Cocoa Krispies Treats

I like baking cookies but in the summer when it is really hot no one wants to have the oven on long enough to bake 5 dozen cookies. So what's a girl to do when she wants some home made chocolaty goodness? Cocoa Pebbles (or their generic counterpart) and marshmallows came to mind today. The recipe I used is a standard Rice Krispies treat recipe. Since I'm a big Good Eats fan I'll do this AB style.




Hardware: One sauce pan in the two to four quart range. One large bowl, bigger than you think you need so that you have room to really move the cereal around when you are stirring. One silicone spatula that can take high heat. One 8X8 baking dish. And last but not least, because if you skip it you won't be getting your Cocoa Krispies Treats out of the pan, some non stick spray. Yes it is hardware since we are using it as a tool rather than an ingredient.

Software: Three cups of Cocoa Pebbles or any generic counterpart, 1 1/2 tablespoons of margarine and 2 1/2 cups of mini marshmallows.

Start off by pre-measuring everything, greasing your pan with the non stick spray and pouring your cereal into your mixing bowl. Oh and do yourself a favor and spray the nonstick stuff over the sink, it is really slick and you can slip on it easily. Then over very low heat melt the margarine completely. Next put the marshmallows in the pan and melt them completely stirring frequently. You will know that they are completely melted because it will look smooth like marshmallow fluff. Once that is done you will have to work quickly because the marshmallow will set up pretty fast. Pour the marshmallow into the cereal and mix it together well. Pour it into the greased baking dish and press it down flat and evenly with your spatula. You may need to use a clean greased spatula to get the job done if it sticks too much. Let it cool completely and then cut into 16 squares. Oh and then enjoy :D

Adventures in Sewing

Anyone who has read my blog, if anyone has read my blog, knows that I am not trusted with sewing machines. I thought I knew how to sew. In fact I generally said "I know how to sew!" shortly before breaking the sewing machine every time I broke one (three.....or four times so far.) I did have a sort of sewing class in high school. We learned how to sew a seam and sew on buttons and basic stuff. I guess that wasn't enough though. So I recently decided that I don't wanna break sewing machines anymore and I want to be trusted with them. I picked up the book Sewing for Dummies 2nd Edition by Jan Saunders Maresh. So far I have learned a pretty good bit and I have some great ideas for very low sew projects to do to get my feet wet again. I also just came up with a neat idea for a hand sewn pin cushion which I'll be posting a tute for when I make it. My mom is going to let me sew on her machine while she watches eagle eyed over my shoulder to make sure I don't break another one. I'll be posting my progress as I learn along with my usual crafts.

Hanging Pocket Organizer

I have been struggling with having too much junk laying on my desk for a long while now. I decided to remedy that problem recently and set about looking for storage and organization methods I could use. While I was at my favorite Dollar Tree the other day I saw a long bamboo rod and I started thinking. I then found some ribbon not far away from the bamboo and when I came across the place mats I figured it all out. I realized that I could make a modular organizer with this stuff pretty easily. I got everything  at the dollar store except for the hooks that the rod is held up by. I used one bamboo rod, one roll of satin ribbon, 4 place mats and a two pack of large wall hooks.

Two of the pockets are just one place mat folded in half and sewn up on either side. The middle one with the pockets is two place mats. I took the backing off of one and ironed in a half inch seam on the top and bottom of each pocket which my mom then sewed for me (I'm still not trusted with sewing machines lol.) Then she sewed the ribbons on with a strong box stitch. She also sewed two loops of ribbons for hanging things like my husbands ginormous headphones onto the rod with. To do that you just sew a loop then sew a strip across the middle. Easy peasy and I spent eight dollars total for it.

This Is The Afghan That Never Ends..........

I found this afghan kit at the good will one day in February just browsing around. I thought it was pretty and that it would make a great project to play around with. I came to hate this afghan eventually. I started it on February 20th and just finished it thirty minutes before midnight on June 12th. It was maddening. I have never had a project take so long. I have in fact made afghans similar in size to this one in just a few days. The problem with this was the size of the yarn. It was thin two ply yarn. It took me half an hour to finish just one row. I will never make anything this size with yarn this thin ever again. I will make more chevron afghans though because the pattern is so easy but so pretty. Anyway thought I would share my finished project and announce that I am finally free of that thing yay :D

Chalk Board T-shirt.

Remember the fad a few years ago with shirts that had velcro strips on them that you could attach velcro letters to so that you could personalize your shirt? I remembered it and was thinking my nieces would enjoy those shirts. Then I remembered how just about everyone lost the letters and how the velcro started looking a little manky after a few wears and washes. So I put that on the shelf and started thinking of different ways of making shirts that can be personalized and re-personalized. I came up with a shirt that you could write on, then erase and write on it again. I used a plain ole cotton t-shirt (I actually bought it at the Dollar Tree) a foam brush, a piece of cardboard that fits inside the shirt, blue painters tape and some chalk board paint from the craft store. I dunno if the paint in the hardware section is the same as the paint in crafts but the one I got said it would work on most porous surfaces.

