Tag Archives: easy

Polymer Clay Hair Accessories

Polymer Clay Heart Hair Accessory DIYFor Valentine’s Day I like to add a little something-something to my outfits. This year, I thought a hair accessory would be just the thing.

For this project, you’ll need polymer clay, bobby pins and a tiny bit of cloth. I used leather, but felt will work well too.

I had a little extra polymer clay left over from my For the Makers project. So I thought hey, why not add a little food coloring to it?! This dummie got red food coloring all over her hands and went around with pink hands for two days. Make sure if you decide to color the clay with food coloring, use gloves! Or just buy pink clay. So much easier and so much less embarrassing.

Polymer Clay HeartsI fashioned the clay into hearts. Then, to bake the clay, I placed the hearts on a cookie sheet.  Bake according to the manufacturer’s directions. After the clay cooled, I broke out my trusty hot glue gun, cut a few pieces of leather, secured the bobby pin between the leather and glued it to the clay.

Back of Clay Heart Hair AccessoriesWhere’s the easy button? ‘Cuz this project was eeeeeezzzzzz.

love,
melanie

 

Knitted Baby Blanket

Knitted baby blanketWe see too much perfect on the Internet. It’s all about being pinnable and having these amazingly beautiful and totally unrealistic lives. So, I’m going to tell ya’ll the story of how this cape came to be. It’s an ugly story with a pretty cute ending.

I was sitting in my office during my lunch break with the lights off. (It helps me relax.) I was knitting and listening to my Broadway station on Pandora. You know, reveling in my nerdiness. In an effort to change one of the songs (I just cannot bring myself to like Cats), I spilled black cherry tea on a baby blanket I was creating for a friend. It was one of those accidents that happen in slow motion. I let out a long “Noooooooo!!!” and maybe some cussing. I tried to dab out the stain, but there was no saving it. Or so I thought.

Thank God that I was taught as a kid that when you fall, just make it part of the dance. Really though, there are many home videos of me dancing in my childhood living room, falling and making it a killer addition to the dance. My Ninja Turtle slippers also added a touch of elegance, if I do say so myself.

So instead of being bummed about the stain in the baby blanket, I thought hey, let’s make lemons into lemonade. Or tea into tea dye. I don’t think that metaphor worked. But what I’m trying to say is… I tea dyed the blanket!

knit baby blanket detailThen I washed it and all the tea came out. Whomp. Whomp. What can I say, it all comes out in the wash. Regardless, I think it turned out pretty damn cute.

What disaster projects have you turned around? Let me know in the comments!

love,
melanie

Gluten-Free Ginger Snap Cookies

Gluten-Free Ginger SnapsI don’t know why I decided to make ginger snaps to celebrate the Super Bowl. A football is brown and these cookies are brown? These cookies are hearty like our football player friends? Regardless of my reasoning, the ginger snaps were a hit and a snap to make. Get it? A snap?! Onward to the cookies!

Gluten-Free Ginger Snap Ingredients (will make approximately 36 cookies)

  • 1 bag Jules Gluten Free™ Graham Cracker/Gingersnap Mix (includes 1 bag of brown sugar & one bag of GF flour ingredients)
  • 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
  • 3/4 cup coconut oil
  • 1/4 cup molasses
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Glaze Ingredients

  • 2 cups of powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp of vanilla extract
  • 2 tbsp of milk
  • 2 dashes of pumpkin pie spice
  • An orange for zesting (optional)

gluten-free cookies and milkBeat the sugar and coconut oil together until creamy. Next, mix in the molasses and vanilla extract. Slowly add the flour and the pumpkin pie spice until fully incorporated. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for approximately 30 minutes or until cold.

While the dough is chillin’ (straight chillin’) preheat the oven to 325 degrees and prepare the glaze. To create the glaze beat together all the glaze ingredients except for the orange zest.

When the dough is cool, roll the cookies into quarter-size balls and smush down on a buttered cookie sheet with a fork. Bake for 20 minutes. Cool snaps on a cookie rack and glaze. Get crazy and zest a little orange on top. You deserve it.

love,
melanie

Super-Easy Snow Cream

snow cream recipe  I was told from some old country folk that I couldn’t eat snow cream from the first snow of the season or from yellow snow (ha!), but the second snow was fair game. Yellow snow is never fair game. This week we had the second snow! Since I had never tried it, ya’ll know good and well that I was determined to make some snow cream.

how to make snow creamThere are a million different variations of snow cream. I stuck with the easiest I found and the one with the ingredients I had on hand. There is no way I’m driving in the snow to the store for extra ingredients.

