Tree and Birds Dry Erase Board

I made this whiteboard about a year ago but then realized eventually that I never actually used it...

...so I turned it into a better and much cuter whiteboard for my mom for Christmas!

We have so much burlap leftover from my wedding that it's kind of joke between us to see what kind of crafts we can make with it. :P She also loves birds so I made a little birdie family for the branch.

(L-R: my brother, Mom, Dad, myself, and my husband.)

Much cuter than just a blah background, ya?

Double Chocolate Chip Muffins (Gluten, Egg, Dairy, Sugar-Free)

I found a particular gluten-free blueberry muffin recipe a while back from a beautiful Canadian blog called Pocketfuls (another example of Canada's awesomeness!) that I make all the time. The blueberry recipe is absolutely excellent, but it doesn't quite satisfy when I'm craving double chocolate chip muffins, so using Lisa's recipe as a base, I created one that would work for my chocolatey desires.

Here is my adaptation! They're creamy, moist, and richly delicious even though they don't have dairy, eggs, sugar, or gluten!

Dry Ingredients:
1/2 cup Millet flour
1/2 cup Sorghum flour
1/2 cup Tapioca starch
1/2 Oat flour (I grind up oatmeal)
1/4 cup plus 1/8 cup cocoa powder (I know it's a weird measurement, but it's perfect.)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt

Wet Ingredients
2 mashed bananas
3/4 cup canned coconut milk
3/4 cup grapeseed oil
4 TBLS honey
1 TBLS Applesauce
1 tsp Vanilla
A handful of my Handmade Honey Chocolate Chips

1. Make chocolate chips ahead of time to give them time to set.
2. Mix together all wet ingredients and add into mixed dry ingredients.
3. Fold in chocolate chips.
4. Pour into a non stick muffin pan and bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes, but check at 20 minutes.
5. Enjoy!

Thank you Lisa from Pocketfuls for your beautiful blog and inspiration!

1/25/13: I randomly decided to add raspberry jam in the middles of the next batch I made. De. lic. ious.

Fill up half of the muffin cup, put a blob of jam in the middle, and then scoop more batter on top. 

(Pardon cruddy cell phone pictures.)

Oozy, yummy, gooey raspberry. :)

Felt Envelope Wallet

I love how the inspiration for new projects comes to me. It's sporadic and makes me feel like I'm a giant snowball running away down a hill...I love the rush! I started out folding laundry last night, saw one of my tie dye shirts I never wear and thought, "Hey! I should make a bag!" I then googled t-shirt bags and couldn't find anything I wanted but I did see some tie dye wallets and thought I should make one of those. I started out making a felt base and found some different fabric I liked better...then I was halfway done with one wallet when I noticed it looked kind of like an envelope..."Hey! I should put a stamp on it and sew little lines to make it look like one!" And then a few hours later I ended up making a larger one to go with it. It was an excellent night! I hyper-focused and worked on the both of them for about 6 hours straight, ending at 3:30 in the morning. Love, love, love that. :) I was proud of myself because for the first time ever I sewed consecutive straight lines with my sewing machine, and did a bunch of hand stitching, which I usually abhor because I am NOT a detail person.

 This is the little credit card sized wallet. 

 The little wallet with the larger clutch.

Envelopes!

I made one for my friend Hanna, too. 

Here's how the cards fit inside. 

The initial sewing for the little ones didn't take me long at all, but the hand stitching (which I had to re-do quite a few times because I'm still learning, took a while. I'm having a blast and I hope to make more soon! 

Coconut Chocolate Milk Recipe

I was messing around in my kitchen tonight and came up with a simple dairy free, sugar free chocolate milk!

I used:

1 cup refrigerated coconut milk (the kind in a can)
1/2 cup water (I wanted to cut down on the heaviness of the coconut milk)
2 tsp cocoa powder
1 tsp honey

I put it all in a blender to dissolve the honey and make sure that there were no lumps of cocoa left behind. I think it's an awesome cold alternative to the similar hot cocoa I make all the time.

Test it before you pour it and see if you may want it sweeter or thicker than I do. I think tomorrow I'll try adding ice cubes and see if I can make a milkshake of some kind. :)

Appreciation.

I don't brag often, and I'm not intending to brag here, but sometimes I feel the deep need to appreciate someone publicly because I feel like my mere attempts in daily life aren't enough.

