flowers is about the size of my palm (not including the feathers).

Wondering what's the deal with the feathers and how I'm planning on using that? Well then, be prepared for something not as cute...I glued the feathers to the black flower (I just thought they were cute - there's really no rhyme or reason) and then glued all of the feathers to a piece of felt. I then attached both a pin and a hair clip so I can use this as both. I glued both pieces down and then glued another piece of felt across them to keep them in place.

Let me show you one more thing...This one is much larger - it's probably about the size of both of my hands (I have small hands, but still...). You'll notice the white with blue accents and the blue flower are yo-yo flowers and that the brown one is a frayed fabric rose. The back looks a lot the same - the only difference is that I didn't put a hair clip on this one (that'd look odd on someone's cranium unless it was acting as a hat).

You can, of course, wear all these flowers on their own, attach them to purses, make them tiny and glue them to earring posts, and so on. Wear them where you want to wear them - it's your creation, so make it match your personality!