Hemp milk is yummy

For my new years resolution I decided to make more of our food from scratch. I really enjoy home cooked food and in most cases I like the version we make way better than anything we buy already prepared. It is also cheaper to make everything so definitely worth the extra effort. J loves to help out in the kitchen too. It usually involves a bigger mess and more time but it is fun to show him my love for cooking and baking. One thing I have wanted to try is making my own nut or seed milks. In particular I have wanted to try making hemp milk with the blender. I bought organic shelled hemp seeds at Whole Foods and found the hemp milk recipe online. It is really easy to do and tastes better to me than the store bought versions. I haven't figured out the costs yet but I think if I buy the seeds in bulk on Amazon then it will be quite a bit cheaper than buying it in the carton. It also is better trash wise since I don't have to throw away the aseptic cartons. I made a smoothie with the milk by adding a banana, frozen strawberries and mangoes, and a little maple syrup. Very yummy.

Bags on etsy

The recycled and hemp wrist bags are on my Etsy site. I am looking forward to selling in the warm indoors instead of the frigid outdoors for the remainder of the holiday season. I tried the local city holiday market for three weeks in a row but had to finally admit that it isn't worth selling only a few items in the cold. It is a great little market but the location has been moved and though it is full of vendors it is unfortunately not full of shoppers. Oh well, I gave it a good try and onward to selling online. I am really impressed with how easy it is to list items on Etsy and all the fun extras to promote your site. I added a nifty mini etsy to the blog and I am slowly discovering all the wonderful tools available.

Cowl neck warmer from a sweater and t-shirt

I am really excited that cowl necks are back in style. I loved my pink fluffy cowl neck sweater that I got for Christmas when I was a preteen. I am selling on Saturdays at a local outdoor city holiday market and it is really cold so I figure cowl neck warmers are good addition. I made this one out of a cotton sweater and t-shirt that I got at the local thrift store. I marked off the section I wanted to cut with a pen and then sewed along the line prior to cutting to make sure the edges do not unravel. I added a t-shirt circle and quilted a spiral through all the layers. Pretty cute and fun to make. By the way I have finally uploaded all my items to my etsy shop so please head over a check out all the fun items.

Carrot veggie burgers

We love veggie burgers. Here is my take on a simple nut and veggie burger. I can usually get a dozen burgers out of the recipe and it easily works for two meals. They also freeze well. If you don't have vital wheat gluten then you can substitute more ground oats, bread crumbs or a whole grain flour. Also feel free to add any other shredded veggies. Beets work really nicely as well as broccoli. Here is the recipe. Enjoy!

Carrot Veggie Burgers

version one
1 cup raw or toasted walnuts
1.5 cups raw or toasted sunflower seeds
1 medium size onion
3 large carrots
1 tablespoon olive oil (optional)
3 cups cooked brown rice
0.5 cup vital wheat gluten
0.5 cup ground rolled oats
0.5 tsp salt

In a food processor add the nuts, seeds and oats. Pulse to a fine grind. Remove and place in a bowl. Add the carrots and onion and also pulse to shred. Remove and place in the bowl with the nuts. Add oil if using. Pulse again to a sticky consistency and place in the bowl with the other ingredients. Add the wheat gluten to the same bowl. Add salt to taste. Now the fun part. Mix everything together. Feel free to use your hands. They work great. Form the mixture into four inch size patties and fry or bake at 375F for 25 minutes flipping halfway. Freeze the leftovers and you have dinner or lunch for another day. Goes great with sweet potato fries.

Esty shop is finally up and running

I finally have the Natural Violet Etsy shop up and running. I have flower pins made from recycled t-shirts. I also have fun hemp/organic cotton bibs and burp cloth sets along with a few baby teeny pants. I am working on the recycled wrist bags and should have listing for those in a few days. I am also knitting neck warmers/cowls from recycled yarn and plan to sew a few neck warmers from recycled sweaters. I should have the store fully stocked by the end of week so please take a peek. Please also excuse my lack luster photos. I need to work on my photo taking skills. I figured if I wait until I have good photo skills then I will likely never list anything. Hopefully the photos are descriptive enough and please feel free to contact me with any questions. Happy holiday shopping!

Homemade playdough. Violet too!

The little guy and I made playdough today. It was really easy to make and a lot of fun. I found the recipe online at playdoughrecipe.com. I asked him which color dye he would like to use for the dough and he wanted purple. I used regular food coloring and added 10 drops of neon blue and 20 drops of neon purple to the water. It turned out a really nice violet color. Little pumpkin decided to add a face to the dough. Very fun!

