Working like a dog...

I haven't posted in like a week and I feel the creativity backing up. It has been one kind of a crazy week, lots of work and baby has her first cold, awww. Husband and Baby are out of town visiting the in laws tonight so hopefully I can catch up on some much needed posting. I have made a wreath and Halloween bunting this week on top of everything else. I can't wait to share. Hopefully I can have better pictures in the morning when its light outside (just put the bunting out tonight after it stopped raining). Small preview anyway.

my cool fun new wreath

Bunting out on the porch! You can't see the buttons cause its too dark but I hot glued buttons to each triangle.

Hoping to show you all more later on the details of everything, hopefully next week...

Happy Crafting!

-Tori

Tuesday Links

Facebook page: Never Grow Up

Shameless self promotion... my sister and I make things and this is our facebook page. She pretty much makes everything, I just twiddle my thumbs. Check it out.

Cute site, just started Friday Link Parties. If you are new at this...link parties are pretty awesome things. People from all over post links to things they have made and it ranges from wreaths to re-doing rooms to baked good. Very fun. She posted on Friday about chalkboard art. Definitely going to try that!

Meta Monday: My weekend

I had a rather long and busy weekend, filled with a festival and flea marketing. So a good weekend. I rely primarily on my phone for my picture taking and unfortunately it died on Saturday before I could take all the pictures that I was looking forward to. I have two and I will share them.

I really liked the colors in this honey sign. They wanted $111 for it and I just thought that was crazy. It was made with 100 year old barn wood and vintage bottle caps. That's great and all but I can do the same thing for much less. I thought this would be cool saying Home or my baby's name. 

This is my baby girl, Bailee. This was her first festival, she loved the people watching. Like her hat? Everyone we passed said something about her hat. Get one here.

Thought these were pretty cool. Two different booths had these. This booth had ones made mostly out of crystal dishware, and the other booth used a lot of colorful plate, saucer, tea cup combinations. Either way you wanna make it, I think it would be pretty easy.

I couldn't resist putting this up, shes just too cute.

As for any project that I did this weekend...I just made a few hair bows....Halloween Hair bows!

I got the scrap booking brads at Walmart...who knew they have a 97 cent section in the scrap booking section and I got all these cute little additions to my plain ribbon bows. I already had the ribbon and just mixed and matched.

Hoping to try something new next weekend. Happy Crafting.

Tori

Gourmet Thursday: Carmel Apple Pie

Its that time of year again, yay for all things fall! My husband absolutely loves this and I even made it for thanksgiving last year.

YUM!

Ingredients

• 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust deep dish pie, I store bought mine 
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 
• 1/4 cup butter, melted 
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 5 cups thinly sliced apples ( i use granny smith)
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 tub of caramel dip, found near the apples in produce section
• 2 tablespoons milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. To Make Taffy: In a small bowl combine brown sugar, melted butter or margarine, and 1/3 cup flour. Mix well and set aside.
3. To Make Apple Filling: Place apples in a large bowl. Add white sugar, 3 tablespoons flour, cinnamon, and lemon juice. Toss until all ingredients are mixed well and apples are thoroughly coated.
4. Spoon half of apple filling into pastry-lined deep-dish pan. Top with half of caramel dip and half of taffy mixture. Repeat process with remaining apple filling, dip and taffy mixture. Place top pastry over filling and seal well (this is very important--if edges are not sealed, caramel will leak out all over). Cut steam vents and brush top crust with milk or light cream.
5. Cover pie with foil and place on a baking sheet. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove foil from pie and bake for another 20 to 25 minutes, until crust is golden. Serve warm.

If you like a lot of apples use more apples. I used six cups.

Also if you don't want to use crust for topping the pie, there is a recipe for Streusel...I haven't made it this way before but I'm going to try it this year.

