Soul Sister Birthday Lunch!

We took Marjorie out for some birthday sushi and shopping this week!

Mug cakes and sharpie coffee cups are all the rage over Pinterest right now, so it inspired my gift:

"There Might Be Cake In Here" Mug:

I taped off my lines and wrote the message in an oil-based fine tipped paint pen then placed in a cold oven, turned the heat up to 350 and baked for 20 minutes.

I filled bags with the ingredients for Snickerdoodle Mug Cake:

• 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 cup milk, at room temperature
• 2 tablespoons salted butter, melted and cooled
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 
For layering/topping:
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions

1. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and cinnamon until thoroughly combined. Blend in milk, butter, and vanilla until batter is smooth. Into a microwave-safe mug with straight sides, scoop a big spoonful of batter, then sprinkle with a spoonful of cinnamon sugar. Alternate layers, ending with cinnamon sugar.
2. Microwave on high for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes, or until cake is done to your liking. Allow to cool for a couple of minutes before serving.

Bag up the dry ingredients into 2 separate bags (flour mixture in one and cinnamon sugar in another) and tuck into your "This Might Be Cake" Mug and gift it to your nearest and dearest cake lover.

Transitions...And Cinnamon Buns!

I've reached that point in my boys' lives when I'm not as needed at school, leaving me with a lot of time during the day.  Due to the recent changes in Etsy's policies my frame sales have plummeted. My hand-painted art is lost among the machine fabricated resold items and it's just so frustrating! I finally have the time to devote to my business...but no business.

I'm in a weird transitional phase right now. I love that I have gotten to spend these years raising my boys and I'd never trade that.  I've kept myself busy, but since my first child was born I've only worked for myself. I sold Pampered Chef for a few years, worked as a free-lance marketing person drumming up business for a local chiropractor, then started my home business, Hope Studios...are any of those things resume-worthy?  Is it possible to be relevant in a "regular job" at this point? Do I want a regular job?

I feel like I've come to a crossroads and I need to commit to reestablishing my business or move on to something else.  What do I know how to do?  Could I start a business centered around our concept of Soul Sisters?  So many thoughts racing through my head. So many questions as to whether I want to play it safe and look for work on Craig's List or do I want to stick my neck out and create something new? Any ideas?

I discussed my predicament with my Soul Sisters last week while Marzipan taught us how to make Cinnamon Buns - then promptly ate 7 of them that afternoon.

Cinnamon Swirl Buns with Cream Cheese Glaze

Molly Wizenberg, Bon Appetit

Dough:

• 1 cup whole milk
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 3 1/2 cups (or more) unbleached all purpose flour, divided
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 1/4 teaspoons rapid-rise yeast (from 2 envelopes yeast)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Nonstick vegetable oil spray

Filling:

• 3/4 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

Glaze:

• 4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Dough:

Combine milk and butter in small pan. Heat on med/high until butter melts and mixture is just warmed to 120°F to 130°F.

Pour into bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Add 1 cup flour, sugar, egg, yeast, and salt. Beat on low speed 3 minutes, stopping occasionally to scrape down sides of bowl. Add 2 1/2 cups flour. Beat on low until flour is absorbed and dough is sticky, scraping down sides of bowl. If dough is very sticky, add more flour by tablespoonfuls until dough begins to form ball and pulls away from sides of bowl.

Turn dough out onto lightly floured work surface. Knead until smooth and elastic, adding more flour if sticky, about 8 minutes. Form into ball.

Lightly oil large bowl with nonstick spray. Transfer dough to bowl, turning to coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, then kitchen towel. Let dough rise in warm draft-free area until doubled in volume, about 2 hours. Ours took a little longer to rise since it was a chilly day, but don't give up! It will happen if your milk was the right temp!

Filling:

Mix brown sugar and cinnamon in medium bowl.

Punch down dough. Transfer to floured work surface. Roll out to 15x11-inch rectangle - stretch and pull it if you need to.

Spread butter over dough, leaving 1/2-inch border. Just smear it all over the dough with your hands. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar evenly over butter, then spread that almost to the edges with your hands too.

Starting at long side, roll dough into log, pinching gently to keep it rolled up. Give it a little squeeze and pull it if necessary to make sure the log is uniform thickness.

With seam side down, cut dough crosswise with thin sharp knife into 18 equal slices (each about 1/2 to 3/4 inch wide).Marzipan pulled out a kitchen ruler to make sure the rolls were the same...who knew?

