sweater cup cozies for kids (and one for me too!)

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Ahhh, it's that lovely time of year where it's starting to get really cool outside and you just want to stay inside, curled up by the fire and drink a nice warm cup of hot chocolate. Nothing is better than hot chocolate on a freezing cold day. My kids don't get hot chocolate very often, and when they do it's a real treat. I wanted to make myself a cup cozy for my cups of hot chocolate, and figured the kids could have fun with one too. They absolutely love them. Now they can enjoy a cup of hot chocolate and not worry about burning their cute little hands on the hot cup. Now I don't knit, sew, crochet - nothing. I wish I did, but I just can't seem to find the time to learn. I decided I would use wool sweaters and felt them. It worked perfectly. If I can do this, anyone can. Trust me. I found some really old wool sweaters (these were both from highschool, and I won't tell you how long ago that was) that weren't getting any use anymore. Then I used my very basic sewing skills and sewed on some very basic faces. Cam got the monster and Kirsten got the owl. Mine has a beautiful wool flower on it that came as an embellishment on the sweater. I just sewed it on. I have a feeling we'll be enjoying quite a few cups of hot chocolate this season! Here's how I made them:

What you'll need:

wool sweaters - 100% wool sweaters work best for felting
scissors
needle and thread
decorations like felt and buttons

Directions:

1. find an old wool sweater that nobody wears anymore

2. wash that sweater in your washing machine on the hot water cycle. Then dry the sweater in your dryer on high heat. You may have to do this process more than once to really felt the sweater. You'll know when it has felted because the sweater will have shrunk considerably. I washed and dried mine twice.

3. using your scissors, cut the cuffs off the sweater. The cuff will be the main part of your cup cozy.

4. using your needle and thread, sew on some adorable faces or other cute embellishments. For Cam's monster I sewed on a button eye and just used thread for the rest of the face. For Kirsten's owl I cut ears for the owl out of the rest of the sweater and sewed them on. I sewed 2 buttons on for the eyes and an orange felt nose. So cute!







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paper plate owls

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I know I've been posting more than usual lately. That's because I've done so many fun things with the kiddos and I have to post them while the season is still appropriate! Here's a craft to satisfy my owl obsession. I had some leftover mini brown paper plates from Cam's last birthday party and I figured they would be absolutely perfect to make owls with. This was a craft just Kirsten and I did together. We tried to get Cam to join us but he was having too much fun playing with his cars! Here's how we made these:

What you'll need:

brown paper plates - or paint white ones brown
scrapbook paper
white cardstock
scissors
glue
paper punch
orange craft foam
buttons and other embellishments

Directions:

1. find some cute scrapbook paper and cut out 2 wings and a body for your owl.
2. using your circle paper punch and white cardstock, punch out 2 eyes
3. using an extra brown paper plate, cut 2 ears from the edge of the plate.
4. using your orange craft foam, cut out 2 feet and 1 orange beak
5. glue everything on your owl and add any embellishments (like the cute felt flower) you wish







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mini pumpkin pies

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Yummy, yummy, yummy. I just love pumpkin pie. I had some leftover pie crust and pumpkin from making my pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving and I wanted to use it up. I didn't want to make big pies again, so I had an idea to make mini pumpkin pies, or pumpkin tarts. These were delish. James liked them even better than my original pumpkin pies because there is more crust to pie ratio, lol. These were really easy to make and I'll definitely be making them again. Of course, I had to cute-ify them somehow to I used my mini halloween/fall cookie cutters and cut shapes out of my remaining dough and put the shapes on top of the pie. Super cute!



