Ninja Turtle pancakes

We decided to make Raphael pancakes this morning.  I wanted to try it out with one turtle before I committed to mixing all the colors.  Next time, we will have all the turtles! :) 

Raphael: 

I used chocolate chips for the eyes and food coloring in the batter for the mask and face. 

Turtle Power! 

Rainbow Dash Pancakes

This morning I decided to try something a little more difficult and make Rainbow Dash pancakes.  I originally wanted to make one large pancake, but with all the colors I had to make multiple and assemble it.  It still turned out great, and I am very pleased.  The most important critic was absolutely tickled, and that's what matters! 

I made several bowls of different colored batter and sketched Rainbow Dash in parts (head and body, mane, tail, eye, and legs) on the griddle with a spoon.  I didn't use any special pancake squirt bottles or decorating kits, so anyone can do it! 

Happy creating! 

Organized junk drawer

I tackled one of our junk drawers a few weeks ago.  Yes, that was plural, we have two.   One drawer is mostly manuals to electronics, random tools, and odds and ends.  This one was craft supplies.  The drawer was a huge unorganized mess with everything mixed together.  You could reach in looking for a pen and come out with a safety pin stuck to your finger.    

Now, it is organized and kid friendly.  I have waited to see if the kids would maintain it, and they have!  I used plastic bin organizers to keep everything sorted. 

Yes, there are actually sharpies in the drawer the kids use.. I may be asking for it, but they don't take markers or crayons without asking.  It hasn't been an issue yet, but if so, I'll have a reason to blog about removing sharpie off random things.. 

Happy Organizing!

Mango Salsa

If you are looking for a refreshing and addictive salsa, this is the salsa for you.  Mango salsa has a sweetness with just the right kick to it.  This is by far my favorite salsa to make and eat.  It's not a traditional salsa because it does have mango, but so delicious.  

Mango Salsa

1 mango (peeled, seeded, and diced)

5 tomatoes (diced, I usually cut in different sizes for some chunky bits) 

1/4 cup red onion (diced) 

1/4 cup sweet onion (diced) 

1/2 cup fresh cilantro (chopped) 

3 cloves garlic (minced) 

3 tablespoons fresh lime juice 

1 teaspoon salt 

1 jalepeno seeded and diced (optional) 

Add all ingredients in a large bowl and mix thoroughly together.  Refrigerate for at least an hour to blend all the flavors together.  It only gets better the longer it sits!  :) 

 

Happy Dipping!  

Delicious Guacamole

I am a huge guacamole fan, and it's one of my favorites if it's made fresh.  The hardest part is making it the same day I am craving it.  Avacadoes have that short sweet spot of readiness.  Most stores sell them green and hard, and you have to wait for them to ripen.  I always seem to find some ripe and ready for eating if I look hard enough through them.  ;)

I found a recipe on all-recipes a while back and have been using it since, with a few modifications of my own.  

This recipe is very forgiving except for the limes.  Do not add extra lime juice without tasting it first.  I once added too much, and it was very tart.  If you do add too much you can try to counter by adding more avacado.  If you're like me and don't have extra avacado lying around, letting it settle overnight in the fridge can calm the tart flavor quite a bit.

I usually double this because we love guacamole and leftovers.

Here is how I make guacamole.  

Guacamole:

4 avacados

2 tomatoes (diced) 

1/2 cup sweet onion (diced)

1 lime (juiced)

1 teaspoon minced garlic 

1 teaspoon salt

3 1/2 tablespoons fresh cilantro (chopped)

Peel, pit, and mash avacado in a bowl.  How much you mash depends on your preference for smooth or chunky.  Add remaining ingredients and hand mix together.   Refrigerate for at least an hour for flavors to blend.  

It is even better the next day!   ;)

Happy preparing!

Guacamole and Mango salsa

We all have those things we do when feeling sad or stressed.  Mine is baking and cooking.  Usually it's cookies for me, but today I made guacamole and mango salsa.  

I will post the recipes for each here soon, because they are amazing!  The downside is, I can't stop eating them once I start. 

Recipes to come! 

Happy Eating! 

Fiona's 3rd birthday cake

Fiona was a huge My Little Pony fan on her third birthday.  What cake to make her was a very easy decision.  We decided to make her a cake of her favorite pony Rainbow Dash.  The cake inside was even rainbow colored.

We actually struggled quite a bit and were disappointed at first.  We were decorating this on little sleep, and grew very frustrated with the icing and shaping.  Looking back now and seeing how much Fiona loved it, I am happy and very proud of it.   Here are her cake pictures. 

We also made rainbow jello cups for guests. 

 

It was a great birthday, and she had a blast!  

Happy Baking!

Carter's 1st birthday cake

I just discovered that I never posted pictures of Carter's first birthday cake and smash cake.  We decided to do a racetrack in the shape of a one, and a tire for his smash cake.  Here are the pics.

I had originally planned on cutting the center of the tire cake out, but it kept collapsing on me when I tried.  I think it looks better this way anyway.  ;). The birthday boy enjoyed his cakes, and that's all that really mattered!  

Happy Baking!

Breakfast Fun

I like to mix things up and experiment with breakfast.   The kids always seem to enjoy the spin on breakfast.  I never remember to post what we make, so here are a few of our different meals lately.

Watermelon and Snails 

Tropical scene 

Owl pancakes

Lion

Elmo

Calliou 

Strawberries and Grapes

Mickey meatloaf (not quite a breakfast food, but hey!) 

Dinosaur banana muffins 

Often Fiona will tell me an animal or food that she wants and I will try to incorporate it into breakfast.  This happened with the watermelon pancakes this morning. 

Happy Cooking! 

