Peep Show!

Well, that's a real show stopping title if I do say so myself. And it's true, I'm doing a blog post on a peep show, but not in the traditional sense. My peep show has to do with homemade peeps! Those gooey birds of goodness that we used to only get at Easter time. Now we can get them for most every holiday, but when I was a kid, I couldn't wait to get those yellow, sugary sweets in my Easter basket!

Sometimes, I like to find crazy, hair brained ideas and make things that have forever been only "factory made" In fact, sometimes this is done out of necessity! Today I went on a quest for "how to make peeps" I scrolled through Pinterest until I finally found a recipe. My response, "Challenge accepted!"

The recipe was pretty much ingredients I already had on hand. I only had to make a grocery store run for the unflavored gelatin. Here's the recipe:

Homemade Peeps

1/3 c. cool water

1 pkg unflavored gelatin

1 cup sugar

1/4 c. water

colored sugar

Put the 1/3c. cool water in large mixer bowl. Sprinkle unflavored gelatin over top of water and set aside for at least 5 minutes (or while you prepare the rest of the mixture). In a saucepan add 1/4 c. water and 1 cup sugar. Bring to a boil stirring constantly. Boil and stir until temperature reaches 238* on a candy thermometer (soft ball stage). Pour over gelatin and start mixer. Mix on med high until soft peaks are reached, about 8 to 10 minutes. 

Put the fluffy cream mixture into a piping bag fitted with a large round tip. Pipe a long oval for the body and then build up a head and pull forward for the beak. Do this on waxed paper that has a little sugar sprinkled on it.

 After you have piped your peeps sprinkle the colored sugar over them to cover. For eyes, dip a toothpick in black or blue food coloring and dot the eyes with the toothpick. Easy peasy!

I had the cutest little helper!

Okay, I would say that it was a mostly successful venture! The homemade peeps taste sooo much better than the store bought variety! Even my little grand-daughter thought so! I did learn a few things to remember for next time. I will share them with you, just so you won't have to wear the "Why didn't I do ...." hat! 

1. Have EVERYTHING ready before you get started! The marshmallow mixture sets up pretty quickly and you don't want to waste any time with it!.

2. Use the biggest decorator piping bag you can find! I used the largest one I had and it only held about half of the mixture. As I messed with the first batch, the second batch set up and couldn't be piped. Instead of throwing it out, I left it white and dropped spoonfuls into white sugar and wrapped them in waxed paper. I'm calling them "Bunny tails" instead of peeps. 

3. Use a bigger decorator tip. My peeps are about half size, but it was the biggest that I had on hand.

That's it, I hope you enjoy my little peep show! Have a blessed Easter with those you hold dear to you. Easter is my favorite holiday because it celebrates the total and complete love of Christ. His great sacrifice for us and our horrible, sinful selves.

Great project, bad photo!

Do you ever make something that you spend hours on, and it's so fantastic, then you skimp on the photo by taking just a quick one with your phone? Yeah, me too, too often! That's what I've done here. But in the essence of time and the looming holiday, it will have to do.

Yesterday I spent some time on Pinterest looking for ideas of thing that I could make to put in Easter baskets of my grown children. Yes, I still do baskets for them too, I can't help myself! I found the cutest little egg decoration, and thought that would be perfect. The girls both have new households they are setting up and decorations are always needed and welcome. So....I went to the Happy Place and got busy!

I dug out some retired Stampin' Up! designer series paper that I've had forever. I was part of Sale-A-Bration a few years back. This stuff with it's pastel colors was perfect, and needed to be used. We are supposed to use the paper we buy, right?

