super easy valentines

The little dude is not crafty. He saw his sister meticulously crafting her mailbox valentines, and wanted nothing of the sort. So he chose a box of valentines from the store, and some cute little bubble accessories. (We were going to do the bubbles with an attached tag + stickers, but the box of valentines was actually cheaper!) Super easy, quick, but still fun and a little more exciting than the valentines alone.

We began by assembling the boxed valentines. (They came with temporary tattoos that needed to be separated and attached.) My little guy is a big fan of order, so he spent some time matching the tattoos to the corresponding valentines. There weren't enough for all of them to match, so we had five or so at the end that didn't match. He was surprisingly ok with this.

After writing names on all of them, we punched holes in one corner, cut some ribbon, and used the ribbon to tie on the bubbles. Easy peasy. Still a little crafty, but he actually enjoyed helping. He got to pick the color of the ribbon and bubbles—he likes having that control. I was thankful for the time we spent assembling. :)

This photo borrowed from the other day. 

favorite: kale

I am in love.

I walked in to Trader Joe's (an hour's drive from my house) last weekend and the first thing I saw was this bag of kale. This beautiful, amazing bag of pre-washed kale was sitting on the shelf so nonchalantly, as if bags of pre-washed kale were available at every grocery store. No flashing neon signs to draw attention to such a wonderful thing. I was flabbergasted and threw two into my cart before anyone else could grab them.

Now, I know I live in a small town. Our grocery selections are not as broad as those in larger cities. Is pre-washed kale a new thing?

I love eating kale.

I detest washing kale.

Dirt hides in all those curls and folds and has to be scrubbed out. I bought flat-leaf (lacinato) kale seeds for the garden for easier washing, but still had to scrub them because of the bugs. (They looked like aphids. I need to try ladybugs this year.)

Finding pre-washed, pre-cut kale was the highlight of my week.

I've been eating it every day since. I threw some in a barley and bean minestrone. I sautéed some with quinoa and nuts for breakfast. (Yes, really. That's how much I love kale!) Today it was sautéed beside huevos rancheros à la Smitten Kitchen (minus the cheese and beans).  Cutting out the prep work makes this my new favorite ingredient. I'm going to be traveling to Trader Joe's a lot more often.

My heart is so happy.

22/366 mailbox valentines

Today was hopefully our last day trapped in the house. We weren't really trapped today, but freezing rain prevented us from attending my nephew's first birthday party in Gresham. Boo.

Sweetpea and I figured we'd get a head start on her class valentines, since we had time. We ended up finishing them! It took us about two hours to put together 30 of these mailbox valentines. I've never had valentines done this early. It feels so strange. Good, but strange.

I found the idea on Pinterest, and tracked it back to Gigi's Creative Designs blog. She has the materials list on her Valentine Mail Box post, and the dimensions for the card stock strips. So head over there for the details.

She did not, however, have clear assembly directions. So I played around with the strips and photographed they way we assembled them.

Note: Sweetpea is seven, but she needed quite a bit of help with assembly. The strips need to be pulled tightly around the Hershey Nuggets for a secure hold.

 

If I were concerned with these looking perfect, I would have used hidden double sided tape. But since they're for a class of second graders, the paper mailbox will probably be ripped apart immediately to access the candy. So we went the easy—and less expensive—route and used regular transparent tape.

Aren't they adorable? Oh, and since Hershey Nuggets are processed in a facility that also processes tree nuts, we used Starburst (three, stacked, then turned on their sides) for the kids in the class with nut allergies. Happy almost Valentine's Day!

tshirt scarf #2

For reference, refer to the tshirt scarf #1 post for a link to the video tutorial.

My second attempt at a tshirt scarf was the ruffly kind. It looked so adorable on my 7yr old, that I ran out to Target and raided the Men's Clearance. I found two xl/xxl shirts for about $3.50 each. One is sitting, folded, uncut, next to me. The other I cut into spirals, hoping to make an adorable ruffly scarf for myself.

It was not adorable.

It was ok. I really like the ruffles at the ends. But the ruffled, rumpled fabric on my neck and near my face just don't cut it for me. I haven't given up completely—I keep trying to find new ways to wrap/tie it. But I may just end up giving this one to Sweetpea as well.

