Fresh Pea Egg-Drop Soup

10 Tuesday Jul 2012

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Our CSA brought a pile of green pea pods and parsley last week.  I like looking up new recipes once the ingredients arrive.  This one is a variation on Martha Stewart’s Pea, Lemon, and Egg-Drop Soup.  To make the lemony, summery soup you will need:

*1 1/2 pounds fresh peas in pods

*5 cups stock (We make ours using Better Than Bullion.  The mushroom and veggie flavors are vegetarian and really yummy)

*2 large eggs, lightly beaten with fork

*1 bunch of parsley

*zest + juice from one lemon

*freshly ground pepper

1. Shell peas and place pods, parsley and stock in medium saucepan.

2. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and partially cover.  Simmer for 30 minutes.

3. Strain pods and parsley and return stock to pot.

4. Bring stock to a boil and add peas.  Simmer 3 – 4 minutes until they turn bright green.

5. Turn off heat and slowly pour in stream of eggs and stir with a fork to make strands.

6. Stir in lemon juice and zest.  Grind in pepper to taste and serve immediately.

DIY Ikea Fabric Teepee Tent

09 Monday Jul 2012

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I made this teepee for Ada when she was little,  (although I think technically Santa gets the credit).  She and Josie have been using it to play at camping in their room together lately.  Our teepee is based loosely off of this pattern by Sew Mama Sew.  Ikea has lots of inexpensive upholstery fabric in bold patterns and the stiffness of the fabric is perfect for keeping tent sides straight.  To make a tent similar to ours, you will need:

*3 Yards of Stiff Fabric.  (We used this Ikea version)

*5 Wooden Broom Handles

*5 Rubber Chair Stoppers

*Leather Lacing or Strong Twine

*7-9 Large Wooden Beads (Ours are 3/4″)

*Scissors

*Drill

*2 Large Buttons Optional (We used these at the top of our tent to button fabric around poles)

*Sewing Machine Optional (We hemmed our edges, but the above pattern is all done with grommets)

1. Follow pattern and cut as shown here at Sew Mama Sew.  Adjust length – longer if you plan to hem fabric as we did, or shorter for shorter poles.

2. I added two button holes and ties at the top of our teepee to tie around the poles.  (Sew Mama Sew uses smaller bamboo poles and plastic rings to attach fabric to poles).  Ties made from our fabric scraps are stitched inside our tent secure the fabric to poles.  We can adjust our ties to have the tent stay open or closed.  I like having ties rather than fixing fabric permanently to the poles for ease of washing.

3. Drill 1/4″ holes 4″ down from the top through each broom handle.  Attach rubber stoppers to the bottom of each pole.

4. Thread lacing through bead, pole, bead, pole until all poles are used.  There should be one bead between each pole as shown.  These will help keep poles in place when the tent is set up.  Pull the the lacing to pick up slack and tie knot.  We added beads at the bottom of each tie for decoration.

5. Spread the tent poles out, fanning out with even space between each one.

6. Drape fabric over poles, secure ties and buttons if you have them.

7. Break out the s’mores!

*Acorn Toys in Brooklyn has a beautiful version here if you prefer buy to DIY*

Inspiration

06 Friday Jul 2012

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Instagrams from the week:

*Giraffes

*Ada’s Lego Fan

*Nan’s Garden

*Summer Shoes

*Ada’s Forth of July Decoration

*Giraffes and Piggies

Happy Weekend!

Apartment Therapy Features Clementine

05 Thursday Jul 2012

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We are excited to say that one of my favorite blogs, Apartment Therapy Family has featured Clementine’s Orange and Yellow Party in it’s Best Kid Parties today!  Thanks Apartment Therapy!

Put a Word on It (or How to Learn to Read)

05 Thursday Jul 2012

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This idea came from Ada’s three (brilliant, loving and fun!) teachers.  They suggested we try this as a way to help her start making connections between words and objects over the summer.  Ada would have us read to her 24 hours a day if she could, so we have encouraged her to learn more about the letters as she shows interest.  We are so excited for her to explore books on her own when she is ready.  She will devour them!  We used markers and card stock to make big labels around our house.  Painter’s tape looped on the back makes them easy to remove from the walls.  It feels a bit like an ESL classroom around here, but she seems to love it.

Clementine’s Party

03 Tuesday Jul 2012

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I grew up in a family full of summer birthdays.  Summer always meant ice cream cake and swimming and parties and I assumed it did for everyone else as well.  My mom was great at whipping up a party for very little money.  We would make pinatas from paper grocery bags, use dress-up clothes for relay competitions and hand-crank homemade ice cream.  We are thrilled to have two summer birthdays (and a third on the way!) amongst the sisters and cousins in the family now.  I love a summer party!  This is Clementine’s first birthday, with orange and yellows as color inspiration of course:

*Tissue Pom-Poms, Martha Stewart has great directions here.

