Frittatas Mini

I like the idea of bite sized anything-- firstly, I think it's adorable, and secondly I think it makes me feel better about eating any number of things! Of course, it always helps to have kids around, so I tried out the FamilyFun recipe for mini frittatas when our goddaughter was over last weekend...

We didn't have a lot in the fridge because I'd neglected to defrost... everything! So, I had my four eggs, some cheese, red and green bell peppers, and salt and pepper. Of course, when I went to cook, I discovered that my husband had put the bell peppers in the freezer without bagging them first...

I decided to let them thaw a little bit and go ahead and use them-- good news, they still tasted alright!

First, I whisked the eggs with some 2% milk, then added the salt and pepper:

Then I poured it in to the molds-- we got about 8 frittatas out of four eggs-- you can see in the first one that I over poured, so the rest got filled up to about half way full before toppings got added in.

I broke the cheese up in to bits since we didn't have shredded cheese, but it wasn't nearly as cheesy as I thought it was going to be-- next time, loads of cheese! CHEESE!

Fresh from the oven, they're lookin' good!

I was really pleased with the way this turned out-- the FamilyFun site didn't show a finished picture, which I think was pretty nice of them, but I'd like to think this is a little what it looks like when done properly! They were a hit with our goddaughter, and even with my husband (who mocks my love of bite sized food) in spite of the fact that they were "just a tease" in the breakfast department. Not my fault you ran 8 miles!

Of course, because if y'all know nothing else about me it's that I don't plan ahead!, I didn't read the step where you're supposed to spray the muffin tins so the end result was...

Well, just in case you didn't believe that eggs are used as a binding agent, it's true.

Materials Used: eggs, peppers, cheese, milk, salt, pepper, and PAM or BUTTER. You know, depending on how fat you're feeling that day...
Cost: inexpensive-- you get a lot of bang for your buck with this one
Conclusion: Super easy, totally worth it, and I'm hoping to use this at a brunch we're doing soonish and add in things like bacon, chicken sausage, and fresh hot peppers in addition to the sweet ones!

Emma Frost Nails

OK, this is an easy one, and was inspired by Emma Frost, first lady of the Hellfire Club (for my fellow geeks out there) and the sexy chick from "X-Men: First Class" (for my non-geeks out there) with the Diamond skin.

I was at CVS the other day and they had a sale and I had a coupon, so I thought this combination would be awesome!

The extremely white Sally Hansen InstaDry "White Out"

I really like this one because it puts on a smooth coat

And it's easy to clean up the edges since the polish legitimately InstaDries!

I covered it with Sally Hansen "Diamonds" which is why I decided these were Emma Frost nails :) 

It's been really hard to take a picture of this and get the full effect, but they were SHINY! I'm definitely using this one again for winter!

Materials Used: Sally Hansen InstaDry in "White Out" and Sally Hansen "Diamonds"

Cost: Generally inexpensive, but I did get everything on sale...

Time: 30 minutes all told-- the InstaDry is definitely my new favorite product!

Conclusion? I'd definitely do this again! I didn't have a bottom coat handy, so I'm going to try that next time since I think the "Diamonds" coat made things a little brittle, but it's definitely effective :) 

Travel Day!

New updates this weekend-- today was travel to Memphis for homecoming at Rhodes! I plan on being extremely crafty this weekend, so keep an eye out for DIY coasters, Emma Frost nails, teacup candles, and many others!

Improvement!

OK, so I wrapped up that bracelet from the other day and wanted to give you an update-- I basically went in and re-started the whole thing. 

The knot in the middle there? That's where I decided to forget about it and start all over. Towards the end of the second orange/blue round there's a hole-- that's what happens when you don't knot the strands together in the middle. 

One of the problems I had was that the strings were too loose, so after I did a little more, I taped the second section and it turned out MUCH better, much more consistent!

This is the finished product-- still looks a little like macrame, but overall much better!

Now, I did keep having this issue where the strands didn't come out the same order they went in-- this probably had to do with too much flex in the line, but I liked it so much...

I started forcing the strands out to different places to get a new pattern!

Materials Used: Embroidery Floss

Cost: Very inexpensive!

Time: Pretty time consuming-- it got a little better after I got used to it, but it also helped that I wasn't concerned about the colors staying in a particular pattern.

Conclusion? I'd definitely try this again, but I think it would be helpful to have MORE strands available-- I think that's why it looks more like macrame than the original pinned piece. I'll give it a go and let y'all know!

Failure is an Option

I had a post for yesterday, but it was a present I made and I haven't gifted it yet so on to other things...

I'm posting this up a) because I failed to post something yesterday, therefore crushing my hopes of an every-other-day update and b) because I'm failing MISERABLY at this friendship bracelet thing!!

