LollyChops

Confessions of a pie addict...

I have a confession that I must confess to you all (seeing as how that's the nature of a confession it only makes sense really).  It's serious and very well...  confessionesque (as in filled with hair pulling, tears, drama, more tears and of course... a fork)!  A fork you say?!?!

Yep.  It rips me in half to admit it... but it's true.

I love pie.

So lovely, so flaky, so achye breaky.  So pie-ish.

When Sara and Kate from Our Best Bites contacted me to help them out with some tags for a pie post... you had better believe that I jumped at the chance to bust out some download and print freebies related to pie.  We are not talking about any regular pie here folks.  We are talking about a fast as you please whip-up of a hoard of pies to store in your freezer for a personal-sized-pie-per-day extravaganza!!!

What if I don't want to hoard mini pies Lolly?
Wait...  you don't?  Hmmmmmm.  I guess we can still be friends. <Maybe> 

Sew I guess the other great thing about these pies is that they are are pies you can give away (let me get a Kleenex real quick cause pies you can gift brings a tear to my eye).

These are pretty little personal sized pies to be shared with those you cherish the most (if you need someone to cherish - I'll be happy to volunteer).  These little fellas would make terrific house warming gifts or perhaps small somethings you can bring to a holiday party (or you can whip up a batch of 12 and keep them all for yourself).  I know that goes back to the whole pie hoarding thing again...  but I can't help myself.

I made up 7 different tags you can use with your pies.  Some are labeled for specific flavored pies (apple, cherry and blueberry)...  and some have a space where you can write your own flavor.  The last set is just a little pair for gifting with two labels.  One has a "To" & "From" written and in and the other the how to cook-em-up instructions.

Before we dive into the crust of the matter...  I have to make a little blog format disclaimer.

Blog Format Disclaimer:  I seem to be having some serious issues with my blog platform so my image placement is about to get really wild.  Not roller coaster wild.  Just images all stacked on top of each other because something is going wrong with Typepad wild (which is not nearly as much fun as roller coaster wild).

Now back to our regularly scheduled pie post.

The sacrifices I make for the blog...
In order to test drive the tags I was forced to make up a few "test pilot pies" so I could ensure that the tags were gonna work (it really broke my heart... let me tell you).

Lisa and Sara have LOADS of tips and recipes for these little guys so I am not going to get into it (you have to head over to their place if you want to get to the heart of the matter)...  I'll just share a few pics from when I put them together (again sorry for the picture format here folks).

I cut out a circle 6 inches in diameter and that seemed to do the trick for getting just the right amount of crust into the little jar.  I kinda folded it into a flower and tucked it inside and then pressed the sides down.

I used the lid (the one that sits on top of the jar not the one you screw down) to cut out a pie top.  I then used some mini cookie cutters to create a little vent hole.

Note:  The lovely brownish orbital globs in the pie jars above is canned cherries packed in water that I turned into pie filling with the addition of a little sugar and cornstarch.  Keeping plain ole canned cherries in the pantry makes for a pie filling you can whip up yourself that's not too sweet (I find that the ready made cherry pie filling is a little too sweet and thick for my taste).

This is a little pic of the tag with the cooking instructions and the to/from tag.  You stack them like a sammich.  1) Lid with the rubbery ring goes on the jar (to seal it).  2) Then the cooking directions tag gets placed on that lid.  3) Then a piece of fabric (to make a little jar skirt).  4) Then goes the metal band that you screw on. 5)  ...and lastly you use some super sticky tape to glue the to/from tag in the center of the fabric.

So here is the side view (I love making little jar skirts...  I even do layered ones sometimes).  If you want to do a layered one - cut a 6 inch in diameter circle for the top layer and a 7 inch in diameter circle for the under layer.  I find that sheer fabrics or tulle work best for the under layer.  It's thin enough that you can still screw the lid on with two layers of fabric.

...and the top view.  I think that solid colored fabric sets the tags apart a little bit better than a print.  But that's just me thinking.

