Our Christmas traditions: Doggie biscuits & new labels

Yep, that's right. We make doggie biscuits every year. And we don't even own a dog. But our friends do, and my in-laws used to, so I started the tradition when I was quite pregnant with little brother.

This little guy here, routinely rolling out dough and cutting out bone and dog shapes.

Big brother also likes to help. We use this Epicurious recipe and the boys take turns measuring out ingredients, rolling out, cutting shapes out and carefully placing them on baking sheets and brushing them with egg wash.

This year I designed labels using PicMonkey. My favorite web-based editor for quick blog photo editing, and now it also lets me make all these cool labels using overlays and design elements that almost look like I know my way around Photoshop. Which of course I don't.

It's so easy that I made all kinds of labels for all our handmade gifts. I love it. Love it. LOVE it. Did I mention I really really like it?

Anyhow.

Here's to Christmas traditions and adding to them. Because maybe these labels will be a permanent addition, saving me the trouble of designing and making / stamping new ones every year, thinking about Christmas label design in September. I mean, not that I would ever think about Christmas labels and gift lists in September. Ha.

What's your favorite tradition?

Beware of the sharks: party preparations

I could have sworn big brother would go for a guitar party this year. Sworn.

I was so sure that I actually got blow-up guitars and guitar shaped key rings, weeks ago. I mean, after this year's Rock Star Cats for carnival it had to be a guitar party, right? Right?

Wrong.

Instead, we're in for a shark party this year.

Which is ok for me - I mean, just do a quick search for shark party on Pinterest. See what I mean? Lots of ideas.

Good thing that I was anyway planning to reuse last year's bunting and the blueish party supplies with the stars. I mean, it's blue, right? Goes with sharks if you ask me. And besides, the store still carries some of it, so I could stock up on napkins, balloons and some other cute things.

Such as the cutest little favor boxes. Turns out they're too small for goodie bags, but they make nice invites, at least if you fill them with some gummy sharks. And they just happen to give those homemade invites something to cling to, because just printed on plain paper they looked just that. Plain.  Punch a hole, tie them to the boxes with some green raffia and - ah, much better. To anyone who's interested, this is where I found the shark clipart I used in the invites.

And since I has a kid-free house last week, I got the goodie bags out of the way as well. I don't know about you, but I don't really like when my kids come home from birthday parties with a lot of little things. They are treasures to them for a day or so, and then these little things turn into clutter. And they start to multiply. Take over their rooms, the basket of miscellaneous toys in the living room (it's a junk basket, if you ask me, and we weed it out every couple of months, usually sending at least a quarter of its contents to the trash).

Using simple white bags, I glued the shark to the front, added the guests' name on some washi tape and cut teeth into the top. They got filled with some more shark candy, a plastic shark and, my favorite, a shark bell for their bikes. Not too much crap, right? Right? 

Finally I did birthday shirts, and the traditional felt birthday crown and yarn wreath. Luckily I could reuse last year's letter and garland and just cut out the number and pinned it to the wreath. Easy. Which was good, considering the fact that I had been crafting, sewing and eating gummy sharks all day.

Stay tuned for more!

Swenja

Making clouds

I've made a couple of clouds recently. Mostly soft, fluffy ones. Who doesn't like puffy little clouds? See, that's what I figured, too. So I made them, again and again, as gifts for some dear friends. No two clouds I made are alike, and that is not just due to the fact that I just cannot follow a pattern.

It all started out with the cloud mobile I made for my friend's third child. You might also remember the cloud pillow I made for her for Christmas. Well, it sort of took off from there. I made some more cloud pillows, gave them little sleepy eyes and a grin.

Then it went on to cloud teabags, cards and more pillows.

For a while I haven't been making much. There has been so much summer fun, work and plain daily life going on, that making things got pushed to the bottom of my list. You know, in to those parts of the list that you never really get around to, despite all the good intentions. And then my kids left for a vacation with their grandparents. Oh, bliss.

I still have to work and there are many things on my list, such as the new garden and preparations for big brother's party. But I decided that some of those things would have to wait, and that I was going to spend this kid-free time mostly with things I never get around to while the kids are here.

Such as sleeping. Taking naps in the middle of the day. Reading the paper and drinking a third cup of coffee on Sunday morning. Eating take-out Chinese food in front of the TV on a Monday night after an 11-hour shift at work. Going for a quick swim in the pool when I'd usually clean up the house and put the kids to bed. Grilling pizza and eating it on the patio at 9pm instead of 6pm. Ahhh...

