Day One-Valentine Count Down

Welcome to Roots and Wings for our Valentine Count Down. Here is my mailbox for today. I put a fun craft for the kiddos to make, inside of the mailbox (thanks to Nana who made up these kits for all of her Grandchildren). Since it's the weekend I thought it was the perfect day for this to be in the mailbox! Notice I also have the card out that explains why the mailbox is even out, and that my kids need to check the mailbox every day for something fun or yummy! The craft kit is actually in the mailbox for the kids, but for my picture I took it out! As soon as my kids make them, I will post a picture.

We thought we should start this off with a bang. So how about our first give-away!?
That pretty "Love" Banner can be all yours! (Ok, the picture is awful but I'm in the midst of a fight with my computer right now... and it's winning. sigh. I couldn't let the cut up pictures delay all the fun we have planned for our 14 days of Valentines!!) It is an embroidered felt banner that is tied up with tulle! Look at the fun embroidered detail! Do you remember this from my sneak peak last week?
Just leave us a comment and we will randomly choose a winner from those, on Wednesday by noon. That way this can get in the mail to you that evening (if the winner responds back with their email quickly enough!)!

Don't forget to check back every day until Valentines Day for our 14 Days of Valentine Countdown!

Rebecca

Super Bowl Sunday is almost here!!

I'm totally excited that the Cards are playing in the Super Bowl. We are trying to get our kids excited about it. Here are a couple of ideas that we thought you may like too.

Cardinals Bottle Jerseys

I searched everywhere to find a template for a bottle jersey. Much to my surprise, I could not find one anywhere. So I had to make my own.


Just print this out on a regular 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper. Cut it out, tape the sides. Voila, you have your own little bottle jerseys. I thought these would be adorable on a table setting. You could even have a whole team ready for the game.

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Football Calzones.

Rebecca came up with these. I don't know why I didn't come up with these!

Start with pizza sauce, thawed and risen Rhodes dough, toppings of your choice (she used pepperoni), cheese. Rebecca's secret for yummy pizza is to use both Mozzerella AND cheddar cheese.



She stretched and flattened each individual roll. Layered sauce, pepperoni and cheese.


To make the shape she brought the sides up, folding in half and pinching a seam. This makes the football shape. She put them on the pan with the seam underneath. Make sure you check the shape. Add some strips of dough for the laces. Let it rise again in the fridge until you are ready to bake it. Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Aren't they adorable? Her kids thought it was so fun to eat a football. They kept saying "I'm eating a football, I'm eating a football!!"


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Cardinal Pom poms (or is it pom pons?)

Now you need to be able to cheer the Cards on appropriately. We need some pom poms. This is super easy. We used some red and white tissue paper. I took a few sheets of each. I folded one edge (to the right of the below picture). This needs to stay intact. From the other edge, I cut 1/4 inch strips. Using the paper cutter was totally the way to go. Super easy. Do this with both white and red. Layer them together.


