Bagels!

Today I decided to try my hand at bagels. This is not a recipe found on Pinterest ... but it still qualifies for this blog because it's creative. :) Me and creativity don't get together in the kitchen often but I've been wanting to do more creative cooking and baking lately. The last new thing I attempted was homemade whole wheat pita bread which turned out wonderfully! I decided to flip through my "Breads" cook book from Company's Coming (http://www.companyscoming.com/cookbooks/original-series/breads/1/BR/) to see if there was something I'd like to try and came across the recipe for bagels. It looked simple enough so I decided to try them ... with the help of my 2-year-old of course. :)

So the recipe called for active dry yeast instead of instant yeast and I'm more used to using instant yeast. I was successful with the active dry yeast but I think next time I make these I'll try with instant yeast to see if it makes any difference.

The recipe called for the dough (once it had risen, been punched down and separated into equal portions) to be rolled out into 10 inch long ropes. Then the ends had to be joined together to form a circle. After the first couple bagels were complete, I found that 10 inches was quite long and would result in rather thin bagels (and it did). So the rest I tried to do with shorter ropes and found more satisfying results.  I don't have pictures of all the steps leading up to the poaching (never knew bagels had to be poached until today), unfortunately. Annalise had great fun rolling out her own bagels and her two got to go on her own special tray in the oven. By they way, hers turned way better than mine - funny how that happens.

So here's pictures starting at the poaching of the bagels:

Poaching the bagels - I had doubts about this process and was pleasantly surprised that it all worked out. :)

Poached bagels are ready for the oven - sesame seeds sprinkled on top. This is close to the end of the whole batch. Annalise freaked out at the idea of seeds on the bagels so we left one plain for her.

Bagels baking in the oven. :)

These are the ones Annalise made - turned out way nicer than mine. :) One with seeds (heaven forbid!) and one without. :) She was so excited to eat them that when we told her they had cooled down enough and it was supper time, she ran with it to the table, prayed and started eating before Darran and I could get there! They were so delicious and fluffy. I know bagels at the store tend to be quite heavy so I'm not sure if this is just a different kind of bagel (apparently it's the New York style bagels that are quite heavy) or if I did something wrong, but we were quite pleased with them! :) 

We topped them with our own flavoured cream cheese - Maple Cream Cheese and Garlic Cream Cheese. To make Maple Cream Cheese, you buy plain cream cheese, use about half the small container and add about 1 tbsp of maple syrup. Blend well. For the Garlic Cream Cheese, you use half the small container of plan cream cheese and add about a 1/4 tsp of garlic powder (though next time I will try Epicure's Herb & Garlic seasoning) and blend well.

My next creative kitchen adventure will be making Naan bread and I promise to blog about that one too! :)

It's a Jungle in There!

Ok, this is not something I found in Pinterest but it is somewhat crafty (and more crafty than some things I've seen on Pinterest) so that makes it Pinterest worthy and allowable for this blog. :)

So, Annalise has a jungle themed room. We decided on this theme because this kids loves lions, tigers, elephants, giraffes, etc. We put animal decals on her walls and a "leaf tent" over her bed (courtesy of Ikea). Today I added something new to a wall. This is something that I used in my classroom when I was teaching Kindergarten and Grade 1. I don't know if I'll ever teach those grades again and I was getting sad/nostalgic seeing my bulletin board things in a box rather than a wall so I decided to put some to use. The addition to Annalise's wall is from a unit I taught on trees and seasons. :)  Here's the photos:

It's a tree! :) (and yes, I'm aware that one branch is lighter than all the others ... I made do with the supplies I had available while teaching). :)

A closer picture. Annalise looked at it and said, "Oh a tree! It looks like pretty!" and then, upon a closer inspection, said, "Mommy, where's the nest for the bird?" So apparently I'm now going to make a nest and some birds to add to this tree. :)

