hennymats

I have a big boy now

2012-03-03T20:58:00.000+01:00

My baby turned 3 this week. Three. T-H-R-E-E!

Where did the time go? And will it keep going faster?

He's such a big boy now, talking almost as much as his big brother. Sometimes when I have them on the phone on my way home from work I can't even tell who is who.

He's going to preschool, happily waving goodbye in the morning. He makes up the most complicated stories and fantasy worlds to play in. He makes me pretend coffee.

He's the sweetest little person on earth. Except when he's hungry or tired, or worse, both. He's as stubborn as mommy and throws tantrums like there is no tomorrow.

He still doesn't eat much except for bread, pasta with butter and of course chocolate. But he's an expert baker and apparently now in charge of deciding what to bake at our house.

He loves his big brother. No, he adores him. When he was a baby, he used to crack up laughing every time he watched big brother walk down the stairs. We have never found out why he thought that was so funny. He still thinks big brother is so funny, even when mommy and daddy don't think it's funny at all.

So last week he turned 3. He'll proudly show you how many fingers that is.

And he stopped nursing.

Yes, you read that correctly. Little brother has been nursing forever, just because he liked it and he wouldn't really eat solids that well when he was little, and, well, I guess mommy just never told him to stop.

Think whatever you want to, and I'm sure most of you are going to think I'm crazy. I don't care. Even if you go eeeeeewwwwww and stop reading right here, that is fine with me. It's worked for us and for once I'm just not going to worry about what others think.

Over the past months it's been down to just needing it for two minutes at night to fall asleep. I asked him when he would stop, because, as we all know, big boys just don't do that anymore. "When I'm three, mommy. On my birthday. Because I'll be big then" was the answer.

It seemed a bit unfair to end such a fun day as his birthday with a big fat NO, but hey, we had a deal, right? So we cuddled in his bed and I sang all the lullabies I know. He didn't argue much and didn't cry at all, it just took him a little longer to fall asleep.

I think it' a much bigger deal for mommy than for the now "big" little brother. This week I gave away the baby stroller that both of my kids used from newborn to about two-and-a-half years old. Little brother turned 3. And big brother will start school in August.

Don't get me wrong. It's exciting. And it's great to be able to go throw in a load of laundry and just leave the boys happily playing upstairs for a few minutes. Or go places without taking along much more than a phone, keys and maybe a tissue. To sit there with a cup of coffee and watch them have breakfast, chatting about what they're going to do today.

But it's different. Three is still going enough for that sense of wonder and excitement. Even five is still young enough for fantasy worlds and cuddling with mommy. But I see it coming. They're getting independent.

I need to make the most of now.

So we had a wonderful birthday. Starting out with chocolate muffins for breakfast and the pretend mail set as a present.

Which was a big hit. They've been delivering mail ever since. I do need to make another one of those bags though, they keep fighting over the one. I'm not sure I remember how I made the first one.

Then we went to visit Sealife together with big brother and daddy. It was great. I'll show you the pictures some other time.

In the afternoon we had the grandparents over and more presents. Like his new coffee maker. Sorry for the bad pics, it still gets dark so early here and the light was awful (and I still haven't figured out how to manually white-balance my images).

And cake. Oh the cake.

A chocolate layer cake with a vanilla custard buttercream.

The now big boy insisted on that. He was very precise and after we had looked through quite a few books, he pointed at a layer cake with a white buttercream. I made a custard buttercream though, because he kept calling the buttercream "pudding", which means custard in German. And also because I simply don't like butter mixed with sugar, way too sweet if you ask me. So I did what my grandmother would have done and cream half a pound of butter and then by the spoonful mix in a vanilla custard (at room temperature!!) made from two cups of milk. It's the perfect consistency and the whole thing doesn't contain more than four tablespoons of sugar.

Soon enough, he won't be just picking out the cake and helping, he will bake it all by himself. Or maybe I'll be lucky if he still wants to bake cake at all. We'll see.

Until then, I'm enjoying every minute of snuggling with my now three-year-old.

Happy weekend,
Swenja

DIY pretend mail set

2012-02-29T09:11:00.000+01:00

If you've read this blog at all the past couple of days, you'll know it's little brother's birthday this week. Tomorrow, that is.

Over the weekend I finally finished the mail set I was making for him. And yes, that bag is yellow. But that is not because that's his favorite color, no, it's because federal mail in Germany is yellow and has that black logo. We've got to be authentic here, after all. Even if it's just felt.

I saw lots of inspiration on Pinterest, but in the end I decided to do a bag and not a mailbox. Those American mailboxes are not so common over here, and he enjoys having a bag to carry stuff around in. I actually got fleece for this but ended up doing a felt version because the thick felt just holds its shape much better. I didn't follow a pattern or even a tutorial, I just eyeballed it, cut out some pieces and tried my best sewing it all together. Since it's felt, I sewed on the right side and didn't have to turn anything. And because I'm just starting at this sewing thing, the bag took me all of Wednesday morning last week. Oh well.

For the envelopes I considered using felt, too, but I have boys. These things are bound to get dirty or deliver chocolates. So I started making them from fleece as you don't have to hem fleece. Yeah, I'm lazy, what can I say.

Except I didn't really love them. I mean, there were nice and all that, but I just didn't love the way they turned out. So I started over with a bunch of gorgeous fabric scraps I bought while shopping for fabric for another project. They weren't even that much harder to make. They're still all crooked and different sizes, but I love them anyway. Hey, I'm new at this, so give me a break.

I added some velcro so the brothers can add stamps and address labels.

The address labels are simple thick white felt, stamped using my beloved fabric ink pad. I didn't iron it to set it, figuring these are not washable anyway. Besides, we're talking about a five minute project here: cut felt into a long strip, stamp on name, cut, stamp next name, cut again. Repeat until felt is used up or you have enough labels.

And the best part? You don't have to sew on the other part of the velcro, because the felt sticks to it as is. The stamps are made the same way, except I used pinking shears cutting them out. Yeah, the images are a little too small for them, but oh well. You've got to leave room for improvement, right?

All tied up and ready for the big day!

This is probably going to take someone with more experience in sewing a mere hour or so to put together. And I hope the brothers are going to have fun delivering mail, writing their own messages, big brother practicing reading the address labels...

Until then, I'm back in the kitchen.

Happy sewing,
Swenja

DIY yarn wreath for special occasions

2012-02-28T08:39:00.000+01:00

Remember my yarn wreaths? Well, turns out they're sort of addictive. I just can't stop making them. So I give them to friends and might even sell some. Wrapping that yarn is just so ... calming.

Anyhow. I made a very special one last week. It's a simple beige-grayish color because I plan to use it year-round for special occasions and holidays. Next up is little brother's birthday, so I decorated it with a DIY felt garland and some felt letters and of course the number 3. In yellow.

I didn't glue anything on and just used pins to attach the felt pieces to the wreath. Since I used silvery pins they do show, but I don't really mind.

Hmmm, already thinking about what to use for Easter. Bunnies? Pastel colored eggs?

I think this is one of my favorite wreaths ever.

Hope you have a great week - mine will be busy with a long overdue haircut and of course lots and lots of present wrapping, cake baking and general party preparations. I'm trying to schedule some posts for the rest of the week, but just in case you don't hear anything from me, well, I'll probably be somewhere in the kitchen making chocolate layer cake with vanilla buttercream frosting by the special request of a little someone turning 3 very soon.

Have a great week!
Swenja

{the simple things} homework

2012-02-26T08:20:00.000+01:00

Big brother is going to school this year. I'm still sort of in denial. My baby, going to school? Really?

Meanwhile, his preschool does sort of practice lessons every Wednesday, and they get homework.

It's not so much about what they do and they don't get more than stickers for getting it right, it's simply to practice doing homework on a regular basis, remembering to take it home, get it done in time and taking it back to preschool on the right day. He loves doing it and has gotten much better about coloring in the lines and cutting things out.

He's supposed to do it all by himself, but our cat can't help but supervise a little.

Little brother usually does some "homework" too and has recently graduated from coloring books to actually doing little activity pages.

Trying to find all the round shapes in those tiny stamp details.

Trying to find out if you can erase crayons.

We all don't really like coloring books, but I'm usually happy about anything that keeps little brother occupied a bit so big brother can focus on his homework. Now, little brother could of course play with those toys they usually fight about, but somehow those seem to suddenly turn boring as soon as homework comes out. Sigh.

And, as with the paper lanterns, tongue sticking out is vital when trying to concentrate.

At some point the head gets heavy, too. Luckily he's almost done!

I still can't believe he'll be going to school soon (well, August actually). Oh, my.

Now tell me, what was the most important thing you taught your kids before they went to school? And how do you keep little brothers busy?

Linking with Rebecca for the simple things sunday.

Happy Sunday!

Swenja

February home projects update: on eating frogs

2012-02-25T10:30:00.000+01:00

February was a very busy month.

You see, next month I will change my office days from two to three. I won't increase my hours so that basically means more time with my kids as I get to pick them up from preschool in the afternoon instead of coming home at (or past) dinnertime. But it also means more time spent commuting and getting up before the crack of dawn. And it means a lot less time for projects of any kind, be it organizing, photography, sewing, party preparations or blogging.

So what does a crazy list-maker do? Prepare herself and make a list of what really, really needs to get done and then try to cross as many things off that list before March.

So February was a very busy month.

While reading a chapter or two in Tsh's 52 bites book I came across the concept of eating frogs. Frogs are those things on your list you don't really want to deal with, the ones you keep putting off. Eat your frog first thing and you'll feel much more productive. Sounded good. So instead of tackling my photography goals or start working on my annual family photo book, I tackled the things that I've been dreading and that really are best done in bigger chunks of time. A lot of them from my home projects list.

Like that small storage room / walk in closet, a.k.a. catch-all clutter magnet. I've cleaned this one out what feels like a zillion times after moving in not even three years ago. It always started to get messy again soon. That's a fairly sure sign that there simply is too much stuff in there, so no matter how you organize it or what storage bins you buy, it will get messy again.

Ironically, I did start by finally putting together the white storage boxes I got months ago. With some help, of course.

Then I took a deep breath and dragged most of the closet's contents out. What bugged me most were the recycling stuff I kept in there for possible future craft project use (in a cabinet that I hadn't opened in weeks. Or months?), all the cleaning supplies that I purged before but that still looked cluttered sitting on an open shelf and the general lack of space to even walk in there.

So this time I was ruthless. All the cardboard boxes saved for mailing packages were tossed, other mailing stuff like padded envelopes and such was purged until it fit into a nice little white box. I kept 10% of the paper bags I had, and those are probably still too many. Then there was the bin where I keep things to be fixed. Broken toys and other household items. Some of them have been sitting in there for months. Apparently nobody was missing them enough to fix them, so most of that got tossed, too. I could keep going, but the bottomline is that I really tried to stick to that simple, number 1 decluttering rule: Love it, use it or lose it.

You know what happened? The rest of my house looked like a disaster zone. And the closet? Well, that one has empty bins now. I even took out one third of the shelves and will eventually replace the remaining ones with something that takes up less space. Not only can I walk in there now, I can also turn around and put things back where they belong.

I labelled all the boxes, drawers and cabinet doors, although I have to disappoint you: no scrapbook paper, fancy scalloped edge labels and not even a labelmaker. Nope, just some simple white paper cut into crooked pieces, the contents written on in my very own handwriting and stuck down with simple clear tape. Yeah, I know, I'm not going to win any make-it-cute awards here. But I don't care. Besides, I was busy getting rid of the recycling, donation boxes and other miscellaneous items no longer needed.

Ahhhhh. I can't even begin to tell you how great it feels.

So, on to the next frog: Kid's clothes.

Twice a year there's a local market where you can sell used clothing, and the great thing is that you don't have to stand there and sell your stuff, instead you get a number that you stick on your items together with a price and you bring it there the day before and pick it up after. It's only a very small fee and usually a lot of the stuff gets sold. I always wanted to do that but last Fall was the first time that I actually found the time to get it done. So now I try to make it a routine to sort through ALL of the kids' clothing before that date, purge what they've outgrown or simply don't wear, store what we're keeping for little brother and sort through the stuff previously stored to make sure he has the items that fit in his dresser. The remaining things directly go in the pile to be sold.

Again, I was ruthless and put everything in the sell pile that hardly gets worn. I know my mom and mother-in-law won't agree with me here, but I really, really don't think my kids need that many not-so-good longsleeves for messy projects. I have boys: every day is a messy project over here, really. And I don't buy designer stuff for them anyway. I also made lists of what they need. Luckily they always seem to have growth spurts right before I purge their stuff so it's easy to remove things that no longer fit and be strategic about buying new things. I'm getting much better at this, too, not replacing all the stuff I purged with new stuff right away (I'm entirely capable of that).

I also found two plain longsleeves in the pile of stuff that big brother had outgrown at age 3. He had hardly ever worn them, so I decided to pretty them up a bit for little brother, adding simple stamps I had on hand with my new fabric ink pad. I added circus stamps to the yellow one and a simple row of cars to the blue one. A five minute project and he loves wearing his "new" shirts.

Now I still have to get that mountain of clothes labelled for the market (unfortunately the labels weren't available yet when I did the sorting) and get the stuff over there, but that's ok.

My next frog actually deserves its own post, especially as this one is getting a bit long. So I'm just going to tell you that I sorted through that messy cabinet in the living room and also the glassware and dish cabinets in the kitchen.

As for the frogs, that was enough for a month. There are still things like paper pile sorting and doing taxes on my frog list. And I also did a lot of non-froggy things this month, such as preparing for little brother's birthday party, making lion costumes, tackling sewing projects and making more wreaths.

From my home projects list I also did some smaller things, such as decluttering my recipe binder and finally put up that one Expedit door add-on that had been sitting in that closet ever since we moved and now nicely conceals my far too rapidly growing fabric stack in my home office. Now I only have to find a way to automatically clean up the chaos on my desk after projects...

Next month I'll likely focus on small things. Tiny things. Nice things.

As effective as that frog eating thing is and as good as it feels to get it out of the way, it's also fairly exhausting. I don't know about you, but I get tired just writing about it.

