Sock Monkey Swap

Mr. Henry the Kendo Warrior Wannabe has arrived at his destination so I thought I would post some pictures I took before he left...






Since Henry is more of a lover than a fighter he's gone to his destination without weapons. (he was getting tired of nicking his tail anyway..;0)) I made his Kendo warrior outfit out of a large Black T-shirt. I used pretty much the whole T-shirt in making his outfit. He has pants a shirt and the skirt that ties around.It certainly does NOT follow the tradition of the Kendo garb since the pleats in the front and back all have meaning and they're all connected (Henry's is not) I didn't think Henry would mind and I'm hoping my partner didn't. I'm not that experienced with making doll or sock monkey clothes, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Oatmeal Pancakes..

I've made these pancakes for the last several weekends and my family and I just love them. I thought I would share the recipe with you! I also made homemade maple syrup. I'll put the recipe here as well.

Oatmeal Pancake Recipe



I double the recipe. I've used whole wheat flour in the recipe but didn't like it at all. I've also used regular milk but cut it down a bit so my batter isn't runny. I like a thicker batter.
These are soooooo good!

We ran out of maple syrup so I thought I would try and make some. Here's what I did..
In a sauce pan combine:
1 cup water
1/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon maple flavoring
a dash of salt
(I added a bit of cornstarch to it as well, since I like a thicker syrup. I add about a 1/2 teaspoon to a little of the syrup I pull out into a cup. Mix it up so there's no lumps and put it into the sauce pan with the other ingredients. You certainly don't have to do this, since boiling it down will thicken it a bit.)
Heat the ingredients over medium heat until it dissolves and thickens up a bit.
This is really good syrup. It does need to be refrigerated since there's no preservatives in it. I'll be making this from now on.

I hope you try the recipes...the pancakes are sooooo yummy! Can't go wrong with Oatmeal.

Swap Dotee's

I wanted to post the Dotee's I made for my swap partners...


This little one was to look a bit bug like. I debated on adding hair but didn't in the end. It just seemed to much and I liked the little antenna's showing. It was to represent Nature and Tranquility...the little bells tinkle in the wind.


This one is to represent Davy Jones of the Monkee's. My partner liked the Monkee's and said she had never received a Dotee of the Monkee's but she puts it on her questionnaire in hopes. I was determined to get her a Monkee Dotee! I used felt for the hair and beads say The Monkee's, Davy Jones and I'm a Believer. The guitar was made with Shrinky Dinks.
This was a fun easy swap to do. Dotee's are super fun to make and pretty easy and you can run wild with the creativity.

"Candy" Perler Biggie Bead Bracelet...

I was cruising Pinterest the other day and found a neat little craft idea to make with melted perler beads. (Craft and Creativity) .
I made one using the larger Biggie Beads and thought I would share with you....Here's what it looks like finished.

I was looking for the smaller "traditional size" like the tutorial and ran across these Biggie Beads, I've not seen those before. They're quite a bit larger and much easier for my old hands to place on the pan. Anywho.. Heat your oven to 250 degrees F. For the smaller beads only heat to 200F Grab yourself a pan and line it with either parchment or aluminum foil. And lay out your beads like this...


Put them in your hot oven and keep an eye out. Mine took about 15-20 minutes to melt down so they looked like little beads. The little beads will take a lot less time so make sure and watch if you use them. There was no odor that I could tell but put your fan on, just in case. They look like this when they're ready to come out...


I smushed them down with a magazine so they had more of a uniform look to them, but it's not necessary to do that. Let them cool. I used Stretch Magic cord to sting them, tie it off and you have yourself a little perler bead "candy" bracelet! This would be a great craft for young girls.(Supervision with the oven of course) The beads are large enough, yet the colors are a bit limited with the larger beads but still colorful enough to look like a candy bracelet.