How does she do it?

So everyone seemed to love the Flat Iron Case and Cosmetic Bag Christmas Gifts.

Since then I've even had requests for more! So I thought I'd post some photos of what I did, so that I don't forget if I need to make them again!

This one was for my momma.

Supplies are pretty simple. Fabric, lining, rotary cutter, thread, and fabric. 

And my machine of course.

Flat Iron Case

Lay the fabric right sides together on top of the lining. I think I used pieces that were 17" x 15", but it would totally depend on the size of your curling iron/flat iron. 

I pinned it all the way around. And then you sew it together, leaving an opening large enough to flip it inside out. 

 Trim the edges so it's nice and smooth. 

Fold the bottom third up and pin it in place. Sew from the base of one fold all the way around to the next. 

 At this point, I added the ribbon and sew over that so it's attached. 

And there you go. You have a flat iron case with a ribbon to tie it. 

It's the perfect size for my curling iron. 

I can put it in while it's still hot. 

And fold it up so it's ready to go. 

Useful and adorable. 

The matching Cosmetic Bag

Start with fabric and fusible lining (to make it a little bit more stiff)

Iron the lining to the fabric.

Sew the right sides together with the zipper inside. Do the same thing to the other side of the zipper. 

Sew from one end of the zipper to the other. 

Trim and finish the edges. I used a zigzag stitch since I don't own a serger...yet. 

Turn it inside out and there you have it. A flat iron case and matching cosmetic bag. 

That all your friends are sure to love. 

This is the fabric I got for B...I hope she likes it...

Organizing

I love organizing. Seriously, I think its so much fun. And great stress relief. I hate that feeling of looking for something, knowing it's there, but not being able to find it. When you are organized, life just goes much smoother. 

The other day, after getting back from grocery shopping, putting back my THIRD bottle of BBQ sauce, I realized I need to do a better job keeping an inventory of what is actually in my cupboard. It's small, but things get lost. 

So I pulled everything out, and as I was putting it back in, typed it in my phone notes under "currently in my cupboard" so I can check that when figuring out what my menu will be or if I can make something. 

Here is the end result:

 And just in case you were unaware, every row is for something different. 

All of my cute spices (in alphabetical order) on my lil lazy susan.  

 All of the baking supplies

 Teas (and other hot drinks)

Canned goods. 

 And up top on the left I have boxes of flour, granola, mac and cheese. In the bins on the upper right hand corner are rice and marshmallows and chocolate chips and nuts. 

 Seriously. Pure bliss. 

Brunch

Brunch seems to be the thing to do in D.C. The perfect opportunity to eat breakfast at a more reasonable time. I'd recently discovered a couple of recipes but they aren't the kind of thing you make for yourself. I mean, do I really want 24 muffins or 8 scones just lying around? No, I don't. Because I would eat them. All of them. And that's probably not so great. So making them for other people is the PERFECT solution.

What did I make, you ask? Well, thanks to pinterest I discovered two recipes that looked beyond amazing. Honeyed Grapefruit Oat Scones and Earl Grey Poppy Seed Muffins.

The Earl Grey Poppy Seed Muffins were super easy and perfectly delicious. 

First, I heated up some milk, it was almost boiling, but not quite. You don't want it to curdle.  

For the tea, I used double bergamot earl grey. It has a stronger flavor, so I think it made the earl grey more pronounced. And since I like tea, that's a good thing. It's supposed to be better if you can use fancy loose leaf stuff, but this is what I had. 

So I just steeped the tea bags while the milk cooled.  

Then I mixed all my dry ingredients together. 

The result is now a large supply of poppy seeds on hand. So I have a feeling these muffins might be making another appearance rather soon. 

I cut up all the butter and put it in my cute little dish to heat it up. 

Got the eggs all ready. I love owning little clear dishes to put my ingredients in. It makes me feel like I'm on a cooking show. 

You can see the milk really changed color. I think I left the tea bags in about 10 minutes. Shorter would mean less of a earl grey flavor, but as we've discovered, I love tea. So 10 minutes it is. 

There is something disgusting about melted butter. And yet, it makes things taste SO GOOD. 

Then I poured the milk into the dry ingredients. Well, I also poured the butter and eggs in too. and mixed it all together. 

The result: DELICIOUS BATTER. Seriously, so good. I could have eaten just the batter. But I tried not to, raw eggs and all. 

I bought cute little blue cupcake wrappers. It matched the poppy seeds soo....

It only made 12 muffins. There was some batter left, so I think I could have made a couple mini ones too. I also used self rising flour, so I think If i had let it sit a little longer, I could have turned it into 18 cupcakes that were a little more airy. 

Then I put them in the oven. 

For 25 minutes. 

And waited. 

Then I took them out and let them cool for a bit on a wire rack. These babies really rose. I think I could have put less batter in each one. Next time that's probably what I'll do. I didn't realize how much they would rise. 

But seriously, how cute are they?

Then I melted down a little bit of orange marmalade and glazed the top. 

It added the perfect amount of sweetness. 

I couldn't help myself. 

So good!

Then I made the scones. I personally don't like warm fruit, so if I were making an entire batch just for me, I would probably leave the grapefruit out, maybe add some of the juice, but I'd rather eat a scone and a grapefruit separately.

Here's the dough pre-oven. 

And I totally forgot to take pictures of the scones after they came out. But they were tasty. So tasty that there is now nothing left of them. But I do have 2 new brunch staples. That I can confidently bring over to someone's house!