Helping Hands Towels or Crap My Kids Make

As you may have guessed I have a problem. I see something that someone else does and think "I can totally do that." Well, it happened again.

Each year our daycare has an "art show" fundraiser. Each child makes 3 pieces of art and you buy them for $5 each. Usually there is one really cute thing and two others that make you question why you are paying $5 for the art your child normally brings home for free. Of course the reason is that you don't want to be the parent that doesn't love their children enough to pay $15 each for their beautiful, unique, brilliant, not at all made by their teacher art projects. So this year after $30 I was on my way home with decorated gift bags, painted sock ornaments, and a framed picture of the kids and a poem. What I was not on the way home with was a potholder with my children's hand prints on it. Another class did those, and I wanted them. Bad. But of course I didn't get upset, I just thought, we can make those.

That was such a nice thought. I mean how hard could it be to get a few plain potholders, some fabric paint, and have your 2 year old twins make cute little hand prints on each of them. Not hard at all. HA! So, as it turns out plain potholders aren't that easy to find. I checked Hobby Lobby, JoAnn's, Wal-Mart (x2), and Target. Now I did find a couple sort of plain light brown ones, but they were super expensive. I wanted these, but I didn't want to spend a lot. So, I bought a package of 4 flour sack towels and thought I would use those. I had also bought some fabric paint the day after Thanksgiving so I was good to go.

Last night (I'm writing this right after the event, but not posting until later as to not ruin the Christmas surprise) was the night. It was just the little people and me and we were going to paint. It was going to be awesome. We were going to make some frameworthy art.

Ok, at this point I should probably mention that sometimes when planning projects I forget (or rather neglect to take into account) that I have 2 toddlers and sometimes there should be a 1 to 1 adult to child ratio. Our first attempt at story time was one of these times. Last night was another. You will notice there aren't any process pictures of this project. That is because to properly document (and yes, probably execute) this project there should have been 2-3 adults. But I am Super Mom! I can do it.

Well, Little Man went first and he wanted geen paint. I took off his shirt (I'm not totally dumb) and laid out the first towel and painted his little hand geen. He was so good, he stamped his hand like a pro. We painted the other hand and down it went. Fabulous...frames, here we come. Then I got the second towel. Down went the hands, stamping away...without more paint or planning. That towel has two geen shadow hands. But that's ok, I learned you have to say "hands way up" when it isn't time to touch the towel. The next two went well. There were a few misprints, but not too bad. there was a lot of washing involved with getting the paint off Little Man, but it all came off. Ok, he had some paint under his nails and his hands had a very pale green tinge, but he was fine.

Now, it was Little Princess's turn. She wanted wed hands. We repeated the process with lots of "Hands up high!" instructions. Again, a few misprints, but not all bad. The problem with Princess is that I had to get her from the table to the sink to wash her hands. Usually not a problem I would just pick her up and tell her not to touch me and over to the chair by the sink we would go. There was a slight hiccup this time. Little Man kept climbing on the chair when I was trying to put his sister down or wash her hands. This is when I think it would be helpful to have an extra pair of arms. It might be difficult to find shirts, but I bet I could make one.

Finally, all the towels were done and hands were washed. The only thing this could mean is that it is time to run around like a crazy person with your shirt off. I decided that this wasn't the activity for me and cleaned up my mess while they ran around...and around...and around.

The towels were cute, but they were missing something...Big Brother's hands. Luckily after he came home from wrestling practice and ate his dinner he was willing to humor me and let me stamp his hands on the towels. He choose yellow. While it was much easier to stamp his hands it sure did take a lot more paint.

I finished the towels off by adding the kids' names and the year.

Here we have the final Helping Hands Towels

Are they super perfect and suitable for framing-no. Are they super cute keepsakes-yep. My kids are often splotchy and smudged so it just makes sense that their art work would be too.

Birthday Shirts

Like any good, working mom I decided on Friday that my kids needed birthday shirts for their party on Saturday. Originally I thought they don't need birthday shirts, they have tons of cute clothes they could wear. Heck, it is a farm theme they could wear their overalls (while I cross my fingers they don't wiggle out of them and/or play with their diaper taps so it falls out their pant leg-not that either of these things has ever happened, I've just read about it). But then at the last minute I wanted something fun, but not expensive. Enter Hobby Lobby.

While lunching at Hobby Lobby with a friend I saw some cute birthday iron-ons which just happened to be right next to the t-shirts. BINGO! For about $5 each I had very special birthday t-shirts.

The Supplies: Note: there are two black t-shirts.

I never really realized how easy iron-ons are. Pretty much, that is what you do-iron them on. I suggest following the package directions just in case the one you pick up is more complicated than mine.