Roll both layers of tissue paper with the uncut edge becoming a handle. Tape it together.
Go CARDS!!!




~~~~

Another way to cheer the Cards on

Rebecca found a football clip art. She printed it up, let her kids color and decorate it. Cut it out, glue it to a painted popsicle stick. Now you are totally ready to enjoy the game.



And if you are a Stealer's fan, you are on your own;)

GO CARDS!!

Don't forget, if you make something from these ideas, please share it with us on our flickr group
We can't wait to see what you come up with!!
~Anjeanette

Things for Thursday-Counting Fun

These are my counting beads. The kids get to try and line them up in order. Descending and ascending. I made them myself with my stash of beads. I chose to do each line in one color so that we can use these for color activities as well.
The older children, I actually have them put them in order by counting them. I think it's a great way for kids to visually see which number is bigger. What line is longer? That one has the most beads on it. I will grab a few out of the pack, line them up and ask which one is longer. Then, we count how many beads they each have.
This is another fun game to help them visualize one number being "bigger" than the other one.
Sorry for this picture, my battery was dying! I first have the kids put the correct number of beads into each cup. Then, we line all the cups up in order. Then, I will grab a few at a time and have them guess which one is bigger by saying, "which cup do you think has more beads?". Then, we count them and look at the number on the cup as we say what the number is. I change out what I put in these cups. You could do Candy Corn at Halloween time, Flower petals in May, Acorns in November, candies at Birthdays (sprinkles even), rice, etc! Another variation of this is to have all the items in a bowl. Then, use tweezers, fingers, tongs, chopsticks or some other utensil to pick up the items and move them into their cups. This helps with motor control as well as math concepts. What are ways you guys have used these kinds of tools with your own children?
Rebecca

14 Days of Valentine-Altered Mailbox Tutorial

I saw this idea on a few websites. It is like the Twelve Days Of Christmas. In December, I actually do the 25 Days of Christmas for my Children. I make sure that we do something Christmas-y every day, or eat something Christmas-y, or the kids get a Christmas themed trinket of some sort. I also have a Christmas story to read each night for their bedtime stories (yes, that's 24 different Christmas stories!) I like to give them pajamas and put their themed pillowcases on their pillows the night before December 1st. Then, the next morning they get a Christmas place mat and setting. I kind of do the place mat thing for every holiday. I do the PJs, pillowcases, and place mats on those days so they can be used all the way up through Christmas. I'll get more into this next December. My point is that when I saw people doing the 14 days of Valentines, I thought it was so like what I do in December, and I love it! So, I enlisted Anjeanette to help me finagle this. We are going to post our ideas and gifts for the first 14 days of February, on this blog! We will start off with giving the kids a fantastic altered mailbox, all done up. Here is what you can do with them for other holidays or events. Then, each day they are to look in the mailbox for the next day's gift. I am not all about just giving my kids stuff. So, we will be incorporating recipes, crafts, service ideas, etc for each of these. As long as it has to do with love (or red, pink, and white) we are in! We will post each day's ideas on this blog, first thing in the morning. So be sure to check back daily. We are telling you about it now, so that you can go out and make your own mailbox to be all ready. We have found these mailboxes both at the Dollar Store, and at the Dollar Spot at Target! Ready, set, GO! You could also make a version out of paper, here is an idea of what that could look like (or you can buy hers!). Another idea for this would be Valentines Tins, not in mailbox shape. Here is a cute popcorn one. A way to do this at home would be store bought tins, or how about recycling formula cans?! I will show you how I made my mailbox.

I gathered all the necessary supplies. I had so much fun perusing the supplies that I have. My supplies are more of a collection, as I buy them as inspiration hits, and not just to go with specific crafts I'm making. That way, when it's the middle of the night and you have a fantastic idea, you can get up and just start making it. I'll have to post a picture of my craft room one day. But right now I'm in the midst of an overhaul of it. It's really fun with lots of cabinets and counter tops for me to lay everything out (or make more of a mess on).

Here are the supplies I ended up picking out. If you look at the heart that is cut out of the polka dot paper you will see an overlay on it. I have been waiting for the right time to use this overlay. It says love all over it. I knew it was perfect for this project. I used the same heart template and cut it out of the polka dot paper and the Love overlay. I glued these together with a spray glue that I love to use for these kinds of projects. Usually I use my xyron for my paper crafting. However, I use this spray when it needs a stronger glue. I also chose papers that all coordinated and weren't overwhelmingly girl-y, as I have one boy and this project is for all of them. At this point I had already taken 2 of the coordinating papers and trimmed them down layering one on top of the other one. This will be used to go all the way around the mailbox. I just measured the length of the mailbox and used that as the width for the first paper. It was 4 inches. Then, the next paper I first cut to 2 inches, but didn't like how that looked. So, I cut a new one that was 3 inches. You can also see a layered flower. I just took 2 flowers that I had; one in blue, and one in a see through pink. I put the pink one on top and then took a blue pearl brad and stuck it through the center of the 2 flowers. I laid the mailbox on the polka dot paper and traced the flag of the mailbox. I had to guess on the bottom part of the flag pole, but that didn't take long. I decided the flag needed a lot of oomph so I layered the Love overlay on the flag part of it, and then attached the flower I just made. I also cut out a backside for the flag. I didn't like the mailboxes flag pole at all, so that's why I covered the whole thing, front and back!

