Corrie's French Macarons

When you think of a macaroon, what comes to your mind first? Most people think of those ooey gooey mounds of coconut, which is all fine and dandy, coconut is delicious!  However, when I think of a macaroon, I think of the French variety- the macaron. 

Author & Editor at Notre Dame, Paris

I first got to try them a few years ago when I took a trip to Paris with my sister. They were the most amazing cookie I've ever tasted, if you even want to call it that. It doesn't really even fall into the "cookie" category, it should be in a category all of it's own. The outside shells are so light and airy, but then you bite into them and they're soft and chewy. They're made with almond flour so they have a light nutty taste, but the fillings dominate the taste. They come in so many different colors too so they're tons of fun!

Beautiful, colorful macaron display at Ladurée, Paris

I never realized until recently just how difficult they are to perfect. I have a new found respect for French bakers for creating such a perfect little treat!  The first batch I made didn't look so good, but at least they were still edible. By the time I put the last batch in the oven I was just starting to get the hang of it. That last batch was far from perfect, but they looked a lot nicer than the first one! In the end, it was completely worth it.

The shells of the macaron only consist of these 5
ingredients (the food coloring is optional)

There are many books you can find for the French macaron
recipe, but this is the book I used.

The book goes into step-by-step details with colored
pictures so you can tell if you're doing it right

Gel food coloring...I chose violet, as per my sister's request :)

Beating the egg whites. They're not quite done in the
picture yet, but this was a big difference from where they started!

Sifting the powdered sugar and almond flour together

This is what the batter should look like-glossy and smooth
with few lumps (though mine did have more lumps than picture in the
book!)

The piped shells ready for the oven!

 Aren't they so pretty?

The "perfect" shell should have a good foot to it (that
rough looking edge at the bottom of the shell) Not many of mine had
those, but this batch did!

Filling the macarons. I chose to keep it simple and use Nutella

Once filled, place a second shell on top to form a sandwich.

This is what a bad batch looks like....the wax paper I
used was too big for the tray and the excess moisture in the oven made
the paper collapse and ruin some of the shells...

Enjoy!

-Corrie

Becky's Daphne Cakes Brag-Fest

Cupcake flower pots for a 4th birthday party

Today I'm going to brag about one of my best friends a little bit.  Kara has some culinary training under her belt, and when we were both living in Germany she started to practice decorating cakes with fondant.  She had always been a great baker, creating delicious confections that made my mouth water at the mere thought.  She also has a very discerning eye for things that are well-made and well-decorated.  She started fairly simply, practicing fondant ribbons and bows that were convincing from a novice.  Kara shared her practice pieces in an online photo album and it was fun to see all of the techniques she essentially taught herself.

I was able to watch her work on this baby shower cake.

Perfectly beautiful and tasteful!

Before too long, Kara's cakes were looking incredible.  She just seems to have a knack for knowing exactly how intense a color should be, precisely how to shape fondant pieces to look whimsical and yet true to form.  Of course it doesn't hurt that underneath the beautiful exterior, her cakes are still completely delicious and, oh, so moist!

This Cars-themed birthday cake was a huge hit!

1st birthday Owl cake

"Look Whoo's 1!"

Now Kara is doing some work for friends (and sometimes friends-of-friends) under the adorable moniker, Daphne Cakes, named in honor of her youngest child.  She has generously provided beautiful, professional-looking desserts for a number of friend's special events.  Kara never backs away from a challenge, either!  She finds an inspiration and figures out how to make that idea come to life on the cake.

A fun Mad Hatter cake

My Little Pony for her daughter's 1st birthday.

This 50th cake has personality!

She has even been awarded the highest prize possible at her county fair, the Best in Show award- and I saw the number of entries, so I can verify that she rightly won against a large number of competitors!

Kara's Best In Show cake

Kara baked my son's first birthday cake to match the theme I chose for the party.  The bottom layer was chocolate and the top, banana cake.  She even made a smaller "smash cake" in banana flavor, my son's favorite.  The cake received rave reviews and I'm still eagerly dreaming of the next time I'll get to eat one of Kara's amazing confections.  

My monkey's 1st birthday cake.

See how perfectly she matched the inspiration design on the plates?

My 1-year-old eats a Daphne Cake with reckless abandon.

