Charm & Whimsy

Winter Craftyness: Homemade Playdough with my sick Boy

So The Boy is sick… AGAIN. The bummer is his fever started the day before ending a 20 day stint of antibiotics for his second bout of pneumonia since October (yes 2 months ago). . Now he has a double ear infection. More antibiotics, more steroids for his asthma. My poor baby - I'm open to suggestions people. I'm willing to listen to and try anything if you've got any ideas.

I had taken this week off from the office in hopes of getting caught up on projects at home and for work; instead The Boy and Mommy are getting crafty.

We made homemade playdough using this recipe from TinkerLab. It took a little longer than I expected to cook it but it came out great and The Boy loved it! Shoot – I loved it! Kneading that warm dough was so… pleasing. I can’t describe it other than to say it made me miss my pottery studio days.

He’s wearing his apron AND his cape. Just in case he needs to be super while cooking.

In goes the salt.

In goes the flour.

He really liked the whisk. Rather, he really liked flailing the whisk around and flinging the watery dough everywhere.

It’s so soupy in the beginning you never think it will thicken up.

At this point the dough was really hard to stir but he really wanted to keep on “cooking” so I put some in one of his play pots and let him at it.

Yay! It’s ready to turn out and knead.

It gets so nice and smooth in no time.

Mommy – I don’t care if it’s colored. Let me at it!

These are pretty big handfuls of dough not to mention all the dough The Boy is playing with. This recipe yielded a lot!

That’s a car and a tree.

Time to squish it all together.

This can still be used next time – into a ziploc you go.

I only had whole wheat flour on hand so our playdough was a little more grainy and brown than other people’s pictures out there but who cares. It was colorful, squishy fun and the recipe made more than enough playdough for several future sessions of squishy, crafty fantasticness. Hope you try it for yourself!

Winter Craftyness: Pinecone & Peanut Butter Birdfeeders

We came home with a couple of pinecones from a visit to Grandpa & Grandma’s house for Christmas. These were a quick and super easy craft that kept The Boy totally engaged. Start to finish (hanging them in the tree) it took about 10 minutes. I need to find more pinecones because The Boy keeps asking to “make bird seeders”. Good times!

First tie a long piece of string or yarn to the top of the pinecone – this is what you’ll use to hang from the tree. Then just slather the pinecone with peanut butter, be sure to get it into the crevices, and roll around in the birdseed. Pack on the seed to cover all the peanut butter. Tie to a tree branch and voila!

We tied it to branches right in front of our back deck window so The Boy can see the birds (or squirrels as it were) in action.

How to make super easy, adorable panda cupcakes.

Why hello Ms. Cutie-Patootie Panda.

      

I made these for a friend’s twin girls who were graduating from kindergarten. Their class mascot was a panda… how about some panda cupcakes to celebrate!

These were really easy to make. With that said - I've included a few tips how to make them way more complicated than necessary because that's how I roll. Why make them easily when you can make them the OCD way?

Go get your cupcake pans and let's get started. What you'll need:

Pandas

• Cupcakes (I like to use brown cupcake liners)
• White frosting (I used 1 tub of frosting per 2 dozen cupcakes)
• Chocolate frosting (just need a little bit for the mouths)
• Mini oreo cookies
• Junior Mints
• 1/4" White And Black Icing Eyes (or white frosting and brown mini M&Ms)
• Icing flowers (or color frosting your favorite color and use a star tip)

• ***OCD item*** mushroom brush

Bamboo

• Green frosting (I like Americolor gel colors - this was a blend of Leaf Green & Electric Green)
• Wilton Grass Tip #233
• Pepperidge Farm Pirouettes

 

That sounds like a lot but let's get started because I'm serious they're really easy. Here we go:

Voila!!! Wasn’t that easy? If you’d like to add a flower you can just add a little white frosting to the back of the flower and press on.

For the bamboo cupcakes – use the green frosting with the grass tip to create the grassy base.

 

(doesn’t that look super cool??!)

Press in your varied lengths of pirouette cookies then cover the bases with more grass. Add leaves if you’re feeling frisky.

 

 

Couple of tips:

- “Mise en place” works for decorating cupcakes as well as cooking. Have all of your toppings ready to go in little bowls and everything within reach so you can decorate while the frosting is still “wet” and everything will stick. The actual decorating will be quick and easy this way.

- ***OCD Tip*** If you’ve ever eaten mini oreo cookies, you know that they are particularly crumbly. Well all those crumbs can mess up your clean white frosting face so I separated all the cookie sandwiches, scraped off the filling and brushed off the crumbs from each and every one.

  

 

Yes – it actually made a difference. It kept those cute faces nice and clean with no stray crumbs.

Look at all those crumbs!!! Sweetboy makes fun of me for my OCD tendencies but I tell you what – it’s all about the details sometimes and this was one of those times.

These were so much fun and really tasty. I hope you’ll try them.

 

 

Here are some sweet shots of The Boy enjoying a panda cupcake. When I saw them in sequence I nearly hyperventilated from laughing so hard because the panda eyes are staring up at him while he nibbles.

 

Geez, is this kid cute or what??

Have a great weekend everyone! :)

Toddler Boy Apron and Snapshots from a Great Weekend.

What a GREAT weekend!!

I just finished this apron for The Boy. I started it at around 1:30pm today after he went down for a nap. He is really into fish and I had this fabric that I had bought to make him a little bag but instead used it for the apron. I made a pattern out of 4 sheets of paper I taped together and used one of his shirts as a guide for size. It came out pretty darn good!! I can't wait to try it on him tomorrow. I took pictures during the making of but it's too late to whip out a tutorial... I'll try to get one together and post or at least get the pictures up for a visual tutorial.

 

Friday The Boy helped me make pizza and kept trying to eat the flour and dough, then ate handfuls of tomato sauce and cheese instead of putting it on the pizza. Hence the need for an apron - wish I had had my camera handy, he was too cute.

Saturday night we started our Neighborhood Dinner Series night by having our neighbors across the street over for dinner. We had a great time, the company was great, the food was delicious and I got to use my favorite tablecloth, dishes, etc. which always makes me happy. Wish I had taken pictures, where is that camera?? We hope to have a different family over once a month so we can get to know everyone better. Hmmm... who is next...

Sunday morning started late with The Boy sleeping in til 730am. WoooHooo!!! Sweetboy made the best biscuits I've ever eaten for breakfast. We played around all morning, then we had fun with finger paints.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then it was time to play outside. "Eyes! Eyes!!" he says, so we go get his sunglasses.

 

The Boy went down for his nap and I started the apron. Now granted I just finished it around 1030pm but there were a lot of interuptions along the way including a hilarious bathtime

 

 

and listening to two new CDs (You Are My Flower and You Are My Sunshine) before bedtime from Elizabeth Mitchell & Daniel Littleton.

 She has such a sweet, folksy voice - her and her partner sing wondeful duets and the lovely little songs... you must go listen to the samples and read about all of the songs. I've been listening to the music on my own to learn the words and the songs are just so sweet and charming. I particularly like Ladybug Picnic, Lovers Lane and another that I can't remember the name.

 

 

 

We also had so many fresh flowers in the house this weekend. I'm sure it contributed to the great mood :)  Aren't those peonies amazing? Our neighbors brought them over Saturday. They smell heavenly.

Have a great week everyone!