home made finger paint

I've seen this recipe for home made finger paint all over Pinterest and thought Nohl and I would give it a whirl today.  Luckily, we had all the ingredients already on hand, so we were good to go!  It was extremely easy to make.  This recipe is especially perfect for toddlers as the ingredients are all natural, so if those little fingers find their little mouths ... no problemo! 

RECIPE

3 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup cornstarch

2 cups water

On medium low temp, warm all ingredients in a small saucepan stirring fairly constantly until paint thickens.  Transfer to jars and mix in food colouring.  This recipe makes enough to fill approximately 6 baby food jars.

Overall, this was a great recipe.  Nohl was thrilled that he got to mix the food dye in to make his own colours.  The only thing is that he doesn't like to have gooey hands..so he ended up using paint brushes to paint in an over-sized colouring book.  This is finger paint, so the colours look much brighter in the jar than it did in the colouring book, but he still loved it!

I am now complete with a kitchen window full of his most beautiful artwork.  BTW, he put price tags on all his art for when people come over ahahah so cute!

chip it!

Have you heard about Chip It yet?  All I can say is  
"How handy is that?"

So what is it and how does it work?

What:  Sherwin-Williams came out with a tool that matches the colour scheme from any picture on the net and displays them for you!

How:  Simply drag the Chip It button onto your toolbar

find any picture on the net

click the Chip It button and it'll instantaneously match the colours in the room

and you can save them, print them..do whatever you want with them.

Sherwin-Williams sure hit the nail on the head with this!  Head on over to test it out for yourself here!  Just think of all the possibilities...pulling colours from pillows, curtains, pictures, nature.. you name it.  The beauty of this too is that you can just print out the colours and colour match wherever you go!

This works extremely well with Pinterest....you all must know Pinterest by now too right?!  You can find my Pinterest boards here. 

Happy Chipping!

drink up {p52 - 6}

 So it's week 6 and I have 2 posts?  bad bad bad p-52er!  Maybe I should hunt down the p-12 group?

MY NOHL...

my head holding

ear bending

dimply knuckled

milk mustachey

alfalfa haired

5 year old!

It takes a lot of work to eat your breakfast when you're 5.  I love this morning moment.  It's amazing to me that if I hadn't stopped to take this picture, I may not have even noticed all these silly little things.  I'm the one busy making breakfast and lunches in the morning...so I never take the time to sit and watch their sweet little ways.  Today was a reminder to take the time to notice my blessings!

Oh yes...and I'm to clarify, that's a "manly pink" cup.

i dreamed a dream {P 52-3}

what is a  dream.... 

A self directed movie you watch in your sleep?

somewhere to deposit the days happenings?

a vision you just can't get out of your head?

a desire so strong you can taste it?

Sad but true, my friends who know me well know that I've been dreaming all of the above about hardwood floors for over 9 years!  And guess what......

IT'S FINALLY HAPPENING!

(unless of course I'm dreaming, in which case I'd rather you not wake me)

 

In addition to having my flooring dreams coming true...I have decided to make another long time dream of mine come true too.  I have always wanted to take better pictures, but really haven't done much in way of making that happen. 

As of late, I have been reading a number of blogs about becoming a better photographer (or in my case, picture taker) and I can't believe how much free information is found through bloggers alone!  One in particular is a girl named Darcy who has a super sweet blog called Life with My 3 Boybarians.  Darcy has so many wonderful photography tips in a collection of posts called 31 Day Photo Series.  She is also graciously hosting Project 52, for those of us who can't possibly do a 365.  Head on over to visit Darcy to see what P52 is all about.

So I am diving in head first or feet first..however that goes??  anyhow..I'm going to give it a try and see if I can't figure out how to get my camera to work for me!

Happy Weekend

do something you love!

muffin tin cookies ~ Ina Garten chocolate chip cookie recipe

That time is here... the day I've been both dreaming about and dreading...BACK to SCHOOL!  

I can't believe the whole summer has whirled away so quickly.  In light of getting back in the swing of things...I thought I'd send the kids to school with some tasty tidbits from home.  And what better way to do that than with home made chocolate chip cookies?

