idonteatpeas

Chocolate Chip Cookies - Perfect for your new years resolution diet!

Leave it to me to help ya ruin your new years resolution diet (don't we all have one.. every.single.year?)

Now.. believe me when I say this is the best.. BEST homemade chocolate chip cookie recipe (That I have tried). I promise! I know my stuff when it comes to cookies.. my butt didn't get this big eating carrots and salad.

First off.. if you do not have a Kitchenaid mixer you NEED one! You can use it for so many things besides baking and you can find them on great deals if you shop around! Plus they look awesome sitting on your kitchen counter. All your friends can walk into your kitchen and just think you know how to cook if you own one of these! lol! But.. if you do not have one (yet.. lol) then a hand mixer will do!

Alright.. lets get that butt just a bit more wider now..

You will need..

-- 2 sticks softened butter (1 cup).. BUTTER, people.. not margarine.. or regular butter in a tub.. you need real unsalted butter. (It makes a HUGE difference!) Room temperature is best.

-- 1/2 cup white sugar

-- 1 1/2 cups brown sugar, packed.

-- 2 eggs

--2 tsp pure vanilla extract

-- 3 cups flour

-- 1 tsp baking soda

-- 2 tsp hot water

-- 1/2 tsp salt

-- 2 cups semi sweet choc. chips. (1 regular sized bag)

-- 1 cup walnuts (I didn't add these)

First, cream together the butter and sugars.

Here is our butter and sugars.. waiting to become a cookie masterpiece!

Start mixing!

It won't get super creamy or anything.. but creamy like peanut butter thickness. Just looking at it makes my mouth water... maybe I should go grab a cookie before I finish this post? LOL!

Once your sugars and butter are creamy mix in the eggs one at a time.

Set your mixer on stir (or low if using handheld) and add vanilla.

You will then get the hot water in a little dish and dissolve the baking soda in the water. I usually swish it around a little in the dish and dump in the dough. It will look really cloudy.. like this..

Pour that into the dough.. and then the salt

Then stir in your flour one cup at a time.. HINT - Do your cookies usually come out kind of cakey? Maybe too floury tasting? Try this. Use a level 1c. measuring cup. Dump out your flour in a bowl and then use a spoon to gently scoop your flour into the measuring cup. DO NOT pack it in. Then gently level off with a spatula or knife.... or your finger.. preferably a clean one! :)

Once your flour is stirred into the dough well.. dump in your chocolate chips and nuts (if you want nuts).. 'sometimes you feel like a nut.. sometimes you don't..... your cookies might have nuts... mine don't'... Yes, I just made that up.. just for you! No autographs, please.

And there we have it folks! Get a spoon and dive on it!

Or.. you can chill it for 2 hours before baking.

YES.. you really do need to chill it.. just do it.. for me. :) It will help your cookies be bigger and not all flat.

Now.. with the chilled dough.. however much is left anyways.. lol. (I always have a few tastes of my dough.. this dough is gooooood!) roll them in large balls.. about walnut sized.. or larger. Or.. you can just dump clumps of dough on your cookie sheets.. which is what I do.

COOKIE SHEETS.. ooooh do not get me started! One of the best things I ever did was discover Chicago Metallic cookie sheets and parchment paper. Those two things combined with baking cookies make the most PERFECTLY evenly cooked cookies. Line the pans with parchment paper.. seriously, you should never, ever try baking a cookie without parchment paper!

And yes, it's upside down.. so what!?

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. Pre-heating is very important. My over lets me know when it has reached the set temperature.. if your oven isen't as cool as mine then just about 15 minutes should do the trick. (My oven actually isen't very cool.. I want a whole new stove, etc... someday!)

Pop your cookies into your pre-heated over for 10-13 minutes. It is so important that you take these cookies out at the right time. The middle will almost not look quite done and the edges should be a golden brown (if you want chewy on the inside and crispy on the outside).

Just a peek.. are you excited?

Are they done? Mmm.. let them cool for a few and then grab some milk (or hot cocoa like I plan on doing) and eat up!... or.. send them to your hubbys work for everyone else to get fat off of.. because.. afterall, you ARE on that new years resolution diet, right? *wink*. I behaved.. ate 3 and packed up the rest. I am pretending they are not just sitting on teh kitchen counter..... must.stay.stroooong.

