Banana Sorbet Recipe

We were given an ice cream maker many years ago. I never tested it out because my husband told me it was too hard to use. I believed him. Here's why, my husband likes to cook and I'm not just talking about boiling water. He likes the gourmet recipes. You know ,the ones with over 20 ingredients and that take hours of preparation. So I considered him a reputable source regarding the ice cream maker, right? Wrong!

Well the other day I got it into my head that I was going to use the ice cream maker. I didn't care if it would take days to make sorbet, I was going to use it. So I got the pamphlet out and read it only takes 20- 50 minutes to make ice cream. What? Did I read this right? So I followed the directions and made some banana sorbet. It took only 25 minutes to make the sorbet! It really couldn't have been much easier. And all I could ask is, where has this marvelous machine been all my life? In the storage sadly. And even worse, summer was coming to an end. But I'll tell you something, that's not going to stop me. Oh no, I'm making up for lost time. I'm making sorbet for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if I have to. Maple syrup and pancake sorbet here I come!

Banana Sorbet Recipe below

*If you don't have an ice cream maker there's a wonderful tutorial on how to make ice cream without one here.

Ingredients

1/2 cup Agave nectar or you can substitute it for 3/4 cup sugar

I like agave nectar because it's a natural sweetener. It also is a Low Glycemic Index sweetener. You can find it at most health food stores.








4 ripe bananas
2 tsp lime juice
1 cup water

Directions:
Blend all ingredients together till smooth. Place in ice cream maker and run according to the manufacturers instructions. Done

*I also found a great recipe for coconut plum sorbet, here. I omitted the yogurt when I made it.

A Magazine Rack Fit for a Dollhouse

Have you ever noticed how razor cartridge containers look like miniature magazine racks? No? Maybe it's just me. Well, today I tested the idea out on my daughter's dollhouse. Using painter's tape, I adhered a razor cartridge container to the dollhouse wall. Then I printed out some scaled down magazine covers for miniature magazines. Now I'm envisioning a whole doll house made out of recycled items. So many ideas, so little time.

Recipe: Lemon Meringue Pie

Ever get the impulse to bake? I find myself compelled to bake sometimes regardless of the circumstances. It could be over a hundred degrees outside and I'll still want to bake. Well, today that feeling swept over me. I just had to make a Lemon Meringue Pie.

*recipe based off the JELL-O Lemon Meringue Recipe

Ingredients
One pre-made pasty dough

Pie Filling
2.9 0z box of lemon JELL-O cook and serve - make sure it's cook and serve
1/2 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
1 3/4 cup water
1/2 cup lemon juice

Meringue
3 egg whites
1/3 cup sugar

1. Bake pre-made pastry dough as directed on the packaging. Use a 9 inch pie pan.

2. Mix all pie filling ingredients into a saucepan. On medium heat, stir constantly with a whisk until mixture comes to full boil. Let cool 5 minutes.

3. Pour pie filling into the baked pastry pie crust.

4. Beat 3 egg whites with sugar until stiff peaks form.

5. Spread the Meringue over the filling all the way to the edge of the pie crust.

6. Bake at 350 for 10 -15 minutes until Meringue is lightly brown. Cool at room temperature for four hours.

Japanese Summer Festival

balloon yo-yos floating in water

Every year the East Bay Japanese Language School holds a fair at our church (Japanese Christian Church). I always find myself inspired by the games, decorations, and food. Hope it will inspire you too!

Ikayaki - Grilled Squid
I consider myself fortunate I was able to get a picture of this. My husband and children were grumbling that they had to wait 30 seconds before eating.

Fish shaped cones filled with popcorn. Cute idea for a party?

Does it look like a fish now?


Water bottle wind chimes.

Wouldn't this make a fun kid's craft? There's a small bell hanging in the inside of the water bottle. Hanging below is an origami fish with two ribbons. I was told that this year they tried to incorporate recycled items as much as possible for the prizes and the games.

close up of the water bottle wind chime


The children from the school performed a short dance dressed as sumo wrestlers. I thought their outfits might make fun Halloween Costumes. The Sumo outfit was basically a one piece jumper with an inner tube inside it. A strip of black fabric was used for the mawashi (belt) which also held the inner tube in place .

Easy Ways to Personalize Children's Clothes Hangers

clothes hangers from my husband's childhood

Children's clothes hangers can make the most charming gifts. They're cute, practical, relatively inexpensive, and timeless. So I thought it would be fun to come up with a couple ways to personalize/decorate child hangers. Below you will find two ideas.
One cute way to personalize a child's clothes hanger is with an initial or monogram. In the picture above I used a wood burning tool to make the letter "O" on the hanger. Simple directions below.

Supplies:
wood burning tool - can be found at most craft stores
tracing paper
child wood clothes hanger - I buy mine at Ross $5.99 for 5

Print out the reflection of a letter in the font you like. Make sure the size of it will fit easily on the hanger. Trace the letter with a pencil onto the tracing paper. Transfer the image to the hanger (refer to picture).







When you lift the tracing paper you will see your image. Next take the wood burning tool and trace over the letter. Add a ribbon if you wish. Done.






If you don't want to go through the trouble of using a wood burning tool, I came up with a second idea. Using scrap book rub-ons, transfer the rub-on image to the hanger. Then to insure the rub-on will not wear away, coat it twice with acrylic varnish. Done.

Guest Post at An Eclectic Blog

You know how I'm always going on about E6000 glue, because I use it all the time. Well apparently someone over at Eclectic Products noticed this and asked if I could do a guest post/craft on the blog. So today you can find me over at An Eclectic Blog and learn more about the picture above. Hope to see you there.

