Pin 211: Homemade Ice Cream in a Baggie

Original pin:

http://myroyalkitchen.com/2011/12/homemade-icecream-in-a-baggie/

The boys and I decided we were ready to take on this challenge today--homemade ice cream in 5 minutes using plastic baggies. Seems a perfect summer activity for kids. I had some 1/2 & 1/2 leftover from a soup recipe last week so the only thing I had to buy was rock salt. Fabulously for me, the rock salt was on sale at the grocery today!

After dinner tonight we decided to whip these up. Things did NOT go as smoothly as I had planned. The basic idea is that you put the ice cream ingredients in a small baggie.  Then the small baggie goes inside the larger baggie with ice and salt. Shake a few minutes and, voila! you have ice cream. First problem was when I turned my back for one minute, little bit decided to shake his bag upside down. You can probably guess that ice and rock salt when absolutely everywhere. Refilled his and when I grabbed my camera to get an action shot, we found problem number two. (Thus no action shots.) The ice baggie was getting torn and leaking. Quick fix--double bag the ice bag.  Back to work when almost immediately, the ice cream baggie was ripped and leaking into the ice!

milky, icy, salty mess

Double bagged the ice cream bag and changed strategies.  I sat the boys down in chairs, wrapped the double bagged double bags in a towel and we went for more of an agitation/massage motion than shaking to avoid any more trauma to our baggies.

This strategy did not result in any more tears, no leaking, and we actually did end up with some ice cream eventually. It took longer than five minutes and my kids didn't have the arm strength/endurance to do this alone. I took turns with them agitating there bags. Maybe about 10 minutes after we had fixed all our problems and changed our strategies we decided our ice cream was solid enough to sample.

It probably could have gone an additional few minutes, but it was pretty ice-cream like. The taste was really good--much better than I anticipated. The boys dressed theirs up with sprinkles and I just kept thinking of the delicious candy mix-ins I didn't have.  We made two batches per the recipe. It easily made four servings (two servings per baggie).

Total cost: $2.49 for rock salt

Total time: It took us 25 minutes to solve all our problems and end up with a mostly frozen ice cream. Next time I predict it will be more like 15 minutes.

Final verdict: We will make this again. One of my favorite soups calls for a small amount of half-and-half and the remainder always goes bad in the fridge. This is a perfect solution to using up that left over bit. My recommendations (and plan for next time) double bag from the beginning. Double bag the mixture and double bag the ice. Also, I will stick with the agitation/massage action. It worked and just took a bit longer. The kids were really bummed they didn't get to eat their ice cream out of the bag like the kids in the picture.

Candy Free Easter Baskets!

I am not a huge promoter of holiday candy. I like baking around Christmas, I like Thanksgiving pies. What I dread is the endless bucket of SweetTarts, Jolly Ranchers, Skittles packages, etc., that come home by the handful around the holidays. I throw them all in a bucket and try to ration them out to my children--who have proven to me many, many times just how wild a little sugar will make them. My littlest literally starts spinning around after a little sugar rush. In a month I usually end up tossing a lot of the candy. I am actually tossing the Valentine candy this week. I don't think it will be missed in the excitement of Easter.

I am not all bah-humbug, though. I did take them to our church Easter egg hunt today. I will have more eggs for them to hunt tomorrow--some with actual candy in them! Those without candy are usually stuffed with animal crackers, Goldfish crackers, pretzels, Cheerios, or other items with a little less sugar.

Our budget is tight this year. I did not really want to spend a lot of money on candy that would get tossed in a month or on trinkets that will break easily. I don't have a ton to spend on big ticket items. I thought it through and decided to buy stuff on my grocery list (or a near future grocery list) and make them a bit more festive and fun than usual. That way I am buying items I will need anyway and will get used.

Here they are followed by a list of what is inside. There are a few little indulgences in there. The whole basket contains only one sugar-y item which clocks in at 4 grams of sugar per serving.

Contents:
I recycled our Easter baskets from a previous year.

