Crochet Edge Baby Blankets

Here at MIHM, we've come to the realization that you can only do so many Pinterest projects (and still enjoy them!). So, we've made an executive decision to take on only significant, challenging, or lasting craft projects, opposed to "crap" crafts. (We're just being honest.) So with that said, we're blogging less often, but hopefully about more substantial projects! 

Over the last two months, I've been working on a few baby blankets. One was for our good friends who welcomed their second daughter to the world in February. Because they didn't find out the gender of the baby, I picked hunting camo (I figured her hunter dad would be a fan) and then did a double crochet with an extra chain in between each stitch to create a ruffle, for a more feminine finish. Besides playing around with a the crochet stitch, I followed the same directions from when I made Leah's Christmas present blanket. This blanket is two yards of fleece. The edging is one row single crochet (after the row looping the yarn into the fleece), and then three rows of double crochet with an extra chain stitch for the ruffle. 

I was really happy with how the edging turned out. It was actually by accident I started the ruffle pattern (adding the extra chain stitch in between each double crochet stitch was a mistake!) but I plan to do another ruffle edge in the future because it turned out so cute! 

When I went to the fabric store to get the camo fleece, they were having a great sale so I bought a few more pieces of fleece. I've been working on two more blankets to practice different crochet stitches and use up extra yarn I have around the house. When both are finished, I'll donate them to Project Linus. 

My first Project Linus blanket is plain pink fleece, with pink and white yarn. I did one single crochet row, and then three rows of double crochet. Without the extra chain stitch to create the ruffle...see how it lies flat? I'm learning so much through these crochet projects. ;-)

Lastly, I am currently working on a second baby blanket for Project Linus. The zebra print isn't my personal style, but I got two yards of it for $7 and it matched the yarn I had at home. Again, I'm doing double crochet stitches but playing with changing colors more. I think I'll do one more row of the teal color to make it more prominent, and then finish the blanket. 

If you're learning to crochet, or if you're like me and you want to learn better technique and variety in your existing crochet skills, these blankets are the perfect project. The fleece is affordable, and unlike a full crochet blanket, they are quick. This way you have the opportunity to try different stitches in a shorter period of time. And, they make great gifts for both friends and strangers (shout out to Project Linus!). 

Nutty Asian Noodles with Carrots & Edamame

Back in November, MIHM kicked off our recipe theme of International Food Night with Guinness and Onion Soup. It was interesting to say the least, but that's not enough to keep us moving along in the International Arena! Last week we hosted another MIHM International Food Night with Nutty Asian Noodles. My mom found this recipe from Rachael Ray. The recipe is really easy to follow, and we'd recommend trying it!

The recipe called for a few ingredients we've never cooked with before, including udon noodles and frozen shelled edamame. (We substituted the lo mein noodles in the recipe for udon noodles.)

Toasting peanuts for the sauce.

Shredding the carrots.

Cooking the fresh udon noodles.

Here's where the recipe got a little strange. After cooking the udon noodles, we drained and rinsed them under cold water until they were cold...we didn't think too much about this because we were just following the directions in the recipe. But in retrospect, it was weird...

\

Using the food processor to make the peanut sauce.

Mixing the sauce and cold noodles.

Combining the carrots and edamame with the sauce and noodles.

Plated! 

This meal was really delicious. The peanut sauce was great, and the edamame was a fun addition since we don't cook with that often (or ever!). Using the thicker udon noodles was a great touch and made the meal a little more substantial. The Girls Team would recommend this meal to anyone, and we definitely plan to make it again. My dad and brother (who weren't home to try it) would probably really enjoy it with a side of white sticky rice...which means we'll make it again for them. :)

BUT. Remember how I said cooling the noodles was a weird step in the process? Yeah, that weird step led to weird cold noodles. And so after plating the dish, my mom and I both ended up microwaving our food before really diving in. It didn't ever clarify in the recipe if this dish was supposed to be served cold, but following the directions meant cooling perfectly warm, freshly cooked noodles. So it wasn't totally terrible cold, it just was unexpected. Next time we'll save our microwave a job, and just skip the cooling step. 

We both liked this recipe a lot and can count this second edition of International Food Night a greater success than the first! 

DIY Sharpie Mug

YOU GUYS. Look at this mug my mom got me for Christmas. "Make It Happen." Yep, you read that right. Can you believe this find? It's like its just waiting for the Girls Team to get our crafty little hands all over it. So that's exactly what we did this week.

If you've spent five minutes on Pinterest, you know that there is no shortage of projects related to Sharpies. Draw on this mug, design this plate, bake it in the oven, you're done! So, we decided it was finally time to try this technique out.

My mom found this mug, as is, at Anthropologie.

Too perfect. I knew I liked that place.

 

The next step was to get the how-to details from Pinterest. We didn't use one set of directions; we sort of mixed and matched from different blogs. In this fourth year of MIHM, we have some confidence to do that kind of thing now. The two main takeaways were related to the type of Sharpie to use, and the baking/setting process...

 

It was recommended that we use "oil based Sharpies" as opposed to just regular Sharpies. So we bought a pack of them; they weren't hard to find.