What frogs did you eat lately? And what's the biggest frog still sitting on your list? Do tell me in the comments, I'd love to hear.

Happy organizing,
Swenja

{kid craft} Simple paper lanterns

2012-02-24T09:55:00.000+01:00

Just in case I didn't mentioned it often enough, next week is little brother's birthday. So we made some simple paper lanterns. I'm sure you've seen this before or made them before so you won't need a tutorial. But I haven't made these in ages and had forgotten how much fun they were!

We started with some papers in the party colors. Yellow happens to also be little brother's favorite. >ou just fold the sheet in half lengthwise and then either just cut slits from the folded side, not cutting all the way through. Or you draw lines and have your kids practice cutting on the lines. Little brother loved that and was very good at cutting just to the end of the line. For about four lines or so. Then he handed it over to me: "You do the rest. OK, mommy?".

Big brother also cut along his lines.

Apparently that goes much better with the tongue sticking out!

So this is what you're left with.

Now simply glue the ends and you're done. As you can see, I did that. Because my kids were already upstairs playing.

They are sort of addictive. So I made a few. And some more.

Here's the lineup ready for the party!

At night just place a jar and a small candle in them and enjoy. I know I did.

So what's supposed to be a kid craft post sort of turned into a kids-started-mommy-finished-it post. Oh well.

Any other suggestions for party decorations kids can make?

Swenja

Celebrating Carnival

2012-02-22T21:31:00.000+01:00

The last few days was Karneval over here - Carnival, Mardi Gras, whatever you call it. It's the occasion for everyone to dress up and go to the big parade. The kids shout "Helau!" and try to catch as much candy as possible. This year we caught a lot.

Big brother waiting for the parade.

He was dressed as a lion this year, after being a cat the previous years. I bought the hat at Ikea on sale after the holidays and sewed (yep! Me! Sewed! With a machine!) some felt to a simple yellow sweatshirt, also adding paws complete with felt claws and a tail with a pompom.

There's lots of music at the parade, too.

The kids like it - but prefer the parts with the candy. Obviously.

Here are some of my favorite costumes.

These guys here were "dressed as nothing" or "NIX" in German.

Ice cream cones!

Lots of animals, too.

Big brother kept holding up his basket and shouting Helau for more candy.

These guys here had Ikea lamps as hats!

And these were hot air balloons.

Since it' still fairly cold here and little brother is coughing already, we decided to let him have the choice of going with mommy and big brother to the parade or spending the day at grandma's. Needless to say, grandma won. He loves her.

I'd say it's back to normal now, but it's little brother's birthday next week. So what have you been up to?

Swenja

I can't believe I made this!

2012-02-21T21:50:00.000+01:00

I am really getting good at this not trying to be perfect thing. That's probably because I know that I'll never be perfect at sewing. Or even good. But I don't care. I just want to make some simple things for family, friends and oh, well, myself actually.

Like these loop scarves. Now, any experienced seamstress would be rolling around the floor, laughing hysterically. As much as I can't cut a straight line, I can't sew one either. And no matter how many tutorials I read or watch, I still don't get that final closure on the loop right.

But I don't care. I'm so excited about this. It's a loop! It's made from absolutely gorgeous Lotta Jansdotter fabric! It's mustard yellow and navy blue. And I made this. Using a sewing machine.

This one is great, too. It's made with Cloud 9 organic fabric.

I actually made one more as a gift for a good friend who's birthday is soon, but I'm not going to spoil it and share that. I just hope she won't mind that it's far from perfect, but I'm pretty sure she'll appreciate it anyway. Because she's great like that. She has three boys, works full-time and is the most energetic person I know. And she deserves some pampering, too. So I made her a scarf.

Anyhow, can't wait to sew another one. I have some fabric left and maybe I'll eventually understand how to get that last seam closed nice and flat. Any hints?

Swenja

Decluttering my recipe binder

2012-02-20T09:39:00.000+01:00

I promised to tackle two project from my home projects list per month. This month I was actually quite busy but haven't really gotten around to posting about any of the bigger things I tackled. So I'm posting about something small instead: finally decluttering my recipe collection.

Not sure if this one here is helping or supervising.

Probably supervising. What you see here is a fraction of my pile actually. I had a stuffed binder and lots and lots of loose printouts of recipes found online. All stuffed in a cabinet in the living room. So every time I was looking for something I either had to dig through the pile or just print another copy. Which explains why I had so many duplicates.

I took it all out and sorted by category. Revolutionary, I know.

And that was what I was left with. All the rest went into the recycling bin.

Now, I could have just been happy with this, post my pics and be done with it. And mind you, I sorted this two weeks ago. So what happened? Well, I didn't like the dividers.

Just let that sink in for a minute. I haven't crossed this off my list for two weeks now just because I didn't like the color of the dividers.

I think I read too many organizing blogs. Because really, I have a confession to make. I don't have white walls (gasp!), I don't scrapbook and I do not own a label maker. There you have it. Still I had this image in my head that I was supposed to add cute dividers and make it pretty, somehow.

I figured it would take minutes and some colorful paper. So today I finally managed to get around to it.

After two minutes I realized my plan wasn't working.

Remembering Rachel's post last week, I decided to do what I'm trying to do more often: just use what I have on hand and not try to make it perfect. I mean come on, it's a recipe binder. It's supposed to store recipes so I can find them and cook from them. And yeah, it helps if it's nice enough that I'll find a home for it in my kitchen and not stuff it in a living room cabinet.

But a couple colorful dividers with simple handwritten labels (stuck on by totally professional clear tape) and a cut out and stamped label as title (again stuck on using clear packing tape. Complete with creases. Oh well) is just about good enough.

So I went and reorganized some cookbooks and found this one here a new home on a kitchen shelf.
And that's it, crossed off my list and all done!

How far do you take your projects? When is good enough just good enough and when do you need perfect?

Cheers,
Swenja

{the simple things} Chocoholic

2012-02-19T09:36:00.000+01:00

I promised I'd find something to post about for this week's simple things sunday besides cats and nature. So here we go. OK, I did post about little brother's love for chocolate before, but it's just so sweet. He loves anything chocolate. There are a million things he won't eat, but you can get him anytime with a piece of chocolate.

Last month his grandma came over and brought some chocolate bunnies. Yep, she bought chocolate bunnies in January. Go figure. I was going to save them for Easter, but my little chocoholic caught a glimpse of them and just had to have them. Sigh.

I love how the chubby little fingers carefully unwrap the gold foil from each bunny.

You see, my boys are like perfect little copies of their dad. They each have their own personality, to be sure, but they are very much like their dad in a lot of things. Most things, actually. With the only exception that little brother doesn't eat cheese and loves chocolate. Just like mommy.

So I don't really mind if he has a couple pieces of chocolate as an afternoon snack. My kids don't eat a lot of processed food, they know only homemade yogurt with real fruit and have never in their lives set foot in a fast food restaurant. So what if little brother loves chocolate?

Eventually he did need some milk to wash it all down though.

I will be linking up with Rebecca's simple things sunday again.

Happy Sunday!

Swenja

{kid craft} Ocean in a bottle

2012-02-18T14:17:00.000+01:00

Remember when I started this weekly kid craft thing in January and proposed to make ideas from the book that I got? Yeah. Well. Somehow I always get sidetracked by the things I see on other blogs or Pinterest. Like this week. Recovering from a really busy week and with carnival and everything going on, I needed something quick and simple. Then I found this.

All you need to make your little ocean is an empty bottle (or two), some water, food coloring (actually had to get some more blue because of these), simple oil such as sunflower, and something to live in your newly created little waterworld. Fish are nice but I couldn’t find any tiny plastic fish and finally decided to give up and use what I have instead. I’ve been trying to do that a lot lately. In this case, I had tiny sea shells. Don’t ask me where they came from, I think I bought them on vacation, but I’m not even sure. Anyhow. I also added a little glitter, because that never hurts and also I love using glitter without it getting messy.

So, fill your bottle about halfway with water and have your kids add some drops of blue food coloring. Close and shake to make sure you got the perfect blue.

Then add glitter and your ocean inhabitants.

Finally, add oil. I tried to glue the caps on but it wouldn’t work so I simply let the kids play with these where I could keep an eye on them. They made waves….

And tried mixing it, switching the bottle up and down.

And just had fun with it. Not sure what I’m going to do with these or how long they keep, so this is probably not such a green project. Especially since I don’t usually buy plastic bottles. Oh well. Sometimes I just can’t worry about everything.

Happy crafting!

Swenja

Homemade vanilla sugar & an answer to my quick question

2012-02-17T21:02:00.000+01:00

First of all thanks for the comments on my kitchen dilemma! As you said, the canisters should really go next to my stand mixer and be used for baking supplies. And that’s where they stayed ever since I took a photo of them for the post. I actually moved my blender somewhere else to have more room. And my tea now lives in simple, black and white Ikea tins. I smile every time I look at them.

So one of those gorgeous jars is for flour, one for sugar and the third? Well, that’s where the homemade vanilla sugar comes into play. You see, on this side of the pond we don’t usually use vanilla extract for baking. We use vanilla sugar, sold in little packs much like baking powder. Back in the days when recipes called for margerine instead of butter, this used to be the chemical, disgustingly artificial vanillin sugar.

These days even the smallest grocery store carries the real, organic vanilla sugar that actually contains pieces of ground-up vanilla. Not that the big companies aren’t still trying to tell you that you should use that artificial crap.

But before I start a full-scale rant on why I hate artificial vanilla aroma (did you know it’s in baby formula to start an early addiction?! Someone please stop me here…), let’s focus on the good news. Because it’s extremely easy to make.

All you need is a vanilla pod and some sugar.

You can even use a vanilla bean (is it a bean? Or a pod?) that’s left over from a recipe where you used up all the seeds. Or one that you have cooked in milk for vanilla pudding. There still is enough flavor for your sugar left. But since I had quite a few left that I didn’t end up using in my Christmas baking, I took a whole one, split it and scraped out the seeds and added those to the sugar as well, rubbing them in with my fingers.

Yum. I love the smell of vanilla.

And in case you’re confused: we use a tablespoon or so in baking just like you use your vanilla extract, except that we add this to the dry ingredients, usually with the rest of the sugar. When baking American recipes, I usually just add it with whatever sugar the recipe calls for and decrease that amount by a tablespoon.

It also works nicely sprinkled on rice pudding. Or pancakes. Or a simple fruit salad. Once it’s empty, just refill the sugar, the vanilla can be reused a few times.

Enjoy!

Swenja

Sibling gifts: DIY dog accessories

2012-02-16T19:41:00.001+01:00

This little cutie here is called Lenny. He's the special guest for little brother's doggie birthday party. He also little brother's favorite stuffed animal. The little guy is from Ikea and has the perfect size to be carried under the arm or used as a pillow.

Big brother got his dog when he was quite little. His grandma also got him almost the complete line of accessories that Ikea sells for these dog. Felt or fabric rain coats, brushes, a basket, sweaters, collars - you name it, he has it. Recently little brother also got a dog of his own, but he didn't have anything for it yet.

So big brother and I went to Ikea and got one of those fabric baskets. Remember the fleece blanket we turned into quick Halloween capes? Well, while at Ikea we also got a red one.

Last week when I was off work and little brother spent the day at his grandma's we set to work, making accessories out of that blanket and some felt scraps.

First up was a cape. We used the Ikea dog accessories as templates and drew an outline onto the fleece, taking advantage of the blanket's pretty border. Big brother cut it out and we attached some self adhesive velcro for closure. We used cookie cutters to trace shapes onto felt scraps and big brother cut those out, too. I then glued them on with fabric glue. I guess I could have sewn them on, but my sewing machine and I are just getting to know each other and I didn't want to rush it.

Here's our dog modeling the cape. Oh hey, anyone out there who can explain to me why my camera gets all colors wrong every time I try to photograph something bright red? I tried to adjust the white balance but that doesn't seem to solve the problem. Maybe it's just my camera (it's a Pentax).

We also made a yellow collar with a blue heart.

And a blue scarf with a yellow star. I ended up doing some of the cutting out because big brother got "so tired". But at least all the ideas and color choices were his.

I think little brother is going to be thrilled. And big brother was quite proud of his work. And the dog has the perfect outfit for the party!

Woof! (big thanks to Greta at this point :))
Swenja

Preparing little brother's doggie party

2012-02-15T15:54:00.000+01:00

You won't be surprised if I told you that I've been preparing little brother's birthday (we're talking March here) since January, right? Yeah, didn't think so.

For the longest time I was sure we were going to have a party involving some of his favorite things on earth: cars and keys. But looking through all my ideas I realized that with a birthday party for a three-year-old you can choose cute themes and they'll likely be excited about it.

There will be plenty of birthdays left for themes such as cars (not the Disney kind, mind you), dinosaurs, dragons, monsters and such.

But how much longer will they be carrying their stuffed dogs wherever they go? And since by coincidence my kids' two best friends, who are about the same age and go to preschool with them, also love their stuffed dogs, it hit me: of course! We're having a doggie party!

A party for three identical golden retrievers and one dalmatian to be precise, all from a certain Swedish store.

So the four boys plus their dogs will be the only guests we're inviting. I mean come on, he's turning 3! I don't need a mile-long guest list, and unfortunately they don't have any cousins.

Writing this post I realized I actually have no idea what sound dogs are supposed to make in the English speaking part of the world. Here they say "Wuff" or "Wau". Do help me on this one, please. Is is "Arf"? This part of foreign languages always cracks me up.

Anyhow. Back to the party. If you remember anything about big brother's fish party, you'll likely recall that I found a cute themed stamp and used that on pretty much everything, from invites to water bottles, fishing game and goodie bags (except for the cake). I can't draw, I'm no graphic designer and I either don't like the store bought party kits or they don't come in the theme I want (and if they do they're usually expensive). So I think of a theme, find a matching stamp and use that to tie it all together.

This time it took me forever to find a dog stamp that was cute but still looked like a real dog and not a cartoon character. But when I finally found it, it was perfect. I think it even looks a little bit like a golden retriever. And there was a dalmatian to go with it. Oh, and did I mention both stamps are mounted on olive wood that smells divine? What more can you ask for? They're both from Etsy seller ahueofduckeggblue. You know, just in case you're in need of stamps (she also does the most gorgeous pine trees. And apples. Pears. I'll stop here!)

