Easy Hair-do:

Me trying THIS:

Sometimes...

Sometimes I want:
- a road bike
- to never work again
- to visit Africa
- to have a garden
- to shave my head (aka to never have to do my hair)
- to visit Harry Potter Land
- my own room
- it to never snow again
- to craft all day, everyday
- to have a life DJ (Mine would be Angela T.)
- to visit the gardens of Europe
- to know if Castle and Becket will ever get together
- a really nice camera
- my sister to live closer
- to go to the pool
- to read Les Miserables
- to meet Matthew Bomer/ date him
- to have all of my stuff out of storage

to be continued...

Headbands

For these headbands you will need: 

fabric

wire 

needle and thread

scissors and ruler or rotary cutter and mat 

fabric measuring tape (or some way to measure your head) 

sewing machine

Begin by measuring your head from the base of your neck to crown, (mine happens to be 24 inches) then add 10 inches to get your total length (my total would be 34 inches).

Cut your piece of fabric 6 inches wide and the length that you figured in the step before.

(Mine would be 6"x 34").  I like using a rotary cutter and a mat but you can use a ruler and scissors.

Fold the cut piece of fabric in half length wise and with wise so both ends are together.  

Cut a triangle off the end so both ends taper. Cut only the open sides!

 AVOID cutting any sides that have folds!

(The cut doesn't have to be specific. Just make sure you

 leave enough room to turn it inside out later on.)

Put right sides together and begin sewing. Sew up one end then along the long side.

 Line up the fabric with the outside of the presser-foot. 

Sew ONLY ONE end shut.

When you get to the other end, REMEMBER to leave it open! 

Turn your fabric around and sew a second seam just inside of the first seam.  

This is making an area for the wire to go.  I just line up the first seam with the edge of the 

presser-foot and follow it all the way back to the other end.

Use the open end to turn it inside-out.

At this point you have a big fabric tube.  I like to iron mine (using my hair straightener :) so it is flat and easier to wire.

Take your wire (I just asked for wire at a craft store) and make a loop at the end.  

Slide it between the 2 seams.

When the wire is running the full length of the headband cut it and loop the end.

Fold the raw edge inside and sew up the end.

There are a lot of really fun ways to use this headband.  My personal favorite is to tie 

it in a knot to look like a flower. The wire it will hold pretty much any shape so be creative!

Divine Caramel Apples

  If there is one thing I love in this world it is caramel apples.  These apples take caramel apples to a whole new level.  Apples dipped in caramel, dipped in chocolate, dipped in your favorite whatever... YUMMMMM.  Here is how to do it:

 

Large Granny Smith Apples.  You can use whatever kind of apple you want but I love the green-ness and tartness of the Granny Smith.

 

 Put a popsicle stick in each one and dip it in caramel.  I just used the caramel wrapped in those little plastic squares.  On the back of the package it says to add water but I found that it sticks better to the apple if you do NOT add water.  Melting in the microwave is fastest.

 Set on wax paper to set up... about 20 min.

Take the carameled apples and dip it in chocolate (either white or milk).  I like using Almond Bark because it is easy to melt and re-melt and it goes on really smoothly.

This is where it gets tricky. The chocolate has to be set up enough so the toppings wont drip off but not too hard or it wont stick at all.  Just watch until the chocolate is done dripping and is starting to set up around the top.

Fun toppings: 

Cinnamon sugar (my personal favorite)

Coconut

M&Ms

Cocoa Powder

Any candy bar (cut up)

Toffee

Gram Crackers

Oreos

 

 If you are doing the one with the chocolate flipped over the solid background, just wait for the base chocolate to dry completely. Then use a fork to flip the chocolate on top.

* These are pretty much impossible to eat off the stick.  Its easiest if you cut it off the core.

What Van Gogh would have done if he were a stamp collector ...

       

        

 

One day my roommate and I were looking around DI and we came upon a really great stamp collection. We bought it, no questions asked. What was the obvious step after that??? Make a Van Gogh. 

I have to give most of the credit to my roommate.  She was the master mind behind the whole thing.  We bought a large canvas and borrowed some Mod Podge from the neighbors.  We organized the stamps into: flags, fruits/flowers, pictorial, foreign, Christmas, and presidents.  We then just did a color by numbers.  