Anywhoodles to get started you need to wash your t-shirt on a regular cycle then dry it. Next you'll want to put the cardboard inside the shirt and tape out a rectangle on the front of the shirt with the painters tape. I eye balled it but you can measure if you want. Make sure the tape is pressed down really well also because if it isn't the paint will bleed under it and you won't have clear lines. You can see in the pic that I had a spot where that happened. Now you just need to paint the chalkboard on evenly over the rectangle. Let it dry then do a second even coat and let that dry for 24 hours. Now get a piece of chalk and go over the whole rectangle covering it with chalk and then wash the shirt again on your gentlest cycle. After that you can write any message you want on the shirt. I wrote an ode to my favorite blog for this picture.

Fast cheap and easy framed art from the dollar store.

Today was my 9th wedding anniversary and to celebrate we went out to eat at our favorite Chinese place. There just happens to be a Dollar Tree next door to said place where we walked around to build up an appetite. ;) I am working on two long winded crochet afghan projects right now but I was getting bored with crochet. Because of that I wanted a project that would be fast and not take too much time away from those things but would give me something else to do creatively. I looked and looked and couldn't really find anything that would be fast until I came across these unfinished document frames and some acrylic paints. I picked them up thinking I could do something with them but not sure what that something was. Then I found this really great gift bag with a painting of a bunch of folks dancing and having a good time outside of the Apollo. It was vibrant and graphic and I knew that I had to have it. Then the idea hit me, I could frame that art and hang it on my wall to enjoy whenever I wanted. I found a lot of bags with very interesting and pretty artwork on them. There were three or four of them with several little girls in Edwardian style clothing. They were doing various little girl things like having tea parties or playing dress up. They would be very cute in a little girls bedroom. I did two pictures that were both in a sort of music theme. The jazzy one at the Apollo and the one of a dancer.

First off, sorry for the quality of the pictures. I used my cell phone camera because the batteries in the regular camera were dead. OK you will need a frame, paints, a gift bag of course, a pen or pencil, some scissors, paint brushes and paper towels. The process was really easy. First you unwrap everything and take the frame apart. You also need to prep the bag by cutting out the string that is used as a handle (if it is made with one.) Next you need to lay the glass onto the bag and figure out where you are going to cut it. Using my paint brush program I drew a line around the glass in this pic so you can see it better here. The thing you want to do is get the most interesting parts of the picture into the frame. I think the people in this one are far more interesting than the car so I positioned the glass to show them. Next you want to trace around the glass and then cut the picture out. Cut on the inside of the lines so that you don't end up with a piece of paper that is too big for the frame. It may be easier to cut out on the sides of the bag leaving a big margin and then trim it out. I framed the picture before painting the frame so that I could make sure my paint matched the picture but you can paint it separately. To frame the picture you need to put the glass back into the frame and then put the backer onto it. Make sure that the hanger is facing up and that you get all of the tabs pushed down. (see pic 1)

Ok now for the painting. I used acrylic paint for this but I watered it down to make a stain. I mixed red with pink to get a rosier color that matches the neon sign in the picture. I used an upside down sour cream container lid as my palette. (see pic 2) To use it as a stain you need to work in small patches and go quickly. First you brush the paint on then you wipe it back off. This will make the color a little lighter so keep that in mind when you are selecting or mixing your paint. The benefit to staining is that once you wipe the paint it is pretty much dry. Once you have finished staining make sure the glass is clean (if you framed the picture first.) Then hang it and enjoy.

Pic 1:

Pic 2

Felicity Scarf

Worsted weight yarn (Delft Blue super saver) size K hook. Gauge isn't important.

Ch 21

Row 1: Dc in the 4th ch from the hook. DC in the next 2 ch's* ch 1 sk the next ch Dc in the next 4 ch's. Repeat from * 2 more times.

Row 2: Ch 3 turn * 4 DC in the next ch 1 space ch 1. Repeat from * 2 times. Ch 1 DC in the top of the last DC

Row 3 Ch 3 turn. 3 DC in the 1st ch space. * Ch1 4 DC in the next ch space. Repeat from * 1 more time. Ch 1 3 DC in the next ch space 1 DC in the top f the last DC.

Repeat rows 2& 3 until scarf measures 6 ft in length. End with Row 3.

Finishing: SC evenly around the scarf working 3 sc in the corners. Slst in the 1st st to end. Weave in ends. Cut 120 16 inch pieces of yarn to make the fringe using 12 strands in each hole.