I stamped simple white long sleeve tees (above) for the boys to wear to the party (and beyond, hopefully), using my new fabric ink pad. I love it so much I have to keep myself from stamping everything around me (I mentioned those apple and pear stamps, didn't I?).

Then I made simple invites, using the dog stamps plus my DIY bunting stamp. I didn't even bother printing the details on the cards and wrote them by hand instead. Not because I'm lazy but because everything takes way longer once I turn on my laptop... And because I'm trying to let go of my perfectionism. Sometimes good is good enough.

I also made some bookmarks and bone shaped tags and laminated them. In case you're wondering, those are the names of the dog guests. And yes, we have two dogs by the same name (those would be my boys who both named their dog after their grandma's dog). The tags are color coded the same way we usually use those melamine dishes by rice (do you know them? I know I should be getting rid of plastic, but they are so great) when all the boys play at our house. Each of them gets their favorite color, except for big brother, who has recently decided that he loves turquoise (my husband argues real men don't even know a color by that name exists). Don't have that color, so he's happy with white. Anyway.

The finished bookmarks. At our house, we never seem to have enough of them! Little brother made some as a sibling gift last Christmas and so we're recycling the idea here.

More laminated tags. These ones are going to be for the little party guests, who will be attending obedience school and getting their own tags.

And here's the loot for the goodie bags. The day I had the party idea, I found these little plastic dogs. They're made by German company Schleich and one of our all time favorite toys. Their animals look very realistic and are extremely durable and high quality, with a softer touch to them than the usual plastic toys. They're usually fairly expensive so I was thrilled to get them on sale and therefore as party favors. Of course I got three golden retrievers and one dalmatian.

These activity and coloring books were also on sale. Don't you just love it when things fall into place like that?

Then I made some simple felt dog biscuits and stuck them in tiny brown paper bags. The dogs need some treats, too, after all.

Still on my to-do list:

the bunting. I plan on re-using the one from big brothers party but add some bright yellow. That's little brother's favorite color.
finish making felt dog ears. I made a prototype to get little brother's approval because he is very particular about the way dog's ears have to be a tiny bit pointy and shouldn't just hang down. Sigh. Where did the kid get that from?
decide if I want to buy a piñata. I've seen a really cute one, but these things are no tradition here and I don't think the boys will want to hit a dog with a stick. Not sure this sends an appropriate message... So I might just get it as centerpiece. Or not. Anyone out there who has made a piñata? I've seen tutorials but I'm not sure it's worth the effort. Not like we need any excuse for more candy around here!
make the cake. I came across these great ideas for making chocolate cake, adding chocolate frosting and then chocolate cereal to make it look like dog food. I might make a cupcake version of that. I bought some small plastic pet dishes and I'm sure the boys would have a blast if I let them eat their cake out of those without any forks involved. It's going to get messy anyway.
finish the collars. I'm making felt collars for the stuffed dogs that the kids can decorate a bit as a party activity.
make a plan and treats for the obedience school. Simple stuff like sit, fetch and the like, and I'm thinking the ever popular gummy bears attached to card stock bones.
balloons!
bake doggie biscuits but with sugar cookie dough
show you the gifts that big brother has made for the big day

Any other suggestions?

I'm off searching for my sugar cookie recipe. And finding out if rice makes turquoise plates and cups.

Swenja

Making the best of the icy cold

2012-02-14T20:03:00.000+01:00

It's been really, really cold here. Beautiful, but cold. Around noon it usually gets warmer and my cat ventures out. One day he sat on the porch, staring at me. He kept looking at the watering can and then back at me. He loves drinking water outside, but of course everything was frozen. So I filled a plastic cup with water and put it out on the porch. The cat drank and happily came back in again.

Then I forgot about it.

It was frozen solid the next day. When we took it in, we discovered a fuzzy looking shape in it. So we set out another one to see if that would end up looking the same. It did.

Sunday morning the kids took both ice cups in and started examining them and playing with them. After watching for a few minutes I finally remembered this great idea that Andrea of Four Flights of Fancy had posted recently: Colored Ice Sculptures. Of course! Off to the kitchen I went and grabbed some food coloring and my camera. Here's the result in a fraction of the gazillion pictures I took.

Big brother carefully poking at it. Poking seems to be an integral part of every science experiment here.

If you look closely you can see some of that fuzzy structure in the center.

Let's bring on the colors!

Little brother's first choice was, of course, yellow. Then he added some green, too. Yellow is not the perfect color for this project.

The red worked best, actually.

This does look somewhat gross, doesn't it? Maybe I should bookmark this as a Halloween activity...

So thanks for sharing, Andrea! This has been really fun and the kids loved it.

Cheers,
Swenja

{the simple things} Meow again.

2012-02-12T10:02:00.000+01:00

Yep, it's more cat pictures this week (for Meow part 1 go here). But hey, I did pick a different cat. And in case you're wondering: I have one more cat. Maybe for next week's post...

Meanwhile, this is Lilly. Maybe you have met her here. In case you didn't, well, I'll explain a little. We got her when she was tiny. These days she's huge. And no, that's not all fur. It's fat. This is one big, fat cat. She doesn't like people. She hides under the bed as soon as she hears the doorbell. If you come to my house and actually get to see her, you know that you've been here often and are practically family. Every day at 10:30 she gets cuddly. She sits on my husbands lap every night, but she doesn't like it when he talks to her. She's so big, she makes dents in my sofa cushions (big dents). She likes to play and brings little felt mice back to you when you through them, just like a dog.

She's one crazy cat. And that makes me happy.

Promise to find something else for next week's simple things. No cats, flowers or cakes. Scratching my head already...

Linking up with Rebecca's simple things sunday again.

Happy Sunday!
Swenja

{kid craft} Food chain animals

2012-02-11T11:31:00.000+01:00

What a busy week! I had off from work so I tackled as many bigger projects on my list as I could. By Friday, I was exhausted. I figured I'll go pick up the kids early and have a quiet afternoon.

When I arrived at the preschool, big brother was discussing plans for a shadow play with his teacher. Apparently not thinking clearly, I mentioned this idea I had seen for making big fish that eat little fish (right here on the Babyccino blog).

From then on all the way home, while eating lunch, cleaning up and trying to start the bread for dinner, big brother kept saying the same thing over and over and over again: "Mommy, can we make those fish, please? Now? Mommy, please?".

Sure. Just let mommy grab a cup of coffee.

These are really simple actually. As simple as crafting with two little kids is, especially if one of them is getting off naps, there's dough rising in the kitchen and you're trying to take pictures at the same time.

We started with fish, but we also did a cat and mouse and a chicken with a worm. Basically this works with every animal eating another one, hence the food chain. So here's what you'll need:

thicker paper or card stock (we used colored but if you do these for shadow play only you can use things from your recycling bin like cereal boxes)
wooden clothes pins
toothpicks or wooden skewers
scissors
glue
crayons or pencils
optional embellishments like wiggly eyes, feathers and the like

Start by drawing animals, marking a line from their mouth (don't forget the teeth!) all the way through. This is where you will cut them later. The animals should be looking sideways.

Big brother makes a piranha.

Cut them out, but don't cut along that line just yet.

Color if you feel like it.

Add some eyes. This is little brother's favorite part.

Now cut along the line and glue each half to one part of the clothespin. We ended up with some animals where we glued only the back part (too many teeth in this case) and some we glued on all the way. Didn't really make much of a difference in the end.

Now you have your big fish.

Piranhas. Look at those teeth!

Draw the little animal or bottom of the food chain.

Again, cut out and embellish.

Glue a toothpick to the back.

Secure with some more paper (remember, I have boys).

Here's your little fish. Watch out...

... there's a big fish coming!

It also works nicely as a shadow play. The original reason for doing these. Luckily we had the sun shining through the dining room windows so we could try it out.

Another big fish.

And a chicken!

We could have made quite a few more actually, but it was time to make that bread and start dinner. Next time. We might even get all fancy and add moving arms and such. So, what creatures are you going to make?

Have a good weekend,

Swenja

Oh the things I'd love to do

2012-02-07T21:51:00.000+01:00

I don't know about you, but I come across great projects every day. The appear in my blog reader. In my inbox. And they simply pop up in my head.

I'd love to go right through Tsh's book One Bite at a Time. And make a blog project out of it like Jeanette does.

Or take my cookbooks. I have so many, and I would love to challenge myself to work my way through them. Like a recipe from one of them per week. Or work through about a quarter of the recipes of the time.

Then Greta posted about this fabulous daily photo challenge. Looks like so much fun! Did you see it? It has a topics or word per day, new every month. Would love to do it.

Sewing - I have no idea what I'm doing here, but I come across great ideas and gorgeous fabric every day.

And don't even get me started on crafts and other projects.

Ahhhh, so many good ideas.

But then there is plain old life happening.

Dishes to be done. Lion costumes to be made (we have carnival here next week). Bills to be paid. Milk to be bought. Exercise to be done (that is my least favorite part right there, but it's part of my goals. Ugh).

Oh, and there's work.

And, most importantly, there's family. It's the one thing that makes it all worth it.

And it's what I want to focus on.

Because that is my true goal this year.

So I'm keeping my weekly craft session, I'll keep posting simple things on Sundays, and I'll keep aiming to do cross two home projects off my list. I keep a stash of fabric upstairs and maybe I'll manage to sew something. And I'll be pulling some of my cookbooks from the shelves and try out new recipes more. I'm still saving cool ideas to my Evernote file.

But I'm trying hard not to add any pressure and just do these things whenever there's time. And if there isn't, then that is fine, too.

Meanwhile, I need to focus on what I really need and want to do. And not waste time surfing around the Internet, bookmarking more ideas before I even finish one previous one. So I made myself a little reminder.

Is that just me?

Cheers,
Swenja

{kid craft} Birthday cards

2012-02-07T10:38:00.000+01:00

With all those birthdays recently, we had to do birthday cards. We simply used the watercolors while we were doing the watercolor bunting. The resulting pictures were left to dry for a few days and then we framed them.

Big brother painting a birthday cake. Because, of course, that's what you need for birthdays.

Switching colors.

And in case you didn't notice, it's a chocolate cake with cherry topping and candles. Blue candles.

Little brother has to try one, too!

And it actually looks like a cake with candles. Sort of.

Big brother made another one since he needed two cards. Love the candle dropping off the cake!

Once it was all dry, we matted the paintings and wrote the card. At least the important parts of it: to daddy.

And the other one for his uncle.

All done and quite proud of himself.

Little brother wasn't really interested in this part at all. So we just framed his in his color of choice: yellow!

I'll be trying to do my regular kid craft this week, too. But it's a busy week with lots of kid clothes purging, sewing lion costumes for carnival, working on big brother's present for little brother's birthday in March and many, many other things. So we're sharing this for now - hoping to be back again this week!

Cheers,
Swenja

{the simple things} Chocolate cake

2012-02-05T09:43:00.000+01:00

It's really cold over here. Perfect baking weather. And we're not talking anything light, airy or fruity here. Nope, we have a chocolate cake baking weather. Flourless chocolate cake, to be precise.

Chopping the chocolate might be the hardest part of the recipe.

Lots of cocoa powder!

Yum.

Getting over everything, including the recipe.

I made two smaller cakes, one to give to a friend who's currently trying to ban flour from her diet.

Once the cakes were out of the oven, I picked little brother up from preschool. It's carnival here soon, and the frequently paint the kids' faces in preschool. Today he was a cat. A yellow cat, mind you.

Apparently that yellow cat had quite a sweet tooth. Picking on my cake while mommy was not looking / busy taking pictures.

"Stop eating that, we want to save some for grandpa this afternoon!" - "But mommy, there is plenty left, I can have some!". Can't argue with toddler logic.

There's a whole in my cake!

Can't blame him though, the cake is delicious. Very dense and moist and chocolatey but not sweet. Sort of like a brownie, but much prettier. Vanilla whipped cream would be nice with it.

If anyone wants to give it a try, I used the recipe from the Gourmet cookbook, which is precisely a doubled version of this one here found at Epicurious that I had originally printed out before reading about the Gourmet version in the recipe comments.

I'll be linking up with Rebecca's simple things sunday again.

Off to grab another piece!

Swenja

Quick question

2012-02-04T10:30:00.000+01:00

I need your help here. You see, the other day, while having my brain turned off to auto-pilot and therefore mindlessly surfing the net and catching up with blog reading, I came across this post from TheKitchn, featuring ceramic storage containers.

I don't usually read the marketplace posts since most stores are US only anyway, but here I couldn't resist the image. Clicking through I found out these beauties here were from Sagaform. Quick research revealed there are also available in Germany.

Normally I would have added them to my wish list.

But in this case I just ordered them (told ya my brain was on auto-pilot).

Now, problem is, where do I put them? Originally I thought I'd put my tea in them and keep them next to the stove, where I usually keep my teapot.

But then they would also be perfect for flour. And sugar. And homemade vanilla sugar.

And they would look really, really nice next to my beloved stand mixer.

See what I mean?

Now, I could ask my husband. But we all know he'll just look at me like I'm crazy and that there are probably more important things I should be thinking about (he might just be right).

So I'm asking you guys. Next to the stove in plain sight whenever I walk into my kitchen or next to the mixer for keeping easy access to baking staples because I do bake a lot?

Of course I could just get another one. Although this time it will really have to be waiting on my wish list.

Hmmm....

Happy weekend,
Swenja

Quick (& green) gift: print your kids' art on water bottles

2012-02-03T08:27:00.000+01:00

I remember being little and wanting to give birthday presents, too, but felt like most pictures or crafts I could make would eventually end up in some drawer. I want my kids to be able to make and give something useful.

So we made Daddy and uncle Timm some water bottles. Each of them made one so that Daddy could ditch those pesky plastic bottles and always take an aluminum one with him. My first attempt at designing an easy pattern for them failed miserably. But that same afternoon, big brother was doodling with a black marker. I saved it an scanned it and voila, we had our first design.

It's supposed to be a dog with a fishing rod, catching something really big. But I'm sure you saw that right away.

