Where Do Doughnut Muffins Fit in the MyPlate Graphic?

Okay, maybe you should not really eat these--but you already want to, don't you?  I'm not going to stop you.  I'm also not going to tell you that these doughnuts disguised as a muffin do not taste good--because they are so yummy, so chocolate-y, and did I mention, they taste remarkably like a freshly-friend doughnut?  Oh, yeah, except they aren't fried like other naughty little doughnuts out there--these are baked, all snug and happy in a muffin pan.  

You can thank Joy for the recipe because that is where I got the recipe from.  Right here.  I have a total love-hate with her blog because I cannot resist making her stuff--like this and my goodness, I so want to make this--but really, I do not think any of these items would fit anywhere on that new MyPlate graphic from the USDA.  What do you think?

And despite all that, I'm undeterred from telling you to try these--and I am even going to suggest you double dip your muffins in the chocolate glaze (there will be more than enough from the amount the recipe makes) and just pretend that chocolate and doughnut muffins have their own special food plate graphic not yet created. In the meantime, I am dreaming about making these again, but with a nice vanilla bean glaze, then dipped in coconut.  Something to think about...

Spring Variations Give-Away at Sparkle Power

Are you familiar with Candace over at Sparkle Power already?  If not, please stop by for a visit--not only because she has a a very real and lovely blog, but she also has a super Etsy shop with some great prints (dear Mr Beeper gave me the You Are My Sunshine print this year as a gift) and on occasion super lovely fabric flag garlands made from vintage fabrics (bought one of those for myself as gift too).

Oh, and you should also hop on over there because she is hosting a giveaway for 5 copies of my Spring Variations pattern.  Yeah, 5 of her readers will win a copy of Spring Variations and all you have to do to be in the running is leave a comment indicating which project of the set you like best.   You have until Tuesday, April 26th to pay Candace a visit and leave a comment. Easy, right?

Find the give-away right here.

What I Ate for Breakfast Today

What'd you eat for breakfast today?  Betcha what I ate was better than what you ate--meaning, better tasting, not better for your health.  Because this is definitely not good for your health--but is probably good for your momentary Saturday morning breakfast happiness--which must do something good for your body in some way, right?

The recipe came from Joy the Baker.  It is Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread and works and tastes exactly like the name sounds.  Which is delicious.  I saw this on Joy's blog, momentarily lost my mind, then had to go to the grocery store at 9pm last night to get some yeast so I could make up the dough and have it all ready for today's breakfast.

The scent of it baking in the your kitchen bright and early on a Saturday is enough to make your day better.  It tastes like eating the love child of toast sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and the soft doughy interior of a cinnamon roll.  You do not need the distraction of icing with this.  Pour yourself a cup of coffee, pull off a chunk and thank the gods for the gift that Joy the Baker is to this world--or better yet, just go to her blog and thank her directly.

Call me crazy but I am already thinking about how I could jerry-rig this recipe to make a pull-apart chocolate babka...

Over at Whip Up Again Today: Make an Art Supply Pouch

Hey.  I am over at Whip Up again today--Kathreen invited me to come on over for another round of guest blogging and tutorial-sharing--she's crazy like that (which I only mean in the nicest way because how can you not love the woman behind the genius of Whip Up, my personal one-stop-shop for all the best craftiness going on in blogland).

And in case you were wondering what I am up to over there, well, it is a little tutorial on how to make an art supply pouch--I know there are no shortage of tutorials already out there on making pouches, but I had my own reasons for creating theses specific pouches with the printed images of their art supply contents--which you can read more about over at Whip Up when you finally get around to going there.

Also, I just want you to know that putting together this little project involved me learning to create my own printable fabric sheets using Bubble Jet Set (and their recommended rinse), as well as some precut freezer paper (but you could cut your own if you are more industrious than me)--and as a result I am a now a life-long believer in making your own printable fabric sheets, people.  It is pretty simple, way more cost-effective, and the quality of the homemade sheets beats all others hands down (and I have tried many--but if you really want to purchase some ready-made, the best quality can be found here, in my opinion)--so that is just my personal plug on that crafting front, even without any sponsorship from Bubble Jet Set (although if they want to send me more of their product I will gladly accept and find good use for it--how shameless was that?).

