Buffalo chicken dip

This is a new favorite recipe. 

2-10 ounce cans of chunk chicken, drained (or leftover chopped chicken)
2-8 ounce packages of cream cheese
1 cup ranch dressing
3/4 cup hot sauce like Texas Pete wing sauce
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
celery sticks and/or nacho chips

Just mix all and put in a small crock pot.  Stir occassionally until it's well mixed.  Enjoy!

easy pillows



Both pillows on the chair were made this way.

 I just re-remembered this super easy way to make a pillow cover and I'm so excited that I may have to make several right away!  I think I did this when I had my first apartment, but since then I've make them with zippers and just forgot how quick and simple it is to do it the first way.

Just measure the height of the pillow form that you want to cover.  Add 1/2 inch seam allowance for the top and bottom.  That is the length of one side of the piece of fabric you will cut out in a bit.

Next, measure the width of the pillow.  You will be cutting out your fabric soon and it will look a bit like a scarf at first--short on one side and a little more than twice that long on the other side.  When you make the pillow, you will make two "back" flaps that will overlap each other, and you want each flap to be about 3/4 of the width of the pillow.  Allow an inch on each side for a hem.  So, if you have an 11x11 inch pillow, you would cut out a piece of fabric about 12 inches by 25 inches. 

the front

and the back

Now, sew a simple rolled hem on the two short sides and press the edges.  Place the fabric right side up on a tabletop.  Place your pillow form on top to check placement for sure, but you'll basically fold one side in to cover about 3/4 of the pillow.  Remove form and pin the one side in place.  Now fold in the other side, again to cover about 3/4 of the pillow and pin.  Sew across the top and bottom.  Clip your corners and trim seams.  Turn right side out, iron, and you're done!

Some hints:
If your fabric is thin, you might want to cut a piece of plain white fabric (an inexpensive sheet works great for this) the exact size as the pillow cover fabric and baste it to the "good" fabric to make your finished cover have more body. 

I sometimes skimp on the measurements a touch so the pillow really fills the cover and I wind up with a plump, cushy pillow.

If you don't want to make a run to the store or you want to save a couple of dollars, you can take a bed pillow, cut open one end, and stuff the filling into a smaller area.  Stitch the cover again, this time into a square, and you've got a pillow form.

You can easily decorate these and add embellishments any way you like!

pulled off another party




 

Last night was the Ugly Sweater Party.  It was a blast, but it took me all day to get things ready.  I made lots of food (trifle, meatballs, sausage balls, Buffalo chicken dip, steamer and so on).  I also had to get the contest stuff together.  As people came, we gave them an index card.  They had an hour in order to think of something about themselves that other people at the party probably didn't know about them.  They then placed them in the jar pictured to the right.  When everyone was finished eating, I read all of then entries.  The first person to guess the correct answer scored a point.  The one with the most points won a prize.

We also had each person vote on the sweaters--the funniest, the one I most wished I had found, and the truly ugliest.  The ones winning the most votes won.  Fun night.

recovering those old seat cushions

This fabric was actually pretty once.

Tomorrow night is our first annual "Ugly Sweater Party", so I'm getting the house ready.  You'd think this close to Christmas, everything would be in order, but I always have more projects on the horizon.  I'd also love to touch up the trim paint around a couple of doors, but we'll see if I get to that.  The seats didn't get re-covered in time for the Christmas meals, but they will get done for the ugly sweaters.  (I'll put up a copy of the invite in case anyone wants to adapt the idea.) 

We have three old chairs which I bought at a Thrift store at least 20 years ago.  I still like them, and they remain the most used chairs around the dining room table.  Every five years or so, though, I need to recover them as the covers become threadbare.

Before I made it to the store to look for an inexpensive fabric to replace the old, my friend Robin lent me some that I think I am going to love on them.  It was left over from a project of hers. . .  It's always a plus to have friends with good taste.

I'll put up some pictures to show how they come out.  I'll just take unscrew the seats from the chairs and take off the old fabric.  If you've never done this, just turn the chair over and get a long screw driver.  Unscrew the four screws that hold the seat to the chair.  Next, cut a square--or the shape of your seat--from the new fabric.  I usually leave a couple of inches extra on all sides to wrap around and staple.  

 staple it in place, and then re-screw the seat covers to the chairs.  When they are done, they look so much better and it's less work than others would think. . .that is unless you get the seats off and discover that the staples you purchased and have won't fit the inexpensive new stapler you purchased to replace the old good one that broke. . .and the staples that you send your husband to get don't fit either. . .

