Warm Inside

It's snowing/sleeting outside. Thankfully I'm inside. A perfect day to bake.

Yummy Carrot Muffins (or cupcakes as we call them at our house. They seem to get eaten quicker if you call them cupcakes.) This recipe comes from my mother-in-law. She wrote out the recipe several years ago. You can see that we've made it once or twice. Maybe. 

Computer, Blogging and a PlayBook

Well, my computer is dead. D.E.A.D. It was getting old, it never worked quite right even though it was sent back to the manufacturer, and I hated it. But, I wasn't ready for it to die. I've willed it to life, but no such luck. We're looking into options, so in the meantime I am going to try to blog with my PlayBook. This posses a couple of challenges: 1. No slot for my SD card, thankfully the PlayBook has a camera. And 2. Trying to use programs that are mouse based and not designed for tablets. But here we go...

Many of you know that we have been trying to save up for a fireplace. There's a chimney, but no fireplace.  We plan on putting in the living room, right where the tapestry is.

The fireplace seems to be getting further and further away with car repairs and new computers taking precedent. I know a fireplace is not a necessity. I think I'm more frustrated about not being able to save the money than the lack of the fireplace (it's the reverse for Andrew, I'm sure). Thank goodness for my mom who reminded me that  years ago, just when she thought she had enough money to buy drapes for the living room (2 very large windows) something would come up. So for now, I will enjoy the room the way it is and look forward to the day when we will warm ourselves in front of the fireplace.

The Non-Skating, Skating Day

Family Day. We are all home enjoying the day off, enjoying the sunshine and we thought we would enjoy some skating. But as much as we tried, the skating day turned into a non-skating day.

Our first attempt was the skating rink at the church. When we pulled into the parking lot, we were surprised that there was hardly anyone there. We understood why as soon as we got onto the ice. Slush. Non-ice. The warmth of the sun was lovely on the face, just not so lovely on the ice. Our next attempt was the rink downtown, built to stay frozen in above freezing temperatures. It was crowded. Crazy crowded. No room to move crowded. So home we went.

Pinterest, Art and an Eleven Year-Old

Well, as many of you know, Little Miss recently celebrated her 11th birthday. We had fun planning it together using Pinterest. We created a board just for her. Great ideas, all in one place. Art. Colour. Fun.

It turned out well, don't you think? The streamer idea came from here. It was easy to do.

Streamers and an embroidery hoop. That's it.

 

Yarn balloons inspired by this. Chalkboard bunting found here.

Loved this idea. But it was too much work and besides, I didn't have any plastic cups. So instead we wrapped lights in bits of streamers.

We made giant versions of these for the loot bags to hold all the goodies.

Little Miss sewed them all by herself.  I'm so proud of her!

Frames all ready to be decorated. The black part of the frames is chalkboard paint so the girls can continue the doodling fun at home.

The photo booth with props waiting to be used.

 Decorating the frames with stamps, markers and stickers.

I love how they turned out! All so pretty. All so different.

Fun in the photo booth.

I think it's safe to say that everyone had a good time!

 And last, but not least, the cake. I love all the rainbow layer cakes that you see, but to be honest, I didn't feel like assembling one, nor do I have 7 cake pans. But then I saw this. I can put all 7 colours into one pan. Right after the art party, the granparents, aunts and uncles came. Two cakes. One round and one made in a bundt pan because, well, I was out of bundt pans. I love how the bundt version turned out! I like it even better than the round version. It looks like a rainbow!

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It was easy to do. Make the cake batter. Any white cake recipe will work.  Divide the batter it into 7 small bowls. Add food colouring, one colour per bowl. Make sure you use the gel kind to get vibrant colours. The liquid colouring won't work. Carefully pour the batter into a bundt pan one colour at a time. Bake as usual. When you cut the cake, there will be a rainbow waiting inside. How fun is that?

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A Teenie Weenie, SackBot and Puppy Valentine

A Teenie Weenie for Little Miss.

A Sackbot for Mr. Man.

 I tucked a little heart into the front of Sackbot. Mr. Man took it out. I knew he would. But I had to but it in, after all, it was Valentine's Day.

 I think he liked him anyway.

 Even Sackbot could not resist the mustache fun.

 Both Teenie Weenie and Sackbot were made from scraps left over from these pillows I made.

 The Kidlywinks made Sneakers a valentine. Too cute. In case you can't read it, it says, "Thanks for being the best puppy ever. Woof. Woof." He is one loved puppy.

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Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Little Miss!

 Today I am making lasagna, baking brownies, wrapping presents and a little bit more. All in celebration of Little Miss. You are loved.

And to everyone else, Happy Valentine's Day!

Handmade Valentines

So what does a boy in grade three hand out on Valentine's Day? Well...mustaches of course!

I'm sorry Miss Gold for any craziness these mustaches may cause! It's hard to tell in the picture, but the mustache is actually made out of felt. Held on by double-sided tape (we put a piece of packing tape down first so that the mustache will peel off easily) these cute little guys are wearable.

Simple. Easy. Inexpensive. We printed off the words and a mustache image onto plain old white paper. Mr. Man cut them out and glued them on to construction paper. We added a felt mustache. And voila!

Now Little Miss is mad about Mad Libs, so will give out these. The idea came from here. (Lots of great ideas at Design Mom).

We changed up the packaging from the original idea. It's simple to do.

A strip of paper. A few cuts here and there. A heart to hold a rolled up Mad Lib. All ready to hand out.