Friday's Scissors and Cream (Croquet Birdie Prop, Caramel Banana Toffee Pie, French Toast Muffins )

For those who are new to our blog I have taken on the challenge to broaden my domestic goddess talents. I will be posting "first attempts" to crafts and recipes each week for your entertainment success or total failure! I call these my Friday's scissor and cream posts.

Enjoy...

Creative Newborn Props

HERE is another copycat idea I found on pintrest and here is what we ended up with. I think this will be my favorite prop to work with! It is so much fun finding new ideas online and then trying them out for ourselves. :)

Blue Birdie Beanie

HERE is where I found the idea I wanted to copy.

Here is how mine turned out and our adorable nephew!

Banana Caramel Toffee Pie (minus the toffee)

THIS Pie is to die for! If you haven't tried it you HAVE to asap. It was pretty easy to do to! During the process you get to try making homemade caramel from a can of sweetened condensed milk. You get to choose how to make it by throwing it in a water bath either in the oven or the crockpot. My sister was in town and since I was making it for our guests and she doesn't like toffee I excluded it. Since this pie is SO rich I would like to experiment next time with layering 2 more layers of bananas.

Sorry this was a phone picture

Of course every pie experience needs some helpers! Here is Danagan and his cousin Nathan both are 2 years old now!

French Toast Muffins

Sadly THESE muffins got scarffed down at the shower so quick I couldn't even take a picture! You gotta try this recipe! So good!

Friday's Scissors and Cream! (Adorable Hungry Caterpillar Prop, Chicken w/Red Curry Peanut Sauce and Lemon Crinkle Cookies)

For those who are new to our blog I have taken on the challenge to broaden my domestic goddess talents. I will be posting "first attempts" to crafts and recipes each week for your entertainment success or total failure! I call these my Friday's scissor and cream posts.

Enjoy...

We are pretty obsessed with the hungry hungry catipiller book by Eric Carl here at this house! If I had it my way I would have done that for Danagan's birthday theme this year but, I knew since all he talks about is OWLS that it was just not meant to be this year.

SO..I totally butchered the hat on this prop but used it anyways. The papus part I am pretty excited about but I am still working on redoing the hat. I saw these props from $45- $100 HERE and thought immidiately I can totally make that or at least try to!

Here is our adorable nephew

Grilled Chicken with Red Peanut Curry Sauce

If you like Chicken satay skewers you are going to fall in love with this recipe! HERE it is! Super easy to do too! The sauce was enough for 6 chicken breasts though so, we have a lot left over. I would suggest cutting the sauce recipe in half when you make it if you don't have a big family yet. :)

Lemon Crinkle Cookies

I totally screwed these up by not making the crinkle part :( Maybe I will feel up to reading directions next time. They turned out to be super nummy though! HERE is the real recipe.

Early Friday's Scissors and Cream! Yarn Letter, Lemon Poppy seed Muffins and St Patty's Crafts

Happy St Patrick Day Week!

For those who are new to our blog I have taken on the challenge to broaden my domestic goddess talents. I will be posting "first attempts" to crafts and recipes each week for your entertainment success or total failure! I call these my Friday's scissor and cream posts.

Enjoy...

St. Patty's Kid Art

Here is adorable art project I did with the girls this week. They had a blast. I got the idea from pintrest HERE.

Little St. Patrick Day Gift

Saw this idea also on pintrest (where would we be without this amazing site?) and decided to try it out for the girls I visit this month for church. Fun Fun. :)

Yarn Letter

Not sure if I already posted this before but, I did one of those yarn letters for Danagan that has been floating around pintrest. The corners were pretty hard to work with but, I am glad I did it. It is a perfect accent to his tree bookcase mural. :)

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

HERE is the recipe. For some reason I can't seem to find the right flour to use in my pastries with out them tasting too strong of flour! GRRR. I added 1 extra TB of lemon juice to help with the flour taste and only 1/2 c of sugar to make them a tad bit healthier. :) Just to change things up a bit I also put a scoop of jam in the middle of some of them before popping them into the oven. I will certainly be making this recipe again for sure!