Oh, so much better!

bench from old chairs

I didn't really do all of this today, but it's one of my creations.  I found 3 old matching chairs at a junk shop.  They were $1.50 each.  First I removed the old covers, screws, and such and scrubbed them well.  From there, I re-glued a couple of loose spots and screwed a couple of places together to make the chairs sturdy.  Next, I primed them with some leftover primer.  Once they were white from the primer, I used wood putty to fill in a couple of gouges and places where I had added screws to make them more stable.  I sanded the putty and noticed that so much of the primer  had soaked in that I painted them with primer a second time.  After that had dried, I painted them with two coats of gloss white paint.  Next, I used a big piece of cardboard to make a pattern for the "bench seat" which I planned to use to connect the chairs.  On the pattern, I notched out spots to make it fit tightly.  I used the cardboard to cut out a piece of plywood to match the pattern.  I covered the plywood seat with some padding--actually, I split open an old body pillow and used the filling to make the seat padding. I covered that with a layer of old white sheet fabric and then used the green swirl fabric to cover that.  I just wrapped it around the seat and stapled it to the back.  Ta da--a new bench for our breezeway. 

I could have screwed the three chairs together to make the bench even more sturdy, but it held together well the way it was.

I'll post a picture of the final product.  I didn't think to photograph the chairs before I started--wish I would have!

photo photo frame

Well, it's Christmas day and not much time was spent on creativity--just lots of good time with family.

One thing I've got started is a photo frame for my daughter to give to one of her best friends.  We took a picture frame (the one pictured here is actually a mirror) that had a flat, wide frame and painted it white.  Next, I had my daughter go through her photos and pick out between 20-30 of her and her best friend. I copied them onto a couple of pages of a Word document with each photo about an inch to two inches wide.  I printed them in black and white on good quality paper.

Several pages of mini pictures

I also went through some online clipart and picked out several patterns in black and white and printed them.  If I had had any black and white scrapbook paper, I would have used that.

We cut out the pictures.  Some we left in small rectangles.  Some we cut out parts of the image.  Next, we used Mod Podge to glue them along with the black and white pattern paper onto the frame.  When it was finished and we liked the result, we coated it in a couple of coats of Mod Podge.  We re-assembled the frame and placed a large photo of the two of them in it.

It's nearly finished

Merry Christmas!

silhouette stuff

Today has been a day of wrapping presents and baking.  Tomorrow we clean and then it's Christmas!!



This is a computer print out of the original picture, darkened.

 

My creative thing today involves making silhouettes--I'm a little obsessed with them lately. 

I took a picture from a couple of years ago that showed one of my daughters standing on a deck in a vacation home.  It was already digital, so I darkened it to make her outline more distinct.  From there, I simply printed the picture in black and white on 8 1/2 x 11 paper. 

I then took a fine tip Sharpee marker and outlined her and the deck railing.  When I turned the paper over, the outline was distinct enough to photocopy which I then did. 

I used a Sharpee to outline the image and then turned it over.

To the photocopy, so I still had the outline copy in case I want to try something different to it, I used a wide tip black marker to fill in the areas in the picture occupied by her and the deck railing. 



I colored in the area with a wide tip marker.

 My next plan, which will probably have to wait until after Christmas, is to go to Staples and have them print it larger, maybe poster size, to see how it turnes out. 

I am also interested in putting a piece of clear contact paper over the image and cutting out the "black" area.  From there, I want to put what's left, basically a stencil, on something. . .canvas. . .wood. . .something. . .and then paint the cutout area in stripes or polka dots or some graphic design.  I'll add more when I do.

packaging the brandy and cakes

Last night was for packaging the cakes and brandy which we earlier made.  At some point, I'll put up all the directions for making the brandy.  I did find that straining it was much more difficult than I had expected it to have been. 

My main goal was to get it "gift ready". 

Using a funnel, I poured the brandy into the containers that I had earlier gathered.  After they were filled, I corked them and adhered the labels.  Each was tied with a pretty ribbon.  Next a couple of cordial glasses which I had had my friends gathering for me, were tied together.  Some other pictures are present with the post titled blackberry brandy.

