DIY - Bow Makers

Last night I helped host a Bow Making Shower for a friend from my church, the  Osceola Church of Christ , who is having a baby girl in August.  Jess set up a lovely table setting and provided food and decorations with some help from the ladies from church.  A fun time was had by all.  We had a lovely time fellowshipping and crafting last night.    

 

After eating and opening presents, it was time to get crafting and making some bows.  

So after getting all my bow supplies ( a HUGE supply)  which I bought last year to make bows, I decided that since I had all the stuff, I should get busy making more bows to sell online on my Etsy website:  B~Wear Designs

, at Crafts Shows and local Farmers' Markets.  So, as I laid in bed last night and looking through Pinterest, I saw all these DIY bow makers and such.  As with most things, I think I can do that or at least I can get my husband to do that.  Anyway, I knew that we had left over scraps and dowel rods in the shop so I decided the next day, TODAY I would attempt to make it on my own.  It seemed pretty simple enough I would save money and who isn't up for saving money and attempt to make it myself.  Below is the results that I accomplished.  I decided to make two different ones.   I made wooden bow maker and then my version of the bowdabra.  I have yet to make bows but, will plan on posting pics when I can.  

The Wooden Bow Maker: 

Here is what I did to make this bow maker, you can find instructions on the internet on how to make this type.  I did change a few things though.  I thought I would add some pegs to hold the middle ribbon that you tie around the bow.  As  you can see I drilled holes in the wrong places, but since this is for me, I don't care if there is an error, a minor one but it is there.  These things happen especially when it was done on the spur of the moment.  

So, I found the center of the spare 2 x/4 piece of wood that was left over from when my husband made the Giant Jenga game for me.   Then I marked 1 inch on each side of the center and then followed by making 1/2 inch marks up to 4 inches.  After drilling the holes (not all the way through the piece of wood, I had to guess how deep I should go), I used a 5/16 dowel rod that I had a sawed in several pieces and then sanded.   Then placed them in their holding spots.  Make sure when drilling you make holes big enough yet tight so that you can move/remove the dowel rods.  

 

  

The Dowel Rod Bowdabra: 

While I was at it in the shop and had extra pieces, I thought I would make a version of the bowdabra.  

I didn't feel like taking the time in using solid wood pieces and such so, I decide to use several pieces of dowel rod, not sure if this version will work, but I don't think it hurts to try.   I see tutorials on using this and I wanted to give it a try. I hope that these two bow makers will make bowmaking easier.  

To make this version, I basically followed somewhat the instructions on making the Wooden Bow Maker.  

I found the center of the block then, made lines for 1 inch from the middle on the top and bottom.  Then I marked 1/2 marks from the center of those lines 3 times.  I drilled holes and sawed 12 four inch long pieces of 5/16 inch dowel rods and sanded them a place them in the holes. 

I have to say that I am pretty proud of myself.  Of course, a while back my husband had to show me how to use the drill press when I started making my clothespin dolls which is for another post.  But, with just a little know how, I was able to make these two bow makers.  

Minnie Mouse Inspired Pom Pom Hat

My latest creation: Minnie Mouse Inspired Pom Pom Hat. This was inspired by a picture I saw on Pinterest that I saw and wanted to crochet and add something to it.  I decided on making this hat similar to the crochet Minnie Mouse hat that I have seen on the internet via Pintrest & Etsy.   I wanted to do something different that would hopefully make my designs stand out to other who would be interested in this hat or other hats.  Eventually I will make an actually Minnie & Mickey Mouse Inspired hats but, until then I will enjoy making this cute pom pom hat for friends, family and customers.  

I an hoping to get the pattern written to make available to purchase.  I currently have one hat available (already made - not custom made to order). This hat is size 6-12 Months. If interested in purchasing this hat, please feel free to contact me or click on link to purchase via my etsy website @ B~Wear Designs.   

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First Crochet Slipper/Shoe

I have been wanting for some time to attempt to make crochet shoes.  For some reason, it has been daunting to me and I have been somewhat afraid of trying to crochet shoes, slippers and boots.   I've looked online and even bought several patterns.  Over the past few days, I have been really wanting to do this, so no time like today to attempt my first crochet slipper/shoes.  My kids are on Spring Break and left today for a few days with mother, her husband and I am sure having the time of their lives since I haven't heard from them yet.  Hopefully, they made it there safely.  It's been a quiet day and I've been able to work on a pattern I recently bought over the internet of Etsy.  I only made one today but, I thought I would share with you guys what I have made so far and my progress when the shoes are complete.  I am wanting to wear these outdoors so I will be attempting some things I learned through some patterns I bought as well as adding liners to the inside.  I hoping they turn out okay. Regardless, I will still post the the steps along the way and the finished product.  I purchased the the Lola Slippers Pattern from Mamachee Patterns by Tara Murray.  She's got cute patterns for those who like to crochet.  

Here are pictures of my first crochet slipper/shoes ~~~~~>  I don't think it is perfect but, not too shabby for the first time crocheting slippers.  