As with all of my tags...  you can use any 2.5 inch circle punch to punch these tags quick and easy...or you can cut them out.  I have the Marvy pink circle punch - so that's what I usually use.  If you like the scallop tags in this set - the Marvy pink scallop punch works perfectly with that one as well.

Is pie the only thing going on today Lolly?
Heck no!  So while I was busy working on pie tag graphics, making pies and taking pie post pics...  MomChops was busy too (she came over Sunday morning and we had breakfast and then got to work)!  I sent her a link on Friday to a little pillow that was featured over on Pink Chalk Studio!  I figured her pattern would make the perfect craft room chair pillow!  SEW...  "Super Fabulous MomChops" (her new official title) whipped up some honorary pie post pillows!  You can grab the free pattern to make your own totally cool pillow HERE!!!  Just a tiny note:  MomChops was threatening the sewing machine when she was in the gathering phase of the pillow making process.  We almost did not have any pie post pillows.  It was touch and go there for a while...  but a little piece of pie cleared the air and set the craft room karma back on track.  Whew.

You can download ALL of the tags in one MEGA file below.  I was going to break them up but I think it's better to knock them all out with one big ole download (when I say big I mean BIG...  have a little patience...  it's gonna take a sec...  remember... it's 7 whole pages of tags)!

Now for the exciting part of the pie post (as if that pie post pillow were not exciting enough)!
It's time to play NAME THAT SHAPE shape shape shape!  I made up a little pie crust leftovers jelly tart for RonChops (he was a real trooper through out the whole pie making day).  I think it kinda looks like a trout.  What do you think?

Enough with the pie, pillows and bad puns!  Bring on the winners!
Ok now for the REALLY exciting part of the pie post.  It's time to announce the winners of the cookbook and LollyChops craft craziness giveaway!

The randonly chosen winners and their oniony comments are below: 

Neen - Neen's Been Scrappin
"Mmmmm onion chip cookies.....
At least no one would EVER get the flu if they ate this way... fluless and friendless."

Lindsay - Brooklyne's Chaos
"Cry Baby [pureed onion baby food]"

Rebecca - Roots & Wings, Co.
"How about onion ice cream? Cry Me A River (you know, because they make some people cry...?). Ummm, An Onion A Day Keeps The Doctor Away? I don't know what these would actually be recipes for, but as long as they included onions it would be fine, right? I love onions. I swear I do. Ask my daughter...she...doesn't! Ah, it's fun teaching her to cook because she's finding out how many things I actually put onions in that she wasn't aware of...hee hee hee. French Onion Soup sounds really delicious right now."

April - The Tottles
"grilled steak of onion with a side of scalloped onions"

Congrats to the winners!  I'll be in touch with you guys tonight to get your addresses!

I'll be back later this week with the other butterfly project (and I have another giveaway coming soon too)!

P.S.  Make sure you head on over to Our Best Bites to learn all about how to make these little fellas!

P.S.S.T.  Here's pie in yer eye (xoxoxox)!

An Onion a Day Giveaway...

Bust out the hankies!
Picture this... every single day for an entire year...  all the onions your heart desires.  You could make onion pie, onion soup, onion sammiches, grilled onions with a side of onion sauce, onions with gently simmered onions, onion soufflé, onion cupcakes, onion jam, onion pesto, stuffed onions with thinly sliced onions, onion rings (mmmmm... onion rings), onion cake with the ever popular onion frosting (with dried onion sprinkles)...  oh the wonders of the onion.

Fortunately for you and your loved ones... I am just horseying around.  I actually don't have any onions to give away...  but what I DO have is a sweet little cookbook written by a very nice lady named Bunny Crumpacker.  I was contacted by St. Martins Press and asked if I wanted to check it out and possibly host a teeny tiny little giveaway (involving absolutely NO real onions...  just a lovely book filled with tips and tricks for the first time cook).  The book is called "How to Slice an Onion" and I have 4 whole copies to bestow upon you.