Here's the recipes I used:

You could use some frozen pie crusts (2) and let them defrost. Once defrosted, roll them out and cut your circles out from them. If you like homemade crust, I like this recipe:

Ingredients:

5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 lb tenderflake lard
1 egg, stirred slightly
1 tablespoon vinegar
7/8 cup cold water

Directions:

1. Stir the flour and salt together.
2. Cut in the lard with a pastry blender or 2 knives until the shortening is in pea size pieces.
3. In a measuring cup, combine the egg and vinegar.
4. Add enough cold water to make one cup.
5. Stir the liquid into the flour mixture, adding just enough to make the dough cling together.
6. Stir the water in with a wooden spoon until mixed thoroughly, then gather the dough into a ball, and separate into 6 portions.
7. Cover and refrigerate for one hour, you can chill overnight, covered, providing you leave it at room temp for 15 mins before rolling.
8. Lightly flour surface and roll dough out into circles. Using a 4" circle cutter, cut circles out of your dough and place in a greased muffin tin.
9. Using the remaining dough, roll it out and cut cute shapes out of it. These shapes will be placed on top of your mini pies once the filling is in.

For the pie filling:

Ingredients:

2 eggs
1/2 can (28 oz/796 mL) E.D.SMITH® PURE PUMPKIN
1 cup (250 mL) packed brown sugar
1 tsp (5 mL) ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp (2 mL) ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp (1 mL) ground ginger
1/4 tsp (1 mL) salt
3/4 cup (175 mL) evaporated milk

Directions:

1. Beat eggs lightly in medium bowl. Add E.D.SMITH® PURE PUMPKIN, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt - stir until well combined. Blend in milk. Pour filling into your mini pie shells in your muffin tin. Place your cute cut outs on top. Bake at 425ºF (220ºC) for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350ºF (180ºC) and continue baking 15-20 minutes longer or until knife inserted in centre comes out clean.



Recipe for pie crust from Tenderflake
Recipe for pie filling from E.D.Smith



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coffee filter and watercolour fall tree

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This craft is absolutely gorgeous! I originally got the idea to make this craft when I saw this gorgeous craft on Patch O' Dirt Farm last year. So pretty. I was inspired to make my own with the kiddos. Instead of just having the branches, I decided that we would glue everything down onto a large piece of canvas so I could display it in my living room this Fall. It looks amazing and the kiddos are so proud of it. Here's how we made this craft:

What you'll need:

watercolour paints
paint brushes
large canvas
tree branch
coffee filters
glue
scissors

1. let your kiddos paint some coffee filters with your favourite Fall colours - we used red, orange, yellow, green, brown. Allow your coffee filters to dry.

2. using your scissors, cut the painted coffee filters into small leaves.

3. glue a tree branch onto a piece of canvas and allow to dry. You may need to put a heavy book or something on top to keep the stick down while it dries.

4. glue your beautiful Fall leaves onto the branch and allow to dry.







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handprint turkeys

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I've done handprint turkeys for Thanksgiving before, but these ones are a little different. I think they're super cute. They were really simple to make and make for great memories down the road of how small your kiddos hands really were. I just love them. Here's how we made these adorable turkeys:

What you'll need:

paper - white, brown, orange, red
scissors
glue
googly eyes
paint - red, orange, green, yellow, brown
paintbrushes

1. paint your child's hand in each of the above paint colours and stamp them around your white piece of paper in an open feather shape.

2. using your brown paper, cut out a body and head and glue them on your turkey.

3. using your orange paper, cut out some legs and a beak and glue them on your turkey.

4. using your red paper, cut out a gobbly thingy and glue it on your turkey.

5. glue on some googly eyes.





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Thanksgiving paddle turkey

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Canadian Thanksgiving is in just one week so we'll be doing some Thanksgiving-themed crafts and foods this week. I can't wait to have a delicious turkey dinner this weekend. Thanksgiving supper is hands down my favourite meal of the year. Yummy. Anyway, on to the craft. When I saw these paddle turkeys on Silly Eagle Books last year, I just knew we were going to make them. They are just too cute and easy. Making a turkey out of a paddle is just absolutely brilliant. It's the perfect size and I love all the cute colours I found. Vanessa's blog is fantastic with all kinds of awesome craft ideas and book recommendations. Definitely check it out. Here's how we made the turkeys:

What you'll need:

paddles - I bought some at the dollar store and just cut off the ball and string
scrapbook paper
scissors
glue
craft foam - orange and red
googly eyes

1. If you haven't done so already, cut the ball and elastic string off your paddle.
2. Using your scrapbook paper, cut out some feathers for your turkey using a variety of patterns. You could also use feathers or leaves if you don't want to use paper.
3. Glue the paper feathers onto the back of your paddle to create the turkey's feathers.
4. Using your orange foam, cut out 2 feet and a nose. Using your red foam, cut out the gobbly thingy. Glue these on your paddle.
5. Glue on some googly eyes.









