Mama's Marco Polo

If you have Ninja children, or Monkey children, or Monkey-Ninja children, like I do, you are constantly concerned about where they are and what they are getting into.

Sorry, what's that? You don't know what those terms refer to? Let me enlighten you then.

The Ninja child.

You have everything your child should not be getting into put away. LOCKED away. But somehow your sneaky little Ninja child still manages to find it, or get into it. Prime example of this, The jar of diaper rash cream. You are standing there making supper for guests and you begin to think "Oh. It's quite quiet right now. I wonder what he's doing...." You go to find the child and find he is covered from head to toe in diaper rash cream. And not only is he covered in the sticky greasy substance, but the walls of his room and the hallway are to. And you think to yourself "I swear that was in the bathroom, that has the child proofing knob cover on it...."

(This was The Duck)

The Monkey Child.

This Child is constantly on top of something, still getting into something but is not quiet about it. Well, more accurately he is quiet to start but hasn't quite figured out how to be perfectly silent. Quite often you will find this child on the table coloring it with markers. (This is Squishy, my 2.5 year old) Or quite possibly atop the fridge, and unafraid of jumping at you as you walk past. (this was me.)

The Monkey Ninja Child.

This child will climb and be quiet about it. A prime example of the behavior is this: Imagine yourself sitting on the deck, the children playing nicely in the yard. You look up and fail to see one of your children. You get up and start searching the corners, and under and in the trees to no avail. You panic. You then notice him just on the other side of the 5 foot fence trying to get the cat back in the yard. He does this repeatedly. At lest a few times a week. You know it is illegal to tie him down, or otherwise string him up to a tree. Never mind that that is dangerous too. (This is Squishy as well.)

You need a solution to these problems. One that doesn't require searching places fruitlessly while your child could really be doing himself harm or, heaven forbid, get lost in your town and be taken somewhere by a stranger......

People, I have your solution!! This will work for children as young as 2. I call it Mama's Marco Polo. What you do is when it gets to quiet, or just every 5 minutes or so, you call out "*Insert child's name here* say MOMMY!" and wait for the response from your child. Your child should call out "Mommy!" Then you must thank your child and offer praise for responding. You can start with doing this on your lap and work up from there if your child is unresponsive to start with. This is going to save your sanity folks. You'll know just where to look and respond accordingly to the situation they are in.

I hope this helps at least one other parent out there.

I invented cookies!

Okay. So saying I invented cookies is a bit of a stretch, as I've only been on this earth for 28 years (this life anyway.... who knows, If past lives are real maybe I did invent cookies.... O.o :D) I did however make this recipe up this morning after stairing at the oh so near spoiling berries in my fridge.

So behold. Oatmeal Berry Breakfast Cookies!

Ingredients!

1 cup room temp butter

1 cup light brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 TbspVanilla

2 cups Oats (not the quick cook type)

2 Tbsp baking powder

2 cups flour

3/4 cups Blueberries

1/2 cup raspberries

Preheat the oven to 350`F. Cream the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Add the eggs, slightly betten and mix until incorperated. Add the vanilla and mix again. In a seperate bowl, mix the flour and baking powder and oats, then add to the butter mixture. Stir only until it just comes together. Add the berries and mix until incorperated.

Place heaping tablespoons of the dough onto parchment lined baking sheets (the parchment helps prevent excessive washing of the pans as well as sticking.. who like washing dishes anyway?) I was only able to fit 3-4 cookies per pan as they spread quite a bit. Bake for 15 minutes or until dark but not burnt. This recipe works best if over cooked just a tiny bit, like 2 minutes beyond what you think is done.

The next time I make these I might add 1/2 cup more flour, some nuts and chunks of cream cheese. Then they'll be a well rounded breakfast cookie.

Enjoy!

Playing along with Skip to my Lou! Click around to find some great inspiration!

Icelandic Pancakes

These pancakes aren't your average pancakes! They are slightly more crepe like, and have a wonderful flavour. (Not that basic pancakes don't taste great ;) )

This is a family recipe passed down for who knows how long. I got it from my Mom who got it from my Grandma (her Mother in law) who likely got it from her mother in law in turn. I grew up with these pancakes as a special treat every so often, and I plan on making it so with my kids!

Icelandic Pancakes

1 1/2 cups milk

1/2 cup cream

1/2 tsp salt

3 Tbsp sugar

1 cup flour

2 eggs

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

Warm your milk and cream just a bit (I added this step- I find warm milk makes the pancakes a little heavier-weird I know, but eh what can you do, don't fight what works :D ) Add room temperature eggs and whisk together. Sift the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then slowly add them to the liquid while whisking vigorously. This ensures less lumps.

Heat your pan. Once you pan is hot melt a little bit of butter and pour about 1/4 cup of the batter on it. Spread thinly and turn once bubbled. Repeat until you are out of batter.

Serve with whipped cream and maple syrup and a side of bacon. Or jam. Or butter and brown sugar. Or... Or.. Or.. The possibilities are endless really.

Enjoy!

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Penny Pinching Pantry Raid

That's it. I give up. Hubby's not into the budget thing at all.... He keeps spending money on food stuffs like it didn't matter that we already have 10 bags of noodles in the cupboard. But we don't have the one kind he wants... le sigh... Oh well, I'm still trying to not send him for groceries if I can help it. Next month I'm going to save every reciept and see whast we spend money on, and quite possibly take over all the grocery shopping in September and see if I can cut our spending! Maybe we will get closer to that trip we want to take faster then if we keep spending what we do! lol

Chenille Baby Blanket how to!