A week later, I also had them stamp a white piece of paper with simple black stars, a rocket and a planet stamp.

Here big brother was showing little brother how to draw a face, and a cat. Of course. There's a cat on nearly everything we do.

Speaking of cats, meet Lilly. She hates people but gets really cuddly and friendly every day at 9:30 am. Provided nobody else is around, of course. If you come to my house, you won't see her (she hides under the bed as soon as the doorbell rings). If you do see her you know that you're been here an awful lot and are practically family.

And no, my cats are not usually allowed to walk on the counters. But she was cuddly and I was ignoring her, taking pictures of these strange white things, so she decided to take matters in her own ~~hands~~ paws.

As for the bottles, I simply scanned the images the kids made, then uploaded them and had them printed on the bottles. I researched for a while to find a site that would allow me to print on an aluminum instead of plastic bottle and also a white one. The white background disappears and you can only see the black drawing on the bottle. It's turned out really well. I've done this before with white coffee mugs (one of big brothers first real drawings, a fish) and, when editing the image, a black mousepad with a white drawing.

I don't really like the stamped one half as much as the one with the impromptu drawing. Which goes to say that I should just let the kids have their way with these things instead of trying to art direct!

Cheers,
Swenja

{kid craft} Pompom critters - and a word about making pompoms

2012-02-01T11:06:00.000+01:00

Big brother actually asks to do crafts now. You know, even if I never get anything blog worthy out of our weekly sessions again, it's been worth it already.

And I was pretty close to not getting anything blog worthy out of it this week.

You see, we were going to use homemade pompoms for this.

Turns out my memory of making pompoms as a kid was a little bit, uhm, foggy. I looked up tutorials before, mind you, and learned all about the perfect ratio of the inner and outer circle when making templates.

But I had completely forgotten how much time these things take. What was I thinking?

Exactly how was my not-even-three year old supposed to get the yarn pulled through and tight and repeat that a zillion times?

Oh.

I hadn't thought about that before. In my mind this was perfect and we were all making pompoms, the kids could decorate theirs while I made some more to use for their lion costume I'm supposed to make for Carnival ~~next~~ this month (really, it's February already?).

Anyhow.

Let's get back to reality and start with the critters we did end up making, shall we?

We used ready-made and very brightly colored pompoms, smaller pompoms, different colors felt (scraps are perfect here and I had plenty from making my felt flower brooches), bright pipe cleaners and of course, since my kids love them, goggly eyes.

Big brother got really serious and wanted to do a lion. Here he's cutting the ears, all by himself.

I helped a tiny bit with the wool mane, but he did everything else all by himself. I'm really proud of him.

Little brother didn't want a lion. "I want a dog, mommy! A yellow dog!" He helped me glue things on and pick out colors. Although I took some creative liberty here, because if it were for him, we'd had yellow dog with yellow nose, all-yellow ears and a yellow tongue. Ahhh, the wonders of toddler obsessions... He had also very precise ideas about how the ears should be. Originally I glued them down. He protested: "Mommy, I don't want flappy ears, I want real pointy ears like Lenny has!" That's my in-laws dog, and he loves her. So we redid the ears until he was pleased. We also added a tail, but skipped the feet.

Then big brother also made a monster. I love doing monsters because there is no right or wrong way with them and nobody can tell you to use a different nose (or glue on pointy ears).

Oh, and for those of you who are craftier / have older kids / remember doing them, here's our take on making pompoms, which could also be titled "An Exercise in Patience".

So, get some cardboard and draw to circles with a ratio of 3:1, meaning your outer circle should about be three times the size as you inner one. The larger the inner circle, the fluffier the pompom will be, but it'll also take way more time to complete it. Repeat with a second piece of cardboard.

Put the two pieces together and just start wrapping yarn around it. At first it makes sense to use to strings of yarn at once. Then use a new piece (or two), until you can't see the center opening anymore.

Big brother tried. He really did. He kept at it for quite some time, too. I got more frustrated with the whole process than he did. Man, do I need to lighten up.

Eventually it'll look like this. You still need to keep going. Actually, this is a nice activity for in front of the TV. When the kids are in bed.

When you're all done (use a pencil or chopstick to help you push through the last bits), use your scissors to cut the yarn in between the cardboard discs. Then (and this is important), tie a piece of yarn around the pompom, in between the cardboard discs, pulling it all together and tying it really well.

Pull the cardboard off (some say to cut it but I didn't need to) and you've got yourself a nice pompom. At our house, that had to be a yellow one.

I helped big brother with the last pieces and then finished his off, too. And even though his looked quite funny when he was wrapping it, it turned out perfectly fine. If there are any pieces sticking out, you can just give it a little haircut.

The boys kept their for running around the house with, so I have to do some more for lion tail tips. Oh well. I put the discs and yarn next to the TV.

As for next week, I promise I'll pick something toddler friendly so little brother can get his hands dirty, too.

Any suggestions on how to better judge skill levels required for crafts? Please do share in the comments.

Happy crafting,
Swenja

Home projects list: January update

2012-01-31T12:06:00.000+01:00

Recently I shared my home projects list with you. Still can't believe you guys managed to read through that. All the way. Amazing.

Well, I thought I should honor that and post and update today. Don't worry, I'm not going to post a giant list again with two things crossed off. I've updated the list and will share my progress only. Looking at what's done is much nicer anyway.

So here we go.

First up is my home office. My new Ikea Helmer units, that I got as a Christmas present from my mother in law, are now home to countless craft materials and I have three drawers dedicated to sewing supplies. Still no solution for the fabric stash, but we agreed we're focussing on the good things, right? Right. So the good news is I can now just turn on my sewing machine and have supplies like measuring tape, pins and thread within easy reach. Loooove it. Much nicer than having to drag it all out from the hallway closet!

One day I also grabbed a couple of nails and big brother's (!) wooden hammer and hung a few pieces above my desk. I'm sure there's a much more professional way of doing it, but at this point I prefer wooden hammers, eyeballing it and just getting it done to it sitting on my list any longer. I hung two of Heather's gorgeous cat prints , a small painting that my mom got as a gift when she was young and that somehow survived all those moves and purgings, a woven something that I liked the shape of but have forgotten where it came from or what it was supposed to be used for (some sort of packaging I suspect), and little brother's foot and hand prints that he did in Kindergarten. The I stuck two owl wall stickers that my love got me Christmas (we're talking 2010 here, mind you. They can be found here, btw) to one side of the shelf, stepped back and felt immensely pleased with myself.

On to the kids' rooms. Once I managed to get big brother's hammer and a box of nails out of the shed without being struck by a tower of stuff collapsing on me, I figured I could just as well make the most of it. So while the kids played peacefully (well, as peaceful as an almost-three-year-old will play without a nap), I scanned a few pages of little brother's favorite book. It's ancient - I remember reading this as a kid. My German readers might remember the little nameless boy who badly wants an elephant whom he will call Theodor? Anyhow, little brother helped me select the pages he liked best and we printed three double pages on one sheet of paper and framed it in a simple (and lightweight non-glass ) frame. Then we framed another two of Heather's cats and the boys helped me find the perfect spots above their beds for their new art.

While I was at it, I finally made simple templates one morning, printed them out, traced onto cardboard and wrapped red yarn leftover from Greta's wreath (you should've see me squeal, hop up and down and turn as red as the yarn when she posted that!) around them.

I've seen this on a blog. It looked great. One of those ideas you pin, bookmark and/or file because it looks simple enough to copy. Well, turns out I should have named my kids Oliver and Bruno maybe. But nothing that starts with an M or an H. Ugh. One of those things I should have thought through all the way. Because you can't just wrap these letters, no, you have to figure out a way to get to all sides and around all corners. Hmmm... In the end it worked out somehow. It's not perfect and far from something to post a tutorial about. BUT, you see, I've had the image of these letters wrapped in red yarn and hanging on the walls above their beds in my head for so long now that I didn't really care if they were perfect or not. They're red, the thick yarn is gorgeous and if you don't look closely they're cute. Oh, and I hung them by simply hammering a nail right through the cardboard. So professional.

So that's the update for January. Oh, and my sweet husband oiled the wooden countertops in the kitchen, so that can also be crossed off the list. Yay!

And no, I'm not counting how many more to go. But it felt soooo good to cross them off the list and I smile every time I look at the art above my desk or in the kids rooms.

Cheers,

Swenja

{the simple things} Meow

2012-01-29T10:30:00.000+01:00

I know I posted photos of my cat before. But I can't help it, he's just so cute. And unlike my other cats, he seems to love the camera.

Trying some in b&w again today.

cleaning up those muddy paws

still wet but a lot cleaner already...

sometimes his nose is bright pink, sometimes more pastel colored

I do believe there is something else living in this cat. The way he looks at me, he can't be "just" a cat.

Linking with Rebecca over at the simple things sunday. Yay for one month of simple things completed! Can't wait to share more next month.

Happy Sunday,
Swenja

Simple DIY bunting stamp

2012-01-28T09:56:00.000+01:00

There are a million great tutorials out there on how to make stamps, and one day I'd really like to try some of them.

Meanwhile, we have quite a few birthdays coming up, and I needed something now to make simple birthday cards. So if you have five minutes, some craft foam (Germany: Moosgummi. You know, that stuff in the kids craft set you never use because the colors are so ugly), a cork, scissors and some glue, you could do the same.

Just cut out a longish triangle for your bunting out of the craft foam. I actually did several to use with different colors ink without having to always clean the stamp. Glue two of each together to make the stamp a bit higher, then glue that sandwiched triangle to a cork or piece of cork. Let dry.

That was easy, now wasn't it? So, now add your bunting triangles one by one, let dry and draw some string by hand.

The BBQ grill stamp I bought here (one of my favorite shops) and the BBQ sauce recipe I posted Friday. I'm planning to do the invitations for little brother's birthday party with the bunting, too. And I got the cutest dog stamp for that. I mean, who am I kidding, I can do a triangle, but a dog? I leave that to the pros! Can't wait to show you.

For now I'm off to bake cakes, clean the house and do general birthday party preparations.

Happy stamping & have a great weekend,
Swenja

{kid craft} Watercolor bunting

2012-01-27T21:24:00.000+01:00

We have some birthdays coming up this weekend. And you know there's no birthday party without at least a little bit of decoration. Preferably homemade. So when Rebecca posted her pretty patterned hearts for Valentine's day last week, I knew we had to do something like it. Except we were going to make regular bunting instead of hearts.

We got some new watercolors. Serious watercolors. Not the cheap kind that looks pastel. Nope, we needed the bright ones.

So little brother set right to work. The concept of using just one or two colors so it would look pretty and match decorations did not really appeal to him. Sigh. Sometimes I'd like to "art direct" and tell them what to do so I can have a pretty result. But in the end, we're doing crafts for them and for their creativity. So I let him do whatever he wanted and ended up saving the picture for daddy as a present.

Getting those brushes clean.

Big brother also needed to try all the colors first. Oh well.

Eventually though he decided to help me out as I had started to make simple, monochromatic patterns. No idea if he thought it was fun or if I just looked desperate.

But we ended up with quite a few sheets. We did some in red and some in blue to use for different decorations.

Since I try to keep little brother off naps in order to have some quiet time at night (and not a wide awake toddler running around at 10pm), his attention span is about a nanosecond. He quickly got bored with the watercolors and switched to cutting things up. He loves cutting things up. I usually choose not to look to closely because he cuts the paper in teeny tiny bits and then goes on to cut those. No way I would have let big brother handle scissors like that at that age. But if I ever want to get any of these weekly projects done, I have no choice but to let little brother cut up paper to make mail for mommy. And he's really good at it, even without a nap.

The next day, we cut them up using my ~~slightly crooked~~ trusted template. We? Well, mostly me. Big brother helped a little.

It was already getting dark by the time we had taken a break for some fresh air and finished cutting and stringing them onto white twine.

Blue ones and red ones. I love the red ones.

But the blue looks good for tomorrow's Bavaria themed party.

Oh, and then big brother really got into it and made some bunting for his doll. Little brother also loved cutting up the scraps. And cut some more.

I still haven't cleaned the house and the cakes aren't done yet, but at least my presents are wrapped and the decorations are up!

Have a good weekend,
Swenja

Homemade BBQ Sauce

2012-01-27T07:33:00.000+01:00

Yeah, I know. BBQ sauce in the middle of winter? I usually make this in the summer, but never got around to posting it. But lately I've been making quite a few batches as birthday gifts, and so I thought I'd share my version of it.

It started with a BBQ sauce that my husband loved and we bought several bottles of each summer. Of course it had to be imported from the States, and that meant it had quite a price tag. Being too busy and broke with the new house to go get any, I started trying out several recipes to make my own version.

I like Emeril's recipe over at Martha Stewart and I still use his Creole seasoning (go here for the recipe), but I decided the BBQ sauce recipe needed some serious tweaking and be allowed more time for the flavors to develop. He adds most of the ingredients (except onions and garlic) at once, but I found that adding them one after the other makes the sauce better. So here it goes:

Homemade BBQ Sauce (adapted from Emeril at Martha Stewart)

1 large yellow onion or 3 regular ones
4 tablespoons olive oil
4-5 cloves of garlic
4-6 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons cane syrup (or maple syrup, for German readers: Grafschafter)
2 teaspoons mustard (I use Dijon, but the smooth kind)
4 tablespoons cider vinegar (I love Maille's apple cider vinegar)
6 squirts Tabasco
6-8 teaspoons Emeril's Creole Seasoning
900ml ketchup in glass bottles (I buy two bottles with 450ml each)
cayenne pepper or ground chiles to taste (optional)
smoke salt (I use Spice Island's Hickory salt), about 1-3 teaspoons, to taste (optional)

Heat oil in medium sized pot. Finely chop onion and sauté over medium heat. Don't rush this. It takes a while. Your onion needs to be really soft, translucent and just beginning to brown. Then add garlic and briefly sauté.

Now, add the following ingredients one after the other, and let the mixture come back to a bubble before adding the next ingredient. The sugar takes the longest as you really want this to dissolve and brown a bit. So, add sugar, syrup, mustard, vinegar, Tabasco and seasoning. Finish with ketchup. Taste the sauce and adjust if you like it spicer. But remember that the flavors develop when simmered.

