Eichhörnchen

Denise's birthday present, made with wool yarn in a few hours the night before her party.  I was going to give her handmade coupons for free hugs, but then I realized she might actually cash them in.

Also, no matter what Amy says, Germans can pronounce "squirrel."  And then they will taunt you with their word for squirrel, the first syllable of which my brain refused to even process.

Another Lazy Yet Decadent Simonsen Cookie Recipe

For most of the Xmas baking season I've been looking at tubes of premade peanut butter cookie dough and wondering if it would be socially acceptable to mix it with chopped up peanut butter cups.  Today I decided that I was going to live out this insane, PMS-fueled nightmare because...well, my family would probably eat pretty much any horrific baked good.

On the back of my holiday Reese's cups is a recipe for peanut butter cookies that are basically peanut butter cups surrounded by a thin layer of dough.  It was like a bright orange Christmas angel telling me to follow my heart because I'm sure Hershey's Chocolate Flavored Candy Products has my and my family's best interests at heart.

Ingredients

• Bag of miniature peanut butter cups
• Tube of peanut butter cookie dough

Chop up enough peanut butter cups to fill a small plate.  Pour into a bowl and mix with cookie dough.  Using the same knife works pretty well.  Stir until candy and dough is well mixed or until you get bored.  Shape dough into balls, squish with a fork, and bake according to directions printed on tube.  

In researching why you need to put the fork marks on the dough (other than because that is how it has always been done), I learned that there is something called a "cookie shovel."

Ampharos the Red Tailed Pokemon

I put up a Pokemon ornament listing at the beginning of November.  This was a slightly different custom than I was expecting: Ampharos based off another drawing rather than the overworld sprite like a lot of the other Pokemon stitches.

The first version of the design started off much closer to the game graphics--I think the tail was cribbed almost exactly from HGSS.  The head is pretty much the same, but with the eyes moved.  I ended up keeping the shape of the head the same, but the blocky feet and the stumpy tail just weren't working.  You can see version 2's sketchy butt in the picture of version 1.

Quackbusters

I've been seeing brightly colored duct tape in craft stores for awhile, but since I wasn't an edgy kid making a prom dress or somebody's dad, I kept walking.

But I did need a present for my mother, and Ben Franklin had a sale on wooden frames and wooden die cuts.  The fact that there was a sheet of Duct Tape in the color "Ocean" sealed the deal.

My friends, if you are looking for a gift that's fast and inexpensive, put some duct tape on things.  One 4 x 6 wooden craft frame uses slightly less than a premade sheet of duct tape, so you can make one without having too much extra to worry about (although it probably works out to slightly more $$$ if you don't buy the roll).  Using the sheet is almost impossible to screw up unless you're the kind of idiot who just starts cutting without noticing the grid on the back.  But even if you are that kind of complete moron, I still managed to recover.  I mean, hypothetically you would.

I'm really grateful that complete strangers on the internet are willing to pay money for my work.  Seriously--it's a good feeling to know that someone's willing to trust you to design and make something for you (especially when you want the money upfront).

That said, this project turned out to take way longer than I thought it would.  Hopefully it's well received because you are looking at some sleep deprivation.