Crafting

I love it...hubby hates it. Thankfully Pinterest has offered up some amazing suggestions of things I can spend time making that will actually be constantly used. I discovered this link, and my world has opened up in the way of personalized crafts! http://thatsmyletter.blogspot.ca/2011/08/p-is-for-personalize.html After figuring this out, every cute wooden craft I see, I know I could make myself, and for cheap! I started out with these two boards for our parents. After painting, and staining the wood itself, I used the iPad, to look up fonts online. The website will allow you to "test" out a phrase. When I find the style I like, I enlarge it to the size I need, and take a screen shot. I cover the iPad screen in a Ziploc bag, and trace the outline with a sharpie. I then arrange the words on the board, and tape them down. Using a ball point pen, I traced over the outline with as much pressure as possible, indenting the wood itself. I removed the plastic, and had faint dented lines to paint inside with acrylic.

I used a 2x4 for these next few. They were a little tougher, since the wood is harder than the pine I used for all the other boards...so indenting it to paint is trickier.

Wall Ruler. Another Pinterest find! I used the same idea as before; stained the board first, then googled Times New Roman Numbers to trace. To get all the lines as straight and accurate as possible, I used a measuring tape to pencil mark each inch, and taped them all off with painters tape to paint.

Look What I made! I spotted something similar on Etsy. I immediately thought it was such a cute idea, and knew I could put something like this to good use. Cameron, like most kids his age, loves to colour. He makes a new "picture" in Nursery every week, and is so excited to show us. We take it home, and a couple of hours later it makes its way to the garbage! So I made a board for each of the kids to hang artwork. It will get more use I'm sure when they hit school age, but for now, there is still always something hung there! I used the exact same process as before, and glued some little clothespins I found at Michaels.

Here are a few of my favourite things!

It's no surprise to anyone that knows me, that I'm a dessert fanatic. I really do enjoy baking the finer things in life, and would secretly love to have my own little bake shop with cupcakes and other amazing desserts! First up....Chocolate-covered cheesecake strawberries.

I found these on Pinterest a while back, and decided they were a cute idea for Mother's Day for Clark's Mom. The recipe I came across said that you can buy cheesecake filling at the grocery store, but I have a feeling that might only be a U.S. thing. In any case, I made my own no-egg cheesecake with a cup of whipping cream, an 8oz package of softened cream cheese, a little vanilla, and about 1/4 cup of sugar. (Taste as you go with the sugar...since it's personal preference as to how sweet you want it!) Hull out the strawberries. The bigger, the better in this case. Melt milk chocolate chips until smooth, and dip your strawberries. Place upside down on parchment, and place in fridge to chill. Meanwhile, whip up your cheesecake filling. When the dipped strawberries are cooled, you can pipe your filling in, and lay them close together on their sides. Melt some semisweet chocolate chips until smooth, then pipe skinny lines over all the strawberries. Cool in fridge. Let sit out for 10 mins before eating. Soft Pretzels.

Though not a dessert, I thought I'd throw this recipe in here, since I have had a few people ask for it. It's usually something I make after breakfast for a mid-morning snack. Cinnamon/Sugar are my family's fave, but you could try whatever you like on them! Dissolve 2 1/4 tsp yeast in 1 cup of warm water. Once dissolved, add in 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar, and 2 1/2 cups of Flour. Knead into a soft smooth dough. (I use my stand mixer.) Let rise in warm place for 30 mins. Cut dough into 8 even pieces, and let rest while you microwave 1/2 cup of water with 1 Tbsp of Baking Soda for 1 min. Roll each piece into a long rope, dip into baking soda mixture, and loop into a pretzel. Place on greased baking sheet, and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar mix. Let rest on top of your oven while it heats up to 475 degrees. Bake for 8-10 mins. Then brush with melted butter when they are hot out of the oven. I don't even know what to call this one! Let's go with Chocolate raspberry parfait.

A couple of weeks ago, our ward had a scout fundraiser. Lots of things were being auctioned off, but the youth were all told to make a dessert to auction off too. There were some chocolate parfaits that looked mighty delicious, so that's what I told Clark I wanted! $100 later, we were the proud owners of not only a yummy dessert, but also the parfait glasses it came in! Mothers Day was a week later, and I was determined, having never made any sort of parfait before, that I was going to come up with something good to fill these glasses with for our Mother's Day dinner. Layer 1: Cake! I actually had some extra unfrosted oreo cupcakes in my freezer that I used, but I suppose any chocolate cake would be just fine. After it's cooked and cooled, crumble it up, and your first layer is good to go! Layer 2: Chocolate Cheesecake. Since I kind of made it up as I went along, I am going to do my best with exact recipe amounts! It's similar to the strawberry filling above though. A package of cream cheese, 2 cups whipping cream, 1/2 cup powdered sugar, a little vanilla, and about half a bag of melted semi-sweet chocolate chips. Layer 3: Frozen Raspberries! I used frozen since when they thaw out, there is a lot more juice. They are crammed between the cheesecake and the whipping cream simply to try and contain the juice...to keep it away from making the cake crumbs soggy. I made these a good 24 hours before they were eaten, there was a little leakage, but they survived just fine kept in the fridge. Layer 4: Whipping cream. Whip it up, add in a little sugar, and vanilla to your taste. Layer them all for a second time. I used my vegetable peeler on a big bar of Dairy Milk to create chocolate curls for decoration on the top dollop of whipping cream. Be warned...they are extremely rich, and depending on the size of your parfait glass, you might not be able to finish the whole thing! But if you're into chocolate, cream cheese, and raspberries, they are seriously as delicious as they look!

Mother's Day Mug

I've totally been digging Shutterfly lately. I took some cute photos of the kids, and ordered a mug for my Mom for Mother's Day. What a cute change up from the regular flowers we get her every year, cheaper too. It came with some chocolate, and she loved it!

  Chocolate Mug

Creating Christmas cards have never been this easy.

View the entire collection of cards.

Mother's Day 2012

Thanks kiddies for making me one proud Mama!

5 Months

25 1/4 inches, 14lbs 2oz. She's rolling over....and over....and over...and over! I love this stage. She's starting the get up and go process, and I love when babies become more active and mobile. Everyone said I'd regret it when Cameron started walking, but I loved it. I secretly can't wait for Tegan to reach that stage, though don't want to wish her little life away, as it is already going so fast! For now, I am quite happy just to watch her little body rolling all over the living room floor, underneath tables, and getting stuck under the couch! What a funny little peanut.