Tag: handmade

family

The Only Celebrity Cookbook I will Ever Buy

Andi

If you’ve been missing my casual cooking and recipe posts, I apologize. I’ve been trying to cook and haven’t had much time to try new recipes. But, I did find a new cookbook and it triggered a need to cook.

Now, if you know, you know I do not like celebrity cookbooks. I am intrigued by them, so I pick them up, but end up just putting them back without even trying to make anything. The only exception was Chrissy Teigan’s Cravings Cookbook. I was able to make a few recipes and they were pretty good. The peanut cluster bites in there were to die for!! Having said that, I also returned it to the library and haven’t bought it or picked it up again. There never has been a celebrity cookbook I loved enough to actually purchase it.

UNTIL NOW

For some people, who knew Snoop Dogg back in the day, this may seem so odd. How could this guy, of all people, write a cookbook? I did not. I did not discover Snoop Dogg until I was an adult, where I’ve also realized I knew his songs but had no idea it was him or who any of these artists were. So when I heard about it, my first thought was, “well duh, he’s like BFFs with Martha Stewart”. Who by the way, did help him with this. But I realize how this may be odd. But I promise, this book is worth it.

I picked it up despite my general dislike of celebrity cookbooks because every time I’ve seen him, he’s always so chill and seems down to earth and genuine. This book reiterated that to me. It’s full of good meals, several of which has simple ingredients I use on the regular. Even the pictures of his pantry and kitchen look nice, but they aren’t over the top extravagant. It was so amazing.

But the real test came when I tried to make one of the recipes. I chose the Pork Chops and Mashed Sweet Potatoes. I expected it to both take me a long time and make a lot of dirty dishes, but I was surprised to be proven wrong on both. It only took me about an hour to make, and far fewer dishes than I thought. I was pleasantly surprised. The entire family loved it too, so it was delicious as well.

And if you still need convincing that this is the best cookbook on the shelf, then allow me to share his quote on Biscuits and Gravy.

“If you’ve been Down South, then you’ve eaten this on plenty of day breaks. This is that real soul food classic. The key here is to get those biscuits fluffy. And that gravy, well thats gotta be like that humid air of a Dirty South Summer- extra, super thick. But eat too much of this and you might as well just take your ass right back to bed. This ain’t for the meek. It’ll put your ass right back to sleep.”

family

Try Again

Andi

I did this peacock during my friend’s and mine weekly group painting, but I hated it. The first one looked so terrible. I didn’t finish it, I just threw it away.

I stopped to think about why it looked so awful, and evaluated why I disliked it so greatly. The colors were unclear and muddled together and looked like poo. What causes that? Well maybe it was my ridiculously old brushes that weren’t even designed for watercolor being too thick and wide to make the clear lines. I was unable to make the project look correct. So I went and got a new set of brushes. I also considered that my paints were getting used and running low. Perhaps they needed to also be replaced. So i also purchased a new set of paints.

New paper. Start over. The second one came out significantly better than the first. I can stand to look at this one. It could still be better, but that will be on a different day with different paper.

When you mess up, don’t throw your hands up and give up. Look at why you made a mistake, analyze how you could improve. What would make this project move more smoothly? Once you’ve done that, correct your errors. Make those changes. And then try again. If its still wrong, go back and try again. Don’t stop, keep changing things.. Keep making corrections until you get it right.

family

Pipe Cleaner Snakes

Andi

A bit ago, I had my kids do a beading activity. I noticed that my younger child was having a really hard time coordinating the moving string and the bead, to the point he was angrily frustrated and quit. I thought, surely there is a way for him to develop this skill without the frustration.

I’ve discussed the benefits of beading in my earlier post entitled Beading with Children. But any activity your children do should be doable without rage and irritation. Regular beading was a little too difficult for my younger child, so I adjusted the parameters a little bit to better fit their capabilities.

Instead of string, I gave them pipe cleaner to bead. Because pipe cleaners are stiff, they were simpler to coordinate. My child was able to do this craft without too much trouble. I’m fact they enjoyed it so much, they’d pull all the beads off and re-string them.

To add a little structure to this craft, we added little snake faces and positioned the snakes in funny ways. They turned out really cute with their tongues sticking out 😋.

This takes a little observation on the part of the adult. Can the children around you manage a wobbly string while they are beading, or do they need a little aide to work up to it? Another fun stringing activity involves those large wooden beads and shoe laces. Both of these will help a younger child develop their coordination to a point they can string beads, which in turns help develop other skills.

