My sisters, brother, and I used to make soft pretzels when we were younger. We had lots of fun making different shapes and our initials. My mom made the dough until we were old enough to do it ourselves, but I remember it being an easy process and kept us busy with the creating, baking, and enjoying the warm pretzels at the end. It’d probably been over ten years since I had made soft pretzels.

Then I found this website Waffleizer a few weeks ago, and Matt was determined that we needed to “waffle” something. I picked the soft pretzels. They looked so toasty and warm – perfect for these snowy days. The recipe came together very easily (love the dough hook on the mixer). We ended up baking them briefly in the oven after the waffle part to finish the baking and get rid of any residual moisture.

We also made some as rolls for fantastic egg salad sandwiches.

These were so good that we made them again the following week and ended up needing a new waffle iron after they were done (the old one was flaking its nonstick coating). The next time we made them we baked them only, but the waffling really adds a great texture and crunch. Once the new waffle iron arrives we’ll be making more I am sure!

I posted the first baby quilt I made for Sadie a few months ago here. Following the theme, I made 2 more: one for baby button and one for baby Eli – both due in late March.

Since the babies are practically twins by due date (although not  by parents), I made them pretty similar. Eli is a boy and deserved a fun blue blanket:

Buttton is unknown, so he or she got a fun green quilt. Some of the fabrics have been used before and some are from his or her Grandma:

Button’s is backed with Green fleece and Eli’s is backed with white minky fabric. They are not filled with anything to make them thicker since I think most kids like a light blankie to drag around – at least my kids do!

I can’t wait to hold those babies!

I had a plan to make something fun for Katie’s room for a while now. I finally found time yesterday while Katie napped and Ethan painted his own paintings of Curious George. Can you guess what it is:

How about now?

How about this one?

Or:

Did you guess it? It’s a….

whale! Isn’t she cute? To give you some perspective on the size of it, here it is in her room:

I think she is happy with it.

Did you see the awesome kitchen that Carrie refurbished for Ethan? How cool is that! Carrie told me about her project and mentioned wanting to get him some food for his kitchen, so I set out to make him some felt foods. Perfect crafts for watching movies and relaxing in the evening.

I started with these fun sprinkle donuts from Carrie’s 2010 Sewing project calendar (pattern also available here), which is an awesome set of daily sewing projects.

I also found a lot of patterns online for felt foods, so I made a mix of things.  I was just blown away by the awesome crafters who share their patterns online! These felt orange slices followed this pattern. I made the blue woven place mat out of strips of blue felt in my stash using some fusible interfacing to set them and added a simple fabric background.

Sandwich (lettuce, tomato, cheese, veggie bologna OR the classic PB&J) and chips from here. These took the longest to make, but I was happy how they came out.

And a shot at the inside goodies (you can see even more pictures on Flickr).

And of course some potato chips (or the healthier banana chip)…

I found so many fun patterns online but ran out of time. Here are some patterns I had wanted to try, but didn’t have time for:

Pumpkin pie, grapes, broccoli and cauliflower

Cake stand and chocolate box

Lollipops

Pancakes! (they even look yummy)

Now I need a visit to Ethan’s kitchen!

I love to cook. (Surprised?) I love to bake. I love to encourage others to cook and bake. So with the help of my Mom (thanks, mom!), I made my newlywed cousin an apron with a pocket filled with recipes for Christmas!

She’s young so I wanted to keep it hip. I wanted her to feel young and crazy as she tried new recipes for her and her hubby. I hope she gets a lot of use out it!

This is not my cousin, but a sweet friend, Alex, who willingly tried it on for pictures! Thanks, Alex!

Have any fun recipes you’d pass along to a newlywed? Post them in the comments!