Crafty in the Kitchen

This is a little crafty in the kitchen post! As a precursor to another crafty afternoon. Tomorrow a couple friends and I are going to a painting and wine night. I've been to a few of them before and always have a fantastic time. So, I'm really excited. We're all bringing something for the painting event. One of my friends is bringing the bottle of wine and one is bringing cheese and crackers. I figured we needed something sweet...(go figure the diabetic would have this thought). It's been awhile since I've baked or made goodies. Granted I don't delve into these treats due to being diabetic but I really enjoy making them.

So on to the recipe! I made Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls.


This was super easy! (And no actual baking involved)

The ingredients:

18 ounce jar of creamy peanut butter
1 teaspoon butter, softened
1-3 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
12 ounce bag of chocolate chips (I used dark chocolate chips)
1/2 teaspoon Crisco

The first step is to make the peanut butter mix that will make the actual balls. Scoop out the entire 18 ounce jar of peanut butter into a microwave safe bowl. Put in the butter and stir. Now, to be honest I didn't actually measure the butter, so that's a rough estimate. After you stir in the butter you want to microwave the mix for 30 seconds to a minute. Enough so that the butter is completely melted and when you stir it again it's a little creamier than it was before. Not TOO soupy, just a little creamier. Stir in vanilla. Next stir in the powdered sugar. I started with one cup and then stirred it in completely. I then started added about a 1/4 of a cup at a time and continued stirring it in until it got pretty thick. Once it got to the point where it was just balling up when I stirred I added about another 1/4 of a cup and mixed it with my hands. You'll want to add sugar until it becomes almost a play dough like consistency. Break a small piece off, and roll it into a small ball. Put it on a wax paper lined pan. If it doesn't lose it's shape after about a minute you're good to go.

Next you keep balling the peanut butter dough up into small balls. You can pick the size. Just make them consistent. After you've balled up all the dough put the balls in the fridge for at least an hour. Then stick them in the freezer for about 1/2 an hour right before you get ready to dip them in chocolate. You can probably put them straight into the freezer, but I had some other things I needed to finish before I coated them and I didn't want them to get too frozen.

To prepare the chocolate you can either microwave it or use a double broiler. If you have pots and a glass bowl you can make your own double broiler. Just fill your pan up with water. But use your bowl as a measuring guide. You want your glass bowl to be able to rest on top of the pan, without the water touching the bowl at all. Let the water boil, then turn the stove top off but leave the pan there. Put your glass bowl on top of your pan, and pour in your bag of chocolate chips and your lard. The lard helps keep the chocolate pretty! Don't stop stirring the chocolate until everything is melted. Once all the chocolate has melted remove the bowl.

Take the peanut butter balls out of the freezer and (this is the time consuming part) dip them one at a time into the chocolate. You can decide how covered you want them. Some of the balls I completely covered in chocolate, some of them I only have covered. I used toothpicks to dip the balls in and bring them out of the chocolate.




Then just put everything back in the fridge again! Allow the chocolate to harden and then enjoy!

"Put a Bird on It"

For Christmas I got some spending money from my grandparents. I decided to use that money to re-decorate the living room a bit. My big "redo" was the couch area. That's changed from season to season. It was first some coffee mug paintings I did (the big painting at the end!), then some Clemson decor for football season, then I wrapped up two canvases in Christmas paper for the holidays. So at the beginning of this month it was time for something new.

I went shopping at this big home decor store in town to find something that I liked. I didn't really have any ideas going into the store and figured I'd work from whatever I found. Well...this is what I found...

I loved the bird design. I found the middle one first and happened to stumble upon (actually literally, I tripped a bit on the display!) the two outside hangings. 

Walking around I also found this...which was PERFECT to go with my new wall hangings.

I thought it was adorable. Not to mention that total for the 3 wall hangings and the lamp shade I spent about $45. WIN! Everything was on sale for 50% off. DOUBLE WIN!

Next I knew I needed pillows to match. Something brown...and with a bird on it. But when I looked through the pillow section, while they had HUNDREDS of pillows, there wasn't anything there I was willing to spend the money on. 

So it was craft project time. 