Let the sauce cook over low heat for a while, at least 15 minutes and as long as 45 minutes. Use a splatter guard and stir every once in a while.

Meanwhile rinse your ketchup bottles and soak to get the labels off. Clean with hot water and set aside. Taste your sauce and adjust seasonings. Add smoke salt if using.

Use a funnel to fill the hot sauce in your bottles and close caps immediately. Stored in the fridge, it lasts several weeks. And makes a pretty gift, too. Which is why you make a batch with two bottles. Same work, more out of it.

Oh, and that pretty stamp is from here. For this gift, I also made a large batch (four times the recipe) of the Creole seasoning so I'd have some to give along with the sauce.

I also used the stamp to make a birthday card. As for the bunting - that's a homemade stamp. But that's a different post!

What's your favorite sauce for grilling?

Cheers,
Swenja

Little brother's new coffeemaker

2012-01-25T11:05:00.000+01:00

It'll be little brother's birthday soon. Well, in March actually, but to me that's soon. So I've been looking for gifts. He loves his play kitchen and makes coffee in it for me every day. It's a great way to keep him busy when you need those last five minutes to finish cooking dinner or talk on the phone: "Sweetie, could you make mommy a cup of coffee, please?". He runs off and makes all sorts of noises in his kitchen, then comes back with one of those ugly blue plastic cups from a sandbox play set.

So look what I got:

Isn't it gorgeous? I'm so excited. Crazy, I know. I thought he could use a coffeemaker. Not one of those traditional ones though, he wouldn't know what it is.

He needs something more like an espresso machine. Of course those are available in children's sizes, too.

Modeled after the leading brands. Of course.

And they blink and beep and make all sorts of noises. Of course.

But then I saw this one. It doesn't make a sound. It has no blinking buttons to press. No water tank. No plastic.

You see, little brother loves pretending. He can pretend there's a coffeemaker where there is nothing. So I'm sure he can pretend this one makes noises, too. And I don't want him to lose that ability.

Besides, it just looks cool. It's all solid wood (even the cup and spoon). And it just fits perfectly in their play kitchen:

Oh, and did I mention it was not even 6 EUR? (pssst, it's on sale at here)

Now I want a cup of coffee!

Cheers,
Swenja

Interactive fish and a bionic car - museums have come a long way...

2012-01-22T15:39:00.002+01:00

My biggest goal this year is to have more fun with my kids and as a family. I'm making an effort to really sit down and play with my kids (instead of trying to get chores done or quickly checking mails on my phone), do weekly craft projects and do a fun family day trip each month. Since the weather is back to rain and storm here, we went to a natural history museum Saturday. It actually features mostly changing exhibits, so big brother was a little bit disappointed over the lack of dinosaurs. That didn't last long though because the current bionics exhibit was pretty neat, too.

Rabbits. No, those were not bionic rabbits.
This was an exhibit about how life has changed
in the area we live in. I think. Anyhow, they
were begging to be photographed.

an Eiffel tower!

lots to explore. Again goes to show that my
kids have gotten used to iPads - it took
them a while to figure out you have to tap on a button
and can't just sweep...

This was really neat - it's bubbles, but it's a cube and the bubbles
it makes are neither round nor a cube, they pull to the inside
and create a minimal shape.

learning about streamlined wings

a fish!

this was the best part: interactive goldfish.
When you try to catch them, they disappear.
Once the "water" gets still again (the kids get
off the area), they return.

It could have kept them entertained for hours!

gotcha!

a bionic car!

it's modeled after this fish.

I was really surprised at all the interactive features they had. When I was little, natural history museums featured mostly exhibits like those rabbits and you weren't allowed to touch anything. This was different and really nice, although I did find the combination of exhibits (Evolution of the area we live in, Bionics and Animals in the Bible) a bit, uhm, random. Oh well.

Looks like I need to update my list of family trips (anyone surprised when I say I have a list of destinations to go and a binder that has leaflets and printouts organized by category?) to include more museums! I'd love to take them to art and photography exhibits. Actually, I'd love to go see a photography exhibit, with our without kids. I can't even remember when I saw the last one. I also need to make plans to do the more crowded destinations during the week, once big brother starts school in summer we won't be able to just take a day off and spend it on a family trip.

Little brother fell asleep on the way home and even big brother was pretty silent, apparently processing all the new information. It was a really nice weekend actually. Would love to do these things more often!

So what did you guys do?

Cheers,

Swenja

{the simple things} Brrrrrrr....

2012-01-22T11:16:00.000+01:00

That's always how it goes, isn't it? Just last Sunday I said it felt like Spring. The very next day it got cold. When I woke up on Tuesday, the world was frosted. It looked gorgeous. Big brother was sick and still sleeping, but on the way back back from dropping little brother off at preschool, I snuck out with my camera and snapped a few pictures.

In between making tea, letting the cat out, getting a blanket, getting apple juice, letting the cat in, making a different kind of tea ("But Mommy, that's not my favorite kind of tea!"), tidying up the kitchen, letting the cat back out again ("Meow!!"), getting more apple juice and canceling our play date for that afternoon, I tried to find out how to get the photos from my camera into the new laptop.

Took a while to understand how photos are organized (first time Mac user, what can I say). Once I got that done I played with some of the effects. Nice. I don't usually edit my pictures other than rotating and changing the file name, but I could get used to this... I haven't been taking any black and white images ever since I went from SLR to DSLR because I never liked the washed-out way my images looked when converted to b&w. I miss it and might do it some more now.

Linking up to the Rebecca's simple things sunday again.

Lots to learn, I'd say. What's the best thing you learned about photography recently?

Stay warm,
Swenja

{kid craft} Sock puppets

2012-01-21T20:55:00.001+01:00

It was a busy week, so we ended up doing our weekly craft on Friday. Last week big brother had his toe peeking out from one of his socks, so naturally we had to do sock puppets.

Well, I was going to do sock monsters. I figured the kids could be creative and it wouldn't really matter if anything ended up crooked or not quite perfect, because that just makes monsters all the cuter. I had mini pompons, lots of buttons and all sorts of felt. Even yellow.

So here are our, uhm, cats.

What we ended up making was sock cats. Of course. Yeah, I know, looks more like a very silly fox, but the kids don't care and proudly run around the house meowing. So if you have a stray sock or a pair with a hole in them, here's what to do:

Gather your supplies.
I had felt, buttons, pompons, squiggly eyes, felt wool, yarn, cotton wool
and of course glue, scissors, cardboard, a pencil.

First of all, have the kids trace their feet on a piece of cardboard.
I usually save pieces of packaging for this purpose.
This doesn't have to be exact and tracing around slippers works just fine.

Cut the shapes out.

Glue the cardboard to the INSIDE of your sock's sole.
This makes the base for the mouth.

Turn sock right side out.
Cut out a similar shape of felt and glue in place as mouth.

Add some eyes. I wanted button eyes, but the boys had other plans.

Then cut out shapes for ears or whatever decoration your creature needs,..

We made pointy ears and cut a small slit at the base,
so we could fold in back, pinch it together and glue it to the sock
so that it would curve a little.

Looks like a rabbit if you ask me.

We added some yarn as wiskers. I actually
sewed that on, and added a button as nose on top.

Oh, and a tongue. Meow!

They kiss.

And bite!

We also added some cotton wool to the inside, making the cats a bit puffier. I still think they look like a strange cross between a fox and a rabbit, but oh well. You could add teeth, antennas or whatever else suits your creature of choice.

Cheers,
Swenja

Green pasta for picky little eaters

2012-01-20T09:21:00.000+01:00

I had this box of spinach tagliatelle sitting at the very back of my pantry. I probably bought it because I saw some recipe with spinach tagliatelle that looked good. But I never made it. Maybe I chickened out of it because little brother unfortunately won't eat everything, and green pasta, well, it's green. Normally I just save some pasta from whatever I'm making before I add the sauce. Because when you serve little brother pasta with sauce, any sauce, you'll end up with "Mommy, I don't like the pasta, it's dirty!". He will accept a pat of butter, but that's about it. But in this case the pasta was the problem. Or so I thought.

Until yesterday, when I came across that box again. I took a deep breath, and showed it to little brother with as much enthusiasm as I could muster around lunchtime: "Wow, look what I found! Green pasta! Did you see something like that before?! How about we cook that for lunch?". To my surprise, he went for it and got all excited about the green pasta.

So we had green pasta for lunch, and what can I say, he ate it. And he even ate it with sauce. No idea what happened, maybe he was just too tired to notice or maybe it was the generous spoonful of mascarpone cheese, but he ate that entire bowl. That doesn't mean he'll eat anything like that again. But I will. Because I like green pasta.

Here's what we did:

Green pasta for picky eaters

500g Spinach tagliatelle or any other pasta
2 large carrots
1 tablespoon olive oil or butter
1 tablespoon sugar or honey
2-4 tablespoons Mascarpone cheese
freshly grated nutmeg

Cook pasta (I don't really need to say "according to package directions" or "in a pot of boiling salted water" or something, do I?). Meanwhile, thinly slice carrots and sauté in olive oil or butter. Add some sugar and salt to the carrots. Before you drain the pasta, reserve about a cup or so of the cooking water.

When the carrots are tender, add some generous spoonfuls of Mascarpone cheese and stir. Add some pasta water to thin the sauce and season with nutmeg, salt and maybe a little pepper (depending on how picky your little eater is). Add pasta and toss, adding more Mascarpone or pasta water as necessary to coat the pasta and carrots with sauce.

This also works well with some frozen peas thrown in or green beans, broccoli - especially if you're not using green pasta. For less picky eaters, I'd suggest starting with a finely diced onion and maybe some pancetta,

I added some cream and sugar to the leftover Mascarpone, stirred until creamy and added a dollop to fruit for little brother's dessert. Well, turns out he quickly figured out where the rest of that creamy goodness was and helped himself to seconds. And thirds. So now I know he can reach all the way up to the counter...

Anyhow, I'm glad that box of green pasta is gone. And no, I won't be buying more, at least not for now. I really need to clear out the stuff that's been sitting at the back of my pantry (a.k.a. my kitchen cabinets since I don't have a built-in pantry). I really want to have only those things in there that we use on a regular basis. I don't need to be prepared to cook every single recipe I come across, and I will only buy ingredients for those that I really, really want to make that week.

What's sitting at the back of your pantry?

Cheers,
Swenja

Beware: my home projects list

2012-01-19T11:01:00.000+01:00

Today I'm sharing my biggest to do list: my home projects list. Now, you don't have to read through it. The reason I'm posting it is that at the end of the year, I can see what I accomplished and what's still left. I have no plans of getting all of these done, some I know might take years to get to. But you know I like lists.

My goals this year don't even include any house projects, but I know I'll go crazy if I don't get to do any of them and many will simply have to get done. So I thought maybe I can do two things per month, even if they're tiny ones such as hanging some art or fixing something.

I tend to focus on what needs to get done and not what has been done. And I waste time by not getting started because I know I won't be able to finish a task. I'm trying to be better about this and just get something done, even if it's just a small part of a bigger project. Or a small part of a tiny project.

It just feels soooooo good to cross something off a list instead of thinking "oh, right, I was going to XYZ" every time you walk by.

This summer it'll be three years that we have been living in the house. I know we got a lot done, especially given that we both work and have small kids. Still, what remains to be done sometimes seems overwhelming. I'm adding this list as a page to my navigation bar at the right so I can check back there and cross things off as they get done. I'm hoping that will help me focus on what we got done.

So here it goes, in no particular order:

Home office:

Find a space for remaining craft supplies, mainly those recycling bin things I keep saving (toilet paper creatures, anyone?)
Re-organize sewing supplies
Find a new (better) place for fabric stash. Currently it's a box which means I keep digging for things and can't see what I have. It's not much, but I don't want it to grow just because I forgot about that old shirt I saved and could have used for a project
Get some cork, paint white and use as photography background. Saw this idea here. The wall behind my desk is painted a dark green. While I love the color, it doesn't always make for a good backdrop, especially when you add dark winter months and lack of photography and styling skills
Get some more cork to make pinboard. My mother in law gave me this pinboard thing where you have two rows of twine and use clothespins to hang things. Not practical. I want to add some cork to the back to I have a decent pinboard. Or remove it alltogether if it gets to cluttered, because I also want to:
Hang art above desk! I have a number of things I want to hang, I just can't seem to find the time to just go get a hammer and some nails and decide on a layout! One of those things where it takes you longer to move it around your to do lists than actually finish the task. Sigh.
Organize kid's art and craft projects from preschool. They don't come home with a lot of it but I do need to find a system before school starts.
Get a new lampshade. This one is tricky because it's an old lamp from my grandmother. I really don't like the glass lampshade that comes with it in that room, but it seems like they made lampshades differently back then, so none of your standard (Ikea...) models will fit.

Closet, Abstellkammer, catch-all:

purge. Again. I do this about two to three times a year and the frequency should tell me that there is still way too much stuff in there and the organization method doesn't work at all. Sigh.
Move remaining craft material to office
Clean out files. I have a feeling I can toss about 90% of what's there. I should add organize photos to this, but just typing that makes me feel exhausted.
Find a different (ak.a. nicer) way to store cleaning supplies. They're currently sitting on an open shelf. I'm not going for that "cute container with scrapbook-paper and nice, matching labels" look here (come on, it's a closet!), but it's still bugging me
Put together, set up and label those new storage boxes (that have been sitting there for months)

Master Bath: I don't think I'll do any of this in 2012, but for the sake of completeness...

Add some large scale art on the wall behind the door. Preferably a canvas print of a photo I took of the beaches on vacation in the Netherlands.
Paint the walls! One of the few rooms not painted that sandy color the rest of the house has. I wasn't sure it would go with the color of the tiles. So I'm thinking, a soft, taupy gray. Not necessarily this year though.
Hack one of those Ikea coatracks I have elsewhere in the house to fit over the door and replace those flimsy (and ugly) hooks that are currently there
Purge the cabinet under the sink
Replace the unit under the sink with a drawer unit - much easier access and much easier to clean (we have one in the kids bath). Oh well, one of these days.