Streusel Topping: In a medium bowl combine 3/4 cup flour, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon,1/4 teaspoon ground cloves, 1/2 c brown sugar, 3/4 c oats, and 1 tea lemon peel. Mix thoroughly, then cut in 1/2 cup butter or margarine until mixture is crumbly. pour over pie before baking and pat to seal ..make sure there are no openings where filling can seep through. bake, halfway till pies done..put tin foil on top and over edges of crust.


Happy Baking
-Tori

Quickie on Hump Day

I knocked this out in about thirty minutes. We just moved into a rental house where the previous tenants most have been color blind. Every room upstairs has some fantasical flaw in the color scheme. Today I focused on the bathroom. It was a pretty enough blue color that I didn't absolutely hate it, I just didn't know what to do with it. Since it is the bathroom the baby takes all her baths in and over the next year, or years, will grow up with I wanted to do something with it that would be fun for her. I thought of a million differnet things but finally settled on forest-y theme. At our previous, way too small for a growing family, apartment in her tiny corner of the spare room I had bought a stick on the wall tree at kohl's on black friday half off! So I wanted to reuse it but it didn't look right in her new gray super colorful nursery. So where else could I have used it...the potty!

This was the blue that I was dealing with... not horrible but what to do.

I drew what I thought looked like a great patch of green, used a pencil to trace my lines and then use acrylic paint in citron green to color it in. It actually turned out to be the perfect grass color for my little project.

Here is the finished wall. Little birds and all. I love how it turned out, the pictures don't do it justice, hard to take a good picture while standing in the bath tub.

I still have to add the little owls above the towel rack and a shower curtain I have yet to find and then it will probably be close to being done. 

Fun little Wednesday night project.

Happy Crafting

-Tori

Tuesday Links

So I suppose I will start this off with the blogs that got me started in the crafting mindset once again.

www.notjustahousewife.net

Life as a Thirifter

These are two I visit often, probably too often!

Happy Crafting

-Tori

Meta Monday: Hair clips and felt cupcakes

So this weekend I got together with my sister and we made stuff...not too much stuff because between the two of us there are four kids. (5,4,2, and 4 months) She taught me a quick learnin' with my sewing machine and then we made some hair clips and felt things.

These are a few of the hair clips that I made this weekend.

3/8" ribbon

double or single prong hair clips 

glue, we used hot glue

any little add on that you would want to "add on"

just to cover the clip is 4 1/2 inches of ribbon

beyond that you can make a ribbon on a ribbon with 31/2 more inches made into a circle and glued in the middle and then add 11/2 inch ribbon around the middle of that (example is pink ribbon with black line through the middle clip in the picture)

The possibilities are endless as far as these hair clips go, we then decided we needed to make felt things to put on the clips. 

This is my cupcake, I really love it. It is not perfect but that just adds character. :)

I just cut a form out of felt that I liked and slowly cut away at the edges till I got the shape I wanted. I traced this later so I would have a reference to make them again. I lined the edge with embriodery floss and added the cupcake liner lines...sewed size 6 seed beads on my "icing" for sprinkles and cut a little piece of red into a circle and added a little bit of green thread for my cherry on top. 

Initially this took a while to accomplish, but with four kids running around and screaming and having to make a pattern for the very first time...you kinda see where the time went. It was fun and I would totally do it again.

Get some ideas off Etsy.com! Search for felt hair clip and see all that comes up. I didn't end up using mine for a hair clip. I'm going to add it to a picture frame with my baby's picture in it. Many uses and very fun.

Happy Crafting

-Tori

Remembering 9/11

So instead of whatever I was going to post today, I'm just going to take a minute to reflect on the past ten years. I find myself to be a very emotional person. I was watching an HBO special this morning while rocking my baby back to sleep, and just started crying about the lives that had been changed and lost for forever.

I didn't know anyone there. I didn't have any connection to New York and the events that happened except for the fact that I'm an American and I am human.

I was a senior in high school and was getting ready to go to school that morning. I remember my dad yelling at us to come into the living room and look at the tv. There was an accident in New York and a plane ran into the WTC tower. We all just thought about what a terrible accident, how do you fly a plane into something that big? I went on to get ready for school and as we were getting ready to leave the second plane hit the tower, and I will never forget watching that happen live on my television.

