Safe to Eat Cookie Dough

Tweet

Happy Halloween!
Wishing you lots of treats today!
Speaking of treats,
I found this recipe, a popular pin, while pregnant.
Let me tell you, having this recipe is dangerous - it is delish!

Don't worry, there are no raw eggs.

I can still hear my Mom saying,
"you'll get worms!"
when I'd lick the batter
off a spoon as a kid.

Eggless Cookie Dough 

from Willow Bird Baking
Yields: about 1 1/2-2 cups cookie dough

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
4 to 6 tablespoons water

Directions:
In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Stir in the flour, salt, vanilla and chocolate chips. Add the water one tablespoon at a time stirring between each, until the dough reaches cookie dough consistency.

Spooky Halloween Wreath

Tweet

My mom actually made this for us last year and I thought it was so clever.

She just spray painted an old, faded wreath black and added Dollar Tree decor.

Simple as that!

Homemade Mustela Wipes

Tweet

I decided to try out making my daughter Cora's wipes when I found the recipe here on the blog Life and Times with the Ehingers. However, I chose to use Mustela wash instead of the Johnson's she used because I just love the smell and I love their natural products. What appealed to me in this recipe is that, unlike some wipe recipes on Pinterest, this one is super simple and requires minimal ingredients (some call for essential oils and I am not one to track down lots of ingredients that I don't normally keep on hand).

I also really like Mustela all-over baby wipes to use in between baths and they were nice when she was too little for a full bath while waiting for her umbilical cord to fall off. But those suckers are pricey! What's nice about my homemade wipes is that they can be used as head to toe wipes too, making them multipurpose and economical too!

Homemade Mustela Wipes:
1 tablespoon baby oil
1.5 - 2 tablespoon Mustela 2-in-1 body wash (or wash of your preference)
2 cups of water
1 roll of Bounty select a sheet paper towels (one roll makes 2 rolls of wipes)
BPA-free container with removable lid (I found one at Target in tupperware section)

Step 1: Cut roll of paper towels in half on a cutting board.

Step 2: Mix baby oil and wash.

Step 3: Add water, stir.
Step 4: Add roll of cut paper towels, put lid on container and turn upside down to absorb.

Step 5: Put right side up, remove cardboard center, this will make the wipes pop right up!

We have been using them for a couple of months now and love them! They are very absorbent, smell wonderful, and do not irritate our baby girl's skin.

Crochet Baby Blanket

Tweet

I picked up crocheting a few years ago and have had so much fun trying to make new things.  I pretty much taught myself watching YouTube videos so you can learn too!!

I think it is more fun making stuff for sweet little babies than anything else and thankfully my friends keep giving me babies to crochet for :)

This is a blanket I made for our friends' baby boy due in February.

I made this pattern up as I went and I didn't measure how big it turned out, but below is the pattern.

Caron Simply Soft Yarn

2 skeins of each color in the main part of the blanket and 1 skein of the border color.

Size H crochet hook

Chain 100

Ch 2 and turn, HDC down the row

Repeat this 5 more times to make a 6 rows of the first color.

Change colors

Ch 2 and HDC down the row

Repeat this 5 more times to make a 6 rows of the second color

Repeat until you reach the size you like.  I had a total of 11 stripes.

After you have reached your desired width Ch 1 and slip stitch down the top row.

Change to your border color.  

Ch1 and SC all the way around.  

Place 3 SC in each corner 

Join

Ch1 and repeat 2 more times to make a total of 3 SC around the blanket.

To make the "M" 

Chain 40

Ch 2 and turn DC back down the row.

I then shaped M on the blanket and stitched it on using yarn.

(I have never "written" a pattern so if something doesn't make sense let me know and I'll explain!)

I'll try to get a better photo when I get a pic of it displayed in his room :)

Shiny Stainless Steel

Tweet

This is not a super fun post like Anna and Rachel's recent ones, but I have to share this incredibly easy and practical tip I found on Pinterest, original link here. We have stainless appliances (which I love) but they get so gross looking (which I do not love) thanks to fingerprints and who knows what else (cringe). All you do is put a little canola or olive oil on a terry cloth dish towel (microfiber would probably be even better because it's less abrasive) and wipe down the appliance, working in circles. Once that's done, go over it again with a clean towel. Seriously, that's it. No more streaks and no chemicals used!

Before:

After:

DIY Ruffled Lampshade

Tweet

When I was preggers with my now three month old, I was obsessing over the nursery. I wanted something soft, sweet, and kid-like but not too kiddish (see what I mean by obsessing). Basically I didn't want something she would grow out of too fast and I wanted someplace that I would feel relaxed in as well. I figure we will let her do whatever she wants with her room when she gets a little older and we know what her likes and interests are. So I decided to do a soft pink wall color with white bedding and window coverings, and accents of sage green. This is a long way of getting to my DIY experiment. I wanted a fun lamp, but the kid ones were (you guessed it) too kiddish. So I bought a shabby chic lamp from target that had a crystal base with the intention of finding a fun lampshade to replace the boring white one it came with.

Well lampshades are more expensive than I imagined and even then, I was having trouble finding what I wanted. Until I came across a few ideas on Pinterest. Like this one and this one. Oh, and this one. So I decided to venture out on my own and see what I could come up with. Let me preface this by saying that I do not know how to sew... so until the day I finally find time to learn, all my crafts will be no-sew! Back to the story...I had made some fabric flowers for headbands in the past, so I figured I could just make a bunch of fabric flowers and glue them to the boring white shade that came with the lamp. Here's the final product:

It was very cheap to make and I think it turned out well...although it did require more flowers (i.e. time) than I thought. To make the flowers I cut some white fabric quarters into one-inch strips (they were about 18 inches long). Then I folded them in half "hot-dog style" and started rolling them up and twisting them at the same time...gluing sporadically as I went along. This sounds harder than it is. It's ok if one flower doesn't look like the next because that's how they are found in nature anyway (real flowers, not fake flowers;). Next time,I'll be sure to take pictures as I go along. Here's one more pic with the lamp turned on. A plus- baby girl really likes they way it looks lit up.

Funfetti Cupcakes

Tweet

Here is a recipe from Pinterest that looked like too much fun to pass up!  

Homemade Funfetti Cake with Marshmallow Cream Icing

The recipe can be found on a blog called Baked Bree

We made cupcakes.  The recipe ended up making 18 regular sized cupcakes and 24 minis.

My friend, Randi was in town and we had so much fun cooking these together!

Look how fun these are!

 We dipped them in sprinkles after they were iced.

How cute are they!!

I would definitely make these again.  They were delicious.  I had never made icing using marshmallow cream.  It makes the icing so smooth, creamy and delicious!