DIY Printable Vintage Bunny Mask

I realize that this post would’ve been more helpful in October, but better late than never. I’m a big fan of Halloween, particularly DIY costumes and decor. This time, I decided to purchase a printable bunny mask from Etsy, (seller will remain nameless). The mask looked simple enough, and had a slight vintage appeal that I was fond of. Well, my simple DIY mask very quickly turned into a massive waste of time and paper. The printable file was not even close to being sized correctly for an adult, despite the claims that it was designed to fit an adult when printed at 100% scale. The pieces were fiddly and were a nightmare to assemble. Thankfully, the PDF file only cost me a few dollars. My frustration led me to the conclusion that I could design a much simpler, proper-fitting mask myself, even with my limited experience with designing such things. So I went for it, and I’m happy to report that the result was on point with what I was originally looking for. After seeing how my mask came together, I decided to create PDFs and save them for future use and sharing.

Holiday Gifts for Vegans – A Curated Collection of Vegan Gift Ideas

Show your support and love for your vegan friends with the perfect gift! Some of the gift ideas in this list are light-hearted and fun, while others are more practical. Herbivores are sure to adore any of these unique and thoughtful gifts!

While some people enjoy munching on caramel popcorn, toffee, and other holiday goodies, many vegans can be left out of the fun. The vegans on your holiday shopping list will definitely appreciate a homemade vegan treat! Try something like vegan pumpkin granola or granola nut clusters. ( Just be a bit cautious about any possible nut allergies).

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds – A Revised & Improved Recipe

It’s Halloween time again! Time for the kind of fun that returns us to childhood joys! Even if Halloween isn’t your deal, roasted pumpkin seeds are a absolutely delicious autumn treat, and you should make them. We previously shared a recipe for seed roasting, however, it has been revised and improved this year. Here’s our new recipe for roasted pumpkin seeds:

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Ingredients:

1 Cup Pumpkin seeds

4 Cups Water for boiling, plus more for rinsing

1 tsp Olive oil

Salt to taste

Other seasonings as desired

Instructions:

1. Separate seeds from pumpkin flesh as much as you can.
2. Rinse seeds in cool water and place in a medium sized pot. Cover with water, add several shakes of salt, and bring to boil. Boil for about 10 minutes.
3. Drain seeds and spread out on a baking sheet. Leave seeds out to dry most of the way, or leave out overnight before proceeding to the next step.
4. Heat oven to 375°. For every cup of seeds, toss with 1 tsp olive oil, salt as desired, and any other seasonings that you prefer.
5. Spread out in a thin layer on a baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned, stirring occasionally.
6. Allow to cool completely before eating.

Seasoning options are unlimited! Try things like chili powder, seasoned salt, or a blend like sea salt, lemon, and rosemary.

Improvements from previous recipe:

When using butter, even vegan, the seeds brown far too quickly. The texture of the seeds doesn’t come out quite right, because they turn dark before they’re really fully roasted. Butter also leaves seeds with a greasy coating, even after cooking and cooling. This is probably because you can’t roast them for long enough to cook all of the butter off without them burning. This new recipe provides a better texture and flavor with perfectly roasted seeds!pepit

Holiday Gifts for Beer Lovers – A Curated Collection of Handmade Craft Beer Gifts

Finding just the right gifts for the right people can be so much fun! Since craft beer is such a popular thing at the moment, I decided to curate a list of handmade gifts that would be fabulous for beer lovers.

Visit again soon for more gift guides!

Our collection of beer gifts starts off with one of my personal favorites – a handmade wooden beer tote with an attached bottle opener! Great for taking a mixed collection of brews to a party or picnic! I have personally purchased from this Etsy shop before, and was extremely happy with my beer tote. Sold by Rocky Mountain Wood.

The Grady Twins – A DIY Halloween Costume Experiment

Halloween is a perfect holiday for exploring creativity and for putting fun ideas to use! It’s because of this that I still enjoy Halloween just as much as I did as a kid. As a horror movie fanatic, I especially enjoy costumes that pay tribute to the films that were terrifyingly entertaining when I was younger. In previous years, I’ve gone as Tippi Hedren from The Birds, and Linda Blair from The Exorcist. These costumes were made from pieces accumulated from various second hand shops and online stores.

 

The one Halloween costume that I always desperately wanted was not an option, because it required a second person that was equally excited about one of the classics – The Shining.

Photography by Heather Shane

Up next in our Creative Spotlight is Heather Shane of Heather Shane Photography! Heather is a photographer in southern California specializing in portraits, lifestyle, and craft photography. She is passionate about the beauty of humanity, and strives to promote love and happiness by delivering moving, meaningful images to all of her clients. We sat down with Heather and gained more insight on her creative process.      

 

Vegan Earl Grey Cupcakes

When Sarah visited California recently, and the duo was reunited for a week or so, we decided to explore vegan baking with a recipe that combines some of our favorite things: Earl Grey tea and cupcakes! We found this recipe on itdoesn’ttastelikechicken.com, and decided to give it a try.

The only real modification that we made was that we doubled the frosting amount. The original recipe stated that the cupcakes were lightly frosted, which is fine if you aren’t a sugar addict like we are! Besides, when is having leftover frosting ever a bad thing?

Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies – A Tested & Perfected Recipe

I recently posted about my experiment with making vegan peanut butter cookies that had mixed results. To recap, the cookies tasted fantastic, but they were extremely fragile and would crumble very easily. I decided to revisit this task by modifying a traditional recipe for peanut butter cookies. Although my previous batch were delicious, I was searching for that classic peanut buttery treat, and they didn’t exactly scratch that itch. I’m glad to report that I have found a delicious solution to this problem!

Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies

Vegan Tofu & Veggie Masala with Lentil-Filled Flatbread

Delicious Lentil-Filled Flatbread

Before I get to the recipe, I first want to share this awesome vegan find that I discovered at Whole Foods just today: vegan lentil-filled Bolani that is seriously delicious! Upon tasting my first bite, I immediately regretted only buying one package. The good news: apparently, many Costco locations sell this product! It’s freezable, which means you can stock up! I enjoyed mine served with a recipe that I improvised with other ingredients from my shopping trip.

Inspired by a recipe for Vegetarian Tikka Masala on eatingwell.com, I tossed together this gem that is sure to be a new addition to my recipe rotation. This isn’t a saucy dish, although it could be easily adapted to have more liquid.

Creative Inspiration & Pattern Design

 

Creative Inspiration from Books

How to Steal Like an Artist may be a short and simple book, but it’s packed with valuable advice that every creative person (basically, every person), really needs to be reminded of every now and then. I think that all of us instinctively know many of these things already, but intellectually knowing something is different from understanding it and being able to apply it to your own life.

The part that absolutely stood out to me among all of the comforting tidbits of reassurance was on page 111, which looks like this: