Wall Hoops Tutorial!

This week has been totally crazy. I appologize for not being able to update as much as I usually do.
I've been busy doing crafts with kids, singing with toddlers, and going to sleep at 9PM.

Today the girls and I beat the rain with bowling. We all had a blast.
I really love my job.

*****************************

Since I have been a bit absent this week, I thought I would post an easy (just 4 steps!!) and cheap decorating tutorial.
The Embroidery circles were under $3, all together.
The fabric was even less.

Wall Hoops, How-to.
Give your home some needed warmth for the coming colder months.

What you'll need:

• Fabric
• Embroidery Hoop(s)
• Scissors
  
• Hands
  

Let's get started!
1.) Grab your embroidery hoops and choose fabric that you like together.
2.) Unscrew the embroidery hoops, and sandwich the fabric of your choice between them.
3.) Once the fabric is pressed tightly and neatly in the embroidery hoop, it's time to cut off the excess.
Cut closely, but not too closely!

4.) Hang them up!

See you this weekend with the giveaway!!! <3>

I'm a Gawker.

I've been engulfed all morning after finding these websites which are right up my ally.

Craftgawker

A concentrated collection of handmade beauties which redirect you to where they are being sold.

Foodgawker

A concentrated collection of pictures of food, which redirects you to recipes and the like! ooo la la!

Strawberry Topped Cupcake

by Jane Alice

You'll thank me later.
(after you've wasted an hour of your day looking at all of this stuff)

My Sweet Tomato.

Jason and I are blessed to have two awesome upstairs neighbors who are fantastic organic heirloom gardeners.
They use up almost our whole backyard for it, and in return they surprise us with free vegetables to come home to.

This is what they gave us yesterday.Thank you Jeff and Jocelyn!!

I'm trying to think of a nice way to thank them.
What would you do?

In the craft department:
1.) My friend Marin is a grad student at the University of Wisconsin, and she asked me to make her a purse that will double up as a bookbag of sorts. We went fabric shopping the other day and things are looking prettyyy promising. yay!
2.) Within the past two days I've opened up two shops at
Coriandr (basically a British Etsy, but lets anyone sell regardless of location, unlike Folksy. Also, it's easier to find what you're looking for!)
and
Lollishops (a cottage chic and vintage online marketplace. Much more expensive than Esty and Coriandr which are 20 cents to add a new listing, where as lollishops is $2.00, but I figured it would be worth it because it's more concentrated.)

They're super sweet, check them out!

Cruelty Free Etsy

Oh hello, my lovely readers/friends!
Check this out!
I've joined a Cruelty Free Street Team on Etsy and they've featured me on their blog!
Cool, right?

Cruelty Free Etsyians
If you would like to search for more Cruelty Free shops on Etsy, you can search under the tag: CFE Team.



In the works!:

and keep your eyes open for the giveaway that will be available this week!

podcast

I'm reconsidering bringing back my podcast.
What are you thinking, kids?
Vote on the poll right over here. ---->


Please check out Madeline Ava, A fellow ukulele loving lady!
I think I might voice my love for her music so much that it's borderline creepy, but I don't even care.
Her music is so so lovely, I could just explode.

Trailmix Cooks.

This is an extremely simple recipe that is a variation of my Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies that I posted in late spring of this year.
My Trailmix cookie recipe is perfect for late summer when everyone is pushing in their last camping adventures and picnics with friends.
It's a hardy cookie, packed with oats, dried berries, nuts, and chocolate.
What could be better, right?

Peanut butter.
That's the answer.
And that's why I put it in these bad boys.

Trailmix Cookies!
Yum!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter (room temp)
  
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup light brown sugar (lightly packed!)
• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups quick oats
• 1 1/2 cup trailmix (I used Country Trailmix. The mostly peanut kind, because it's what I had in the house.)
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbl vanilla
• 1 tbl natural peanut butter
  
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbls milk (I used soy milk)
  

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*F.
2. Cream butter in mixing bowl. Add the rest of those ingredients and mix them up, baby!
3. Place the dough in the fridge to chill for about a half hour (or however long you can keep yourself from sneaking nibbles of cookie dough, in my case...)
   
4. Take a tablepoon to scoop out the dough, and help to shape it with another tablespoon.
5. Place the shaped cookie dough on baking sheets.
6. Bake for 11-13 mins (or more if your cookies are extra large!)
   
7. Take those babies out to cool (I always take them out a little early and allow them to keep cooking on the baking sheets for a bit.)
8. Enjoy!

Also, get ready for the giveaway!
It's coming up this week!!!

Paper Heart

Well, Jason and I just got back from another movie (I know, you're probably thinking, tell me something new.) and dinner with our friends Alec and Marin.

Alec and Marin = fun

Paper Heart = Cute

Etsy, Mike Seeger

1.) I've started my Etsy back up!

Fun!

2.) RIP Mike Seeger
Famed for his autoharp, banjo, guitar playing.
Best known for his contributions to the mid-twentieth century Folk Music Revival in The New Lost City Ramblers. Half-brother of Pete Seeger.

The New Lost City Ramblers



Lovely songs for summer afternoons:

1. "Madeline" -- The New Lost City Ramblers
2. "Hot Corn, Cold Corn" -- The New Lost City Ramblers
3. "Keep on The Sunny Side" -- The New Lost City Ramblers
   

Handmade Giveaway!!

I've decided to make a little something-something for my readers since I love you all so much.
I'll choose the winner at random after you've commented on your interest in the item in the giveaway post.
The item with be up within the next week.
Keep checking in!

