Padding, Pillows, and Plenty of Pudding

Before our current cold snap, I was able to get out in the yard and get some much-needed work done...under careful supervision, of course.

My sister brought over a big load of rich, healthy compost, which I'll till into our poor soil soon to add some much-needed nutrients.

Everything seemed to come to life at once. My autumn sedums look like miniature lettuce heads. They'll make a beautiful display in September.

I found another nice natural groundcover. This is persian speedwell...tiny blue flowers that spread in bright patches in our yard.

Blue is such a lovely color in the garden!

The columbines are making great headway. I expect to see stalks within two weeks.

Not to be outdone, the lilacs are showing bright green leaves all over. I simply can't wait until they bloom! I have the most beautiful bouquets in nearly every room in the house.

I found evidence of past life...some insect spent some time here in the fall!

Best of all, though, I found evidence of future life: the ground under our big pine tree is littered with tiny bits of fuzz, which the birds nesting above have dropped from their nests.

Lots of activity inside, too. Single flowers make beautiful displays in egg cups, assisted by a few pebbles within to help the stems stay upright.

Besides flowers, I've been thinking of more ways to bring some bright color into the house. I recently bought this pillow at IKEA for, I believe, around $10. I wanted to buy more, especially the blue plaid counterpart, but that could get expensive pretty quickly. How hard could it be to make my own? As it turns out, making a pillow is incredibly easy.

I found a man's button-up shirt at a thrift store that I thought would work nicely. Cost: .75.

I found an ugly old pillow that the cats had been kicking around on the front porch. Origin: unknown. Cost: free.

I placed the pillow on top of the spread-out shirt...

...and cut out around the pillow, making sure to leave a wide margin on all sides. I should've left a wider margin, but that was easily solved by removing the cover from the brown pillow to make it a better fit.

Then, I turned the shirt inside-out and simply stitched around the edges, making a nice, even square. I did this by hand, which took less than an hour. If you use a sewing machine, this would take mere minutes.

After your pillowcase is sewn, unbutton the shirt and turn it right side-out. Slip in the stuffing (or the pillow you're covering) and button the shirt up again.

Ladies and gentlemen, that's a pillowcase!

Or, if you prefer the flip side:

I'm really pleased with this less-than-$1 DIY project. The two pillows are complementary, I think, and make a good pair. I'm envisioning a whole stack of beautiful plaid pillows. All I need is a thrift store shirt!

I can't wait to go back!

My knitting needles have been clacking along, albeit slowly. I haven't had too much time to work on my cardigan, and certainly a sock yarn-weight cardigan takes much longer to knit than one knit with the typical DK- or worsted-weight yarn. I'm pleased with the way it's turning out, although I'm still a bit nervous about the modifications I'm making: lengthening the body, raising the neckline, and lengthening the sleeves, not to mention the size and gauge guesses. I will make it work somehow! I think it will be a perfect cool-weather cardigan.

Of course, I've been very busy in the kitchen as well. We just finished off the last of the coconut cream cupcakes, and my homemade butterscotch pudding with carmelized bananas and homemade whipped cream only lasted 2 days. But I did have time for another sweetie...any excuse to use my new tart pans!

From-Scratch Chocolate Pudding Tarts
Adapted from food.com
Serves 4

Pudding
1/4 cup cocoa
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Crust
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
4 - 6 tablespoons butter, melted

To make the crust, preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Mix all ingredients together and then carefully press into your pie or tart pan. Bake for 5 - 7 minutes.

For the pudding, mix all ingredients but the milk and vanilla together, and then add milk. Whisk until fully combined, and then microwave uncovered for 3 minutes.

Stir.

Then you'll continue to microwave in one minute increments, stirring after each minute. You'll notice after 4 or 5 rounds that a thick brown "skin" covers more and more of the pudding's surface each time. I usually stop once there's just a small bit of light brown remaining in the center.

Mix in the vanilla, and you're done! Note: if you like a sweeter pudding, add 1/3 cup sugar instead of 1/4 cup sugar. I just prefer the "darker" taste of a less-sweet pudding.

Spoon the thickened pudding onto the graham cracker crust and refrigerate.

YUM! These cool in a few hours and are ready to eat. They're absolutely delicious. I've been making the homemade pudding for years - I'll never go back to the powdered stuff! - but this is the first time I thought to pair it with a graham cracker crust.

It's a good match.

You'll notice that I don't have a photo of the tart out of the pan and ready to eat...a certain someone likes these a little too much, I think! They didn't last long enough to photograph. That's all right...it's quick and easy to make more!

I hope you'll give them a try. Have a great week!

St. Patrick's Day Takes the Cake (Pop)!

Exciting things are happening.

The first flowers, and the first bees (!!), have made an appearance. I have a lovely spread of crocuses in the yard, ranging in color from deep purple to a lighter, bluish shade.

The shy face of this daffodil will be gloriously displayed within a few days.

My hydrangeas and lilacs are budding furiously. The columbines are unfurling all over the yard. I must have nearly 50 plants now, all from 6 little seedlings I coaxed back into living several years ago. Other nice things are happening, but one of my favorites is happening inside.

I had a great idea this morning.


I bought this metal spice rack at IKEA for $1.99 recently. I didn't intend to use it as a spice rack, but knew it would be good for something. Today I finally took off the packaging...

...and placed a plastic bag in the bottom.

I shored up the sides with moss (one medium size bag = $2) and filled the container with violas.

I love it! I have a beautiful, simple planter - container, moss, and flowers - for only $4. It makes a lovely centerpiece.


Nothing beats a cheerful table!

Maybe you noticed that St. Patrick's Day was last week. I'm Irish...I think.

