8 Puppy Chow Recipe [with a free printable!]

A million years ago, I hinted that I wanted to post more recipes - courtesy of the boyfriend - and I fell down on the job a bit with that, but I've been updating recipe binders so I guess food is on my brain and now it's back on the blog!

This recipe is TOTALLY unhealthy, but like most things made with chocolate, sugar, and peanut butter, AMAZINGLY delicious! Seriously, you might become addicted. And then you might need to be carted around in a wheelbarrow. Or maybe that was just what I was fantasizing about and fearing...

To be fair, we've used margarine to make it a bit healthier. I'm not sure how much it helps, but I think we felt better about eating it! And it's gluten-free, very kid friendly, and not hard to make.

So here's the recipe and the link to the Scribd location where I have a free printable for you! It's just the recipe that you can download, print out, and put in a recipe binder... or save on your computer or whatever to use when you please... enjoy!

And note that I cannot take credit for this, the original recipe is here on allrecipes.com.

Ingredients

• 9 cups Rice Chex, Corn Chex, Chocolate Chex, or Honey Nut Chex cereal [the boyfriend has mixed in a couple varieties together when we had various portions leftover and you couldn't taste the difference]
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/4 cup butter or margarine
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1.5 cups powdered sugar

Directions

1. Measure cereal into a large bowl and set it aside.

2. Microwave the choclolate chips, peanut butter, and butter uncovered on high for 1 minute in a 1-quart microwavable bowl. Stir. Microwave about 30 seconds longer or until mixture can be stirred smooth.

3. Stir in vanilla. Pour mixture over cereal, stirring until evenly coated. Pour into 2-gallon resealable food-storage plastic bag.

4. Add powdered sugar. Seal bag; shake until well coated. Spread on waxed paper to cool. Store in airtight container in refrigerator. Makes 18 servings of awesomeness.

If you want the downloadable, printable version of the recipe for free, download it from Scribd here!
Puppy Chow

I'm linking up to some of my favorite conferences!

13 Mail Organizer

I hate the mail. But I love it. I love getting the stuff I order online. But I hate the junk mail that's jammed in that tiny box and the bills and the stuff from the bank that are useless, but I still feel the need to shred. There's just so much and I hate dealing with it. While I've tried to put myself on the no junk mail lists, that problem seems to be beyond my control right now. But the storage part? The losing the mail part? That, I tried to create a little solution for... one that would make me hate the junk mail a little less!

Just to warn you, there aren't a ton of pictures because I didn't really have a plan in mind for this... I just sort of winged it and then I only made this one, so I wasn't always sure when I was doing something different or taking a real step that I needed to photograph. But, I think you can follow pretty well...

Supplies

• Several sheets of cardstock
• Fabric (several patterns, if you want, all coordinating)
• Ribbon
• Hot glue gun and gluesticks
• Regular gluestick
• Thumbtacks (and maybe a hammer)
• Wood backed canvas (roughly 8 inches wide; if the wood is thicker, then you might need the hammer)

Instructions
First, you want to grab your base fabric and stretch it across your canvas. I put some glue on the canvas, but you don't really need to. Just stretch it across and then push in some thumbtacks to hold it taut. This is what the back should look like:

At first, I used the hammer because I was worried I couldn't push them in by myself, but eventually I got stronger or my hands got numb... and the hammer fell by the wayside. Once you finish with that fabric, the front should look pretty like this:

Now, you're going to make the little pockets that hold the mail. This is where I played around a bit and don't have too many pictures, but it's really simple. I just covered a couple of sheets of cardstock in the fabric (using my regular gluestick) and left the fabric a little long so that I could wrap it around the canvas and tack it in place.

I cut the cardstock so that I had a smaller pocket on top and a larger one on the bottom, but the bottom pocket has the full 8.5" x 11" cardstock. For the bottom pocket, I tacked the bottom of it to the back bottom of the canvas.

For the top pocket, I just used my hot glue gun to glue the bottom of the pocket to the fabric covered canvas. This picture shows you how the pockets are longer than the canvas so that they can wrap around and stay loose enough that you can actually put mail in it. 

