Saturday, August 26, 2017

Strawberry Muffins

Hello everyone,
I am back again with, guess what, a recipe! Today I made Strawberry Muffins, they are quick and rather easy to make. You only need forty-five minutes and some basic ingredients.


What you will need:

Dry Ingredients:

  • One cup of all-purpose flour.
  • One cup of oats.
  • Two teaspoons of baking powder.
  • Half a teaspoon of baking soda.
  • Half a teaspoon of cinnamon {ground}.
  • Half a teaspoon of salt.

Wet Ingredients:
  • One egg {beaten}.
  • Half a cup of milk.
  • A quarter cup of olive oil.
  • Half a cup of sugar.
  • Three tablespoons of strawberry yogurt.
  • One cup of chopped strawberries.
Preheat oven to 425℉.
Whisk together the dry ingredients in a medium bowl and set aside.
Whisk egg, sugar, oil, and milk together in a large bowl. Combine thoroughly and add strawberries.
Sift dry ingredients half at a time into the wet ingredients, and combine thoroughly. Add yogurt to mixture. Line a muffin tin with liners and fill evenly. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a knife inserted into one of the muffins comes out clean. Enjoy!



Friday, August 4, 2017

State Fair

This summer I entered things in our state fair. Entering and being a part of it was very fun, and getting to see all the things other people had made was fabulous! I am very glad that I decided to enter, and I won second place in both of my categories.  Fairs have been held in our part of the world for centuries, initially they were only for livestock and handwork, but other attractions soon came along. The Ferris Wheel and the Carousel were some of the first, but now there are many that I do not even know the names of. Anyway, I just wanted to show my entries to everyone, so here they are:




Lemon and Strawberry Cupcakes




Christmas Potholders and second place ribbon.
&
                  Second place ribbon for cupcakes.


I entered two categories: baking: cupcakes, and textiles: hand sewing: embroidery. I really enjoyed seeing all the wonderful talent and ingenuity of the other participants, and they have inspired me to persevere and continue crafting.
   I hope that you will continue to craft and enjoy it, and I hope that I am helping others to continue crafting.
  In my next post I hope to continue with the sachet series.


Thank you for reading and being patient with my tedious self,  I appreciate having such a wonderful audience.

Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Sachets: Teabag style

In December I took a poll from my readers to see what they wanted to read about next on my blog, the result was that Sachets were chosen as my next craft. Life has been getting in the way of crafting and blogging for a while, I am very sorry this has taken so long.

I am going to make three different kinds of Sachets in three posts.
These are the easiest to make on the "spur of the moment" and if you are not a knitter or a sewer these are the kind for you.




       You will need:
  • A rectangular piece of paper. Newspaper, a copied page from the dictionary, or lined notebook paper.
  • Secure tape. {double sided works well.}
  • Staples.
  • Potpourri. {we will make some, but you will need the things you want to scent it with.}
  • Used tea bags. {dried}
  • Ribbons and other decorations.


Take your piece of paper and fold in thirds, this is how wide your sachet will be. If you want it to be thinner leave the excess paper on the outside so that you can cut it off.  

                                              Cut off any excess paper, crease folds, and unfold.



             Fold in half perpendicular to your other folds, and crease. Unfold and fold into thirds again.

 This time tape the inside edges, {the white strip, and the thin column of text on the right.} to the other side by folding it over the double-sided tape. If you do not have double-sided tape take a piece of packing tape as long as the sachet and roll it , lengthwise, into a thin tube and use the same way.


Now, if you squeeze at the folds, you should be able to look through it like a spy glass without it coming apart at the lines of tape.                                                                                                    


Potpourri❦
  • Gather your ingredients, including the teabags, and a spoon and bowl for mixing with.
  •   Empty some of the teabags into the bowl: we will use the tea bags as a base because it absorbs the other scents.
  • Add  your other ingredients and mix.





Fold your sachet so that it looks like an M, with the v in the middle about an inch on each side.



Unfold M and fold in half, then fold on one of the M creases, but to the side {picture}.

Refold into M and pinch so that v is not filled with potpourri. Scoop potpourri into hollow sides.
Fill until potpourri is an inch and a half from the top.

Fold the top of each side into a triangle by folding down the top corners to meet in the middle. Then fold the tip of your triangle down so that it tapers to a flat top. {picture: fold down where my finger is.}
Staple both sides together and shake so that lumps of potpourri settle. Attach a string and tag to make it look like a teabag, or decorate however you like. Thank you for reading!