Leap Into Art

Last week I went to a presentation by Liz Edmunds (aka the Food Nanny); which really inspired me–about dinner! She advocates making a 2 week plan (Ali, I thought you’d like that with your 2 week shopping trips.) To make making that plan easier, Liz suggests setting a theme for each night of the week. I love this idea, I think it will help with my dinner problem–falling into a rut and rotating a handful of recipes. Here is my little meal plan to fill out. I bought her cookbook because I am always interested in easy recipes. I have done weekly menus for a while and one little trick I’ve learned is to just save those menus in a file to look back through when I get stumped. I’ll let you know how it goes next week. I plan on doing some tweeking as I go; but I figured I’d share–anything to make dinner easier, right?

We were always excited to head over to Woodburn, OR for Oktoberfest when I lived at home. Although beer certainly is the centerpiece of the festival, there is a lot to see and eat at these carnivals. Oktoberfest is arguably the largest festival in the world, hosting well over 6 million people in the actual fair in  Munich last year. It was first held to honor the newly married Crown Prince Ludwig I and Therese of Bavaria in 1810. Celebrations run from late September to the first Sunday of October and chances are there is a festival being held in a city or town near you. However, if you’d like to celebrate at home, I suggest having a german inspired dinner, possibly trying out a traditional game of skittles, and making these Edelweiss hats to wear for the party.

edelweiss hats

materials:

large piece of felt or construction paper; trimmed to 12×18-inches (traditionally green)

white and yellow felt or construction paper for flower

*For paper, use a hole punch to make 6 circles or do one larger circle. You can also use 6 yellow pompoms or beads for the center.

feather

glue (glue stick for paper, craft or hot glue for felt)

directions:

1. Fold the sheet of felt or paper in half. (It should now measure 9×12.)
2. Fold both top corners in towards the middle evenly, leaving 2-3 inch border along the bottom. If you are using felt, you will need to tack the corners down with a bead of glue.
3. Fold the bottom up on both sides each to their own side.  This forms the brim.

4. Cut out an edelwiess flower. (Here’s the pattern I used:) If you are using paper, use a hole punch to make 5 yellow circles and glue all together.

5. Make a small puddle of glue on one side of the hat and lay the bigger flower down to make the base, then put the smaller on top. Next add a puddle in the center of the flower and arrange the circles to form a center.

6. Then tuck (and glue if necessary) the feather behind the flower and feiern!

So, if you see me much in real life, you probably aren’t surprised that I haven’t posted anything in a while. If not, let me just say that graceful pregnancies are not my forte. We’re all fine, I’m on activity restriction and meds with frequent testing and observation. Michael is taking good care of me. Basically, my blood pressure (etc.) is control; I’m just not really holding my actual life together all that well; let alone the extras. I’ll skip the whining and promise a project post soon. Afterall, Oktoberfest is in full swing and it’s not just a holiday for beer drinkers. (Okay, it is primarily about drinking beer, but there are plenty of kid friendly ways to celebrate too.)

Definitely a top comfort food, this is my favorite way to use leftover chicken or roast beef. I am pretty easy going with the ingredients I use for the sauce. Depending on my mood, I may add a little bit of chopped garlic, some lemon pepper, or some paprika, which is always great with chicken. Think of this as the base and then expound on it.

ingredients:

~2 cups chicken or roast beef, chopped

~4 1/2 cups vegetables, chopped. Such as: potatoes. carrots, corn, peas, green beans, mushrooms

1 can cream of chicken soup

1/4 c. sour cream

milk, as needed

1/2 tsp. Herbs de Provence

2-3 good sized sprigs of lemon thyme (slide leaves off and discard stem)

salt and pepper to taste

prepared pie crust (or make your own, you crazy ambitious person. I’m not intimidated by you.)*

*I only use a crust on the top of the pie to cut back on calories.

directions:

1. Chop carrots and cover with water in a microwave safe bowl. Cook until barely tender, about 6 minutes.

2. Chop remaining veggies and add to a baking dish with the meat.

3. Mix soup, sour cream, herbs, add milk until mix is the consistency of cake batter and stir into vegetables.

4. Cover with pie crust and cut slits to vent steam. If desired, brush with egg or butter.

5. Bake at 375 (or the temp. recommended for pie) for 40 minutes or until crust is golden.

*Fully a week late, I would like to state that due to various technical difficulties, this post has taken FOR EVER to finish! Yes, I am embarrassed. Let’s move on.