Thanks for coming on this photo journey with me.  I hope you enjoyed seeing some of the beautiful work that Kara has done with her cakes.  (She did give me permission to write this, and hopefully she doesn't mind my bragging!)  If you are ever lucky enough to eat one of her cakes- well, you are pretty darn lucky.

-Becky

Jenn P.'s Easy-Access Measuring Spoon Organizer

Organization for Measuring Spoons & Cups:

I can never seem to find the right size of measuring spoon or cup that I need for a recipe!  And my measuring spoons and connected on a key-ring-like thing, so they always seem to be in the dishwasher.  I saw this project on Pinterest & just had to do it in my kitchen!  The original is much prettier as they painted the sticks and used new and cute measuring cups/spoons.  But mine works just as well. 

All you need is some paint sticks (free at Lowe's & Home Depot) and some screw hooks.  I also used a label maker and some Command mounting strips. 

I measured the inside width of my cabinet and (had the husband) cut the paint stick to size.  If you want you can paint the stick to match your decor.  I just used the plain side (without the "Home Depot" stamp) without painting it.  I spaced out my measuring spoons and screwed in the hooks at the appropriate places.  The wood is soft, so the hooks went in easily by hand.  Then I used my label maker to print out labels of the sizes of each spoon.  I had two sets of spoons, so I just did one label for every two spoons, because they were the same size.  If you don't have a label maker, you could use stickers or even write the sizes on the wood with a Sharpie marker. 

Make sure to check that your new storage will not interfere with whatever you keep in that cabinet.  You want to have it in between cabinet shelves, or it may not fit right, causing your cabinet door to not fully close.  I used "Command mounting strips" to adhere it to my cabinet.  I'm sure you could use glue or nails, but be sure not to nail through to the other side of the cabinet. 

Then repeat the process with another paint stick for your measuring cups.  I haven't gotten to this part yet, mainly because I need bigger hooks for my measuring cups & haven't gotten them yet. 

This has made finding my measuring spoons much easier, but it can be a bit noisy.  We use that cabinet a lot and my metal spoons bump into each other and the cabinet door when we open and close the cabinet.  The harder we open or close the door, the more noise it makes.  It was a bit alarming at first, but I think we're getting used to it now.  I'm going to try to figure a way to quiet it, maybe use string to tie down the spoons or some padding between the door and the spoons.  But you may be better off using a cabinet door that you don't open very often; and certainly don't use a cabinet that the kids get into. 

Good Luck & Have Fun

-Jenn P. :)

Becky's Personalized Felt Shirt

In writing this I am totally ruining a surprise for a friend, though perhaps she won't see this until her package arrives.

I wanted to make something for my friend Kara's eldest child, J.  He loves Alvin & the Chipmunks and my sister came up with the idea to make him an Alvin shirt with a big yellow 'A' on the front- like the Scarlet Letter but without the negative stigma.  I decided it was a fantastic idea, but put my own spin on it and went with a 'J' instead.  True personalization right there!

3T?!

DMC thread #307

First I picked up a long-sleeved red shirt in his size, and was sad to realize how big he's getting while I miss him growing up, living half way across the country.  I got over that part and bought some yellow felt and yellow cross-stitch thread.  I already had upholstery needles from my last project, and decided they'd be perfect for the effect I wanted with the stitching.  

Next I had to design my letter 'J'.  That was way more difficult than I anticipated!  I looked through my Mac's Font Book and didn't find anything that seemed quite right.  My plan was to print off a large letter J and use it to trace and cut my felt letter.  When I couldn't find anything I liked, I decided to do it freehand.  

See?  Font Book was absolutely no help.

Here you can see that I had to try twice.  Luckily I had the foresight to position the first J to one side of the felt, instead of cutting a big chunk out of the middle in the heat of the moment.  That allowed me to use my first J, which I liked in general, to create a slightly larger version.  I liked version two even more, so I gave my son the first version to play with.  It was a big hit.

Big J, little j, what begins with J?

I love the contrast!

I lined the J up on the shirt where I thought it would look good, and threaded my needle.  I wanted a very bold look to the stitches, so I used the entire six-stranded cross stitching thread together.  I was quickly thankful that I owned the upholstery needles, because the eye was large enough to easily thread the entire thick strand.

Positioned, check.

Threaded, check.

I was ready to stitch the letter on the shirt.  I suddenly realized that I have no straight pins (as I believe I've mentioned in a previous post).  I really need to fix that situation, but was too eager to work on my project at the time, to wait until they were in my possession.  Instead I used some clear tape to affix the felt J in its position.

