Thing a Day 2012, tiny envelopes

I love the excuse to hang out and make stuff. I think if I didn't have a job and laundry to worry about, I'd waste a ton of time on crafty things, because it's fun and the results are usually worth it. And if they're not, they're at least something to learn from for the next time.

Thanks to the popular time-sucking website, Pinterest, I have a whole pile of crafts I want to try, and one of them was making tiny gift-card envelopes out of pretty paper. This one did not necessitate a trip to Michael's, because I have some wrapping paper and scrapbook paper, and plenty of glue, making this a very cheap activity!

While I was able to find free envelope templates online, my printer refused to print, so I was stuck making my own by tracing a gift card and trying to copy the template off my computer screen. Here's my result:

I traced it onto cardboard to make it easier to use, and then I cut my shape out of a page of pretty scrapbook paper, folded it up, and stuck it together after swiping a glue stick across the essential parts.

I tested it with a gift card, and it's a little tight - I can get the card in, but can barely get it back out, so the recipient will need to rip the envelope. That's fine with me, since it's not meant to be a keepsake or anything, but I'll probably remake my template and give it a little more space before I try making any more. I don't want people to have to wrestle with their presents!

Thing a Day 2012, Valentine's Day Card

Last year, I made a Valentine's Day card for my 96-year-old grandmother as one of my Thing-A-Day crafts. She's now my 97-year-old grandmother, and still loves getting cards, so I did it again.

It's a plain card from Michael's, with some cutouts from scrapbook paper. Inside, I glued a fuzzy purple heart and stamped "love you". I'm planning on writing her a long letter to go with this card, and I'll also send her my origami sea creatures, because I think she'd get a kick out of them. I'll have to send this card to my mom, who will bring it to Grandmaman, because she's in a hospital room these days and doesn't really have a mailing address. It's complicated, but it'll get there.

Thing a Day 2012, Origami things

I'm getting a slow start compared to some of my online friends who are really talented artists, but my first things for Thing-A-Day 2012 are some origami sea creatures.

I remember, back in Grade 5, having to make hundreds of paper cranes to decorate the stage for our Christmas pageant, because our theme was "peace" and we'd just read Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes in English class. I got so good at it I could make them with my eyes closed, and every now and then when I come across a square of paper, I start folding it into a crane. Sadly, cranes are all I know how to make.

Luckily for me, there are hundreds of websites with detailed origami diagrams - some even have videos - and with their help I was able to make some things that are definitely not cranes. I don't know these new folds by heart yet, but they were both pretty easy.

Thing-A-Day 2012

Just one more sleep until February gets here (barring a nap, of course), which means it's time to register for Thing-A-Day 2012! It's a fun way to push yourself into creativity mode by creating one thing every day for the month of February. Anything counts: crafts, recipes, painting, poetry, photography, even some good doodles on a Post-it note. All you have to do is spend a few minutes each day creating something new, and share it with the other participants (or not, but seeing everyone's creations is so much fun). The goal is to create a little time for yourself every day where you can be creative and use your imagination and make something interesting.

I'm going to try very hard to do as many days as possible, but I'm going to be forgiving of myself if I get too busy. The idea is for the creations to be little things, not days-long artistic endeavors, but I don't want to spend a bunch of money at Michael's so I can make crafty crap just for the sake of making crafty crap, and then have to find a place for it or throw it out. This challenge isn't supposed to be stressful, so if it becomes a burden, I will let it go.

I will share my Things on my blog, so stay tuned...

What's for Dinner - Stuffed Peppers

Stuffed peppers for dinner tonight! Vegetables are so much easier to eat when they're stuffed with meat and rice and garlic.

