Pinterest Challenge |Pin 2 & 3 - August|

Today is the last day of August and I am happy to say that I have cross 4 pins out of the 6 I've listed as "wish to do" for the month. I have showed you the first one last week, and today I am bringing 2 more. Uhmmm? Didn't I mention 4? Well, yes! The fourth was done but my batery died and I have no photos to show you yet, I can't pass them to the laptop until later. And actually, I might get by the end of the day with 5 pins crossed, because i am hoping to make the maracas with G. today too. 

So, the second pin crossed from the list was making a fun dish for G. I tried, but I consider this a fail. It wasn't that much interesting or beautiful after all, but my little miss really liked to eat her sandwish in heart shapes, and she loved that I gave her goji berries. She is crazy about them and eats them mostly every day. There is also plum in it. 

Anyway, after the master fail I tried it again later, and apparently I was feeling more inspired for this, since I got her a much more interesting dish. She loved it! She was waiting for her peanuts only, and instead I showed her a butterfly scene, with a flower and everything. Again, you can see some goji berries. didn't I just tell you that she loves them?! In fact I have made a 3rd one already, earlier today, but the photos are still on the machine too. 

The third pin I crossed from my list was the big sister and little brother photoshoot. It wasn't fancy because neither one of us (hubby and I) aren't professionals, we just wanted some nice shoots of both of them together in a reasonable good quality. We took many, it's not easy to have them both staring at us at the same time, or having S. not crying without his pacifier, or one that's not blurry, but we did get a few nice ones. Most likely I will print a couple to add to their room deco when I finally have a little time to dedicate to it.

I am sorry I edited this photo, I am not so comfortable sharing photos online, when their faces are showing as you've probably noticed if you've been following for a while.

The fourth pin crossed, was the puzzle. I will blog about it later, if I manage to keep it in mind...

Pinterest Challenge |Pin 3 & 4|

First of all! It's my daughter's 3rd birthday today!!! How exciting is that?!

Last Sunday I missed my weekly Pinterest Challenge post. And nope, I didn't have any other pin crossed from the 5 I picked. I've been postponing most things. I had a lot of plans for the past weekend but my little girl got ill, and I've been trying to keep her fever low until last Tuesday, when her meds finally started to sort some effects and she was feeling good again. It was after that, that I got to make another thing I had planned to do from the challenge. 

- Pin #3 - 

One of my pins were the Savoury Flapjacks . I didn't follow that recipe though, I made cereal and nuts bars instead which was closer to what I had in mind. I used this recipe, well sort of, because I didn't follow it too closely. One thing I've learnt while searching for recipes, was that making bars are the easiest on earth, and you are so free to add what you like best. I just think mine turned out a little too sweet, next time I surely won't use the honey, or less at least.

Because my recipe turned out quite different, I will share it with you. 

I have used:

120 gr sanded sugar (because I didn't have brown sugar)

200 gr mix of different nuts

200 gr oatmeal

200 gr mix of different seeds

150 gr butter

60 gr wheat flour

honey (I just threw what I thougth to be enough)

Mix everything together. Put it in a form, with a foil sheet, tamping and smoothing with a spoon. Put it in the woven at 200º for about half hour. Take it out, allow to cool for 40 minutes and take it to the fridge for about 4-5 hours. it is ready to cut into small bars. 

- pin #4 - 

Another pin I crossed this week, was adapting one of my own tops into a Nursing Top. This was an easy one. Only took me a few minutes. I could have done it before, really, I just felt a little lazy for this one because I am not nursing yet and this could wait anyway. Especially when there are so many other things to focus on. But, I chose it for the June Challenge and I kept my mind settled to finish all my pins in time, so here you are. 

I know, I know! There's one pin left and today's the last Sunday of the month, which means I didn't quite make it, right? Well.... yes, that's right. I missed one item from my list, which I will add to next months challenge. I will try not to push too hard on myself in July, so for now, that's the only pin I plan to get done. 

Pinterest Challenge |pin 1 & 2|

For June, these were the 5 pins I chose to cross from my neverending to do list. 

Although last Sunday, I already had one of them crossed off, I failed to blog about it. I am bringing that one and the second one today to get on track with it. 

So, pin number one: the maxi dress look!

I chose that pin for a reason... it wasn't a random pinterest search for maxi dresses. The thing is, I scored a maxi dress in my usual charity shop a few months ago for 1€, but I hadn't used it yet, because it was a bit too large for me. I needed some motivation to fix it and finally wear it. 

The main problem with this dress was with the bodice... way too large for little me. Though the ladies got bigger with pregnancy, they're still not big enough for this dress, so that was something to repais. I tried to pull it down, pin and sew, but after it was done it looked weird, so I ended up unpicking my seams, and the original seams and adjust it to my size. The second problem with it was the stripes, one was ripped when I bought it and I was wondering if I should just tight it on the neck or sew them down on the back. I went with the second choice and I am happy with it. 

The day I wore it, I used a cardigan that was given to me with that huge pile of clothes I blogged about. It looked great. I wore the dress again, but cardigans were no way to be used anymore, the weather had a drastic change from the weekend to monday. Either way, both days I failed to take some photos (forgive my pregnant brains, it just keeps happening with everything and anything), that's why I have my dress form modeling it for you. 

Pin number two: Pancakes

Everybody knows pancakes are wonderful, right? You can have them in a million different ways. I like them plain, with honey, or ice sugar and cinnamon. My pinspiration was of a list of 10 different ways to make a pancake,but in the end, I just needed, again, a reason to make them for the very first time by my own. I knew I'd have a friend visiting me this week, so pancakes for us it'd be. 

I used a recipe from a portuguese blogger, I love her recipes, here's the original link, you can always use google translate to get it if you want to. They are yogurt pancakes. I can't take full credit for the ones we ate though. I was hoping to get them done before my friend arrived, but I had been busy sewing late, working on another pattern test and could only get them done when she arrived. I mixed all the ingredients, but then she got the spot on the stove and I just helped. lol They were so tasty, only one was left when we finished!

Pinterest Challenge #5

The Pinterest deadline is tomorrow. What? Already? Yeah, looks like so! Good thing I have finished all my projects already. Today I am showing you the 5th and tomorrow the 6th and last one.

my 5th finished project was the cookies. My my pinspiration came from a friend's blog, here's the recipe source, which is written in Portuguese. Here's a (google) translation for you:

You'll need:

-300gr of flour,

-50gr of Custard Powder

-150g of butter

-100g icing sugar

-2 gems

-20ml of milk

-egg yolk

-chocolate bar q.s.

Join all ingredients until dough is uniform. Involve the dough in cling film and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes. Extend dough in a surface with flour, about 5mm thick and the cutouts are made with shapes. Place the biscuits in the oven on a tray lined with greaseproof paper. Brush with egg yolk and put in the oven for 12 minutes. Allow to cool and then melt the chocolate. Dip half cookie in the chocolate and place it on tracing paper to solidify your chocolate. 

google needed a helping hand, I guess...

I also used cream to mix with my melted chocolate bar. They turned out pretty tasty, and even a friend who is a cooker/baker said my chocolate was just perfect. I took those cookies to family lunch yesterday and the kids adored them. It was a great alternative to the chocolate eggs, which they all got a few of, but didn't eat because the had the cookies.
That's a try again recipe for sure!!!