So I have one picture, and it's not very clear, but I'll walk you through the instructions. I actually made three of these. One for Ms. Princess, one for Ms. Country Girl, and one for myself. I should learn to always make more than one of any project! I will try to get my real camera out and take a better picture, but for now, here's the phone shot:

Supply List:
*Scrapbook paper of your choice -( I used Stampin' Up! two sided Designer Series Paper from a Sale-A-Bration package years ago. Sorry but it's no longer available unless you find it on the Clearance Rack possibly)
*So Saffron Cardstock, small scrap of white cardstock
*Small scraps of patterned paper in pink, lt blue and green (I used some scraps leftover from die cutting, except for pink)
*Adhesives - I used my snail tape runner, glue dots, xyron, and glue pen
*Ribbon - I used 1/2" grosgrain in So Saffron, 8" piece of 1/8" ribbon for hanging.
*Sizzix Dies - Lg Oval Tag
                     San Serif Alphabet
                     Small Bunny
                    Grass
                    Small Heart Border
                    Small Flowers (  SU Sizzlit)
                    Small Bird (SU Sizzlit)
                    Small Embossed Butterflies (SU Embossing Sizzlit)
*Sizzix Embossing Folders by Stampin' Up!
                                     Tiny Dots
                                      Honeycomb
Small yellow rhinestone brad
Small pink brad
Chipboard sheet
Misc tools, Cropodile, Paper piercer, Piercing mat, Xyron
The low down:
1.Use sizzix and cut 6 lg oval tags out of chipboard, and 7 lg oval tags out of patterned paper.
2. Use sizzix to cut out the letters EASTER out of So Saffron cardstock.
3. Use sizzix and cut out small heart border in lt pink scrap of patterned paper
4. Use sizzix and cut out grass out of green scrap.
5. Use sizzix and cut out small bunny out of white cardstock scrap
6. Use sizzix and cut out small flowers, bird and butterflies out of scraps of patterned paper leftover from oval tags.
7. Use sizzix and tiny dot embossing folder to emboss letters with tiny dots.
8. Use sizzix and honeycomb embossing folder to emboss one lg. oval tag from patterned paper.
9. Put away sizzix (whew!)
10. Assemble the following die cuts: bird with one wing
           stack two smallest flowers and attach with rhinestone brad
           glue small scrap of lt blue paper to back of bunny covering the eyes and nose. Put pink brad through nose.
11. Use xyron to put adhesive on letters and diecuts (not the oval tags, yet!).
12. Adhere letters to fronts of oval tags and decorate with other die cuts and flowers.
13. Take assembled tags and run through xyron , apply to chipboard tags.
14. Set cropodile to desired depth for punching holes in top and bottom of tags. (I lined it up with what the die had already punched and set it at that). Use the larger size hole punch if using 1/2" ribbon. Adjust if using smaller ribbon.
15. Line up cardstock tags top of one to bottom of the next and hole punch with cropodile at the same time. Continue until all tags are punched at top and bottom.
16. Line up top and bottoms of tags back to back and thread 7" piece of ribbon through both at the same time and then tie in a loose knot (leave about 3/4" loop). Do this to all tags, and top and bottom of the first and last tags.
17. Tie 1/8" ribbon through top hole and make a knot for hanging.
18. Some afterthoughts - I always have these, I like to think of it as "learning". I think I would have gone back and applied mod podge to all the tags front and back after embellishing and before putting the ribbon on. This would make the decoration a little more durable.
That's it! Now get out there and make two or three! One for yourself, and others to give away!

Let me tell you about breakfast

I'm bound and determined to be a good blogger. After all, isn't that what we are supposed to do? I've dabbled in it a bit, but haven't dedicated myself to blogging. I am a blog stalker, I love to read other's blogs, but neglect my own. So, here I am with a clean sheet. Blank screen, whatever. 

