Homemade Playdough!

I finally found a homemade playdough recipe that I love!  I've tried several, and you're probably thinking, she's never posted anything about homemade playdough.  And you're right, I haven't.  Because I didn't like any of them.  Some come out gooey, no matter what, some are grainy, some smell gross, some go bad in a few days, but this one meets all my requirements.  I love the feel of it, the scent, and it's super easy.  When I showed it to the Hubby, his response was, 

"Hey, that actually looks like Play-Doh."  

I heard about it from Meg, she got it from Marina, and she got it from Tiny Bird Organics.

If you don't want to follow the links, the ingredients and instructions are at the bottom of this post.   

 Whenever a recipe calls for oil, I generally use Olive Oil.  Unless it very expressly states to use a specific type.  I had bought Walnut Oil for a food recipe, and this big bottle is all they had.  So I used it for this, thinking that perhaps it would add a pleasing nutty aroma.  Honestly, I can't tell.

 It has to sit after you cook it on stove.  I didn't think to take a picture of the concotion while it was on the stovetop-the instructions say stir constantly, so I was too busy for it anyway.

Once there was enough for everyone, I lost my helpers.  Ahh, well, that's okay, I understand.  I really enjoy this stuff-very nice to mold and smash.

The orginal recipe made a pound, but I halved it, since I didn't know if I would like it or not.  I'll save you the trouble and give you both sets of measurements.

To make one pound-
1.5 cups of flour
1/3 cup of salt
2 teaspoons cream of tarter
1.5 cups water
1.5 tablespoons oil
Food Coloring


To make 1/2 a pound
3/4 cup flour
2 tablespoons & 1.5 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon cream of tarter
3/4 cup water
4 teaspoons oil
Food Coloring

Mix dry ingredients in stove-top pan.  Add wet ingredients, including food coloring, if you want.  Cook over medium heat, sitrring constantly until thick.  It takes about 5 minutes for it to turn into a single mass, the longer you cook it, the more solid and less sticky it will be when you take it out of the pan.
Set dough on plate/countertop/whatever and let it cool for 3 minutes.  Knead it into a ball.  If it's to sticky, add flour and cook a little longer next time.
You can get really organic with this if you use natural food dyes, which I didn't b/c I didn't want to take the time and effort.  Remeber that it takes 3-4 times as much red dye to make anything truely red and not pink.

Happy Thoughts Everyone!

Demoliton Day!!

The Hubby & I moved into this house in the fall of 2003.  And I have wanted to take out the island from the first year we moved in.  However, it took until now to convince Hubby that this was a good idea.  As soon as he sort of agreed, I set a date and called in the troops.  Sorry the pictures are blurry, we were laughing quite a bit.

The Troops-The Quilter(right side) & S'up Girrl(left)

The Quilter immediately declared herself project manager due to carpel tunnel issues that prevented her of being any use otherwise.  She did bring the necessary tools, but I guess she didn't want to be called the

go-fer-girl.  Her hubby, The Deputy, loaded the vehicle and made sure she had safety glasses.

 First thing, I popped the counter top off-a few strong hits with the sledge hammer

 Then the project manager tried to use her cordless drill.  Thankfully, the union rep stepped in.

 This was sort of a (belated) birthday present for me, so they decorated the wall before knocking it down.  Or maybe no matter how old you get, coloring on the walls is always fun!

 My cake is bursting into flames, but she did put butterflies on it.  I also got a present, and I'm not sure if that says snort or short.

 SA-WING!  Must say, that was fun! 

 She's all ready and dressed appropriately with her jammies, boots and safety glasses-I mean, she is the union rep, after all.  Look closely, I tried to open my present, but no luck- union rep jokes that there must be to much tape on it.

 Project manager did a couple one arm swings, if you look, you can see that she did manage to dent the island.

 Then we loosened it from the floor

The Hubby wasn't really aware that this was going on, so they wrote him a note.

 And the best part of the demolition came when the project manager put her foot at the top of the island and pushed it over!  Yes, we were ridiculously happy about it!

 It was a quick and relatively easy job, even with clean up.  The union rep and I came up with possible responses from The Hubby when he came home to find that part of the house was missing.