And yes, Photobucket.. I would LOVE a shirt like this! (showing the bottom of a cookie)

Thanks for stopping by my blog! I hope you keep on coming back! I will share everything from recipes to crafts.. photography tips and photoshop tutorials and more!

Felt Flower Kits Available!

Hey all! Just a quick note that I created some felt flower kits that will be available tomorrow in my Etsy shop for a great price. Better if you want to try one and not buy a whole set of buttons, hair bands, felt, etc. :) It will include a large piece of felt (good for two flowers), one white button, matching elastic headband and my flower petal template. Check back tomorrow!

(Felt flower tutorial posted below)

Felt Flower Headband.. or Clip..

Felt flowers are so easy to make! They are super cute and make great hair pretties and even better.. cheap to make!

I did this quick tutorial on how to make a petal stacked flower headband/clip. This turns out to be about 3" wide.

(the flower shown here was made slightly different.. using all large petals)

First.. I want to say I was so not using my noggin today. I should have used a different colored felt because it's hard to see everything with the black.. Ah well!

Let's talk about felt! There are a few different types of felt you can buy. There is acrylic felt (icky), 100% wool felt, a wool blend felt, eco-felt (recycled from plastic) and even handmade felt!

I do not like the cheapie acrylic felt at all. It get super fuzzy, tears and streches easily and it doesn't hold it's shape well.

100% wool felt is great.. but can be a little more expensive.. my choice? A wool blend felt! Why? It holds up really well like regular felt but costs less. It also doesn't get fuzzy like acrylic felts do.

I always try to buy off of Etsy when possible. These two sellers are my favorite for felt.

TheDailyPinCushion - Nice color selection! Fast shipping and in the US.

And then there is Lupin She is located in the UK but the shipping is very fast. She has some colors I couldn't find from US sellers. Her felt is thinner and softer which is nice for making roses (I will share how to make roses another time).

Let's get started!

You will need -- Felt sheet, hot glue gun and glue, thread, scissors, a button to place in the center, needle and a clip or headband. I am using an elastic headband found at many stores locally. Mine are Goody brand from the amazing money sucker store, Target.

My pattern.. I know.. kinda sloppy drawing.. I tried. Now stop complaining and right click and print! Then cut them out. It's best to print onto cardstock for a more durable pattern. **if this does not print right for you.. let me know by commenting and I will email you a copy.**

You will want to cut one circle, 5-6 smaller petals (I did 5) and 12 large petals.

You can hand sew them by pinching the ends and tying a knot for each petal.. but really, this is a total pain and amkes your fingers hurt! (Yes, my fingers look like crud.. my arcylic nails are off and welp.. yeah. They are beat up LOL!)

Sooo.. because I really hated doing that to 12 petals I started using my sewing machine. If you do it this way fold your petal in half.. using a regular tension (I used 3 but I know all machines are different) and a long stitch length (4.5 or 5 is good)

Stitch them well.. be sure to backstitch! Youcan even use a drop of no fray to help them stay in place (I don't) And FYI, you do not have to stitch and backstich like I do (shown below) just do whatever it takes to keep a small free edge and get those suckers to stay put!.

And I got all these babies done in about 3 minutes!

Time to put them together. Grab 6 of your large petals and we are going to gather them.. you gather by folding down the loose sides and pulling the needle through.. like this (icky fingers again.. beware!)

Then gather them all. Try to have your petals overlap slightly.

Pull the thread as tight as possible and tie a few knots (You will need to sew the start and ending petals together first this is usually when I gather and pull the thread tightly) You will need to pull as you tie to get them to gather as nice as possible.

Do the other large 6 petals and the 5-6 smaller petals

Now we will put the flower together.. You can sew them.. but I learned they hold up better if you glue them :) The thread can break if little hands get ahold of them and yank.. but the hot glue sticks to felt really well!

You are going to layer your 6 large petal sections.

Then add the smaller petal section to the top.

Glue on your button.

Get your headband and put a little glue on it. When using the elastic bands I like to glue where the ends come together. Place the headband over your flower to let the glue set.

The put a good amount of glue on your circle.

Then stick it over the headband and the back of your flower.. shape it inbetween the petals so you do not have any gaps. When you're done turn your flower right side up and shape it a little.. and.. voila!