Now I love a good giveaway as much as the next person, but I decided that it would be TONS-MORE-FUNS if I added in some extra stuff.  Sew...  I am going to get busy in the craft room and make up 4 different packages to send along with the cook books.  It could be anything...  jewelry, 395,245 punched butterflies in teals, whites and browns, crafty somethings featured on my blog, hammies, heidis, hedgies, hanks... hoot knows!

How do I enter?
All you have to do to enter is play along with me and come up with a silly name for a nothing but onions recipe (kinda like the silly stuff I made up above).

I'll randomly pick 4 winners from the lot-of-yeahs and send each one of you a prize package filled with loads of weird-lollyness (and the sweet cookbook too).  I swears it's gonna be funsies and don't worry if all of you come up with the exact same onion recipe names.  Just have fun with it!

The contest is open to anyone - anywhere in the whole entire planet and will close on Sunday at 8PM CST Sept  27.  I'll announce the winners on Monday morning.

Onion HUGS with a side of tears!

P.S. I am going to feature all those lovely projects you guys sent me next week.  The time just peeled away from me (onion pun intended).

P.S.S.T.  I am gonna need a few volunteers to help me with some download and print projects I have coming up (think of it as a LollyChops Design Team).  If you are into scrapbooking, paper crafts and making homemade gifts... grab your lasso and get ready to join in the fun.  I'll announce more next week!  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

The Butterfly Project II

Brace yourselves girls... this is gonna be a long winded-one (wait... who said that???).  I am not only sharing the butterfly project pictured here... I am also sharing the process of how it all came together (plus I have a download and print freebie at the bottom too).  So it's an action packed post filled with drama, excitement and free stuff.  All we need are cupcakes and we'll be set!

Supplies for this project:
- 12 butter cream iced vanilla cupcakes (you'll need them for fortification... cupcakes just make craft projects go smoother)
- Card stock paper in your choice of colors (if you don't have card stock that's ok...  I used a mix of regular paper and card stock)

- 1/4 inch thick cork tile (big enough to be a backing for your craft ring.  I used a 12 inch ring so a 12 inch tile worked perfectly).  You can get cork tiles at arts and craft stores and office supply stores as well.
- Floral Craft Ring (seen HERE - I got mine at Michaels in the floral section - which by the way is where the inspiration for this project came from.  You can see the project that started it all HERE!)
- Craft paint (I really like the "Folk Art" brand but I also use Making Memories and CRAFT paints as well)
- 3D Foam dots, squares, rolling glue tape, etc...  if it makes stuff stick together and has some dimension - use it)
- Butterfly punches (I used 3 Martha Stewart Punches 2 of which can be seen HERE and HERE (I am so glad they are FINALLY available on line)... and I also used a Sizzix Butterfly Die from Stampin' Up for the larger butterflies).  I could not find the monarch Martha Stew. punch on line but I got mine at Michaels (and I would not be surprised if Walmart had it as well).

- Foam brush, sponge, or paint brush
- Piece of cardboard or art board large enough to be the backing behind the whole thing
- Super strong glue - I used E6000 (it's smelly stuff but it works like a pack of rabid sweaty man-muscles.... mmm man-muscles)
- Ribbon (wide enough to cover up the uglies on the side of your ring)

See...  that's not so bad right?  I kinda consider this a stash buster project.  The only thing I had to go out and get was the craft ring and that only cost me $1.99.  Of course I then proceeded to purchase 6 of them in all 3 sizes cause I got way over excited thinking about all the cool things I was gonna do with them - but I'll save those ideas for another time!

Let's get started shall we?!?
If you are OCD like me you'll need to lay out all your stuff first in order to get your crafty fanny organized.  DogChops usually supervises this phase of the projects so things don't get too uptight in the craft room (she's giving me the evil eyeball here cause I was turning all of the bottles around and moving things out of the way so I could photograph them).

4 hours later...
Once you have all of your butterflies punched out (keep in mind that I punched out enough butterflies for 30 people to make this project 4 times over)...  you will want to take a little break and have a cupcake.

Getting your foundation started...
I used a pen to trace around the floral craft ring onto the cork tile and cardboard.  I then used my rotary cutter to cut the shape out (you could use an x-acto knife too).  I cut just a little inside the line so I would be sure that the ring would completely cover the cork tile and cardboard once it was placed over it.