 Going to have to play around with where to put the furniture.  We still have remodeling to do-new lighting, a functional island in the kitchen, lastly new floors.  However, this change gives me a great deal of satisfaction.

Happy Thoughts, Everyone!

Why did I decide to do this?

I had this great idea.  A recycling combined with using my stash o' stuff idea.  But well, it's turning out to be more difficult than I thought, and I have some actual, real work to do.  Can you see where this is going?  I'm trying hard not to shelf this, not to set it aside into the big heap of unfinished great ideas that pile to the ceiling around me.

Here's the idea.  A couple of years ago there was a wonderful white wool sweater in the hand-me-down bag for Eliz.  Unfortunately, it had been felted, and was very scratchy.  I set it aside, knowing that I could come up with a use for it.  I've used the sleeves to make cozies for the Thermic Bottles, and it got put back in the pile.  I few weeks ago I went to a party @ a friend's house and one of the other guests had this wonderful felted tree bottle cover/cozy that she had gotten, of course, from Etsy. I wanted one.  Badly. As I began cleaning out the sewing room, I found the sweater, and saw a butterfly needlepoint pattern from years ago that I knew I wanted to put on the sweater, and turn the sweater into a waterbottle cozy.  Problem is, felted wool is really not ideal for satin stitch.

 See, from far away, it doesn't look bad.

Really, even in this picture, it looks pretty good.  But it is not a good example of satin stitch.  I still love the idea, but as it's going to take longer than usual to get this done.  I've never used anything this thick to embroider on, but I'm convinced that the textural contrast of the wool and the (sort of) smoothness of the satin stitched butterflies will look beautiful.  Maybe it's just my love of butterflies that makes me think that.  I'm going to give this project a good deal of time for the next few days, maybe I can get to the point of no return, then I'll have to finish it. 

By the way, that whole cleaning out the sewing room thing?  Got it cleaned out, but getting it put back together has me stumped-now that I have room for things, where should they go?  I'll sit in my chair and work on my bottlewarmer while I figure that out. 

Happy Thoughts Everyone!

E's ongoing DIY project

As a child I loved the Calico Critters.  I had a friend that had a bunch of them, and I remember playing with them inside, outside, and in the car.  Everytime we've been to Imagination Station, she plays with the demo house and critters.  I have a rule, however, that I never offer to buy her a toy, she has to ask for it(she doesn't know this).  The last time we were at the store, she asked for the Fisher cat family.  Of course I got them for her.  At first they lived in a drawer, then we got a cardboard box to keep them in, which has since become a house. 

E works on the house nearly everyday, decorating, playing and there are some things that she has me help her with. 

Currently I'm in charge of covering the family beds-they have to be sewn on, tape won't hold the fabric. 

I'm impressed with how much she does on her own, from cutting the foam to glueing down the carpet.  The sequins are the rug, so she told me.

I've been giving her various empty boxes, and so far my favorite thing she's done is tear the top off an animal cracker box and use it as the family car.

 I find it interesting that they have a TV, which we don't.  I kind of expected her to give them a computer or a small DVD player, but no, they have a very big TV.  Her Dad might get jealous. 

The little details also amaze me, the yellow pom pom is the light, and there's a family portrait that she drew and glued to the wall.

She also insisted the couch needed a cover so it would be comfortable.

I'm looking forward to seeing what else she decides to do with this.  And if we go back adn get more animals, well, then that's probably going to mean another house to decorate!

Happy Thoughts!

Sweet little DVD case

On a long trip, we take the portable DVD Player, but not the case it comes with, so I made a cute little DVD case.  Want one?  Here's how to make it-

Materials-

2 colors of cotton fabric-1/2 to 3/4 a yard is plenty-I don't recomend using a patterned fabric until you've done this a few times

Embriodery floss-can be contrasting or matching one of the fabrics

1 5/8 button, 1 1/2 button

Cover decor- whatever you want, applique, embriodery

Template-download and print here

DVD holder:

After you've downloaded the template, print and cut it out.

Cut out template in both fabrics

Starting at bottom below curve, sew fabric pieces together with a 1/4" seam.  Leave opening to turn.