Read to Feed

Cindy from Skip To My Lou is hosting a "Bloggy Book and Craft- a-thon" to support Heifer's Read to Feed. It's for a great cause and I highly reccomend you check it out.

Today I have the privilege of guest posting over at Skip to My Lou for this series. Hope you'll visit the site and see what I'm up to over there. Hint, involves Eric Carle.

How to Make Doily Flower Cubes

Last week I had shared about the doily decorations I made for my Sister in Law's engagement party. Here's the tutorial as promised.

Supplies:
circle doilies with a diameter of 8 inches
scissors
tape
glue
tissue paper

Directions

First you will want to make six tissue flowers, directions here.

Make a cut to the center of the doily, refer to picture.

Bend into a cone shape and tape to secure. The angle of the cone should be somewhere between 90 - 120 degrees. Make six cones total.

Glue two cones together like the picture above. Try to match up the scalloped edges while gluing. Make a total of two of these.

Glue the two halves together that you just made in the last step. Your cube should now look like the picture above.

Glue a cone into the top of the four cones. Your cube should now look like the picture above. Flip over and glue the last cone into the bottom of the cube. At all times try to match up the scallops. Last, glue a tissue flower in the inside of each cone. Done.

Happy Engagement Danny and Akemi!

Vaudeville and An Award

Thank you Ginger for passing along this award to me . Ginger has a wonderful blog called Loves to Dream where she shares a lot of different facts and links to crafts she finds on the web.

Instead of listing seven facts about me I thought I would share with you a little family history.

Passing this award on to:

1. La Vie Est Belle
2. Maya Made
3. The Mcillece Spot
4. Toxiferous
5. LitandLaundry
6. Knot Sew Crafty
7. Doobleh-Vay

"Betty and Buddy"

My Great Grandfather, Frank Underhill was a stage manager for Vaudeville shows. Betty and Buddy were just one of the acts at the theater Frank worked at. Betty is actually a little person. I'm told the original Betty Boop and Sammy Davis Jr. performed in the variety shows Frank worked with as well.

reads: "To Barbara Hun A sweet little girl. Best Wishes Betty and Buddy"
Barbara is my Grandmother

Everyone family has a story, what's yours?

Engagement Party Decorations

I was asked to make decorations for a surprise engagement party and this is what I created for the party, doily flower cubes. They came out quite nice and I feel like the pictures just don't do them justice. Next week I'll be posting directions on how to make them.

For the banner I just glued letters to small doilies and strung all of them on pink ribbon. To hang the cubes I used fishing line. If you find yourself decorating for parties often, I recommend investing in some fishing line. I'm always finding new uses for it.

How To Make Tissue Flowers

I currently have a project underway that requires tissue flowers. You'll find out more about that Friday. But for now, I thought I would share how to make tissue flowers. I know there's many ways to make them but this technique seems to work best.

I had planned to show a flower I made with the accordion fold method (for comparison) but my son got to it first. He was dipping it in his juice and pretending it was peeing. Apparently he has my creative spirit.

Supplies
tissue paper - any color
scissors
tape or florist tape




Cut two layers of tissue paper into a circle. My circle is about 8 inches in diameter but any size should do.


















With both layers together, fold in half.










Fold tissue over (refer to picture) and pinch at the bottom.











Still holding the flower at the bottom, separate the layers at the top of the flower (refer to picture).












Begin to roll the flower in the same direction you made the first fold. Make sure to keep the fold loose.












Once it's rolled into the flower shape, fold back the outer layer to resemble a flower. To get the shape you want, it might take a little finessing. Just remember it's an organic shape so you really can't go wrong.











Tape the bottom of the flower so it does not unravel. Done.

Clever Idea for Gift Bags

Above is a picture of a cardboard cover in a gift bag instead of tissue. I recently saw a gift like this and thought it was such a clever idea. At the top of the cover it had a slot to place a card. To me the design had everything, form and function. It covers the gift better, keeps the bag's shape, and prevents the card from getting lost in the tissue. Simple directions below to make a gift bag cover.

Supplies:
cardstock - size depends on the gift bag
scissors
exacto knife
glue or double sided tape

Follow diagram to make the cover

Your gift bag cover should looking something like the image above.

To make the rounded slit I placed a cup upside down and traced around it with the exacto knife. Then just slide your card into it.

view looking straight down into the bag

Toast-its

After using the FoodWriters for the tattoo cookies, I began to wonder, what else could I use the markers for?

Toast-its: leave messages for family members at breakfast

claim your leftovers

We actually have a rule at our house that if the food isn't labeled with your name, it's fair game.

I could also see this used for dealing with roommates. For all they know, you used a sharpie.

protect key ingredients for dinner

There have been countless times in the process of cooking dinner that I discovered someone ate one of the key ingredients. So as far as I'm concerned, this last idea is practical.

What would you do with edible markers?

Chopstick Rests That Rock

Chopstick rests run the gamut from traditional crests to baseball gloves. And with that as my inspiration, I decided to make some of my own. You'll find this to be a very simple and inexpensive craft project. Perhaps paired with a set of chopsticks it would make a lovely gift for a hostess. Directions below.

Supplies:
smooth black rocks - you can find these at the dollar store and craft stores, often by the glass vases or floral area

scrap booking rub-ons - most craft stores carry these - you can choose any motif you like, flowers, letters, etc.

Mod Podge - or any other sealant that is nontoxic

foam craft brush

Directions
1. Wipe down all rocks with a damp cloth to remove any debris

2. Center your rub-on on the rock and transfer it to the rock (refer to picture above). Directions to transfer the image will be on the rub-on packaging.

3. Place five coats of Mod Podge over the top of the rock. Make sure you let each coat dry before applying the next layer.

4. Let the rocks dry for a day. Done.

*To clean the chopstick rests wipe with a damp soapy cloth.