One of my favorite things in to make crafts.  I love turning an object into something beautiful.  I might not always get the outcome I was hoping for, but it was still worth the effort that it took to try. This year I was at a new job with new co-workers and wanted to make something special for all 13 of them. Two of the 13 are my bosses, so I made something different for them.

I have spent countless hours creating and attempting to make my stuff look half as good as what it looks like on Pinterest. When I bought a Cricut I thought it would make it easier. Not sure I have succeeded in that, but I still give it the old college try every now and then. This year was no different.

For my two bosses I wanted to do something a little bigger for them, so I went with a potholder and added a bag of brownie mix and a whisk. My direct supervisor is always bringing in sweets that her young daughter bakes, so I thought that would be something she could also share with her family. I was also thinking the boss boss could do the same as she likes to bake as well.

For the co-workers I went with a painted or glittered ornament with the old red truck design with a Christmas tree and the words, “Merry Christmas” on it. It took a couple tries to figure out how to get the paint to stick to the inside of the ornaments, but once I figured that out the rest was easy. You can find anything on YouTube, and it has become my friend here lately as I watched several videos to figure out the best way to do this while receiving the best results.

I also used my Cricut to design a couple of blankets for my girls. I hadn’t planned on doing anything for children as it is hard enough to figure out what to do for the grandkids, but when I seen someone posts what they had done on Facebook, I had to recreate it and do my version. I think they turned out pretty good. It’s funny what you can do with a $2.50 fleece blanket from Wal-Mart.

Who knows what I will end up making next year, but for now my Christmas gift giving is complete for 2019? Hope you all have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

One of my favorite cookies is Snickerdoodles, so when I seen this recipe for Snickerdoodle Bread I had to make it. It was so delicious. This recipe could be a perfect snack for kids, adults, and all types of party guests. Try it for yourself and see if you agree.

One of my favorite things to make during December is Gingerbread. I’ve been making this recipe since I was a kid. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

One of my favorite desserts in cheesecake. I found this recipe on McCormick.com and not only did I have to try it personally, but I also had to share it with you because it is really good.  I made this as our dessert for Thanksgiving this year. Although I’m not supposed to be eating stuff like this, I kept telling myself because it had pumpkin in it, it wouldn’t be as bad for me. 

Time to get ready for some football games and what better way than with some delicious dip to go with those tortilla chips you’ll be eating.  Below is a great recipe that I have used many many times over the years. It’s sure to be a crowd pleaser.  You can make it with or without the chili and it will still be a great dip.

Go teams!

I have been spending way too much time on Pinterest lately looking for delicious recipes. I found this one on several websites which had several different versions as to how to fix this so feel free to experiment as different people add different things to change it up a little. The one thing I liked most is how moist this turned out. I have been baking in my convection oven, but decided to try the regular oven for this one as cakes usually rise too high in the convection and it makes it hard to pull the pan out. 

I live in an RV so cooking in the propane oven can be a challenge sometimes; however, I have figured out some ways around the issues that people have with cooking in an RV. For one I have pizza stones in the bottom to help distribute the heat and I have a thermometer that tells me the correct temperature so I know I am cooking at the right setting. In this recipe I was to cook on 325, but had to set my oven at 375 in order to obtain that temperature.

I found this terrific recipe on Pinterest and couldn’t wait to try it especially since there are only two ingredients. It is absolutely the easiest recipe I have ever attempted and I was more than pleased with the results afterwards.

It literally only takes 1 box of cake mix (spice flavored) and a 15 oz can of pumpkin. Mix them both until fully blended with a mixer. Fill a muffin pan 2/3 full and bake for 13-16 minutes at 400 degrees. I baked mine for 15 minutes and used a regular size muffin pan. You could bake them as mini size and adjust the cooking time accordingly.

This is what I had after 12 muffins. They smelt as good, if not better than they looked and believe me when I say they tasted delicious.

For the last 15 years or more I have been making Eclair cake after my aunt showed up to a family get together with one of these delicious desserts. My children loved them so much that my son use to request this as his birthday cake. I would make it up and add candles to it. 

I looked back for photos to commemorate the birthdays we had this and all I could find was from 2004 when he turned 13, 2006 and 2007 at 15 & 16, respectively. I’ll add the birthday pics at the end below the recipe.

Back in the day when I made them I used to use a different chocolate topping, but have been unable to find the chocolate anymore so the revised frosting was from someone else and to be honest I have yet to make one with this revised frosting as I don’t think it will be as good as the original version. I really wish Nestle would still make the chocolate I used to use.

If anyone takes a chance and fixes one of these, let me know how that chocolate frosting really taste. 

For the life of me I cannot remember where I got this recipe from, but I do know it is the best chicken pot pie that I’ve ever eaten. I have never liked the store bought pot pies, but this one I will make and freeze in individual bowls and have the perfect fix for a quick lunch or meal for the kids. Try it! I bet you’ll like it.

