high altitude sugar cookies

I've made this recipe before, and I love it because it's the first sugar cookie recipe I've found that was already adjusted for high altitude, which is a must for someone living in Utah.

I searched for a long time for this recipe because every other sugar cookie recipe I'd tried came out like puddles of mush.  They didn't hold their shape when I used cookie cutters, and I couldn't figure out how to make them right.

I tried adjusting by putting more flour in, but then they tasted like . . . well, flour.  They held their shape, but weren't any good to eat.

I did a google search for high altitude recipes, and I wish I could remember where I got this one, but I found it after trying several.  (If this is your recipe, please let me know so I can give you credit!)

**Edited: I found the blog with the recipe I used.  Check out High Altitude Cooking!!

I wanted something simple to share for my first "real" post on my new blog, and I'm thinking this might be a bad omen, but in the interest of full disclosure, I'm posting it anyway.

First, I'll share the recipe, and hopefully, you'll make it, it'll come out beautifully, and then I'll share what happened:

High Altitude Simple Sugar Cookies


1 cup butter (softened)
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1-1/2 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
1-1/4 tsp baking powder


Directions:
1.  Cream together butter and sugar until smooth.
2.  Mix in egg and vanilla.
3.  In a separate bowl, combine flour and baking powder.
4.  Add flour mixture to wet ingredients in intervals, mixing between.
5.  Divide dough into 4 parts and refridgerate for 1 hour.
6.  Roll out dough between two pieces of wax paper to 1/4-1/2 inch thickness.
7.  Cut shapes and arrange onto a cookie sheet.
8.  Bake for 7-8 minutes at 375 degrees.

or

6.  Spoon 1 inch balls onto a cookie sheet.
7.  Bake for 7-8 minutes at 375 degrees.



Done baking?

Okay, read on . . .

I started this recipe at night, and by the time the 1 hour refrigeration was done, I was too tired to bake them, so I just left them in the fridge until morning. 

The next morning, I decided to make round sugar cookies, so I spooned balls onto a cookie sheet and baked them.

What you are looking at are the baked cookies--not the unbaked cookies!

They didn't flatten out!!  (Picture me with my brow furrowed and my head cocked to one side.)

I still can't figure out why.  Anybody? 

Too long in the fridge?

On the plus side, they were slightly doughy inside, which is how my husband likes them anyway.

And the troublemakers enjoyed them:

Including the smallest troublemaker!

Aren't kids wonderful?!  My five-year-old actually told me they were delicious!

welcome!

Welcome to my new blog!  I'm very excited and feel like I'm starting a new adventure!

Take a look around.  Most of the content on here now was written and published while I was a part of Sew Saucy.  If you like what you see, take a button and/or become a follower!

I have lots of plans for the future.  October is going to be big with baking, crafts, and costumes I've sewn in the past, as well as this years' four new costumes for my four little troublemakers.

Don't forget to check back tomorrow for a recipe disaster . . . I had the best of intentions for making a good first impression, but it just didn't work out that way!  *sigh*

baby quilt gift

My husband needed a gift for a co-worker whose wife is about to have their first baby - a girl.

So, I made up my own simple design for this quilt top.  It didn't quite come out as I envisioned it (sigh.)  But, I like it nonetheless.  I should have used a third color for either the big squares, or the small pink squares.  Oh, well.  Live and learn, I guess.

I love how the black backing and the black blanket binding really made the top "pop!"

One of my other favorite features are the little buttons underneath some of the ties.  I think they're cute.

mama's skirt (mccall's 5631)

I have been talking about the things I'm making for a care package to be sent to Texas for the arrival of my best friend's final baby.  The big sisters are getting paper-sewn notebooks with crayon rolls, the baby will be getting the rag tag baby quilt, and now for mom . . .

I believe every woman who has a baby needs something cute to wear.  Not necessarily home from the hospital, but when she gets back to her old shape (or close, anyway.)  My cute friend usually takes a mere six weeks to get back into her old jeans,--yes, you may all puke now--so by the time she's ready to take her baby out amongst people, she should look snazzy in this little number!