I won't make another ruffly scarf for myself, though. Try as I may, I am just not a ruffly girl. Never have been. So with my other giant tshirt I will make another strip scarf or maybe just a large infinity scarf.

Have you tried the tshirt scarves yet? What do you think?

tshirt scarf #1

Thanks to my friend Jen, Pinterest, and this handy little video from Studio 5 in Salt Lake, I had a new no-sew scarf in 5 minutes today. I took an old tshirt, cut it into strips, stretched them, doubled them, and tied them together. It really was that easy.

My loops didn't curl as much as the scarf on the video. I think that had something to do with the weave of this particular tshirt. I'm attempting the frilly/spiral scarf with another tshirt tomorrow—we'll see how that goes. I have a feeling that cheap discount store tshirts might work the best. I'll keep you posted.

Even though they didn't curl perfectly, I still love this new accessory. It was the perfect pop of color for my rain cloud-colored outfit today. Hooray!

fromage de chevre avec bleuets

 Or, for you non-French speakers,

goat cheese with blueberries.

It was one of those warm summer evenings when no one really wanted to eat dinner, 

but we all needed something so we'd last until breakfast.

Goat cheese at room temperature

Chopped almonds

Blueberries

Green onions, for fun.

And a little drizzle of olive oil.

Wasa crackers for the grown-ups, Trader Joe's multigrain crackers for the littles.

Yummy.

Would make a great appetizer, too.

And I know, the green onions seem weird. 

But really, they work.

And they make the whole thing look fancy,

which is very important.

What's your favorite too-hot-for-cooking dinner?

watermelon popsicles

 It's HOT this week. 

I'm not a fan of HOT.

This is the perfect way to cool down.

Easy peasy.

 See?

Easy PEASy.

Please excuse my disorganized freezer.

Any tips on organizing frozen veggies?

For the life of me, I could not get them to smile.

I think they wanted to stop posing and go play.

But really, they loved these popsicles.

They loved them even more than the apple juice popsicles with watermelon chunks I made,

which spilled all over the freezer.

I think I'll stick to freezing fruit chunks from now on.

dining chair slipcovers

Hello, hello! My apologies for my unintentional week off. We just returned from a week in the San Juan Islands, and I thought we'd have internet access in our vacation house. I had planned on blogging while we were there. But I do believe it was meant to be—I'm sure I enjoyed my vacation more and spent more time with my family with the computer off. Hubs and I spent our evenings sitting on the deck watching for orcas and doing jigsaw puzzles. It was absolutely fantastic.

And just as soon as I sort through my 600 photos, I'll share some with you. :) 

But for today, I have those dining chair slipcovers I told you about at the beginning of the month. Little Mister thinks that he's ready to be done with his booster seat during meals. He's just about four and is ready to shed all signs of babyhood. I think he's still a little too short for the table, but so far it hasn't been a problem. I like that he's making decisions for himself.

I didn't have much to go on here. I winged it by looking at a few pictures and guessing. But I did make myself a pattern and measured very carefully. Shocking, I know. I wanted these to be done right the first time, because I didn't have time to redo them.

I taped together pages from an old magazine and cut a template of my chair seat. Then I used that to cut the seat fabric, and measured for the fabric rectangles that would make up the straight skirt. I pinned, sewed, pressed seams open, made some quick fabric ties. I finished two seat covers in about two hours, using just one yard of fabric.

And now my kids won't make my chairs so messy. 

Hooray!

How was your week? What's new? What did I miss?

friendship bracelet obsession

 First of all, do you know how hard it is to take a photo of your wrist with a 50mm lens?

It's really, really hard!

Manual focus helps, but I still looked very funny contorting myself into weird shapes

to get my wrist far enough away from my camera.

The kids and I are slightly obsessed with friendship bracelets lately.

Embroidery floss has been flying around here like feathers from a beaten pillow.

The little guy asked for one in cotton twine, like mine.

I told him we were bracelet buddies.

“That's what they'll call us!”

Sweetpea now has four.

She wanted to have the same number as me.

She made one, her Aunt Britt Britt made one, I made two.

Such a blast from the past. 

I made hundreds of these when I was a kid.

Did you?

clothespin/popsicle stick airplane magnets

 Parents: This is a decorative magnet. This is not a toy. It has tiny parts that are easily broken.