Easter themed Goldfish crackers: Since they got them in their baskets this year I didn't put them in the eggs.
Bunny-shaped Macaroni and Cheese: Total splurge! My kids usually get the store brand or homemade.
Toothbrush and toothpaste: To fight decay from the candy they do get!
Book: From the under $4 price range
Got Milk milk straws: My friend mentioned to me that she had picked these up for her son's basket and I thought they were a great idea! They are straws filled with a little flavoring (this is my sugary treat for them) that are used to drink milk. They flavor the milk as you drink. I figure the milk drinking balances the sugar out a bit.

Flip-flops: Spring is upon us and flip-flops are a summer necessity around here.
Squeezable applesauce: My kids love this stuff but it is not on our normal list. They are usually stuck with the jarred kind.
Mr. Bubble foam soap: They needed bath soap anyway.
8-Pack of new crayons: My oldest has realized the wonderfulness of a fresh pack of crayons complete with perfectly pointed tips. Ahhh, a boy after my own heart!

Total cost: About $23 each. Yes, that is a bit more than I would have spent filling their baskets with dollar-store treasures, but now I don't have to buy all these necessities on top of that. The crayons, milk straws, and books were the three items that wouldn't have been purchased at all. Those together were $6.50. I guess you could look at it from that perspective that the baskets were only $6.50 on top of our normal spending.

Final verdict: When I list out loud what I got them (toothbrush, soap, shoes) it sounds kind of lame. One day my kids may look back and think this was a lame basket, but I think its actually pretty great. I think they will love it!

Pin 183

Original pin:

No source available. If this is your sweet creation, let me know so I can give you credit!!

Happy Valentine's Day! I caved at the last minute and decided to craft up some Valentines for the kids. I had already even spent my $1 for the easy boxed kind. I'm not against those, I have used them plenty. It was just when you pair my crafty heart with my new camera obsession and mix in a little holiday spirit, I couldn't resist the urge to create.

I pinned this image a loooooonnnnggg time ago. Possibly over a year ago. I think it is a cute and clever idea.

Getting the picture was a bit more difficult than I anticipated. I showed the kids what we were looking for and they were so excited to create and shoot that they were wiggling around like they had ants in their pants. There was much jumping and twirling and superhero-style posing. I had trouble with them getting the fist rotation and placement (i.e., not directly in front of their face) just right. As I was editing I was thinking about a way to make this easier. They need something that they would normally hold upright. I thought about maybe a clear juice glass. They would naturally be inclined to hold this upright, create the right shape with their hand, and have more of a natural "handing-off" pose. It could be easily edited out, cut out after printing for the lollipop, or just obscured when the lollipop was in place. I have these small glasses I found in the dollar spot that would have been absolutely perfect--had I thought of it before hand.

It took me three separate sessions (I don't get much time with these crazy boys) to end up with two mostly workable shots. Here is what I started with:

Hmm. One of those superhero poses. He was alternating between superheroes and rock star.

I finally got his placement right after I pinned him down on the floor. It slowed him down just long enough and kept his fist forward. His eyes are a little diverted, but maybe he's looking at the lollipop?

After a little editing magic I had these ready (minus the pinspiration marks, of course):

names obscured to protect their superhero identities

I printed these out at one of those store kiosks that print them while you wait. I don't have a good photo printer so I just loaded them on a thumb drive and ran to the store.

I made the mistake of stepping into a craft store while I was out and I stumbled across the most perfect cardstock. I had to buy it to mount the photos. I cut the cardstock a little bigger than the picture, used an exacto knife to cut some holes in the appropriate places, and started assembling.  When L got home from school, I sat him down with a sacred adults-only sharpie marker to write in his classmates names. W's school specifically asks for generalized cards to make it easier for the kids to pass their own.  In the middle of assembly we had to make an impromptu trip to urgent care for the world's worst nosebleed--ugh.

Sometime around midnight, I finished them up. They were not difficult, nor really time consuming to assemble, it was just so late thanks to our 4 hour urgent situation. Here are the final results!

We just couldn't get the cute face and the right fist on this wild man. This will do.

Total cost: $14 without the cardstock, I bought a big pack for $10 and used 20 sheets of it. Somewhere less than $20 for 40 Valentines.

