Boho Earrings

I saw this idea on Michaels.com along with a necklace, they didn't provide instructions for making the earrings so I just used the picture for inspiration and winged it. I did change a couple things - theirs are hanging on dangling ear wires, I did mine off silver posts; and it looks like they used chain above the beads but I substituted copper tube beads. These took me less than 1/2 hour to make and I love how they turned out!










Supplies:

•  something to hang them from - silver posts like mine (with a little loop on the bottom to attach the beads), hoops, ear wires...whatever. 
• 2 2" eye pins with loop on one side
• 4 small copper tube beads
• 12 4mm beads
• 6 silver feather charms
• 4 jump rings
• small needle nose pliers

Directions:

for each earring - string 6 beads then 2 copper tube beads on the eye pin, bend the top of the pin using the pliers into a closed loop. Attach to a jump ring (open the jump ring using 2 tweezers, pull one side towards you and push the other side away from you - put thru the beaded loop and close by reversing how you opened the ring). Put the 3 feather charms on another jump ring and then attach to the bottom of the beaded strand. 

how to open a jump ring

one year ago today: the best baked beans!

Spinach, Beet, and Goat Cheese Salad

This salad might seem pretty basic and traditional: toss fresh baby spinach leaves, chopped up cooked beets, and crumbled goat cheese in a big bowl - I added some toasted pine nuts for crunch but more traditional is walnut pieces if you like nuts. The killer part of this salad is the honey-mustard vinaigrette recipe - SO good!

1 T. balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 t. honey
1 1/2 t. Dijon mustard
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
1/4 cup olive oil

Whisk the first 5 ingredients in a small bowl then slowly whisk in oil until blended.

orignal recipe found here.

PS: if you want a different spinach salad with hard boiled eggs, bacon, and almonds try my sissy's delish version, click here for that post.

one year ago today: harvey wallbanger

Wonder Woman Keychain

I have a friend that has been going thru a rough-patch lately but she is so optimistic and positive that she is quite the inspiration to me! Her being so up-beat, strong, and hopeful for the future, while still rocking her hectic day-to-day life, has earned her the nickname "Wonder Woman" - so when I saw this charm at the craft store I immediately knew I had to make her a fun keychain to remind her (and myself!) that there is a super-hero in all of us, just waiting for the right time to step in and help out.

I made a simple tassel with a long piece of red leather cord I had laying around, tied with yellow embroidery thread (going with the super hero colors here haha) and put it on the keychain. Next up string a few beads on a 2" eye pin, make a small loop at the top using needle nose pliers, and attach it to the keychain. Then add the charm (which already has a loop on the top) and call it done.

To finish I made one of those cute paper pouches inspired by Ronda (remember - I made 120 of them for her? Yeah, I'm not going to forget how to make them for a good long time. Can you believe I even wanted to make another haha?). Since I was going for a super hero theme I made the pouch out of blue paper with a 1" red paper band around it, then glued on what seemed "super hero-y" details. Punched a hole in the back and tied the keychain to the top of the pouch and slid the rest inside. Cute right? She was thrilled  :)

Jilly's Jam...Berry-Peach Screech

It's too blasted hot outside to feel like standing over the stove canning jam - but strawberries were on sale and the peaches I just bought are so good and sweet that I really wanted to make jam...so I did the next best thing and made freezer jam this time! This is a small batch recipe which I love (some times I really question making like 12 jars of jam for just me!), this makes 4 half-pints.

Why the name "berry-peach screech"? 'Cause making up cute jam names is half the fun of making jam! My last one was "so good it's scary blueberry" - click here for that post.

Did you know you can freeze in canning jars? I did not. So for this experiment I did 2 in glass and 2 in traditional plastic square containers. I made this a couple days ago and the jars are doing just fine in the freezer (I keep waiting for them to crack!), just make sure to leave about 1/2" space at the top before putting on the lids to account for expansion during the freezing process.

3 cups mashed strawberries (about 1 1/2 pounds fresh berries)
1 ripe peach
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 Tablespoons instant pectin (I've never worked with this before, it comes in a small round container. make sure it's the kind intended for freezer jams or heatless recipes).