Megan was so excited to have her birthday be the first day of school. She has been looking forward to kindergarten so much. Monday was a giant day-long celebration. She beamed as we all walked her into the classroom. I think Michael and I were more nervous than she was. She confidently found her seat and began assembling blocks–then didn’t even notice us as we left. That’s my girl!

After school we opened gifts and played with new toys; including an avalanche of new Barbie playsets delivered by our own personal fairy godmother. We love you, Juli! Needless to say, these have pretty much been the big hit around our house for the last week.

Then we headed over to the swim club for Grandma Verna’s swim party. What could be better on your birthday: swimming with cousins and eating pizza, pink cupcakes, and soft serve ice cream? What a day!

Really the festivities started the week before when Grandma Lu took Meg and her cousin for the traditional pre-Kindergarten shopping trip. She took them for lunch then out to buy a new outfit (make that outfits, the cute Grandma!) for school. They came home with the cutest puffy vests! Megan was definitely in her girly element. She was so excited to have this special time with Grandma. Unfortunately, when it came to getting a picture,  we just didn’t have much luck.

She also had her first fishing trip with Dad. Although they didn’t  catch anything, they had a great time. Megan has been “practicing her casting” a ton. I love it! She and Michael have had a ton of fun this summer, camping, backpacking, and now fishing. He is such a good daddy!

We had a Strawberry Shortcake water party on Saturday. The girls had a ball. (Megan specified that only girls were invited this year. If any boys came, she said that they would have to wear a baby costume. Okay then!) Surprisingly, 13 five year olds (plus Emily) was pretty manageable.  We have a boatload of darling girls in our neighborhood.

I feel so lucky to have Meg! She is my big helper; she’s so eager to do anything she can to help out around the house. Often she’ll run to close the gate or get me something, saying “I want to be your helper!” It definitely makes my life easier. She has such a sweet and loving disposition and is so quick to tell us how much she loves us. Which also goes for her relationship with Emily. They play so well together. Our pediatrician said that they “get along uncommonly well” as he watched them play during her check up this week. It is true, they are awesome sisters.

Megan has a hilarious sense of humor and I love the funny laugh that she does when she is really amused by something. She is also one serious drama queen. She and Emily play out elaborate scenarios (where she is almost always a princess) When she is hurt, boy, the world knows it! It’s hard to believe she is five, she is wonderful! Happy Birthday (a little late) sweet girl!

If you think kids grow fast (and I DO think kids grow fast) you should see boxers. I can’t believe that Jake is 9 months old. He is such a sweet boy. I can’t imagine our family without him. He is so excited about…well…everything. Of course his excitement can knock you over now; but it is still pretty darn cute.

I know this probably sounds a little trite; but I just love this little guy so much and I really enjoy how much he loves me right back. (That’s just one of the really great things about dogs.)

Jake in February (3 months)

He still loves his little green bed, even though it isn’t quite as accommodating now.

Meg and Jake: best of pals

Megan has grown into such a big helper. I just love the pleased little smile she gets when she is helping me out. She opens the gate for us and runs to grab her little broom whenever I am sweeing up. Often this helping makes the job last a little longer, but she is so happy to do it, I just about melt when she says “I’m your big helper, huh Mom?”

Last week, I thanked her for picking up all of the books she and Emily got out. After a few minutes she came in and announced that she was going to “clean the living room and make it fancy.” She told me not to come in until she was all finished. I finally came in to find favorite toys arranged on the couch, chair, bench, etc. It was so cute! I wish I would have thought to get a picture. She is one great little girl!

One thing little girls love (and actually big girls too) is a tea party. We have gotten the opportunity to do quite a few in the last several months and I think I am honing my girl-pleasing menu. Here are a few favorites:

The number one item needed for a tea party (aside from a tea set of course) is the frilly toothpick. You stack anything onto a frilly toothpick and it is FANCY NANCY. (ie. really good.) Pickles, fruit, veggies, cheese, whatever. They’ll love it!