Total time: Really the actual photo taking was the hardest part. Assembly took maybe two hours because I had to cut all the cardstock to size. These would have been perfectly fine without the cardstock, but I like the look and it made them a little more sturdy.

Final verdict: I think they turned out pretty cute. Minus the funky hand position on L, but his friends will never notice that. They are going to notice the lollipop. I spent a little more than I planned, and way more than in years past where I use the dollar store box split between them both. I am happy with them. The boys had an absolute blast shooting them and getting them ready. I have honestly never seen my boys so excited to pass out their Valentines. We just may get in a tradition of photo Valentines. Also, while editing, I googled something about photo Valentines, and there are a ton of versions of this. Check out the image search for more ideas on posing and staging the shots. Another note, when you buy your lollipops, consider the wrapping. These had a lot of wrapping which limited areas of the photo that were visible when the lollipop in place so I had to account a large empty area in the picture.

And Happy Valentine's Day from Pinspiration!!

Pin 182

Original pin:

http://dollarstoremom.com/2012/02/our-valentine-tradition-14-days-of-little-love-surprises/

I love this cute idea to help get in the holiday spirit. I pinned this a long before Valentine's Day and have been keeping my eyes out for some cheap Valentine-themed towels. Did I mention that this pillow is made out of towels? Like dollar-store-kitchen-two-per-pack towels? That is so my style. The idea behind the pillow is that there is a pocket on the front, and for the fourteen days of February leading up to Valentine's Day you leave sweet little notes and surprises for each other.

Unfortunately, I never came across said Valentine's day towels at the many dollar stores I frequent. I did, however, come across some St. Patrick's day towels. Put that together with a little red and voila! The "Lucky in Love" pillow is born.

Since I am making these for my two little boys who are notorious for sticky hands and snotty noses, I wanted to make sure these were washable. Pillow forms were on sale for half-price last weekend, so I picked up a couple of 12 x 12 pillows so that I could make these covers to slip on and off for washing.

I cut one 14 x 14 inch square and two 14 x 8 inch rectangles out of the shamrock towels.

Next I needed a pocket. I wanted to make my pocket out of the red and I wanted it to be heart-shaped. I needed to make a sturdy heart-shaped template. I keep a few empty cereal boxes in my craft stash because the thin cardboard is always coming in handy. I went to grab one off the shelf and found a Cheerios box in my hand. Looking down at it, I realized exactly how perfect it was.

It already had a giant heart on the box! What luck! It was the perfect size and now I didn't have to fuss with trying to get a perfectly shaped heart template. I cut out the heart and used it to trace two hearts out of the red towel.

I made a few attempts at getting this heart just right. One of the consequences of sewing on the fly is that you don't always do it the right way the first time. I'm going to try to show you the way I liked best but I didn't take many pictures of it.

I cut the two hearts out of the red towel. I stitched them right sides together almost completely around. Trim the excess, clip the corners, turn right sides out, press and topstitch around the whole thing, closing the open portion. I ended up with a nicely shaped lined heart pocket.

I pinned this to the center of the 14 x 14 square and stitched in place 3/4 of the way around, leaving the top open to make the pocket. Backstitch at the start and end to reinforce the pocket.

Yellow dotted line is the stitch line

Next I prepared the back. I serged one long edge of each rectangle to neaten it up a little. I sewed a 1/2 inch hem on one of the rectangles and topstitched close to the edge.

I pinned two pieces of Velcro in place on the hem and matched up the Velcro pieces on the serged edge of the other rectangle. I stitched the Velcro in place.

I laid the top piece down, right side up. I placed the back pieces on top, right sides together, lining up the Velcro strips and edges.

I pinned through all layers all the way around and stitched in place. Press, trim the excess, clip the corners and turn right side out. Press again and now it was ready for the pillow!

This was full version one, featuring heart version two. The heart is not exactly evenly shaped so I had to try it again.

Full version two, featuring heart version three--which I am completely happy with.

For comparison, version one on the left, version two on the right. Next to each other the lopsided-ness is much more obvious.

Total cost: $12 for two pillows--three shamrock towels, one red towel, two pillow forms

Total time: The first version took 1 & 1/2 hours, but since I had worked out a few kinks the second one was done in about 45 minutes.

