Bite of the Week - Backtrack Newsy Hat

 This week has been crazy. I've been wanting to do some craft fairs so I did a bunch of research to find them in my area. We only moved here last year and it didn't seem like there were any but then again I don't have the connections I did in Idaho. Anyway, I found some and then it was figuring out silly Colorado sales tax stuff (this state is confusing...until you figure it out and then it's not so bad) 

So I have found a few and i'm heading to the Department of Revenue today to get all the licensing I need. It's scary but exciting. I'll keep you guys posted on all the cute stuff I make for my table.

I've also spent some time getting to know the two free picture editing softwares I recently downloaded (Picasa and GIMP2). I'm proud to say that (with the help of my logo making friend) I now can add my logo to my photos...SUCCESS (yay...i feel pretty awesome)

So for this "Bite of the Week" I thought i'd share the Backtrack Newsy Hat. It's reversible (although I forgot to get a pic of the reverse side) and pretty quick to work up. My daughters look adorable in it and they were sad to see it go (it was purchased by a customer). It would be really cute with a bow or flower added.

Pattern by Busy Mom Designs

 

It's been added to my website  if anyone is interested in ordering one. 

Have a splendid day!!!!!

Shark Bait - Cake Release Tip

I love to bake cakes and it's even more fun to decorate them. I don't do it very often because...well let's face it...my behind would be MUCH bigger if I baked and decorated as often as i'd like.

So when someone asks me to help them make a cake (or just make a cake myself) for a special event I love to take that opportunity. A young lady I go to church with is having a graduation party and wanted a big fondant covered cake for it. So i'll be doing a few Shark Baits on tips and tricks for making your own beautiful tiered fondant covered homemade cake yourself.

First is finding a cake recipe that produces a nice moist tasty cake. Here are links to the two cake recipes I used for her cake that I really love.

Yellow Cake - I used almond extract with this one for the graduation cake
Red Velvet Cake - Her school color is blue so we used blue food coloring (the Wilton gel) instead of red

Whenever I bake a cake I smear the pan with butter (or shortening) and then lightly flour it. And then I pray that it doesn't stick somewhere on the bottom. Even with great coating of the shortening and sufficient flour, I would sometimes have a small piece stick on the bottom and end up with a chunk missing from my cake.

So after a little searching and thinking I came up with an awesome trick that I can't believe I didn't think of before.

Take the pan you're going to be using and some parchment paper. Trace the bottom of your pan on the parchment and cut it out.

 You'll still want to coat your pan with shortening and dust it with flour so the sides don't stick. Once you've done that just lay the piece of parchment paper in the bottom of your pan.

When it's done baking let it cool for a few minutes in the pan, use a knife to carefully loosen the sides if you need to and flip that bad boy out onto a cooling rack. The bottom comes of perfect every time. No more worrying about chunks going missing.

Now go bake a cake and have fun. Come back and check this next week for more tips on cake decorating.

Craft Attack - Dress Altering

I've been looking over the things I like to do outside of crochet and a wonderful opportunity fell in my lap.

Dress Alterations

Prom was coming up and there were a few girls I go to church with that wanted to make their dresses more modest.  Modesty is a very important value to me and I was more than willing to share my skills (and work on improving them).
This dress was spaghetti strap before we added the sleeves. After searching the internet for ideas I took a stab at it. Sadly, with all of these dresses I didn't take pics as I went (this was just before I decided to do fun tutorials on my blog). If you have more specific questions about how I did certain things feel free to post here and ask or shoot me an email.

Not too shabby I think. What I did was cut a strip of fabric about 1 inch wider than the sleeve size she wanted. This piece was also longer than what it would take to come up an over her shoulder.

 I then hemmed the edges and did a basting stitch on one one of the strip of fabric.  We gathered it slightly and pinned it to the dress to see exactly where to place it so it would give the coverage and look she wanted. This dress has a secondary piece in the from so I was able to use the sewing machine to sew it down but you could also sew it down by hand just catching the lining fabric (so the stitches don't show through the front).

She tried the dress back on and I pinned it down in the back (you could also baste and gather it slightly if that's the look you want).

The next part was a little trickier. I had to cut the spaghetti strap in order to hand sew the back of the strap down flat. Then i sewed the spaghetti strap back down inside the sleeve. This is important because the spaghetti strap gives more support to keep the dress up than the added sleeve.

