Moon sand

Finally I found something that captures Ian's attention for longer than 10 seconds! I made some moon sand for him to play in with spoons, cups, cars and anything else he found in the kitchen drawers. He played with it for at least 2 hours before I finally couldn't take the mess anymore and had to clean it up.

 Moon Sand

8 c flour

1c baby oil

I just made half the amount and it was still plenty for one child

This does get a little messy, at least it did at my house, but sometimes I'll take that if it means my little man is happy and enjoying himself. He kept running back to the kitchen to find more things to scoop the moon sand with.

It smells so good and very soft on your hands too!

Tot Activity: Water balls

A few months ago I found these at Michael's and decided they would make a good activity. Unfortunately I thought the beads would be clear and red, but they came out pink instead. I did hope on over to Amazon and found a variety of colors I will keep on hand for next time!

They start out tiny and when added to water they begin to grow. I left mine in for about 6 hours until they were ready to be played with.

 Jelly balls are so fun. I think they would even make a good stress relieving exercise for those of us who are stressed!

I know they look pink and yellow. That's only because the tray is yellow.

The little one played with these for hours!

Caution: These are very bouncy on tile or wood floors. Be prepared to chase them around. On carpet they are easy to pick up.

Glow Sticks

Christmas brought alot of glow sticks for Ian. I found them for a dollar at the dollar store. I tok a bunch with us on the plane ride to New York since alot of that flight was in the dark. He had a great time playing with them in the dark. My sister gave him more on Christmas morning!

When we got home i decided to give him a bath and turn all the lights out in the bathroom and throw some glow sticks in the water with him. He thought that was the greatest thing ever. He always wants to take a bath. I guess I need to make another run to the dollar store because we're all out!

Felt Car Mat

December was a busy month for me. I had so many gifts to make that I ran out of time making Christmas things for my house! Oh well, next year I have a long list of things to do.

In my family I'm the youngest of seven and we now have 17 nieces and nephews. Christmas can get alittle expensive with that crowd so many years ago we started drawing names for Christmas presents. This year I had my 21 years old niece (I was 9 when she was born) and my little nephew. I always wanted to make a felt car mat and so December 1st I started!  I had so much felt left over from making Ian's playhouse so I didn't have to spend much, only lots of time! It took me a couple weeks to finish.

I made all my buildings and signs and trees free hand. I'm from New York and since all my family lives there I decided to include a little bit of everything New York has to offer; camping, zoos, neighborhoods and NYC of course (my favorite place on Earth).

I sewed the road, lake and outlined the buildings but used felt glue for all the little things because sewing them would have been tedious. Each building is a garage for the matchbox cars I included.  I also found a pack of plastic animals at the dollar section of Target for the zoo.

He was very happy with his gift. My only regret is not making one for Ian too! Ian wanted to play with is when he saw me working at the table. Maybe I'll get around to making him one too.

Linking to :
Raising Memories
A Vision to Remember

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies EVER

So I can throw away all my other chocolate chip cookie recipes because I have found the BEST one ever. I will never need another again! It has a secret ingredient and while weird, it makes it what it is. I found it on Pinterest! Totally addicting but it got me through feeding Jack all through the nights.... and still does.

Best-Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies

barely adapted from Anna Olson, Food Network Canada

Ingredients: 

3/4 c. unsalted butter, softened 

3/4 c. brown sugar 

1/4 c. granulated sugar 

1 egg 

2 tsp. vanilla extract 

2 c. all purpose flour 

2 tsp. cornstarch 

1 tsp. baking soda 

1/2 tsp. salt 

1 c. bittersweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2.  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugars until fluffy and light in color. Add egg and vanilla and blend in.

3.  Mix in flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt. Stir in chocolate chunks.

4.  Using a standard-sized cookie scoop or tablespoon, drop dough onto a prepared baking sheet.  Bake for 8-10 minutes, until barely golden brown around the edges.  (The tops will not brown, but do NOT cook longer than ten minutes.)

5.  Let cool, on the sheet, on a wire rack for five minutes.  Remove from baking sheet and let cool completely.  Makes approximately 3 dozen.  Try not to eat them all.

