#168 Use Leftover Fabric to Make Counting Bean Bags

This is actually one of the gifts that I made my son for Christmas. I chose to fill my little tossing bags with rice since it was cheaper at the grocery store than dried beans.

These are easy to make, just time consuming. I first cut out 10 squares in the same fabric for the back of the bags. Then I cut out fabric from 10 different leftover scraps. Actually, a couple of these squares are made from old dress shirts of my husbands that I have been cutting up to use for projects and others were leftovers.

After cutting out all the squares, I applied numbers by using fabric paint. After these were dry I stitched the squares together with right sides in, leaving about an inch open on the end of one side so that I could turn it back right side out and insert a funnel and fill with the rice.

I wanted to have numbers on them so that I could use them as a teaching tool. I also chose many different fabrics so that I could ask my son to throw a certain color of bag, thus using it as a teaching tool in another way. Plus, there all sorts of gross & fine motor skills that can be worked on with using the bag.

#167 Turn Old Sweaters into a Child's Dress

My daughter asked me if I would make her a dress for a Christmas present. And since all her presents were all ready purchased, I didn't want to spend more money to buy a pattern & new fabric so I started thinking about what I had to use and I decided to use some old sweaters that I had recently retired to the craft box.

I used a dress that is currently a perfect fit on her and just altered the measurements to make it slightly larger so it will be something she can wear all winter and now my daughter has a cashmere (blue) and wool (red) dress.

To save myself time & energy I made sure to use the bottom hem of a sweater as the bottom hem of the dress so that I wouldn't have to create a hem. I also had decided on using the red sweater because it had shrunk (quite a bit in the arms) so that I did not need to alter the arm circumference.

I did need to take in the sides and shorten the arm length and create new arm holes. The knew arm holes in the sleeves and on the body was what took the longest to do. I sure hope she likes it.

#166 Creative Uses For A Plastic Lid

These ideas came from watching my kids play with some other ones at an ECFE (Early Childhood Family Education) class earlier this week. I knew I had a couple and thought they would be fun to make with my daughter.

All we used was 2 lids from whipped topping containers, a hole punch, some ribbon, scissors, and a plastic bag.

The top collage is of the one I made for my son. For his I punched holes around the entire perimeter and cut out a center circle. Next I cut out strips from a plastic bag. And finally I tied them all around. He likes using his as a basketball hoop and throwing a ball through the hole. The other thing he likes to do with his is use it as an instrument (he loves to make noise). The strips of plastic hitting each other make a Sssh! Sssh! sound.

This bottom collage is of my daughter and her version. For her version I allowed her to pick out any thin ribbon we had, while I punched holes around only half of hers after I cut out the center circle. Again, tie the ribbon through the holes. She liked using hers as a fairy crown or as dancing ribbons.

This was so simple to make and there is just so many possibilities. Make some with your kids and see what their imaginations come up with as uses. Let me know what they come up with.

The Verdict on Baby Food Muffins

Well, you can tell by the picture of my son that they were a hit with him. I ate mine plain (without the cream cheese he has) because I had the first one and wanted to evaluate it.

My evaluation: The proportion of wet to dry ingredients was perfect. It baked moist, but not too moist. But unless I was biting in to a spot with a carrot chunk there was no flavor. It wasn't that it was bad, there was just no flavor at all. Next time I think I will add a little minced onion and some chives and maybe a dash of rosemary too. That ought to kick up the flavor.

So, since I thought it was lacking flavor I decided to give it some by putting a smear of cream cheese on it. My son gobbled them right up, which is good because he'll be having a muffin for breakfast too.

For another recipe sneaking in veggies, check out my recipe on Black Bean Brownies.

#165 Baby Food Muffins

I came to the realization today that even though my son is a good eater, he doesn't like much for vegetables and you can't rationalize with a 1 year old that they need to eat their vegetables. Luckily, he eats pretty much any fruit. So, I need to branch out & try new things and sneak vegetables into things. There are a few things he will eat, like carrots or sauteed zucchini or yellow squash. When he was smaller we stopped with pureed foods pretty early because he was a good masher of table food and refused to eat any more pureed food. But now when I think back, it might of just been the vegetables he was refusing. I think he still ate the fruits fine.

So, I still have some jars of baby food left (well, pretty much just sweet potatoes and carrots and a little peas is all he ate). So, I decided to come up with a recipe to use up some of these pureed veggies & get him to eat more veggies. And the boy loves muffins & scones, so hopefully these will taste ok. They are in the oven right now, but I wanted to get the recipe typed up as I made it so that I wouldn't forget it in case they turned out pretty good. So, stay tuned for a finished picture and a review on how I thought they tasted and what my kids thought.

Baby Food Muffins

2 C white whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 C milk

2 4oz. jars of pureed sweet potatoes

1 egg

2 T maple syrup

1 4.5 oz jar of carrot chunks, drained

Mix all ingredients (except carrots) together with blender. Fold in carrot chunks. Fill 10-12 muffin cups. Bake at 375 degrees for 18-20 min.

#164 Make Fairy Wands

These were fun to make. We first collected 4 sticks (one for each in our family) of wand quality from the backyard. They we made a collection of leaves from different sources (maple tree, lilac bush & bean plants). We tied the stems of the leaves to the stick with some twine. Then we decorated the wands using markers. And finally sprinkled the wands with magic dust & sprinkles (see post #163.)

#163 Make Fairy Potions

My daughter is REALLY into fairies these days, so we will probably have a series on crafts & activities to do with fairies. This one is making magic fairy potions. Really the magic involved in this is her imagination.

One night I told her this would be the activity we would be doing the next day and she was to create recipes that night. So, she diligently got to work. Got out her notebook & markers and began drawing pictures of things we could find in the yard to add to each of the jars.

Then we used 4 jars I had been saving (to use for whatever) and filled them with water & a drop of food coloring, mixed in up with a stick and added items according to her recipe. She ran around the backyard collecting items and putting them in the jars just as she had drawn them.

The magic part comes in with sprinkles & dust. I told her I had magic sprinkles (raw sugar) and magic dust (wheat germ). She asked what the difference was and I told her, "They do pretty much the same thing - make things magical - it's just that some fairies like to use dust and other fairies like to use sprinkles." So, she made her choice with each recipe if it needed sprinkles or dust.

Oh! And she decided what each potion did. So, now we have potions that: make big bubbles, make big carrots, make fairies life-size, and make the leaves fall from the trees.