I bought 2 yards of this pretty brown material that I found at Wal-mart for about $7.50 total. I already had a beige fabric so that was free (woo!). I also bought some iron-on adhesive (fusible webbing) for attaching the bird shapes to my pillows ($3 at Walmart). 

First I measured and cut the material to make the pillow cases...well actually they're more like shams...the kind that you have to sort of struggle to get the pillow in but the material folds over and meets in the middle of the pillow. I just used the pillow as my measuring guide, nothing fancy. I cut it so it'd be long enough to wrap around and wide enough to cover the pillow. I include extra so I can sew everything up. 

Next I sewed the top and bottom edges down. These are the edges that you'll see. Next I drew out my bird pattern. I just free-handed it, but you can use a pattern or stencil if you like! My first mistake was cutting out my first bird and the trying to iron the webbing on. Let's just say...today I'm going to pick up a new ironing board cover. If you use the fusible webbing, iron on a patch of material first then cut out your design. If you read the directions on the fusible webbing it's really easy to use. Just actually read them so you don't end up like me! 

After I ironed on the bird, I used my machine to stitch the outline. If you're really interested in doing things like this Google applique! There's TONS of tutorials and useful blogs out there. After the bird was applied and sewn, I just sewed up the rest of the sham. 

And ta-dah! 

Here's a close up of the bird (you can see the stitching around the bird):

And here's everything all put together:

I'm a fan. It feels all cozy. And it's definitely different from what I've had before but it still ties in with the rest of the apartment.

Hope you all enjoy!

Bandana Blanket!

So for Christmas I really wanted to make my parents their gifts this year. I had been talking with my mom about some of my crafting projects and had shown her a picture of the Clemson Wreath  I had made. She LOVED it and started asking questions on what I did to make it. So her gift was easy to decide on...I was going to make her a wreath.

It did take a lot of time because while it may not look like it...that's a fairly big wreath. Though I have to say the only un-enjoyable part was shipping it. Maaaaaaaan, that was a pretty penny.

My dad's gift took a little bit more time to think of what I could do. And a lot more discussion with mom. I had originally thought of trying to make him a wind chime. My parents have a few gardens at home and my dad enjoys putting knick-knacks to go along with the flowers. But after talking to my mom more I decided that a blanket was a better choice. We have a gorgeous quilt, that my aunt made, that my mom was actually getting a little concerned about. Both my parents use it while they're in watching TV or hanging out in the living room. It's just a small throw, but it was starting to get worn down from use and washing. My family lives in New England so blankets during the winter months are pretty handy.

Well then I had to decide...do I want to crochet or sew a blanket? I figured since my parents get the most use out of the quilt...I needed to sew it. The only problem is I'd only made a t-shirt quilt...and well...let's just say I only take that out every so often...it's not the most fantastic of my work. Granted, I did it about 4 years ago...so it's been a bit.

So now I knew I wanted to sew. Next step...picking out material. I knew I wanted to make it a Clemson "themed" blanket. My dad and I often text each other during the Clemson games. Having gone to a high school with no football team and an undergraduate school with no football team, I think my dad was just as excited to be able to have a non-pro team to cheer for. When I was shopping at Walmart I saw these great orange bandanas. PERFECT! When I was younger my dad always wore a bandana when he was working outside, so I knew he'd enjoy this.

It took a little bit of work and time to find enough orange and enough purple...the purple was the challenge...in fact I'm pretty sure I have about 12 extra orange ones in my fabric stash still.

Next, I sewed the bandanas together flipping between orange and purple. I made the quilt three bandanas by 4 bandanas. (I feel like that could be a line in a children's song...anyways...) Now these were big...each are 22 by 22 inches. The other challenge is that bandana edges aren't necessarily straight. So when pinning and sewing I went with the printed outer edge border instead of the edge of the material.

Next I sewed on the batting...this took the longest amount of time. Actually, a lot longer than I thought it would. I sewed on the batting (the stuff that makes it really warm) and stitched in each corner where the colors met. Then I actually hand quilted around every other paisley in the center. I wish I had hand quilted around the border, but again...that was a LOT of paisley. I did not attach the backing until after I was done. I liked the idea of a smooth back.