Butter two 9-inch square glass baking dishes. Divide rolls between baking dishes, arranging cut side up (there will be almost no space between rolls). Cover baking dishes with plastic wrap, then kitchen towel. Let dough rise in warm draft-free area until almost doubled in volume, 40 to 45 minutes.

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 375°F. Bake rolls until tops are golden, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven and invert immediately onto rack. Cool 10 minutes.

Glaze:

Combine cream cheese, powdered sugar, butter, and vanilla in medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat until smooth. Spread glaze on rolls. Serve warm or at room temperature. (I even ate some of mine stale and they were still delicious!)

Soul Sister's Annual Ornament Exchange!

We all got together once again for our annual Soul Sister's Ornament Exchange!  The rules are simple, you must sip drinks, eat good food, laugh, pose for pictures, and exchange handmade ornaments that cost you $10 or less to make.

Here are the winners this year:

I made this felt Christmas Tree.  I layered the sections together and used embroidery thread to outline it in chunky stitches.  I hot glued the same shapes onto the back to hide the back of the stitches and sandwiched the twig for the bottom and the hanging string at the top.  I stitched a tiny star charm to the top and sprinkled the whole thing with some super fine clear glitter.

The Treat Girl knitted these teeny tiny mittens!  They are like 2 inches tall!  She used this pattern.

Marzipan went old school with traditional cinnamon ornaments she baked in the oven using this recipe.   The aroma is heavenly!

 Marjorie was inspired by some plastic sheeting she was given by her brother.  This plastic and felt hand stitched holly was so cute!

Finally, Megan started out attempting to make a salt shaker snow globe ornament like this one but the ridged glass wasn't clear enough, so she compromised by coming up with a Salt Shaker Snowman!  We all said it reminded us of Mr Salt from Blues Clues!

Merry Christmas from the Soul Sisters!  Here is to a 2015 full of crafting and laughing!

Selfie  S.S. style!

Coconut Oil Lip Balm

Our birthday crafty activity this year was making homemade Coconut Oil Lip Balm!  Here we go...

 

DIY Coconut Oil Lip Balm
Adapted from Intructables.com

Supplies:

• containers for lip balm - we bought cheap lip balm at the Dollar Tree and emptied and cleaned them for refilling.
• glass measuring cup
• small grater
• yellow beeswax
• coconut oil
• vitamin E oil
• measuring spoons
• pan for water bath for melting
• glass ramekin

Recipe:

• 2 parts coconut oil
• 1 part beeswax
• a few drops of vitamin E

Directions:

Grate the beeswax then measure and add wax, coconut oil, and vitamin E to a glass ramekin.

Set the ramekin into a shallow pan of boiling water and stir to melt.

Once melted, pour into your container and let set up  (speed the setting up by placing into the fridge).

Soul Sisters' Birthday Party

The Soul Sisters gathered for all the spring birthdays last week and, as usual, it was chock full of hoots and giggles, good food, amazing gifts, and a fun craft.

We met for lunch at Marzipan's house (her new blog is eat. live. think) and dined on Greek salads topped with grilled chicken and tender homemade flat bread in her beautiful garden. 

She served us delicate raspberry pavlova on antique china plates for dessert:

The girls went all out for this year as we were gifted homemade limoncello with tiny crystal glasses (found at Goodwill!), leather luggage tags, a big tray of homemade chicken enchiladas, and a hand sewn yoga mat strap. 

After lunch, we worked on a craft that I will share on Friday - Coconut Oil Lip Balm!

Sweater MIttens and a Yummy Piece of Cake

 (Maripan, Treat Girl, & Joy)

The Soul Sisters were back in action for another crafty afternoon of mitten making...Sweater Mittens, that is.

We all arrived at Marzipan's house with bags of old sweaters, fleece in a rainbow of colors, and old wool suits.  We printed out the pattern from a tutorial on Make and Do Girl Blog and started to cut...

 (Joy and Treat Girl)

Pretty soon we had a pile of tops and bottoms and insides and outsides ready to assemble.

 Cake break... (recipe on Marzipan's blog)

Here is a complete pair of mitten liners...

 (Joy)

Getting a little silly as we sampled some Kombucha while wearing pot holder sized mittens...

Check out the cute little SCOBY babies used to make the tea...