Potty Party Chart

Potty training is happening in full force in our house. Some days Annalise can make it all day without an accident; some days there are just way too many accidents. Because of this, we are still using a potty chart to reinforce good potty skills. There's something about the potty charts to print off online that I just don't like. They're too limited sometimes and not specific enough other times. The ones that had specific categories mostly had categories we were beyond teaching our girl so they were still useless. I decided I had to make my own and there was one I saw on Pinterest that I really liked and Annalise likes it too (which is, of course, a bonus). :)  Credit where credit is due (of course) so this is the link where I got the idea http://prudentbaby.com/2010/01/baby-kid/diy-potty-training-chart-2/ and the creator of this lovely chart wonderfully created pdfs to print so people could make their own similar charts. :) So, here is my version of the chart. I can't show you all the steps because I didn't take photos of all the steps (Mommy brain at fault). I used materials I had on hand. There was a piece of wood in our basement which seemed like it would be a good size so I grabbed that, found a roll of wrapping paper that didn't look too Christmasy (we only have Christmas wrap for some reason) and ribbons to match. Glue, tape and scissors were also necessary and, of course, the print-outs of the images to attach to the chart :)

This is the complete chart (and you can see there are already "stickers" attached - so proud of my little girl! :)

This is detail of the top. As you can see, my board could have been wider so that I could have fit the title on better but this still works. :)

And here's detail of the bottom. :) Annalise is proud of all the panty "stickers" on her chart! :)

Sparkling Snowflakes

Yesterday was a cold, cold day. Little Annalise needed some Mommy time as we've had a busy couple of days. What better way to enjoy each other's company while staying warm on a cold day than making snowflakes? :)  This website: http://innerchildfun.com/2011/12/10-winter-crafts-activities-for-tots.html has a bunch of wonderful winter crafts to do with toddlers. I chose one and we got to work.

Supplies:
construction paper
double-sided tape
tin foil

While I got the paper ready with the tape, Annalise tore up the tin foil (or, as she calls it, Tim Oil). It was a great way to keep her occupied and train her fine motor skills.

You can't see it very well, but there is double-sided tape on the paper. You put the tape down in different snowflake shapes.

Next step - take the little pieces of "Tim Oil" and stick it to the double-sided tape. Annalise had fun with this. She got really into it and pretended the foil was orange juice that she had to poor all over the paper. Then she squished it all onto the tape. Whatever didn't stick, went back into the container for Mommy to use. :)

This is mine. It was fun to do crafts with Annalise. Hopefully more crafts will come soon! :)

Pretty Trash

So it's been some time since I've posted here ... but it's been some time since I've been creative (either on my own or with my oldest daughter). December was insanely busy, of course with Christmas, but it is also the month my mom went to be with her Saviour. We praise God that she is no longer suffering! But with sorrow and busyness, crafting gets pushed to the side. It's hard to be creative when your heart is breaking. We are getting settled back into our routines now and, oddly enough, my creativity has come back stronger than it has been for about 8 years or so! This makes me glad ... my heart has a way to express itself again.

So, this post isn't super creative/heart expression but it's something I've wanted to do for a while because I think these are so cute. Shortly after doing this craft, I sat down to paint and that is where my heart expression could come out. However, that painting is a gift for a friend and I will not post about it here until the friend has received it (so as not to spoil the surprise). :)

This post is about a pretty, cute, little trash can for the car and this (http://calicoandcupcakes.blogspot.ca/2011/08/repurposed-project-car-trash-can.html) is where I got the idea. :)

Supplies required are an empty Costco size Cascade dishwasher 'pods' container, modge podge, a sponge brush, scrapbook paper and scissors.

Oh, and wine. It's good to have a glass (and bottle) of wine as you craft. :)

Empty, clean Cascade container - Costco size.

Pretty scrapbook paper. :)

Modge Podge the bin, wrap paper on it, modge podge on top of the paper to seal it (2 or 3 coats). As an afterthought, I realized I should have removed the Cascade labels from the container. Too bad but it still looks alright and, after all, it is just a trash can - it doesn't have to be perfect! :) It was a bit annoying wrapping the paper as the roundness of the bin made it a slight (very slight) challenge to get the paper flush with all the sides. I managed though. (Sorry for the lack of "during" pictures.)

