Home-made Peanut Butter Dog Treats

These home-made peanut butter dog treats are super easy, cute and your puppy will love them!  I found the recipe on all-natural-dog-treat.com, but I changed some of the measurements.

Here's what you need:

2 cups flour

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup water

2 tbs oil

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Combine all ingredients.  Kneed dough into a ball, then roll out to about 1/4 inch thickness.  I used a small (1 inch) bone shaped cookie cutter to cut out the treats.  Made about 40.  I placed them on a silicone baking mat, put them in the oven, and baked them for 20 minutes.  I let them cool, and gave 2 to each of my sweet puppies.  They loved them!

My sweeties.

Inside-out Cheesecake

I'm always looking for new dessert ideas, and I love ones that look more complicated than they were.  Again, on pinterest.com I found a perfect example of this.  Cheesecake filled raspberries, which I lovingly call "inside-out cheesecake".  I had the perfect opportunity to make these too.  Dan and I, with friends, got lawn tickets to the Cleveland Orchestra's 4th of July concert at the Blossom Center in Cuyahoga Falls.  That meant a picnic, YAY! And of course a red white and blue dessert.  

So, what you need for this dessert:

- Raspberries and/or blueberries

- Cheesecake (pre-made or your own- a recipe that doesn't have raw egg)

- Graham crackers

- Frosting bags (ziplocks would probably work too)

First you wash the raspberries, crush up the graham crackers, and fill your frosting bag with the cheesecake (I used Philadelphia's pre-made stuff simply because I can't get enough of the stuff).

Then, you put the froster nozzle in the raspberry and fill it up...

'Til it's just a little over the top.

Then you dunk them in the graham cracker crumbs.

AND THAT'S IT!

So simple, so yummy.

They're great, because you get the satisfaction and taste of the cheesecake, but you're getting so many less calories, and full raspberries.

Next, for the raspberries.

I put as much cheesecake in top as I could.

Dunked, and done!

One of the easiest, yummiest, most impressive desserts I've made or seen.  Let me know what you think, and believe me, you won't regret making these!

Pinterest Inspired II

So, my sweet, loving, considerate husband used up all my glue gun glue last time, I finally got to finish my Pinterest Day.  Here are the (not to toot my own horn, but- toot-toot!) ADORABLE new creations I have sitting on my dresser, because I keep wanting to look at them

The first thing is this pin cushion/sewing kit.  I saw it at pinterest.com, and followed the pin to www.momtastic.com, where I found instructions.  Like the blog says, this calls for: 

- 1 mason jar (any size will do, depends on how much you need it to fit)

- any piece of fabric, preferably one you don't mind looking at from time to time

- Glue gun (and glue!!!)

- Stuffing

- Stuff to fill it with it

Trace a large enough circle to comfortably glue around inner lid.  Cut out.  Start gluing to lid, leaving an open space, fill with stuffing, finish gluing.  Then, put glue on the inside of the outer lid, put inner lid in, and put pressure on it until dry.  (Now, here is where mine didn't quite work.  If I got it nice and poofy, once I had it glued in, it would screw back on the jar.  So, it's not as poofy as I'd like, but I'm still happy with it.  I made one for my mom, and instead of the inner lid I used the same sized cardboard  circle, and it got a little poofier, but I still had the same problem.  It closes, but not as snug as I'd like.)  I added a circle of fabric to the inside to give it a finished look (honestly, because I knew my mom would show her quilting friends, and you do NOT want to get criticisms from those ladies!).  Then, I filled it with thread, small scissors, extra needles, safety pins and that nifty thing that helps you thread.  I also stuck some pins and needles in it.  

Ta-Da!!!

Now these flower pins are just too cute.  I made matching ones for Bella (our puppy) and I for our family pictures, and then just went a little crazy.  They are so fun to make.  This blogger has really good instructions on how to make them www.gomakeme.com.  It took a little trial and error, but I figured out, that you put them on there in a staggered way, and the way of folding them wasn't explained that well (or I'm dense- either of which is totally possible).  So, here's what you need:

- 6 x 2 1/2 inch circles of fabric (I've been making mine just a little bigger, I like the size a little better)

- 2 x 1 1/4 inch circles of felt

- Beads/buttons

- Safety pin

- Needle and thread

So, you take the fabric circles, fold them in half, then push in the sides, to where it (kinda) resembles a flat 8.  Then sew (or hot glue gun) the "petals" on one felt circle in a staggering manner.  Basically, the next petal starts in the middle of the next one.  Then add beads, sew a safety pin on the other piece of felt, and sew the two pieces of felt together.

Once you get the hang of these you'll be wanting to add these to everything.  Even the Eiffel Tower could do with a little decorating.

Now, I have wanted to learn to make rosettes for a long time, but for some reason it has always felt a little daunting.  Not today!  www.craftaholicsanonymous.net has a great tutorial on them.  Again, like the earlier flowers, you're going to want to add them to everything.  What you'll need:

- Strip of fabric (honestly, any size will do, but the blog recommends 3" x 22")

- Hot glue gun

- Scissors

- Beads (the blog doesn't mention these, but I thought it added a nice touch)

So, you start off by making a knot at one end of the strip of fabric, then you start rolling and gluing the fabric onto itself, twisting it each time, then when you get to the end, tuck the last bit under and glue.  Then I put a little hot glue on top, and dipped it in beads.

I made 3 complementary ones, and glued them together.  I love how they turned out!  Not to find an outfit to match it.

So, happy pinning, experimenting and crafting.  Let me know if you've tried any pinterest ideas and how they turned out!

ps: I'm sorry if the instructions aren't too detailed, the original blogs really are very helpful, and if you go to them, they'll be very helpful.