I know it would have been even better if I had taken pics as I went but i'm new to blogging and it totally escaped my mind to do that.

 This is her lovely sister and I also altered her dress but not the same. The dress was too big for her and hung too low (it's sleeveless under the cute jacket she has on). I took in the top seam of the sleeve (at her shoulder) by 2 inches and then did a similar thing down each side.

The only thing with the side is to do it at an angle. Hips are wider than shoulders usually so if you take it in by 2 inches at the top (under the arm) then it should be taken in by less at the hips. I usually pin both ends and then follow an imaginary angle to meet the two.
 





This is beautiful Belle. A young lady I go to church with was Belle in her school's performance of Beauty and the Beast. The dress was sleeveless so we took some sheer fabric that matched the yellow of her dress and created sleeves.

Instead of hemming the sides of the sleeves like in the first red dress above, I created a tube with the fabric so the raw edges are underneath the sleeve (i didn't even sew the tube closed). I held it together and did a basting stitch to gather the ends then I hand sewed the sleeves to the dress.

I hope you are inspired by this post to go and try something you've never done before (sewing or not). And if you happen upon a dress that isn't quite right be inspired to change it to fit your liking.

Have a fabulously inspired day!

Shark Bait - Baked Tortilla Chips

For this week's Shark Bait, I thought i'd expand on the one from last week. 
As you saw, making baked tortilla bowls is really pretty easy. You can take that basic concept and use it to make baked tortilla chips.  Flour or corn tortillas work (i really like whole wheat flour tortilla chips) and it only takes a few minutes.

So here we go....

Preheat your oven to 400.

Gather supplies:
tortillas (corn or flour)
oil (i prefer coconut oil)
salt
basting brush
cutting board 
cookie sheets

Next, lay your whole tortilla on a cutting board. You can do a small stack of them but no more than 5 though because they get hard to cut with too many stacked.

Brush each one with oil (coconut oil is my preference but you can use any you like). Make sure to brush both sides of the tortilla.

  

Now you need to cut the tortillas into triangles. I like to use my pizza cutter (not just for pizza anymore) and usually shoot for 6 triangles on the corn and 8 on the flour...this seems to make a good size chip. 

Corn tortillas

Whole Wheat tortillas

Arrange them on a cookie sheet. They can touch but don't let them overlap or they won't get as crispy there. I usually do 2 pans at a time so I can make a lot.  Oh, and sprinkle with salt (so much yummier with salt)


Put them in the oven and set the timer for 8 min if you're doing corn and 10 min if you're doing flour. Once the timer goes off, check them for desired crispiness. I usually end up cooking them for another minute or two but don't leave your oven or you'll end up burning them and that's never any fun.

Pull them out of the oven and carefully slide them into a bowl. You can eat them while they are still warm (not blasing hot) or wait for them to cool and crisp up a tiny bit more. 



Get out your favorite salsa or guacamole and enjoy!
See...I told you it was pretty easy.
Now go make yourself some tasty baked tortilla chips and have a little snack.

Craft Attack - Skirt or Dress Extender

I had a young lady that I attend church with (i'm a mormon...in case you were wondering) with a dress she loved but was too short for her. 

She needed a good 6 inches to get to a more modest comfortable length (she had a cute jacket to cover her shoulders with). So I took the challenge and did a little research. The following tutorial is what I came up with.

You will need:

The slip she bought had a slit in the side so the first thing I had to do was to sew it down further. Simple enough.

I turned the slip inside out...found the spot where the slit started and sewed down until just above the curve of the slip.

To the ironing board I went. I found it easiest to pin the lace on after slipping the slip onto the end of my ironing board. It was easier to pull the slip up slightly to avoid catching the ironing board that having the slip on the table with the back side of the slip underneath. (oh, and make sure you've turned your slip right side out at this point...you want that lace on the outside of the slip)

Now I took the pinned slip back to my sewing machine and followed the existing stitch line from the top of the lace.

When I got to the end I just let the lace overlap about 1/4 inch. (we'll sew that down later)



 




I then went back to the ironing board to pin on the second layer of lace. 

Once I had the two layers of lace sewn, I needed to close the gap where the ends of the lace met. All I did was sew a straight line down the overlap. If you have ends that don't match up well and your worried about it you can just trim the lace a little.

