People Make Cool Things: Mya Bruce Designs

This week I'm featuring Mya Bruce Designs, a mom who named her digital design shop after her two kids. Leah makes super cute announcements and invitations.

I have a thing for elephants...which is probably why this announcement is my favorite :)

Feeling pirate-y?

Um....that's my name. And it's even spelled the way I spell it. Hm.

Find Mya Bruce Designs online : Shop | Facebook

Recipe: Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

If one of your New Years Resolutions

1) was something along the lines of "Eat healthier" or "Lose weight" (like mine is....)
but
2) you know you can't just stop eating sugar cold turkey

then this Chocolate Crinkle Cookie is perfect for you. You can have an entire cookie in only one bite. Perfect.

They're the cutest, tiniest, most adorable cookies I've pretty much ever seen.

I was in a baking mood the other night and we had almost nothing in the house. Almost every other Chocolate Crinkle recipe has unsweetened chocolate in it and we didn't have any and most of them required chilling the dough for 2 hours. It's 11 pm at this point and I had no interest in staying up to 2 in the morning. So after a frustrating search online I found this recipe.

Cocoa? Check. Makes 30 cookies? Perfect. 10 minutes in the freezer instead of 2 hours in the fridge? Wonderful.

First, mix dry ingredients.

Use your fingers to mix in the butter...which is what the recipe recommends. I tried to use the mixer. Since my fingers are in the bowl with cocoa all over them...you can tell it didn't work.



At this point, I'm realizing that there is only going to be enough dough for like 10 cookies. At the most. Ugh.

This picture makes me laugh. Gross.

Spread the dough fairly thin around the bottom of a metal bowl and stick it in the freezer for 10 minutes.

So now I'm like, great. At least this is a quick recipe because I'm going to get like a grand total of two cookies out of it.

Then I read the recipe. I quote: "Spoon level teaspoons of dough..."

Most cookie recipes call for tablespoon-size cookies. This is even better. Tiny little cookies?!?! Yay!

Roll each teaspoon-sized cookie in powdered sugar and bake at 400 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes.

Perfection.

ingredients

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 1 large egg, beaten lightly
• 2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar

Oh hey, 2011

I'm not usually one for New Years Resolutions. I generally don't like to do whatever everybody else is doing, so if everyone is making resolutions, then I don't want to. Plus I don't like failing at goals I set for myself...so I just tend to ignore the opportunity to set goals for the year.

However...I've been thinking about it and there are a few things I want to accomplish this year.

Here we go!

People Make Cool Things: Chasing the Nuns

Who doesn't want to wear two turkey legs on their head?

Sarah of Chasing the Nuns has several different crafts featured in her shop but my favorite is this turkey beanie:

(Via)

She also makes tote bags out of t-shirts:

(Via)

I  loved Mr. Rogers when I was growing up. Won't you be my neighbor? Dang it, now that song is going to be stuck in my head all day.

Find Sarah online: Shop | Blog | Twitter | Picasa

What not to eat

If you are allergic to milk fat and trying to cut carbs so you can drop ten pounds to fit into your suits from 18 months ago so you can start a job that requires you to look professional, this should not be your lunch.



If, however, you fit into the 99% of the population who isn't allergic to milk fat and/or isn't trying to lose 10 pounds, then make sure to follow this method of making grilled cheese and also use milk instead of water to thin the concentrated tomato soup. Make sure you have lots of butter in the fridge.

What I'm trying to say is...I'm both allergic to milk fat and trying to lose ten pounds...and I had grilled cheese and tomato soup for lunch.

Fail. But so delicious.

PS. The first meeting of the brand-spankin'-new Salem Etsy team was last night! Jessica of DIY Studio wrote about it here. I'm excited to get to know these ladies and introduce Salem to Etsy and handmade. And vintage, of course.

PSS. I've been caring for an invalid today and I must say, I feel pretty helpless. The invalid (aka Isaac) had one of his wisdom teeth removed today. The two dentists he went to today were wonderful - he called this morning to say he wasn't able to sleep last night because of the pain. The dentist got him in for x-rays at 10, and then the emergency tooth removal was at 2. Both were unplanned. I'm pretty impressed that both of those doctors were able to fit him in and I'm super glad he will be able to eat regularly without pain now. Lesson from today: I don't think I'd be a very good nurse. I would feel so bad all the time because I can't fix anything.

