Christmas Treats--Crystal

I made the following treats for Christmas!

Toffee colored red, Kenna didn't want it to be brown:

Brownine Cupcakes with buttercreme frosting and fondant snowmen:

Cinnamon Rolls with buttercreme frosting:

Muddie Buddies with M&M's:

Pics to come soon!

Bday Cake--Crystal

My birthday cake. Yellow cake mix, chocolate frosting, Kit Kat's on the side, and M&M's on top. Delicious.

Knitting Bag/Purse--Crystal

I will be making this bag. I have two different fabric styles I'll be trying. They will be birthday presents for family. I'm starting now to give me something to do while off from school. I will update the blog with pics of the purses when they are done. Here's the link to the website I found the pattern at.

Flower Barretts--Melinda

For these clips, I modified the pattern here so the flower would have 6 petals. I got the idea from a friend who sells them, SOOOOOO if you aren't a crocheter and think these are cute, go HERE and you can buy ya some (prices are fairly modest too).



Melinda-- I'm going to post this, because it's cute. If you still need to add anything you can edit it at any time.

Halloween Treats!--Melinda

So I actually made these last year, but I was looking for pictures of things to post here, since it's been awhile, and saw these and thought it was timely (I've been using that word alot lately). The instructions were out of a Parenting magazine, but I don't know if it's posted. Here's what I remember:

Place white melties (or white chocolate) in a double boiler (I make a make shift double boiler by putting a bowl on top of a small pot of boiling water) or melt in microwave (stirring often), add a couple drops of green food coloring (I used the Crayola Neon colors green I think). Coat one end of pretzel with chocolate mixture, then roll one side in desired "hair" (coconut flakes-you can color that too, stirring in food coloring with the flakes, but I'm the only one who loves coconut, so we used chocolate sprinkles). Then put a hersey Kiss at the top ( make sure that there is enough white chocolate on top so it will stick!). Set on a wax paper or parchment lined cookie sheet and draw on a face!


Put em up as decoration, I filled the cup with beans to hold the pretzels up...although if you have little ones, you will probably end up with a bunch of pretzel stumps because they will snitch them and only eat the tops off :-)

Applesauce--Crystal

I went to my mother-in-law's house on Thursday. She got some apples for the both of us to make applesauce (Kenna's favorite). I got to make some and take it home. Pics to come soon.

Here are the steps:

1. Wash apples.
2. Cut apples.
3. Put apples 3/4 full in big pot with 12 cups water.
4. Cook on medium heat until soft, stirring occasionaly.
(pic)
5. Take the apples out of pot and separate using a _____(I don't remember, I'll find out) into 9x13 dish to catch the juice.
(pic)
6. Then take the juice part and put into another pot and add 1/2 cup per 9x13 filled.
(pic)
7. Cook until boils and simmer for 5 minutes.
8. Fill quart or pint jars with 1/2 inch remaining on top.
9. Put on the lid and ring tightly.
10. Place into another pot full of water just to cover the jars.
11. Let the water boil for 20-30 minutes accoridng to your altitude.
12. Take jars out of pot and let cool on the counter. (make sure the lids are sealed, some will seal while they cool)
(pic)

Kenna helped. She thought it was cool that we were making applesauce. She got to be a taste tester and loved it. I didn't get a pic of that, I wish I would have. I'll take one of her when we open our first jar.

Kenna's Cake--Crystal

We did a ladybug theme for Kenna's 4th birthday. She loved that we had a ladybug shaped cake. It turned out pretty good. She wanted cupcakes too. So I put grass on with tip 233. Then I made chocolate red ladybugs and piped dots and a head in black. Kenna loved it.

Happy 50th!--Crystal

Adam's dad turned 50 this weekend. We did a party for him. I'm very thankful for all the work that everyone helped me with. It turned out great. I made the cake for it. Turned out pretty good. I also made some cookies as well. I'll post some pics soon.

Cake:I made a sheet cake size chocolate cake, cut it in half and stacked it together. I filled it with buttercream icing. The second layer is an 8in round 3 layer yellow cake filled with chocolate buttercream. I frosted it with whilte buttercream and added blue and black fondant accents. I did circles and balls in fondant. Also put a 50, over the hill, and stars on wire and let dry so they could stand up. Turned out pretty good.

Cookies:Sugar cookies cut into shape of 50. Then iced with black icing from Wilton icing in a tube. Very cute.

Freezer Dinners--Amy

So, I know this isn't really a craft, but it takes just as much planning and prep work. I also think it is a good skill to learn.