Here’s how I made super-easy snow cream:

Ingredients:

  • One gallon of fresh snow
  • 1 cup of sugar
  • 2 cups of milk
  • 3 tablespoons of vanilla (I like mine very vanilla.)

When it begins to snow, set out a gallon bucket. When the bucket is full bring it inside, add the sugar, milk and vanilla. I mixed mine with a stand mixer and it was so much easier to bring the ingredients together. That’s all there is to it!

a close up of snow creamNote: I want you all to know that yes, I considered the implications of using real snow that fell from the sky. I know all about acid rain and chemicals and in no way am I claiming that this snow cream is organic or good for you or even safe. I’m not feeding this to children or anyone against their will. We all know what’s in snow cream and that’s that. Eat at your own risk.

Have you ever had snow cream? I want to hear about it in the comments!

love and snow!
melanie

Nuts About You: Valentine’s Day Recipe and Free Printable

Nuts about you

I secretly love Valentine’s Day. I know it’s not cool to like the lovey-dovey holiday, but George and I had our first date on Valentine’s Day and I can’t help but be nostalgic about it. This year instead of the heart-shaped cookies, candy and cakes, I wanted to do something a bit different.  Who comes to the rescue once again? Our beloved friend, nuts!

Ingredients:

  • 1 tbsp coconut oil
  • 1/2 cup of walnuts
  • 1/2 cup of pecans
  • 1/2 cup of cashews
  • 1/2 cup of dark chocolate chips
  • Sea salt for sprinkling

Melt the coconut oil in a skillet over low heat. Throw in the nuts and toast until slightly brown. Remove from heat and spread nuts on a cookie sheet lined in wax paper. Melt chocolate in a double boiler or impromptu double boiler (a larger pot over a slightly smaller pot 1/4 full of water.) Stir chocolate constantly and when smooth drizzle over nuts. Sprinkle with sea salt. Chill nuts in fridge until chocolate sets.

Chocolate covered nuts

To make the bags, I took a Ziplock bag and cut off the resealable edge. Then, I added the nuts. To make the printable, I drew a little peanut cartoon (then George told me it sucked and re-drew it) and scanned it in Photoshop. But you don’t have to do that because I created a downloadable one for you right here! Just click on it for the full image!

Nuts about you printable

Finally, I cut out the image, punched a hole and tied it to the bag. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. Make them for anyone and everyone you are nuts about!

love,
melanie

 

 

 

Bacon-Wrapped Pork Chops

Pork Chops I’m a grown woman and I have irrational fears of the broiler. It’s going to set the house on fire! It gets too hot! If a recipe calls for using the broiler, I won’t use it. I never said I was brave, people. But this weekend I conquered my fear of the boiler and somehow managed to not set the trailer ablaze.

Bacon-wrapped anything is a good idea, but bacon-wrapped pork chops were extra delightful. It’s pork wrapped in pork. You can’t get much better than that. By baking these chops, I was able to avoid the dried out quality of pan fried pork chops. And I stuck it to the broiler.

Bacon Wrapped Pork ChopsIngredients
Bacon (pieces depend on the size of ya chops!)
Pork chops
Salt and pepper

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Wrap bacon around pork chops. Cook in the oven for 30 minutes. Then crank up that broiler and broil those babies for 5 minutes or until bacon is crispy.

That’s bringing home the bacon if I’ve ever seen it. What are your irrational kitchen fears? Let me know in the comments!

love,
melanie

DIY Polymer Clay Bowl and a For the Makers Review

Polymer Clay BowlFor Christmas my sister gave me a subscription to the craft subscription service, For the Makers. I’m so jealous of my sister’s ability to give just the right gift. Last week, I got my first box of craft projects in the mail. Each box contains four small crafts.

Here’s the pros and cons of the service.
Pro:

  • All crafts are simple and small. Great for people that don’t have much space (like moi!).
  • No craft is overly time-consuming. Most will take under an hour.
  • Crafts come four to a box, so there is plenty of crafting to be done.
  • Crafts could be made as directed or used in different ways.
  • A box arrives at your doorstep each month, so there is no excuse not to make things!

