#100itemcraftstashchallenge: Projects 35 and 36

Glow in the Dark onesie to stuffy

This week there are two projects to share. The first is a onesie that I couldn't part with, so I cut it and turned it into a stuffed creature for PGS. For his first Halloween, he had a cute little bodysuit that had a glow in the dark ghost on it with the word "BOO!" written on it. I started it forever ago, probably back when my son first outgrew it, sooo... January 2013?? See? This challenge was a good thing for me, it forced me to work on things that I started and never bothered to finish for one reason or another. 

The second project is one you'll see a similar twin of in the next few weeks because I cut two of them. I found this dino pattern on Pinterest and decided it was the perfect little thing for my dino loving PGS! I had originally planned on only making one of them, but in my haste to cut the pattern one night, I cut two of the left side and none of the right side. Instead of wasting the second piece, I just changed my plan to make two dinos: one for PGS and one for his little brother expected later this summer. I decided that mine needed eyes though, so I used unmatched studs from my Babyville brand snaps and gave one dino blue eyes and one dino green eyes. I then used some of the many spools of ribbon I have to cut out 3.5" strips for the loops. (FYI: Kids II owns a patent on the loops and selling will get you a C&D letter, these are strictly for personal use.)

The dino standing up against the wall

I wasn't planning on making the dinos just yet as I was very focused on getting items ready for the stocking of the store that just occurred, but PGS saw the dinos on my sewing table all pinned up and ready for sewing and tried to sew them himself. So I at least finished the one for him so that he'd be a happy little guy. He was. He is actually pretty happy with both projects and spent quite a bit of time playing with both over the last few days.  It really makes this momma happy when her little one likes what was made for him!

March Round-Up

The crafty focus of this month was more on "In The Kitchen" than on the sewing table. While there were plenty of fabric projects completed this month, most were for the shop and not mentioned on the blog. We tried out a few new recipes this month and I shared a couple of them in the Recipe Wednesday blog posts this past month.

My favorite new recipe of the month was a mish mash of homemade Pad Thai recipes that we tried out on two different occasions. Learning to make Pad Thai at home and from scratch was an important thing to discover because we took PGS to Noodles & Co. and he stole lots of his daddy's Pad Thai and then again a few days later when we were there again and I ordered the Pad Thai, he was a huge fan of it and the bean sprouts! So when I made it at home, I made sure to buy some bean sprouts for the two year old to crunch on.  Once I get our version of it streamlined and 90+% to our liking, I'll share the recipe on the blog.

This month, I was able to work on #100itemcraftstashchallenge projects 26-34! I even have projects 35-40 half finished on my project table to complete when time allows. I have an idea of what 41 and 42 will be, too!

#100itemcraftstashchallenge: Project 26

#100itemcraftstashchallenge: Project 27-32

#100itemcraftstashchallenge: Project 33 and 34

We had three successful Feature Friday posts with some very talented WAHMs! And three giveaways, one was even from us!  Thank you so much to all the readers who keep coming back and making these kind of posts as successful as they are. You are greatly appreciated. 

Here's one last sneak peek of the month: a set of coasters to be listed in our Shop Stocking this afternoon!

Kitty Cat coasters, set of 4

Recipe Wednesday: Cinnamon Raisin-Cranberry Rolls

Saturday evening, PGS and I made these cinnamon raisin rolls from Betty Crocker. In the suggestions section of the recipe, it suggested subbing dried cranberries for the raisins and since I had both on hand and I know PGS will eat the raisins and cranberries instead of putting them in the bowl, I added both.

CINNAMON RAISIN-CRANBERRY ROLLS

Ingredients

Ingredients assembled

Biscuits

2 ¹/₂ cups Original Bisquick® mix

Raisins and dried cranberries

²/₃ cup milk

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

A generous sprinkling of cinnamon sugar to make up for the lost measured ingredients 

Vanilla Glaze

³/₄ cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon warm water

¹/₂ teaspoon vanilla

Directions

1. Heat oven to 450°F. In medium bowl, stir all biscuit ingredients just until soft dough forms.

Stir ingredients

2. Place dough on surface generously dusted with Bisquick mix; gently roll in Bisquick mix to coat. Shape into ball; knead 10 times. Roll 1/2 inch thick. Cut with 2 1/2-inch cutter dipped in Bisquick mix. On ungreased cookie sheet, place biscuits 2 inches inches apart.