This craft did not cost a whole lot either. The beads I got in a set with some string for $1.99. You do not need that many, unless you have a burning desire to pick up a bunch of stray beads off the floor that rolled away. The pipe cleaners were $1 and I got the package of construction paper for $1 as well. Beading is so incredibly helpful and creative and costs so little. Give it a try with your kids!

Art

Octopus Watercolor

Andi

I’m really proud of this painting. A couple friends and I started doing watercolor tutorials together over Zoom a few months ago when the Stay at Home orders were issued. Before that, we had tried to get together in person to paint together. I’m honestly surprised how well the paintings turn out because none of us are professionals, but they almost always look good.

But this one is extra special. This one is an octopus. Octopuses are my favorite sea creature and my second favorite creature in general. They sit on the top with the Cats and Elephants. They are brilliant and clever and snarky. Look up some of the aquarium and diver stories about them. I love nature in general, but octopuses hold a special place in my heart.

The template was all blue and purple, but as a looked at it, I didn’t like the blue. I decided he shouldn’t be blue, he should be orange. Which immediately reminded me of Hank the septopus from Finding Dory.

I love Hank. He is cranky. He wants to be left alone. He is constantly caught up in his friends hijinks. I am Hank. If I were an animal, I would be him. He is my favorite Pixar character. Which is not an easy feat considering he’s competing with the likes of Joy, Woody, and Dante. I am almost positive Hank was based off of someone in the Pixar studio and I want to meet this person, we would be friends.

So instead of blue and purple, I painted this guy orange and red with only seven arms in tribute to my Pixar friend Hank.

family

Hat with Flowers Craft

Andi

I got this hat and decorated it for the Royal Wedding a few years ago. The ribbon flowers I’d made and glued on have long since fallen off, and I was left with this, bland, little sad looking hat.

So this is what I was starting with. I had some plastic flowers, a little ribbon, and a hot glue gun with glue sticks.

First, I removed some of the lace ribbon. It was excessive and looked like it was falling off. Off with it. But I added some orange and green ribbon to give a base to add flowers to.

I picked up three bundles of flowers I thought looked good together. Three was plenty. I had extras left over afterwards.

I didn’t have much of a set plan going into this, so I added flowers where I thought they fit. I’m not an expert by any means, and a hatmaker would probably laugh at how badly my hat looked at the end. However, I’m not trying to be an expert or a hatmaker. I’m the one wearing this hat.

Final product: flowers everywhere!

I like color, I like flowers, I like eccentric things. So for my style and my purposes, this hat was a success! I do not remember what I spent on the hat when I bought it, maybe $10? The ribbon was given to me, the flowers were $1 a piece. My hot glue gun was about $10 when I bought it as well. Not a huge expense for me and it gave me an hour outside doing something in the fresh air!

Art, family

The Last Supper Table and Chairs

Andi

A local museum had a room full of art pieces donated by local citizens. Some work they’d done themselves and some that had been passed down in their families. This table and chairs drew my attention and it fascinated me.

It depicts the Last supper in the middle of the table, and there are twelve chairs each depicting a different disciple. I did not notice at the time, but the chair for Judas is carved differently from all the rest as he was the one who betrayed Jesus. It is of course carved and it was quite large. This quick summary laid there with the piece shared the artists history.

I find it incredibly intriguing how various religions have effected the cultures in which they are prominent. Art is one of the plainest places to see these effects, as religious artwork is prolific.

Something else I find interesting about this artwork in particular is the rarity of it. Not because tables are rare or because this artist took 12 years to carve it, but because of the unique idea of it. Who thinks of the Last Supper and thinks, I can make that into a table and chairs. It’s so odd, but delightful.

I enjoyed this part of the museum because of the unique and fascinating nature of it. It was neat to see all these different pieces by or from local residents. But this table, by far, stood out the most.

family

Chicken Chili Soup

Andi

Simple meal? Easy to assemble? Throw it in the crockpot? I’ve got the recipe for you!

I love a good crockpot recipe. Really, I have this love affair with my crockpot, it is my friend. I’ve made this recipe a few times and tweaked and adjusted it until it was delicious.

