Baby Gift Set

My go-to gift for last minute showers or when I’m in a time crunch for a friend’s new baby: onesie and matching burp rags.

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Whip up Something New: March, Vegan Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Make them today. They are amazing.

Makes 3-4 pans mini muffins or 2 pans of regular muffins

Ingredients:

• 6 ripe bananas
• ½ cup oil
• 1 cup unrefined white sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 cups unbleached white flour
• 2 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 2 Tbsp. cinnamon
• 2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1 tsp. ginger
• ½ cup soy milk (or other non-dairy milk)
• 2 cups vegan chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Cream oil and sugars together
2. Incorporate mashed bananas into wet mixture
3. In a separate bowl combine and mix dry ingredients
4. Add to banana/sugar/oil mixture, alternating with the soy milk
5. Add chocolate chips (optional) and mix until incorporated
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-16 minutes (mini muffins) or 20-25 minutes (regular muffin size)

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Plum Street Prints: Shop Opening!

Our print shop opens today! Check us out: http://www.etsy.com/shop/PlumStreetPrints

And if you spread the word about Plum Street Prints, we’ll give you half off your first order! That means you’ll get your first print for $5 if you create a blog post, Facebook post, or mass email—anything that supports our business to a large number of people and links to our shop. Comment on this, email me, or Facebook me if you post about us and I’ll send you a half off code.

And if you have a business site that you’re willing to promote us on, we will likely be happy to promote you on our site as well, once our blog is up and running.

Go tell your family and friends! Thanks for your help!

Shannon (and Lori)

http://www.etsy.com/shop/PlumStreetPrints

http://facebook.com/pages/Plum-Street-Prints/149950705061554

Here are some of our prints—all patterns are original as well as the prints of course.

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Repurposed: Valentine Roses

As the stems started to whither and a couple of my roses started falling apart, I tried to find a way to keep them longer. I kept the best ones, trimmed them, and placed them in a little bowl on my counter. I want these to last as long as they can. I just love roses.

In college I took a floral design class--definitely the most fun I've ever had in a college class. We'd do new arrangements every week! Sure miss having all those amazing flower selections to work with. My little bowl will do for me now :)

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Whip Up Something New: February

This month I decided to make calzones for the Whip Up Something New challenge. Every weekend, either Friday or Saturday night, depending on our schedule, I make homemade pizza but I was getting a bit sick of it so I thought this would be a simple twist.

I usually switch off between KitchenAid’s pizza dough recipe and Ina Garten’s recipe, depending on how much I want to make and/or freeze for later. This past week I did the KitchenAid recipe. Here it is:

1 (1/4 ounce) package active dry yeast

1 cup warm water

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons olive oil

2 1/2-3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

I also add about a tablespoon of agave nectar because I’ve heard that sugars activate yeast better. I do this in my breads also and it works really well. Plus, who doesn’t love sugar in their bread?

After making the dough and letting it rise, I rolled it out. Though my husband is definitely stronger than me, I’ve become a master dough and fondant roller over the past couple years. We like our crust very thin.

Add toppings:

Fold and roll:

Bake at 450 on a pizza stone for 15 minutes (give or take).

These ended up being huge so we cut them in half and re-baked the leftovers the next day. They were so delicious. Much better than pizza, in my opinion.

I called my sister to tell her that calzones were so much tastier than pizza and I couldn’t figure out why; she said “Easy! It’s because the dough-filling ratio is much higher with a calzone.” Of course.

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Seat Cushion Cover

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Gallery Wall

Last fall we did a gallery wall on our stairway. We taped out the measured area on our carpet first, with painting tape, organized the frames how we liked them, then hung them.

Best part of the project? Buying half the frames at a thrift store and spray painting them… Saves money and looks more unique.

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Mousse

I try to stay away as much as I can from packaged dessert mixes, but I tried this sample at Costco and could not resist the mousse in a box! Why? Well homemade mousse is great but very fattening and takes a while to make. This was delicious.

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Easy Window Box Covering / Pelmet Box

I love online tutorials because they allow me to do a project in a way that I like, while still having some guidance. Here’s my latest project for our downstairs bathroom.
This is the perfect way to dress up a window without any drapes. I also like that it looks a lot more clean and simple than drapes. (And who wants drapes in their bathroom??)
None of the online tutorials provided a great way to mount it, so my handy-man husband attached it to the valence cap of our white blinds——now there are no holes in the walls. We really like it, and for a 20 minute project with foam core you can’t go wrong.

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