Monday, October 8, 2012

Pillowcase

My little monkey LOVE LOVE LOVES trains... especially Thomas the Train. A few months ago one of his previous babysitters gave us a Thomas the Train comforter. I had also snapped up some Thomas the Train cotton material at Wal-mart around that time too, so of course I had to make him a matching pillowcase.


It was pretty simple, I just cut my material twice the width I wanted the pillow and several inches longer.  With the material wrong side up I folded what would be the open end down and sewed all across.  Then I matched up my open edges and sewed down one side, across the bottom and up the other side.  That was it, just trimmed my seams a little and turned it right side out.  Pretty basic!  


He was pretty excited, he even had to wear his Thomas PJ's for a picture!  :)



I usually party at: I Heart Nap Time Skip To My Lou Tip Junkie handmade projects The DIY Dreamer Button pic 9 Seven Alive Photobucket Poofy Cheeks

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Good "Pinspired" Eats

Hello friends! Just got back a few days ago from a little mini-vacation to my moms (5.5 hours away). My little monkey (who is almost 3 now, I can hardly believe it...) spent a week up at Gramma's and then together we spent another 4 days there when I went to pick him up. We did some visiting with friends and family as well as some other fun stuff like a visit to a petting zoo....








 And I also set up an Etsy shop for my mom. She's been doing craft shows for many years and I've been trying to get her to do an Etsy shop for over 2 years now (since before I even discovered my creative crafting side!). Now that I know a little more about it from having my own, I made it happen! She's got some really cute ornaments for Christmas, if you want to check it out! ;) lilbitscrafts.etsy.com



Yesterday the little monkey and I spent the whole day (minus a grocery store trip for me) at home and I tried out a couple of new recipe Pin's... Slow Cooker Enchilada Soup & Nutella Cookies.

Starting with the Slow Cooker Enchilada Soup....




Super easy and REALLY yummy.  My little monkey enjoyed it too.  I made a few small alterations from the original recipe so I'll just tell you what I did.

Drained / rinsed 1 can of black beans and put them in the slow cooker.
Poured 1 can of diced tomatoes on top of the beans.
Poured 1/2 bag of frozen corn on top of the black beans.
Sprinkled some dried minced onion (I'm not an onion or pepper fan so I go for the tiny dried stuff or powder rather than cutting up a fresh onion... if you like onion fresh onion and the peppers the original recipe called for, would be great I'm sure).
Placed my chicken breasts on top.

The original recipe calls for 10oz can of  enchilada sauce, but I only had a packet of seasoning on hand and a 8oz can of sauce so I mixed those together with the cream of chicken soup then whisked the milk in and poured it on top.

I cooked it on high for 4 hours, pulled out the chicken breasts and cut them up, then let it cook for about another hour.

The monkey and I ate it with dollops of sour cream and crushed tortilla chips mixed in... it was definitely YUMMY.

While our dinner was cooking and after nap time / tutu making time... we also made Nutella Cookies.  Some pinner down the line had noted on the pin not to add the sugar that was in the original recipe.  Good call in my opinion.  These are some of the simplest cookies to make and they sure are good if you are a fan of Nutella.   I discovered Aldi has a Hazelnut Spread, which is what I used.





The third food item we worked on yesterday was our third batch of Sourdough Bread.  About 6 weeks or so ago I made some Wild Yeast Sourdough Starter.  (From this pin)  It's still alive and well!  I now keep it in the re-fridge and feed it once a week when I take it out to make bread.



The bread recipe I follow is from this Pin.  Couldn't be much easier!  It takes a long time in that it has to sit for 18ish hours, but the time you have to actively work with is pretty minimal.


It's really good.  I found that to get a tall enough bread to make sandwich slices from I had to double my recipe because my covered dish (cast iron dutch oven) is pretty big in diameter.  But that's pretty easy too.

Fresh from the oven!




And slice with my husbands homemade strawberry jam...





Well, that's about it for what I've been up too!  Now to get working on tutus for the next craft show and a baby shower gift for this weekend!




I usually party at: I Heart Nap Time Skip To My Lou Tip Junkie handmade projects The DIY Dreamer Button pic 9 Seven Alive Photobucket Poofy Cheeks