And making things. Leaving the mess of sewing supplies out, not having to worry about putting away needles and scissors.

So I made another cloud mobile, for some dear friends expecting baby No. 2. I think it's always kind of hard to find a good gift for the second child. You have all the basics, have gotten rid of most of the excess stuff and the few things you could use new you actually like buying yourself, because now you finally know what to look for. But in this case, they have recently moved to a house, coming from a small apartment. That might leave room for some additional stuff for baby's room, no? Also, I am just so glad they decided to go for a second child. You see, they went through quite some sorrow and hard times with their wonderful daughter, and I think it's so great that they have the strength and courage to have another one.

I'm a firm believer in gifts for the big siblings when there is a new baby. Just ask my coworkers, both first-time mommies, about that email exchange recently where I was a little, uh, determined to get my point across about gifts for the older sibling being a necessity. But especially for the second baby and with little ones I do feel that while baby usually has everything he or she is going to need, the older child is so easily left out from all the gifts and congrats over the new arrival.

So anyway. Before I launch into a tirade here, let's just say I made an owl cloud pillow for the soon-to-be big sister. Or is it a cloud owl? Not even sure this makes sense at all. But I there wasn't enough white fleece left over, and the owls were so cute so an owl cloud pillow it was.

Turns out you can also cut two of the owls out, sew them together right sides facing, turn them right side out, stuff them a bit and sew them closed with some twine for legs. They also hang from puffy white clouds nicely.

Well, either making clouds in addictive or I am just not a very creative person. But I made another one. For another good friend, who is pregnant with her first baby. This little cloud pillow was made with soft fleece and fabric by Cloud 9. Seriously. I have been in love with their fabric since I started sewing last year, and I've been saving this fabric for a special project. And a birthday gift to a soon-to-be mommy is special, don't you think? And it could just be my favorite cloud so far. I almost want to keep it. Actually, I really do. It looks right at home on my couch.



Maybe if the kids stay a little longer I will make the time to sew one for myself.

Meanwhile, I'll go spend some time staring at the real thing and doing nothing at all.

Happy Sunday!
Swenja

A Chocolate Party - the action

Chocolate. Soft, sweet chocolate. Something little brother loves dearly. Which could be a reason we decided early on that this year we were going to throw him a chocolate party (the other reason being that this was the perfect excuse to go buy a chocolate fountain. Please don't tell anyone though).

Of course I took way too many photos. And of course there are quite a few I forgot to take or simply didn't have my hands free enough (or clean enough...) to hold a camera. Oh well. I took plenty of photos of some of the preparations, which you can read about here.

So here we go.

Decorations included giant yellow doggie balloons. Because birthday balloons are a very serious tradition around here. Very serious. Since these things can get expensive (especially when you need two, because tradition dictates that the sibling gets one as well, making it four of these per year) I save all the old ones once they finally go flat. One of the most popular ones ever was big brother's giant dog balloon, and since I was overworked, tired and a little tight on budget I couldn't find the perfect chocolate party balloon, I decided that the yellow dog would be just fine, after all they loved it (and it matched the party colors), so I just got him filled up again and bought him a companion. Don't they look happy together?

We had added the garlands earlier in the week, but I felt the urgent need for some simple streamers on the party day. We removed the rug, put down old bath towels and placed our two kid picnic tables from the backyard in the living room play area, hoping that this would keep the chocolate mess in kids reach and away from my white dining room chairs. So the streamers ended up forming a nice canopy.

They also played nicely with the garland and the goodie bags in the background. Yes, I admit to standing in this spot for a full five minutes, admiring my decorations. Yes, I know I am insane. But I just love it when something works as planned. What can I say.

The birthday boy with his crown - same one from last year with a quickly added 4 to it. And no, I didn't dress him to match the crown - I simply figured that the chocolate stains would show the least on a brown sweater... 

I usually refuse to buy strawberries when they're not in season and not grown locally. My kids know that, so they were beyond thrilled when they saw me prepare strawberries for the chocolate fountain. After all, birthdays are supposed to be special occasions, right? So strawberries in winter it was. We also had cookies, blueberries, grapes and bananas.

Since big brother suddenly got a rash and a fever literally five minutes before the party, the first part was a little hectic and I didn't get too many photos of little brother and his guests and gifts. He got the cutest things ever and had so much fun opening all his presents.

