I worked on a couple of cards this weekend. I didn’t get as many done as I would have liked, but really, that’s my own fault since I started playing this online game. I think I’ll try and finish up my swap things tonight, since I meant to do it last week. I’m such a lazy bum. Here are the two I made this weekend:

This one is for a swap called “A camping we will go”.

This one for one called “Fairy Tales”.

Yesterday I also made some tasty peanut butter cookies. Mmm, my favorite.

I’ve been on a kick lately making food with apples – but that’s only because we have a whole tree full of them. So far I’ve made apple crisp, apple pie, apple juice, pork chops and apple sauce and now, apple cinnamon muffins. So tasty! Want the recipe?

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspon nutmeg
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
2 apples – peeled, cored and chopped into small pieces

Topping:
1/3 cup white sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup butter, cubed
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease up or use muffin cups in your pan.

Mix together the dry ingredients. Add oil, egg and milk and stir together until combined. Fold in the apples until they are well incorporated.

In another bowl, mix together the sugar, flour and cinnamon. Cut in the pieces of butter – use your hands to make it all nice and crumbly.

Spoon batter into cups. If you want a nice, big crunchy top, fill the cups to the top! They will spill over a little and make a tasty topper. Sprinkle the topping over each muffin (make sure to get a couple chunks of the butter over each one). Pop in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes. Mini muffins take a little less time.

I made 6 large muffins and 12 mini muffins with this recipe. My mini muffins look almost as big as the large ones because I overfilled those and they made the nice big toppers. Mmm, tasty.

I’ve been messing around trying to make something new and this is it: a cookie pin.

I originally wanted it to be a chocolate chip cookie pin, but I only have dark brown fabric. That didn’t work well with the black “chips” – you couldn’t see them. I’d have to use a lighter brown felt for a chocolate chip cookie. I’ll be sure to get some more colors of felt to try out some other pieces. But for now, it’s a sandwich cookie. I’m not sure if it looks “cookie-y” enough. When I sewed it together, I tried to make little dimple impressions in the top (by stitching in the same place twice) to mimic how other cookies look, but I’m still not sure if it’s quite right yet. Brandon suggested I stitch on a little brand name (like “Cooky” or “Kuky”) to imitate Hydrox or Oreo or something. I might try that, too.

I did a couple simple crafts today. The first was “alterting” my bingo bag that I bought from bunni*goods a couple months ago. I basically just decorated it with a bunch of cool buttons – most of them I’ve received in past Samplers. I think my favorite one is the one that says “I heart Rain”, but instead of rain, it’s got a little rain cloud on it.

The second craft I did today was I made some table numbers for my friend’s wedding in September. I think they’re cute and simple and I really hope she likes them. They were pretty easy to make, too. I had some business card paper from Avery and I used one of their downloadable programs to print out the numbers with a really pretty font from two peas in a bucket. Then, I used some diamond dots as a finishing touch.

In my rubber stamp group, we’ve been having a “secret sister” swap. This involves each person making seven cards and sending them to their partner discreetly so their indentity is hidden. The reveal package contains a handmade item revealing their indentity! I got my reveal package from my own secret sister yesterday and was quite pleased to see a very pretty altered box in my package to call my very own!

Altered Box by Judy M.

How pretty! Judy also made me a very cute card and included some little packages (a CD with images on it, papers, and a package of cool buttons).

Here’s the card as well:

Card by Judy M.

Oh, I do so love crafty things.

I subscribe to this thing called The Sampler. It’s basically a thing where a bunch of indie crafters get together and they sent in little samples of their work to promote themselves and let other people know about their wares. I think it’s the coolest. I’ve been subscribing since February and I have got some really neat things that have inspired me in my crafts and make me want to sell indie goods. I think my favorite thing from this issue was the little “Hello, my name is Crafty” patch. I think it’d be perfect on a T-shirt or a tote bag or something. Probably T-Shirt.

Another reason I like the Sampler is just because I get to learn about new indie crafters. I like buying handmade things for gifts for my friends. One of a kind things are neat.

I got my latest Sampler in the mail today – a special summer issue that had so much good stuff in it! This was also the first issue in which I sent in items to donate. It was some of my dog stories that I made a couple of years ago in a pre-press class, but still totally cute and I thought it was a good way to get some of them out into the world and away from the darkness under my bed. I still have some left though. I don’t know what I’ll do with the rest. Save them forever, perhaps.