Baby Doll Diaper

It’s the Made by You Monday party at Skip to My Lou and I finally have something to share, besides cookies. This is actually Cindy’s pattern for baby doll diapers and it’s a total life money-saver. Eden has all these baby dolls and always wants diapers for them, but the store-bought toy diapers that will fit them are a rediculous price. They also don’t last because the tabs lose their stickiness. I’ve bought real baby newborn diapers (the super tiny ones) and even those are too big and go all the way up to the chest of the poor doll.

This was eeeeeeeeeeeeeasy.

Baby Doll Diaper Pattern

Simple design…

…and it fits! 

Since the tabs are velcro they don’t lose their stickiness and you can make them out of all kinds of fabrics and patterns. I made another one out of pink fleece for a Build-a-Bear too. This one was made with an old pair of my flannel jammies… hence the coffee theme, lol!

Click on the Made by You banner to visit the Skip to My Lou blog and see everyone else’s handmade projects!

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Tooth Pillow (or stuffed cuteness)

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It came! It came! It came!

It’s a tooth pillow with a heart pocket on the back (which I forgot to photograph) for putting the lucky tooth into. And a freaking awesome pin that I’m going to specifically create a handbag for, just so I can pin this to it.

You have to visit The Cupcakery Girl’s store. Cynthia Jaeger handcrafts the most adorable, amazing, charming creations that I’ve ever seen. No joke.

Like these hairpins

And this pincushion (which I think is my next must-have)

And ohmyfreakinggosh these

You can find her Twitter, Facebook and blog info here. Visit her and tell her Valerie from Unbound sent you!

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Raaaaaaaaaadom Baking – Double Chocolate Coconut Cookies

I’ve had two bags of coconut since Christmas because I forgot to make macaroons. These are even better… they have chocolate. I think they are my new favorite, and I do NOT say that lightly. I had to give 1/2 of them away because the kids don’t like coconut (gasp!), and John’s not much of a sweets-eater (double-gasp!)  so I was shoveling in consuming way too many.

Again from Martha Stewart’s Cookie book.

Martha Stewart’s Double Choclate Coconut Cookies

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa poweder
• 1 teapspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
• 2 cups white chocolate chunks (about 9 ounces)
• 1 3/4 cups sweetened flaked coconut
• 1 3/4 cups coarsely chopped walnuts (about 6 ounces)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put butter and sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix of medium speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Mix in eggs one at a time. Stir in vanilla
2. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. Mix into butter mixture on low speed until well combined. Stir in chocolate, coconut and walnuts.
3. Using a 1 1/2 ince ice cream scoop, drop batter onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing 2 inches apart. Flatten slightly. Bake until set, 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks 2 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks to cool completely. Cookies can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature up to 1 week.

This is probably a good time to say that if you think I follow any of her prissy directions to the letter then prepare to have me laugh in your face. 1 1/2 in. ice cream scoop? How about a glob dumped off one of my cereal spoons. Sifting? Seriously? I don’t even own a sift (but I do whip up all my dry ingredients with a wisk). The only reason I type these recipes out word for word is because someone may want to follow it precisely and I feel like I’m misquoting anyone if I change what was on the printed page.

Just sayin’.

Friday Night Movies – Sherlock Holmes

As I was sitting in class this morning thinking about what movie John and I should watch tonight, I was reminded that I didn’t review LAST Friday’s movie, which was Sherlock Holmes. I really wanted to do this one too because I enjoyed it so much.

So, two words… Jude and Law.

Now, because I didn’t choose this movie, I can not be accused to renting it for this reason alone. Though it is a good enough reason to do so. Oh, my dear, darling, adorable Mr. Watson. I will admit my crazy crush on Jude, but only because he is the only celebrity I have a crush on. Absolute truth. I think John is ok with this because he has his own.

I first fell in love with took note of Jude in The Talented Mr. Ripley. Very dashing.

And of course as the adorable, vulnerable and faithful Inman. W.P Inman. “Repeatin’ a thing doesn’t improve it.” Ah, Inman. You are too precious for words.

Word is that the part of Watson almost went to Colin Farrell. Shoot, what a tragedy that would’ve been!

Oh yeah, Holmes is played by Robert Downey Jr. Whatever.

I wasn’t expecting it to be a 2 hour movie, but it was full of action and super quirky dialogue. Another great thing is that it was clean enough for Johnny (11 years old) to watch the next day. Pretty violent, but no sex or language. And he loved it, let me tell you. All the science and logic won him over.

I was able to find a collection of classic Sherlock Holmes e-books online for free. These are all public domain now which is pretty friggin’ cool. I intend to print one out for Johnny to read and see how that goes. He’s smart, but sometimes the language of these older books is a bit much too much handle.

I am now taking movie suggestions for tonight should you care to cast your opinion.

Have a super weekend! Take time to play with your kids, read in bed and snuggle with your significant other. As long as you have clothes on your back and clean dishes to eat off of, the rest of the housework can wait.

Kirstie Alley, comic style

After watching an episode of Kirstie Alley’s Big Life with me, Johnny drew this…

It was the episode where Jim is sick and Kirstie gets really tired of taking care of him. She was making dinner and he kept asking her for all kinds of things.

Jim, through the speakerphone: “Can I have an extra blanket?”

Kirstie, while chopping veggies: “Ok”

2 minutes later…

Jim: “Can I have a pizza?”

Kirstie: “Fine.”

Jim: “Can I have a…”

Kirstie: “Would you stop calling!?!”

Jim: lying in bed with magazines and a pizza box: “Why?”

Kirstie driving her chef’s knife into the chopping board: “Ahh!”

He is cracking me up with all these comics! He also informed me this morning that there are two F-words and I can’t for the life of figure out what the other one could be. Any ideas???

