Hi again!

   This is just an update letting you know that I'm not dead (not that I'd expect you'd think that, seeing as it's only been about a week since I last updated, but you know...) and hoping that you had a great Christmas/holiday season!
   I sometimes wonder who I'm writing to when I update here, because my little page hit counter says that on an average day, this blog only gets 3-5 hits. Anyway, if you're reading this, I appreciate your taking the time to humor me.
   For the past few years, my dad has set up an ice skating rink in the yard, because it's not winter without ice skating, is it? Granted, my sister and I figure skate two to three times a week all year, but that's beside the point. The past few winters have been slightly depressing because we've hardly gotten any snow. I mean, it's New England, aren't we supposed to have several feet of it? Actually, it was snowing as I began typing this, but it seems to have gone away now (shows you how slow of a typist I am!). Right now, we're just waiting for the cold snap that's supposed to happen around New Year's so that we can fill up the rink and start skating!
   Speaking of skating (I could talk about that a lot, but I'll keep it brief), I'm in a skating show tomorrow night at our local rink, and I might show you pictures or videos of it, if you want. You've probably noticed how I only have a few pictures on here, and none of me. That's because I don't want an internet stalker. :)

Thanks for taking the time to read this! I might post some pictures of my new Sherlock collages later today or tomorrow if I finish them. See you soon!

~Sara

More Christmas Cookies!

Today, I made my mom's famous Snowball Cookies! They're relatively simple and don't require many ingredients. Let's get started!

This recipe makes about 20 little snowballs.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
3 tablespoons (1/4 cup) powdered sugar
1 cup sifted flour
1 cup finely chopped pecans
about 1 cup powdered sugar for rolling

Instructions:
Cream the butter and the 3 tablespoons of sugar in a medium-sized bowl until fluffy. Stir in the flour gradually, then the pecans until well-blended.

Chill for several hours.

Roll the dough, a teaspoon at a time, into marble-sized balls. Place them on a greased cookie sheet, about 2 inches apart.

Bake at 325 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until slightly golden.

Cool on the cookie sheet for about five minutes; remove carefully. Roll the cookies in the powdered sugar to make a generous white coating. Cool completely on wire racks.

To store them, cover in waxed paper or plastic wrap in a container.

I hope you enjoyed! Merry almost Christmas!

xoxo
~Sara

BBC Sherlock Collage

A few weeks ago, I had nothing to do over the weekend, so I decided to do something that usually leaves me frustrated and sticky. Yes, I'm talking about collaging.

If you know me in person, you know full well that I have a slight obsession with the BBC show Sherlock. I decided to pay homage to the series by making art for my shrine room.

So I set out on my journey with little more than a few magazines (the kind that companies send to you around the holidays with colorful, glossy ads), a glue stick, and a pencil and paper. And in the end, I was really proud of my creation!

For this project (if you choose to accept it) you will need:
~Several magazines with lots of colorful pages
~Glue (I used a glue stick but I usually prefer using watered-down Elmer's)
~A light pencil sketch. If you cannot draw proportionally for your life, you can always trace an image from the computer
~Scissors, both for cutting up the magazines and for snipping off the edges once you're done
~Glossy sealant - I used watered-down ModPodge

Instructions:

1. Choose some magazine pages that you like and cut them into roughly 1/2 inch squares. You can cut them to the exact size you need once you figure out where you're going to put each one.

2. Start gluing the background down. It takes forever and is very tedious but if you work on it diligently, it'll look great!

Above is my beginning photo. If you look carefully, you can see the outline of what will soon be John's head.

At this point, I realized that John had begun to look like Moriarty, which was a bit not good. If you don't like some of the little details, you can fix them when you start to do the foreground.

...And ta-da! The background is finished!

3. Now, you can start on the foreground. Personally, I can't do miniscule details, so I decided to just go ahead and make silhouettes.

So that's Sherlock's head finished... 

...And they're finished! Well, almost. 

You can sort of see that I rounded out John's nose again so he looked Johnish again.

I'm sorry about the picture quality, I took them with my iPad because I had misplaced my camera.

4. Now, at this point, I was just relieved to be able to wash my hands, because they had been covered in glue for the past hour at least. Let this dry for NO LESS than a few hours, I left it alone for a few days because school and midterms and homework got in the way.

5. Now, if you want to be done, you can be! However, the glue I used (Elmer's Repositionable Glue Stick) wanted to be evil and still be sticky even after it had been drying for a few days. My friend (she's ridiculously good at art) recommended that I use watered-down ModPodge, so I did. That stuff is fantastic. Seriously. It is now all shiny and smooth and looks great!

Thanks so much for reading this tutorial and I hope you enjoyed it!

~Sara

P.S. If you caught the two Sherlock references in this post, I award you twenty brownie points :)

Easy, No-Bake Peanut Butter Squares!

Today, I made my grandma's famous Peanut Butter Squares. They're really delicious for any time of year, but especially for the holidays! They only need five ingredients, which is great, and they're super easy. Also, they don't require an oven, and anyone can make them!

So Here's What You'll Need:

~1 cup of butter, melted
~16 ounces powdered/icing sugar
~1 cup of peanut butter (smooth works best)
~1 cup of crushed graham crackers
~12 ounces chocolate chips, semi-sweet or dark

Instructions:

Mix the butter, sugar, peanut butter, and graham cracker crumbs together in a large bowl with a wooden spoon. It should end up a little thicker than cookie dough, and it will be relatively hard to mix.

Put the dough in a large glass pan (9x13 or similar) and flatten it down with a spatula until it's about an inch thick.

Melt the chocolate chips in either a double boiler or the microwave. I usually temper the chocolate, but it really doesn't matter much either way. Pour the melted chocolate over the dough in the pan and spread it out evenly.

Put the pan in the refrigerator for about 10-15 minutes. Once the chocolate on top has started to lose its sheen and the middle is still slightly glossy, take a sharp knife and cut one-inch squares, just like you would cut brownies. Depending on the temperature of the chocolate when you scored it, you might end up with little waves of sorts, because the chocolate wasn't solid.

If you do get those little lines, put the pan back in the fridge for 5-10 minutes and cut in the opposite direction to re-score the lines. This will just make it easier to take them out when they're done.

Once the chocolate is completely hardened, feel free to enjoy them! They're really delicious, even if they're not quite health food. :)
Enjoy!

~Sara

Welcome!

Hello!
Welcome to my shiny, brand-new blog! Basically, this is just an online journal where I share my thought and ideas. I especially like baking, art, writing, and creative things, so that's hopefully what my blog will be about! Stay tuned for more updates and I hope you like it!
~Sara