Crafting and kids.
We’ve had a busy couple of weeks around here! We did find some time to turn an old box into a puppet theatre though.
Michael cut out holes for the window and for a little door in the back. I added some curtains and Kate decorated it with some paint.
Have I mentioned that we can check out puppets from the library? Oh yeah.
That’s one happy girl. 🙂
Today I made popsicles for the girls, just because. 
First, I cut out some hearts from an apple.
Then I put the hearts on the paddle from the character kit and stuck them to the side of the mold.
We added a bit of food coloring because I realized that our juice was pretty much the same color as the apple pieces.
Then we poured the juice into the molds and waited about 10 minutes.
Awesome summery treat.
I’ve been a stitching fool this week. In fact, I finished another set of felt letters tonight. Might be my last one for a bit; 2 sets in a month is a bit much. I’ll try to take some pictures tomorrow in the daylight, but I’m not making any promises. 🙂
Michael and I are taking a little mini staycation on Monday and Tuesday. I might even go crazy and make a few scrapbook pages. 🙂 It’s been too long since I done anything crafty purely for myself. Hopefully I’ve stocked up some mojo.
Remember last year when we joined the CSA? We loved it, but ended up quitting last winter because we felt like we were wasting a lot of food. Well, I saw a living social deal yesterday and snapped it up. We’re signing up again and I’m so excited. I really missed it!
What’s going to be different this time around? Well, for one thing we got a food dehydrator. I’m thinking that if we get enough okra to feed a family of 12 one week, we can make okra chips with some of it. Now, I can see you over there rolling your eyes at the thought of okra chips, but Kate seriously loves them. I’ve never made them, but we buy them at Sprouts all the time.
We’re also going to take advantage of their swap box. So, a metric ton of jalapenos? Think we’ll swap that out for something else since Kate isn’t a huge fan of the spicy.
Now, for those of you who don’t know what living social is… You buy something (in this case you pay $26 for your first CSA box and the set up fee) and then they give you a referral link. Now, if you can convince 3 people to buy it through your link you get it for free. Exciting, no? All this to say that if you were thinking about buying it anyway (and you should!) then use my link por favor. 🙂
Now that I’m done whoring myself out, let’s get back to our regularly scheduled post about the food dehydrator. 🙂 It’s pretty dang awesome. Michael’s has been talking about getting one for a long time. We decided it was time when we went to the strawberry farm. Their strawberries are seriously among the best things I have ever eaten, but they go bad within a day or two because they are so ripe.
But sliced up and dried they have a much longer shelf life. It’s super easy too, you literally slice them and lay them on the food dehydrator shelves. Then you wait a day and you have yumminess. Now, Kate *loves* dried fruit anyway so this was a big hit. I love that there’s no added sugar (or added anything!).
We also tried drying some mushrooms and peppers. They were a bit meh. Our other huge hits were pineapple, banana and zucchini. That’s right, zucchini. I have no pics of these because they are gone pretty much as soon as they come out of the dehydrator. 🙂
And of course we made jerky. Michael made some traditional jerky that it apparently quite good. He also made me some salmon jerky which turned out awesome! Now I know what you’re thinking, salmon jerky?!? What?!? But, it’s super tasty. And a great high protein snack.
I’ll keep you posted on our CSA/ food dehydrating adventures.
What can I say, I’m a sucker for a photo opp. Luckily, Kate’s a good sport. 🙂 We drove out to Sweet Berry Farm to pick some strawberries last week and had a great time.
If you’ve never had fresh picked strawberries, you should know that they are pretty much the best thing you’ve ever put in your mouth. They are incredibly sweet and flavorful.
I had a bit of a hard time convincing Kate that she had to wait to eat them until we paid for them. I don’t blame her a bit. 🙂
This is our third year in a row of coming out to pick strawberries, but it’s the first time we’ve come during the week. There were a lot more ripe strawberries, I guess because there were so many fewer people out picking them. Kate did a great job of picking them this year. She really wanted some green ones, but she listened and just picked the red ones.
She’s such a ham. She knows that I love pictures of her running towards the camera. “I gave you a running picture, Mama!” So adorable.
It rained on us a bit, but after taking cover for a snack we headed back out to the fields for a few more strawberries. I had a hard time not filling up our box (and going back for several more) since they’re so good, but they really only last a day or two as they’re so ripe.