Friday's Scissors and Cream! (Chocolate suckers, button sugar cookies, & minky baby blanket)

For those who are new to our blog I have taken on the challenge to broaden my domestic goddess talents. I will be posting "first attempts" to crafts and recipes each week for your entertainment success or total failure! I call these my Friday's scissor and cream posts.

Enjoy...

Baby Shower Time!

I was lucky enough to host a baby shower for my friend who is having a girl. The theme was "Cute as a Button" with the colors pink and yellow. A while back I saw this theme as a 1 year old birthday HERE. I ordered the chocolate molds she used asap in hopes of someday copying the theme in another party style. HERE is another site teaching newbies, like me, how to use melting chocolate and these molds. The chocolate was a challenge to work with since it was my first time using molds. I over cooked a batch making the chocolate clumpy and difficult to squeeze out of the baggie before it hardened. I learned that the trick is to remove it from the buner as soon as the chocolate has melted down to only a few small chunks remaining and then you keep stirring it to melt it all the way. This ensures it from being over cooked. Another thing I learned was that the hole size you cut your baggie matters greatly with the small shallow buttons. You need a teeny-tiny hole to manuer from button to button without getting chocolate goop everywhere. For a halloween party HERE I made a moss block to hold cake pops. This worked like a charm to display the chocolate pops.

Chocolate Mold Suckers

Button Sugar Cookies

For Thank You's I made these little sugar cookies. I scoured the kitchen for the right tools to use for the design. These 2 canning jar rings and candy themometor did the trick! HERE is the sugar cookie recipe I used. I always add lemon extract instead of almond especially in this case since the mom-to-be loves lemon in pretty much anything.

DIY Minky Baby Blanket

Okay, this project was totally NOT done by me. Kayleen is probably laughing in her chair right now :). So, here is the story. Since girl stuff is SO much fun to shop for I decided this was a great opportunity to start making baby blankets to give as gifts. The first time I sewed it I put two ends together thinking the cute little old lady at Joanns did her job and cut me a straight piece of fabric. This was mistake #1. Second mistake: I had no idea how incredibly hard of a material "minky" fabric is to sew. Its super slippery! This meant after I was done sewing two whole sides my two fabrics no longer measured up to eachother. I ran over to my sewing expert friends house for yet another attempt for someone to teach me how to cut in a straight line! Sad, I know! But, how the heck are you suppose to make a square when none of your sides are straight to begin with? Kayleen saved me and this poor little blanket. I went around it with a zig zag stitch and called it good. HERE is a simple blog if you need a tutorial. HERE is a step up with a fancy minky blanket. I probably would not suggest minky fabric for your FIRST quilt though!

Scissors and Cream ( DIY gift bows, layered jello, and marshmallow snowman craft)

Apologies for skipping last weeks post!

So...December hit me like a hot waffle iron to the face. I was totally unprepared for all of the advent crafts and recipes I wanted to try. Didn't really think through that I needed to be done with Christmas decorations or crafts before the holiday started in order to enjoy them! So, don't be surprised when I am still posting Christmas stuff well into January.

I started a full time nanny job with Danagan and surprisingly I am totally underwater. I don't know how you amazing moms balance it all! For those who are in a similar boat of overwhelmyness I have found Three books to be incredibly useful. "I don't know how she does it" by Allison Pearson (Not to spoil it for you but she finds out she can't do it all...how satisfying!) My good friend Katherine has raised her children and has cheered me up along this crazy road of motherhood. She gave me a book titled "The Mother Dance" By Harriet Learner . This has been awesome for a comforting read about balancing being a great mom, co worker, and wife. Lastly, Daniel and I have a all time favorite children raising philosophy book called "children the challenge" by Rudolf Dreikurs . We read it all the way through when we went on our Europe trip and we are starting it up again! Seriously a must read for anyone with toddler or a new family! It has mind blowing parenting ideas on oppositional children, setting rules, dealing with sibling rivalry and other great things that are in store for us as parents.

