Numbers, Numbers Everywhere!

I made these quite awhile ago and despite the homemade look I just love them! I used a small cup to trace lots of circles on card stock, then did LOTS of cutting. The font is called "Peeps" from dafont and I think works great for those tricky 9's and 6's. I printed the 10's in one color, 20's in another and so forth, then attached them to the card stock circles. In hindsight I'm not sure why I didn't just print the numbers on the card stock directly, I think I didn't have the patience to figure out the spacing.

I want these to last for a long time so I covered them with contact paper. I would really prefer a heavy lamination but this has been working fine. They slip and slide all over the place so keeping them together was a problem until I stuck them in a cleaned out cottage cheese container - because that's the cool thing to do.

Honestly it was a time consuming project, but super easy and worth the effort. They are helping us with number recognition, number order, and grouping (the colors come in handy here!). It's fun to pull them out and find so many different uses for them!

Homemade Apple Fritters

I'm just going to go right into it - these things are delicious and you should make them, eat them and love every bite! I got the recipe from Pinterest (of course), you will find it here. I even read some of the comments on the post and got a few good pointers. Here's how things turned out for me!

1 "heaping" cup all-purpose flour (I've made these 3 times and my "heaping" was different each time, so whatever!)
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp. Baking Soda or baking powder (I have only used soda - I love soda!)
dash of salt
1- 2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg (Once I didn't have nutmeg and just used the cinnamon - things still tasted great)
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 T. melted butter (because everything is better with butter)
1 egg
1/3 cup milk (I have always had to add more liquid, almost 2/3 cups in order to get a "light cake mix" consistency)
1 - 1 1/2 cups chopped apples, peanut size or smaller

Oil for frying (I've just used vegetable oil)
Powdered sugar and milk for glaze or just powdered sugar for dusting

• Mix all dry ingredients together, slowly add the wet ingredients minus the apple. Carefully mix until well combined but don't overly beat, gently fold in apple pieces. The batter should be the consistency of a light cake mix. 

• Once the oil is ready (when a test drop of dough floats to the top of the oil, a drop of water sizzles, or a piece of white bread browns in 60 seconds, about 365degrees) then using a teaspoon, place 4-5 balls of dough into the oil. Be careful not to overcrowd and watch carefully for the underside to turn golden brown, then gently flip over and continue frying until done. Anything bigger than a teaspoon will take longer to cook, and may still be gooey on the inside - trust me! It is always a good idea to test one so you can get an idea of cooking time. 

• When they get all bubbly around the edges you know it's about time to flip - almost like pancakes. My cast iron pans love this process by the way.

• I find it convenient to have one plate for the 'just done' fritters and one plate for the glazing (or dusting). I like to spoon a thin glaze (1 cup p.sugar with enough milk to make it thin, like syrup), and even stir them around a little to get everything covered - yum!

Oh my stars! These are so good! I have made them 3 times in the last month and decided to wait a long time before making them again because yes - that is a lot of oil. But now I don't know if I can hold out, ugh!

Let me know if you make these, and if you love them as much as I do!

No-Sew Fleece Blanket - A Beginning

The latest things keeping me up at night (besides the children) have been thoughts, ideas, and desires for handmade "projects". Useful "crafts", things that will last and be loved. I want to be able to make or alter clothes for us when needed. I want to make dolls and toys for my children, scarves and hats and gloves, and I even want to make slippers for my little boy! Handmade, homemade, 'lovemade'.

Whatever I do needs to be cheap like dirt. I'm actually excited about that challenge. What will be hard to overcome is my total lack of knowledge on everything that I just mentioned. No joke, I am BEGINNER in every sense of the word. My mother is wonderful at sewing and being creative with different medians. Right now she is wondering what happened to the knowledge she tried to pass on to me. I would say "I don't know" but lets be honest, it just didn't stick. I always have my mom to lean on and she is always willing to help, so I was lazy and never really learned. But no more! I'm going to be handy and crafty, and "a really useful engine"!

So here is my start. Evelyn needs a warm cuddly blanket of her own, not hand me downs from her big brother. So on Christmas morning she will get this beautiful blanket that I "made" (aka tied knots in).

 

So here's how I did it, for all those other beginners out there. We have to start somewhere!

Step one: Chose your fleece (this is harder than you think, so many cute prints!) This is a two-thickness blanket so you choose two different fabrics, corresponding or not, prints or solids, it's up to you! I got 1 and 1/2 yards (of each) and it turned out perfect for a lap blanket.

Step two: Put the fabrics together, right sides facing out, and trim around ALL edges. I trimmed less than an inch off in some places. The goal is to have all edges match.

Step three: Using a four inch square piece of paper as a guide cut the corners off. This makes so much sense when you get to the tying part!

Step four: Cut a 4 inch fringe on all edges. Don't skimp on the 4 inches! My fringe widths varied between one and one and a half inches. (The one inch strips were easier to tie). I moved a ruler along with me for reference on the width as well as to tell me where to stop cutting. Maybe I should have mentioned before, but you really want some sharp scissors for this project! You don't have to have sharp ones, mine were pretty dull, but you'll want sharp ones!

Step five: Tie it up! I did a simple over-hand not, essentially tying the two fabrics together. At this point I was feeling a little ridiculous by the simplicity of this blanket, does it really qualify as handmade and crafty if it's this easy? Well, my satisfaction level then (and now) was off the charts, so I say 'yes'!

Step six: Turn the blanket over and re-tie the whole thing. Turning it over makes it so your knots don't all lean to one side...I guess. But double knotting it makes it look allot better, you are able to pull it tight and get a cute little knot. Awe!

Done! Finished! Totally happy with myself! Excited to give it to my little girl on Christmas!