Viola!

I really wanted to get a picture of the kids sitting with each other wearing their shirts. That didn't happen. This is what I got.





























Maybe tonight I'll get a better picture.
And yes, it is possible my daughter was going to hit her brother on the head with a carrot.

Sheep and Pig Cupcakes

In my last post I showed you the invite and cow cake for my twins' farm themed birthday party. Now I'm going to show you the sheep and pig cupcakes. Yes, in my previous post I mentioned some chick cupcakes, however those didn't get made. I really liked the pig cupcakes and wanted to make more of those and I needed to have an even number of each animal so I decided to go with the pigs and sheep (I have a fondness for sheep). Plus, the first animal the little people could talk to was the sheep.

The pigs turned out really great, the sheep were cute but as I said to a friend "Frankinfarmer called, he wants his polar sheep back." So, if you need to make polar bear cupcakes, here you go.

The supplies:Not shown are 24 cupcakes and a handful of M&Ms. Also, because I didn't make the chicks the candy corns weren't used (the orange part was going to be the beak). I also ended up using some of the black decorator gel from the cow cake.

To start I cut the round part of the cupcakes off so the tops were more flat.

Pigs:

First, I prepared the eyes, ears and noses. I cut 3 squares from 4 of the strawberry wafer cookies. There was a little bit of an end left, you can eat those or use them to bribe, I mean occupy your toddlers and husband. Each of these squares should be cut in half to make two triangles. Set these aside for the ears. I used a very sharp knife and didn't have any problems with the cookies crumbling. For the noses cut 6 regular size marshmallows in half to form two smaller cylinders. The eyes were mini-chocolate chips. I just put a handful in bowl so they would be easier to get to.

Each of the cupcakes was frosted pink. I used pink Funfetti frosting but you could make your own if you wanted. I promise, I won't call you an overachiever. Each cupcake is topped with a marshmallow nose, two cookie ears, and two chocolate chip eyes. I added nostrils to each nose using a dot of the black gel. The nostrils helped the marshmallows look more like noses.

These pig cupcakes were super awesome and totally cute if I do say so myself (and I do).Sheep:

The sheep were even easier than the pigs to make. Each cupcake was frosted with white frosting and rolled in sweetened coconut. The to make the "face" I mixed some of my pink frosting with my white frosting to make a very light pink. I piped a circle on and added a red M&M for a nose. The eyes were M&Ms attached with a dot of frosting. And that was it. I actually think these would make really cute reindeer by coloring your frosting brown and adding pretzel antlers. Maybe next Christmas.

I had some problems with this picture so I had to edit it. What you don't see is that I didn't have enough brown M&Ms for the eyes so some have blue and some have green eyes. The ones with blue eyes really look like polar bears.

The cow cake and pig and sheep cupcakes were my first attempt at cake decorating. I make lots of cupcakes but always focus on the flavors and not so much on the decorations. I feel much more confident now of my ability to make cute cakes and cupcakes.

Oh, and in case you were wondering the plan for the chicks was to frost the cupcakes yellow and roll them in coconut that had been dyed yellow. I was going to use chocolate chips for the eyes and somehow fashion a beak out of the orange part of the candy corn.

Barnyard Birthday

My little people turn 2 today on what they could call "Our Worst Birthday EVER!" Granted, they have only had 2 birthdays so there isn't much to compare to, but this one is pretty crummy. Little Princess couldn't go to school because she got tummy sick (a polite way to say she threw up) yesterday at school, on the way in the door a home, and once again before bed. She is also dealing with an ear infection. Little Man got to go to school but he was very confused as to why his sister wasn't going with him. He was so upset he had to take his chicken into school with him rather than giving it a hug and kiss, telling it to have a good day, and leaving it in the car seat. So, they aren't able to have their party at school (their teacher said she would put up their sign tomorrow when they are both there) and the status of their birthday dinner is on hold being as Dad and Big Brother also aren't feeling well. Mom doesn't feel real great either, but at least I just have a cold.



Luckily, we had their birthday party this past weekend, so not all is lost.




Being the amazing super mom I am I couldn't host just any birthday party, we needed a theme. I thought about what they liked and while a Wiggles party would probably have been their first choice, I didn't know how to decorate that cake. So, I went to the second best option, a farm party. Now, I chose a farm theme not because of their love of visiting farms, but because they know what the cow, sheep, chicken, and horse say. And, I could decorate a cake for a farm party.


It all started with an invite. I put one together and sent it via e-mail.I think it turned out really cute. I used Publisher to create the original document. The picture takes up the background and the text is created in text boxes. I grouped the text boxes and pictures together and saved as a jpeg, which I was then able to import into my e-mail. It sounds a lot more complicated than it was. Just mess around a bit and you can figure it out. If you can't let me know and I'll see if I can help.