I saw this adorable little wooden airplane on Pinterest last week and knew the kids would love it. The directions on Parents.com looked easy enough. I gathered some clothespins, popsicle/craft sticks and permanent markers and we all sat down.

Note: I do not normally let my children craft with permanent markers, for obvious reasons. I didn't really feel like waiting for paint to dry on this craft, so I took a risk and went for the markers. I lined the table thoroughly with old magazine pages from the recycling bin and supervised carefully. They did great.

I didn't have any craft foam on hand, so I used a utility knife to carefully cut the tail pieces. I used sandpaper to smooth the edges. We colored all the pieces separately and I hot glued them together when we were done.

 I like how I can still use the clothespin to hold papers.

Let me state again: Please do not use this as a toy. It will break within five minutes. At the least, you will have a bummed kid. At worst, your kid could choke on the pieces. 

Fun decoration only!

Here it is holding up my lofty “summer schedule” goal. 

We might accomplish half of the tasks on this schedule each day. 

Mom fail.

But the airplane magnet?

Total win!

super easy chocolate graham cookies

I was making a batch of frozen banana bites (banana chunks covered with a peanut butter and chocolate combination) last week to take to a dinner party. We had a few playdate guests that afternoon, and the kids were really hoping to try some of the banana bites. 

“No dice,” I said, “they're for a party.”

But I ended up with lots of chocolate peanut butter left over, so I dropped spoonfuls onto graham cracker squares, topped with more graham cracker squares and smooshed them to guide the chocolate peanut butter to the edges. I stuck them in the fridge for 30 minutes to solidify the chocolate and served them to the hungry kids (with apple slices and Goldfish crackers). 

They were a huge hit. So huge, I had to try one. 

Oh goodness. They were delicious. Even better than the frozen banana bites (though those received rave reviews, too). I will definitely be mixing up more chocolate and peanut butter, but I may skip the whole banana step next time and go right for the grahams.

Super Easy Chocolate Graham Cookies

(click here for printable version)

1⁄2 cup chocolate chips

1⁄3 cup creamy peanut butter

Approx. one package graham crackers

• Place chocolate chips and peanut butter together in a microwave-safe bowl. (I always use a Pyrex 2 cup measuring cup. I like the handle for stirring.)
• Microwave for 30 seconds.
• Stir.
• Microwave longer, as needed, to completely melt the chocolate chips. The mixture should be totally smooth after stirring.
• Set aside.
• Break graham crackers into squares and arrange half on a plate, cookie sheet, cutting board. . . whatever is flat and will fit in your refrigerator.
• Drop 1-2 tablespoons of the chocolate peanut butter mixture on each graham square. The mixture should be pretty thick, and you want a thick layer, so go ahead and pile it on. Leave it in the center and don't worry about the edges for now.
• Place graham cracker squares on top of all the chocolate-covered grahams. 
• Press down gently to spread the chocolate peanut butter to the edges. Perfection is not necessary here, just try to keep it from going over the edge.
• Refrigerate for 30 minutes or until the chocolate peanut butter is set.
• Enjoy cold or at room temperature.

water glass xylophone

The little mister saw this idea on an episode of Cat in the Hat, and begged me to do it. What's a little water mess, right? I was a little worried he'd bang too hard and break the glasses, but he did fine. This is a fun, free, simple activity that anyone can do. Perfect for summer days, as you can do it inside if it's too hot, or outside for super easy cleanup.

You need: 

• Three or more glasses
• Water, preferably in a child-friendly pitcher
• Chopstick, spoon, or other tapping/banging utensil (use your judgment to find the best tool for your child)

+ Fill the glasses with varying levels of water. More water = low sound; less water = high sound.

+ If you're feeling adventurous, let your child add water from the pitcher and redistribute water in the glasses.

+ For extra demonstration, have your child tap on an empty glass and keep tapping as you fill it with water. Listen to the sound change as the water level changes.

+ Have a towel handy for large spills. Have your child help clean up when you're done. They think it's fun!

lemon poppy seed glaze

Look out folks. 

I am about to revolutionize your weekend mornings.

I set out to make French toast Sunday morning for the family. But I wanted something different. Something sweet, but. . . tart? Yeah. . . tart! 

I whipped up a quick lemon glaze, threw in some poppy seeds, and drizzled it over our French toast. I may never use maple syrup again. It was amazingly delicious. Everyone loved it.