These are seriously the best I've had! I can't stop eating them!!

One last note: They remain soft the day after and then the next day too.... if they last that long. The key is to not over cook them! 10 minutes is all you need :)

Ladybug Towel

I took a short break from making Christmas presents to make a cute little ladybug hooded towel for a girl in my church who also lives a few doors down from me. I didn't know her at all until a few weeks ago. But when I heard about her situation I got her number and called her up (something I don't usually do because I'm rather quiet) but I decided I wanted to make her and her husband dinner once a week in the effort of getting to know them. So every Tuesday I would walk the two doors down and bring them a hot dinner so her husband could have a break at least once a week.

I guess I should tell the story....

She is on strict bed rest until she delivers her baby. She isn't due until the middle of January. When I first heard about her struggles with pregnancy I instantly felt like I wanted to help somehow.  She lost her first baby over a year ago before we moved on the block and then in July around the time I delivered Jack, she was pregnant with twins and lost one of the girls. She has been on bed rest since that time and was in the hospital for a few months. She was able to come home in October but had to be on strict bed rest. I can't imagine the struggles she has gone through. I would actually look forward to every Tuesday. You always think the struggles you face are so difficult until you meet someone else fighting a harder battle.

As I was planning dinner for that Tuesday night I got a call from her telling me she hoped I didn't start on dinner yet because she was in the hospital. The doctor decided they needed to take the baby since she wasn't growing properly. She delivered a 3 pound baby girl, and they are both doing well!

She is having a baby shower this week and I tried to think of a gift. I usually give burpies and pacifier leashes but I wanted to venture out and do something new! For some reason I wanted to make a ladybug towel and I scanned blogs to see if I could find a tutorial, unfortunately I couldn't find one anywhere. I only found an etsy shop where they sell for $40! So I came up with the idea myself!

 Here are my supplies, there are so many tutorials out there for hooded towels, but here is one for a cute ladybug!

- 1 bath towel

- 1 hand towel

- black felt

- white scrap towel pieces

-coordinating thread

 I'm not detailing every little step because I'm sure most of you know how to do this! If not there is plenty of help out there. Cut out the sizes you want for your eyes and pin to towel.

 I cut 7 black circles out of felt and pined and sewed to back of towel.

I zigzagged the eyes on to hopefully prevent fraying of the white towel.

 Make sure you sew very slowly when attaching the hood to the towel, it gets pretty tricky going through so many layers.

 Here she is!

 All I have are boys, so my little one here is modeling the towel. He didn't want to take it off!

I just realized I didn't get a good picture of the antenne, but I just used felt and tied knots at the top and hand sewed them to the hood.

Off he goes!

Linking to:
http://www.thethriftyhome.com/

Cute and easy pumpkins

Alot of you remember this post from You Craft Me Up. The second I saw these pumpkins I knew I had to make them. However, I'm not living in Utah and couldn't hop on over to her craft night. Hopefully someday I will be living there and can attend! (Never thought I'd say that)

I was so nervous about going to Home Depot and asking them to cut my wood. On my way to the lumber section I ran into an older man i used to work with and he asked me what I was doing at Home Depot on a Saturday morning. I said, getting some wood cut for these pumpkins I'm making. He just laughed. Luckily the folks there are so nice and didn't question why a lady with a baby needed 4x4 wood cut into different lengths. a month later the wood was still sitting in my garage. Little baby was less than willing to let me do anything other than cuddle with him.

 I didn't take a before picture, but I'm sure you can imagine wood without grooves. 

 My mess

You need some sunglasses to look directly at these pumpkins!  Wish it was a little more dull.

This week has been a turning point. Little baby can now lay on the floor and he has begun to grab toys! I am even getting him on a nap schedule and I can get stuff done! I'm so excited. I started chiseling away at the wood to make the cool grooves, painted them orange (a little brighter than I like), nailed the tree stems to the tops and put them out by my front door. I think next year I'll make the sign to go with them, I just wanted to at least have them on display for the last two weeks of November.

I am so so happy with how they turned out! And on my first try. They are super easy to make, it does take some time to chisel away the wood, but that step is so crucial to making them look crafty instead of blocky.