This is the piece that will go all the way around the mailbox. Remember to cut a line and then punch a hole where you will slip this piece around your flag pole. This is for where the flag pole attaches to the mailbox. I think this gives it a nice finished look and most people wont notice the one small cut in it.

I had a sheet of rub-on words. I chose the "with loving thoughts" and was so happy they were in the right shade of blue! I cut them out. Then, I had decided they would be used on a heart so this phrase was too long. I just cut it down again between "loving" and "thoughts". I rubbed these onto a blue heart that I cut out (using the reverse side of the striped paper-I love 2 sided paper).

I ended up rubbing those words onto a heart that I cut out of the polka dot paper. Then, I layered that onto a pink heart. Next I cut a piece of the blue see through ribbon (making sure to notch the ends of the ribbon for a more finished look). I attached the ribbon by adding 3 more of those pearl brads. I attached this whole piece (layered heart with brads and ribbon) to a piece of striped paper that I cut to the dimensions of the front of the mailbox.

A tip here is clothes pins. I love these things! I use them to hold pieces for me that I need to apply spray adhesive to. This keeps my fingers from ending up sticky! I had to take this picture with my left hand while holding the clothes pin! Not an easy task. This picture also shows you the spray adhesive that I use. I have used it in many different kinds of applications. It gives you a few seconds to move things around and then it is stuck for good! Just what I need! For this project, the paper was pretty thick and would need to go around a curve (the top of the mailbox) and then the 2 corners of the bottom. I did not want it pulling up at all. So, that's why I chose this spray instead of my xyron machine! If you go back to the finished mailbox you will notice that I also added ribbons to the flag pole (again notching the ends of the ribbons).

The last thing I did was take the leftover pieces of paper and made a note card. This will be left on the table with the mailbox on February 1st! It is directions for my kids, to let them know to check the mailbox daily for fun surprises. I added a ribbon on the top of the card, too.
Rebecca

Technorati Tags: Rebecca,Tutorial,Valentines

Nana's Valentine Suckers

Mom, aka Nana, was always the "room mother" in each of our classes at school. She was in the PTA, in charge of "Junior Great Books", ran the "Book Fair", and so much more. Yup, she was one of those Mom's! Only better! One of the fantastic things that she always made were valentine's day suckers. You wont find these anywhere! They are so darling, and for us they hold so many memories. We gave them out to EVERYONE! Now we are lucky enough to make them for our own kids to give out. She has these fantastic molds that she uses to make them. I have no idea where our Mom got hers but she has had these molds our whole lives (30ish years...hee hee hee). You can buy these kind of sucker molds here, at getsuckered.com. How cute is that name!? This is not where she got hers, and we have not bought from here. But they look very similar! The above picture shows our Cherry suckers that we made today. Isn't the cup they are in cute? Growing up, we always had cute cups like that. I can remember going to our Grandparents house (actually, on both sides) and having to use the special dishes they had for us. Now my kids go to my parent's house and also request their special dishes (at Nana & Papa's house they are dishes that are kids size).

This is a recipe card that I made about 10 years ago. Each of us gets a bee in our bonnet at some point, to make a family recipe book. We have so many variations, this was one of my first (I have probably done this 3 times myself!) The best part of these suckers is Nana's genius idea of putting conversation hearts into the middle of the suckers! Brilliant!
To get started, you want to grab your tin of Potato Flakes that holds your sucker molds and other assorted sucker making supplies. Don't have one? Me either, that's why I always have to make these with Nana. Yes, I could buy my own but that wouldn't be much fun, would it!?
Lovely Nana's hands putting the metal molds into the pan. You line these metal molds up along the outside edge of the pan, with the sticks towards the center, for easier pouring when you are filling them with your candy mixture. Make sure to spray your pan and metal molds once they are lined up and put together. Nana's tip is to not spray the whole pan, just where the molds are. Otherwise your sucker sticks will end up with the oil on them.

Now is the fun part. Actually make the candies. Add your Sugar, White Karo Syrup, and 1/2 C Water to a boiling pan (smaller pan, what's the name?). Bring this mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally (actually, stir more than occasionally, but less then constantly)Make sure to let the mixture get to 300, on your candy thermometer (or your Mom's thermometer!).
