Crocheted Fold-Over Clutch

I saw something like this while online shopping, they wanted a lot for it tho and I had an "aha" moment - as in "aha, I can totally make that"!

Not having a pattern I had to wing this - I kept it pretty simple; just did a half double crochet stitch and made it the size I thought a clutch should be. To form the handles, just crochet a chain stitch for the length of the size of the handle opening, skipping over the half double crochet stitches that are underneath the opening - make an equal number of chain stitches to the half double crochet stitches you are skipping over. When the space is long enough to be a handle, join back into making half double crochets on top of the previous row. I'm not sure I'm explaining this very well? Very easy to do - biggest thing is to count how many HDC's (half double crochet's) you make before you start to chain stitch, then rejoin on the other side with the same number - so you have placed the opening in the middle of the purse.

Continue crocheting the HDC's until you think it's long enough to fold over and be clutch size, then make another handle in the other side. What you are making is a rectangle with a slit in each end. This one is about 11" wide by 19" long, you are then going to fold the rectangle in half and sew the sides together forming the clutch (folded it's 11"wide by about 9 1/2" tall).

Once I sewed the sides together I added some fringe along the top few rows. Just 'cuz.

You can carry the clutch by the handles or fold in half and carry it like this.

I sewed a little pouch out of this flowered cotton material
the same size as the inside of the clutch. I attached  a very
simple small rectangle of material to the inside of the pouch
to make a pocket. 

I then free-hand sewed it inside
the clutch to keep it in place. 

one year ago: chicken enchilada suizas - we love these!
two years ago: Sarge on a diet - the dog's on the blog.

Breakfast Egg Muffins

I've been trying to find breakfast ideas that are lower in carbs (hello January!) - I love basted eggs but need toast (or sweet potato toast, click here for that recipe) - just eating an egg or two by itself isn't gonna cut it. So I've been experimenting with different options and really like these muffins.  I've seen breakfast egg muffins lots of places but when I searched for a recipe they all seemed to vary so much I got tired of looking and decided to just wing it....they are basically baked scrambled eggs and you can add whatever fillings you want - time to clean out the produce/cheese/meat drawers!

I only made 8 in case they didn't work for some reason, or if I didn't like them - I'll make more next time. This isn't the fastest breakfast item to make since you have to bake them for like 15 minutes, but they can be made ahead of time and kept in the fridge - mine kept just fine for the 3 days it took me to eat them and probably would be fine a couple more days after that, and I'm betting they can also be frozen. You can eat these hot or cold - it'd be a good thing to take with you in the car if you're in a hurry!

Depending on what fillings you add these would be great with salsa, ketchup, sour cream, whatever dippy thing you like (unless you're in the car of course haha)! Oh, and one more thing - two of these are only about 150 calories - woohoo! I'm not great at math so if I figured the calorie count wrong I'm sorry ;) but 6 eggs (420), less than 1/2 cup pre-cooked turkey sausage crumbles (70), sprinkle of low fat shredded cheese (80), and a big splash of egg whites (50) comes out to under 80 calories per muffin. 

To make 8 of these: crack 6 eggs into a 4-cup glass measuring bowl and add a couple splashes of egg white substitute and a splash of water - beat together with a fork. Thoroughly coat a muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray, add whatever fillings you want (chopped into little pieces - I did spinach and pre-cooked turkey sausage crumbles) then pour the eggs over the fillings - I left a little space at the top in case they puffed up. Sprinkle with a little shredded cheese and bake at 350' until the eggs are cooked thru, it took me about 15 minutes. Run a knife around the edges and carefully remove from the pan.

When there isn't enough batter to fill up the whole pan I've always put a little water in the empty ones - I'm not really sure why, I think it's supposed to help the muffins bake more evenly? I just googled it and it seems like it's not necessary...but since I've always done it I'll probably keep doing it!

I chopped too much spinach so decided to try a microwave egg scramble while waiting for the muffins (I was hungry!!). In a microwave safe bowl combine 1 egg, chopped spinach, I added a few sausage crumbles and microwaved for 1 minute. Stir and micro another 30 seconds. Topped with some cherry tomatoes and a tiny bit of avocado. Yum - this is also a winner breakfast (and faster than the muffins...although not nearly as portable!).

two years ago: fruitcake squares - and they are delish!

Hawaiian-Inspired Jewelry Set

LeDonna made this necklace for her mother-in-law Claudette a while ago - isn't it pretty? It's pearls, shells, beads, and this pretty flower pendant...for Christmas Claudette asked for matching earrings, and I love how LeDonna made these earrings out of pearls and beads to coordinate with the necklace. They don't match "exactly" but compliment each other. This is a great idea - if you have jewelry that you love but don't have another piece that matches it, just find some coordinating beads or whatever and create something yourself!

Hmmm, maybe I need to make a pompom necklace to go with my pompom earrings? Just a thought...










one year ago: spicy crumb-topped broccoli
two years ago: washi tape lamp shade

hanging fabric ribbon hoop! ...by Brooke

so the other day I was hanging out with my sister and we made crafts to decorate her office and we decided to make this hoop with ribbons on it. it's soooo cute! we got all of our materials from hobby lobby. we found a wood hoop and different color ribbon, and ribbon with pom poms on it. then we tied the ribbon in a random order around the hoop! it is so simple and looks so good! I really want to make one for my room!











one year ago: glass vase/tp holder

Cookie Sheet Hack

Not sure this is a "hack" but since it's another way to use something I'm calling it that...

