Outrageous Chocolate Chip Cookies

   I don't know if this belongs in a crafty blog, but these cookies were so good I had to write about them in a post of their own. We made these following this recipe and I don't regret not changing anything from it. They have chocolate chips, peanut butter, oatmeal and brown sugar. They were made 2 days ago and they are still soft and delicious. If you think you should make this, stop thinking about it and go make yourself some yummy cookies.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Things About Me

   I've seen this little interview in a couple of blogs. It started as a profile interview on Craft. I decided to do it because I'm kind of new to blogging and I'd like all my readers to know more about me. I find very interesting to read about my favorite bloggers so I hope you find this interesting too. Here I go:

   My name is Yadira, I'm a 22 y/o lady from Puerto Rico. My first language is Spanish and it sometimes takes me a while to write a post because I'm actually thinking in Spanish, then translating to English. I have a Bachelors degree in Tourism that I just finished (I haven't even had my graduation yet). I decided to try to make a living from my crafts because I REALLY love to create things all the time. I know from experience that if I'm not creating I'm not a happy person. I've always been inclined toward arts but it was when I found crochet around 2 years ago that I started to be the crafty person that I am now. I know how to crochet, sew and I'm practicing my embroidery stitches, about knitting... I only know how to cast on. LOL

One Project You Are Particularly Proud Of:

That would have to be Lola, my first cloth doll. I made the pattern myself and after a few failed attempts I got her. I really like how she turned out and she has a special spot in my craft room.

Two Mistakes You've Made in the Past:
   * The worst and most embarrassing mistake I've ever made was 2 years ago. I was running and designing a tattoo magazine. I had a meeting with a few models and I wrote a text message to one of my friends talking about one of the models. I mistakenly sent it to the exact model I was talking about and it was horrible. She read the message and started to cry and her friend started to insult me. I'm very sorry and ashamed but I can't go back in time, so I'll have to live with that forever. :S
   * Wanting everything to be perfect before I even attempt to do it. Like when I'm designing a purse, I want it to be perfect without even making it. Or when making garments... Those garments I haven't made because I want to have EVERYTHING I need before I start.

Three Things That Make Your Work Unique:
   * Upcycling VHS Tape: I incorporate old VHS movies into my hair clips that would otherwise end up in the landfills.
   * Bright colors: I don't know if it's good or bad but I always try to incorporate bright colors in my creations.
   * Lots of pre-planning: A great amount of thinking goes into everything I make. I sometimes doodle in a notebook, think about what are the best materials to bring it to life, think about how useful the item would be. Many, MANY things happen in my mind before I create anything new.

Four Tools You Love to Use:
   * I love my camera, a Canon SD780 IS. Nothing fancy but it does the work if you treat it with love.
   * My printer, a Canon iP4700. I love it a lot since if you use it right you get to print BEAUTIFUL pictures and pretty much anything. I use it for my business cards and the stickers I use to seal packaging etc...
   * My sewing machine, a Brother CE-5500PRW. It has never failed me.
   * My crochet hooks.

**Via Electric Alice

Five Inspirations:
   *  My mom: She is always doing something new. Every time I visit her she has a different set of tools for the new craft she is attempting to teach herself. She always finds the way to use those crafts and incorporate them to her already long list of things tried.
   * Materials: I can have the worst crafter's block and I take out my ribbons, floss, cabochons, buttons or fabric and they tell me what to make.
   * Total strangers: Sometimes I am shopping in the mall or driving around and I see someone with a particular style/look and then I try to create accessories that would complement that style.
   * I hate to admit this, but Japanese street fashion inspires me a lot. I follow some blogs related to those styles and they end up showing in my creations even if I don't notice. ** ^ On top of this text: To the left a sweet lolita and to the right a girl wearing mori girl fashion.
   * Last but not least, the online crafty community: I follow MANY blogs and many Flickr users. These people have become my teachers and if I'm stuck with something I know who to ask or where to find the answer.They share their creations and even if I don't make anything that day I always have the satisfaction to see what my fellow crafters have made.

Free Embroidery Pattern!

   For the last few weeks I've been thinking about including embroidery patterns in my shop, along with the massive update I have in mind for the upcoming weeks. You might remember my 2nd Embroidery Post. Well, after receiving such nice feedback I decided I'd give it a try and started to digitize the drawing I used. I loved the results and I want to share it with all my readers for free. I called it Spring Scene because I think it's the best fitting name for this image. Consider it a thanks for reading all my ramblings and being so kind to me in the comments and through e-mail.