This is the hard crack stage. Add your flavor and color. Nana uses about 3 drops of food coloring. For our suckers today we did 3 drops of red for our cherry, which ends up being a pink. Then, we did about 7 drops of red for our Cinnamon ones (so that we could tell them apart). The rootbeer ones did not need food coloring.You quickly pour this mixture into the molds, just going around the outer edge of the pan where the molds were placed. You will spill outside of the molds. That is ok. After that, you immediately push conversation hearts into each one of them.
Ok, Nana tip here is to not put a conversation heart into all of them. Some people might want suckers without the conversation hearts. Nana has always (as long as I can remember) used both round and heart shape molds for her Valentine Suckers. She would put the conversation hearts into the round ones, and not in the heart ones. That way all of them have hearts and therefore are true Valentine Suckers!
Use extract and not concentrate as the flavor wont be as strong. Also use as fresh of extract as you can, for the same reason. For the amount of molds that we have, we always end up with extra mixture. So, Nana always pours it into another pregreased cookie sheet. This would be what you would do if you were just making stained glass candy. There are 2 reasons for doing this. The first is that you can then test for when the suckers are set up, by checking your candy on the extra pan. We always pull some off while it's still gooey and warm, to check the flavor. There is nothing you can do about the flavor at this point, except do another batch. However, we are always anxious to taste it! The second reason for doing this is so you don't waste it! We break it up and put it into a bowl. Then, you and your kids have something to munch on, instead of eating the suckers all up before you can give them out! Once the suckers have set up (really this is only about 10 minutes) you break the suckers out of their molds. This is a really fun part for some reason. As you take the molds off, the suckers literally do break out because of the mixture that hardens on the outside. You usually have to tap these molds on the pan to get all the extra mixture to break off. These extra bits you just add to your bowl of extras that you already have from the extra pan. We have plans to make with these suckers and we'll show you that, during our 14 days of February! Fun fun fun! Here's the actual recipe for this"
2 C. Sugar
1/2 C. White Karo Syrup
1/2C. Water
2 tsp Extract or 2 TBL concentrate
3-7 drops of food coloring
Pour Sugar, Karo Syrup, and Water into pot. Bring this to boil and stir until your candy thermometer reads 300, or hard crack stage. Add color and flavoring. Pour onto greased cookie sheet.

Enjoy!
Rebecca

Linking to It's So Very Cheri Celebrations party

Things For Thursdays-Snowmen

These snowman goodies look fantastic! This is what I'm doing with the preschool kids today. Since we are in the desert, our Winter is short lived and so I figure I need to get all the Winter crafts in that I can. I think it looks so yummy and quick and easy!
Next, I found these melted snowmen! So funny. This is one of our snowmen that we just made. The other Preschoolers really didn't want theirs to be puddles and so theirs were just glue snowman. I used to get all worked up over my daughter not doing the crafts the may they were supposed to be done (or the way I wanted them to be done). Luckily it only took the first time or two of her having other ideas, for me to get over that frustration. Isn't it better when they can see supplies and come up with their own things? Don't we want our kids to be able to think for themselves? And isn't doing crafts with kids supposed to be fun? Well, you will notice in future posts that I tend to let the kids have full reign on craft projects. I show them what it could look like, and give them the supplies to be able to make the same thing, and then I let them do what they want. If we are using super glue (which I did today in my other snowman craft) then the crafts tend to end up looking more like I envisioned, because I do the super gluing for them.
Here is another really cute snowman mobile. I, however, opted to just wing it for my next craft. I had the supplies for the other one...and then I saw that we had empty juice bottles in the recycle crate. I usually don't have those as we try not to buy things with lots of packaging. But since we just went on a road trip, we had them. I hate to then just let these bottles go into our landfill, so I made up these snowmen. I'm sure you have seen variations of them everywhere. I also have socks with no mates, and so I used them for the snowmen's scarves and hats. I think they turned out pretty cute! I used to have the kids paint on the outside of containers, but have found that the paint chips off. So, if I can I have the kids squirt the paint into the bottles and paint it from the inside. They love shaking the paint around to make sure it's all covered. I cut the tops (cuffs) of the socks off to make the hats and then cut strips out of the socks for the scarves. The carrot noses are just made out of orange felt. I swear, I need to own stock in googly eyes and felt! We use them for EVERYTHING!
If anyone makes any of these things, I'd love to see your versions of them. It's always so much fun to look at something and then come up with your own version of it. I think I've used these juice bottles in 4 or 5 other crafts. Snowmen crafts are so easy and fun to come up with. I had also envisioned snowmen out of paper plates (another thing I need to have stock in), snowmen out of pompons, snowmen masks (I love masks for everything!). For the last part of today I just had the kids do Preschool work on papers that were snowmen themed. DLTK is a great "go-to" place for any of this stuff. I seemed to have collected so many files of worksheets that I can match just about any theme I can think of. Another great site is ChildCare.com. She has great preschool worksheets, and many of them are free!
Rebecca

Sneak Peak