Who needs duct tape when you've got gift-wrapping tape?

I decided to use a simple back stitch around the entire letter.  I left a small margin, about an eighth of an inch, as I stitched.  I love the way the thick thread looks against the felt.  As I stitched, I removed the pieces of tape.  The only problem I encountered was that the tape wanted to pull bits of the felt away from the rest, but a gentle and slow approach helped to minimize the fuzzy effect.  The needle was absolutely perfect for the fabric weights and weaves.  Stitching the boarder was fast and pretty painless, overall!

Halfway there...

Finished product!

If I were to do this again (and I probably will because it was simple and I love the result!), I'd make sure I have some straight pins on hand for a cleaner and easier project.  I might also consider checking out the world of iron-on adhesives, but for now I'm going to give myself a pass and say "Good job" for making it this far!

-Becky

Jenn P.'s Full Wall Photo Collage

I've seen several similar looks on Pinterest with either white frames or an eclectic mix of frames.  Since I have black accents in my living room, I wanted to do a collage wall with black frames and red accents to go with my room.  


I got together all my black frames, and even spray painted a few other frames black.  Then I cut out newspaper copies of each frame to get the spacing correct without having a ton of holes left in the wall.  

I taped the newspaper "frames" to the wall and rearranged them until I had the perfect set up.  Then I put in my nails, removed the newspaper and hung my frames.  

It's not as perfect as I would like, but my husband won't allow me to put 10 more holes in the wall in order to move things a half inch this way or that.  I still have a couple small touches to add, but I think it looks pretty good!  :)  


I hope you've been (p)Inspired!  



-Jenn P. :)

Amanda's Coupon Organization Book

Going to the grocery store with a 1yr old is very hard, not to count in trying to sort out coupons as you shop. I have so many coupons but could never use them because I can't look for items, keep up with the baby and filter through my stack of coupons as I shop. One day it came to me.. Why not make a coupon book?

My book is a little bulky but it makes finding my coupons as I shop so much easier. All you will need is a binder, baseball card sleeves,regular binder sleeves, construction paper, a marker and of course your coupons. I've divided my coupons into sections that I will understand and that made sense to me. 

To figure out how many regular sleeves you need figure out how many different sections you want to divide your coupons in. Mine are:

*Misc. Items (canned goods, condiments, cereals, snacks, etc.)

*Refrigerated Items (this includes anything that goes in the fridge or freezer)

*Pastas (I also put pasta sauces in this section)

*Cleaning Items

*Bathroom Items (Hygiene Items and medications) 

*Baking Goods

Use a sheet of construction paper to label you individual sections and put those in the regular sleeves. 

Then use the baseball card sleeves to separate your coupons. If I have multiples of the same coupon I just fold them individually and put them in the same pocket. If I have a coupon for the same item but different amounts off of them I put the coupon with the highest amount in the pocket before the lesser one.

It's so simple and such an easy way to stay organized. As I need a coupon I look through my book and just pull out the one I need and stuff it in my jeans pocket. Then when I get to the checkout I can just hand the cashier my stack of coupons. I hope this helps someone.

-Amanda

Jenn P.'s Custom Cricut Quotation Art

I saw this on Pinterest and thought it would be really easy to do.  Brassy Apple is where it originally came from.

Here is how I did it:  I got a plain white canvas from the craft store.  I used my Cricut to cut out different size letters of the same font.  Then I put these letters through my Xyron create-a-sticker machine to give them a sticky backing.

                                  

I stuck my letters to the canvas to make my quote and made sure to press them down good.  I even put a book on top of it for a day.  Then I spray painted the whole thing black (you could use any contrasting color).  After it dried, I carefully peeled away my letters.  Some paint still got under the letters a little, leaving me with unclean lines.  You could leave it like that to give it character, but I opted to touch up the letters with white paint.  

I think it turned out pretty good!  The hardest part was using the Cricut and Xyron machines.  It would have been easier to just use stickers, but then it wouldn't be as perfect and professional looking.  For me it was worth the extra work to be perfect.  Yep, I'm anal like that.  

-Jenn P. :)

Kara's DIY Bleach Design T-Shirt

I'd seen them around on Pinterest. DIY bleach designed shirts. Most involved a shirt and a Clorox pen and some artist ability. It's my complete lack of artist ability that made me file this project away as a maybe another day project...until I saw a completely different project that inspired me. 