I saw this pin for a Friendship Bracelet tutorial and since I never learned how to do the chevron style as a kid, I figured now's as good a time as any! Whirly Bird, the blog with the actual craft, linked me over to HonestlyWTF for a tutorial on how to make this oh-so-fashionable bracelet. Now, I'd already failed at an eight strand braid, but surely this would be easier? No doubt mine would come out smooth and sassy like this one, right?

WRONG!

This is currently the state of my chevron friendship bracelet trial run...

Normally, I would give up and throw the rest of this god-awful embroidery floss in the trash-- really, you have no idea the headaches it's given me! I started out wanting to use that orange with grey for a nice, chic look but the grey would NOT come untangled and I've had almost the same problem with the yellow and blue here!

But, I am going to follow my favorite advice, I am going to Keep Calm and Carry On. Updates to come, no doubt, and hopefully I'll perfect the pattern on these fall colors before my special surprise...

Ana's A

My niece Ana is the girliest tomboy I know-- she's all about running around and finding new things to get in to, but if you ask her to dress herself, chances are she's going to come out in pink and purple! Her birthday was a few weeks ago, and I really wanted to see if I could re-make this "wreath" but in a more kid-friendly way (she's Pre-K) and on a slightly smaller scale since it would have to travel across the Pacific Ocean:

(via)

Here's the final version of mine-- I did forget to put something up there to hang it with, buuuut they'll figure it out. I would suggest using the coke top trick or wrapping the yarn like the inspiration piece. 

It turned out pretty well, I think, for winging it, and a step by step tutorial is below!

Materials: Yarn, wooden frame, wooden letter, embellishments, scissors.
Cost: About $15, which includes the yarn and glue that I'll use again.
Time: Wow. Wrapping things in yarn is really involved-- it probably took me three hours, maybe even four. It was stop and go, so I don't want to include the down time, but it was pretty involved!
Conclusion: Yeah, it was involved, but I'll totally do this again. I didn't have the time to paint the frame like the inspiration piece, but depending on the person it may be just as well to wrap it in yarn-- everyone at work wanted one!
Tips and tricks: I purchased a smaller wooden frame and a smaller letter at Michael's for about $1 each-- you could go with a bigger one like the inspiration piece, but you'll just spend more time on it! (and probably more money unless you have leftover frames lying around!)

Gather all your materials-- I'm not very good at this yet, so that's why the A already has yarn attached to it...

Pink yarn, to be specific

All of my yarn wrapping involved healthy doses of glue-- it dries clear and makes ya look super crafty and talented!

Front of the A fully wrapped

Back of the A fully wrapped

Tail of the A-- it won't look perfect because it's super awkward, but you just have to play around with it to get the right look

And on the tip, we have lots of glue and layered yarn!

To start on the frame? Dot of glue. Totally dot of glue.

First side wrapped-- I thought the detail on the corners added a little flair to it. There was glue involved in this as well...

The dark spots are the brackets that used to hold the frame back in place-- I bent them all the way back using the handle on my scissors to push them all the way down. They stuck out a little, but after they were covered in yarn, they didn't pose a threat by design or by poking.

I left the bottom corner open so that I could add the flowers in...

A in the middle

I decided to get fancy and try to "suspend" the A in the middle-- this took a lot of playing around to get the tension right and the color on color right.

Close up of the wrapping-- you want to know what there's a lot of in this picture? Glue.

Flower one... these are bigger than I thought!

The tie off on the second half of the tension string. I had to run it through the top and then back through to the bottom corner to make sure the letter had enough tension and support.

Back of the frame at the end

I still had another flower, and the good thing about making a present for a little girl is that they love everything over the top!

Final product without the flash-- does a good job of emphasizing the tension strings!

Dinosaur Eggs

(via)

I wanted to do these red and white nails sooooo bad but no such luck-- instead, I went for dino eggs! OK, so I know that dino eggs don't look anything like they did on the TV show Dinosaurs (yeeeeaaah 90's throwback whaaat!) but these nails remind me of dino eggs!!

The wraps base that I put on was a little wrinkly, so instead of doing the matte coat I decided to make it polka-dotty!

I'd wanted to do smaller polka dots, but since I didn't have a fine paint brush, I went with a q-tip 

Not too shabby!

The first dab will be light on paint in the middle, so just dab some more on after a second

Of course, it will take a few tries to get it looking right...

The finished product! Only one hand this time, a table managed to break half the nails off the other...

I've heard from a lot of reviewers that the matte coat will really show the flaws in your brush strokes, so since the base coat made mine majorly flawed I decided to do something fun! It is pretty funky and makes me smile, so I'll definitely do this again!

Products Used: Sally Hansen InstaDry Mint Sprint and Sephora coffee in NY

Time: About a half hour, all told. The Sephora paint went on a little thin so I had to do multiple layers. The InstaDry polish was PERFECT for this project with the dots!

Cost: I already had the InstaDry from the last project, and the Sephora teensy bottle was $1 on clearance, plus a q-tip which was probably worth about a penny and I had them laying around. Definitely a low-cost project!