1. Wash, hull, and coarsely chop the berries, then mash with a potato masher. I like to leave chunks so don't smash it to smithereens. Peel, pit, and chop the peach into small pieces.
2. Combine the berries, peach, sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla in a large glass bowl. Stir well and let stand until berries have released some of the juice, about 30 minutes. 
3. Add pectin 1 Tablespoon at a time, stirring until well combined after each addition. Let stand 5 minutes to activate the pectin.
4. Spoon jam into clean, wide-mouth, half-pint jars, leaving 1/2" headspace. Wipe rims clean with a damp paper towel. Loosely apply clean lids, label the jars, and set in freezer.
5. Tighten the lids once the jam is completely frozen. Store in the freezer up to 1 year or in fridge up to 1 month.

37 calories per 2 Tablespoon serving

It didn't set up as firm as cooked jam, but not super runny either (when that happens we call it "ice cream topping" and still enjoy it!). I did spoon it over vanilla ice cream last night and also put it on my english muffin with peanut butter this morning. The stuff is good!

Mug Cozy

You've heard of the whole "Christmas in July" thing, right? Getting a head start on Christmas gifts, especially if you are planning to give homemade gifts, is a great idea - one that I rarely plan ahead for and end up frantically crocheting at the last minute! Not this year...I'm determined to get going with plenty of time to spare (we'll see how long that lasts haha).

I crocheted these easy mug cozies after seeing them on our trip to Ireland - I purchased the cute sheep on a stick there, but the crochet part of the cozy is so simple there was no way I was going to spend like $15 on one! This was a super quick project, just a matter of minutes to crochet a rectangle long enough to wrap around a mug - then hold it closed with the stick. I like this better than the more fitted cozies I've seen because it's adjustable to many different sized mugs - clever.

Now since I only bought 2 of the sheep, I don't have more of the stick things here and I'm either going to have to figure out how to make them, or use something else as the closure. A large pin would work and be pretty cute actually, or I'll find little things to hot glue to the top of a short dowel.

For the crocheted body I played with different yarns and simple stitches - all single crochet, all double, all half-double, creating a pattern with single and double...it really doesn't matter. Just crochet whatever looks pretty to you!

I'm thinking big safety pins like these would make good closures too...I'll let you know what I make or find to keep the cozy on the mug!

Granola Bites

My sister went on a road trip and right before she left I woke up thinking I should make her a treat for the car - last summer I made my niece popcorn toffee crack bars and they were a big hit (click here for that post and recipe), but I wanted to make my sissy something different. Of course I decided I was making whatever at 7a.m. still in my pajamas so had to make it with ingredients I already had on hand...enter these granola bites. I tweaked a recipe for granola bars I found here, and they turned out really good! So good that my sis declared she was telling everyone she made them and if I wanted her to write a blog post on how good she did she'd be happy to do so hahahaha. Dork.

Ingredients:

• 2 ripe bananas
• 2 T. honey
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1 t. vanilla
• 2 1/4 cups oats
• 1 cup honey nut chex cereal 
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup chopped macadamia nuts
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• pinch of coarse salt

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350'. Spray mini muffin tins with non-stick spray. 
2. In a big glass measuring bowl microwave peanut butter, honey, and vanilla for 30 seconds.
3. Add bananas and mash together with a fork, then stir in brown sugar and mix well.
4. Add in the remaining ingredients and stir to combine (it'll be thick). 
5. Fill the mini muffin tins equally with about 2 T. dough in each, flatten the tops so they are about even with the top of the mini muffin tin.
6. Bake about 12-14 minutes until edges are golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely. Store in the fridge. Makes about 32 bites.

note: you can also freeze these. 

How to Sharpen Knives

A quick video to show you how to use the knife sharpener that comes with a block of knives! I've never had an electric sharpener but it's easy to do with one of these stick things (what the heck is this thing called? I'm pretty sure it's not "stick thing").

Oh and PS: I see on the second time thru when I wasn't trying to explain it while sharpening that I turn the knife over to sharpen the other side on the top of the stick instead of holding it under the stick...I usually sharpen without thinking about it too much - either of these ways works!

Paper Gift Pouches

I'll start by saying I love these paper pouches Ronda designed - just to get that out of the way.

She is working on a big order and needed 120 of these pouches made - to make one you need to score, cut, fold, tape, and decorate - naturally I opened my big mouth and volunteered to do them at home thinking I'd be able to whip them out in no time sitting in my craft room listening to music with no distractions. How bad could it be? Did I mention 120 of them? Yeah.....

