down to the wire....I need to stay busy!

So I'm down to the wire, Jocelyn will be here before I know it. I'm trying to stay busy to keep my mind off it because just sitting around waiting makes me anxious!

I know I won't finish her blanket before she's here, so my goal now is to finish it in time for her to use it.

Today I've been working on Josiah's ABC Rocker quilt.

And cutting squares, and more squares and more squares and more squares!! I like it though. Keeps me busy and it's easy to cut and watch tv.

I did finished a couple of things for Jocelyn,

And picked out her coming home outfit

 with some cute socks her Aunt Kasie got her

And I still have to make the second one, but she just might come home with some crocheted sandals.

So we have doctor's appointment Friday then we are taking pregnancy photos!  I didn't take any the first time I was pregnant so I've be searching for inspiration:

Saturday is our baby shower, keeping my fingers crossed that I don't go into labor before then.
Sunday is my nephew's first birthday.
Monday we go in at 7am to be induced.

Busy weekend, but life is good.


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I soooo want my own space..

Definitely on the christmas cookie list...

Yesterday I was at my sisters house and  I was in the baking mood, which I've been in for about the past week. So I decided with my sister's encouragement to bake some. So I went on to allrecipes.com, (my default for finding a recipe.) I searched and search until I decided to just take one of the recipes and make it my own, as usual. So this was my take on the Spice Cookies with Crystallized Ginger 

Orange (and next time cranberry) Spiced Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons dark corn syrup
• 3 tablespoons orange zest
• Juice from half an orange
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar for decoration (add some colored sugar to make them prettier)
• 1 cup dried cranberries (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease 2 large cookie sheets.
2. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add egg, and corn syrup; mix until fluffy. Stir in the orange zest. Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ground ginger, and cloves; stir into the egg mixture. When dough starts to come together, add cranberries, then mix with your hands to form a smooth dough (dough will be very moist)
3. Form dough into 1 inch balls and roll in white sugar. Place balls on a cookie sheet 2 inches apart, and press down with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar. Bake in the preheated oven for 12 to 15 minutes, cookies should be golden brown. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before Moving to a rack to cool completely.

I completely forgot to add baking soda, but they still came out okay. They were a little to dry, but if you like a crunchy cookie I guess that's good. When we made these yesterday we decided that a few things need to change especially to help with the moister so I marked all the changes that we plan on making next time with gray font. I also think that substituting brown sugar for the white sugar will help with the moister and give it a deeper flavor. These will be a huge hit at Christmas time.

Just a little thing I could use...

I could totally use one of these kits.  Every crocheter's dream.  It's on my wish list, maybe for my birthday, or Mother's day.


That's all for now.
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Cupcake Goodness...

So I've never been much for baking sweets from scratch, but I've decided to try my hand at it. Mostly because I've had a really bad sweet tooth.

So I did a little research on cupcake recipes and just kinda threw my own recipe together with whatever stuff I had in the pantry.

Slightly Tropical Virgin Piña Colada Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup Butter, softened
• 1 cup Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 1 Egg Yolk
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• 2 3/4 cups Flour
• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1/4  teaspoon Salt
• 3/4 cup Sour Cream
• 1/2 cup Cream of Coconut
• 1/2 cup Pineapple Juice

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350℉. Line cupcake pan with paper or foil liners.
2. Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add vanilla
3. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
4. In another separate bowl whisk together sour cream, cream of coconut, and pineapple juice.
5. On low speed, add dry ingredients a half cup at a time to creamed butter, alternating with a half cup of sour cream mixture. Blend on high speed for 2 minutes.
6. Fill cups 2/3 full. Bake for 22 to 26 minutes. Cool completely before icing.

For Next Time:

Next time I make these I will probably get some coconut flakes and sub crushed pineapples for the pineapple juice.  And they weren't as sweet as I would like so I'll probably add more sugar. Plus maybe add some coconut extract, cause they "tropical flavor" I was going for isn't there at all. The moistness wasn't a problem, they are very moist. But they are a little dense for my likely so I will do some research to find out what to do to help with the denseness for next time. 
As for the icing, I couldn't give you the recipe if I wanted to cause I just threw some stuff together and added things here and there to get the flavor I wanted. But next time I make these I want to come up with some sort of pineapple frosting. When I do I'll get the recipe down and post it.

I feel like...

☂Rainy days. They are perfect for creating. I always feel like baking, knitting, drinking a cup of tea, reading a good book, watching a movie(although movies are always better when I have my honey to snuggle up with on the couch), and blogging of course.  

 Today I'm craving some delicious muffins.  I found a recipe that would be perfect, but looked in the pantry only to discover I'm out of brown sugar!!! what kind of non-sense is that! And if only I had a car I could just run up to the store and grab some. Then I would also be able to grab some eggs, which I'm also out of.☹


So my delicious muffins will have to wait for another day.

Banana Crumb Muffins

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla 
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3 bananas, mashed
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375℉  Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.
2. In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla, nutmeg, 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon, and salt. 
3. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
4. In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean. 

Make it, if you dare. Let me know how it is.
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Hot tea and a good book...

