Martha Mondays - Crayon Hearts

It was my turn to choose what we were going to do this week for Martha Mondays crayon hearts. I wanted to do a Valentine craft, and Brette of Martha and Me had already done my first choice, the glittered roses. I thought this one was pretty and easy enough for everyone to try. I also chose to post it here rather than my food blog, just because of it being a craft instead of cooking. My other cooking Martha Mondays I'll post on The Tiny Skillet sorry to confuse anyone. So here we go! It seemed easy enough, and I had all the stuff on hand to do it. You take some wax paper and spread some crayon shavings on it, fold it over and crimp the edges. After protecting your ironing board, and iron with craft paper, simply go over it with an iron set on medium, melting the shavings.

Okay, again easy enough. The first sign of difficulty was finding a sharpener that would fit the crayon, the first one was too snug. Then the points kept getting stuck in the sharpener. I thought of shaving them a different way, but I used a tooth pick to keep getting tips out that broke off and stuck in the sharpener. I think I might of had too old of crayons.

It said not to overlap them, yeah, right! I spread them thin hoping it wasn't too thin. I remember ironing Fall leaves between two sheets of wax paper as a kid. They didn't always turn out like the teacher's did either.

So why did it get those wrinkles? Humm...I was able to get a couple hearts cut out, but it was had tracing around the heart, nothing would show up so I used a red sharpie! They looked okay...but not what I expected it sorta curled and so I peeled it apart...then it curled and so I just ironed it on craft paper. There!

But then it didn't give you the see through hang it in the window look they were going for! It did look cool on the paper and would make a great Valentine's Day card!

I'll have to cut some more out to use for some cards! ...and I got some really sharp crayons out of it!

I don't know, maybe I should try shaving it different or adding a thicker layer, maybe next time, it was kinda messy with the shavings all over! I am curious how everyone else's turned out. So please check out theirs off the Martha Mondays blog list.

So this is what Tucker was doing while I was crafting. Talk about a lazy dog!

Laying down while he's eating!

Well after all he is almost 14 years old. You know how old that is in dog years!

Hope you all have a great week!

Martha Mondays

Molasses Spice Cake

I posted my Martha Mondays results on my food blog The Tiny Skillet this week. I figure next weeks organization challenge, will be here. For those of you unfamiliar you can read about it on
Martha and Me . Hope you check them all out.

Martha Mondays - Roasted Chicken and Plums

This week we made Roasted Chicken with Plumbs for our
Martha Monday challenge. I roast chicken often so this was right up my ally.

The directions were to salt the chicken and place 2 rosemary sprigs inside the chicken tie the legs and put in 450 degree oven for 20 minutes the remove chicken from the oven and toss the plums around the chicken and finish roasting the chicken until done and let it rest for 10 minutes before carving.

Meanwhile you were supposed to bake the rest of the plums with honey and top with butter and rosemary in a separate pan. I'm not that big on cooked fruit with my meat. The plums were okay, but the chicken turned out great. I really liked the flavor that the plums brought out in it, and it was very moist. My daughter had surgery on her mouth today, so I cut it up in bite size pieces and she wanted rice with it, so I made my mom's rice pilaf which looks a lot better in person. I will post that recipe another time.

I actually did make this on Monday, it was a nice meal to make for after the first crazy day at school with the kids, or I should say parents.

I would make this again and bake it with the plumbs, (I always use rosemary, it's something that I can grow and have it in my front and backyard) and just not eat the plums, like I don't eat the rosemary. I would make a nice garnish as well.

Maybe I'll work on a nice plum crumble for a dessert! The projects that we do are very simple, and it's fun to see how everyone elses turns out. If you are interested please join in. No pressure just do what you want. Check it out!

Martha Mondays: Map Coasters

Welcome to Martha Mondays. If you aren’t familiar, this is an open project where every week, we’ll cook, craft or do a Martha project together and then post or comment about it. The Martha Mondays for this week was Map Coasters.


You need paper maps (and if you don’t have any you could print some online, or use any other decorated or patterned paper you have), cutting mat, round cork coasters, craft knife, foam paintbrush and ModPodge.