DIY Gift Bows

HERE is the tutorial I followed to make these super easy bows for all types of gift wrapping occasions. Hopefully this comes in handy over the holidays for you all! Crank up the Christmas music and start wrapping!

Blackberry Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

For Thanksgiving I tried to make a few pies for the first time. I know, I am almost 30 and I haven't even made 5 pies by myself yet...Hence this whole craft/recipe hiatus. I was initially making a strawberry/rhubarb lone and a mixed berry (raspberry/blackberry) one. Out of rushing and being stressed out I accidentally dumped in the blackberries into my strawberries. Daniel suggested I just go with it. So I did and it was pretty much the greatest mistake in my life! I thought strawberry rhubarb was my ultimate favorite dessert. Oh No, this new creation blows it out of the water. I used the recipe for both HERE. You can substitute any type of fruit to make the 5 cups the recipe calls for.

Layered Jello

I thought I would finally try this recipe out for myself from HERE. I know most of you have made this but I had never had before. My friend Ellen posted this a while back on her facebook and has stuck with me ever since. mmmmm. It would be a great Christmas treat if you alternated green and red jellos!

Marshmallow Snowmen

This week the girls and I made these adorable marshmallow snowmen I found on Pintrest. I am having so much fun being with them. We got to paint nails today while Dano napped. Things I can't wait to do when I have girls of my own. HERE is the blog.

Fridays Scissors and Cream (Paper Rose Wreath Cheez-Its and Cider Camels/Toffee)

For those who are new to our blog I have taken on the challenge to broaden my domestic goddess talents. I will be posting "first attempts" to crafts and recipes each week for your entertainment success or total failure! I call these my Friday's scissor and cream posts. Enjoy...

Vintage Rose Paper Wreath

I realized this year that we don't have many fall decorations for November. I love this project because it is neutral decor that can be used for any holiday or when you feel like redecorating. Since there are so many super cute DIY wreaths floating around blogs and pintrest I tried making one from the tutorial HERE. In retrospect I would have chosen a much less time-consuming wreath like the "coffee filter" ones. All the rolling of the paper really adds up on the clock! I got a straw wreath because it was cheap but accidentally cut the fishing line holding it all together. :/ I had to improvise and wrap some yarn around it to keep it from falling apart. Hence the super tacky orange yarn wraped around the wreath you all were curious about. I know...not the classiest project. lol

Apple Cider Caramels/Toffee

My last recipe swap was themed "apples vs. pumpkins". I decided to try THESE cider caramels since I hadn't ever used a candy thermometer or cooked many sensitive candies before.

These caramels are scrumptious to say the least. I even messed up the recipe and cooked it a tad too long. Conclusion: The "toffee" turned out great. :) My only advice if you try this recipe is to seriously follow the temperature directions. When they say take off the sauce as soon as it reaches a certain temperature THEY MEAN IT!

Homemade Cheez-Its!

Who can seriously say they have not been addicted to cheez-its sometime in their life? Especially the white cheddar ones! I was really skeptical about THIS recipe because it looked so easy. It WAS so easy and delicious. Not to mention it filled our house up with a toasty cheez-it smell- YUM. I will use a little less cayenne pepper in future batches but overall I am impressed! Try it out your kids will love them. AND- you can be satisfied that you know what all the ingredients are in your crackers. :)

Scissors and Cream (Chicken taquitos and Wet Cinch Bag)

For those who are new to our blog I have taken on the challenge to broaden my domestic goddess talents. I will be posting "first attempts" to crafts and recipes each week for your entertainment success or total failure! I call these my Friday's scissor and cream posts. Enjoy...

I have been obsessed with finding ways to freeze homemade meals and vegetable purees. Jerry Sienfields wife has a book you may have heard of called "Deceptively Delicious". I have taken her philosophies of using purees in most of your meals very seriously since we now have a picky toddler in the house. Some ways I have already used these purees for are the following:

Yellow squash puree in Mac and Cheese

Zuccini puree in my cockpot Lagsane (You can use UNBOILED noodles too in the crockpot!)

