Indoor Snowman Fun

Since any snow we get keeps melting (not complaining!) we decided not to wait any longer to make some snowmen!  My daughter saw this in the recent issue of Family Fun magazine using toilet paper, but I didn't feel like dealing with a tp mess so we just wrapped dad up in a bed sheet and she decorated him to be a snowman!  (he's such a good sport! and she could not stop giggling!). (that thing in their mouth is supposed to be the pipe....made with a pip cleaner)

Scrappy Saturdays 16

Man these weekends keep sneaking up on me and I am super excited to see what you all link up this week!  Some highlights from last week include...

Adult Cami into Girls Ruffle Shirt @ babblings and more

Valentines Tic Tac Toe @ Life's Jewelry Box

Scripture Chair Makeover @ Rustic Living

Baby Legs @ Living the DIY Lifestyle

Alrighty, if you've been featured, you can grab a brag button here

if you like this linky/blog you can follow me on GFC, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or vote for me on Top Mommy Blogs...:)

Visit some of the other links and leave some comment love :)
No Giveaways
grab a button below and post it with your other linky lists

Link up your awesome projects using scraps (of any kind), upcycling, redo/makeovers, and anything you made including materials you found or had on hand.  We love thrifty, resourceful creativity!

3-D paperbag snowflakes

3-D Paper Bag Snowflakes

Since there's been very little snow this winter might as well make some

I originally shared this tutorial as a guest post over at Dear Creatives and have been meaning to share it again in case you missed it! (click here to see the original post over at DC)

Spend a cold winter day with your kids making these beautiful 3-D snowflakes that are super easy.   These snowflakes have a very dramatic effect, especially if you make a collection and hang them together. My friend and I got the idea when we were at Whole Foods and they had big snowflakes like this made from various kinds of paper bags hanging from the ceiling in the front of the store.  You could use any kind of paper bags you have on hand, we used white lunch paper bags.  This is a great craft you can do with the little ones too, which is what we did. 

What You’ll Need

• 10 paper lunch bags (for 1 snowflake)

• scissors, edge punch, etc

• stapler

• ribbon or string

• hole punch

Cut the top edges of all the paper bags to make pretty snowflake edges.

Take two bags and line them up.  Open the tops and staple one side of the bag to one side of the other bag.

Repeat until you have five bags stapled together. Staple the five bags together at the bottom and then open it up creating a fan…half your snowflake.

Take the other five bags and repeat, attaching them all together and making another fan shape.

Take the two half snowflakes (fan shapes) and staple them together through the openings at the top of the bag.  Staple the tops of the bags together, but also the bottom edges as you can see in the picture above.

Use your hole punch and make punch a hole for stringing a ribbon or yarn through so you can hang your 3-D paper bag snowflake.

Adjust all the bags so all the creases are straight.

After putting it together I decided to go around all the edges with the hole punch to add more detail.

We had 4 year olds cut the edges of the snow flakes, but you could make more dramatic or designed edges changing the look of this paper bag snowflake, so it has more shape and is less of a giant circle when looking straight on.  These also look great when made with brown paper bags.  You could even get more creative and spray the finished snowflake with spray adhesive and sprinkled with glitter to give it some bling, glue on some jewels or sequins…or just enjoy as is.  My daughter wanted me to hang hers above her bed, she loves it.

Thanks for looking and I hope you enjoy making some of these fun 3-D paper bag snowflakes. 

Scrappy Saturdays 15

Sorry for the late start! I was having trouble logging into inlinkz and finally figured out the problem.  I thought it wasn't working, but apparently I just kept using the wrong password....derrr!!!

So here we go, thanks all for your participation, I always look forward to seeing what you have done each week!  Here are some from last week...

Dollar Store ActivityBags @ Second Chance by Susan

Baggy Hubby Sweater Turned Chic @ DIY Home Sweet Home

Wine Cork Bracelet @ A Creative Princess

Decorating With Sugar @ Brassy Apple

Alrighty, if you've been featured, you can grab a brag button here

if you like this linky/blog you can follow me on GFC, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or vote for me on Top Mommy Blogs...:)

Visit some of the other links and leave some comment love :)
No Giveaways
grab a button below and post it with your other linky lists

Link up your awesome projects using scraps (of any kind), upcycling, redo/makeovers, and anything you made including materials you found or had on hand.  We love thrifty, resourceful creativity!

I LIKE Green Eggs and Ham!

Green Eggs and Ham 

or in this case bacon

What you'll need

Eggs
Ham/bacon
Blue food coloring
Bowl
Fork
Frying pan
Non-stick spray/vegetable oil
Spatula

Depending on your child's capabilities, you can let them help a lot or a little but this is a fun one for them to make

Place a frying pan on the skillet over high heat, once it gets real hot, reduce to medium heat (I do this so the eggs don't stick to the stainless steel...we don't use non-stick frying pans, they are a no no but you can read more about that at end of post).

Let your child help you crack the eggs on the edge of counter or side of bowl and carefully break the eggs into the bowl.

Let them put a few drops of blue food coloring into the bowl with the eggs.  If you have the wilton food coloring in the little jars, dip the tip of your fork in the food coloring to get just a tiny amount.  Use your fork and stir the eggs up in the bowl, mixing in the food coloring.  (if kids are going to stir the eggs, use a bigger sized bowl so prevent them from spilling over the edge)

Lightly coat the frying pan with oil or cooking spray to prevent sticking.

Pour green eggs into skillet and cook, folding and chopping with the spatula to make scrambled eggs.

When green eggs are cooked, remove from skillet and serve warm.

As for the ham part, you can either take some deli ham and cut into small pieces and stir into the eggs before cooking or you can make a side a bacon like we did.