Peanut Butter-Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yesterday was the beginning of my kids Spring Break.  Since they got out early, they had two friends ride the bus home with them to have a play date.  My son was so busy they he didn't get his usual "quality" time with his mommy.  After dinner, my daughter was laying with me and my little boy was not happy about it, so I told him I would put him to bed and read him a story, that pleased him.  So, as I was getting ready to leave, I asked him if we should make cookies tomorrow.  He said yes.  I asked if chocolate chip cookies would be okay and he said yes.  Then he also wanted me to make peanut butter cookies as well.  He said I've done it before and that was for  parties and other events.  So, today I decide to compromise and make jumbo cookies from a recipe that I found searching the internet that I wanted to try by the Brown Eyed Baker.


Here is her recipe:    
Peanut Butter-Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1 stick (½ cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup creamy peanut butter
½ cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
½ cup rolled oats
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
DIRECTIONS:

1 teaspoon baking soda

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

2. Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.

3. On medium speed, cream together the butter, peanut butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and beat to combine. On low speed, gradually add the flour until just combined. Stir in the oats, and then the chocolate chips.

4. Use a large cookie scoop (3 tablespoons) and drop dough onto prepared baking sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake for 10 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly golden. Cool completely on the baking sheet and then store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Her recipe says to try using her Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies shaping technique.  I used my ice cream scoop to make these jumbo cookies.   Mine didn't turn out like hers and I tried doing the shaping technique and just scooping them on the sheet and flattened the a bit.  Both turned out big and taste the same.  My daughter came in as they were cooling on the cookie rack and said "Wow those are really big cookies".  I have to agree with her and I enjoyed one for a snack this afternoon with a nice glass of milk.  

B~Wear Designs News Creations - Patterns

Recently, I have been attempting to write my patterns do in order to sell them to the public.  Currrently I have two patterns for sale and in the process of writing more.  I currently make unique hats for children of all ages and adults.  I am expanding this year and adding more to my line such as cowls and scarves.

The two patterns I have written for sale  are  The Jake & The Neverland Pirates Iinspired Hat and Diseny's the Little Mermaid Inspired Ariel Hat.  

The Jake & the Neverland Pirates Inspired hat was made for a little boy from our church to give as a gift for his birthday this year.  He is a big fan this Disney Channel's cartoon.   I wasn't sure what to get him and I like to give hand crafted presents whenever possible.  Plus something that is different and original.  I decided to write the pattern down as I was making the hat for him and thought that I would attempt to share and sell with others since this seems to be a popular with the little kids.  

The Ariel hat was one of my first creations to make on my own.  I started of selling them on my B~Wear Designs Etsy shop.  I had several requests for patterns and decided that I should probably write the pattern down and add it to my shop.  

As it does take time to make and write the patterns as I go, I will be posting/adding them to my shop as they are finished.  Here is are links to these patterns:  Jake Pattern & Ariel Pattern.  I also thought I would try other avenues to reach others to purchase my patterns and Ravelry is a great site to find patterns to purchase as well as free patterns.  I am now a new designer on the website:  http://www.ravelry.com/designers/bwear-designs.  

I am currently working on an Anna Hat inpsired by Disney's Frozen for a customer and writing the pattern down as well.  Will have an update when this pattern is available.  However this hat can be found on my Etsy site:  Frozen's Inspired Anna Hat

Disney's Frozen Inspired Elsa Hat

This past weekend we took our children on Valentine's Day to see Frozen.  As a result of seeing the movie with the slight nudge of my daughter's request.  I made a Elsa Inspired Hat.  My son would also like for me to make an Olaf hat and we shall see what happens in the near future.  Stay tuned to my blog as I would like to make some changes to the hat and there will be another version and I have plans for an Anna Inspired Hat.  If you are interested check out my Etsy site: B~Wear Designs

B~Wear Designs: Frozen's Elsa Inspired Hat

Goats

Sometime during the summer of 2013 we decided that we would look into raising goats.  The main purpose was to be able to basically do the clearing and weeding of parts of our property.  I started thinking of other things that I could do to supplement our income now that I am at stay at home mom.  Since, my husband wanted to add goats to the list of things we do, I thought it would be good that we could make goat milk products, soaps and lotions and then venture off from there.  I told him & he followed through with his idea.  So, in August of 2013 we bought our first milking goat, a Nubian mix.  Her name is Edith.

My husband wanted to add more so, we went down to Cameron, MO to add to our small heard and picked up 3 more goats.  We went to pick up a Kiko goat, we named her Cameron and ended up with two more Texmaster goats, a set of twins which we named Penny & Jenny.  Sadly we lost one of them, Penny to an illness.  

Later on we bought to more male goats.  A pure breed Nubian goat named Lyons to breed with our goats. Then we goat a fainting goat, named Fritz.  I was finally able to get the fainting goat I wanted.  He doesn't faint as easily one expects but, we has done so, it is quite funny I have to admit.  I don't have pictures of those two at the moment.  I am mostly like to share more later on as I experience the life of raising goat on our farm.  We have since moved the goats to the barn area for the winter and in hopes that we will be adding to our small heard in the near future.  This is a whole new deal for us.  I hope you will enjoy reading about our experiences with raising animals on the Boyce Family Homestead.  

