Lemon Cutout Cookies

  It's time for Christmas baking again! This year's menu included Chocolate-Dipped Orange Peels, Sables and World Peace Cookies, and, for the first time in a long time, Festive Lemon Cutout Cookies. I would make these with my mom and aunt for our Cookiefests, but since they're labor intensive, I haven't made them on my own. Since the girls are old enough to wield  frosting bags, I decided to make a few batches this year.

From Minus Minions

I really like the hint of lemon in the dough. The cream cheese keeps them somewhat soft, which means they're probably not too stable for shipping. I did have breaking issues with my larger Christmas tree cutter, but it got better once the cookies were well cooled.

Half the cookies were frosted and half I sprinkled with decor before baking. I  didn't make the lemon glaze this time, using instead the Betty Crocker cookie icing. I set out a bunch of fun decorations, out wax paper down for a work surface and we had a great (sugar-fueled) time. 

Festive Lemon Cutout Cookies

1 cup butter, softened

3 oz. cream cheese, softened

2 Tbs. RealLemon lemon juice

1/4 tsp. salt

1cup sugar

1egg yolk

1 tsp. vanilla

2 1/4 cups unsifted flour

Combine all ingredients, except flour, beat with mixer until well blended. Beat in flour.

Divide dough in half, wrap in plastic and chill at least 1 hour.

On a well-floured surface, knead one dough portion into a smooth ball. Roll dough to 1/8" thickness. Cut into shapes. Place 1" apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven, 7 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned at edges. Cool. Repeat with remaining dough. Decorate with Lemon Glaze. Store tightly covered.

Lemon Glaze

With mixer, best 4 cups unsifted powdered sugar and 1/4 cup RealLemon lemon juice. Divide glaze and tint with food coloring.

Sausages with Ratatouille

  Now that cold weather is upon us (at least if you're in the Northern Hemisphere), it's time to think about warm, cozy meals.  And, since we got rain, sleet and snow yesterday, I decided to make one of my favorite meals tonight: Sausages with Rataouille from Real Simple.

It's got a lot of chopping, but otherwise it's easy to put together. It's also not unhealthy, with all the veggies. I love serving it with mashed potatoes, rice or orzo, but a warm loaf of crusty bread would be awesome, too. 

It smells, and tastes, divine. Know that scene in "Ratatouille" when Anton Ego eats that first bite and he has a flashback and it makes him happy. That's what this will do to you. It's that good.

My Little Pony Costumes

For some reason, I really wanted the girls to be characters from My Little Pony this year for Halloween. I was stuck, however, on the whole mane and crown thing. Do I get a wig and dye it? Do I buy a bunch of yarn?  I wanted something cute and easy but not insanely expensive. I was stuck.

I did some web searches and found lots of cool cosplay outfits. One, in particular, fit exactly what I wanted. It was a fleece hoody vest with fleece mane, wings, horn and crown. It's perfect for Colorado Halloweens, where it can be sunny or snowing. And the whole thing was pretty easy.

Supplies

• Hoodie sweatshirt with matching pants (I got mine at WalMart and Hanes.com)
• Fleece, 1/4 to 1/2 yard per color, depending how how many colors you need. Princess Celestia has 4 colors, Princess Luna has 2
• Regular felt for crown, necklace, horn and cutie mark
• Stiff felt for the wings
• Glitter paint for fabric
• Velcro
• Tracing paper
• Craft/fabric glue
• Needle, thread

The first step is to sketch the pattern for the mane and tail. I traced around the hood and then drew my pattern pieces on that.

  

I drew my pieces on tracing paper individually, then cut them out of the fleece.

Then, I pinned the pieces to the sweatshirt and sewed them. I decided the mane looked a little anemic with only one layer, so I cut and sewed a couple more layers.

For the wings, I drew patterns on tracing paper, then cut them out of extra-stiff felt.  The horn was cut out of a piece of regular felt and glued shut.  To give them a little more shine, I added some detail with glitter fabric paint.

The next step was to attach the wings and horn. Since this is a kid's costume, I want to be able to wash it. The extra-stiff felt isn't washable, I didn't want to permanently attach the wings. I decided to sew the hook side of a velcro strip to the back of the sweatshirt. The felt will stick easily to it, but if you wanted, you could glue the matching loop side to the back of the wings.  I hand-sewed the horn to the top of the mane, after sewing down the top of the mane so nothing would flop around.

Next, I cut out and glued the "cutie mark" to the bottom left of the hoodie.

I cut the crown and necklace out of regular felt and added a glitter fabric paint jewel.

