Gluten free Cocoa Brownie

Last week we celebrated hubby's birthday.  In case you didn't know, hubby is a big, big fan of chocolate.  Me, not so much. But every year I put aside my indifference and try to bake him something chocolatey.

Last year I really struggled to find a good gluten-free chocolate cake recipe.  This year, I tried again to find a yummy recipe that would satisfy hubby's choclatey wishes and satisfy Chuck's dietary restrictions.

After looking around the internet, I found this cocoa brownie recipe and tweaked it.  Instead of normal flour, I used Domata gluten free flour.  (It was so easy.  I just exchanged 1/3 C of normal flour for 1/3 C of my gluten free flour.)

The results?  Woot woot!  Finally some gluten free baking success.  I got a whole batch of dense, fudgy, and extremely chocolatey brownies.

They were delicious.

This recipe's a keeper.  Sometimes it's so tough seeing other kids at birthday parties eating cake and knowing that Chuck can't eat any of it.  Now I know I can bake him something special and chocolatey too.

Hope you have a great weekend.  See you next week!

Adventures in Brooklyn

Last weekend we visited Brooklyn to see the Renegade Craft Fair.  Wow.  It was really amazing to see so many talented crafters.  I walked away feeling super inspired (and super intimidated.)  

Below are some photos from the day's adventures.  I wish I could have taken more photos of all the vendors' wares, but, it was way too sunny and hot.  We ended up just walking through and then searching for shade.  Despite all my best efforts at using sunscreen, I still ended up getting burned.  Ick, ick, ick.

Some Brooklynites lay sod over a closed-off street to create instant green seating for an afternoon concert

Brave souls who ventured out into the heat to enjoy lovely crafts

Love these earrings because they reminded me of friendship bracelets

Cool word art (And now I'll know the different parts of Brooklyn)

One vendor sold lovely diorama boxes with interesting images

Chuck cooling off with his spray bottle

Chuck and I sharing a smoothie

Make Colorful Coffee Filter Pinata-inspired Letters

I don't know about you, but I've been feeling so inspired by all the warm weather lately.  It seems like everything around us is bursting with life, light, and color.  To bring some of that happy, airy, summer feeling inside, I made these fun pinata-inspired letters to decorate our bedroom wall.

Materials:
- coffee filters
- markers
- spray bottle
- shallow pan
- cardboard box
- tape
- double sided tape
- pencil
- exacto knife
- scissors
- white paint
- paint brush
- plastic bags

Directions:
1.  Cut out your letters from cardboard.  (I found that using an exacto knife was much easier than using scissors.)  Paint the letters white to help your colors stand out.

2.  Use markers to doodle on your coffee filters.  (Have fun with it!  It really doesn't matter what you doodle.  All your designs are going to be washed away anyway.)

3.  Spray your coffee filters to make the colors run.  Then, let the coffee filters dry.  (I placed ours on some plastic bags and waited overnight.)

Here's what the coffee filters looked like after they dried:

4.  Cut out strips from your coffee filters and tape them onto the horizontal sides of the letters to cover them.  (This way you won't see the raw cardboard edges.  The vertical edges are going to be covered by fringe.)

Oops.  I missed one edge on the "L."

5.  Cut out similar sized strips from your coffee filters and turn them into pinata fringe.  Use your double sided tape and normal tape to stick them onto the cardboard letters.  Be sure to work from the bottom upwards.  Also, wrap the strips around the letters to cover the exposed cardboard sides.

Here's what a finished letter looks like:

And here's what the fringe looks like up close:

And that's it.  Now we have a lovely set of pinata-inspired letters.  I placed them right above our bed.  I think they look nice there, don't you?

Thanks for reading!
(Psst-  If you liked this pinata-inspired craft, you can check out my number pinata or snack bag pinata.)

Make a Corn Husk Doll

Today we're going to be making a corn husk doll!  I love Summer time because it means that two of my favorite  foods (watermelon and corn) are stocked in stores and super cheap.  Yum, yum!  Lately we've been eating a lot of corn.  Too lazy to stand over a boiling pot of water, I just throw them in the oven (husks, and all) and roast them for about an hour.  Deee-licious.

Even though I really enjoy eating corn, I'm always slightly disturbed at the end of the meal.  Have you ever noticed just how much we toss out once we're done with the corn?  Those corn cobs and husks are quite heavy and take up a lot of space  in comparison to the tiny yellow kernels 

So, I thought I'd try making something from the castaway bits.  Here's my little corn husk doll.

Corn Husk Doll

Materials to Make Corn Husk Doll:

- Corn husks (I used corn husks from about 5 ears of corn.  But note-  since I roast my corn, I was only able to get a couple leaves from ear.  You could probably do it with fewer ears if you use up all the leaves.)

- Yarn

- Scissors

- Paper towels

- Baking pan 

- Shallow Pan

- Sharpie marker

- Water

Directions to Make Corn Husk Doll:

1.  Rip off the leaves from your corn.  Set them out to dry.  (We live in an apartment, so I just placed them on a baking dish near a sunny window.  After a couple of days they just shriveled up.)  Note:  If you make the dolls with the green leaves, all your bindings will come loose once the leaves start shriveling up and drying.

2.  Once your leaves dry, re-hydrate them in a  bit of water.  (It took my leaves about half an hour to plump out.)

3.  Now you're going to make the head and the body.  Pick out 4-5 nice large leaves.  Tie them tightly together with a bit of yarn.  

4.  Flip the leaves over your yarn.  

5.  Straighten out the leaves and then tightly tie a piece of yarn to make your head.  (Make sure that the leaves are smoothed out and  cover each other.  Try not to have any gaps where the yarn is visible.  I wasn't too careful and my poor doll's head had a bit of gap once the leaves started drying again.)

6.  Now you're going to make the arms.  Find another nice large leaf.  Cut two slits on one side of the leaf.  Then, cut two slits on the other side of the leaf.  Braid both sides and secure the braids with bits of yarn.   Trim off the ends.

7.  Open up your doll's body and slide the braided arms in.  Tie another piece of yarn to create the waist and hold the arms in.  

8.  Now you're going to make a skirt.  Take a bunch of nice big leaves and wrap them around your doll's waist.  Tie these leaves to the waist with another piece of yarn.  Then, trim off the the ends of the leaves to create the skirt.  (If you wanted to give your doll pants, you could also just split your leaves up into two piles and tie those off to create trousers.)

9.  Now you'll create a shawl for the doll (which will help cover the ugly waist bit.)  Take two nice leaves and criss-cross them over and behind the dolls body.  Tie off your leaves with yarn.  Trim any excess bits.  

10.  Now you've got yourself a doll.  Once the doll dries, use a Sharpie marker to draw a face on it.  Voila.  Now you've got your very own corn husk doll.

Not sure if Chuck was a big fan of the doll, but I enjoyed the experience of taking something destined for the garbage and giving it a second life.

For more information on making corn husk dolls, check out these three great resources: GardenMama blog, Acorn Pies blog or this YouTube video  They really helped me to figure everything out. 

Happy crapting!

What's up, Chuck?

Warm, sunny weather is finally here... and we are loving it.  I forgot how much I missed the sunshine.  Here are some photos from a recent outdoor play date with friends.  We spent the morning eating, chatting, and splashing in the water.

It's times like this that I wish summer would never end.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend.  See you on Monday!