Kids:

Get a desk for big brother. He starts school this year, so he really needs one. And some drawers, a lamp, maybe a pinboard, some art, shelves...
Move play store to little brothers room. This will mean some rearranging there, also
Add some art to the walls. I'm thinking yarn-wrapped monograms and such. We'll see.
Finally go to that basement and find the rail thing that is supposed to go on top of big brother's closet. Install it or cross it off the list forever.
Get a new side table or storage system for next to big brother's bed. He's starting with small Legos so I might be getting a Trofast storage unit there. I hate them, but they work for this type of thing.
Purge! The next opportunity to sell kids clothing and toys is in March and I really want to make some space for the school stuff and get rid of things that are worn or no longer fit/are used
Find a place for small Legos. Shoeboxes in an attic space don't count, I suppose.
Install the two white, vintage phones I got months ago so they can talk from one room to the other. They're not real phones but they can be connected to each other.

Kids bath:

Finish things. There are still baseboards and stuff missing. Not pretty.
Replace the vanity with a simple mirror. We have this hanging unit from Ikea but I never really liked it, it's just too big for the room and we don't need the storage. I'd get rid of it immediately, but you know, we just bought it like a year ago or so...
Find a lamp for over the mirror. See, that's what happens when I don't buy the Ikea good-enough-for-now solution. It never gets done. Sigh.
Reframe prints. I copied pages of a favorite book for art but framed them in red frames that while I'm sure are nice elsewhere in the house, just don't go with the room here.
Get new towels. Like matching ones.

Bedroom:

Paint bed. There's a corner we had to fix after moving and it never got painted over again. It's these little things I really need to be better at taking care of before starting something new. Maybe this list will help?
Add some more art.
Do something about the sides of the armoires. We got these big Ikea wardrobes/armoires/closets whatever you call them. You know, the Pax. I loooooove it because the 1m Pax unit plus some drawers will fit all my clothing. If it gets crowded I know I need to purge. Eventually I want to add nice drawers instead of the mesh baskets we have. But for this list, I really want to do something about the sides. They're bright white, and the doors we have are off white. They way they're placed results in the bright sides looking strange, so I need to paint them or cover them (vintage fabric?) or something. One day. You know, when inspiration strikes.
Refinish tops of nightstands and dresser. They're solid wood but haven't been taken care of much. Our cats used to jump on the dresser so it's full of scratch marks and needs to be oiled.

Hallway: now this is tiny. And I mean TINY. I did some reorganizing last year, so what's left is minor stuff that I just need to cross off the list

Hang art. Preferably something uplifting and calming as this is where we try to get the kids out the door in time each morning...
Add new hooks for keys
Finally fix that handle on the Ikea box that came off sometime last year.
Maybe get a new rug. Not sure I'll get the old one clean after all that yellow sand from paving. Yuck.

Downstairs bath:

Do something with that bland white shade. Like a Scandinavian modern print, of course all DIY. Looks good - in my head at least.
Paint. Like the upstairs bath, this could use some color. Not sure gray qualifies as a color, but I just don't like white walls (GASP! I know, you're not even allowed to think about anything else but white walls these days. But they just look blah to me, especially in that North-facing room)

Kitchen:

PURGE. I'm fairly good about kitchen gadgets, but I'm hopeless when it comes to china. I have way too many (often vintage) plates and bowls and such that I never use. I really have to stop telling myself that I might use them for blog photos. Or keep a small, accessible stash for that and donate the rest.
More purging. This spills over into the living room, where there is a mess of a cabinet hiding all sort of glassware and vases. Ultimately, I'd like to keep only one set of wineglasses - not one in the kitchen and one "for good" in the living room.
Refinish and oil countertops.
Fix the lazy susan in the corner kitchen cabinet that has been broken ever since we moved.
Find a better way to store cookies and candy for the kids. It's a cabinet they can't reach, but the cabinet gets messy way too quickly. So I need to purge and find a better way to organize the rest.
Do a pantry challenge and clear some of the build-up groceries from the holidays.

Living room:

Purge that Ikea unit, especially the one with the glassware and vases. Ugh.
Purge cat toys. Those lazy furballs don't play with half of the crap in there. A couple of nice felt mice should suffice.
Purge tablecloths. And possibly find a new place to store them. I hardly ever use tablecloths anyway, especially the large ones have just been sitting there. I like out table the way it is and just use a runner. That's also much easier with kids and cats if you ask me...
Get a cover for the large chair. One of the few things that doesn't have a slipcover - and it shows. At least it's the same fabric as the couch, and when I had to throw an old couch slipcover out last year (I have my wonderful feline friends to thank for that), I tore off as much of the fabric as I could save. Plan is to make something from that for the chair.
Get a new sofa to replace the chair and current sofa. Yeah I know, contradictory, but this is a long-term, someday thing. The large sofa and chair don't fit perfectly in the space and a corner sofa would be nicer. Someday. Or maybe not, maybe we'll find a different setup when the kids get bigger and we don't need the play area behind the sofa anymore.
Purge magazines.
Organize those recipe printouts!
Purge the inspiration folder I set up when we build the house. I'm sure tastes have changed so things can go.

Upstairs landing:

Make a gallery wall.
Frame some vintage style posters for the wall between the kids' rooms
Add a shallow shelf for the kids' shared library. Not sure any of this is a 2012 project though...

Basement
Oh don't even get me started. It's a project from hell and I have no idea when that is ever going to get done. Nice for 2012 would be some decluttering progress and some more tiles... some paint maybe... I guess I would need to focus on this for a few months and get it over with, but that would mean I'd get nothing else done. Hey, it's a basement... This year I am NOT including this in my goals. While it would be nice to have a decluttered and nice basement, my happiness doesn't depend on it. I can close the door, after all.

Outside of the house:

Increase curb appeal. Now that the driveway is finally paved, we need to add something to conceal the garbage cans that have no other place to go and genereally pretty up the front of the house a bit. Add a bench for taking off muddy shoes, get a new mailbox (that generic mailbox is another one of those not-perfect-but-good-for-now things that I shouldn't have gotten in the first place!) and add some plants. Not all of this is for 2012 though.
Find some decent storage for the bikes and gokarts. Who knew all the kids' wheels would take up so much space?
Add a roof to the back patio. Not likely a 2012 project. We keep wanting to do this but somehow there are always other things that need our time and money. One day.
Get the garden in shape! Especially one flower bed that contains a grass that blooms in June. I mean come on, June? I wanted something for Fall that would cover up the perennials no longer pretty by the end of the summer. Now this stuff just blooms and then looks wasted the rest of the Summer/Fall. That needs to be redone.
Renovate kid's playhouse. It's only been up for two years, but it does need some repainting on the white parts.
Finally finish the inside of the playhouse's second story. This year little brother will no doubt want to go up there, too, so I really need to get something done. Right now it's empty and we have plans for adding an "office" complete with old keyboards, phones and such. We'll see.
Sew curtains for the playhouse! This one has been on my list forever and again, that's ridiculous. I have fabric and the window's arent big, so I just need to sit down and figure out how to do it.
Clean and refill sandbox and re-cover surrounding area with new mulch.
Various repainting projects around the outside of the house.
Make plant signs for the herb garden. I have five different kinds of sage. I think. Need I say more
Remove Cortaderia selloana. It's just not working. Plant miscanthus instead.
Grow tomatoes. My mom always does, but I haven't managed to the last few years.
Clean up and purge shed. AGAIN. And repeatedly, I'm sure.
Add backs to the shelves in the shed to hide some of the mess make them more stable

There.

Congratulations if you scrolled this far down! It's one long, long list. Longer than I thought, actually. But it's good to see it all written out. Maybe by the end of the year some things will be crossed off. I want to cross something off right now.

I'll keep you posted on our progress. Even if it's 2013.

What's on your list?
Swenja

{the simple things} Feels like Spring

2012-01-14T21:16:00.000+01:00

Today we finally got some sunshine. I almost forgot what that looks like. It's still Winter, but with the mild temperatures and the sunshine it feels like Spring.

It certainly looks like Spring, too, you just have to look closely.

A tiny wild violet

Hey there, you're about two months early!

More tiny weeds blossoming.

Blue skies - finally!

Lots of puddles left from all the rain.

More weeds...

That's an image I would usually get in Spring.

Mushrooms.

Love the fuzz on this weed.

Wild chamomille. Crazy.

Now that's more of a Winter photo!

Muddy boots - time to go home.

It's really been a strange winter. After two years of snow and icy temperatures, this winter we've got lots and lots of rain. And then some more rain. Obviously we've also had very mild temperatures, otherwise it would have been lots of snow.

I took my camera and went across a field today. At first I thought there wouldn't be much to take pictures of. The sky was blue, but the trees are all bare and it's basically all brown. Turns out you just have to look closer.

I will be linking up with Rebecca for simple things sunday. Yeah I know, it's only Saturday, but little brother is sick and I have to make the most of the time he does sleep. Who knows what tomorrow will bring.

Hope you have a great Sunday,
Swenja

Quick Doll Armoire for Tomorrow's Daddies

2012-01-13T07:37:00.000+01:00

Doll armoire? Really? Doesn't she have two boys?

Actually, I do. And these little boys recently adopted dolls. My mom dug out this ancient doll while cleaning out here closet. Big brother adopted it and started carrying it around. Little brother felt a bit left out. Then my mom picked up a very similar (and also very ancient but at least not as discolored) doll at a charity fleamarket. Little brother adopted that one.

They're both called "Püppi". My mom's to blame for that. Sometimes big brother calls his doll Fiona, which is the name of his best preschool girlfriend. Or they simply call them "Baby".

My husband rolled his eyes when they first showed up. I thought it would pass in a week or two.

Well, it didn't. And so I ordered new clothes for them because what they came with was even uglier than the dolls themselves and my sewing skills are far from making tiny doll's clothing. The first part arrived Wednesday (yep, there's more to come!). It's all vintage and a little bit too big, but I like it anyway. The boys do, too.

So where to put all that vintage fashion? Hmmm.... With the holidays just over and two birthdays coming up there's no shortage of boxes here. Occasionally the cats sleep in them, so there was this box sitting on the dining room table (classy, I know).

Of course I didn't have any paint around for the kids to paint the outside and there was none to be bought anywhere close (told you we live in the middle of nowhere). But I did have some old self adhesive paper in a pretty floral pattern and some knobs leftover from another project.

So I cut the short flaps from the box, using one of them as a shelf. The longer flaps are the doors.

Covered it all in the contact paper (don't look to close, I'm horrible at this sort of thing), installed the shelf and added the doorknobs. That was about as much as I got done before the boys snagged it up and but the doll's new clothes in. Which was fine since I had to go make dinner, anyway.

Eventually I'll add a rod and make some hangers out of cardboard maybe. Or attached the doorknobs properly. Oh well. For now it serves its purpose just fine. I guess that's the advantage of having doll daddies: they're not really picky...

Oh, and I bought this a used stroller. It's yellow. And really ugly. But at least it's not pink. I guess that's as good as it gets. If the rain here ever stops long enough for me to get out with both kids, their dolls, the new stroller and my camera I'll show you.

We're also working on a doll bed, but I'm not done yet.

Any other little boys out there playing with dolls?

Cheers,
Swenja

{kid craft} Cats, Dogs and a Wolf

2012-01-11T12:04:00.000+01:00

"Meow!" - "Meow?" - "MEOW!!!"

Apparently little brother is enjoying the result our weekly craft session: Cardboard tube cats. We also made two dogs and a wolf, but basically any creature with pointy ears will work here.

We used cardboard tubes from kitchen towels - I have messy kids, so we had to look no further than the recycling bin. Of course, toilet paper tubes work perfectly, too. Then all you do is press both sides of one end in so you end up with a dent in the tube and ears for your cat. Or dog. Or wolf.

It's so simple I didn't even take pictures of the process, but there are many good tutorials out there. Mostly for owls like this one or this fancy one and another fancy one from Rebecca. So basically you can do anything from simply drawing faces on them to painting them and adding squiggly eyes, wings or glitter.

Next time, I guess. I always forget to get simple craft paints, I think I have to stock up on crafty basics here... Although I would have had glitter and squiggly eyes. Oh well.

I did a few just to get started and then had the brothers draw faces on them, which to my surprise even little brother managed quite well. The only reason we stopped was that there were no more tubes in our recycling bin!

Now, of course I could have been prepared and collected toilet paper rolls and bought paint. Except that we set out that afternoon to do something completely different. We were going to work on daddy's birthday present. Well, actually we did work on it. I obviously can't tell you what it is (hi, honey!), but the basis was going to be a hand drawn grid for the boys to color in.

Yeah, well. Little brother can't really color in the lines yet but he had fun telling me which color to put where. It was a good practice for big brother, who's about as good at drawing as mommy is. Oh well.

We also don't usually use markers. I have chairs with a white slipcover. And light colored walls. Need I say more? So we usually use crayons or colored pencils. But yesterday the markers came out and the boys had fun.

Not sure I'll use the results for daddy's present, but I'm trying to be positive about it and just see it as having fun experimenting and practicing crafts. Little brother didn't nap and looks like he's falling asleep right there at the table. But actually, although they had been sitting at the table quite a while drawing and painting, and big brother had also been doing the rest of his weekly homework, they still wanted more. That's when I remembered the toilet paper cats and started rummaging through the recycling bin.

Cat

Wolf

Another cat

So that's how we ended up doing the toilet paper zoo. Well, more like a litter of cats with two dogs and a wolf. Big brother was so proud that he actually took one of them to preschool today to show around.

So let's see, what else has pointy ears...

Happy crafting,

Swenja

{the simple things} Helleborus

2012-01-08T11:42:00.000+01:00

I love my garden. I love that there is something beautiful about every season. Even in the middle of winter, there are blossoms. Helleborus. The German name is Christrose.

In my old yard I had lots of them growing under a tree. Well, the new garden doesn't really have any significant trees yet and just a few of these beauties. But I love them, so each year I get a new one or two. This one my mom bought for me. It's still living in its pot though. I need to wait for all the bulbs to show in Spring so I can find a safe spot for it. I can never remember where exactly I placed all the bulbs, so any major rearranging and planting always has to take place in Spring.

