Bottle Cap Earrings

Remember my trip on Route 66?  I bought these really cute hot dog earrings.  I wanted some more earrings, but not the same ones that was at every tourist stop, so I made my own.
We bought a couple of bottles of Route 66 soda.  A lime soda(which was delicious!)and a Route beer(yes I spelled it right!).  They are made with real cane sugar, no HFCS.

I bought a package of earring hooks from the store.

Then I had my husband use his Dremel tool to make a hole in the top of the bottle caps.

Then I put the hooks in and made sure they were facing the right way.  They kept moving so I added a drop of hot glue to the back to keep them in place.

And now I have a new pair of earrings!  These will be great when we travel the rest of Route 66!

I have also been doing some sewing, I'm finishing up a dress for a friend.
What have you been up to?
Missy

Dill Pickle Cupcakes

I know, sounds weird huh?  I was at a bakery a few weeks ago and asked them what flavor was their most popular flavor?  They said dill pickle cupcakes!  They don't keep them on the shelf all the time, so I did not get to taste one, they sell out in about 30 minutes after baking them!  Well, of course this meant I needed to find a recipe!  I looked online and could only find one recipe, that's right,  only one and it did not sound very good!  So what is a girl - who is craving pickle cupcakes - supposed to do?  I was worried about the acid in the pickle juice reacting to either the baking soda or baking powder.  I decided to use a lemon cupcake recipe and substitute chopped pickles for the lemon zest and pickle juice for the lemon juice.  I figured the acid from the lemon would balance out the same.  I also added some dried dill.  They turned out delicious!  Some All of my friends, looked at me as if I was crazy.  But everyone who tried one loved it!  It does need more pickle, I only added 4 tablespoons chopped pickle, so I am changing my recipe to 1/3 cup chopped pickle instead.

Just remember not to add any of the pickle stuff to the butter or milk or it will curdle.  I knew not to do that, but for some weird reason I added the chopped pickles to the butter and this is what it looked like.

Pretty gross looking, huh?  That's okay, they still tasted good!
You are going to need one or two dill pickles, depending on the size.  My husband brought me home kosher dill pickles which are not as strong in flavor as regular dills, so that will probably make a difference too.

I used my chopper to chop my pickles.  I got mine from pampered chef, and I love it!  I use it several times a week!  Make sure to read the back of your pickle jar, some of them have high fructose corn syrup!

I also really like my little two tablespoon measuring cup.  It is perfect for stuff like this, just measure it out and  put it to the side until you are ready to add it to the recipe.
My recipe makes 12 normal cupcakes or about 40 mini cupcakes.  Put liners in your pans and preheat the oven to 350 °.  Have all ingredients at room temperature.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat at high speed until light and fluffy:
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter.
3/4 cup sugar (I used palm sugar)
1 large egg
Sift together:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dill
At low speed, add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and mix until just combined.  Do not over mix or it will make the cake dense.

At low speed, add:
1/3 cup finely chopped dill pickles
2 tablespoons pickle juice (from the pickle jar)
1/2 cup milk

Your batter will be kind of liquidy and look like this:

Using a scoop (ice cream scoop for regular size cupcakes and tablespoon size for mini cupcakes), scoop the batter into the prepared molds.

For mini cupcakes, bake 13-14 minutes, for regular cupcakes, bake 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cake comes out clean.  Cool on a wire rack for 5-10 minutes before removing the cupcakes from the pan.  (I know, I know, I should have moved all my sewing stuff off the table first!)

I would recommend frosting with  stabilized whipped cream, I used some IMBC from the fridge, and it was okay, but whipped cream would be better.  To stabilize whipped cream, just add a tsp of clear knox gelatin to a cup of whipped cream.  If you use palm sugar to sweeten the whipped cream, I put it in the cream about an hour (in the fridge) before I am ready to whip it so it has time to melt.  Add the gelatin right before mixing, and a tsp of vanilla.  Agave nectar works good too!

If you make this for a baby shower, you could scoop ice cream into liners ahead of time and pop them in the freezer.  When it is time to serve, just put a scoop on each cupcake.  What would be better for a baby shower than pickles and ice cream?
FYI:  even Pippi liked them!  I know, weird cat!
I hope you enjoy these as much as my friends and I did!
Missy

Cat TV

We call nighttime, Cat TV for our three youngest fur babies.  As soon as it gets dark all three will take up position on the cat tree watching the night life outside the window.  Of course they watch TV all day, but night time TV is their favorite.  I have to leave the curtains open by the cat tree or they will be very unhappy.   Please excuse the sheet, the sun has been so hot, it was making my living room unbearable.  So I hung a white sheet over my sheers to block some of the sun, but the white still allows light in.
Pippi is a girl all the way through.  She loves to talk on the phone.  As soon as it rings, she runs to be the first to answer the phone.  She always helps me find the phone when it is ringing and if I can't find it, she goes straight to it.

She hasn't quite figured out how to talk on it yet, but she sure likes to chew on it!  I did stage these photos.  I dialed my husband and then placed the phone by her.
Do your cats like "TV" too?
I am linking this post up at Feline Friday Linky party at Sarah Did It.  Be sure to check it out, and if you have kitties you want to share, that is a great place to do it!
Tomorrow I am going to a clothes swap/swimming party at a friend's house.  A lot of us ladies at church get together and bring old clothes and swap them out.  It's a lot of fun!
Have a great weekend,
Missy

Baked Nachos

Here is an easy recipe for you!  Baked nachos.  This is something I grew up with my mom making, cheap, easy, and quick!
First you lay your tortilla chips on the cookie sheet.  I use my yucky cookie sheet for this.  You can make home made chips or use store bought, my husband's favorite is organic blue corn tortilla chips.

