Preparing for Mermaids

The Mermaid Invite...

Unlike the horse invites of last year...this one I did pretty effortlessly.   Purchased the mermaid design (actually is three mermaids that I edited in Powerpoint) and bought some pearl paper, small pearl stick ons and shell brads ... Then add Blackadder font for the sea fare look. Viola!  

 Hard to believe our little mermaid is going to be 4.

She has been living in her Mermaid costume that Grammy and Grandpa Art gave her for Valentine's Day...hope it makes it to her birthday.

The decorating has begun and will post on that next time, but the snow has returned much to Amelia's liking :)  

She has been practicing writing her name even in the snow and I think she has the olympic bug with her "stick skis". 

And nothing better than hot chocolate on a winter's afternoon.

Lastly,  we are big fans of the movies My Neighbor Totoro and Ponyo and last week we went hunting for a true Japanese noodle bowl just like Ponyo.  Here is what we came up with at the asian market, New Sagaya.  Amelia was thrilled and asks for noodles at lunch pretty much every day.

Since we were in town we headed to lunch with old friends at Alaska Dance Theatre and stopped by Classic Toys in Anchorage ... for what I said was strictly browsing.  Of course, you can't leave the store without something :)   So much for browsing.

A Cozy Valentine's Day

Ah ... Valentine's Day.  

How much do we love her...let us count the ways.

Amelia was just as excited for Dad and I to open our goodies as she was hers.  Dad received Wreck it Ralph and I was given Downton Abbey.  Everyone got chocolate of some sort :)  Dad also gave Amelia and I our very own Lego clocks...Amelia received a Mummy and I received a Vampire.  I am telling you we all love Legos.

After our Valentine opening and waiting for our new Easy Bake oven to warm up, we decorated the cottage with jewelry.

Then it was time to make our first treat in the new oven!

Dad and I only got a slice.  I figured I better make another dessert for later as she and Dad went off to assemble the Cinderella carriage.  

We enjoyed our brownie hearts after an early dinner of pancakes, sausage and omelettes per Amelia's request. Then a movie...perfect Valentine's Day.

Earlier this week I did make yet another Valentine treat of Homemade Tarts:

I had left over dough so made one of my little apple galettes as well.  

Preheat oven to 400.

Beat 1 egg in a bowl.

Unroll 2 sheets of refrigerated pie dough and cut out heart shapes using cookie cutter.

Arrange half the hearts on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Top with about 1 and 1/2 Tbsp filling leaving a clean border.

Generously moisten edges of remaining hears with beaten egg and align 1 heart on top of each heart on baking sheet.

Press firmly all around edges to seal in filling and crimp with fork.  

Brush tops with more beaten egg.  

Bake until brown and slightly buffed 18-20 minutes.

Cool on rack.

We filled 1/2 ours with plain Nutella and 1/2 with Nutella and jam.  Just enough sweetness.

If wished...Dip in Vanilla Glazed and decorate with sprinkles, etc.

Vanilla Glaze:

Whisk 1 cup confectioners sugar

2 Tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla

until smooth. 

tint with food coloring. 

Yum.

Since Valentine's Day is officially over...we are on to a Birthday!  Next week will post her Mermaid invites :)

Hearts...and more hearts

I had to insist Amelia finish (or help finish) some of the preparing for Valentine's Day Week.  She loves projects, but leaves a quarter of the way thru to play with her barbies or frozen dolls.  So projects usually take a long time, as I do like her to have her mark on all things handmade...even if it is hole punching or threading string thru a valentine :)  

Our watercolor hearts were all her except for the tearing.

Good gracious...that morning hair!

I got the idea from Kate's Creative Space, but instead of tearing the hearts around a cookie cutter before painting, I did the tearing after as we had super thick paper that was working better when wet.  I  had to force Amelia to use red and pink, as she wanted to use black and brown.  I  promised she could do another with any color she wanted.   

We also prepared Valentine's for our Dance and Skating buddies for the upcoming week.  I created, printed and cut the cards, she hole punched and loaded the bags.  

Our most ambitious project was her gift for Dad.

