GOODIY

When you're craving for an apple dessert, but aren't exactly in the mood for baking a pie, here's a little trick you might try: a cross between a pie and a doughnut. Read and follow the instructions from this page and you will end up with a delicious, mouth-watering, soft and lightly sweet bread, with a cinnamon apple filling and vanilla cream glaze. To make the apple braid, you need to grab the following ingredients.

Apple Filling:

·         three apples;

·         three tbls of granulated sugar;

·         a teaspoon and a half of cinnamon;

·         two teaspoons of lemon juice;

Bread:

·         two and a half cups of bread flour;

·         a quarter of a cup of granulated sugar;

·         a tbls of instant yeast;

·         a teaspoon of salt;

·         a cup of warm water;

·         two teaspoons of vegetable oil;

Glaze:

·         a third of a cup of sifted confectioner’s sugar;

·         five teaspoons of whipping cream;

·         half a teaspoon of vanilla extract;

·         a pinch of nutmeg and kosher salt;

Start by slicing the apples into little pieces and combine them with sugar, cinnamon, and lemon juice. Put these into an 8" baking pan for 15 minutes into the 350 degrees F preheated oven. Meanwhile, make the bread by mixing the flour with sugar and yeast. Stir for another 6 minutes after you've added the oil and warm water. When it's ready to use, roll it into a large round-edged rectangle, just like in the image. Next, use a knife to fashion strips into the two sides of the dough.

Take the apple filling, which should have been done and also rested for a while by now, and spread them onto the middle of the future bread. Beginning with the top strips, crisscross from side to side in order to make the braid pattern, all the way down. Be careful of the ends, maybe press a bit on with your hands to seal the dough properly. Put in the same preheated oven for almost half an hour or sooner, depending when it gets that tasty golden brown color.

As spring is approaching faster and faster, you will also need to purchase some new spring-like accessories. This means you should focus on searching for vivid colors that will upgrade your winter look. But if you don't want to spend a lot of money accessorizing this spring, you should create your own accessories. How, you should ask? Well it is actually quite easy, you just have to follow these simple steps below and you will have your own neon colored Washi tape clutch. Washi tape is a Japanese masking tape, made out of rice paper and you can find it in a great variety of colors. You can practically decorate anything with this tape, you just need a little bit of imagination.

Supplies:

·         some Washi tape ( choose the colors you like);

·         poly envelope;

·         a pair of scissors;

·         some Mod Podge;

·         a brush;

·         x-acto knife;

·         a button;

·         thread and needle

Start by taping the Washi tape on the envelope. Begin at the bottom of the envelope and cover it step by step until you get to the bottom part. Once the envelope is covered in tape and you got the pattern you want, take the x-acto knife and cut out the Velcro openings that you have taped over. Cover the Washi tape with the Mod Podge, this will seal the layer and will protect it. Let it dry and proceed to the last step. Select a nice and stylish button and sew it on the top cover of your clutch. And there you have it: a great clutch that will perfectly match both your evening and day outfit and will definitely be something one of a kind.

There are lots of products out in stores which may cost you up to 20$ but in fact could be easily made with a cost of 1$! Case in point: a lunch box or small container. Instead of spending one month’s allowance on an object you could simply make do it yourself, learn how to make a useful container by repurposing an item you already have at home; like this lunch box from a milk jug. Here is the list of necessary items:

·         an empty milk jug;

·         a marker;

·         a pair of scissors;

·         a button;

·         thread and needle;

·         some embroidery floss;

·         an elastic band;

·         (optional) some decorative scrapbook paper;

·         (optional) a brush;

·         (optional) a bit of Mod Podge;

The steps for achieving such a creative object are few and fairly easy. After you clean the milk jug (in and out), take a marker and draw half a circle on each side of the jug. You should have 3 of these half circles of the same height and the other one a lot taller; the last one should best go opposite the side of the jug's handle, and should be referred to as the lid. Now check to see if the flaps you fashioned fold down properly. If the don't, take the scissors again and work on each corner of your container, in order to make longer slits.

Then, take a large button and sew it on the outside of the lid flap. Use the scissors to make a whole underneath the bottom base of the container. Take a rubber band (preferably one which you use for your hair) half way through the hole you just made and tie a knot on the inside just like in the image. You are almost done. Try to make it more appealing my decorating it. You could write something with decorative paper and Mod Podge. Finally, there you have it: your own lunch box or container from a 1$ empty milk jug.