Final verdict: I am going to give these to my boys on Valentine's day but I think I am going to have to replace the heart pocket on version one. My OCD-ness just will not allow that to stay when its twin is so much better looking. I know that my boys won't care in the least. The little lovebugs just adore anything I make for them.  I like her idea of sharing little messages but clearly missed the date on that one. These will be in season for at least another month, so maybe we will share messages from Valentine's day until St. Patrick's Day?  And now that I know how many dollar store towels it takes to make a cover, maybe I'll just whip a new one up for each season.

Pin 170

Original pin:

http://www.theribbonretreat.com/blog/pajama-pants-tutorial.html

The pin description called this tutorial "one-seam pajama pants" but that was a little misleading. The "one seam" referred to the fact that there is only an inner seam on the leg--not an inner and an outer seam.

As I mentioned on the Facebook page yesterday, the next few posts are going to be projects that have just been hanging around being unfinished. I think we all have THAT project that for one reason or another, just doesn't get done. My big end-of-the-year-beginning-of-the-year blowout is going to be wrapping up a few of these.

Over the SUMMER (!) L-man picked out this fabric he wanted for jammies. It was flannel (hot), I thought I had a pattern for jammies but couldn't find it, I found it but it wasn't his size, . . . lots of excuses. He could see the fabric sitting at eye-level on my craft shelf and kept asking when I was going to make his pajamas. Sheesh.

When I stumbled across this pin not too long ago I decided this would be the way to go with finishing these up.

As true to form, I modified it a teensy-weensy bit. First, I didn't want a different cuff. In making my pattern, I extended the sides and bottom by 1 inch and the waistband by 2 inches (my elastic was 1 1/4 in).  I was using a pair of pants to measure that was almost too small and I wanted roomy, comfy jammies.  When it came time to hem the pants, I finished off the edges on the serger and then folded up a one inch hem. I stitched the serged edge in place and topstitched around the bottom.

Really not much in modifications. It was a good tutorial. It assumes you do know a little about sewing but it has good pictures and is easy enough to follow. It was a great idea. I was a little worried (after I cut of course) about the waistband being wide enough to stretch comfortably.

I wanted to make a top to go with it. L likes his jammies to be a matched set. I grabbed a dollar store t-shirt from my stash. (I grab them whenever I see a size that we use. Can't beat $1 and someone is always needing a t-shirt. I also cut them up and use them for miscellaneous projects. Cheap knit jersey fabric.)  I cut a few spaceships and a Superman logo from the scraps and appliqued them onto the t-shirt using trusty ol' Pin 70.

And it was all ready to go!

This morning when I showed them to him he was so excited! Like Christmas all over again.

Look at this (crazy) happy face:

And they fit PERFECTLY!!
Total cost: I don't remember what I paid for the fabric so many months ago. I am guessing probably around $3. I used one yard and had a little scrap. I probably could have squeezed them out of 3/4 yard but maybe not had an embellished t-shirt to go with it. Add in a dollar store t-shirt for $1 and the entire set is $4. You can't buy jammies for $4!!

Total time: 1 hour for the pants. 30 minutes for the top. Easy peesy lemon squeezy.

Final verdict: I hope the crazy grin on his face tells you! He loved them. I was surprised at how easy they came together. I will totally do this again. How easy would this be to make as a gift (if you had the right size of pants to measure. . . )

Aren't you supposed to have bed head AFTER bed?? Just sayin'.
Love this boy!

Pin 167

Original pin:

http://www.host-itnotes.com/search?updated-max=2011-08-04T00%3A05%3A00-07%3A00&max-results=7

A breakfast birthday party. I have quite a few pins for breakfast parties, cute little breakfast-y treats, and pajama party ideas. . . but I used the breakfast theme as inspiration only and developed it out to fit my W.  He would NEVER go for pancakes/donuts/cereal treats in place of a cake loaded with sprinkles. No way. Life as we know it would be over if there was a birthday party without an official cake.