 It's hard to call this a “recipe”—it's ridiculously simple.

1/2 tablespoon butter
1 cup powdered sugar
4-5 tablespoons lemon juice (approximately)
1½ teaspoons poppy seeds (optional)
Lemon zest (optional)

• Melt butter in microwave-safe bowl. (I used a liquid measuring cup.) Allow to cool.
• Stir in powdered sugar.
• Add in lemon juice while stirring, until desired consistency is reached. (I wanted mine thick, but easily pourable. You can add more powdered sugar if it gets too thin.)
• Stir in poppy seeds and lemon zest, if using.
• Drizzle over French toast, pancakes, muffins, pound cake, doughnuts. . .

Here's a printable version.

kid craft: hungry caterpillar painting

 

I saw an idea a few weeks ago to make a Very Hungry Caterpillar painting using kid thumb/fingerprints. (Original Very Hungry Caterpillar Fingerprint Craft post on itmom here.) I thought it was a brilliant kid craft idea, but I knew my son would never go for it.

1) He hates getting his fingers messy

2) He likes clear directions. Free form creative art puts him in a spin.

But he does love the hungry caterpillar book. So I showed him the original post, and showed him my stencil stippling foam brush (that round blue thing up there) that he could use to make the body segments without getting paint on his fingers. He was willing to try it. I asked him to look at the cover of the book for inspiration and tell me which colors we needed. Then we got to work.

He did great! Granted, I had to hold his hand to help him place each dot. And I helped with the feet and antenna because he claimed (screeched) that he didn't know how to do it. But he did mix colors with gusto, so I'm calling it a success!

Your normal, likes-to-get-messy-and-create child will love this craft, whether you do finger prints or brushes. (My daughter would have made a zillion little caterpillars with that brush!) You could read the story, paint the picture, and then have a snack based on the book. Though I wouldn't suggest eating all the things the caterpillar ate, having a few of them followed by a nice green spinach leaf would be fun.

(Oh, and if you don't know the variety of foods the caterpillar ate because you haven't seen the book, run, don't walk to your favorite library or bookstore and read the book. Even if you don't have kids. Promise! Eric Carle is amazing.)

pendant lamp s-hook party trick

In my mile-long party post Monday, I forgot to show you guys my favorite party trick. 

You see, we have a small house. So when we have a party, we usually have to move our dining table for traffic-flow purposes. No big deal, except that we have a pendant light fixture hanging down low enough that, without the table there, anyone over 5 ft could whack their head on it.

I searched and searched my photo files for a photo of the offending lamp, but came up empty. I even checked the website from which we bought the fixture, but even they don't have a full hanging photo. You'll just have to trust me that it usually hangs down from a chain.

How do I protect my guests from head injuries?

A simple S-hook.

Pretty tricky, eh?

I slip the top of the S through the top link, and the bottom of the S through the link attached to the pendant. The chain sticks out a little, but it's so close to the ceiling that no one notices.

And no noggins get bonked.

Happy parties = no head bonks.

Every mom knows that it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt.

Am I right or am I right?

**Disclaimer: Do this at your own risk! Please check your equipment thoroughly for structure and sufficient strength.**

pink orange and yellow birthday party, with a seven theme on the side

My dear Sweetpea celebrated her 7th birthday last week. She's 7 going on 25, so she had the entire party planned—from the invitations, to the colors, the activities and the cupcake decorations. We collaborated on several things, but this party was her baby. I was merely the facilitator.

She drew a design for her invitations, and I helped her transfer it digitally using Adobe Illustrator. She made sure to include seven 7s in the drawing, as “seven” was her theme that helped bring everything together. We found the party hat dimensional stickers on a clearance rack at the grocery store (of all places) and thought they would be the perfect finishing touch.

*    *    *

Now here's something you don't see very often—a glimpse into my typical crafty time. I can't possibly get anything done when the munchkins are awake, so my craft time happens after they go to sleep. I'm usually on our big comfy couch in front of a Netflix movie. (This one happened to be The Joneses. Good overall message, though a wee bit overdone. But I'll watch anything with David Duchovny once.)

