Crafts, Cooking, Creating

In one of my other posts, I'll give a tiny bit more information about some American Girl doll accessories that Haley sent up for the twins, but for now, the important thing to know is that I picked a dress for Molly and a dress for Blaire and embroidered outlines of 'their' favorite characters on them for Christmas.

Using printer paper, I just pin it on, then 'trace' the lines in a dotted pattern, and after removing the paper, go between the dots for a more solid look.  

I was worried about Areil's face looking weird, so she just has hair, but I think it looks close enough. = )

The material on the Hello Kitty dress was a knit, and it was awful to work with!  I'm glad I did Ariel first, because I might have scrapped the project.  Hello kitty is easily recognizable, thankfully, and I don't think their dolls will mind too much. = )

Speaking of clothing, Grace sewed her own skirt (with a zipper) using some fabric I got off of marketplace (thought it was from Natalie, but not earmarked for me necessarily.)

Last week, on a cool September day, Kristy had me over, and we stumbled our way through making cookies in her off-the-grid oven!  It can be heated using catering candles or stick and leaves!  We were using it inside, so we chose the former.

It was only supposed to take 25-30 minutes, so we started slowly closing the vents, and finally, after about an hour, it was finally ready to cook.  

Well, the instructions say to put out the closer of the two heating elements, but it was not working.  Each time we got it out, the other one would reignite it.  Finally, we took out the canister all together.

Sadly, between having the drawer open to get out the canister, and opening the door to drop the temperature down from 400F, it stabilized at 200F, so that's how we cooked the cookies!

They took a looooooooooong time to cook, but were really tasty when finished!

She also put together a loaf of bread, using her bread maker, though I had to leave before it finished.  

I made a banana nut loaf using some of the zucchini flour that I made from the squash that she'd given me.  We had to sub in baking powder, since she had just used her baking soda on a different project, but it turned out okay, despite the sub.  

I also tried to make a loaf, but made the rookie mistake of proofing my yeast in a metal bowl. = (  The loaf didn't cook through, but was definitely done on the outside!  The bit we sampled wasn't bad, but the rest of it went to the chickens.

And, because I didn't get enough baking it, I came home and finished my projects for the day, then whipped up an apple pie from some aging apples that we had.

Alice got to it before I got a picture, but she and Billy are my pie people and both approved.

Emily is really into Steven Universe right now, and as such added merch to her Wishlist.  I found a red tank top and some iron on vinyl at the rummage sale on Friday, so I made her a shirt.  I didn't save it for Christmas, because it's a women's medium, which would be big on her, so we will have to alter it in some way for her to be able to use it. 

After presenting it to her, she told me she would rather be a low key fan and just wear the shirt that he wears in the show.  So I'm on the lookout for a red shirt, if you happen to have one lying around?

One night, Billy saw a video and was in the mood to make bread!  The recipe required lots of sitting time, to the point that Billy didn't want to stay up late to cook it, so we stuck it in the refrigerator overnight.

I got out the bowl to bring it to room temperature, and later in the morning, he formed them into small little loaves!

The rolls came out crispy on the outside, and light and fluffy on the inside!

His instructions did not tell him to pretreat the pan, so he ignored my advice.  Hindsight is 20-20.

The last crafty thing is far less fun. When Billy and I got married, my sister and grandmother bought us a set of Navy and White bath towels from Kohl's.  They were good, fluffy towels that we enjoyed, and they looked so good in our bathroom!  A few years after Alice was born (so maybe when Emily or William was a baby?) I read an article about how to keep your house, and one of the suggestions was to only use white towels, because they can be bleached!  Well, that was the only tip in the article that I took to heart, but I said goodbye to our navy towels (which had a few pink bleach splashes on them by this time) and bought white ones, of the same brand to replace them.

Well, those towels lasted us all the way until our Michigan move, and then in the past few years, they started to fail.  So, I bought replacements, but they are awful.  Within 6 months, of normal wear, they develop holes and tears!

I know that I need to switch brands, but it's hard to change after all this time, not to mention expensive.  So, I've been delaying.  Well, the last time I ran a load of whites towels, 4 of our 8 towels had holes.  With Billy's layoff, buying new ones is out of the question, so I cut up some towel rags in an attempt to repair them.

It was a two-sided repair, so each side needed a swatch of rag.

Honestly, the repair is not glaringly obvious when holding up the towel in person (I had trouble finding the repair when showing off my handiwork to my mom) but one of them did unravel on the edge after washing it.  I'll keep an eye on it, but may end up having to quilt it to keep the patch in place.  It was nice to know that the hole shouldn't be growing larger at least!

later days

Creative Endeavors

Grace really wanted to make snack for her class one day, so she used some corn tortillas and wrapped up meat and cheese.  I helped her with the toothpicks and rolling, but she did most of it on her own!

Alice will get up early to cook for her band classmates (it's a small group, because it's only the middle school band students who are also in algebra.)  She wanted some sugar cookie mix, so I bought her some, and she attempted to use the drill to mix the icing.  It didn't work very well, but I was pleased with her problem solving attempt.

A few weeks later, Grace wanted to make snack again, but this time was able to rope Juliet in as well.  They made 'dirt cups' with pudding and oreos and gummy worms.  We had plenty of the last two, but the pudding was in short supply. 4-6 packs would have been better.   At least I'll know for next time!

The twins were off on one of the days that I made a BJs run, and at the exit, Grace wanted to stop by to get some materials to build a fort.  We found some good options and they were both quite happy in their creations.

One of Alice's online communities was having a pumpkin carving contest, and there was also going to be an in person contest here in our village, so she requested 2 pumpkins to cut up and combine.  She worked hard on her creation.

