Pretty Bird

I finished the dress I was making for the silent auction at church! I wish I could make one in my size.

I didn't get many pictures of this side.

Pretty Bird!

I love the paisley wing :)

Followup to Monkeying Around

A few weeks ago, I posted blog about some of the burp cloths I had made. I finished up the batch I was making for a friend who had requested some and I wanted to show them to you.

This was the first one I did in this set.

I super creepy Facebook stalked my friend's pictures of her baby's nursery. This monkey was one of the decals on the wall. Sometimes she calls Abby her little monkey. This was the first time I'd appliqued a picture onto a burp cloth. I really love the extra touches of the banana and the hair bow. One of the cool things with this monkey is that his darker brown parts are corduroy, so there is a fun texture. 
Funny side story here: Every time I think of corduroy, I think of my grandfather. He said that when he was a kid, people used to call corduroy pants "whistle britches" because they whistled when you walked in them. HAHAHAHA!!!
 

I wanted to show you a close up of how close I sew to the edge of the fabric.

Burp cloth #2. The patterned material is a printed duck fabric. Everything else is a grosgrain ribbon.

Close to the edge again.

Cloth #3. I love this monkey ribbon I found. While the fabric didn't look good with the coloring of the ribbon, I still wanted to include pink in there to keep the cloths cohesive.

Cloth #4. After I finished her name applique, it still looked like it needed something more. I added this raspberry large ricrack and thought it really brought it together. I really love this jumbo ricrack. I've only been able to find it at Hobby Lobby, though.

Cloth #5. I really like how the letters pop with the dark brown outlining.

This was actually a re-do of the first one I gave her. The sizing was off (in my opinion) and the W in the middle wasn't large enough. I think this really corrected it. I really do like the look of this fabric.

Monkeying Around in Pink

That's all of them! I really like how they turned out. You can't really see it, but in the middle of this picture under the aWg monogram is a paci clip I made, too. I'd never made one before, so I kinda just threw it in at the last minute. I didn't take any pictures - I forgot.

Hope you like them!

Cheese Straws

I had a field trip with my office this past Friday. I decided to make some cheese straws since the guys seemed to like them so much at Christmas. I also wanted to make them because I just got an electric cookie press. It was actually a gift I'd given my mom that she'd forgotten she had. 
Mom got an electric cookie press as a wedding gift back in the 70's. It's one of those things that not many people have heard of, but those of you who have used it, know what a time and strength saver it is.

Just like Mom's!

Probably in the late 90's, the plastic tube on Mom's busted. Ever since then, she's been on the lookout for another electric one. They were really hard to come by, but in recent years I've seen more of them on the market. Mom's always hard to buy gifts for. I decided to purchase one for her for Christmas a few years back. She was really excited and we ended up making cheese straws that year after she'd opened it up. Fast forward a few years.
A few weekends ago my sister flew in from Texas and we hosted a baby shower for her. As we were preparing the food for it, I see the cookie press sitting on the counter and I see the price tag still on it. I thought, "Dang, I can't believe I left that on there!" I forget exactly what I said to mom, but it was something along the lines of how do you like your cookie press? She said, "What do you mean? I just got it." Hilarity ensued as I opened up one of the cabinets, reached in, and pulled out the one I'd gotten her for Christmas several years ago!

The cookie press I got for Mom a few years ago

 with wrapping paper STILL ON THE BOX!!!

Mom offered me her new one and I told her I'd take the one I'd given her since she'd only used it once and already had cheese dough in the brand new one. HAHA!

The last time I made cheese straws, they were really crunchy. I like mine crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. Mom made some really good ones at my sister's shower the other weekend, but she was at work and couldn't give me the recipe when I called her the night I made them. Dad wasn't much help, either. I'm realizing I need to mark the recipes that I like so I'll know which ones to come back to. I ended up just kind of winging it with the ones I made this night. The recipe I used was:
2 sticks softened butter
16oz cheese, grated and softened
2 1/2c flour
1tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
Mix together with hands. Load into cookie press. Press into desired shape. Bake at 350 until done (about 10-12 min.).
If I do this recipe again, I'll either lose a stick of butter or add 1/2c or more of the flour. I will also double the cayenne pepper. I'm not a fan of hot and spicy things from chilies, but this recipe could have used just a bit more bite to it.

Locked and loaded.

Once it's all mixed up, load it in your cookie press and go to town.

Caution: Contents under pressure.

They're excellent fresh out of the oven, or after sitting for a few hours. They guys loved them!

Cheesy deliciousness!