Quick & Easy Tablet & Smart Phone Holder

This past weekend, I received a message from my nephew wondering what my son was up to and wanted to Skype with him.  So, I need something to hold my Kindle Fire up so that they could video chat and I looked around my living room.  Oddly enough I still had these hanging up.  

We don't do much decorating for the Christmas Season but, I do occasionally hang a few decorations up for the kids.  I had the stocking mantle hanger bought to hang stuff up to display my crocheted items at crafts show and winter markets in the area.  Then, decided to use them for the kids stockings since they were being unused in the house.  Now, it is getting used as something useful for everyday use.  This also good to use in the kitchen when looking at recipes while your are baking or cooking.  I took pictures of my husband's Nexus to share with you guys how I used this as a stand.  He used it while cooking pasta sauce this weekend as well.  I hope to share with you guys the recipe we use one day in the future.

Home Made Lotion

Well, it is the time of year where I suffer from dry itchy skin.  I wanted to give a stab at making my own lotions. We recently purchased 5 goats, this past fall and two of them are milking goats.  I wanted to make a goat milk lotion as we have the goats but, that will have to wait since my milking goats are not producing milk.   So, I am looking forward to all the products that I can make from goat milk.  Soaps, Lotions, Cheese and much more.  So, until then, I thought I would just look and find something from store bought items and see how that worked.  I found a recipe by  Creatively Southern for the Cure for Dry Winter Skin.  

This recipes says that it makes eight 8 ounce wide mouth Ball canning jars.  She made these as gifts which is a good idea but, for myself, I didn't want that much so I cut the recipe in half. Plus I wanted to see if I liked the lotion before I made more of it.   I wanted to know if it really worked on my dry winter skin, especially on my back, one of favorite products is my bear claw back scratcher.  

Here’s what you’ll need for a Large Batch of Lotion or you can do what I did & cut the recipe in half.  I used my weight scale to get the amounts needed.  You can get all these ingredients at Wal-Mart instead of driving around to different stores.  

(8) - 8 ounce wide mouth Ball canning jars 

27 oz. bottle of baby lotion 

7 oz. Aquaphor or generic brand therapeutic ointment.  

(2)-4 oz. containers of Fruit of the Earth Vitamin E cream

8 oz. extra virgin coconut oil (the solidified kind).

This is a simple recipe to follow.   Just mix everything in a large mixing bowl. I used my hand mixer to combine everything until it was smooth and creamy. This can take a while.  Mine still ended up a bit lumpy from the solidified coconut oil, I think if and when I make this recipe that I will put the coconut oil in the microwave a bit.

When everything is smooth and creamy, spoon the mixture over into your jars and that’s it!   I had enough to fill almost two containers that I found around the house.  I have no verdict on whether or not this works for me or not.  I shall update later when I have been using this lotion for some time.  

  

Southern Pecan Pie Muffins

 I love pecan pie and in my immediate family consisting of my husband and two children, I am the only one who will eat pecan pie.  So, in efforts to not having to eat a whole pie by myself, I thought I would give this recipe for Southern Pecan Pie Muffins by the Country Cook  a try that I found the other evening looking through Pinterest.  I will say that I have a long list of pins of recipes that I want to try.  This is one I wanted to try and share with you guys.  

Southern Pecan Pie Muffin & Home Made Yogurt 

So, this morning I had a pecan pie muffin along side my home made yogurt which will be another post when I make more yogurt after I run out and need to make more.  I loved the muffins and I am glad the recipe only makes 9 so I don't have to eat a bunch.  Well, maybe a little sad that it only makes 9 since I could eat more.  One can always double the recipe, right?  These muffins aren't pecan pie but, they are a good substitute.  This recipe is definitely a keeper.  Thanks to The Country Cook for posting this recipe.  The only problem I had was that my cupcake liner stuck to the muffin even though as the recipe indicated I sprayed the cupcake liners as well.  I am not sure what happened or what I did wrong.  Oh well.  That prompted me to order some silicone cupcake liners off of Amazon.  

For those who are interested, Here is what you need to do:

PRINTABLE RECIPE

You will need: 

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup brown sugar, packed (dark or light brown)

1 cup chopped pecans

2 large eggs

11 tbsp. real butter (about 1 1/3 sticks), melted

Preheat your oven to 350F degrees.

Place 9 cupcake paper liners into regular muffin pan and spray each of the liners with nonstick cooking spray (this will make 9 muffins).

In a bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar and pecans until mixed well.

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs until foamy 

and then add melted butter. Stir well.

   Combine the egg mixture with the flour mixture. 

Stir until moistened.

Spoon the batter into the cups. You will need to fill them to almost full.  There is no leavening agent (like baking powder or baking soda) in these to make them rise real high. Bake for about 20-25 minutes.  Bake until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. 

Fresh out of the oven

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Here is the finished product all nice and pretty and ready for me to eat

What went wrong? The muffin stuck to the liner.  I can say what I was able to eat was very tasty.  

UPDATE:    Use silicone liners, I purchased my Silicone Baking Cups on Amazon.    Muffins stick to the paper liners and not these.  :)