Birthday Boy's Day

That time of year has come upon us once again and Nolan turned two!

We had a very small get together in the evening with a few little boys for company. Lots of running around, cars/train playing and giggles filled out small place. And the parents were able to enjoy each others company too! *win win*

Since they only time I seem to make layer cakes is around family birthdays, I knew early on that a plane cake was n order for our little boy. It was simple for the most part, with using part of his present from us to be the cake toppers. I found a pretty easy from scratch vanilla cake recipe here from pintrest, and it held up pretty good and was light and moist enough for home made cake.

The frosting was a mint vanilla butter cream. It was just a matter of trying to smooth the frosting and placing clouds around. The front Planes logo was left over packaging from the diecast toy, which I think adds a nice easy touch to the front.

This is probably the most low key birthday celebration I've done. With the cold winter and lots of sickness going around, it can be hard for families to commit to coming. Not to mention, things are just super tight for the family budget. But despite that, we were able to pull something together and enjoy our "family" in celebration. Nolan had fun, I didn't have to stress too much (add mad cleaning before hand), and I was able to at least give him a special cake made with love. Eliza still talks about her pony cake from last birthday.

And to think....next time this year we'll have an additional family member to celebrate with!

Peddling my Goods

I stepped out into my comfort zone and ventured into a new world of being a craft vendor for a day.

Here is what I learned:

1. There are all sorts of people who do this year round, and it was interesting to see what else people sell. Many of them are just trying to make back the cost of supplies and a little extra to keep things enjoyable.

2. Many who come to craft fairs, will have no intention in buying anything, but to get ideas. Consumers are holding their purse strings tightly this season, and I predict that many will be last minute shoppers.

3. Compliments don't pay the bills. It can be very discouraging to get lots of compliments on your work, but not see the sales reflected.

4. My other fellow crafters are also seeing the trend of mass produced cheap products trumping over personal handcrafted work. Consumers will pay twice as much for the same item in store and not think twice, but hesitate for half the price when buying from someone locally at a fair or bazaar. We are making slave wage when you factor in how much time it really does take to produce our product.

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With using display props from my kitchen and personal collection, many people at first glance, though my gingerbread and snowmen were real cookies.

My day was not a total loss though, and I was grateful to those who did purchase some ornaments. I also made some connections where I can barter my photography services in exchange for selling space in their shop.

So in the mean time, if you do not live locally near me, just know that I do ship orders within the states. So you hear that west coast ;)

Oh Fudge!

After getting a taste of some pumpkin fudge at the apple orchard, I wanted to find out how to make some of my own. Since I am not normally a fudge person, the pumpkin sounded like I nice alternative.

Off to Pintrest I went!

Most of the recipes I browsed were similar in the process, but there were some differences in the amount of butter, sugar, pulp, and if you used brown sugar. 

My first try at it was found here, and listed as an easy recipe. 

The most intensive part of the process is being held hostage at the stove while 

you have to constantly stir the pot for over 12 minutes

I had purchased the marshmallow fluff instead of the mini ones by mistake, but I 

think it may have made this a little easier to melt together. I used the entire jar. 

After this test, I went ahead and tried a different recipe that did call for a candy thermometer. It also calls for more pumpkin pulp and sugar, along with MUCH more butter...so I am sure it makes for a very rich and creamier than the above one. Let's call that the diet one shall we?

I followed the second recipe as followed ....and here is my result:

I think I just invented pumpkin caramel chews or something...or sticky piles of poo...

They taste amazing, and just like pie, so I tried to salvage them and wrapped bite sized portions 

up like taffy. 

Not sure if I'll venture into more fudge making or not...I might be pumpkin'd out at this point : /

Super Fun: Pintrest Test

There was a recent birthday party for a 3 year old boy that we were invited to. When asking the mother what he might like, even she was a little perplexed. He has an older brother who is 3 years ahead of him. He has benefited by being the first and getting most of the traditional gifts through the years. There are no shortage of boy hand me down toys.

Yet, this little boy loves Barney!

So I decided to craft up a Barney inspired superhero play costume.

In taking to Pintrest, I found this pin the most helpful in providing a free printable sewing pattern for the cape.

I purchased a few sheets of craft felt, while going with 1/2 yd of purple felt from Joanns. Velcro and elastic were already on hand. Use your own child for gaging just how long of cape you want, and don't be afraid to jazz the bottom hem up. I made mine come to a point in the middle, but sky's

the limit.

Although you can't exactly see it, I tried to jazz up the mask (channeling my inner Ninja Turtle) in painting some white tulle with black acrylic paint to put in between the layers on the mask where the eye holes were. Also, in giving the felt some strength, I used a material used when making baby shoes or fabric baskets that gives some extra strength (almost cardboard like). You could even used a sheet of craft foam I bet.