 

After washing the mug, we used our best writing to write with the Sharpie. "Monday" on side one...

... and "#MIHM" on side two. Just for fun. We love a good hashtag at MIHM.

Baking/setting the marker is the most critical step in this project. Similar to the Glitter Champagne Flutes from 2012, you want to let the oven heat up to 350 degrees with the mugs inside. This prevents cracking.

Once the oven reached 350 degrees, the mugs baked in the toasty little oven for 30 minutes. Some blogs said 15 minutes, some said 30, just FYI.

And, another critical step, letting the oven cool down back to room temperature with the mugs still inside. This again prevents cracking.

Tada! Our cute, DIY Make It Happen Monday mugs are complete! Some blogs recommended using a sealant (the same sealant we used for our DIY Coasters) but we thought, the less chemicals the better, and opted to not seal the Sharpie portion of our mugs.

Per many blog sources, we waited 72 hours to use the mug, but when we did, our drinks tasted a little cuter than usual. :)

 

This DIY Sharpie Mug craft was SO easy. All of the work was just related to doing the proper "how-to" research, and the time consuming part was the baking process. It seems like anyone could really do any type of Sharpie project, just like Pinterest suggests. After one hand washing, our mugs still look great. We think the true test of the quality of this project will be how the marker holds up over time. But for now, we love our cute little blog mugs. And no, we won't be mass producing them for the Make It Happen Monday gift shop. Sorry! #MIHM

Crochet Edge Fleece Blanket

Fleece Tie Blankets have been all the rage for some time now. (I even made one back in 2012 for my little friend Aiden.) With so many unique fleece patterns available, they are thoughtful, customized, easily crafted gifts. But what happens when you need to make a baby blanket, but you've mastered the fleece tie blankets and don't have time to crochet a full blanket? Well, you hit up Pinterest of course!

I found the perfect solution in a crochet edged fleece blanket. Instead of tying two pieces of fleece together, you only use one piece, and then crochet around the edges for a more finished look. Not only would this be a unique blanket, but it would be an opportunity to practice new crochet stitches and techniques. I used this blog/video for the instructions. Full disclosure: the video is hilariously dated and half of it is filmed upside down (if you are trying to use it as a guide while crocheting), but it was SO helpful in explaining the basics of starting the crochet edging and working around the corners. It's a little painful to get through, but worth it, I promise!

I went to the fabric store with the intention of leaving with materials to make a fleece crochet edged baby blanket for a friend. And while I did manage that, I also left with a Christmas present project for my sister-in-law Leah. You'll remember Leah from a few MIHM appearances. So obviously Leah appreciates a good craft AND when I saw her college's colors flying proudly on this fleece pattern, I knew I had to pick it up for her. Today, I'll be blogging about her blanket (as to not ruin the surprise baby blanket gift I'm also working on for my friend!).

To get started on this project, I had to order a new tool called a skip stitch blade. This works the same as a rotary cutter, but its special blade creates evenly spaced holes in the fabric. They didn't have it at my Joann's store, so I ordered it from Amazon and then patiently waited.

Once my blade arrived, I was ready to go. I started by cutting off any unnecessary edging from around the fleece so that all sides were smooth (using regular scissors). Then, I used the skip stitch blade to cut the holes in the blanket where I would be looping the yarn through. (I got distracted and forgot to take pictures of this, but if you watch the instructional video above, you'll see a demonstration.) Once I had holes on all four sides of the blankets, I could begin crocheting.

Starting the crocheting was the hardest part, but again, the video I used was so helpful. I was actually very proud of my patience level with this because I had to watch this part of the video at least 15 times. Basically, you're single crocheting into each hole, but using the fleece as the base, instead of the yarn (how you would typically do a single crochet blanket). You also need to start a few holes away from the corner since those have a special technique, which the video above will teach you. 

First row - single crochet through the holes to start the yarn edging. One major rule here: you need to determine which is the "front side" of your blanket. The front side will always need to be facing you as you work, or the easier way to remember, the front side should rest on your lap. This is because the "back side" of the blanket will be where the fleece rolls down under the yarn as you work. [See the picture below.] While it's not distracting, it isn't smooth and beautiful, so that's why you'll want this to be the "back" of the blanket. For patterned fleece, it's pretty easy to tell what the front side of the material is based on the pilling of the fleece. 

You can see how the fleece edge tucks under the yarn. This happens pretty naturally as you work, and this will now be the backside of your blanket.

Once you complete one row of single crochet around the entire blanket, you can determine how you'd like to proceed. For Leah's blanket, I did a simple single crochet stitch the entire time, but for the baby blanket I'm working on now, I'm doing a double crochet stitch. Your first row of single crochet is just the base; you can choose whatever stitch you'd like after that. I decided to use black and white yarn on Leah's blanket so after my first row of black yarn was complete, I switched to white yarn. 

I completed two rows of single crochet in the white yarn before switching back to black to finish it off. Counting the first row of black yarn (through the fleece), this edging was four rows wide. 

