Applique T-shirt: Combine harvester

Yeh!!! A Guest Post!! Happy Happy Day!

I am thrilled to welcome one of my dearest friends - APARNA to the cacophony that is this blog. Aparna is in many ways the saner version of me... but when it comes to crafts of all kinds, she's just as Kooky, and way more Crafty. She crochets, and makes cards, and appliques clothes, and paints and a whole lot of other stuff.
Now that I've her to do one post, I can hope for another soon... maybe she will even become a regular contributor *wink wink*. Well, while I dream, Do read on......

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Background:

I must admit that I have been procrastinating to put this on the blog as I distracted myself to a crazy jigsaw puzzle! A little late!!

This all started when I asked my son a question two months back. "What picture shall I put on your T-shirt for the school harvest party?" I thought after being aware of Halloween season(!) and watching 'Nightmare Before Christmas', in addition to playing some spooky online games which were not at all scary, he would answer something spooky too. No, he didn't say Jack (of Jack O Lantern). He didn't say scary skeleton. He didn't even say spider or spider webs (which he has been crazy about all year through). He did think of a 'witch with a broom'. But then came the final answer: COMBINE! HARVESTER! I was shocked with delight..O yes! It was a harvest party! And the season is called Autumn or Fall. Okay, so I pondered again on "how to" make my little boy's party shirt with a combine! and this is the result.

Materials:

1. Plain T-shirt for the kid (I used an orange colored full sleeves)
2. Construction paper or any paper for drawing the image
3. Old fabric piece for combine applique
4. Scissors
5. Marker
6. Black sewing thread
7. Needle
8. One small and one big button

Instructions:

• First decide the size of the combine you want to make and where you want to place it. 
• Then, draw/ sketch a combine on a construction paper or any other paper. Cut the outlines, except for the wheels part. (refer the paper cut-out in the picture). 
• Copy the outlines from the paper cut-out to the fabric piece. (Make sure the fabric piece is washed and ironed.) 
• Now carefully cut the fabric in the right shape. I used a safety pin at the centre to keep the fabric and paper cut-out  together. 
• With a marker complete the picture by adding inside details. 
• Now, place the fabric on the T-shirt and sew it with a black thread (so to match the marker!). Again, I used the safety pin for the fabric piece and T-shirt so it didn't move while I started to stitch. 
• Once it is done with the needle and thread, it's time to stitch the buttons. The smaller one goes as the back wheel while the larger one becomes the front one. 
• Stitch the button half over the combine and rest half outside below on the shirt. 
• Decorate with glitter etc and as you wish! 

Happy Harvest!

** You can, of course, use the same method to make a t-shirt with any theme you like. :)

Healthy-ish Breakfast Muffins

Breakfast is a pain to make! I mean, I'm barely awake, and I have to take the ginormous effort of persuading myself to get out of bed and keep my eyes open, and all that. Instead of applauding these achievements, I then have to do stuff like open windows, clear stuff that can be stepped on, make tea.... before you ask, no I have neither kids nor second-childhood kids in my house... it's just that I'm sloppy and tremendously lazy.... and the occasional depressive symptoms SO do not help!



But, coming back to the issue at hand, making breakfast is a pain.... and packaged stuff is either unhealthy or really expensive. And there is really a limit to how many days in a row one person can eat cornflakes / muesli - especially when Pune starts getting chilly mornings. So I was ecstatic when I came across the notion that some muffins last for a good bunch of days when frozen. I'm sure I can manage to make stuff a couple of times a week if it means I get to eat tasty, nutritious food every morning with no effort on most days! Thus started the hunt for such a recipe.

Success happened when I reached www.food.com and found these Awesome Oats Muffins. They were easy, looked yummy and seemed rather healthy. Of course, I had to try stunts. Partly because I do not have malt-flavored oats.... partly because... well, it's me. So, here's my variation....





 Yum..... Yum..... Yum....









Oats and Dry-fruit Muffins

You Need:
1 cup quick cooking oats
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup all purpose flour / maida
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup organic brown sugar
1 egg
4 tablespoons oil (any vegetable oil)
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
1/2 - 3/4 cup dry fruit bits - I used dried apricots and dark raisins; but nuts like cashew, almonds and pistachios will also taste good; as will any kind of raisins, dates, or other sweet and sticky bits.


How to make them with one eye open:

• Slightly beat the egg.
• Add the oil, then the sugar, then the milk.
• If using vanilla extract, add. It provides a lovely bake-y smell (or fragrance) to the proceedings.
• Add the oats, incorporate.
• Add the flours and the baking powder just till incorporated.
• Add the dry fruit bits, distribute them across the mixture. If the mixture feels too dry, add a little milk till it feels moist enough. At this point it's lumpy but dropping consistency.
• In the meanwhile, heat oven to 200 C.
• Spoon the mixture - which looks rather lumpy - into a muffin pan (I use a large muffin tray with 6 slots). 
• Bung into the oven, bake for between 20 - 25 mins till a toothpick / skewer comes out clean. 

Random, but relevant points (for when you are slightly more awake):

• If you think your dry fruit is a tad too dry, bung the bits in 1/4 cup of the milk for a couple of hours (or overnight if u put it in the fridge). A secondary benefit of doing this is that the milk picks up the flavors from the dry fruit (and turns the color of chocolate milk) and when you add this to the mix, it flavors the whole muffin a subtle, sweet flavor.
• If you want the muffin to look purty, keep a few pieces of the dry fruit aside, and then place / scatter them on top of the batter once it's in the molds. They come out looking adorable.
• **Very important point **- I am a dork that is fine with stuff not tasting particularly sweet, so the brown sugar works fine for me. If you like a bit of sweetness, use white sugar, or equal parts (1/4 cups) of brown and white sugar. 

Once they come out, pick the one you want to eat, and then pop the rest in a freezer safe box, and freeze them. A week's worth of healthy breakfast ready for you to start your day with!

Now go make a muffin, and join me for a cuppa! :)