Category Archives: Projects

Party!

12 Monday Mar 2012

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Decorations on the fan.  The vintage lanterns are from flea markets and the large pink one is from Pearl River Mart store in Manhattan, (much better than the site).  We make the pom poms from Nashville Wraps tissue.The spread.  I scored the beautiful Jadeite pieces on Craigslist the day before the party.  They remind me of my Great Gram and they are the most perfect color to mix with hot pink and reds.  The chocolate cake is my favorite recipe.  It is a staple at our parties and inspired me to be brave about homemade cakes.  They are so worth it!  Polka dot fruit cups and stripey straws are from Shop Sweet Lulu.  She has lovely, edited, special party supplies.  Special drink.  We like to do a signature drink for our parties.  Josie’s was a sparkling berry soda.  We added a kick to the adult version.  You will need:

*2 oz.Sparkling berry drink. We used Lorina French Berry.

*1.5 oz. St. Germaine

*1.5 oz. Champagne

*Raspberry for garnish

1.Measure, mix and stir gently.  Pour into fancy glass over ice.  (Drinking champagne through a good straw makes it even more fun!)  I found the perfect vintage ‘B’ glasses for Chris at a church sale years before we had kids.  I would have gotten them even without the correct last initial and $5 price tag.  Josie-bean Ice Cream.  I love our vintage ice cream maker and any excuse to whip up a batch makes me happy.  The We are going to do custom flavors for the girls’ birthdays from now on.  For Josie-bean (Ada’s nickname for Josephine) you will need:

*3 Cups Heavy Cream.  Good quality cream is essential.  We use Ronnybrook Farm’s from our farmer’s market.

*2/3 Cups Unrefined Sugar.  I think this tastes better than white sugar.

*2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract

*Seeds from 2 Vanilla Beans

*2 Cups Fresh Raspberries

1.Scrape seeds from vanilla beans and add to cream, sugar and vanilla in small saucepan.  Drop empty pods into cream and heat on low heat until all sugar dissolves.

2.Remove vanilla bean pods and pour cream mixture into bowl.  Chill in fridge for an hour.

3.Pour cooled mixture into ice cream maker, add fresh raspberries and follow directions for your maker.

4.Serve immediately or store in freezer.  Allow to soften slightly before serving.

Happy Birthday Josie!

Felt Alphabet Magnets

11 Sunday Mar 2012

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I made these felt letters for Ada when she was just learning her alphabet.  They have strong magnets sewn inside so they can be stuck on the fridge.  Spelling out the letters of a child’s name also makes a nice gift.  You will need:

*Felt.  We used various colors of wool felt from Woolfeltcentral.com

*Embroidery Floss in contrasting color

*Stuffing

*Two or three Magnets per letter.  We used Tiny Mighties

*Glue

*Paper to make the patterns

1. Type out the alphabet in a simple font and enlarge to desired size.  Our letters are 3″ tall.  Print letters and cut out.

2.Lay paper letter pattern on top of felt and carefully cut along edges of paper to make the letter.  *You will need two- front and back for each letter.

3. Glue magnets onto the inside of the back half of the letter. Space out and use more for longer letters such as ‘M’ and fewer magnets for simple letters like ‘I’.  The magnets will be stitched inside the felt, so you don’t need much glue.

4. Place a little stuffing on top of magnets, between the two felt letter halves.  You can adjust stuffing position as you sew, and the stuffing will help prevent the strong magnets from sticking to each other.

5. Blanket stitch the two letter halves together, making sure the magnets are in the back and the face of the letter is not backwards.  Push any stray stuffing inside as you sew.

6. Allow glue to dry and then put them on the fridge!

If you aren’t feeling crafty you can buy some similar magnets here on Etsy.

Tail of the Yak

08 Thursday Mar 2012

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I first read about Tail of the Yak on the Oh Happy Day! blog.  Jordan described it as her favorite store, (which is saying a lot because her blog is so lovely).  I was so excited to visit on a trip out West last week. The tiny store has been in the same spot for 40 years, and it was even better than I had imagined.  It is magical and beautiful and ethereal. ..Here are some treasures:Tiny Glass Flowers and Birds, $8 per bunch.  I have been making child-sized crowns and these will be perfect for them. Little Metal Bird Pins, $.75 each.  Cheap and adorable!Leaf and Star Straight Pins, $4 each.  This packaging is almost too amazing to use them, but I can’t wait to start a sewing project!  I also think they would be perfect on a bulletin board.

I am missing the West Coast already!