Anyway, I offer several variations on the pouch (some above, but even more over at Whip Up) for those amongst you fearful of inserting zippers, or for those who might find a drawstring bag more to your liking.  I would also mention that if you want to create a pouch, but are just not in the mood to go through the additional step of taking photos of your art supplies to print on the fabric--well you are in luck because I have uploaded my own art supply photos to my Flickr account and you can download them for your own fabric printing, right here.  See?  I'm nice and I can share (even if I do pander for free products).

So, c'mon on over to Whip Up and download the tutorial in my usual PDF format--you can find me here.

Sweet Paul Kids Issue

Have you seen the spring issue of Sweet Paul that came out this week?  You should.  Wow.  Again, wow.  I love this issue and am even tempted to purchase a printed copy because it is just so dang good.   Ever so happily, it is available as a FREE (yes, I said FREE) download too so you can go grab a copy right now and call it a gift to you from Sweet Paul--get your own copy right here, in the right-hand sidebar, right there near the top of the page.   It is over a 100 pages of cooking and crafting and design goodness all for kids.  I could eat the styling and photography alone they are such a feast for the eyes.

For me, this issue was like every good thing for kids rolled up into one sweet downloadable PDF--everything from applesauce cake to playing with your food to blanket forts to box crafts to fish sticks, frozen treats, cowboys and indians...need I continue?  How much more convincing do you require, people?  You might think I am being a bit superlative here, but go see for yourself and come back and tell me I am exaggerating.  Geez.

All photography and images in this post are copyright Sweet Paul.

Eat This: Best Brownie Made Even Better

First off, trust me--these are the best brownie you will ever bake.  I picked up the recipe from Bliss recently and made an excuse to bake some and was almost down on my knees with gratitude that I had finally found the one brownie recipe I could go to for the rest of my days.  My search was done.  And what is so great about these is that they mix up and are in the oven in about 20 minutes flat--and all in one bowl, thank you very much.  I followed the recipe pretty much as outlined with the exception that I mixed half of the chocolate chips (1 cup) in right away before baking, and then added the second half (1 cup) of the chips about 15 minutes into baking.

But it gets better--these brownies are both fudgey and cakey and have that lovely crackly crust on the top that makes your teeth squeal with pleasure when they sink into one.  

Oh, and then I decided to just put these completely over the top by adding some cream cheese frosting heavily sprinkled with shredded coconut and topped each square with one bright lush raspberry (used Ina's frosting recipe--but you need only make about 1/4 of the recipe for this purpose).  I was thinking about Hostess Sno Balls when I added that coconut--but don't let that scare you.  And do you want to know what is even better yet about these brownies?

This.

Celebrating the Boy: Make a Magnetic Play Set

Oh, hey.  Hi.  Did you know that I am officially Celebrating the Boy over here today?  I am--it is all part of Made by Rae's and Made's annual tribute to crafting for boys--a full month of it, actually.  I know, it is cool.  The line-up of guest bloggers and projects Rae and Dana have going on over at their places is pretty amazing--I already have 3 projects I want to make from Rae's guests alone.  But wait--where are my manners?!?  Welcome to those of you who have taken the time to stop over here from Rae's place.   I am so happy to have you here.

So, let's get to the good stuff, shall we?  In honor of Celebrate the Boy month I have a little tutorial for you on how to make your very own magnetic play set.  This one is pretty simple to make--no special crafting skills like quilting, quilling or anything else starting with a "qu" required--really all you need to know how to do is search the internet for images, put those into a document, print them, cut them apart and stick them to some adhesive magnet sheets.  Yeah, I meant simple when I said it.

