Day 9- what now?

So after a wonderful day at the pool with the kiddo and some fun moms, I find myself at home with no kid waiting for the man in my life to come home from work.  What's a girl to do?  Why enjoy a refreshing glass of the easiest sangria ever and get started on some Bahia-style fish tacos for a delicious dinner.  The drink is quickly becoming a summer staple (and yes I am aware that we've only been on vacation for 9 days).  The original recipe came from a pin on my pinterest board, party ideas all sorts.  Here's the link to the recipe: http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/red-wine-sangria-10000000633416/index.htlm
Now because I'm me and can't really follow  a recipe without making a couple of changes, here is my version. Just as easy and super delicious.

Summer of Craftiness Super Easy Sangria

What you need:

1 bottle of red wine- my fav- Menage a Trois- California Red Wine

1- 2.63 L Simply Lemonade with Raspberry

1/2 bottle Sparkling Pomegranate French Soda

cut fruit- whatever's in season and yummy

Pour half the raspberry lemonade into a separate container.  Add the red wine to the lemonade bottle- this makes it easy to take with you to a friend's house to share.  Add enough french soda to fill the bottle.  Add fruit.  That's it.  

You can make this overnight.  That gives the fruit a chance to macerate.  Add in the soda right before serving.

Dinner's done and the dishes are clean.  I think it's time to get crafty.

'til tomorrow,

Tangy 

Day 9- Friday morning

Rise and shine at 6:00 a.m. on a Friday morning.  Not sure why, but oh well.  If I'm up I should be productive, I'll read, do laundry, and make my infamous blueberry muffins. From scratch of course with fresh blueberries. A nice big cup of French Roast coffee and I'm set.

That was yummy! The recipe is from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine, May 2008. So I'll looked everywhere for a link to the recipe online and no luck.  So I've posted it here.

Better-than-basic Muffins
makes 12- prep time; 10 min.- Total time: 35 min + cooling

What you need:
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted, plus more for pan
2 cups all- purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for pan
2 large eggs
1/2 cup whole milk (but I use 2%)
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

What to do:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter and flour a standard 12- cup muffin pan, tapping out excess. Set aside. (you can also use the baking spray with flour..... Tangy's tip)
2. In a small bowl, whisk together butter, eggs, milk, and vanilla; set aside. In a large bow, whisk together the dry ingredients ( I use a fine sieve... Tangy's tip). Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients.  Add egg mixture to well. With a rubber spatula, gently stir ingredients until batter is moist.  Fold in blueberries.
3. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each about two-thirds ( I use a third cup measuring cup). Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 15 to 20 minutes.  Enjoy!

Later that day...... Day 8

So what am I addicted to right now??? Let's see, pinterest.com, etsy.com, sewing, creating, crafting, my kiddo, reading (just about to finish The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder by Rebecca Wells), and photography! Oh, and blogging about it for my 2 followers... lol!
http://pinterest.com is without a doubt the best idea for anyone that is visually stimulated to create. Check out the most resent "pin" that I've acquired.

This website is a great way to become inspired to create more. Any ideas that I make from pinterest will be linked back to the original source- so stay tuned.  Here's a link to one of my boards so that you can check it out:  http://re.pn/b/a01n

Second on the list is etsy.com.  This is a great community of handcrafted crazies. You can buy, sell, and browse things from all over the world.  I have a store-front, it's just empty at this time.  Here's the link to my shop:  www.etsy.com/shop/kikus   I hope to have some new items up for sell next week.

Last on the list: photography.  Now, I do love to take pictures, but I'm not that great at it and need a new camera too.  (I need new floors more than a new camera, but that's another story.)  Any way, the family just had the most amazing photo shoot with a local photographer. Check out her site  www.kimberleecombsphotography.com  I was beyond pleased with her work.  She totally captured our family and my style.  It really helped that I had a pin board on pinterest with lots of ideas of what I was looking for in this session.  Here's the link to the board http://re.pn/b/9zdq
Of to finish my book.
 more craft tomorrow,
Tangy

Day 8- what's been happening?

OK- so I'll been a little distracted from my blogging by life, but in a good way.  Beach trips, pool parties, sleeping in..... aahh the pleasures of being a teacher on summer vacation. I have been very busy with crafting too. Just not a lot of time to blog about it - so here we go.

The lovely Ms. King stopped by to pick up her t-shirt pillow.  I think that she really loved it. With her was a sweet little visitor, Little Miss King.  I had just finished one of my super cute and fun pillowcase dresses with a twist.  This one is a baby halter dress.  I was looking for a mini model to try it out and there she was at my door.  Well, her Noni loved it so much that she had to take it home too.  Check out the pics. I think that I'll try my hand at a couple more a put them up for sale on my etsy.

What's that you say???? You are not yet acquainted with the wonderful and quite addictive world of etsy.  Well, I think that will have to be a post soon.

Off to create some more!

Tangy

The t-shirt pillow

It's lovely to wake up with a mission in mind.  Mine is this pillow.  My self-imposed rule for crafting/blogging this summer- I must complete one household chore before I get to create. It gets the house cleaned early, and I still have tons of time for fun (oh and the kiddo too.)

So, here are the easy steps for this project.

1. Purchase a pillow insert- I find this is a better idea than using fiberfil.

2. Cut the t-shirt to size 1" large than the pillow insert.  My pillow is 16" square, so  my t-shirt front is 17" square.

3. Cut out a matching square of fabric for the back.

4. I decided to add a trim to the edges.  Mine is up-cycled from an old pair of jeans.  I cut them in to 2" strips and then fringed the edges.

5. Next Sewing: I attached the trim to the back fabric. And then sewed up 3 1/4 sides- right sides together.

6. Stuff the pillow insert inside your pillowcase- flip right sides out first.

7. To close up the hole, I used a fusible bonding web like Stitch Witchery .

Check out the finished project.

Hope she loves it!