Santa Bread

I was just trying to decide if I was going to make Santa Bread again this year, when it dawned on me...this was a PINTEREST project - go put it on your blog. 

This will be short and yummy! 

The original pin was: http://pinterest.com/pin/200550989626700736/

I had a ton of fun making this. It was one of those projects that keeps getting cuter as you progress and you get all giddy and excited to see the end result. The hardest thing for me was getting the color of the hat without it bleeding all over the place. It was tasty bread -  a bit dense. The cuteness factor of the presentation overrode any issues I might have had with it. Here's my try...

How cute is that?!

HO Ho HO

*Andrea*

Cricut Halloweens

My Christmas projects are being worked on little by little at night, so I decided to share some of my Halloween memories. Since my Cricut and I joined forces almost 3 years ago, I have successfully claimed a title in 3 office competitions. Now, I'm not a HUGE Halloween person. I also don't really care for the blood and gore effects. So, to win these things, we have to be creative. 

The first and second year were office decoration competitions that my respective departments won. As a group, we decided on a theme and then typically I obsess over it because I want it to be awesome. 

Year 1: Pac-Man 

Josh and I had just moved in together and we were sharing an extra bedroom as our work spaces. I am completely positive that he hated me and my Cricut for the amount of noise that we made and the trail of paper scraps that were all over the floor. 

I used/made svg files to use with my Cricut and SCAL program to make some awesome Ghosts, fruit, and "Pac-Man Pellets." We used blue streamers all over the cubes create a maze image and then blew up a TON of yellow ballons to put on top of the cubes as the pellets that Pac Man Collects. As a group we were shirts in the colors of the ghosts. It was so much fun. Here are some pictures. 

Year 2: Wizard of OZ:

The theme isn't that original, but I was out-voted. I'm over it. The decorating for this went WAY beyond Cricuting - but it was the Cricut accents that make it special for me :) 

My "happy little bluebird" were cut on blue vinyl so I could peel and stick on the cube widows. I loved them. 

I also made on all the lollipops for munchkin land on the Cricut.

You can't have a Wizard of Oz theme without a Tornado - and this was the easiest way I could think to come up with one. My favorite par there was the trail of words. It's not the easiest to see, but as you walk down the hall way to our department, you leave the Marketing department to enter Sales. The words read "We're not in Marketing anymore..." I cut it out of Vinyl and when I put it on the wall I didn't attach it flat so it looked a little wind blown. 

There are too many details about everything we did to share without boring you, but the star of the decorations was definitely the flying monkeys. You can see them here in the background. I used and image of a flying monkey to make an SVG file and cut a bunch out of them for the wicked witches' lair. 

Winner! Again :)

Year 3: Angry Birds

This year was TOTALLY last minute. I started a new job about 4 months earlier and had no intentions of doing the Halloween thing. When they announced at 2PM the day BEFORE Halloween that we were going to have a contest, my team and I had to think of something quick! Angry Birds was perfect. I made 5 masks and a sign in one night. WOAH. Every time I got to a new "phase" of the mask making I had to show it off to Josh. He typically doesn't care, but I got a few smiles out of him. 

 

After such a good showing at the contest, one of my co-workers commissioned me to make some for her grandson. The problem with making these for kids is that I didn't think they would last very long. I made a new set, didn't attach the beaks, ran them through the laminator and THEN attached the beaks. It required a little more thought that way, but they are way more durable. I attached the beaks using a tab from the laminated material folded over then used a brad to keep them attached. Now, they can ship flat and be ready to wear in seconds. 

 The little boy I tested them on looked so stinkin' cute!! 

Some of the eyebrows, etc I just cut by hand. I do have all the svg files I used for the angry bird masks. If you are interested, let me know.

*Andrea*

Move Over Tool Time...

It's time for Binford Tools Quilts!

My mom is pretty awesome...actually, I am blessed to have 2 very creative parents. I'll have to make a post soon about one of the "crafty" things that I have worked on with my dad, because I can't leave him out. He get's lonely. 

Back to my mom for now. I always remember her to be a "crafty" person. Our Christmas tree was always a work of art. She could hem and sew pretty much whatever you needed her to. I remember two Halloween costumes in particular that were pretty phenomenal. She made a mean broom angel/doll. Remember those? Google it :) To top it off she can handle a power tool like a bad ass...even after a traumatic injury that would keep most of us FAR AWAY from a nail gun for the rest of our lives. Yeah, she's pretty awesome. 

