Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Bacon Wrapped Crab and Cream Cheese Stuffed Jalepenos

While  looking through some old photos I found this one and just HAD to share it.  It is making my mouth water and tummy growl a little.  I actually made these sometime in early June.  The picture doesn't do them justice, but trust me, they are so incredibly tasty!


10 jalepenos cut lengthwise in half; tops, seeds and veins removed
1 package of immitation crab meat; chopped into small pieces
1 8oz package of cream cheese
10 pieces of bacon; cut in half
Dash of black pepper to taste

Mix the crab, cream cheese, and pepper together in a bowl.  Fill the jalapeno halves with the cream cheese mixture. wrap half a slice of bacon around the stuffing and jalapeno.  Put them on the top shelf of a grill, filling side up, and cook them until bacon is crispy.

YUM!

Monday, July 18, 2011

Milk Jug Case

I found this "lunch box" made out of a plastic milk jug on Pinterest.  Since we have quite a few infant water jugs siting around waiting to head out to recycling, I decided to give this a shot.  It was really easy to cut the plastic, although I didn't cut very evenly.  And I already had some self-adhesive velcro dots in my sewing supplies. 

 

 Now I just need to decide what I will use it for.  Perhaps pencils, crayons, small toys, brownies, cookies, or carrots?

Sunday, July 17, 2011

The Expedit

Several years ago my husband bought me the most fabulous shelving unit for my craft room.  The extraordinarily large, 6ft x 6ft IKEA Expedit Bookcase.  It weighs 213lb, has about 100 pieces, and took me a couple hours and several bruises to assemble.  Then 6 months later, we moved.  The movers were able to easily get it out of our house, but after a 1/2 hour of trying, they had no luck in getting up the stairs to our 2nd story, 1 bedroom, downtown apartment.  So off my new, cool shelf went to our storage unit to live for over 2 years.

Well, about 2 months ago we moved into a house and I was so excited for us to be reunited.  Until we tried getting it into the house.  Since our box-spring wouldn't fit, we knew the IKEA shelf wouldn't either.  So here is the dilemma:  do we concede to be beat by the bookcase and just make it into a piece of garage furniture?  Or do we disassemble it with the hope that we can get it back together again in the room of our desire? After much debate, we decided to tackle the reassembly.

Much to our surprise, it was very easy!  Unassembly went very fast, and reassembly wasn't that bad either.  So here we have it...


Now it is time to work on organization of all my craft supplies!

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Paper Bag Mini-Album

Years ago I used to teach kids how to make paper lunch bags into all sorts of things, including scrapbooks.  I would always start a sample, but never really finish it because it was just a sample to show them the concept and I didn't want to give them something they would try to copy.  I would hole punch the binding and lace it together using yarn.  Well the other day I had my sewing machine out and decided it might be fun to try making a mini-album out of paper bags similar to the ones I made with the kids.


I used an overlock stitch to bind together three folded bags.   The stitch messed up a little from going through the thick layers, but I like the haphazard look it created.  I alternated the bags directions so the flaps and openings of the bags would be mixed up to create a more interesting booklet of pages.


Since the bag openings make great pockets, I knew I wanted to put something in them.  I found some tulle left over from a tutu I made for Lucy and I sewed a picture on an index card to give it some stability and tulle on the end of it that sticks out of the pocket for decoration.  This album was made out of three bags, therefore it has three pockets and three picture/tulle cards.


To sew the pictures directly onto the bag pages I used a basic straight stitch about an quarter inch off the edge.  Under the flaps I have written a few words about the pictures on the pages or general characteristics of Lucy  inspired by the photos.  I used some decorative rub-on transfers and letters for the cover and to add thematic color to the pages.


I'm not completely finished with this album. I still need pictures for two of the pages,  but I was so excited about it and how it is shaping up that I just couldn't wait to share it.

Friday, July 1, 2011

Tags, tags, and more tags.

Pre-motherhood I would see those Taggie blankets, clothes, etc. and wonder why in the world that company makes so much money on that stuff and who would buy that for their kid.  Then Lucy turned 6 months and tags were no longer safe.  She can find a tag on anything and get it into her mouth.

So last weekend I decided that I could just make a taggie mini-blanket myself so that she could chew and slobber all over that and it would be easier to clean than the awkward shaped stuff with tags: stuffed animals, wrist rattles, and the toys on her exersaucer.  Off I went to my bin of fabric, of which I have way too much, and out I pulled a colorful piece of duck fabric and bright pink scrap of terry cloth, both of which I used earlier this year to make bibs and burp cloths.  Then I selected four different colorful ribbons to make into "tags"and I got to sewing.


I was quite proud of my creation and immediately gave it to little Lucy, knowing that she would be in 7th heaven with so many tags!  I was envisioning the cute pictures of her over the years as she would have her little home-made taggie by her side.  She took it, looked at it, and threw it to the side while reaching for a tag on her pink plaid Scooby-doo.  Oh well.  I was glad my time investment was minimal and financial investment even less.  And I had decided I would not blog about my little creation because it was a failure.

Well about 10 minutes ago she picked it up on her own! She has since put it down, but maybe there is some hope!  Maybe it wasn't a complete waste of time and effort.  Who knows!  If you see pictures of her in the months to come with her little homemade taggie, then you will now know where it came from and that she has finally warmed up to it.  Otherwise, tuck in your tags, none are safe from Lucy!