A Sprinkle of a Celebration

Over the weekend we enjoyed getting together with some good friends to play, visit and celebrate.  My two best mommy friends have daughters who are within six weeks in age to Mini Muffin, so we've always had fun getting together.  One of them also has a son who is only two weeks younger than Little Smiling Man, so we have also very much enjoyed getting the boys together and spending time together during our maternity leaves.  The third friend is due with a little boy in just a few weeks, so we will all have "matching" families!

We took some time for the girls to play (which we all wish would happen more often), and to celebrate the little man that will soon be joining us.  Since showers aren't a thing for second babies, we had a little "sprinkle" to surprise her.  We had snacks, cupcakes, lots of fun, and sent her home with meals for her freezer to help during those first few hazy weeks with a new baby.  She was surprised, and very pleased with the home cooked food she received, and, well, everyone loves cupcakes.  Especially chocolate ones with creamed cheese icing!

My original vision was a bit grander... there would be nicely decorated cupcakes (or even a cake!), the girls would do a Valentine's Day craft, and not only would I have food for my friend's freezer, but would also send her home with fresh baked muffins.  I held fast to this concept... until about 9pm Saturday.  At that point, the Thai Coconut Chicken I was making for her was about 75% complete, the cupcakes weren't started, and I had no craft planned (let alone set up).  Thinking forward, I realised that to have my husband, myself, and both kids fed and dressed, a snack set out, and the house play date ready by 10am the next morning when our guests would arrive, would be a feat in itself!  I quickly readjusted my priorities.

First, the chicken supper for my friend's freezer.  Sending her home with delicious and easy suppers was the big driver for getting everyone together.  Once it was cooked, the pot was relocated to the garage to cool overnight.  My original vision of giving the meal in a foil pan over rice was dashed when I realised that I forgot to get the pans.  However with hindsight I realised that gifting the meals in freezer bags would make for smaller storage in what would hopefully be a freezer full of good food!  And, it was super easy to finish off in the morning.  Phew!

Second, the cupcakes to celebrate with!  I used a mix (gasp!), and got them baked before bed.  Icing waited until morning, and instead of fancy piped decorations with blue tinted icing, I used some blue candies I'd picked up ahead of time just in case.  It was a super quick alternative that gave almost the same effect.  As a bonus, everyone seemed to enjoy the contrast of sour candies with sweet cake and icing.

It's a boy!  Chocolate cupcakes with creamed cheese icing... mmm...

In the end, we were ready and waiting for our guests.  The girls had a blast, and after playing in princess dresses we even had to do a thorough de-glittering of our basement (surely, that's the sign of a good party!).  We all enjoyed a healthy snack of cheese, crackers, apples, grapes and milk, and then indulged in cupcakes.  The cupcakes were definitely a hit - both of my mommy friends requested to take some home!  And, everyone left just after noon to head home for nap time. 

Looking at the morning as a whole, I think it's fair to say that it didn't match my original vision, but the most important elements were there.  Friends both little and big, fun, laughter, and a cause to celebrate.  We didn't need fancy cupcakes, structured activities, or bags and bags of food to send home with our friend.  We needed to take some time out, enjoy our children, and gift what we could to our friend in celebration of her growing family.

It really was a perfect morning to remember.

Christmas Cards from a Toddler

Mini Muffin and I decided that yesterday was the perfect day for Christmas crafts. There are also a couple of people in her life that we wanted to recognize with cards, so our craft was decided!

I started by prepping while she was at the park with my mom (who's staying with us for the holidays), and Little Smiling Man was napping. I made plain, cream coloured cards, and drew a handful of Christmas trees on green card stock.  Mini Muffin has been working very hard lately on learning to cut with scissors; she's getting quite proficient and is nearly ready to try cutting along lines. So, my vision was that she'd try to cut out the trees, then we'd glue them to the cards and decorate them. Rather ambitious for a little girl of only two and a half!