I am putting it out there that by the end of this week, I will put something new into my Etsy shop! I work best when I have deadlines, so in this case the deadlines have to be self-imposed, but having blogged it now it is set in stone! I've just finished with all the embroidery and now it's time to play around with it and come up with a finished product. I've done quite a few of these before, but not quite like this one. I can't wait to play around with it!
Rebecca

From My Friend About Jell-o Salad

My awesome girlfriend posted this in the comments and I wanted to make sure it gets read. I love sharing recipes and now I'm going to have to try it myself. Thanks so much for your share;)

"I made my favorite last weekend. It's a variation of 7-up salad.

Strawberry 7-up Salad

1/2 pkg small marshmallows
8 oz room temp cream cheese
small box of strawberry jello
1 c water
1 c strawberries
1/2 c chopped nuts (I use pecans)
1 c 7 up

Beat room temp cream cheese until smooth, add frozen or fresh cut up strawberries (orig recipe has can of crused pineapple so there is juice in there. You can use milk, I use a bit of strawberry vitamin water...less than 1/4 cup), stir in nuts. Boil water, whisk jello until dissolved. Stir marshmallows into hot jello mixture (some will dissolve), then fold into cream cheese mixture. Pour 7 up in last (it will create a foamy texture) and pour into mold, or as I use, bundt pan. Whatever! It's delicious!"
~Anjeanette

With Valentine's Day On My Mind

If you are Mormon you probably already know this site. I have to let you know that the gal that does this site is my friend. I grew up with her in Utah. She always was the crafty and creative person that would lead you to put up a site like this. Anyway, shoot on over to Sugardoodle and see what they have for Valentine's Day.

Just like the Boo thing for Halloween, they have a . Cupid and a poem

I was totally going to mention the Heart Attack. We did that every year. But we just took a ton of different size hearts and wrote cute lovey things on them and posted them all over the garage and a big heart on the front door that said "You've been given a Heart Attack".

I also like to cover my husband's car windows (never the paint) with hearts and a Heart Attack note and even all over his car seat. I also leave a Valentine or some candy on his seat too. I think this year I may have to let the kids help Heart Attack their daddy..

When we were kids, my dad always got a huge heart shape box of candy. He would sneak out the side door and run around the house to the front door. He would leave the candy, ring and run and come in the side door as we all ran to the door to see who it was. I loved that! We could never figure out who it was leaving candy for Mom;)

We also liked to ring and run Valentine's to our friends. I plan to do this with my kids again this year. There is something so fun about sneaking out in the dark of night, leaving some special treat on the doorstep, ringing the bell and running as fast as your little feet can go. It is sometimes more fun to get caught;)
~Anjeanette

Tuesdays With Dorie-Berry Surprise Cake

Today's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was chosen by Mary Ann of Meet Me in the Kitchen
Check her blog out for the recipe. And she has a really nice blog.
I never knew that Charolotte Russe is not just the name of a clothing store, but also the name of a yummy dessert. I also had never made a genoise cake before. I'm glad I tried it. It is fun to do new things;)

This recipe was a little tricky. Apparently genoise cakes are tricky. Mine sure was. My cake sunk a little. In looking at other people's blogs, it wasn't as bad as some. But I decided to cut the bottom off to use to cover the top. You are supposed to cut the top off and hollow it out. I didn't have a tall enough cake to do that. I saw someone on the group (eeek I'm sorry I can't find it now) that cut off the bottom, and that worked beautifully.

Here it was all served up.

It was good. My husband liked it. He loves strawberries and strawberry shortcake. The recipe called for raspberries but I didn't find any. I did find some blueberries that were a decent price. The cake was a little dense. I would like to use the filling and topping with another lighter cake.
Pretty good, just not spectacular like I'm used to with Dorie's recipes.
~Anjeanette

The Recipe For Stained Glass Jell-o

We come from a Utah Mormon family. I don't know if it is a Utah thing or a Mormon thing, but we ate a lot of Jell-O growing up. We have an arsenal of Jell-O recipes under our belts. So when Rebecca posted about her Jell-O, I didn't think about suggesting she post the recipe too. I forget everyone doesn't just know all the Jell-O recipes. Also, if you have a favorite Jell-O recipe, we would love for you to share it. You can never eat too much Jell-O. (I wanted to see how many times I could type Jell-O in one post;) I think my personal favortie Jell-O is either my Grandma's Green Jello Salad, or Mom's layered Jell-O. But both are favorites at all the holidays. I'll share two recipes since I can't seem to find Mom's recipe at the moment:

Stained Glass Jell-O

4 3-ounce boxes of JELL-O®
1 12-ounce can of evaporated milk
4 envelopes unflavored gelatin

*You may use any flavor of JELL-O® that you want. Pick your colors to coordinate with your theme, or your favorite flavors.

In separate bowls, dissolve 1 box of JELL-O® in one cup of boiling water. Pour into an eight inch square dish or pan. Chill until set, about 3 hours.

Once set, cube JELL-O® and mix in a 13" x 9" baking pan and set aside (in the refrigerator).

In a separate bowl, combine four envelopes unflavored gelatin with one cup boiling water. Let dissolve completely, about 5 minutes. Combine with one can of evaporated milk. Set aside to cool.

When milk mixture is cool, pour into 13" x 9" containing cubed JELL-O® and mix carefully until well combined. Chill until set, about 4 hours.

