My Little Crafty Corner

Archive for the ‘Hobbies’ Category

Our cat is a strange one. She likes water. If someone is in the bathroom taking a shower, she will sit outside the door and whine, until one of us lets her in. She will sit on the edge of the tub, and wait for whoever to get out, so she can get in and play around. She is like this at the kitchen faucet as well. She likes to drink out of the tap, and play in the stream of water.

I have been thinking about getting her one of those for pets. Like this one:

If we do get her one, then we will have to figure out where to put her food tray, as it will need to be plugged in, and the area where her dish is now, has no outlet near by. Some will say I am crazy, but I love my baby girl, and will spoil her all I want! But she will have to wait a little longer as we are still waiting on our taxes.

John is looking at tools to purchase once the taxes arrive, be I want to find a good sale on a Kitchenaid Mixer or pots and pans. The set I have now, is close to ten years old, and is starting to show its age. The rest of the refund will be going into savings, and hopefully it will stay there this time!

I have been in a baking kind of mood lately. Banana muffins, and chocolate chip muffins were made last week. Today I had a craving for brownies, but no mix in the house, or money to go out an buy some, so I searched on the internet to find a homemade recipe for some. I found this one, over on Mandy off the Radio blog’s. They smell really good, just waiting for them to cool to try them.

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour an 8 inch square pan.
In a large saucepan, melt 1/2 cup butter. Remove from heat, and stir in sugar, eggs, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat in 1/3 cup cocoa, 1/2 cup flour, salt, and baking powder. Spread batter into prepared pan.
Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Do not overcook.

I think the next time I make them, I am going to double the recipe.

I made cheddar bacon potato soup on Saturday, but am now thinking I need to get a new crock pot as mine is cooking way to hot right now, and things are burning in it. I am trying to use my crock pot more, so I am checking out more recipes to try.

I have been checking out the different sales for camping supplies. I am over winter, and ready for the nice weather to arrive so we can go camping! I was hoping to have some money saved up to buy a used pop up camper, but it doesn’t look like its going to happen this year. The tents will have to do again for this year. I think I will go out and buy an electric blanket, to snuggle up with in my sleeping bag for the cooler nights.

**Borrowed from Family fun site.**

I can’t wait to do some gardening! I am tired of winter!

Materials
* Carpenter’s apron (available at hardware stores)
* Pair of gardening gloves
* Fabric paints and brushes

Instructions
1. Decorate the set with fabric paints. Brush on a garden design, such as a row of bright yellow sunflowers or a bunch of carrots. Or slice an onion and a pepper into halves, dip them in the paint and embellish the set with vegetable prints.

2. Fill the pockets with seed packets, a garden trowel, and a plastic misting bottle. Use pinch-style clothespins to clip the gloves to the front of the apron when they’re not being worn.

Tips:
This gardening set makes a great gift for a relative that loves to garden.

This looks like it would be a hit, borrowed from Family Fun site.

If your child’s tongue-tied when it comes to expressing his feelings, let this microwave fudge do the talking. The recipe’s simple enough for older kids to make themselves and yields 64 bite-size pieces–plenty for a classroom party.

Ingredients

* DARK CHOCOLATE LAYER:
* 1 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips
* 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
* Dash of salt
* WHITE CHOCOLATE LAYER:
* 1 1/4 cups white chocolate chips
* 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk

* Dash of salt
* OTHER INGREDIENTS AND MATERIALS:
* Aluminum foil
* 64 conversation hearts
* 64 red foil bonbon cups or mini muffin cups
* Clear or red cellophane wrap, cut into 64 5- by 6-inch rectangles
* Sparkly pipe cleaners in red, pink, or silver

Instructions

1. Line an 8-inch square pan with aluminum foil. Set aside.

2. In a medium-size, microwave-safe bowl, combine the dark chocolate layer ingredients. Microwave the mixture on high at 30-second intervals until the chocolate is melted (about a minute), stirring at each interval. When the mixture’s smooth, use a spatula to spread it evenly into the prepared pan.

3. In another medium-size microwave-safe bowl, combine the white chocolate layer ingredients. Repeat the melting process as described in step 2, but stir at 20-second intervals, as white chocolate tends to scorch easily. Spread the white chocolate evenly over the dark chocolate layer.

4. While the fudge is still warm, use a knife to gently score it into 1-inch squares, then put a candy heart on top of each square.

5. Chill the fudge uncovered in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or until firm. Lift the foil to remove the fudge from the pan and place the whole hunk of fudge on a cutting board. Use a large knife (a parent’s job) to cut apart the squares, then peel off the foil from the bottom.

6. Place each fudge square into a foil bonbon cup or mini muffin cup. Center the cup on a cellophane square and wrap it as shown on page 53, using 1-inch pieces of pipe cleaner to secure the ends. Makes 64 bite-size pieces. Store at room temperature or in the refrigerator for added firmness.

This would be cute for a child to make for their teacher, borrowed from Family Fun site.

Materials
* Card stock
* Marker
* Tube of lotion
* Double-sided tape

Instructions
1. Trace your child’s hand on card stock. Cut out the traced hand and use it as a template to make a second hand.
2. Write a message with marker. Affix the hands to a tube of lotion and add card stock hearts with double-sided tape.

Suggested Messages:
“You deserve a hand!”
“Hands down, you’re the best.”
“I’ve got to hand it to you!”

Finally have some extra spending money. I want to either get the Wii Fit Plus or the Your Shape game for the Wii. I have the Biggest Loser one, but haven’t really had the chance to use it. Injuries have a way of putting everything on hold. I need to get some ankle weights, this will help some I have heard. Of course the boys would like it if I bought some fun games, but me losing weight and getting fit is more important right now! Mom comes first this time!

We are still looking for some great sales on tools for my hubby. He needs to stock up a new tool box for work. This is going to put a huge dent in our budget. But its needed for work. Just wish we could get reimbursed for this. Lugging this tool box back and forth for now should help him in the weight loss area. I told him to just leave it at work, but the minute he does this, something will happen at home and he won’t have his tools.

So if you had some extra spending money, what would you buy? Would you buy for yourself, or would you spend it all on your kids?

I saw this on Coloradolady’s blog and had to try it for myself. I have to say, I am impressed! I wash my hands several times a day, due to the fact I have a home daycare, and am constantly re-applying lotion to my oh so dry hands. It seems like that’ all I do, and they never feel soft and hydrated. Well no more! After applying the lotion the first time I washed my hands, they felt really soft. And since I have washed my hands a few times, and haven’t had to re-apply more lotion.. bonus!

Now if you visit her blog, you will see more photos of how she did it, me I was a little to lazy, and not very steady with my camera, so I gave up taking lots of pics. I still need to stock up on some cutesy jars to store this in, so for now I have some good ole Glad storage containers.

Head on over to your Dollar General store and grab a bottle of baby lotion, a jar of Vitamin E lotion and a jar of Petroleum Jelly (vaseline), then empty out the containers, make sure you get it all. You will have to cut open the baby lotion bottle to get all of this one.

Then put it into your containers. I can’t wait to get some baby food jars that I can decorate up and pass these on as gifts!!

Enjoy!

After a long and tiresome day, a long soak in the tub was in order for today. I tried out some homemade bath salts, that were so yummy smelling! I stayed in way to long and now need to find some wrinkle cream to fix my pruned looking feet! Now if only my hubby was home to do this for me. Sometimes being slightly crippled is a pain! Now granted, I probably could rub the cream in my feet with just one hand, but what fun would that be? I may just hit him up when he gets home from practice.