Cinnamon Playdough

At last the cinnamon playdough.

2 cups flour

1/2 cup salt

5 teaspoons cinnamon

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 cup warm water.

In a bowl mix dry ingredients then add oil and warm water. Mix with hands and knead till smooth. When done store in a sealed bag.

A fun winter activity escpecially for us New Englanders waiting for the snow storm tomorrow.

Pounding Dough

What have we been doing inside with all this New England rain? Pounding dough.

4 cups flour

1 cup salt

1 3/4 cups warm

Mix and enjoy. Store in a bag or air tight container. This dries well to be painted later.

Crayon molds

These were those broken crayons that we baked last week . They came out really nice that we added them to couple of birthday gifts.

Hearts and Flowers

Earlier this week inspired by the cold weather I had a couple of nights of sewing polar fleece. Night #1 made 3 scarves for the girls. I bought this fabric about 2 months ago, cut it last month and finally started it for the new year. The 3 scarves are just cut pieces of polar fleece and to make them different I stitched borders all the way around. For one scarf I did a straight stitch twice. For the other 2 scarves I did 3 rows of stiches with a combination of some straight and some zig zag lines. It gives a plain scarf a nice border.

The next night I made fingerless gloves. It was tricky to measure but I did ok. The seam did not line up on the hand the way I pictured because I cut the thumb holes in the wrong spot. I figured out to do a nice little seem at the top of the glove.

What I also figured out is I'm a slow sewer and a bit messy. What's worse is that I have a lot of trouble sewing straight! I think it's because I was tired. Well looking forward to continue sewing in 2010 till I get it straight :)

Happy winter weekend!

Corner Cleaned Up

This one corner alone took about a week to clean up. Once it was empty a new book case was put in which led to phase 2. Over Thanksgiving break the books were pulled off the shelves, scanned onto librarything, then put all 628 books in my room to be sorted and shelved. Labelled the books while scanning so we know which ones were scanned thanks to a friends recommendation. I also labelled the shelves by category so we all know what goes where. It's a good check for me when I'm cleaning up. Even Melania at 18 months has a bottom row of books for herself to go through.

Now just tired....zzzzz.....

Art Fun

Satuday afternoon art break. We really enjoyed sketching and doing some watercolor. I couldn't resist so I also joined in to do some watercolor and dove in with my sketch journal. Most people I talk to remember that art was one of their favorite classes. Well why not have art at home?

Cleaning Corner

Well friends a new week begins and there is much to do around here. I'm looking at a full schedule this week so I will be off for most of the week. I'll drop in at the end of the week hopefully and with any luck I will have made some progress on one of the November possibilities.

It's to clean out this corner to make space for all our treasured books.

Quietness

Just wanted to say hello friends before I went sailing with the kids. Yard sailing that is and check out some local art. What I have been up to....

Reading with the kids.

Some story writing in the barebooks. We love these.

New magazines for me. I haven't read these yet I just love looking at the pictures. I made a quick run out by myself to the book store for these 2 magazines the other night. I was standing in the magazine aisle and thumbing through them ooohhing and aahhhhing that I think I annoyed the woman next to me to the point that she had to leave. What could I say have you seen these pictures? I thought of 3 ideas just standing there.

Foodie Family

I apologize to you if lately this seems more like a food blog instead of a place for all kinds of creations. Not much crafting has been going on here. It's been slow but I have been enjoying the knitting it's rythmic and helpful to my soul. The reading has also been a little slow but enjoyable. I guess that's why you have been seeing a lot of food lately. I can only work on one thing at a time and try to do it well. Of course all my cooking has been inspiring my children. I guess you could say we are a family of foodies.

I have woken up on more than one occasion on weekends to find breakfast all ready made by my kids for mom and dad.

This second salad was really tasty. It was made with carrots, fennel, tomatoes, celery and croutons tossed together with ranch dressing. I put some in wrap. Very yummy!

Inside Fun

Beautiful autumn!




"Mom! Look at my diggers!"


Gianfranco's volcano eruption



Inspired by Gianfranco's volcano.

"Mom where do I put my goop?"

Love the origami!

In thereapy right now with scarf #2, much needed green tea and Italian wine cookies.