I figured out how to cook 30 meals in one day!! I'm not kidding. there are 2 books that explain how to do it. Dinner is Ready and Lunch Is Ready!! Some meals, like manicoti or stuffed shells are easier to make and freeze because you don't have cook the noodles. You make meals on the stove top, the oven, the crockpot and then assemble some for cooking later. Then you put the meals in freezer bags or disposable tin pans and freeze them. Then all you have to do to get a nice home cooked meal is to defrost it and warm it up.

We have tried several of the meals and they are really good. And you can use a lot of the meals you usually make as long as you follow the rules like don't cook the noodles and don't freeze potatoes. Other great part is that you can make double of the recipe without any extra time and then you have up to 60 meals. I have not done a full 30 meals because I don't have the freezer space. But since I am in school until 4:30-5pm some days I don't have time to make a nice dinner but can't afford to eat out all the time. This is a great solution. You cook one day and have meals for a month.

You can also check out this site http://www.crockpot365.blogspot.com/ This lady makes something in her crockpot every day and has lots of neat recipies. She even can show you how to make soap or Christmas ordiments in your crockpot.

Vote Please--Crystal

Please click on the vote button under Kenna's pic. It will help me win money, if I win the contest, for college. I really need any extra money so I can pay for college that I'm starting this summer.

Purse--Crystal

I finished the purse I started last week. This is the example I used. I really like the fabric I choose for it. It turned out too cute. I didn't have any instructions for it. I didn't want to pay for it, so I just did it myself. I think I did a pretty good job coming up with how to do it.



I'll post some pics soon.

Bag--Crystal

I finally finished it. I finished sewing the messenger bag I was making for school. It turned out pretty good. It should work. It is kinda small though. I should have made it bigger. But I like it. You can find the instructions here.

I'll post pics soon.

Easter Cake--Crystal

I made a cake for Easter. Kenna wanted one that was shaped like an egg. It turned out pretty good. I know I need more practice though. Adam helped me to shape it. I did a good job. I did a spice cake and cream cheese buttercream frosting. It was really good frosting. I can't wait to cut into it. It looks and smells so good. It's really fun making these cakes. Kenna likes the creations as well. We will be eating it after Easter dinner with Adam's mom and family. Which I need to go start cooking. Thanks for looking.

Popsicles--Crystal

Kenna has been beeging me to make popsicles. She wanted orange juice ones. I had to find some popsicle makers at the store. It took a lot of looking at Wal-mart to finally find where they had them. So we made them and she loves them. I also make kool-aid ones too. They are really good.



We had gone to my mom's this last weekend (they weren't there though, they were racing, my cosin was having a baby shower) and she had made some for Kenna to have when we were there. Ever since then she hasn't wanted some of her own. Thanks mom for the idea. It's fun to have Kenna help me make things and I like that she wants to try new things.

Freezer Jam--Crystal

Yesterday we made Strawberry Freezer Jam. It was so easy to make.

All you need:

*Strawberries-4 cups

*Freezer Jam Pectin-1 pkg.

*Sugar-1 1/2 cups

*Ball Freezer Jars-5 or 6 8oz jars

1. Cut strawberries. Then smash the strawberries. I used my meat grinder for my Kitchenaid mixer. Worked really well. Otherwise use a hand smasher.





2. Mix sugar and pectin in a bowl until blended well.





3. Add four cups of smashed strawberries. Sitr until well blended for 3 mins.





4. Ladle into the freezer jars to fill line. Twist on lids. Let set for 30 mintues to thicken. Then put into freezer.

Refridgerate up to 3 weeks. Freeze up to 1 year.

It was fun to smash the strawberries in the meat grinder. It worked so well. I really liked that I didn't have to cook the strawberries and then boil the jars.

I made a double batch. The recipe said you only needed 5 jars, but I think since I used the grinder it made more. I think it's because there was less volume. If you use the hand smasher it wouldn't get the strawberries so smashed. So I needed more jars. That's fine with me. More stuff to have.

I also bought more strawberries then needed and ended with enough to make another batch. So I had 8 lbs of strawberries to begin with. I used almost all but 2 cups of the smashed strawberries. So I ended up with 19 jars of jam. That should last us a while.

Cookies--Crystal

We made cookies for Easter to give to grandparents. Kenna had fun helping me to cut the cookies. We made bunny faces, easter eggs, and butterflies. They turned out so cute. They are made from sugar cookies and iced with royal icing. I used a stiffer royal icing to outline the decor. Then I thinned it down to fill it in. They turned out too cute.

We then made them into a cookie bouquet. I used a plastic container and filled it with easter grass and jelly beans (all 3 bought at the $ store). I had my hubby drill holes in the top of the lid and put the cookies into the holes. I made a card with my Easter saying, punched a hole in the corner, and tied ribbon around one of the cookie sticks and through the card.