A little about me, Well, I'm the Martha Stewart of my domain. Glue, glitter and craftiness runs through my veins. My mind is always whirring with the sounds of creativity. But I do get distracted, "SQUIRREL!" Hence the title of this new endeavor! A perpetual state of undone! That's my life! I have more started and to-do projects that humanly possible! And I move from one "SQUIRREL!" idea to another a moments notice! Enough about that, I'm a wife, mom and a new Mimi! My sweet little Ms. Munchkin was born last August and I love being a grandmother - a Mimi. I'm married to Mr. Wonderful for the past 26 years. We've had five children, two are married now, Ms. Princess and her husband Mr. Prince, and Ms. Country Girl married to Mr. Country Boy, and they have that sweet little Ms. Munchkin. At home we have three of our kiddos left, Mr. Outdoors, who loves hunting and fishing, all the time! Ms. Ginger is our resident red head, she is a picky little thing. She loves all things teenager and is an amazing cheerleader. Lastly is Mr. Lego Master. He's our 12 year old baby, loves his friends and legos, an playing video games and ipad games. If I had a cute name, it would be something like Ms. Artsy Fartsy or something equally wonderful!

We reside in the Ozarks region of America. It's a great place to be most of the time. I've homeschooled all those kiddos and in the meantime I've held several different jobs, currently with the USPS. But what I love is crafting, I am a Stampin' Up demonstrator and love it. It give me a chance to feed my inner child. Crafting, friends and food...that pretty much sums up my passions! I'm active in my church and teach 4th - 6th grade science, history and writing at our homeschool co-op. Did I mention I love to travel? "SQUIRREL!" We'll save those travels for another post. But for today, lets focus on food!


I want to share my breakfast with you today, well, not really share it, but the idea for it. I went to the kitchen browsing for something to eat. I have some leftovers of this & that (not the scrapbook journals!) that needed used up, so I got creative, which is my favorite thing to get! I saw an overripe banana on the counter, just one, not enough to make some really fabulous banana bread. A loner, not a good thing normally, because it's destined to hit the "chicken pail". (We don't have chickens anymore, but we still call our scrap bucket that) So this idea hits me like slipping on a banana peel and hitting my head on a dull object. Banana pancakes! I put that mushy goodness into my little pancake mixing bowl (yes I have certain bowls I use for them!), and whisked it up till it was all mushed. I added this to my normal pancake batter recipe (Krusteaz from Sam's Club, just add mix and water - perfection!) Then added in about a 1/2 teaspoon of a cinnamon/sugar mix we keep for cinnamon toast, and about a 1/4 teaspoon of mexican vanilla and stirred it up. On a really hot griddle (My Mammy taught me to have the griddle hot so that water "dances" across the griddle and evaporates) I cooked two fluffly pancakes. While they were cooking I got out some toppings, butter (the real thing) and syrup. Not convinced that was the perfect combination I found some vanilla yogurt, hmmm...that's a possibility. Then my little eye spied that tub of leftover cream cheese frosting. What? Cream Cheese frosting - how did we end up with leftovers of that? I looked around to make sure nobody was watching and snatched that little tub out of the fridge. My pancakes were perfectly golden and smelled heavenly! I but a little butter on them until it melted in and then slathered them with cream cheese frosting. A tall cold glass of moo juice and I sat down to completely devour the superb pancakes! I know that this has nothing to do with stamping, but hey, if I make a little topper to put in it, we're good!
The real test of breakfast came in when Ms. Picky Ginger and Mr. Hunter Boy came downstairs to eat. Ms. Ginger put chocolate chips in hers and topped with only butter. She thought it tasted like her favorite banana chocolate chip muffins that her wonderful mama makes! Mr. Hunter Boy ate his with just butter and syrup and thought they were great as well. So, I've scored on my leftoever surprise this time. I hope you get the opportunity to make some for yourself, and don't forget to stamp a cute little topper flag to put in them! 

My closing thought is an S.O.S., not "save our ship" but in reality, "Sick of Snow!" We got about 4 1/2 inches of the white stuff yesterday and it is still trying to spit some of that vicious stuff this morning. If it's winter time, I don't mind it so much, but it's spring! Winter snows get me all excited like a school kid getting out of school! I take snow days as days to spend in the craft room. I'll take any excuse to go out there to my Happy Place.