~~~~~
Green Jell-O

1 c. cottage cheese
3 oz. box lime Jello
16 oz. can unsweetened pineapple chunks
1/4 c. salad dressing/mayo

Make Jello as directed on package. When cool, add other ingredients. Chill in refrigerator until set.
~Anjeanette

Inauguration Day Party

Whatever your political views are, today is a day to celebrate! I always try to make sure my children are at least aware of what is going on in our country, and the world. The inauguration is a great thing for my kids to see. I am so thankful to live in a country where I get to vote! I'm thinking of maybe doing my stained glass Jell-O (which is perfect in red, white, and blue) for dessert!

Here were some other great ideas I found on another site! Party ideas
Rebecca

Things for Thursdays-Jell-O Slices

I don't want to only show craft projects that I do with my Preschool. How about fun foods that we make (or that I make for them, to ensure they are eating healthy or just fun!)! So for today's Things For Thursday I'm going with a fun food idea.
When I was gone for the weekend at my friend's new Beach House, her awesome Mother had given me a bag of citrus fruits from her own trees! She also grows her own pineapples, bananas, and avocados! Man do I love homegrown fruit and veggies!! So, when I stumbled upon these awesome Jell-O Oranges from Family Fun Magazine, I knew it was just what I was looking for! They really were super easy and turned out really cute! You just had to slice your fruit in half and scoop out the insides (or sections). My kids ate the insides for snack time. Make some Jell-O (I know it's crazy but I ALWAYS have Jell-O on hand. Not just a bit, either. I have every color on hand. This would be interesting with purple or some other color on the inside. My Mom makes a layered Jell-O that is to die for and so when Jell-O goes on sale I stock up! ). After you are done stirring the sugar until it's dissolved you pour it into your fruit halves and refrigerate. My mini muffin tin worked perfectly to hold these smaller liquid filled fruit in place. I was worried about filling them too full. In hind site, I would say that fuller is better. I ended up taking kitchen scissors and cutting off the peel that was higher than the Jell-O. I did not like how the slices looked with peel sticking up with no Jell-O in it. Once it sets you just slice them into wedges. I at first tried tiny slices, then just in half. My favorite was cutting each half into thirds. They just turned out the cutest at that size. Some of my fruit cups were flimsier than others, and yet I was still able to slice these up with no problems. Not one ripped or anything.
I really like how these turned out. The Preschool kids are so excited to get to eat them, but they are for tomorrow's snack, and the extras will be in my kids' lunches to surprise them with. I don't usually add sugar desserts to their lunches (especially on a non-holiday day)! I know they will get a kick out of them. My oldest no longer likes little notes and stuff left in her lunch. So, I love still getting to say "I Love You" without embarrassing her.
See how pretty these wedges turned out! I did a seesaw thing with the knife as I cut it and it left the prettiest designs in the Jell-O. Next time I take a close up of my fingers, remind me to have a manicure!
This whole thing reminds me of making cake filled oranges. Pollyanna made some this summer Yum!
That may be my next dessert (fantastic to use on those fresh fruit of mine!). I love how those turn out. Usually I do them while camping, but they work well at home, too.

