Anouk and I have been making a lot of progress on our not-bummer-summer list over the past couple of weeks (stay tuned for an official update). One of our favorite projects so far has been making this recipe for homemade coconut ice cream! Not only is it dairy-free (good for me and my allergy), it's no churn and requires no cooking, which makes it definitely the easiest DIY ice cream recipe we've come across. You just combine all the ingredients and pop it in the freezer, you're done!

We made our ice cream mint chocolate chip flavored, because we're mint chocolate chip ice cream
fiends.

Ingredients:

• 1 can coconut cream (like this kind from Trader Joe's) 
• 6 tbsp sugar
• 3 tablespoons soy (or almond) milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp peppermint extract
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips 

Combine the coconut cream, sugar, milk, and extracts in a blender and blend until smooth. Add the chocolate chips and stir. Pour into a loaf pan or square baking pan and freeze for two hours, or until solid. Note: this recipe freezes kind of hard, so you might want to remove from the freezer and thaw for 5-10 minutes before serving.

Yum!

I got a few comments on Anne's birthday posts here and on Instagram regarding her super-awesome glitter birthday shirt and exactly two requests to share how I did it, and you know I aim to please my readers so... here goes. Anne was afraid that without a sort of outward sign, nobody would know that she was now four instead of three, so we decided to make a shirt using the trusty freezer paper stencil method. She also asked that it be glittery, which was a bit of a challenge because if you have a girl, you will know that glittery clothing -- especially DIY glittery clothing -- does not always keep its glitter after a few washes. But Anouk was adamant. So I headed out to the thrift store to pick up a blank tee and then sat down to research paints and then got to work.



You will need:

• Metallic fabric paint (we used Tulip Metallic in Gold) 
• Glitter acrylic paint  (Martha Stewart acrylic in Gold Glitter)
• Freezer paper
• X-acto knife
• iron
• foam brush

The how to:

Place a piece of cardboard or plastic inside the shirt to prevent the paint from going through the cloth. Prepare your stencil: draw your design onto the freezer paper so that the shiny side will be down against the fabric. Use the Xacto blade to cut out the stencil as carefully as possible. With a dry iron, iron the stencil to the fabric with the shiny side against the fabric. Pay special attention to the edges so that no paint seeps underneath.




With the foam brush, apply thin layers of metallic paint to the stencil until opaque (it took about four thin layers of paint, letting them dry in between). When that has dried, apply thin layers of glitter paint over top of the metallic paint (we did two layers). As soon as the final coat is almost dry, peel the stencil off -- I find if you wait until it's dry all the way, sometimes it gets a little stuck on.

(Aside: This is a great method to use to rescue clothing with stains on it -- I have a gray tee I love that has paint on it and I stenciled a giant glitter gold heart over top to make it look new again. Hooray!)

Anouk loves her birthday shirt and wants to wear it almost every day which means that I can safely report that after about 20 or so washes, the glitter is still holding up. Hooray again!

This project was inspired by May Day and the old tradition of giving flowers to friends and neighbors. But instead of just sitting and watching your flowers bloom, wouldnt it be more fun to be able to scatter seeds and watch them grow? We got the basic idea and inspiration from this post, and then went from there.

To make the seed bombs, you will first need paper, and lots of it. We used about two dozen sheets of used drawing paper (great way to recycle old art!) and two sheets of pink and blue tissue paper, to give our bombs a pretty springtime color. We tore the paper into inch-long chunks and then soaked it for 4-5 hours.

Next, we blended the paper in a blender until it was chunky but no longer identifiable as strips of paper. The pink and blue tissue paper kind of melded together to make purple, with little flecks that look like flower petals.





Strain the blended paper mixture through cheesecloth to get rid of excess water, then stir in the seeds (we used four packets -- forget me not, zinnia, poppies, and coneflowers). Then break out your mold. We used a silicon heart mold, and pressed the paper mixture into the molds (a little more water will come out, just pour it off). Gently pop the seed bomb out of the mold and lay it in a safe place to finish drying. The end result will be crumbly and imperfect, but I think that adds to its charm.

