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Yes we can bake that. It’s Christmastime!

I’ve told you before how I love to bake, that I always have since I was a kid, and about the time I ran away from home with my Easy Bake oven. Well, come Christmastime my want to bake explodes into long list of ingredients and recipes as my tastebuds water and my creative noggin churns of all the ways to present them to all the people I want to share them with. And that includes my children.

I love baking with my girls. Sometimes I just wish there was more time to do it and more adults handy to step in when the three girls are squabbling over space on the favorite foot stool used to for helping in the kitchen.

But still, I try to be a yes mom this time of year in the kitchen. Even if it means saying yes to doing half the recipe for buckeyes in the 45 minutes we have between getting home from school and reloading the girls back in Betty the Bus to make it to piano lessons at 5:00. We did that today. Just because it seemed like the fun thing to do.

So I’m sorry I didn’t stop by this site the last two days. I was baking, shopping and inventing more ideas of things to do – from buckeyes, to candy cane cookies, to a healthy gingerbread loaf house, to pancake mixes as gifts, soap making, beeswax candles crafting and bath salt mixing.

Come back really, really, soon. Because I’ve got big ideas to be a yes mom in the kitchen and beyond. And finally I will have some ideas together that you’ll love for baking up last minute teacher gifts, hostess gifts, cookie exchanges and for anyone with a sweet tooth or someone who likes a good hot bath. Which is sometimes just want a mama needs after cooking it up with three little helpers – I’m not going to lie.  But it is fun indeed. Yes it it.

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Snapshots of a homemade birthday, as she turned 5

They awoke by finding the birthday girl’s special birthday books on the table, and they were all eager to look at the pages, the photos and the stories that tell the tale of this little girl who was turning five.

The books were started because of a tradition at their Montessori school where the child does a Walk around the Sun on their birthday and the teacher shows photos and tells stories about their life, separated by years as they take one walk around the sun for each year of their life. I get all sappy about birthdays and I tend to do it up big. So for us, these books have turned into mini scrapbooks of their lives that each one of them have. Every year on their birthday, another year gets added and they wake up to the excitement of reading what it says.

The table was set with a tablecloth (which is not the norm here), a new birthday table runner was sewn by mama the night before as well a matching chair cover that said 5. The breakfast treat on the menu that morning was cinnamon rolls and strawberries. It was all an early morning surprise.

On the surprise table with the books was a new birthday outfit, with a special 5 headband and a mama sewn skirt, with a specific request for pockets.

After a hug from her dog Lulu the birthday girl was out the door, eager to see her friends and have her special day at school.

While she was away I was busy at play. I sewed accessories for her gift, which was a stuffed dog she requested. Oh – the dogs this gal loves! My work included a bed made of felt, a blanket of flannel, a bone and a rag toy for the stuffed dog who instantly got named “Flufee Gilbert.”

Gifts were wrapped. This one, a pair of roller-skates from the grandparents, got wrapped an old curtain panel that I previously sewed for our living room, and a ribbon from a project that never happened (because I DO run out of time).

At dinner we had a small celebration with just the five of us. We picked up cupcakes from our local favorite bakery and I officially became the mom who reused a 5 candle for the second kid. Yep that’s me! And yes it sat in the drawer for the last two years. And yes I threw it away so it won’t get used a third time, in three years when the third girl turns five. The birthday girl did however get a new shinny green 5 candle in her homemade cake for her Saturday party with her friends. And that one did get put into the drawer.

It was the first away from home party for this girl. She begged and begged to have it at a little gymnastics place. So I picked up her crystal cake stand (we have a tradition of each girl having their own birthday cake stand to be used on her special day) and rode to the party with it on my lap, cake and all. That yummy, awesomely, wow striking cake is made from the recipe that comes with this cookie pan that I won in a secret santa gift exchange last year (I can assure you the gift I brought was not that good).

And even though the party was away, we took our homemade goodies, tablecloths, treat bags, and much-loved birthday banner with us.

Happy birthday my sweet, quirky five-year-old. I’m glad you had fun. I think I had equal amounts of fun doing all this for you!

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Simple photo ornament made from tree trunk wood

I knew I wanted to do this craft, making photo ornaments using cut off pieces from our Christmas tree trunk. So when we went to cut down our Christmas tree I asked the nice, old, 82-year-old man running the chainsaw if he would be so kind to cut off a few extra pieces from the bottom of the tree. He loved the idea of preserving part of our tree, grown by him, and said no problem.

At home I let the pieces dry out for a couple days until we got around to using them. Then I sanded our four pieces of round cedar wood with an electric sander, and let the girls finish them off using regular sand paper. Next the girls chose pictures on my computer they wanted to print. We cut them out in circles just smaller than the slices of tree trunk and used Mod Podge to glue them on.

