New toy prompts creativity.

Where have I been?  Not sure how to answer that but am going to do my best to post here often.  Yes that was short and brief. lol

I have a new toy.  We went to hobby lobby and I finally bought a metal press alphabet stamp set.  So,.... you may say.  Whats the big deal most everyone has one these days...... Yes they may but, it has done wonders for me personally. 

I finally feel like creating things again.  and ideas are free flowing in my brain .  Its also done wonders for me in wanting to get back to my etsy store that I've been neglecting since starting my new job. 

I started making personalized earrings for my friends and they loved it so much that I added them to my store.  Check them out here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/187436620/personalized-earrings?ref=shop_home_feat_4

Now I'm working on a personalized necklace.  The great thing about this necklace is that its brought me back to my true love, which is wire.  Instead of making this necklace with bought chain.  I'm making my own to make this necklace truly handmade. 

Here's the beginning of the necklace.  Cant wait to show you the end result.  Yes I'm excited and you know why?  All because I bought myself a toy.  So this is what I'm encouraging you to do.  If you are in a creativity slump, try something new related to your craft or totally on the opposite spectrum.  It will do wonders for you.  Like a caffeine jolt.  Try it and then show me what you've tried new.

Can't wait to hear from you.....

Dr Oz pizza crust

Doesn't this look absolutely yummy?!  If you answered yes, then you are right;)  This is one of the many things that we are now preparing in our house.  Yes our very own pizza.  We put it in a pizza box to take this picture, just to tempt you into trying our pizza crust recipe which is from Dr. Oz.

As you all know, I'm trying to find replacements for the things that we love and spend way too much money on.  One of them is pizza.  But you may say, I can go and get a one topping pizza for $5.00.  While that may be true, can you say that your pizza is on the healthy side?  Yes people, healthy. and can you even pronounce half of the items that are put into your pizza crust?  

There is nothing wrong with pizza, its the extra cheese, and all of those wonderful meats that does oneself and your waist in.  If you make a few tweaks to your pizza though, you will find that you can still enjoy one of your favorite foods, save money, and get this..... you can make it together with your husband and have some quality time in the kitchen together.  My husband and I have a great time making pizza together.  I only hope that you will too.

In a small bowl, combine 1 tablespoon of dry yeast and 1/8 teaspoon of sugar with 1 1/2 cups of warm water.  Let that sit for 10 minutes.

In a separate large bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour and 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour.  Add 1 tablespoon ground kosher salt to this.  Mix well.

Then add the yeast mixture and mix by hand thoroughly.  (this is a very sticky job)lol  Add 1 tablespoon olive oil.  Knead the dough for about 2 minutes.  Cover bowl and let rise in a warm area until dough has doubled in size.  This usually doesn't take long.  20-60 minutes.

After dough has doubled, punch dough down and knead for 1-2minutes.  Now the original recipe states to divide the dough into 4 equal portions.  We like a thicker dough, so I divide it into only 2 portions.  The extra portion can be put into a bowl, covered with plastic and stored in your refrigerator.  Roll the one portion into a ball.  Be sure to put some oil on your hands first, or you will have a sticky mess again.  The original recipe states to lightly coat a baking sheet with olive oil and with a rolling pin, roll out your dough .  I roll my dough on my wooden transfer that I use for my hot stone.  When I roll it out though I don't spray it with oil, I spread cornmeal on it so that I can just slide my dough onto the stone.   This can be tricky though and if you are not used to working with this type of dough, you might want to do it Dr. Oz's way.  After you have rolled out your dough, poke it with a fork all over.  If you don't, your dough will develop bubbles in it while baking.  Bake the dough for 5 minutes.  Remove from the oven and then add your health ingredients.  Put your pizza back into the oven and bake until your ingredients are hot.  The dough is already cooked through before the ingredients are added, so you don't have to worry about that

To keep your pizza healthy, add things such as plain tomato paste with Italian seasoning sprinkled on top.  Then add some shredded cheese, low fat is best.  You can supplement this with Parmesan cheese to satisfy that cheese lover.  We then usually cut up onions, green peppers, mushrooms, and fit and active sausage and stir fry it all together in a little bit of olive oil and then add it to the pizza. 

I worried that my husband was going to hate this crust, but believe it or not, its one of our favorites now.  I hope that it becomes a favorite for your family too:)

Apple and Pecan salad

 

 

As you know, I've been working on saving money by preparing food at home.  One of the more expensive items that I used to buy was salads from Wendy's, and Fazolis.  Don't you just love their apple and fruit salads that they have?  Well I do, but I hate the price of them.  I found this recipe in a magazine and its a hit in this house.  My husband says its the best salad he's had.  The ingredients are simple.

 

For the dressing.

1. 1/2 cup honey
2. 2 tablespoons poppy seed  ( I use Chi seed)
3. 3/4 vegetable oil
4. 1/2 cup cider vinegar
5. 1/4 teaspoon pepper

Making the salad

 

1 head romaine lettuce , cut up

1 cup pecans  (I've also used other types of nuts)

1 Fuji apple, diced

1/2 dried cranberries (I've also used fresh blueberries and other types of dried fruit)

6 ounces feta cheese

1 small red onion, thinly sliced.

 

Now the instructions say to toss the dressing with the salad just before serving, but this recipe makes alot and its just the 2 of us in this house, so I make the dressing and put it in a used plastic dressing container and we add to the dressing to the salad on our plates, since this is enough to last us for several meals.

 

Now I know what some of you are saying.  This isn't cheap, you've put feta cheese, dried fruit, and pecans and honey in it.  For those of you who live near an aldi or discount store you can get these items much cheaper there than you can at a regular grocery store.