So a couple days and like 11 hours later I finish. And I kid you not while packing them and all the supplies up to take back to her I see a stack of mini glue dots on the corner of my table and think to myself "what the? what are those for?" Oh sh...ugar, I missed a step. I'm not gonna lie that I debated ignoring the fact that I did them wrong and hope she wouldn't notice but that goes against my perfectionism and knew that I had to make it right. I didn't tell her that part and she doesn't need to know haha - they're done and look great and overall I love this project. And even though you might think I'll never want to make another one, I will. This is too great and useful to not make more of - you can scale them up or down to fit whatever you want (I actually made a small one to hold a gift card right after I finished number 120 of Ronda's!) and as long as you aren't making so many they really don't take very long at all!

To make a 4x6" like these you'll need:

• one 6" piece of double sided cardstock (note all of these supplies are from Stampin' Up, I love love love this wood patterned paper, it comes in a bunch of different grains)
• one 4x6" piece of the same paper
• scissors, something to score with, adhesive (I used tear off tape and snail glue, glue stick would probably work)
• 1 1/2 inch circle punch

Score the 6" piece of paper 1 inch in on the sides and 3/4" up on the bottom. Using the punch remove a half circle from the top middle edge that hasn't been scored. Purely for decoration and not necessary if you just leave it straight. Cut a square out of the 2 bottom edges where the folds come together, that's extra paper you don't need and makes the edges bulkier. Fold the 3 scored edges in.

Turn the scored paper over so the flaps are turned underneath, add adhesive to the bottom edge of the bigger piece and stick to the bottom edge of the 4x6" piece paying attention to which way you want the wood to show - Ronda did the same pattern on the front and back of the pouch with the contrasting pattern on the inside. Then glue down the 2 sides forming the pouch. 

after scoring, cut out the little square made at each bottom corner where the score lines intersect (see next picture) fold the edges in along the score lines, then turn the paper over

make a half circle notch on the top edge if you want. the white lines are where you'll be taping to the smaller paper

 tape the bottom edge of the larger folded card to the bottom edge of the smaller card as shown.

glue the 2 sides of the larger folded paper (laying down on the table in this picture) to the smaller piece of paper

back of the pouch

front of pouch

You could stop there but if you want to decorate like the ones shown here you'll need:

Look - this is my favorite one! Know why?
Yep, it's #120 ;)

• sticky foam dimensionals
• mini glue dots
• paper lace doily
• bakers twine
• 1 1/2" white paper circle stamped with message or design of your choice. Ronda filled her pouches with packages of twine and stamped "we are cut out to be friends" on the paper circle. 
• it's hard to see in these pics but behind the white paper circle is a little bit bigger circle punched with a starburst punch out of silver glitter paper. 

-Glue a paper doily to the front using snail glue or glue stick.
-Wrap twine twice around the pouch and tie in a little bow.
-Attach the glitter circle using 2 or 3 foam dimensionals (they give the design more of a 3D look and makes attaching over the twine easier).
-Using mini glue dots (here's what I missed) glue the paper circle to the glitter circle. The glitter paper is hard to stick to, the mini glue dots are stronger than snail glue or glue stick!

Zucchini Pie

Well it's that time of year...zucchini, zucchini, zucchini! Last week I posted a great Zucchini Lasagna recipe from The Italian Dish (click here for that post), and today it's Zucchini Pie - different than the lasagna for sure (waaaay less cheese for starters!) but just as good. Fun to have different ways to switch up eating our summer veggies.

Ingredients:

• 3 pounds zucchini (about 5 for me)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, divided
• 1 1/2 T. olive oil
• 1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
• 2 T. chopped fresh oregano (I used 1 T. dried)
• 5 garlic cloves, minced (I only used 1 t. minced)
• 7 large eggs
• 2/3 cup 1% low-fat milk
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 1/2 ounces shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese (about 2/3 cup)
• 2 ounces grated parmesan (about 1/2 cup)

Directions:

1. Using a spiralizer, cut zucchini into noodles, or cut zucchini into long noodles using a julienne peeler.  Place zucchini in a colander in sink. Toss with 1 teaspoon salt and let stand 20 minutes.
2. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high. Add tomatoes, oregano, and garlic; cook, stirring often, until tomatoes are wilted, 3-4 minutes. Remove mixture from pan and cool slightly.
3. Preheat oven to 375'. Place half of zucchini noodles on a clean kitchen towel, wrap towel around zucchini and twist/squeeze until all liquid is extracted (note: I did this a little differently by taking small handfuls of zucchini and pressing them between my hands over the sink to get out a lot of the liquid, then put in paper towels and squeeze some more, repeat with all of the zucchini).
4. Whisk eggs in a large bowl until lightly beaten. Whisk in milk, flour, pepper, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add tomato mixture, cheeses, and zucchini; toss.
5. Wrap bottom of a 9" springform pan tightly with foil; coat bottom and sides with non-stick cooking spray. Pour egg mixture into pan. Bake at 375' until set in the middle, 50 minutes to 1 hour. Cool 10-15 minutes. Remove sides from pan; cut zucchini pie into 6 wedges. 

