Blueberry & Syrup Muffins + A Few Projects

Yesterday, the tiny humans demanded blueberry cupcakes. While I don't cater to their every whim, sometimes I don't mind making them a little treat. This past week I also finally painted this little shelf we wanted to use to display our "family", which consists of mostly wind-up toys we collect from our adventuring. And I even busted out (turned on) the sewing machine for my first sewing project! 

We are going on vacation this next week (P.S. : I'm taking a week hiatus!) and I haven't been buying that much food stuff so it doesn't just sit & go bad while we are away. So basically I didn't have much to work with to make these blueberry cupcakes. Also, I didn't want to make cupcakes, I wanted to make more of a muffin.
First, I was out of eggs, but had some egg replacer left over from trying to cook egg-free for Matts brother. Second, I only had white flour (left over from making play-doh), which I always try to sub out for whole wheat, so I was stuck with that precessed white stuff. Third, I had a 1/2 cup of apple sauce left in a jar in the fridge that I wanted to incorporate & I didn't want to use too much sugar, so I tried adding just the applesauce and syrup. While that gave them a yummy taste, it made them really moist and I still ended up adding a little sugar.

Blueberry & syrup muffin ingredients:
1/2 cup applesauce
1/4 cup syrup
1 tbsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup flour
2 tbsp sugar
2 egg whites, or egg replacer
1/2 cup blueberries

Directions: Mix all ingredients, pour into greased pan, bake in 350 degree oven for 15-20 mins.

Pictorial process:

Here is the little shelf I finally painted. Before, our "family" of wind up toys was hidden, sitting on our book shelf. Now they are on full display. I ALWAYS try to use what we have on hand for projects, even if it means slight improvisation (see: blueberry muffins). I had this almost full can of spray paint left over from a previous project that we will prob. never use again, so I used it to paint the wooden shelf. Well, it says 'special purpose', 'for metals'. Pssh, whatever, I used it on the wood and it worked just fine!

This was my first sewing project with my new (hand-me-down-from-my-mother-in-law) sewing machine. I made a flag banner-- at least I'm pretty sure that's what it's called. It is pretty messy, but it was a good project for fiddling around with the new machine and making something easy & whimsy.

Now we're off to Leavenworth, Washington for another family adventure! Hope you all have a good weekend & week!