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It was all fun and games until the Hulk came up our walkway and scared the daylights out of our little Lion/Tiger.
We made it to two houses with Grammie before we headed home (and before I remembered the whiskers).
Fortunately, she thoroughly enjoyed sorting candy (and handing it out to non-scary, girl trick-or-treaters).
At least she wore the costume! Happy Halloween!
Ages ago, Lauren and I did some screen printing. I finally executed a "great" idea that had been in my head for years--screenprinted placemats showing the location of the place setting items. This idea looked fantastic in my brain. Unfortunately, it didn't look fantastic once completed so I tossed the completed placemats aside.
A few weeks ago my mom spotted them in a pile in my craft room and mentioned that she liked them. So they were fresh in my brain when I saw this obnoxious vinyl fabric that I knew Biscuit and Little Man would LOVE.
This is the alternate screen print design which came out much better than the original plan but was not at all what I initially imagined. (I screen printed on Ikea placemats). As you can see, I backed the screen printed, fabric mats with the obnoxious vinyl stuff for a reversible (but not very washable) wipeable placemat.
Hopefully the birthday boys like them!
I don't really like Halloween (sorry, Halloween lovers (Laura)).
But it's fun going through the motions with a kid.
I take it as a good sign that she was willing to try on the costume-in-progress (it took a few hours to warm up to the idea but then she liked it)
I still have some tiger/lion work to do. Wish me luck!
The pillow case pattern is from my mother in law. The art and letters are from Biscuit. I just put it all together.
A car for my dad
A sailboat in the mud for my mom (don't ask, I don't get it either)
The fabric is a luxurious Egyptian cotton I found at Joanns. A bit pricey but not with the 40% off coupon. If you need high quality, plain fabric it's worth looking for this. I found it near the muslin.
She also got a full set of my jams etc with cute calico tops and stamped twill tape labels.
This was a fun gift to put together. Now I need to work on the Halloween costume--time is running out!
Today we celebrated my mom's (60th) birthday with a family trip to Safari West (sans Mr. H who was backpacking). Here are some factoids from the tour guide (unconfirmed by google)
Blue dikers are the world's second smallest antelope. About the size of a housecat and they like to lick!
Giraffes only sleep 2 hours in each 24 hour period and sleep in 20 minute naps.
Goat horns are "alive." I was amazed how warm they were to the touch (I expected them to feel more like hair than skin as far as temperature)
Baby zebra--every bit as cute as you would expect.
This bird is called a roo roo. It looks just like an easter egg.
Porcupines like bananas (and yams and peanuts). Also, Indian porcupines are much larger than their American counterparts.
I hope my dad got better photos--it was a really cool tour.
One last observation--toddler lemurs are a lot like toddler humans. 100% energy--primarily expended trying to get the attention of adults--but so dang cute you could never get too annoyed.
Happy Birthday, Mom!
But the apple, peeler, corer, slicer is just so fun...and it's apple season...we simply had to make Alicia's Sour Cream Apple Pie. It was practically required. Mr. H is out of town so at least we invited my inlaws over to help eat it.
It was every bit as good as it sounds in Alicia's post. And, probably, every bit as fattening.
It's getting colder here and it turns out my winter clothes no longer fit. Since I hate clothes shopping, I might try dieting. First I need to finish this pie. Then make a pecan pie for my mom's birthday. Then I'll diet.
I do have plenty of this yummy, healthy soup in the fridge. That balances out the pie, right?
I have a lot of kitchen gadgets but always thought the "apple peeler, corer, slicer" was one of those "single purpose, take up space" sorts of kitchen tools (like bread makers). Seriously, is it that hard to use a peeler?
That is until I actually used one of these gadgets at my mom's house and discovered the error of my ways. And, in typical mom fashion, she had not one, but two apple peeler, corer, slicers so I got to take one home.
So when Biscuit requested apple sauce at dinner, we were able to have it done by bedtime.
Recipe:
Peel and chop apples until your small pot is full. Add about 1/4 cup water and cook, covered on medium low heat until very mushy (30-60 minutes). Mash with potato masher. Mix in about 1/2-1 tsp. cinnamon and try not to burn your tongue in your haste to enjoy it. I used mostly gala apples ($.50/pound--a steal!) but any sweet, eating apple is fine and it's a great way to use apples that are slightly mushier than you like to eat.
Peels make fine jewelry.
Can you guess the required theme?
Biscuit loves talking about the "share bag" which is actually a Cars backpack. Tomorrow it's her turn to share. Only three items...this is what she chose (after we couldn't find her stuffed pig)
Yesterday was the big ice cream birthday party.
Favors (idea from here art from Biscuit) and flowers.
The ice cream fairy
Churning
more churning (it's getting harder)
Really hard now. Everyone took a scoop right out of the churn. Mr. H was right, very rich ice cream!
The stuffing of the cones
The opening of the gifts (completed cone on in use by cousin)
Winner for "best wrapped gift"
Before she almost burned her nose on the candle (and refused to eat the delicious ice cream cake)
Enjoying the gifts at the end of the evening.
Sorry for all the b-day photos but I'm years behind in scrapbooking for this kid so the blog will have to suffice. I'm pleased to say that this year she loved being sung "Happy Birthday" in direct contrast to last year's tears of horror at the attention. I think a good birthday was had by all.
One last crafty note: fleece is the perfect material for last minute kid projects!
Biscuit turned three today. THREE! three. 3.
Happy birthday, big girl.
She was home sick (again) today but she seems to be feeling much better. I think it was more of a play day with Grandpa, probably more fun than school anyway. She did get to open presents before (and after) dinner--that was the extent of our celebration.
So, the birthday present. Back 100 years ago (April) I started making a ceramic tea set for the kitchen I made Biscuit last Christmas. It was slooooow going (and the teapot pitcher still isn't done) but I had 6 plates, 6 mugs and 6 wonky bowls wrapped to give her.
You'd think that in the photo above she is admiring or, perhaps, setting up a tea party.
She was actually trying to get at the sheets of plastic I used to wrap the ceramics. The plastic was an (unsafe) hit. The ceramics were fine too. I'm not bothered, what kid really gets too excited about a funky tea set anyway? It's not even pink!
Obviously, the glaze didn't come out well AT ALL but nothing to be done now. Hopefully the ice cream cake for the party will be more successful. Ice cream frosting!
(my bet is on complete rejection at the party. I'll let you know)
