Hmmm Pinterest BucketList CheckOff

I love sweet potatoes, I love sweet potato chips.

So I found a pin and it looked good.  Just slice them real thin, spray with olive oil, spice it up, and bake.

I didn't re-consult the pin.

Don't ever try to do a sewing project and a new recipe at the same time....

She said right there, "You do want to watch the potatoes very carefully in the last minutes of baking to make sure they don’t burn. If some of the chips are browning faster than others, just remove them from the baking sheet and return the rest to the oven to finish baking. I accidentally burned a few myself, but they still tasted pretty darn good!"

I'm pretty sure mine were NOT "still .. pretty darn good!"  See that one missing?  That was the only edible one.  It was okay, but was probably suffering from smoke damage.

 This pan fared even worse.     :S

And this is the lovely bowl of sweet potato chips from the pin.  Wish I had some of those.

Well they won't all work out.   :)   Never know until you try!

Enjoy!

"Chevron" Purse- Pinterest BucketList Checkoff!

Well I've done another Pinterest pin.  Took about an hour.  That's less than I thought.

Here is the original.  The Chevron Clutch from SeeKateSew.  http://seekatesew.blogspot.com/2011/10/chevron-clutch-tutorial-pattern.html

Very cute, but I don't have any fabric like this.  Anyway really I wanted to use up some of the fabric that I have.  I ended up choosing to up-cycle an old curtain.  Yah that sounds weird, but it's a cool vintage fabric with a ruffle and I thought that would make a cute edge.  So below is the curtain.

Next I cut it out according to Kate's dimensions and since I have a fusible fabric that I am going to use as the liner, I pressed and top stitched the edge.   You can see the white fusible fabric laying under neath.

Next, I had black velcro and didn't think that would look too snazy, so I used a big snap.  Have to sew it on at this point so you don't have to see that on the inside.

Then I pressed the two pieces of fabric together.

I sewed a decorative button on the front, then the snap behind it.  At this point I also stitched the sides.

THAT WAS IT!  I'M DONE!  It's certainly "girly" as my husband would say.  :)  

I don't think I'll go for ruffles again, but I did it and now I know.  For up-cycling an old curtain.  It's not bad!

Enjoy your day and create something new.  Even if it's from something old, in fact, that's even better!

Rock Owl Friends- Pinterest BucketList Checkoff!

Well I tried a couple of these cute owls for my kids.  They love rocks and owls.  Honestly these are only the size of my thumbnail. They were so hard to hang onto to draw on.  The one looks a little squirrely, but  that goes with the kid's personality and he thought it was awesome, so what do I know?!

You can find some to buy on Etsy here: http://www.etsy.com/listing/106745812/hand-painted-rock-owl
and they are better than mine.  I think I will try a much bigger version next time, like the ones listed for sale.  :)  At least I should be able to hang onto that so I can have a steadier hand!

Enjoy Life!

Homemade Pizza Night

Really homemade pizzas couldn't be easier.  One day I found Fleischmann's had a pizza crust yeast.  It does not require a time for rising the dough.  Yay!  And not too much kneading.  Yay again!    The recipe is on the back of the yeast packet.  Or go to http://www.pizzacrustyeast.com for the recipe and tips.

So my kids had friends over and I thought this would be easy.  From experience, I know to cut up all my toppings first and have them ready in bowls.  That really is the most time consuming part.  Then I mixed up a double batch of crust and then cut a 1/3 off of the dough (that was for me and hubby's pizza later.)  I then cut the remaining 2/3 into 4 pieces.   I rolled them out and put sauce on them and then let the kids top their own.

I made these rather big, we like thin crust.  However, I could have made the pizzas smaller with thicker crust.  The kids only ate about half of their pizzas.  They had a lot of fun picking their own toppings and I didn't have to worry that I had the right choice of pizza like when you order out (oh plus it's a lot cheaper!)

I could also mention here that my daughter has a milk allergy and this is a perfect way for me to make sure I know what is in her food.  I cook from scratch a lot because of this.  I have found it has been a huge blessing in our lives, because it makes me be so much more aware of what we are eating.  I try to make things that are affordable (think, from scratch), but healthy and tasty!

 The hubby even enjoyed picking the toppings for our pizza.   :)

About 12 minutes in the oven and they are done!

My tip:  Some times for the thin crust pizza, I like to bake the crust for about 3 to 4 minutes, let them cool a few minutes and then add my sauce and toppings.  They are crispier that way.

Enjoy!

Homemade Cafe Vienna- A Pinterest Bucket list Checkoff!

My first post on trying something from one of my "PINS" on Pinterest!

My husband likes International Coffees Cafe Vienna.  He doesn't make it according to the package, he just likes to add a couple of teaspoons to his regular coffee instead of sugar.

So I bought him that little bitty box and at 3 dollars, it was gone in about a week and a half.  Uggg! for a housewife on a budget that's not going to fly.  So I started searching the internet.  I've made lots of coffee and cocoa mixes for Christmas gifts to fill fun hand painted mugs, so I was sure I would find a copy cat recipe for this.

And I did.  Go here for the recipe.... http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/cafevienna.htm or it is also pinned under my Favorite Recipe board.

I was really surprised to see that vanilla pudding was an optional ingredient.  But as I was buying my ingredients, I thought, "What the heck, it'll be creamy," so I bought it too.   It's not in the picture though...

I doubled the recipe and I did put it in the blender to make a fine powder.  I think it just blends better that way.  This is what I ended up with.

Even though it's not really my thing, I had tasted the original, so I made a cup of this to try.  It was pretty tasty, but both the hubby and I decided that more cinnamon was needed.  I will say that I at least doubled the cinnamon and I have Vietnamese cinnamon which is stronger than regular cinnamon.  I think cinnamon oil may work too.

Like I said, I doubled the recipe and got about 2 2/3 cups of powder.  In the end the cost was about the same as that little box, but I got a lot more.  I still have enough ingredients to make at least one more batch, but I will have to buy another box of pudding.

Enjoy!  

New Things from Pinterest

Well I sure haven't been blogging.  :p

I have been creating though. I had meant to post those things here.  Opps.

Anyway, I am going to try to post some things about my attempts to recreate some of the great ideas that I have found on Pinterest.

P.S. If you can help me figure out how to work the tabs on this better, I'd appreciate it.  :)