The color turned out a little muted from using plain printer paper and the ink of a standard printer. But I like the vintage look it has. To hang the ornament I screwed a small eye hook into the wood and made a hanging loop from a narrow piece of fabric left over from previous project.

For a glossier look have photos machine printed, cover the wood (and photo) in polyurethane and use a fancy ribbon instead of frayed fabric.

But we were going for the homemade, easy, no chemical route – with the project being done at the dinning room table while I was cooking dinner. Because that’s the kid way and pretty much the way we roll.

My sweet middle daughter chose to a photo of mom and dad for her ornament.

To read more about our week of crafting ornaments for our locally grown, cut down Christmas tree – check our crafts we did over the course of one week, while making attempts to go about the season slowly and more mindful than the mega, consumerism that happens around us.

Here’s the links to the crafts: felt tree garland, upcycled burlap balls, finger knitting garland, ornaments made from stencils, and candy canes from beads and pipe cleaners.

 

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Sewing a felt tree garland or banner for Christmas

To get started on this project, for children draw simple triangle trees onto a sheet of felt and have them start cutting. My five-year-old cut about three sheets worth of trees before she gat tired of the craft. Out of all the crafts we did last week. I think was her favorite. She loves to cut! For adults take an 8×11 sheet of felt and fold it three ways across then once over, making six layers of felt. Then cut out the tree forms.

My middle daughter laid her trees out to determine the pattern she wanted the garland to have.

Then I got sewing, on my machine. Yarn and an old fashion needle could do the trick too. But I love sewing these, so this project was partly for me. A tip when sewing felted banners is to raise the number tension on your machine settings to about 6 (usually I sew at 4-5 on my machine). And make the stitches setting wider than you usually use. Otherwise when the thread is not actually sewing through any of the felt, and is between the tree tops, it breaks easily. A young child with some moderate sewing experience could handle sewing this project on a machine. But my seven-year-old probably would have gotten a bit frustrated when the thread broke several times.

When finished hang it on your tree! Or use it as a banner. Or hang it on your chandler. I love doing that with felt banners on birthdays.

To recap our week of crafts so far, here are links to the other posts on our ornaments for our homemade Christmas tree. There was upcycled burlap balls, finger knitting garland, ornaments made from stencils, and candy canes from beads and pipe cleaners. Still to come is photos from tree stumps. Then I’ll be on to sharing my birthday girl who turned five this week, and teacher gifts.

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Making upcycled burlap balls for our homemade tree

I saw this fabric ball idea on Pinterest and immediately thought it would be a great use for some of the torn burlap that I recently acquired for free. I found an awesome source for authentic coffee bean sacks, with printings on them from Columbia and beyond. But they were reused to package concrete structures and some of them were torn in spots. So I saved the good pieces for later projects (gifts to be sewn and shared soon) and started cutting up the leftovers into squares.

To make the upcycled burlap balls, first I cut stacks of burlap squares that were roughly 2-3″ by 2-3″ but not measured with any great certainty or preciseness. I bought styrofoam balls from the craft store and had the kids help me with the rest. We put the burlap on wooden skewers like you would tissue paper on the end of a pencil, dipped the end in glue and pushed it into the ball.

This task was a bit tricky for my five-year-old. But she enjoyed it anyway. To hang them on the tree I used one long narrow strip of scrap fabric, with both ends stuck into the ball using the same glue and skewer method.

Once you have the burlap cut, these go pretty quick. And viola, here you have it.

To recap our week of crafts so far, here are links to the other posts on our ornaments for our homemade Christmas tree. There was finger knitting garland, ornaments made from stencils, and candy canes from beads and pipe cleaners. Still to come is garland from felt and photos from tree stumps. Hopefully that will keep you stumped! Come back for more crafting soon.

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How to finger knit garland for your Christmas tree

My seven-year-old learned to finger knit one day in aftercare at her Montessori school. Many Waldorf based education philosophies teach this too, using stories that go along with the craft that has been passed down from generation to generation. My daughter also enjoys teaching this skill to others, including me.

So last weekend, my oldest daughter and I sat together, and talked, and knit – using just our four fingers and two balls of yarn. The goal is to knit enough garland to go around our Christmas tree, which is about 9 feet tall sitting under our 10 foot ceilings. (Don’t fret, lengths of finger knitting multiply quickly!) We are still working on all this garland, which is why for now, you get snapshots of our tree so far.

Making Christmas tree decorations is part of my mission this season to go about the holidays simply, slowly and creatively – not rushed or doing anything I feel like we should be doing because that’s what you’re supposed to do this time of year.