I hope you liked this tutorial! I have a lot of things you can do with felt so please keep coming back for more recipes, tuorials, crafts, photos, etc.!

Annnd.. HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Working with Photoshop - Custom Shapes and Stroke

My little man just turned 2 on the 28th! We're having his party on January 9th and here it is the 30th and I still have not sent out invites. I usually print them up and make them all pretty but.. no time this year lol.

I made this up really quickly and sent it through Facebook and email to everyone.. Think of all the paper and ink I saved though! Yippie!

I am doing a space/alien theme for him.. I am still working out all the decor, etc. so you will have to check back and see what I come up with!

Here is the invite-.. with my address and phone number blurred because I know all you freaks wanna come over or even prank call my house!

Cute, right?

Making your own invites at home is SUPER easy! You can use digital scrapbook kits, etc. For the graphics it is best to use high resolution files so they print nicely. I was lazy this time around and bought my graphics from this Etsy seller, CocoaStudio but there are TONS of graphic designers on Etsy so search around for what you want.

I use Photoshop to design anything and everything.. it's IS a pain to learn but once ya get it.. ya got it! I taught myself so if I can.. you can!

I am going to share a little trick with you all on how to get a thin border around a photo, graphic, text, etc. (example - Austin's names has an orange border around it)

Let's begin!

1. Open up Photoshop. (I am NOT sure if this works in Elements though)

2. Open up all your graphics and lay it all out how you'd like. (I will do more tutorials on layers, etc another time if you do not already know)

3. Double click on the layer you want to add the border to and a layer style window will pop up.. see below:

4. Now we will select the 'stroke' option. First you will click the little box to put a check in it. It defaults to a 3px wide outline in red.. ew... Let's change that! Now.. click right under the word stroke.. and the window will change to change the look of the stroke.

Select the color outline you want by clicking the color box (default is red).. You can do better color matching and whatnot but I will go into that another day.

5. Click OK once your color is selected. (HINT.. don't see anything? Probably because you are working with a single image layer.. go back to the stroke options and it's default is 'outside' change it to 'inside' )

6. Now.. with the first window that opened you can change the size, etc. I usually use a thin line of 2 - 4px. Click OK and voila!

You can also play around in the layer style menus with shadows, patterns, etc. I will show you how to do much more as I go on with this blog.. so make sure you check back!

STARS -

Another quick tutorial on custom shapes.

1. You need to have a new document, photos, etc. open.

2. You can easily press 'U' to select the shape tool.. but you need to make sure you have the custom shape tool. I circled in yellow where the shape tool is located. It defaults to a rectangle so you may not see the shape I have shown. Right click over the rectangle and in the menu select 'custom shape tool'. (see photo below on where to locate your shape tool)

3. Now, look at the top of the menu in Photoshop. See the little star (on my photo.. yours will be a different shape at first) and next to it it says 'shape' that is where you select your shapes at.

4. Now.. you may notice you only have a few shapes in your drop down menu.. no star? probably not.. Let's find it!

5. Click the little tiny arrow I have circled in red

6. A menu will open up. Click on ALL.

7. Now all your shapes will load! Select your star shape (or any shape you want to try out!)

8. Go to your open doucment and click and drag to make your shape! Easy peasy! You can also refer back to the first tutorial and add a border, drop shadown, etc. You can also make these any color you want! Do this with your color picker (look at the above picture and see the red box in the bottom left on my tool bar? Click that and select your color before making your shape).

Have fun! Any questions please reply with a comment! I will be back to share more tutorials, recipes, patterns, craft ideas, etc. So please keep coming back!

Why?

Why?... Well, why not? :)

I have had several people over the years.. TONS of people ask me for help with photography, making cookies, fondant, editing, sewing.. if I sell my sewing patterns, etc. So I thought that it was finally time for a blog where everyone can find it all in one place. I know it's pretty empty now but I hope to have this blog become packed full of helpful information!

If you have a question or a suggestion for a blog post please let me know by commenting and I will see what I can do!

Thanks for stopping by! Don't forget to 'follow' my blog!

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog, 'I Don't Eat Peas' I will be sharing my crafts, tutorials and whatnot so check back often!