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some fall bento's

Pin It Here's a few more bento's I've made lately. These all have a Fall-ish theme. Again, these are really easy bento's with just a couple cute things in each box that take very minimal time. I'm all about easy.



I really love this one. Half a turkey and cheese sandwich with cheese and fruit leather leaf cut-outs. Homemade apple and cinnamon chips and some baby carrots. It was my first time making the apple chips and they were really easy and good.



I found some Fall-coloured popcorn at the store and it was absolutely delicious. I knew Kirsten would love it as a special treat in her lunch. There's also half a ham and cheese sandwich with fruit leather squirrels and a cheese and fruit leather acorn. Tray of baby carrots.



I made these heart-shaped pumpkin pancakes for breakfast one weekend and made extra for her lunch. You could also make huge batches and freeze them. Then you just pop them in the toaster when you want to eat them. Anyway, these pumpkin pancakes were to.die.for. Yum. I made a regular batch of pancakes and added half a cup of pure pumpkin. I also added some cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and brown sugar. I used my handy pancake pen to make hearts and served these with a small container of pure maple syrup. She also got some applesauce with fall leaf sprinkles and some banana chips.



Here's another lunch with some pumpkin in it. There's something about pumpkin that I just love. I made homemade pumpkin muffins and put 2 mini ones in her lunchbox. Applesauce with pumpkin sprinkles and some pretzel sticks with pumpkin cheese.



Okay, this one isn't really Fall, but it is orange, lol. Turkey lunchmeat roll-ups, baby carrots, wheat thins with cheese trees, and a peeled clementine orange with adorable little leaf picks. Kirsten insisted on 2 picks!

Here's some of the stuff I used to make these lunches:



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fun food friday: beautiful fall colours

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Fall is here and I absolutely love it! It's definitely my favourite season with the beautiful Fall colours. The kiddos really enjoyed this colourful lunch and ate it all up. It was super easy to make. Here's how I made it:

Fall tree - pretzel stick with red, yellow, and green apple leaves. I used food-safe markers on a few of the apple leaves. 3 cheddar cheese maple leaves.

A square silicone container of yogurt with fall leaf sprinkles and a yummy maple cookie for a treat.



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fall button branch

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I'm a little obsessed with buttons. I'm always trying to think of new crafts to make that use buttons too. They're just too cute. The kids and I made this craft together and I just love it. We picked out a nice branch from the backyard and then we picked out all our lovely fall-coloured buttons. The buttons are supposed to look like all the beautiful fall leaves we have on our trees. It turned out amazing. Here are the instructions:

What you'll need:

canvas
branch
buttons
glue

Directions:

1. glue your branch onto your canvas. I put a very heavy book on top of the branch while it dried to keep it flat to the canvas.

2. Once the branch is glued and dried, start gluing your beautiful buttons on the smaller branches to look like leaves on a tree. Allow to dry.

3. You're going to want to display this beautiful masterpiece!





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leaf people

Pin It Bring on the Fall crafts! Fall is definitely my favourite season and the kiddos and I have been busy Fall crafting. This craft was really fun. The kids and I went outside and picked our leaves, and then came inside and made leaf people. We made our family to be exact. Kirsten especially enjoyed this. She took great care picking out the leaves that would become us. So fun. Here's the Dubien family in leaves:









and here's a family portrait made by my little Cam:



Here's what you need to make this craft:

paper
glue
lots of colourful fall leaves
googly eyes
sharpie

Direction:

1. go outside and pick some beautiful Fall leaves
2. arrange your leaves in a person or animal shape and glue to your paper
3. add googly eyes and sharpie mouth



