on the road

I am on the road heading to Los Angeles for the CHA Trade Show. CHA (Craft and Hobby Association) is a big trade show for the crafting industry. While I have attended for the last few years, this year I will be working around the clock doing demos for iLovetoCreate -one of my most favorite companies out there- so it will be fun! And I have decided to take all of you along with me! Only you don't have to do any work, or travel or stay in a hotel room or be homesick. So here we go....ALL ABOARD!

homemade zeppole

I have a weakness... doughnuts or any kind of dough that has been fried! One of my most FAVORITE guilty pleasures is making homemade zeppole. Zeppole is like the cousin of a doughnut and closely related to an elephant ear or even fry bread. It is an Italian treat often served as a street food, at festivals and different regions in Italy have different variations (or so I am told). Basically it lightly fried balls of dough covered in sugar. There are a number of ways to make them, fill them or dust them with all sugar and spice. My favorite zeppole recipe comes from Giada De Larauntiis. This recipe is quick and easy and OH SO DELICIOUS!!

The ingredients are super simple!

1/2 cup of sugar for dusting, plus 3 tablespoons

2 tablespoons of cinnamon

1 stick of butter

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup of water

1 cup flour

4 eggs

olive oil for frying

Start by melting the stick of butter in a sauce pan.

Add 3 tablespoons of sugar.

Add 1 cup of water.

Bring to a boil and take the pan off the heat.

Stir in 1 cup of flour.

Return the pan to the heat and stir the mixture until it forms a ball.

Transfer the dough to another bowl.

I added 1 teaspoon of vanilla- cause I like it :)

Add 4 eggs, one at a time.

Use an electric mixer and incorporate each egg.

Heat up the olive oil- enough to fill up about 2 inches of the pan.

Heat to around 375 degrees.

Using a spoon drop the dough into the oil- I like making them small (so I don't feel so guilty eating a lot of them!)

Let the dough fry for about 3-5 minutes until they puff up and are golden brown.

Drain excess oil on a paper towel.

Combine 1/2 cup of sugar and 2 tablespoons of cinnamon in a bowl.

Drop the zeppole into the mixture.

and completely cover both sides.

Zeppole are best served warm.

And you can serve them in small paper bags filled with sugar

or even create cute little paper cones!

Regardless of how you serve them- they are SO YUMMY! Which is why I ate almost the entire batch.

And now if you will excuse me, I am headed to the gym!

braided headbands

I am STILL growing my hair out and while I have surpassed the really difficult stage, it seems I am always one bad hair day away from shaving my head. I've done it before and could do it again- once you know how easy it is to have short hair or very little hair, it is SO tempting to go back. That is why having lots of hair accessories on hand is a MUST!

I have a variety of ways that I like to pull my hair back and lately I've been having fun making my own braided headbands. They are really easy to make and super cute to wear on a bad hair day :)

Start with a blank headband or even upcycle one that you are ok covering up.

Using fabric (pretty much anything), cut into strips a little longer than the headband and braid the strips.

I used a thin and stretchy jersey fabric.

Using craft glue or hot glue, wrap the headband with a strip of the same fabric.

Glue the braid to the top of the wrapped headband.

You could use just about any kind of fabric, fiber, lace, ribbon, etc to braid

and even combine materials.

Upcycled fabric is also great to use.

This was fabric from an old shirt that I was going to donate

If you don't have a headband or if they hurt your head- simple turn the braided fabric into a headband by sewing both ends together.

This one was made from upcycled stretch jersey.

And there you have it- cute headbands to make you forget about those bad hair days!