Felt Puppets

Unfortunately, I am not near crafty enough to make my own puppets, my twin sister however is, so I thought I'd show you some of her newest creations.

A cute nurse or doctor, I didn't ask if she specified which this girl was.

And a firefighter.


Her twins are going to have the best time playing with their new puppets. I can't wait to go over and join in on the fun. I'm thinking she really needs to consider making an accountant puppet so that her kids will be able to pretend to be as great as Aunt Jen.

Dinner Time - Tuna Cakes

For a day when I'm either running late, or just not in the mood to do much cooking, I find Tuna Cakes are quick, easy and surprisingly good. I initially found this recipe from Kraft, and have done a few adaptations based on 1. what's in the house, and 2. what my family enjoys.

Ingredients:
1 can tuna, drained, flaked
1 can of spicy Thai tuna
1 pkg. Stove Top Stuffing Mix of any variety
1 shredded carrot
1 finely chopped pepper of any variety
1/2 cup shredded cheese (have also omitted this)
3/4 cup water (I've never measured?)
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 Tbsp relish

Now, Kraft gives a lot of directions, I don't measure anything and just throw it into a bowl to the consistency that I'm feeling that day. Then, I take a 1/3 measuring cup as a scoop and throw it into a frying pan for a few minutes to heat through.

I find this recipe also works great for those days when you really need groceries, but you don't actually want to go get them. Whatever gets me out of the task for another day is a good recipe in my books.

Apple Carrot Muffins

We eat a lot of muffins in this household, especially when I'm avoiding going to the grocery store out of pure laziness. A tray of muffins can easily push us through one more day until we're out of a few more ingredients to make the trip necessary.

I found this recipe and decided I had the majority of the ingredients, so I could continue with the muffins. But, as I started making them, something seemed very very wrong (i.e. there wasn't enough liquid and there was no way it was going to make 24 muffins). So, after quite a few substitutions, I made my own version of this Apple Carrot Muffin, and a few things still went wrong, but the muffins turned out delicious albeit a little on the ugly side (it makes more than 12 muffins, but definitely not 24).

Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour
1-1/4 cups brown sugar
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
2 carrots, grated
2 apples, peeled, cored and grated

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C).
In a bowl, combine the wet ingredients. In another bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Add the first mixture to the second. Pour into muffin cups. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

Book Review - Have a Little Faith

So yes, I'm about two years behind in getting around to this book by Mitch Albom. I had read Tuesdays with Morrie right when it was released and found it to be a good book, and again I enjoyed Have a Little Faith although if I remember correctly it seemed to be quite similar in nature. It was an easy read, and you can get yourself lost in the book. Did it restore my faith? Not so much. Did it open my eyes to new points of view? Perhaps. So, all in all, if you are looking for a feel good book to read that MAY get you motivated to do good in the world, go for the read.

Decorative Pieces

A few months ago, I was checking out a blog of a women who was making decorative pieces for her walls out of mirrors and skewers, at the time I thought it was ingenious. So, I promptly bought the skewers, but for the life of me, I couldn't find small round mirrors. On a trip to the dollar store the other day, I found a small round candle holder (I think), and my thoughts ran back to this project.

It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon and we took out painting to the backyard. Big N had no idea that we could paint outside and absolutely loved it. Although for some reason the mess seemed to be twice as big as usual. Maybe it had something to do with the fact she had to wear clothes while painting outside.

I have absolutely no clue what we will do with this masterpiece, but it turned out pretty cute for being made of skewers, black paint and a dollar store candle holder. Id would look nice outside, but we don't have a lot of places to hang decorative pieces off our twelve foot tall cedar trees.