We used bunny cookie cutters instead of boring, old circles

3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown. While biscuits are baking, in small bowl, beat all glaze ingredients with spoon until smooth. Spread glaze over warm biscuits.

Sorry it's upside down, I didn't think about that when I snapped the picture

I measured out the milk,sugar and cinnamon before letting PGS help mix the ingredients, but that didn't really matter because he got excited and missed the bowl for the sugar/cinnamon muffin cup and about half ended up on my counter. I got out the premixed cinnamon sugar shaker in my cabinet and let him shake some into the bowl. I think we ended up with more than the sugar and cinnamon specified in the directions, but oh, well! PGS also insisted that I let him help knead the dough, except that he either misunderstood what "kneading" is or understood that he was supposed to copy what Mommy was doing, but didn't care because when I asked him to knead the dough, he took a bite out of it!  Then he insisted on helping roll the dough out - this task he actually did a really good job of.  As you can see in the picture above, he helped cut out the dough.

In my opinion, they are much better while warm than at room temperature, so if you have any leftovers, I suggest a 10-15 second microwave heat up.

Feature Friday: Sweet Pistol Rose

This week, I'm bringing Sweet Pistol Rose to you and the personable WAHM behind Sweet Pistol Rose wrote up this little bio for you to get to her, her products and what makes them so special.

Sofia inspired birthday stats sign

Hi I’m Racheal, the owner-designer behind Sweet Pistol Rose. While my little shop has only been open about nine months, I have been creating my entire life! I am the daughter of a jewelry designer and a wood carver who comes from a long line of artists (My uncle paints in Rome!).

As a mom, I've never had loads of free time, but always enjoyed the time that I was able to spend creating scrapbooks to hold our memories. After many people commented on my drive and creativity, I decided that Etsy would be a great place to share my talents.

Jake inspired birthday invitation

What started off as what my husband refers to as "Arts & Crafts hour" has become a profitable pastime! Once I came to Etsy, customers began asking for a variety of different things. I quickly realized that I could do so much more - signs, banners, cupcake and cake accessories...you never know! Recently I even added digital invitations and chalkboard signs to the mix.

Etsy has been a great place for me to share my creative ideas off with the world! I am hopeful that this is just the beginning of a long and creative relationship with paper and parties!

Racheal was kind enough to offer up a Spring Sign Subway printable from Sweet Pistol Rose (this is a digital download). This printable is exclusive to this giveaway and will not be available for purchase through the Etsy shop. For that reason, she has offered it to 10 lucky winners! (Any duplicate winners will be redrawn.)

Etsy - https://www.etsy.com/shop/SweetPistolRose

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/SweetPistolRose

Instagram - http://instagram.com/SweetPistolRose

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Recipe Wednesday: Enchiladas and Rice

Over on the facebook page, I asked if I should share this recipe or not and overwhelmingly got told to share it! So here it is:

ENCHILADAS WITH MEXICAN RICE AND CORN

Ingredients

Red enchilada sauce

Mild green chiles

Diced onions

Approximately ¹/₂ lb lean ground beef (I used 90/10)

Tortillas

Mexican cheese blend

Mexican rice package

Corn

Directions

1. Prepare rice as directed on package. Just throw in a handful of corn when adding the water and mix to the pot.

2. Heat up the enchilada sauce in a small saucepan.

3. Brown the ground beef with the onions and chiles.

4. Layer cheese and beef mixture in tortillas, roll up and put a spoonful of sauce over the rolled up tortilla.

5. Add a serving of rice to the plate and serve!

Serves 2

My decent looking food BEFORE the first bite

We try very hard not to waste food in the house. Even when something isn't the best meal I've made, we tend to eat it anyway because it's edible and we just make sure that I never make it again. I took two, maybe three bites of my food and Hubby took one or two bites before I eagerly agreed to throw the entire meal into the trash can! Only PGS ate his dinner, but that's because he had a tortilla with cheese only in it - no sauce, no beef mixture.