Fold over clutches from recycled pants

I just made a few of the fold over clutch purses using a really cute pattern from keykalou. The pattern is easy to follow and comes in three sizes. The bags are made from recycled pants and cotton prints. I made the medium and small size. I added a d ring to the medium size and plan to add a strap to turn it into a wristlet. The pattern is available for use by home crafters which is really sweet. Fun to be back to sewing again. Speaking of sewing, I finally caved and bought a new sewing machine. I bought a Juki 98qe quilting machine. I am so excited. I will post a review as soon as it gets here. I can't wait to start quilting again. Fun!

Make your own undies

I finally made underwear for myself. I am a bit picky when it comes to underwear and decided to make some for myself since I can't seem to find comfortable ones in the stores. Plus it is really inexpensive to make your own undies and you can make them in fun colors. I got the idea from amy a la mode. She has a copy your own undies tutorial on her blog. I used recycled t-shirts and a pair of comfy undies for my pattern. The edging is fold over elastic though I would really like to try using stretch lace for future pairs. I made the yellow undies first and didn't pull the top foe very tight so it is a bit loose. I adjusted the foe on the second purple pair and they fit great. I love the photo of Jonas and Ginger on the yellow undies. The photo quality is poor, however, it really is a wonder that I get any photos taken since I typically have someone stepping on my crafty stuff right about the time I am ready to take the photo. I do miss our old hardwood floors. They provided such a nice back drop to all the photos. Actually what I really need is a photography class.

Freezer paper stencils

I am playing catch up on blog posting. I have a few fun projects and never got around to posting. I have been busy with house stuff over the past six months. We painted and fixed just about everything in our little house to put it on the market. We decided it was time to get a bigger place. We want more storage and another bedroom. I would like more room for crafting of course. After we painted and fixed up the whole house, we packed up everything that wasn't essential and staged the house. It was really nice to live in a clutter free house for a while, but a big challenge to keep it that way with a two year old and three cats running around. We sold the house in about two months and are now living in a rental townhouse. We are still looking for a new house, but hope to find something in the next few months or so. Now that all the house stuff has settled a bit, I hope to do more crafting. First I need to catch up on posting.

I have wanted to try freezer paper stencils for a while. There are so many cute examples online from all the crafty folks. I bought a few packs of cotton t-shirts for Jonas and dyed a couple with aqua Procion dyes. I found free stencils online at www.spraypaintstencils.com. I used freezer paper and regular fabric paint to put a dolphin on a t-shirt. It turned out really cute and I have made a few more t-shirts since then that I will add as soon as I take photos. He calls it a narwhal which is really funny. He has the Eric Carle alphabet flash cards and has learned the names of all sorts of interesting animals. I like the way the dolphin looks like it has a eye. Not sure how that happened with the paint, but it is a fun addition.

New training pants pattern

I purchased the Baby Steps EC Pants pattern from Little Comet Tails and made a few pairs for the little guy to use as waterproof trainers. The trainer pattern fits really well and is very trim under the little guys clothing. I made the training pants in the picture out of the pul fabric available at JoAnn Fabrics. I got the fabric on sale which was really nice. The colors are vibrant and the fabric feels like a good weight. However, it has not held up so well to repeated washing and drying. In particular the lime green fabric is now starting to pucker and the lamination is coming off the fabric. The fabric still works well even with the separation, but aesthetically it is not so pleasing. I think I will stick with buying the pul online at diaper fabric shops. I lined the diaper with a polka dot flannel fabric. The liner is made with six layers of bamboo and hemp jersey that is topped with a layer of flannel.

Pumpkin sugar scrub

I just started using powdered fruit extracts in the my body care products and I am really excited. I bought a variety from DIY Cosmetics and I really love the results. I bought pumpkin, mango, pineapple, custard apple and papaya. I became interested in the fruit extracts because I wanted an easy way to make facials and also get the fruit enzyme benefits. I did originally try fresh papaya and pineapple as a facial, but I found I didn't do it very often just because it is a bit labor intensive and I don't usually have fresh papaya on hand. I figured there is an easier way and some place must have dried papaya for body care products. I was very happy to find them online. Yesterday I tried the pumpkin sugar scrub recipe on DIY Cosmetics website and it is a real treat for the skin. Very fun and it gives me a lot of ideas for future concoctions.