And DON'T FORGET to read them the book Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss

We got our 4.5 year old Green Eggs and Ham for Christmas and I'll never forget the first time I read it to her that night.  She had no idea what she was in for when it started, and as we got into the book, her eyes widened, filled with delight and she rose up higher and higher on her knees 'till she was no longer laying down but bouncing in her bed as the story went on.  We have to read the book at LEAST two times in a row, then we have to act it out 2 times, taking turns being Sam I Am and the guy who doesn't want the Green Eggs and Ham.  Dr. Seuss has just acquired a new fan...and today she requested Green Eggs and Ham for lunch...and of course I had to be Sam I Am when serving it to her...."You do not like them so you say. Try them! Try them! And you may. Try them and you may, I say."  

I know we are not the first to do this fun activity by any means, but it was our first time and it was fun!!!  I was also thinking after the fact, that you could make this healthier by using spinach puree to color the eggs, I'll have to try that next time and see if they still like Green Eggs and Ham!

 *We have thrown out most of our non-stick cookware.  It has been banned in other countries because it is toxic and carcinogenic. When Mary Anne bought a gerbal for one of her kids, the pet store warned them not to keep the cage near the kitchen when cooking because the fumes from non-stick cookware can kill the animal.  We stick to using stainless steel and cast iron for cooking. For more about that, read my Nutrition and Healthy Cooking posts.  

New Year New Hair

Bit the Bullet and Dyed my Hair (at home)!

BEFORE

 3 weeks prior

 AFTER

So I've been thinking about dying my hair on and off since Jordan was born but always chicken out so the other night I finally bit the bullet and tried it.  I checked around on the internet and Tyler called his aunt who is a hairdresser and the general consensus was to use clairol nice n easy #10 lightest blonde.  I was so nervous and totally freaking out but I knew I could go get it done professionally if I didn't like it.

It didn't turn lightest blonde, but it turned all my darkest dirty blonde areas of hair to strawberry blonde.  I guess people will stop asking where Bronson got his hair color :)  My hair feels much nicer after using the dye, highlights always dry out my hair and now it feels so silky I'm not used to it!  Now I can actually get the straightner to go smoothly through an entire length of hair, before, trying to curl my hair with the straightener was difficult, it would always get caught or stick as I got towards the bottom of each section of hair (yes even when brushing the sections well before straightening).  So when I curled my hair with the flat iron the other day, I couldn't believe how much easier it was!   PLUS it only took 10 minutes to process once I got my hair covered...going to the salon always takes half the day, my highlights always take forever to process.  Although I did almost throw up when I finished washing the dye out...it looked bright orange at first but it didn't stay like that, it toned down and when I dried it looked like it does in the after pictures.  And below is with the flash.

Anyways here it is.  :)  Honestly, it looks a lot different to us, but only a couple of people have noticed the difference, not even Jordan has said anything and she doesn't miss a thing so yeah, maybe I'm making a big deal about dying my hair, but it really wasn't a big change, just the first time doing all over color (besides my embarassing hair days (which I shared on wannabebalanced recently to win the personal microdermabrasion system, thanks everyone who voted!) when I had Karen Kane hair in 8th grade and dyed it maroon, then bleached it and got a firey orange...which was cool because that was the same time as the movie the Fifth Element of course! LOL! I still looked like a "shim" though....apparently.  


Anyways....I don't know what my deal is, I'm just a DIY junkie, I like to try doing things myself.  I also did my own trim a couple months ago after giving B his first haircut, looking at my ends in the picture above...I think it's time for another one!


Did I mention it cost $10? That is less then what I tip when I get my hair done!

Gluten Free Double Chocolate Chip Muffins

Gluten Free Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins

Also Dairy Free

OK so maybe this isn’t the best recipe to be posting the first week of the new year when so many of use are trying to be healthier, but sometimes you need things like this to get through certain things….okay…yeah, we don’t NEED food to cope with things, but sometimes, if I can just eat something chocolate…I’m a much better person.  Anyways, the kids love ‘em too.  For some reason I got thinking about muffins and those jumbo chocolate chocolate chip muffins you can buy at Costco or other bakeries and I just really missed being able to have that.  So I pulled out the best muffin recipe I have ever used (including pre-gluten free days) and just made one change to it to make these delicious gluten free chocolate chocolate chip muffins or double chocolate chip muffins….however you want to say it!

Here is the gluten free muffin recipe, but to make them double chocolate, just like the ones from the store, you are going to subtract 1/3 cup flour and replace it with 1/3 cup cocoa powder.  Then add a cup of Ghirardelli semi-sweet or 60% cocoa chocolate chips (they are dairy free and I use coconut milk when making these).

Gluten Free Homemakers Basic Muffin Recipe

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

• 1 2/3 c. gluten-free flour mix
• 1/3 c cocoa powder
• 1 tsp. xanthan gum
• 1  Tb. baking powder
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 – 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/2 c. oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla or other flavoring
• 3/4 – 1 c. milk, juice, or water
• up to 1 c. chocolate chips

In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, xanthan gum, baking powder, salt and sugar.  In a smaller bowl, or measuring cup, combine the oil, eggs, vanilla and milk.  Add that to the dry ingredients and whisk together until moistened.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Divide into lined muffin cups and I like to sometimes sprinkle a little sugar on top like the bakeries do.  Bake at 375 degrees for 20 – 25 minutes.  Let the muffins cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.  Usually best served warm.

(note: I use Silvana Nardone's GF blend and leave out the xanthan gum when making this recipe since her blend already has the xanthan gum in it.  I just love her blend and all her recipes!  

I love this recipe because it is so versatile!  I've also used this gluten free muffin recipe to make

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Muffins

Gluten Free Strawberry Muffins

Gluten Free Blueberry Lemon Muffins with Coconut Streusel

Gluten Free Coffee Cake with Maple Frosting