Mini Pumpkin Pies

I love pumpkin pies, no whipped cream. My mom told me this morning, “I’m making pumpkin soup!” and I immediately got sad that she would be using the only can of pumpkin that we had in the house for the soup. I went through some scenarios in my head: we could split it 50-50 and she could make a half batch of soup and I could make half a pumpkin pie; I could just make the pumpkin pie before she has the chance to make the soup; I could hide the pumpkin pie can and then “find” it after she left for work.

In the end, she made pumpkin soup with 3/4 of the can and I was left with a tiny amount with which to do something. I decided to make bite-sized pumpkin pies.

Filling:
1/4 can pumpkin
2 tbsp evaporated milk
Sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon to taste
Crust:
6 tbsp flour
3 tbsp oil
2 tbsp water

Mix up your crust ingredients and then make into small rounds. Refrigerate for about 40 minutes, then bake at 375F for 5 minutes.

Mix your filling ingredients, then spoon them on top of your rounds. Bake at the same temperature for about 10 minutes.

Take them out, let them cool, then eat them. Offer one to your younger brother even though he hates pumpkin pie, and then look disgusted when he puts one inside of his mouth, decides not to eat it, and then puts it back on the tray. Make him eat it anyway. He still hates pumpkin pie.

Grey Sweater Embellishment

I’m in Michigan this week for super fun Thanksgiving times, and looking for crafts to do because I forgot all of my craft supplies in Chicago. My parents have a limited amount of craft supplies, like needles, thread, and glue.
My mom and I decided to clear out her costume jewelry cabinet, because she loves costume jewelry. We found this little delicate bracelet. Oh wow, I am amazing at taking pictures.

I decided to embellish this grey sweater. It’s a fine sweater, normal, but since I’m trying to buy fewer clothes AND I was sick of this sweater, I thought it’d be a great idea to alter it.

I positioned the bracelet in the middle of the sweater and then stitched it to the sweater. Here is what it looks like.

Embellished necklines are great in winter when you don’t feel like wearing necklaces because the dumb necklace always gets tangled up in your scarf. Wearing necklaces and scarves simultaneously is such a chore. You have to match a sweater, a necklace, AND a scarf. Matching is a chore, also. This is why I make most of my fashion choices choosing to power clash, not that you really can power clash gray and diamonds.

DIY Gift Idea: Catchall

Hey, I’m apparently bad at blogging and thinking of cool things to make by myself, so sometimes I go to the Anthropologie website because I am a hack. So I found this cool “reclaimed wood” catchall

and decided that I wanted to make one for myself, out of cardboard, largely because who has $68-78 dollars to spend on a pencil holder?

I modeled in in Solidworks, because that’s what cool people engineers do.

Oh, I almost got the correct angle. I’d open Solidworks again, but as every CAD engineer knows, that’ll crash my computer and I’ll have to restart it and then in the meantime, I guess I’ll make some more ginger lemon tea to aid my digestive system. I wish I hadn’t eaten my lunch enchiladas so quickly, because then I could still be eating them right now.

I cut out a bunch of cardboard. Oh gosh, I did not document this process thoroughly. I got the dimensions from the Solidworks model, and then I cut out a bunch of pieces of cardboard, twice as many of each piece so I could glue them together for reinforcement. (Sidenote on reinforcement: I always think of those hole reinforcing stickers for 3 punched paper. Probably a very pointless, lucrative invention when we still used 3 ring binders. Why haven’t I made my binder full of women yet? Next project.)

I attached the pieces together with glue and packaging material. Not packaging tape, like that crushed paper material that comes to fill up a giant box that holds like a tiny phone. Why do you need a 1x1’ box to hold a phone, Amazon???

Wow, I was really not good at the whole “what angle should I capture this image?” thing.

Hey, if anyone actually wants to make one of these, I’ll make a better tutorial with actual dimensions. Or, if you pay me, I will make one for you.

Cost: $1 if you don’t have glue on hand. Cardboard/Packaging material rescued from recycle bin.
Percent that it actually looks like the original inspiration: 5

Wow, has it really been a year since I’ve updated this blog?