serves 6 (or 3 if you're like us!). It's great hot, at room temperature, and cold. 

calories 267, fat 14.8g, carb 17g, fiber 3g

the recipe came from Cooking Light

we had it with pesto chicken (click here for my fave pesto recipe - so good!)

Pitcher Mojitos

Al and Cathy came over for dinner last week - it was a hot night and we decided to eat in the screened in porch, mojitos seemed like the perfect thing to serve with the appetizer "everything" cheese ball I made (click here for that post). I've never made them before because I felt like there was going to be too many steps, but I was wrong - these are easy and simple to whip up, and making them in a pitcher meant we weren't making one at a time and could enjoy seconds with no hassle.

you'll need:
1/2 cup white sugar (note: I used raw natural sugar)
36 fresh mint leaves, plus more for (optional) garnish
3 limes, quartered
1 cup white rum (ok, ok, I added more than this)
1 liter club soda

directions:
Muddle sugar and mint leaves together in pitcher until leaves are well broken down. Add limes and muddle until limes are juiced. (note: I used a potato masher to muddle - basically "muddling" is just smashing it all up!) Stir rum into sugar mixture, add club soda and stir. Serve over ice and garnish with additional mint leaves if desired.

note: I added at least another 1/2 cup of rum (there wasn't much left in the bottle after using the 1 cup as listed). It was a little strong but tasted good! If you stick with the 1 cup I would probably not add as much club soda so it doesn't get too watered down.

I found the recipe here.

Everything Cheeseball

Cassandra asked me the other day if I know how to make a cheeseball - I said yes, because of course I would have made a cheeseball before...but then it occurred to me that while I've made tons of dips and spreads I have not actually made a cheeseball. So of course I had to fix that - here's the one I picked for my first attempt, it's based on a Rachel Ray recipe I found here, and it is great. Loaded with flavor and texture - we seriously pigged out on this!

Ingredients:

• 1 8-ounce brick cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 teaspoons creamed horseradish
• 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar
• 1/4 cup real bacon pieces
• 1/4 cup poppy seeds
• 1/4 cup sesame seeds
• 2 T. dried minced onion
• 2 T. dried minced garlic
• coarse sea salt and black pepper

Directions:

In a bowl, mix together cream cheese, sour cream, horseradish, cheddar, and bacon.

Form the cheese mixture into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap to chill for at least one hour.

In a small bowl, mix together the onion, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, garlic, salt and pepper.

Once cheeseball is set, put the seasoning mixture in a pie plate or on a big plate and roll the cheese ball in the mix until evenly coated. Serve with bagel chips, crackers, skinny breadsticks. 

PS: it's called "everything" based on the seasoning used on an everything bagel - I love those too...

Organizing Garden Stuff

This would probably be a better post to show you in the fall when you are putting everything away from the garden, but this way you can plan ahead and work on getting things in order before it's time to store it all...I don't know about you but when I'm done with the project my least favorite thing is having to then organize it to store it - this way you'll be ready and things can just go in their places easily!

I have a wall in the back of the garage where we hung up a large piece of peg board and that's where I hang everything - all those garden stakes and supports, trellises, bird feeder, decorative crap (I love garden tchotchke crap!! I seriously don't like clutter anywhere else but in the garden all bets are off ;). I have Mickey Mouse wind chimes, gnomes, statues, flags, star stakes...), etc. It pretty much all can go on the wall - gets it off the ground, keeps the garage less cluttered, and in the spring I can easily find what I'm looking for. If you have the space - try it!

Everything I own and store in the off-season is not in this picture! I took it after removing a bunch of things but you get the idea...

Grilled Artichokes

"Dearest Bestie - could you do a blog on how to make grilled artichokes?"

I got that text last week from Mary and I'm so happy to make these for her - I sorta forgot how much we LOVE grilled artichokes and this was a perfect reason to remind myself how to do them. And I have to say...they turned out GREAT and we scarfed them for dinner last night.