Rainbow Dash Hooded Blanket

I decided I wanted to make the kids soft hooded blankets with their favorite characters for a Christmas gift.  The first one I have completed is Rainbow Dash.   I had to model in a few of the pictures because my daughter doesn't know about it yet.  ;)

                                                         

The back:

The Side:

It is even big enough for me to enjoy.

I can't wait to see what she thinks.  Now to begin a Ninja Turtle hooded blanket!

Happy Sewing!

Eggless Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies

Yesterday I wanted to make the wonderful three ingredient peanut butter cookies and realized I was out of eggs.  So I improvised, added a lot more ingredients, and made yummy chocolate chip peanut butter cookies.  Wow, that's a mouthful!




Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 tablespoons 2% milk (I use 2%, but I have heard others work as well)
1 cup peanut butter
1 3/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips (add more if you like extra)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream together butter, both sugars, vanilla, and milk.  Stir in peanut butter.  Add flour and baking soda and mix well.  Add chocolate chips.
I line a baking sheet with parchment paper and drop small clumps of dough about two inches apart on it.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.  Keep an eye on the cookies and take them out when they start to turn golden on the edges.  If you cook them longer, they will be a crunchier cookie.  15 minutes in my oven makes them with a crunchy outside and chewy inside.

Enjoy!
Happy Baking!

Fiona's 2nd Birthday

Wave and I decided to make Fiona's birthday cake this year for her 2nd birthday. She has become fascinated with butterflies recently, so we wanted to incorporate them into the cake.







We baked two rectangular cakes and used one for the bottom blue layer. With the second, we carefully cut out a butterfly shape and laid it on the first with icing in between the two.

We wanted the colors on the butterfly to be realistic. We mixed edible color gel in a glass with a little vodka and painted all the color on the cake. The vodka evaporates off the cake leaving vibrant color behind.
For the outline of the butterfly we mixed food coloring with icing until we got the color we wanted. We also used icing for the white dots on the wings.
We used black and white candles with polka dots for the butterfly antenna. This worked perfect since she turned two! When we lit the candles, the cake really looked beautiful!




This was our first attempt at making and decorating a cake like this. I think we are both used to making typical dessert cakes. Needless to say, we are very proud of ourselves! I can't wait to make more cakes in the future. :)

Toddler Bed

**edit** this was supposed to be posted in January, but never posted for some reason**

We had some big changes in our household last weekend. Friday we went and bought Fiona a toddler bed. We weren't sure how she would adjust but she did great! It is cute because she gets up in the morning and plays in her room until we come and get her. The past few times she wanted to continue playing and not leave the room.

We are so proud of our little girl! :)

Making A Sweatshirt Smaller

I have so many sweatshirts in my closet that are too big, but I don't have the heart to throw them out.  So I experimented today with making one smaller.  I actually used one of my husbands old sweatshirts that he gave me a while back.  ;)

This will also work with long sleeve shirts as well.
 All you need is an old sweatshirt that's too big, scissors, sewing pins, and a sewing machine.

 Lay out the sweatshirt inside out and line up all the seams.  Starting at the bottom, cut a little off the sides going up to the armpit, but be sure to leave a little room to sew so it's not too tight when you put it on.  I cut mine going in a little in the waist to flatter my shape more.  If the sweatshirt is too big in the arms, cut going up through the armpits to the end of the sleeves.  Remember to keep the curve of the sweatshirt through the armpit.  The above is my sweatshirt cut from the bottom to the end of the sleeves.

Once you have the sweatshirt cut, you can pin it in place and sew it back together.  Once it is sewn together, pull it right side out and you're done! 
(In my first attempt, the arms and shoulders were still to big since it was a mens sweatshirt.  I went back and sewed the arms a little smaller and then cut off the excess.)

Now for Before and Afters!

                   Before:

                     After:

So much better!!  Happy Sewing!

Felt Play Wall

Felt was on sale this week so I stocked up on lots of colors and created Fiona a felt play wall.   

To create this all you need is one big piece of felt for the background and lots of other colors to make shapes and letters.

To attach the felt to the wall, I didn't want to nail into the wall so I bought Command strips.  I stapled the felt to the strips and then attached to the wall.  These are nice because they don't damage the paint, but are durable.  If you don't mind holes, you could attach the felt to canvas or in a frame and hang on the wall instead.

Cut out all the shapes, letters, and numbers that you wish and attach!  Felt sticks to felt easily so there's no need to velcro. Just stick them on.

I think this will be fun to decorate for different seasons also, just alternate the shapes out!  =)

Happy Felting!

 

DIY Table Centerpiece

If you have a glass vase lying around you can make your own table centerpiece.  I love this because it can be as simple or elaborate as you wish. 

I bought the vase and fake flowers for a total of $2 and used leftover garland from the tree to create ours. 

The great thing with a glass vase is you can change it up for each holiday or occasion.  =)  So many possibilities! 

Happy Creating! 

T-Shirt Recon: Tie Front

I have so many t-shirts in my closet that are baggy in the front giving my hourglass figure a boyish one.  Here's a fun and simple way to alter these shirts using just a pair of scissors.

I drew a diagram showing where to cut if you want to alter the sleeves and neck line also.
Make sure to keep all the cuts even so one sleeve isn't longer than the other (unlike my diagram)

Put the shirt on and mark where you will be cutting your holes to tie the shirt at.  They should be right under your chest evenly spaced apart.  Then make these cuts but make sure to keep them small so you don't have gaps when you pull it tight.

For the tie string you can use scrap from one of the sleeves, or a piece of fabric or decorative ribbon.  String it out through the holes so each end hangs out for you to tie.

Tie the string as tight as you wish in a bow or knot.  =)


Now for the before and after pics!

                      Before:

 

                    After:

 

Happy Cutting!