My recent creations

Lately, I have been doing a few things that I saw on pinterest.  Well, actually, quite a few.  I mean, quite often I post stuff off pinterest, and just don't do anything with it.  Especially the recipes and crafts.  But, like I said, lately I have been, well, let's say motivated!!

So here's what I have been working on:

Lace shorts

This is for one leg, around my thigh (specially measured to me :) of course!)

I have been really wanting to revamp some of my jeans with holes in the knees into shorts with lace on the bottom (to add length and well as help give the short leg room and hide some imperfections).  I even had dreams about what kind of lace, how long I would need to buy, how I would cut it without fraying it, where I would sew it, the weird details to the dreams just keep on going.  Then I had a brilliant idea!  Why not crochet my own lace??  So I started researching patterns.  I was a little discouraged at first, so many of them were table runners and coasters and place mats.  What I wanted was LACE! But then I discovered I was using the wrong key word.  The key word is BORDER or EDGING. Ahh! All the results.  I spent like an hour just looking at laces.  I finally came up with about four patterns.  Now, when someone asks me how long it takes me to make something, I am tempted to tell them in the way I currently measure time: how many nap times did it take? (haha!) and how much after bed hours did it take.  So currently I have been working on the first "set" of lace (because obviously I want the same pair of shorts to MATCH right?).  I am literally almost done with it, I just have to finish the last shell in white, connect it together so it is a loop, and viola! I am finished with it!  Which is exciting, because as easy as the pattern has become (due to repetition, I don't look at the pattern any more), I am ready to work on a different pattern.  I think this first set is kind of loose.  In terms of loose, I mean, the lace has a lot of wiggle room, a lot of "holes", so it really isn't going to "hide" much.  The solution, I believe, to this, is to add a second layer.  Now, the question is, do I do it in the same pattern I have been doing and literally layer it on top of the first layer, but stacked, or should I do a different pattern?  The more I think about it, the cute I think it would be to use the same exact one just stacked.  I'll show you what I mean.



You can see I have put the second layer on the first, with the shells between the others.



Yogurt Melts/Bites

So then I decided that I wanted to try making the yogurt melts/bites/drops/whatever-you-want-to-call-them.  Now they were SUPER easy.  Line a cup with a sand which size zip lock back.  Pour a container of yogurt into the zip lock back.  Line a baking sheet with wax paper, waxy size up.  Cut off bottom corner of bag.  Allow yogurt to "drop" onto the wax paper.  Freeze (I don't know, maybe an hour? I just left it for a while and came back later).  Use a spatula and scrap off paper (comes up super easy).  Store in freezer.  Viola!  You have a nice little summer treat.  Few things I learned:

1. Use good yogurt.  I used generic, and you know how generic has that kind of funny after taste eating it normally, well, guess what!  It has a funny after taste when frozen too (imagine that!).



2. Don't cut a big corner off, or you'll have the same situation I had where it almost POURED out of the bag instead of letting me squeeze it to drop it on the paper.

3. If you are going to store in individual zip lock snack bags, error on the side of not enough.  I think I put too much (split the whole container into three snack bags) in each bag.  What makes me say this?  Well, about 1/2 of the way through eating them, they started melting.  The last few were soft in form and quite messy using your fingers to eat.

You can see that some of my "drops" are smooshed together because it came out way too fast!!





Frozen Yogurt Bites

 

String Eggs

So this one is simple.  Simply messy.  Mix one cup liquid starch (found in the laundry isle) with 1/2 cup of flour with a whisk, until smooth.  Unravel one of those embroidery floss skeins into the mixture (don't just throw it in, or it'll get all tangled, and it is quite a pain in the behind trying to fix when it is covered in goo).  Wrap the string however the creation strikes you around a water balloon.  Allow to dry to 6-8 hours.  Pop balloon and remove excess starch build up in between strings with needle, or I used a bobby pin.  I quite enjoyed this little project.  It took one nap time (roughly 2-3 hours), between set up with news papers (and I need to stress this, that is VITAL to doing thing, otherwise you will have a mess of this goo dried up on your table that will take A LOT of elbow grease getting off, I know this because my news paper didn't cover all the table I was working at and I had several drops dry up on me... ugh), make the mixture, blow up balloons, concoct a little stand for them to dry on (second time around,  I took plastic cups, cut down all the way until about 1 to 1/2 an inch left before base, cut around base- this is one stand, cut rings from the top portion I just removed and pinched them in the center to close them up because I am out of tape to retape them together, one plastic solo cup made about 6-8 drying stands), and then wrap my balloons creatively.  I stopped every so often to wash my hands, search the Internet for bathing suits (which is someone else I did from seeing pictures on pinterest, but  I don't need to make that it's own little paragraph), and do a few other little things.  I am quite proud of them.

