Fizzy Bubbles!

We were stuck inside sick a couple weeks ago, and Amara was getting a little restless. I went in search of something simple for her to do with things we had on had. Last thing I was wanting to do was run to the store for things when I felt like I'd been run over.

All we needed for this little activity was vinegar, baking soda, food coloring, a dropper, a glass baking dish and a few bowls.

Pour some of the baking soda into the glass baking dish. Then pour a little vinegar into each bowl and add a drop or 2 of the food coloring in. We did red, blue, yellow and then mixed in the dropper to make other colors. Then just squirt the vinegar into the baking soda. You'll get a nice rainbow colored dish of fizzling bubbles. Same concept as making the erupting volcano for the science fair, but on a much smaller, less messy scale.

Amara just loved this. She's been pulling out the dish we used and asking to make bubbles even days later. It was simple to do and clean up, even with us not feeling the best.

Toddler Christmas Tree

This year will be our first year having a Christmas tree since we were married (so since 2007!). That first year we went to family for Christmas. The next 2 I'm pretty sure Michael was deployed.. 2010 Christmas I was starting to have preterm labor, so was on bed rest. Last year, we moved right after Christmas and were dealing with a mold infestation.

This year I was determined there would be a tree. I bought an artificial, pre-lit tree from someone's moving sale a few weeks ago (scored it for $30! and the ones on base are running about $200+). We also bought some ornaments, but the pickings are kind of slim and expensive here. I ordered some online last week, so hopefully they'll be here soon.

Amara, I'm sure, will be into the tree like any other toddler. The ornaments I got are all shatterproof, but who wants to keep redecorating the tree? I saw a felt toddler tree on Pinterest last year sometime, and by some miracle remembered it for this year. Felt sticks to itself, so you just make the tree and your child can take the decorations off and decorate the tree a million times. I ordered from fabric.com, and don't forget your ebates for some cash back. It's 4% currently, but sometimes they run double days or change it up. They also list coupon codes on ebates.

Basically you just get a yard long cut of green felt and cut it into a tree shape. What I did, so it didn't look screwy, was tape together a bunch of printer paper and sketch out the shape I wanted. I then used that as a pattern to cut the felt.

Then I ordered single sheets of felt that are 9"x12". I got brown (for the tree trunk), red, pink, white, silver, purple, and yellow. I used fabric glue to stick on the trunk. Then just get creative and cut out ornaments. Make is as simple as you want, or get creative and have fun with it. We have a star tree topper (which I also glued on). I cut out some yellow lights and used the silver to add little light sockets. I was going to string these together, but could just see the cat destroying them. I cut out some snowflakes from the white (not an easy task, even with a simple snowflake pattern). I made some little present boxes too. Then just some circle ornaments. I think, after putting all the ornaments on, it could use a few more. So, I'll probably do that this weekend.

Kira checking it out. I'm waiting for her to start ripping ornaments off...

We shall see if it keeps her out of the actual tree or not though. Even if it doesn't, it cost less than $10 to make and I'm sure she'll enjoy it. I just put it up during nap time. Yes, it's Thanksgiving Day, but I wanted to share early enough so others could make one for this holiday if they wanted. It was super easy to do.

One of my newer favorite products, Zoya!

Earler this year I discovered Zoya nail polish. They had a buy 3, get 3 sale so I figured I'd give it a shot. I was looking into nail polish options for Amara when I found them. They are a cruelty free, vegan nail polish company. I did not realize there was such a thing as vegan nail polish until this point. They are also 5 free. This means it is free of toluene, formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin, DBP (phthalates) and camphor. It's a natural nail polish. If Amara gnaws on it and swallows some, she isn't going to be eating carcinogens like a lot of other drug store polishes have in them. Nor will they be absorbed through our skin/nails.

This stuff is simply amazing. It lasts forever without chipping. My toe nails usually grow out too much before the polish chips. I had the same color on my toes with no chips for a month when we traveled to the U.S. earlier this year. My hands, it usually goes a week. I end up banging my nails up cooking or cleaning. There are 300+ different colors, so don't be put off thinking vegan means there is no glitz or bright colors available. It's so hard to choose which ones to get because there are so many beautiful colors. They are a little pricey at $8 a bottle, but worth it due to quality and safe ingredients. They also have sales and coupons. I understand they are sold at Ulta too, but I'm not sure what sort of specials Ulta may or may not run on this polish since I can't shop there currently.

