rainy day fun

I wish I could find the blog that gave me this idea and the templates I used.. but I haven't been able to track them down. I'd also like to give credit to these wonderful blogs for such great ideas!

I combined two awesome ideas for our art project. We made some fun paintings and then when they were dry, we cut the paintings into these shapes, mounted them on card stock and framed them.

The great thing about this painting is that you only use things from around the house! E filled a baking tray with shaving cream (preferably unscented) and then dropped many colours of food colouring on top. She made swirls with a Popsicle stick and once she liked her design, we pressed a piece of card stock over the mixture. I found that some of the shaving cream stuck to the card stock so I had to scrap it off, but the dye absorbs easily into the paper and the overall picture wasn't affected. I should mention the dye absorbs easily into EVERYTHING so be careful to use gloves, aprons and a plastic tablecloth. Once the painting was dry, we cut out animal shapes from the paintings, glued them to fresh sheets of white card stock and framed them in dollar store frames!

This is a great way to condense and preserve your child's art work for years to come. I'm already thinking about what I can do with all the preschool art work E brought home last year:)

a little muffin obsession

When you use the word cupcake it sounds decadent, a desert or fancy treat for birthday parties etc. But when you use the word muffin.. it seems to make anything you add to it ok. Like Chocolate Muffins or Coffee Cake Muffins.. yes.. Coffee Cake.. are you salivating too? I made these babies after dinner tonight and hope some will survive to see the sun come up.

the details are these:

1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup milk

Mix flour, salt & baking powder together then set aside. Mix butter, egg, granulated sugar then add milk and vanilla. Once combined add wet mixture to dry mixture. Blend until smooth.

Spice mixture:

Combine 1/2 cup packed brown sugar, 2 tbsps of flour and 1 tsp of cinnamon in a small bowl. Once well mixed drop a spoonful over the 1/2 full muffin tins. Pour remaining batter to muffin tins and cover with remaining spice mix.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes at 400 degrees. Makes 12 muffins.

Well it's been a while since we chatted and I've missed you. I've been looking forward to this and I have enough to write a few posts tonight!

I have been crafting again. I found these pumpkins at MarthaStewart.com and just had to try them myself. Martha even sells the glitter at Michaels to make it easy for me. They are turning out well and I'll photograph them when they are all complete although I think I will still like Martha's better.

It would seem I'm no Martha

I would love to make some beautiful poms for E's ceiling but I think I'm going to need a little more practice. Stay tuned..

short and sweet

A friend is very ill and the next couple days in hospital are touch and go. That makes me very sad and reminds me just how short and sweet our time here really is. It seems like yesterday we were standing in her kitchen talking about how good apple juice is.. and now we are all just waiting and hoping. It gets me to thinking how fast time flies. It seems like yesterday that we were bringing E home from the hospital and 2 weeks ago she started school.

There is nothing that I can do for my friend right now other than send positive vibes with every fiber of my being!! But I came across something that might help you hold onto your wee one for a little longer.

A company called fontcapture has the most amazing FREE software and tutorial on how to capture your child's handwriting and turn it into a font on your computer. This is wonderful stuff! Now go give your loved ones a hug.

after the orchard

Fall is just too lovely not to be excited about it. The bugs are gone, the air is fresh, the days are warm and the nights are cool. The orchards are open and the smell of wood stoves fills my neighbourhood. I was trying to hold off on the apple orchard till October. Hoping for some great fall colours to gaze at on our drive.. but the weather was just perfect today and here's a little look at the fun we had picking apples, playing in hay bails and running through the corn maze.

halloween fun!

Doesn't this cake look great? It's the Hershey's Brownie Cemetery Cake. That's right.. the Halloween spirit has got me. Already I have made sure that the kids have each got several costumes to choose from and they are doing test runs in each of those costumes everyday. I am hoping one costume makes it to Halloween.

To add even more Halloween fun, us moms are going to throw a little Halloween party for the kiddies and that means I've got my mouse out ready to surf! When I found this website I was so excited I just had to get blogging to tell you about it! Hershey's Chocolate (bless them) have a spooky little website that is packed full of Halloween ideas and fun. (turn up the sound so you get the full effect on the intro) They seem to have it all from Interactive Colouring books, Pumpkin stencils, decorating downloads, recipes and party planning. There are many ideas here I need to file away for use in the next couple years!

fall fun

When I was little we spent some lovely autumn afternoons at a local apple orchard and I was taught the difference between MacIntosh, Spartan, Lobo, Cortland etc... years later I have no idea what the difference is between most of those.. but I remember I loved to pick them, loved the wagon rides and the apple cider doughnut machine.. I could watch it roll little doughnuts for hours.

Once the doughnuts are ready they are put in a paper bag with a mix of cinnamon and sugar and you get to shake up your own hot doughnuts. Sometimes I was even given the special job of Doughnut shaker! Yum!

Now that E & J are old enough I'm hoping to share this orchard with them this year. If you live in Eastern Ontario and want to see some beautiful countryside and fall foliage take a trip out to Mountain Orchards and get some apples or doughnuts.. or both:)

I found this Cider Pound Cake Recipe on there website and I'm itching to try it.