Linking up with Rebecca's simple things sunday today. I really want to do this every week this year, it perfectly supports my goals. It's about enjoying the small things, having fun and paying more attention to your photography. Hopefully at some point shoot my photos for this in manual mode. We'll see.

Cheers,
Swenja

{kid craft} Paper garlands

2012-01-03T20:39:00.000+01:00

Don't be fooled by my handmade Christmas posts. I'm seriously challenged when it comes to crafts. And I'm not kidding when I say that I can't cut a straight line.

I still try. And I need to try more with my kids.

They loved doing Christmas crafts and making gifts for family and friends. They were very serious about it. For about half an hour. But still.

Big brother will start school this year. We need to practice drawing, cutting and basically everything arts and crafts. Also, my number one goal for 2012 is more fun with the kids.

So what does a newby blogger do? Yep, start a challenge. Like one craft per week with the kids. Doesn't have to be fancy, I'll leave that to the pros and scrapbookers out there. I recently got a book about 100 craft projects your kids should have done (it's a German one, see here), and I will use this as a starting point.

So for week 1, we did simple paper garlands. You know, the ones you remember from when you were a kid: fold, cut, unfold. I told you I'm not doing fancy here. This is more about mommy trying to spend some time crafting simple things with the brothers and not some cool, never seen before craft tutorials. Hope that's ok for you.

We had fun though, especially big brother, who was working on a heart garland for his preschool girlfriend, who's out sick this week.

Cutting out hearts.

And decorating them.

Little brother was more interested in mommy's computer.

Drawing flowers. Sunflowers, actually. With seeds. For the birds.

Little brother adding the seat belts to mommy's badly drawn passengers. Oh yeah, of course we did a car garland for him. What did you expect?

Then he started cutting the cars apart. Because, "Mommy, they can't have headlight when they're stuck togther!" Ah. Of course.

Oh, and sorry for the bad photos. One of my photography goals is to finally work out that white balance thing. I need to figure out how to manually adjust it...

"Look Mommy, that's our house, and that over there is Fiona's". Ah. And no, that was not big brother's drawing. It was me.

Any suggestions for next week? I'm letting the kids look through the book and decide but maybe you have some ideas as well for those who need practice cutting a straight line.

Happy crafting,
Swenja

{the simple things} Feline Rainy Sunday

2012-01-01T20:03:00.000+01:00

It's been unusually warm here. So instead of snow, we get rain. Lots and lots of rain. The kids are off from preschool, we've all been sick and so we had lazy two weeks. The cats did, too.

Who, me?

Watching the rain.

Yawn.

Finally, time for those extended beauty routines.

Did the rain just stop?

Ah, some stretching.

Hmm, looks like it really stopped.

I need to go check on my backyard.

Oh come on, can you please let me out?

Well, thank you.


So let's see.... hmmm.... not much going on here either.

Cheers,
Swenja (& cats)

Decluttering my 2012 Resolutions

2011-12-31T12:48:00.001+01:00

Just like last year, I started out with a long list of things I wanted to accomplish in the New Year. Blame it on being a slightly perfectionist list-maker, but I do like resolutions. Ah, a plan for the new year! A chance to cross things off and become a better version of oneself. Or just get the house organized. Whatever.

It's almost 2012. So here we are again, and I have another long list of things I want to do. Some of them sound familiar, because I didn't really get them done last year. Learning to sew. Take better pictures. Be more relaxed with the kids. Oh, and then there is the basement. Sigh.

Then there are the ones I saved for this year. Like exercise. Take better care of my garden. Bake my own bread. Oh, and countless DIY and organizing projects. Because even I realized I wasn't going to get them done in 2011.

There are two problems with this list.

For one, I am never going to get it all done. I'm going to start too many things at once and at the end get none of them really done. Or just a few.

Also, exactly why am I doing these things in the first place?

I'm sure it would be nice to sew. Stuff for my kids. A library book bag. One of a kind tees. Pillows. Handmade little pouches for their Advent calendar.

There's this image I have in my head. Of me, making things, growing things, cooking things and having fun with my kids, all the while taking great photos of it and posting on my blog. You know, creating all those nice, happy memories.

In reality the kids are probably going to remember not the handmade pouches but mommy being busy all weekend and fighting with her sewing machine.

As you may have noticed, I am slightly crazy. Ok, a lot (just ask my poor husband). Once I make a plan, I want to stick to it. And no, I am not good at being spontaneous. I want to get things done. Cross stuff off my list. So if there is a long list of home projects I was planning on doing, sitting around at the playground for an afternoon or even a Saturday morning feels sort of like a waste of time. There you have it, I admit it.

Just let that sink in for a minute. I set goals for myself because I want my home to be a nice place and end up making my home a stressful place because I obsess over things that didn't get done.

Uhmmm, something is wrong here, don't you think?

So, I made a new list. And this one is entirely preliminary, because I have signed up for Aby's class, starting Thursday. I have a feeling I might be updating this list. Anyhow, here it goes for now:

1) Have more fun with my kids
They are 5 and almost 3 years old. Big brother will start school in Fall. And I don't know if it's the age, some development stage, being one of the big boys at preschool, his parents being too busy with and worried about work, a to-do list obsessed mommy or little brother getting more attention due to his age - maybe it's all of the above, but things haven't really been smooth lately. Yeah, I know, kids are loud and messy and all that. But when the entire family feels worn out from the weekend on a Sunday night, something is going wrong.

And when I think about what would really make my day, make my year and make all of us happier, then it's have more fun with the kids. At the end of the day goals are about making things better, right?

So the plan for 2012 is to have more fun. Start really enjoying each other's company again. Spend some time at the playground every week. Get some fresh air every day. Get ready for school.Practice being quiet for 15 minutes. Do at least one day trip as a family each month. Let the kids help more with household chores, like cleaning their room, emptying the dishwasher, help cooking, do laundry. Ok, the last one might not be so much about having fun, but about doing things together. Instead of mommy being grumpy because she has to clean and pick up toys and sort laundry while the kids are acting up because mommy doesn't play with them.

2) Take better care of myself
When you become a mother, you quickly learn to ignore your own needs. Sleep? Ha! Take a shower? Luxury. A healthy, balanced and warm meal? Hmmm, not unless some leftover pasta plus a half a banana counts. Fashion? Oh come on, that's for those mommies who will show up at the playground wearing high heels.

I could continue. Except that at some point, kids get older. You finally get to go to the bathroom when you need to and not when they finally finish nursing (and wake up from the nap that they took right after nursing, still on your lap, of course). You could cook something that takes no longer than 30 minutes to prepare. You could take some care how you dress. You could moisturize. Drink enough water. Excercise (and no, I'm not taking about vacuuming against that endless supply of crumbs here).

Except that, at least in my case, other things seem more important. After all, you're used to neglect yourself. And at least for me, I sometimes really need to see a result of what I'm doing. Yeah, I know, healthy and happy kids, paycheck, ... yeah. That's wonderful. But I need some more, I want something to show at the end of the day/week/month/year. Something that lasts longer than the two nanoseconds the house stays clean after I've spent two hours getting it clean. So I write those to do and goal lists. And ignore everything else just to cross something off that list.

Well, just like I'm putting my family first in 2012, I'm also going to put myself somewhat higher on the list. And not just because that could help with achieving goal No 1. But because I deserve more attention that a closet in need of cleaning and decluttering. Period.

So in 2012 I plan to take better care of myself. Sleep. Eat right. Moisturize. Excercise, and that's the hardest part. I hate sports. I'm really, really bad at it. And I don't like things I am bad at. But my shoulder hurts so much I can't sleep on it and my belly, oh let's just not talk about it. My shoulder at least was much better the few weeks that I actually stuck to the excercise DVD my coworkers ~~forced me to do~~ gave to me because they care.

But as I said, I need something more. So I'm adding two things here for my creative well-being, too: Photography. And blogging.

I've always loved photography. It helps me save all those family memories and I love doing our annual photo books. So in a way I am sneaking in one of my previous goals here. But I do believe that mastering my camera and shooting in manual mode will be an accomplishment that helps me feel really productive. Also, I want to save the memories of the fun with my kids now and not five years later. And I want to get better at that.

I've also come to love blogging. Where else do you meet people who are as crazy? Who else would listen to me ramble on and on about my goals for 2012?! See.

Besides, don't those productivity experts always say that making yourself accountable helps in achieving goals? See.

I might combine the two and do a photo project. I don't think I can manage a 365 one just yet, but maybe a weekly linkup like Rebecca's {simple things sunday}.

And that's it. No more goals for 2012.

Well, almost.

I made a list. Of all the things I would like to do. I call them bonus goals. If I cross something off that list, good. If not, that's ok too. Here it goes, and yes, it will sound familiar:

bake bread. I really want to try Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.
keep spending less, plus track spending.
live with less, or that William Morris quote about nothing in your home that you don't think is beautiful or useful that's been going around blogland. I would love to do this as a project the way Jules from Pancakes and French Fries did, but, well, see above. So I'm just keeping this in mind, because even if I'm not trying, things will come into this house, things will need to be cleaned out and dealt with.
garden. One of my flower beds needs some serious re-arranging. And I didn't garden a lot on 2011, but I miss it. Who knows, maybe this is going to be something fun to do with the kids. If not, then maybe the garden will have to be neglected for another year. Oh well.
some of what feels like a gazillion DIY and home projects. Declutter the closet, reorganize my newly acquired craft supplies, get a desk for big brother's room... Chances are, some of these are going to be done. But I am not making this a priority. I don't need to, because I love these projects and I know that I'll fit some of them in anyway. But my focus will be something else this year.
make progress on the basement. Ugh.
try new recipes. Try things I wouldn't normally do, like this flatbread.
cook more from the cookbooks I already own and the recipes I've already clipped.
clean out the pantry and freezer. Use up what's there before buying more stuff.
learn to sew. At the very bottom of the list.

I actually look forward to my goals. I can't wait to get started. The only things I know will be hard to get into a habit will be excercising (oh how I hate that), not yelling or snapping at the kids at the end of a long and trying day (suggestions, anyone?????), putting myself before my to do list oh, and adding things to the list.

Do you make resolutions? I'd love to hear.

Have a wonderful start to the new year!
Swenja

Not a perfect Christmas. But a good one.

2011-12-27T15:19:00.000+01:00

So we did have a good Christmas after all. Even my husband, who had been hit hardest with what turned out to be the hand foot mouth disease, recovered enough to at least enjoy Christmas Eve celebrations.

Still, it felt like I was troubleshooting all week. Going from one doctor's office to the next, with pharmacies inbetween. Taking temperatures, cooking pudding, buying the traditional red cabbage frozen instead of making it from scratch and trying to survive on too little sleep. Every time we had one thing taken care of or it seemed to get better, there was the next thing. Like my last post where I was still glad everyone's fever was down and it was no strep throat. Next day it turns out it's the hand foot mouth disease. Day after it turns out I've got it, too. Oh well.

Luckily I didn't get it nearly as bad as my poor husband did. And the kids were pretty much fine, too.

We decorated the tree the weekend before, when little brother was already running a fever. Little did we know...

Our clay snowflakes got some last-minute glitter and looked great on the tree.

And then came Christmas Eve:

My husband trying to dodge the camera. Can't blame him.

Big brother opening little brother's sibling gift. He loved it.

The brothers made thermos travel mugs for their dad. One of these days I'll show you pictures.

My table decorations. Just a couple of larch twigs, pinecones, leftover snowflakes and yarn-wrapped votive holders (can you tell I like yarn-wrapping these days?!). Not the most glamorous, but all I could muster,

Our cat (well, one of our cats I should say) checking out the presents under the tree. Hmmmm, this one looks nice.....

The brothers starting to pull out presents from the pile under the tree and trying to read the tags. This one turned out to be for dad.

Playing with grandpa is the best!

So we had a fun Christmas night after all, some nice food and best of all, the whole family was there. The kids loved their presents and have been playing with them ever since. But I was so glad I had been starting early and got most things ready. Some things never got done, but that's ok. Christmas isn't about being perfect, after all.

By the time we all have to go back to work and preschool next week, we should be all well again.

So tell me, how was your Christmas?

Cheers,
Swenja

Merry Christmas! I hope.

2011-12-21T16:15:00.001+01:00

I had grand plans for this week. Do some final crafts. Make some candy for my dad and some Christmas chocolate for my father-in-law. Wrap some more gifts. Do some organizing. Post the recipe for the cranberry liqueur I'm giving my mom for Christmas. And a couple other things.

Oh, and relax. Yep, relax. Read Christmas books with the kids. Go for walks. Wait for snow. Drink hot chocolate.

Then came Monday night.

I got sick. And went to bed.

By the next morning we were all sick. Of course.

Oh well.

Fingers crossed, it seems to be getting better. Little brother is well. Big brother's fever is down and the strep test today was negative. I still hope they can go to the preschool Christmas party on Friday. And I hope that we'll all feel better for Christmas.

So no pics of the tree this week and likely no recipes or any other Christmas posts.

But I really wanted to pop in and wish you a very merry and healthy Christmas - and thank you for reading my blog. I just started out what seems like a few weeks ago and I am so amazed by the wonderful comments I get.

Thank you.

See you all in 2012!

Merry Christmas,
Swenja

{Handmade Christmas} Wrapping gifts. And wrapping some more.

2011-12-17T10:00:00.000+01:00

I feel like I have been wrapping gifts for days now. And I'm nowhere near done. That's sort of funny considering I don't buy a lot of things and don't give that many things.

But we've made a lot of gifts this year. A lot.

And so I'm wrapping.

Small gifts for some friends (these are little notebooks and there one of the few things bought).

Cookies ready to be shipped - using paper cups bought at Ikea.

I love these boxes the post office had this year.

These took forever: the clay ornaments the kids and I made. I tied each one to a second smaller one shaped like a Christmas tree, and then tied the whole thing to a piece of cardboard. That got stamped and wrapped in cellophane, and again tied. With a tag. Sigh. But it did make a lot - enough to give to preschool teacher, friends, family and neihgbors. Love that.

But as I promised, I did not make all my gift tags. So I printed these from ellinee. Oh I love them.

Used them to wrap my toffee (and no, I did not make a third batch).

