Allison: Second Annual Girls' Weekend

Hello again!  Sara's recent post motivated me to finally post again.  I know how busy Sara is with prepping for a big move, so if she can find time, so can I.  This post will be dedicated to the "Sisters" part of "Five Crafty Sisters".  I promise to address the "Crafty" part next time.  :)

We, the Platt sisters, just had our 2nd annual Girls' Weekend, this last month.  Most of us (all the contributors of this blog) met in Utah and spent 3 days and 2 nights chatting, eating and spending time together.  It was so much fun, and made me even more homesick for family.

This year, our mother was able to join us, and brought our father as a travel buddy.  Our first night all together, we had a family barbecue and enjoyed time visiting with lots of nieces, nephews, in-laws and siblings.

The Girls

Mama Platt, Micky (SIL), Allison, Shauna (& baby), Lisa, Sara

Who's that girl ruining all the photos?!  :)

Sorry, Shaun... I love this picture!  

"Salt and Pepper"

The Boys

Briant (brother), Papa Platt, Dave (BIL), Rich (BIL)

It was fun to see everyone and to be reminded of what an amazingly fun family I have.  It also made me even more excited for our family reunion this Summer!

The rest of the weekend was spent talking some more, eating and eating and eating.  We even got to throw an almost surprise baby shower for Shauna.  She finally figured out something was happening as we tried to shop for baby clothes while she was with us.  We weren't very subtle.  :)

Quality cell phone picture.  Probably should have had her sit
on the opposite side of the table.  Oops!

As we ate some delicious breakfast food, we talked about the future of this blog, and how much we've enjoyed contributing.  As life gets busy, babies are born and technology doesn't always cooperate, we might not be as consistent as we once were, but we're trying.  :)

I LOVED spending time with my sisters and appreciate our individual personalities and points of view. I'm committing now to post more regularly.  We'll see if it happens.  Have a great week!


Allison

End of the Year Teacher Gift

Hello blogging world!  Oh, how I've missed you!  

This past week, my little girl graduated from Pre-K (AND had her cast taken off, AND had her first loose tooth...big week for us!). 

I have to admit, tears were shed.  I wasn't quite prepared to experience the flood of emotions that I did as I watched Penelope give her sweet teacher, Ms. Amanda, a hug for the last time and then to see the tears in Ms. Amanda's eyes....very touching!  Penelope had the most amazing teacher and I was so thankful that she was Penelope's first school experience.  

Both Penelope and I have been thinking for along time about what we should do as a thank you for all the hard work Ms. Amanda put in this past year.  We finally came to the following project.  I am all about a heart-felt, homemade project to show someone how much you appreciate them.  We actually went out and bought her a really cute coffee mug (she's an avid tea drinker) but I really felt that there was no heart in it so it is still sitting on my piano instead.

All of the materials needed for this project were in my craft supplies.  For Christmas, I made my hubby a magnetic Scrabble game so everything was left over from that project.  If you don't have these items just laying around, check your local Goodwill of DI game section to see if they have any Scrabble games.  I know you can also buy some letter tiles at craft stores - I just like the real Scrabble tiles.  The rolled magnet strip was purchased at Joann's.  My kids love to make magnets so we ALWAYS have this at my house.

To assemble the magnetic letter tiles, simply cut a piece of magnet to fit the back of the letter tile and glue it on with the hot glue gun.  The magnetic strip will have some adhesive on it but I have learned from previous experience that it needs a little extra glue to stay long term.  

For my "cookie jar", I found a cool old jar in my collection and then found a metal lid that fit the top.  Penelope painted the lid Ms. Amanda's favorite color.  Then we stuck the letters to the lid, filled the jar with cookies and this is what you end up with...

Here is a picture without the magnets on top.

We paired this gift with a homemade card from Penelope to Ms. Amanda.