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personalized apple pies

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These little individual, personalized apple pies are a wonderful dessert for Thanksgiving dinner if you have young kids. I made these personalized apple pies for my family for Thanksgiving. I should have stuffed them way more than I did, because as you can see from the picture, they sank a lot. Apple pie always does that. It didn't make for the prettiest picture, but they still tasted delicious. My kids just loved these little individual sized apple pies with their own initials on them. I think Kirsten felt very special, like this dessert was made just for her. It's so easy to please my little preschooler! Serve them warm with a little bit of vanilla ice cream or whipping cream. Yum! Here's the recipe:

What you'll need:

I used leftover pie dough I had using this recipe for pie crust

1 lb apples - peeled, halved, cored, and thinly sliced
2 tbsp orange juice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3 tbsp superfine sugar

1 egg, beaten slightly

Other things:

4 small ramekins (oven-proof dishes)
rolling pin
alphabet cookie cutters - or use a knife

Directions:

1. Make your pastry dough using the recipe above.
2. Mix the apple slices with the orange juice, cinnamon, and superfine sugar.
3. preheat oven to 400F.
4. Divide the apple mixture between the 4 oven-proof dishes. Wet the rim of each dish.
5. Roll our your pastry dough and cut 4 round tops - I used a glass that was the same size as my ramekin.
6. Top each pie with a pastry round and trim the edges. Press edges with a fork if desired for a fancier look.
7. Brush each pie with an egg wash and make a slit in the top for steam to escape.
8. Using cookie cutters if you have them, or a knife if you don't, cut out the initials you will need to top your pies and place them on top. Brush again with the egg wash.
9. Put your dishes on a baking sheet and bake for 30-35 minutes, until top is golden.
10. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream, whipping cream, or just alone.

Recipe adapted from Kids can Cook!

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pumpkin whip dip

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This photography session has been interrupted by my children. They couldn't keep their hands out of this, it is soooo good. I had some pumpkin left over from making pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving and this recipe immediately came to mind. I am so glad I made it. It was delicious, and I'll definitely be making this again. For extra cuteness, serve this dip in a hollowed out pumpkin, or a cute ceramic pumpkin container like I used. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 container cool whip, thawed
1 box vanilla instant pudding mix
1 can pureed pumpkin
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, mix together instant vanilla pudding mix, pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice.
2. Fold in the cool whip.
3. Chill in the 3 refrigerator until serving.
4. Serve with graham crackers, sliced apples, sliced pears, gingersnaps - whatever! Pin It

fun food friday: a beautiful Fall day

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In keeping with all the wonderful Fall things we've been doing this week, I made the kids a fun Fall lunch. I just loved how colourful this was and it was pretty easy to do. I had lots of peppers leftover from last week's turkey that I had to use up before they went bad, and giving them to my kids again further confirmed their dislike for them. Oh well, they ate everything else on the plate! Here's how I made it:

House - chicken sandwich cut into house shape and crusts cut off - use crusts to make roof and chimney on house - fruit leather door and window and marshmallows coming out the chimney

Tree - pretzel stick with cut coloured peppers, coloured peppers and sliced celery on the ground for grass. Pin It

thumbprint and handprint fall tree

Pin It Kirsten's Fall tree



Cam's Fall tree



One of my favourite crafts we've done is this spring blossom thumbprint/handprint tree. I knew I wanted to try it again come the Fall because it would be beautiful. I was right. I'm disappointed in the kind of paint I used though, because the colours are very muted. I won't be using that paint again. It was more of a gel paint, and it didn't provide the rich, vibrant, Fall colours I was hoping for. Don't get me wrong though, it's still beautiful, just difficult to see in the pictures. Here's the instructions:

What you'll need:

paint - brown, red, yellow, orange
canvas or paper
paint brush

Directions:

1. paint your child's palm and half way of their forearm with brown paint, and stamp this on your canvas
2. have your child dip their thumbs in the red, yellow, and orange paint and make thumbprints all over the tree for Fall leaves

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