There you go! Tie up your seed bombs in a pretty piece of fabric or put in a little basket and give to your friends -- and don't forget to chuck a few into the corners of your own yard for a treat later on this summer.

Anouk originally picked her own valentines this year -- some paint-with-water ones we found at Walgreens. But sadly, when we got home and tried one out, we discovered those store-bought valentines were kind of a bust. The paint didn't paint, the colors ran, the paper ripped as soon as it got wet. But A. was committed to the paint-with-water concept so it seemed we would have to come up with a DIY solution.

We tried a few versions, but our final and most successful valentine was made using watercolor pencils and card stock. I designed the card (according to A.'s careful guidance, there is nothing more micromanaging than a 3 year old) and then we printed them off and she colored them in with the watercolor pencils. (The more color we used and the harder we pressed, the more vibrant the end result turned out). We tested a few by adding water, and they went from patchwork to brightly tye-dyed, just as A. wanted.

I designed these size-wise to fit little envelopes we already had, for small thank you cards. We did include small brushes taped to the envelope with washi tape so our friends have everything they need to paint their valentines at home.



If you'd like to make your own, paint-with-water valentines, I've uploaded our template here.

Anouk inherited this hand-me-down blue corduroy shirt from my friend Molly's son, Z. My kid usually likes lots of glitz and glamour and pink, but I thought this shirt was innocuous enough that it might slip by without comment. No such luck. As soon as A. pulled it out of the pile of clothes: "Mom...this is for a BOY."

The pom-pom idea was something I saw on Pinterest, ages ago. They had suggested sewing the poms (onto a skirt) but I found that the act of piercing them with a needle made them fall apart. And hot glue melted them (I only have a high-temp gun). In the end, we used E6000 craft adhesive, which is usually for working with metals or woods, but it worked great and has been through 2 washes (but not in the dryer!) with no problems.

Anouk loves her quick, cheap, and easy pom-pom shirt! So much so that she was really voguing it up during our photoshoot.



^^ the tongue is her signature pose. SO FASHUN.

Let's Go Outside!: Outdoor Activities and Projects to Get You and Your Kids Closer to Nature by Jennifer Ward

Imagine Childhood: Exploring the World Through Nature, Imagination, and Play by Sarah Olmsted

I received a ton of books for Christmas, most of which are waiting on my bedside table to be read. But I did find the time over the winter break to dip into two of them aimed at getting kids outside to play (a constant struggle in our house).


Let's Go Outside is the simplest of the two -- it's basically just a practical list of 52 projects and activities to do outdoors. From instructions on fort building to ideas for nature walks to rules for games you probably played as a kid but forgot all about (Sardines, anyone?), it covers all seasons and weather (we can't wait for some snow to try the DIY snowshoe project). Probably my favorite part of the book is that it grows with the child, adding ways to take each project further for different skill levels. (Example: While the little ones search for ladybugs in the grass, big kids are encouraged to keep a field guide comparing the different species of ladybugs they find and marking down special characteristics).

Imagine Childhood is more for the craftier set, as the focus is on making things using ingredients found in nature or celebrating nature -- earth houses, flower wands, or four seasons capes. There's a lot of text describing the importance of outdoor activity and memories of play pulled from the author's own childhood, which I admittedly leafed past, but the photos are gorgeous and inspiring. Some of the 25 projects are in-depth enough to make them more for the older set -- six to ten-year-olds, maybe? -- but I've earmarked a few for Anouk and me to try (we're definitely building tents in the backyard this summer -- they'll be perfect for Let's Go Outside's moonlight story time).

Did you get any new reads for the holidays? What are your favorite ways to get your kids outside?

(Speaking of getting out of doors, over at Fun and Free Hampton Roads, I blogged about FREE admission to the Norfolk Botanical Garden until January 19. Check it out!)

My friend Molly turned me on to flour sacks being the absolute best for drying dishes and now whenever I am out, I look out for them. I found this pair at the thrift store for $1 apiece, and after a wash with little bleach, they were as good as new.

Except the towels were a little plain, so I decided to spice them up with a few of Anouk's adorable drawings. She's been really into drawing people lately, and I think that they are so sweet, with their 90s sideswept hair and their little tiny bodies.

