Sweet Treats

Our neighbor Doris just celebrated her 88th birthday. We wanted to give her something specially hand-made and decided on our favorite paper flower bouquet. This would also make a great gift for little ones to make for Valentine's Day!

Fold colored paper in half and draw heart or flower designs. Have little people (if proficient in scissoring) cut them out.

While paper is folded make two little snips and slide green pipe cleaners in for the stems. Tie with a ribbon.

We also gave Doris some of this decadent Chocolate Body Scrub. I made this for all my girl family members for Christmas and fell in love! My mom called me after she used it and said she smelled like chocolate all day. The best part is you have the ingredients in your kitchen, and they are all natural. (Maddie will even tell you it tastes delicious... she licked the bowl!)

Chocolate Body Scrub Recipe

3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons olive oil (I used a little less and like the texture better)

Make a batch for your favorite Valentine's, or make some for yourself and make a date to exfoliate!

"Green" Valentines

How about some Valentine projects that incorporate horticulture in some fashion? It's the biggest flower day of the year, so I wanted to do something fun with flowers first.

We started with three white carnations from the local florist. They aren't my favorite flower but I have to say they smell delicious and I love them in white... sort of frilly and sweet.

Add some food coloring to the water. The idea is that during transpiration (like that big word? :)) the flower will drink in the water and move it up through the leaves and petals, coloring them along the way.

It was also a fun color mixing lesson... red and blue make purple! Maddie has been telling me since that colors have mommies and daddies. Too funny!

I love this of Ella's pudgy hand mixing the color.

Our colors turned out pretty, although muted. After about 24 hours, the results are final... I think we could have used more food coloring. Maybe you could also let them sit out of the water for awhile before you put them in the color so they are nice and thirsty. Regardless, it's fun to have fresh flowers in the house.

My friend Molly gave us this idea for Valentine blossoms from Family Fun. They are so easy and cute! Just cut out three hearts, a flower center, and a leaf. Punch holes, tape them together on the bottom, and stick a sucker in the middle.

Lastly we made potato stamps. Maddie has a blast with anything involving paint.


So there ya go! Hope this gives you a few sugarless ideas to make the holiday fun!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Pencil Bouquet

This project was quick and easy, and a fun way to spruce up the kitchen table!

I just picked up a super cheap bouquet at the craft store, along with a super cheap clay pot. Grab some floral tape too. I thought colored pencils were perfect for Maddie, since I don't want her drawing on things with pens, and markers have caps.

Cut the flowers off the bunch, leaving a bit of stem to be wrapped in for stability. We didn't wrap all the way down so we could still tell what color the pencil was, but only green stem shows in the pot.

Time to try them out! Maddie is newly interested in drawing (although she is not left-handed, interesting...), and she has also tried her hand at flower arranging! That's my girl. :)

Crochet Flowers

My mom started making these darling flowers for her granddaughters last spring. Since then I have had so many people ask me where I got them! I have thought many times that I should just learn how to do it myself so I can sell them or give them to friends!

Well this week my mom has been visiting to take care of my sister and her new baby, and we decided to tackle the project! My mom calls skills like this 'heritage arts' and I have long thought I need to make sure they get passed down the generations. She also taught me how to cross stitch when I was about 12 and we did some pretty fancy pieces together. There is just something special about making things with your own hands.

Here's my beginner stitches... not too hard once you get the hang of it!

The flowers really are precious on little girls, although I have seen them on "big" girls a lot lately too! They are also darling on hats and headbands.

I really like them on piggy tails.

I have only made one by myself (the pink one at top), but I hope to get better and faster!
What do you think, would you buy one?

Snowflakes

"Under the microscope, I found that snowflakes were miracles of beauty; and it seemed a shame that this beauty should not be seen and appreciated by others. Every crystal was a masterpiece of design and no one design was ever repeated. When a snowflake melted, that design was forever lost. Just that much beauty was gone, without leaving any record behind." - Wilson A. Bentley

When was the last time you made snowflakes? I grew up making snowflakes with my mom (the master snowflake cutter) to decorate our windows at Christmas time. I have such fond memories of it! I think it's time to continue the tradition, so we are playing with snowflakes over here today. I love how even the simplest cuts make something beautiful.

For our daily advent surprise we did a craft: W for Winter with iridescent confetti snowflakes.


Cassi from a wonderful craft blog I follow recently posted this incredible history and tutorial on snowflakes, and gave me permission to pass it on.


You really ought to try Make-A-Flake! It is so much fun!