Carrot Cookies

Posted in Food by peppermintsandhoneybees

I actually found this recipe in the little booklet that came with my ninja blender. It looked good (and easy) so I thought I’d give it a try. It looked good and has carrots so its sorta healthy right?

It was super easy and fast to make since I just added all the ingredients and blended them. You definitely don’t need a blender to make these though.

The ingredients are:

3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs of flax eggs
2 cups flour
1 cup grated carrots
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 Tbsp. coconut oil

The last two ingredients I added to the recipe. Just combine everything and drop teaspoon sized amounts onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 8-12 minutes and that’s it! It was supposed to make 36 but I got about 28. (I made some a little bigger)
These are nice because they aren’t too sweet, although I think they would be good with honey drizzled on them. I was going to take some to work but Ben likes them so much he didn’t what me to! I’ll have to make more. 😉 Anyway, enjoy!

13Mar2015

Cat Tepee

Posted in craft, Sewing by peppermintsandhoneybees

Hey Peeps! I have a super cool project that I actually made a few years ago, but it’s still a good one so I thought I’d share it. All you need is a yard of fabric for the panels and a 20″x20″ piece for the bottom piece, a sewing machine, and 8 dowel rods that are 1/4″ wide. I got the original idea from a book titled “One-Yard Wonders” by Rebecca Yaker and Patricia Hoskins.

After you cut your panels out you need to sew the sides of each three side panels together, leaving 1″ of space between the seam and the edge of the fabric. Then sew the ends of the insides of the panels leaving a pocket to push 4 of the dowel rods thought. Don’t put the rods in till everything is sewn though. Next sew the seams on the tops and bottoms, leaving the dowel rod openings.

Next for the Base cut a square that is 20×20″ wide and cut a square notch on each corner that is 2″. You will fold the sides in 1″ and sew the seam like in the picture, only I made all sides the same. Don’t forget to leave an opening for your last 4 dowel rods. These will have to be cut smaller to fit. Leave a few inches sticking out on each side.

After the bottom is sewn, attach it to the rest of the tepee by sewing the top of the bottom section onto the inside of the tepee. and then insert your dowel rods. I also tied a piece of fabric around the top to secure the dowel rods.

As you can see Gatsby claimed this one and still uses it! Lucy will sit in it occasionally but if your cat likes hiding in things (like most cats), then they will love a tepee!

This is the picture of how to cut the three side panels and two shorter front panels out of the yard of fabric. Lay the piece out in a single layer

Here are my crazy homemade patterns for the side and front panels since I made more than one

They don’t like to share!

So Happy!!!

21Feb2015

Make a Camera Strap Cover

Posted in diy, Sewing by peppermintsandhoneybees

I’ve been wanting to make a cover for the strap of my camera so I don’t look like a tourist with the factory strap. I had some time since we got all that snow so I sat down and made one, which didn’t take much time at all! If you make one you’ll have to measure out your strap. Mine is a Nikon and it was 20 1/2″ long and 1 1/2 ” wide. I cut the fabric out 22″ long so I could fold it over twice on each side and sew a 1/4″ hem. I made it 4″ wide so I could fold in in half and sew the seam. For whatever reason my machine would only sew a zigzag seam so yeah…, oh well if that’s the worst that happened! After everything is sewn use a safety pin to turn it right side out by pining an end and running it through to the other side. I also used a safety pin on the end of my camera strap to feed it through the cover. I made mine fit snug on the ends so that it wont ride up when I’m using it, but you can make yours however you want!

I had some fabric left from my kimono that I liked so I used that and then made another one out of some peppermint fabric that a friend had given me. I was saving it for the perfect project but I tend to do this with things and then they never get used! I had originally planed to make a pocket for my lens cap, but my cap is quite a bit wider than the strap so it would have to really stick out. Maybe I’ll add one later, we’ll see, but again up to you!

19Jan2015

Valentine’s Day Garland

Posted in craft, diy, Holiday, home by peppermintsandhoneybees

Hola peeps! I took a bit of a hiatus from blogging, not really on purpose but more because I was too busy to start/work on new projects and before I knew it January was half over! I am totally scared by the way time works and wish things would slow down just a bit. Now its that time of year that I just want to bypass to warmer days but I’m trying to enjoy the here and now and find the good, even in this frozen wasteland, because one day I’ll look back and miss these times!

I’ve never really decorated too much for Valentines day but since I have a craft blog now I figured I’d see what I could come up with, and love the results. I’m really starting to get in that heart everything spirit now and even though I don’t do frilly decorations (unless they’re vintage of course!) I made some simple nature inspired pieces. The arrows are inspired by similar ones I found on Pinterest. I used sticks for mine though and used paint and marker for the feathers. the heart tips are cardstock. I also made some of the feathers into earrings for my Etsy shop Peppermint Emporium. The garland is straight from my noggin and is just sticks, coffee filters dyed with watered down craft paint and twine. grab your glue gun and there ya go! Ben buys the unbleached coffee filters so I was a little disappointed that they weren’t white, but afterward I decided I liked the brown color better, it lends itself to the natural rustic vibe I was going for.