What I also love about this project is how endlessly customizable it is to whatever your boy's interests may be--dinosaurs, cars, monsters, robots, animals--or super heroes as the case may be at our house (specifically, DC Comic super heroes--because Beeper actually segregates his super heroes by comic book strain--DC or Marvel--and the twain shall never meet).

I got to thinking about putting together a project like this because I am always trying to come up with new things to keep Beeper distracted when the situation requires it--like when we are at a restaurant and Mr Beeper and I just want to drink some wine and have at least 10 minutes of uninterrupted adult conversation (did I hear someone say, That is what date night is for?  Yes, good point--but that would require having a babysitter that is nearer than 60 minutes away for us to pick up which is where our closest babysitter is located at the moment), or when in the car for longer trips (like when we need to pick up our babysitter)--you know the situations I am talking about.

Well, I am mildly obsessed with having a bag that is stocked with interesting distractions for him that I feel good about (i.e. no video games)--so this project was meant to contribute to that stash of stuff I keep in a small backpack in our coat closet.  And if you are interested, you can download the tutorial right here so you can make your own:

DOWNLOAD MAGNETIC PLAY SET TUTORIAL

 I also thought this might be a good time for us to swap some info about what sorts of things you find particularly handy to distract your kids when the place or situation requires it.  Here are some of my favorites we have in our bag of distractions at the moment:

(from top Pop Zolo [mini creative building set], Monster Doodles [erasable creative drawing cards--pure genius], Knights Toob, a selection of Little Dover books [most of these are $1.50 per book and they are fantastic for distraction because they can literally fit in your pocket and the options are mind-boggling], Wild Toob, blank sketch book and a set of soy crayons)

Oh, and if you are in the market for a new bag in which to stash your own kiddie distractions, why not make the scavenger bag from Sew Grown or the messenger bag from Punkin Patterns--both are  Boy month projects over at Rae's place.  

Thanks again to those of you who took the time to stop by--it was nice having you and I hope to see you around here again. Oh, and if you have any favorite kiddie distractions, please do leave a comment and share--would love to hear about your favorite tricks.

Over at Elsie Marley: Make a Scenic Sketch Book

Hey--I'm over here today--at Elsie Marley.  You should come over and visit--because Meg is not home and she has asked me (and a bunch of other uber-cool bloggers) to blog-sit while she is out.   So, that's where I am--in case you were wondering.

And this is a little peek at what you can find there:

...a visit to the Minneapolis Institute of Art...

...the resulting sketches...

...an all new tutorial on how to make your very own Scenic Patchwork Sketch Book...

...including an alternate version for those who need more choices...

...plus all the other bloggers coming to you from The North Country, offering our own input on winter, what it means to us, how we get through it, recipes, tutorials, and other distractions.  Come on over and check it out--I'll be there.

The Rumpelstiltskin Challenge: Nesting Fabric Boxes Done!

Inspired by Five Green Acres' Rumpelstiltskin Challenge (which started about two weeks ago but I am just crashing the party now), I too am digging into my ample fabric stash to make some of those things I  have been meaning to make for months, or in some cases, even years.  Plus, this challenge fits so nicely with the statement on my New Year's Manifest--you know, the one where you use what you already have?

So, here I am, reporting for duty, project number one completed.  And not only did I use fabrics that came from my languishing stack of japanese print canvas fabrics and the rainbow array of Kona solids I have amassed (which I rarely use, but never can seem to resist buying more when I visit Crafty Planet--it may be a sickness for which I have not yet been diagnosed), but I also get bonus points for using the nesting fabric boxes tutorial I purchased some time ago from The Cookie Jar.  Because, you see, I also have this thing about hoarding patterns and projects and crafting books that contain more of the aforementioned--which is why my own personal Rumpelstiltskin challenge this year will be to use my existing store of fabric, as well as some of those lonely unrealized patterns and projects gathering dust on my craft room shelves.