I hand-stitched the crown to the hoodie, behind the horn. Since the hoodie's have a zip front, I sewed two pieces of velcro on the shoulder seams so the necklace can be taken on and off easily.

And that's it! I think they look so cute and unique. With coupons at JoAnns and getting the sweatsuits at a good price, I don't think cost more than a store-bought outfit. 

The Bean loves hers, just look at that face!

The Belly decided she didn't want to be Princess Luna but wanted to be a ladybug again. Since I still have her costume from last year, I didn't really mind. Here's what the Luna costume looks like, minus a model.

That's it! Happy Halloween!

Pull-Apart Cinnamon Apple Bread

Since the apple pie and cake were so successful, I wanted to find another way to use the apples from our tree.  Luckily, I get the email newsletters from King Arthur Flour and one had a link to a delicious-looking Pull-Apart Cinnamon Apple Bread.

This is an amazing recipe to make on a nice fall day.  The filling, with apples, cinnamon and brown sugar, fills the house with an amazing aroma.  It's a yeast bread, so there's a few hours where the dough has to rise, so plan accordingly.  And be ready to make a bit of a mess.  The filling is a little syrup-y and will ooze when you cut and stack the bread.  It might look like a hot mess and you'll doubt this will work, but never fear. After rising and then baking, it will all turn out okay.

It is definitely amazing warm with butter on it, but I'm wondering what other toppings would be delicious.

Spiderweb Skirt

Halloween is around the corner and it's time to start thinking about costumes. I usually don't both with anything, maybe an embelleshed shirt at most. But this year, I saw a really cute spiderweb skirt in a catalogue and thought, "I can make that!"

 

It was really easy. The original was an appliqué, but I didn't feel like all the cutting and sewing.  I didn't have enough heat transfer vinyl in white and also figured there would be too much matching and ironing (and cursing) if I went that route. Finally, I decided on white fabric paint.

I got some black bottom-weight fabric 1.5 the width of my hips. I used my tailor's chalk and a yardstick to draw the web. I drew the longer strands out from the center and randomly drew connecting segments. I painted over the chalk with my fabric paint.

For the spiders, I downloaded a spider design from Silhouette, cut it out of card stock, and used it as a stencil. 

Then, I hemmed the bottom, sewed up the side, and made an casing for an elastic waist.  It was really easy and quick. It took longer for the paint to dry than any of the other steps.

I'm going to wear it with a black shirt, black-and-white striped stockings, black shoes and a witch hat. Not a costumey costume, but enough to get me in the, erm, "spirit".

Homemade Barbie Mermaid Tail

The Bean and The Belly have been on a bit of a mermaid kick lately.  After playing at a friend's house, The 

Bean had to have a Mermaid Barbie just like her friend.  In an effort to please, we now have 6 Barbies in our house (4 mermaids and 2 ballerinas).

The mermaids don't bother me too much as they don't seem to have a massive amount of accessories.  And The Belly has a kind of cool one with a tail that turns into a surfboard.  Of course, The Bean wanted a mermaid with a removeable tail, and, importantly, it has to be able to go into the water. I knew I could sew a tail no problem, but I didn't feel like packing us all up to go the fabric store. 

Inspiration struck! I found a bathing suit the girls don't wear anymore somewhere in their closet. A few snips here, some sewing there, an elastic waist, and violá: free, removable mermaid tail.

The bathing suit was a 2-piece tankini with boy shorts.  I wanted to add a bit of style, so I made the waist and fins frommthe polka-dot shorts and the main tail from the plain pink top.  I put the doll down on the fabric, drew a rough pattern, cut and sewed.

She loves it.  I definitely got some major mom points for that crafty sleight of hand.

Green Apple Pie and Cake

One of the many things I love about my new(ish) house is the apple tree in our backyard.  We weren't sure for a while what kind of apples were on it, but one day, we took the plunge and bit into one.  It's kind of a cross between a Granny Smith and a Golden Delicious--crisp, but not too sweet or tart.  Just very apple-y.

From Minus Minions

It's fun to go up to the tree and pick some fruit for munching, but I knew I had to find recipes quick.  Apple pie, naturally, and some kind of apple cake.

The Green Apple Pie was pretty easy to make.  I made the crust in my food processor, since I was in a bit of a hurry.  The only difficult thing was peeling and slicing the apples.  They're a bit smaller than the store-bought kind, so I had to use 12 to get the amount I needed.

From Minus Minions

It was a hit.  The crust was nice and flaky and it the filling wasn't overly sweet.  I may add a touch more spice next time, but it was a great first attempt.

The Green Apple Cake is soft, spicy with nice chunks of apple spread through it.  The topping is a caramel-coconut mixture that's browned a bit with the broiler.  The Boy really liked it. And he said it tasted even better because the apples came from our own tree.