Carrot puree in breakfast bars/homemade popsicles

Brocolli and spinach puree in quesadillas and grilled cheese sandwiches
AND my favorite is crockpot chili! I usually add at least 3-4 different puree/chunks of veggies.

Turkey Day is coming up and I am already planning out the following days of left overs. What do you do with your left overs? This year we have decided to make MASS amounts of taquitos!

I found this homemade taquito recipe here and had to try it out! We had issues keeping the corn tortillas from breaking but I think we will be pros next time. How do you guys keep your totillas warm/moist while you are wrapping them?

These little puppies freeze amazingly well and we now will have less preservatives and sodium in our diet. YAY! Its coming up on the SUPER busy holidays so these will come in handy for last minute dinners for overwhelming weeks.

Chicken Broth

I used a rotisserie chicken for the taquitos this time and found a way to get my moneys worth! After you have striped your chicken of the meat for the taquitos throw the carcass in a crockpot. Add about 3-4 cups of water, a onion and a few veggies you want to get rid of. Ta-da! Chicken broth. Put the broth in measured jam jars or ice cubes so you can easily pop them in your dishes that call for some yummy fresh broth! Brilliant...

DIY Wet Cinch Tote

Since the we live so close to the Mountlake Terrece Pool and the Lynnwood Rec Center Pool we have taken advantage of both locations for family nights. Danagan LOVES to show us how he can blow bubbles, swim on his belly and shove his face into the small fountains. I decided that it was time we got a wet bag instead of using the 'ol "wrap all your sopping wet clothes in your small towel that is already wet from you drying off" trick. HERE is a tutorial to make a 5 min cinch sack. I instantly made it a wet bag by getting a poly vinyl type fabric from JoAnns. Can't wait to get our swim ON!

Fridays Scissors and Cream (Halloween Fabric Transfers, Healthy Hot Dogs? and Cupcake Bath Bombs)

For those who are new to our blog I have taken on the challenge to broaden my domestic goddess talents. I will be posting "first attempts" to crafts and recipes each week for your entertainment success or total failure! I call these my Friday's scissor and cream posts. Enjoy...

Cupcake Bath Bombs

I had a TON of fun making some last minute "new mother/special friend" comfort gifts. It was super easy to do and I found most of the ingredients from our local Central Market.

HERE is the tutorial.

I found the following ingredients there: Bromine powdered clay, indian food based food coloring, cream of tarter in bulk and witch hazel. I had a terrible time trying to pipe the frosting pretty like the uber talented wonder-mom that makes amazing cakes for all of her kids events. Alas...I had a rude awakening finding out how much practice I really need to get in order to do it well. To be fair my RA in my hands make me shake terribly when I squeeze or hold things for longer then 15 sec. So, I will blame the disease rather then my lack of skills. :) I solved the frosting dilemma by plopping the frosting on, smoothing it out and then adding a pile of orange pumpkin soap confetti to the middle. TA-DA!

Easy Citrosolv Image Transfers

My mom gave me a ton of embroidery hoops recently and I wanted to make some vintage art that I could interchange with different images depending on the season. You can find the tutorial HERE. It was crazy hard finding the Citrosolv and a copier that has toner. For those who live close to me you are in luck! I will save you a ton of time and tell you that our local Central Market has Citrosolv and Fred Myers on Bothell Everett Hwy has the old school "yellow plastic toner added" copier. I can't wait to make a batch of Christmas transfers next!

Mummy Dogs

To keep up the Halloween spirit Danagan and I made some adorable mummy dogs. You can find the recipe HERE. My child unfortunately LOVES hot dogs. We try to have healthier options for meals around here but it has been a bit of a battle to get him to "like" anything. We found these all beef or all chicken dogs with NO added NITRATES at Trader Joes. At least I can pretend to be a decent mother and get ones that have less added cancer in them. Right?