It didn't quite turn out the way she had envisioned, it was supposed to be a dragon.  Sadly, it was mildewed and gross long before the in person contest, so she only had an opportunity to submit it online.

I found some cute jello molds with Halloween shapes.  Grace and Alice both took turns making a round of Jello.  I liked the candy eye that Grace added on!

One day Emily really wanted some chocolate syrup to put on her banana.  I told her she should make the start of the no-bake cookies, as it' a good syrup.  She did, and then finished making the cookies, as not to waste the rest of the syrup.

I'm not sure what the big girls were practicing for, maybe they were just having fun, but they enjoyed face-painting!

Grace and Juliet got and invitation to a birthday party on the Tuesday before the party.  I didn't have any solid plans for that Wednesday, so I spent the day sewing up a set of bags and cord wraps.  After school (it was an early release Wednesday for them) we went to the Dollar Tree so that they could each pick out two things to give her.  They both opted for a balloon and bag of candy.  

I thought it came out really well, and they had a good time at the party!  They were the only guests, since it was the Sunday before Halloween, and short notice, but they didn't complain.

At the bookfair one of Grace and Juliet's classmates bought a candy machine.  I was working that afternoon (when they were excited about it, and desperate to buy it) so I was able to inspect the object in question.  Y'all, it was such a cheap product.  I am flabbergasted that a toy like that would fetch $18.  I do realize that they are selling to children, but it is a book fair!!!  

The girls looked up a similar toy on Amazon, which was still $12, which is just so expensive for cheap plastic that is just going to break with any sort of harsh treatment.

I had bought a bag of M&Ms that day at Aldi, so I encouraged them to make their own out of recycling!  

They roped Emily into it, and made a device that had a turning component and everything!

It turned out super cute!  It was really neat, until they mixed skittles in with the M&Ms (ew!)  They played with it the entire day, and at the end of the weekend, when it was no longer exciting, I recycled the components again.  And it was a major win for me, as I've not heard another peep about the book fair one!

One of the shirts that Emily inherited from my mom developed a hole.  I had it in my mending pile, and finally pulled it out to work on while I watched through CB Strike again.

I just did a small embroidery stitch, but the material around the hole is very thin, I told her I don't' know how long it will last before another hole appears.  She's happy for now though and there's no longer a hole! = )

When I was in Berlin, Christin pointed out that I had a hole in my skirt.  I just pulled my shirt down over it, but when I took it off to inspect it, I found that it was not just one hole, but several from large to tiny!!  It looks like it was caught in the zipper of our suitcase, and I would think that would be more of the TSA's m.o. than mine, so I'm blaming them!

Either way, I had a hole that needed to be mended.  I had an article about using embroidery to repair holes in clothing, and a separate article about a Japanese method called Shashiko which uses geometric patterned thread lines to mend a garment.  I opted to combine the methods into my own strange conglomeration.

The tip that was the most helpful is to pick a repair fabric that is lighter weight than the original.  I had some silk scraps in my scrap pile, so that's what I used.

My chalk lines did not stay on very well. = (

I was pleased with the final product, or at least happy to no longer have a hole!!!  I'm hoping that I won't have to repair it again for a while, but won't be able to test it out until summer.  Since we're averaging in the 50s now, I'm not willing to try it out just yet. ; )

I bought the twins a used cotton candy machine for $5 at a thrift store!  When I went to test it out I saw that you could put in hard candies as well as the candy floss sugar. After checking out the prices on Amazon for the sugar containers, I decided that hard candy was the way to go!  

We didn't get any hard candies from the trunk or treat, except for lollipops!  So, when I failed to get Billy the brewery for his Halloween village from Menards (they were sold out, and I had a rebate slip burning a hole in my pocket) I grabbed a giant bag of dum dums.

First step was to sort.  They even have a cotton candy flavored one, which will be perfect for Christmas morning!

I has to heat up for 10 minutes before putting in the candy!

Billy picked sour apple for the trial.  Time to crunch it up!

1 Tablespoon at a time!

Success!

8 lollipops made quite a bit, but it was messy!!!  We'll have to set the machine in a box during the holiday, because lollipop pieces flew everywhere!

Considering one of my shower curtains doesn't even use shower curtain holders, I feel like I use them for an awful lot in my life!

I bought some 'shoe keepers' for our snow boots, because the smell was a little much.  I didn't like that we would just have to set them inside the shoe rack though, because the racks get really wet once the snow arrives.  I dug out a basket from my pile, and it worked nicely.  I did end up trading out the red basket for a black one though.

Emily and Avia found a jacket with her school logo on it, but it was for a softball player. For $5, they bought it, and Emily added it to my pile with a request that I change it to Cross Country, as one of her Christmas gifts!

The first step was taking out the original embroidery.  Thankfully, it was embroidered after the jacket was fully assembled, so I was able to access both sides of the thread.

After 6 or 7 episodes of CB Strike: done!

Step two was aligning the original embroidery with the new.  It was tricky, especially with the metal snaps on the jacket, but I think I got it pretty darn close!  And, despite the fact that I can see all of the things that aren't perfect about it, I think Emily will be pleased. = )

This season is really full of fun crafts and activities!

I'm attempting to do a Secondhand Christmas for my crew this year.  I don't want to buy any of the 'trendy' (aka cheap) things on Amazon, but rather used gifts that fit the bill!

I'm finding that some of the components are going to have to be new, like film for the $10 Polaroid go camera I scored for Grace last Friday. And secondhand Children's books in Russian are proving particularly elusive.  But that's still less waste than also buying the camera new or buying all the books new!  And it's stretched my creative capacity as well, which I enjoy.

Here's to more thrift store finds!

later days