This shows a finished bottle, glasses, and an nearly finished cake.

I took a small piece of almond paste and rolled it to be very thin.  I placed one of the little cakes on a pretty plate which I grabbed from a thrift store.   I placed the almond paste on top of the cake.  On top of that, I iced the little cakes with cream cheese icing.  A lot of people do this with fondant, but I think it tastes bad; I love creem cheese, though.

I let them set up overnight and in the morning placed ribbon on them to decorate.  I then wrapped them with celophane and they were ready. 

cheese balls and peppermint bark

When my daughter told me on the way home from school yesterday that she needed to go shopping again. . .because she wanted to give presents to fourteen friends, I had to hold tightly the steering wheel to prevent a serious swerve.  I thought nearly all the presents were complete.  After I dropped her at a basketball game, I quickly hit my inexpensive go-to stores: Dollar Tree and Wal-Mart.  This wouldn't have been her tactic, but gifts weren't coming from her wallet either.  I hoped that with the nice things she had already and with some things I hoped to pick up, we could put together 14 great presents.

At the Dollar Tree, I found three surprisingly pretty picture frames. When I got home, I took them out of their cheap wrappers and discarded the stock photo with which each came.  From the computer, I found and printed in black and white several pictures of her friends on photo paper which I already had.  Also at the Dollar Tree I found little packs of lotion and body spray that were from a nice store.  After I took them out of the cheap wrapper and tied with lovely ribbon and a candy cane, they looked appealing.  I also found a hat that looked nearly identical to some I had seen at a nice department store and at least two pairs of gloves that I knew my own kids would like.  Then at Wal-Mart, I found packs of fuzzy socks and picked up some bags of dark and white chocolate and candy canes.

As soon as I got home, I melted the dark chocolate and poured it on a couple of cookie trays lined with parchment paper--how great is the stuff!  While it cooled, I tied the gloves, socks, and hats up with pretty ribbon and candy canes.  Next, I crushed several candy canes and then melted some white chocolate.  I poured the white chocolate in a pattern over the dark chocolate and sprinkled the crushed candy canes in it before it hardened.  After it cooled, I broke it into chunks and then wrapped and tied it into little packages.  By the time she came home from the game, I had created a display of presents on the dining room table.  She gathered up the things she had earlier purchased and was able to put together the presents--fourteen of them-- in a fairly reasonable amount of time.  No shopping trip and less than $20 spent!

Here's one of the bags of peppermint bark.

Next, I needed to put presents together for several of my friends.  I had picked up crackers when I had good coupons.  Out came the cream cheese and ingredients and by tripling the recipe below, I made 6 cheese balls. 
(the recipe was hard to read; I'll make it better)

By the end of the night, I had made 6 adult presents and helped the kid to make 14 packages. . .not bad for one day.

fabric napkins from men's shirts

Yesterday involved a lot of Christmas shopping.  In my travels, I saw a great black and white graphic tablecloth and black and white fabric napkins that I loved at Marshall's.  As much as I wanted them, I resisted--it was a day for getting presents for other people after all.  (Perhaps if I drop some hints they will wind up under the tree).

When I got home, I kept thinking about them.  Sure sign that I really should have them, right!  Then as I finished some laundry, I realized that the texture of one of the shirts I was folding was nearly like that of the napkins I wanted. 

Hmmm.  Today's efforts will be to make a set of homemade napkins to go with the coveted tablecloth.  Just in case I don't get the one I saw, I'll make the napkins such that they will coordinate with a more simple tablecloth that I already have. 

The napkins at the store were a cool white mensware-like fabric trimmed in black grosgrain  ribbon.  This would take a bit of time but would be simple enough to do. . .but I think I will make mine without the ribbon so they're easier to laundry.  That really means so they won't have to be ironed.  I don't mind ironing as I sew because it leads to some cool new creation, but ironing for the sake of making items look good?  HATE it! 

I have to go and look in the bag of stuff ready to go to Goodwill, but I think I have three or so old shirts there that I can cut into large enough squares to make a set of napkins.   I want to have at least 12, so I'll try to make them coordinate but be mismatched.  I'm just going to do a simple rolled seam on each edge.  Pictures to follow!

cashmere pillows

Nate Berkus gave me this idea on his show; wish it had been mine.  Although I've made pillows from old clothing before, I never thought of using cashmere sweaters as the fabric--brilliant!  Other than 2 cashmere sweaters that I bought for my daughter as special presents, the only cashmere I've ever owned came from a thrift store.  I just can't justify paying that much for clothing for me, but I don't begrudge those who can--cashmere is wonderful!  Being that I got mine from a thrift store, I should have thought of this before!!