2-3 Chicken Breasts

1 can Diced Tomato

Broth

1 can Black beans

2 cups of Cheese

1 Bell pepper

1 Jalapeno

1 Onion

2 tsp Cumin

2 tsp Chili powder

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 can Corn

I say 2-3 chicken breasts because this is dependent on how big your chicken is and how big your crockpot is. Adjust to size. You can put them in frozen and it’s no big deal. Add the tomato, beans and corn, just a can of each. Chop up the fresh vegetables. Add in the jalapeno and the onion. You can use whichever color bell pepper you want. I’ve used both green and red and they tasted just fine. Add the chopped bell pepper as well. Add the cumin and chili powder and a dash of salt and pepper. Add enough broth to cover the chicken breasts. Do NOT add the cheese yet. Save that for later. Turn on to high for about 3 hours, then turn down for another couple hours. Coming back to mix the ingredients every hour or so.

When your chicken has cooked through, pull it out and shred it up. Re add the now shredded chicken and now add the cheese and any additional salt or pepper you think it needs. If you love spicy and it’s not got enough of a punch, add a dash of cayenne. Mix all together. Turn down to keep warm and let it sit until that cheese is good and melted.

Serve hot. If you wish to garnish with cilantro and a lime wedge, do so! I put extra cheese on top, but that’s because I also love my cheese a little too much. Tastes pretty good with tortilla chips as well, extra tasty if you serve with those hint of lime tortilla chips.

Soup is delicious any time of year, but right now, if you are still cold and the chill sets in after the sun goes down, I guarantee this recipe will warm you right up!

family

Blanket and Pillow Set

Andi

For Christmas, I am making my son a blanket set. Blankets are pretty simple to make, and I decided I could walk you through the process. Since I was going to have all my equipment out anyway making my son’s blankets.

First of all, you’ll need your fabric. For a large blanket that they can grow with and use for a long time, I get a yard and a half. For a pillowcase I’d get a yard. If you don’t need it all, then it’s better to have too much than too little. I prefer fleece and flannel for blankets and pillows just because they’re soft and cuddly.

Second, wash your fabric before you use it. This is important. You have to wash the fabric before you try to work with it.

Pillowcase first:

Measure your pillow. I only say that because I have a thick fat therapeutic pillow that doesn’t fit into a regular sized pillowcase, but my son has a small kid sized pillow. So measure the pillow you’re making the case for. Add about an inch to your dimensions and cut out the base fabric. Then, cut out a contrasting fabric for the end. Length the same as the base fabric, and about 4 inches wide. This will be folded in half, so it gives you a 2 inch casing on the end of your pillow. You’ll end up with 4 pieces as pictured above.

With the casing, you’ll be sewing the two casing pieces onto the two base pieces first. Sew right sides together. Lay flat and iron the seam down. Then fold the other end of the casing over about finger width, and iron that down. Fold over to cover the seam and iron the folded edge, forming the casing. Stitch straight across. I used a zig zag stitch on this part.

I tried a new seam on the actual pillowcase part. This would be for those who don’t own a serger to seal their seams.

I sewed the pillow together wrong sides together, the direction the pillowcase will end up facing. It will look as pictured above when you get it stitched together.

Then flip inside out, and iron it flat. Stitch down again, concealing the unfinished edge inside. Be sure you make the stitch far enough over that it covers the first stitch you made. Flip inside out again and examine your handiwork.

Pillowcases usually take around 30 minutes or less to make, from start to finish.

Blankets are very simple, but due to the larger size, take longer to make.

In general, I fold over the edge and stitch down. With flannel, iron the edge down to make it easier. Then fold over again and zig zag stitch, trapping the unfinished edge on the inside.

The hardest part are the corners. To make a perfectly square corner is fairly painless. All you need to do is cut the corner off. The cut piece will be triangle shape, and your corner will now be a plateau. It will look like the picture above.

Then you can fold both sides down to make a perfect corner and pin down as shown in the photo below. I’d stitch the corners straight across to secure them down before moving on to your edges.

Another way to do the edges of a blanket is to encase it with biased tape, or ribbon. This works well with fleece as folding fleece on top of itself can get fat and cumbersome quickly. It’s a simple fold over the ends and zig zag stitch, as pictured below.

Blankets generally take an hour to hour and half. It may take me longer because I have to pause frequently to attend to children, but that’s my average.

My completed product was a fleece blanket, a flannel blanket and two pillowcases. Simple, but useful.

I know for a fact that I eyeball my sewing way too much. An act I am positive my seamstress mother would be disappointed in. One side of the fleece blanket looks like it could be sold in a store, the opposite edge looks much too haphazard. In regards to my children, they don’t care. But in regards to professionalism I know I need to work on that aspect.