So a few years ago when she picked up a new hobby, it's NO surprise that her newest "power tool" has been dubbed the "Binford" in my parents' house. (Insert Tim Allen grunt here:) Here long arm quilting machine has been her best friend recently. She has cranked out quite and amazing group of quilts. She is obviously the talent in the Tim Allen/Binford pair, because I don't care HOW MUCH a machine costs, it can't make things this pretty on it's own. (Shout out to Dad here, he does consult on the colors pretty often. Don't want him to get lonely.)

I can't fathom making anything as awesome as these, but here are a few. Yes, these are quilts, not just cool pictures. 

This one is a Mariner's Compass. If you look closely at the bottom, you can see that she quilted it with white thread, and stitched whales and seaweed/reef into the quilting!! This one appropriately ended up at my Aunt and Uncle's house - they both served in the Navy for many years, and were thrilled/surprised to get such an awesome gift!

This one was just a little "pet project" since she doesn't have any grandkids yet to share this one with. It is just so cute!! I actually like it better in pinks than I think I would in blues. 

The "Peppermint Forrest" lives in MY HOUSE!!! WOO HOO. This was my Christmas present last year. Now, I don't care for red. At all. In my house at least. It's great in other people's houses, even pretty. I just don't know why, but I would be OK if there wasn't any red home decor in my home. Except at Christmas. Or any other holiday that I can justify having this out. Since it is red and white and SO GORGEOUS, we have dubbed it the "holiday quilt." So it has a home for Christmas, Valentines day, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day...any day :) It is so pretty. The white with the red just make it pop. 

 It has a custom Tag on it...

 And it keeps me nice and toasty all winter long. And Josh isn't really allowed to touch it. 

But the real reason that I wanted to blog about my mother and her Binford, is because she made something pretty cool a few weeks ago. My mom and dad have recently reconnected with some long lost friends from Iowa. A few years back they went on their first LONG motorcycle ride with a group of "outlaws" (ha!) from Arkansas and had a blast. They've done one other big trip since then. Everyone has heard about T-shirt quilts, right? The premise is that people collect shirts when they travel, from high school, from college, from races they run in. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt! 

So Barry has a TON of T-shirts from his years of riding. My mom took them and made a T-shirt quilt. Oh, but this isn't your ordinary, throw some shirts together, put some batting in it, sew on the back and call it a quilt kind of quilt. It's legendary. Barry drives a Forest Green Honda Valkyrie. Of course, she used green fabric to put an edge on all the blocks that she made and to make it even more special. It's hard to see all the quilting, but if you look at the grey and orange blocks of the bottom half, you can really see it. 

It's a pretty special quilt, and it got an overwhelming response from the recipient. The main reason that I wanted to post about this is because I was not really a fan of the t-shirt quilt. I thought that it was fine for a college student to put in their dorm room or apartment, but the one I had seen prior to this one really just didn't do it for me. The best part about this quilt is that you can really tell a lot of stories with just one quilt. AND I wouldn't be afraid to use this one, like I sometimes am with my white one. The truth is that it's not necessarily a "cheap way" to get a quilt, but I think it's an awesome way to make a cool scrapbook. 

What do you think about it?

PS - I don't have a picture of the Binford, but here's a picture of my quilt-makin'-motorcyclin'-Mama!

*Andrea*

White Winter Wreath

It's the most wonderful time of the year...almost. 

I LOVE Thanksgiving. LOVE. But I don't have many Fall/Thanksgiving decorations. Naturally, instead of making some for this season, I have focused my efforts on making more Christmas/Winter decorations. I guess my philosophy is to finish one whole season before moving to the next. My house if extremely boring the rest of the year. 

Yesterday, I made a pretty white winter wreath. My mother, sister-in-law and I made these for fall as well. Here is the finished product of my original wreath. I think it's pretty cool! 

Since I have made 2 before this one I have come up with some tips and tricks. Regardless of the colors, here's how I made it. 

Using white (or chosen colors) tulle, I cut 18" strips of Tulle. Cutting these individual can be pretty tedious. The first time I was at my moms house so we used her mat and rotary cutter. I could cut multiple at a time. That was nice. The next time was very slow...I don't like to think about it. 

