Completed: Ellie's Sweater

Ellie's knitted sweater is finished. However, due to some slight problems in the pattern, it turned out wider than she is! I liked how simple it was to work with its
easy garter stitch and basic shaping of the rectangles, but it turned out just barely long enough for her and much to big for her, as you can see in the picture.



I did do a colored pattern to make it prettier, and I think that turned out well. It was good practice for me even though it didn't end up perfect. I am now in a "knitting fever" and will have another project to show you soon!

Glass Harps and Canon in D

We found this super cool instrument on YouTube- it's called a "glass harp." This man plays songs by filling assorted sized glass goblets with set amounts of water to produce different notes when he rubs his hands across the tops of them. It is so amazingly beautiful that I almost want to make one of my own!

http://youtu.be/UGftsRH7A2w

Recipe: Cream Cheese Flan

Ingredients

3/4 cup white sugar

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

5 eggs

1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a small, heavy saucepan over medium-low heat, cook sugar, stirring, until golden. Pour into a 10 inch round baking dish, tilting to coat bottom and sides. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until well incorporated. Beat in condensed and evaporated milk and vanilla until smooth. Pour into caramel coated pan.

Fill a jelly roll pan halfway full with water, and place pie dish into jelly roll pan and put in oven. Bake in preheated oven 50 to 60 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool one hour on wire rack before serving. To unmold, run a knife around edges of pan and invert on a rimmed serving platter.

Serve and enjoy!

Cookies

Chocolate Oatmeal Raisin cookies anyone? Soft oatmeal cookies, I might add, due to a minimum baking time and the addition of a tablespoon of lemon juice. Delicious!

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1 and 1/2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup white sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup softened butter (1 1/2 sticks)

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

3 cups coarsely ground old-fashioned oatmeal, uncooked

1 cup raisins

1 package chocolate chips

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two large cookie sheets. In small bowl, with wire whisk, stir flour, baking soda, and salt until blended.

2) In large bowl, with mixer at medium speed, beat white and brown sugars with butter until creamy, occasionally scraping bowl with rubber spatula. Beat in eggs, one at a time, bating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla and lemon juice. Reduce speed to low; gradually beat in flour mixture just until blended, occasionally scraping bowl.

3) With wooden spoon, stir in oats, raisins and chocolate chips until well combined.

4) Drop dough by rounded tablespoons, 2 inches apart, onto prepared cookie sheets. Bake cookies until tops are golden, 12 to 14 minutes. With a wide spatula, transfer cookies to wire racks to cool. Repeat for any remaining dough. Enjoy!

Hungry, Anyone?

Well, I hope you're not too hungry, because these treats would hardly fill up a baby's tummy!

See that ham sandwich up above?

It's only 7/8's of an inch long.

This adorable breakfast tray is 5 centimeters wide and completely hand constructed out of polymer clay. I love the citrus fruit and salami!

While on Etsy a while back, I came across an Etsy shop owner, Shay Aaron, from Israel, who creates miniature clay food items.

Check out those meatballs! I was totally amazed at the huge amount of detail that goes into making these pieces that are the size of a penny.

I could never do that- think of all that delicate work it would take to create such tiny pieces of food! I have neither the patience nor perseverance!

"That would take a lot of work!" Soph exclaimed. I agreed. How could you even see to do something so tiny, and well, miniature??

I'd have to say either the stew ingredients on the cutting board or the salmon with lemons is my favorite miniature- how about you?

On Flowers...

Aren't the colors and textures of this flower simply gorgeous? Forgive me for all of my floral pictures, but I really can't help it. I'm just drawn to flowers. To me, they speak of so much life and beauty in God. How could anyone look at a blossom as it opens up, or the grass as it keeps growing after its been cut and say, "there is no God?"

I think that the photo below is my favorite- so pretty!

Which one is your favorite?

Fabric Flower Tutorial

As many of my family members and friends will attest, I kind of have an obsession with creating fabric flowers. Ribbon, buttons, hot glue sticks and fat quarters became my close companions for a while as most of my spare time was spent creating flowers- for bags, clips and headbands. We took a family weekend trip in November, and I was as happy as a clam creating 20 or so flowers in one of the back rows of the van.

I think I can say that my obsession has subsided a little, but I still enjoy making them and wanted to share how to make one with you.

First, I cut out 5 circles of fabric- you only see 4, but that's because I had started the project before I remembered to take some pictures. :)

Any number of odd circles will do, but the more circles, the bigger the hole in the middle and the more work it takes to make it look nice.

Fold one circle in half,

Then in half again.

Thread a needle and knot it tight, sewing a simple running stitch along the curved base- the bigger the stitches you put in, the smaller your "petal" will be. Try to do the same number of stitches in each petal, as this will make them look more uniform.

Pull the the thread and slide the "petal" along till you reach the knot in your thread- like so:

Repeat and continue with the remaining fabric circles, and then sew your thread again into the back of your original petal, joining them all together into a circle. I like to go around again with my thread through the fabric to secure the petals.

Cut and knot your thread. It's now basically done, and you can attach it to anything you want. I attached mine to a stretchy headband with a piece of ribbon on the back. I made it adjustable, so the flower can slide to wherever you want it on your head.

I also hot glued some beads for the center of my flower. You could do buttons too.



It's now finished, and my younger sister is thrilled with it!