I'm pretty sure I was in math class when another teacher came in the room and told my teacher that the towers had collapsed. We only were to have one class that morning because testing was going on and they allowed all grades not testing to do extra activities instead of normal school things.

We were on our way to Indiana University that day to go bowling. The teachers turned us loose on campus and we went and had lunch at a pizza place nearby. They had a tv on the news in there watching it...I saw the towers fall for the first time. It was a little scary but it was so far away that it just seemed like a movie. As a senior in high school you are suppose to be aware of reality but you don't have to live it yet.

My life, our lives...forever changed that day. As much as we look back and remember what happened we need to look forward and be thankful for what we have. I have a loving husband, a wonderful new baby girl, and a whole family that I love dearly.

Mini Tutorial - Fall Rosette Wreath

So this was my first attempt at making a wreath and now my first attempt at a tutorial. I liked the results...a little less polished then I would have liked but it looked like a wreath.

Supplies:
Wreath Form
1/2 yard of three different fabrics
1/2 yard of burlap
hot glue gun
scissors or rotary cutter
patience

This was my first time using a wreath form, in fact until last week I didn't know these circles were meant to be wreaths. Started by cutting burlap into strips about 2 inches wide, wrapped the strips around the form with every few wraps being secured by some hot glue.

This is the finished form...I got done with this part and thought this was too easy. I was right.

Next came these little buggers. The original flowers i was going to make didn't work out because I didn't buy the right fabric, so with that idea scrapped I thought of using the rosettes that I';m so in love with. I watched a you tube video once about making fabric flowers...oh yeah I watched it six times and still came up with this as my first flower. My husband said it looked like a wadded up ball of fabric. I would almost agree with him if I didn't have so much pride. Either way this is what my wreath was going to be made with.

I started off with three flowers and just thought it didn't look right, there wasn't enough going on...aka it was too plain, and yes my husband agreed. Video HERE

So I added more flowers....

This is what I finally came up with. I still think its a bit plain. Good thing my front door is green. This took me way longer then I wanted it too...I WAS making dinner and appeasing a baby at the same time so that may have accounted for it.

Happy Crafting

-Tori

Friday Frenzy: Ready for the weekend

The work week is over...what more do you need? Oh my goodness graciousness its (in the minds of persons everywhere, just not according to the calendar) the first weekend of fall, summer is outta here. So in the spirit of the new found cold weather and a rekindled love with all things orange, green, and brown, I present the before the weekend fall inspiration extravaganza. (Or just a bunch of pictures of things I might try to create this weekend.)
Happy Crafting
-Tori

too cute, have kids write what they are thankful for once every thanksgiving and put the year down, i'm totally doing this when Miss B. is old enough to talk

My birthday is in October, I love me some pumpkins

Super cute

And to think we always threw the acorns at each other

Love 

love even more

I already made a fall wreath but I could hand this off the porch

tree trunk out of kids hand, fun kid time activity

curled paper, it could totally hang

love these, trace different shapes of leaves and use as table decor

loved this soo much included a link:

Pumpkin Book

You could spray paint the edges before finalizing it and give it a glow of orange on the outside

Yay for the weekend!!!

Gourmet Thursday: The gumbo of your dreams

Good Evening.
A few years ago the husband and I went to New Orleans for a small vacation. We spent a lot of time on Bourbon Street and the area around there. Now its been long enough that I can't remember the name of the place we ate at but its the first time we ever had gumbo and we fell in love (with the gumbo, we already liked each other or we wouldn't be vacationing together...duh). I came home and of course tried to make and remake this wonderful food that we just couldn't possibly get here in Indiana. I finally came upon a recipe that was similar to what I wanted to see in my gumbo...I'm going to share it with you.

