Catie: Mr. Flopsy

As I have said previously, I've been going a little bit CRAZY over the lack of craft supply superstores here.

Or, just craft supplies in general.

But, occasionally, I'm able to pull some things off.

Like Mr. Flopsy (not be confused with the Flopsy of "Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail").

[caption id="attachment_536" align="aligncenter" width="448" caption="Yes, I do take ALL my pictures in the kitchen window... you'll soon have an intimate knowledge of the neighbor's rooftop garden, like we do."][/caption]

As usual, you can tell that amazing photography skills don't belong to me.

Maybe someday.

Until then, sorry about all the blurry.

[caption id="attachment_537" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="My favorite is the sweet little Japanese fabric his shirt is made out of."][/caption]

He was hand sewn (obviously, since we don't have a sewing machine), which was a little bit a nightmare (not that I wouldn't do it again about fifty-hundred times if I had the fabric).  The fabric is pretty coarsely woven, maybe a linen. The linen look is popular here.  Anyway, though, to keep him from fraying, I had to sew every seam twice: once in running stitch, once in blanket stitch.

It was fun, though.  I just complain because really I wish I could do it again.

I actually had all of this lying around the house.  The red felt was from the stockings I made us for Christmas, the white I bought to embroider, but didn't, and the brown and cute fabrics I had from a project I started... a long time ago.

I made him from the Black Apple doll pattern, here, from Martha Stewart.

I don't have paint and I'm all about the embroidery now, so I embroidered his face instead of painting.  I also modified the pattern to make him a boy.  Hopefully he looks like a boy, I'm not sure.

But he is.  So, at the least, he'll just be a girly boy.

Anyway, that's what I've been up to.

[caption id="attachment_544" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="A closeup of the cute fabric. Sorry about the dark, my trusty kitchen window was having a light malfunction today."][/caption]

Oh, that and the quadruple batch of These Muffins that I made.  Well over 40 muffins have been shoved in our freezer, which is nice, because then I don't feel like I have to eat them all the time, but I also don't feel like I have to MAKE them all the time.

I switched the recipe up a little bit to accommodate what we had and because the first batch made a real thick batter that baked up dry and crumbly.  They turned out way better the 2nd, 3rd and 4th times and it's my new fave muffin recipe.

I also added streusel with a teensy bit of cinnamon, which just.. I mean, why even MAKE muffins without streusel is what I want to know?

1. We didn't have all whole wheat flour, so I did half whole, half white.

2. I put in maple syrup instead of sugar, cup for cup.  I'd usually cut the other liquid in the recipe back because of it, but it was so dry before that I didn't this time.  Also, quick FYI: Maple syrup is my new best friend, because it doesn't make me feel nauseous when I eat it, it doesn't make baked things brown too quickly like honey does, and it tastes exactly like sugar.. which is probably because that's all it is.

3. I added yogurt for half the milk because A.) The oil it called for isn't enough fat (our yogurt is about 1/6 heavy cream, which I thought might help), so the muffins ended up really dry, and B.) I didn't want to use all the milk we had.  Ben likes his milk.  This was probably the best improvement.

4. Flavoring: I added the zest of one lemon + the juice of half a lemon.  I also added a little vanilla, because I have vanilla and I like to add it to stuff and I can if I want.   This really combated the blah factor that was all over the first batch.

Aannd... that was all.

They're still a teensy bit dry when they come from the freezer (especially the ones from the 1st batch), but if I defrost them in a ziploc it seems to help.

I like blueberry muffins the best of ALL.

- catie