You Can Call Me Gwen

I can say no...

 

...to the cupcakes I bake, and the brownies Miss Helping Hands bakes.

I can say no to the donuts and bagels which often appear on the break-room table at work.

I can say no to homemade cookies, and I can even say no to the chocolate birthday cakes I (often!) have to bake.

But, I'm having a real hard time with biscotti.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to try the recipe posted by Angry Chicken (I enjoy her blog very much)..

Aye yi yi.

I've now tried seven different flavor combinations using this basic biscotti recipe.

Today I decided to make a couple of varieties as a gift to a friend who has a pile of out-of-town company this week.

I made chocolate chip with orange rind.

 

 

This is delicious.

 

I made almond with cranberries (Craisins).

 

 

This is delicious, too.

Then Miss Helping Hands made a batch with crushed peppermints and coated one side with chocolate.

I didn't get a good photograph, but Prince Charming (who is our died-in-the-wool chocolate lover) says it was really good.

Yikes.

Maybe it's because it's not overly sweet that I find it difficult to stop once I start eating this stuff.

I don't know.

But I served it to a Dear Reader recently, and now she is having biscotti-baking binges, too.

I think you're just going to have to go visit Angry Chicken and try this recipe for yourself.

I use half wheat and half white flour, as she suggests.

And if you want to know my very most favoritest flavor combination so far, it's lime zest and vanilla.

Yum.

Go forth and bake.

You guys rock.

 

Seriously.

Your recycling suggestions on the last post were great.

I've tried most of them out, too!

I don't think I have photos of them all (I was giving them away as fast as I was making them at first), but I do have some to share.

Dear Reader sarahrosevancamp suggested using maps or trail guides as book covers, and letting the young campers use their books as journals.

I made some covers from both.

I really liked the maps.

I was trying to get the national forests and parks in the ones I made for the lovely VanCampers.

 

 

And, of course, I had to get our fair city on the cover of one of them.

 

 

When you have to cut from a large paper like a map, overlay an 8 1/2" x 11' sheet of transparent paper and move it around (until you can see that the images you want will be on the front cover) before cutting.  

 

 

I love using the paper beads on these - picking through that growing pile of color to find just the right bead - but it does mean they can't be mailed as easily (read: inexpensively).

The trail guides were published on 8 1/2" x 11" paper, with landscape orientation, so I just reversed the folds and made these books wider than they are long.

The photos were perfectly placed for the covers that way.

 

 

I'll probably go back and add beads, even though I am mailing these, because, well, I just have to.

Dear Reader mAuRa suggested recycling a catalog or magazine cover.

I used the cover of a September 1952 Better Homes and Gardens magazine to make her little giftlet.

 

 

 

 

That lead, of course, to leafing through the magazine, and I decided to make a few book covers from some of the ads featured therein.

 

 
Since Dear Reader Kristen suggested using food magazines or cookbooks to make the cover (and filling it with recipes for a wedding shower), I thought one of these might do the trick.

 

 

I didn't get a photo, but it just happened to work out that the back sides of these have recipes from the magazine on them.

Dear Reader Auntie Chickie suggested using a Farmers Almanac or a beloved PeeChee folder (any of you remember those?), but I didn't have either of those on hand.

Since my supply of vintage magazines came from her, I think I will have to send her one of these, instead.

Dear Reader Fran suggested old photos, greeting cards, or paperback book covers, but I didn't have anything along those lines that was large enough.

Instead, I used a page from my old handwriting workbook to make her cover.

 

 

 

Dear Reader Annski suggested using old calendar covers, but then she came to play in Gwen's studio, and she brought me one she'd made for me before I could get around to doing it myself.

Isn't this a most cheerful little book?

 

 

Dear Reader Jenny suggested grocery sacks or coffee bags.

I think if I had coffee bags big enough to make myself a book cover, I would be sniffing it all the time, instead of writing in it.

Grocery sacks I do have, and I love things made from the humble brown 'poke'.

