Try-It Tuesday {Baby Washcloths}

A couple of my son's teachers at his daycare are pregnant and I wanted to give the ladies something personal, so I used the super easy tutorial by Brandy at Gluesticks. You can find her tutorial here.

So the idea is to take flannel and sew it onto a washcloth creating a nice soft cloth for baby.  I am not much of a seamstress, but I think they turned out ok.  The ladies happen to know what they are having, so I got to make a boy set and a girl set.

I tied a ribbon around them and added baby wash.  It's a really cute idea and they are super quick to make.

Don't forget to enter the KitchenAid Stand Mixer giveaway!  Go Here to enter.

Thanks for stopping by,
Natosha

{Try-It Tuesday} Sauteed Tilapia with Lemon-Peppercorn Pan Sauce

Sauteed Tilapia with Lemon-Peppercorn Pan Sauce

Now that's a mouth-full of a name.  I have cooked this recipe 3 times in the past couple of months and it is now a favorite.  A few words of caution, go easy on the salt and ingredients with salt.  I made this again last night and used a little too much salt and it was almost unedible, almost.  : )

I think next time, I will skip salting the filets and use a low-salt chicken or veggie stock.  You can always add salt to the finished product, but there's no way you can take too much out.

I found this recipe via My Recipes.  It is from Cooking Light.  The recipe can be found here.

The recipe calls for pickled green peppercorns.  I could not find those so I went for capers and they were wonderful.  The fish was light and flaky.  The lemon and caper sauce was bright and fresh.  And on top of that, it was so quick and easy.  I served the tilapia with rice and green peas.  I have even used this recipe with catfish and it was divine.

Happy eating and thanks for stopping by,
Natosha

I am linking up here today:

{Try-It Tuesday} 3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies

Today's "Try" is a recipe.  A while back my son wanted cookies and I didn't really want to make any.  The compromise was this super easy peanut butter cookie that has only 3 ingredients, peanut butter, sugar and an egg.

You can find the original recipe here via gimme some oven.  By the way, awesome site for recipes.

Here's what mine looked like:

As you can see, Jaxon (my son) is enjoying them.  He would have eaten them all if I would have let him.  The cookies were easy to make and taste great.  However, they are very sweet and rich.  I made mine bigger than the original recipe, by accident.  That didn't change the taste any.

We give this recipe a big thumbs up!

Thanks for stopping by,
Natosha

{Masking Tape Canvas Art} Try-It Tuesday

My son and I sat down the other night and tried out a craft/art project I found via Pinterest.  I was inspired by this:

Crafting Play

All you need are:

Canvas
Finger Paints
Masking Tape

Instructions
Use the tape to create a pattern on the canvas, or let your child make a pattern with pieces of tape.

Let your child paint the canvas.

Let canvas dry.

Take off tape and admire your child's masterpiece.

We did Jaxon's nickname:

And a randon set of lines (which my son calls railroad tracks):

This craft/art project was both fun and easy.

Thanks for stopping by,
Natosha

P.S.
Thank you to all my new followers!  Soon after I reach 100 followers via Google Friend Connect, I will have a giveaway as a thank you!  I'm thinking probably an Amazon gift card. 

{Soap Cloud Experiment} Try-It Tuesday

Today's "Try-It" is a cool little experiment that I was skeptical of when I saw this picture.

The premise is that you can take a bar of Ivory Soap and place it in the microwave.  Start that baby up and the bar of soap will magically puff up into a cloud-like shape.

Supplies
Bar of Ivory Soap
Microwave

Instructions
Place bar of Ivory in the microwave.  Punch up 2 minutes on the timer.  Hit start and watch the magic.  Stop the timer once the "cloud" starts to fill the microwave.

I recommend placing the bar of Ivory on a big bed of paper towels.  This makes removal and clean-up much easier.

Does it work?  YES!!

My son thought this was so much fun.  My older nephews thought it was pretty cool too.  A word of caution.  The soap cloud is delicate and if you are not careful, you will get soap "crumbs" everywhere when you remove it from the microwave.  I put the cloud in a gallon zip bag for storage as you can still use the soap.

I call this one a win.