Who doesn't love cakes in oranges? Brother sure did.
I'd love to hear if anyone else tries these out and how they like them, or what variations they did with them. I can see adding all kinds of fruit chunks to the Jell-O. However, my children love their fruit alone, but wont eat it in Jell-O. Crazy!
Rebecca

New Home Gift Basket

My best friend just bought a new home. I was lucky enough to get to visit her new beach house with her, for their first visit to it. I made up a Welcoming Basket to give to her. This is something that I think a lot of people are now doing. However, my Dad has been doing this for each of us kids, every time we move. For me, then, this is continuing a family tradition, and I was so excited to get to do it. This is my basket in her front entry way.

There are many different sayings that you can find online. I liked this one, so it was what I used for the tag on the basket.

New Home Blessings Basket

May your home be blessed each day and each year
May your family live safe and happily here.
May joyous events fill each of your days
And help build new memories in many new ways
Please accept these gifts as the symbols of
Good wishes for you, your home, and your love.
By Betty Dewille
Another one is:

Home Sweet Home©

Contracts were drawn,
papers been signed,
It’s taken so long,
thought you’d go blind?
Open the door, breath it all in.
Finally here, a new life to begin.
A picture here, flowers there.
How ‘bout the phone? Where, oh where!?!
A gift for you to use with glee.
With thoughts of joy for you from me.
Best wishes in your new home!

As I said before, this is a beach house. My friend grew up as a Surfer, and is so excited that now her kids will get to be Surfer kids, too. So, I knew that I had to do a Surfer themed basket. I have that awesome paper stack from Joann's that has 5 coordinating Surfer papers. I cut each paper into 2 inch strips, and then a few 1 inch strips for the tag. Then, I picked a plane paper in a coordinating paper (I liked the red from the patterned papers), as well as a sand patterned paper. I ran the sand paper through the printer, to print all the sayings right onto the sand paper. I cut the red paper into 3 inch strips. I cut out the sayings into smaller tags to go on the front of the strips. I then distressed each of the sayings by running ink and chalk around and across them. I ran everything through my Xyron machine and just stacked it on top of each other. I even ran the finished strips through the Xyron machine so that I could just stick them right onto each of the items going in the basket. There are many lists of things that you can put into the baskets. I chose these, because they are the same ones that my Dad did. Each item is a symbol of something else. I went with; Sparkling Apple Juice (in place of Wine, so the kids could have it), Vodka (also in place of Wine because my friends would prefer to have Vodka for mixed drinks, and I knew their Realtor left them some really nice Champagne and cheeses), Salt, Sugar, and Bread.
These are other symbols and sayings to use with them:

Rice: That there may always be food in the home
Bread: That there may always be friends and family to share with
Salt: That there may always be a little spice in your lives
Sugar: That sweetness may touch even your worst of days
Candles: That you may always find your way back home
Wine: That there may always be reason to celebrate.Wine- so that you will always have joy, Bread- so that you will never know hunger, and Salt- so that your life together will always have flavor.
I had bought another basket for this, but found that with 2 glass bottles, the bottom was not strong enough to hold it all. Then, of course you just add the tag and a nice large bow to it! She loved it! Next time I will pick a smaller loaf of bread, as this one overwhelmed the basket. However, I knew my friend would not have any food in the house and I figured she could use it for sandwiches. Congratulations, on your new home, my Wonderful Friend!
Rebecca