At least I'm pretty good at heating up tomato soup.

Christmas in Photos...and learning how to use the Hipstamatic

Christmas at the Oregon State Capitol


My niece is going to be a reader :)

My mother-in-law got me Small-Batch Preserving and Slow Cooker Recipes. We got a new Crock Pot and the one time we used it so far was a flop, so the cookbook will come in hand. I've been wanting to learn how to embroider and this book will get me started.

Postscript to this photo...Isaac is so sweet. We were at Craft Warehouse a few days ago and I was looking at this book but decided not to spend the money to buy it. After we moved on, he told me he wanted to go "look for a pattern" and he ran and bought it for me. Love him :)

The perfect way to end the weekend...Isaac beat me at Skip-Bo (pretty sure he was cheating) and then I kicked his butt at Rummikub.

PS. I have a pretty strict rule against paying for apps (which is sort of funny considering most of them only cost a dollar even though I think nothing about spending three bucks on coffee). I've been wanting the Hipstamatic for a long time. It is a little confusing at first, but I think I'm figuring it out. I got the Williamsburg pack for some extra film and a wide lens and I like it much better than the standard films.

Christmas was fantastic but I think we are all ready to be done...right?

Only my boss....

Most bosses try to motivate their employees. Mine is a bit different. She buys every one in the office "de-motivation" desktop calendars for Christmas.

Hope
May not be warranted  at this point.

Goals
It's best to avoid standing directly between a competitive jerk and his goals.

 

Government
If you think the problems we create are bad, just wait until you see our solutions.

 

Congress
Proudly defending the status quo long after the quo has lost its status

My favorite is the one that will be hanging in our conference room:

Meetings
None of us is as dumb as all of us.

(via Despair.com)

Love my office.

People Make Cool Things: Love Elycia

I was super excited to find out that I get to feature Elycia's blog and shop this week.

Love Elycia was one of the first blogs I found and liked enough to actually figure out how to use Google Reader in order to keep up with her blog.

Elycia makes funny/cute headbands:



She draws super adorable girls who tell a story...Derby is my favorite, mostly because she crochets!

And apparently her kitties are well behaved enough to be allowed in her craft room.



I try to let Maddy in the craft room...and then get mad at her and throw her out.

LoveElycia online: Shop | Blog | Twitter

*Now that I'm back to blogging on a (semi) regular basis, I've re-joined the BesTeam on Etsy to feature some great artist/crafters. Yay!

 

Christmas Lights!

There's a neighborhood in Keizer where almost all the houses decorate with tons of Christmas lights. Isaac and I got hot chocolate and drove through tonight.

Love this saying :)

Go Beavs!



I took a million photos of this Pooh & Tigger display but it moves and it took so long to take the photo that I couldn't make it not blurry. Oh well. Still cute.

If you're trying to get to the North Pole, don't follow this sign...it's pointing west.

We're going to go walk through Magic at the Mill for all the lights and singing, hopefully on Thursday. I've never been but it's supposed to be beautiful. I'm excited.

So Much to (Want to) Make, So Little Time

On my to-make for fun list....

I'm loving Pinterest! Instead of a long list of bookmarks that would be my to-make list, Pinterest shows me all the pretty pictures. I made the zipper flowers already (the tutorial is kind of hard to understand...or maybe I'm just dumb) and I'm saving toilet paper rolls to make Emma's Toilet Paper Roll Art. Isaac says he can't get over the fact that it's made out of toilet paper rolls so we'll see if I can make something work. Maybe on the miniscule wall space that's in the craft room? Speaking of the craft room, my goal for this weekend is to get it cleaned up and take pictures.

Oh hi, Rabbit Trail....

Back to Pinterest....I've only been using it as a style board and am only really following the front page/Best of Pinterest board. I am afraid that it will be a huge time suck as soon as I start exploring.