I know this meal doesn't sound that bad on paper, but it tasted horrible. The rice is too something - probably too heavily seasoned, so if I ever attempt this again, I'll use Spanish rice instead of the Mexican rice. The beef mixture with the cheese wasn't bad. I tasted the beef mixture before putting it in the tortilla and aside from needing some taco seasoning for burritos or tacos, it was good. (I figured the lack of added seasoning would be okay this time because of the enchilada sauce.) My guess is that the enchilada sauce that I bought is just terrible to our taste buds (guess I need to learn how to make my own. Unfortunately, I used up all of the beef mixture when assembling the enchiladas, so there was no way to salvage the decent tasting part of the meal.

Giveaway for 150 Likes on Facebook!

Thank you to all the wonderful fans we have on Facebook!

Three sets of chevron coasters ready for purchase in the shop!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


**International winners will be asked to pay the difference for the Domestic US shipping.**

#100itemcraftstashchallenge: Projects 33 and 34

I made up a quick tie tee for my son and a friend's son when they both saw the last one I made in February and both asked for one.

The Hanes 2T/3T tie shirt for my son

My son loves to wear his. I'm not sure why, but he does. He loves it so much that he asked to change into it when he saw me pull it out of the dryer the other day! While I think it's weird that he likes his shirt so much, I think it's pretty cool that my son loves something his momma made up for him though!  And since he's too big for the 24 month Gerber brand lap tees that I used for the original tie tee, I bought a plain white Garanimals brand short sleeve white tee. But I was too impatient to wait for it be washed before making his tee, so I used one of the plain white Hanes 2T/3T tees that I bought for something else for him a few months ago.

For the tee that I made for my friend's son, I used one of the Gerber lap tees because he's much smaller than PGS.

The Gerber 24M tie shirt for my friend's son

For both tees, I had wanted to use red thread to match Mickey's shorts, but I ran out opted for a khaki thread that matched the background of the print. I've had the tie pattern printed out for a really long time, so unfortunately, I don't remember where I originally found it. But making your own tie pattern or doing a quick Google search for "onesie ties" should find you an easy pattern to print out and create your own tie tee for the little boy in your life!

Feature Friday: Landon's Toy Box

This week, I'm bringing Landon's Toy Box to you! The lovely WAHM behind Landon's Toy Box wrote up this little bio for you to get to her, her products and what makes them so special.

"Hi, I'm Holly, the heart and mind behind Landon's Toy Box. Landon's Toy Box is a handmade, hand painted, wooden peg doll company that focuses on creating toys as unique as the little ones (or big ones!) receiving them.

When my son, Landon, was just two, I wanted to make him a set of toys that looked like his family and would engage his imagination. I was never professionally trained in art, but I always loved how
paint could transform an object. After a quick trip to the craft store to pick up some wooden pieces and a few hours of painting fun, my first peg family was created and Landon instantly loved them. He would take them everywhere and I began to noticed that other kiddos couldn't keep their hands off of them either! Fast forward a year later, with the support of my family, Landon's Toy Box was born.

My inspiration is most definitely my son, I mean, I did name the shop after him! His creativity drives mine and he is the perfect little "product tester." He has also shown me so many new ways to play with the toys I've created. We use them for playing pieces on board games, line them up for a rousing round of bowling, act out the pages of our favorite books during story time, create rhythmic music with them as drumsticks, and he even falls asleep clutching his favorite "peggified" superhero self!

I design primarily in the Waldorf style to promote emotional and imaginative development. The simple faces allow children the ability to project emotion and create new stories time and time again, while the unique body shape encourages hand/eye coordination and fine motor skills.