   What you see here is the PDF file embedded into the post for your convenience and ease of access. You can print directly or download and print through Adobe Reader. This may not be visible on mobile devices. Use your favorite transfer method and start embroidering right away. :D The image measures about 4" tall if you print it actual size. If you use it, PLEASE share the pictures. I'd love to see what you make.

*Remember the pattern is for personal use only. ;)

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In other news...

   I've kept on making more stuff for my shop. I wanted to show you this since I'm so proud of how it turned out. Isn't it pretty?

A Yummy Post

It all started with the ice cream headbands that I made last week.

   I've been feeling inspired to make more things and these days I indulged. I made more headbands and started to prepare for a HUGE update I want to make to my shop. I have been saving many cool ideas for quite long and this time I have a good feeling.

   These are basically my trademark: Upcycled VHS Tape Flowers. I wanted to share a little bit about this, since yesterday Sara from The Split Stitch wrote a post about Eco-Crafting with which I felt identified. She left an open question on the end of her post: "What about you, what are the ways you try and be an eco-crafter?" Sara, if you read this, this is one of the ways I try to be an eco-crafter.

   Then, the other day Mollie from Wild Olive wrote about her new idea of tagging twitter updates with the color you are feeling like in embroidery floss colors! Then she came up with this cool idea about weaving embroidery floss on chain to be able to wear the color she is feeling like. I loved the idea! it inspired me to create this super sparkling bracelet. The picture doesn't make this one justice. Mollie, if you read this, the floss color is DMC E718. I knitted the floss into a cord and then weaved and wrapped chain around it.

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In other news...

   Today we had a SUPER CUTE adventure. My inner child had been wanting to visit Sanrio for a while now. Sadly, we had to postpone it for a couple of weeks, but today there was no way to stop me. Erm...wait!, do you know about Sanrio? Let my 8 y/o self refresh your memory.

   Yes, it is the shop that sells all kind of Hello Kitty items. Yes, I bought all the items in the pictures :D. My closest friends know about how alive my inner child is so they will not be surprised when they come to my house and find a Hello Kitty wall clock on my craft room wall. When I entered in the shop I traveled automatically to 1996 and spent a wonderful time.

   Lastly, thanks to my friend Miss Lou from Elousions who posted about a meet-up she had with a fellow blogger. We knew that it was worth to visit Little Cupcake Shop (a few steps away from Sanrio). We bought these 4 little fellas. The flavors clockwise: Nutella, Dulce de Leche, Not So Red Velvet Cake and Tres Leches. They were YUMMY!!!

Inspired to Create

   Several weeks ago I blogged about the Other Things I Do. Besides sewing and more recently embroidery, I also crochet and I used to crochet A LOT. I used to live off the local sales of my accessories so I was crocheting day and night and on weekends I'd be buying more materials or searching for new trends. I did this for about a year non-stop so I started to feel like I was abusing my mojo and things wouldn't go so easily. I got to the point where I had my materials and tools in front of me and wouldn't know what to do with them, seriously. But don't get me wrong, I loved it, its just that I wasn't able anymore to create with love. So I decided to take a break and its been a few months since I stopped making crochet accessories for sale. I even have an Etsy shop that hadn't been active for months and last night something happened: a sale!. I was shocked at first and then I was scared that I wouldn't be able to deliver as I used to. I started right away to make the item that sold and got inspired to make 2 more. How cool is that?

    I'm so happy with the results :D. I would make more today but I SERIOUSLY need to go buy more materials. I think its time to start selling my creations again and I'll probably be listing these in the shop pretty soon. Stay tuned!

Pretty Glass Jars

   These past weeks I've been gathering glass jars to use in my craft room. I considered buying mason jars but then I thought about it and realized that MANY of the things I buy in the grocery store come in useful glass jars. I've gathered four until now, but there are more waiting to be cleaned. Being the crafter that I am I knew I wanted to make them cuter and I wanted them to look like a set so I spray painted all the lids with purple paint. Here is the result:

   I've seen many craft rooms with cute little jars full with colorful things. I have yet to decide what I'm going to put in mine but I think I'll use a few as banks and make cute labels to organize my savings. A little bit inspired by Dainty Squid's.

2nd Embroidery

   When I got home with my new supplies I knew I wanted to do something right away. I started searching for reference on flowers and nature. I wanted to do something simple but cute so I decided I wanted a flower and a butterfly. This is what I came up with.

