Meringue Hearts

Meringues are easy to make and taste delicious!



This recipe makes about 60 meringue cookies (but we gobbled them up in a day or 2)

What You'll Need

- 4 Egg Whites

- 1 tsp Vanilla

- 1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar

- 1 1/3 cups Sugar

- Food coloring (optional)

- cake decorating icing bag

The How To

- Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

- In a medium mixing bowl you are going to beat the Egg Whites, Vanilla, and Cream of Tartar on high until SOFT peaks form. (that is where the tips curl)

- Then add the Sugar....ONE Tablespoon at a time.

- Now you need to beat the mixture until STIFF peaks form (that is where the tips stand straight up)

- Next if you want to color your meringue, nows the time to add food coloring until you get your desired color.

- Then fill the cake decorating bag with the meringue mix.  I did NOT put a decorating tip on the bag.

- Now to put your hearts on the pan.  For each heart, squeeze the meringue on to the pan in a V formation....making sure that the lines of the V touch. 

-Time to stick them in the oven and bake them for 20 minutes (until they are firm and the bottoms are lightly browned)

- Put your meringues on a cooling rack.

- When cooled off....ENJOY!!!

Fruity Soap

What You'll Need:

- Clear pure glycerin soap (I found mine at my local craft store)

- Silicone muffin pan

- Pureed fruit, herbs, or berries of your choice

The How To:

 - First puree (or zest) your ingredients.

- Next, melt your pure glycerin soap according to the directions on the package.

*Note: I melted 8 blocks of my soap and it gave me 11 small soaps.

- Now it is time to mix your different fruits/herbs/berries into the melted soap.  Be sure to start with adding small amount at first (like a teaspoon of the fruit/herb/berries at a time) until you get the desired consistency and/or color.

- Then pour/spoon it into the muffin pan.  (I put 2 Tablespoons of soap into each muffin slot)

- Let you soap cool according to the package directions (probably a couple of hours) until it is hardened.

- Next pop the soap out of the silicone muffin pan and, waalaa, you have some fruity smelling soap.

Oh and be sure to use it within a couple of months.

Some of the different things i tried in my soaps were: lemon, strawberry, mint.  Then a couple of combos of the above: lemon + strawberry, mint + strawberry

Since Valentines is right around the corner I think my girls would think it would be fun to each get their own heart shaped fruity soap.

Pom pom Garland

Pom Pom garlands are super easy to make.

In fact they are a great way to use up left over yarn.

What You'll Need:

- Yarn

- Fork (Mine was a larger salad serving fork so I could get larger pom pom's)

- Scissors

- String to hang them on (I used bakers string/twine)

-Needle or scotch tape ( for threading the pom pom's on the string)

The How To:

- The first thing you'll need to do is wrap your yarn around the fork about 60-65 times, then cut the yarn.

- Now cut a longer piece of yarn (I did mine around 5-6 inches long).

- Then take that 5-6 inch piece of yarn and thread it through the bottom of the middle gap in the fork.

- Then tie it tightly around the middle of your bunch of yarn (shown in picture below).

- Now, slide the yarn off the fork.

- Then take your scissors and cut through the loops that are on the edge of your yarn 'ball'.

  Keep cutting until all the loops are cut.

- After you cut all the loops feel free to give the ball a little 'hair cut' and trim any long pieces off and trim it up so it looks more even.

- Repeat the steps above until you have the desired amount of pompom's.

- Next thread your needle on your string (for thicker string using a yarn needle may be easiest) or tape the end of your string to make it so you can string your pompoms on the string.

- Now just poke the needle (or taped end of your string) through the center of your pompom's.

- You are now ready to hang your pompom garland!

Take along Ice skaters

You know how when you are at a restaurant or at the doctors office and the kids start getting restless and bored?
Well, here is a fun little toy that you can take along with you anywhere to help entertain them.
It fits in a mint tin.

And it is pretty easy to make.

What you will need:

- A mint tin (as in an Altoids mint tin or something similar)

- Computer and printer

- Pliers

- Paper clip

- Glue stick

- Magnets (note:  I had to use some fairly strong magnets for it to work well)

- Scissors

What to Do:

- First I did a search on the internet for an ice skater image that I liked.

- I had to resize it to about 1 1/2 inches

- Then I made a copy of the image and flipped it.....so it looked like a mirror image (shown in the photo below)

- I lined them up so that the edge of each ice skater was touching.

- Next print the ice skaters

-  Now its time to pull out those handy dandy scissors and cut them out.

-  Next grab your pliers and paper clip.

-  Take your paper clip and straighten out one end of it with the pliers. (After I straightened it I bent the very tip of it over to help reduce the risk of my kids accidentally getting poked by it.)

- With the other end of the paper clip use the pliers to twist it until it looks similar to the photo below.

- After twisting the bottom to look like below, try to make sure that it is flat on the very bottom of the paper clip...this is the part that will help keep the ice skater standing up.

- Now, fold your cut outs in half at the points where they meet.

- Then coat the inside of the ice skater with glue and place the straight end of the paper clip inside of each skater.

And that is pretty much it.

- When your kids want to play with it they stick the magnet(s) on the underside of the tin bottom (or lid) and the ice skaters on the opposite side. So they can guide them around from the underside of the tin.

- And when they are not playing with it just put the skaters inside of the tin and close the lid and stick it in your purse or pocket.

-And if you wanted to I'm sure you could use some scrapbook paper and modge podge to decorate the outside of the tin too.  =)

My kids love playing with this.  And since there are 2 ice skaters and a top and bottom to the container I chose, 2 kids can play together.

And the ideas with this are endless....

you can do ballerinas, cars, animals, bugs, dinosaurs.....


Have fun with this and if you have any questions feel free to ask away!

How to Draw Snowflakes!

