Posted on

Smores Cookies

Since Tabby was born, we’ve been going to Zoolights every year. And as is tradition, we bring a warm beverage in our thermoses (pretty much the only time we use them) and a treat to go with them. This time, inspired by a pin on one of my boards, we made these s’more “cookies” they were super simple and turned out really cute. They were a nice change of pace from cookies and we’d make them again anytime.

Ingredients

  • graham crackers
  • marshmallows
  • chocolate almond bark
  • white sprinkles

Directions

Lay out a sheet of wax paper on a cookie sheet or counter before you start. Then begin by breaking the chocolate bark into squares. In a microwavable bowl, microwave 30 seconds or 1 min at a time then stir. Repeat until melted. Then place a few squares of graham crackers on a microwaveable plate and marshmallows on top of them. Microwave for 30 sec – 1 min then top with another graham cracker. Push the crackers down to spread around the marshmallow. Some came out the sides and I found it worked best to scrape this off on the side of another plate. Then dip the sandwiches in chocolate to the desired depth and place on the wax paper. Decorate with sprinkles if desired. Allow to harden for 30 minutes or so and then store in an airtight container.

Posted on

Gel Glue Batik

Did I mention how much I love Pinterest? Because I totally do. Of course it’s a timesuck, but I can overlook that in favor of its prettiness. Am I right? Anyhow, before we left for NYC and since we got back, we’ve been working on this craft that I had pinned to my “Crafts for the Kids” board. Tabby loves the Pinterest since she can just pick a picture of what she wants to do.

Anyhow, the concept is simple. You put designs on the shirts using the gel glue and then dye them. The gel glue resists the dye and your design shows up white/light on a background of color.

Tips:

  • All tshirts should be washed, shrunk, etc.
  • You will need to cut some cardboard to place between the back and front of your tshirt … if you don’t do this, they will stick together.
  • The resolution of gel glue is not real high, so your designs can’t be too intricate.
  • You cannot use hot dye (no matter what the package says) to dye your shirts. Hot water melts gel glue. We dyed using Tulip Brand cooled down and it worked great.
  • You will have to wash these afterward and they will give off plenty of dye …wash each color individually.

Ben’s has this design on it as Twinkle Twinkle is one of his favorite songs. I did a similar one on a onesie for a friend’s baby that has a sheep and says “baa baa black sheep.” Tabby’s was all her own design, though I executed the gluing for her. She just told me where to place the stars and hearts.

One onesie we did was mostly just squiggles and that turned out great too. The original one I saw was all cursive text which turned out cute too. I’d love to do a running one for myself at some point or an orange one that has “You are my sunshine.” on it with a sun graphic.

These were pretty cheap to make. The shirts I get at Hobby Lobby for like $3.50/ea and my shirt was just a random old shirt I had lying around. Onesies are likewise cheap. $8/3 of them. The gel glue was under $2 and each packet of dye under $3.

Everyone had a great time with this and I’d love to do it again sometime.

Posted on

Tshirt Dresses

That girl child of mine … she LOVES her dresses. She would probably wear dresses all the time if she could. Well dresses and jeans … she does love her jeans. Anyhow, while we were in NYC I wanted to get her a cute souvenir t’shirt, but I couldn’t find ANY that weren’t A) ugly B) cheesy C) ridiculously priced D) made from terribly coarse fabric. But somewhere rattling around upstairs was the notion that I’d seen on the internets somewhere that one can make an adult’s t’shirt into a dress. So on this leap of memory faith, I purchased a hot pink ladies I ♥ NY t’shirt for Miss Tabby. The exchange with the Indian (Syrian???) guy at the booth was hilarious. He saw me holding it up to her to see how it would fit and kept insisting he had ones that would fit her better (they had child-esque drawings of NYC on them and were the SCRATCHIEST fabric I’ve ever handled) and I could not communicate that I didn’t WANT them to fit her but finally he let the crazy lady have her way. $8/each and they’re soft, so good bargain IMHO.

So I looked up on the internets how to make the t’shirt into a dress and came across this great instructable tutorial on the matter. I followed it to the best of my rather suspect sewing abilities and produced a fairly decent dress for Tabby. Bolstered my some sewing success (this is rare for me) I decided to dig out an old t’shirt of mine from our “t’shirt quilt” (that I will never actually get around to making) box of discarded shirts and make her a second dress. This one had a much larger logo that would have been cut off by the previous method, so I made a modification. My interpretations for both follow.

Continue reading “Tshirt Dresses”

Posted on

Sharing Time

Saw this on Carol‘s Pinterest boards and I have been laughing whenever I think about it since. Teehee!

I just bought a backpack for our NYC trip. I got a good deal and I think I can sell it on Craigslist for nearly what I paid for it. It’s more compact than our hiking backpack. So yay. Now I just have to figure out about a pack ‘n’ play.

I am very excited to make this French Onion Chicken. Unfortunately we are negatory one lg. skillet. Ours lost all its coating in the center and we had to send it off to recycling. We need to buy a new one but we haven’t figured out which one we want. We’re trying to decide if it’s worth it to buy a more expensive one if it’ll last longer. I have my doubts.

I’m trying to figure out if Matt and I can get a date night in this weekend. We’re supposed to have dinner with some friends on Sat night and we’re getting together with my family on Friday night. Signs point to doubtful. But who can complain?

I still need to do a post about the jam I made, but meanwhile we are very much enjoying the results. The few photos I took turned out horribly and I need to redo them. It’s hard to get decent natural light in the evenings now since the sun is going down so much earlier than just a few weeks ago. Mornings are harder too I notice …

Hope your week is progressing acceptably or brilliantly.