My mom gave me this book a little over a year ago, and I have to admit I have never just read through the whole thing. Instead I tend to just pick it up and read a chapter here and there. This book is AMAZING! If you haven't read it, I recommend it, with this warning: God will speak into your life! I am just longing to be a more godly woman!! It has really just made me want to make a change and draw closer to the Lord. I want to be a better wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend etc... I want my speech to change in everything. I want God to convict me of the bragging, complaining, reckless and careless speech, slander gossip, anger, and conflict. I want to have discretion and gentleness. It definitely will be hard but I know that with God's strength and guidance, and with my heart being open to Him I can become the person I want to be.  I encourage everyone to read this book and allow God to change your life!

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Feeling a little foreign

So I have seriously been craving some Indian food! For the first time I decided to try to make some from scratch.

 On the Menu

Curried Coconut Chicken, Coconut Rice and Lemony Spiced Chai Iced Tea

Recipe for Curried Coconut Chicken:

• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch chunks
• 2 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons curry powder
• 1/3 cup onion, thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon garlic, chopped fine
• 1 1/2 cup sweetened coconut milk
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can stewed, diced tomatoes, drained
• 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce

1. Season chicken pieces with salt and pepper.
2. Heat oil and curry powder in a large skillet over medium-high heat for 2 minutes. Stir in onions and garlic, and cook 5 minute more. Add tomatoes cook 5 minutes. Stir in chicken, cook for 3-5 minutes.
3. Pour coconut milk and tomato sauce into the pan, and stir to combine. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low-medium, simmer, stirring occasionally, approximately 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
   (OR you could follow steps 1 and 2 then throw everything into a crock pot on high heat.)
   ** if your sauce is too thin mix 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of cold water and add to pan stir to combine, and cook until sauce thickens

Recipe for Coconut Rice:

• 1 cup sweetened coconut milk
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup rice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Combine all in medium sauce pan. Bring to boil. 
2. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer 18-20 minutes, until all liquid is absorbed. Fluff with fork.

Recipe for Lemony Spiced Chai Iced Tea

• 4 lipton family sized tea bags
• 1 lemon flavored tea bag
• 1 spiced chai black tea bag
• 1 1/2 cups sugar (or to taste)

1. Bring about 4 to 5 cups of water to boil. Remove from heat
2. Add all tea bags. Let sit for 10 to 15 minutes.
3. Pour into large pitcher. Add sugar and stir. 
4. Fill pitcher with water until desired strength is reached.
5. Pour over ice. Garnish with a slice of fresh lemon.

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My current wants...

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Love is the key to motivation!

I find it very easy to be motivated to work on and finish projects when I don't have a deadline or obligation. It's all about the pure love that I have for making things with my hands. It's such a great feeling of accomplishment! Especially when making something for someone else, like as a present or surprise. It gives me such joy to be able to make things for people.

I'm feeling a little inspired at the moment, here's an idea. (SOMETHING I'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO TRY TO DO) I want to start a project, A BIG PROJECT! I want to start making scarves for the homeless. How would I go about getting others involved? I think it would be so awesome to be able to bless those with very little with something special. This will be my goal: Try to get as many people involved as I can! I'll talk to homeless shelters, find people to donate yarn to make the scarves with, find out how to get them out the the homeless, and MAKE AS MANY AS POSSIBLE!  I don't know if there is anyone out there that reads my blog but if you have any ideas or want to get involved, let me know! Maybe we can get this going nationwide!! We could call it The Happy Hands Warm Hearts Foundation. :) This makes my heart happy. God knows I'll need His help to get this all accomplished and figured out, especially with a new baby coming! LOL I'm so over ambitious, but there always has to be a start and this is mine. Whether it works out by this winter or five winters from now, it will be done!!




On a different note: Just finished with my scarf, now I seriously need to hit that baby blanket hard! Jocelyn will be here before I know it, and I know I won't have time to work on it after she is here.






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On the sticks.........and finished works

 So now that Markets Days has passed (THANK GOD), I can just work on whatever I feel like. (YAY!)  So I have started a blanket for Jocelyn, I'm SO determined to try and get it done before she gets here. So far my progress has been great!


Also, I had someone who was kind enough to give me quite a bit of yarn (DOUBLE YAY!) So I just started crocheting a skinny scarf for her. I'm already in love with it! Once I get done making hers, I just might have to make one for myself!

 Here is some of the stuff that I finished:

If you are interested in purchasing anything just email me and let me know :) courtneyannsantos@gmail.com


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Links to things I love

COMING SOON...

FAQ

Will be here when I have some questions to be answered :P

Dragon Parts

I finally got all my dragon parts done. Now it's just a matter of sewing all the pieces together, then  sewing on the eyes. They will be done in no time!

Couple of little things

Don't have much to say, here's some recent stuff I've made/ am working on:

Busy Busy

I have been crazy busy lately, or so it seems. We are in the process of moving apartments, then on top of that the whole family gets sick :( I haven't felt like doing anything lately. Although I know I need to get on the ball with making stuff for the Helotes Market Days in April! Me and my sister, Kasie, are in the process of trying to start a small business in memory of our grandmother. Our "big debut" is going to be at the Market Days thingy. We are hoping and praying that everything works out and it will be a huge success!! Whenever I find my camera and some of the stuff I've made for the market day I will post some pictures! Until then..............