Here's your hint:

Cat Painting/Dancing

Yesterday Jason and I spent the day canoeing and swimming on Devil's Lake with our lovely friend Marin.


It was on our way home when she told us about Cat Painting.



How to find out if your cat is artistically inclined.
I wonder if Willi is?

Stars and Swipes

1993

Acrylic on paper and wall

40 x 85cm

_______________________________________
Holy moly, I also discovered Cat Dancing.

"The question to ask is not "Will my cat dance with me?"
but rather "Will I dance with my cat?"

I'm in love.
My life will never be the same.

willi eavesdropping

So I've had 408 hits on my blog this week since I've put up that counter.
I'm pretty excited about it! I have a theory as to why that number isn't, oh, I don't know...408 every hour of the day, and I have come down to this conclusion:
I do not have adorable children yet.
One day, I too will have an amazing blog where I can document all of the outfits and toys that I make for my babes and everyone will love it, but I will love it most.
One day, my pretties!

Anyway, I do, however, have an adorable kitten who might be in need of companionship?

I think you might agree with me after watching this video.

Baking, knitting, sewing, eating, and loving as much as possible.

Jason and I go to the movies often. Once or twice a week. Excessive, I know, but we love it.
Today we went to see Julie & Julia, and it left me feeling inspired to

1. Write more.
2. Never go a day without wearing the pearls my grandmother gave me for my birthday this past spring.
   
3. To maybe throw in the towel on going back to school to be a teacher.

The main reason why I want to go back to school to become a teacher (besides wanting to enrich the lives of kids with my historical knowledge, which is otherwise useless except for maybe "did you know" dinner discussion) is for the security it would bring to my future family.

I felt as though this would do for a while, but I don't want to be a teacher for the rest of my life! The only thing I ever finding myself wanting to do is bake.
Baking, knitting, sewing, eating, and loving as much as possible.

I am a nanny right now.
That's my occupation. I'm a nanny with two bachelors degrees that I cannot use.
I'm taking this year off of school to pay off my loans as much as possible so I can go back to school to become more in debt.
So now I'm left asking myself three crucial questions:

1. Why shouldn't I own a bakery like I really want to?
2. Why shouldn't I do what I love?
3. Why did I feel undeserving of this, and like I could not own a successful business?
   

Whatever. I'm good at baking. I love making up my own recipes and I love making people happily chubby. Why shouldn't I do what I love?
So now I'm ending this ranting blog post with my fourth and final question.
4. Why can't cupcakes suffice?

Photo originally posted on newsday.com

Mini Deep Dish Pizza

I love tiny food.
It's fun to think up, fun to make, and fun to eat.
Passing through Chicago (perhaps a few times too many) inspired this one.
Meet my newest tiny recipe: Mini Deep Dish Pizza!
Shut your mouth, you say? Oh no, I will not!


Pizza Dough Recipe my great grandmother would probably kill me for:

1. 3 cups flour
2. 2 1/2 table spoons yeast (or 1 package)
3. 1 tsp salt
   
4. 1 tsp garlic powder
5. 1/2 crushed red pepper
6. 1/2 chilli powder
   
7. 1/4 cup warm water, to put the yeast into
8. an additional 1 cup of water to add to the dry mixture

Directions:

1. Add yeast to 1/4 cup warm water, allow to sit for 5 mins.
2. While you're waiting on the yeast, mix the dry ingredients together.
3. Make well in dry ingredients and add the 1/4 cup water with yeast added, then an additional cup of water.
4. Knead, then let sit for at least an hour in a warm place. I always put a towel over my rising dough for added moisture.
5. Knead again, and you're ready to rumble.

Mini Deep Dish Pizza Recipe (with pictures):

1. Preheat oven to 400*F,
   
2. Grease a large muffin tin with olive oil.
3. Divide dough and roll out each section individually for each tiny pizza. Place each tiny pizza crust into where a muffin or cupcake would usually go within the tin.
4. Pour your sauce of choice into each mini pizza. (Jason usually chooses pesto or alfredo sauce for pizza sauce, so he made some as his contribution to the meal!) I put about a serving spoons amount in each mini pizza.
5. Chop up your veggies (onions, mushrooms, and spinach! YUM!!)
6. Add healthy portions in for the toppings to fill those bad boys right up. I chose to put my veggies in first to get as much healthy food in as possible.
7. Sprinkle cheese on top of your pizza (Again, untraditional, but I'm pushing the veggies first here!!!) I used mozzarella and feta.
8. Bake for 15-20 mins.
   
9. Remove from oven.
10. Enjoy!

Sew Blessed.

heartxenocide: the blessedly wonderful thing about both of us is that our hearts are so big
Amen, Jem.

Sneak Preview:

Baby Girl Sundress, 2T

Buttons

Currently Knitting: Pea Pod Cardigan
Currently Hearing: "Love" -- John Lennon
Currently Loving: You.

Also, I just put a hit counter on my blog yesterday and there have been 113 hits since.
I'd say that's pretty good for a blog that I thought no one ever read!
Thanks for visiting!

Mixing.

My mom gave me some fantastic mixing bowls while I was in Pennsylvania this past weekend.
The colors will surely add some welcomed vibrancy to my kitchen cabinets.

Double Berry Tart Aftermath.

Also, Willi's new favorite hiding spot.

"You're in love again" -- Jacob Borshard

Fabric Rose and Peony Hairpieces How-to.

Peonies are my favorite type of flower.
You can only imagine how excited I was when I found this.
Guess what I'm planning on doing this week?

Fabric Rose and Peony Hairpieces How-to
at Martha Stewart Weddings.

Photo from marthastewartweddings.com

Love it?

You better believe it.