I'm a Vegetarian

I don't think that's what he saw

What do you see in the Mirror of Erised?

Lovebirds pillow

On this blurred tornado Sunday, I found an overstuffed pillow that was typing at the seams and decided to repurpose the stuffing.  The outside of the pillow will be used soon...

Also made with beige fabric I received from a craft supply swap that I hoarded since 2008 and gold paint, which, according to Pottery Barn and West Elm, goes incredibly well with beige. It may be the holiday season.

Bring me luck and bring me love!

This website knows me well

Or rather, I know myself well.

http://what-would-i-say.com/

Bike Drawing

I’m living at my parents’ house for the month of May, and I decided to redecorate my childhood bedroom a bit. I mean, this beach scene has been hanging up in here since 1995 and I can’t figure out why I’ve chosen it to watch me while I sleep.

I took the painting out and discovered it was attached to a piece of foam core.

I started gluing my mainstay craft supply onto it: encyclopedia pages from the A-B volume. There were some pages on arachnids, but luckily I saw the scary pictures before I glued them to the foam core. I used glue stick so that the pages wouldn’t be ruffly from a water-based glue.

On the other side, I glued the pages down with water-based glue whose brand that you can probably guess.

I found this drawing of a bicycle on the INTERNETS and decided to free-hand something similar by using my favorite language: MATH.

I traced a circle using a plate I found in the kitchen. The math comes in here: I measured the diameter of the drawing, then compared it to the measurement of my plate. My plate was approximately 3.5 times larger in diameter so I drew the centers of the circle 3.5 times of the distance between the circles of the drawing. Freehand, you know?

Once my drawing was finished, I re-framed it.

Here it is, hanging up above my bed. I left my bicycle in Cleveland so I’ve been riding my brother’s bike. It’s just not the same.

I am currently on the lookout for a cheap single-speed bike. Did you know that only single people ride single-speed bikes? TMYK. CMYK.

Harlequin Novel

My friend’s bachelorette party is this weekend, and I have been racking my brain for a present to make her since I think forcing your lingerie choices on someone is kind of a dumb present and also I’m poor. I had the brilliant idea of getting her some Harlequin novels, since bachelorette party gifts are usually silly, but then I had the inspired idea to make her a harlequin novel with a picture of her and her fiancé as the cover!

I started by using a Harlequin cover I found on the internet and basically copying it and adding my friends’ names and love story.

In its printed glory! This picture, if you can believe it or not, is one of their engagement photos. It looks so … Harlequinny! (The title comes from the fact that they are two med students about to start residency in New York City!)

I folded the sides of the paper over onto the front cover of a 8x5.5” notebook that I had lying around my apartment. (I don’t know how I end up acquiring so many notebooks. My guess is that all the engineering recruiters give them to us at career fairs, judging from the engineering firm names splayed on the covers.

I attached the covers to the notebook, which I had re-strung with embroidery floss, and glued it together.

It basically looks like a real Harlequin novel. Gosh, I hope the bride doesn’t hate me for not getting her lingerie as a present.

Giant Paper Flowers

With all the wedding planning going on (I’m in 3 weddings this year!), my bridal friends have been turning to a lot of DIY wedding ideas. My friend sent me a link to this, to which I immediately thought, that looks like a comically giant version of something I made.

I cut out a bunch of petals (too many, from the looks of the remainders) into a vague heart shape (not unlike most of the boys I date).

I curled the edges of the petals using scissors using the same method as ribbon curling.

I then put glue on the outer curved side, maybe 2 inches up from the bottom of the petal.

Then, I attached it to my stem, wrapping it with the petal curving outward. The stem is a basically a stick I found outside my apartment. Well, not basically a stick. It is a stick. What’s brown and sticky? Not this stick. It’s white and sticky. This joke is about to go horribly wrong.

I continued haphazardly attaching the petals to the stick until I reached maximum fullness for the flower. Maximum fullness is a size that I made up.

Then, I let it dry and then I took some flattering pictures of it.

This is the flower compared to the size of my head.