I figured I may as well make this blog semi-useful... Not just a bunch of words about what I do all day to keep the kids and I busy. So here we go with my first Bloggy Tutorial!

I realised one Saturday that we were about to meet our Newest Niece on Sunday, and I had nothing to give her! So being overly ambitious I chose to make her a Chenille blanket! Now Chenilling was introduced to me by a good friend of mine. Her blanket has been taking her months. I figure one night, I can do it! And it's possible! With a lot of coffee and inspiration (like a cute baby), but possible!

What you will need:

3-5 one and a half meter pieces of flannelette(depending how thick you want it)

1 piece of backing fabric ( can be another piece of flannelette or other heavier fabric)

Some fabric or bias tape to finish the edges with.

Lots and lots of matching thread (match to the backing fabric)

Pins

Sewing machine

Scissors or the fancy chenilling tool (I used scissors... Wish I had bought the tool....)

Step one:

Lay your fabric out, Smoothing each piece as you go.

Step two:

Take out your foot shaped pin cushion ( the one you made to commemorate the day your husband stepped on one fully loaded with over 100 pins it) And pin those layers of fabric like you've never pinned before. This is pretty important. I learned the hard way with the first blanket I made. If you don't pin, your backing fabric can fold and you will get dart like puckers that you aren't going to rip out because you just spent an hour on that section... Also, make sure your cat does not mess up your smoothing......

Step Three:

Sew! Sew every 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch on the bias (at a 45` angle) Watch for pins!! You will hit your arm with them and it will hurt if you aren't overly cautious. You will also go through at least 3 bobbins of thread. There's a lot of stitching! It should look something like this:

Step Four:

Cut! Being very careful to not cut the bottom/backing layer, cut in between each row of stitching. ( I couldn't get a clear pic of this step....)

Step Five:

Wash! This is what your blanket should look like before washing:

This is what your blanket will look like after washing!

And there you have it! You have a super soft, super cuddly little blanket to snuggle your baby in (or your niece, or your nephew, or your friends baby, or, or, or... :) )

Please note that to create this tutorial I made 3 different blankets (Okay, so I'm in the process of making the 3rd one. It's for one of my own so it will take me a lot longer then one night. LOL)

I hope you all try this out! It is fun to do, if a bit tedious. But you get a wonderful blanket out of it, one that will hopefully be cherished for years!

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11 days in...

So With this Penny Pinching Pantry Raid, we've not been doing all to well.... Well Sort of. We've been using mostly stuff in the fridge and freezers and pantry... But Hubby isn't quite on board. One day I sent him for Coffee, milk and eggs. He spends 57$!!!!! This might be partly because this was on the 3rd, and maybe he forgot.... But he bought our usual coffee, two packages to be exact... It runs 15$ for 500g. Yes... We have expensive tastes in coffee. So that spoke for 30$ of it... then there were chips and chocolate bars and pop... Next day I send him for ham. He spent 80$ on sandwich meat.... yeah.... big sticks of meat, but at least now I have a freezer full of sandwich meat? Anyway.. We've bought a few other things too, so out of our 250$ budget we've spent $171.76 + 15$ for things I may not have gotten the reciept for... so 186.75.

Here's a list of some of the more delicious items we made:

Pizza! - homemade crust with ground itallian sausage meat, mozza and tomatoes.

Burgers!- Homea made burgers to boot! none of this store bought nonsense.

Our wonderful neighbours have a gorgeous garden, and they gave us Lettuce! uummmm salad!

Pork loin roast and rice!

Icelandic pancakes!

Here's the interesting concotion:

Hotdogs, with big round noodles (like canteloni only little) and 1/2 can of diced tomatoes. Yep. It's delicious though! (and a staple growing up, so it's comfort food)

OOh! I also made pita bread! Yup, that's right Pita bread! And it turned out really good! So I'll post a tutorial on that hopefully next week! With all that sandwich meat and lettuce from the neighbours I'll be in pita sandwich heaven!

Anywho. I'll be back tommorow. I have a crafty non-food project to share!

Oh baby! What a cutie!

I made everything in this picture. Okay, so I didn't make the couch. Or the wall behind it. I did, however, make the baby (That's Miz Jo. She is the last of our lot. Ain't she adorable?) I did have help with her mind you, but you knew that.

I made the dress, the boots, the belt bow, and the headband. All by myself. And all this was inspired by one of the monthly challenges on Craftster.org.

This month Challenge was to create an article of clothing, or outfit, with a bed sheet. Just a sheet (or 2 or 3) But not a bed spread, or duvet or any other bedding.

While the idea of the more the merrier, almost sounds better, in

this instance, less was better. In the idea that I chose to use a crib

sheet! And boy oh boy, did I ever use up that crib sheet to my best ability.

Just as my children are a big part of my inspiration, Craftster.org is as well. The day I found craftster was an awakening. I'm not even kidding. The day before I stummbled on the wonderful site, all I knew was something was missing. I didn't know what it was, but part of me went away after having my boys. It was my creative side.

Craftster.org is FULL, chock full, of inspiration. I didn't even know it was possible to spin yarn before Craftster. And now I'm almost lost without my spindle or wheel. Before Craftster I barely used my sewing machine. The same sewing machine that got me through Fashion design.

Craftster reinstated my craft. It's great. So, knowing that most of my followers are following me from there, I'm guessing you all feel the same way. But for those of you that didn't find me through Craftster, click one of the many links I just put in here (notice I figured that one out? Acutally, it was help from a friend. Yay friends!)

Also on one last note, if you want to vote for this adorable little outfit (or see a few more pics) click here .

Happy crafting!