Recycle Crafting: Amish Puzzle Ball

This project is one of those things I came upon by accident. I'm attempting to build a plush TIE fighter from felt and I needed to find a pattern to sew a ball. My Google searches unwittingly led me to a link about an Amish Puzzle Ball. I'd never heard of such a thing but thought, "I HAVE to make one of those...but stuff it with plastic grocery store bags."

For weeks after when I would see fabric remnants at thrift stores I would consider their future place in an Amish puzzle ball. Then one fateful day my neighbor gave me her stash of neglected fleece. I spotted a cute fuzzy blue fleece adorned with fire trucks, police cars, and school busses that I knew would be the perfect complement to some vintage polyester I'd snagged for $1 the week before. And the best part, the neighbor had a newborn son...with a fire station adorned bedroom. Can we say kismet?

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Baking Martha's Chocolate Cupcakes

I'm fascinated by Martha Stewart. Not so much to watch her show or venture into K-Mart and purchase things with her name on them. But I do have a few of her books. I've also had great success with her recipes. She's still my fail proof way to hard boil an egg. 

Ahhhhh. It's just so pretty.

Well, a few years ago I was gifted the Martha Stewart Baking Handbook. It's orange hardcover stole my heart before I even gazed longingly at its beautiful, stylized photos of baked goods. While finger strolling through the book I mused how great it would be to bake everything in the entire book. Fast forward a few years and the book had only been used, um, *cough* once. Time to change things. I turned to my lovely facebook friends and family and spelled out my plans to bake the entire book, starting with randomly selected recipes by them. Woo! They page numbers trickled in.


It may take me years. But I plan to accomplish my goal, one baked treat at a time. And here's the tale of the first baked item: One Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes.

One Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes with Coconut-Pecan Frosting

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