When she got home, she saw the card stock and her scissors on the table and was super excited to get started! I explained and demonstrated cutting along lines, and she gave it a pretty good try. But, the fun of reducing a piece of paper to many tiny pieces with her scissors soon took over. I decided to let her have her fun (and use easier cutting shapes next time we work on this skill!). By the time she was done, we had dozens of odd shaped pieces of green card stock, with fragments of Christmas trees drawn on them.

Since this project had decidedly not gone to plan, we just started winging it! We tried our hand at cubism with me piecing together tree-like images and Mini Muffin gluing them. Mini Muffin then cut up some of grandma's spare yarn and glued it to some of the cards as decorations for the tree. And, finally she told me what she wanted to say inside, with great quotes like "Merry Holidays for Christmas!" and "Friends!".

All in all, it was a pretty fun project. I think the cards turned out great; to me they look like a two and a half year old loving her craft time!

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DIY - Candy Cane Wreath

It's been a while since I posted, and has it ever been busy!  We had our extended family Christmas during which Little Smiling Man charmed one and all, and Mini Muffin ran amok and had a fantastic time.  We had our immediate family Christmas, during which we had a good catch up, exchanged a few gifts and enjoyed brunch together.  Then, we headed to Niagara and stayed at a water park!  I estimate that we spent nearly 12h in the water, despite staying for just under 48h!  We were all a bit waterlogged by the end.  When we got home Little Smiling Man wasn't himself.  He wasn't... well... smiley.  Then he broke out in a rash, so we went to the doctor where he was diagnosed with hand foot and mouth.  Poor, poor monkey.  All we could do is wait it out, and keep him comfortable with Advil.  Thankfully he's through it now!  We're all enjoying a little bit more sleep, and a lot less fussiness!

And, on the craft/DIY front, I thought I'd share a wreath I made just before heading south.  Let's just say, Pinterest is both my best friend and my worst enemy.  I was super busy with preparations for our trip and life in general, yet this gorgeous wreath just begged to be made!  Luckily, it turned out to be a quick and easy project, with a gorgeous end product!

The finished product!

Here's what you'll need:

1 box of candy canes, plus four additional candy canes*

Scotch tape

Hot glue gun (clear glue)

1.  Trim excess wrapper from the ends of each candy cane.
2.  Pair candy canes with long stems together.  Attach with tape.
3.  Lay out your wreath, joining the taped pairs so that the crooks form hearts.
4.  Along the stems, run a line of hot glue.  Add a dot of hot glue at each point the candy canes join.
5.  Allow to set, and it's ready to hang!  It won't be stiff, but will be held together well.  Hang on a hook, with ribbon, or however you choose!

* Exact quantity may vary depending on which brand of candy canes you buy.

Easy.  Peasy.

Ours adorns our stairwell window, and is held up by suction hooks.  I love this simple, festive touch to our home!

DIY - Mini Muffin Tin Advent Calendar

It's funny to think that our friends south of the border are celebrating Thanksgiving, when we are in full flung Christmas mode.  But, with Canadian Thanksgiving over a month behind us, I guess it's not surprising.  In fact, tomorrow morning we're heading south to enjoy an early Christmas dinner with my extended family.  On Sunday, we're celebrating Christmas with our immediate family (since my sister won't be able to join us on the day).  After this weekend's celebrations, we'll be heading to Niagara for a short getaway with the kids.   

By the time we get back it will be December!  And, December means that the countdown to Christmas is well and truly on - especially for Miss Mini Muffin.  She is all about Santa these days.  As part of the anticipation, we wanted to introduce the traditional advent calendar.  But, I really struggle with the concept of buying a calendar that essentially gives my toddler chocolate every single day for 24 days.  Chocolate and candies are a treat around here, and don't happen often.  Who knows what havoc that calendar could wreak!  I jest.  I'm sure it would be fine.  But, it did get me wondering if I could put together an advent calendar for her that was more suited to our home environment and her personal tastes.  Pinterest to the rescue! I kid you not, Pinterest is both my best friend and worst enemy; so many amazing ideas, yet so little time!