Things for Thursday Winter Art Project

I run a daycare/preschool. With that comes a lot of really fun projects. Who doesn't love coloring, reading, and playing all day? I figure I can show you guys some fun things I'm doing with the preschool. These things are so easily adapted to children of all ages. Many times I will be making something with the 3 year olds, when my 2 older kids get out of school. My kids will just join in. They are so used to this happening that they immediately modify it to fit their liking. I love looking through my daycare books, preschool book, and perusing the internet to find fun things to do. Here is what I am thinking of doing for this weeks Things for Thursdays. I love this woman's art projects as they seem a bit different than the usual preschool projects you can find out there. I also love her descriptions of the painting techniques! I have an artist in my family and so this site is awesome for helping her expand her horizons! http://www.artprojectsforkids.org/2009/01/jim-dine-multi-media-hearts.html I am not doing Valentine's Day projects with the preschool quite yet, so I will be doing it with a Winter theme instead of Valentine's Day Theme.
I made 3 circles on a piece of paper (to make a snowman). Then, the kids colored the shapes in, with crayons. It's important to push hard and cover as much as you can. Color the object any way you want. Then, watercolor over the picture. The kids love to see how the colored parts resist the water color paint. After that dries spread rubber cement of the paper. This step is going to seal in the color anywhere you put the rubber cement. So, don't cover the whole page, make brush strokes or whatever you want. Again, you have to let it dry after this step. Then, water color over the whole page again, using a different color of paint. It is fun to see the places where there was rubber cement, completely resisting the last water color paint, yet it keeps the first colors on!
Here is our final project! I will use this technique again. It was easy for even the 2 year old to be able to do, yet kept the almost 5 year old interested too!
Rebecca

A Review of Tutorials for Valentine Fortune Cookies

Well, I saw this on Martha Stewart and thought it was cute. But really Martha, glue and felt? I just think that wouldn't hold together very well. At least not with a bunch of 1st graders.

I did a search. I KNOW I've seen them in other places. I found some awesome tuts that I totally loved and had to try myself. Brassy Apple had basically the same idea with glue. I like the additional layer of fabric. But we are talking glue again. I must have a thing against glue. And when we are talking glue and fabric you just totally turn me off.

Here is one that uses paper I love how she shows you how to fold it with a little pinch in it to make it look more like a fortune cookie.

And then there is this one from CraftSanity I think it is adorable and I really like the tutorial.

Last but not least, I found Lady harvatine had a tutorial on making fabric fortune cookies.

I guess I should say that I want to do them for Super Boy's Valentines for his class this year. He is in 1st grade. So my criteria is that it has to be something that can be very quickly made, it has to hold up in their Valentine boxes or bags. These 1st graders can be less than careful when they are excited. I want to put a strip of wrapped licorice and a note in them and not have the fall out. I think that is about it.

I took my favorite parts of these tutorials and tried three of them out, with my own twists, of course.

I have a ton of red felt. I'm in love with felt. I dream about felt creations at night. I love to sew with felt. I know, it is a sickness. But I'm not ready to seek help for it just yet;) I started with felt circles.

Here are my three attempts. The first one was based on CraftSanity's tutorial. There is a PDF tutorial you can download. If I were going to make play fortune cookies, this is the one I would choose. I loved it, but thought it had too many steps for a simple class Valentine. Seriously a lot of thoughtful design in this one. I would not have come up with this on my own.

The next one was based off Martha's and Brassy Apple. I just didn't like that it was glued. So I took a strip of floral wire and sewed a little strip of felt around the wire. I liked this but felt like it created a lot of bulk and the shape just wasn't quite right. I did like that it seemed to hold it's shape well. And this was my second favorite way. I just need to make the strip a little more narrow, if I were to use it.

This was from Lady Harvatine. I think I ended up liking this one best for my use. She sewed it and that is a plus for me;) I love sewing with felt. How many times can I say that?

Of course I had to do it my way by only using one layer of fabric and not pinking the edges. I like this one because it seemed to hold it's shape best. I'm going to put individually wrapped licorice and notes in them and I thought this would hold the best when shoved into 1st grader's buckets. It was quite easy. All you do is sew down about an inch on a folded circle. I did not sew quite as far into the center as she did because I wanted there to be enough room for the stuff I'm going to put in it. I did have to think about it a little to figure how to fold it. I couldn't come up with a better explanation than she had.

I like the idea of putting a Kiss inside. But I didn't find the size I made would be big enough. I used a large tumbler to draw the circles. I would have to use a small plate to make bigger circles. I don't know that I want to use that much fabric. I know that is silly. Oh and here is a reference for fortune cookie sayings
~Anjeanette