I'm sorry I don't have any photos of that, but Dear Reader Jenny will have her own soon.

Thanks again, for all your suggestions.

And a big thank you, too, to each of you who have asked me to please hurry up and post again.

I have been unbelievably busy these past few months and, since I have missed writing, it's nice to know that I've been missed as well.

Now, in the 'totally unrelated' column of today's post, I want to show you this photo:

 

 

I call it "Little Man's Trail".

He was visiting last Sunday, and having a little afternoon snack of iced coffee and popcorn.

He knows he can't take food out of the kitchen, but something was pulling his attention elsewhere.

He abandoned the coffee first.

Then the popcorn.

And the shoes must've been slowing him down.

I love it.

And I love this:

 

That Big Man on the right used to play with these same Legos when he was the size of the Little Man on the left.

But I think I gave him too much to eat, because he got, like, really big and tall and stopped playing with Legos.

And now...

...I will sign off with this little teaser photo of what's coming next:

 

 

I'm making something(s) from my growing collection of paper beads and Scrabble tiles.

And this is the clean part of my kitchen table.

Rubberband Books

 

 

I have a little book-making tutorial for you, courtesy of the lovely Miss B (of Zentangle fame).

When our D'Art group got together to play on the 8th of July, we got to make paper beads with Able Baker Dana and rubberband books with Miss B.

Definitely an inchie moment (hour? day?).

 

 

 

It was so easy-peasy to make these books, and they make such lovely little gifts, that I thought I'd just share the how-to with all of you Dear Readers.

Here are the supplies you will need:

 - One sheet of 8 1/2" x 11" paper for the cover (you can use cardstock, scrapbook paper, even something from your recycling bin...the possibilities are endless)

 - One or two sheets of 8 1/2" x 11" copy-weight paper

 - One #19 rubberband

 - A bone folder (you can use  a tongue depressor)

 - A scissors or a paper cutter

 - A bit of glue (or some glue dots or double stick tape)

Ready?

It's nice if you can start with a piece of paper for the cover that you think is...

  

 

 

Since my paper was 12" x 12", I had to do a little trimming to make it the correct size.

Of course, I didn't just make a straight cut to trim that extra inch off one edge...

 

 
 

...because I'm still in a manic paper-bead-making phase, with no end in sight.

Once the paper was the correct size, I just followed these instructions:

Step 1. Fold your cover paper in a 'hot dog' fold (long edges together) with the front side facing out and make a nice crease with your bone folder.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, you might notice that my paper is upside down here, and that's important.

I made these next important creases all wrong (several times) when I was using paper which had text (or a design needing a particular orientation).

If you stick with me, you'll see that you need to be careful at this point if you are using paper like this for your cover.

Step 2.  Open your paper and fold the bottom two corners in to meet the middle crease (I don't know why I had to confuse you by turning my paper upside down so that I had to fold the top two corners)....

 

 

 

...and press with your bone folder.

Step 3. Now fold the paper in a 'hamburger' fold, bringing the point to the center of the top edge like this...

 

 

 

...and press that bottom crease with your bone folder. 

Step 4.  Place glue dots or a small piece of double-stick tape (or a bit of glue) to hold the inner pockets closed...

 

 

 

 

...and fold your book closed along the original hot dog fold.

Your cover is almost finished!

Step 5.  To make inner pages, hamburger fold a piece of copy weight paper, and crease along the fold.

 

 

 

Step 6. Now cut 1/4" off the folded edge like this...

 



 

...and a generous 1/4" off one short edge like this:







Step 6. Fold your pages (short edge to short edge) and crease.



 



You can make pages from any copy weight paper, and the beauty of this little notebook is that the pages can be replaced any time.

If you happen to have a friend who loves graph paper every bit as much as you do, and you happen to be planning to give her a little notebook next time you see her, you might want to add some pages made from graph paper.







