Chica Schmica

Hope everyone is having a fabulous Easter Sunday!  We spent the bulk of our morning at church and since we knew we wouldn’t have time to do baskets beforehand, I set everything up after ushering everybody out the door. When we got home from church, the girls were surprised with this scene upon entering the house:

If you’ve been following OCP, then some of this may look familiar to you. The baskets were inspired by the one from Disdressed, the bunnies were inspired by the chenille bunnies from Smooch Designs, and the idea for the goldfish carrots came from No Fuss Fabulous. Here’s a better look at the goods:

They each got a book, some stickers, a pocket purse, some heart bangles, and bubbles. Inside the plastic eggs were either animal crackers, peeps, or Play-Doh.

Sweet and simple, just how I like it.

Here are the girls on our way to church this morning. Lately they don’t want to go anywhere without their sunglasses!

They’ve been so excited about Easter for weeks and we’ve been counting down the days on our calendar. A few days ago I had them both paint some wooden eggs. I saw a similar idea here and I thought it would be a fun tradition, plus I love the idea of having a massive collection of hand-painted eggs by the time they’re both teenagers.

Of course, the eggs needed a home, so we tried our hand at the yarn nests that I’ve been seeing everywhere.

I think I enjoyed making these more than anyone, but we must have used waaaaay too much glue. It took forever and a day for them to dry, and when they did they just looked like a big goopy mess. We ended up keeping all of our eggs (the hand painted and dyed eggs) on a plate on our kitchen table. It’s been a lovely and colorful centerpiece that will be missed after today.

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Right now it’s nap time. Everyone is sleeping and as my eyes glaze over my computer screen, scanning what I’ve typed thus far, I’m thinking perhaps I should have joined them. We’ll be spending what’s left of our Easter driving to different relative’s homes and celebrating with family. The food is good, the  hospitality is always warm, but hopping from place to place is downright exhausting!

Wishing you all a very happy Easter!

but pickin’ oranges in Great-Grandpa’s citrus groves was a real treat!

riding in the buggy on our way to the oranges

There’s nothin’ like sun-kissed Florida oranges. 

This slippery little fella was a lucky find.  My mom reached up to pick a tangerine and there he was!

The trees were literally dripping with citrus.

"Now how do you open this thing?"

What’s the best part about eating oranges?

Spitting out the seeds! 

They were so juicy, Annabelle ended up wearing much of hers.

And of course, we were happy to stop and say hi to "Big" Grandpa. He comes across all gruff and intimidating, but he’s really just a big teddy bear.
 

I think Annabelle’s favorite part was riding Grandma’s buggy. The breaks on it are out and it has the type of jerky ride that will leave you clinging to anything you can grab a hold of. It’s purple and turquoise with a leopard print steering wheel. Nothing could be more perfectly suited for my mother.

We came home with a basket of oranges destined to become Christmas Marmalade for our closest friends and relatives. Not sure what went wrong, but it had a weird aftertaste and never quite thickened past the consistency of syrup. We deemed it un-giftable but I’m determined to have it all figured out by next year.

For now, I’m putting the oranges behind me and looking ahead to strawberry season. We got our first taste of the season’s local strawberries from the store yesterday and I’m hoping to take them to a u-pick farm in the coming weeks. Strawberry shortcake anyone?

I mentioned before that I participated in a gift swap this Christmas,  but I didn’t really go into much detail because I decided it deserved a post of its own.

The swap was hosted by Meg at Sew Liberated, and as soon as I read the details, I knew I wanted to participate. In a nutshell, you get paired with one other person to share the details of some tradition that you maintain around the holidays. Each person is to send her partner a handmade gift, a recipe, and the details surrounding their tradition. The really fun part is getting to "meet" someone that you most likely wouldn’t meet otherwise.

My partner was Debbie, and I must say she really out did herself.

She included examples of her traditional tin can baskets, which are perfect for putting little treats in for teachers and such.

She thoughtfully provided two sweet little felt Santa bags with beaded costume necklaces for the girls and sent along some delicious lotion for myself!

For her recipe (which sounds so yummy and actually looks like something I could pull off), she has this great idea to put a magnet on the back to keep handy in the kitchen. Awesome!

And finally, my favorite, is her handmade gift: a decorative plate with this adorable snowman image on it. She even thought to send a plate stand!

I was completely overwhelmed with gratitude at receiving such a bountiful and thoughtfully conceived package.

Thanks, Debbie!

Growing up in a military family, I always found that maintaining family traditions was one of the best ways to stay grounded and feel at home no matter where we happened to be physically located. My own family is still relatively young and we have yet to start any new traditions, but one Christmas activity from my childhood has always stayed with me. It is centered around decorating the Christmas tree and I hope that my children’s memories of it will be as fond as mine are.