This week, in and amongst our normal routines and getting organised for our upcoming getaway, I took some time to create an advent calendar for Mini Muffin.  It was a great break from the laundry, packing, baking, wrapping, errands and general Christmas prep. 

And here it is - Mini Muffin's Mini Muffin Advent Calendar!



The Final Product!

To make your own, you'll need:

• one mini muffin tin
• 24 small treats - mini muffin tins are shallow, so they need to be small
• 24x  2" cardstock squares (my squares are actually 2"x2.5" rectangles and work well)
• any decorations you'd like to use
• self adhesive magnets
• ribbon to hang

24 days worth of treats

I started out at the dollar store, looking for little treats.  I ended up with a collection of stickers, balloons, hair clips, and a few larger items (pencil, Christmas sticker activity book, antler headband).  Naturally, I did pick up a few candies too.  Every advent calendar needs a few sweets!

Over the next week or so I thought about how to cover the muffin cups.  I knew it would be a piece of cardstock with magnets on the back, but the exact size and design was up in the air.  After I finally had my concept in mind, I pulled out the muffin tin to discover... the holes were much closer than I remembered and my grand idea wouldn't work after all.  Boo. 

I figured I'd just dive in and figure it out as I went along, so I opened up a pad of Christmas scrapbooking paper I bought on clearance a few years ago.  The stars must have been aligned because the first page I flipped to had a calendar on it... and the numbers were the perfect size!  Seriously, what are the odds?  So, I cut them out, affixed the magnets, and filled the tin.  For the larger items, I wrote a little clue on where to find them (and put a reminder in my phone so that the treat gets into its hiding spot in time!).

The final challenge was hanging it.  My tin doesn't have a hole in it, and I intend to continue using it for baking once December is over, so I needed to get a bit creative.  In the end, I took the strongest magnets from my fridge, and used them to hold the ribbon onto the back of the tin.  It's been three days and it's still holding strong, so I think my solution is going to do just fine!

All in all, this was an easy and fun craft to do for my little one, and I am so happy with the final product!  I'm really looking forward to her discovering her treat each day as we move the numbers from the tin to a line down the kitchen door.  And once Christmas has past, all I have to do is pack away the cardstock until next year!

Craft Idea - Hallowe'en Handprints

We are in full autumn mode!  We've been doing for lots of fall walks, enjoying the last warm-ish days, and sadly packing away all things summer.  Fall has also crept into our diet with more apples and squash.  So, as Little Smiling Man naps and Mini Muffin plays with orange playdough while we wait for our pumpkin oatmeal muffins to cool, it seems like a great time to share a little handprint craft we did the other day.  It makes a great seasonal decoration, is small to store, and will be super cute to pull out again next year and see how much Mini Muffin has grown.

Before the toddler phase, arts and crafts were certainly a long way behind me.  As in, I'm pretty sure I left arts and crafts behind in elementary school.  So, I've been doing a lot of learning... and a lot of idea gathering on Pintrest!  This idea was just too cute to miss!



Eek!

As you can see, it was mostly a mommy craft with a bit of toddler input.  Mini Muffin thinks "her spider" is pretty cool, and loves the webs created around it in purple (her favourite colour).  And, mommy had some fun doing something crafty during naptime. 
A little bit more about the process -

I chose to work on canvas for longevity and display purposes, but you could very easily work on paper.  I also used tempera paints to keep everything non-toxic and easy to clean. 

Since we didn't have any orange paint on hand, I mixed some up and prepped the canvas while Mini Muffin was napping.  I applied a couple of layers with a sponge brush, and then dabbed with a sponge to even out the texture.  Once it was dry, we painted Mini Muffin's hands and pressed them down one at a time to make our spider.  The next day (also during her nap), I broke out the purple and a fine paint brush to finished it off.  She was so surprised to see the end result when she woke up, and I had so much fun painting.  As I said, it's been years!

I had a few learnings through the process, which the very crafty would find basic.  When I mixed the orange, I was completely off with the red/yellow proportion.  For the record, Hallowe'en orange is mostly yellow.  I ended up with so much orange as I added more and more yellow to find the right shade!  I also found the by using a foam brush (which is all I had on hand), I ended up with a really streaky canvas.  It looked kind of cool, but wasn't the look I was going for.  Hence, improvising with the sponge.  I love the mottled texture of the final product!