When I did sew the backing (which was just a full size orange sheet that I cut to the correct size for the quilt) on I actually put the backing face and the quilt face together, sewed around almost the entire edge and then flipped it inside out and closed it. Again, this was the first "real quilt" I made. So I didn't want to get overly elaborate and not have it ready for my dad.  I didn't use a binding (that outer edging around the quilt).

The cost wasn't too terrible either.

Bandanas-$1 a piece at Walmart
Batting-$12 at Wal-mart for a Full Sized Queen Quilt
Backing-$12 Full sized sheet.
Thread- $8 total (1 white for the quilting, 1 orange for attaching the backing)

(Sorry for it 1 not being the best quality picture and 2 for it being so wrinkled...shipping it home made it more than a little wrinkly.)

And a close up of the squares.

(Look at all that paisley!)

My dad LOVED it which made me beyond excited. I think it was a good way to start my quilting adventures and I definitely plan on continuing this trend! 

Coffee Nook Crafts

So for our anniversary my boyfriend bought me a Keurig (AMAZING!). I am a "drink coffee every single morning" type of girl.

SO I decided to convert a piece of furniture we had already in our tiny little living room into a coffee nook, since the cabinet was already near the kitchen I figured it was a good place to put everything. Especially since our kitchen is also tiny and pretty much filled to the max with kitchen supplies already.

Now, the actually conversion of the cabinet wasn't a big deal. It's an antique cabinet I found at a shop when I first moved down here. I had originally used it for a TV cabinet, it was perfect to store DVDs and supplies in. But, as I already mentioned, we've got a TINY kitchen...and I'm a girl who loves to cook & bake...so we were running out of storage space. We picked up a cheap black TV stand and moved the cabinet closer to the kitchen, it's currently filled with a crock pot, cast iron pan, waffle maker, ice cream maker, etc. When we first moved it I displayed all of my cookbooks on it. So the first step was finding space for them.

Next I just put the Keurig. Put a bowl full of K-Cups, a cute wooden & metal coffee sign that I had for awhile and a lamp. Ta-dah! We're done. Except something seemed off. There were photos hanging up on the wall that the cabinet was on...they were of a trip I took to New Orleans a few years ago. I just felt like they didn't flow well with the coffee set up. So I decided to get my crafting on and get started on the wall decor.

This was a pretty cheap project. I reused the frames that were holding my New Orleans pictures. They're just basic black (fake) marble frames. I picked them up at the dollar store forever ago. But here's what you'll need:

Black Frames (6 for $1 each at the Dollar Store)
Card Stock (cut to fit the frames: You can get a pack of card stock for about $6 at Walmart).
Yarn  (I already have a TON of yarn, but you can get a scan for about $3 at Walmart) I used 5 different colors for my project but you can scale it down to 3 for yours. You'll need a brown, coffee colored yarn, a gray yarn and whatever color(s) you'd like for the mugs.
Glue (I tried both Tacky Glue & Elmers Glue, I prefer the tacky glue-$3 at Walmart)

This project is really, really basic. And the only thing that takes some time is actually letting it dry. I sketched a basic outline of a coffee mug. Basically, a small circle, two straight lines coming down from the left most part and the right most part of the circle. A curved line to attach the two straight lines at the bottom. And a c to make a handle.

Next, I globbed a bunch of glue in the circle. I then started to place the yarn in a spiral to create the coffee inside the mug. Next I outlined the mug itself and then used both spiraling and some random patterns to fill in the mug. Think of it as painting with glue and yarn. :-)

After I filled in the sketch and I was satisfied with how the mugs look, I just waited for them to dry. A LONG time. About 2 nights worth. The yarn soaks up a lot of the glue, but also slowed down the drying process.

After they finally did dry, I put them in the frames and hung them on the wall.

Here are a few examples:

Now, this wall is really tall so I needed something else. When I first moved into my apartment I painted some large coffee mugs that used to hang above the couch. So I grabbed my favorite of the 2 coffee mug paintings and hung that as the centerpiece. Then hung three of my yarn art above and three below. I'm pretty happy with the outcome...and I really enjoy making my coffee in the morning. :-)

And the finished project:

 I love how cozy it makes our apartment feel and I love that I gave myself a bit more room in the kitchen not having the Keurig in there.

Hope you enjoy!