Step 7.  You're going to snip a little bit off the cover at the folded corners, so the rubberband can meet and hold the inside pages in place.

I center my inner pages along the outside of the cover and hold them in place while I snip off the corners...

 







...like this:



 

 

 




Step 8.  Now just line the center creases of your inner pages up with the center crease of your inside book cover and slip a #19 rubberband into place like this:







Et voila!







You have a nice little refillable notebook!

You can tuck a few index cards inside the pockets, too.







Do you love it?







Now, when we made these in 'class', we also made one which was not refillable.

We used a needle and thread to sew the 'signature' of inner pages into the notebook.

I loved the fact that we could dress up the book by adding paper beads to the tails of the thread on the outside of the book.

In fact, I loved it so much that I decided I couldn't do without it, even though I wanted this book to be refillable. 

So, I just removed the pages, sewed the book cover together so I could add the beads, and then put the pages and rubberband back in place.

Now I really love it!

 







( If you notice that I clipped the outer edges of my book cover, even though it wasn't necessary from a functional standpoint, well...it's just because I've got this problem with symmetry.)

Another wonderful thing about these little notebooks is that they fit perfectly into a standard A2 envelope so you can mail them (minus the beads, of course).

I made several for Me Darlin' Mither to mail to her friends (in a lot less time than it took me to write this post).

Think of the potential uses for a nifty little book design like this (Thank you, Miss B!).

What a kewl thing to make with kids the first day of a vacation or a week at camp so they could use it as a journal or an autograph book.

I'm really wanting to make some of these using old phone book or atlas covers for cover paper.

I think there is a lot of paper floating in and out of our lives which could be recycled with this project.

I'm going to send one of these to you if you give me a suggestion for a recycled book cover for which I actually have the material on hand.   offer expired 8/1/2011

Okay?

Okay.

A Book Themed Wedding Shower

 

And now...

Back by popular demand...

The Inchies, ladies and gentlemen!

Actually, there hasn't been any demand, popular or otherwise, but I do have two and a half month's worth of unposted inchies...along with all their back stories.

Seems like I should know how this happened, but I really can't remember much, except that I had my gears in overdrive for a lot of May and June.

So, anywho...

Because this little blog really does serve as a log for me, I'm going to round up some of those inchies and kind of bounce back and forth from past to present for awhile in my posts.

Today I'm looking back on part of May...

Someone I love is getting married, and I had the privilege of being one of the hosts of a wedding shower for he and his bride in May.

On and off during the month, I worked on decorative details for the shower.

I already showed you the invitations...

 

 

 

...though I don't know if they were complete at the time.

Once the invitations were in the mail, I got serious about making decorations for the shower.

Because we were trying for a casual and comfortable atmosphere, but wanted to have something pretty for the tradition-embracing bride, we decided on sack lunches for dinner, but something beyond the brown bag.

Imagine how thrilled I was to discover the perfect napkins to do the job for us!

 

 

 

This little business of having sack lunches (croissant sandwiches, fruit, chips) prepared - along with help-yourself drinks on ice and tiered trays of pretty cupcakes - really left all the hostesses free to enjoy the evening, and the guests free to eat whenever they wished.

It was perfect.

And finding the napkins and being inspired with the design was my perfect inchie moment for the day.

 

  

 

After that was figured out, I turned my attention to Phase II of the paper dogwood blossoms.

For the shower, I wanted to use book pages for some of the blossoms, along with the 'natural white' paper, so I scouted the thrift stores and made a couple of great finds.

One book was titled, "Flowers for You", and was a collection of scriptures and stories for the various seasons of life.

 

 

I considered it a bonus that this book was printed with brown ink; highly unusual, and so much 'gentler' for the blossoms.

The other book was titled, "I, Isaac, Take Thee, Rebekah" ; a scriptural look at love and marriage by one of my favorite speaker/authors, Ravi Zacharias (it was difficult to cut that one up, but I knew my "adopted" son would appreciate the details; which he did).

