Sunday, July 24, 2011

Crafting Heaven

I was in a funk and now I'm not.  These were so easy and I just love them.  I'm thinking of putting some sort of ribbon around each block, or not.   Total cost $0.  Just needed to get the hubby to cut the blocks for me.


On garbage day, my son and I went junkin'.  The boy is hooked and wants to go again.  We scored some shutters and this is what I made with one of them.


It's going on the wall in the master bedroom as soon as I start painting and scraping and maybe even do a little  swearing.  Total cost on this one $4.58.

Friday, July 8, 2011

My First Dress

This was so fun to make.


It takes very little fabric.

Every girl deserves to own at least one pretty dress!

Thursday, July 7, 2011

I love lurking around craft blogs and seeing what others are up to.  I found this blog and it has completely moved me.  You can see what I'm talking about right here at Sew Delightful.

I saw that image of that poor child wearing clothing that would have been dumped in the rag heap long before it looked like that.

I'm cutting out my first dress as soon as I hit post.

This is why I sew too.

Things I love to make

Personalized baby blankets

 Big purses

Little purses

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Crafting for Sanity

The title of this post says it all.  I craft for sanity.   It helps keep me sane or at least somewhat centered and grounded.  My goal  is to share a little of what I do; the good, the bad and the ugly.

My most recent adventure was making "Pies in a Jar".

   Aren't these stinking cute!

They are so easy to make and even better to eat!  I made cherry and apple.  Here is how I made them.


4oz Ball "freezer safe" jars
2 packages of ready made pie crust
pie filling of your choice
butter/margarine 
Sugar

Preheat your oven and a rimmed baking tray to 400.  Liberally butter the inside of the jars.  Using the rim of one jar cut out 12 circles of pie crust and place them on the bottoms of each jar.  

Using a pizza cutter, I started cutting out strips to make the sides of the pie and filled in areas with pieces of pie crust as needed.  Sorry but I forgot to take pictures of the process.


When I was placing the strips into the jar, I made sure that there was some overhang at the top for crimping. Now the fun part.  Fill each jar with approximately 4 tablespoons of your favorite pie filling.

Using the band that comes with each jar, cut out tops for your pie.  


Crimp the pie top and sides using your fingers or fork.  Cut four slits into the top of each pie.  Sprinkle with a little sugar.  I did a mix of cinnamon and sugar on the apple pies.

Place all your jars onto your preheated rimmed baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes.  When the 20 minutes are up, reduce the heat to 350 and carefully turn the rimmed baking sheet.  Bake for another 10-15 minutes until light golden brown and the filling is bubbly.


The beauty of these little gems is that you can make these up and freeze them prior to baking.  All you need to do is place the lid and band on the jar and pop them into your freezer.  When baking from frozen, increase the baking time to 35-40 minutes when you reduce the temperature to 350.

Enjoy!