I think this would be an great DIY Christmas present for kids to make for the adults in their lives. Luckily, unlike most DIY Christmas projects, this is literally the easiest craft ever. Here's how it goes: Collect your child's drawing and lay underneath the flour sack towel. The design should show through the loose weave of the cloth. Trace the drawing with a sharpie. Boom!

A few weeks ago, when Anouk had a bad cold, our neighbor brought over a few bath bombs from Lush as a little treat for her. A. ended up liking them so much that she's been bugging me for more ever since. Of course we love Lush around these parts but why buy when you can DIY? Bath fizzes seemed like something that would be really hard to make, but was a surprisingly easy and  kid-friendly project.

DIY Bath Bombs (adapted from this recipe by Martha Stewart)

You'll need:

• 1 3/4 cups baking soda
• 1 cup citric acid  (a powder; we found ours at Wine and Cake hobbies, in their wine-making section but you can also find it online here.)
• 2 cups corn starch
• coconut oil
• essential oil of your choice
• food coloring (optional)
• spray bottle of water

Directions:

Sift the following the baking soda, corn starch, and citric acid into a bowl and mix well.

Transfer one cup of the mixture to a glass bowl. Add the liquefied coconut oil, a little at a time, mixing well with your hands. With your spray bottle, gently mist the mixture and mix with your hands between spritzes, until the mixture is moldable (holds shape when you squeeze it). NOTE: if you want your bombs to be colored, add food coloring to the water in the spray bottle. If you hear the mixture fizzing, you're adding too much water.

Add 5-6 drops of essential oil and mix again. Press firmly into cupcake liners or molds. After 2 hours, the mixture can be unmolded, but we found it was better to leave them overnight.




We made two different kinds of fizzies -- peppermint for the holidays and chamomile, for a relaxing bedtime bath. With the chamomile, I just tore open three or four tea bags and emptied them into the powder mix before adding the oil. The scent is really mild but there. Next time I might try chamomile essential oil to make it a little stronger. For peppermint, I used peppermint extract, from the baking aisle. It's a little less potent than the oil but still smells delish.

Store the leftover mixture (if there is any) in a ziploc bag to make more later. It should keep for a few weeks, as long as it doesn't get wet.

We're thinking of giving these away as Christmas presents to our friends. In the meantime we've been having a lot of fun testing them out.

It's been raining up a storm here in #HRVA these past few weeks -- my garden looks awesome but my kid is a little bored (and honestly, so am I). We've been turning a lot to craft books lately, and these two new releases are among our new favorites. I'm a big fan of sites like Pinterest, but they can get a little repetitive, with the same things appearing in my feed over and over -- it's nice to have a bunch of original, super-creative projects in one place when you're looking for a way to fill the rainy hours.

Disclaimer: I received review copies of these books from the publishers. My opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links that may result in a small commission for the blog. 


Maker Dad by Mark Frauenfelder: My first thought on seeing this book's subtitle was to roll my eyes a little -- does a book really need to be marketed to one gender over another? Then I opened it up, and immediately forgave the marketing team. Maker Dad is crammed full of projects that not only look amazingly fun but teach things like computer programming and how to use basic hand tools, skills that girls (and boys, too!) can put to use long after they've put the book back on the shelf. There's a strong emphasis on science and technology projects (how to put a video camera on a kite, create your own podcast, or build a robot that can draw beautiful abstract designs) with a few simpler ones (soap molding and extreme-bubble-blowing) thrown in. For the most part, the projects are aimed toward the older kid/tween set but this is one I'm definitely keeping in mind for when A. hits elementary school.




Project Kid by Amanda Kingloff: Project Kid, written by the former Lifestyle Director of Parents magazine, is definitely on the artsier end of the arts-and-crafts spectrum, no automated robots here (but there is a tutorial for a cute robot coin bank). While a few of the projects were a little twee, even for me (does anybody really need an embroidered flyswatter?), most were adorably innovative, and I did appreciate the emphasis on recycling and reusing instead going out and buying a ton of stuff just for the purpose of crafting (see PK's K-cup mobile, which is so cute it makes me wish I had a Keurig so Anne and I could whip one up). Bonus: Kingloff's tutorials for things like fringing and fabric dyeing are really helpful for those of us new to the kids-crafts rodeo, as are her checklists of things to have in your craft box so that you can stop, drop, and DIY at a moment's notice.