This is the corner where I started. You can see that my yarn change wasn't even with the rest of the row. This is because I forgot to chain one before moving up a row. I just added the new yarn and kept single crocheting. Lesson learned: Chain 1 if you are single crocheting before starting the next row. (Or chain 2 if you are double crocheting.) 

Big picture view of the edging.

Even though I made some minor crocheting mistakes on this blanket (more technique issues than obvious visual screw ups), I was really happy with how this blanket turned out. The crochet edging is a perfect DIY touch to a fleece blanket, and it sets it apart from other fleece blankets that anyone can make. This blanket took about two weeks to make. Although, the current baby blanket I'm making is going on four weeks now. I think the time factor depends on the crochet stitch you use, and how many rows of crochet edging you plan to work on. 

I loved this project so much because it was something new and different, but also something with endless creative possibilities. With all of the fleece prints, yarn, and crochet stitches out there, I could make 100 blankets all of which would be unique. It's also a great way to keep up my crocheting skills. I've got the single crochet and double crochet stitches mastered, but these are a good chance to try other crochet stitches and patterns. And, unlike other crochet blanket patterns, this takes a few weeks as opposed to a few months to make. 

While at Joann's picking up fabric for Leah's blanket, I took advantage of their 50% off fleece deal. I'm currently working on that original baby blanket for a friend, and I'm planning to gift the others to Project Linus. For about $10, I can donate a blanket to a great cause, and use up some yarn that's just sitting around my house. I'll post final blanket pictures as I complete those projects!

This was a long post, so thanks for making it all the way to the end! 

Christmas Sugar Cookies & Royal Icing

You know how you watch people make sugar cookies on the Food Network and you think to yourself "I can totally do that," and then you watch them frost the cookies perfectly with simple icing and you think to yourself, "I got that too.."??? Well guess what. You don't. Because frosting sugar cookies is the most difficult baking task on the planet. And the worst part about it is that it appears to be so deceptively easily. So the whole time you're frosting, you're feeling terrible about yourself because really, ANYONE should be able to do this. LIES.

Skipping a bunch of steps, we started by rolling out the cookie dough, and using cute Christmas cookie cutters. (We used this recipe for Soft Cut-Out Sugar Cookies  if you'd like to try it at home.)

Cutting out the cookie shapes, very simple!

Variety of Christmas cookie shapes. My favorite is the Christmas light.

 

 

So the Christmas cookies were baked, and really, we had no difficulty with these. They were thin and crispy, but moist when you bit into them. The shapes were really cute too, and we were able to get as many possible cookies out of our dough.

 

As the cookies were cooling, we moved on to make homemade icing: Royal Icing for Sugar Cookies.

 

This was the real treat and challenge of this MIHM baking project, as my mom and I have never really worked with homemade icing before. The recipe was simple enough, and after mixing everything together with a hand mixer, we had icing ready to go.

 

 

We planned to put the icing in little bottles for easy use, and use food coloring to have white frosting, green frosting, and red frosting. But guess what? Our food coloring was bad...as in hard, chunky, stuck to the bottle, etc. STRIKE 1. So we sent the MIHM Holiday Intern (aka my brother) to the store to get some food coloring at 8:30 p.m. He came back with pastel food coloring because the store didn't have standard Red, Blue, Green, Yellow food coloring. STRIKE 2. So here we were, 9 p.m. on a Monday night, all the frosting odds stacked against us. It's ok! MIHM will prevail! We broke out all of the sprinkles we had, and got to decorating the sugar cookies.

 

See how easy the frosting looks above? Yeah. It's not. Between my sticky fingers and runny frosting messes on the counter, I really slacked on the photography part of this project. Here's the issue. The more liquidy your frosting, the more it runs off the cooking past the point of no return. Even after you think you've put just the right amount on, added your sprinkles, and called it a day, nope...the frosting is not done moving around on your cookie. We used the squirt bottles, toothpicks and knives to frost the cookies. I think the toothpicks were probably the easiest to manage.

 

In the meantime, imagine if your Girls Team partner is yelling words of "encouragement" like, "take your time, try to make it look professional, don't make it look like a Kindergartener's, be creative" etc. etc. etc. All of this leads to a bad MIHM. I was TRYING to be creative. I was TRYING to make my cookie look like it was decorated by a 27 year old. I was TRYING to stay in the lines. It's IMPOSSIBLE.

 

Apparently it is possible though, because after my Girls Team partner had her own issues with the frosting, she reached out to Google where she would find that you are supposed to make two frostings. One: a thicker frosting you use to line your cookie shape. Two: a thinner frosting (like the one we made) to fill in the cookie. And also, you were supposed to wait a while for each part to dry before creating more designs on the cookie. SIGH. I don't know you guys. It just seems like a lot of work when they sell frosting at the grocery store...So, STRIKE 3.

 

Regardless of the disaster that was Royal Icing, my mom is up for trying it again. I need some time to think about it. But, our cookies did turn out cute, and despite looking a bit amateur hour, were actually very tasty! The icing was really sweet the night we made it, but was toned down some in the days to follow.

 

So here's a nice picture of some of our best work. No need to spoil the fun by positing some of the worst. :)

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM MAKE IT HAPPEN MONDAY!