Stuffed Peppers

6 large green (or red) bell peppers
1 lb lean ground beef
2 cups cooked rice
2 cloves garlic
1 small onion, diced
1/2 cup lowfat mozzarella or italian cheese blend, plus a handful for the tops
1 large 28oz can crushed tomatoes or tomato puree
1 package frozen spinach, thawed and drained
1tbsp Oregano
Salt & pepper

Brown the ground beef, drain off excess fat, and put it in a big mixing bowl. Slice the tops off of the peppers and then chop up the usable parts of the tops, tossing them in with the meat. Remove as much of the peppers' ribs as possible (using a knife or just picking at them with your fingers) and stand the peppers up in a big casserole dish - pick one with high sides if you can, to make sure the peppers don't fall over. If they won't stand up well, cut a little off the bottoms to make them flat, but don't cut the bottoms off or you'll end up with a leaky mess later! I personally cram them so tightly in my casserole dish that they couldn't fall over if they tried, although it does make it harder for me to get them out when they're done! Add everything else to the mixing bowl, except for about 1/4 cup tomato sauce and the reserved handful of cheese, and then stir it up. Here's your filling:

This is good enough to eat without a pepper around it, honestly. Just a bowl and a spoon, and you're good! But if you want stuffed peppers, I suppose you'll need to be filling those peppers over there in your casserole dish. Fill them to almost-overflowing, and then spoon some tomato sauce over the top of each pepper, with a little sprinkling of cheese over that. Cook them for about 30 min at 350 - the peppers will still be crunchy, and the filling will be warm.

I used red peppers for the first time tonight because I got them on sale at Costco on the weekend. Usually I use the green ones because they're so much cheaper. I think I actually prefer the flavor of the green ones for this recipe, but my man disagrees, so I think we'll alternate. I could also only fit 5 peppers into my casserole dish, so I've got leftover filling, which I stuck in the freezer for another day. Frankly, this recipe makes too much filling - it's probably enough for 8 decent-sized peppers. But I like leftovers so I always make a huge amount!

If you make the filling ahead, reheat it in the microwave before stuffing the peppers or you'll have to wait forever for your dinner to warm up in the oven. I speak from experience - once when I made this and waited till the next day to cook it, after 45 minutes I gave up and nuked the peppers.

This works well with turkey instead of beef, and you can use brown rice and reduce the amount of meat, adding more spinach for volume. You can also pre-cook the peppers if you like them to be mushy, but I'm not a fan of mushy stuffed peppers, so I advise against it!

What's for Dinner - Mini Italian Meatloaves

I first found this recipe in a Rachael Ray magazine and I tweaked it a little bit to suit me.

1 1/3 pounds ground beef
1/2 cup diced green pepper
1/2 cup diced onion
1/4 cup grated parmesan or italian cheese blend
2/3 cup "italian-seasoned" breadcrumbs (or season them yourself, see below)
1 large egg, beaten
5 cloves of garlic, squished through a press or chopped fine
3 tbsp tomato paste, plus 1 tbsp set aside
2 tbsp olive oil

To make the normal breadcrumbs into "italian" breadcrumbs, mix in 1 tbsp oregano, 1 tsp basil, and a bit of black pepper.

Mix everything but the olive oil and 1tbsp of tomato paste in a big bowl. Use your hands and get real squishy in there, kneading until the breadcrumbs are well incorporated into the meat, and the diced vegetables are mixed in evenly. Take out small portions of the mixture and make little football shaped lumps out of them with your hands, and put them onto a baking sheet. You don't need to grease the sheet because the fat from the meat will come out as it cooks. For that reason, and for your health, I recommend getting the leanest meat possible! I also strongly suggest you use a rimmed baking sheet for this or you'll be cleaning your oven forever. I usually get 5 "footballs" out of the recipe.

Whisk together the reserved tomato paste and olive oil, and brush it over the tops of the meatloaves. Bake them at 400F for about 20 minutes. Cooking time will depend on how fat you make the loaves. Use a meat thermometer to make sure they're done (160F is recommended), because the tomato paste makes them stay pinkish and you can't trust color as a sign of doneness.


I forgot the olive oil step, so mine got much crispier than usual and didn't have a nice sweet tomatoey coating. Still tasty, but if you're trying these, definitely don't skip the oil and tomato paste step!