A little side story - I'm on day 4 of a 30 day no-sugar challenge and for whatever reason decided that I really, really, wanted to make cookies. I'm not a super big sweet freak but I do love cookies. So of course that is what I'm gonna want to make when I cannot eat them. And can't lick the bowl.  And can't lick my hand that has excess cookie dough on it. Sigh.

I'll post the cookie recipe I ended up making tomorrow - I woke up dreaming about snickerdoodles (my favorite) but doubt I have the willpower to not eat one, and needed to find a different cookie to make that would be easier to resist!  I have no idea if these taste good until I get some feedback from the neighbors haha, but they look and smell delish.

So getting to the hack already - it's best to bake cookies on a flat rimless cookie sheet, and you want the sheet to be cool between batches...so if you only have one sheet (like me), it's not very convenient to wait for your one sheet to cool down. I do have a couple baking sheets with an edge all the way around (also known as a  'jelly roll pan') tho so my tip today is to just turn the baking sheets upside down and put your cookie dough (on top of parchment) on the bottom. You get a flat surface this way (I'm sure there is a scientific reason to not bake them in the pan versus on the bottom of the pan but I don't have that info - I just know that you are not supposed to put them IN the pan that has a lip..)

Voila - a second baking sheet!

one year ago: turkey rueben sandwich
two years ago: make a scrabble tile keychain 

Noah's Chocolate Birthday Cake

Chocolate cake is not my favorite thing. Is it yours? I feel like it tends to be dry and just doesn't interest me. So when I asked Angela what flavor Noah would like for his birthday cake I cringed when she said "chocolate or strawberry". I would have normally gone with strawberry but he's 4 and likes firetrucks and I thought the pink cake would clash with the truck. So that leaves chocolate - sigh. I started by telling you that so you'd understand that when I tell you I ate an entire piece of this cake, it is seriously not a normal thing for me! This one turned out so moist (gross word but best cake texture), rich, chocolatey...and even though it weighed a ton (I think 'cuz of the cars on top!) the cake was very light - not easy to do with a chocolate cake. I'm pretty sure that, once again, the secret is filling it with stabilized whipped cream (are you tired of my mentioning stabilized whipped cream yet? HA!).

I made a doctored up boxed triple chocolate chip cake mix (extra egg, scoop of sour cream, dash of vanilla, small box of chocolate pudding) in 2 9"pans. Let them cool; meanwhile, make 2 cups of stabilized whipped cream (click here for the recipe) and buttercream frosting. Divide the buttercream so you can dye a small portion red for the name, leave enough white to frost just the top of the cake, then add cocoa powder to the rest to make chocolate frosting.

After they cooled completely, put one layer on a serving plate and tuck small pieces of parchment or waxed paper under the edges all the way around to keep the plate clean while decorating. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a big open tip with the chocolate buttercream frosting and pipe a fat circle on top of the cake layer around the top edge. This creates a dam to keep the whipped cream inside the cake. Then spread lots of whipped cream inside the frosting circle on top of the bottom cake layer. Top with second layer and frost the top with white frosting, and the sides with chocolate buttercream.

To decorate I searched for a firetruck but of course couldn't find one...I did find this set of little trucks tho and one is a firetruck so I changed my plan a little. Using a smaller round cardboard circle to mask the top of the cake and keep it clean, I sprinkled crushed chocolate wafers around about 1.5" of the outer top edge - then lifted off the cardboard and piped his name in red frosting using a small pastry tip. To finish I piped big swirly stars in a pattern around the top and bottom (using them to hold the trucks from tipping off the cake - the cookie crumbs made it so the cars wouldn't stick!), then put thin oreos around the bottom (they reminded me of tires)...of course when Noah saw the cake the first thing he did was pull oreos off hahahah.



PS: I washed the trucks before putting them on the cake!

PPS: I added some seedless strawberry jam to the top of the bottom layer of cake before the whipped cream to tie in the second flavor he likes, but everyone said they couldn't taste it at all and wouldn't bother adding it next time. Did it help make the cake so moist? Maybe, but you really didn't notice it so...I'll leave it up to you if you want to add it!

Buttercream Frosting:

-1 stick soft unsalted butter

-4 cups confectioners sugar

-1 teaspoon vanilla extract

-pinch of coarse salt

-milk or cream (a couple tablespoons, add a little at

a time until you get the right consistency)

cream the butter until smooth, add the

remaining ingredients and beat until smooth

and fluffy. 

Resolutions...

Yes, I told you a couple days ago that I'm not into making resolutions - but I found this and love it. Not exactly resolutions, but certainly ideas I'd like to live by this year: 

1.1.2018 Happy New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! I'm posting a little later today because we got up at the butt-crack of dawn this morning to go to the Rose Parade and I wanted to be able to share a few pictures of our adventure with you. We went with a group from Paul's Photo on a "photo walk" which was the perfect way to see the floats... we got there 2 hours before the parade started and were able to be up close to the floats, bands, horses, and other marchers while they were staging - an amazing way to take pictures and talk to people. Once the parade started we got out of there (did you know there's like 800,000 people there? I did not!), but since we were able to walk thru the entire length of floats and marchers beforehand we didn't miss a thing! Best way to see the parade for sure. I don't take photos like all these professional guys, but I still think I got some good ones - what a fun day!

people sleep right on the curb to get a good spot!

 

these "angels" are from the SoCal Mini Horse Sanctuary...

I'm super allergic to horses but I want to wear this costume and walk the parade!

I love that the Budweiser float has a dalmatian running around on the top! 

look how different the parrot looks - I took this one when
 it was still dark out, the one above is in the daylight

lesson - always check your background... this looks like we have birds sprouting from our heads!