Black Baby Mocs

I just went to a baby shower for a friend who is having a girl.  She also has a two-year old boy, so I was expecting the shower to be filled with pink, pink, and more pink, with possibly a little purple thrown in for good measure.  No surprise, I was right.  Just a few hours before the party, when I finally got around to making a gift, I decided to put together a little pair of black baby mocs (shamelessly copied from these brilliant ones like I've done before).

With all the girly things I knew she was going to receive, I thought it would be nice to bring something a little more gender neutral that will go with everything.  Oh, and they look hip and adorable.  The baby mocs that I made for my little one get tons of compliments every time she wears them - which I must admit is good for my ego.  They really are so cute on.        

Baby shoes are pretty fast for me to make at this point, but I only make them if I'm in the mood.  I'm fickle like that.  What do you bring to baby showers?  Do you make or buy?  Is there a standard present you bring, or do something different each time?   

Birthday Party Goody Bags

Kid #1 just turned five, and tomorrow is her birthday party.  I think my child may have a future career as a wedding planner - this party has been talked about and planned for months.  We just finished making the goody bags today, so I will share that now, and share the rest of the party details later.

The theme that was requested for this birthday party was a "Fairy Princess Lavender Tea Party."  Why not, right?  Although my kids have not been to a whole lot of birthday parties, they have been to enough to know that an essential part of a birthday party is the goody bag.  I do like the idea of giving a little gift to friends as of way of thanking them for coming to celebrate with you.  However, I am not super keen on spending a lot of money, or buying something unnecessary.  (This New York Times article on the topic describes the extreme.)

For our goody bags, my daughter and I decided on a list of inexpensive items that we could mostly make, and that we thought her friends would enjoy.  Kid #1 is so excited about these goody bags and is really hoping that one of her friends doesn't come tomorrow, so that there will be one left for her.

Do you want to see what we put in them?  Here it is!
























Playdough

I made playdough using a recipe I found here.  It looks quite blue in the picture, but it is a purple colour. 

Raisins

As Carlee has already mentioned, I am not eating refined sugar for the month of September.  Kid #1 is really taking the idea of no sugar to heart, and insisted that we have raisins instead of candy in the bags. 

Notebook

Something that my daughter really wanted in the goody bags was a notebook.  I did look at the dollar store briefly, before realizing that I would never find a teeny fairy notebook for a reasonable price.  Instead, I laminated a fairy picture, found here, and bound it up with white paper. 

Seeds

When Kid #1 requested flower seeds, I thought it was a really sweet idea.  After checking out a few stores, I realized that 1) you can't buy seeds at the end of the summer, and 2) we have a ton of seeds in our own garden.  We harvested a bunch of sunflower seeds, put them in a little bag, and added instructions for planting next year.

Glitter Pen

This was the one purchased dollar store item.  At $0.20 each, it was my biggest "splurge."

Fairy Ring

The fairy flower ring printable was found here.  I cut out the rings, laminated them, and then cut them out again.  It was a bit labour intensive for a goody bag present, but cutting is a kind of a fun thing to do while watching TV at night.

We loaded all of the gifts into a brown paper bag, and stapled on a cute fairy picture that says "Thank-you fairy much!" (found here). 


So, what's your take on goody bags?  Too much work?  Totally fun?  I will have to see how the party guests react, but this has been a fun project to work on with my daughter, and a nice way to teach her that giving gifts to others can be rewarding.

 

Blue Bonnet

I have admired the Peekaboo Bonnet pattern at Made by Rae for a while now, and last week I finally took the plunge and bought the pattern.  We spent a few days camping with my brother's family and my parents in Lake Placid, NY, and instead of packing, or getting ready for our trip, I spent the night before making this hat.  She didn't have a hat that fit, so what else was I supposed to do?   You would have all done the same, right?

As I'm sure you all have heard, it's a really great pattern.  It's fast, easy, reversible, doesn't use a ton of fabric, and very cute.  I'm a sucker for a baby in a bonnet, as you might remember, and Baby Girl is adorable in her new bonnet. 

For this bonnet, I used some blue cotton chambray, white bias piping and tape, and pink and white striped cotton from a thrifted men's button-up shirt.  The scrap of pink and white fabric that I had left was an odd shape, so I had to piece together several pieces so make the brim.  It's always a good feeling to use scraps!  It makes me feel better about all the fabric scraps I compulsively save. 