From Minus Minions

Vogue 1050 Pants

I saw the pattern for these pants on a banner ad on a website and was intrigued. Could I make them? Could I actually get away with wearing them? Will they be flattering?  A massive sale at JoAnn's let me buy the fabric cheap enough so I wouldn't minds to much if the answers to those questions was "No".  I got peachskin in black and cream and found some cream frog closures at MJTrim.com.

I was worried the peachskin would be a pain to work with, but, honestly, it wasn't too bad. I don't have a serger, so I just did a zig-zag stitch over the edge to keep the fraying to a minimum.

Back zippers don't really work for me, so I altered the pattern a bit.  I made the waistband all elastic and cut the back waistband piece to match the front.  To make sure I would have enough room to get them over my hips, I cut the waist one size larger than the hips.  The frog closures I got were a little larger than the ones in the pattern, and as I'm a little shorter than the model, I only used two.

I think these would look so cute with black Converse and a t-shirt. Might just be my new uniform for the fall.

More Fabric-Button Rings

I love my two fabric button rings so much, I had to make more.  I got some larger ring blanks and button-covering kits and went through my fabric stash.  Three rings, under $10 and in 30 minutes can't be beat.

From Minus Minions

Matching Quilt Pillowcases

I finally figured out what kind of pillowcases I wanted to make to match my Bunch of Squares Quilt.  I thought through a bunch of different designs and filtered out the ones that were more labor intensive.  After spending over a year on the quilt itself, I wanted to finish the cases quickly.

I went with a stripes of varying width design because I didn't want to be too match-matchy and I wanted to highlight the flower print.  I winged the pattern, and was happy it all worked out.

I measured a standard pillow, which was 26" x 19.5".  I wanted a little extra room in case I upgraded to a king-size pillow and needed a bit of room for seam allowances, so I wanted my finished dimensions to be 28" x 21".  For the envelope back, I cut two pieces of 17" x 21".

I'm really pleased with the way it all turned out.  I don't know if I'm ready to do another project this big right away, but definitely sometime in the future.

Salted Chocolate Caramel Pretzel Bark

This is the best PMS food, ever.  It's salty, sweet, crunchy, chewy and insanely easy to make.  Don't be afraid of the word "caramel" in the title. The sugar and butter is cooked for a few minutes on the stovetop, then the rest of the cooking happens in the oven.

I made my batch on a 11x17 sheet pan and I had *just* enough caramel and chocolate.  It would probably work better on a 10x15 pan, or you could always make a bit more caramel and use more chocolate for the larger amount.

Go and make this now.nyou won't be sorry.

Stripe Play Maxi Skirt

I've finally succumbed to the siren call of maxi skirts.  However, I can't buy them off the rack, as I have to cut off a bunch of fabric from the hem so I'm not tripping constantly.

The easiest maxi skirt is just a tube of fabric with an elastic waist and narrow hem.  I decided to get a little more fancy and make this Stripe Play Maxi Skirt.  I traced a skirt I already had and cut the panels, per the diagram in the tutorial, adding 1/2" seam allowances.   It was very easy.

From Minus Minions

I got my fabric from Fabric.com.  It is a touch more light and sheer than I was expecting, but that's not a bad thing for a summer skirt.  My stripes go a differrent way than the fabric in the tutorial, but that doesn't make that much of a difference to me.  

I've received a lot of compliments already.  I love wearing it because it's so comfy yet stylish.  And it goes perfectly with flip-flops!

Tie-Dye Shirts with Sharpies

I've been trying to be better about sitting down with the girls and doing some kind of project together, especially since it's summer.  Somehow, playing in the pool, playing in the backyard, playing with the dog and eating and sleeping seem to take up most of our days.  Not that those things are bad, but the hours just get away from me, even with my best intentions.

Yesterday I finally got my act together and the girls made tie-dyed shirts with Sharpies.  This project is so easy and so mcuh fun.  Both girls got to color with whatever colors they wanted and they loved watching the colors spread together when we put the rubbing alcohol on them.

At the end, we didn't use the cups and the results were just as nice.  I made sure to cut pieces of cardboard to put inside to keep the colors from bleeding through.

The Bean's shirt looks a bit more 80's grafitti style:

From Minus Minions

While The Belly's is a little more hippy and summer like:

From Minus Minions

Bunch of Squares Quilt

After 13 months, I've finally finished the Denyse Schmidt Bunch of Squares quilt.  Granted I didn't work on it the entire year, but it was a queen-sized quilt and the largest thing I've ever worked on.