Polymer clay bowl DIYCon:

  • The materials were of fairly high quality, but my large bead for a statement necklace arrived with a crack in it. Bummer.
  • The service is a bit pricey ($29) per box.
  • You have to visit their website for the DIY directions.
  • Although they make an effort to include things like a needle, not all materials are included in the box. You still may need things like rolling pin or a sewing machine to make projects look more professional.

The first project I tried out of the box was a polymer clay bowl. I used the directions found here. It turned out fairly cute and I think I’ll put it on my desk at work for paperclips and little miscellaneous objects.

Overall, I love this service as a gift. It’s novel, it’s easy and it arrives right at my doorstep. Have you ever tried a craft subscription service? Let me know in the comments!

love,
melanie

 

Super Easy, Gluten-Free, Dark Chocolate Peanut M&M Cookies

Gluten-free cookiesPeanut M&Ms are my favorite guilty pleasure. I’m all about the health food, but the one thing I can’t resist is peanut M&Ms. And the dark chocolate peanut M&Ms, don’t even get me started on how delightful they are. My last meal would definitely include a cereal bowl full of dark chocolate M&Ms.

So, when my friend Gabby got me a ton of Jules Gluten-Free mixes for Christmas, I knew I had to incorporate M&Ms. It was a no-brainer. I worked from the recipe on this box of cookie mix, but altered it a bit.

Peanut M&M cookies, gluten-free

Ingredients:
1/2 box of Jules Gluten-Free Cookie Mix
4 tbsp of room temperature butter
4 tbsp of room temperature coconut oil
1 egg
Enough M&Ms to fill your heart with joy
Sea Salt for sprinkling

Directions:
Cream together butter and shortening in a mixing bowl. Add in 1/4 of the cookie mix. Beat until light and fluffy. Add egg, then beat until incorporated. Add other 1/4 of mix and beat until there are no lumps. Fold in M&Ms. (I used both dark chocolate peanut M&Ms and dark chocolate regular M&Ms. I beat the peanut M&Ms with a wooden spoon first. It was very satisfying.) Cover dough and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Roll dough into quarter-size balls and put on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Sprinkle with sea salt. Bake in a 350 degree oven for approximately 10 minutes. These cookies aren’t the prettiest, but they sure do taste good.

Dunk those cookies in some coffee! Get wild!

love,
melanie

 

 

Handmade Holiday Challenge: Look-alike American Apparel Circle Scarf

Handmade Circle ScarfThis is the last of my Handmade Holiday Challenge items. I made one more scarf, but I knitted it and it turned out a bit wonky. Don’t craft and drink wine, ya’ll. It wasn’t really “blog worthy.”

But I am proud of this circle scarf I made for my sister. At Thanksgiving, she said something about wanting a circle scarf from American Apparel like the one I have. The scarf is super basic and I knew that I could make it for cheaper than the $28.00 American Apparel version.

I purchased two yards of jersey knit fabric at Hobby Lobby. The best thing about working with jersey knit is that you don’t have to finish the ends. The fabric just sort of rolls at the ends. The worst thing with working with jersey knit is trying to sew the ends together. I suggest using a zig-zag stitch (if you don’t have a serger) and testing on your fabric first. I had to take out my stitches more than one because the fabric puckered. Here’s more tips on sewing on jersey knit. I used those when creating my scarf.

For this project I only had to sew the short ends of the fabric together (thank god) to create this scarf. I actually think I like this one more than my American Apparel scarf. I’ll be making one for myself soon.

How did your presents turn out this year? Let me know in the comments!

love,
melanie

A Knitted Baby Cape!

Baby Cape CloseupThis may have been my first knitting project, but it is safe to say I am addicted. I don’t always stick with projects or crafts. Learning is the best part! But knitting really has me hooked. (Get it?!) I got a little ambitious and decided that I wanted to make something for my niece’s 2nd birthday.

I’m no expert and I still have a lot to learn. I used one skein of yarn (111 yards) in Yarn Bee’s “super bulky” eggnog color yarn. I cast on for 55 stitches using size 13 needles. I then just knitted using a basic stitch until almost all the yarn was gone. Then I finished it up using this technique.  Finally, I added a button and a loop to close the cape.

Knitted baby capeI’m so proud of how it turned out. I can’t wait to see pictures of my niece wearing it this winter. She’s a cutie.

Do you all knit? I want to see your projects in the comments!

love,
melanie