But about the nesting boxes tutorial--I love the finished project.  Colorful,  classic and versatile.  I made it for my 2 year-old great nephew (yes, I have one of those--no, I am not that old, my niece was just that young when she decided she needed to start having babies in high school--but enough of my family's dirty laundry...).  I figure he will stack and play with it now, and use it to stow stuff in later.  For me, this project was simple to make for the most part--with two exceptions: 

1) I have my own issues with working with fusible interfacing--namely, I have a heck of a time getting it to fuse and much cussing ensures.  I am not sure why the fusible interfacing and I cannot play nice together, but I did finally iron it into relative submission, and by the time it was working its way loose from the fabric again it was supposed to be fused to it was already sewn around the edges so it had no choice but to stay put (all tips and suggestions for working with fusible interfacing are welcome, by the way--I used Pellon's Craft Fuse)

2)My other personal challenge came when I had to make the origami fold in order to form the corners of the box--I actually sewed it incorrectly before I worked out what I was doing wrong...but after that, piece of cake, and all subsequent boxes came together much more quickly, with no need for further cussing.   And yes, I would make this again--and probably will make it again now that I have this one under my belt and know how nice the final product looks.

Plus, this project fulfills another one of my New Year's manifesto statements--to make more things rainbow?  Check.

Blog Crush: Mini Eco

I am in utterly in love with Mini-Eco.  I think I have seen of the tutorials before kicking around on other blogs, but I never really went over for a visit until now--and I am so glad I did .  

There is much color and light and creativity that emanate from this blog--all the things I love.  And her commitment to inspiring her children with what can be made simply...well, love that.

You have to go see it for yourself because there are so many inspiring and simple tutorials--things I would like to make right now (nevermind that it is 1:00am and I am in a hotel room en route to my in-laws for the holidays).  Like this holiday-inspired scented playdough that I will be making as soon as I get back home...

...or these paper beads (because Beeper was just searching for some beads to make necklaces from the other day)...

...or these Halloween-y shadow puppets that will suit Beeper fine any old time of year given his adoration of monsters...

And there is more there--plenty more.  Really, I just want to make it all with Beeper.  At least I know now what we will be doing over holiday break.  Thanks, Kate.

Go have a look for yourself--here.

Note: All photos are courtesy of Mini-Eco and belong to Kate and her wonderful blog.

Over at Whip Up Today

It seems like I am here, but actually I am over at Whip Up today--I'm clever like that.  You see, Kathreen so kindly invited me to be one of her guest bloggers while she is away from the office (I know, can you believe she trusted me with her wonderful blog while she is away?).  So, in order to keep every one properly entertained over at Whip Up, I have put together a little tutorial on how to make this colorful tote designed just for your library book needs.

Besides being extra big  and sturdy in order to accommodate large library book hauls, it also has this handy library card pocket so you never need to search for your library card again when all you want to do is get out the door and over to the library--because it is all right here!  Super practical for the scattered-brained and perpetually distracted amongst us.

So head on over to Whip Up for complete step by step instructions and a downloadable tutorial in the usual Chez Beeper Bebe illustrated pdf format. 

Oh yeah, and here is one more shot of Beeper with the tote because really, he was the inspiration behind the tote.  You can read more about that too over at Whip Up.  So what are you waiting for?  Come on over to Whip Up and let's party--I mean, get together over there.  Find me here.  I'll be waiting.

Joining Ohdeedoh's Big Blog Family: Thanks Katie!

That Katie of the clever Matsutake fame and now a regular contributor to Ohdeedoh is such a peach.  She has just put up the most lovely blather about me and Chez Beeper Bebe on Ohdeedoh as part of their Big Blog Family series.  I am so flattered, and even a little gobsmacked, really.

And if you are visiting here from Ohdeedoh for the very first time, well, welcome.  Come on in.  Have a seat in that chair over there, put your feet up and let me get you a cup of tea, or a cocktail, if you are of the same mind I am.  Feel free to look around the place at your leisure and try out some of my projects or recipes, and by all means, tell me what you think because I would love to have a little tete à tete and know all about anything that might be on your mind.  Visitors are always welcome around here.  Especially visitors who are sent by Katie and her pals over at Ohdeedoh.