The girls love thickly sliced banana with peanut butter and sprinkles on top.

Also impressive to little party goers is the cracker topped with peanut butter and banana or a slice of apple or some cheese.

Almost as vital to the tea party as the frilly toothpick, is the cookie cutter. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich is transformed when shaped like a butterfly.  Don’t feel like you have to stop at sandwiches though. Cut out a few fun shaped quesadillas, we like to add peperoni to the top and make a “pizzadilla.”  Another option is to cut cheese and lunch meat as well as bread or tortillas into fun shapes and let the kids layer their own little sandwiches.

Finish off with cookies, cupcakes or any little treat and you have a memorable afternoon girl-fest. You can pick up a mini muffin tin (or two) at the grocery store. One cake mix will yield about a million mini cupcakes; which can be frozen. Then just pull out what you need and let the girls frost and sprinkle them. They get all the fun without loading up on sugar. Really, it is all about the extra little touches that make it more than an ordinary lunch. It is a little bit of extra work, but the girls just get so excited about doing it. You can’t beat a tea party!

Tomorrow I will share some recipes that I have culled from the many tea parties we have enjoyed since Meg got her tea set for Christmas. (And let me just say that we have had quite a few tea parties.) However, today I am going to show you how the pros do it.

Every summer my wonderful neighbor, Mary Winters has us over for a tea party. Let me just say that it is a big summer highlight for the girls and possibly an even bigger one for me. Mary is one of the most amazing women in the world and I just love getting to talk with her over a long, delicious lunch.

She served her chicken salad with airlight buttery rolls and peanut butter and jelly for the kids along with fresh fruit and the cutest individual jello molds.

The girls had a ball dining in Mary’s playhouse. We enjoyed sitting back in the shade and figuring out life a little. (Which Mary is very good at.)

After we ate, the girls decorated cookies. Which is a great tea party finale. I love that she has a kid’s table at the end of her island in her kitchen. She is all about kids!

….Wonderful.

So, I noticed that I haven’t posted a project since-well-Easter. Hmmm, what can I throw out there that would be helpful during these long hot summer afternoons. (Since swimming isn’t an art project.) These little dolls are a project from my book that are great for filling an afternoon with industrious fun. It kept my little “test group” busy for almost 4 hours.

Materials:

Popsicle sticks

Yarn (for hair and clothes)

Beads (for eyes)

Small pompoms

Small flowers

(Basically anything in your art box you want to throw out there.)

Scissors

Glue (We used Aleene’s, but Elmer’s would work, it’s just very slow drying. Hot glue is the best option, it just presents other safety issues.)

Directions:

1. Cut about half way up the center of a popsicle stick. (This is a little tricky; it was fine for my 7 year old nieces, but younger kids would need help.) Gently pull the two halves apart a little.

2. Cut an 8 inch piece of skin colored yarn for the head. Glue one end of the yarn to the stick and wrap it several times around the stick so that it makes a head shape. Tuck the end in or glue.

3. Glue on beads for eyes (you could also cut little bits of yarn and glue them on.)

4. To make the hair, wrap yarn several times around your hand (or something else that is about 2xs as long as you want the hair to be.)

5. Slip off and loosely tie a piece of yarn around the middle of the coiled yarn (hair) and glue to the head. (You may need to hold it down for a bit while it dries.) Cut through the loops at the bottom and trim up as desired.

6. Wrap the body in the color you want for the shirt. (Do this the same as the head, only wrap around once or twice.) When you get to the legs, go completely down one, tie off or glue then start at the top of the other. (You will want to secure the beginning with a bead of glue like you did for the head.)

7. Now embellish: I cut the edge of a sequin to make the mouth, you could also use yarn. We used pompoms for feet and for the body of one dress (the rest of which is a pink feather) and the small flowers were also very popular.

You can make them life-like or, like Weston, you can get a little crazy with it! The kids liked this so much that they quickly progressed to making beds for the dolls, then cell phones, the a couple of just funny designs. They loved this and it can easily fill up an afternoon or more.