I've been very blessed to be able to do something I love and, in a small way, be a part of the lives of my customers. Whether it's through their celebrations of birthdays or holidays, creating keepsakes to remember a special event, designing a peg person in honor of a loved one who's no longer with us, or even painting custom peg dolls to stand on top of a wedding cake; every order has a story that touches my heart and makes me know this is what I'm meant to do.

Holly Cothran"

Storenvy - http://landonstoybox.storenvy.com/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/LandonsToyBox

Blog - http://www.landonstoybox.blogspot.com/

Instagram - http://instagram.com/LandonsToyBox

Recipe Wednesday: Homemade Brownies

Recipe Wednesday is finally including the help of two year old PGS! The last couple of weeks when I've tried to get him interested in making stuff, he just didn't want to help. This week, he saw chocolate chips and wanted to help. Go figure! Let me warn you, if you like brownies and choose to make this recipe, it's amazing and you will want to eat the whole pan of brownies in one sitting! 

I originally found this recipe on Pinterest, but here is the link to the blog post it came from.

BROWNIES (I have renamed them: To Die For )

Ingredients

4 eggs

1 ¹/₄ cups unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

3 tsp vanilla extract

2 sticks butter

2 ¹/₄ cups sugar

1 ¹/₂ cups all purpose flour

1 ¹/₂ cups chocolate chips (semi sweet) Chocolate syrup

Chocolate chips are on the original ingredients list, chocolate syrup is not

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and lightly grease a 8"x8" pan. If desired, line bottom of pan with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl, add 4 eggs, and beat with cocoa, salt, baking powder and vanilla. Stir until fully combined and smooth.

Combining the ingredients (PGS is keeping his hands on the counter and out of the way)

3. In a medium sized bowl, melt butter in the microwave (or melt in a small sauce pan on the stove). When melted, add sugar, and stir to combine.

Mixing up the melted butter and sugar

4. Add warm butter/sugar mixture to the egg/cocoa mixture, stirring until smooth. Make sure the butter mixture is warm, but not too hot, or it will scramble your eggs.

5. Add the flour and chocolate chips to batter and stir until fully incorporated.

Mixing up all the ingredients until just combined

6. Spread batter into prepared pan, and smooth as needed. Drizzle with chocolate syrup.

I chose to drizzle the chocolate syrup over the batter instead of folding in the chips

7. Bake brownies about 30 minutes. Test for doneness by inserting a toothpick in the center of the brownies and making a little divot so you can see the center a bit. You should find moist crumbs, but no wet batter.

8. Cool pan on wire cooling rack.

Fresh outta the oven!

#100itemcraftstashchallenge: Projects 27-32

For the next #100itemcraftstashchallenge projects, I did some creative numbering again and counted each unpaper towel separately. The unpaper towels are a project that I have had sitting on my craft table for almost a year. I bought the fabric in April 2013 and I finally finished the towels in March 2014. It still took under a year to finish the project, so that's pretty good. Right? 

Three double butterfly, two butterfly/tie dye and one double tie dye.

For my own use, I chose to make the unpaper towels out of flannel and without snaps. I know that if you purchase a set of unpaper towels from a handmade business, a lot of times one side is terry and there are snaps on each towel to snap them together and roll them up like a normal paper towel roll.

I haven't counted, but I think we have 18 10"x11" rectangular unpaper towels in our kitchen now and that is enough to last us about 3-5 days before I have to wash towels again. How often I need to do laundry is dependent on how messy we are. The double flannel is decently absorbent and we like using them. Even PGS likes to use the towels to help clean up - which is a great thing since he's the cause of many messes! 

Feature Friday: Little Birdy Blue

Starting with this week, the Feature Friday post will now be a weekly feature on the blog. I cannot wait to share all of the great small businesses with you in the coming weeks!

