Look What Came in the Mail Today!

Look what I got today when I checked my mail(okay so it came last night, but I forgot to check as I am rather absent minded)! These are some swatches of fabrics I designed on spoonflower.com and they came out even better than I imagined they would. :D I have a few more coming later this week, including a pattern I made with hammerhead sharks that I am very excited about. Have any of you ever made fabrics at Spoonflower? It is definitely an obsession of mine at the moment and I spend lots of time making my own patterns, looking at stuff other people have made and trying to decide what to do with any samples and orders I get.

That brings me to another question for you all: What do I do with these lovely fabric samples? Coasters? Pot holders? Itty bitty zippered pouches? Each square is 8"x8" so the projects need to be small, or I could piece them into quilty projects as well. Let me know what you think! This coffee fabric on the right is actually an entry I have in next week's coffee themed fabrics contest on spoonflower. I have a feeling that one will be tough, as I have browsed through a lot of other coffee themed fabrics and there is some seriously adorable stuff, including some Kawaii prints that are just awesome.

Speaking of contests, this is a color variation on my blue and red Roller Derby fabric that is in the current fabric contest at Spoonflower. I'm starting to wish I had entered this color combo instead, c'est la vie! If you haven't voted or even visited Spoonflower before, I highly recommend it. Voting on this contest ends Wednesday I believe, so gets your votes in now! Again, lots of great designs to choose from.



Also, all of my fabric designs that you see here and a few others are available here for purchase through Spoonflower. (This wasn't in my original post, but I have since had several requests and had a palm to the forehead moment that I hadn't shared the info with you all--my apologies!)

Finally, I will be having my first book review on the site coming up later this week, or this weekend. I recently purchased Miette: Recipes from San Francisco's Most Charming Pastry Shop and it is about the most adorable baking book I have ever seen! I am trying out a few of the recipes to share with you all, but so far I love it. The recipes are easy to follow, the book has lots of great information, and the book itself is lovely and every page has beautiful scalloped edges that I just love. It is published by Chronicle Books, and I have been a fan of theirs for quite awhile. They always find cute little ways to make their books stand out, such as these scalloped pages, and special bindings and whatnot on other books that really add to their appeal.

Friday Food Craft: Almond Joy Cookies!

I've got another sweet treat for you all today, and it can be done a couple different ways, both delicious! I adapted together a couple cookie recipes, and added some yummy mix-ins to get these chewy cookies with the chocolate, coconut and almond goodness of an Almond Joy candy bar! If you have a nut allergy, don't worry, you could easily leave out the almonds and have your own Mounds flavored treat instead. Actually, you can easily adapt this recipe to just about any cookie flavor you want, don't let me influence you too much :)

To make these scrumptious cookies you will need:

2 sticks Unsalted Butter, At Room Temperature
¾ cups Brown Sugar
¼ cups White Sugar
3.4 ounces-a 4 serving size box of Jello Coconut Cream Instant Pudding Mix*
2 whole Eggs
2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
2-¼ cups Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 pinch Salt
1 cup Bittersweet chocolate chunks
½ cup Unsweetened coconut flakes or shredded coconut pieces
½ cup sliced or slivered almonds

Preheat your oven to 350ºF and line two baking sheets with some parchment paper, or a Silpat Baking Liner. Set these aside.

In the bowl of your mixer, combine the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy.

On medium speed, beat in the pudding mix, eggs, and vanilla extract.

On low speed, mix in the flour, baking soda, and salt. Be careful to mix only until combined (do not over mix!).

Stir in the chocolate chunks, coconut and almonds (I happened to have some Almond Joy Pieces candies, so I threw those in for good measure with my other mix ins).

Use a measuring tablespoon or cookie scoop to scoop out the cookie dough onto the lined baking sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the cookies are just turning golden and the centers are just set.

Let cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes, before cooling completely on cooling racks. Enjoy!


* You can easily substitute Vanilla or French Vanilla pudding into this recipe, or use any flavor you like and any mix ins you prefer!

Roller Derby Fabric!

I apologize for the delay in posts, but I have been super busy this past week (as I'm sure you all have been as well!) I finally got off my lazy butt and designed some more fabrics on Spoonflower.com (as I have been meaning to do for quite awhile now). This one is for their current Roller Derby fabric contest, there are lots of great designs so feel free to go here and cast your votes for your favorites (even if it doesn't happen to be my design. I got some of this one in the mail last week and it looks pretty good. I have some swatches of different color combos, that I may or may not like better than this one in the mail so I hope to see them soon. I also did some coffee fabrics for next week's contest. They have lots of great design contests coming up, so I am sure you will see more fabrics from me soon, and feel free to join in the fun and design some of your own!

I will also be back to posting more regularly (I hope) in the next couple of weeks as I have many projects nearing completion. As long as I can get my photos taken and uploaded in a timely fashion the next couple weeks are just overflowing with new goodies, and I got a couple books in the mail this week that I am dying to look through and share with you!

Have any of you read or seen any great books lately, crafty or otherwise?