When everyone had arrived and played for a bit, we started the chocolate fountain. It works really well and does not get hot at all, so the kids can just enjoy it. The bananas, strawberries and cookies were the biggest hits. I guess you could also do marshmallows, but they aren't popular over here and as far as I am concerned, we had enough sugar already.

With all the sweet things, our prepared milk glasses were refilled quite a bit. I had snipped a few inches off some regular plastic straws, which were apparently great for making milk bubbles.

Here's a shot of the party tables - not as messy as expected, really. Of course we had chocolate mouths and fingers and drips on plates and some shirts, but it was all easily cleaned up.

The birthday boy couldn't get enough!

Now this is where my lack of photos comes in. With big brother at the emergency clinic and a chocolate fountain to clean up, other guests to entertain, I never really managed to get photos of our simple dinner that we served before guests left. I had prepared sandwiches with a large star cutter, and we set out some leftover grapes - oh, and fancy little paper umbrellas never hurt anyone, either (unless you'd poke someone in the eye which luckily nobody did). The sandwiches were prepared ahead and just eaten on the run, they were just too busy playing to be sitting down for long.

Overall it was a fun party, we just wish big brother could have been part of it. He was ok when he returned from the doc though, and although most guests were just leaving, our neighbors stayed for some real dinner and he got to play with their kids for a bit.

We have since done the chocolate fountain thing in little brother's preschool as well -  and I'm sure it wasn't the last time!

So if you'll excuse me now, I have a sudden craving for something sweet, no idea where that might come from...

Swenja

A Chocolate Party - the preparations

Anyone who knows little brother will know that chocolate is one of his favorite things in the whole world. Well, cars, keys, phones, anything with buttons to push.  And chocolate.

It's funny when I hear parents of just one child talk about how well their kid eats and all these great things they did and how they pay attention to what the feed their child. Yeah... been there. Done that. And big brother will try and eat pretty much anything, he doesn't eat a whole lot of sweets and prefers a strawberry over a piece of chocolate at any given point. Little brother on the other hand... well. He likes pasta, but only with butter please. And bread, but preferably with a certain kind of cheese, or maybe honey. In short, he's an extremely picky eater, and I have no idea where he got that from.

But birthdays are supposed to be about favorite things, right?

And chocolate is one of little brother's favorite things. So a chocolate party it had to be. As long as I can still get away with things like puppy parties and such, I will take advantage of it. Sooner or later they'll just roll their eyes and tell me what they think is cool. But we're not there yet.

Also one of my new years's resolutions for this year is to keep it simple, meaning the goal was to try and use things we had on hand or that would really make sense to purchase. That meant no cute small glass milk bottles. No paper straws in matching colors. Instead we used small glass, dipped them into chocolate and sprinkles, and at the party added milk and some very basic very normal and very plastic straws that were cut a little shorter to match the tiny glasses. The kids loved it, even without fancy paper straws.

Surfing around the Internet one evening (and admittedly looking at paper straws and such), I found this cool phone wallpaper  of a cat looking at a pot of chocolate. And it was yellow, sort of, which is his favorite color. And did I mention it featured a cat?

For invites we ended up using that and just stapled it to a paper bag filled with some chocolate-on-a-stick we had left over from Christmas, figuring it was still winter and cold enough for some hot chocolate.

We originally wanted to do individual chocolate fondues, but my trial run was a total failure. The small tea lights heat them so much that the chocolate scorches instead of just melting. So it had to be Plan B - a chocolate fountain. Seven kids and a chocolate fountain, hmmmmm.... it did actually go pretty well, but I haven't managed to sort through the pictures from the party yet.

Decorations were pretty simple, too. I was going to make dot paper garlands in sprinkle colors, but I don't have a large circle punch and was determined to not use the party to buy more craft supplies (does that sound familiar to anyone or is just me who suddenly thinks she needs paper straws and circle punches and all these things?). Instead, I used paper I had on hand in yellow (of course), brown, red and white and my trusted star punch and my sewing machine to make star garlands. The day of the party we added some balloons and streamers, but the star garlands were hung the week before the party.

