New Tutorial!! Letter Art Tutorial

For the past couple of days my kids have had to decorate and decoupage composition books for school.  So as I sat at the table supervising adhesive and decoupage, I decided to join in on the fun and get a little project out of the way I've been meaning to do for quite a while. Plus, I needed a reason to try out the super cool PINK Exacto knife I got at Walmart tonight.  It's ergonomic!! And...it was marked down to $7, even though the tag said $10.


The older two kidlets had signs and pictures on their doors, but the baby did not.  I've had these wooden initial letters sitting in my crafting room for what seemed like eternity and thought I should finally put a decoration on her bedroom door.

Letter Art Tutorial

I made this tutorial up as I went and decided to turn it into a cute little how to for anyone else.  I love, love, love how it came out.  It's super fun and so easy to make.  It will take you less than 30 minutes from beginning to end for one letter.  But, you could do their entire name and be done in an afternoon and have a great wall decoration for a nursery or anyone's room.

Enjoy!! Hopefully that apron tutorial will get itself done this week.  My sewing room is making me feel anxious and overwhelmed.  There is just too much stuff, but I've gotten it down to the minimum I need.  I think I need some more storage for it.  Maybe I can go thrifting this weekend and find something amazing for a bookshelf. 

Serge an Apron

So my next project is a cutesy apron for my almost 12 years old for her art class. I'm thinking ruffles and I'm thinking I can do nearly the entire on my serger. I am determined to only use the serger and not use the sewing machine for it because I'm a lazy slob.

I want to give it to her this weekend for her b-day and if I can manage it with only the serger I'll post a tutorial. I'm thinking my technique will be somewhat like a serge-a-quilt.

Sent from my iPhone

Popovers!

It's amazing something with just 4 little ingredients can be so yummy. I've never made popovers before but these came out wonderfully. I pulled them open an added a dollop of homemade whip cream to top them off. These are great for breakfast, I think. Now I just need a popover pan, lol.

I remembered the picture this time.

Pinterest and Sopapilla Cheesecake!

Have you discovered Pinterest?  It's so much fun.  You create "boards" of stuff you love basically, and you can look at other people's boards and repin stuff to yours that you love from theirs.You can request an invitation and then you're off and running. 

So while looking at other people's boards I discovered Sopapilla Cheesecake over at My Yellow Umbrella.  Ms Em and I had to make it.  I let Ms Em make the entire thing last night after dinner.  It was delicious!!  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture.

We did change up the recipe just a smidge. 

Sopapilla Cheesecake

2 cans crescent rolls
2 (8oz) packages cream cheese (softened)
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla 

2 tbs butter (melted)
Cinnamon & sugar - I used 1/3 cup and sugar and 1 tbs of cinnamon.

Instructions:
Unrolled and spread 1 & 1/2 can crescent rolls on bottom of un-greased pan. Combine softened cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla. Spread mixture over crescent rolls. Unroll and spread remaining crescent rolls over mixture. Spread melted butter over the top and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes.

And after we made it, I thought if it's a sopapilla cheesecake, then it needs honey too, so after it's sliced and on the plate, we add some honey to top it off. 

My Sewing Room - work in progress

We moved in 3 months ago but unfortunately I've been in school since then. I finished up my last class a week early so I'm having a 3 week break before classes resume on 8/29.

My plan is to get my sewing room in order so I can sew some things for a couple of craft fairs with my mom and some Etsy things.

So here is the work in progress. This is my eBay/sewing/baby room all in one. As soon as I'm done I'll post new pics of my tricked out sewing room lol.

Delicious Banana Muffins..or I swear I'm never gonna get to sew again

I swear I will never get to sew again.  I cannot wait for December so I can graduate and sew again.  I try to sew, but it ends up sitting there because I have 59 million school papers and projects to do.  This week, I have to write 4 journal entries, a paper on a movie and interpersonal relationships (I'm fairly certain I'm going to write it on The Time Traveler's Wife...even though the book is so much better, I have to do a movie.), and finish a group project.  I swear group projects are what they make you do in hell....forEVER!

I think I'm swearing too much in this post. 

Well, to make myself feel somewhat "crafty" and I'm always cooking and baking for about 99% of our meals, I like to bake up new things, especially desserts.  My hubby is a banana lovin' man.  I swear if we go somewhere and they have some type of banana dessert, he will get it.  (The Cheesecake Factory's Fresh Banana Cream Cheesecake is sinfully delicious, and that's saying something since I don't even care for banana desserts.)  So...I had bananas about to go rotten and not much flour, so I made this recipe.  It makes exactly 12 regular-sized muffins.  It came out deliciously moist and so yummy.  I love the topping.  I'm thinking of trying it again, but leaving off the topping and making banana buttercream frosting.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 bananas, mashed

3/4 cup white sugar

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/3 cup oil

Topping

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon butter

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line muffin cups with papers.  In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. In another bowl mix together bananas, sugar, egg and oil. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.  Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes.  Sprinkle topping with 5 minutes left in the baking process. 

Topping: 

In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins when there is 5 minutes left in the baking time.