I really love the way it turned out.  The bright red, cream and floral prints go together so nicely.  It's elegant but it has a lot of personality.  I pieced the top together on my machine, but did all the quilting by hand.  A lot of work, but I find hand-quilting soothing and a good thing to do while watching TV.

The blocks aren't all squared up evenly, so some of the quilting is off center a bit.  Other blocks have a subtle print as part of the red inside border.

Now I have to figure out what kind of matching/coordinating pillowcases to make to go with it.

5K Recovery Kit

I ran my first 5k this past weekend!  I didn't finish first, I didn't DFL (dead f*cking last, as my dad would say), but I did finish, and I am a little proud of myself.

I ran with 2 friends and decided to make them little 5k Recovery Kits.  I didn't have time to make them all fancy, so it was just little Ziplock containers and a plain gift bag.  

From Minus Minions

Magnesium is really good for muscle recovery, so I gave them Calm Plus, a calcium and magnsium powder; and Tired Old Ass Soak (which you have to get just for the name), which is an epsom salt bath mixture with good essential oils like rosemary and eucalyptus.  

To help tired feet, I made a batch of Peppermint Foot Slather.  This stuff is seriously awesome and easy to make.  The neem oil does have a strong smell, but it's totally worth it. My feet are always so smooth the next morning.

And, of course, I gave them brownies. Because who doesn't love brownies? Especially if you don't feel guilty because you just ran 3 miles?

Garden Birthday Cupcakes

Since the girls' birthdays are so close together, we throw them a joint birthday party.  This means combining theme preferences. Last year, we had an Emo/Transformers party, which was interesting.  This year, the girls like butterflies and ladybugs (but still like Elmo and robots) and I was able to find "Garden Girl" themed partyware at a store, so I knew they'd be happy.

I was away the weekend before and went back and forth a bunch whether I wanted to make the cake/cupcakes myself or have a bakery do it.  I remembered one of the guests has a peanut allergy, so I decided to go ahead and make it myself.  The mixes from King Arthur are peanut (but not tree nut) free, delicious and easy.  I hadn't figured out how to decorate them until the actual morning of the party.

Amazingly, my decorating tips and bags had been unpacked.  The only hitch was that I only had 3 coupler sets, but wanted to use 6 colors.  I just cut off a small bit of the tip for the yellow and red to make the bee and ladybug bodies, put a small round tip in the bag with the black icing, and used the couplers for the pink, purple and green.

From Minus Minions

From Minus Minions

Not bad for 30 minutes, a bunch of icing and no plan.

Easy Upcycled Tutu Dress

The Belly, and to a lesser extent, The Bean, have been obsessed with these tutu dresses we found at Costco.  So much so, that I have gone back to the store to buy additional dresses so they have 2 of each design because thy go through so many clothes in a day.

The Belly will only wear dresses; no shirt/skirt combo for her, just dresses.  One day I tried to get her to wear a tutu skirt and shirt and she wouldn't have any of it.  I had the brilliant idea of making a dress out of the skirt and shirt, figuring she'd finally wear them.

From Minus Minions

I decided to take the elastic in the waist out to make the skirt more drop-waisted, like her store-bought dresses.  I then hand-sewed the seam shut again.

From Minus Minions

I matched the sides and centers and pinned the shirt to the skirt. I placed the bottom of the shirt to the bottom edge of the waistband.

From Minus Minions

Then, I sewed the two together.

From Minus Minions

Violá, easy tutu dress, in less than an hour!

From Minus Minions

Rubik's Cube Cake

I'm a child of the 80's.  I have fond memories of MTV, The Breakfast Club and Family Ties.  I bought more issues of Teen Beat than I'd care to admit.  So it's no surprise that the book Ready Player One really pushed all my buttons.  So to speak.

I'd just finished re-reading it when I went through my "baking projects to try" list and I found a Rubik's Cube Battenburg Cake recipe.  Dude, how awesome is that?

I improvised a baking pan, the same way I did the last time I made a Battenburg.  I made all the batter at once in my KitchenAid, measured out 6 equal amounts into bowls and dyed them with food coloring.

From Minus Minions

I cut each color into 2 and started assembling.  I didn't cut each piece so every slice would be different, but I did cut some smaller pieces and glude them together so some of the slices would be different.

From Minus Minions

The Boy was slightly confused when he came home.  Then he saw the actual cube next to the cake and it all slid into place. A very delicious, tea-cake kind of place.

From Minus Minions

Sugar Scrubs

I've been on a sugar-scrub kick.  They're easy, inexpensive and smell incredible.  My friend, S, gave me 2 for Christmas: a Lemon Hand Scrub and a Vanilla Brown Sugar Body Scrub.  She packaged them in canning jars, so they kept well in the shower and by the sink.