   I drew this on white linen, then I selected a few floss colors, some were DMC and some were Prism. Then I proceeded to embroider in a organic way, I just let the lines of the drawing tell me what stitches should be used.

   This is how it turned out after I damped the fabric to take off the water erasable pen. I loved doing this a lot so get ready to see more embroidery in this blog. The outer fabric is tucked below the hoop that's why you can see shadows on the fabric.

   A close-up of the most interesting area of the embroidery.

New Supplies!

   I've been thinking a lot on my first embroidery try; I loved it. I wanted to share with you the new supplies I got to keep the flame burning.

   I got new hoops in different sizes, some DMC floss in new colors and plastic bobbins to wind floss. I also got double sided iron-on interfacing as the girl behind Design Crafty suggested in my last post so I can incorporate some embroidery appliques in my purses. The basket is now home to my fabric scraps and the measure tape was bought because it is 120 inches. How cool is that?

1st Embroidery

   The other day I was browsing around Pinterest and found a link to this AWESOME blog, which is really a huge tutorial on embroidery. It was the kick I needed to finally start giving some baby steps on my embroidery adventure. So after many hours that went by too fast, sore fingers, a scrap of floral fabric and many yards of floss:

   This was done in a 6" hoop. I cut a piece of fabric, framed it in the hoop and started reading the blog trying to find stitches that would suit the shapes of the flowers. I tried to use as many stitches that would look good together so I could practice.

   There you can see some of the detail. How do you think I did? What do you think I should fix/improve? Don't be shy, I really want to know. :D

   That would be the fabric that I used for the embroidery, I wanted to use printed fabric because I wanted to have a pattern to follow until I learn to draw my own patterns. It is upholstery fabric that I found in my local fabric shop. I love the large scale print and the flowers. I thought it would be the perfect fabric for my first embroidery.

I'm really happy I tried it, now I'm in love.

A Sneak Peek

   Just a quick note to let you know I'm back on track with my sewing projects. The first thing I finished is part of something I promised to a friend. I'll show you full pictures when I finish the set.

Flickr Favorites

1. honestly... 2. Hippy Spirit 3. Welcome to my village! 4. pretty petal clutch - Explored 5. Flower Garden Cross-Body Bag 6. Chegou!!!!!! Organizador de Bolsa Selma Behrens ! Uma preciosidade 7. Colette Patterns Violet in Black Gingham 8. Scrappy Stack Mug Rug 9. Let Them Eat Cake - for Jenny

Fantastic Food + Fabric

   Lately, I've had some delicious food, so delicious that I felt the need of sharing the pictures of what I ate this week. I'll start with the 1st food of which I have photo. That would be the oatmeal pancakes with banana and strawberry marmalade topping that my partner cooked for me as breakfast.

   They were so good that I asked for them the next morning too. On Wednesday we were craving sushi so we went to a Japanese restaurant that some people recommended. They said that they were kind of sweet and that the portions were big. We were like, Why not?

   So we ordered 3 rolls, this was the first. It was Surf -n- Turf, which had shrimp tempura, cream cheese and avocado topped with filet mignon.

   This was the second and the most delicious roll I've ever tasted. The Midori Roll, which had shrimp tempura, cream cheese and avocado topped with king crab, seaweed and a delicious Midori sauce.

   And last but not least, this was the 3rd. This was a Crazy Roll, it had shrimp and cream cheese, (believe it or not I just realized that all of this day's rolls had shrimp and cream cheese) it was covered in tempura and deep fried, this process made the nori (the seaweed that wraps the roll) very tasty and crunchy. The topping sauces are sweetened soy and spicy mayo.

   Then today we wanted to have a delicious dessert, so we made these brownie cups with different fillings like, nutella, peanut butter and marshmallow. We found the recipe here a few days ago and thought it was a super delicious idea that we had to try ourselves. Ours turned out different mainly because we didn't want to put chips on them. Let me tell you that they were DELICIOUS, my favorites were the ones with marshmallow. The only issue we had is that our batter turned out to be more than enough for making 48 cups, and now we don't know what to do with the rest of them. I guess that my partner is going to have to give them away at work.

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   Last week I bought these fabrics, the purple one is gauze and the turquoise is linen. I bought them mainly because they were at a really good price and because I really want to add a different color to my blouse when I make it. These are the 2 options I have. What do you think?

*This blog post is part of the Weekend Bloggy Reading Party at Serenity Now.