Day 8 - Playdough Take 2!

I really doubted how long the playdough would occupy my girls, but so far I've been shocked by its success. At several points today, both girls have sat happily together each playing with their own stash of playdough for 30 mins-1 hour at a time! I hope this continues!!

Day 7 - Homemade Fun!

I was getting a little stir crazy today with the girls, so I decided I needed an activity that would occupy them for the last hour before dinner. Luckily earlier in the week I had remembered to ask my Mum to email me the recipe for homemade playdough that she used to make for us as children! So I pulled out the recipe, whipped up a batch (using almost every ounce of salt we had left in the house!), colored it into 3 different balls and let the girls have some fun.



Maya wasn't heeding my advice about not eating the playdough (perfectly safe to eat, just not very pleasant due to the amount of salt!) and as a result she spent much of the next hour like this:



Since the girls had so much fun with the playdough and it really costs very little to make, not to mention the benefit of having enough of each color for multiple children to play with and avoid the sibling fights (an hour of peaceful playing=priceless!!), I thought I would share the recipe!

Homemade Playdough (requires stovetop cooking):

2 cups flour
1 cup salt
2 cups water
2 tablespoons oil
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
Food colouring of choice (I used gels, but liquids work well too)

Cook mixture in pan over medium heat, stirring all the time to prevent sticking.
Removed from heat when mixtures comes away from sides of pan. If you want different colors, separate mix and then add colour to each ball. Knead and store in airtight container. Keeps very well!

36/365 - Go Green (or maybe pink...)

For the past few weeks, I've started knitting a lot more frequently. Up until yesterday I stuck with very basic knit & purl patterns because I thought other things (like cabling) were too complicated! Last night I met up with my good friend Janice & Robyn for coffee, knitting, and just a girls' night out, and Robyn was kind enough to teach us how to cable. This is what me made:



A coffee cozy! This way I don't have to use the cardboard sleeves whenever I get a coffee! Save a few trees in the process while having a much nicer looking coffee cup sleeve.

Thanks again Robyn!!!

15/365 - My Latest Projects

I have been on a hat knitting craze lately and rather than just continue to knit newborn hats for photo sessions, I opted to actually make a hat for each of my girls!

We had a brief (very very very brief) photo session today so that I could have a few photos to share.
Miss A was actually fairly cooperative:


Miss M, on the other hand, was not and spent most of the 3 minutes pulling the hat off her head with all of her might!



I will probably redo the hat Miss M is wearing as the pattern seems to have made it too long! And now I"m off to knit some more... :)

8/365 - Aspiring Artist

Miss A loves art and all things stamp/crayon/paint related. This year Santa Claus (or Daddy Christmas as Miss A calls him) left a stamp set in her stocking so for the past 2 days we have stamp & coloring time after naps. Today A spent about an hour sitting at the kitchen table with her stamps, colored pencils & stickers deep in concentration creating her masterpieces. Maybe she'll love arts & crafts as much as I do!



She's growing up too quickly!!!!