I saw tons of pins on Pinterest on the Sharpie on porcelain and had to try it.  Wasn't really sure how it would come out so did the project early in case I had to think of something else :)

You must use oil based sharpies and I bought a pack at Michaels for about $12.  Figured I'd use them for other projects as well.

I think the hardest part was for Amelia, as she had to write, draw and color on a rounded surface...after all, she just learned how to write her name not too long ago!  I wrote out on paper what she wanted to write so she could copy.  I held the cup steady at an angle for her too.  She did a few practice runs on plain paper and had a few mistakes on the cup...she screamed "OH NO I RUINED IT!".  I assured her I could wipe off a mess.  Then the finished project goes in a cold oven and baked at 350 for 30 minutes and allowed to cool completely in the oven after it is turned off.  

I found the best site for this to be at Sweet Pauls: Lova's World.  Teenager Lova has great ideas.

 

We filled the cup with Dad's favorite Reese's Hearts and appropriately a chocolate peanut butter coffee stirrer I found at Target.  He does get a homemade baked cake and purchased gift too that the whole family will love, but that I will post next week.  FYI...Dad was told not to look at the blog this week ... he is an avid reader.

Amelia's pink tree (my sister bought it for my baby shower) that is up for most of the holidays, has been sitting on her dresser bare, as I planned to make a garland for it for Valentine's Day.  I punched out a few small stars from our red/pink painted watercolor paper and told Amelia I had a gluing project for her (the kid loves glue).  I didn't have any small heart punches (only big) so I choose the star, but wished I had a heart :)

I brought the bare tree and materials onto her picnic table and she gasped and said she'd be right back.  I laid out the materials...she came back with jewelry.  I made the garland...she decorated the tree.  Seemed fair.  Garland will wait til next year apparently as this one is much prettier.

Mental note:  Make a white one with white/silver or gold stars for Christmas :)

Lastly, I have been printing Frozen coloring pages non stop.  In fact, I print A LOT of coloring pages as she usually likes the flat paper unlike a coloring book (although she does those too). I print them on card stock too, as she uses markers quite often.  I decided to put all the loose pages in a book for her.  I hole punched...she did the rest. 

Now easy to find and all neat in one place.  Except...she carries it around with her and doesn't remember where she put it.  sigh.

The Happiest Valentine's Day to all!

Alaska's Wild Weather...I Mean It In A Good Way This Time

January 28th in Eagle River, AK

The day prior we had our bike out, taking walks in the mud.

The next day was even better.  Went for a long stroll looking for adventure and then to our woods to check on the forts, where Amelia was quite concerned that the snow was off the trees...so she tried to put the few globs of snow she found back on them. 

She needed her mittens to put the snow back on the trees in the chillier, wooded side of the house, but soon ditched them and her coat when we hit the sun drenched deck side, where even her rain boots came off for a picnic.

Although still sunny, the temps slowly declined the next couple of days.  Didn't stop us from breaking out the badminton rackets.

Outside for nearly 2 days, we did come back in for a few projects when the temps started to go bad. :)

I will say both myself and Rob both are reliving our childhood thru Amelia.  We are both up on all the latest toys and gadgets.  Including Legos.  Thanks to Dad, Amelia now has almost all the Lone Ranger sets (of course including a train). 

I managed a few paper crafts of Frozen from Spoonful.com.  The site has tons of downloadable crafts and lots of ideas that include all our favorite Disney characters.

Frozen valentine printables that she already said she is not going to give away.

A door hanger for the cottage.

And a paper Elsa...that she lovesssss.  This was a bit time consuming and had to print it twice as I cut where I wasn't suppose to :)  I used double sided tape as I felt glue would alter the paper (and I wasn't patient enough for all the drying time in between).   I just happened to have some blue glitter tulle that was meant for her upcoming Mermaid Birthday party, but I could spare a bit for Elsa. 

Lastly, Amelia got her first Valentine gift in the mail yesterday from her Aunt Donna.  Amelia loves everything about Mail...it is perfect.  Although it is meant for a back of the chair.  She insisted that it is really a back pack. 

What a noodle.