As for the cookies, this is my new favorite cookie recipe - peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies.  I have NEVER liked peanut butter cookies until I found this recipe from my favorite cookbook, The Grand Central Baking Book.  Now, MY peanut butter cookies are my favorite cookies.  I altered this recipe and added milk chocolate chips and it is even better!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

* 3 cups all-purpose flour

* 2 teaspoons baking soda

* 1 teaspoon salt

* 1 cup butter, at room temperature

* 1 cup granulated sugar, plus extra for rolling the cookies

* 1 cup packed brown sugar, light or dark

* 1 cup peanut butter, at room temperature

* 2 eggs, at room temperature

* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

* 1 bag (or approximately two cups) milk chocolate chips

Directions:

1.  Preheat the oven to 350*.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper.  Put one cup of sugar into a medium bowl for rolling the cookies.

2.  Using a mixer with a paddle, beat the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar on medium speed for 4 minutes, or until mixture is lighter in color and fluffy.  Add the peanut butter and cream for another minute.  Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl several times during this process.

3.  While the mixer is running, crack the eggs into a cup and add the vanilla.  Do this to ensure you don't get egg shells into your dough.  Reduce the speed to low, then slowly pour in the eggs, letting them fall in one at a time and incorporating the first egg completely before adding the next.  Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl once during the process.

4.  Measure the flour, baking soda, and salt into a bowl and whisk to combine.  If flour or baking soda is clumpy, sift the dry mixture.

5.  Gradually add the dry ingredients (in two or three additions) with the mixer on low speed.  Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl.  With the mixer on low, add the chocolate chips.

6.  I like to use a tablespoon scooper for my cookies so they are all about the same size.  Scoop out your dough, using your hands, roll the dough into a ball then roll the ball in the sugar, coating completely.  Place on the cookie sheet.

7.  When your sheet is full of cookie balls, lightly dust your fork with sugar or flour before pressing  to make a crisscross pattern and then press the cookies into 1/2-inch-thick disks.

8.  Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until the edges are LIGHTLY brown.  I discovered the reason I don't normally like peanut butter cookies is because most people cook them until they are crispy.  I don't like that. I like a soft cookie.  If you want it more crispy, cook longer; otherwise, allow the cookies to rest on the sheet for three or four minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool (although I ALWAYS have to have at least one hot, right-off-the-cookie-sheet, gooey cookie).

Yum!

Stay tuned the next several months for some big projects I will be working on in our new house we move into this week.  They include reclaimed barn wood flooring and a new kitchen!  I can't wait to show you!

Sara Jane

Allison: 20,000 Views' Giveaway

                                    

                          **************** GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED ****************

Hello again!  Doesn't that cupcake from Sara's last post look amazing?!  Mmmm... Okay, I'm back.  Our humble little blog has been running now for almost a year.  Crazy!  I have loved posting about my creative ventures, and sharing this space with my sisters.  We just recently passed our 20,000 views' mark (can you believe it?!), and I can't think of a better way to show our appreciation to loyal readers than with a giveaway!

It's already broken 90 degrees here in Arizona, so it got me thinking about my most frequently viewed post: the Car Seat Cooler Tutorial (found here).  Having been viewed over 1800 times, I thought it would be fun to give one away this week.  All you have to do is post the answer to this question below:


*************************************

What is your favorite Summer craft?

*************************************

Post your answer to that question by Friday at midnight, and you'll be entered to win a car seat cooler of your own.  The winner will be announced Saturday morning.

I will hopefully be selling these practical little "coolers" in our Etsy shop soon.  Everyone have a great week, and a HUGE thanks for supporting our little blog!


Allison

Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes

Have you ever tried a recipe that was just so delicious that you wanted to share it with the world?  Well, I have one of those oh-my-goodness-this-is-amazing recipes.  I found the original recipe here on Ms. Martha Stewart's site (so of course it will be heavenly, right?).  Enjoy!