I used some of my Share the Love points to get a coupon code for this order. You get points for sharing their products. Then you can redeem these points for coupons. They change them up monthly though. They have had things like free shipping, free bottle of polish, and X dollars off of purchase in the past. I used a coupon for $15 off of $25. The coupon 'cost' me 500 points. If you click any of the links below (color names), you can sign up for an account. You'll get a coupon for a free bottle of polish, and if you buy at least 2 more polishes, you get free shipping in addition to the free bottle. I'll get points for sharing the product with you. Then I can use them for coupons on future purchases. Win/win for all!

I got Rekha. A nice blood red from their 2012 Fall New York Fashion Week collection.

Then, Monica also from the Fall NYFW collection. It's a very deep, dark plum color.

Also, Blaze from their Winter 2012 Ornate collection. It's a pretty red with lots of sparkle.

Also from the new winter line up, Electra. A silver sparkle.

 And lastly, Aurora, also from the new Ornate line up. A sparkly, purple color.

Sadly, not all of them will be mine to keep. I'm not going to say which ones I'm keeping for me at this point. I may change my mind when they get here and I see them in person. They should be here soon though. This is why I didn't put up any model pictures. I don't want to give away what ones are gifts (or use a sample of someone's gift). UPDATE: Since Christmas is over and everyone has received their gifts, I kept Electra, Blaze, and Monica. Blaze has been used more than a few times already. It went perfect with my dress for my husband's work holiday party. Amara really likes the 'sparkle' one and keeps asking for Electra on her fingers, and she has constantly had 'purple' on her toes (AKA Monica). 

My only 'issue' with Zoya is shipping. They will only ship within the U.S. and not to FPO/APO or P.O. Boxes. First order, I used the 'mom forwards the box for me' method. This time around we used ShipitAPO. It's a company that will forward packages to FPO/APO addresses (so long as the items do not break USPS rules like no batteries or fluids etc). For example, if a company only ships UPS we cannot get the package. All items must be sent USPS. ShipitAPO gives you a personalized address to their warehouse. Then when you order, you give the company this ShipitAPO address. Package gets sent to their facility. Then when it arrives, they turn around and mail it USPS to the FPO/APO address you gave them at sign up following your specifications (insurance, shipping confirmation, priority, first class etc). Rates are fair and they only charge a small handling fee for their time.

Doll Diapers

With the holidays upon us, I have a few crafty projects to get done. First project I completed is a part of Amara's Christmas gift. She's getting some little bitty baby doll cloth diapers to go with her new Corolle baby doll that is also one of her gifts.

I saw some doll diapers online when I was shopping for a doll and thought that would be a perfect accessory gift. Everyone seemed to be asking a higher price than what I thought necessary for play diapers. I found this doll diaper pattern while shopping and reading over reviews. It looked easy enough, so I decided to give it a go. You just print out the pattern and it has the directions right on it.

I ordered my fabric from fabric.com. Yes, I could have gotten it locally, but they do not have nifty shops similar to a Michael's or Joann's here. You have to venture out to the open air markets. Seemed like less of a hassle to just shop from my couch rather than get lost and struggle with the language barrier by myself with a toddler. I got an animal safari print and a polka dot print for the exterior, and a plain white cotton for the interior lining. I ordered 1/2 yard of each of the patterned fabrics, and 1 yard of the white. The total was $12.31, and I had ordered enough other stuff to get free shipping. That has yielded 17 diapers, so only .72 cents per diaper! I'm not adding in my cash back from ebates though, so they were even less. I don't remember what percentage back they were offering at the time of my order.

I attempted to work only during nap time in hopes that Amara wouldn't see anything, which sort of worked. She saw it a little in early stages, but she didn't recognize what it was and went on playing. I did the project over the course of about a week. You could probably hammer it out in an afternoon if you are more focused than I am and can steal away some kid free time (something I'm not at liberty to do currently).

Anyway, onto some brief directions with photos. Print out your pattern. Cut it out. Then gather your pre-washed fabric to cut the diaper fronts and backs out (yes, pre-wash it! You don't want to wash them after the fact and find the front fabric shrinks and the back doesn't, so now your diapers look wonky).

Pattern with directions

Made sure it 'fit' the doll first. It covered more than half her bottom, so we were good to go.

 You're going to fold the fabric and pin the pattern on so it lines up to the fold. The pattern is only half a diaper, but since the diaper is symmetrical you can fold and make life a little easier. I was able to fold my half yards and get 2 diapers along each fold. Then after those were cut, I moved the fold down the fabric until it was all used up. One fabric seemed to be cut uneven though, which is how we ended up with an odd number of diapers.

Line pattern up on fold of the fabric, pin in place, and cut.

