Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Pocket Pixies
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Family Name Signs
Monday, December 26, 2011
Our Stockings! DIY Christmas Stockings
Tis the season to be frothy!
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Holiday madness!
My husband is sewing?!?! My home is a wreck.
However:
-pocket pixies are almost done
-the girls have brand new homemade stockings *with their names on them!
-the PVC fort is almost fully constructed
-we are sipping a lovely malbec at 3:00pm lol
We are brimming with excitement and biting our nails to finish everything up. Hand made Christmas is making me one happy/crafty/tired momma!
Are you giving any handmade gifts this year? If so, what?
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Just a little look back
Monday, December 12, 2011
Up cycled Cocoa Box To Stamp Storage
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Mudroom under $100 - part 2: A recycled kitchen cabinet turned mudroom storage hutch
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Mudroom under $100 - part 1: A shoe rack consolidation
Sunday, December 4, 2011
DIY Christmas Ornaments with Polymer Clay
Gather your supplies:
Cookie Cutters (I used star shaped, of course!)
Polymer clay that can be baked to set (I used white)
Stamps (Pictured in the jar are one of my mini font sets)
Versa Craft Ink Pad (maybe other inks would work?!)
Wax Paper
Ribbon (not pictured)
Skewer or tooth pick (not pictured)
Rolling pin or wine bottle (lol not pictured)
I was totally inspired by this blog: Jessica Jane Handmade
But I couldn't make a bird shape to save my life! So, here's my take on it.
The clay that I purchased had to be baked at 275 degrees so I pre-heated the oven. Y'all know I am an impatient crafter! I wanted to just pop these babies in as I made them so I'd be too busy making more to be pacing and opening the oven to check on them every 5 seconds!
1. Roll a chunk of clay into a ball.
2. Plop clay ball on wax paper sheet, and place another sheet of wax paper on top. Kinda like making a pie crust!
3. Cut out your shape with cookie cutter. I made some round ones too by using the top of a cup and mini mug!
4. Ink your stamps and stamp your letters/words into the clay. You might want to practice a bit on scrap paper first.
5. Use your skewer or tooth pick to poke a hole in the top.
6. Bake according to clay package directions. I baked them on the wax paper on a cookie sheet. There was some smoke. So I'd be sure to have the hood vent/fan on and maybe even a window open.
7. After ornaments are cooked poke some ribbon through the hold and hang on the tree!
Finished Products:
If you make some of these, please share photos!! I'd love to see them.
Have you made any Christmas ornaments this year? If so what is your favorite?
We got our tree up!
I am by no means a Scrooge or a Grinch. But I have never been into the whole holiday music and get the tree up as fast as you can kinda deal. Our little man loves lights! We have been walking him down the Christmas light aisle at Target and Fred Meyer for weeks now. He gets so excited that he starts shaking. We debated about real tree or artificial tree, weighing the pros and cons of both... Smell and pine needles, sap and water, what will the cat climb up/eat/mess with and what would Preston do with one or the other?! I don't know that there was ever a final decision made, but I found myself in Target (humming along to the holiday tunes!) on the Christmas light aisle with lil P staring at an artificial tree that stood "6 feet" tall and only cost $20. It was in the cart in a matter of seconds and we were checking out before I could even say Christmas spirit!
I got home and assembled the tree. Let's just say we got what we paid for. It was not 6' tall by any stretch of the imagination. It looked nice, but the dog/cat/baby could pull the thing down in the blink of an eye, it was so light. Feeling defeated we disassembled the tree and packed it back into its box.
While running errands we decided to swing by my favorite Goodwill. There in the home goods section stood the sturdiest, burliest, fullest artificial tree! For only...wait for it... $25!!! I'm not really sure how we fit it into the little car, but my husband makes miracles happen! We had white lights from the real tree we had a couple years ago. But hardly and ornaments. Since I'm a DIY gal, I'm on the search for some inspiration. I have been scavenging pinterest and the www for ideas. I have come up with some great ones so stay tuned for tutorials :)
The Danners are one happy crew, $25 heavy duty tree and Preston gets his lights!
Monday, November 28, 2011
Journey on a pie crust... Gluten free pumpkin fluff mini pies!
Thursday, November 24, 2011
GF Pastry Flour Mix -for gluten free baked goods
GF Pastry Flour Mix:
2 C brown rice flour
2/3 C potato starch (kinda hard to find, but you can buy it on Amazon)
1/3 C tapioca flour
Mix them in a jar and shake, shake, shake!!!
I use all Bob's Red Mill flours, they're here in Portland :)
Gluten is a binding agent, it is what holds baked goods together when made with wheat (and white) flour. In gluten free baking, there is no binding agent- the gluten. So we use xanthan gum. Each recipe will call for a different amount since we want certain baked good to be tighter than others. I stay clear of the all purpose gluten free flours that have xanthan gum already in them. The ones I have tried have tasted funny and I never really know what I am going to get for a final product. This mix is tried and true! I have used this to adapt many recipes and test out about how much xanthan gum to use.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
DIY A Fall Wreath- Tutorial
Friday, November 11, 2011
DIY Weekly dry erase meal planner board and broken computer
Friday, October 14, 2011
We love you
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Gluten free pumpkin scones
So last year I found a Starbucks pumpkin scone recipe online and adapted it to be gluten free. YES! You heard, um , read that correctly- proceeding is a recipe for the gluten free version of Starbucks pumpkin scone recipe! I adapted this recipe from a gluten full one and I'm feeling pretty proud about it! ;)
1.5 C Basic gluten free pastry flour mix
1/2 C gluten free oat flour (I make mine from GF oats in a coffee grinder sometimes)
1/4 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cloves
7 TBS sugar
1 TBS baking powder
Mix well.
Cut in 6 TBS butter or shortening (I use spectrum palm oil shortening)
Mix it into your dry ingredients until it is crumbly with no huge chunks. Set aside.
In a separate bowl mix:
1/2 C (heaping) canned pumpkin
1/2 C milk (I use rice milk)
1 egg (or equivalent replacer)
Whisk wet ingredients together then mix them with your dry ingredients. Pour into a greased 9" round cake pan and bake for 17 minutes at 350 degrees.
When finished, take the round pan out of the oven and cut your scones into triangles then place them on a greased cookie sheet and bake them the rest of the way for 8-10 minutes (or until done) at 450 degrees. ( I like to eat scones that actually look like scones!)
**My little twist is to drizzle melted white chocolate on top and place a pecan half in the center when they have finished baking and are cooled. Or melt white chocolate and add in a pinch or nutmeg and cinnamon!
The picture shows this, but we are out of pecans this go round. They're still so delicious. And gluten free is suddenly not hard anymore :)
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Supplies run
So we made a trip to the farmers market, got bundles of fresh fall produce and a supplies run to the rebuilding center in nopo.
Look at my treasures for today! The only difficulties with shopping are 1. How do I haul this to the register? 2. How do I haul this to my car? 3. Will this even fit in my car? 4. Where will I store this in my house/garage?
So, here you're looking at a couple new jewelry boxes and tons of coasters! Stocking up for the holidays! What would you like to see in my shop?
Etsy.com/shop/besweetlyinspired