Scrappiness

A couple more pages for my Sweet Shoppe portfolio.

I have decided that this is my new favorite font. I love all of Jellyka’s fonts (especially for art collages), but when it comes to my photo layouts I prefer nice, clean lettering. Isn’t it a great one?

Later!

Raaaaaaandom Baking!

 My sister-in-law thinks that my ‘random baking’ should be like iCarly’s ‘random dancing’… so now whenever I get the itch to bake something I hear an echoey voice in my head saying, “Raaaaaaaaaaandom baking!” This is probably funny only to myself.

I’m spending the day with my best fwiend Isak, so I had a helper. We looked through Martha Stewart’s Cookies book and he ‘mmm’ed at every single page… over 300 pages.

We chose Butter Twists because I thought it would be fun for him to roll and twist.

They wanted to crack and break when we twisted them. The trick is to make the dough nice and warm in your hand and then super-duper gently twist. Isak suggested we  call Martha Stewart to tell her this. I told him I didn’t have her phone number.

These are a pretty dense cookie, but nice and buttery and not too sweet. They are very good dipped in coffee or milk.

Martha Stewart’s Butter Twists

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temp.
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 large egg white
• 1 1/2 cups plus 2 tbsp. flour
• 1/2 tsp. coarse salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until creamy. Mix in vanilla and egg white. Reduce speed to low. Add flour and salt; mix until combined.
2. Roll dough into 3/4 inch balls. Roll each ball into a 6-inch log. Bend log in half, then twist. Space 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
3. Bake, rotating halfway through, until cookies just begin to turn golden, 13 to 15 minutes. Let cool on parchment on wire racks. Cookies can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature up to 3 days.

Fairy Tales – The things nightmares are made of.

 

Last night Eden wanted me to read to her from a very old nursery rhyme and fairy tale book she has. She opened it up to Red Riding Hood and we snuggled down in her bed for one of my favorite bedtime rituals.

Let me start off by saying that I did not realize I was reading the Brother’s Grimm version. Had I known that ahead of time I would’ve at least skimmed the story before I dove in headfirst.

Well it starts out pretty dang awesome. Red Riding Hood needs to go visit her Grandmother who is ill (blah, blah, blah), and her mother says,

“Come here, Red Riding Hood! Take this cake and bottle of wine to grandmother. She is weak and ill, and they will do her good.”

Come on! This story has it goin’ on!

Eden says,

“Uh… mom? That is not going to make her better. Cake… sugar! Wine… alcohol!”

Where does she get the idea that these are bad things?

Moving a little further on when the wolf finds the grandmother in the bed,

“He went straight in and up to the bed without saying a word, and ate up the poor old woman.”

Ok, in the other versions I’ve read and been told, the grandma runs off, or the wolf puts her in the closet. Eden and I are quite silent after this line. We just look at each other and I ask her if I should keep reading. Of course, being spawned from me, she wants to go on. At this point I know that Red is going to get it too, so we’re not too shocked when she is swallowed up as well. Then along comes the huntsman. He is about to shoot the wolf when it occurs to him that the grandmother might still be alive inside of his belly.

“So he took and knife and began cutting open the sleeping wolf. At the first cut he saw the little red cloak, and after a few more slashes, the little girl sprang out and cried, ‘Oh, how frightened I was! It was so dark inside the wolf.’ Next the old grandmother came out, alive but hardly able to breathe.”

And here I’ve been praying against bad dreams.

How did it end? Well, clearly ‘slashing’ the wolf to pieces wasn’t enough to kill him, but Red filling him up with big stones so that when he woke up he couldn’t move worked like a charm.

Next in the book is Cinderella. Not really sure how I feel about that yet.

 

Oh, the book came from John’s previous boss. Not sure how I feel about that either.

I hope my instructor has a sense of humor

I had to write a fake cover letter for a MS Word project today and this is what I did. She gave us the job position and company name… I made up the rest.

Chandler Bing

Absolute Date Corporation

Red Parkway Avenue

Boston, MA 48232 

Dear Mr. Bing

I am writing in response to the job opportunity posted for an Excel data entry and analyses in the Boston News on April 9^th, 2010. I have many years of experience using Excel, including data entry, creating formulas, and if/then functions and my self-motivating work ethic is a good match for  your company mission, ‘Numbers are the only sure thing in life.’

 I have received both my Associates and Bachelors degrees in Business Management and earned the 2008 Excel award. I am goal-oriented and work well under time requirements. I arranged and maintained all financial statements for my previous employer, Enron Corporation. I believe I was a great asset to their company and will be one to yours as well. 

Thank you for your time. I look forward to having more correspondence with you in the future. I can be reached at xxx-xxx-xxxx 

Valerie Fowler

Banana Cupcakes

So in the middle of the night I was thinking about the 2 over-ripe bananas waiting in the bowl above my microwave. I usually make banana bread with them but I thought I would throw caution to the wind and make cupcakes instead.

I’m just wild like that.

I used Martha Stewart’s Banana Cupcakes with Honey Cinnamon Frosting recipe, but only the cupcake part. Turns out they are more like banana bread than actual light fluffy cake. They really should be labeled as Banana Muffins. They’re good, but they’re not ‘cupcakes’. Reguardless, it gave me a reason to make buttercream and use my new star tip.

Martha Stewart’s Banana Cupcakes Muffins.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 4 ripe bananas), plus 1 whole banana, for garnish (optional)

2 large eggs

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a standard 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
2. Make a well in center of flour mixture. In well, mix together butter, mashed bananas, eggs, and vanilla. Stir to incorporate flour mixture (do not overmix). Dividing evenly, spoon batter into muffin cups.
3. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a cupcake comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pan; cool completely on a wire rack