And now to pass this craft on to you and your children so you can do the same, is my daughter in her first ever YouTube debut on How to Finger Knit. She loves looking up videos on YouTube, from how to work a latch hook to creating hairstyles for her dolls. She’s no veteran of YouTube, and I think that’s evident by her finger knitting instructions.

Our weekend knitting was fun, but I think the favorite part for both of us was the time we spent together. I wish there were more times I could throw making dinner to the wind and do nothing but craft with my kids. But I have to say it doesn’t happen nearly enough in the short after school hours. So this weekend I look forward crafting it up again, one stitch at a time.

To recap our week of crafts so far, here are links to the other posts on our ornaments for our homemade Christmas tree. There was upcycled burlap balls, ornaments made from stencils, and candy canes from beads and pipe cleaners. Still to come is garland from felt and photos from tree stumps. Hopefully that will keep you stumped! Come back for more crafting soon.

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Christmas ornaments from stencils for all ages

Last year my oldest daughter took it upon herself to start making cutout Christmas tree ornaments from stencils. Now it’s becoming a tradition. My big girls usually make on them on fly, grabbing computer paper and doing it all on their own when the inspiration strikes them. Keeping colored pencils, scissors, a hole puncher and pipe cleaners readily available means our tree gets filled up with these in no time.

In order to preserve our stencil ornaments, we run them through a home laminator machine (you can pick them up in craft stores or Target for about $40). Using heavy, non glossy card stock would eliminate that need and provide a more earth friendly option. But that laminator machine, is well, such a fun splurge of a thing to have around the house for special occasion items.

Lastly, we use the hole puncher and pipe cleaners to make a loop and hang the cutouts on the tree. Like I said yesterday about our candy cane craft, we love pipe cleaners because they are so easy for children to use.

For the stencils we used Christmas Stencil Cards by Usborne Books. Usborne books can be hard to find sometimes because they are designed to be sold from individual dealers, sort of like an online Tupperware party philosophy. They are gaining in popular and are seeping their way into bookstores – so keep your eye our for them. We got ours at our local bookstore two years ago.

As you can see below, this is a craft all ages can participate in.

To recap our week of crafts so far, here are links to the other posts on our ornaments for our homemade Christmas tree. There was finger knitting garland, upcycled burlap balls, and candy canes from beads and pipe cleaners. Still to come is garland from felt and photos from tree stumps. Hopefully that will keep you stumped! Come back for more crafting soon.

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Easy candy cane ornament craft for small fingers

This candy cane craft idea came from my daughter’s Montessori school. It is a lesson placed on the shelf every year in the 3-6 year old classroom. You can use all colors of beads. But for the sake of continuity on our Christmas tree, we just used red and white beads.

Even my two-year-old really enjoyed this craft. And with a little help from her big sister, the craft held her attention long enough to make a whole candy cane. That is a lot of work for her age, to get all those beads on a pipe cleaner. It’s also wonderful for the development of fine motor skills, which is why it’s placed in the Montessori classroom.

This ornament craft sat in our dinning room all weekend – a weekend where we ditched are agendas and did nothing other than crafts, cut down a tree, and put it up. Between the three girls the candy cane “lesson” was  visited often enough that our tree is now filled with candy canes.

The directions are simple. Take one pipe cleaner, put a bead at one end and bend the pipe cleaner over it. That holds the bead in place and keeps all the rest of the beads from slipping off. Then fill the pipe cleaner with beads and do the same trick at the finished end. Then bend down the top to shape a candy cane and hang it right on your tree.

Children can make a pattern, or in the case of my two-year-old, just put them on any which way. There is never any rules to crafting with children. If you have only toddler age children, you might want to cut the pipe cleaners in half so the task is not so long.

For another variation of this, I provided glittery red pipe cleaners and the girls twisted them together with the white ones.

Pipe cleaners are a wonderful, inexpensive material with multiple uses of fun. I love the open ended play they provide. (They make great stocking stuffers too!)

To recap our week of crafts so far, here are links to the other posts on our ornaments for our homemade Christmas tree. There was finger knitting garland, upcycled burlap balls and ornaments made from stencils. Still to come is garland from felt and photos from tree stumps. Hopefully that will keep you stumped! Come back for more crafting soon.

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Weekending

This weekend we are focusing on slowing down, being mindful and in the moment. There has been loads of crafting, knitting, holidaying, little girl laughter, cookie eating and saying no to doing – even though it can be so hard.