I left the leaves off one of the branches and used it as a guest book at the shower; letting each of the guests sign a leaf as they came in, and then attaching them to the branch with glue dots (I love me some glue dots).

 

 

 

 

 

  

Also at the entry table were the name tags which were made using the leftover paper from the invitations (the bride was meeting many of the guests for the first time).

Because we were using books (one of the bride and groom's great common interests) and flowers to decorate for this shower, I was really happy to find I had the perfect rubber stamp on my shelf for the name tags.

 



 

Completing this pretty little detail was the inchie moment for May 13.





 

The night before the shower (gasp!) I remembered I was planning to make a wreath for the front door using an idea from this great book. 

I am so glad I remembered and had the time to make it - with Miss Helping Hands' help - because I loved it.

We used every page from this book...

  

 

...along with a few sheets of green patterned paper (which previously served as placemats on the tea table) to make the wreath. 

I started by running my ink pad (and I'm totally loving this color and it's name - Pear Tart, dig it) along all the edges of the book.







 

Then we took all the pages out of the book and starting rolling them into cones.

Since I was behind the eight ball on this project, I completely forgot to stop and take pictures (but the step-by-step instructions are in the book).

Some of the pages were rolled from the long edge, and some from the short.

They were stapled at the narrow end and some more color was added by just lightly running the ink pad along some of the points and sides.

Then they were glued in circular rows to a large round piece of cardboard.

I remembered to take one other picture while we were working (probably when I realized we were going to get it done and I started breathing again).





 

Somewhere around the point when I started breathing again, I also realized I was growing faint from hunger.

Miss Helping Hands kept telling me to "Stop and eat. You need some protein, Mom."

I finally said yes to her offer to reheat a barbecued hamburger patty.

I guess she thought it was a pathetic sight all by it's lonesome on the plate, because this is what she brought to me:







I'll bet you've never had mustard served to you in such an artistic fashion.

Don't be jealous; you can copy this if you want to.

All I ask is that you give Miss Helping Hands the creative credit when you post your pictures.

Bwahahaha.

Once we had all the cones on the board, I had to do a little digging around on-line (I was grateful for Facebook at this point) to locate a photograph to personalize the center.

The addition of a few small blossoms finished the job.




 

I had Miss Helping Hands hold it so you could get an idea of the size; I had no idea it would be so large.

 

 


...but it was perfect for the door.





 

The shower, on May 20, was wonderful.







Just like the bride and groom for whom it was given.

It's only 93 degrees today? Let's bake!

 

 

Since I returned from that wonderful vacation (about which I have not yet posted), I have been making a real effort to leave one or two 'unscheduled' days a month on my calendar.

By that, I mean I'm trying not to make plans ahead of time for every single day I have off work.

It's been a real exercise for me, but I'm convinced that I'll die early (or just seize up some day) if I don't learn how to relax.

Today was an unscheduled day.

And it happened to be Miss Helping Hands' day off, too.

I asked, "Whatcha doin' today?"

She answered, "No plans until tonight."

I said, "We should make something."

She said, "You mean, like, bake something?"

"Yeah."

"Muffins! I want muffins!"

We looked at our supplies and realized we didn't have the ingredients for any of her favorite muffins.

So we made three other kinds, instead.

We started with a recipe for blueberry yogurt muffins, which we adapted, because we had no blueberries and we wanted to use the vanilla yogurt we had on hand.

 We added some peach jam (the last little jar from last summer's canning) to the yogurt to make the full cup the recipe called for.

And we added some orange juice concentrate to substitiute for orange zest.

While Miss Helping Hands got the muffins into the oven, I whipped some of the peach jam into some softened butter and let it re-form in the freezer.

 

 

 

When the muffins came out, hot from the oven, the skinny girl's plate looked like this:

 

 

 

You really need a close-up so your mouth can water.

 

 

 

The not-skinny girl's portion looked like this:

 

 

 

But, man was it yummmmmmy.

