#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!