It looked a little plain, so I just glued on some ribbon and tied some little bows and glued those on too... and voila! Mail holder!

I added some little hanging brackets to the back of the canvas, on the wood part, and then hung it up and put it to use!

I'm linking up to some of my favorite conferences!

1 Guest Post at Scene of the Grime!

What a ridiculously awesome coincidence - my first two guest posts EVER are being posted on the same day! Both are up today - or should be. I say this because I'm also scheduling this post before the conference and hoping everything goes okay...

In addition to my post over on CaitsCreates, the lovely Laurie invited me to guest post at Scene of the Grime! I'm definitely nowhere near as punny as Laurie (or the CSI writers), but I think it's a pretty fun post (check it out here)... and Laurie's blog is pretty awesome so you should check it out!

3 Guest Post at CaitsCreates!

While I'm off at a conference, I tried to make sure there'd be some crafty scientist goodness for you all and so I'm trying to schedule this and I'm not completely sure it will all work, but it should (I hope)...

Today (assuming all goes according to plan), I'm guest posting over at CaitsCreates! It's my first EVER guest post and I'm thrilled and excited to be able to send you over to Caitlin's blog! She's a grad student too, but she's a little more adventurous in her crafting - she remakes furniture and sews (two things I try to avoid any way I can)! So head over there and check out my featured post!

2 Kreativ Blogger Award

Even though it took me forever to post about this, I'm still thrilled to have gotten this Kreative Blogger little blog award from Jill over at Junky Vagabond back in April here. Big thanks to her and if you haven't seen her blog yet, you should visit. Now. I'll wait while you check it out... pretty awesome, right?

Anyways, the rules of this award are that I have to share 10 things about myself with all of you and then pick 10 lovely bloggers to award it to! So here goes...

About Me...

1. In some ways I'm closer to a computer scientist or mathematician than a true scientist, at least some days, but none of those made great blog titles and who's to say what "true scientist" means anyways?!
2. I love Jason Witten of the Dallas Cowboys. He further convinces me that if you're going to play football, you've got to be a tight end because they have all the fun.
3. The Atlanta Braves are my baseball team. I've often told people that if I can't be woken up from a coma and tell you who won the 1995 World Series, it's over. I'm no longer me anymore.
4. I'd never shot a gun until recently and now I really like shooting... even the big, fairly manly guns. 
5. Crafting is one of the most feminine things I do.
6. Paper punches might be my most favorite craft supplies... that and washi tape!
7. I love jewelry and necklaces in particular - I got a big kick out of one of my students telling me that she loved to sit in the front row so she could look at the necklaces I wore every day because they were always fun and unique. 
8. I don't run outside. Only the elliptical and a few other machines. Working out should involve the air conditioning and fresh water within arm's reach. 
9. I love edamame and boiled peanuts. Something about working so hard for the food makes it taste extra good.
10. I just got my first DSLR camera and I love it. I don't really know what I'm doing, but I know it's tons of fun. 

That was exhausting... now to my ten awardees! Congrats, ladies and feel free to play along (or not)! : )

1. Ani at Ani's Favorite Things
2. Caitlin at CaitsCreates
3. Carolina at c.w. frosting
4. Karen at Pocket Full of Pink
5. Lu at I Am Just Lu
6. Erin at Crafts & Sutch
7. Danielle at dm designs
8. Tristin & Sharon at Two Girls Being Crafty
9. Michael at Blue Velvet Chair
10. Katie at Eye Spy DIY

14 {Fabric} Flower Ring

This is one of those projects that's so simple, I'm not sure I should even bother to write anything about how I made it, but I love it! I got the idea and the how-to for this little stash-busting project from one of my favorite blogs, V and Co. here. It takes about 10 minutes, uses fabric scraps you already have and a ring back (so less than $1!), and little to no artistic talent. So it's one of my favorites!

Basically, you cut a long strip of fabric and start wrapping and hot gluing it all and then stick it onto the ring back and voila!