Our whole Saturday consisted of going to cut down a Christmas tree at our favorite House Mountain Christmas Tree Farm. The man who runs the farm is 82 years-old. He sent us down to his house to have hot chocolate with his wife who was making fresh wreaths on the front porch. She welcomed the girls into their 100 year-old log cabin and to soar in their tree swing. They have 28 grandchildren between their 5 grown children! They welcomed our crew warmly. We took time to visit, to talk, sip hot chocolate, and sip some more hot chocolate.

The girls romped in their boots while insisting on wearing nice holiday outfits and mama made skirts to go cut down a tree. What can I say? That’s what little girls are made of.

Next week look for a series of posts featuring easy to make Christmas tree decorations for all ages, birthday celebrations and hopefully some homemade gift ideas for teachers. Yes, that time is coming and it will be here before you know it!

Enjoy your Sunday, and our snapshots from today.

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Gift Guide :: Safer Cookware for the family chef

I’m a tricky person to buy for. You see, when I want something I usually just buy it. I realize this is a luxury. But I’d rather save my husband the trip, buy that sweater when I see it and have Christmas morning be about the kids and their homemade gifts to me.

However when it comes to my kitchen, I do not treat myself to new things. I desperately need a new stock pot to replace my current one that has become a mysterious shade of brownish/red (soon to be rust) and has probably been emitting toxic chemicals into our soups. Gross!

We’ve been married since 1999 and safe cookware has come a long way since our wedding showers. We didn’t know about all the chemicals in cookware then, the affects of non-stick surfaces or that cooking with aluminum pots caused Alzheimer’s disease. Now we know stainless steel is best, cast iron is tried and true, that putting food in plastic is bad, and that my black coated Calphalon set of pots was a poor choice for our wedding registry.

So when family asks this year what I want for Christmas, I’m telling them to look here. Because really, I’m writing this gift guide for them, and other moms like me who don’t see the fun in buying their own pots and pans. I by no means expect to get all this stuff. But a gal can wish.

To read more about safer cookware, the Environmental Working Group is a good place to start – on Teflon, about PFCs and safer cooking options.

 

Gift Guide for Safer Cookware

A Le Creuset stock pot for soups, pasta and so much more. The turquoise blue is so much fun it makes me want to throw on a ruffly apron and cook something.

A Le Creuset 9 inch skillet is a basic must for our kitchen. For frying pans, I read here that Le Creuset wins the test for frying up eggs and other things that stick easily to cookware. The pans come in varying sizes from 6 1/3″ to 11.75″. For us I think we can get away with a 9″ for most things – from eggs, to kale, to brussels spouts to fried okra (which is what we’ve been doing a lot of lately).

A Cuisinart Chef’s Classic Stainless Steel Saucepan  seems to be a good middle of the road choice for saucepans. For saucepans I think the important thing is that they are stainless steel with no coatings. So you have options. I love All-Clad but they are super expensive.

An Adagio Teas Glass Water Kettle to replace mine with the melting plastic stopper on the spout. And this one is so, simply, beautiful.

A replacement toaster over of my same old, very much loved grimy Hamilton Beach combo toaster and mini oven. A toaster oven is a great alternative to the microwave and it saves energy when heating small items verses warming up the big oven for a few kid’s chicken fingers. I’ve pined over a larger one by Cuisinart in stores before. But ultimately I always opt to save my counter space.

A set of stainless steel measuring cups, because with three mini helpers in the kitchen there never seems to be enough of these. And I’d like to ditch the old plastic ones that have taken too many accidental trips down the garbage disposal.

A set of glass mixing bowls to replace our plastic ones that have migrated over to the, ahem, sick closet after the last simultaneous kid’s stomach bug. (In the moment a mom does what she has to do, right?  I’m sure you understand.)

A giant stainless steel mixing bowl because I’m sure I could use it for a thousand things. We do, after all, feed five mouths here.

Some Bamboo wooden mixing spoons so I can toss out the last of the plastic ones lingering around but still in use.

And if you really want me to keep going – I recommend glass storage containers. I love the Pyrex brand because they can go from oven, to table, to fridge, to reheat mode. I even use the small round ones to send things in lunches for the foods my girls reheat in the microwaves at school.

To avoid putting hot soups and foods in a plastic food processor (because most of them are plastic unless you use a glass blender) I can’t say enough awesome things about my Bamix immersion blender. It’s great for pureeing just about anything, from soups, to potatoes, to baby food – and it’s worth every penny. There other brands available for cheeper, but like any good blender, you get what you pay for. And if I was going to splurge for one (I did have a gift card) I was going to make sure I got one that worked. This thing rocks!

 

That’s my wish list for me, and little bit for you. Now I’m signing off so I can get cooking!

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