My husband likes to put a little cheese down first, to make sure that every chip has cheese.  Then we put taco meat on top.  My husband hates beans and salsa, so beans only goes on my side when we have them, and the salsa cannot touch his chips.  We then put a ton of cheese on top.

Pop in a 350° oven for 3-5 minutes.  Do not let your husband take the nachos out of the oven if you want to take a picture of the finished nachos, or this is what you'll get.

Of course this would be delicious with black olives and jalapenos also, but my husband would not allow that to touch his "side" either!  But we'll forgive him, he is a Yankee after all and never learned to appreciate those things!  When we first got married I was only able to put a little seasoning on my taco meat, but through the 17 years of our marriage, I have slowly added more seasoning each time and can actually put the correct amount of taco seasoning, garlic and onions!  He never knew what hit him!  Here is his plate, meat and cheese only.

And my plate, meat, cheese and salsa.

I am enjoying this nice cool weather and love the rain.  It beats 100° any day!  I've opened my windows to let the nice cool air in and my cats are sitting in front of the windows enjoying the breeze too!
Have a blessed day!
Missy

Linky Parties

I wanted to share a new linky party just for hexagons!  Sarah Did It is hosting her first party here .  She is also having a great giveaway to celebrate her 500th post.  There is also a Feline Friday linky party every Friday. There is also a giveaway there.   So hop on over and see the great Martha Washington's Flower Garden she just finished.
Missy

I didn't win

Well, I did not win the "Cats on Quilts" contest.  Here are the results.  The winner made a beautiful cat themed quilt.  Maybe next year she can have the pictures of pets a separate category from the pet themed quilts, because the quilts are a lot more work and deserve to win.  Or maybe I should just make me a cat themed quilt for next year!  Thank you to all my friends who voted for me, I appreciate it!
Missy

I've been busy!

I like to talk!  When I meet new people, I talk to them about anything and everything, which is why I love to blog.  I get to talk to a lot of people and share things I am doing.  BUT (I know not to start a sentence like that but I don't care) my laptop crashed and I have been sharing a laptop with my husband which has been driving him crazy, he wants it back before I have "girlified" it!  I've added a pin it button, shortcuts to blogger, Google reader, Facebook, etc on his laptop (shhh, don't tell!).  BUT (bad sentence structure again) sharing a laptop does not leave much time to blog, which makes me very sad.  I still have some vacation photos to share with ya'll!
My husband had to go out of town last week for work and since I had the car (we only have one) I filled my days with activities.  Monday, Ashley and I went to the church to work on our Sunday School classrooms and I cleaned out the car from vacation time.   I helped her hang a bulletin board in her class, me with power tools is scary!  (don't look at my pocket sticking out, which you probably would not have noticed if I had not said anything)

 Tuesday, Lynn, Pam and I went thrift store shopping and ate lunch at my favorite restaurant - Panera Bread.  Wednesday, Lynn and I went to Chrystal's house to sew all day.  I am teaching Lynn how to hand stitch a grandmother's flower garden.  She is doing a great job!

 Her first flower!

Chrystal taught me how to use her serger, I want one now!

I picked Chris up from the airport Wed. night and got lost in the wrong parking garage for 20 minutes driving around in circles before I finally found my way out!  The sun was setting by the time we were driving home.

Then Friday and Saturday had a yard sale at a friend's house in Ft. Worth and made enough money to pay my water bill, God always provides!
Of course Sunday was church.  Monday I was sick, I was freezing even though it was 100 outside, I stayed wrapped in a quilt all day.  Tuesday was better and I went with Cynthia to Ft. Worth to help Lynn set up her classroom for school and then last night Lynn and I went to a new friend's house for quilting.  We met her at the yard sale Saturday, although Lynn was her grandaughter's kindergarten teacher two years ago.  We both sewed on our Grandmother's flower garden quilts.
I've had a busy two weeks and now it is time to get my house clean!
What have you been up to lately?
Missy

Please vote for me!

Today is the day you need to vote for the Pets on Quilts Show!  I entered my post from here.  Please go here and vote for me.  All you have to do is in the comments vote for me by writing "cats - #32"  #32 is my entry number.  I'm sure you all have come to know my furbabies, Muffin, Tiger and Pippi (my three youngest, I call them the Three Musketeers), so please vote for them. Of course, I do have 6 cats though.   Don't forget to check out all of the other amazing entries  here http://lilypadquilting.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-2012-pets-on-quilts-show-is-here.html. 

Remember you vote here, nad my entry number is 32!  Don't forget to check out my picture that I entered in the contest too!
Thanks!
Missy

Cats on Quilts

Lilly Pad Quilting is having a linky party for pets on quilts here , so you know I had to join in!
Here is one of my favorite pictures of Muffin snuggling in my grandmother's quilt.

Of course Pippi's favorite spot is on top of the quilt rack!

Tiger likes to help me quilt.  It is really hard to slide the quilt through the machine when a 15 lb cat is laying on it!

Pippi likes to help me sew the quilt pieces together!

Tiger and Muffin are enjoying my thrift store quilt in these pictures!


Tiger is posing in front of my grandmother's other quilt here.

I know this last picture is a blanket and not a quilt, but it was so cute I had to include it!

I actually have a lot more pictures on my laptop which decided to die, so I had to steal these from other blog posts and facebook!  My youngest three really love quilts and as soon as I pull a quilt out, they are on it! If you want some great ideas for "catty" quilt patterns, I have some on  pinterest! I can guarantee I'll have a lot more when this linky party is done!  I almost forgot to mention there is a contest going on and Muffin, Tiger and Pippi hope you will vote for them!  The voting starts August 9 or 10 after all of the entries have been received.
I'm also going to link up to Sarah's Feline Friday Linky Party!