DIY: Fun with Tiny Animals

Remember those tiny plastic animals you used to play with as a kid? They would come in those skinny tubes- all sorts of farm animals, or exotic...even dinosaurs! I absolutely loved those little guys. They provided endless hours of entertainment in my childhood.

Well it turns out you can still have fun with them as an adult! Pinterest has been blowing up with fun DIY projects using these little toys, and it caught my eye. I splurged and bought a GIANT tube of farm animals at Target. Yesterday, after spending 2 days in because of the snow, I decided to get a little creative and do some DIY with these animals. I ended up making myself a ring dish (Mikie, sadly, broke our bathroom ring dish last week, so I needed a replacement) and I dressed up a couple of picture frames. I'm really excited with the outcome...it's got me hooked to tiny animal crafts!

For the ring dish I started with a plain candle dish from Ikea. I painted it a nice pale shade of blue, and set it aside to dry. Next I painted my animal of choice (I used a duck!) and set it aside to dry. Once everything was dry I used a tiny amount of Gorilla Glue to attach the duck. Technically you are supposed to hold down the item for about 30 minutes, but since it was new paint I didn't want to risk smudging it. I let it sit for a couple of hours and it dried just fine!

The finished product came out perfect!!

Next I took two plain picture frames from Ikea- put a couple of wedding photos in them (awwwww). I painted a few animals a neat shade of blue, and attached them the same way. They came out really cute!!

(sorry for the terrible photo...I meant to snap a better one!)

These two crafts were SUPER easy, but there's a few more things I want to make with these tiny animals. Stay posted and happy DIYing!! 

xoxo  Kate 

DIY Paper Flowers

Another snow day in the northeast has kept me home bound again. So I figure what better to do than to craft!

If you've spent anytime on pinterest, which I suspect you have, you've seen these wonderful paper flowers.

Well, a few years ago I was asked to decorate for a wedding, the bride was in love with the idea of paper flowers.

So there I was tasked with making bouquets, boutiners, corsages, center pieces the whole nine yards. I didn't know the first thing about making paper flowers, and I've always been terrible at origami, but after reading a lot of different blogs, and a lot of trial and error, a whole wedding was decorated and beautiful!

Well my friends, if you're ever asked to decorate a wedding, or you just want to make yourself some pretty flowers that wont wilt and die on you here is a quick little how to for you!

Theses roses are by far the easiest to make.

Depending on the size you want, start by cutting out a round piece of paper, and then cutting a spiral from the outside in.

Starting rolling inward.

When it has been rolled all the way in, depending on how you want the flower to look, tight little bud or a larger bloom, you can release the spiral a bit.

Glue the bottom of the flower, and hold it all together tightly.

And there you have it!

This next one takes a little but more work. I generally make these between 4-6 petals large.

Here are the steps.

Fold the paper into a triangle.

Remove the excess paper, you are left with a small square folded into a triangle.

Fold each corner into the top.

Now take each corner and fold them open.

Take the tops and fold them down.

And then fold them in on themselves

Fold the paper in half end to end.

Glue them together. A hot glue gun works much better, however today I was working with regular white glue so I used these clips to keep them together while they dried.

After these are dried glue them to each other until you have a full flower.

The end result can be beautiful!

With a little bit of creativity you can make these into bouquets, boutiners, corsages, anything you need!

I hope these DIY's were helpful! 

Happy crafting everyone!!!

Freshly Baked: Curious Traveler Apple Muffins

First off, I should introduce myself.

My name is Kate, and I am part of this crazy awesome team of crazy awesome and talented girls that simply want to make money doing fun things they love. In a nutshell.

Mostly I bake. I do some other things too, like the website stuff, but my first love is baking. Hannah & I have been trying to get our baking business off the ground for a while (mostly we've been planning it and dreaming of it), and I hope that this finally sticks.

Mostly I like to bake "healthier" things, alternatives to the typical heart attack inducing, fattening, delicious baked goods that your grandma makes. Don't get me wrong, those are pretty tasty. I've just always strived for the healthier. That way you can eat loads of sweets every day and not feel quite so bad about it. I've also developed stomach issues in the past year, so eating less fat and dairy is necessary.

Baking healthy has not always been easy. In fact, it's never easy. You never really know how things are going to turn out. I've made some pretty horrible things. I've thrown away plenty of batter, and had countless kitchen floor meltdowns. In the end it's all worth it, when you learn and you start to use the right substitutes. The very best part is when you bake something for the butter/egg/cream consuming person...and they actually like it, love it even! That makes it all worth it.

Today is snowed, again. I currently work as an Office Administrator at a private daycare center, which means: another snow day. Three weeks in a row now, we've had a snow day. I welcome them with open arms- an opportunity to clean the house, catch up on reading, and bake (and have time to clean the dishes, too!). Today I decided to make cupcakes...only to discover as they were cooling that I don't have any powdered sugar or any other ingredients to make frosting. (insert kitchen meltdown here) That's the great thing about cupcakes...they can very quickly become muffins!!

I based my muffins off of this recipe on Pinterest. Like all recipes I ever follow, I changed it to make it my own. Usually this happens in an effort to turn the recipe healthy...or because I don't have all the right ingredients. Heehee... Either way they came out pretty good. Not very sweet, but with a lovely apple-cinnamon flavor that is perfect heated up with a bit of earth balance or honey. Happy baking! I hope this recipe keeps you warm if you are also stuck in the snow!

Curious Traveler Apple Muffins

What's Inside: 

1/2 cup of earth balance, softened 

1/2 cup of vanilla greek yogurt 

1 1/3 cup of coconut sugar

2 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

Egg replacer for 3 eggs (I use Bob's Red Mill)

2 Apples- peeled and shredded

1 cup Curious Traveler Apple Ale

2 tsp. cinnamon 

1/2 tsp. nutmeg 

2 tsp. vanilla 

What I Did: 

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 

2. In your kitchen aid, beat the earth balance, yogurt and sugar until creamy. Add the egg replacer until well combined. 

3. Add in the dry ingredients. You might have to mix the last bit by hand- the batter gets rather thick and dry. Add the vanilla, turn the kitchen aid back on, and slowly add in the ale. The batter will get nice and creamy. Fold in the shredded apples. 

4. Using an ice cream scoop (totally the perfect size!), fill up your cupcake liners with the batter. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the muffins are firm and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. 

5. From here it's up to you if they stay muffins or turn into cupcakes, but either way store in an airtight container for a few days. 

Enjoy!