Then you are going to pin them right sides together. The white fabric didn't have an obvious right vs. wrong side, so that one didn't matter. The colored/patterned fabrics did though. One side is obviously printed on, or brighter colored. Make sure that bright side is in the middle of the sandwich.

Pin right sides together. You can tell the brighter part is the front of the fabric. You want that in the middle for this step.

Next, sew around the edges. Make sure to stay close to the edge, but not too close that you're just going to fray the edges of the fabric, or that it leaves holes.  Along the back edge (the longer edge), you want to leave a gap for turning. About 1.5" to 2" was good. Just big enough to turn the diaper right side out. Good thing is, you can get a little sloppy on this step. No one is going to see your stitches, so if you get a little wobbly it is no big deal. I struggled with the curved leg areas and ran off the fabric a few times. I just re-positioned it and carried on.  No one will ever see since the stitches are inside the diaper now.

Gap along the back for turning.

 Trim your corners so there aren't wads of fabric and then turn all your diapers right side out. Then sew up the hole. I'm sure there is a fancy hidden stitch you can do, but I just did a straight line stitch. Yes, it is visible, but who is really going to be sitting there staring at doll diapers going why is this visible?

Trim corners.

Turn right side out.

Lastly, sew on your velcro tabs. The pattern shows you positioning, or just eyeball it like I did. I put some bigger tabs on than the pattern suggested so hopefully it's easier for little fingers to close/open on her own. It also makes the diaper more flexible to fit other smaller toys.

I pinned it where the velcro will be, since I forgot to buy velcro! It fits though!

Also fits our friend monkey (she has 3 monkeys this size).

Play Dough Time!

Little Miss Amara has been having a rough few days. I decided she needed something new to shake her out of her funk. On Pinterest, I ran across a pin for homemade play dough that claimed to be the best recipe out there. I was going to hold off and do it for her art station that she is getting for her birthday, but it seemed like she needed it now rather than later. It'll just get added to the station when I get it all set up in January.

The recipe was mostly things I had on hand. We only had to buy 2 items when we did our grocery shopping earlier in the week (the cream of tartar, and food coloring). It ended up being less expensive than buying the brand name Play Doh too.

The recipe:
1 cup flour (used all purpose)
1 cup water (we had the lower sodium salt and it was fine)
1/4 cup salt
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tbsp vegetable oil
Food coloring (or sugar free kool aid packets and it needs to be sugar free or the dough will be sticky)
Any add-ins like sparkles or maybe small confetti pieces (the plastic type, not paper)

Ingredients all gathered at our table. 

Dump it all in!

 Add all the ingredients to your nonstick pot. Doesn't matter what order. I measured them out and then let Amara dump.

Mix it all up!

Then stir it all up until it is mostly clump free. I let her stir, and then stirred it a little myself to make sure no clumps of flour were hiding. 

Then take it to the stove and heat it up over medium heat. You need to stir it constantly so it does not burn. I did not let Amara help with this step since we are still working on stove is hot, don't touch. I also didn't have anything she could safely stand on to reach. 

As you stir, it will start to form clumps.

The clumps will get larger.

Keep going until it all sticks to your spoon in one large clump.

Next, take it back to your flat working surface. You'll need to knead the dough until it's the right consistency and cooled. Don't worry if it still feels sticky at this point. As you knead it, that stickiness will go away. Also, it will be hot at first for little hands. An adult should start kneading until it's cool enough for the child to help knead.

The instructions online called to add the color and add-ins when you first mixed all the ingredients together. I did not want large quantities of just one color though. I decided we'd knead the colors in at this point. The first batch, I broke in half. I made the first half yellow. Then broke it in half again and added red to make orange. Then we did just a few drops of red on the other half of the white dough to get pink. I broke the pink in half, and added blue to make purple. 

 

I made a little hole, put the coloring in, and then folded it in (adding more drops if needed to get the intensity I wanted). My hands, for the most part, aren't rainbow colored.

Then we made another batch. On the way to the stove, I tripped over the chair leg. Thankfully only about a 1/4 of it spilled, so we went on with the instructions above and was fine. It cleaned up easily though.

Uh oh, Mama! MESS!

Then she realized her cup was a victim...

This batch we only got 3 colors. I made red, green, and blue, so no color mixing needed this round. 

Checking out all 7 colors.

Apparently, this recipe will last for up to 6 months if you keep it stored properly. I put each color in a ziplock bag, and then all 7 baggies into a plastic container. The recipe is safe to eat (although I'm sure it is not tasty). It produced a very soft dough. The brand name kind they've been using at play group recently has been too hard for Amara to be able to squish. This was very easy for her to mold, smash, flatten, roll up or whatever else. 

Time to play!