Blogiversary!

It's the one-year anniversary of Sister Projects! It's hard to believe that we've already been doing this for a year. Thank you so much to every single one of you who has taken the time to read our posts. We've enjoyed blogging immensely, and we hope you've enjoyed the results.

Nutella for Easter

Yesterday, we made these Nutella Cream Eggs for Easter. The process is similar to the Peanut Butter Hearts we made last month, but these were much more frustrating to dip because they didn't set up as firmly as the peanut butter mixture. That said, they still turned out fairly well - or at least the ones we're showing here did. ;) Plus they have nutella (or Hyvee hazelnut spread as the case may be), so we're not complaining. Since the dipping process proved difficult, Katie eventually opted to drizzle the melted almond bark over the remaining candies, which for the most part produced better-looking results. 

Yes, that's all off-brand stuff. We're cheap that way.

Ready for dipping (a.k.a. the worst part of candy-making)

Finished product - flowers, eggs, and a sheep!

Happy Easter! We'll see you at the end of the month with a reading challenge update.

Upcoming Posts

Greetings, lovely readers! Please accept our humble apologies for putting this post up late. We watched Wreck-It-Ralph last night and intended to put the post up right after, but I (Katie) fell asleep on the living room floor as the end credits were rolling and Sarah was unable to wake me despite her best efforts.

For this week's post, we thought we'd list a few of the ideas we're considering for upcoming blog posts so that you know what to expect for the next few months and also have an opportunity to give feedback on our ideas and suggest ideas of your own.

• Journal making - Katie recently learned how to do this, and we thought it would be a fun thing to work on together. We'd include pictures of the process to show you how to make your own, of course.
• Pop song / Book genre matching - A good friend of Sarah's suggested this idea to us after having some fun with it herself one day. Basically, we'd come up with pop songs that fit different genres of books and you guys would be able to add to that list in the comments.
• Experimental Easter egg dyeing - There are several different methods of egg dyeing that we've never tried. (We have a few pinned on Pinterest.) We'd pick one or more and try them out, then share the results here, including pictures.
• Writing prompts and exercises - We would come with our own for you guys to do and/or find some of ones we've come across in the past, do them ourselves, then share the results.

Let us know which ideas interest you the most, and please feel free to suggest new ideas to add to our list. We love hearing from you.

Have a great weekend!

Bonus Post - What We Read in February

Katie:

Emily Climbs by L.M. Montgomery
Emily's Quest by L.M. Montgomery
The Only Pirate at the Party by Lindsey Stirling and Brooke S. Passey
Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale

February was a bit of a rough month for me because of school projects, so as you can see I didn't get a whole lot of reading done. But as of now, I'm on break for a little over a week and I'm hoping to read a lot during that time. I'm currently working on Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut.

Sarah:

A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd
Countdown by Deborah Wiles

Both of the above titles were very enjoyable for me. I would recommend Countdown; it was a very good read. I've gotten really behind this month, but hopefully during March I can make a comeback. Right now I am reading Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. 

Origami Butterflies

Sarah got a book of origami paper for Christmas one year and she hasn't used much of it yet, so we decided to make origami butterflies with a tutorial we found on Pinterest.

Here's a link! The instructions are in German, but the pictures are sufficiently helpful on their own.

We each made a couple regular-sized ones, and then Katie, in her love for tiny things, suggested dividing a couple sheets of paper into fourths to make itty-bitty butterflies. Here are the results:

Regular Butterfly 

Tiny Butterflies

Now we're off to watch Anne of Green Gables. Happy Friday! We'll be back at the end of the month to give you an update on our reading.

Sweets and Netflix

It's been a very long week. We realized last night that we had a blog post due today, and originally it seemed like just another obligation. But when Katie got home from Friday classes (finally) and we were able to get started on this post, it ended up being just what was needed to wind down.

We decided to make a treat and watch some Gilmore Girls, because all the news on the forthcoming revival has left us with the need for a Gilmore Girls fix. So we whipped up these chocolate-covered peanut butter hearts, which are quick, easy, fit with the month's theme of Valentine's day, and are a no-bake recipe (essential, since our oven isn't working). Plus, chocolate and peanut butter is a winning combo, as we all know.

These Reese's-esque treats use just seven ingredients:

• peanut butter
• powdered sugar
• vanilla
• butter
• milk
• chocolate
• shortening

So now we're going to eat a couple of these lovely little things and watch an episode or two on Netflix. Let us know in the comments if you too are excited about four new mini-series style episodes of Gilmore Girls! You can also share your Valentine's day plans with us, if you so choose. We plan to have a sister day - eat some pizza and chocolate, watch a movie (probably a Disney one), and play some games. See you in two weeks!

Bonus Post - What We Read in January

We plan to put up a brief bonus post at the end of every month to catalog where we are in our goals to read 100 books this year. Here's the breakdown for this month:

Katie:

• Five Stories by Willa Cather
• The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma
• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
• Coraline by Neil Gaiman
• Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery

I've liked everything I've read so far, but will include a word of caution for The Walls Around Us as it contains some mature content. I'm currently reading the second book in L.M. Montgomery's Emily series, entitled Emily Climbs. I've also read two volumes of World Trigger this past month, which is a manga series written and illustrated by Daisuke Ashihara. I'm not sure if or how I should count manga for this challenge, so your suggestions would be most welcome!

Sarah:

• Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster
• Coraline by Neil Gaiman
• Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis
• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
• One by Sarah Crossan

I'm currently reading Escape From Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein. My reading journey has been enjoyable thus far. Of the above I would especially recommend Daddy-Long-Legs, Mere Christianity, and The Graveyard Book.

For now we're just listing things off, but please feel free to help us continue discussion in the comments. We're always happy to discuss literature, and whether you want to know what we thought of a book, suggest one we might like, or mention something else entirely, we'd be happy to get your input.