Oh, and the rest of you, you know those of you who are regulars around here?--you know who you are.  Anyway, you are always welcome here too--help yourself to the wine, grab a snack, and settle in for the afternoon.  Friends around the place always make it a little warmer.

And if you have a minute, please check out Katie's write up on Ohdeedoh--you can find it here.

Nuno: Forest Edition

Just do yourself a favor already and go purchase the first ever edition of Nuno post haste.  Seriously, people.  I downloaded it over the weekend while I was away at a cabin with friends (photos coming soon) and was speechless at the beauty of the photos, the grace of the designs and the sheer number of projects contained within one single issue--try over 30 projects.  Gentlemen, start your crafting engines.  The magazine is 150 pages, all ad free, loaded with said lovely photography of each project, and templates and tutorials galore.  

You can purchase a copy here at Elizabeth Abernathy's blog, or for the skeptics amongst you, there is a 28-page preview of the magazine available for free download (find that at her blog too--in the sidebar)--but trust me, that one merely gives you a taste of the loveliness that lies within the full edition.  There is something for everyone in Nuno--clothing, knitting, nature-y crafts, puppets, book-making, and almost all the projects employ sustainable resources (recycled, or natural).

And if that is not enough for you, Elizabeth's blog also happens to be chock full o' tutorial and project goodness--like all those projects you see above.  More clever loveliness than you can shake a stick at, I tell you.  What are you waiting for?  Go purchase a copy of Nuno now--$5 was never put to better use.
(all photos are courtesy of Elizabeth Abernathy and her fantastic blog)

New Crafty Links and Lots o' Easter-y Projects

I just updated the Projects Found Elsewhere You Should See button over there in the sidebar. Lots of lovely easter-y and spring-y projects over there for you to check out--projects for the kiddies, but also a couple of big people projects too. Go check them out and make something handmade (or 2 or 3...) this week to tuck into an Easter basket, or to give as a special spring-time gift. I will be back here tomorrow with another tutorial of my own for you...in the meantime, happy-crafty-link-surfing.

Kiddo Travel Desk: Thanks MerMag!

Made this on on Monday for Beeper--an uber-handy-dandy travel desk for kiddos. Check out all the cool features...

...handy pockets to hold a gaggle of markers, and anything else you want to zip into a little pocket...

...an applique monogram so your kid will not confuse his travel desk with anyone else's in the car, plus nice button and loop closures for the EXTRA pockets that reside behind other pockets (yes, that's right, pockets on pockets...oh the stuff you can stow...)

...and even more handy pockets on the other side to hold more stuff and a water bottle if you want...

...and while I forgot to take a photo of it, this is the pillow that slides into the pocket on the backside of the desk, under the board that sits in there too. This means you can remove the board and the pillow at will so you can launder the desk when your kiddo spills his grape juice all over it (oh, and did you note the convenient carrying handle pictured in the first photo?)...

And you can make one too! Simply visit Merrilee's blog--MerMag--where you can find her tutorial on how to make a travel desk like the one she made for her own kiddo (see more photos of her desk design here).

I did make some small modifications to Merrilee's design--1) appliqued the desktop initial instead of embroidering it 2)did not make the pockets slotted to hold individual pencils--I wanted my pockets to be deep and big enough to hold a handful of markers or crayons so they could be at the ready for Beeper to color (when you color everything in rainbow colors just 4 crayons will not do) 3) I made my slot for the desk board big enough to accommodate a pillow insert (then skipped the step of creating a stuffed pillow pocket to the desk)--what I love about this particular modification is that I sewed a cotton fleece cover for the pillow insert so it can do double-duty as an actual pillow when pulled out from the travel desk slot.

And I have to tell, you we put it to use last night during our 10 hour drive to central Illinois (doing time with the in-laws), and it worked beautifully--Beeper colored and did dot-to-dots and played with his monster magnets and then ate his dinner on it...this travel desk comes highly recommended by 2 out of 2 moms (um, that would be me and Merilee).