Trouble Onesie

Here is my adorable nephew in his onesie that I made him.  He does look like trouble, doesn't he?

Homemade Fortune Cookies

Valentine's Day crafts and gifts were very simple this year.  We bought some small whack-a-pack Valentine balloons and made a custom label that said, "My Heart Pops For You!"  Of course, I forgot to take a picture.  We did manage a little homemade project of fortune cookie making, thanks to a recipe my 3rd grader brought home from school.

I added the chocolate drizzle using melted almond bark and a squeeze bottle.

Oh, if only this was TRUE!

Homemade Fortune Cookies:

4 TB softened butter

1/3 cup sugar

2 egg whites

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup water

fortunes, cut and ready to go

Preheat oven to 375.  Use a well greased baking sheet or a silicone mat.  In a large bowl, mix the butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add egg whites, salt, and vanilla.  Beat until smooth.  Stir in flour and water until combined and smooth.  With spoon, scoop out an even spoonful of batter and carefully pour onto baking sheet.  Use the back of spoon to form a circle about 3 inches in diameter (I made mine a little bigger).  The batter should be thin, almost transparent.  Do not pour more than 5 on a baking sheet at a time.  You will have to work quickly to shape the cookies before they harden.  Bake for 6-7 minutes, until edges are golden brown.  Pull out of oven, place paper fortune on one half of cookie.  Fold over so the cookie is in the shape of a semi-circle.  Gently fold over again, so the cookie can stand up on the open edges (see pictures).  Let cool.  Cookie will harden slightly as it cools.  Drizzle with chocolate, yum!

Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year have both come and gone, but maybe there is another holiday you can celebrate by making these simple, easy cookies.  You can customize a message inside to say anything!  My boys would love these with some fun birthday wishes or even some funny jokes inside.

Letterpress and Football

 After being sick with a nasty cold for almost the entire month of January, and the first half of February playing catch up because I was sick for so long....I am finally getting around to updating my blog.  As you can imagine, there has not been a whole lot of creating going on, but I was able to squeeze in a few small things:

I got a letterpress machine (the Epic 6) and I love it.  I've only had time to pull it out twice, but I'm hoping to play with it more soon.  I'll post pictures of any cute letterpress I create.  My first time I made these cute but basic "congrats" cards on silver paper using black ink.

We did manage to have some family friends over and celebrate the Super Bowl as well.  Nacho bar and football strawberries (compliments of my husband's new job).  I did not make those football berries, but they look like they would be fun to try!

Backyard: Part 2

Between Christmas vacations and rainstorms, we haven't moved along on the back yard as fast as we would have liked, but we are slowly getting there.

We added a baseboard railing along the bottom of the fence.  You place the pickets on top of this railing and it gives you an extra 12 inches of height.  Our friends did it on their fence and we loved the look of it.  We are copy cats with no shame.

Retaining wall and part of stairs.

Stairs will come down here.

Doug has been working hard, I love that he is so handy and wants to build it himself.

Next step is the upper railings and the pickets!

Double Trouble

My friend is having twins next month! Couldn't resist making these for her baby shower.

I had one extra baby onesie, so this one is going to my new nephew.  My boys had a similar shirt when they were little.

Backyard Beginnings

We have started the process of fencing in our rather challenging backyard.  Here's some before shots.

Hired some great guys to come help level things out.  It would have taken Doug weeks by hand.  They were done in 3 hours.

After

Stairs going here.

And now the fence posts are up!  We'll continue with the rest after Christmas, can't wait!

Fleece Blanets with Binding

I didn't do a lot of handmade Christmas gifts this year, but I did manage to squeeze in these great blankets.  The baseball one is for my new nephew and the blue one is for Austin's autism preschool teacher.  She is always talking about how each child with autism is a lock and if you can find the right "key" they will begin to open up and be able to live more fully in the world around them.  I saw this key fleece fabric and knew it would be perfect for her.

I saw this tutorial HERE and was blown away by such a simple and great idea.  Just take a piece of double printed fleece and sew a fabric binding around the edge!  I rounded the corners and used fabric that I cut on the bias so it was stretchy.  My strips were 3 and 3/4 inches I believe.  Reminder to self:  next time 3.5 inch strips would probably be perfect.  Rounding the corners and making my bias tape probably took about an hour.  Sewing the binding on one side and hand stitching the other side probably took around 4.5 hours.  I love to hand stitch the binding on the back because it gives me an excuse to sit down and watch a movie or two.  They are really fun to make and much faster than a full pieced quilt, give it a try!