And the Cranberry Vanilla Liqueur I still have to post about.

And of course my Spekulatiuslikör.

Plus some cranberry jam I got from reusing the cranberries that were left over after straining the liqueur.

I also wrapped lots of books, the bride & groom presents and a bunch of other things, and made little stamped paper bags for all preschool teachers, neighbors and friends. They each got a tag with Christmas wishes and I can use them to collect the goodies to give - from cookies to the memory game, dog biscuits, toffee, Spekulatiuslikör or felt brooches.

Now I'm exhausted. But I love sneaking a peak in my closet where all the goodies sit and wait to be given away next week. That's my favorite part. And I can't wait.

Now the only thing I need is some snow so the kids and I can take the sleigh like we did the last two years.

Feels like Christmas now, doesn't it?

Swenja

{Handmade Christmas} Sibling gifts: DIY bookmarks

2011-12-16T21:15:00.001+01:00

I start bookmarking DIY gift ideas early. Like September.Or earlier. This year I also wanted the kids to make small gifts for theirgrandparents, so I specifically looked for quick and simple things to do. Well,actually I always look for quick and simple projects. I don't really do wellwith complicated and fussy projects. I leave those to the pros.

Apparently I do well with complicated and fussy starts tomy posts though.

Anyway. While looking for simple kid crafts, I cameacross an idea at Design Mom: Sibling gifts. I had never reallythought much about that before. I'm happy if I manage to have the kids dosomething for their dad (which I'll share after Christmas), for their grandparents and maybe something small fortheir preschool teachers (last year we did cookies).

Sibling gifts? Really?

This is for those crafty moms who have all these supplieson hand and lots of patience and who don't get nervous at the thought ofpreschoolers with scissors, right?

But the idea stuck. No matter how hard I tried to ignoreit and tell myself that I didn't have time for that, I kept coming back to it.You see, little brother doesn't fall asleep at night without mommy next to him.And since he's been in that in-between phase where they can neither do with norwithout naps, I got quite a few nights on which it's taken him a little longerto fall asleep. Like an hour. Or an hour and a half. So as I'm lying there inhis toddler bed (talk about comfort here), I try to focus on something that'llkeep me from falling asleep. To keep my mind busy I go through partypreparations or Christmas gift lists or projects to do around the house. Someof my best ideas come from those nights. Most nights I fall asleep though andmake it downstairs by 9:30pm, still sleepy and cranky because I'm not going toget anything done anymore.

So one of those nights I came up with idea of makingbookmarks. Big brother loves to read, and he's usually reading about five booksin parallel. For some reason, regular paper bookmarks just don't live longaround here. He has this pile of books next to his bed with everything fromscrap pieces of paper, tissues (clean ones. I hope.) and torn bookmarkssticking out.

This year, little brother will give him a set of shiny,all new and handmade bookmarks. And it was the easiest thing ever. Here's how:

I got a set of fingerpaints, which I was going to getanyway. Then I covered the dining room table with an old shower curtain and letlittle brother paint a plain sheet of white paper (not even cardstock, justplain computer paper) to his heart's content. Of course, the first color chosenhad to be yellow.

We let it dry overnight, then I laminated the whole sheetand cut it into strips the way I thought it would go with little brother'sdesign. Punch a hole, add some matching ribbon and - done. Originally I wantedlittle brother to help with the laminating, cutting and hole punching, but hegot sick so I quickly did it myself while I was laminating the memory games.

Meanwhile, big brother did a simple longsleeve tee forlittle brother, ironing on a purchased car applique. Yeah, I know, it's sort oflame. But it looks really cute and big brother was excited about using the iron(with me watching, or course). Originally I wanted little brother to do thesame, because that was my first idea about sibling gifts. But then I had thebookmark idea. And when the tees I had ordered arrived, big brother's was thewrong one, they sent one with a print instead of the plain one ordered. So Isent that back figuring we'd just do little brother's.

Maybe I'll do something more elaborate with him forlittle brother's birthday in March. I'm thinking felt accessories for hisstuffed dog. Ikea sells these really cute and cuddly stuffed dogs which bigbrother got for his birthday last year and the matching accessories forChristmas last year. This year, little brother got the same dog, but doesn'thave anything to go with it. Maybe big brother and I can make a yellow collaror a cape or something. Or a felt version of the doggie biscuits. Hmmmm.....

See? This is why my to-do list is too long. I have toomany ideas. ~~And I can't keep myself from adding them to the list and trying tosqueeze them in somehow because I think it would be so great and really, it'sjust this one little project...~~ But I'm getting much better atjust adding them to my inspiration file instead. So I'm bookmarking this forhis birthday. And I'm not going to do any additional, dog-related felt projectsfor Christmas. Really. None.

Although it would be cute. And I have felt left over fromthese. And big brother could use some more practice with hisscissors. And I got an email yesterday saying that the wrongly sent tee isbeing exchanged and the new (plain) one is on the way. Hmmmmmmm.... technicallyI could do that one AND one felt project, saving the other felt projects forlater.

~~I'll keep you posted.~~ Which of course Iam not going to do because it's only one week until Christmas and I'm stickingto my strategies here .

Ahhhhhhhh.

Please tell me you can relate.

Swenja

Pass the milk, please: My favorite Christmas cookies

2011-12-15T07:00:00.000+01:00

There is noChristmas without Christmas cookies. Or Plätzchen, as they’re called here. Mymom makes about a million elaborate kinds. Every year in October and November Ithink I can compete. Of course I never have a chance. By the time I get twokinds done, she has made six. Oh well. So I leave the elaborate ones to my mom andfocus on my tried-and-true recipes each year and only try out one or two newones. Well, mostly I want to try new ones. I don’t always get around to them.

Fig swirls. My all time favorite.

Christmascookies here are bakes with what seems to be a pound of butter for every 10cookies. I’m exaggerating here (just slightly), but is it just me or is there afundamental difference in Christmas cookies between the US and Germany? I’veseen American recipes for vanilla crescents and all that, but what cracks me upis when they say that the cookies keep for like a week or two “in an airtightcontainer”.

I have noidea if the tins that I store my cookies in are airtight. I doubt it. But forsome reason, Christmas cookies here have to be stored in good old-fashionedtins. And you make them weeks ahead of Christmas, because they need time tofully develop their flavor.

As youknow, I don’t do well with complicated and fussy projects. And I don’t do wellwith complicated and fussy cookies, either. I need my cookies to be done oncethey come out of the oven – quickly coating them in some sugar is about themaximum I can get myself to do. Here’s my list of fuss-free cookies I do everyyear:

Fig swirls– dried figs and red wine cooked to make a jam-like filling for simple roll-upand cut cookies. Find the recipe here

Cinnamonswirls – if I get really lazy, I do the same dough as above and just sprinkleit with cinnamon sugar.
Pecancrescents – I love pecans, and these ones are flavored with honey and orange.The recipe is from here . It doesn’t make a lot so I always double it.

Plumstreusel stars – this is about the fussiest cookie I do. It needs to be cut out(well, technically you could just roll it out, top it and bake it…) and gets aplum butter and streusel topping. I do love this recipe though,because to me this is the ultimate cookie dough, soft, buttery, a little sweetand fairly easy to handle.

Christmascantuccini – tiny biscotti with almonds, hazelnuts and Christmas spices. I usethis recipe but there are lots of them out there. Leave the spices outand it becomes suitable year-round.

New thisyear were chocolate snow balls, a recipe suggested by my friend Alex. Half ofour email exchange is about food and recipes. And I needed a chocolate recipeto add to my collection. I think I may have found it. It’s one of those recipesI’ve had all along as it’s from an old issue of a favorite magazine (you canfind it here ). I had just never tried it – sounded too fussy for me.But Alex convinced me, so I gave it a try. Yum. I mean, the dough is mostlychocolate and butter, with some egg, sugar, flour and cocoa powder thrown infor good measure. Once chilled, you can form little balls that you coat inpowdered sugar, sort of like making truffles. Except these are baked.

I split allof the recipe steps and do a little here and a little there. Start with thedough, chill. Do the fig filling. Next day, roll out, spread the filling, rollup and chill again. Next day: cut and bake. That makes it more manageable forme – well, it would if I resisted the temptation to double recipes. Because inthe end, it does make a difference if you’re baking three or six baking sheets.Oh well. One can never have too many cookies, right?

This is what the streusel stars look like when you drop a freshly baked batch. Oops.

What areyour favorite recipes?

Cheers,

Swenja

Christmas? Just say no.

2011-12-13T21:00:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I got an e-mail advertising “Lastminute Christmas gifts”. Yeah, I know, nothing unusual. But yesterday wasDecember 12. Am I the only one here who thinks it’s a little strange to callsomething last minute that is 12 days ahead of the actual holiday? I like beingprepared as much as the next person (ok, maybe more than the next person. Justa teeny tiny bit.) and yes, I fully admit to making a plan by calendar week forthe full months of November and December. But that’s just because it’s the wayI am. I make lists. I plan things. I have small kids that tend to throw off theplans I make. So I try to start early.

But still.

I didn’t buy all that many gifts, and most ofthe ones I did I could still comfortably order today and have delivered intime. True, there are a few customized things that took longer. And granted,not every gift I have been making myself I could finish if I started today. Mycranberry vanilla liqueur takes some time.

But still.

If you weren’t as crazy as I am about makingthings and getting things done as early as possible – you could still get allyour Christmas preparations done within two weeks.

What bugs me here is that people feel rushedaround the holidays, anyway. At least I do. So here I am, thinking I’m doingpretty well, having crossed all major things off my list except for mailingdomestic packages (they take one or two days to arrive), writing Christmascards (I’ve never understood why anyone would do this in November anyway. This year I've tried. And failed. Oh well.),wrapping a couple of presents, trimming the tree and cooking dinner forChristmas Eve.

And then I see these mails in my inbox and Istart to feel rushed. Pressured. Do I really have all the gifts I need? Am Imissing something here?

I do realize that this is precisely whatthey’re trying to do. Which is why it bugs me. And why you have to read througha rant about a random mail in my inbox today instead of a DIY post. Sorry aboutthat.

But it’s important to me.

Don’t feel stressed. Don’t feel pressured. Evenif you got nothing done on your list.

Christmas is not about the perfect decorations.Or more and more and more gifts. Or writing cards to everyone you know. Orcooking an elaborate menu. Or decorating the prettiest tree ever. Or coveringthe entire front of your house in lights, poinsettias and wreaths.

Even if you manage to do none of that this year– that’s fine. As far as I’m informed, we’re celebrating someone’s birthdayhere. And I don’t think ten kinds of cookies, a huge pile of gifts with a listincluding coworkers and your hairdresser or a card to Aunt Sue are mandatory.

Feel rushed, too? Go and cut down your list.Focus on what’s important to you. Read a story with your kids. Make or choose afew gifts for those that matter to you and enjoy making them. Write a card to someone you really havesomething to say to. Cook a good meal for your family if that’s what you liketo do. Or let someone else do it if it’s not.

Me? I am not

making that third batch of toffee. Here's my official apology to everyone who's not getting toffee this year. Maybe next year.
stressing over and trying out new recipes forChristmas Eve. I’ll go for something I know and love. Like a chestnut soup (see here) and a tangerine semifreddo with salted almond brittle for dessert (it’sthis one by the way. Divine. And it can be done ahead of time.)
going to write all those Christmas cards
stamping and making all my gifts tags. Instead,I’m using some of these really cool printables in the roundup thatJessica from How About Orange posted
trying any more cookie recipes this year. Noteven the maple nutmeg recipe one I saw the other day at smitten kitchen. Really.
making any presents for my coworkers (sorryguys, nothing personal here). I was tempted for a second yesterday when someonecommented on my felt brooch. But honestly? I’ve spent last weekend inthe kitchen and making gifts with the kids. I need to relax and spend some time with my kids.

Don't get me wrong, I love making gifts and decorating and cooking for Christmas Eve. And that's why I'm doing it. But I refuse to let anyone stress me about 12 days before Christmas being last minute. And I refuse to let myself get in this frenzy where I start to think that I need to do more, bake more, buy more. I've picked my projects and I will do them - and if I end up not doing them, that won't be the end of Christmas. Maybe on the contrary.

What are you not doing?

Cheers,
Swenja

{Handmade Christmas} Chocolate Almond Toffee

2011-12-13T07:00:00.000+01:00

I've discovered the recipe last year on The Kitchn, they call it skillet toffee. I thought I'd give it a try. It was great. Then I made four batches or so. It was an instant tradition. I mentioned this quite a few times, here and here.

This year I made two batches so far, hoping to have another one done by the time this post gets published. It's basically just lots and LOTS of butter with sugar that gets cooked in a skillet until you reach the perfect toffee consistency, then you pour it onto a baking sheet (lined with paper), wait a minute or so, add chopped bittersweet chocolate, let it melt and add toasted chopped almonds. Leave to set overnight, break into pieces and you're done.

In theory. If you read the comments on the Kitchn post, you'll see that this can be tricky. It can turn out beautifully on the first try. And it can be ruined the third time you make it. Here's what I've learned:

STIR. When they say stir constantly, they mean it.
don't lower the heat too much or increase it - basically, don't change it too much. I've found that this can lead to the issue where the butter separates, which can lead to either a very greasy caramel or a burned one as you try to cook it longer to incorporate the butter again.
If the butter separating thing happens to you, take it off the heat and stir, stir, stir. A few tablespoons of very hot water can also help. Don't heat it before it has come back together or it will burn.
cook it long enough. Ideally, use a candy thermometer and make sure you hit something around 300 degrees Fahrenheit. The recipe says you should cook it until it is a deep golden brown, but that can be tricky. Been there... Just tossed a batch in the trash the other day because I didn't cook it long enough and it didn't really turn a caramel (it was maybe a soft ball stage, but nowhere near cracking...).

But, oh, if it all works out miraculously, oh, it is sooooo good. Almost too good to give away, although it does make the perfect gift. So I hope I didn't discourage you. I know I'll be making more batches. And standing there, stirring and silently telling the caramel to please, please be nice and turn a deep golden brown...

Anyone out there with more sophisticated candy making experience?
Swenja