Quilt-a-long

I've never done a Quilt-a-long, but I love the idea. I've come across a couple of them that have just started up, and are very tempting.

Check out the first one a Baby Clothes Quilt Along over at Vermillion Rules. I'm not quite done with all of our baby clothes, but will definitely bookmark this for a someday project! This quilt along is only on week 2 so it's not too late to join in.

The second quilt-a-long is just getting started at Oh Fransson and it's a Tokyo Subway Map! It would be great (I wouldn't even know how to start) to be able to adjust this to your subway map of choice. After living in London I would definitely choose this one:

I know what they say about TV and couch potatoes...

And it can definitely be true in our house...

But sometimes, you've just got to get up and dance!

Pancakes for Dinner!

Has anyone else read this book?

My grandmother used to read this to me and my little sister when we'd visit her in the summer, and it has always been a favorite of mine. So when I started building my own collection of children's books I made sure I had a copy of this book!

Tonight we had pancakes for dinner, and I thought I would share my yummy recipe for Cottage Cheese Pancakes! Back in college, I had a roommate who made fantastic cottage cheese pancakes. I never got the recipe from her, but I did eventually find one in this cute little book:

The recipe is for Norwegian Cottage Cheese Pancakes! Over the years I've tweaked it a bit. The original recipe calls for rye flour, melted butter, and says that you should blend the batter smooth. I like my cottage cheese unblended! So here's my version of their recipe:

1 Cup cottage cheese (I like the fat free large curd kind)

6 (!!) eggs

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 Cup flour

1/3 Cup applesauce (or 1/3C melted butter)

Place all the ingredients in a bowl

and mix by hand until well blended.

On a medium hot pan, and spoon and then spread the batter a little.

Unlike regular "fluffy" pancakes you won't get all the little bubbles to tell you when to flip. Instead, you'll see a few bubbles around the edge, but also notice that the edges start to look 'dry'. That's when it's time to flip. See all the brown spots on the cooked side in the picture below? Those are cottage cheese curds that have crisped up. YUM.

These are not like your normal pancakes, they are much more moist and don't rise at all.

The combination of the cottage cheese and syrup makes the yummiest salty/sweet combination.

p.s. this is the other reason I like my cottage cheese UNblended:

Now cover in syrup and Enjoy!!

Sorting Game

Now that our 5-yr old is back in school (Kindergarten!), I'm getting lots of one-on-one time with our 2-yr old. Which is why I love these blogs that are devoted to activities you can do at home with your little kids. Some of my favorites are: The Activity Mom, Counting Coconuts, and The Crafty Crow.

Today the 2 year old discovered a pack of cupcake baking cups, so we turned it into a game. I have some foam beads that come in different shapes and colors. The first thing we did was color the bottom of the cups with all the different colors of the beads. Then I had her sort the beads by color.

After she'd finished sorting all the beads by color, I drew the shapes of the beads on the bottom of the cups and had her sort the shapes.

She had a great time... Happy sorting!

Fun with Felt

At the beginning of the summer, I decided to give "Felt Food" a try. Unfortunately I did it while my kids were awake, so I became a short order cook. An hour later we had a felt pizza, complete with crust, sauce, cheese, little pink and yellow squares (ie pineapple & ham) and some barely identifiable mushrooms, a stack of pancakes with syrup and butter, bacon & eggs (I know...my yolk is FREAKISHLY big), and some bowtie pasta with red sauce.

I made it fast, and a bit sloppy, but my kids LOVE it! Especially when they can combine it with the felt food that my friend Kim made for our 2 year old's birthday!

Here are some websites that have some fun felt food tutorials: One Crafty Place, OhDeeDoh, Craftster and Felt-o-Rama.

I also made a Button Snake which the girls had fun using on all the plane trips we went on this summer.

And for my next felt project... I came across this cute tutorial for Felt Birds on Sew Mama Sew's Christmas in July. At last, a felt project for me!

The Pee-Pee Tee-Pee...

...Or as our then-4 yr old started calling them (after I explained what their purpose was) "Penis Hats". A few months ago, one of my best friends had her first baby- a boy! While she was pregnant we had a conversation about the need for good hand-eye coordination when changing baby boy diapers (I wouldn't really know- I have 2 girls- but I have heard stories), and after watching this hilarious commercial, I knew I needed to make some pee-pee tee-pees for her. Turns out they were super easy to make:

1. Make a template.

Cut out a circle with a 7" diameter on a piece of paper. I couldn't find a single plate, bowl, or container in my house that size, so I had to pull out my handy compass. Next, draw a line across the middle, and another marking a 45°angle from the center line and cut out the big "slice". So you should be left with 225° of circle. (huh?!)

2. Make the Tee Pee.

Gather two 7" x 5" pieces of fabric. I chose flannel because it's soft and absorbent and I wanted to make them reversible. You could use any combination of fabrics, as long as at least one side is somewhat absorbent. Place the two pieces of fabric on top of each other, with right sides together, and pin the template on top of it, making a three layer sandwich. Cut out the fabric, remove the paper and pin it back together keeping the right sides together.

Sew the two pieces together, leaving an opening to turn it right side out. I found it easiest to sew all the way around the circle and sew the corners, leaving a small opening on a straight side. Turns out it's easier to sew a straight side shut, than a curved one! Imagine that!

Now fold the two short straight sides over each other to form a cone shape and sew it up. And there you have it! A Pee-Pee Tee-Pee! Not sure how useful they really are (think wiggly baby), but they made me laugh and they were easy to make! It would be cute to make a matching Pee-Pee Tee-Pee/ Burp Cloth set for a baby shower!