Clip corners and curve, turn rightside out and use pen or chopstick on corners.  You can slipstich the opening closed, or iron it(my shortcut for something that may not get washed)

Line up edges and sew along open side, again with a 1/4" seam.  

Sew across bottom open edge with a 3/4" seam. 

Repeat until you have as many as you want!

You can, of course, make one and use it as a gift case for a homemade DVD.

DVD Case:

Disclaimer- This was my first ever venture into applique.  I have never read or had any instructions on applique, I've only seen The Quilter doing it and the end result.  But now I know, you apply it before you sew things together, and you put some sort of backing onto the fabric before sewing it down.  That said, decorate your case cover before you sew it together, probably even before you cut the fabric into strips.  That's just my advice, though.

Cut two pieces of fabric strips, 6 1/2 inches by 14 1/4 inches-these can be contrasting or the same-let your creativity run free!

Sew these together with a 1/4 inch seam, leave an opening to turn.  Clip corners and turn, use chopstick on corners.  Again, you can slipstitch the opening closed or just iron it.

Place your DVD holders inside case, with a 1/2 inch space from short edge.  Fold case together, and stitch across bottom edge machine stitches, back stitching for a continuous line.

Sew 5/8" button on cover, I used 3 strands of floss.

To make button closure, knot end of floss, sew down from inside of case, then up again, and knot floss, but do not cut.

Thread 1/2" button onto floss, and place next to cover button to check length.

Sew back through holes of button to secure, being careful not to let floss get any longer.

Sew down from the inside to back of case, again, careful with the length

Knot on back side, cut floss.

Yay, you did it!  Now fill it with DVDs and carry it with pride!

Happy Thoughts!

An Easter Dress

This year, E got to pick out her fabric and the pattern for her Easter dress.  I was impressed with her choice.

She wanted the pink dress, probably b/c the picture was pink.  I have yet to make her understand that I can make it in any color.  Unfortunately, the only pattern piece I had was the skirt.

I did, however, have all the pieces for this dress, which is about the same dress.  She kept saying she wanted the bunny in the picture.  I'm all for accessorizing, but not with live animals.

It was super easy to do, and thanks to my wonderful gathering foot, the skirt took maybe ten minutes to do.  The hardest part is figuring out what setting to have the foot on. 

I asked her to smile, and that's what she did for each picture.  Little booger.

Happy Thoughts!

Couldn't stop at the kitchen window

After I did the kitchen window, it looked so good, I couldn't follow the plan.  The plan was to scrub cabinets and reorganise them, and that wasn't going to be as much fun as setting up the bedroom!  Again, I had thrifted all the silver pieces from Goodwill and other second hand stores, since I didn't start thrifting until mid-winter, no yard sales to buy from.  Yay for Spring and the start of yard sale season!    Some of the pieces were almost black, and cleaning them was detail work.  Totally worth it, because everything shined up beautifully.  It's not done, I want to add some things here and there, mostly pictures. 

Next I cleaned out the master bathroom.  Wow.  Not only was it poorly organised, it was crammed with junk.  I threw out a lot of broken things, and had almost as much to give to Goodwill. 

I have to say, the Apartment Therapy step of adding fresh flowers really does make big difference.  It's a small thing-I'm buying flowers from the grocery store-that makes the largest difference.  Makes me even more excited to add more lights and paint! 

Happy Thoughts!

The playroom is finished!

Ta-Da! The kids have been playing in here since we moved the dressup cabinet in, so it's been done as far they are concerned. This has been one of the biggest DIY project's I've ever undertaken, but very satisfying.

Okay, so I suppose a window treatment is needed.  This is where A's  toys go, right now the rotation is on Little People toys.

Ahh, the lovely pinboards!  I tried to use magnetic paint, however, the magnets just did not stay on.  I didn't realise the mirror was so dirty! 

The book slings and pillows!!

And a dog sleeping in my thinking chair.  That's happened to me too.

Everything was so fun to make, and we get compilments on them all.  The bookslings are from Apartment Therapy; there's a tutorial, or you may still be able to buy them on etsy. 

I couldn't say what my favorite part is.  It came together just as I saw it in my mind, so I suppose that's the best of all.

Happy Thoughts!