Chicken Soup 2 - the Resoupening

It was time to try making chicken soup again. I like to buy the $5 rotisserie chickens on Fridays at Giant, because they make a fast and healthy meal that I don't need to put much effort into. Of course, every time I buy one, after we eat the tasty meaty bits, I'm left with a chicken carcass wasting away in its plastic box in the fridge. I feel guilty throwing it out knowing I can make something out of it, so I tried soup again this weekend. And this time I took pictures!

First I cut off the leafy end of three celery stalks and chopped them up. I also coarsely chopped half an onion and one big carrot. I tossed in two bay leaves and a huge teaspoon of thyme, and my pot looked like this:

Then I picked over the chicken, getting as much of the meat off as I could. I threw out some of the skin because it adds so much fat to the soup, but I kept a little bit for flavor. Let me tell you, ripping apart a chicken with your bare hands is slimy and sort of gross, and very difficult to do when you're being circled by three cats who think it's their dinner. Anyway, next I added 8-ish cups of water (to almost fill the pot) and my chicken bones. I added a tablespoon of powdered chicken bouillon and a tablespoon of liquid chicken bouillon (Bovril, the good stuff), and some black pepper. Things got a little ugly.


That boiled for an hour or so, and I used that time to dice two stalks of celery, two carrots, and a quarter onion so I could add them to the soup after it was done. I strained the whole mess into a huge mixing bowl, threw out the bones and stuff, and put the soup back into the pot, nearly swooning from the delicious chickeny aroma. I put it back on to boil, adding the veggies and some alphabet noodles. Here's the final result:

It ended up cloudier than last time, but I don't care. It was delicious, and I think I've got it down now and won't need to call Mom next time to remind me what I'm supposed to be doing. My man even loved it, despite the presence of "mushy vegetables", and I've gotten the green light to make it anytime.

And let's call this Thing 19, shall we? I still feel funny using dinner for Thing-a-Day but I did make it. I'll try to be a little more forgiving of myself and accept cooking as creativity.

Falling behind, but here are some Things

Apologies to my readers - this week has been kicking my ass. I've been overwhelmingly tired and it's hard to get myself motivated to do anything beyond dragging myself to work and remembering to eat. I fell a couple of days behind with my "things" but I'm trying to catch up. I cheated again and made food as a thing, and that will get its own entry since I want to talk about the cooking.

Thing 17 is not an egg. Because it's a sphere. So there. I found a round blank cardboard ornament and painted and decoupaged it as though it were one of my eggs. It's much harder to paint something that doesn't have a flat surface to rest on, so I ended up with very painted fingers. Luckily that stuff washes off easily as long as you get to it quickly. I hung it from a hook to dry, did two coats, and then stuck some butterflies on. I wish I had more little butterflies, because it seems a little empty. I'll hold off on varnishing this one just in case I find more.

Thing 18 is an oval wooden box I found at Goodwill. I thought it would make a good box to carry around my garden stuff in the spring and summer when I start planting and weeding. I painted it a ridiculous red to make it cheerful and easy to spot in the grass when I put it down. I'll be adding a handle once I figure out the best way to do that.
I worked on another thing this weekend, but it's going to stay a secret for a while. For quite a while, unfortunately - a couple of months. But I'll write up the post and keep it in storage so I can share it with you once I'm allowed to.

Things 15 and 16

I made some little markers for my herb garden. Just painted popsicle sticks that I can put in my plant pots to tell who's who.

I just realized that I arranged them to spell "stop". I wonder what that means?

Then I made another egg. I used regular glue this time instead of the watery decoupage glue, and the cutouts stayed on much better. I had to hold them in place for a little while for them to stay put, and the end result is ok but they stick out from the surface a lot. The idea of decoupage is that the cutouts are supposed to look painted on, so the thick scrapbook paper really isn't good for this sort of thing, unfortunately. A coat or two of varnish will help smooth it out.

Thing 13

I'm having a hard time getting my Things-a-Day posted in a timely manner, mostly because I'm working on them late at night and don't feel like posting at 2am. Still getting random things made, though, and the month is halfway through. I bought some pretty scrapbook paper and some more of those eggs on the weekend, and so I'm going to make a few more of those. I can fill up an Easter basket with them, or something. They're just an easy way for me to practice with the techniques.