While the peach muffins were baking, Miss Helping Hands whipped up a batch of pumpkin chocolate chip muffins.

 

 

 

I confess to eating a mini...they are scrumptious.

I will not tell you what the skinny girl ate.

I don't really know.

While the pumpkin muffins were baking, I made a batch of granola from Alton Brown's recipe.

I've probably told you about his recipe before, but it bears repeating that it is delicious.

I didn't have any cashews on hand, so I subbed pecans, and I used molasses instead of maple syrup.

This stuff has to bake at 200 degrees for an hour and fifteen minutes.

My step aerobic workout routine takes an hour and ten minutes.

I was plenty hot by the time the granola and I were done...

 

 

 

...and I was plenty hungry, too.

But, first things first.

I made a batch of apple pie muffins with the apples we'd taken from the deep freeze when we first decided to bake today.

 

 

So.

Much.

Sugar.

I won't be eating these, but they look and smell wonderful, and I can imagine Me Darlin' Mither and the girls enjoying them like dessert.

I did have a cup of cantaloupe, with 4 ounces of Greek yogurt and a third of a cup of the freshly baked granola poured over it for lunch.

Oh.

My.

Yummy.

Goodness.

You need to try that for summer breakfast or lunch some day very soon.

Really, you do.

While we were finishing the clean-up from our 4 1/2 hour baking stint, I began to search for the most important item in the kitchen.

I couldn't find it anywhere.

Not on the counters.

Not in the dishwasher.

Not in the cupboard where I keep it.

I began to be "audibly concerned" about its whereabouts.

"Mom, take it easy, I'm trying to remember where I put it."

More frantic searching.

Aha!

"Hannah! It's way back here in the cabinet. I must have this kept right here with the drinking glasses."

Do you know what she said (under her breath)?

"Okaaaaaayy...I guess it's the summer of the big jar."

Well, yeah.

When the weather dishes up blistering 100+ degree days for weeks on end...

 

 

 

...I must have my afternoon coffee on ice.

Lots of ice.

Sun and Surf Cupcakes

 

 

I know these look like white cupcakes...

 

 

 

...but they are actually small pieces of planet Earth.

And these may look like peppermint candies...

 

 

 

...but they are actually beach balls.

This appears to be my container of brown sugar...

 

 

 

...but it's really sand.

This looks like blue-tinted icing, doesn't it?

 

 

 

You just have to use a little bit of imagination to see that it's ocean water.

When you add these little beauties that look like cocktail picks,...

 

 

 

... but which are actually beach umbrellas...

...and you put them all together in just the right way...

 

 

 

...you get a little dessert that looks an awful lot like a day at the beach.

And, golly, don't I love a day at the beach?

Roll Your Own

Let's not discuss how long it's been since I posted here.

Let's not discuss how many inchies have not made it to this blog.

And, whatever we do, let's not discuss the weather.

The 'too-many-days-over-100-degrees' weather.

Let's talk about paper beads, instead.

Because (though I've been busy with a variety of things), last Friday when my D'Art group got together to play (it's summah!), the lovely Able Baker Dana joined us and headed up a little paper bead workshop.

I haven't been able to stop making them since then.

Perhaps it's because I can never tell just how a bead will turn out before I start making it.

Perhaps it's because they don't require any supplies that I don't already have (plenty of).

 

 

 

Got this stuff on hand?

 - white glue

 - clear nail polish (the glittery kind is nice, too)

 - a 'winding wire' (this one is the kind used by utility companies to plant flags)

 - decorative papers or colorful magazine pages

 - a nice wet cloth

Here is one way to make paper beads.

 First, cut a bunch of paper strips...

 

 

 

...in triangles at least 10" long...

 

 

 

...(you can even use the 'selvedge' from your decorative papers).

 

 

 

Then, start at the wide end of one strip and wind it (nice and tightly) around the rod.

When you get about 3" from the skinny end, ...