Thanks for stopping by,
Natosha

{Cleaning Out The Pinterest Closet and Some Rambling}

Today I was looking at my "Craft Ideas" board on Pinterest.  Uh, I have 139 pins and I have done maybe 4 of them.  Sad.  Part of it is I forget to take pictures when I am cooking and while crafting.  And when I do, they aren't that good.  That shouldn't be an excuse though, right?

So, I am bringing back a feature I tried a couple of times when I first started blogging:  Try-It Tuesday.  It's not about re-inventing the wheel, it's just about trying my hand at some of the things I have pinned.  There are tons of bloggers out there who do this type of feature.  I don't look at it as stealing an idea, but as sort of a review of that idea, the feasability of a not so artsy-craftsy person being able to not totally mess it up.  But, you know what?  I'm totally willing to blog about my fails because who couldn't use a good laugh every now and then.

While I'm at it, any of my boards are free game for the series.  I've had a few recipes I pinned turn out really bad.  Now that is not necessarily the original recipe developer's fault.  Sometimes I fly a little too loose in the kitchen.  You know, "oh this looks like it's about a cup", "if 1 tsp is good, maybe 2 is better" and "hmmm, I forgot to buy that, I'm sure this would make a good substitute."  But in my defense, there have been recipes that I have followed to the "T" and they were not tasty at all.

I think for now, I will be trying projects from these boards:

Craft Ideas

Recipes

How Sweet It Is

For Jaxon

There are whole blogs/sites dedicated to testing pins:

Pintester (warning, uses adult language)

PinterestFail

The Pinterest Project

After reading about so many craft and recipe fails, I don't feel so bad anymore.  It happens to everyone!

Thanks for stopping by,
Natosha

P.S.  Today, I am linking here:












Go visit and show your fellow bloggers some love.

Try-It Tuesday: Another Felt Flower

So, I think I have mentioned I love to read Cheri's I Am Momma - Hear Me Roar blog.  Here is a really cute belt she made using the felt flowers I am featuring.  You can find her original tutorial here.

this photo is the property of iammommahearmeroar

Cheri used felt you buy by the yard.  She bought a 1/4 yard of each color she wanted.  I just bought the felt sheets, which were super cheap, 28 cents each.  I bought black, gray and a really cool blk/wht houndstooth pattern.  

First, I cut two strips of felt (lengthwise) and sewed them together at the ends so I would have closer to the length Cheri used.  I then cut petals.  See photos below:

Next, you roll the strip up, using hot glue as needed.

Here's what the back looks like:

And the front:

I only had time to make a black one and a gray one. (uh, sorry, I had to cook dinner and contend with a 2 year old)  I'll post what the houndstooth one looks like when it's finished.  I'm not sure how it will look once it is cut.

That's it for today.  Thanks for stopping by,
Natosha

Upcycled Boy Hat

So, I love Cheri's projects involving making something new from something old.  You can find her post on how to make the oringinal Upcycled Boy Hat from old t-shirt here on her blog I Am Momma Hear Me Roar.

Cheri gives excellent instructions.  I am terrible at sewing and I figured it out.  I borrowed my mom's sewing machine, grabbed some of my son's outgrown shirts and went to town.  I have to admit it took me at least one and a half hours to make this.  In my defense, I had to change a bobbin and deal with my almost 2 year-old son at the same time.  I didn't take pictures of it step-by-step because you can go to Cheri's page and get all that.

I couldn't get the flaps right and I only used one layer of fabric.  I ended up cutting the flaps off of the second (brown) hat.  The red hat is one I hand-sewed before I went and borrowed the sewing machine.  I have to say I was impressed with myself, meaning it actually looked like a hat.  Except the ear flaps are really wrong, I plan on cutting those off too.  I'm gonna try making more hats soon.  I think I'll use some of Jax's old fleece baby blankets to line a few.  I have a really cute monkey pattern blankie that would be adorable.

Sorry the photos are not the best, my son didn't wan to cooperate.  Anyway, here they are:

As you can see, the flaps are WAY too small.

I used a thinner t-shirt material and it is a wee bit too tight.

I used a thicker knit for this one.

I hand-stiched a pawprint cut from the same shirt.

They are not even close to Cheri's original, but hey, I do not pretend to be a seamstress.  I do think that with a little practice I can do a better job. 

Until tomorrow,

Natosha