(baby SCOBY)

So, we cut the sweaters, sipped the tea, sewed the mittens, ate the cake, and laughed and talked and screamed in between.  Another great afternoon with girlfriends...

Custom Tea Towels!

 

The Soul Sisters got together for another crafty day earlier this month and learned how to make customized tea towels following Joy's instruction.

We chose a design and printed it onto the shiny side of our freezer paper that we had cut a bit smaller than a sheet of paper.  We then taped the printer paper to freezer paper. and fed it through the printer.
(If you are using letters or words - you will need to "mirror" or reverse the image or it will print backwards).

We tried it two different ways - dry and a bit damp.  The lines were more crisp and the image was darker when we very lightly sprayed the towel with water so that is was barely damp, but it worked both ways.

We then placed the printed side down onto our surface (IKEA towels) and rubbed with the back of a spoon, like this:

We had gotten control of ourselves by the time I filmed this - the first try there was lots of screaming and hooting...

We let it sit for 24 hours before washing it and after 2 weeks of washes the image is still intact!

Annual Soul Sister's Ornament Exchange!

It was another fun night of good food, laughter, waitress name guessing, and ornament exchanging again this year!  I'm not sure if anyone else in the place had as much fun as we did, but we had enough fun for everyone.

Marzipan went first and gave a sweet, beaded curly wire Christmas Tree that stores flat in the box then springs into action when you pull on the ribbon to hang it on the tree.

See it sparkle by the light of the tree?

Treat Girl went next and gave this sweet little Claus couple she made in her ceramics class that we teased her about endlessly!

Look at the shy expression on Mrs. Clause and the eyes are amazingly full of life!

Joy was inspired by the magazine article she is holding up that used cut branches to make a huge art installation:

She gathered each tiny twig and cut it and glued it into a star-shaped cookie cutter. She covered the cutter with this sweet candy cane striped ribbon and some tiny jingle bells!

Megan went after her and gave us these amazing balls filled with feathers from her backyard guinea hens!

The feathers are naturally beautiful and glow in the lights of the tree.  Check out the perfect polka dots made by nature!

I went last and gave my Melted Snowman ornament I taught you how to make last week:

 

Some kids' clay and a few more supplies helped these snowmen come together quickly.

Have a great Christmas Eve Eve!

Cute Emergency Kit

I've been struggling with what to give for Soul Sister birthdays in the past few months and finally found this idea I liked on Pinteres.  After a little tweeking, I came up with the perfect little

  Girlfriend Emergency Kit!

Supplies:

Cloth cocktail napkins (I found some at Target)

10 Snack sized zip top baggies

Scissors

Scotch tape

Sewing machine

Ribbon

Begin by layering the baggies as shown.  These will become little pouches you can fill with goodies!  Alternate a baggie with the top facing in opposite directions then tape in place.

 

Sew straight down the middle of the napkin and baggies using a zig zag stitch:

See?  Remove the tape, and now you're all attached and ready for the ribbon closures:

Using a coordinating ribbon, cut 4 strips, each about 6 inches long, and zig zag stitch into place on the edges of the napkin.

Fill all your pouches with goodies...

The pouch ties up into this cute little clutch that you can stow in your car, purse, overnight bag...

Here is Marzipan with her new Emergency Kit:

Here is what I chose for my Girlfriend Kits:

Shout wipes
Emery boards
Paper clips
Tums
Advil
Razor cutter
Tissues
Breath mints
Safety pins
Gum
Sewing kit
Super glue
Rubber bands
Bobby pins
Hair bands
Tampons
Cough drops
Tiny zip ties
Quarters
Tooth picks
Matches (strike match on emery board)

Think about how you could customize this.  Using a full sized napkin and quart or gallon sized baggies, the sky is the limit!

Here are some more ideas:

Off to College Kit: Gas card, money, quarters for laundry, Bandaids, pen, little calculator...

Bride Kit: pain reliever, corsage pins, safety pins, clear nail polish, hem tape, dental floss, mints, sewing kit, tiny scissors, hair pins, eye drops, tweezers, straws, snack bar

First Aid Kit: Bandaids, ace bandage, alcohol wipes, pain reliever, ointment, tweezers, gauze pads, cloth tape, latex gloves

Roadside Kit: Glow sticks, leather gloves, Swiss Army Knife, box cutter, duct tape, rain poncho, batteries, flashlight, snacks, pencil, paper, rope, garbage bags