I glued the cork tile and cardboard together using E6000 glue and then set them aside to dry (while they were drying I had another cupcake).

I then busted out my paints and got together some cardboard scraps that I could paint on so I could play around with different color combinations and effects.  I knew I did not want something plain and flat and I also wanted to make sure I had enough of a contrast as a backdrop for the butterflies (which were gonna be teal).

The process of getting the colors nailed down pretty much took me an entire evening (I ran out of cupcakes and had to get more for the next day).  I agonize over color choices (you guys are already well aware of me and my color picking-ickings) so I thought it would be fun to share that whole process so you can see what a goof I am.

First I tried a red background with teal twisty swirls over the top.

The butterflies got lost on the teal.

Then I tried a teal background with red twisty swirls over the top.
The butterflies got lost on the red this time.

Then I went hog wild and tried orange and teal.
hmmmm
Let's keep this one just between us girls ok?
I'll never tell if you won't.

So guess what color I ended up with...

Go ahead. Guess.

BEIGE!

Hello?

Guys?

Anyone out there?

**chirp chirp**

**chirp chirp**

**chirp chirp**

I am KIDDING!  Seriously.  I went with white instead.  hahahaha.  You still love me anyway right?

I painted the base solid white (2 coats) and then did the twisty swirls over the top in pearlized white.  It looks pretty good as the backdrop for all those lovely butterflies.  Trust Lolly.

I used Folk Art (by Plaid) Wicker White (901) and Metallic Pearl White (659).  They are just your basic acrylic paints and they dry really really fast (but not so fast that you don't have time for a bite or three of cupcake of course)!

To get the whole twisty swirls effect over the top you are going to need to get a sponge and squeeze the ends to a point (pictured here).  I used this little sea sponge that I have had for decades and it works pretty good.  You basically just dunk, dab and swirl.  Repeat after me.  Dunk. Dab. Swirl.  Keep doing that over the entire surface (smoothing the drippy edges as you go) and you will have a pretty nice swirly effect going.

Once you have your paints applied (and they are good and dry)...it's time to figure out how you are going to lay out your butterflies (don't forget to eat a cupcake).

I tend to punch way more than I am actually going to use because I like to have lots of choices (in case I decide to repeat a few several times or just stick with one or two basics).  You don't have to do this.  You can simply punch what you need and lay them out as you are going along.

I picked through my entire paper stash and plucked out every single piece that was in the teal family.  I never knew I had so much teal paper.  It's a little spooky to be honest.

I actually ended up doing two projects for this post (in case you are wondering why things are about to suddenly start changing on you).  I lost 98% of my pictures so I had to do another project in a rush!  I was seriously freaking out (which is when I took a little break and ...had my 6th cupcake).

Lay all of your butterflies about and get them kinda loosely placed where you think you might want them (they never stay there but a girl can dream right?).

Break out the 3D adhesives...
Start sticking them down on your painted ring kinda in the middle of the project base (which is a circle so just pick a side and start there).  I work my way up and down from the initial one as I go (that helps to keep things more fluid).  Basically...  one butterfly on top and then another one on the bottom.  Keep that up and it will look a little better than if you had started at the top and worked your way down (just trust me cause I tried it this way at first and it was not as nice).

I alternate between gluing them flat to the base and stacking them with foam squares and dots between 1 - 2 foam pieces high.  I was even sticking smaller butterflies on top of the wings of the larger ones to help keep things interesting.

There is nothing scientific about this process at all (unless you are trying to figure out how many calories you are burning vs the ratio of cupcakes you have eaten (which you are prolly not going to want to know anyway so it's best to just keep on gluing butterflies down and have another cupcake).

Once you have them all glued down to the ring down you are going to want to glue the ring to the cork/cardboard base you made earlier.  It should be dry enough at this point.  I again used E6000 stinky super glue.  Just remember not to glop it on too thick or it will squeeze through the sides and show up on your cork board face (I speak from experience here ladies).