BOSTON CREAM PIE CUPCAKES

Directions for cupcakes:

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• Vanilla Cream (directions at the bottom) - I doubled this recipe to ensure I would have enough cream for all 20 cupcakes this recipe made.  I was glad I did because we ate the extra cream :)
• Chocolate-Ganache Glaze (directions at the bottom)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. You can either butter and flour a muffin tin or do like I did - use cupcake liners.  Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. 
2. Beat eggs and sugar with a mixer on high speed until thick and pale, about 5 minutes. Beat in dry ingredients.
3. Bring milk and butter to a boil. With mixer on low speed, add milk mixture to batter, and beat until smooth. Add the vanilla. Divide batter among muffin cups, filling each halfway. Bake cupcakes until light gold, about 15 minutes. Let cool in tins for 10 minutes, then transfer to wire racks. Let cool.  When my cupcakes were cool, I then took the paper liners carefully off of them.
4. On the Martha Stewart site, she cuts the cupcakes in half and puts the cream in the middle.  That is a bit too messy to eat for me so instead I put the cream into a pastry bag and pipped the cream into the cupcake.  It was super easy and very nice and tidy.  After the cupcakes were all filled, I dipped the top into the ganache.  I had a bowl of extra ganache on the side for those who like a little extra chocolate.

Directions for Vanilla Cream

Ingredients for Vanilla Cream:

• 2 large egg yolks
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons plus 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. Whisk yolks until smooth. Mix sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add milk and start whisking. Cook, stirring, until mixture begins to bubble and thicken, about 5 minutes.  Make sure to keep stirring because the bottom of this mixture can burn easily.
2. Pour 1/3 of milk mixture into yolks, whisking constantly. Return egg/milk mixture to saucepan, and cook over medium heat, again, stirring often, until thick, 2 to 4 minutes. Stir in vanilla.
3. Pass vanilla cream through a fine sieve into a bowl (I didn't do this and mine did not turn out too lumpy). Press plastic wrap directly on surface. Refrigerate until cold, at least 1
   hour, or up to 2 days.

Directions for Chocolate-Ganache Galze:

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• 6 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon light corn syrup

Directions:

1. Bring cream to a boil in a small saucepan.Remove from heat, and add chocolate and corn syrup. Let stand for 5 minutes. Whisk until smooth. Transfer to a bowl, and let cool, stirring often. I let my ganache sit for quite a while before dipping my cupcakes into it.

Allison: Toddler Muffins

Hi!  My name is Allison... I used to contribute regularly to this blog.  Remember me?  Yep, I'm back.  I have no idea how, but time has just slipped away from me these last few months.  It might have to do with sick babies and just daily life.  But I have some creative opportunities coming up in the near future, and I thought I'd better get back in the habit of blogging.

Anyone out there have really picky eaters in their house?  I knew that my little Isla (2 1/2 years old) was picky, but lately, it's gotten so much worse!  There are days where she'll skip lunch AND dinner.  My skinny little girl seems to be getting even smaller, and it's started to worry me a little.  She's definitely more of a snacker, and I've found myself giving her things I wouldn't normally, just to get her to eat something.

So when I found this recipe here for "Toddler Muffins", I knew I had to give them a try.  Here's the best proof if they were liked or not:

She loved them and ate 3 for breakfast.  The only foods we've been able to get her to eat for breakfast are cinnamon toast (or "sugar toast", as she calls them), and french toast with syrup.  Can you find the theme here??  This girl definitely likes sugar (I have no idea where she gets that from)!

I didn't modify the recipe too much.  I didn't have oat bran in the house, but saw that others had substituted oats or flax seed.  I had ground flax seed in my house (weird, I know), so I used a 1/4 cup and a 1/4 cup of oats.  I'm sure a half cup of oats would work just great too.  For the baby food ingredient, I'm sure any pureed veggie would work.  I had a baby food pouch of pear and butternut squash that I used.  I also only added a 1/4 cup butter instead of 1/2 cup.  That seemed like a lot.  They still turned out super moist and delicious.  I also added raisins.  Because of the bananas, they tasted a lot like banana bread.  Yum!  They yielded 24 mini muffins, with enough left over to make a mini loaf.

Well, I hope this recipe helps some of you with little ones that have a mind of their own when it comes to food.  I'm hoping to make a few more adjustments (maybe wheat flour?), or adding more veggies.  Whatever it takes to get them eating their fruits and veggies, right?  Until next time... have a great week!