Everybody loves a Barnyard Dance

Upon a clearing of the garage last week we stumbled upon a box of my things that obviously my parents had brought from their house, that I had no clue was in existence. This box was filled to the brim with all sorts of things including a pair of Winnie the Pooh footed pajamas that still fit, a little box full of the notes I used to pass in high school, yearbooks, etc. It also contained a bunch of trophies that most people in my life would not expect. Yes, I own at least four trophies that have cows on the top. Cows, you say? You heard correctly. I grew up in a 4-H family, and showed Dairy cows for eight years of my life, and I wasn't half bad, hence the trophies. So, I'm now trying to figure out what to do with these trophies, because my heart can't just throw them out, but I really don't need to keep them in my house. So, we'll see if I can come up with a great use for them.

Now, to the original point of this post, finding those trophies reminded me that I needed to work with Big N a little bit more on her farming language, especially seeing how her aunt, uncle and two cousins are still very much into farming. On Big N's last trip to the farm, she couldn't stop telling everyone how the cow pooped, and that it was funny.

We made a nice big barn to put on the wall, and started filling it with animals.

As we were going along we sang all the farm songs we could think of including, Old MacDonald had a farm, Down on Grandpa's farm, and quite a few I've made up along the way. Speaking of which, I should really thank Grandpa for teaching my daughter than you can sing songs about ANYTHING. These days, if you're looking through one of her word books, she will ask you to sing a song about ANYTHING, and I mean ANYTHING. You'd never believe some of the great creations I've made.

Oatmeal Apple Muffins

I found a new muffin recipe site and decided to check out their recipe of Oatmeal Apple Muffins, since I had the ingredients handy. I made a few changes to the recipe, so mine looked a little more like this:

Ingredients:
2 cups old-fashioned, large flake rolled oats (not quick-cooking oats)
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup finely chopped apple

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400° F. and grease a 12 cup muffin tin.

In a medium bowl, mix the oats and the milk and set aside for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients, making a well in the centre. Stir in the liquid ingredients and the oatmeal mixture just until combined, being careful not to over-mix. (Batter may be lumpy). Fold in chopped apple.

Fill muffin cups about 3/4 full. Bake for 16-18 minutes until lightly golden or a cake tester inserted into centre of muffin comes out with moist crumbs attached.

These muffins weren't too bad, they weren't quite as delicious as I was hoping I think the oatmeal made them a little chewier than I was anticipating, but a good recipe to have handy for when you are running low on flour.

Road to Life

After some recent conversations within our family, we decided we had a lot of ideas on the go, but we needed to sit down and fully have a discussion with where things were headed in our lives. I figured we'd need to do an this as an activity that could involve the whole family, toddlers included. So, the idea was born for our "Road to Life."

Big N and I cut out construction paper roads, signs, and vehicles, and dates. Then Dada and I sat down and put our signs where we thought they should go. Each sign said what it was representing for example, in 2011 we would like to finish the patio reno and the second bathroom reno for an estimated combined cost of $2,000. We made placards to show where the major life events would happen, i.e. the N's entering school, me finishing my designation, etc.

Now, we have a better understanding of our five year plan, although we were having some trouble projecting beyond that, but at least, we are now on the same page regarding how long we plan to stay in our current house and how much we need to have in savings to complete our renovations prior to a move. I found it also helped me to convince Dada that perhaps we didn't need that second TV, or vehicle or a shed in the yard that would likely end up staying with the house.

All in all, it was a great activity to get the lines of communication open, and for the kids to join in and have some fun at the same time.

Dinner Time - Salsa Chicken

I know with two young kids on your hands, it's often very difficult to find time to make dinner, so we've added quite a few meals to our weekly menus that are quick and easy to prepare and are still nutritious and delicious. Since, I have quite a few very busy moms looking for new ideas, I'd thought I'd share some ideas with you.

Salsa Chicken

Ingredients:
Salsa
Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
Cheese

Now, with these three great ingredients you can make a delicious dinner with about two minutes of prep time. Take your chicken breasts, put them in a baking dish, top with salsa and cheese, bake in the oven at 375 degrees for 45 minutes or so. When I don't have any of my mom's salsa handy, I usually buy Herdez Salsa since it has a little more flavour than some of you general grocery store varieties.