Rainbow Fruit Cake

07 Wednesday Mar 2012

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I like to give kids their own little cake to eat on their first birthday.  The rest of the party may be lost on a one-year-old, but they generally like making a mess with food.  This recipe is simple and has way less sugar than the cake that the rest of us ate.  Josie loved the fruit and ate most of it before getting to the cake.  We used a mini springform pan that we got at A Cook’s Companion in Brooklyn.  You can also find one here.

Here is the recipe:

*2 Cups Flour

*1 1/2 Teaspoons Baking Powder

*1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda

*2 Large Eggs

*1/2 Cup Baby Food (We used one large pouch of organic strawberry/banana)

*1 Cup Soy Milk

*1/4 Canola Oil

*1 Tablespoon Vanilla Sugar (See my Vanilla Sugar post for directions).

*1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

*Sour Cream or Thick Greek Yogurt (For frosting)

*Variety of Cut Fruit for Rainbow

1.Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2.Grease Pan.

3.Mix dry ingredients.

4.Wisk eggs and mix with wet ingredients.

5.Pour wet into dry and mix until smooth and pour into pan.

6.Bake 20-30 minutes, or until a fork comes out clean.

7.Release from pan after 15 minutes.

8.Frost with sour cream or yogurt when cool.

9.Arrange fruit on frosting just before serving.

Balloons

06 Tuesday Mar 2012

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Bringing home the giant balloons for Josie’s party.  Her favorite part of the day may have been the stroller walk with balloons above her head.  I found these 36″ giants at Bargain Balloons for cheap and then Party City filled them for $2 each!  This is exciting because everyone else in my area was quoting me $20 per balloon to fill.  (Sorry for all the prior bad-mouthing Party City).  We did have to walk a mile with the double stroller, but Ada helped look out for pointy gates and low hanging branches.  Josie got a lot of smiles and birthday wishes on the way.

Invitation

02 Friday Mar 2012

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Josephine is almost one already!  I am not sure how the year passed so quickly, so we are celebrating for more than one day.  I’ll share some of the birthday ideas in more posts.  Here is the invitation:

We used photo corners to attach her picture and a custom stamp for the inside.  The stamp shipping is cheap if you buy a few, so we have a stockpile for upcoming birthday years.  The square envelopes are from here.

Happy Birthday Josie-bean!

Wooden Fruit

01 Thursday Mar 2012

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I love these ingenious wooden fruits by Haba.  They are a knotted simple string and two wooden beads.  I like the idea of making some of our own versions of fruit.  I wonder what others we could come up with…

Food

29 Wednesday Feb 2012

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One of our favorite additions to Ada’s play kitchen are these colorful wool felt balls.  They have been served as everything from blueberries to soup to tea.  It is also easy to make your own felt balls if you would like a simple project.  You can find beautiful felting wool here.

The dishes are a lovely ceramic children’s set from Ikea.  (I much prefer living with a few broken pretty dishes than ugly sturdy ones). The fabric “pancankes” are pieces of vintage prints that Ada requested from the sewing box.  We found them long ago at a flea market and they were meant to become a quilt.  A few stitches and stuffing made them into food.  I love watching kids invent from beautiful, ambiguous materials.

Toy Kitchen Jars

28 Tuesday Feb 2012

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These play food jars are easy to make and the contents look and sound like real spices and dry goods, without the mess.  They are one of Ada’s favorite additions to her play kitchen.  You will need:

*Small recycled jars

*Dry popcorn, beans, beads, pompoms, etc.  (We used glass beads and pearls from an old necklace for good sound effects and pompoms for fun color).

*Glue (Craft or hot glue will work).

*Fabric scraps to cover the tops

1. Fill jars.

2. Trace lid onto fabric and cut out.

3. Put a line of glue along the threading inside the jar lid and screw on tightly.  Wipe off any excess glue.  Be careful not to shake the jar until the glue is dry or your beads will stick to any drips inside the lid.

4. Glue the fabric on top of the lids and allow to dry.

5. Hand over to your Julia or Jacques and wait for your souffle.

Shell Necklace

27 Monday Feb 2012

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We love to take winter walks on the beach.  It is lovely to have a beach all to ourselves and the shell hunting is the best in the off-season.  The amazing amount of shells is both a blessing and a curse when you take a three-year-old with pockets.  In order to avoid the meltdown when we tell her stinky crab legs and giant driftwood are not coming home with us we started searching for necklace shells.  These small, clean shells with existing holes generally fit in pockets and are an easy project when tied onto string at home.