Pinterest #9

Do you ever go to the thrift store and see little bits of pretty fabric and think what wonderful creations could you make with them? ( ok maybe not) Quilting may the first thing that comes to mind but I myself am not a quilter but I still can't resist those little pieces of loveliness.

Two years ago Daughter Ashley pinned this cute Bow tied Clutch
So two Christmases ago ( in keeping with our handmade presents only rule) Daughter M'lynn decided to make a clutch as her present to Ashley.

Getting ready for the upcoming thrift store event I thought I'd make a few from little bits of fabric I found from there.

Although the black and white one is leftover bits from here. The lining is made from a bag of scraps I took home one day. The flowered one is completely found materials. Both zippers were also from the thrift store.

You'll notice that one is bigger then the other because when M'lynn was making them she wanted it slightly bigger then the pattern but small or big they are handy little bags.

With wedding season coming up these are the perfect thing to take or anytime really when you don't want something big and the nice part is the strap fits nicely on your wrist. :) 

Pinterest # 8

Every once in a while and if my hand will allow I want to crochet. Knitting has been wonderful to learn and I can see myself improving but when you want to make something yarn worthy quickly crocheting is the ticket. Today I bring you the tea cozy.

With the amount of tea I drink you'd think I would have had a cozy for my pot ages ago. Usually I grab a tea towel and wrap it around my pot which isn't really a flattering way to serve a cup of tea to guests.
The pattern comes from The Green Dragonfly and the cover itself is more of a guideline pattern for your pot which I had to rip and and start a couple of times till I got the right size.

 I also kept my pot handy to make sure that I was getting a nice fit. You want snug but not too snug so it fits easily over the teapot.

The rose pattern was easy to work up as were the leaves and after attaching my flowers my teapot is ready for tea! 

 The total time to make it was only a couple of hours which makes me feel silly for using a tea towel all the years. :) 

Pinterest #7

It's the third time I've been down and out this winter. It's abnormal for me but I've been deducing why this is happening. The first thing I noticed that each time I'm sick it's usually piggybacking the last time I was sick. So I think my immune system is shot.
The next thing I noticed is being blessed with four little ones kid germs have been reintroduced into our lives and since I've no intention of giving up hugs and kisses I'm destined to deal with kid germs.
And lastly cabin fever and not a lot of crisp, fresh winter air to clear the body. We've been under "extreme cold warnings" meaning don't go outside and only if you have too for a few minutes at a time. The Great Lakes went from being only slightly covered at the beginning of January to 85% covered now. That means a whole lot of cold and a whole lot of ice. It's also why I've been taking pictures indoors.
Check out Great Lakes for more info on our deep freeze.

 

Looking through Pinterest in hopes to find some help with my yucky days it seems I'm doing all the right things and eating all the right foods. It does make me think then that getting out and about or at least a change of air in the house might be the answer I'm looking for and luckily our temperatures are about to change for the better!
But until then here are a couple of Pinterest things I did and didn't find helpful for your yucky days.

Last year I made this concoction in hopes of helping out with my cold. When I took a tbsp of the spicy mixture it helped for all of two seconds but not overly helpful for the duration of the cold. If you've tried or are going to try this one and it works for you let me know. I'm curious and may give it a second chance. I did find hot water and honey just as effective though.

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This year I made my own menthol vapor rub. 

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I'm totally liking this stuff and it helped a great deal during my cold and it's not as harsh as the store bought stuff which I like. The store bought was a staple in my home growing up and in my home with my kids as well. But the switch from using store bought things to knowing what I'm using on and in my body has been gradually happening in my home for years now and this vapor rub is a keeper.

 My next plan is to boost up my immune system and I'm leaning towards elderberry syrup. Although I read it's great for colds, it was also one of the things that continuously popped up for boosting immune systems as well. At one of our many houses we lived in we had oodles of elderberries but only thought of them as a nuisance berry because of the lovely purple bird blotches left behind on everything. If I knew I had a super berry growing in my midst I would have been using them a long time ago. :)

According to my children they were mulberry not elderberry. 

Pinterest #6

Here it is! My dress that I started for Christmas and was going to finish for Valentines.

                                             This is the dress that was my sewing inspiration from Pinterest.

                             
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Did you catch that "was" in the opening sentence?  I'm not going to finish it because I have a problem. I'm just not a dress girl, I like separates. I thought maybe this would be the dress to change all that and in the beginning it was but the farther I sewed along the more dissatisfied I got. The more times I tried it on I knew it would be a dress I wore only once because I had too and then it would hang in my closet. 

It's fate now..it will be torn apart to make something I'll actually wear.

Even looking at it on the dress form I still think its such a lovely dress with all its polka- dotness

This is the pattern I used.

It's been a bit of a tough week with some feet dragging moments however this latest sort of fail did have me learn a lot of sewing techniques I've never done before. Waist stays, side zipper placement and a horsehair braid sewn into the hem, definitely made this a teaching dress and that's a good thing. The new challenge now is making something wearable with what little fabric I have left. :(

Pinterest #5

When I was a little girl every winter I'd spend one week of it sick in bed. Mumps, tonsillitis, stomach bug, colds, I was a ticking time bomb through out the winter months till something hit.

I should have known something was up the other day when I had the urge to watch " The Bugs Bunny Show". When I was sick being entertained by a rabbit who would occasionally dress as a woman was a treat. It happen to air while we were having supper so I could only ever catch a few toons here and there. When I was sick I got to watch the whole hour.
So last week when a nasty cold took hold sitting under a cozy blanket and watching Netfilx was about the only thing I wanted to do. That and play with yarn in an attempt to conquer knitting socks. I'd have to say I'm close, not perfect but close.

