On our recent trip to Philly we also stopped by the Philadelphia Museum of Art. So much fun to be had in this space -- I could probably write several thousand words about how well curated their collection is and how much fun it would be for littles to walk through! Instead, though, I'll write several hundred about some of the fun books we found in the gift shop and took home to read.



Kid Artists: True Tales of Childhood from Creative Legends by David Stabler. I brought this back as a souvenir for Anouk and we've been reading a chapter or two every night before bed. Who ever imagined Picasso of Van Gogh as a little kid? But it makes these greats seem very accessible and gives a hint into why they focused their art the way they did. For instance, knowing Beatrix Potter was the lonely child of rich and inattentive parents makes you really appreciate the tiny animal friends she created for herself. Knowing Theodore Geisel (AKA Dr. Seuss) was bullied mercilessly at school makes you understand why he would want to escape into a world of fun and silliness. There's a Kid Athletes and Kid Presidents volume in the series, too.




The Game of Patterns by Herve Tullet: Tullet of Press Here fame has a whole series of books that we got to play with at the museum's play area. The Game of Patterns, The Game of Finger Worms, The Game of Shapes. They were beautifully done like all of Tullet's works and a nice break from ducks and rabbits and traditional board book fare.



A is for Art Museum by Katy Friedland. Alphabet books are nothing new but this one highlights a masterpiece seen at PMA for each letter. The text also helps children begin to understand how to see and talk about art. (Next to Picasso's Three Musicians: "M is for music. Three men dressed in costumes play music. Can you see the circles and lines of their musical notes?") Friedland's other books is Art Opposites which also focuses on the PMA collection.

I wish we could go back to Philadelphia Museum of Art soon because their Wild: Mike Nichols exhibit opens at the end of June with tons of photographs of the natural world and creatures in it. If you can't make it either, see a trailer for the exhibit here.

 We're fans of illustrator Taro Gomi's work (Bus Stops, Everybody Poops) but lately we've been getting super into his doodle books with their charming open-ended illustrations that are prompts for kids to tell stories through their own works of art.



Right now we're working our way through his Story Doodles book (the thick-paper pages are meant to double as place mats) but there are several more to choose from, including one of postcards for kids to design and a puzzle book. We can't wait to collect them all (and we think they'd be great birthday/holiday presents for little ones, too).

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.

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.

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!

Last year, I made a vow that I was going to handmake each and every one of the presents I gave to my family and friends that holiday season. I imagined myself lovingly painting mason jars and embroidering initials on napkins by the fire all through December. In reality, I spent the weeks before Christmas in a frenzy, leading to a total meltdown on Christmas Eve while I sat up at midnight arranging photos in albums that I would give to my mother in just a few short hours. When it was all over, James turned to me and said, "I don't care if it costs ten thousand dollars, we are never, ever doing handmade presents again."

He didn't have to say it twice. I agree: I will never again attempt to make each and every one of my Christmas gifts for others. However, I think a few handmade presents here and there -- made WELL in advance of the holidays -- would be OK. I'm already hard at work on this year's crop, and over the next few weeks I'll be sharing a few of the gifts that have been big hits in the past and some that I am in the process of making. So that you can get a head start, too. :)

The first are these custom state prints. I was inspired to make these after stumbling across the (free!) Stateface font, in which each letter corresponds to the shape of one U.S. state. I downloaded it, immediately fell in love with it, and started using it everywhere. I made nursery prints for my friends with new babies, wedding prints for my friends who had been married that year, and custom notepads and address labels for anybody who came to mind.


Here's a quick primer on how to make these prints in Photoshop: open a text box and type the key corresponding to the state you want. Adjust your chosen state to the size and color that you want just like you would with any other font, highlight it, and then under the Type menu at the top, click on "Convert to Shape." This turns the state font character into an outlined shape that you can fill with whatever you want (other text or even a fun pattern.) For the nursery and wedding prints, I decided to place a heart to mark the location of birth or marriage and then insert the geographical coordinates underneath just because I liked the way the string of numbers looked next to the swirly font of the names.


Then you either print out your work at home on high-quality paper or at a professional printer (they can make so many things -- custom stamps, tote bags, personalized stationery, to name some of my faves.) Pop it into a frame with a nice mat, and you have a holiday gift that looks like a million bucks (but didn't cost it).

Each of these designs took me only a short time to make once I had the hang of things but because it was personalized for someone special to me, it felt like I was working on something special. You don't need any expert graphic design expertise to make these prints, just the right font and a little creativity (and Photoshop, though you could probably do this in other image editing programs). The possibilities are endless.

Will you download the Stateface font? What would you use it for? Are you planning on making any of your gifts this year?