There you have it, your meat is prepared in about two minutes. Throw some potatoes in the oven at the same time, and put a quick veggie together, and your dinner is prepared in about ten minutes.

On another note, I find the later it is in the day the crankier my children get, so the fact that I prepare dinner at 3:30 as opposed to 4:30 makes a surprising amount of difference in the happiness of my children.

I'm an Aunt!

Well, I was already an aunt, but I'm an aunt again! My sister in law had a beautiful baby boy yesterday weighing 7lbs 7oz. He's absolutely beautiful! Unfortunately we live three provinces away, so we won't be able to meet this special addition until August when we all convene in Nova Scotia. Until then, meet Riley James:
This is N&N's first cousin on their father's side, it's going to be so great to see these kids grow up together, and watch the interactions between them (especially once we convince them to move to Ontario, hint hint, nudge nudge).

A tasty treat...

I've done my fair share of baking over the last 7 months, but nothing I've created compares to the sweet tastings from my friend over at Sweet Spell Bakeshop. The author and I went to university together and it's an honour to see her business degree being put to great use! I honestly drool every single day when I read through her pages. She inspires me to go take an actual baking class to learn some great techniques, and then I look around the room and see my two little munchkins running around, and think, I'll put that on the to do list, once I finish my designation, and perhaps get my kids in school. Anyways, I hope you enjoy drooling over her blog as much as I do.

Book Review - Pleasures of the Home

Now as opposed to a novel, this book is a collection by Susannah Seton of "comforts and crafts for living well." You may be asking yourself, why did you pick up such a book? To which my reply would be, I had five minutes, I grabbed what was in sight, and I like being at home.

I hadn't actually read the "collected by" part of the title and was thoroughly confused why some sections had a man talking and others it was a women, but I soon clicked in. The book is small sections relating to simple things around that you can do around the house to make you feel at home. Simple enough.

Since the book was published in 1999, there are a lot of ideas that I would NEVER do (i.e. hang flowered wreaths on my picture frames), but, there were a few good things in the book, one of which was the Homemade Pretzels that we made. It also has a recipe for homemade crackers that I might just break out one of these days.

There was one other post that had inspired me to do. It suggested that every year at your child's birthday you put up the same white table cloth with a few fabric markers and have everyone in attendance write or draw something on the table cloth, then over the years it would be a cute keepsake. I enjoyed this idea so much, I called my mom right away and told her to store it in her memory bank as it would make a cute Christmas activity with the six grandkids that are 3 years apart in age. When I was a child my grandparents had this same paper banner up every year at Christmas that we all measured our heights against. It was probably the ugliest banner I've ever seen, but it was so much fun to bring it out every year and see who had grown the most or the least (I usually won that category, including shrinking in my 14th to 15th years.)

Do I suggest reading this book, probably not. But, it was cute, and did give me a little motivation to do the things I dread around the house because someone wrote about how much fun they have doing it (i.e. laundry and dishes).

Summer Wreath

I'd like to thank my good friend over at Jenn, Interrupted for inspiring me to change my wreath come summer. Check her out, she has done some great wreaths, and had a few wreath mishaps to make the experience that much better.

So, without further ado, my finished masterpiece, after a few of my own mishaps. For example, if you think you can make a wreath without actually using a wreath form, just save yourself the trouble, buy the form. I decided that cardboard would work just as well, and after meticulously cutting out numerous "circles" to give the cardboard some structure and shape, I was informed that my wreath looked like a toilet seat cover, and then it got used as a Frisbee. So, lesson to the wise, just go to the store and buy the form before half the neighbourhood makes fun of your masterpiece.



I think it turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself. As far as letting your toddler help on a project like this, I let her play with the yarn and the felt, but most of the second row of yarn on the finished product I did while she was asleep, so that at least the ending would look a little less "toddlerfied."

Looking For...

Motivation!