Source:cremedelacraft

People think that DIY is only suited for the ones who have artistic skills. That's not entirely true. Sure, you need a bit of taste for art, but who doesn't have that? Even when we're young we like to draw with certain colors and in certain ways. Here is a little experiment you can try in order to make it more clear if you like doing DIY projects. Learn how to make a gradient vase out with the help of some regular daily objects:

·         an empty bottle of vodka;

·         a can of metallic spray paint;

·         some cotton rope;

·         a lighter;

·         some nail polish remover;

The process of cutting the bottle is quite easy and involves high school physics. First, make sure you removed all of the labels from the bottle. Then, take the rope and wrap it 5 or 6 times around the place you want to cut. Remove it from the bottle (don't untie it!) and soak in the nail polish remover. Put it back on and light up the rope, rotating gently so the fire will go through the entire length of the rope. Work over a sink filled with cold water.

When the flame starts to go out, plunge the bottle into cold water. It will simply split at the desired location. You could sand the edges in order to give it a soft feel. Next, spray the bottom side of the bottle with the metallic spray paint. Place some flowers in and you're done! It looks like it has been done by a professional.

Source:cancandancer

More ideas:

1. Keep the strictly necessary only. Try to be drastic and to choose those things that you really use frequently. The number of the plates, the dishes, the cups and the glasses has to be approximately equal to that of the family members. The rest of the accessories can be stored in boxes in other parts of the house, in the limber box or in the balcony. The broom or the cleansers can be placed in the bathroom, the stove trays or the pans can be put in the limber box, while the vegetables could be stored in the balcony.

2. Find another place for the fridge. The fridge, the freezer, or the refrigerator can be placed in the hall of the house or in the balcony, if it is closed. The main advantage is saving the space which the fridge would have occupied, including the opening area of the doors. The second aspect considered is the fact that sometimes in the kitchen the temperature is increased because of the steams, phenomenon that can damage a fridge which doesn’t benefit of a higher degree of tolerance because of the environmental temperature.

3. Use hanging shelves. A divided shelve of textile material, hanged by the cornice in one corner of the kitchen, for example, will save a considerable space. What can you put here? Plastic bags and handbags, your correspondence and bills, drugs, matches, sweets, in conclusion, almost any small thing. These trifles generally occupy space and create the feeling of agglomeration and chaos.

4 .Buy folding chairs. There are lots of reasons that nowadays make the idea of a lunch in family to sound impossible. Maybe in your family, the each and every member eats in a hurry at no matter what hours. But this is just the perfect excuse for not buying folding chairs. Folded and neatly stored, they will occupy very little space, leaving you the possibility of moving freely in the kitchen when cooking or cleaning. Besides, you’ll also avoid the embarrassing moments when uninvited guests knock at your door.

5 .Opt for a multifunctional table. Get rid of the rectangular, large table. Choose an elongated one which can be attached to a wall or can be placed perpendicularly, leaving you enough space for freely moving around it. With a 1-m length and 40-cm width table you can realize an excellent compromise. Such an article can be endowed with interior, metallic, well divided shelves, so that you can store bottles (in a specially created area), the bread box, papers, wipes or even plates. This way, you transform a piece of furniture of a single functionality into a substantial storage space.

6. Create a space for household objects. If normally these are placed randomly everywhere in the kitchen, following the route of the closest extension cord, now it is the moment to gather them in a single place. A complex of shelves placed on a free wall can help you to find somewhere where to put all the household objects of your kitchen. At Ikea, you’ll find shelves and supports of different dimensions so to create your own complex. Choose the width of a wall and the smallest possible depth (minimum equal to that of the microwave). Thus, on the superior shelve you may place the cafetière, the coffee grinder, the blender, because these ones make use of unlimited space when used. On the following shelve, place the microwave. Attentively measure it and limit the dimension of this shelve to that of the microwave so to be left more space for the next shelve. This, because the microwave has frontal opening. Use the last shelve for the toaster, grill, mixer, or popcorn machine. Beware! Leave little space between the shelves and the wall so that the cables to be placed as neatly and safely as possible. Put on each shelve an extension cord for every machine so to stay worriless.

It is very simple to recycle a water, juice or soda bottle into a flower pot. You will need: a knife, acrylic paint and a little imagination to turn an old plastic bottle into a beautiful and funny flower pot. It’s a cheap and easy Do It Yourself project. The plastic bottles pots can be placed inside or outside and you can plant ornamental or aromatic plants in them. Play with your children and realize fun plastic pots. Look here for some ideas.

Take the wall of hanging soda bottles as inspiration and design your own eco wall. Use the DIY plastic bottle flower pots to express your artistic side. You can shape them into animals or birds, like swans, and place them in the garden. Show your true emotions and plant some bright looking flowers in one of the homemade plastic pots and hang it next to your front door. This way, people will great you with a big smile on their faces.