The final gift is for dad, and will not be sewn. (I know, you're disappointed.)  Dad is going to get a cd of lively music to keep him awake during the morning commute after the new baby has kept him up all night.

With three weeks until the due date, all these surprises will be sent off tomorrow . . . not a moment too soon!

delay

More sewing is coming, I promise.  I  was getting my into a sewing groove when I had a bit of a delay while I dealt with this:

Ah, the joys of motherhood . . .

At least she's sorry.

noodlehead gathered clutch

Anna at Noodlehead has an adorable gathered clutch that I've been wanting to make.  I love all of it . . . except for the part where you take the cute gathers you've created and mash them down and iron them, making them look like they've been sitting in the dryer too long.

I made the clutch, but I took a few liberties.  When it came to the part about ironing the gathers in place, and adding interfacing to the back, I ran a gathering stitch along the top and bottom of my gathered fabric, gathered it, and sewed it onto an additional piece of fabric with the interfacing attached to it.  That way, I could leave my gathers a little more puffy looking, which I love.

(I used leftover fabric from Rora's skirt, and scraps from a new project I just cut out.)

I think it's so adorable, and it has a card holder inside, which is nice so that I don't have to take my entire wallet with me, either. 

I'm curious . . . what do you think about the changes?  Do you like it better with the flat gathers, or the puffy ones?

planned spontaneity

Sometimes I dream of creating my own patterns; being spontaneous; taking scissors, fabric, and my sewing machine, and just creating; doing what just seems to come natural to Sarah.  I'll even say it right out loud . . . I'm jealous.  I was absolutely baffled that just months after learning to sew, Sarah had created her own little sundress.

I'm a planner.  I can't do much of anything without planning both a primary plan and a back-up plan.  I try to be easy-going and go with the flow, but only so long as it fits within my planned parameters.  I use patterns because they make me feel safe--as long as I measure, cut, and sew exactly, I can't mess it up (reads fail.)  Yes, I have issues, but we can talk about that later.

So, I planned to be more like Sarah . . .

I wanted to make a skirt for Rora.  I wanted it to have a flat top, a bubble hem, and maybe a gather somewhere in between.  I wanted buttons down the side and cute, flowing fabric.

I made a pattern: there were drawings, measurements, and more drawings.  (I guess I'm not all that good at spontaneity!)

Whether it was over-planned or not, I feel like it came out okay.  There are still things I want to do to tweak my pattern, but I'll probably use it again.

I feel proud of myself.  I stretched outside my comfort zone of using a pattern that someone else has perfected.  I feel like I just created my very first pattern!!

Just wait . . . this has created a monster.  There are more plans for spontaneity in the future!

paper sewing

A women's organization that I belong to gave me a notebook at the beginning of the year.  It was a simple, college ruled notebook.  They instructed me to make it my own.  So, I did.  I covered it in cute paper, embellished it with my graveyard of scrapbooking stuff that I haven't used since I started using digital scrapbooking, and made it cute.  One of the "design elements" I used was to sew big, chunky stitches through the edge of the front cover to represent my love affair with sewing.

Unfortunately, I made the notebook a little too much my own, because just like everything else in my 4-child household, eventually it fell apart.  The flowers fell off, the glue didn't hold, and the cute paper began to peel . . . everywhere except where I had sewn through it!

And that inspired this little project:

My best friend is having her 5th and final child in a little over a month.  She lives in Texas, and I wanted to send her family a package with something for each member of the family to have when the new baby arrives.  I decided to capitalize on the Back to School sales and pick up notebooks and crayons.  The crayons will be housed in crayon rolls. 

For the notebooks, I traced around them onto fun scrapbook paper, glued it on, marked where I wanted the holes, and then sewed around the edges with thick thread/thin yarn.   It was a simple and fun little craft for the new baby's four older sisters!!