• BASE
• 48 oz chicken broth, the big box of swanson
• MEAT
• 3 chicken breasts
• 1 pound andouille sausage, sliced
• VEGGIES
• 1 green bell pepper
• 3ish stalks celery, depends on the size
• 1 onion, white
• SPICES
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon file powder

The Roux:

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Cut my chicken into smallish pieces and use half of the chicken broth to cook it on the stove until cooked through.  (I have this thing about uncooked chicken, I ALWAYS think its under cooked, so i cook it separately)

While that is cooking I slice the sausage (if you can't find andouille, smoked is ok, not as good but still good to use) I use the other half of the chicken broth in a crock pot and put it on high and put the sausage in. At this point I also put in all the spices. I don't like adding salt to my meals but the original recipe called for two teaspoons, its up to you.

While all that is going I cut my veggies, If you have picky eaters at home like my husband who doesn't like vegetables you can use a food chopper (I got mine from Walmart for 5 bucks, its lasted at least 3 years) I pretty much puree the crap out of these until you can't tell they were ever vegetables. They end up like a severely chopped textured water. AS you add these to your cooking sausage in the crock pot you may notice they do a baking soda effect and bubble up, its all good just stir them in. 

By this time my chicken is all good and I add that with all the chicken broth into the crock pot.


Lastly I make the roux, usually just because I tend to burn it and end up making it several times unless I leave it for last. Roux is simple, put the two things together and mix them up, stir enough so you don't burn them but not so much that it isn't turning a lovely shade of brown. When roux is a little darker then golden I add it to the crock pot and yes it will bubble too, just stir it in. 

Gumbo is best it let to cook overnight, the longer it cooks the better it will be. I just put mine on low and leave it, till we are ready to eat.

This is not a super thick gumbo but serve it over zatarains jambalaya rice and mmmm more please.

Happy Eating

-Tori

With time comes crafting

If you are like me then the world of crafting may be newish to you. I have been "craftin" for probably my whole life but from what I can tell I was just playing around. These bloggers/crafters mean serious business. Seeing as I work 40 hours a week I can't devote as much time as I would like to hone in on my skills. So for the moment I will stick to what I know. I will have a new subject per category on each day ending in Y. So...

Saturday - Tutorials...probably just links to good tutorials for now...wide ranges
Sunday - Preview of Craft of the week/ opinion/ reviews
Monday -Craft of the week...which was made on the weekend before
Tuesday - Links to other blogs/ things I find interesting
Wednesday - Quick crafts...my mind bores quickly plus its the middle of the week and I've got things to do
Thursday - Recipe Day
Friday - Inspiration..Ideas for the weekend

Pretty sure thats the layout for now. Subject to change when my mind see fit. Happy Crafting.
-Tori

First Post. New adventures with old Tori.

So this is my first post on my brand new blog. Start off with the fact that I am building this blog around crafts and my love for crafts...also I'm a pretty good cook and will try every once in a while to share recipes with you. I know there are many a crafting blog out there but I thought I needed my own space in this world to share what I want. So with that said...

This is going to be a inspiration type of post...shows you what maybe I like and will be featuring on Nifty Knacks.

love all things flowers

oooo felt flowers and buttons!

pretty sure these are mine for Christmas

too cute...looking for a mobile for my new baby

I'm a tree person too

what my husband thinks...

retro designs = good

just finished my first but not last burlap wreath, will post about it later

more flowers!

new love for bunting

this is just awesome.

flowers any way you like them.

love this...vintage

butterflies land on flowers

these could possibly be the greatest thing I've seen in a while

Now I'm pretty new to this crafting thing, so excuse me when I get excited about rosettes and then you tell me that they have been around a while and they are nothing new. I'm finding new things on here everyday...who knew burlap was used for anything but sacks for animal feed?! Not me until about a week ago. Disclaimer...I know English as a language and I have a rather large vocabulary and a great ability to spell things correctly (at least I think so)...but I however do not understand sentence structure , punctuation and the like. Please forgive your eyes for me as there will be mistakes that may make you cringe, if you are one of those people. :) Happy Crafting.

- Tori