My Pinterest Challenge also took a back seat last week so this week I'll have two for you.

Today's is Homemade "Oreo" cookies.
As we know homemade is usual better but when it comes to knocking off a store bought brand can they compare?

Here is the original Pin

 and the site the recipe comes from.

I shall start with the taste test. Yes, comparably speaking they taste very close to the middle fiddling cookie but you know the homemade version is filled with things you can pronounce. So that's a plus all the way!

I had a little trouble with the recipe itself though. I found that the amount of flour used in the ingredients was not enough and I had to keep adding to the cookie dough because my first batch turned out like this.

She said the dough needed to be dry so I compared the dough to what my rolled sugar cookie would be like. Apparently mine wasn't dry enough but by the end and after adding a lot more flour I got a cookie that resembled the recipe.

I debated on just making crumbs from the not so nice ones but made them into cookies too.

So would I make these again? No. I don't buy Oreo's all that often to begin with and truthfully the amount of time it took to make these cookies I don't think I could be bothered. 

Fun to try but not a keeper in my books. :)

Pinterest # 4

On my " I really want to try this" list last year was Cranberry Pumpkin Seed Bread. But then I put it out of my mind and didn't think about it anymore and not even Thanksgiving or Christmas had me thinking to give this bread a try. Now for some reason this time of year has me hankering for homemade bread and my mind wandered back to wanting to try this bread.

This Pinterest find was a little hard to come by and what I did find wasn't really what I wanted. I wanted a nice simple whip up any time bread, not a sweet dessert loaf.  I wanted to be able to take my smoked turkey, lettuce, tomato and maybe my basil mayo ( I go either way with mayo, sometimes yes sometimes no..) on this fun bread.

Not finding what I wanted had me go to my tried and true Raisin Bread recipe. I just omitted the cinnamon which in case your wondering is 1 tsp. Because this bread is slightly sweeter then regular bread I thought it would compliment the saltiness of the smoked turkey better.

For one loaf here's the recipe.

1 cup + 1 tbsp warm water
2 1/2 cups white flour
2 tbsp dry milk
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp butter
1 pkg yeast or
1 1/2 tsp instant yeast
3/4 cup cranberries
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds

I used a mixer to knead the bread but by all means use those muscles and knead the dough till it forms a nice bread ball and isn't sticky anymore. (I'm not much of a timer on this I go by my eye and when it looks good I stop.) This is when you add your berries and nuts. Continue kneading till everything is incorporated. Cover with towel and let rise in a warm place till doubled in size. (about an hour)
Then take it out, give it another light kneading and form your loaf. I chose a greased loaf pan but you could probably form a ball on a tray and have a more rustic loaf. Let rise till doubled again and bake.
Here's where I differ from some recipes. I prefer to bake mine at a lower temp, 370 to be exact only because I think the temperature in my oven is out of whack. You may want to consult other bread recipes and come up with a temperature you're happy with.
Normally I'm a whole wheat bread eater but for my first try it always seems easier to go all white. Thanks Gluten! Next I'll be trying out a whole wheat loaf and see how it goes but the boys gave this loaf 2 thumbs up.
 If any one has another recipe for this bread I'd be interested in giving it a whirl! :)

Pinterest # 3

Checking out Pinterest last fall I took note of their faux fur infinity scarves. I found a couple and clicked the like button.

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Then I made my own version out of an old fur coat I found at my local thrift store. I cut a couple of pieces from the bottom of the coat that when sewn together would give me a standard width and length of an infinity scarf. I then sewed it into a tube, turned it inside out and hand stitched the ends together. All that fur you never see any stitches. 

I like to wear it with this great chocolate brown coat I found in the summer. Its the perfect coat to wear when wearing petticoats.

Yes it's a real fur scarf which I know can bother some people but I'm thrilled by how warm it is. I wasn't expecting it to be a big difference in the warmth department vs faux or wool for that matter but there really is. I'm not a fan of being cold and with our Canadian winters and being so close to Lake Huron this means cold, damp, windy, winter weather.
Whether your a fan of fur or not this one fits my "try and stay warm for the winter" bill. :)

Just a footnote to add has anyone read this article on manmade fabrics? It was quite an interesting read.

Pinterest #2

 I had pinned this cookie recipe just a day or two before Christmas and knew I didn't have time to make them but thought they might make great Valentines Cookies. ( Seriously so many Christmas recipes double great as Valentines recipes.) Pretty aren't they!

Since we've been attending quite a few potlucks lately I thought it might be nice to try a gluten free version of these to take with us. Originally I was going to make half the recipe GF and the other half with white flour but I was out of white flour so all GF it was going to be. I used a bean and rice flour combo and went to work.

I followed the recipe and made my substitutions. Let the dough chill then

I rolled it out between two pieces of wax paper. I know from past experiences that my cookie dough might be a little more sticky then with white flour and What I should have done is sprinkle some rice flour onto the wax paper before I rolled them out. But now I was at the point of no return as I had already added the filling.(sometimes I'm not a patient girl) Freezing was of no help either.

Heres what my impatientness got me that not even a pretty plate could help.

It's not like I've never baked GF before honest!!

The taste of these far makes up for their looks though and have been Isaac approved but rest assured they will not be leaving this house. :)