We're having company over on Saturday and I desperately need to do about a million jobs prior to that which include but are not limited to:

• Finish painting the beadboard


• Touch up the cupboards


• Finish painting the ceiling


• Cut the grass


• Plant a garden


• CLEAN


• Finish my summer wreath


• Get groceries


• Plan a party menu


• Get to the liquor store

All in all, I'm in a little over my head, so I'm sure a few things might get chopped off the list (perhaps the cleaning??), but here's hoping I can get as much done as possible before Saturday.

$50 Kitchen Reno in Progress...

Tonight I got told it's going to be the ugliest thing ever and if anyone tells me that it's nice, they are liars. I'll post pictures when its complete, I know you're super excited to see it now!

Homemade Pretzels

I was browsing through a book I took out from the library (which you'll get a full review on once I'm done checking it out), and came across a recipe for homemade pretzels. Now, I'm not a huge pretzel fan, but I know Daddy likes salty things, and it looked like a great recipe to get Big N involved with. So, off we went on our pretzel making adventure.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 package yeast

1 tbsp. sugar

4 cups flour

1 tsp salt, plus more for tops

1 egg, beaten.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. In a large bowl, dissolves yeast in warm water. Add sugar, flour and salt. Mix well, then knead dough until it is smooth and soft. Roll and twist dough into desired shapes. Lay the pretzel dough shapes onto two greased cookie sheets. Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle lightly with salt. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden. Makes 1-3 dozen depending on size.

For our first batch I made a variety of sizes, not knowing exactly how this was going to turn out. I found the ones that were a little bit bigger, but not quite as thick to be the most delicious (yes, I tried every different size just to be sure).
Big N loved brushing on the egg way more than rolling out the dough, which I was surprised by, but, all in all because it is such a simple recipe she got to help with the whole thing.

I sprinkled ours with sea salt and they are delicious! I did make one batch without the added salt so that Big and Little N could taste them without all the additional salt that they don't particularly need in their diets. If I go to make these again I may attempt to put some whole wheat flour in with the white too, as I try to make as many things whole wheat as I can, but I hate to ruin a brand new recipe without first trying it as provided.

Compliment

Since I just fly by the seat of my pants in the activities I do with the kids, when I receive a compliment I get super excited. But, when I receive a compliment from a fellow accountant, I've hit the big leagues! Today, I got told that I was good with crafts from an old co-worker. It's kinda like, you're good with numbers, but with crafts. Since I don't get reviews and/or ratings based on my performance, I will rate myself this period as a meets expectations, with full intentions to exceed expectations come time for me to return to work.

Thanks A for the opportunity for review.

Book Review - Marrying Mom

Okay, I admit it, my method of picking books may have in fact failed me this time around.

I read "Marrying Mom" by Olivia Goldsmith the other day, and although a well written easy read of a book, I found it a little bit hard to get into. It probably had something to do with the fact that the main characters we in their forties and they were marrying off their 79 year old mother, not a whole lot I could relate to there. Anyways, all in all, it was a cute story, but I had some trouble getting into it, and staying into it.

The version I had was light blue, perhaps I should take light blue out of my colour world. OR maybe I should read a little more about the book before I pick it up. But, that might entail being at the library earlier than 8:40 on a weekday night.

It's Spring!!

It's official. We've spent countless hours over the past couple of days outside, enjoying that it is finally Spring. Little N has enjoyed watching the birds in the backyard.


And sharing some watermelon under the tree.
Big N loves going to the park and picking "butterflies." And by butterflies she means dandelions, but for some unknown reason she always calls them butterflies.

Big N took a break from her trike riding to enjoy some watermelon too.

Big N is still getting used to the changing seasons, and still insists on wearing a toque and mittens almost every day. She constantly says, "brrrr...cold" and insists on getting a sweater, even when it's 20 degrees outside and I'm wearing shorts. She'll figure it out just in time for it to be winter again probably.

Photo Op

I love taking pictures of my kids. Back when Big N was a baby we played photo shoot at least once a week. Now, that it involves wrestling two of them into clothes and trying to get them to sit still, we play a little less often, but I still love when I get a few good pictures of them together. So, from our most recent morning photo shoot, here's my cuties.