(Wacky) Chocolate Cake

We are in the thick of birthday season at my house and I have been baking a lot of cakes.  I've also been eating a lot of cake.  It was my birthday, my two boys got a year older, and I also made cake for two friends.  All in the last month.  It's my new 'cake a week' diet.  Incidentally Emily and Mr. Emily are doing 'Sugar-Free September'.  Good thing we live so far away from each other so I can't tempt them with my delicious and beautiful cakes.  Are you jealous that I have my own personal cake decorator?  Mr. Carlee always does the finishing touches on our cakes after I've assembled them and put on the main frosting - we have a good thing going on. 

Can I share my new favourite cake recipe?  Maybe you are all familiar with this type of recipe, but I just learned about the beauty of the chocolate 'wacky' cake this year from my friend Kelly. 

This is a great basic cake recipe.  I love that it is made entirely with stuff I always have in my pantry.  The recipe dates from the earlier (some things I read said the Depression and others WW11) when ingredients like butter, eggs, and milk were expensive and out of reach for lots of families.  There is no dairy or eggs, so it's great for vegans, and those with egg allergies.  Not so great for those people with loads of will-power and their 'Sugar-Free September', but you can't please everyone.

The last few times I've made chocolate frosting I've just sort of winged it.  For me this works since I have an idea of the taste and texture I want, and I know more or less how to get there.  I prefer to use cocoa powder for frosting over actual chocolate.  My reasoning for this is that I have an easier time  making a stiffer frosting without it being overly sweet.  And it's cheaper, so in my books it's a win.  

We had a hard time getting a good picture of the texture because the cake is so dark.  My apologies for not being a better food photographer.

Wacky Chocolate Cake

3 cups all purpose flour

2 cups sugar

2 tsp soda

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup cocoa (I use Hersey's Special Dark)

2 TBSP vinegar

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup + 2 TBSP oil

2 cups cold water

1. Sift the first five ingredients into a large bowl and mix well.  The original recipe that I use calls for only 5 TBSP of cocoa, but I add more because I like it dark.   
2. Make three indentations into the mixture.  Into the first hole pour the vanilla, into the second, vinegar, into the oil into the third.  
3. Pour 2 cups of cold water over the mixture.  I've also tried replacing some of the water with milk, buttermilk, or sour cream.  All are delicious and give it a slightly different taste.  Which is good when you are making a cake every week during Birthday Season.  
4. Beat until smooth.  
5. Spray your pans with Pam with Flour and pour in the cake batter.   
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes for a 9 x 13 pan.  When using two round cake pans, bake it at 325 degrees for 25-30 minutes.  Reducing the heat makes the cakes bake flatter and means you have to trim off less when you are leveling and stacking your layers.  
7. Pull the cakes out of the oven when a toothpick comes out clean. 
8. Cool for at least 10 minutes before turning your cakes onto a wire cooling rack.  

Winging It Chocolate Frosting

1/2 cup butter, softened
8 oz package cream cheese, softened
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup cocoa
5 cups icing (powdered) sugar

1. Cream butter and cream cheese until evenly mixed and fluffy.
2. Add vanilla.
3. Add sugar. If you need some white icing for decorating your cake, add the sugar first and then save some in a little ziplock bag (if you are not fancy and do not have piping bags). 
4. Add cocoa.  If you want it less chocolaty, start with less cocoa and add sugar and cocoa until you are happy with the taste and texture.  I find this type of frosting to be very forgiving.  It's hard to go wrong with butter, cream cheese, sugar, and cocoa.   
5. Frost your cake.  If your icing seems a bit too soft, chill it for a bit in the fridge.  You don't want it too cold and stiff or it will tear your cake (although if you are using frozen cakes this is not really a problem).  

Isn't my son sweet?  He was so bashful when we were all singing Happy Birthday too him.  Thankfully we have a break before the birthdays start up again around here.  I LOVE this cake, but I'm ready to go back to eating cookies for awhile.  

Tea Party (for Boys)

As I was going through pictures on my computer tonight I came across this gem.

Would you like to come to a tea party at our house?  We will be serving fresh milk and bacon.  Now that I'm thinking of it, this actually sounds pretty similar to the 'meat party' that Kid 1 requested we have last week.  You know, the kind of kid party where your friends come over and eat lots of meat.  Surely you've been to one?  I've mentioned that I'm a fake vegetarian before (there is a word for it now - pescetarian), so I'm sure you can appreciate why I find this request particularly hilarious. 

Anyways, long live imaginative play!  Kids have the best ideas.