Puppet mania

I'm borrowing a sewing machine from a friend to satisfy my growing addiction to puppets.

I'm having fun.

This is Charlie. I think he's my favorite, but he needs something more, like a patch of fuzz hair or pipe cleaner antennae. All I have is yarn and fabric and I'm not satisfied with those options to complete him. Those round felt monster-bug eyes make me happy. Maybe they revert me to childhood and Sesame Street. All my puppets so far have different eyes but Charlie's might be my favorite. I'm also a big fan of the black buttons on Susan.
This is Lucky. He is my second attempt at a durable (not hot-glued together) puppet. I'm hoping I can modify Lucky's pattern to accommodate different animals. The muppet-style puppets are really neat and look awesome, but they are a little more fragile. I want puppets that this little one can pull and poke and bend and bite without me worried about them falling apart.

She likes puppets and it makes me happy.

These are the two puppets that we don't like enough to give names. Miss Green Eyes needs a nose. Her eyes are the heads of plastic spoons that I painted. Yucky duck is the first attempt at a durable pattern. His seams don't all match up very well and his eyes were an experiment in laziness and creativity mixed together.

It's amazing to me how much eyes can change the personality of a puppet. There are so many options! I can't decide which I like best. I guess I'll have to keep making puppets just to make more eyes.

Ugly Cheesecake

Here's an ugly photo of an ugly cheesecake:
This recipe was in my Christmas cookbook titled "Creme Brulee Cheesecake" so I had to try it. I love creme brulee and I really like cheesecake. I made this for Valentine's Day. The cheesecake was divine, but the directions were incomplete. I was told to make the brulee carmel topping early in the process. Then I baked the cheesecake and chilled the cheesecake overnight, then I was supposed to use the carmel topping again... over 8 hours later... without any instruction about how to store it or reheat it. I ended up covering the saucepan I made it in and kept it at room temperature overnight. It hardened, of course, it is burnt sugar after all, so I reheated it before I poured it on the cheesecake. Then it hardened again into an ugly, thick, tough, uncuttable top to the cheesecake--as you can see above. We ended up peeling off the topping and eating the naked cheesecake. It was very tasty, but I don't think I'll make the recipe again, at least not the way the book explained it.

"The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies"

I have found it! Not that I looked for that long (thank goodness for allrecipes.com). When I think of sugar cookies I think of dry, hard, stale cardboard-like cookies. Sad, huh? Well, no more. After reading a few recipes I came across "The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies" recipe, and I must agree with its name: they were delicious! Soft and moist and thick. Mmmm. And they kept their cookie-cutter shape very well.

I think some of the tips that made them work so well were: 1. I have fresh baking powder, 2. I kneaded the dough briefly before I rolled it out, 3. the cookies were only baked for 6 minutes at 400 degrees. I'll have to remember those tips.

This was my first time trying to make royal icing. I've always been a buttercream girl and avoided royal icing because of the far inferior flavor. Butter just makes everything better. Well, I'm learning some good tips to royal icing. It definitely holds its shape better. It's easier to clean. I can be more flexible with the texture just by adding more water. I started out with too thick of frosting that had an ugly texture (see red and white stripes below), but then I added too much water and had the smooth, but runny frosting in the pink stripe.
I'm confident I can get it right if I have the time to work it out. I was kind of rushed with these.

I still like buttercream better.

Introducing Miss Susan

Miss Susan is a very flirtatious little sweetheart. She likes to pose for the camera.

I did it! I made my first ever puppet and I did it without a sewing machine! I probably could've done the whole thing in one night if I had had a sewing machine, but oh well. It was a fun and satisfying project and I hope to have many more puppets to play with soon enough.

Baking Hiatus

I broke my pattern and didn't bake something new this week. The week started off with a sick Babe and ended with a sick Babe and a sick Mama. Blech.

On the up side I made a new soup. Not only did I make it, I made it up! Hurray for making new recipes. There's a restaurant chain in the Twin Cities called Eddington's and they make some really yummy soups. One of our favorites (after the Boundary Water Wild Rice and the Wisconsin Cheddar Cheese) is the White Chicken Chili. It's rich and creamy and mmm mmm good. After some research, I learned that they put cream in it and Swiss cheese, so I decided to make up the rest!

It was fun and so yum. The clincher that made the recipe awesome was lime juice. Yum. Maybe I'll post the recipe later. Or maybe I'll keep it a secret and leave people to wonder at it's deliciousness.

Another reason for a sewing machine

Love these!

They were a Christmas gift from my sister-in-law, Nettie. I love that they are handmade. I love that they are patchwork (what a great way to hide stains!). I love that they are pink and orange (girly and food-colored). I love that the bib fits the Babe perfectly. I love the fabric patterns. The Babe loves to cuddle with her bibs while wearing them (I know, it gets messy) and I love that with these bibs rather than cringing at how she's spreading food all over her face, it's really CUTE when she cuddles, cause it's like a blanket.

I want to make these someday. Maybe I'll ask Nettie for the pattern. Maybe I'll wing it. Maybe one day I'll actually have a sewing machine.

Puppets on the brain

I've always loved puppets. Almost every time I go Christmas shopping for nieces and nephews one of the items on my list of possibilities is puppets. And almost every time I can't find any. I'm not including finger puppets or puppets that are $30+. I grew up with puppets and a homemade wooden puppet theater made by my dad (with stage lighting and retractable curtains!) that was played with incessantly by six kids. It was awesome, even with just two puppets (which was all that was left by the time that I was old enough to play with it).


The other day Grace and I were watching baby einstein on youtube when it hit me. I could make puppets. Looking at the baby einstein puppets made me realize it would be easy to have a basic hand puppet pattern and modify it slightly for different animals.
I'm totally excited now. I've done more research and still haven't decided exactly what kind of puppets to make. There are so many possibilities! Maybe I'll make a couple puppets of different varieties and see which ones I like best.

I'm even dreaming farther in the future, if I really like making puppets I could start and etsy shop. There have got to be other people out there like me who think puppets are some of the most awesome toys ever and there is a serious lack of them in the affordable market.


Now I just need a sewing machine. Well, this is the beginning of my wish list.