Okay so I had some cork coasters already and I know I have some ModPodge somewhere. I had moved my crafts drawers out to the garage. There are jet skis in front of it, I pushed them out of the way. Looked and looked, I know it's somewhere but couldn't find it. I did find my flexible cutting matt, and my cork coasters, and I always have my Exact-o knife handy (no problem there). So I grabbed my 40% off coupon and picked up some more ModPodge. I thought I'd get the matte version this time. I really didn't have to spend that much on this project.

I didn't have any good maps to cut up, but I always have decorative paper because I make a lot of cards and have stuff just in case I ever have the space and time to scrapbook.

I chose a nice summer print for my coasters, they'd look nice by the pool. I didn't trace the coaster because I can never stay on the line. So I cut around the cork coaster and it worked okay but it did flake off and had cork dust all around.

Adding the ModPodge was easy as long as you didn't touch anything (I got some on my camera). And I got some of the cork dust in it so I brushed it out. Had a cloth on hand to wipe my hands.

Slide the cut out circles on the cork and put a top coat of ModPodge and let it dry. It was a simple job, and it dried quicker that I thought it would in Florida humidity.

They are quick and easy and I think it would be a nice gift that you can really personalize. I would love to use kids drawings, or I bet fabric would work to make some nice coasters.

The most work was writing and posting about it. This week was busy getting ready at school for the kids to star on Monday and meet your teacher on Friday. Next week For the next Martha Mondays, let’s make Roasted Chicken and Plums, which is on page 162 of September Martha Stewart Living. Make sure you check out how everyone's coasters turned out. It's fun to see all the varieties, and what a good job they did.

Martha Mondays - Grilled vanilla peaches

This is my first Martha Monday ,
The first assignment was Grilled vanilla peaches. I was not sure how much photo documenting I should do, but I can adjust as the weeks go on. I'm sure my photos will improve too. Grilling was not a problem, because we usually grill on Sunday nights, since Wade is home and we can all eat together. My problem was it was dark by the time we got back from sunset on the beach (another favorite activity we do on Sundays)


So here it goes.


I was lucky to get some nice Georgia peaches, an advantage living in Florida. I cut the recipe in half (which I often do) because we only have three people in our family. I didn't peel them first, it seemed easier to halve them and the pit came out easy. I thought it would hold up better to the grilling.

I couldn't find my ground cinnamon I keep my spices in stainless steel tins, keeps the light out, but it makes it difficult to see whats in them. I thought I had ground some more when I used it up on my monkey bread. So I got my spice grinder out and after I ground some more, I located a an unmarked tin to put the cinnamon in and when I opened it, cinnamon was inside! At least I wasn't loosing my mind. I added some vanilla bean pulp I had left from when I made the ice cream. Topped with some new course sea salt that I won from The Meadows on twitter.



I did quarter mine because I thought they would grill up quickly and I like thing cinnamon-y. It gave the brown sugar and cinnamon more area to cover. Yum!



It was a delightful dessert! Wade liked it and Maranda ate the peaches separate from the ice cream.


I didn't use my ice cream in the photo, it didn't set up well enough for the picture. I had some today too with a cup of good coffee. It was good cold too.

I hope I gave enough info and I know my time will be cut considerably when I got back to work at school. Please feel free to leave a comment and ask any questions.

I didn't have the magazine so I couldn't see how they were suppose to look!

Talked into Martha Mondays (ok twist my arm)

Okay I wasn't really talked into it she just mentioned if I was going to do it. I think it sounds like fun and it's something I could do. Now the posting about it part is probably good for me to get used to all this writing!
I'm joining Robyn at Robyn's Nest and Belle from Muse in the Kitchen
in playing Martha Mondays:

Martha Mondays

Please join me! Martha Mondays is a group of bloggers, Martha fans, home cooks, crafters, and people who want to cook or craft more who have joined together to cook or craft the same Martha dish or project. To get things started, I’ll choose a Martha recipe or craft (which must be from a current issue of Living or Everyday Food, The Martha Stewart Show or available on her site) and post a link (or page number in the mag if it’s not up on her site yet — if you don’t have the recipe or instructions for that week, just email me and I’ll send them to you – posting them on the web is a violation of Martha’s copyright). Everyone will then make the the dish or craft on the next Monday and post photos, comments or blog it within the following week. The idea is we will all be doing one project together on the same day, so there will be a kind of solidarity in this – plus we’ll get to see how everyone’s dish or craft turned out.


It should be interesting, we'll see how it goes. I'm just getting used to Blogging! Sheesh!