Sweet Verbena makes a Hunger Games t-shirt with an at home silk screening kit. I don't have one of those but I thought to myself, I BET I COULD DO THAT WITH BLEACH!?! 

Here's what you need:

A shirt (new or old, doesn't matter. I bought a brand new shirt at Target for $5 for this project)

Your image that you want to put on the shirt

An exacto knife (scissors will work depending on your design)

An empty spray bottle

Bleach

Pins 

A computer and printer

Cardstock

Steps:

1. Find your design and print it out on cardstock. Here was my design. 

2. Using your scissors or exacto knife, cut out your design to make your stencil. I made two shirts and did it two different ways. I cut a negative image once and a positive image once. 

3. Figure out where on the shirt you want your stencil to go. Once you've decided, use your pins and pin it down. 

4. Fill up your spray bottle with a little bit of bleach, it doesn't take much. Mist over your design. You don't spray directly onto the design. I sprayed above the design and let the bleach "fall" onto the shirt. If that makes sense? I didn't take pictures of that step. 

5. ** This is important** As soon as you finish spraying and start to see the bleach working, remove your stencil. If not, the bleach will seep through the cardstock and you won't get as clear of an image. Trust me! 

6. Rinse your shirt in the sink with some warm water. 

7. I don't know if this is a must but I tossed my shirts in the washer by themselves on the delicate cycle. 

8. Dry normally and wear them like the rock star you are! 

Enjoy! There are a million possibilities! My husband has already requested I make him one! (Not Hunger Games though!) 

Happy Pinning and Crafting! 

-Kara

Amanda's Hand-Painted Score Board Wall Decor

When I was looking for decorations for my sons nursery everything was so expensive. We went with a soccer theme and we knew we wanted a score board  but all we could find were electircal ones that were so expensive. I'd dabbled some with painting so I decided to try to paint my own scoreboard and it came out great. 

You will need:

1 painting canvas 

acrylic paints of whatever colors you desire

several paintbrushes (1 large one for the background, 1 med size one and 1 super tiny on for small details.)

masking tape

number and letter stencils

pencil

2 soccer ball stickers

and tons of time and patience

First  you will need to paint the background of the scoreboard. I did mine in green. I used the masking tape to make a 1inch border around the canvas. Then I painted the whole canvas with the paint. It required 2 coats.

After allowing it to dry for 24hrs remove the masking tape slowly. Then I separated the top of the board for the name of the complex and for the time clock. For the name of the complex I blocked off about 1 and half inch for the letters. Use the masking tape to make a thin line to separate the sections. This required about 3 coats of paint to cover all the green paint. Then I sectioned off about 3 inches for the time clock. Do the same process as you did for the name border.

After letting the paint dry you can tape off all your blocks you will need. Tape off blocked for the time clock, each country flag, the stats, score and the period. The size of your blocks will depend on the size of your stencils. Tape off each of those and then paint all the black squares. 

While you wait for those to dry you can research the designs for your flags and play around with where you want them. I chose the German and Irish flag for my husbands side of the family and the Mexico and Spanish flag for mine. That way my son knows what all of his heritage is. After the black paint dried I taped my flags to paint the stripes. I put one strip of tape right in the middle of the flags that way I could paint 2 sides at one time and save some time. After all of those dried I removed the tape and painted the inside section of the flag. These parts may require 2-3 coats of paint to cover the green color underneath.  

After all of the paint has dried you are ready to start stenciling on the numbers and letters.  Outline the stencils where every you want but push lightly that way you can erase if necessary. Once you have outlines the stencils with you pencil go over it with the white or yellow paint with you small paintbrush. For the dots on the time clock just put a couple of dabs of white paint in the middle of the blocks.

Save the name of the complex to paint until last. While the rest of your letters are drying you can work on you name. Turn you canvas upside down and paint the white letters of you name then with the small paintbrush very carefully outline the letters with black paint. You can name your complex whatever but I wanted to personalize mine and used my sons initials. 

After that paint dries if you have detail on your flags I'd suggest doing that very last.  This was the hardest part. I practiced drawing the detailed designs of the flags on a piece of paper several times to make sure I had everything just right. Then I free hand drew the designs of the flags on the canvas. With your detailing small brush paint very carefully the designs on the flag.