Just in case, I decided to celebrate it properly, and made St. Patrick's Day-themed cake pops. They're so fun and tasty, you've got to make them! All you need is a cake, some icing, candy melts, and lollipop sticks, all easily purchased at your local grocery store.

To make it easier on myself, I bought a white cake mix and a can of vanilla frosting and tinted both green with food coloring.

I used my KitchenAid to reduce the cake to crumbs. I suppose a purist would've cut off the brown parts of the cake for an even green, but the brown and green mix made me think of mint chocolate chip ice cream, which is certainly a positive association.

Next, I mixed in half of my can of frosting and stirred until the crumbs resembled cookie batter.

Then, I rolled the batter into one inch balls and placed them carefully on wax paper.

I bought some Wilton candy melts in milk chocolate and vanilla flavors, which melt easily in the microwave. Most recipes say to mix shortening into the melted candy to make it more fluid, but I didn't have any. Canola oil is a fine substitution! Once I obtained the desired consistency, I dipped in a lollipop stick and inserted the candy-covered end into my cake balls. Easy!

I put them in the freezer for about 45 minutes. This serves two purposes: to harden the ball so that it stays on the stick, and also the cold, hard ball causes the melted candy to harden quickly, which is definitely a benefit.

When they were nice and cold, I just swirled each ball around in the melted candy until completely coated, tapped the stick to make sure the excess chocolate dripped off, and gave them a good sprinkling of green sugar.

I used a drying rack and the bottom side of a styrofoam egg carton to support the pops until they dried.
They dried within a few minutes and stored easily until the big day.

To use up the leftover icing, I made simple chocolate sandwich cookies and piped the tinted icing into the centers. YUM!

One recipe makes over 40 pops, depending on how much batter you eat beforehand! :) Cake pops are easy to make but a bit time-consuming.

It was worth it, though. DELICIOUS. Cake, icing, and a thin layer of candy? Yes, please!

These can be tailored to any holiday, of course. The possibilities are endless. I hope you give them a try!

Have a great week!

Flower (and Flour!) Power

It feels like spring around here...in the house, anyway. As far as I'm concerned, spring begins on March 1st, and I'm making the appropriate preparations. I've bought some new white enamel vases at IKEA that are perfect for spring tulips.

Other vases have been pressed into service. I read somewhere that you can take a small bouquet and split it into several different vases, making it appear that you have many more flowers than you actually have. This is just one small bouquet from the grocery store. I think I'm in love!

I spent a long time inside my local Jo Ann's last week, carefully choosing fabric that will help me change the seasons inside, too.

I chose this natural linen-like fabric, and a pretty pale blue striped one, for the living room couches. I'll cut and sew covers for the seat cushions, replacing the dark red plaids that I'm currently using. I've got enough fabric for some throw pillows, too!

I bought these cheerful colors for various bookshelves. I'll create a small fabric runner for them, lightening up all the dark wood and bringing a bit of spring cheer!

I love blue and red ticking. I splurged and bought two Martha Stewart ticking bags several years ago and I never get tired of looking at them! I bought this red ticking fabric to make fabric ties and pillows, and I think it contrasts nicely with the tan linen.

This happy fabric was only .50 at Goodwill! I'll use it as accent fabric and for other small projects.

I'm starting to pull out my spring dishes...a pale green set from IKEA, and some of my spring-themed Emma Bridgewater dishes, like these robin cereal bowls that Todd bought for my Valentine's Day.

I love that detail!

I treated myself to some new rubber stamps that make me think of the coming season - mason jar stamps, which remind me of the mason jar bouquets I have all summer long...

...and mums, which are technically a fall flower, but can be brought into spring with light colors. I love this design and am planning on stamping some wrapping paper next week!

All of this planning and organizing, plus my regular work, has left me a bit too busy for knitting lately. Valentine's Day planning kept me from it the first two weeks of February, and I'm confronted with knowledge that for the first time in two years, I don't really have anything "on the needles." I've finally selected a next project, but with garden planning scheduled for later this week, I'm not sure when I'll get to it!

One place that's received plenty of attention in the midst of my hustle and bustle is the kitchen. It seems like I've been cooking and baking daily! This week I've made miniature apple pies, jam stacks, homemade baguettes, and Martha Stewart's Christmas crinkle cookies...and that's just the baking! It seems like more and more, I walk down the grocery store aisles thinking, "No, I could make that. I could make that." It feels really good.

I had another kitchen victory recently when I discovered that I could make bagels at home that tasted just as good as those at the local coffee shop. I met some girlfriends at a bakery and had my heart set on a big, crunchy bagel. I was really disappointed to learn that this particular location didn't sell bagels...but I couldn't get them out of my mind. I looked up a recipe and went to work!

Whole Wheat Bagels
Adapted from This Chick Cooks

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cup white flour
2 1/4 teaspoon yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water
3 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon salt

Mix water, yeast, and honey together, and then add remaining ingredients. Mix for about 5 - 7 minutes. Cover, and let dough rise in a warm place for about an hour. Your dough should double in size.

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees, and let a large pot of water come to a boil. Separate your dough into balls and poke a hole in the center with your finger, twirling it around until the bagel shape naturally forms.

Now, in order for your bagel to have that nice, chewy exterior, it needs to be boiled. I boiled mine for 2 minutes per side, flipping carefully with tongs halfway through.

Then, I baked them for about 15 minutes, until a nice golden brown.

They were delicious! And so easy! Toasted, with a bit of cream cheese...yum.

Of course, these are incredibly versatile...the sky's the limit when it comes to flavor combinations. I can't wait to make another batch...after I take this latest batch of rising dough and make more jam stacks, that is! :)

Enjoy!