The decoupage glue doesn't work as well with thicker paper, so I'll try a different glue with my next one. These cutouts stayed stuck but I had to soak them for a while first, which ruined the integrity of the paper in some places.

What's for Dinner - Marinated Pork Tenderloin

Last night I took two pork tenderloins and cut off all the fat and the silver skin, and put them in a freezer-sized ziplock bag with half a bottle of Ken's Honey Teriyaki marinade. Since this is me talking, I couldn't leave well enough alone and I added two sliced garlic cloves to it. I think I made the right decision.

Tonight I got home and put them in the roasting pan, dumping all the marinade in the bag on top of them, and adding a bit of water to the bottom of the pan. I gave them about a half hour at 375, turning them once. When they were done, I took them out, put the roasting pan on the stove, and added about half a cup of water and whisked up all the good bits to make a sort of "au jus" concoction.


I made Pioneer Woman's "Crash Hot Potatoes" as a side and they were fantastic. They've quickly become one of our favorite starchy side dishes. They're whole potatoes, boiled to tenderness and then crushed on a cookie sheet, brushed with oil and herbs, and baked in the oven until they're crispy on top. Incredible.

That was our fancy Valentine's Day dinner - no time to make dessert because I got home from work later than usual, but I got Cadbury mini-eggs as a present tonight so I'm eating those and all is well with the world.

Note: this is also my "thing" for February 14th, because who has time for crafts when love is in the air?

Thing 12

I worked on a little embroidery while watching TV tonight. We finally got the fireplace working, so I sat there all toasty warm with my little embroidery hoop and just doodled with my thread. I think I've more or less figured out flowers, and I'm working on getting a length of stitches to look uniform. Later in the week I'll try one of the iron-on patterns that came with the kit, instead of playing around freehand.

I find myself enjoying this embroidery stuff more than I expected!

Things 10 and 11

It has been an extremely long week, so I haven't been very good about keeping up with my Thing-a-Day projects. Work has been hell and Horton won't let me sleep through the night to recover, so I was a wreck by the end of the week! I played a little catch-up today, and I've decided to cut myself some slack and not consider myself a failure just because I was exhausted and missed a couple of days.

Thing 10 was an Easter card, probably to be sent to Grandmaman because she loves getting cards. I used layers of white cardstock (and a pink pencil, and a sharpie) to make the bunny, because I wanted him to have some texture to him instead of just being flat. Not sure if that's really showing up in the picture.

Thing 11, another egg. I only bought three of those, so unless I go back to Michael's for more eggs, that's going to be the end of it. I bought some lacquer and I painted my already-done eggs - it makes them nice and shiny. I'll do the same to this egg once everything dries properly.

What's for Dinner - Tomato alphabet soup

I was so incredibly exhausted last night because of a long week at work, so my dinner will have to count as my "Thing 9". I did make the soup without a real recipe, so it's sort of creative. I also made grilled ham & cheese sandwiches to go with it. I hadn't made those in years!

Here's more or less how I made it:

I diced three skinny carrots and half an onion and then cooked them in a generous dollop of olive oil until the onions were soft. Then I dumped in a box of chicken stock and a big can of tomato sauce, and some black pepper, oregano, basil, and a bay leaf. I let that boil for a few minutes to let the carrots soften up, then used my immersion blender to puree everything (take out the bay leaf first). I added a tablespoon or so of butter to make it creamier, and then I put in half a box of teeny alphabet noodles and kept it simmering until they were cooked.

It's delicious.

Thing 8

Another egg - this one, I painted first. I need to get better paintbrushes, because no matter what I did it ended up very streaky. But I like the end result anyway.

Thing 7

Months ago, I bought myself a beginner's embroidery kit, thinking it would be fun to learn how to make pretty things. Of course, it just sat there in its little box all this time, because I never got around to it. So, thank you, Thing-a-Day, for forcing me to open it up and give it a try.