The next step was to determine just how far I wanted to take this theme. I decided to go simple with farm themed cakes and cake plates. It just didn't make too much sense to spend a ton of money on decorations. But don't think for one minute the thought of hay bales and cows didn't cross my mind.



I spent A LOT of time on the Internet/Pinterest trying to decide how to decorate my cake and cupcakes and finally decided on a cow cake and sheep, pig, and chick cupcakes.




First, the cow cake.


The supplies: I decided for this party I was focusing on the decorations for the cake and cupcakes so I just used box cake mix and frosting. Now, I'm not going to lie, I usually buy Pillsbury because it is the cheapest cake mix, but it is also my favorite. The cake is always moist and yummy.


I think I used about 1/4-1/2 can chocolate frosting, 1/4 pink frosting, and I can't remember how much white, I think 1-1 1/4 can.


Pan spray with the flour. I did a lot of research on how to keep the cake from sticking and this seemed to be the most popular option. I used a lot of spray.



Black decorating gel (not shown, it was probably still in the grocery bag when I took the picture)


Mix the cake according to package directions and pour into prepared pan. Bake at 350 30-40 minutes. My cake took longer because my oven is off. Take out when a toothpick in the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs. Crumbs are ok, goo is not. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Using a serrated bread knife trim the cake so the bottom (what is showing in the pan) is flat. Invert the pan on a cooling rack, hold your breath, and gently take the pan off the cake. Luckily my cake came right out. Let the cake cool completely.


While the cake cools, let me tell you a bit about the pan I used. I used the Wilton Animal Crackers pan. This pan allows you to make bunches of animals with just one pan by altering how you decorate the cake. What a great idea, one pan, many animals. Unfortunately, this pan has been discontinued. Probably because you can make many animals from one pan rather than buying a pan for each animal. It took me awhile but I finally found the pan on a discount party supply website. I can't wait to make different animals.




Now that the cake is cool you want to transfer it to whatever you are going to serve it on. I watch a lot of cooking tv so I know that if you are going to decorate a cake on your serving platter you should tear 4 (I think I used 5) strips of wax paper to put under your cake edges to keep the plate from getting frosting on it. Basically you make a ring of wax paper.


Because I am not confident in my ability to decorate a cow I used a small knife to outline the different shapes I was going to make. This worked out ok, but not great because the cake was chocolate so it was dark and the lines didn't show up. I think if you used a lighter cake you could probably use a food pen to draw out your lines. The pan does provide some guidelines, but the cow doesn't use all the features.




The frosting is applied using a small star tip and a pastry bag. I know it sounds hard, but it really isn't. It just takes some practice-which you can do on wax paper and then scoop back up when you are ready to start. The nice thing about this type of cake is that any small imperfections aren't really going to show up (not that I made any, so don't even bother looking).




One thing to watch for is your frosting getting too runny. This probably happens because the heat from your hands warms up the frosting. Ways to get around this would be to have more than one pastry bag to work with or take a break when the frosting gets too soft. Or, it if is 11 o'clock at night you could just keep working.




The first thing I did was fill in the eyes and the mouth with the black gel. I then did the pink, followed by the black, and finished with the white.



Once the cow is decorated you can carefully pull out the strips of wax paper. I really thought this was going to end up pulling the frosting off the side of the cake, but it didn't. This technique acutally worked really well. Those tv cake makers must really know their stuff.


This cake took a couple hours to do, but it was well worth it. The kids really liked their cow cake. Which in case you are wondering, says "Mooo".

Pineapple Salsa

When I decided to bring a treat to work last week I couldn't decide on sweet or savory, so of course instead of making a decision, I just made both. Along with the Christmas Crack I made my favorite pineapple salsa. And when I say I made it I mean I put the ingredients together and presented it as something I made.

This salsa is so good and actually pretty impressive. It is also very versatile. You can add black beans, but I'm not a fan so I never do. You can use corn and black bean salsa to make things even easier (see last sentence). You can even use fresh (homemade or grocery store) salsa if you like more the just chopped up veggie type of salsa. It really doesn't matter, it will be good. Honest, it will.

Supplies:

1 jar of salsa (I like a chunkier salsa)

1 can of corn, drained

1 can crushed pineapple, drained

1 adult beverage of your choice (optional)

Mix everything (except the adult beverage) together. Chill. Enjoy with chips.

