SpongeBob Cushions

Christmas was getting nearer and I still hadn't decided on what to give the boys of the family. The girls were getting their bows and barrette holder. As I was searching the internet on what to give the boys I came across this lovely Cushion, this is when I decided to give sewing a try.  For my ONE and ONLY nephew I wanted to make him the cushion out of an angry birds cloth. I went to the fabric store to look for some angry birds fabric. NO LUCK!

 The fabric store didn't have much choices for boys, but it did have plenty of options for girls, as always. In the end after going over and over the fabrics I decided to go with a spongebob fabric, there were two SpongeBob designs; I was going to use both, one for the bias and one for the main cloth for one cushion. Then use the opposite for the other cushion, in total I wanted to make two cushions, one for my nephew and one for my 2 year old cousin. I purchased 1.5 yards of each fabric, one yard for the cushion and 1/2 yard for the bias. I was sure I needed only one yard for the cushions because thats what the instructions call for, I was not sure how much I would need for the bias. [ because i have never done it]  With Christmas only three days away these cushions need to be made by YESTERDAY! hehe I gathered all my materials and started. During the course of the day I managed to cut fabric and interfacing for one cushion. THATS ALL! WOW! The remainder of the day was spent with my 20 month old princess; we did a little Christmas shopping, and we visited uncle Dean. After getting Jazzi ( thats how we lovingly call her)  for bed at 7:30 pm I could finally dedicate my time to making the cushions.


 I went online and tried to find one of the easier tutorials on making Bias Tape. The Instructions for the cushions required 1/2" Bias tape so when making the bias tape I doubled the the width as per the instructions cutting 1" strips, take note that this is the 1st time I will use a sewing machine! I have seen one, seen one being used but never used one. After taking it out of its case and plugging it in I asked my mother-in-law to give me a BASIC run down on how to use it. she showed me how to thread it!  LOL!  I took a piece of fabric to do a little test run. I placed the fabric under the presser foot and pressed on the pedal. I sewed, I sewed, I had sewn my first straight line. IT FELT AWESOME! I placed two strips of fabric ( for the bias) WITH TRUE FACES TOGETHER, this took me a little while to figure out and worse that I didn't have very good light. ( I was sewing on the varandah) the true face was a bit difficult to see. I then sewed and sewed strips at ninety degrees diagonally as per the instructions. After ironing the bias it was time for some magic . I gathered the bias and 17" circles and said the magic words "Abracadabra!" to get 

 THIS!

 I wish it were that easy to sew! lol I started sewing the bias unto the 17" circle and to the handle strip to get the above picture. I continued to follow the instructions until I completed the cushions; these instructions are quite easy to follow and may I remind you that I was sewing for the FIRST time.

     Aren't they lovely? I felt so accomplished after completing the cushions and of-course proud of my work.  It was time to wrap them and put them under the Christmas tree until Christmas day. 

Merry Christmas! hope that your family has a most joyous holiday. 

Magical Brownies

For a farewell gathering his co-workers were going to have, my husband was asked to donate cupcakes. when he told me that, my first question to him was what type of cupcakes he wanted; his reply to me was make us   "Magical Brownies" . " Magical Brownies!?" Now! what to do? ...what to do?.. to get Magical Brownies, I walked into the kitchen and looked at my pantry , " what will give the brownies that Maaaaagical factor?" ....... NOTHING! my pantry has nothing that will make my brownies EXTRA special; so  I called my husband to stop at the store after work to buy a secret ingredient. After my husband had arrived home with the secret ingredient it was time to start to bake this delicious Magical Brownies.  I had decided that it will be a brownie cupcake [with a secret ingredient] and a marshmallow topping. Just imagining it is making my tummy rumble. hehe Since I didn't have much time I bought a pack of Betty Crocker brownie mix and made my marshmallow topping. All the ingredients for the brownie mix  were added to the bowl; I started to mix. one,..... two,.... three,.... four.....  then I remembered.. My Secret Ingredient!!!.. how could I have forgotten I quickly added a BIG dash of my secret ingredient and continued to mix , five..... six......seven..... until I arrived FIFTY. I readied my cupcake baking sheets by placing cupcake liners in them, then I filled each liner with 2/3 brownie mix.  Time for the oven, they baked for exactly twenty two minutes. When I opened the oven door. PERFECTION! is all I see.

 I am so happy that the cupcake brownies look OK. Now its time to work on the marshmallow topping. The recipe I used is one that I found online. I had to tweak it a little because I didn't have large eggs AND I didn't want to make the quantity the recipe called for. I sort of halved the recipe which can be found here.

3 Small egg whites
1/2 Cup White sugar
1/2 tsp Vanilla Essence

 The egg whites and the sugar were placed  in a bowl which was placed over a pot of boiling water. That was the first mistake. The water should have been SIMMERING. As I placed the bowl over the pot, the egg whites were starting to get cooked. UGGG!  That is not what was suppose to happen,  I quickly removed it from the pot, and started to beat it with an electric mixer. After a couple of minutes of beating it, it still wasn't getting fluffy, it still looked runny. I added some tablespoons of powdered sugar and it started to fluff. I added sugar until I got the desired amount of stiffness to be able to pipe it, the 1/2 tsp vanilla essence was added and the marshmallow was mixed for about a minute more.

 I used a disposable plastic bag to pipe it unto the cupcakes, I just snipped the corner with a kitchen scissors. After piping the marshmallow frosting... Voilà!  Magical Brownies are ready to be munched on.



At the social upon presenting the magical brownies my husband made it clear that they have a secret ingredient, that give you superpowers; each person gets a different superpower.  The persons that dared to taste it L-O-V-E-D it!  This particular co-worker loved it that much that she ended eating 3 of them. The day after the social my husband came home with the funniest stories about what powers the magical brownies gave to some of his co-workers. The coworker that had eaten three arrived  home that evening feeling like she was flying. haha and was later calling other co-workers telling them she can move her house with her mind. hehe Another co-worker said that she got the power of being able to tell when people are looking at her, and talking about her, she was starting to think that someone wanted to obeah her. Another person said that he got the superpower to feel presences when he arrived home and was starting to get paranoid about it. I enjoyed listening to all the superpowers that came as a result of my MAGICAL BROWNIES.