make your own bunting

make your own bunting, a photo by cupcakes for clara on Flickr.

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Pocket Full of Love Pillow

Pocket Full of Love Pillow
Originally uploaded by Michelle Engel Bencsko | Cloud9 Fabrics

Nature Walk, 100% certified organic cotton fabric from Cloud9 Fabrics.

TUTORIAL

biscuit tutorial

biscuits are a great alternative to bread, are so yummy & super easy to make:
1. Ingredients:
2 cups flour (white or whole wheat)
4.5 tsp baking powder
.5 tsp salt
3 tbsp butter (or margarine)
1 cup milk
2. preheat oven to 450F
3. mix all the dry ingredients really well
4. add the butter; I like to melt it first (in the microwave) to make it easier to mix
5. first, mix with a wooden spoon,
6. then with your hands,
7. until it's all mixed together well.
8. make a hole in the center of the bowl, with your fingers, and slowly pour the milk in the hole
9. mix. sprinkle some more flour in, if the dough seems too sticky.
10. put the glob of dough on a floured wooden surface, like a cutting board.

11. knead the dough for a minute or so; then press out flat (use your fingers if you wish as opposed to using a rolling pin) approx .5 to .75 inch thick
12. spray your cookie sheet with cooking spray (spray butter), and rub it so that the entire sheet is coated. you can use your hand or a piece of saran wrap or wax paper, if desired
13. use a regular drinking glass to cut out your biscuits. dip it in flour and twist it so that the rim is almost covered

14. cut out circles of dough, with the cup; be sure to dip in your flour before each cut.
15. lay each biscuit on the cookie sheet. when you have 11 biscuits made, I like to take the remaining dough and form it into a round shape, similar to the others.
16. put in oven,
17. for 12-15 minutes; set a timer if you have one
18. remove from oven when they are golden brown and have raised

19. cool on a wire rack
20. and you are finished! what will you put on yours? butter or homemade strawberry jam??

how to embroider words onto fabric

it is, really, a simple process to embroider text or words onto fabric. You could do this on anything from children's clothes, a tote bag, towels, bed linen, etc. Today, I have decided to embroider on a quilt I am making.

supplies needed:
- fabric
- embroidery hoop (wooden or nylon)
- ruler (optional)
- pencil (optional)
- embroidery floss
- sewing needle
- paper & printer
- tweezers (optional)

1. Find the spot on the fabric where you want your words to be & get your embroidery hoop ready. If your fabric does not already have lines on it, it may be helpful to lightly draw a line in pencil with a ruler.
2. add the embroidery loop,
3. loosen the clasp, slightly, and pull the fabric so that it's tight in the loop, re-tighten the clasp. The fabric should be almost "springy" when you tap on it.
4. be sure that the line(s) is as straight as possible
5. go onto a document program on your computer, such as Word, and find a font that you like & print out the word(s) you want to embroider. remember: the more fancy the font, the more you'll have to stitch. a thinner font is better than a wide, or bolded one. trim the paper, leaving a little room around the words.
6. using lots of straight pins, pin the paper onto the fabric, using your line as a guide
7. choose your embroidery floss in the color you want to use. if stitching on light fabric, use a darker color and vise verse. i chose a yummy grass green.
8. cut the floss to length (approx 15 inches), and split in half. you will be using 3 threads to embroider with. be careful to take your time so that the string does not end up in a knot
9. thread the needle and knot the end with 2 or 3 knots, cut the tail
10. start stitching using small stitches and working from one end of the letter to the other, then working your way back to where you started to complete the letter. while embroidering, you are perforating the paper to make things easier later on
11. when stitching on a light colored fabric and using darker floss, i like to tie off each letter, when finished, so that a "line" does not show through the front where you went to your next letter. you can skip this step, if you are using dark fabric and light thread
12. when you are finally finished all of your letters, remove the straight pins

13. very carefully, tear away the paper. be sure to get all the little pieces in between the letters. if you don't have small fingers, sometimes tweezers will also be helpful to get those little pieces out

14. remove the embroidery hoop and you are finished!

How to make Pumpkin Puree

1. Peel and cut up your pumpkin(s), removing the seeds

2. Steam the pumpkin for about 15 minutes

3. Put the pumpkin into a blender or food processor, I added cinnamon just because I add cinnamon to almost everything :P

4. Blend pumpkin until smooth

5. Finished! just like in a can! You can freeze for later, if desired.