 Learn how to draw beautiful snowflakes of your own.

These snowflakes were created by the artist at 'Profusion Art.'

Check out the tutorial at profusionart.blogspot.com

Children's Christmas Apron

Here's a cute and easy way to make a holiday apron for children! 

 All you'll need is a kitchen hand towel and ribbon.

You can find holiday hand towels in almost any store during the holidays.

-Fold the towel in half lengthwise.

-Then take a ruler and measure 3 1/2 inches in on the top and mark it. 

(Make sure it's not on the folded side)

and 9 inches down the side and mark it.  (See picture above)

(Although my towel is not folded in half it shows you where your cut's should be made.)

-Next take your ruler and trace a line from the two points you marked. (like the picture above)

-(Your towel should still be folded in half.)  Now cut the towel on the line that you marked. 

-Open it up.  Your now ready for your sewing machine.

-Fold the cut edges over about a 1/4 inch. twice to hide the rough edges and pin in place.  

-Next pin your ribbon in place for the neck and the ties around the back. 

-Sew in place.

And that's all there is too it!  Easy as pie!  Now your ready to let your children help you make some!

Happy Baking!

12 Days of Christmas Cupcake Tin

Here's a fun way to celebrate the 12 days of Christmas!

First measure the mouth of the cupcake tin to see how wide you need to make each opening.  Have  a lip no less than 1/8 an inch around each tin or it will not give the magnet enough area to hold itself in place.

(Each circle needs to be 1/4 inch bigger than the opening.  That's 1/8in. + 1/8in for each side.)

Cut your circles out of scrapbook paper.  Add any embellishments that you like, then add the number.

Next stick each circle on a sticky magnet sheet.  (You can get these at the craft store.)  Then cut them out.

You can leave your cupcake tin silver or spray it white like mine.

 Next you need to choose what you want to put inside of each tin.  You can put in candy, fun messages, small gifts, activities to do as a family.  Oh the possibility!

Santa Clause Christmas Countdown

Here's a fun way for your children to count down the days until Christmas!

-First find a Santa image on line. (Make sure it has a nice full beard!)
 -Put the numbers on the image before you print it, or write the numbers on the Santa after you print it.  The numbers will be covered up so it doesn't matter. 

-Have your child color the Santa.

-Then for every day of the month have your child glue a cotton ball on that number.

(We pulled the cotton balls apart and only used half for each number.)

In the end Santa will have a beautiful white beard and nicely trimmed hat.

Happy Counting!

Spring Candy Nest

Here is a fun and super easy way to celebrate the coming of Spring!

What you'll need:
-1 bag Chow Mein Noodles (Crispy)
-1 bag Butterscotch chocolate chips
- Robin Egg Candy (I used Cadbury-mini-eggs) 
Optional - (I added 1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips, for a darker color)
-Cupcake pan

The how to: 
-Pour butterscotch chips into a microwave safe bowl.  Microwave chocolate 1-2 minutes, checking every 30 seconds until melted!

-Pour the whole bag of Chow Mein Noodles into the melted chocolate and mix until evenly coated.

-In a greased muffin pan spoon chocolate covered noodles into each muffin cup and shape as a nest, leaving a little indentation in the middle.

-Place the candy robin eggs into center of nest.  Let the chocolate harden.

-Use a knife to pop nest out of the muffin pan.

-You can place each nest in a paper muffin liner if desired. 

If you don't want to use a muffin pan you can can shape each nest on wax paper.  This method creates more of a realistic look and it allows you to make the nest as large or as small as you want.

-

 I wanted to take these to some friends so I filled the bottom of a plastic cup 

(Short & wide, Elegant style cup)  with some candy, then dropped my cute paper lined nest into the cup and wrapped it with plastic wrap and ribbon.

Easter Egg Lunch Hunt

After an Easter Egg hunt I find myself telling my Children, 

"You can choose three eggs.  If you eat too much candy you could get sick!"

With this special egg hunt you can surprise your Children by saying,

 "Go ahead and eat everything in all your eggs!"

You'll need Jumbo size Easter Eggs & an assortment of finger foods.  Be creative!  What ever you can think of that will fit in your eggs.

Some of the things we put in our eggs were: Carrots, Cheese sticks (cut & folded in half), Grapes, Goldfish crackers, Peanut butter and Jelly Sandwiches (cut in half then cut in thirds), and Cookies. 

Go outside and hide your eggs... let the hunt begin!

To make sure all our children got one of each food variety we had them hunt for their very own color.  If you have a large group you can have them search for one of each color.  (Just make sure you fill each color with the same food.  Example: All yellow eggs have grapes, all blue eggs have crackers...)

After all the eggs are found sit down together for a picnic lunch!

As we ate our Easter egg lunch we talked of all the kinds of foods we could put in our eggs next year.  We were even thinking of breakfast foods! 

Have fun!

Sugar Cubes

My youngest and I were a little bored today so we decided to make our own sugar cubes.

They are SO easy to make!  My 5 year old did pretty much everything on her own.

What You'll Need:

- A bowl

- A fork and spoon

- 1 Cup of sugar

- 1 Tablespoon of water

- An ice cube tray

The How To:

- First pour your cup of sugar into the bowl

- Then make an indentation in the middle of the sugar and pour your Table spoon of water into it.

- Next, use your fork to mix the sugar and water. It should have the consistency of wet sand....like the kind used to make sand castles.

- Now, take your spoon and fill up the spots on the ice cube tray.

- Be sure to use the back of your spoon to really compact the sugar in each mold (that's where I had to help out).

- Then we let them sit out for about an hour to dry out and harden(if you live in a humid place you will need to let them sit out longer)

-When they were ready we turned the ice cube tray upside down and gently tapped the sugar cubes out.

And now they are ready to eat!