Homemade Magnets

My house never seems to have any magnets so I decided to remedy this. Since I did not want to go and buy a whole bunch of expensive magnets I decided to make my own.

I got my inspiration from a picture on Pinterest, though I can not find the link again. To make these I used the homemade glue I made today. I took some letter punch outs from some of my scrapbook paper and glued them to the back of the large glass pebbles I purchased at the Dollar Tree. After I let them dry thoroughly I got out my trusty hot glue gun and glued button magnets down on top of the scrapbook paper on the pebbles.

Step 1.

Step 2. 

Finish!

These beautiful magnets look great on your refrigerator or they can make a great gift!

Homemade Glue Testing

Is homemade glue worth anything? We decided to start testing it today our recipe we followed can be found at Eco Child's Play. This recipe is not as thick as I would like it to be, but it does seem to work...on somethings. We made a tree and grass picture out of beans, popcorn kernels, and spaghetti and the lighter the object the better the glue is holding. It seems to work best on light weight (like the weight of a paper) projects. I have another project that I am using this glue on, but that will be the subject of another post. One really good thing about this glue is my 21 month old ate some of it and I did not have to worry in the slightest about it being toxic.

Pumpkin Seed Toasting

If you have never toasted pumpkin seeds before I definately recommend it. After carving our pumpkin we kept all the gooey insides so we could toast the seeds. I have always loved pumpkin seeds, but this is my first time actually toasting them and they turned out so yummy even my little boys have been munching on them. I can not take credit for the recipe I followed, but you can find it at Chatelaine.com. My oldest son helped me make these while the little bit took a nap yesterday.


Step 1.

Separate all the gooey orange pumpkin bits and slime from the pumpkin seeds and place them in a colander. (This sounds easy but it is certainly not, just do your best)

Step 2.  

Wash your pumpkin seeds thoroughly. ( This will help you get the rest of the goo off your seeds, but you will need to be hands on) 

Step 3. 

Lay your seeds out flat on a cookie sheet and let them dry for approximately one hour.

Step 4.

Pre Heat your oven to 375 degrees. Place your seeds in a medium bowl and mix in a couple tsp of oil. And season with salt. I used seasoning salt and they turned out wonderfully. Place your seeds back on your cookie sheet. Once the oven is heated place your seeds in the oven and stir the seeds every 5 minutes for approximately 20 minutes. Take your seeds out of the oven.

Enjoy this tasty fall treat warm or cool both ways are wonderfully delicious!

Pumpkin Carving Fun

This is the first year Samuel has really been interested in carving a pumpkin. We choose to do something simple and free form instead of an intricately decorative design this year. This was so much fun Samuel loved helping his daddy pull the gooey guts out of the pumpkin we got, and Caleb thought the whole process was strange.

 As you can see we chose a simple face design, but I wanted to add a special touch and I started thinking about the miniature pumpkin that Samuel and I painted together when we went to the corn maze last weekend so the pumpkin is now being eaten by our newly carved pumpkin.

This activity was so much fun for the whole family watching the boys dig their hands into its gooey guts and their reactions to the sliminess was the funniest part. I recommend that all families carve at least one pumpkin together every year. You can try something simple or intricate whatever your preferences.

5 Strand Braided Cowl

Tonight we are going to Owl-O-Ween which is going to be a blast, but it is also going to be colder than I can almost stand. Funnily enough I can not stand much cold, but since we have a freeze warning this morning it is not to unreasonable for me to think it is cold. So I wanted a cowl to wear tonight, but I always end up making them for others and not myself and the one project I saw that I liked had no pattern so I of course created my own.

 

5 Strand Braided Cowl

J Hook
Worsted Weight Yarn
Blunt yarn needle

(Make 5)
Chain 100
DC in third chain from hook and in every chain across and finish off

When all five strands are completed SC across the tops of all five strands to connect them.

I used the tutorial for the 5 strand braid on Make it and Love it which can be found Here.

Braid across the length of your strips.

When you reach the end of your strips SC across the end.

Use your yarn needle to sew the two ends of your piece together.

When you are finished you have this wonderful cowl for a cold day.

Finally Finished!

