Painting Rocks

Nature Girl had a preschool friend over for a play date. Since we usually like to plan a craft or project for our play dates we decided to paint rocks. This was a big hit. Nature Girl and friend painted large rocks with acrylic Painty pens. Amazing how a simple inexpensive project can provide so much entertainment. We plan to spray the rocks with a clear spray paint then add them to Nature Girl's garden. Spring is finally beginning to arrive. The snow is melting and the hyacinths are starting to peek through in her little garden.

While the kids happily painted their rocks I painted a frog and a cat. We'll add these to the flower beds in the yard once all the snow melts. Once again amazing how a simple and inexpensive activity can provide so much entertainment, even for a mom!

Thrifted Fabric

I love thrifting! Nature Girl is also a lover of things thrifted. Saturday mornings we like to head off to our favorite little thrift store with our next door neighbor MB. The three of us spend an hour or so looking around then head home with our purchases. We look forward to this weekly trip. Yesterday I found these fabrics. I'm not sure what the plaid wool piece will be yet but the blue swirly fabric will probably end up as a skirt for me. The red check is destined to become an accent on an apron and the yellow will be used for a stitchery project. The red fabric piece is actually a scarf I laid all the fabric on for the photo. I turned that scarf into a bag but couldn't get a decent photos of it.
Barb at So How Was Your Day had a cool post on Japanese Cloth Bags. It's a YouTube video that demonstrates how to tie a scarf into a shopping bag. After watching it I had to try it out. I dug out a red scarf from Nature Girl's dress up bin and whipped up the cloth bag. It was so easy. I think I might carry one in the car for when you need a bag. Of course if I ever get around to using my thrifted clothes to make shopping bags I plan to keep those in the car too. I have a Rubbermaid bin full of thrifted treasures just waiting to be transformed into reusable shopping bags. That's a project for another day. In the meantime the scarf bag will do.

Caffine and Spring Cleaning

Recently I've discovered that if I drink caffeine in the evenings I can't sleep at night. The other night I drank a Coke at 7pm. I went to bed at midnight then crawled back out at 1 am because I was wide awake. So what is there to do at 1 am that won't wake up the whole house? Spring cleaning of course. It's amazing how productive you can be in the middle of the night when there are no little people to interrupt you every five minutes! I decided to tackle our arts & crafts/storage closet down stairs. It's been a wreck since Christmas. Anytime you opened the doors you were taking the chance something would fall on your head. No longer... after 2 hours of cleaning everything is tidy, organized and labled. Now we can easily get to Nature Girl's craft supplies. Did I mention this is her craft closet? I have a basement full of my supplies. But that's a cleaning adventure for another sleepless night!
Here are the before and after pictures.

B EFORE




AFTER

The Recipe Box Swap

Over at i have to say there is a recipe box swap going on today. Well who couldn't use a new recipe so I thought I'd join in the fun. Today's shaping up to be a sunny 50 degree day just like spring. Of course there is still snow on the ground so I decided to do one more winter soup before putting my soup pot away for the summer. So here's what we're having for dinner...
Hearty Slit Pea Soup and homemade bread. Before you say yuck I have to admit I've never been a fan of pea soup until this recipe. Now it's a favorite when paired with warm bread and butter. Delicious! The recipe comes from Steph's Country Kitchen Goodness.

Chopped and ready to go into the Crockpot.

It doesn't look like much yet but it's going to be yummy!

HEARTY SPLIT PEA SOUP

1 package (16 ounces) dry, green split peas

4 cups water

2 cups chicken broth

1/2 pound cooked, finely cubed ham

1 large potato, peeled and diced

3 medium carrots, peeled and sliced

1 celery stalk, sliced

1 small onion, chopped

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

1/4 tsp. onion powder

1/8 tsp. dry thyme leaves

1 bay leaf

Rinse split peas in cold water. Combine all ingredients in a Dutch oven or large sauce pan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cover. Simmer, stirring occasionally, 1-1/2 hours. Remove bay leaf. Yield: 6 servings.

*Useful Tip: If soup is too thick, add enough water until soup reaches desired consistency. Soup thickens upon standing, so leftovers will probably need more water before re-serving.

One Success & One Misfit

I read something the other day that said it's good to fail because it teaches you new approaches and solutions. That each failure brings you closer to a workable solution that you can use. The elephant turned out to be a bit of a misfit but after that I created this orange kitty for Nature Girl. Nature Girl loves orange cats and wants a real one. She was thrilled with this little kitty and has named her "Ginger."
Ginger has been the recipient of lots of hugs and was honored with being the animal chosen to attend the leap land activities at dance class today. She's also decided to take Ginger to show and tell at school tomorrow. Ginger and Nature Girl seem happy together. Now back to the drawing board with the elephant.

Elephant Update

Here's an update on the elephant that was in progress yesterday.

While Nature girl was sacked out on the couch yesterday I worked on getting the elephant put together. Unfortunately I think he's headed to the Land of Misfit Toys. The questionable construction and shoddy stitching have sealed his fate. For the life of me I couldn't figure out how to get his ears on so the seam would be on the inside and wouldn't show. The way the ears curved around it's head stumped me. Maybe it was the lack of sleep the two previous nights or just a brain malfunction but I couldn't do it for the life of me. In the end I did a zig zag stitch up the ears to attach them. I'm not sure he'll hold up to the love of our four year old niece. It's funny how it seemed like a good idea on paper but in reality it didn't quite work out. I may have to give it another try someday when I'm up to the challenge. In the meantime I think I'll follow the pattern for Nelly the elephant in Toys to Sew by Claire Garland.

Work in progress

With Nature Girl being sick and taking naps the last two days I've had some time to work on some projects. Here are a few works in progress. Above is the start of a blue elephant softie for one of our nieces. She loves elephants and I thought I could make a softie from a drawing I did.

This is a snail doodle I stitched on muslin this weekend. I was looking for a doodle that would make a good icon for me as a blogger. I wanted something made by me and unique to me. So this snail stack is what I came up with. It's my husband, daughter and I. I think it will work. Of course I reserve the right to change my mind at a later date and create something new. As for the stitched snail stack it's being turned into a pillow and sent off to a niece who claimed it as her own.