We also made Kenna a name cookie using the same technique. Then I let her help we decorate it. She thought it was cool to have one with her name on it just for her.









I am linking to this website.

Blanket--Jenny

This is a blanket that I made for Rich January 2006, while he was at Great Lakes Naval training. With help from my sister-in-law I cut it somewhat evenly, then we measured the edges and cut strips 1 inch wide, and about 4-6 deep (I can't remember exactly since its been a few years). Then we used safety pins all over to keep the whole thing together in place. Then I tied the lined up strips together and took out the saftey pins. Both fabrics are flannel, so he stayed toasty warm.

Course 2 Cake--Crystal

This was a fun cake to make. First I made 6 in round cakes and frosted with chocolate buttercream. YUM!! We learned the basketweave to put on the side of the cake and then attached the royal icing flowers and color flow birds we had made before to the cake.

I put Adam's name on it because he said he wanted it on the next one. I told him was going to be a girly one, but he didn't care. That's why I made it a chocolate cake with chocolate icing.

More Flowers--Crystal

We made more flowers using royal icing at class last night. We made pansies (yellow/purple), daffodils (yellow), daisies (yellow with purple center), & primroses (pink). They were pretty easy to make. I'm not sure they turned out quite well though. I just need to practice.

Mother-in-law Cake--Crystal

I made a suprise cake for Adam's mom's birthday. She didn't know that I was making it. She loved it. I made it a heart shape cake. Then used roses around it, then royal icing flowers attached. Then I used drop flowers all over and around the edge. Then made rosettes around the top edge. Kenna had fun helping me. She would unwrap the candy kisses I used as a base for the roses.

2nd Night--Crystal

For the 2nd class we used royal icing and made the apple blossom, violet, and violet leaf. The flowers were pretty easy to make. The royal icing was fun and easy to work with. You use different tips to add petals one at a time. They are so cute.

Then we also used color flow and made blue birds. It was fun using the color flow, it was pretty easy. You first make an outline in stiffer icing, then water it down a little and fill it in to make it bubble a little. It kinda makes it 3D. I still need to add the eye for the bird, but I needed to wait until it dried. You'll see them done on the final cake in 2 weeks.

Boot Cake--Crystal

Adam's brother Billy turned 15 on Sunday. His mom wanted me to make a boot cake for his birthday as a suprise. I used the boot cake pan from Wilton (Catherine already had it) and used a chocolate fudge cake mix. I then frosted it with a thin layer on white buttercream as a crumb coat. Then I used chocolate buttercream icing on the boot and regular buttercream for the rest. I used yellow for the sun iced smooth. Then star tip 16 green for the grass. Then added detail in red for the boot. I then added black to the chocolate icing to add the the detail for the bottom and top of the boot. I then used tip 12 and added red, green, and blue balls for the accent around the edge.

Billy liked it. He thought his mom wasn't going to bake him a cake for his birthday and was sad. When we came over with the cake he didn't see us walk in with it and said he didn't know why we came over, there wasn't any cake. Then I told him to look on the counter and he was stunned. It was great. Catherine loved. It turned out pretty good for my first cake without help.

Cake Class #2--Crystal

Well I convinced Adam to let me do the second cake decorating class. We will learn more flowers using royal icing. Royal icing dries hard. It'll be fun to learn some flowers. The first night we learned the rosette and the rosebud (that one's hard) and the mum. I have to work on the rosebud. The rosette is really cute. It's fun taking these classes.

New Purse--Crystal

Here is the new Purse I'm going to make. I also will be making a Purse Organizer for it. I don't have the patterns for them and I don't want to pay for them so I'm going to try doing them myself. I hope they turn out just as good. I think I've figured out how to do it. But I still need to finish my messenger bag first. I have it half way done. I'll try to finish it soon.

Conversation Heart barrett's--Melinda

First off, lemme introduce myself :-) My name is Melinda and I grew up in SW Washington state. I went to college in Rexburg, ID where I met Crystal who, when we recently got re-acquainted with each other via FaceBook, invited me to contribute to this blog! My 'craftiness' has gone through phases, when I was little I thought I was VERY good at everything.....then I grew up and realized that I was really only good at a FEW things....and now I'm honing those few things. And since I haven't perused this blog much yet on my own, I'm not totally sure of what to put on here, but I thought I'd do a pseudo tutorial with this one. Onto the craft:


I got into crocheting when a former roommate taught me (she had learned from her adopted grandma in Rexburg) and I have really come to enjoy it. I don't get to do it very often, but for me it's a lot easier than knitting.