 

Tip:

When I make this salad, I put it in a very big bowl, then I take a couple of paper towels and wet them and place them over the salad.  I then place a piece of plastic or foil over it to get the salad crisp.



Free pattern for crochet dishclothes

 I"m not sure what it is about the winter time, but when it gets cold, I just want to crochet:)  And as you all know,  I love handmade, especially when I can make it. 

I started crocheting my own dishclothes several years ago because I just had to crochet something at the time and my dishclothes were looking rather worn out.  I found several patterns, but this one is my favorite.  Its so easy that a beginner can use it. 

You will need:

1. 2oz of yarn.  I prefer soft cotton, but this project is great to use up those leftovers.
2. An "H" hook

To start, I chain 36.   The original pattern called for a chain of 30, but I crochet tight, so I had to make it bigger.  You can make yours smaller or bigger by adjusting the number of your chain.  Simple keep the chain an even number.  If you make the chain an odd number, it will throw your pattern off.

Row 1:  Dc in 3rd chain from hook,  dc in next chain, *skip next chain,(sc,dc) in next chain, repeat from * to last 2chains, skip next chain, sc in last chain turn.

Row 2:  Chain 1, dc in 1st sc * skip next dc, (sc, dc) in next sc, repeat from * across to last 2 chains, skip next sc, sc in turning chain.

Row 3- 31 :   Repeat row 2.  Here again is where you can adjust the pattern. You do not have to do 31 rows.   How big the washclothe is, is up to you. 

I hope that this will become your favorite pattern too:)

How to insert my corkscrew earrings

I am so excited!  I designed these one night in my head, while I was watching my husband use his torch on a pool table that we were putting together.  In my head I torched the end of the wire to a bubble and then pictured wire swirling out of the front of the ear.  I thought how neat.  Here are those earrings.  The reason why I think that they are so cool is due to the fact that the bubble holds them in place.  There are no earwires and no rubber backs to push in place.





    To insert these in your ear, you simply put them into your ear from the back of your lobe.

Now all you have to do is twist these earrings into your ear, just like a corkscrew.  Fun right:)

Keep twisting.  Once you have twisted them all of the way in, the little bubble on the end will hold the earring in place.  Cool huh:)  I have these for sale in my shop here.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/118514746/corkscrew-earrings

Homemade icecream sandwiches

This past summer, I was told by a doctor that I had cancer.  Scary huh?  Stunned was more like it.  I knew that I had been carrying my little companion around for 2 years, but lack of insurance stopped my from getting care that would've been given.  While driving to doctor appointments and waiting in line at doctors offices, I did alot of ,"am I happy with my life" questions.  The answer ,"no".  Spiritually speaking, I knew I needed to change some things, but the thing that I hated most about my life at the time was and still is, my job.  I have a decent paying job, and I do get all of the bills paid every month without too much difficulty, but yet I yearned to work less there and be at home more.  I started keeping track of bills and was angered by how much the grocery bill was.  Right then and there I went on a mission to get it lowered.   I know from growing up on a farm that cooking from scratch and making things at home was the key, but the mental exhaustion that I felt and still feel at times, just makes me want to head to the nearest drive thru or grab a frozen meal from the store and pop it in the microwave.  So I've been taking some of the favorite things that I buy prepared and finding through the Internet and magazines, recipes that I can make and that still taste great.  Hence, the homemade ice cream sandwich.  These are family favorites and while they are one of the cheaper items in the ice cream section,  I decided to find something still cheaper and even healthy. I normally make these from chocolate graham crackers, but my husband wanted to try the cinnamon ones this time.  Anyway you make them, they are easy, cheap, and fun to make. All it takes is

• 1 box of chocolate graham crackers and any kind you prefer.
• 1 container of whipped topping.  I buy the fit and active kind. 
• sandwich baggies.

Take a cracker, smear the topping on it, cover with another cracker, squeeze together(Not to hard now , lol or you will squeeze all the topping out) and put it in a sandwich bag and then throw it in the freezer. Let set in the freezer overnight. Now you have a ice cream sandwich that tastes great and is easy on the budget.  Next time I make these I'm buying the strawberry whipped topping and making some with that.  My mouth is watering already:)

How to make a handmade envelope?

I wanted to, on my last blog share with you the link on how to make the envelope, but I couldn't find the link.  (Could've swore that I saved it in my favorites.) So, I thought that I would show you how to make an envelope for any size card that you have. 

I usually make my envelopes out of construction paper, believe it or not.  Its much easier to work with and much cheaper than card stock.  I bought my construction paper at a goodwill for less than a $1.00.

The first thing that you will want to do is to take your card,  (In this instance mine says quarterfold envelope) and line it up at the bottom and side of your construction paper as shown below and then

take your ruler and make 3/4 of an inch away from the card.

While you still have your card in the same position.  Take and put a little dot by the upper right hand corner.  This will serve as a placement for you.  See picture to the right.

Next, take your envelop and move it up and put the bottom right hand side of your card, by the dot as shown below.

Now, I want you to put another dot at the top right hand corner of your card again.  I also want you to measure 3/4 of an inch on the right hand side of the card at the top, like you did earlier.  This is shown below.

Now I want you to take your ruler and put it on top of your card.  Don't move your card.  Find the middle of your card from the left hand side of the construction paper to the mark that you just put there. Put a small dot there to mark the middle.  See picture to the right.

Now I want you to turn your ruler and go to the top of the construction paper and mark the middle there with a small dot.

This is going to be the point on the flap of your envelop when we are finished.

Now take your ruler and draw a line from the top middle to the mark on the upper right hand side.  Do the same on the left hand side.  This will look like the shape of a roof.