Every year, when we bring the tree home, regardless of whether it is live or artificial, we gather as a family to adorn it with all of it’s trimmings. With Christmas tunes playing in the background, we begin by preparing refreshments. To drink, we make our version of warm apple cider: pour regular apple juice into a mug, add a cinnamon stick, microwave until warm, use cinnamon stick as a straw to slurp up every last drop of the cider. It’s warmth and subtle flavor make it the ideal holiday drink for children. It’s also fun to have special mugs that you use for this every year. I remember using those yellow smiley face mugs for the longest time, I’m guessing until they all broke. My mom would also have made some cookies for us to enjoy as we strung lights and popcorn around the tree. We can spend several hours at our task as we reminisce about the significance of particular ornaments and take care to spare no inch of the tree from some adornment. I’m not big on tinsel (although it was a staple when I was a kid!), but candy canes are a must!

This particular time of family sharing and enjoyment is the main kick-off of the Christmas season for us. The music, the sweet aroma of cider and cookies lingering in the air, and the warmth of family are prefect for getting into the Christmas spirit. It is one of my favorite parts of the season, and it is a holiday tradition that I hope will continue for generations to come!

I recently shared this tradition with my swap partner (Debbie) in Sew Liberated’s Holiday Traditions Swap and made a few things to go along with it.

In the hopes that Debbie and her family will try the Apple Cider, I sent her some cinnamon sticks wrapped in monogrammed cozies. They’re all bundled up for the cold weather and are just waiting to be dunked in some warm apple juice!

I also made her a star ornament, using this star pattern, to include on her family’s Christmas tree.

As for our own tree, we got our first real Christmas tree in years and decorated it simply with colorful lights and cinnamon ornaments that the girls made.

Even in its simplicity, it was one of the most beautiful trees I’ve ever seen.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

I’ll be posting again soon to show you all of my loot from the Traditions Swap.

Wanted: A DIY t-shirt with an image in Santa’s likeness on it.

Solution: One upside-down handprint!

These shirts are so easy and so much fun to make. I traced the body with a pencil then filled in with fabric paint. For Santa, I stitched the face, but I could have just as easily used the same paint that I used to outline him. The outline was painted using a toothpick. And those cotton-ball-looking-thingies are different sized white pom-poms that you can pick up at any craft store…attached with hot glue.

To make Mr. Reindeer,  I used one foot and two hands.

For this guy’s extra parts, I went with buttons…also attached with hot glue. 

Now that the girls have some holiday threads we’re all set to go pick out our tree this weekend. I know. It’s almost Christmas and we’ll probably be taking it down in less than two weeks. But, it’s been in the 80s here all week and I’m determined to get into some Christmas spirit before the big day actually gets here! Actually, this isn’t the first time we’ve gotten our tree late. A few years ago we went out and picked up a tree on Christmas Eve…got a great deal on it, too!

Anybody else wait ’til the last minute to put their holiday decorations up?

I came across this activity in a book that I had totally forgotten about until I found it while cleaning up before our trip. The original idea is to make little hats and mark faces on the child’s hand, but I thought a glove would be fun, too!

Here’s the rhyme:

Five little elves trimming the tree
getting Christmas ready for you and me.

The first little elf whose hat was red,
said “I’m tired. I’m going to bed.”

The second little elf whose hat was blue
went to hide in Santa’s shoe.

The third little elf whose hat was yellow
went to the kitchen to eat some jello.

The fourth little elf whose hat was green
was sent to his room because he was mean.

The fifth little elf whose hat was purple
was very rude and made a burple!

It’s a silly little number, but it worked out great for both of my wee ones. I use the glove with Charlotte (the little one) and let Annabelle put the little hats on her fingers and take them off as I go through each color.

They both love doing this over and over again and I love it because I can engage both of them in the same activity and know that each child is getting something out of it!

For the hats I cut semi-circles using a play-doh lid as a template (cut circle then cut in half). I used a glue gun on the overlap to make ‘em stick. I also used the glue gun to attach the hats and embroidered faces to the glove.

Here are some more elf poems that you could also use:

This little elf went to the workshop, (point to thumb)
This little elf stayed home, (point to index finger)
This little elf ate a candy cane, (point to middle finger)
This little elf ate none, (point to ring finger)
And this little elf cried, “Ho, Ho, Ho,” (point to little finger)
All the way home!

Five little elves trimming the tree,
Getting ready for Christmas full of glee.
Santa said, “You must help me!”
And one little elf ran from the tree.
Four little elves trimming the tree…
Three little elves trimming the tree…
Two little elf trimming the tree…
One little elf trimming the tree…

Five little elves jumping on a sled, one fell off and bumped his head. Santa called the doctor and the doctor said, “No more elves jumping on the sled.”

