Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Flan is love

I do so love to cook. I heart the crap out of it. It's ART YOU CAN EAT!! I mean, think about that! I can craft over and over and at the end, it sustains me! Literally! How awesome is THAT? Anyway, I always love trying new things and I saw this great idea for chocolate lattice cups you can put fruit in and I couldn't wait to try it myself. I don't know if there's supposed to be chocolate made specifically for melting for this purpose but I just grabbed some Ghiradelli bittersweet chocolate chips and melted them slowly in my microwave. If you do this, only put them in for about 10 seconds at a time and then stir between each. Then I covered some small cups with cling wrap and poured the chocolate over them. It did NOT come out all delicate and drizzly the way I had hoped but meh, I can live with it. Unfortunately, of the three cups I tried to make, only one survived the cling wrap removal process but that cup IS EPIC.



I made some vanilla flan and dumped gently drizzled caramel over it. Then I put some raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries in the cup and on a thin sheet of the drizzled chocolate and served it up for my hubby and I. I had to snap a photo first though cause I knew the minute I put it in front of him, it would be gone. He was certainly impressed for the few moments of life this dessert had before it was inhaled.

I admit it. I licked the plate and I'm not ashamed. >__>

I friggin' LOVE sales

So I've been reluctant to post new things on my blog here because I didn't have photos for it all yet but meh, no one's reading this but me anyway so I'm going to just run with it.

Warning: I ramble a bit after the jump so if you hate text...stay away. >__>

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Home made stationary

YAY! My first craft post! WOOO!

Ok, so in this little quick tutorial I just wanted to share a fast and easy way to make your own interesting and fun stationary. I have a friend in Marine Corps basic training right now and I thought I'd try to brighten up my friend's world a little by sending her some letters made on fun stationary. I looked around for some store brand stuff but my ADD knows no bounds and in the end I didn't want to just send her the same stationary every day. Why can't someone make stationary that's NEVER the same letter twice? Is that so much to ask?? 

SO, of course, since I couldn't find any I like, this left me doing what I usually do in such situations. I made my own. ^__^  I had a great booklet of scrapbook paper that my sister had given me on one of my trips up to see her. She had gotten it on sale (high five to her in thinking thrifty! I always respect that) and when she'd used what she'd needed for her own project, she passed the rest to me. This paper is beautiful and has lots of fun little cut-outs that I can play with. I didn't know what to do with it at first because I don't really make scrapbooks but then I thought about making my own stationary and this pad of scrap paper just seemed perfect! 

Ok, so enough rambling. Hit the link to see what you'll need to make your own!

Mission Statement...or something like that.

Well, it's official. I set up a blog. Do I expect many people to read this? No, not really. I'm setting this up mostly because I like to craft quite a bit and while there's a TON of other crafting blogs out there much better than my little corner of the blogosphere (seriously, you should go search for those cause there are some EPIC ones out there) I have been asked many a time to share how I made something. Thus, this lovely little blog is born. ^__^ Most of you who will see this are friends and family of mine, so you already know me. For those who have stumbled here by accident, allow me to offer my consolations on your getting utterly lost in the internet. Also allow me to introduce myself.  I go by the nickname Otter among most of my friends but you can also call me Becca.

I'm a prior service military member, a craft FIEND, an amateur writer, a photographer, and a digital artist. This blog is mostly going to show some of the random crafts I make and how you too can make them. I'll be linking to a LOT of sites that I get inspiration from so this blog also acts as a sort of link holder for me that I can reference back to when I need to re-find something awesome. ;)

I hope you enjoy the randomness I'll be throwing your way.

Otter