Now I would have loved to paint a couple of soccer balls on the canvas but we were in the middle of moving so I couldn't finish them by the time we had everything packed up. Once our things were unloaded I just added a couple of 3D felt soccer ball stickers to the sides of the name.

Now sit back and take great pride in the project you just finished because it took great patience and time and back ache to finish this. This project could take you a good month to finish but I was a stay at home wife and had nothing to do while my husband was at work so I finished it in about 2 weeks. I hope y'all enjoy this project.

-Amanda

Erica's Slouchy Knit Beret

I've been knitting for close to 20 years now, but because my learning curve involved a 12-year stint where I couldn't figure out how to do a purl stitch, I'm rather behind the other knitters for whom no pattern is too surprising or difficult to design and produce. When a slouchy beret pattern I'd been ogling for years disappeared from the internet (only to be replaced by the designer's updated- and I think less awesome- version), I decided to strike out on my own and my anxieties about design be damned! After all, hats aren't THAT hard...are they?

As it turns out, they're not. The hat is worked from the brim up in seed stitch (knit one, purl one for row one, and purl one, knit one for row two)), with all the increases happening right after the brim itself, so you wind up with immediate and effective slouch. I improvised it by estimating the number of stitches I'd need to make the brim fit my head, and that was made easier by having knit other hats from written patterns in the past. With a bulky-weight yarn and size 7 needles, I found the right fit at 76 stitches. I did knit two, purl two ribbing for about an inch, and then the increases were incredibly straightforward: when I was ready to slouch it up, I did K1FB (meaning knit a stitch, and then knit into the back of the stitch before pulling it off your left needle) on each knit stitch in the pattern. I had to add on an extra stitch at the end by doing the same with the last purl stitch, because seed stitch in the round is easiest with an odd number of stitches, but that's optional for anyone else making this hat. And from there, you do seed stitch until the desired length or slouch of your hat has been reached!

The only challenging thing about this hat was doing the decreases. The way seed stitch works is by creating a predictable texture, so decreasing in pattern is important if you want your hat to look even all the way up. That being said, however, you can't simply thread your yarn through 130+ stitches and cinch them together without creating an unbearably puckered top! So here's the complex explanation of what I did:

For the first decrease round, I worked seven stitches in pattern and then worked the next two stitches (eight and nine) together. For example, if my round had started with a knit stitch, it would look like K1, P1, K1, P1, K1, P1, K1, P2tog. This got repeated for the entire round, and then the next round was worked in the basic seed stitch without any decreases. The challenge was that this resulted in some places where there were two knit stitches "on top of" each other instead of having a purl stitch on top of a knit stitch. Because having two knit stitches on top of each other was far more disruptive to the overall seed stitch look than having two purl stitches on top of each other, I changed my pattern every time it looked like that was going to happen. The result is that the decrease rounds are much more difficult to write out as a pattern than to improvise. If you feel confident in your ability to play it by ear, though, and keep in mind that the bumps of the purl stitches look better than the Vs of knit stitches when making something in seed stitch, you'll be fine.

Numerically, NOT stitch-wise, this is what it looked like:

Round 1: K7, K2tog, repeat to end.

Round 2: Work in pattern.

Round 3: K7, K2tog, repeat to end.

Round 4: Work in pattern.

The nice thing is that the number and pattern of stitches balanced out nicely, so rows 3 and 4 of the decrease pattern worked out to be straightforward seed stitch without having to juggle what my working row looked like on top of the previous row. The basic decrease rhythm worked throughout the end of the hat, although every four rows I changed the number of stitches between decreases. So where (again, numerically, not stitch-pattern-wise) on Rounds 1 and 3 I would K2tog on every 8th stitch, on Rounds 5 and 7 I would K2tog every 6th stitch, working the even rows "in pattern" as much as possible. Then on Rounds 9 and 11 I did K2tog every 4th stitch, again working the even rows "in pattern," and then on Rounds 13 and 15 I was doing K2tog on every other stitch. It sounds complex, but if you've ever knit a hat before, the concept of increasing the frequency of your decreases with every round should be somewhat familiar. After round 16, when I'd decreased down to about ten stitches (I don't remember exactly), I broke the yarn, threaded it through the remaining stitches, and pulled it tight. Voila! A beret!

A quick shout-out to my hometown, which produced the yarn I used in this project (a delicious, crunchy, good-feeling wool), and my sister, who gave it to me. 

-Erica