 

 Here's where things got a little interesting....well for me anyway.  Some of you may already do this.  But it's new to me and only an afterthought because I don't own a cookie sheet.  EGADS!  I usually use a lasagne tin upside down, but tonight, I really didn't want to use my oven for 8 cookies every 15 minutes.  So I used what I had to speed up the process....cupcakes tins. 

This worked out much better than I even expected!  To ensure that your cookies don't stick, simply pour about a tablespoon of vegetable oil in one of the muffin trays, and then with a cooking oil brush, keep dabbing into the oil and spread around to the rest of the tray.  Be sure to coat the bottom and lower sides.  Roll the dough into ball as per usual, then with slightly wet hands, flatten the dough.  When the cookies were done their baking time, I let them cool and they popped out soooo easily!

Now of course these cookies came out a little thicker than a regular cookie, but they are all perfectly shaped the same and my boys didn't seem to mind at all.  In fact, they thought the muffin tin cookies were "sick".  They even thought that this would be a cool idea to do our brownie recipe in the muffin tins too, a homemade version of the '2 bite brownie'.  Yummy, now we're talking!

  

Ina Garten {Barefoot Contessa} Chocolate Chunk Cookie


INGREDIENTS:
1/2 pound unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 extra large eggs at room temperature
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts (optional, I left this out...we are a nut free school)
1 1/4 pounds semisweet chocolate chunks ( I used chocolate chips)

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Cream the butter and two sugars until light and fluffy in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the vanilla, then the eggs, one at a time, and mix well. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt and add to the butter with the mixer on low speed, mixing only until combined. Fold in the walnuts and chocolate chunks.
Drop the dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, using a 1 3/4 inch- diameter ice cream scoop or a rounded tablespoon. Dampen your hands and flatten the dough slightly. Bake for exactly 15 minutes (the cookies will seem underdone). Remove from the oven and let cool slightly on the pan, transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

* I used a convection oven and found that 13 minutes baking time was perfect.

Sweet Paul

Why have I not seen this before now? 

Do you remember Martha Stewart Kids magazine?  It was one of my favourite magazines and I used to get all giddy when my subscription would arrive in the mail.  You can only imagine my grief when they stopped the magazine. 

Well Sweet Paul has filled my void!  

Not only is his blog fan-TAB-u-LOUS...but there is also an online Sweet Paul Magazine too with an option to buy the printed copy of the issue.  Stunning photography, recipes, crafts, decor...and lots more!  

 Pom pom lampshade

cupcakes on a stick

 bread and tomato necklace

easter wreath made of sugar dragees

Be sure to stop by and see Paul for many more sweet ideas!

coffee filter lamp shade

There once was a lampshade that could. 

Then one day the lampshade just couldn't anymore. 

Until now....

Honestly?!  Coffee filters..who knew?

I would love to take credit for this amazing diy project..but while clickety click clicking away from one crazy talented blogger to another to another and another...I found the most gorgeous lampshade made of coffee filters that was crafted by Sarah at Northwest Hospitality. 

Hmmmm a coffee filter lampshade...how very interestingly beautiful....and I  HAVE ALL THE SUPPLIES ON HAND!  My shade wasn't a drum, like Sarah's, but I decided I had nothing to lose..and the coffee filter extravaganza began.

What you need:

lampshade

hot glue

coffee filters (bulk from Costco)

wine for the friend who gets suckered into folding : ) {thanks 'C'}

1.  fold coffee filter in half

2.  fold in half again

3.  fold in half again

4.  fold point up and add a spot of hot glue
Continue this process and glue folded filters to lampshade until full.

I would like to add that this process really DOUBLES the size of your shade.  I had started out with the lamp below... 

and when the shade was completed...the size no longer looked appropriate on it's base.  Luckily I had another lamp in the house that I swapped out the base for.  I gave it a quick paint job and some distressing and am super happy with the results.

It really does give all the most wondrous glow at night.    I have another lampshade to revamp in Ava's room.  But this time I'm going to try ruffles.  Wanna see what I mean?  Take a stroll on over to see a gal by the name of Jennifer from Dear Lillie...but be forewarned..have a potty break first because you WILL be there for a very very very long time!  Seriously this chicky has more talent in her baby finger than I could ever dream of.

Also, if you would like a much more detailed tutorial on the coffee filter lampshade and many more inspiring ideas...please visit Northwest Hospitality.

Have a great week everyone!

linked to A Beach Cottage Linky Party