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!

Ice Wreath & Ornaments!

 I aged last week. By a whole year. Hubby bought me a bouqet; green roses, white daisies and pink carnations. E went with him and got rainbow carnations. I wasn't deligent about changeing the water, so they were fading fast. I wanted to find a way to make them last, but I didn't want to dry them or press them. Then I visited The Artful Parent and found the way to combine a winter activity and saving my birthday flowers!

The roses were to far gone to use, but most of the others were just right. 

 We used a bundt and jumbo cupcake pans, start with just a little bit of water.

 Put in the freezer for an hour or two

Add more water and a piece of ribbon or string to hang them with.

Put back into the freezer for a few more hours, then take them outside and hang them up!

Less than I wanted

I was really hoping to have $500 in products by now, but since tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and the Bazaar is Saturday, I'm going to have to settle for what I've got.  These are some miscellanous things I've finished, and I have close to $350, which isn't bad, just not as much as I'd like.  Ah, well, we'll see what happens, won't we?

Happy Thoughts!

My new friends, The Mouse Family

I'm feel like I'm doing okay getting ready for this craft bazaar.  It's the day after Black Friday, so time is short.  For those of you that are local, it's at Southport High School.  My Mom and I will be in the cafeteria, Booth 1.  Oh, yes, it's called "That Something Special"  Arts & Crafts Fair.  8am to 3pm.  On to what I've just finished, The Mouse Family.  I made them because they remind of a mouse family my mom made for me when I was a little girl.  I let E hep me with them, mostly holding them while I stitched or braided something, but she felt very important.  Here they are with their portable Swiss cheese house

 Daddy, Mama & the kids.

 Found out you have to be careful, the babies are small enough to tumble out of the front window!

Happy Thoughts!

Stuff for sale

I mentioned before that I've been working on sewing things for a Craft Bazaar, it's coming up soon, wait, shouldn't I be sitting at my desk, working?  Nevermind. Well, so you know I'm not just saying that, here's some finished product.  My favorite is, well, all of it.  Call me biased, but I like them all. 

  

Happy Thoughts!

'Tis Done(finally)

Though not a difficult or intricate pattern, this was time consuming simply b/c of it's size.  This has been my On-The-Go project for a couple of months, which is probably another reason why it took so long; I rarely worked on it at home. 

The pattern was originally vertical, but I needed it horizontal, so I switched it.  Also the color of the threads were very 70's orange, brown, yellow and green.  I changed the colors to match the new colors coming into the house, next up to sew the fabric to it and make it into a backpillow for the bench in the foyer.  I also need to find a new On-The-Go project, any suggestions?

Turning my house into a Casa dei Bambini...

That's what I've been doing for the last month or so.  I've done very little else, other than sew a very simple and quick dress.  Since we don't have a room available for school, I've had to get creative with my storage.

The pantry has sensorial-on the floor-A box with towels for folding(will be adding clothes and hangers next week), Geometric Cabinet, well, I plan on making a cabinet for the drawers, which are made from 1/8" plywood and the inserts and frames are painted foamboard, pink tower(bought), Red Rods-square dowel rods cut and painted.  On the shelf, knobless cylinders-round dowel rods cut and painted, color tablets-cut foamboard with paint chips glued on them, and top pieces for the pink tower.  The shipping price for the knobbed cylinders and the brown stair are killer, but since Lex will be ready to use them soon, I'll have to break down and buy them.

More sensorial in an upper kitchen cabinet-Open and close box, pouring, polishing, touch boards, tactile tablets, tasting, smelling, and sound boxes, all homemade.  The lower left shelf has Childsized Masterpieces, origami, lacing, and music stuff.  I'm sure I'll have to move things around to get the best use of the space.

Even more sensorial in a lower kitchen cabinet-Constructive Triangles and Geometric solids.

My buffet has two largte lower cabinets, and two drawers for school storage.  One of the lower cabinet has cultural, seems I have more books for this than for anything else!

Math drawer, once I get the Bead Material we'll be using a section of the cabinet below for math.  Again, most of this was homemade.

Language, most of this was homemade, and I think all of the language will fit in this drawer.

So, I've been making and preparing school materials with a single minded focus, because that's the only way I know how to do things, work on one thing until it's done.  Even tho I have so much done, there is still so much left to do.  As well as the knoweldge that E is going to be moving on from 3-6 to 6-9 in the next year, so I may as well just keep moving with the material prep.  It's comforting to know that A will be able to use these things as well. 

Oh, and the sewing room has been demolished, as you can see.

This happened b/c as I was cleaning the rest of the house, I broke the cardinal rule-instead of putting things away, in the proper place, I just tossed them into the room and kept moving.  So now I have avery big clean up job in front of me, if I ever want to sew again.

Seriously, never thought I'd have a room this chaotic.

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!

An Eco-friendly sewing day with The Quilter

I'm such a visual person I almost didn't post this because I don't have very many pictures. The Quilter lives in a beautiful neighborhood, and with the weather supposedly getting wet and yucky, I packed up my little ones and we went to her house. While the kiddos played in the backyard, the Quilter and I set up our sewing machines on the screened in porch and made a few things.

She called me last week and asked if I had seen any good tutorials for reusable lunch bags. What a co-inky-dink, I had a long list of lunch bag, sandwich, and snack bag tutorials to pick from. I got my most of my list from Whipup.net. I printed out my favorites, packed up some of my sewing room and lots of fabric scraps to take with me. We decided to do Betz White's reusable sandwich wrap, and purlbee's fabric lunch bag.

As I said, there aren't many pictures, I forgot my camera and The Quilter's camera was in the same room as a sleeping baby, so we went without.

We started with the lunch bag, which we thought would be more difficult. Honestly, it's a project a beginning sewer can do. It was fun, and probably the hardest part was choosing the button. I will say that my bag turned out better, simple because I used canvas fabric(per the instructions) and The Quilter used a lightweight cotton(ignoring the instructions, as usual) And yes, that's some sisterly one-up manship. She has since decided to take hers apart and line it with some iron-on vinyl. We also accidentally changed the pattern, which happens with us. Instead of using two 9 ½ by 13 inch pieces of fabric, ours were cut to 9 by 13 inches. It was my fault, I was the one umm, more perusing than reading the instructions. It didn’t really make a difference, and we decided we would try a few variations, longer, wider, bias tape lining, etc.

The sandwich wraps were also a lot of fun and very easy to make. It took us a little longer since we ironed vinyl onto the wrong side of some fabric, rather than buying PUL, as it recommends. We had another pattern alteration, again kind of my fault. I printed the template, but didn’t enlarge it as I was supposed to; we did it by hand, so our template was about a ½ inch bigger. Again, it really didn’t make a difference. This was a fun project, mostly because the vinyl made ironing the small seam allowances very easy. I thought the directions took the securing of the Velcro a little far until I unhooked my wrap and the Velcro came right off. In that respect, go ahead and follow the directions exactly. Even with all the interruptions from children and life in general, we had a great time and I’m, definitely going to make a lot more of both of these. The Quilter is thinking of using the lunch bag as party favor bags for G-Man’s upcoming birthday.  They are a great way to use scrap pieces of fabric, and they are quick aand easy to do.

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!