Flags with white background- sky

Flags with dark background-hill at the bottom

Foreign- swirl in the middle and the moon

Pictorial-peak in the middle

Fruits/Flowers- stars

Presidents-Streak through the middle

The Christmas ones didn't make the cut, but I did use them later.

While we were working on our project we watched Charade. It seemed like an appropriate film while working on stamps.  I have to admit about 3/4 of the way through this project (like 3 hours in) I never wanted to see another stamp again.  It took a few days before I could feel good about it hanging  in the apartment.  Now I love it!

 Attached to one of the stamps was part of a letter. We could only see a few words but we thought it was an appropriate signature for our work of art

Budget Ornaments

This year I wanted to make ornaments to decorate my tree with.  I don't have a ton of $$ lying around for decorations so I needed it to be basically free.

  I got a typewriter this summer and I have been crafting non-stop with it. So of course I wanted to use my typewriter in the making of these ornaments. Side Note: Getting a typewriter was probably one of the best things I've ever done.  It is so easy to use and makes any project, list, label, note, letter... x10 cuter!   

 I also had a large collection of old Christmas stamps laying around (more on that later) that I wanted to use.

To make the paper/stamp ornaments I typed tons of Christmas words onto brown paper bags (free), then cut them into segments and glued them, along with a few stamps, onto the ornaments ($1 at Big Lots).  

For the fabric ornaments I just hot glued small pieces of fabric left over from my quilt onto small plastic ornaments ($3 at Walmart). The ruffly one is the same small plastic ornament and the same small fabric squares but, using a technique I learned in 1st grade, I wrapped the square around the end of a pencil and just hot glued the eraser end to the ornament so the middle of the fabric is glued and the ends of the fabric are standing on end.

The glass ornaments (also purchased at Big Lots for $1) were made by typing the same 3 words in a column, then making a fold under each word and taping the ends together to form a pyramid.  I used a gold spray-paint pen to run around the edges to make it a little more festive.

By Christmas I only finished about 10 so I guess I'll work on them all year and they can be my decorations for next year.

Challah Bread

I made this bread for the first time at Culinary School a few years ago and it has been one my favorite thing to make ever since. It is very beautiful and really easy to make.

Funny story, the first time I made this a fellow student and I tag-teamed it. The first try we thought we had done something wrong because it was taking so long to rise. We thought we used dead yeast so my friend tried to help the situation by kneading in more yeast about 45 min into the first rise. That obviously didn't work. The second try we got all the way to the braid but we thought we killed the yeast because we put it in too hot of a spot to raise (but really we didn't wait long enough for it to rise). We FINALLY succeeded the third time by just waiting patiently for the full time like the recipe says. Every time I make Challah I think of all those times we failed and I laugh. If at first you don't succeed try try again, especially in the case of Challah because the end product will be worth it!

Here is a little bit of history about Challah (HAL-la). It is a traditional bread originating from Jewish Sabbath and holiday celebrations. They eat 2 Challah loaves at each of the 3 Sabbath meals and during the holidays. It is to commemorate the manna that fell from heaven for the children of Israel as they wandered in the wilderness. (If this is what manna tasted like I would have been one happy Israelite camper!)

This year I made some on Christmas Day for my family, while it was baking I decided to take a little nap...when I woke there was nothing but a crust left!

Here is the recipe:
Honey (3oz) 6 TB
Salt 1 1/2 tsp
Bread flour (14oz) 2-3 C
Yeast 1 TB
Water, hot (2oz) 4TB
Water, warm (5oz) 1/2 C
Eggs 2
Butter, melted (2oz) 4TB
Egg wash

1. Stir together the honey, salt and (4oz) 1/2 C flour in a mixer bowl. Dissolve the yeast in the hot water. Add the yeast mixture, the warm water, eggs and butter to the mixer bowl. Stir till smooth.

2. Using a dough hook, knead the dough on medium speed, adding the remaining flour a little at a time until smooth and elastic (5 min). Add more flour if the dough seems too sticky.

3. Let dough rise until doubled (45 min-1 hour)

4. Punch down the dough and divide into 3 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a long strip about one inch in diameter and about 12 inches long. Lay these strips side by side and pinch the tops together. At this point move onto a grease cookie sheet to continue braiding. Tuck both ends under themselves for a nice finish.

5. Let the loaf rise until doubled (45 min)

6. Brush with egg wash before putting it in the oven at 350 for 40 min. (convection ovens about 300 for 30 min)
Recipe from  my culinary textbook "On Cooking".