Back in the early 1990’s while attending college, my husband and I let this gentleman move in with us who was going through a tough time. He offered to cook some biscuits one night for dinner and at first, I was like thanks but no thanks I’ll cook. But he became insistent as it was his way of contributing something for letting him live there, so I finally give in and said, “ok, what do I have to lose?” To be honest, I really didn’t think he knew how to cook especially when it came to biscuit making. Well he made a fool out of me that day and proved me wrong. I told him if he kept cooking like that, I wasn’t ever letting him leave.  Those biscuits were to die for and because they were so good, I named the recipe after him when I published it in my cookbook many many years later, which is why the biscuits are called, JR’s Biscuits.  Wherever you are JR, I always remember the fun times my family shared with you and your wife every time I bake these up.

I will say this, if you don’t mix the yeast and water just right in the beginning you can forget it because they will not turn out right.  You cannot have the water too hot or too cold. It must be lukewarm. I always dissolve the yeast using my hands to mix it up as I add the water to it, then I proceed with the rest of the instructions.

Let me know how your version turns out. I would love to know if you get it right on the first shot.

Back in January I had made a shadow box gift for my mom for her birthday using my Cricut, so for Mother’s Day I needed to find another gift idea. This time I came up with a sign. It would be easy for her to hang up in her bedroom and be reminded everyday how much she means to me. My Mom truly is my best friend and I am so grateful I still have her in my life.

When I was a little girl, my Mom taught me how to can fruits, vegetables and jellies. It was something she had done her entire life and something I am so glad she passed on to me. I remember every year growing up we would can pickles, tomatoes and jellies. Plus, we would freeze all kinds of vegetables. I swear I think we put up like 300 jars of pickles every year, but that was because we could eat a jar a day and Momma give some away as gifts. They were so good, and I have never eaten a pickle as good as my Momma’s.

Last month I heard there was going to be a strawberry festival in Portland, and you could get fresh strawberries. Now mind you this town was about an hour plus drive away and would require being on back roads. I had never been to this town, but I said I was going because I wanted to make at least one batch of strawberry jelly.

I didn’t really care much for the “festival” part. I was just there for the berries. They were so delicious. No telling how many I ate on the way home, but there was still plenty for canning.

You would think after weeding that sewing machine project, I would have given up on doing anything intricate again, but not me. I’m a gluten for punishment when it comes to stuff like this. I had wanted to create something original that could be displayed in my house that was a replica of our first sticks and bricks house that we picked out together. I saw where people were taking pictures of people and things and turning them into SVG’s, so I though I can do that. So after lots of research, mistakes and missteps I succeeded in getting what I was looking for.

I took a picture of my house and then used software to turn the picture into an SVG that could then be uploaded to my Cricut and cut out of vinyl and used on my reverse canvas project. I picked a smaller frame for this one, removed the canvas and painted the frame black. Weeding the design wasn’t too bad, especially compared to the sewing machine I had done.

Once the weeding was done, I applied the design to the canvas using my iron and then attached the canvas back to the frame. I added the words, “Home Sweet Home”. If you had asked me a couple months ago about doing something like this I would have freaked out, but the more I do these things, the more I like them. I am definitely getting my moneys worth out of this machine.

Once I started working on some projects, I seemed to get on a roll and started doing all types of stuff. Anything from signs for my guest bathroom to signs for the front of my house. The signs for my bathroom were simple to make. I purchased a 6” wide by 8’ long board from Lowe’s and had my husband cut it into six-inch lengths, then I sanded and painted them. Once the boards were ready, I was able to cut out the designs I wanted using my Cricut and then it was just a matter of applying them to the board itself.

A Little Bathroom Humor

For my sign in front of my house, I wanted to have a weenie dog since that is what type of dogs we have. For the O in home, I put a weenie dog. Just like the signs, I purchased a white board the width I wanted and cut it in half so I could get more than 1 sign from the board. I applied the cut-out vinyl design using the spacing I thought was applicable for the affect I was looking for. I added a little twine to the top just for the hell of it and now it was ready to be placed by the front door.

I couldn’t let the master bathroom go without having a few little sayings in there, so for these I bought a wider board for the backs and added framing to the sides to make them look like picture frames. My husband done the cutting, then I sanded and stained them. The designs were cut with my Cricut and applied directly to the board and then hung up on the wall.

This is one of those patterns I bought forever ago, but never got around to making anything out of it. I had bought a gorgeous piece of material with the intentions of making a dress, but after much debate as to which pattern to use, I decided to do a skirt and blouse instead.

The skirt portion of the pattern turned out great, but the top not so much. I didn't realize until I started to put the band around the neck of the blouse that my material really didn't have enough stretch to it to make this type of top. So I'll go back to the drawing board on making a blouse in the future, but for now I'll pair it with a white top.