I pulled up a recipe online to make sure I knew how to do it - and I do, other than the online recipe has brushed herbed olive oil all over the halved artichokes after steaming and before grilling. I tried that and it's a delicious addition of extra flavor (not to mention it helped them not stick to the grill, D liked that part). To make the oil put a tablespoon or so of chopped fresh herbs (I used rosemary and thyme from my pallet herb garden) in a small glass bowl, top with a couple tablespoons of olive oil and microwave for 30 seconds until warm. Set aside letting it steep while preparing the 'chokes.

1. cut off about an inch from the top, then using kitchen scissors snip all the little pokey points off the leaves. peel off any little "bad" leaves around the bottom, peel the old stuff off the stalk and trim it to a couple inches.
2. cut the artichoke in half; using a strong spoon scoop out the fuzzy choke and small inner leaves from the center. you do not want to eat the fuzzy part for sure! you can rub the cut edges with a lemon wedge to help them not turn brown, but I didn't have a lemon so can't show you that part, they turned out fine without it...
3. put about an inch or so of salted water in the bottom of a large pan fitted with a vegetable steamer, bring to a boil. place the artichokes cut side down on the steamer, cover, turn heat down to a simmer. 
4. steam for about 20 minutes until you can pull off an outer leave pretty easily and the choke is getting soft when poked with a fork.
5. brush all over with the herbed olive oil, sprinkle with coarse kosher salt.
6. put on a hot grill for 5-10 minutes until they have pretty grill marks and are cooked completely thru.
7. eat to your hearts content! yum - these are so good! 

In case you've never eaten an artichoke and are a little intimidated - pull off the outer leaves, turn over and scrape the "meat" off the leaf with your teeth, then discard the leaf. Once all leaves are pulled off you will be left with the heart of the artichoke - it's sort of like a solid meaty chunk, cut that into pieces and savor :). You can dip the artichoke leaves and heart into mayo or melted butter if you want to sauce them - I made a quick sauce of mayo, lemon juice, pepper, and a teaspoon of the herbed olive oil. 

after cutting in half remove the fuzzy inner choke and small leaves. for comparison - left is cleaned, right is not

one half cleaned (see all the fuzzy part pulled out), and what the cleaned other half looks like on  the outside

steam cut-side down on a steamer basket in a little water

Off-The-Shoulder Tip

I only own one off the shoulder top - I like them just fine but hate how they don't stay down off my shoulders! When I move my arms the neckline pops off my shoulders,  I spend all my time fussing with it and yanking it back down...I dislike annoying clothes haha. So, in comes my sister with this great tip that actually works (do I sound like I didn't believe her when she first told me?) and I have to share with any of you that are in the same boat.

The basic idea is to attach something to the inside of the shirt that goes under your armpit and stops the shirt from riding up. There are 2 ways to go about doing this:

1) put 2 safety pins on an elastic ponytail holder, pin one to the front of the sleeve and one to the back - you'll have to play around with how far apart to pin them, it depends on the shirt and the distance under your arm. When you put the shirt on, your arm goes between the ponytail holder and the sleeve so the ponytail holder is under your armpit.

2) or you can sew a short length of elastic or ribbon (or whatever you have) to the shirt in the same place you would put the safety pins.

I did the second option and sewed a piece of ribbon in my shirt; because the material is very sheer and fragile I didn't want to poke holes in it with the safety pin method, and for the same reason I couldn't sew the ribbon in on the underside of my arm either so I sewed it to the hem at the front of the sleeve and the back. I used 8" of ribbon so it was long enough to go from the top front of the shirt, under my armpit, and back up to the top back of the shirt. See my photos to get a better idea of what I'm trying to say!

I had to attach at the neckline hem because of the material this shirt is made out of.

this is what it will look like after I sew it. 

once sewn (or safetly pinned) your arm goes between the strap and the sleeve

trying to show you where the strip goes, see how it's under my arm and the sleeve is on top?

Doing either option makes it so the shirt stays down on your shoulders and will not pop up! For real! And you can barely feel the strap or ponytail holder, didn't bother me at all. Genius. I did this to my shirt and immediately wore it to lunch - the waitress said "oh I love your top, I can't wear that style because it won't stay down off my shoulders..."and I said "I know! Let me show you what I did..." and she loved the tip! Look sissy, paying your tip forward and making people happy. ;)