WW- Every Day at Nap Time

Instead of going to her own bed, she tries to steal her brother's.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

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Needlecraft Bobby Pins

At almost 15 weeks along in my pregnancy, I haven't been feeling my best, so I decided to take a little break from the blog over the weekend. Because of that, I discovered that I really don't have anything new to share. I did get digging around in some of the hair clips that I've made over the last couple of years and decided that I'd share some of my needlecraft bobby pins.

I love to stay busy with my hands, but I've figured out that if I plan to actually complete a project it has to be relatively simple, quick to complete or something I can put down and then pick-up again without having to figure out where I left off. For those reasons, I like putting together small cross-stitch samples that I can use in various ways. I love, love the brooches I created a while back. I've also really enjoyed using my cross-stitch in hair accessories.

Creating a needlecraft bobby pin is really simple.  I don't have any how to pics, but I'll give a summary of the process. All you need is a set of bobby pins, felt, floss, hot glue and a small cross-stitch sample. You'll want to purchase bobby pins with glue pads.  You can generally find them at local craft stores. I found great deals on e-bay as well.

Hot gluing the cross-stitch to the felt, is kind-of the lazy way of doing things, but it also keeps the cross-stitching fabric from fraying beyond the design. I do like to purposely fray the fabric to give it a shabby-chic look.

To mount the cross-stitch and felt to the bobby-pin, just cut out a smaller circle for the back and using your floss, stitch the two circles together. You'll need to slit the smaller circle so that it fits over the back-side of the bobby pin. That's it! How's that for a simple, little project for during nap time?

I just visited Hobby Lobby today and came home with the materials for some new projects, so stay tuned.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Nap Time Treat: Sweet Cherry Ice Cream

I look forward to the summertime road-side fruit stands.  Usually, the fruit is outstanding and very fresh.   We visited a fruit stand this last week and picked up a bag of sweet cherries.  Unfortunately, on closer inspection at home, they weren't as pretty as I'd hoped for (major disappointment and annoyance). I was able to salvage enough for the kids to enjoy. After that, I still had maybe two cups left that were usable. What to do?
I have an on going love affair with my new ice cream maker.  So, I went searching for an sweet cherry ice-cream recipe. I found a few that I thought would work, so I made a mismash of them and put together a batch of delicious cherry ice-cream.

I decided to make myself and ice cream cone after the kids had gone down for their naps. Then I proceeded to devour it. It was lovely sitting on my back deck enjoying an ice cream cone in the shade. I'm so lucky that both of my children still nap at the same time.

Sweet Cherry Ice Cream:

-1 1/2 cups pitted ripe sweet cherries (from about 3/4 lb cherries)
-3/4 cup milk
-1 3/4 cups cream
-1/2 cup sugar
-1 pinch salt
-1 teaspoon lemon juice
-1 Tbsp vanilla extract
-8 pieces Dove dark chocolate, chopped fine

METHOD

1 Put cherries, milk, one cup of the cream, sugar, and salt into a medium saucepan. Heat on medium heat until the mixture is steamy, then lower the heat to warm and just let sit for about 15 minutes. Remove from heat. Pour mixture into a blender, or use an immersion blender, and carefully purée. (Careful because you are dealing with a hot liquid. Make sure you hold the cap down on the top of the blender while puréeing.)

2 Put mixture into a large bowl. Stir in the remaining 3/4 cup of cream. Chill for several hours in the refrigerator until completely cold. (Can also place bowl over an ice bath, to speed up the cooling process.)

3 Before putting the mixture into your ice cream maker, stir in the lemon juice and vanilla. Churn the ice cream in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

4 Once the ice cream has completed churning, the ice cream should be pretty soft. Gently fold in the finely chopped chocolate. Put in an airtight container and place in the freezer for at least an hour, preferably several hours.

Makes about one quart.

Just awesome.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

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