 And TADA.....

Here are a few pics of her wearing it. She forgot her jacket so they are just of the dress.

What I love is that the possiblilities are endless with the skirt/dress extender. You could do black or white....or a black slip with white lace or vice versa. Or you could get crazy and find some pink or orange lace. Depending on the skirt or dress you need extended you could have a lot of fun with it and use it for several outfits.

Hope you enjoyed!

Bite of the Week - Slouchy Cupcake

Ready for a new Bite of the Week....of course you are. 
I recently made several cupcake hats for a local cupcake and sweets shop here in Pueblo, Sugar Shack. While I was making them I wondered...what if I made it more grown up and did a slouchy version. And so I did and this is what I came up with.

Pattern inspired by Baca Creations slouchy hat

I just love putting my own spin on things. And I love this cupcake slouchy hat!

New Addition!!!!!

So I told you guys the other day that I was looking at adding something new to the blog. Right now my blog plan was to introduce a new crocheted item weekly ....the "Bite of the Week" and to have tutorials on other crafts ...the "Craft Attacks".

  

Do you notice a theme in the titles....yes yes I know....i'm a dork...but you know you love it. 

I had originally planned to include some recipes in the "Crafts Attacks" but it just didn't seem to fit. So with the help of an awesome friend of mine (owner of a cute bow shop "Bunnie Bows") I came up with one more fun thing to blog about.

I'll be sharing different recipes I try and come up with and calling it...

Shark Bait 

It makes me think of Finding Nemo (see the video if you don't remember that part) but I it fits nicely with my theme and the content.

 

So for my first "Shark Bait" i'll be sharing Baked Taco Bowls!

Let me just tell you that I love taco salad...I like the flavors of the meat and cheese with all the lettuce combined with the crunch of the taco bowl. However, they are usually fried in bad for you oil and loaded with calories and I always feel so heavy after I eat one at a restaurant...which really isn't that often cause i'm cheap :)

After searching through numerous recipes and blogs, I found a method that I love for baking them. You get the same crunch without tons of oil.

So here we go....

 Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

 

 Find some mason jars (or any glass or oven safe jar of similar shape and size) and a cookie sheet. Turn those bad boys upside down.

 

 Brush some oil onto the sides and top of the jar (this will keep the tortilla from sticking to it). I use coconut oil but any oil you like will do.

 Now lightly brush some oil onto your tortilla (these are whole wheat).

  
Drape your tortilla oiled side UP on top of your lightly oiled mason jar. It won't look perfect but the point is for it to be bowl like....not a perfect shape.

   

Here are my 3 headed into the oven. You'll want to move the rack of your oven down to make room for the height of the mason jars.

Bake them for about 10 minutes then pull them out and carefully take them off the mason jars (they will be hot so be very careful)

They made need a little more crisping up so you can put them back in the oven like this for another minute or two but watch them carefully.

 Now fill those beautiful taco bowls with whatever you find delicious in a taco salad!

 

I hope you enjoyed this first ever "Shark Bait" and if you try it out let me know how it goes.

Bite of the Week - Ruffle Sun Hat

I'm so EXCITED. My facebook page has over 100 likes now! Woot Woot!!! Hopefully, you are all enjoying what i've been posting. I'ts been fun so far but stressful too. I feel like I have so many ideas and things I want to do and blog about but only a fraction of the time. My blog in my head is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. Now to find the time to translate that into the real world.

I guess that is one of the challenges in life....finding balance (maybe I should blog about that sometime...hahaha). Just know that i'm so glad that somebody reads my blogs and is following my antics on facebook. I love the "likes" and really like the comments. I have several tutorials i'm drafting that should be fun for those that want to try a little something new. 

 I also have another little addition to the blog in the works...be watching so you can join the fun.

On to the Bite of the Week. With summer and warm weather practically here I have turned my focus to hats appropriate for the season. I like to use cotton or a cotton blend yarn for these so you don't get hot (cotton breathes better) and making hats with a brim is a great idea because it helps keep the sun out of your face. 

The first of these wonderful summer hats is the Ruffle Sun Hat.

Pattern by Holland Designs

 This is such a fun hat. It's light and the multiple brim ruffles make it so darn adorable. 

It's available in my shop now so pop on over if you'd like to order one for you or your little one (or somebody else's little one for that matter).