Ever have one of those projects that you just can not seem to finish? Well this hat is one of mine. I can not remember when I started working on it or where I got the pattern. When things hit the wall earlier this year it got stored away and when I brought it out again it was summer and the heat seemed to keep me from working on it. Now that the weather has turned bitterly cold, almost overnight it was shorts weather 2 weeks ago and now we are almost hitting freezing at night, my husband asked if I could please finish his hat. Ironically it was done except attaching the beard to the hat, so that made it even more silly that I had not finished it before now. The ultimate procrastination, life takes a hard shift and you drop things that might have helped you through it. As some of you might know crocheting is rhythmic and soothing to frayed nerves and emotions. So with out further ado my bearded hat that is FINALLY FINISHED!

Crowns and Zombies

Today the boys and I had fun outside and what started out with crown making soon turned into monster play :). Pictured above is the final result of our effort. We started out with paper crowns. I used legal size paper and staples to size it properly as pictured below.

 

We went around and gathered leaves (be careful of poison ivy). As we gathered the leaves I used my stapler to attach them to the boys crowns. Attention span was on and off but, what mommy can compete with a stick to swing around and hit things with. As you see above the leave crowns turned out wonderfully and are an easy craft that even young children like my 21 month old can participate in.

Where do zombies come into this well after the boys finished their crowns they chased me around on their bikes while we took turns pretending to be monsters. My three year old told me to be a nice zombie! And a quick craft turned into some really fun outside time for my little bits.

Neighborly Tomatoes

Last night I was getting the boys ready for bed and my neighbor knocked at the door. I almost ignored it in favor of putting the boys to bed. It had been a long day and my eldest was tired after his gymnastics class. However, I am so glad I opened the door instead. She had brought me a bag full of giant tomatoes ( 7 tomatoes to be precise). These tomatoes were home grown and her employer did not want them anymore, mostly because they were beginning to be quite ripe and had some bruising. They were still usable with a little creative cutting. My first thought was a fresh tomato soup. I have made a fresh tomato soup before and I did not really care for it, but I am always willing to try again. This time I found a winner in a recipe from The How to Mom. The link to the original recipe is Fresh Tomato Soup.  I also have the recipe posted below.

Fresh Tomato Soup

1 tbsp olive oil 
1/2 c onion, chopped
2 tbsp minced garlic 
4-5 c chopped ripe tomatoes, seeded (you can sub in some canned, if needed)
2 c chicken broth (or 2 c water and 2 chicken bouillon cubes)
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp (+) salt
pepper to taste

 1. Heat olive oil in stock pot, and cook onions and garlic til tender, but not browned. Add chopped tomatoes and chicken broth and simmer for 20-25 mins. Remove from heat and use food mill, immersion blender or regular blender to carefully puree mixture.

2. In separate small skillet, melt butter and add flour, cooking til light golden brown. Whisk in 1 cup of pureed tomato mixture slowly, ensuring that the mixture doesn't clump. When tempered, add mixture from skillet to the stock pot.
3. Add sugar, vinegar, basil, salt and pepper, and simmer 5 more minutes. Season to taste. 

I will definately be making this soup again and I plan on using my final three tomatoes in a yummy pasta sauce!

Potato Soup

This recipe comes from Baked by Rachel and is one of the best potato soups I have had with very little effort involved. Slow Cooker Loaded Baked Potato Soup is a great comfort on a cold day. I added broccoli to the recipe as I can not resist adding things to just about any soup I make (I am compulsive that way :) ). I also used turkey bacon instead of real bacon, but either choice would complement this soup wonderfully. Even my two little bits loved this soup/

 This soup was so yummy! There was enough for left overs until my hubby got home and ate it all :).  This is a soup I will definitely be making again during this fall/winter season.

Curly Top

This curly top baby hat is a new born size and as I have said in previous posts I want to make cute things for this little one even though I can not make him pretty dresses there is so much I can do. I found the idea for this on Pinterest, however the pattern I used comes from an Alli Crafts free pattern that I altered slightly.

The link to this pattern is Curly Sprig Hat-Newborn. I followed the directions for the hat all the way up to the last round where I decided to add some texture to the hat by alternating front and back post double crochets every two stitches. For the curly cues at the top I added two additional curls and to create them I chained 15 then sc 4x in each stitch across to make smaller and tighter wound curls than the original pattern.

