Frozen Whipped Cream Minis

Back to another handy tip from the Heloise's Housekeeping Hints (1962) book I scored at our church rummage sale a few months ago!! If you're like me and love fresh whipped cream instead of Cool Whip or aerosol whipped cream, here's a great way to store leftovers and have it on hand and ready to go any time.

How to make Frozen Whipped Cream Minis:
Simply take your whipped cream and drop in mounds on a wax paper lined cookie sheet and freeze until solid. Then put in a plastic freezer bag and store in the freezer until you need whipped cream. A cute little individual portion will be ready to go!! Allow it to sit for about 15 minutes to thaw -- or you can start eating it frozen right away like me. :O) I piped mine with a pretty decorating tip, but you also could pipe from the snipped corner of a plastic bag, or simply drop by spoonfuls onto the wax paper.

 

If you've never made fresh whipped topping, it's super easy and eliminates a lot of mystery ingredients versus buying the aforementioned creams.

How to make your own whipped cream:
Simply pour cold heavy cream into a bowl (I like to use a metal bowl, and chilled is better but not required) and go to town with your electric mixer. Mine happens to have a handy whisk attachment that makes the process faster, but regular beaters work just fine, too. After it's all whipped up, feel free to add a sweetener or flavoring. I only add a little powdered sugar to mine, but Heloise mentioned she uses sugar and vanilla in hers. I'm sure you also could experiment with other flavors depending on what it will be used for (think almond extract, chocolate flavoring, orange extract, etc.).

This batch was made from whipped cream leftovers after making smoothies, and the next night I used my little frozen portions on strawberries and angel food cake. They were perfect!! It really was nice to grab ready whipped cream out of the freezer and not have to make such a small amount for one dessert. Such a great way to save leftover whipped cream!!






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Valentine Candy Pouches

 

For Haleigh Ann's preschool class we made these cute pouches for sharing Valentine's at their class party today. I used my Silhouette and enlarged the original pattern (Sweet Afton's "scallop pocket") size a bit so it would be big enough to hold a small package of Skittles. There's a pink card inside that pulls out where you can write a Valentine sentiment or the standard To and From like we did, and outside she chose a purple heart and gray arrow. I helped glue the pouch together, and she glued and helped assemble everything else. So easy!!



And for her teachers we made a card (Lori Whitlock's "love card", enlarged) with a nice big pouch that was big enough to hold a full-size Hershey's bar. :O)

Church Sign Sunday {02-12-12}

With Valentine's Day being this week I thought I'd try to find some love-y church sign sayings. They remind me that God loves us all no matter what!!

I've loved you since time began. Be mine? –Jesus

Jesus is God's Valentine to you.

God wrote the first valentine with 2 boards and 3 nails.

He Loves Me. He Loves Me. He Loves Me...There is No NOT!

Baby Blankets 3 Ways {#2}

Here's the second blanket of three for the newest addition to our neighborhood. The top is a "race" or "jelly roll 1600" type of design. Here's some more about those along with pictures of other beautiful full-size race quilts.

I was lucky enough to find a jelly roll that used the same colors from baby's room. The parents wanted baby's gender to be a surprise, so they decorated the nursery in pretty muted blues, greens and grays. It's really a stunning room and a great concept for a gender-neutral color scheme!!

To make this blanket I used one half of a jelly roll (20 strips), backing fabric and matching fabric for the binding. Its finished size is 31" x 41".

First I sewed together all the strips with a diagonal seam. To do this you lay two strips together, right sides facing, in what I fancily like to call an "upside down L" (LOL). Then you sew a straight diagonal line from corner to corner, and when you open it up you have nice diagonal line. Do this over and over, joining all the strips together into one big strip.

Sew the strips together with a diagonal line.

When finished it will look like this, with a diagonal seam.