So, there's a fun handprint Hallowe'en idea.  Now, on to create one for Little Smiling Man!

DIY - Cozy Baby Blanket

Sweater season is officially back, and with it comes the need to make sure Little Smiling Man is as cozy as can be.  This week, I found myself pulling out the receiving blankets I made for him before birth more often.  I'm so glad I took the time - they truly are my go-to blanket!

Let me tell you a bit about them, because these aren't any old receiving blankets.  These are a) made with love, b) extra cozy without being too bulky, and c) perfect for someone (like me) just learning how to sew.  In fact, this blanket pattern was my very first sewing project, and the prototype was quickly claimed by Mini Muffin.  It continues to be her comfort item at bedtime, I love that she's comforted by something I made!

It all started a couple of years ago, with a very experienced quilter from work telling me about making receiving blankets for a colleague that was expecting.  It sounded so simple - one yard each of two complementary flannels.  Cut one 30" square and one 40" square from each, and through some sewing magic create two beautiful blankets that are a cross between a basic receiving blanket and a simple quilt.  Sounds interesting, right?  She called them "twenty minute receiving blankets", but ascertained that even with her experience it took her a bit longer.  Fast forward to my expecting Little Smiling Man, and several others in my social set also expecting babies around the same time.  I thought it would be lovely for Little Smiling Man to have something made especially for him, and to give these as gifts to some of the other new arrivals.  I literally googled twenty minute receiving blanket and came across a free online tutorial from the Missouri Star Quilt Company (here: http://shops.missouriquiltco.com/product/self-binding-baby-blanket-pattern/).  It turns out that it's the same tutorial my coworker had used!  What took her an hour or so, took me longer.  The first one took two evenings.  The second one took a single evening, and eventually I got it down to a couple of hours during which I could escape from the outside world and focus on a simple, enjoyable project.

With hindsight, the time spent on these blankets was very well spent!  I find them so versatile.  Being about three feet square, they're great for carseats, swaddling newborns, rolling on when we're out and about, can still be used as receiving blankets and to clean up messes, are thick enough to be perfect for spring and fall weather, and are both soft and durable.  Since Little Smiling Man was a March baby, we used them often over the first few months, and I suspect I'll also be using them frequently over the coming months as well.

At this point I've made a half dozen or so, so here are my tips (to supplement the fantastic tutorial above) -

1.  Don't skip the prewashing... or the ironing.
Flannel shrinks.  A lot.  Putting your uncut flannel through the wash means that it won't go all wonky on you later.  After it comes out of the dryer, ironing will make cutting so much easier!

2.  Perfect squares do matter. 
I'm pretty sure it takes me about as long to cut the fabric as it does to pin and sew.  But, if you're not square, it's definitely a problem, so it's worth the time.

3.  Exact measurements, however, don't matter. 
If one of your squares is slightly bigger or smaller, it really doesn't matter, it just changes the width of the border and the overall size of the blanket. 

4.  Sometimes, if you're new to sewing, the top stitching goes a bit funny in places. 
Don't sweat it, no one will notice (and if they do, they won't say anything!).  When I made my first blanket, I was very caught up in it being perfect.  It wasn't.  And, it's still very well loved.  Just enjoy the process, and it'll all work out in the end.  And, I find that each subsequent blanket gets a little bit closer to perfect.



5.  Thread a new bobbin before starting the top stitching. 
If you want to go start to finish without stopping, you'll need a full bobbin.  Trust me.

6.  If you plan to use these for yourself, make several.
In the spring, these were literally the only blanket we used for swaddling due to the chilly weather (and their perfect size).  Plus they were used for going out, snuggling, etc.  We loved using them so much that they always seemed to be in the wash!  Having several meant that we were rarely caught without one.     

And, that's my little summary and review of one fantastically simple, handmade baby blanket, that I adore. 

Enjoy!!