No trip would be complete without strawberry ice cream. Kate and Will were very serious about their ice cream. 🙂
What can I say, we’ve been busy! Picking strawberries, exploring the Science and Nature Center, swim lessons, screen printing shirts, a new bounce house and cupcakes. Oh, and I’ve been a stitching fool making wipes and felt letters. Happy news though, I made enough to order my new camera! It should be here tomorrow and I can.not.wait!
I have lots of fun stuff to blog about this week, but I’m also on a bit of a deadline to finish up another set of felt letters by the end of the month so we’ll see how much I actually get up here. I’ll leave you with cupcakes though. I took Ninja in to get groomed on Friday while Kate was “napping” and stopped by the cupcake place on the way home. I swear, this place has the best cupcakes ever in the history of the world.
We got lemon, chocolate and vanilla (and mimosa, red velvet and strawberry. What can I say, it seemed wrong to get less than 1/2 dozen.)
It was a totally awesome way to start off the weekend. 🙂
So I’ve decided to get serious about trying to buy a new camera body. Roughly translated, that means I’ll buy one in about 10 years. Lol.
In the meantime, I’ve started selling some crafty stuff. Felt goodies mostly, but also cloth wipes. Michael made me this totally awesome label for them. He’s the best. 🙂
We went over to a friend’s house today and made these adorable egg carton caterpillars. They were super easy and the kids had a blast.
I imagine it’s pretty self-explanatory so I didn’t bother with a tutorial. That and I’ve been kind of busy. 🙂 Basically, cut an egg carton in half lengthwise and let the kids at it with some paint. Then add some googly eyes and antenna. Super fun, super easy, super cute.
Thanks for having us over Libby!
If you live in Central Texas, it’s almost a requirement that you take plop your kid into a field of bluebonnets and take pictures. I was getting worried since I kept looking for a good field without much success, but then I hit pay dirt. Or rather Libby hit pay dirt and let me tag along. 🙂
I played around a bit with some photoshop filters. Is it too much? I like it, but then I messed with it so much that I’ve lost any perspective.
Kate was a pretty good sport about the whole thing. I think it helped that she got to wear her Christmas dress. I think she would wear it every day if I would let her. 🙂
I couldn’t believe how thick the bluebonnets were! It seems like they’re pretty scarce this year. A really tall yellow flower has taken over a lot of the bluebonnet fields.
I *may* have resorted to bribery to get this last shot. Don’t judge. 🙂
I think her mind was blown when she realized that you could get sprinkles on a donut.
Um, this thing is the bomb! I <3 it. My friend Stacy gave it to me for my birthday, along with the cookbook, storage case and extra popsicle sticks. Basically, you leave it in your freezer for at least 24 hours and then it can make popsicles in 10 minutes. Since it freezes so quickly, you can make really cool designs and stuff too. Check it out.
We sliced some strawberries very thinly and stuck them to the sides of the mold. Since the mold is so cold, they stick to the side almost immediately. Then we poured in some limeade. That’s really all there is too it! The popsicles were very easy to get out of the mold.
Kate approves. Note the drip guard. Genius.
Then we decided to try some fancy ones. We put some limeade in and waited a few minutes for the outside to freeze. Before the inside could freeze, Michael sucked it up with a straw and then poured in some cranberry juice. Awesome!
Then we decided to try some sangria ones. We stuck some more strawberries to the sides and then alternated wine and limeade layers. Why yes, that is a baby medicine syringe. It worked great.
We were too impatient and didn’t wait long enough in between layers so there were no stripes, but the wine did freeze!
I have to tell you, I had really high hopes for this wine popsicle. Meh. I think wine is not meant to be frozen. The rest of them were fantastic though. Michael even made one with iced coffee. I love that I can buy organic juice with no HFCS and make my own popsicles. I love that I can add real fruit to them. I love that Kate can help and actually see them freeze because it’s so fast. Two thumbs *way* up.
I also may have just ordered the tool kit and the character kit. They’ll be here this weekend. 🙂 I managed to restrain myself from upgrading the shipping so they would be here tomorrow, but it was a near thing. Luckily we get 2 day shipping with Amazon Prime. 🙂