Happenstance

This year I thought I would try my hand at baking Christmas gifts (again) and I decided to get my sister, Leah, to help me (as last time I sucked it up and she is a great baker). I started by scouring the Internet for easy and highly reviewed recipes (provided with additional tips below). After selecting a mere 6 and deciding to double each batch (I mean I was just sending cookies to several people, so I should send a lot!), I made a shopping list and headed out to buy it all. I had nothing on hand (did I mention I don't do much baking/cooking?), so I had to buy even the most basic materials. Still, I had budgeted for around $100 (I mean the whole point was that cookies were a great, easy, yummy, ship-able, inexpensive gift). I was obviously Looney Tunes when I came up with that budget, as I spent $200 and ended up using everything I bought. I am a firm believer that when you do something at home, you should do it as comfortably as possible. So a full day of baking defini...

I have been feeling a bit crafty recently and decided to try on something new. I saw a DIY for  embroidery knuckle tattoo gloves  and decided to give it a go.  I bought some really cute tech knit gloves (the ones that let you use your smart phone while you are wearing them) and set to embroidering on cute/fun knuckle tattoos. I spent an entire evening trying to make this work and became quite frustrated. I used chalk to outline the letters, so I didn't have to wear them while I was embroidering. However, I had a hard time sewing the embroidery in to begin with, as the knots needed to be on the inside and it is hard to sew on the fingers and still see what you are doing on the outside. Then the damn knots kept pulling through the knit. I am sure there is a way to make this work better, but I think I picked the wrong glove type (the knit was too loose).  However, I was unwilling to give up (I had bought like 10 pairs of those damn gloves). So I decided puffy pai...