*Kid Snacks in fancy cups.  These paper snack cups from Shop Sweet Lulu make even healthy snacks seem like party food.

*Giant Balloon from Bargain Balloons.

*Rainbow Veggies and Hummus.

*Paper Flags.  We made these by folding tissue from Nashville Wraps in half and cutting a triangle shape with point away from fold.  Unfold into a diamond, put a bit of glue stick along the fold, reposition and fold over some twine.  Easy!

*Rubber Frog Pool Toy employed to hold down the napkins.

*Sunflowers.

*Under the umbrellas.

*Homemade Lemonade with Mint.

*Guest in Orange.

*Flags on the Fence.

*Ice Cream Cake from Cliff’s.  Ice Cream Cake = Party Essential!

*Dusk.

Happy Birthday Clementine!

DIY Knitted Ice Cream

02 Monday Jul 2012

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Knitted cones from a free pattern at I Like Lemons.  I made these for my niece last year and used scrap yarns and seed beads.  They take only a couple of hours each, or less if you aren’t having to rewind skeins from toddler hands.  I always get the urge to knit during the hottest months, but luckily this project inspired some taste-testing to get the colors right.  I Like Lemons seems to have ended her posts, but there are more cute free patterns in the archives.  Her Olive and Ball projects are pretty amazing.  Etsy has a variety of knitted foods here if you would prefer to buy instead of knit.

Inspiration

29 Friday Jun 2012

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Instagrams from the week:

*Striped Tissue

*Candy cane Ada made with yarn and a dowel

*Beaded Purse, made in India

*Linen Towel

*Josie’s Vintage Stripey Dress

*Shells

Have a great weekend!

DIY Fireworks on a Stick

28 Thursday Jun 2012

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My in-laws take Forth of July fireworks very seriously.  They even own a mini cannon that gets set off when the sun goes down.  I wanted to make some safe fireworks for the girls to run around with in the back yard.  These are made using a variation of The Sweetest Occasion’s Tissue Paper Tassel pattern and a wooden dowel.  The tissue paper fireworks make a nice hissing sound when shaken, cost us under $1 each to make,  and are legal in all 50 states.  To make your own you will need:

*Tissue Paper

*Wooden Dowel (ours are 36″ long and 3/8″ thick)

*Twine

*Tape

*Scissors

1. Layer a variety of colored tissue paper in a stack.  (Our large pink firework has 8 sheets, the green has 5 and the striped tissue is made from 2 pieces on each tassel). Play around with the colors and sizes you like.  The more sheets you add  the heavier the firework will be, so be sure not to outweigh the strength of your dowel.

2. Follow these directions to make each tassel, (Thank you TheSweetestOccasion). We used one tassel per dowel for the larger number of layers and two on the striped fireworks’ dowel.

3. Once each tassel is made tie twine around the neck of the twist for extra stength.

4. Loop a piece of twine through the hole and tie a knot in the center around tissue.  On each end of twine make another double knot.  This will prevent twine from slipping out from under the tape when shaken. (We used a thinner twine and layered it for strength.  If you have a thicker twine one piece will be fine).

5. Tape twine to dowel above knots as shown.  Be sure tape is tight and wrap around a few layers.

6. Let the celebration begin!

Renegade Booth Inspiration

26 Tuesday Jun 2012

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Thank you to all of you who stopped by our booth this past weekend!  (This post was meant to go out yesterday, but a lightning storm left us technology-free for the day).  Marissa, Marla and I had a nice break from the kids and got to meet some new faces at Renegade.  Here are some Instagrams from our booth:

*Letterpress business cards, printed by Woodside Press.  I love this place.  They are located in a cool old warehouse building in the Brooklyn Navy Yard and their space is full of huge old presses and pretty amazing views of the city.  I water-colored the card edges after they came off the press.

*Our table set up.  We used Instagrams of the girls modeling product and then had stickers made by Art Flakes.  The blocks were cut from a long board and stickers applied.  They stood up well to the bright sun and were a big hit with the crowd.

*My crowns on shelves made by Chris.  I am setting up an Etsy store soon, but feel free to email me if you are interested in purchasing.

*Laser cut sign.  Similar work can be gotten here.

*Marissa’s beautiful Soor Ploom clothes.  Purchases may be made on her site.

*Table Top.

*Table Top.

*Tassels that blew in the wind on the front of our booth.