*This is not my picture. We accidentally scarfed them up so fast that I forgot to snap one before they were all gone!

Fridays Scissors and Cream (Halloween Decor, Sugar Cookies and Homemade Spaghetti Noddles)

Its not too late for Halloween! I have totally fallen in love with the popular party blog " hostess with the mostess". The parties they feature are totally amazing and over the top! They occasionally will have some of their decor FREE to print! They have really pulled though for me this Halloween season. Here are the cute vintage printables I have used this week from HWTM and other awesome blogs.

Halloween printable spellbound sweets

Halloween DIY sweet spirits

Spells and potions Halloween: creepy jars and candy labels

Spells and potions Halloween: creepy drinks

Halloween themed freebies from lil mop top- Here are some free toddler educational halloween games I used for nannying this week

Many potion bottle from cheeky magpie CHECK THESE VINTAGE LABELS OUT!!! So fun!

Spider Web Sugar Cookies

I have finally found a recipe for frosting that is spreadable without being too runny and actually tastes good! I couldn’t be more excited! I tried my hand at some sugar cookies and frosting with a Halloween twist. I used this tutorial for the sugar cookie recipe and added 1 tsp extra of Lemon extract instead of the normal almond. For the frosting I used a recipe my friend Kristen Moya gave to me. Hopefully she doesn’t mind me sharing. I have included the recipe below. I got the decoration design from (of course) “Our Best Bites” HERE.

Butter Cream Frosting (yeilds about 2 cups)

1/2 c butter, softened

16oz confectioners sugar

4-6 TB of milk or cream (I had to use 7 actually)

1 tsp vanilla

Beat butter, sugar, 3T milk and vanilla until smooth and blended thoroughly. Add additional milk for desired spreading consistency. Increase speed to medium high and beat until light and fluffy, about 1 min.

This adorable Ghost Graveyard was found HERE and the super easy mummy sucks were created thanks to "Zakka Life" HERE.

Homemade Speghetti Noodles

My craft/recipe hiatis has rubbed off a little onto my husband. His Grandparents were in town this week and he surprised me and them with a scrumpious dinner featuring HOMEMADE speghetti. HERE is a similar tutorial he followed. Let me know if you all are intesterested in me doing a tutorial for them and I will! I just want to make sure there are some avid blog lookers before I do all that work :)

Scissors and Cream (Chicken Cordon Bleu, Chocolate Soufle and 3D art)

For those who are new to our blog I have taken on the challenge to broaden my domestic goddess talents. I will be posting "first attempts" to crafts and recipes each week for your entertainment success or total failure! I call these my Friday's scissor and cream posts. Enjoy...

This week I am busy learning all sorts of new decorating tricks to spruce up our place for the holidays. I know half of you have already tried some kind of rendition of tissue paper art but I wanted to try it out myself. I think I will have to practice a bit more before I can do it for a party for someone else but I am very please at how my wheels turned out.

I totally scored some flat back embellishment buttons at a garage sale a couple weeks ago and I was VERY eager to use them. I can't wait to make some vintage cards. That will have to be a project for another day. :)

Here are both the tutorial links:

Paper Decor Wheels

Pom Pom Ball in the middle

In the Kitchen...

Chicken Cordon Bleu from Spark Recipes. It was fun to try something new but there was a lot of changes I would make in the future "cordon blue making." I would like to try adding a layer of Dijon mustard or some kind of sauce in the middle to add some more flavor. Another different ingredient I would recommend is using a quality chicken breast. I unfortunately used the Fred Myers brand breasts and by the time I was done pounding it there was not much there to work with.

Chocolate Soufle

I tried my first soufle this week and learned my lesson that some recipes will be a complete failure if you only make a half batch. I have been making half batches of all my new recipes because I don't want to waste so many ingredients if I mess up and there are only 2 of us eating all of this fattening food! Soufles are like creme brule in the sense that they are VERY sensitive with how you make it. My soufle never rose like it was supposed to but it tasted like super yummy cake! Try it out yourself HERE. Make sure you make a WHOLE batch!