Breakfast Applesauce Oatmeal Apricot Cookies

Rather than buying breakfast bars, I like to make breakfast cookies. I'll admit its been a few years, but I dusted off my recipe to make again. These are so yummy!
I invented them way back when my middle daughter was a baby, not for her, for me. She was allergic to milk protein, this meant I was on a no cows milk diet too. I was amazed at all the things that had milk protein in them, so I made a breakfast cookie with no butter.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

The end of an era...

Was it six or seven years ago? Its been so long that I can't even remember. I found you on the clearance shelf in September. I couldn't believe it. Marked down to .25, I grabbed three of you, that was all that was left. I was so gleeful when I showed you to my family and they just rolled their eyes.
We had just started homeschooling and while they had been patient in waiting to shop for school supplies, they where still more interested in binders, folders, and notebooks. Cute and trendy, but there wasn't much left to choose from. You were not high on the list of things my girls got excited about.
Then we got home and started our craft projects and suddenly everyone wanted to use you and only you. What had been three turned into one, that was lost and found horded in one child's room then another. I carried you in my purse for a while, my craft bag, to my co-op classes. As the years went by arguments started over who you belonged too.
For such a simple thing, you had a huge impact on all of our projects. Always bringing a smile to our faces and the faces of our friends. You never let us down, always up to what ever challenge we put you to. Other's came and went through our house and still you where the first pair we searched for.
Then it happened. My daughter went to use you and you snapped in half. She didn't do anything wrong. Nothing different, your plastic parts had finally given out.
We will miss you. I'm not sure you will ever truly be replaced, but I will remember you every time I see something that needed you to make it complete. Every time I reach for you and have to make due. Farewell my faithful pair of owl scissors.

Are you Creative?

I'm a creative person, I don't usually think about this anymore, its just part of life. Unless someone else brings it up. Usually its a friend who will say something about not being creative themselves. This has been happening recently and it got me thinking.
How do the measure what makes a person creative?
Apparently lots of people wonder about this, check out what happened when I typed it into Google.

There are tests to measure your creativity, there are people who compare creative versus logical aspects of a person's personality, the list goes on.  Sadly, the majority of people I know who look at my projects and longingly wish they could create something, were once told that they weren't creative enough. On the opposite side of those, those who are very creative were encouraged to think outside of the box
I just want to encourage those who think they aren't creative. In my mind the true difference between a creative person and everyone who wishes they where creative, is the willingness to try and fail, then keep trying.

I like to learn something new everyday. Sometimes all I manage is knowledge, but I get excited when I TRY something new. That counts as learning too, only much more fun. So next time you think "I wish I could do that" think instead "I wonder what skills I would need to do that?" then try it!

My favorite sites for leaning new skills.
BluPrint
Pinterest
Youtube

Making the Most of My Scrap Felt

I have been making felt dolls and finger puppets for the last few months and I ended up with this bag of felt that I didn't want to toss.
"What's your deal, just toss 'em" is probably going through your mind at this point. Well, if it was your typical craft store felt I would agree and just toss it. This is something different, this is NICE felt. 100% wool felt from Felt on the Fly. I even added a bag of scraps to my order. I know I bought scraps. EEK.

So what am I going to do with those scraps. Well I challenged myself and I made a whole finger puppet with just scraps. First here is an example of the fairies I was making before.

Notice I was using some of my scraps. This piece of green in her hair was trimmed off of a scrap. At this rate I was going to buried under a pile of scraps! 

So I challenged myself to use bigger pieces of scraps, and got these cuties. I used scraps for the dress's and the wings:

Then I took it a step further and used scraps for every part of the finger puppet. This is Maeve Fairy. I think she turned out super cute.

If you want to do something similar, their are tons of patters for finger puppets on Pinterest (linked to my felt board) and Etsy (I just searched felt finger puppet fairy pattern), just pick a shape you like and fill it in. Please note, I did not use anyone else's pattern. The hardest part may be the flesh tones, but who says a fairy has to be peachy cream colored? Have fun and share your creations in the comments!