This cute little patriotic hat is one we will be using right away after the little bit is born.

Don't let Tunisian get you down

This is my last Christmas project and I of course had to choose something that challenges me :).  This project has frustrated me to no end. I am a beginner at Tunisian crochet and I went and chose a intermediate level crochet project in Tunisian. This particular project comes from Crochet Today's Jan/Feb 2013 issue it is named the Material Girl Stole. I have been working on this for a little over a week now and though my tension was off in the beginning I am starting to get a handle on the stitches and the tension on my yarn. I have chosen a very pretty light purple for this project and it will be bordered with a purple variegated yarn from my stash. I have very high hopes for this project ( I will post finished photos after Christmas ;) ). The moral of this story of Tunisian crochet is do not give up on your crochet projects if it frustrates you just put it down and do something else, but always come back you might surprise yourself and learn something amazing. 

The Trouble with Hats

Crochet hats have always been a sticking point for me. I never seem to be able to get them the right size, and although I am getting better than my first attempts a few years ago one of which resembled what my mother described as a cake cozy and the other would have fit a small doll much less anyone human. Needless to say hats have always made me fear making them, however I like a challenge in my crochet work, and though I will not be designing a hat of my own anytime soon I have been working on more hats and becoming more secure in making them, although half the time I feel they are not quite the right size, but at least they will fit a human being. Since I am having a third little boy I am working on several different hats (I want to have some cutsie things for him to wear even though my hopes of having a little girl to crochet for have been squashed, and now I guess I will have to wait for my brother or my children to have a little girl for me to make things for). I completed this hat in one day, that is the beauty of baby hats they work up fast.  As I said above I am not ready to design my own hats, so I got this pattern from the blog My Merry Messy Life. This link will take you to the pattern Baby Boy Crochet Hat with Cuff and Pom-Pom.

I made this hat out of a variegated baby yarn from my stash instead of doing the color changes from the pattern, but I plan on making another that does have color changes at another time.

My little chickadees

I asked my eldest what he wanted to be for Halloween and when he told me he wanted to be a chicken I assumed that he did not fully know what he was talking about because he is three, but he has been insistent about being a chicken and his brother being an egg. This means I am in the process of making a chicken costume and an egg costume. When I finish the costume I will share it with you, but I am so excited about this hat I had to share it with you. I did not create this pattern, though I made some alterations and did not complete the full project as created. You can find the instructions to this wonderful hat at http://ashtreecrochetandcrafts.blogspot.com/ .

My 'Stache

Just found out we are expecting another baby boy...that makes three. So I have had to give up my thoughts of making cute little dresses and such for a baby girl. Oh well, that does not mean I can not make cute things for a boy too, just a lot less frilly. This led to my creating this crochet cocoon pattern.


You need:
Worsted Weight Yarn
K hook
I hook (for hat)

Round 1: Make an adjustable ring, 9 HDC in ring
Round 2: HDC 2x in each stitch
Round 3:  HDC 1x in next stitch, 2x HDC in next stitch around
Round 4: HDC around. ( 28 st)
Round 5: HDC in next 2 stitches, 2x HDC in next stitch around (38)
Round 6: HDC in next 3 stitches, 2x HDC in next stitch around (48)
Round 7: HDC around
Round 8: HDC in next 4 stitches, HDC 2x in next stitch around (58)
Round 9: HDC in in next 5 stitches, 2x HDC in next stitch around (68)
Round 10-32: HDC around
Round 33, 34: Ch 3 DC around
Round 35: Decrease 10 DC evenly around
Round 36: DC around (73)
Round 37: Alternate FPDC, BPDC around
Round 38: SC around. Fasten off.

Now to make it cute I added a mustache applique that I found on Pinterest.

I also decided to make a baby hat with an HDC stitch and put a much smaller mustache on it to match the cocoon.

Crochet Baby Afghan

I made this crochet blanket purely from inspiration that I found on Pinterest.  All granny squares are worked in essentially the same manner, but this one is mitered, which means that you do not work the full square only two of the edges to create the square. This baby afghan I created for a friend of mine who is having a baby boy. Of course I started it before the sex was known so that is the reason for the pink in the blanket. I chose to use the colors red, white, yellow, pink, green, and lots of blue. Each square is worked up til the blue granny border independently then I used the seamless crochet technique to connect each square as I made them to the whole. By using this method I did not have to join a bunch of squares at the end of my project. I then created a single crochet border around the edge of the blanket. Pictured below is a quarter of the whole afghan.

