Pin Cushion

I made this cute pincushion last night that I saw in whipup.net. It was so easy and I love it! I used some spare felt and embroidery floss to make the petals. The little rose gives it the sparkle that makes it so cute. I'm headed to the fabric store tonight to search the remnants table for pretty scraps. I think these cushions will make fun little gifts :-)

Swap

I completed my first swap this week. It's quite fun and a bit addicting. I think I signed up for 10 swaps alone this week. This week's swap was a sticker swap which was pretty straight forward since all I had to do was go through my stickers and find extras. It was also a good excuse to go to Michael's since they were having a sticker sale :-)

I'll take pix when I get my packages and post - hopefully soon!

Homemade Dumplings (Gao Zi)

This weekend's project was to learn how to make homemade chinese dumplings. Making dumplings is definitely more an art than a science so as my mom was showing me how to make the dumplings, I was taking detailed notes and pictures. Dumplings also require A LOT of time. This project turned into two days of cooking, although the first day was pretty easy. We made the dough Saturday night and then let it sit overnight. Sunday we made the filling (Pork and Napa) and rolled the wrapping and made the dumplings. Homemade dumplings can't be beat so after reviewing my notes and pix, I'm going to try it out myself. I expect it will take me several tries as well as a fair amount of consultation from my mom. Luckily she's very encouraging and wants me to learn this family tradition.

Done!

I finished the sampler! But even with the satisfaction of completing the project - I still need to get it framed and it could use a little ironing. I'm really happy with the way it turned out though :-)

Progress

I've been making excellent progress on finishing my cross stitch sampler. I think in one more stitching session, I'll be done!! This is a pretty major accomplishment for me since I have problems completing my projects which stems from the fact that I like to bite off more than I can chew and so end up starting lots of projects but rarely finish any of them :-) But since I'm close to done, I've already been trolling for my next project. I've settled on this project that I found on another blog. The grocery bag looks very straight forward and since the one in our kitchen has broken, we really need one of these!

We've also been busy with Monkey doing little craft projects with her. This weekend we went to see Pingu at the National Gallery of Art. Monkey actually sat through most of the movie which is a first for her. Usually she gets scared and wants to leave. Luckily Pingu is not too scary and had the added benefit of having a baby sister (Monkey loves all babies) and with the promise of a craft project at the end of the film - she sat still for most of it. For the project, we made clay penguins (pictures to follow soon) using Crayola modeling clay which I've never tried before. Unlike typical modeling clay, the Crayola brand doesn't require an oven - the clay just air dries which is kind of nice. It's got a more spongy texture to it which makes me wonder what high tech compound is used in the stuff!

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Here's the yummy recipe for the Vegan (and nut free and egg free) Chocolate Chip cookies that I made as a Christmas present for my vegan brother-in-law, Mark. This recipe was on the back of the bag of vegan chocolate chips and I made a couple of minor modifications that seemed to work well including using soy "peanut" butter instead of regular peanut butter. I made these as a gift for Mark because he doesn't like to own a lot of things, so food is really the only good gift I think he can use.

Everyone in my family (vegan or not) thought these were yummy and since one of my complaints about vegan food is that it often doesn't taste good to a non-vegan, I liked this recipe since everyone ate up the cookies! We even left these for Santa and he liked them too :-) The only thing to note about these cookies is that they spread out quickly and are on the thin side so make sure to space them well apart.

"Nutty" Chocolate Chip Cookies
Egg, Nut, and Milk Free

1 cup flour
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup canola oil
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup applesauce
3/4 cup smooth soy “peanut” butter such as IM Healthy Brand
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
10 ounce (1 bag) vegan chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Grease or line a baking pan with parchment paper.
3. Combine flour, rolled oats, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
4. Mix oil, and sugars until thoroughly blended. Beat in applesauce, soy “peanut” butter, and vanilla until combined.
5. Add dry ingredients to sugar mixture and mix well. Stir in chips.
6. Scoop heaping tablespoons of dough onto the cookie sheet. Leave lots of space (at least 2 ½ inches depending on the side of your dough ball) between each ball. Cookies spread quite a bit upon baking.
7. Bake 15 to 18 minutes or until cookies are light golden brown.
8. Allow cookies to cool before removing.

Makes 2 dozen large cookies

Starting a Blog?

I never thought I'd be interested in starting a blog but today I was surfing and reading some interesting craft related blogs. People are so creative! Lots of my in-laws are very crafty (in the good sense) so I thought I'd start a blog to share what I'm working on with them and whoever else might be interested. Only problem is that I tend to work in waves so I don't know how regularly I'll post. Of course the only way to find out is to jump right in!

I was pretty happy with this holiday in that I didn't feel totally overwhelmed and was more or less on schedule with the major things (although the holiday cards went out late). I have the Fly Lady to thank for this! I highly recommend her techniques. She's very positive and motivating especially since I can be a procrastinator.

So to kick off the new year, I'll tell you what projects and crafts I did over the holidays since I actually had some time on my hands.

After visiting my in-laws house over the holidays, I decided that what we were missing was a nativity scene. I had some left over clay and went to Michael's Craft store to get supplemental colors and this is what I made...


Note however that we are missing baby Jesus! That's because my dear toddler (a.k.a. Monkey) loves to play with the baby Jesus. So tonight when I wanted to take some pictures to post, baby Jesus was nowhere to be found. Either he'll turn up in the toy chest or I'll just have to make another one!

My other significant holiday project was my first gingerbread house. I tried baking my own walls, roof, etc, but I don't think I had a very good recipe. I ended up getting a kit from Costco which made it all very easy! I assembled this house in less than 1/2 an hour!

And today being only the second day of the new year, I have to chart out some of my goals for 2007:

** Finish up my cross stitch sampler that I started in 2002

** Assemble the quilt top of the quilt I started in 2003 (Do you see a pattern here?)

** Self publish my Chinese New Year Craft Workbook for kids

** Plant a garden for Monkey and I to tend together

** Cook more and eat out less

** Keep in touch with friends

That's all I can think of for now but I'll add more as I go.