18Dec2014

Decorating My Tiny Apartment for Christmas

Posted in Holiday, home by peppermintsandhoneybees

Hello, I hope everyone is doing well and getting everything ready for Christmas! I thought I’d show a couple pictures of some of my Christmas decorating this year. We wanted to get a tree but I couldn’t find any for a price I wanted so I’ll wait and look after Christmas. My mom taught me to always shop for holidays after the actual holiday for the next year! SO anyway since we didn’t get a tree I strung all of my ornaments on a garland and I actually really like they way it looks. I also found these adorable peppermint and red, green and white globe bulbs at Target in the $3 section.

Happy decorating!

30Oct2014

Dresser Makeover

Posted in diy, home by peppermintsandhoneybees

Happy Halloween everyone! So this post has nothing to do with Halloween but I plan on posting my Halloween costume on my next post. But for today I have some photos of the dresser I just changed up. This dresser is older than me and also looks it. I could just get a new one but I like how sturdy this one is and hey it’s practically a family heirloom. It was my mom’s when she was growing up. I could have painted it but I like the look of the wood even if it is a little banged up so I decided some new drawer knobs would jazz it up. The only problem is that knobs are expensive if you buy them all at once and I couldn’t decide what I wanted. What to do? Get all different ones and mix and match. My style is usually all over the place so why shouldn’t my dresser be too!

Have a happy and safe Halloween tomorrow!

24Jul2014

Table and Chairs Refresh

Posted in diy, home, Uncategorized by peppermintsandhoneybees

I’ve never really liked this table and chairs since they look like and probably are from the 90’s. Ben had gotten them used before we lived together and were definitely outdated and showing their age. We were going to buy a new dining room set but couldn’t find one (or a price) that we like. I decided that since they are still in pretty good shape we could keep them a little longer and I’d be happier with them if they looked a little more modern and a little pop of color can go a long way! I painted everything that was painted white and left the wood showing. I used satin latex paint with a semi-gloss polycyclic over it to seal it. It did take about four coats of the blue though since I was painting such a dark color over the white. It was a nice summer project and I’m pretty pleased with the way it turned out!

Before

After, plus my Birthday Flowers! 🙂 Plus find the cat for bonus points…

23Mar2014

DIY boot forms

Posted in diy, home by peppermintsandhoneybees

Don’t pay lots of money to keep those boots looking nice. Just get done pool noodles from the dollar store, cut them up and there you go!

Working on beautifying my kitchen

2Mar2014

Headboard DIY with cardboard

Posted in craft, diy, home, pinterest, Uncategorized by peppermintsandhoneybees

I have been wanting a headboard for our bed since we bought it a few years ago but have limited space to make one, and well you know how I feel about buying things I can easily make! I came across this tutorial from http://james-michelle.blogspot.com/2012/01/30-diy-headboard.html?m=1 on pinterest. It uses a cardboard form instead of wood, making it easy, cheap, and replaceable. Plus no power tools required! If you have one big piece of cardboard this is best but if not you can tape two together with packing tape. Here are the materials and tools I used:

cardboard
2 yards of quilting batting
2 yards of fabric
packing tape
staple gun
utility knife
heavy duty scissors (optional)
ruler or measuring tape

Also note my bed is queen sized so you might need more if you have a king sized bed. I was going to buy some of the cardboard used for science fair projects but then Ben ordered some floor mats for his car and the box was the perfect size, score! I bought the batting and fabric at Joanne’s Fabric store. Both were on sale, and I used a 50% off coupon on the batting bringing the total to around $14. I recommend using thick quilting batting if you can.

If you didn’t know all the large craft stores like Joannes, Michaels, and Hobby Lobby have coupons every week. I use the apps on my phone but you can look it up and print it out if you don’t have a smart phone. I never shop these stores without coupons.

The tutorial I followed suggested using bowls to make the different curves so they come out even and perfectly round. I used a pen to make the shape and cut it out using a utility knife and heavy duty scissors.

I had to tape the top curve on because I didn’t have enough at the top, but that’s ok, it’ll get covered up.

Next I put the batting under the cardboard and taped and stapled it up around the cardboard. I stapled and then taped the edges to the cardboard so they would be secure. Then I repeated these steps with the fabric, making sure the fabric was tight in the front with no tucks and folds. I cut off the extra on both the batting and fabric so that there were about three inches to fold over before I covered the cardboard.

I had a helper

After I was done I used those clear mirror hooks to attach it to the wall, and ironed it. The best part about making a cheap headboard is that if we get a new duvet or change bedroom colors the fabric can be easily replaced.

Here is the finished product. I need to do some more ironing, but I think it turned out pretty decent for about an hour of work and $14. Lucy seems to approve!