Stay tuned to find out what makes it into the package for Mom and Dad!!

rag tag done right

Remember when I posted the tutorial for a rag tag baby blanket, and it had been . . . well, a learning experience for me?

Well, I made another for my best friends' final baby, and this time it turned out awesome!!

Would I be silly if I wanted one for my queen-sized bed?

crayon roll

About a week ago, my family and I were invited to a birthday party for a little boy who used to live in our area. Normally, we would not have driven the hour and a half for a 4-year-old's party with his extended family, but we happened to be on our way out of town and travelling through there anyway, so we went.

What kind of gift do you get/make for someone like this? You can't show up empty-handed, but don't want to break the bank for an inappropriately expensive gift. Let me introduce you to the crayon roll . . .



Ta-da!!  These things are easy to make, inexpensive, and cute, cute, cute!  It's a compact, soft carrying case for a 16-pack of crayons.  Each crayon has its own little home, and it's easy to keep in a diaper bag or purse.

I found the Crayon Roll tutorial for this at Skip to my Lou.  I made a few changes:  first, I didn't do the ric-rac around the outside; and second, I used elastic chord and a button to close mine, rather than ribbon.

Then, just like everything I find that is quick and easy, I went overboard and made one for each of my children, and a few extras just to have around in case we need a simple, cheap gift again in the future.

Couple this with a notebook, and you have a sweet little gift for the older sibling of a newborn, for a preschool/kindergarten graduation, or for an impromptu birthday invitation.

oversized bib tutorial

This project comes from another baby gift that was given to us when my first son was born. A guy I worked with brought us some adorable bibs made from kitchen towels. I loved them because they were big, catching everything that fell from my baby's mouth.

3 kids later, I needed to make some more, so I thought I'd put up a tutorial so that anyone interested could make them.

For this project, you will need (this will make 6 bibs:)

6 kitchen towels,

1 pkg extra-wide, double fold bias tape (there are two pictured, but I only needed one,)

6 buttons

1/3-1/2 yd stretch knit ribbing

thread

Open up your towel and measure the width to find the center. (Luckily, mine happened to be on a stripe.)


Cut up the center of the towel 6 inches. (This will be the back of the bib, so you may want to cut the end of the towel with the tag.)


Find something round in your house to use for the neck opening, and trace it, beginning at the top of your 6" cut. It should measure roughly 12 inches around.



Cut around the circle you just traced.


Measure the circumfrence of the item you used to make the hole. Mine was 12 1/2 inches.


Cut your ribbing 1/2 inch shorter than your circle circumfrence, and 3 inches tall. (Make sure the ribbing stretches in the fat direction, not the short direction.)


Measure and cut your bias tape in 7 inch pieces. You will need 2 for each bib, or 12 total.


Now that all the cutting is done, it's time to start assembling.

Fold your ribbing in half lengthwise and pin.


Sew the two short edges closed.


Trim the corner near the fold.


Flip the ribbing inside out and iron, making sure to match up the raw edges.


Stretch the neck hole on the towel so that it's straight and pin the ribbing to the front. Match the ends, and make sure that all your raw edges are together.



Sew the ribbing in place with a 1/2" seam allowance, stretching where you need to make the ribbing fit.


If you have a serger, serge the unfinished edge. If you do not have a serger, zig zag stitch the edge.


Next, open up one piece of bias tape and fold the end down 1/4-1/2 inch, which will create a nice finished edge. Fold the bias tape around the raw slit in the back of the bib, starting at the seam between the ribbing and the towel. Pin it in place.


Do the same for the bottom of the piece of bias tape. Also pin where you feel necessary between the top and bottom.


Sew down the bias tape, making sure your seam is toward the towel, not the ribbing.


Do the other side the same way. When you're finished, it should look like this:


All you have left is a button hole and a button.



Now the bib is finished and can be buttoned behind the child's neck.


Now, go ahead and do the other 5 bibs!!


This bib is really versatile and works for an infant learning to eat solids . . .


We also like to use it for our two-year-old to keep messy dinners from falling into her lap!Happy Sewing!!