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A First Birthday Present: Colored Oak Blocks

My 4 year old selected the oak branch and marked where the cuts should be made. We went over to the chop saw and he supervised, from a distance, each cut. Then we dried them in the oven on warm for an hour or so and then soaked them in a bit of water with food coloring added to it for about half an hour and then dried them in the sun. The pieces took the color really well. Then we sealed them with a beeswax sealer and wrapped them in a cloth for his little brother's first birthday.

I'd love to make a whole basket of these of varying widths and lengths. They are quite beautiful.

A Fabric Birthday Garland; Making a New Tradition.

As inspired by Amanda Blake Soule's lovely book The Creative Family.

Play Clay

There are a million different play dough/clay recipes out there. This is the one we like. I make four batches, one for each primary color of red, blue, and yellow and one which remains white for lightening shades. From there any color can be made by mixing the finished clays together. The home-made clay is so far superior to the store-bought type that it's hard to make a comparison. The home-made clay doesn't dry out nearly as quickly nor does it have that strange smell.

1/2 cup salt (I use kosher since it's so cheap)
1 cup flour
1 T cream of tartar
1 T oil
1 cup water
plenty of food coloring

Add all ingredients into a saucepan and cook over low/medium heat until the dough pulls away from the sides. note: I've read so many recipes which call for just a few drops of food coloring. In my experience it takes a good half of a small bottle to get really nice vivid colors. The first time I made it I added only a few drops at a time, save yourself time and just dump it in. Allow to cool then knead for a few minutes. So easy!

Superhero Capes

These capes are fabulous. The shimmery, drapey material is fabulous and that makes the capes fabulous. I cut on the bias and used double sided fusible fabric for the lettering using a contrasting color in the same fabric. the top and sides are serged together and then turned and topstitched. The bottom edges were left free and simply serged for what I like to call FLOW FACTOR. Everything is more fun when it flows! To finish it off it has a surprisingly un-scratchy (because where flow is fun scratchy is NOT!) gold rope tie which passes through the entire cape and is sewn into place.

The inspiration was a birthday party for a 3 year old boy who we haven't seen for a while so I can only imagine what he may be into right now. I decided to go with what my 3 year old dude likes and hope for the best. I started to make the one cape and it looked so great I decided to make one for my little guy (ahem correction.. big kid) too, because I am fairly positive when he sees it and helps me wrap it he will request one just like it! That will be a fun surprise for him!!

I see some seriously fun times ahead!

Robot Shorts