Excited yet???
I was ready to hang this puppy up on the wall at this point and then I noticed that it had some rather ugly sides.  So I decided that we needed a nice ribbon border to help cover up the uglies.

It took me a few tries to get just the right width of ribbon (that actually matched with my projects).

When you have your ribbon picked out (go with too short rather than too tall) you will want to glue it to the sides a small section at a time (rolling the cork board as you go but no to the point that you moosh you butterflies that are poking out the sides).  It's not going to be perfect but that's ok.  It's FAR better than the ugly sides you have going on now.  Trust Lolly.  I used my hot glue gun on the first one and E6000 on the second one.  The hot glue gun made things too lumpy for my taste.

See those little buttons to cover peeping there... (I warned you this was a long post didn't I).
I used my beloved buttons to cover to cover up the holes in the floral craft ring.  You can read a post I did on how to make them HERE (it's pretty old so watch your step (we are talking my second post EVER folks.  Old. Potatoes.)).

I left the shank on the ones I used to cover up the holes in the ring and then I made another 6 into matching thumb tacks for the cork board part of it.  I had some teal fabric that matched with the butterflies perfectly!

So there you have it!
If you are me and you lost your pictures you now have TWO butterfly cork boards.  You can give one away and keep the other one (the all teal one went to MomChops and the teal and brown one is going to I dunno who...YET).  That's pretty nice.

I'll have to share how to get the ribbon hanger on the back in another post.  I ran out of daylight to take all of those pics again and it's def worth sharing as it took me several tries to get the placement right so the little fella did not hang all wobbly!!

So what about the download and print freebie Lolly?
I cobbled together a little butterfly note card from a stock butterfly and my little swirly party invites from Cupcake Week.  You can see them in the pic way way up at the top (and you can download them below).

So lastly...  thanks sooooo much for all of your lovely and thoughtful suggestions on my bathroom color conundrum.  I have a decision made and I'll be sharing the results SOON (and not it's not boring snoring...  I swears)!

...and lastly (for real this time).  I was contacted by a publisher to do a review of a cute little cookbook that just came out.  They sent me 4 copies to giveaway so we'll be doing that Wednesday!  Keep your eyeballs peeled!

The third butterfly project will be shared next Monday (along with a mega giveaway)!  I hope you'll be back!

More hugs than you can stand!

P.S. Speaking of giveaways... head on over to Mod Podge Rocks cause Amy's having a killer giveaway (this is your chance to get your mitts on loads of awesome Mod Podge that you've never tried and always wanted to).  Tell her Lolly sent ya and beat those hundreds of other people out of the way of that Mod Podge girls!!!  GO GO GO!

P.S.S.T.  In case you are wondering what the first butterfly project was...  you can check it out HERE.  It almost made me famous.  Almost.

Beige, BEIGE or bEiGe?

Hi everyone!  What's this?!?!  Two posts in one week?  Is the sky falling???  Is there craft mayhem on the horizon?  No no...I just have a drop dead serious favor to ask of you all!  I pondered writing to you for hours and and after dinner decided I had NO choice.  I need your help!

While I **might** have a mad obsession over crafts, crafts and well frankly...crafts... when it comes to interior decorating of any kind I pretty much get a big fat F (as in fear).  I have this little tiny issue with painting our walls any color except beige.  Lolly loves her some beige.  As of this moment we have 5 different colors of beige walls throughout the house.  It's dreamy.  Nice.  Safe.  Clean...  did I say nice already??  Oh yeah...  snap out of it Lolly! 

Sew anyway... when I got home from work yesterday RonChops declared a design emergency in the bathroom remodel.  We had painted the walls...  wait for it... BEIGE (shocking I know!!).  We thought we had managed to get a color that was darker than the tiles we had picked out.  Wrong-a-reno!  Talk about a match-and-a-half.  We couldn't have matched it any better if we had actually tried.

So last night over dessert (Pioneer Woman's Apple Cake in an Iron Skillet (seen HERE) (which I saw on line yesterday and RAN home to make) (after a mad dash to the farmers market for apples))...  we discussed our color options.