Do you do a lot of DIY at your house? Where do you get your crafting inspiration? Do either of these books sound like something your kids would like?

Happy Tuesday!

Here's a last minute Valentines craft we did during the little snowstorm we had last night. I was browsing Pinterest a few weeks ago when I saw these adorable glittery heart-shaped shoe clips. At almost $35 a pair, the price was a little outside of our budget but Anouk was so enamored that I decided to try a DIY.

We cut hearts from red poster board, covered them in glitter, and then I verrrrry carefully superglued bobby pins to the back (flat side against the paper) (hot glue would probably work better). They slip right over the front of the shoe pretty comfortably and they look just as adorable as we'd hoped. Pro tip: if you have glitter cardstock already available to you, I think it would be even easier to use that.

As far as running and jumping and wearing them outside go....well, we haven't tried it but I don't I think they'll hold up super-great being just paper and all. I do, however, think they'll be just the right thing to wear on Valentines Day! Next year, I'd like to try to make a more durable version, maybe from felt or faux leather? Or else save my pennies for the original, which are gorgeous.

We're taking the rest of the week off. Happy Valentines Day! Hope you're spending it with somebody you love. x

My sister brought me back a bag of lavender sugar from her trip to France last summer. It was so much fun to cook with -- it made my old tried and true recipes seem fresh and exciting again. We used it in as much as we could -- in lemonade, shortbreads, sugar cookies -- and even experimented with a lavender-sugar caramel.

I enjoyed my present so much that I thought it would be a good thing to try to DIY for our own handmade holiday. (The sugar my sister gave me was handmade by monks who have been making it since the 1500s or so, but I refused to be daunted.)

We ended up making three different batches of flavored sugar to give as gifts this holiday season: rosemary, lemon, and lavender. Here's how we did it.
















1. Gather your desired herbs and rinse, let dry (It's definitely best to use fresh herbs for this!) For lemon sugar, peel the fruit and lay the peel aside in a warm place to dry for a day or two, otherwise the moisture in it will make your sugar clumpy. When the peel feels dry to the touch, cut a few notches in it with scissors and you're ready to go.

2. Fill a clean small jar with a layer of herbs. Then add a thick layer of sugar. Repeat until the jar is filled. Use more herbs for a stronger flavor and less for a lighter one.

3. Let stand for 3-4 weeks, shaking and turning daily so that the flavor can be distributed throughout the jar (Anouk was a big help for this step). Test every week or so, until the flavor is as strong as you want it.

4. Strain the sugar through a sieve to remove the herbs and/or peel. If you like, you can leave a few small springs for festivity's sake. Pour back into the jar and tie with baker's twine or ribbon. Include a handwritten recipe for something to use the sugar in if you like or a small box of tea to use the sugar with.

I think the thing I like best about this -- besides the fact that it's so quick and inexpensive to make --  is that it's a grownup friendly DIY gift that little hands can put together almost all by themselves. Next I'd like to experiment with combining some of these flavors -- rosemary and lemon, lavender and orange peel. (And then I'd like to experiment eating some delicacies made with them).

Have you ever cooked/baked with flavored sugar? What did you make?

Have a great weekend!

As I mentioned before, we had a lot of birthdays in September. And as you know, we like to get creative with our wrapping paper for gifts. So when Anouk and I pulled out some supplies to do a quick apple-printing craft a few weeks ago, I got an idea. Why not use our apples to print some cute and seasonal DIY wrapping paper?

We had a lot of fun with this simple craft, so much so that after we'd done a few sheets of wrapping, Anouk and I kept going and made a whole slew of apple prints to hang around the house. The wrapping paper project was more about being precise, so it was fun to have the opportunity to let loose and see where our imaginations took us.





So fun! And the birthday boy really liked his book, so it was a success all around.

Have you tried apple printing? Do you decorate with your prints?