Continue counting down to one little elf jumping on the sled.

I know that potato stamping is traditionally a child’s craft, but I’ve also seen some pretty impressive potato stamps out there. With that in mind, I thought that creating a potato stamp for some homemade Christmas cards could be a cheap resourceful and creatively satisfying project.

In case you can’t see it, this is supposed to a star shining over Baby Jesus. After carving it, I envisioned a stack of carefully stamped and thoughtfully composed Christmas cards that would be sent out to our family and closest friends. Upon stamping, however, it became obvious that I had no idea what I was doing. It came out looking terribly gloppy and, well let’s just say Baby Jesus wasn’t exactly looking his best.

What did I do wrong? First, I think I didn’t dry the potato enough before stamping. Second, I didn’t take any precautions to keep the paint on the just the image. I recently saw this video of Martha Stewart making skull potato stamps. In the video, she used a paint applicator which I think would have really helped to keep the print a little cleaner looking. I think my final mistake was not having really clean lines between Jesus and his cradle, so it really just looked like a big blob.

Take 2

My second attempt went much more smoothly. I used a real ink pad instead of paint and carved deep into the potato…probably a good 1/4 inch. I think that made all the difference in the world.

You can see how much cleaner the lines are on my second attempt:

especially when you look at the image.

Potato stamping, and stamping in general, has so many possibilities. I could definitely see myself getting into this more if I had the time to experiment with it in more depth.

If you ever find yourself with a potato in hand and a few moments to spare, go ahead and take a knife to it. It’s more fun than you might think. And, if you’ve read this post (as opposed to just looking at the pictures and moving on) then you should be all set to do it right the first time!

One of the things I love most about visiting other blogs is seeing what everyone else is doing. I find myself endlessly inspired by other people’s ideas. Lately I’ve been enjoying this blog…big surprise…she does crafts with her kids!

A couple weeks ago her girls made a Christmas tree out of their hands. It was very cute and my immediate thought was, “Me, too! Me, too!”  However, I seem to be accumulating alot of crafts made of paper, and I really wanted something that would last a little longer.  So, we used paint and those cheap, flat, canvas boards to make a handprint Christmas tree…using ALL of our hands!

We started with the big hands (my husband’s and mine):

Then added the girls’ hands:

We couldn’t get a picture of Charlotte making her handprint because it took both of us to get hers on there! Hers is the star at the top.

Now, I wish we had used the good canvas so it would be ready to hang…as soon as I get a frame for this keepsake it will go right on our wall!

Here’s the tutorial for the repurposed dress I posted yesterday. It’s reeeaaallly easy, so if you’ve got a dress collecting dust in your closet that you’d like give new life to, go ahead and turn it into a wreath. Your door will thank you!

Here’s what you need:
     *dress
     * foam wreath form
     * batting cut into 4 to 6 inch strips
     * scissors
     * glue gun

Starting from the bottom, cut in a spiral all around your dress so that you end up with one long piece:

Roll it up and set aside:

Grab your batting and use the glue gun to attach one end to your foam wreath. Then start winding around:

Keep winding until you’ve gone all the way around, gluing ends down as you go:

Now take the end of your dress and glue it onto the batting:

Wind all the way around until you get to the end of your dress:

Uh-oh! Did you run out of dress? It’s ok…just unwind a bit and rewind a little looser this time:

Once you’ve got your dress going all the way around, trim the tail so that it ends on the inside of the ring. Glue that baby down and  you’re pretty much done!

I used the straps on the dress to hang it, but I’ll admit it’s still lacking a little something. Use this guide as a starting point and embellish with buttons, ribbons, bows, bells, sparklies…anything pretty!

Now have fun and enjoy your new wreath!

And, as always, please feel free to comment or email me with any questions!

Hello Door. 
  

What’s the matter? Why so sad?

Is it because your owners have lived at your house for over a year now and still have not taken off those ugly security stickers?

No?

OH! I know! It’s because you see all of the other doors have lovely wreaths hanging from them and you feel left out.

I’m sorry, door. I don’t have a wreath to hang on you.

Meanwhile….

Hi Little Red Dress.
 

I know. You’ve been hanging around here for a few weeks now and you’re getting bored.

Frankly, I’m just not sure what to do with you.  The thing is, you’re really not a good fit for me. Furthermore, I picked you up at a garage sale, so I’m afraid I can’t take you back where you came from.

You’ll just have to hang out a little longer until I can find something for you to do.

What to do…what to do…

Hmmm….

Wait!

I know!

Little Red Dress, meet Door.
Door, meet Little Red Dress.

There. Now everybody’s happy! You two look very cozy together!

Happy endings make me smile!

Tutorial coming tomorrow: