Pinteresting: Felt Christmas Tree

Decided to try making this felt Christmas tree I've seen floating around on Pinterest for awhile. Had fun putting it up and decorating but she hasn't played with it much since, I think maybe we taught her too well not to touch the ornaments on the real tree after decorating.

Christmas Crafts

This month has flown by, can't believe the big day is almost here! We've been so busy with holiday activities (and colds) that I haven't had much time to post. This week we slowed down a bit thanks to another bout with a cold so we had some fun at home making these little Santas with toilet paper rolls today. I'll try to post some of our other Christmas crafts soon, hopefully before the year is over!

Swedish Pepparkakor Cookies Recipe

Been awhile since my last post, but the holiday season has been a whirlwind so far. We've had a few colds and lots of activities but we've had some fun cooking and crafting to get into the spirit of the season too. When it comes to holidays with a three year old I've quickly learned to keep expectations low and to realize it's impossible to do all the the things I want to do. I have to keep reminding myself we still have so many years of this magical childhood time ahead and there will be time to do things next year too.

Last week we made these Swedish Pepparkakor cookies that we're delicious and so much fun to make. Here is a link to the recipe and an article on celebrating the holidays and sharing our Swedish heritage.

Lazy Day Crafts: Halloween Coloring Pages

Five am wake-up three days in a row means mommy is way too tired to set-up a fun craft today so instead I printed a whole bunch of Halloween coloring pages from the Internet. A good hours worth of entertainment and we didn't even scratch the surface of all the zillions of coloring templates that are available for free, well besides all the paper and printer ink...

You have to sift through a lot to find some really good print-outs, but the Disney Junior website has a lot of great stuff.

Pinteresting: So Messy It's Scary Ghost Craft

Can't stop making Halloween crafts! My husband said we are running out of places to put them, but today I just had to try this fun and super messy ghost craft I found on Pinterest. Any time messy goop is involved it's sure to be a definite hit with my little one. It's a cute craft and it makes a good sensory activity. I don't think we used enough glue so it didn't stay as puffy after it dried, but we'll definitely be trying this method again, holiday crafts are just around the corner...

Pinteresting: Fizzy Colors

I decided it was about time I finally started trying some of my Pinterest pins on fun toddler activities. Today we tried this one adding vinegar and food coloring to baking soda. S had a blast watching the fizzing colors, her actual words were, "That's awesome!" Of course she inevitably wanted to stick her hands in and mix it up with her fingers. Things got a little messy but worth the fun and thirty minutes of entertainment.

Pumpkin painting

We've been cooped up for a week with a bad cold for the little one, but managed to venture out this morning for a store run and came back with a small pumpkin to decorate. A little bit of paint and some brushes and that kept her busy for about twenty minutes. Woohoo!

Glue crazy!

S has finally discovered her love of glue, can barely keep up trying to find things to glue! These dyed pasta beads I made that she never wanted to try stringing are finally coming in handy.

Wordless Wednesday

Morning Smoothies

The only thing my daughter loves more than drinking smoothies, or "juice" as she calls it, is making smoothies. She loves to help in the kitchen and adding all the ingredients to the blender is easy enough for her to handle on her own. We also have fun counting all the ingredients as they go in.

Here's our favorite recipe:

Sofie's Simple Smoothie

One banana
5-6 strawberries
1/4 cup blueberries
1/4 cup low-fat milk
1 cup ice

Throw all the ingredients into a blender and blend till smooth. Makes enough for two servings (or three small ones). You can use fresh or frozen berries. I've been using Trader Joes Organic Frozen berries lately.

New toys!

I know I haven't really gotten this blog up and running yet, being a stay-at-home, work-at-home mom means there are pretty much never enough hours in the day, but I'm still determined!

Here's a sneak peek at the big birthday cake post to come. Despite having no free time I really wanted to make my daughter's 3rd birthday cake myself. Never really made a cake like this before so here goes nothing!

Hello World

I've always had an affinity for crafts, sewing and cooking so naturally when I became pregnant with my daughter I imagined all of the ridiculously adorable dresses I would sew her and the cute crafts that would fill our refrigerator. When the reality of parenthood and life as a stay-at-home mom sunk in, however, I quickly realized that my dreams of a perfect Martha Stewart motherhood would be thwarted by sheer exhaustion. Two and a half years into it and we have managed to make one Halloween costume, some homemade baby food, and a museum's worth of finger-painted masterpieces to rival Van Gogh. Now as my daughter gets older and more interested in crafts and we're all getting (a tiny bit) more sleep we're finally starting to get into the swing of things and, while I'm still a far cry from my own crafting empire, I thought it would be fun to document the projects, recipes and activities. So here goes...