I had to model the one I made for you...

And here's the back of the ring...

Check out the tutorial on V and Co. and try it out! I'm linking up to some of my favorite conferences.

0 Good News/Bad News

So the necklace didn't win Best in Show at Lamb Around, but it's in first place on To Sew with Love's Best of May 2011! Thank you guys so much for voting!

2 Best of May 2011 Nominee

It's awards season around here and I'm thrilled to report that I've been nominated for the "Best of May 2011" on To Sew with Love for my interchangeable ribbon + briolette necklace! If you want to visit and vote, I'd be thrilled! I'm actually doing pretty well in the voting right now (you can vote for 2 projects, once per day) - though there are some awesome ladies with pretty fabulous ideas out there!

0 Best in Show Nominee!

Vote for my interchangeable ribbon + briolette necklace at Lamb Around (in the sidebar)! Wohoo! I feel famous! 

I'm also working on some fun things blog-related though the science part has kicked into seriously scary high gear, so I might be coasting on the excitement of so much positive feedback for a little while!

47 Paint Chip Art

First, I have to confess that I love paint chips. Once when I was sick, the boyfriend went to the hardware store and got me a big stack of paint chips and I'm pretty sure that's the sweetest, most romantic thing ever. I just love them. And I collect them. And I collect ideas for what to make with them (I even have a Pinterest board dedicated just to paint chip projects), and this was one that I kind of based on some I'd seen, particularly this one. Since then, I've made lots and lots and lots of these... they're super-easy, basically free, and you can customize in so many different ways!

Supplies

• Carstock
• Paper punch
• Gluestick
• Mod Podge (+ brush)
• Lots of paint chips!
• Dollar store frame
• Scissors

Instructions
For these projects, I used 1-inch and 2-inch circle punches, but you can use whatever size you'd like. First I cut the cardstock to the size I wanted to fit my frames. Then, I grabbed my paint chips in the desired color(s) - I've now made these in lots of different colors just because it's been really fun - mindless enough to do while watching TV, but still doesn't take too long.

Then just start punching out your circles. I avoided the labels and text on the paint chips, but that's just me... then I started to glue them onto my cardstock. You can see how I made the yellow to blue project in the second picture.

I overlapped them with each other a bit and made sure to cover the entire piece of cardstock (so that circles were hanging off the edge of the paper). (And yes, I did mess up something on the back of this paper... recycle, right?)

Just keep gluing the circles down in whatever way you want, until the cardstock is covered....

Then, you'll want to grab your mod podge... I used the glossy stuff because I just like it more than the matte finish, but that's just me. You just spread a thin layer across your entire paint chip & cardstock creation... unfortunately, I messed up in taking pictures and this is next picture is two steps ahead, but you just coat with mod podge. I applied multiple coats, but again, that's probably just because I'm neurotic and I doubt it makes a difference.

Looks kinda icky, but then it dries...

And after it dries, you'll want to flip over the cardstock and cut off the scalloped edges (the little paint chips that hang off the cardstock) so that you can fit your artwork into the frame! And then you have some beautiful artwork that cost almost nothing (a buck for the frame - you probably have the rest on hand)!

These were the first two I made...

Since then, I just wanted to play with paint chips and mod podge (my favorite crafting supplies) and so I've made quite a few of these... for various rooms and possibly (okay, definitely) as gifts!

They're all in various states of progress - I took all the pics at one time so some are un-Mod Podged and most are uncut so they still have the scalloped edges...

"Pretty in Pink"

"Lemon Yellow"

"Moody Blues"

"Mean Reds"

I actually really love this green one because I found the textured paint chips at Lowe's... for some reason, most of the textured paint chips were green, so I made another green one. I highly recommend throwing some of these textured ones in there, if you can get them to go through your punch without breaking it (which is not always easy)!

"Green with Envy"

All together now...

All in all, less than one hour for each (unless you go crazy with a giant one and use 1-inch circles) and practically free! 

I'm going to be linking up to some of my favorite conferences!