This is one of my new favorite concepts as you can create a flowing look by creating the same pattern in each square or a unique afghan by creating a different pattern for each square which creates a wonderful visual display.

Stone Soup

My family and I went to IKEA several months ago and we had lunch while we were there. I had the vegetable soup and ever since that moment I have been looking for a soup that closely resembles that vegetable soup. With no luck I have tried a few different recipes, and lately I have been thinking about the fairy tale entitled "Stone Soup". In this tale individuals tell their unsuspecting neighbors that they are going to make the most delicious soup out of just a stone and the neighbors one by one give ingredients to these individuals believing what they have to give is superior in nature and can only improve a soup. They give these objects without having the knowledge of the other neighbors making donations to the soup. In the end the individuals have a wonderful soup and the neighbors all ask where the stone is, and the reply is of course that they chose to leave it out of the soup this time. The moral of the story is to not be tricked out of your hard earned earnings. However, what made me think of it was this soup and how I like to throw everything and the kitchen sink into my stock pot and make a soup. Yesterday I made a yummy soup, definitely not Stone Soup, but delicious just the same.

The first step was to chop up carrots and celery...I would add onions, but my husband just will not eat anything I put onions in (though he eats them when my mother does...hmm...) and garlic and then I sauteed them for approximately 5 minutes. I prefer my vegetables to be crispy rather than mushy, but if you want to you can cook them for a longer period of time. I also do not for soups like this make specific measurements to my vegetables the more the better.

At this point I added zucchini to the stock pot and I wanted this to be the star of the soup so I added more of this than the other vegetables in the pot. I sauteed the vegetables for approximately 4 minutes longer.

To make the broth for the soup I used about 5 cups of chicken broth a 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes, which is what makes that lovely red color in the broth in the picture below.

At this point this soup is absolutely delicious and you could let it simmer for about 10 minutes then eat, but as I said before I like to put everything and the kitchen sink in my soups so I added some of my fresh basil leaves and a small amount of Heavy Whipping Cream to the broth before simmering the soup. The result was fabulous. My little boys and my husband loved the soup and this will be something that I do again. The finished product is below. To each serving I added some separately cooked macaroni noodles, however, you could add rice as well. I recommend that if you choose to add either you cook it separately and add it to each serving, because if you have leftovers and the noodles are in with the soup they will continue to soak up the broth, leaving you with little broth and soggy noodles. This soup is not Stone Soup, but it is pretty darn good.  

Broken Crayons

My little boys love to color. However, they like noise more than they like to color and have discovered the joys of breaking crayons to hear that lovely snapping sound. What am I supposed to do with all of these broken crayons? That certainly was the question to answer since my oldest Samuel refuses to color with a broken crayon. (Also ironic since more than likely he was the one to break the crayon in the first place.) A while back I ran across an idea on Pinterest on what to do with all of those broken crayons, so I decided to make that the project for the day with the kids.

The first step was to get all the paper off of the broken crayons, break them into even smaller pieces and sort the colors.

Look at all of those crayons!

 

I ended up splitting the crayons into two different greased muffin tins.







(Head Crayon Breaker)

 

We preheated the oven to 275 degrees and placed the muffin tins in the oven for approximately 15 minutes to let them melt. Then we stirred the melted crayons with toothpicks to help some of the crayons to further melt.

 

After the muffin tins cooled I placed them in the freezer to harden the newly melted crayons. I left them in there about 2 hours, but it could probably be less time as my littlest took a nap during that time and that had me occupied for a while. The picture below shows how they look when they come out of the freezer. They came right out of the tins without any muss or fuss.

When I turned them over on the countertop some of the colors had an interesting pattern to them, which you could avoid entirely if desired by not mixing colors, but what is the fun in that? The next step was to baggy the crayons for future coloring. These newly made crayons have proven to be tougher than their original counterparts (Praise the Lord!). My little bits have enjoyed coloring with these new crayons that Samuel helped to make. And though Caleb took a little convincing that they were not crackers, both of them are enjoying their broken crayons.