Life and Cobbler

I realized that I've gotten consumed with my classes again and have neglected my posting.  I'm really hopeful that after this week it will all slow down since my classes will be pretty much over.

So let's see I have been working on a new website for M'Lou Designs as part of my class for web design.  Here's a sneak peek:

I'm still working out some of the kinks in the code and the content, but I'm hoping to have it up and active in the next couple of weeks.

Let me know if you have any requests or suggestions for the website!

So other projects that I've been working on:

Fabric infant activity balls
I've made two now, but I'm working on refining my technique and not directly copying what other people have done ... not an easy task.  I'll try to get some images up soon (I know, promises, promises).

Kids Clothing
I'm working on altering a couple of flower girl dresses for a friend.  Thankfully, it's pretty straightforward and all I have to do is shorten the straps, but it's my challenge for the week :)

Cooking
We bought an ice cream maker from Target for like $13, so we have experimented with a gelato recipe.  We need more practice is all I'll say about that ;) I'm hoping that I'll have some time next week to try out some fruit ice cream/gelato recipes.  I'll let you know if I find anything good!

I did have some success this week with a recipe from Real Simple.  If you haven't seen their shortcut recipes, you need to check them out.  They provide some great recipes that don't take much time especially when compared to what you spend on it if you made it from scratch.

The recipe was for fruit cobbler.  See the full recipe here. 

The only issue I had was that I wanted to make cherry cobbler and didn't want to use fresh fruit and my grocery store didn't have frozen cherries.  So I improvised by using canned cherries.

This is a 21 oz can (and surprisingly was one without high fructose corn syrup) - my recommendation, and something I'm going to try next time, is to use two cans and layer the fruit and the breading from the cobbler (fruit, bread mixture, fruit, bread mixture).  Just keep in mind that the breading is going to rise so if you have a deeper dish 8x8 casserole dish or a slightly bigger dish, it will keep it from overflowing in your oven.

I'm thinking there's a peach cobbler in our future so I can try out the frozen fruit version.

Regardless, it was still really good and SUPER easy!

Okay, back to my class work so that I can wrap things up and get back to my crafting :)

TTFN!

Featured Handmade Toy Alliance Member: MudPie Kids

So my final featured member this week is MudPie Kids.  She has some great felt toys for kids!

I love the originality and fun of these toys!  It also gets then away from all the plastic fruit and other food that you can buy in the big chains.

Here are a couple of my favorites!  Click on any of the images to visit the item listing.

I can just see M'Lou "squeezing" these to make juice!

I'm pretty sure these are free range eggs ;)

These have to be my favorite!  I love the color and texture of the veggies!

Hope you've enjoyed these highlighted members!  Please visit their online stores and support handmade toys!

TTFN!

Featured Handmade Toy Alliance Member: The Toycrafter

I am so pleased to be able to feature The Toycrafter on this blog.  I had the privilege of seeing some of their toys at a fair at the Arboretum last year.

The Toycrafter makes wonderful wooden toys - the kind that don't disintegrate into a million pieces with kid rambunctiousness.  Instead, these are the toys that get handed down for generations and get BETTER with age.

It was really hard not to just showcase all of the toys from Dave's site.  They're all just fabulous!  However, I picked three of my favorites and have to be content with that.  Please go to his site and browse - did I mention that he has some really wonderful toys?!?!  I will definitely be looking at these for gifts this year!  I think M'Lou may need Noah's Ark ... LOVE the animals!

Click on any of the images to go to open an new window and go to their site.

Noah's Ark


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For the older kids in your life ...

A missile launcher!

TTFN!

Featuring Handmade Toy Alliance Member: Pinkhouse Handworks

I figured since I'm in Texas I would feature an HTA member from Texas.

In looking through the members of the HTA, I found Pinkhouse Handworks.  Janice makes some wonderful Montessori baby toys.  I wish I had found these when M'Lou was smaller!  All of these toys have been tested to comply with the CPSIA regulations.

Here are some of the toys that she has in her Etsy store.  Just click on the image to open a new window to go to each of the listings in her store.  Enjoy!!

Stay tuned for another highlighted HTA member tomorrow!