I don't have a fancy camera, I do all my pictures with my iPhone, someday maybe I'll invest in a good camera, but for now, I'll appreciate what I do have, two awesome kids and one awesome phone.

Birth Canvas

If you remember from this post Big N had put her hand prints on this canvas and since then I've been thinking of something to do with it. I came across these birth canvases on etsy and thought I could definitely turn my hand print page into something that would be special about the kids.But, even though I had the idea, it took about two weeks of trial and error to complete the project. I started thinking I was just going to do a cut and paste activity with the project, but in the end I painted the entire canvas. I need to thank my mom and sister for my endless conversations about this project. I think my main concern was that I didn't want to ruin something with Big N's pretty hand prints on it.
In the end, I'm very happy with the end result. For less than $5, this project is definitely one of my favourites. I still need to get Little N's hand prints on his canvas, but I'm not quite ready to fight with a 6 month old on the project yet: I'll wait until my patience is top notch in order to attempt the task.

There are still a few imperfections, but for my first painting experience, I'd say it didn't turn out too shabby. I think we will hang them in the kids room since we recently moved them into the same room, I'll post the entire room renovation in a few weeks when we finally get it complete.

Happy Mother's Day (a little late)

Since the majority of people reading this blog are mommies, I'd like to wish each and every one of you a Happy Mother's Day. To my most favourite Mama Bear, I hope you know how much I truly appreciate every little thing you do for me (especially listening to me breathe on the phone on the days I'm ridiculously bored.) To my Mama in Law, you're the greatest, I couldn't ask for a better family to "marry" into.

Happy Mother's Day!

Book Review - You Made Me Love You

What do I like to do to wind down after a LONG day with the kids. Sit down with a delicious snack and enjoy some easy reading. I know lots of people that enjoy reading literary texts, but I enjoy reading anything that I don't have to think about; a book I can loose myself in. After months and months of reading strictly accounting textbooks, there's nothing better than a little mind numbing read.

I've decided to put down some quick book reviews so you know whether or not to pick up some of the things I have been reading.

Last night I finished "You Made me Love You" by Joanna Goodman. I get 90% of my books from the library and have a very thorough method of picking out what I like to read. It goes something like this, enter the library 20 minutes before closing. Go towards the non-fiction section. Find a book with a binding that is a bright colour, read title and immediately pick up or discard all based on colour and title. Now, this is highly scientific. If the book is by a Canadian Author, if the title is crappy it still wins points and may stay in my arms for the remainder of my browsing experience. I usually pick up 8-10 books while at the library and renew them three times before actually opening a single one. Then I sit down and for a period of two weeks read my heart out until my next library adventure.

Which leads me to my review of the above mentioned book. One point for being a Canadian Author. One point lost for making me confused on who the main characters are until about 70 pages into the book. Minus one point for not having chapter numbers for when my toddler knocks the book out of my hand and I can't remember where I was. Plus two points for having Toronto as a background and making me reminisce of my days living downtown. The book itself, was a good, mindless read, which I appreciate. All in all, if you like Canadian authors, I'd read another book by Joanna Goodman (if she has any more books out).

The Wall of Fame

We have an empty wall in our playroom that I've spent the last three months staring at and wondering what the heck I should put on it. And then I was inspired.

The kids and I do a million crafts each month, but we very rarely display any of our pieces. In reality, once the kids are in bed, they usually go in the recycling bin that same day. I'm not a person that likes to keep a lot of clutter around, and for papers that are just a few scribbles here and there, I'd rather toss that clutter my house.

Then, I had an idea. In order to keep our arts and crafts to a theme, we'd choose a theme each month and then post our work on the "WALL OF FAME"

April was our very first full month of this project, and I must say our wall turned out super cute.

I think it fits the bill in our playroom quite nicely. Would I want it anywhere else in my house, no probably not. But, the slate has been wiped clean, lets see what we come up with for May.