Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky!: January 2010

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Checking In

Hello! It has been awhile! Don't worry, baby, I still love you. We have been suffering from a baaaad stomach bug that has put a hold on my projects. On top of that, our Internet service has recently changed and it is affecting the connectivity of my desktop, so I have to work off of my sad, old laptop, and therefore I'm not getting online nearly as much as I usually do.

Boring! Boring!

Let's talk about artsy fartsies! First of all, I would like to formally introduce my new Flickr group! On a recent perusing of my site statistics, I discovered several blogs that had taken my tutorials and created some very cool stuff. I love seeing all of the variations on my projects, and getting feedback on what works and what doesn't so that I can improve on the tutorials in the future. The Flickr group is a place where you can show off any projects that you create based off of my tutorials, or anything that you see on this blog that inspires you. The reason I have this blog is to share my ideas, get ideas from other crafty folks, and to be part of a creative community. So if you have something to contribute to the Flickr pool, please don't be shy about posting!

What else? I hope to finish my very first quilt this week. As part of Disney's Give a Day, Get a Day program, I am making a quilt for Project Linus. I used a pattern from Amy Karol's Bend The Rules Sewing to make a quilt for a little boy. So far, so good. Although, I have some trouble keeping my stitches in the ditches, if you know what I mean! Maybe it would help if the light on my sewing machine worked, but my stitches kept straying from the ditches. Any seasoned quilters out there have any advice on this? Right now, I think it is probably just a matter of getting in more practice, practice, practice. I also read in Joelle Hoverson's Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts the suggestion to stitch next to the ditch, which maybe would be a better method for me.

And with that, I'm going to quit writing and start making some blanket binding while my baby sleeps so that I have something to show for myself this week!

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Homemade Donuts

I am a BIG fan of donuts and I have been wanting to make some myself for a long time, but it always seemed like a lot of work for something you can buy so cheaply. Then, I found a recipe online that seemed like it would be easy, and this morning we tried them out.
Overall, these donuts were very good and easy to make. I like my donuts to be very light and puffy, and I felt that these were a little heavier than I usually like, but they had a beautiful crispy crust to them. Actually, I thought that the donut holes, rolled in cinnamon and sugar, were absolutely perfect. Maybe because they fried faster and so the oil didn't soak into the dough as much? Whatever it was, they seemed lighter and were more to my liking. Next time I think I will make mostly donut holes, but I will definitely do this recipe again. The boys sure enjoyed them, too!

Go to the story behind the donuts and the actual recipe

Monday, January 11, 2010

Pretty Lace Necklace

Here's a fast, simple project. I took a strip of vintage lace and hemmed the raw edges. Then I sprayed it with enough of Aleene's Stiffen-Quick Spray to make it a bit more stiff, but not rock-hard. Finally, I used split jump rings to attach the lace piece to a brass chain and finished with a matching lobster claw clasp.
A little bit of lace always makes a girl feel pretty!

Friday, January 8, 2010

Results Are In!

And the winner of beautiful Svetlana, chosen by random.org, is:

Camille!

Thank you to everyone who participated in the giveaway, and welcome to my new Twitter followers and blog readers! I have big plans for this blog in 2010, and there will be lots more giveaways, tutorials and so much crafty goodness--you can't even stand it! If you're a new visitor from this giveaway, I hope you stick around. If you've been here for awhile, I appreciate all the sweet love you keep on throwing my way!

Monday, January 4, 2010

Tweet! Drink! Be Merry!

I just wanted to remind you guys to enter my Giveaway. It ends on this Thursday, January 7, 2010, at 11:59PM PST.
AND, if you want one more entry into the pot, tweet about the giveaway. I'll even make it easy for you, you can cut'n'paste this right here:

Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky! @stinky_crafter is giving away a super cute handmade zip pouch: http://bit.ly/win_svetlana

No need to tell me in the comments, as long as you include @stinky_crafter in your tweet, I'll know that you did it!

I also have to share with you the hands-down, absolute, best ever, I-will-fist-fight-you-if-you-disagree-with-me recipe for Hot Buttered Rum. Now, I'm not a big fan of the hard liquor. Actually, that's not true. I do like hard liquor, but it has to be really good and smooth, which usually means expensive, and I don't like it THAT much that I'm willing to throw down the big bucks. But, lately, I had this huge craving for Hot Buttered Rum. I tried to ignore it, but ultimately it was too hard to resist drinking butter, so I caved. For this recipe I used Ron Vicaro Barrel Select Black Label rum. Myer's Dark Rum has also been suggested to me as a good choice for Hot Buttered Rum.

Hot Buttered Rum
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
3-4 scoops (about 1 cup) vanilla ice cream
rum
water
nutmeg
cinnamon

Cook sugar, brown sugar and butter in a saucepan over low heat, stirring occasionally, until butter is melted (6-8 min).

Combine cooked mixture with ice cream in a large mixing bowl, and beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often until smooth (1-2 min). Store frozen up to one month. You can refrigerate the mixture, but the frozen version is much easier to manage.

For each serving, put 2-3 heaping teaspoon of the mixture in a mug, add a couple of dashes of cinnamon and a dash of nutmeg, add one shot rum and top off the cup with boiling water and stir. Sprinkle with nutmeg and/or cinnamon to garnish.

(I modified this slightly from the original recipe)

This makes 8-10 individual servings.

Also, it is yummy to add the sugar/butter/ice cream mixture to your coffee the next morning. And, trust me, you'll need the coffee.