 

 

 

...run a little glue along the remaining paper before you finish winding it up.

Then grab your bottle of white glue,...

 

 

 

...glop some on the bead...

 

 

 

...and just smooth it all over the bead with your fingers (now you know why you need the wet cloth).

(Don't worry about getting glue on the wire; the beads will still move along the wire easily.)

Now, just move the bead down to one end of your wire to dry while you wrap the next one.

When you have your wire almost full, use your clear nail polish to give all the beads a nice protective coating.

 

 

 

Able Baker Dana recommends three coats of polish, but I'm here to tell ya I stopped at two and am hoping there won't be any severe repercussions.

It doesn't take long to make a nice little pile of beads.

 

 

 

And it really is interesting to see how the different papers look once they are rolled.

This bead was made from a leopard print paper:

 

 

 

And you can see that if you vary the width of your triangles, you get some nice variance in bead size.

 

 

 

Sometimes I worry about my obsessive/compulsive tendancies with these sorts of things.

I worry about why I am compelled to make so many of some things before I can feel settled.

But, you know what I've noticed?

There always seems to be a blessing in them for someone eventually.

In this case, it didn't take long to see who would that someone would be.

Little Man was here last night, and he sat for a long while, with real concentration...

 

 

 

...and made a nice long string of paper beads.

 

 

 

So.

I got the blessing on this one.

Roll Your Own

Let's not discuss how long it's been since I posted here.

Let's not discuss how many inchies have not made it to this blog.

And, whatever we do, let's not discuss the weather.

The 'too-many-days-over-100-degrees' weather.

Let's talk about paper beads, instead.

Because (though I've been busy with a variety of things), last Friday when my D'Art group got together to play (it's summah!), the lovely Able Baker Dana joined us and headed up a little paper bead workshop.

I haven't been able to stop making them since then.

Perhaps it's because I can never tell just how a bead will turn out before I start making it.

Perhaps it's because they don't require any supplies that I don't already have (plenty of).

 

 

 

Got this stuff on hand?

 - white glue

 - clear nail polish (the glittery kind is nice, too)

 - a 'winding wire' (this one is the kind used by utility companies to plant flags)

 - decorative papers or colorful magazine pages

 - a nice wet cloth

Here is one way to make paper beads.

 First, cut a bunch of paper strips...

 

 

 

...in triangles at least 10" long...

 

 

 

...(you can even use the 'selvedge' from your decorative papers).

 

 

 

Then, start at the wide end of one strip and wind it (nice and tightly) around the rod.

When you get about 3" from the skinny end, ...

 

 

 

...run a little glue along the remaining paper before you finish winding it up.

Then grab your bottle of white glue,...

 

 

 

...glop some on the bead...

 

 

 

...and just smooth it all over the bead with your fingers (now you know why you need the wet cloth).

(Don't worry about getting glue on the wire; the beads will still move along the wire easily.)

Now, just move the bead down to one end of your wire to dry while you wrap the next one.

When you have your wire almost full, use your clear nail polish to give all the beads a nice protective coating.

 

 

 

Able Baker Dana recommends three coats of polish, but I'm here to tell ya I stopped at two and am hoping there won't be any severe repercussions.

It doesn't take long to make a nice little pile of beads.

 

 

 

And it really is interesting to see how the different papers look once they are rolled.

This bead was made from a leopard print paper:

 

 

 

And you can see that if you vary the width of your triangles, you get some nice variance in bead size.

 

 

 

Sometimes I worry about my obsessive/compulsive tendancies with these sorts of things.

I worry about why I am compelled to make so many of some things before I can feel settled.

But, you know what I've noticed?

There always seems to be a blessing in them for someone eventually.

In this case, it didn't take long to see who would that someone would be.

Little Man was here last night, and he sat for a long while, with real concentration...

 

 

 

...and made a nice long string of paper beads.

 

 

 

So.

I got the blessing on this one.