This time I looked around for something that was approximately 18" long and flat. It just so happens that my computer keyboard is just about 18" L! So I wrapped the tulle around it and put some rubber bands on each side of the keyboard.

Next, I cut the tulle on each end. I will note that I probably should have only done about half the amount. It took a little strategy to cut at first. I would have done it in 2 batches. 

Here's what the pile of strips looked like!

I used a small wreath for this one. The first one was rather large. The size of the wire wreath doesn't affect the length of the strips, but it does the amount of strips you need to cover. 

To put the strips on, fold them in half length-wise.

Slide the loo under the wire wreath form.

Pull the open end through the loop end and make it snug.

Repeat. Over and over again.

This is what it looks like when it's done.

This time, I added a step. Previously, I had just left it alone and hung it up. the strips stay if they are pulled snug enough. I just worry that when I put these away to store them for the rest of the year, they will loosen and I'll have to fix them all again. 

I took a piece of tulle and started stringing it through the wreath. (Bear with me hear -- sometimes my explanations are not the greatest.) I started by going under the wire. 

Then, when I pulled it back over, I crossed over the next strip strip of tulle. That way it covered any open areas of green, held down the already placed pieces, and pulled them tighter together. I did have to add more strips as I went around. 

I added a few branches of craft store holly berries. I think I will also add some candy canes, too. 

Since this will be a "Winter wreath" I also bough this cut little blue bird. I plan to put this on it after the Holidays!

That's all for now...on to my next craft!! 

*Andrea*

Guilt free November cookie!

This morning I saw this awesome looking Pin about Honey Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies. Sounds divine, right! Especially since we have just entered Thanksgiving month, I knew that I needed to try these. While I was out running errands today I picked up everything I needed to make them and now I'm sharing with you.


The original post is over at Undressed Skeleton. She does a fabulous job of explaining and documenting the awesome cookies. I did mine just a bit different.


Ingredients:
4 Cups Cranberries - I used 3 cups (that's what came in one bag)
1 cup baking Truvia - I used a few packets of Truvia, because that's what I had on hand
1 extra large ripe banana
4 cups whole grain oats
2 tbsp ground flax seeds
1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp honey
1 packet Truvia
Mini Dark Chocolate Chips

I boiled 4 cups of water, then added the cranberries and cooked until they were popping and foaming. After that, I removed them from the boiling water and put them in the fridge for 30 minutes. 

Next, I mixed the banana, oats, flax seeds, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla, honey (agave) and Truvia with an electric mixer. 

The "dough" is crumbly, sort of like it would be if you were making an apple crisp. The next step is to add the cranberries and mix gently with your hands.

On the original post, this is where you would add chocolate chips. I decided to skip that step. I wanted to make these as a healthy snack and as close to "clean" or "whole" as I can. That means no chocolate chips for this girl. Don't worry, it doesn't ruin it :)

Another thing I did differently was to put them in a 9" x 13" pan instead of dropping them in 1 TBS cookie balls. After I spread them out in the pan I cut lines in to the mixture. I wasn't sure what the consistency would be when cooked and I didn't want it to be super hard to cut. It worked out well. 

The last thing to do is to drizzle a bit of honey on the top and cook for 13 - 15 minutes. The voila! A nice healthy snack on the go. I think that I am going to freeze the majority of them and just take them out when I pack my lunch. 

Added a dollop of greek yogurt, too!

I will warn you, they are a bit tart - but I don't mind that. To be honest, I did't know how I would feel about the cranberry, but I am kind of loving it! 

Happy November! Up next, preparations for Christmas have started with a cute Christmas wreath....

*Andrea*

Welcome to my Pinterested Life!

When Pinterest first started, I was IMMEDIATELY hooked. Who wouldn't love all of the lovely pins that make us all covet the decorations, culinary creations, and handy-work of others? Pinners everywhere have planned their future weddings (and let's be honest, others are hoping that they may actually get to plan another wedding). Many other pinners have ventured to their local craft stores to try and re-create some Pinterest inspired projects...people like ME!!!

That's why I started this blog. I have tried a lot of pinterest-y projects so far. This is where I intend to share them with you. If I ever come up with my OWN projects, I'll post them here and pin them for others to try :)

I have you enjoy -- and you to can live a "Pinterested Life"

*Andrea*