To begin with I had to cut the pattern pieces out, which for this was cutting two sides for the front and back on the fold.

Then it was just a matter of sewing up the side seams, leaving a slit on the left side about half way up.

This was the first time I have installed elastic by attaching it to the fabric as opposed to making a casing and inserting elastic. By attaching the elastic to the fabric and then stitching around the skirt I have avoided having my elastic roll up, which is an amazing discovery.  I used this same technique in a pair of lounge pants last week, which is why I used it on this skirt. This will be my go to technique for elastic from here on out.

One of the things I keep seeing on my Cricut group boards is people doing reverse canvas projects. At first, I wasn’t sure how to do them, but everything people kept posting looked beautiful,  which made me want to do it even more.  My thoughts were, how hard could it be? Well that depends on who you ask.

There are a couple steps involved in this process. First you need to decide how big of a project you want to do, then you need to purchase the size canvas you need in order to accommodate your project. I had found a gorgeous sewing machine representative of the old days, which I have always wanted to have in my home.

Once I knew the design I was going to use, I decided on how big I wanted it to be and bought the canvas. After that, I had to remove the canvas material from the frame. By the time I wrote this post, I had already done several of these and I found that the bigger the frame the better I like the look of them. Removing the canvas is fairly simple. You can either cut around the staples or remove them. I chose to remove them. Once you have the canvas off the frame, then you need to decide if you want to leave the frame the natural color that it comes in, stain it or paint it. I have done stain and paint and prefer to paint mine. On this particular project, I painted the frame black as that would make it match the picture frames I use in my home. To me doing the frame is the easy part.

Now on to the design work. I printed my project onto heat transfer vinyl using my Cricut and then I spent hours upon hours weeding the design. At times I was ready to throw my hands up and quit because it was such a tedious process, but once it was completed, I was in awe of how beautiful the design was.

At this point it was time to put it all back together. First you need to iron the weeded design onto the canvas that was originally attached to the frame. Then you need to attach the canvas to the frame. You do that by attaching the canvas to the back of the frame, so that it looks like you have a framed picture, which essentially that is what you have. I used a staple gun to attach the canvas to the frame and stretched the canvas fabric as I worked starting in the middle of each side and working around from there. After doing a few of these, you will figure out which method works best for you in completing your project. Like several other projects, I found YouTube to be a very big help in getting this accomplished. Another design I completed in reverse canvas was of a camera as my love for photography goes back many years. This one was more tedious than the sewing machine.

As soon as my daughter told me she was expecting again, my mind started running as to all the things I wanted to make either by sewing, knitting or crocheting and I could not wait to get started. Of course I had to wait until I knew if it was a boy or girl before I got too far. What did we all do back in the day when we had to actually wait for delivery of the baby to know what we were having.

Anyway, I knew I wanted to make burp cloths as they seemed to be the one thing that you need the most and seems to be the one item my girls were lacking at their baby showers for previous births. Plus I like to make them using cloth diapers as they are much more absorbent than the store-bought type.  I use flannel in different baby  patterns on one side to add a different look and if you lay the flannel side on your shoulder it helps to keep the burp cloth from falling off as easy.  I usually purchase 1/2 yard of flannel, which allows me to get enough fabric to make two burp cloths. There easy to make and you can see below the four different patterns I ended up using.  

I pre-washed the diapers, cut the flannel the same size, put right sides together and sew around the edge leaving a hole to turn right side out. Once I turn right side out, I top-stitch all the way around the diaper which will close up the hole I left to turn. I also sew down the seams on the pre-folded portion of the diaper. This prevents the diaper from rolling up when washed.

When I made these I had recently learned to embroidery so I took the time to fancy up a couple of the cloth diapers and instead of using the flannel fabric on the entire back side, I used a 6" wide piece of cotton fabric the same length of the diaper folded in half and added to each end after I embroidered the design. You can find tutorials all over Pinterest for how to make these.

Speaking of Pinterest, I found the following idea when searching for ideas of items to make. I wondered why I had never thought to make these beautiful gowns before as this is another easy project. You can make these for little boys as well as girls. They are perfect for when you first bring a baby home and want easy access to diaper changes or just a cute outfit to cuddle that sweet little baby up in. You don't have to worry about all the buttons or the feet coming out the bottom. I imagine she will be in these a lot those first few days. They were easy to make using a onesie, which I learned you can either cut off, which is what I done, or you can leave the snap end and still attach the fabric to make a cute skirt, which you can make in any length you want. The bottom can either be finished with elastic like these or put ribbon in it so you can tighten the bottom up more around the feet.

In addition to all these items, I'm currently working on a crochet blanket and have sewn several receiving blankets as well. I just haven't taken pics of those items. It's a good thing we are sitting still right now, which allows me more time to get these projects done. Please share what crafts you do that keeps you busy.