Little Birdy Blue collage

This week, I am bringing you a new small business from South Haven, MI: Little Birdy Blue. The work at home mom (WAHM) behind Little Birdy Blue is Jennifer. This WAHM business is one worth supporting, in my opinion. The products are crocheted and very well made; and she has a wide variety of products to choose from, too!

© jenjendb, via Instagram

For Christmas 2013, I traded with her to get one of her adorable crochet bears. My mom is obsessed with teddy bears and everything about her Christmas decorations is teddy bears, so I thought a one of a kind, handmade teddy bear was the perfect gift for her. It was really well made and definitely worth the price! The picture to the left is the photo Jennifer shared via Instagram of the bear that I received from her. I would have used my own picture of it, but I didn't take any that aren't a blur of my son running around hugging it (this means that there is no clear shot of the great craftsmanship).

Jennifer was kind enough to include a giveaway this week of an amigurumi bunny just in time for Easter! Please take the time to check out her shop on Storenvy and her page on Facebook (see the links below).

Giveaway bunny!

Etsy - https://www.etsy.com/shop/littlebirdyblueknits
Storenvy - http://littlebirdyblue.storenvy.com/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/littlebirdyblue

Blog - http://littlebirdyblue.blogspot.com/

Instagram - http://instagram.com/jenjendb

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Recipe Wednesday: Saucy Lemon Thyme Chicken

This week is a modified I Can't Believe It's Not Butter recipe: Saucy Lemon Thyme Chicken with fettuccine and broccoli.

Saucy Lemon Thyme Chicken

Ingredients

3 Tbsp. I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!® Deliciously Simple, divided - I used regular unsalted butter instead

2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts

¹/₂ tsp. dried thyme leaves

1 cup chicken broth

1 Tbsp. cornstarch

1 Tbsp. grated lemon peel

Directions

1. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.

2. Sprinkle chicken with thyme; add to skillet and cook 8 minutes; turning once, until browned.

3. Combine broth and cornstarch in medium bowl; pour into skillet and bring to a boil.

4. Reduce heat; stir in lemon peel and remaining 1 Tbsp. butter and cook 7 minutes or until chicken is thoroughly cooked and sauce has thickened.

Sprinkle chicken with thyme

Stir in lemon peel, 1 tbs of butter

When I made this the first time, I served it with plain white rice, but Monday evening, I thought that fettuccine was a good fit and broccoli on the side. Since Little PGS refuses to eat it, I plan for him having leftovers (this time it was rotini with tomato and basil pasta sauce). Also, this time I planned ahead and grated the lemon peel earlier in the afternoon, because the first time I didn't read the directions fully before starting dinner and ended up just squeezing in some fresh lemon juice instead of using grated lemon peel. I do not recommend subbing lemon juice for lemon zest though, it makes the sauce a little too tart. But when you use the lemon zest it's just the right amount of lemon for the chicken.

Voila! Plated and ready for serving!

 If you have tried any of the weekly recipes, feel free to share your experiences in the comments! I'd love to hear from you.

#100itemcraftstashchallenge: Project 26

This is a sewing project that I might have flubbed the guidelines a little bit. I had all supplies for creating this on hand, except for the stuffing material. I counted this as a challenge project and counted the stuffing as a custom project supply because it was a gift for PGS' second birthday.

I found this Running with Scissors tutorial on Pinterest forever ago and decided that with his current dinosaur obsession, it was a great time to finally tackle it.

I used some bright blue blizzard fleece and some neon yellow wicking fabric that I found in the remnants bin at Joann and bought with the intention of making hybrid fitted cloth diapers. (I decided that I didn't want to tackle those.) I did have to pick up a 24 ounce package of poly-fill that I found while looking at Joann. I chose it over the 32 oz. package they also offer because it was less dense and felt nicer than the polyester only fill that was on the shelf.

I followed the tutorial pretty much as written, so I don't have anything to add to her tutorial. I didn't have Velcro or want to buy any, so I did use ribbon to tie the tail on instead of the straps with Velcro.

The finished tail

"Look, Dad! I have a dinosaur tail!" - PGS