Tag Archive for ‘Holidays’ at Groovy Kid Stuff

Tag Archive for 'Holidays'

Mythbusters

Published by Scott on March 23, 2008 in Holidays. 5 Comments

I got up at 6:45 this morning to fulfill my Easter Bunny chores. Pretty early to roll out of bed on a Sunday, but what can you do? While I was outside hiding plastic, candy-filled eggs, Dashiell and Ray tiptoed to the back door to see if they could spot any evidence of EB’s work. Ray couldn’t sleep the night before because he was worried that he might not come for some reason. Sure enough, they saw me skulking around.

They apparently went to bed to discuss matters because I had no idea I’d been spotted. About a half an hour later they confronted me. “We know who the Easter Bunny is and he’s sitting on this bed,” Ray said. I gamely looked behind me to see if there happened to be a long-eared furry rodent curled up in the covers. There wasn’t. “How do you know I wasn’t just checking to see if he had come?” I asked. They weren’t fooled.

Fortunately the lads weren’t the slightest bit traumatized by their discovery. I think they’ve suspected something was up for awhile now but weren’t quite ready to give up their childhood beliefs. We had a nice long discussion in which they also deduced that Santa must not be real either. I was relieved because it had been bothering me. They are nine years old after all and I didn’t feel right about lying to them anymore. It was different when they were gullible little kids but they’re growing up so fast now and becoming more and more sophisticated. I was also getting tired of these mythical strangers getting credit for our hard work and thoughtfulness!

Cinnamon Ornaments

Published by Helen on December 14, 2007 in Crafts and Holidays. 2 Comments

I searched for a link to the article online but couldn’t find it, so I ‘ll just say that I got the recipe for these from an old issue of Martha Stewart - Dec. 2003 - in which they made bird ornaments and coated them with glitter. Really nice, but I don’t have bird cookie cutters, cutting out templates takes too long, and I’d need about 15 colors of glitter and I only have 3. . .

Anyway, here is my version:

As you can see I used oak leaf and acorn cookie cutters and made them into ornaments and gift tags - and a few other things I’ll share in the next couple days. The recipe is 1 cup cinnamon, 1/2 cup white glue, 1/4 cup applesauce, all mixed together, bagged or wrapped up and left to sit for at least an hour. It sounds like a good recipe for kids, and I started out doing these as a kid project, but this dough is really hard to mix up and the frustration (their issue) and mess (my issue) factors had me sending the kids away while I did most of the mixing. (I’ve actually made these twice now, and the second time I had a better idea of how things worked and what the kids could help with so they were more involved.)

The dough was easy to roll out later, but I had to add a little water to it to get a good consistency. I rolled it out on parchment paper and cut the shapes out and used a skewer to poke a hole for threading. I left them on the parchment paper to dry out. The first batch was made during Thanksgiving week and I’d just slide the trays into the oven after something else was done cooking, between that and the heat being on they dried out in a couple days. The second batch I put in the oven at 200 degrees for several hours - small ones dried out in a couple hours (flip ‘em every hour or so) and the big ones took more like 4 hours.

Here’s a picture of the second batch, cut out and about to go in the oven:

We painted most of the second batch - and used gingerbread men, stars, and tree cookie cutters - or cookie punches as Hazel called them.

A word of waring if you attempt these - it makes a huge amount. For second batch I made a double recipe and I was pretty sick of cutting them out and flipping them over by the time I was done. And the dough looks like it would be yummy, but I was told that D and H licked some of the first batch but they weren’t good (LOL!) and Hazel actually put a small piece of the second batch in her mouth and promptly spit it out.

These made our house smell great while we were making and baking them, and whenever the heat comes on and blows over them.

St. Lucia dolls

Published by Helen on December 13, 2007 in Crafts and Holidays. 2 Comments

Hazel saw these dolls at Posie one day - she loves to sit on my lap while I read blogs because she loves the pictures - and asked me to make her some. I was thinking about buying the doll making kit she was selling, but they sold out before I was done thinking so I had to get my supplies at Hobby Lobby. The kit calls for pinking shears to keep the edges of the fabric from fraying, and I don’t have any so I glued felt along the edges - I started with red bias tape but it was incredibly frustrating so there are only 2 done that way.

Most of them are made to look like girls we know - Hazel is the one on the upper left. I sent a few - including the one that looks like her - to Hazel’s cousin Rebecca, I hope she gets them today!