Sew all the strips together and you'll get a nice pile of one long strip. :O)

After you have one long strip, find the midpoint, move up a little and cut so that you now have two long strips. You don't want to cut it exactly in half or the diagonals will line up and that's not what you want. Now sew these two strips together. Again, find the midpoint and cut. Repeat this process until you have your blanket top. Easy peasy. Time consuming, yes, but also easy.

After cutting and sewing the strip together once, then cutting in half and getting ready to sew together again.

The finished top with all the pieces sewn together.

Next I made bias tape for the binding that was from the same fabric as the backing. If you have never done this, it's easy and much more economical than purchasing ready-made bias tape. Plus you know you have a finished binding that matches just right. Bias tape makers come in a variety of sizes. To make the bias tape, simply cut your fabric to the right width and length, run it through the bias tape maker tool and press with an iron and you're done. I also like to spray with starch before ironing so the binding folds stay neat and clean. Mary Ellen's Best Press starch spray in lavendar is my favorite!!

Making the bias tape for binding is easy!!

My 1" finished bias tape (and my handy dandy bias tape maker).

Next I pinned together the top and bottom pieces of fabric, wrong sides together, and stitched-in-the-ditch up every other row of strips. This gives a nice quilted look and also helps the blanket hold together. There is not any batting in the middle -- you certainly could do this if you wanted. But for this blanket I chose to keep it simple. I personally like blankets that are not too thick -- I find they are great for simple cover-ups when a thick blanket would just be too much, are easy to transport and great for baby to sit on and play.

The last step was to put on the binding, and I used a mitered corner (if you need help with this, do a quick search on YouTube for some great tutorials).

Binding with mitered corners; top and bottom of blanket.

Back of blanket.

This blanket is fairly easy to put together and just requires a little time to get done. The design makes a lot of impact for minimal effort compared to other piecing techniques and patterns. Add some matching burp cloths or other baby essentials and you have yourself a great shower gift!!

A pretty blanket ready for a beautiful new baby!!

So now you've seen Blanket #1 and #2 -- next week will finish this neighborhood Baby Blanket triparte!! But no worries -- if you like baby blankets there are more to come. :O)

{books} The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

This was an interesting, balanced, and informative book about not only the "life" of Henrietta Lacks, but also medical research and ethics. I found myself reading page after page, not wanting to put it down. Author Rebecca Skloot clearly did her research -- more than a decade's worth.

 From the synopsis:

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. If you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they’d weigh more than 50 million metric tons—as much as a hundred Empire State Buildings. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave. More....

Since this also is my first post about a book, I'll share with you my favorite place all about books -- Goodreads.com. It's similar to Facebook where you can share things with friends, but it's so much more. You can make lists of books to read, keep track of the ones you've finished, enter contests, and discover new authors. They also have smart phone apps so you can look at that handy to-read list while you're at the library or book store. All my book club friends are on there and we love to see who's reading what and get ideas of new books to try. I also love reading reviews to help me decide if something really is worth my time and money before I check it out or make a purchase. If you love reading books, I highly suggest you give Goodreads a try!!

{What I Love Wednesday } Pot Minders

I use this little thing all the time since finding one last summer. I only wish I'd had it sooner. The Pot Minder is small, cheap, and most importantly keeps your water or milk from boiling over on the stove.

The ceramic Pot Minder will gently rattle in the pan when your water begins to boil so you know to adjust the temperature if needed. More importantly it also will change the formation, size, and number of bubbles so you don't have those dreaded messy boil overs. Yay!!

Purple Peanut Butter & Chocolate Cookies

I saw these cute pink cookies on Pinterest and decided to make some in my favorite color -- purple!! They are very easy: make a batch of your favorite peanut butter cookie recipe, roll dough balls in colored sugar, bake, and put a Hershey's Hug on top a few minutes after they come out of the oven. I just used plain food coloring drops on this batch, but I'm positive a gel coloring would have made a more vibrant color. Next time, next time. But I assure you they will taste great no matter what color they are. :O)

 My little helper rolling on purple sugar.

Pretty purple peanut butter & chocolate cookies :O)