My older daughter--a consumate shopper who seems to have inherited my love of thrift shops, Goodwill stores, sidewalk sales and such--got to escape the swim meet yesterday.  She visited a local Goodwill for me and found 2 cashmere sweaters, one red (Merry Christmas!) and one blue.  They were $3 each, yeah!  They're not cable knit, which I would prefer, but they're soft and beautiful.  Only one has a small hole and it's near the neck where I won't use the fabric anyway. 

I will cut the largest "square" piece I can from the front and back of each sweater to make the pillow covers.  I may even use some leftover silk I have to make the backs so I can make 2 pillows from each sweater.  Hmmm, if I use something other than the cashmere for the backs, I can even make each pillow have an envelope closing which takes away the need to sew in a zipper--I like it!  I haven't decided if I want to put some kind of silhouette on the pillows or not. . .I may have to since that is really my latest obsession.  I'd like to put a big covered button or foldover flap on the "front" for looks, but that seems to take too much away from the lovely cashmere feel.  I'll let you know what I actually do!

If you want to do this on your own, look for men's sweaters in the biggest sizes you can find--you get more fabric that way.  Personally, I get so excited when I find cashmere, that I purchase what I find if it's a good price, in good quality, and in a good color.  I love a cable pattern or texture if it's out there, but plain ones are the most common. 

I must master posting photos here!

swim meet days lead to scarves

So already my plan of actually creating a physical something each day has been derailed by a swim meet.  We were there from a bit after 8:00 am to 6:00something.  Until we got home, made dinner, and dealt with house stuff, I was done.  I did sit at the meet, though and come up with an idea.

Largely due to my college freshman's influence, I've been checking out the scarves that are popular right now.  I especially like the ones that are made of soft jersey fabric, are 12 inches or so wide, and are sewn into a big--probably 12 foot long or so--loop.

If you've never been to a swim meet, each kid typically purchases a t-shirt to remember the meet.  Lots of other sports are like this too.  If you've got a couple of kids in a couple of sports, your house can become a t-shirt shrine before you know it.  Well, I've been thinking that I could cut out the image on some of my kids' shirts that are now too small, put that part in a scrap book, and use the fabric that is left to make scarves.  I'll just cut large blocks from the back of each shirt and piece those together to make a long strip.  I'll have to play with the seams to make them look OK from either side--maybe a french seam?  Wish my mom were around to tell me how she did all the cool things she did while sewing!  In any case, I can sew several of these squares together to make one of those long loop scarves.  From there, a simple swim silhouette could be painted or stamped on every other block.  Hmmm.  Have to shop for Christmas today, but hopefully will have enough time this evening to make one!! 

So, scarves made from old, recycled t-shirts are my brainstorm (creative offering) for yesterday--day 4.  Nope, didn't get one actually made. 

blackberry brandy

Last summer my youngest daughter and I went to visit the farm on which I was raised.  While there, with my oldest brother Bill showing us where the best fruit was, we picked many blackberries. . .many, many blackberries. 

If you've spent some time in the country picking wild berries, you probably appreciate the true significance of having gathered several gallons of freshly picked blackberries.  In the wild, they grow, well, wild.  The berry bushes develop in crazy clusters, and the bushes are covered with thorns.  Of course the best fruit is always about 2 feet away from safe, comfortable footing and located just past several menacing branches.  Naturally, you go after those great berries, get them, hold a couple high in the air to taunt the other pickers with comments like, "look at this monster I found!  Bet it's bigger than any you're able to locate" and then see even better looking ones a few feet further in the briars.  Before you know it, you're so deeply entangled that escape takes true work.  We rarely come away from berry picking without some serious scratches and gashes, and yet we actually look forward to doing it again the next year.