Pop the lid back on and you're done. I actually ended up popping the lid off again so I could put a plastic shopping bag in to act as a garbage bag. May as well keep the pretty trash can clean and pretty! :)

It was a fun and easy craft and I think I will make a second one for Darran's car. Only then I have to first get some more masculine looking scrapbook paper. :)

Name Art

Here's an art project Annalise and I did before Emilie was born. Yes, I know I'm super late posting this but hey, I was pregnant and had a baby - I have a good excuse! :)

So, what I did was get a canvas (Dollarama is a great place to get canvas for art) and I wrote her name out with painters tape (you could also use masking tape). Then I let her have at it with the paints and her fingers. Annalise had a blast and I tried not to panic about the mess too much. :) As you can see, the paint was so thick in some areas that it bled right through the paint. Still looks pretty cool though. Next time I think I'll write out her name with white glue and let it dry first. I think the effect might be a bit nicer.  This was another Pinterest idea but I can't find where the idea was linked from so can't share it. If this was your idea, or you know which site originally posted this idea, please let me know in the comments below and I will update this post to reflect that!

Birthday Presents Keep Me Busy

So this year, for Darran's (hubby) birthday I decided to do some things I found on Pinterest. The first thing I did was the "52 Reasons I Love You" on playing cards.  In my sleep-deprived-due-to-a-new-baby mind, I forgot to take pictures of the projects in progress so you're just getting the end results. :) Here is the "52 Reasons ...":

And the following 3 pictures show some of the reasons I gave:

Now, I need to say, all of the tutorials I found said that white glue doesn't stick to glossy playing cards so the paper won't stick that way and they are right. However, their solution is to get sandpaper, sand down the cards, and then use white glue to attach the paper with your reason to the card. That sounded too time-consuming for a mom of a 2-year-old and a new born, and too messy as well. So I did some thinking and remembered how wonderfully modge podge adheres to pretty much anything you can think of. That's what I used - no sandpaper needed. So here's my tutorial:

Materials needed:

1 deck of playing cards

hole punch

list of reason you love your man (or woman)

reasons put on paper squares/rectangles (I used Word to do this and I made the rectangles about 5 cm by 6 cm.) 

ribbon or something to attach the cards together

modge podge

sponge brush to spread modge podge

scrap paper or card board to put under project to protect your surface when using modge podge

Directions:

1. Get your deck of playing cards. Keep the jokers (I used them for the covers of the "book"), the 2 "instructional" cards that come in the deck are good practice cards to test where you want to punch the hole or holes).

2. Print off your reasons (after you type them out in to whatever shape you choose on Word). Cut these out.

3. Hole punch the cards in the area you want (after practicing on the practice cards).

4. Spread modge podge on your paper, stick it to the card and spread another layer of modge podge over that to seal it. (It worked perfectly.)

5. When dry, stack in order you want, and connect with ribbon or other method you choose (some use binder rings).

It's pretty simple and ends up being a pretty special gift (at least Darran seemed to think it was pretty special so I guess I achieved my goal with that). :)

Now, that wasn't his only birthday gift. That was the birthday card. After I compiled a list of 52 reasons I love him, I chose about 8 of them to represent with applicable gifts. Darran quite liked the gifts I chose for him. One of them was another Pinterest project so I will post it here. :)

This is a DIY canvas print. This gift went with the "you are a great father" reason of the "52 Reasons ..." project (a picture of him and our oldest daughter). 

Materials needed: 

8 x 10 canvas

tissue paper (or tracing paper) cut to 8 x 10 size and made flat

modge podge (and brush) 

computer with pictures (and an idea of which picture you want) :)

Directions:

1. Choose a picture to print and print it on the tracing paper. Spread modge podge on the canvas. Quickly (and carefully) place the picture on the canvas, ensuring it's centred and quickly spread the air bubbles out (but don't panic if you can't get them all out).

2. Allow it to dry slightly and then spread a layer of modge podge on top (spread thinly as it will cause the ink to bleed a bit ... but that just enhances the cool look of it in the end).

3. Now you might be starting to panic (as I did) if you see bubbles in the middle of the picture that you just weren't able to get out and you might think the whole thing looks like crap. DON"T WORRY! Put it away the the rest of the day, even overnight. When it's fully dry, look at it again and it might (will probably) be just fine. That's what happened to me. I was in a full state of panic and hid it in my closet, the next morning I pulled it out and it was just fine. All the bubbles had flattened out and the whole thing was perfectly stuck to the canvas. You now have a DIY canvas print.

Darran thought it looked pretty cool and was super please to get a gift like that. I want to do another one of him and our newest baby girl. :)

So, since this is a post about the birthday, thought I'd put in all the pictures of Darran opening his gift. :)

This is the bucket with all the gifts wrapped (and the reason written on the outside of the package). The deck of cards is in the envelope. :)