S'More Popcorn

The other night I made Christmas Crack. Seriously, it was highly addictive. Now, I know there are many types of Christmas Crack including: ranch crackers, any type of Chex mix, caramel puff corn, those Nilla Wafer sandwiches with peanut butter in the middle and covered in chocolate that my husband's coworker brought over the other night, but this batch was new to me.

I started with Hot Chocolate Popcorn (http://cookiesandcups.com/hot-chocolate-popcorn/)from cookiesandcups as my inspiration. I mean it is popcorn and hot chocolate, how could you go wrong?

While this recipe is super easy and probably really great, I had to make a few substitutions because, well I'm lazy. I really didn't want to have to make popcorn (I don't know why I didn't think of microwave) so I was going to buy a bag of popped popcorn at the store. Well, then I saw a bag of puffcorn and thought "hmmm". So, after a quick call to a trusted friend, I bought the the puffcorn instead of the popcorn.

I also spent a lot of time looking at hot cocoa powder and trying to decide if I should buy the canister or the packets. The packets were way less expensive, so that I went with.

The original recipe also calls for the addition of a milk chocolate drizzle once it is all mixed up. Again, I didn't do that because I'm lazy.

But here is what I did...

Supplies

1 bag puffcorn

1 packet hot chocolate mix (next time I might use 1 1/2)

1 package vanilla almond bark

About 1/3 bag of mini-marshmallows

And to answer your question, yes I did forget to take the picture before I started so that is why there is only 1/2 a bag of puffcorn and 1/2 a package of almond bark shown.

I had to divide the batch in 2 because I don't have a bowl big enough to mix a whole bag of puffcorn. But if you have a big bowl or a large foil pan, do it all in one batch.

Mix the puffcorn and marshmallows together. Melt the almond bark in the microwave. It took me about 2 minutes, stopping after every 30 seconds to stir to melt 1/2 a package. Pour the almond bark over the puffcorn and mix to coat. Spread on wax paper and sprinkle with hot chocolate powder. You could stir and add more hot chocolate powder.

This was a great treat. I really liked it. Next time I might add M&Ms to get that milk chocolate effect.

I tried saving a little in a baggie and it got stale and kind of gross. I'm not sure how well this would keep. It would probably do ok in an airtight container or in the refrigerator. I took mine to work so I didn't have to worry about any leftovers.

The blog picture I took inspiration from was beautiful. My finished product, not so much.

Crochet Coffee Sleeve and Coaster

Hello Friends-

Ok, so today's post doesn't have any fun before or supply pictures. The reason for the lack of pictures is because I made this project in the car on the way to my hometown because of a family emergency. Needless to say my mind was on other things. But that should tell you how easy this project is.

Supplies-

Crochet hook-I think I used an I-but it doesn't really matter

Yarn-I used Peaches and Cream cotton yarn, but again it doesn't really matter.

A coffee sleeve to use as a template

I started a project and then found that it was much too large to fit any normal coffee cup so I took it all out and reduced the size. I would suggest making a couple rows and then testing the fit to see if it will work. I didn't have a coffee in the car so I just tested it against the coffee sleeve I keep in my purse. Yes, I keep a reusable coffee sleeve in my purse, sometimes two. The only time I don't have them with me is when I take them off my cup in my office and forget to put it back in my purse. Then I have to get a paper sleeve which I tend to save for next time. Last time I cleaned out my desk drawer I found like 10 sleeves. I probably don't need to save the paper ones. And yes, I could just use a reusable cup, that would be greener. But, cups don't smoosh up to fit in your purse/pocket, and they get messy when you leave it sitting on your desk and forget to wash it for a couple weeks. Well, that is what I've heard, I don't know for sure because I would never do something like that.

Anyway, the pattern I used can be found at http://www.crochetspot.com/crochet-pattern-absolutely-easy-coffee-cup-sleeve/

I did a chain of 30 to start and 9-10 rows. It fits a standard 16 ounce cup pretty well and a 20 ounce really well. I think it might be too big for anything smaller, but why are you drinking anything smaller?

To make the coordinating coaster I just made a square about the size of a coaster. This one isn't rocket science, just make sure you don't loose stitches at the end.

This just in...I really need to learn how to fasten off better. The sleeve started coming apart while I was counting the stitches. But I fixed it, no worries.

I like this sleeve but I'm going to try another pattern sometime. This one doesn't reduce the number of stitches as you go down (or add as you build-depending on the way you look at it) so it doesn't fit the same as a commercial one. But it works and it actually insulates better than I expected. I would totally make these as gifts for friends, book club members, coworkers, daycare providers, or really anyone that drinks coffee from paper cups.

I think my favorite part of this project was the fact that I was able to get a large Fa La La Latte from Caribou for $2. Two of my favorite things together at last-eggnog latte and a coupon. :)