We had so many berries after the 2010 trip to Pennsylvania that we were inventing uses for them.  We ate a ton, baked several blackberry cobblers and crisps, and still had more.  I decided we just had to try and make blackberry brandy.  My girls have learned to tolerate my ever changing obsessions about things we need to try and make, so when they heard, they rolled their eyes a bit when they thought I couldn't see them, but went along with an attempt to make blackberry brandy which we could use as little Christmas presents.  Mind you, we're not really drinkers; I don't think I've ever had brandy in my life, but it just sounded fun. 

We plan to place the finished product in small bottles and gift them to special people this Christmas.  Each bottle will come with a homemade "Christmas Cake" and a set of directions concerning how to make the most of it.  I'll try to include the cake and brandy note, the label for the brandy bottles, and the recipes for the brandy and cakes.

This is what the label for the little bottles to hold the brandy looked like.

Directions for making the brandy

I struggle to call this homemade since it starts with store bought brandy . . . but it is great way to turn leftover berries into something special.   I’ll describe the way I actually made it this past summer.  I’ll also include another set if directions that I recently found; I will probably try the new way next year to see if it is any different than try #1.

It was easy to do.  My key advice from having made it once:  go out and buy cheesecloth.  I thought I’d be resourceful and use a coffee filter—didn’t work, then I tried to use an old, clean bandana—didn’t work, then I tried a silk coffee filter—didn’t work, then I went to the store and bought cheesecloth.

Ingredients:

1 pound or more of fresh blackberries

2 quart size glass jars with lids

1 cup confectioner’s sugar

1 liter brandy

Instructions:

1.       Equally place the berries in a couple of clean glass jars.

2.       Divide the cup of sugar between the jars.

3.       Pour the brandy into the jars. 

4.       Tightly close the jars and shake vigorously to dissolve the sugar and mix the ingredients.

5.       Cover the jars with brown paper and store them in a cool, dark area.  I understand some people bury them in the ground; I’m just too lazy for that and with my luck when I wanted to retrieve them the ground would be frozen.

6.       For the first week, shake each jar every 2-3 days.  After the initial week, shake the jars once a week.  Try to do this for at least eight weeks.

7.       After eight weeks, strain out the blackberries.   I then strained the brandy at least four times.  This will be a sticky process; prepare for a mess.  Place brandy into clear bottles because it’s beautiful!

Directions that I recently found:

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

1 pound fresh blackberries

1 bottle (fifth) brandy

1 teaspoon fruit protector

Instructions:

1.       Make simple syrup by bringing water and sugar to a boil, stirring constantly.  When it’s clear, remove it from the heat and let it stand until it is warm not hot.

2.       Place blackberries in a large bowl and crush them with a potato masher or large spoon.   Add the fruit protector.  Let it stand for a few hours.

3.       Divide blackberries, syrup and brandy between two clean 1 quart jars.  Cover and let stand in a cool dark place for 1 month, shaking it once a day to prevent the fruit from clumping together.

4.       Strain the solids from the brandy.  Filter (strain) the brandy a couple of times and place into clean, clear glass containers.  Age for 1 to 3 months before serving. 

photo card

Although not officially made yesterday, I plan to attach a photo of a recent project.  I have this thing about homemade Christmas cards.  Over the years I've done a number of strange things.  This year, it was pretty simple. . .mainly since my oldest daughter was away at college and I couldn't get the two of them together long enough to shoot some new, special pictures.  The one I used was from the end of the summer. 

I just used Microsoft Publisher and opened a picture that I liked.   I used their basic functions to edit wrap points, thus "cutting out" the part of the picture I wanted to use.  From there, I made the background dark green and added a text box.  I saved the photo as a jpeg and shipped it off to be printed--$.09 each!  I  then added the photos to blank cards--inexpensive w/coupon from Jo-Ann Fabrics--and added a message inside.  Ta-da: Christmas card 2010.

Day 2

So, I finally created a blog after thinking about it for a long time.  I also started a "Daily Creativity Journal" too.  I pretty freely took the idea from Noah Scalin's book 365: Daily Creativity Journal.  I saw this book featured on Amazon and thought, "heck, I could do that on my own!"  I do, by the way, admire Scalin's Skull book too.   I'll try to use the journal to record ideas and things I want to try and then use the blog to record things I actually create.

My othere creation for the day was to make a Question Jar for a present.  Since it's actually to be a Christmas present, I'll wait and show a picture of this and directions after the 25th.  If you want, you can see the origin of the idea at keepinglifecreative.com.