A friend of mine does amazing ribbon hair clips for girls and that's what got me started. One of these days I'll post about the curly ribbon ones. Anyhow....I found a pattern for a crocheted heart (click here) and made one exactly as shown for practice and to get a feel for it. Since it's quite a bit BIGGER than a hair barret should be....I modified it by only going 9 rows before making the top part of the hearts and chaining the border all the way around. (I used crochet thread and I think a 1.9cm hook...or 2.1 I can't remember, it all depends on what size you want). I then used a needle and red crochet thread to sew the word "Love" onto the pink ones. Then I used a high temp glue gun (lower temps will cause the ribbon to fall off) to glue ribbon around the outside edge of a double prong clip (can be found at any beauty supply store, such as Sally's or Peerless) and then arranged the hearts the way I wanted and hot glued them onto the ribbon on the clip and voila!

I have to say that I think these are one of my most favorite accomplishments of the recent past!

Apron --Neisha

Here is the apron I made my little boy, Rulon. He got to pick out the fabric and thought it was so cool. He loves to wear it whenever we cook. I just copied the pattern that I made for me in high school. It was very easy and a very fast project. I plan on making a bunch from extra fabric I have and sell them.

Rose Cake--Crystal

Today we decorated a cake with roses. I practiced them, but they aren't turing out so great. We'll have to keep trying. But still pretty. I do love how the frosting turned out to ice the cake. I think I whipped it too much and it was really fluffy. But it tasted good and spread really easy. It was fun learning all this stuff. I think I might have to take the next class as well. I'll have to convince Adam of that.

Cake Class--Crystal

Today was my third cake class. We had to bring cupcakes already iced to decorate. We learned new techniques... the shell, drop flowers, faces, and the rose. It was lots of fun.

My roses didn't quite turn out. I need to practice.

I think one of them really turned out

like a carnation, still pretty looking.

Valentines' Candy--Crystal

Today I made Valentines candy. I bought some candy melts from Joann Crafts. I melted them down and dipped my brownie balls (I used a brownie mix instead of a cake mix, you could use any cake mix) into the light chocolate flavor. Then drizzled the red vanilla on top.

I had some extra so I made them into hearts candies in the candy mold I bought. Then I drizzled red hearts in the middle of the chocolate ones. It was really easy to make.

Counted cross stitches--Jenny

These are the counted cross stitches that I've done and have pictures in the computer. More to come later!

Update--Crystal

I wanted to write an update
about the cake I made.
We enjoyed eating the cake the other day.
Kenna had the best comment about it so I thought I'd add it here.

Kenna said, "Mom, you make the best cake ever!"

How cute is that. She is my favorite fan.

Past Cakes--Amy

I thought I might post a few of my favorite cakes that I have made over the years. They take a lot of time, but I love the end product and being able to take pride in the details. Most cakes don't turn out this well, but these are my best. A few of these are listed on Wilton.com. A few are my own thinking and ideas. The rest are from other magazines and other sites.



These I made for Haden's 3rd Birthday. I used color flow to make the face and symbols. It was easier than you might think. I used an old superman pan to make the body of Mr. Incredible.







This is a cake I made for 3 girls who were baptized along with their mother. They lived in my Branch and I loved them dearly. I covered the cake in fondant. And the loops of the bow and curls are also fondant and then dried in place before putting them on the cake.

This is a cake I made for a family reunion. I made the cookies that listed family members, put a hole in each cookie and then looped ribbon through each hole. The base is a double layer of half sheet cake which I mixed with a pound cake mix so it would be firmer. The leaves of the tree were made of wire with fake leaves and wrapped in floral tape. I put styrofoam inside the pipe and then put the in the branches. Then took a PVC pipe and placed it in the middle. Then used brown frosting up the pipe to make the tree. The tricky part was transporting it. If you ever try anything like this, I suggest you put the cookies on after you put it down for the final time (and bring extra frosting in case of cracking).


This is a 3D Mario Mushroom cake for Haden's 5th birthday. I took two large cupcake pans from Wilton and then placed them together. Then set to work turning it into a mushroom. I didn't do a very good job at making it stand up though and it ended up falling over before the party. I felt really bad but at least I got some good pictures.


















This cake was for my sister's 21st birthday. She had just gotten back from her life long dream of swimming with the dolphins. So I made this cake for her. It was made mostly with candies this time. I found the clams and shark gummies and a gas station. The sand is crushed grahm crackers. The umbrella is melted colored chocolate I painted in a bowl and then peeled out. I used Airheads to make the boogy board for the boy and the beach towel. Then I used my smallest tips to pipe the people. this one was my own idea and I was so excited it turned out so well. My sister loved it and so did everyone else.