I've known for a while that a breakfast party was the way to go. He is the first one up nearly every day. We have found him on more than one occasion hiding in the pantry in the middle of the night eating cereal straight from the box. His Grandmother started gifting him Froot Loops. Sometime around August I decided it was going to be a Froot Loops party and I began to stockpile party supplies. Froot Loops decor is all things colorful. At the end of the summer season I bought up lots of colorful bowls and cups. Every time cereal was on sale I bought a box or two.

For invitations, we copied a box of Froot Loops and added our own banner to the front. Inside were all the details and a request to the guests to arrive in their PJs.

 I glittered up the "oo"'s.

The menu was cereal, fruit, coffee, juice, pigs in a blanket, and, of course, cake.

 I found some colorful buckets for $1 a piece at the end of summer and use some dollar store ladles as scoops.

All the cereals were circle shaped to serve a dual purpose--craft time!!

Our activity was cereal necklaces. I put out some muffin tins with selections of each cereal. I gave each child a string of yarn and let them go to work.

 W barely finished his before he started eating it! Seemed to be a common problem with this crew. . .

Other games I had brainstormed but we didn't have time for : Pin a tail feather on Toucan Sam, Ring Toss/Hula hooping with hula hoops (or some other type of game using hula hoops--tossing different items into/through hoops), you could create toss games using pool rings as well.

Time for cake! A double layer white cake with every inch covered in rainbow sprinkles. He described it as "my dream come true!!"

A little opening presents and then it was time to go. Each child left with some Froot Loops to go, a straw bowl, and a straw spoon for sipping up that sweet Froot Loop milk.

Stacked together and wrapped up in clear cellophane.

We have been working to finish up all the leftover cereal. I guess I've got him impressed with my superb physical fitness because he is convinced this picture of Kerri Walsh is his mommy.

Total time & cost: ??? I started so many months ago picking up things here and there. I never kept track.

Final verdict: Easy easy party! Menu was easy to pick and easy to serve. Kids were all in a good mood. The weather was beautiful so we were able to throw open the doors and windows and let the kids play out back for a good portion of the day. We were able to feature all his favorite foods!

 

Last of the Halloween candy

Last week I realized we STILL had some Halloween candy lying around. I have been secretly dumping a handful a day for a few weeks and the bowl was almost empty. I wanted to give my kiddos one last hurrah with the candy before I trashed the rest of it. My favorite way to win the battle of mom vs. kid in the candy department is to find something healthy and stick enough candy/sprinkles/whipped cream on top so that it feels special and indulgent.

Here is how the Halloween candy went out:

2 single serving no-added sugar applesauce cups
1 fun size pack of Skittles
2 small shakes of the rainbow sprinkles

I split the Skittles pack between the two--each child got 8 skittles and gave each a little shake of the rainbow sprinkles. Voila! Super special applesauce for dessert. Everyone wins!

 

And look at these happy faces!

And if you stir it up a little the colors will streak and make rainbow applesauce. . . until you over stir it and then its just that ugly brownish color.

Anyhoo, if you want to be the coolest mom tonight, throw some sprinkles on fruit and call it a treat!

Here are a few of my other special desserts:

Toast with peanut butter and use chocolate chips to make a happy face

Any kind of canned fruit with a squirt of whipped cream

Peel a banana and stick little surprises in it--pretzel sticks, candy bits, chocolate chips

Peel a banana and drizzle with chocolate syrup. Top with a squirt of whipped cream and a cherry--like a sundae without the ice cream.

Yogurt with graham cracker squares stuck in the top for dipping/scooping

Yogurt with a shake of sprinkles

Yogurt "milkshake." I have made these for my kids since they were babies. This is especially good if you need to get yogurt in them for medical reasons (aka, too many antibiotics :) ) Fill a lidded cup halfway with yogurt. Make sure it doesn't have fruit chunks in it. It should be smooth. Fill remainder of the cup with milk. Place the lid on top and shake vigorously until combined. I'm not sure that my kids yet know that milkshakes are actually made with ice cream.

Get creative. My kids will pretty much eat anything if I put a little shake of sprinkles (or anything I call sprinkles. . . hello Parmesan cheese! or Sea salt!) on top. One shake goes a long way so it doesn't take much.