The kit comes with a hoop, two squares of fabric, some embroidery floss, and a needle. All I did today was practice stitches from the how-to book, because I am the beginniest of beginners. The book is cute and funny and aimed at maybe a teenage crowd, and it has illustrations of some of the basic stitches, which I tried to follow, with mixed success.

Those dots on top are "french knots", and to their left is a "scalloped stitch". I also tried a split stitch, a stem stitch, and a back stitch. My sad chain stitch attempt is the thing that looks like a murdered stickman on the bottom. I also tried a flower and a shape before I got tired of undoing all the knots I was creating. I'll be looking for some instructional videos online, because I think seeing the stitch will be better than reading instructions and trying to follow a diagram.

This has potential, though, so I'll continue trying until I get it.

Thing 6

Almost a week into Thing-a-Day and I'm not out of steam yet! I'm glad to have made it this far without choking and giving up. I have a few more "things" actually planned for the rest of the month, but I don't have enough of them to cover every day, so I'll end up winging it. Who knows where that'll take me!

Today's thing is a collage. I have been flipping through my magazines to cut out good recipes and toss the piles of ads that remain, and as I was doing that I started cutting out anything that produced a happy thought. This was the result:


Oddly, I found this to be a deeper introspective exercise than I thought I would get from sticking a collection of magazine cutouts to a cardboard rectangle. For almost two years now, I've been dedicated (to varying degrees, depending on the day) with a fantastic weight loss and healthy lifestyle website, Sparkpeople.com, which I cannot recommend highly enough. One of the many goal-setting tasks they ask you to do is set up a "vision collage". Put up motivators for yourself, like photos of the beaches you want to lie on in your bikini, etc. Well, I never did that, because the visualization stuff always seemed very fake to me, and I had a hard time taking it seriously. But in the interest of creativity and open-mindedness, this collage is a picture of who I am and want to be. I think it says a lot about me, and it's also giving me a lot to think about.

Thing 5

Back to the decoupage for Day 5. I saw some blank white Easter eggs for sale when I was picking up crafty items for Thing-a-Day, and I picked up two of them, thinking maybe I could do something neat with them. And I did!

Here's one side:



Here's the other:

I am so happy with it! I cut out the flowers from some wrapping paper - the cutting is the longest part. I need to pick up some varnish or something to coat the whole thing so the flowers don't ever peel off. I think I'll head back and get more blank egg-canvases to play with!

Thing 4

As with the last "Thing", I used my sister-in-law's birthday as a starting point for a project. It's also why I delayed posting these, since I didn't want any surprises to be spoiled. Anyway, during a recent chat, she mentioned that a birthday cake was always a good thing, and that if one were to happen for her birthday, Funfetti and vanilla frosting would be the best ever. She wasn't asking me for a cake... I was just looking for an excuse to make one!

So, Thing 4 is a birthday cake.


Because it's my husband's birthday tomorrow, it was a shared cake (luckily he was OK with the Funfetti choice), and to prevent any awkwardness about two people trying to blow out candles on the same cake, I also made two cupcakes so each could have a candle to blow out and make a wish on. I just poured batter into two spots in the muffin pan, and baked those before I baked the cake.

It was a yummy Thing.

Thing 3

My sister-in-law's birthday was last week, and we all got together tonight to celebrate with dinner out and cake at our place. For her birthday present, we got her gift cards to her two favorite stores (Target and Michael's), because with the massive house renovations they're working on, and the baby on the way, more "stuff" isn't what she needs.

Since I had Thing-a-Day to inspire me to creative endeavors, I made a gift box for the cards, instead of buying one or sticking them inside a birthday card. I think it turned out pretty cute! This was my first attempt at decoupage and it wasn't too difficult, and I think I'll be trying more projects like this during the rest of the month.


I used a foam wedge paintbrush to spread the glue, then I wet the butterfly in a bowl of water and placed it where I wanted it, smoothing it out gently with the foam brush and using more glue to paste it down completely. Then once it dried, I glued on a bit of ribbon around the edge of the box top, using plain old school glue.