Drying on my homemade "stands" (egg cartons and solo cups cut into rings)

Finished product! It is AMAZING!!

24 eggs made in all, it made enough for two bowls, one sits on my table, one in the living room

Cheese Animal Crackers

Now this, I am quite impressed with.  The pin lead to a blog where the lady made her own fishy shaped cookie cutter from a soda can.  I tried this.  I failed.  Haha.  Not fail because my fish looked weird, just cutting them out seems like a lot of work with this cutter, mostly because where the two pieces of metal met I tried taping them up, but cheese dough still got shoved up into it.  Oh well.  I had already bought a little package of mini cookie cutters that are animal shaped.  I got a giraffe, lion, dog, bear, elephant, and Noah's Ark.  Not bad combo really.  They were much easier to cut out the shapes with.  I need to keep this recipe.  It makes really good animal crackers.  They puff up quite a bit more than the Goldfish brand do, but they taste, in my opinion, way better.  The Goldfish always tasted kind of, uh, I don't know, overly manufactured??    Here's the recipe:

• 1 cup(s) all-purpose flour
• 4 tablespoon(s) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces (I used salted butter, but didn’t add any salt afterward)
• 8 ounce(s) grated extra-sharp Cheddar cheese (around 2 cups). Note: you can experiment with other cheeses. Some people have tried this and loved the results!
• 3/4 teaspoon(s) salt
• 1/8 teaspoon onion powder (note: this is optional since it isn’t part of the original recipe, but I decided to add anyway since I used it)
• 1/2 teaspoon(s) fresh-ground pepper
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

Directions

1. Pulse the flour,onion powder, salt, pepper, and baking powder together using a food processor.
2. Add the butter and cheese, and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
3. Pulse in 3 to 4 tablespoons of water, 1 tablespoon at a time, and only enough so that the dough forms a ball and rides the blade. Remove, wrap in plastic, and chill for 20 minutes (I put it in the freezer for 20 minutes and in the fridge for 10) or up to 24 hours.
4. Bake the crackers: Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking pans with parchment paper or silicone baking mats and set aside. Roll the dough out to 1/8th-inch thickness, using flour if necessary to prevent stickiness. Cut out as many crackers as possible.
5. To add character to the fish: break off an end from a side of a toothpick so it is blunt. Use that point to make the goldfish eyes. To make the smile, lay the toothpick down on its side, press, and drag. If you try to use the toothpick point, it will ruin the smile.
6. Optional: Refrigerate for another 15 minutes or so to make sure they won’t spread.
7. Place them on the prepared baking pans. Bake until golden and crisp (13-18 minutes). Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
8. They are best when completely cooled and the next day in my opinion. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

OMG! These are SO good!!!

Fruit Roll Ups

So, my very last pinterest fulfillment is the fruit roll ups.  The recipe calls for using a dehydrator (which I do not have one), but the comments on the blog some people say they use the oven and it works just as well, just use your oven at the lowest setting.  I am excited to see how it turns out!  I made strawberry and peach roll up.  So basically, I used 3 cups frozen fruit, thawed and 3 cups unsweetened apple sauce, a capful of caramel extract, and a few shakes of cinnamon.  I will let you know how it turns out.  Basically by baking it at the lowest possible temperature for who knows how long (I am thinking probably 2-3 hours), it dehydrates it just the same, but makes one big roll!

*Picture pending!!*

I think I am eventually going to make a post of nothing but pictures of my little crafts!!