Several pieces of KILLER apple cake later...we still had no decision made (which is where you guys have to come to the rescue... pretty please...?  I'll mail you some leftover apple cake...  it'll still be good... right?).

Sooo.... we honestly don't know what to do.  Do we go with lighter beige, darker beige, leave it as it (in all it's matchy beige-y glory) OR...  I am not even sure I can type this...  go with an actual color?!?!  Gulp.  What do you guys think?  We need some help here.  For reals.

Pretty please help me out by leaving your votes, suggestions, advice, horror stories, etc... in the comments and I'll be your BFF forever and ever.  Ahem.

Seriously grateful HUGS,

The Chops Clan

P.S.  I am still working on crafts...!  The Butterfly Project II and III are well underway.  I'll be sharing the first one Monday!  Eensey weensy sneak peak of BP III below.

P.S.S.T.  I highly recommend giving PWs Apple Cake a go.  Just remember that you will need to eat two pieces.  With roughly 3 STICKS of butter covering a mere 10 square inches of cake space that's roughly 1 tablespoon of butter per inch (don't question my math...  just trust Lolly).

Since butter goes straight to the hips it's basically a requirement that you have two pieces to keep the hip lumps evened out.  If anyone questions this logic send them to me.  I'll set them straight.

Hanging out in the bathroom...

Ron and I spent the weekend hanging out together in the bathroom.  As I am typing he's still in there now...  and no... it's not what you think (but I bet I've got your attention... in a spooky way)!

We decided to tackle the guest bathroom remodel so we spent the weekend in there tearing things up and getting ready for new counter tops.  Counter tops he will be installing this week.  I'll share a few intimate bathroom pics towards the bottom of this post but first I want to share a few crafty things I have in the works (crafts always come first.  always.).

 
Here is the missing quilt block from the last post.
The octopus is so cheesy he's almost cool.
Almost.


I bought a book that one of my readers just released.
It's called Kanzashi in Bloom by Diane Gillelad of CraftyPod.
You can check it out HERE...
...and I made this about 20 minutes after opening the mail.

I am going to share some cool things I have done with these flowers soon.

I heart them big time.
Big. Time.


MomChops and I are working on a quilt for someone special.
That's all I can say...  here is a little peaky sneaky.
shhhhhhh


September is my month for my quilt group (A Notion or Two)...
...so MomChops came over Sunday afternoon
(Ron stayed in the bathroom the whole time like a good hubs)...
...and we put little fabric packages together to send out to everyone.

This is what we made just to be sure we were sending enough fabric to make a block.
The little pears in the middle are my design!

I'll be sharing the finished quilt as soon as we get it together!


I started working on another butterfly project.
You can see my first one HERE.
I am going to do a craft-supplies-so-you-can-make-your-own giveaway...
...once I have it all together!


A little sneaky peaky of the project.
But it might change.
Might.

...and lastly...

Ye Ole Chops Guest Bathroom Remodel
So exciting.
Right???


I forgot to get real "before" pics.  So this is "during"
The walls were textured by someone else.
The counter was painted.
Painted formica.
So elegant.  So classy.  So gotta go.

And the sinks were older than the oldest tree on the planet.
Not even kidding.


Once we removed the oldest sinks on the planet...
Low and behold...

 
That painted formica...

It was originally ORANGE.
Seriously.
O.R.A.N.G.E.

I would have painted it too.
(Actually I should have sent it to Jessica of How About Orange)
She would have loved it.
Maybe.


...RonChops and I could not rip that counter out fast enough.

I kinda missed the orange once it was gone.
Kinda.

...and that's basically it for this week!  I hope it's not a total let down.  The butterfly project will be posted next Monday and sometime this week I am going to post the craft projects you guys shared with me from my last craft project round-up (so you still have a few days if you want to send me some pics).  Just email them to me.

I hope you all have a lovely week!  Thanks for all the comments and kind words.  You guys are pretty much the coolest.

Big Fall HUGS!!!