Allison

Sara Jane: Apple Cider Vinegar...Wart treatment???

Alright folks, this is probably my most random entry ever but I have to share with you an exciting tip I received.

My oldest daughter has had a plantar wart on her big toe for about a year.  I feel like I have tried the over-the-counter salicylic acid  (Compound W) 20 times in the last year.  A few months ago, I gave up on this wart and decided I would try again later.  However, when I went back to try again, there was ANOTHER wart on her other big toe.  Ahhh!  When I went to the store to get more wart remover, ran into a friend who said she had just seen something about apple cider vinegar getting rid of warts. What?!?  I ran home and looked it up on the internet and sure enough, there were hundreds of testimonials that it would work.

That night I got to work.  I made a q-tip size cotton ball, soaked it in the vinegar, pressed it against the wart and covered it with a band aid.  All the testimonials said it did hurt pretty bad but within about 3 or 4 days the pain was gone and so was the wart.

The first night, no pain.  The skin was definitely dying around the wart the next day though.  The second day, however, my daughter was extremely upset by how bad her toe hurt.  That night, it took her a long time to fall asleep because of the pulsing pain in her toe.  The next day, more skin was dead and the wart was black.  By the third day of trying this, I gave up because of her constant complaining.  Abraham and I decided we had better take her in and have a doc take care of it.  Better the doctor put her through pain than us, right?

So, here we are a week later (I waited a week so the skin on her toe could heal.  I was afraid the doc would think I was a bit nuts :).  Yesterday I took Penelope to the foot specialist and to my surprise, she praised the work I had done on her foot and said that Apple Cider Vinegar is actually one of the greatest remedies for warts if you can get through the pain.  AND that wart that I have been working on for the last year is actually gone!  All that is left is dead skin.  IT WORKED!!!!!!  As for the little wart on her other big toe, the doc put something on it and today it is killing Penelope :)  Oh well...you can't win them all.  

We are all about doing stuff the natural way when we can and I am so glad to have found this remedy.  Has anyone else ever tried it and had good results???

Allison: 14 Day of Valentines and Kids' Crafts

Hello!  Remember me?  Yeah... life has been a little crazy, but I thought I'd share a fun activity I've been doing all month.  My husband, Brent, might be the hardest person to shop for... IN THE WORLD.  He might counter saying that I'm the hard one to shop for, but don't listen to him.  So I jumped on Pinterest for help, and came across a fun idea: "The 14 Days of Valentines".  I saw a couple of variations, but the idea was the same: a gift/act/service each day for your significant other.

I won't go into what I did too much, but really enjoyed surprising my husband with goodies in his car on the way to work, or leaving fun notes for him to find on the front door, or on the bathroom mirror.  My sweet husband LOVES sushi, so when I came across the candy sushi idea, I knew it would be perfect.  I found a video tutorial here, and found it to be pretty easy, and kind of fun.  My two-year-old was also a fan!  I surprised him further with some actual sushi for dinner.

My husband thought it was fun, and I got the credit for being creative.  

I tried to coordinate each activity with the day of the week.  For example, Brent has meetings Monday mornings, not always allowing him time for lunch.  So I packed up the girls, and we dropped him lunch at work.  

Saturday morning, we made Brent breakfast.  I saw this idea for pancakes, but had a little trouble with the hearts.  :)  

Here we are at day 12.  I know it's a little early, but we decided to make Brent some Valentines.  I knew that mixing my two-year-old with paint, might be a recipe for disaster... but it turned out okay.  I saw the idea on Pinterest of using empty toilet paper rolls, shaped into hearts.  But I had a hard time getting it to work just right, and decided to use a cookie cutter instead.  It worked great, and Isla enjoyed creating this pretty picture.

Norah's valentine was a little easier, as she just laid there, drinking her bottle while I painted her feet.  :) I like how it turned out.

Doesn't Brent have some cute little Valentines??  Two more days of surprises to go!  What are you doing for your significant other?  Hope you all have a Happy Valentine's Day!


Allison