On this particular crafty night, I was cutting paper napkins into pennants for the party banners. I used the fold of the napkin to my advantage. I kept the folded side intact, and cut from each corner down to the center of the opposite (open) side. Like this:

Then all I did to make the banner was hang cotton twine where I wanted it, and place the pre-folded pennants over the string. They're fairly “sticky,” as in they don't slide around easily, but they do fly off with a strong breeze or, say, when a 7 year old party guest bounces a balloon up onto them.

The napkin idea worked much better in my head. I wasn't too impressed with it in action. But it was a quick, easy and cheap way to make many yards of banner. Much easier than stringing cardstock onto string via punched holes, like I did for the baby shower.

Snacks & Decorations

Balloon 7: Queen Martha, or more likely, her staff
Apple & marshmallow smiles: Disney Family

The party was after school, so we kept the snacks light and mostly healthy. Apple smiles, grape skewers and hard boiled eggs (which we used for one of the seven challenges; see below). Sweetpea insisted on cupcakes, but refused to let me put them on tiered cake plates for height. So I chose a few bottled sodas to display on the tiered pedestals and served the sodas in cups, because most 7 year olds won't drink a whole soda at a party.

Activities

For the activity portion of the party, Sweetpea chose seven physical challenges for her guests.

1. Clothespin drop—kneeling on a backward chair, drop clothespins, one at a time, and try to get them into a jar. Everyone must drop from a consistent level above the jar; we asked everyone to keep their hands level with the chair back. This is a game I played at parties when I was a kid, and it was a big hit at this party.
2. Balance an object while standing on one foot—We vertically stacked two rectangular blocks on each guest's hand and timed how long they could balance the blocks while standing on one foot. It's harder than it seems, and was really fun.
3. Bounce a balloon seven times in a row without letting it touch the ground
4. Jump rope seven times in a row—this was easy for some; difficult for others. Bonus: everyone got to take home new jump ropes! (This was our only party favor, and no one complained about missing goody bags.)
5. Egg on a spoon race—each guest carried an egg on a spoon across the backyard. Whoever made it to the finish line first without dropping their egg was the winner. The kids loved this game! We used hard boiled eggs, both for easier clean up and so we could use them as a snack. Per Sweetpea's request, we composted the egg shells.
6. Hold breath for 70 seconds—this was Sweetpea's idea, but I made sure the guests knew it was optional. None of the kids made it even close to 70 seconds.
7. 70 Jumping jacks in a row—the kids did great on this one! It was the perfect way to channel some of that after-school energy.

I made no mention of winners or how guests ranked in their results. I did keep track of stats on our “scoreboard” (my 24x36 cutting mat covered with paper), but let the kids draw their own conclusions. Everyone received a plastic “medal” for participating.

Cupcakes

Sweetpea was very specific about her cupcake plans. She wanted lemon cake with chocolate frosting, topped with pink, yellow and orange fondant and a fondant 7. And, as I mentioned above, they were to be displayed flat. I took the liberty of elevating her cupcake, but she didn't complain.

She chose compostable cupcake liners over brightly colored trendy ones. She's very Earth-friendly.

Full disclosure: I used boxed cake mix and store bought frosting. I was exhausted from the previous week's auction and just wanted this party to be easy.

I did, however, make the fondant. Here is my printable marshmallow fondant recipe. I added a little pink gel color and a little yellow, then kneaded everything together just enough to make it swirl. The pink and yellow mixed to make orange, so I had all the colors represented in a cool tie-dye/marbley swirl. I wasn't about to buy a special cupcake-sized cookie cutter, so I searched our cabinets for something the right size. Our wine glasses had the perfect diameter, so I used those to cut my fondant circles.

The fondant 7s? Oh, the fondant 7s. Here's another situation where I didn't want to buy a special cutter. I used the corner of a flag cookie cutter I had on hand, and hand cut the rest of it. It was a big pain, but it was exactly what my girl wanted. Seeing her smile when the whole party came together just as she hoped made all my trouble worthwhile.

I'm so impressed with the party she put together. She was an eager planning participant, and pretty easy to work with. I love how she included healthy snacks, physical activity, and eco-conscious options. She is one fantastic little girl. ♥

Click the “comments” link below to tell me your thoughts on the party. Also, I'm interested to know if you think this post was too long. I went for one long “whole party” post, but could just as easily have broken it up into sections for multiple posts. To help me with future posts, which do you prefer?