Pictures of the stockings-

Published by Helen on December 12, 2007 in Crafts and Holidays. 0 Comments

I made these out of felted wool sweaters. I did blanket stitch around the edges and made the poinsettias out of wool felt pieces.

And now hold on to your eyeballs - the light on this table in the afternoon is just right for pictures, but this combination is a bit much . . .

Wool sweaters again - with a little extra embroidery for fun.

TCB-

Published by Helen on December 11, 2007 in Crafts, Gardening and Work. 1 Comment

It is really nice outside - I’m making the last xmas stocking (mine) since I decided we should all have handmade co-ordinating stockings this year - but sewing up felted wool stockings while sitting on the deck in 80 degree temps just seems wrong. ~Pictures when I’m finally finished.~

I did put together the gifts for Scott’s class - paperwhite kits that we’ve made several times before. They each have a little bag of soil, a cup to use as a plant pot, a bulb, and growing instructions. The nursery where I usually buy the paperwhites is closing, the drought pushed the whole company into chapter 13 and they are closing their unprofitable stores. This means that Home Depot and Lowe’s will have the only garden centers in the two cities near here. Either a really good time to open a new garden center in the area, or really bad. . .

Anyway, this year I made a few more paperwhite gifts - I put grass seed all around the bulbs and it should sprout and grow a few inches by the time I’m ready to give them away.

How to make Mario or Luigi hats

Published by Helen on October 12, 2007 in Crafts and Holidays. 147 Comments

My kids are very particular when it comes to their costumes. They like all of the details to be just right, so a couple years ago when they wanted to have a Mario themed birthday party I started making prototypes of the hats that we’d give the guests as favors. After a few unsatisfactory attempts I finally came up with this version - which happily turned out to be the easiest to make. We ended up making 16 of these one evening. The kids were able to help tracing the circles and cutting them out, I just had to supervise and sew.

Polyester fleece is one of my favorite costume making materials. Like felt, there is no right side or wrong side and it doesn’t fray so raw edges are fine. But unlike felt, fleece is stretchy and elastic, so measuring and sizing can be very casual. Since it’s kind of thick it holds shapes really well and even really messy sewing gets blurred in the fuzz. My sewing machine usually needs to be cleaned after I work with fleece, but washing the material first gets rid of a lot of loose fibers. Sewing by hand is also a reasonable option for this project, and as crazy as it sounds safety pins or staples would also work.

Two hats can be made from half of a yard of fleece (1/4 yard will be too narrow.) These hats will fit anyone from a toddler to an adult.

Fold the fleece in half so that you are cutting out two pieces at a time. I use the lid from a 5 gallon pail to trace a circle on the fabric. (I use whatever marker I have around, it won’t show.) You don’t have to use a lid, you just need to make a circle with at least a 12″ diameter.

Cut out the two circles and keep the corner that is left over - this is going to be the bill of the cap.
Round off the corner and cut off the thin ends.
On one of the rounds, trace a smaller circle. It should have about a 4.5″ diameter. This is going to be the head hole. It seems small, but fleece is stretchy, remember?
These are all the parts cut out.

Sew the two rounds together about 1/2″ from the outer edge. Sew along the outer edge of the bill.
Turn both pieces inside out.
Place the open edges of the bill along the edge of the small circle and stitch all 3 layers together.
The hat is now ready for the finishing touches.

I like to use white funky foam or fun foam - whichever you call it - to make a circle for the initial - trace the lid from a can of frozen juice concentrate if you want to keep the lid theme going . I use a safety pin to secure it in place, if you make the safety pin come out and go back in through the letter it will be almost invisible.

Black funky foam mustaches complete the look - we just attach them with double stick tape.

Three little kittens

Published by Helen on September 16, 2007 in Crafts. 4 Comments

Last year I started making things for each holiday or season. Not anything fussy or formal, just fun things to get out for the kids to play with that would be put away when the next season came along. (I’m a Waldorfer wannabe!) I started last year before Thanksgiving - I made felted wool vegetables. Then for winter I crocheted snowballs. For spring I crocheted chicks and eggs. Now we’re back to autumn again, so I made some kittens for Halloween:

I made these kittens with the pattern from Wee Wonderfuls - The first one was really frustrating but the next two were easy and fun - just had to figure out how they go together!

Randomness

Published by Helen on June 25, 2007 in Chatter. 2 Comments

I have a bunch of random and unrelated things to post about, so I’m just going to write it out as a list and it hopefully it will come out to about 8 things (and appease Madeline who tagged me for the “8 things” meme :-p) In accordance with my contrary nature, I won’t be passing it on, but I couldn’t think of 8 bloggers even if I was playing along.