I did more hand sewing than machine, as felt is very forgiving. Use a hot glue gun to glue on the front mask portion, as fabric glue does not work well when gluing felt on felt.

Hexagon Quilt Binding Tutorial

If you were wondering about how to do a fancy quilt binding, here is an inside look at how it is done and links to free resources.

Find the pin here about how to do paper piecing so you can make oodles of pieces to sew.

Find the Paper piecing hexagon printable as a pdf file. Be sure to print it on heavy card stock so you can reuse the pieces instead of printing more out.

 

Once I had all the hexagons, I hand sewed them together by using a simple loop stitch, which is basically a lazy blanket stitch. You just don't push the needle through to catch the last stitch closing. When you have your chain, take the iron and press it in half, being sure to fold it with the outside pattern on the inside.

Pin your binding to the raw quilt edge with the pattern on the inside and run it through the sewing machine at 1 quarter inch inseam. The real time consuming part is doing that same loop stitch as you pull the points up to each other and close it up. For the corners, I ended up leaving some excess hanging off to be like tassels.

Most of my thread color was a blue/grey color, as I am finding out just how powerful the color of grey can be when trying to find a balance with your colors and patterns mixing. It is like a universal thread color when you can't match it exactly. 

Hand sewing isn't as scary as some may think. I found it to be very relaxing while sitting with the hubby and watching a movie or sitting in church. Give it a try :)

Pintrest test: Got Slime?

Once again, I have taken to Pintrest and tested out a kid friendly activity: Non toxic edible slime!

After my past with the youth center, I've made all sorts of dough and gak varieties. They are great, except if you have young children who will might taste test it.

Find my pin HERE

It took two trips to the store to make this stuff work. Be sure that if you are going to cut corners and buy the house generic equivalent...make sure the ingredient is 100% psyllium. I bought the generic for Benefiber, which is not the same as Metamucil.One will thicken while the other will not. I wasn't able to find a clear powder at Walmart, but they do carry one that is not flavored. Be prepared to spend $8 to $10 for a canister.

We used simple food coloring instead of Kool Aid.

Microwave- I found it takes a varying degree of time and testing to find a slime consistency you like. Not cooked enough will stick all over your hands and cooked too long will cause it to break into pieces which do not melt back into each other. 

It was an interesting experience watching the kids play with this sensory play. Nolan had more fun watching Eliza play with the stuff than touching it. The attention factor came in around 20 minutes. Not bad, but not as long as this mommy would have liked.

One canister will give you plenty to do this activity and then some since you use 1 Tbsp of powder to 1 c. water. Best to throw it out after use as it will grow mold.

Splish Splash - Cheap Fun in the Tub

If you are a mother on Pintrest, I am sure you have seen these pins about how to make a fun suction cup pipe maze using items found from the dollar store and Home Depot. When I caught sight of them, I went to see what materials were going to cost and where to find them.

After looking around...I could start to see that this could turn into a $40 bath toy......

For some reason...PVC isn't exactly cheap. Especially when you try and get those seen in the image above. But the biggest lie about this project is where they state where to get the suction cups. No....the dollar store does not stock them, nor Big Lots or any other home improvement store. Some will carry them, but they have a giant plastic hook going through them for bath needs.

After expanding my search, I did find plain suction cups at Michaels. But for three medium sized ones, it was over $3.00 for a pack. 

Just.3.cups. 

This seemed like a fun project and bath toy, but I couldn't see spending that much money on it.

But low and behold!

What you'll need

X number of suction cups. I used those I found from other discarded items (think Baking Soda disks that you stick up...broken toys that use them etc)

As many as you want plastic bottles from recycle bin. (think kid meal milk bottles and washed peanut butter jars)

What to do

I used my pointed Fiskars scissors to poke holes for the suction cups and for water to enter and exit. Get creative in how you attach the containers and how the water will play through them. If you have a large or strong sc, put it on the bottom so water can travel away from the wall. 

Pintrest Test

During naptime, I decided to try this pin to complement some tuna noodle casserole. I used my bread machine to handle the dough, which makes it MUCH easier than by hand. 

How it looked after a dough cycle

Here is my work area: melted butter with minced garlic, parm cheese and dough.

This is how much my dough yielded in my glass pan before baking.

Voila! The finished product. I snuck a taste to be sure it tasted as good as it smelled.

Yep...safe for human consumption :)

The bread besides the butter/garlic/cheese get up is super moist and soft. I would be curious to try it out as just a plain white bread. In the recipe, it calls for 3-4 cups flour, which seemed odd. I did four cups. Also, they say 4 tablespoons of butter... but took more like 8, so 1 stick of butter.