Since I had my sewing machine out anyway and this could be prepared well in advance, I used some felt left over from making last year's lion costumes and sewed a simple felt chocolate. Most of our guests are still young enough to have a play kitchen and/or play store, so I figured they could use it. It's also pretty simple to make. After making a couple of them, I came up with this technique: cut out a felt square, sew around three sides, stuff it (I usually use cheap Ikea pillows for that) while the needle is still in the felt (can you tell I am lazy?), sew it closed. Measure, then sew down the center of the long side. Measure again and sew down twice the shorter side, dividing it in thirds. Done.

I also found two small books about chocolate and threw in a car shaped eraser and a party blower for good measure. As usual, our favor bags were simple kraft paper bags, the names clipped on with wooden pins. Doesn't get easier than that!

Oh, and we made use of a small chocolate bar mold I've had around, adding melted chocolate and some sprinkles, wrapping the finished bars in cellophane.

Currently both kids are sick and at home, so I can't make any promises on when I'll manage to post some actual party pics. But I can say they had a blast, even though little brother wasn't in the best mood all morning and big brother had to make a trip to the ER with daddy right during the party (turned out just to be a fever and a case of hives). Sigh. I am so ready for Spring and the end of this long, long and sick winter season... But the sun is out today and it's supposed to be really nice. 

Can't wait!

Swenja

Homemade Orange Chile Pepper

The brother's daddy and uncle both had their birthdays last month, so we needed to stock up on gifts. It needed to be homemade (by the boys, of course), use mostly things we had around and be fairly quick to make, since the weeks before the birthdays were insane work wise. Tall order?

Nah.

Both daddy and his brother love to grill, so we made Orange Chile Pepper for meat hot off the grill. I had some oranges left over, so I used a vegetable peeler to get the skin off and a knife to scrape the remaining white pith off the back. Then I finely minced the peel and left it on a plate on the counter for a day or two. Voila, dried orange peel!

Then big brother and I took a trip to Ikea one Saturday afternoon and (among a select few other items, naturally) bought two of their spice mills.

While daddy was at going for a run, the boys took to their project. We got our dried orange peel, some coarse sea salt, black pepper and whole dried red chiles.

We started with some salt, then added the orange peel. We didn't really use a recipe, the boys and I pretty much eyeballed it.

 Add some black peppercorns and then some hot chiles.

Screwing the top back on the mills, giving it a few shakes and adding a tag - done!

Actually, that was too easy. Even for us. Luckily we had picked up some simple gray oven mitts at Ikea. We grabbed some fabric pens we had, and the boys drew a design, each one on one side of the mitt, so both mitts have big and little brother's artwork on them. It's a cat standing at a grill, btw.What, your cats don't usually grill your dinner? Ha.

Of course we also had to come up with the matching card. A quick Pinterest search later, we made these BBQ cards where you can actually open the top of the grill. That's fish on the grill. Guess the cat went to get himself another beer then...

So, now I have some time before I need to come up with a father's day craft...

What kid-made gifts have you done recently?

Swenja

Yum. A.k.a. hot chocolate on a stick

I was actually going to post these for Christmas. Because we did them for Christmas, to make up for the lack of cookies this year and give to neighbors and friends instead.

Oh well.

I think they're pretty perfect for Valentine's Day, too. Or basically any day you could use some hot chocolate. Which, with current temperatures is every day, if you ask me.

I used the recipe from giver's log, which you can find right here. There's also a helpful review at TheKitchn.

I think I made about six batches in total, and after a while found that it worked best if I doubled the recipe. We also added some spice to the chocolate. As for what kind of chocolate, well, I mixed what I had on hand, nothing with less than 70% of cocoa though. For a mold, I used those tiny flowery mini muffin tins I've had for ages and never seem to be able to find the right muffin recipe for. They were perfect and after popping the whole tray in the fridge for it to set, they came out easily. The silicone molds were even easier, but mine are quite big which makes for a very chocolatey cup later...

For the Christmas batch I ended up printing those lovely tags from A Pair of Pears to go with them. They were perfect and added just the right touch. Of course I did not manage to get a photo of them. Sigh.

I think they look pretty just wrapped individually and tied with some ribbon, too. Or you could write a message on the stick, tape a little flag to it...

As for the hot chocolate, well, we made extensive quality assurance tests, let me tell you. The brother's verdict: pretty good. In fact, good enough to have everyday. Morning, afternoon and at night, please. If you ask little brother, he'll also tell you that you absolutely must make some freshly whipped cream to go with it. And while you're at it, some sprinkles don't hurt, either.

Red heart sprinkles, maybe?

Happy Valentine's Day,

Swenja