I've been using Safflower and Sunflower oil instead of Olive Oil, because they have a less strong scent.  And I totally cheat when making the Lemon Hand Scrub: I mix a whole bottle of Burt's Bees Lemon Body Oil (4 oz.) with 4 oz. of my base oil, and, easy peasy, lemon-scent plus Vitamin E.

A few years ago, Sephora had a Coffee and Cream Body Scrub that's since been discontinued.  I've been thinking about how to make my own, maybe using powdered milk somehow, and I might start with this Mocha Spice Body Scrub recipe.

I made these for Teacher Appreciation gifts for the girls' preschool.  I got some 4oz. Mason jars at Wal-Mart and was able to make all 3 scrubs in about 30 minutes.  Just a little pampering in a jar for people who have made a huge difference in my children's lives.

Skin Serum

Life has been more hectic lately.  In addition to our regularly scheduled craziness, we moved last weekend and are now in recovery mode.  Things went pretty well considering everything we had to juggle, but blogging has been shunted to the bottom of my to-do list.  However, I have a few quiet minutes and I thought I'd write about an easy skin treatment I've been using. Ages ago, I found the Sonya Dakar Omega-3 Repair Complex.  Since I live in an arid climate and have sensitive skin, it was a great addition to my routine.  I have to say, while I liked the product, I wasn't crazy about the price tag.  So, I looked around to see if I could make something similar.  Sweet Almond Oil is great for your skin.  It has Omega 6 and 9, Vitamin E and is easy to find in lots of stores.  I got a 1 oz. glass dropper bottle and filled it most of the way with the Sweet Almond Oil.  Then, I added 20 drops each of Chamomile, Geranium, Franincinse and Calendula essential oils.  I put 3-4 drops on my skin before my moisturizer. I think it's made a difference.  My skin is definitely much softer and clearer.  And, for the price, it's a great solution.  The almond oil is inexpensive, and the essential oils are pricier, but a little of those goes a long way, so you don't have to buy them frequently. More fun skincare posts to come.  As soon as I get a few more boxes unpacked...

Fabric-Covered-Button Rings

I've been on a big accessory kick lately.  I think it's because now the girls are older, I want to move out of a yoga-pants/stained-shirt look to something more polished. Well, at least when I leave the house.

I found a tutorial for some great fabric rings, but my execution was sorely lacking.  The ones I made looked really "home sewn", and didn't give the right "punch of color", if you understand where I'm going.

I was still intrigued by the whole "fabric ring" concept and, some searching on Pinterest led me to fabric-covered-button rings. I found success!

From Minus Minions

I used fabric from a couple fat quarters, I tried to find fabric with smaller prints that would translate well onto such a small surface.  I had a bit of a hard time finding ring blanks with pads, neither JoAnns nor Michaels had them, but I found some at Hobby Lobby.

I didn't use the extra button in the linked tutorial since the button fit snugly over the ring blank pad.  I also brushed a couple coats of Modge Podge on the buttons as a last step, to keep the fabric clean.

I absolutely love them.  I might make more, or even try making a bracelet or a necklace!

Homemade Princess Dresses

The girls are almost 3 and 4 , so it's natural they're starting to hit The Princess Phase.  They've always loved all things shiny and fancy and I think "princess" is an extension of that.

The Bean got a blue Cinderella dress for her birthday a few years ago and it's definitely showing signs of wear.  In fact, it looks like Cinderella's mouse-made ballgown after the evil stepsisters got their hands on it.  I wondered if I could make them each a dress, without going overboard, of course.  Something a little sturdy, but with enough razzle dazzle to be princess like.

Armed with ambition and coupons, I went to the fabric store.  I found Simplicity 5695 and thought view F, with the overskirt, would work nicely.  Some pink and purple cotton fabric, tulle, ribbon and rosettes and I was good to go.  And all for $25!

I had a happy accident when I was cutting out the cotton.  Since it was quilting fabric, it was narrower than I thought, so I didn't have enough to cut out the sleeves.  However, the tulle was 60" and I'd gotten a little extra, so I cut the sleeves out of that fabric and it added just a bit more of the fanciness I wanted.

The dresses were incredibly easy to sew.  There's no zipper, buttons or velcro, just elastic around the whole neckline.  The gathered skirt is very forgiving and a even easier if you have a narrow hem foot.  You could customize it any way you wanted with trimmings.

Both girls love their dresses. And thy love to wear them while they're running, jumping, and playing with dinosaurs.  Just what the best princesses do.