When we married, I knew that my husband would be an incredible partner in life, but in the past few weeks he has completely blown me away with the endless reserve of love that he shows me. I've been sick since before Christmas, one thing after another, a cold, food poisoning, and finally culminating in another ruptured ovarian cyst just a few days ago which landed me in the ER. Throughout all of this, his patience never ended...the cups of tea, glasses of water, retrieving of menial things, cleaning up the house when I didn't have the energy, staying up in the middle of the night to hold my hand through wrenching pain. No matter how small or enormous my pain, he never belittles me, rather he tells me that he admires how strong and tough I am in the face of all of it. He holds me when I need him to and he gives me space when I need to be on my own.

My Sean has a peace about him that speaks to my heart. I tend to get extremely anxious and panicky when it comes to hospitals and when it comes to admitting that I need help in overcoming my pain. A simple look from him, a touch on my arm, or a quiet word in my ear, and my panic is soothed, which is no easy feat. He always knows what I need without my even saying a word, which is both amazing and terrifying to have someone know you better than you know yourself on some occasions. He is a man of God, who always prays for me and for our marriage without ceasing...and really I couldn't ask for more.

Before we married, I thought I knew what love meant to me, I thought I needed the perfect engagement story, the perfect honeymoon, and I thought I needed him to speak my love languages perfectly. I'll be the first to say that our engagement story was lame and disappointing, our honeymoon was one of the most awful "vacations" I've ever been on, and my dear husband may never know how much bringing flowers home means to me, but I could care less, now. For too long I let these things dictate the scale on which I judged how much my husband loved me, which only robbed me of the truth of how much he really does. One look in his eyes, every moment I spend with him, every tiny movement of every day life; this is when he tells me he loves me. His quiet strength in which he selflessly loves me and provides a frame and foundation for my crazy, impatient, and imperfect self to passionately love the world and him with everything in me...that's more important to me than anything. I didn't have many of the perfect things that I expected I deserved, but the less I care about these things, the more they fade into the background and the more I can plainly see the undeserved love given to me by a man who loves me more than he knows how to tell me. He often asks me if I know how much he loves me and I just reply, "Oh honey, you must not know of much you show it, but I see it, and I know." I think that sometimes receiving someone's gift of love is the greatest way of showing appreciation and love in return.

I'm excited to see what the next months and years bring for us and I'm glad to know that I'll always have my closest friend with me to laugh at my stupid jokes and be with me through the best and the worst times of our life together.

Two of my favorite pictures...the look on Sean's face kills me, he's trying not to cry.

DIY Coffee Cup Ornament Tutorial

Recently I was at a Peet's Coffee store and saw some absolutely adorable little ceramic coffee cup ornaments, similar to the ones that Starbucks sells every year. I work for a Peet's Coffee and I think that their coffee is delicious, so with this and my crafty Christmas side in mind (why pay for something you can make yourself!) I knew I had to figure out how to make a similar ornament.

This was my finished product!

And here's how I did it:

1. Start with an aluminum foil base, to help support the body.

2. Roll out enough clay to wrap around it and 

wrap around the foil body, smoothing as you go.

3. For the top, make a circle slightly bigger than the top of the body.

4. And another circle slightly smaller than that.

5. Smooth them together and make a little indent in the top (where you would drink from)

6. Mold onto the body, smoothing as you go.

7. Stick a little wire loop (I used a piece of a paperclip) in the unbaked clay.

8. Bake, cool and then paint away!

My modeling clay said to bake at 275* for 15 minutes per 1/4 inch. 

These cups took about 10 minutes to be finished. 

You can obviously paint however you wish, be it Starbucks' red cups, Peet's cups, 

or some obscure little coffee shop that we've probably never heard of. ;)

-Rachel 

Homemade Sugar-free, Gluten-free (Two Ingredient) Chocolate Chips!

I don't know why I never thought of these beauties before. They're extremely fast, easy, and actually taste and hold form like regular chocolate chips! Just take a look and you'll believe me!

No more chocolate chunks that require many ingredients, melting on a stove, and storage in the freezer because they melt at room temperature!

Just get a box of Unsweetened Baker's Chocolate and some honey and you're good to go!

1. Melt the chocolate blocks in the microwave in 1 minute increments. 

2. Mix in about 1-2 teaspoons of honey per block

3. As you stir, the honey will cool the chocolate down and solidify it a bit.

(EDIT: My friend, Becca suggested I add (gluten-free) vanilla extract and they turned out even better!) 

(Add 1/2 tsp per block of chocolate)

4. Spoon the mixture into a baggie and cut the tip off an end, making a

piping bag. 

5. Pipe the mixture onto a greased cookie sheet into little chip forms.

6. Stick into the refrigerator if you want them to harden quickly. 

They can be stored at room temperature! 

Enjoy!!