1.Today is our 13th anniversary. We got married on our 4th anniversary, so it is also the 17th anniversary of when we met. I was 17 on June 25th in 1990, so that means that sometime in the next couple months I’ll have known Scott for more of my life than I didn’t know him. Ask Scott to tell you about how we met sometime. . .

2. We both forgot about our anniversary until I looked at the calendar this morning. I like to celebrate birthdays (a cake and a few presents) but pretty much any other holiday/event celebration I prefer to do without. Bah humbug!

3. I’ve been making these frogs from this pattern, but the directions say to fill them with lentils or mung beans. Obviously these people don’t live in the South, because all I could think of is grain moths - just imagine a frog with bugs flying out of it - or the beans sprouting in the humidity. So today I got some plastic bean substitutes (poly pellets) and I can start stuffing.

4. I had a frog like the ones above when I was a kid. It was navy blue corduroy with a funky patterned belly. Scott says he had one too - but brown corduroy and it was a lot bigger.

5. We went to goodwill on the way home from the craft store and I scored big time. A container with some crazy trims - those beads are yards of fringe. Two stacks of cotton fabric that turned out to be all of the fabric you see hanging from the deck railing - a quilter’s stash it looks like, 1/4 yards of dozens of prints and some bigger pieces. My favorite is the next picture - embroidered cotton or it might be linen. And the last picture - the yellow is 8 yards of what I suspected to be silk and was right - “100% silk” is woven into the selvage, and the pink/silver I don’t quite know what it is, but it is incredible.

6. I have a method for dealing with the fabric I get from thrift stores. It has an odor, and it isn’t urine as some people would have you believe (but you can believe that if it keeps you away from my fabric!) I think it is a combination of fabric softeners and cigarette smoke. Some things have a stronger smell, but all things have at least some of the smell. So even if you donate totally non-smelly stuff I think it will pick up some of the funk just being in close proximity to the funk sources.

I usually un-tape and un-tag the fabric on the deck and unfold it into a laundry basket. Because it is folded and taped you can’t tell if it has been cut or has holes or has other fabric hiding inside until this point. Then I sort it according to fabric type and color (which I don’t even do for regular laundry, btw) Then it goes into the washing machine with detergent, a squirt of Dr. Bronner’s lavender, and a shake from the borax box. I hang it to dry on the deck rail, which gets the last remaining funk out and makes it flat and easy to fold. Getting rained on is an anti-funk bonus.

7. We went back to goodwill again because Scott wanted some Nintendo NES games he saw there. He looked them up online after our first visit, and he kept saying, “I should have just gotten them.” Hazel was grouchy because she needed a nap and couldn’t settle down, so it was good excuse to get her in the car seat - she fell asleep instantly.

8. I’m going to the dentist tomorrow and I’m not even freaking out. I’ve had a dentist phobia for a long time and the tooth that I’m getting fixed tomorrow is the one that started it all for me. It is a baby tooth that has no adult tooth underneath. The dentist I’m seeing is really nice and after my cleaning with her I just wasn’t freaked out about having anything done anymore.

Mother’s Day

Published by Scott on May 13, 2007 in Chatter. 0 Comments

We don’t put a whole lot of stock into holidays like Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Valentine’s Day, and the like. About the only purposes they serve are to pile on meaningless obligations and create a sense of guilt if you somehow don’t live up to the expectations surrounding each “special” occasion. But that’s just how we feel, heh heh. Anyway, Helen noticed at Publix the other day that they were having a cake decorating special for Mother’s Day and thought it might be something fun for the kids to do that would also serve as a Token Gesture. I took them there after breakfast and they were thrilled to not only design the cake but also to present it to their beloved mom. They also loved helping her eat it.

Chocolate Biz

Published by Scott on February 14, 2007 in Chatter, Online Games and Web Sites. 0 Comments

Chocolate Biz is a simple strategy game with a candy theme that’s fitting for Valentine’s Day. The object is to unwrap the squares on the chocolate bar in as few moves as possible. When you click on a piece, the ones to the north, south, east, and west also come unwrapped. You can wrap them back up by clicking the same square again. Every click counts as a move.

It’s not too hard to figure out. I’d say it’s about a five minute diversion for adults, definitely longer for kids. When you solve it, a screen pops up saying the next level is loading. This doesn’t actually happen though. You’re just sent back to the start-up screen again. Oh well. Give it another try and see if you can do it in fewer moves.

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