Spring and Muffins

Yesterday and today feel like spring. It has been close to 60 if not over 60 and we are loving it. However we still have the feeling of brown all around us. Everything still looks brown. We see a few spots of spring bulbs starting to break through the earth, but not enough to change the overall color you see. We found a book at the library about this, And Then It's Spring by Julie Fogliano. This book literally talks about how everything is brown and you plant seeds and wait and wait and then one day suddenly everything is green. It is a great book for this time of year at least around here.

This morning we decided to make muffins before heading to school. I pulled out my Deceptively Delicious cookbook (by Jessica Seinfeld) and amended her applesauce muffin recipe. The recipe can be found here. I used whole wheat flour and used raw carrot puree instead of the butternut squash puree.

Hazel helping puree the carrots

I also used more carrots than called for (either squash or carrot in the book). Hazel has no problems eating most vegetables so she doesn't mind me putting them in. Her father on the other hand doesn't really eat enough vegetables so we do try to hide them in things for him.

Hazel mixing the dry ingredients

Hazel of course did the mixing and pouring of measured ingredients. Her technique has definitely improved.

Cracking an egg

She has gotten better with eggs as well, but still needs to do them in a separate bowl so we can get all the shells out.

We ate them warm for breakfast and then rushed off to school. It was one of the first times we were not the first ones in class there. They are changing the start time next week since everyone always comes late to our class. Oh, well. The muffins were delicious!

Oh, and why did we bake muffins today. So we would have something to link up at

Won't you join us over there!! Thanks, Kelly for hosting a great baking party!

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Bath Time Tea Party and Easter Egg Fun

We are still looking for a knitter to join us in our knitted farm swap. If you want to join please e-mail me. A few people have left messages wanting to join with a no-reply e-mail, so I cannot get in touch with them.

Bath Time Tea Party and Other Kitchen/Bath Fun

Now I would like to feature a wonderful idea from last week's Sharing Saturday. This idea is from Glittering Muffins and she called it Sensory Bath - Kitchen Fun. (Note: I'm not sharing any of her pictures since her son is in all of them.) Well we have tried it and I have to say Hazel is asking for baths again. She absolutely loved it. I invaded her play kitchen for items to take in and we had a tea party and she made cakes and all sorts of things.

Steve and I always said we would not take pictures that would embarrass Hazel later in life especially bath or naked ones so I am only going to post pictures of what we had in the bath tub. Also Hazel has sensitive skin so on doctor's orders we only use one brand of soap, lotion, suntan lotion, shampoo, etc., so I thought coloring the water was not a great idea. However we have given her a few bath time paints and she used that to color the water when she was mixing. The blue wasn't coming out anymore so I opened it up and put water in it for her and she loved getting blue water in her bowl.

She had so much fun with this bath that we visited the Dollar Tree to replace some of the things we stole from her kitchen like the travel size spray bottle and soap dispenser. We also picked up the slotted spoons and strainer. She loved it!!

Easter Egg Fun

Next we had fun with Easter eggs. I got this idea from The Imagination Tree. We started with a tub full of water and plastic Easter eggs. We tried to sink them. We tried them together and apart. For the most part they floated though the open ones we could get to sink faster. Then we tried adding coins to them. At first we added only a few coins and they still floated. We checked to see if the coins would float on their own. Hazel enjoyed this part because they splashed so she kept dropping them in. Then we filled the eggs with coins and those sunk.

Next we tried filling some with rice. Again they floated until they took on water. Then we pushed them down and got them all to sink by filling them with water. Hazel enjoyed picking them up to empty the water out.

We had a lot of fun experimenting with the eggs in the water. Then we went to decorate them. We will share that for another post. Have a great day!!

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We have a winner!!

Just wanted to let everyone know that the PrintRunner sticker giveaway is over and the winner is DomesticDiva. Rafflecopter picked her number 36 entry. Congratulations. I will be sending you an email shortly to get your information.

A Snowy Day

Lenten Share:
Just thought I would give you an update on our Easter egg grass. We were very excited to notice some grass growing this week.

Blogger Tag

I've been tagged by Stephanie over at Toastie Studio Sewing Blog. To play when you are tagged your tagger sends you 11 questions to answer and then you tag 11 blogger friends and send them 11 questions.

RULES 
**You must post the rules {?!}
**Answer the 11 questions that the tagger posted for you & then create 11 questions to ask the people you’ve tagged
**Tag 11 people and link them in your post
**Let them know you have tagged them

My questions from Stephanie:

1. How did you get into crafting?
My mother. She always was doing crafts with us as well as always sewing clothes for us and eventually quilting. I am no where near her level of skill, but have fun with it.

One of my completed dollhouses--I saved this one for Hazel!

2. Fabric, felt, card, wood? What is your favourite material?
Depends on my mood and my project. I love sewing and quilting and buying fabric (this is a big storage problem). I love paper/card crafts as well. I have recently starting really working with felt and love the ease of it. And my dollhouses are wood, but I don't really have the correct tools or skills to work with wood much besides the dollhouse kits.

One of my first quilt projects

3. What do you aspire to be?
A wonderful mom.

4. What is the nicest fabric you own/want to own?
My daughter plays with silks I finished for her so I guess that is it.

5. Buttons or ribbon?
Ribbon.

6. On the weekend when you are not sewing etc, what do you like to do?
Time with my family. Getting outside, playing oh, and go to church.

7. Does your boyfriend/husband/partner get your crafting?
Not completely.

8. What is your greatest crafting dream?
To build a dollhouse from scratch.

9. Have you ever received a handmade gift and been disappointed with it?
Well, not really. My mother showed me a purse she was making me for my birthday, but I never received it. She is a perfectionist and it wasn't coming out correctly so she didn't finish it.

10. How many crafty friends do you have?
On-line friends or meet in life friends. On-line many!! Meet in life friends that I hang out with all the time probably 4 or 5.

11. What do you prefer? Working from a pattern, or just doing it as you go?
  Depends on what I'm doing. Usually I like working from a pattern, but if I want to feel creative I just go along.

The bloggers I am going to tag:
Toys In The Dryer
One Artsy Mama
Happy Whimsical Hearts
I HEART CRAFTY THINGS
Mama Mia's Heart2Heart
La-La's Home Daycare
April's Homemaking
Mom On Timeout
Sew Happy Geek
Reading Confetti
Tot Treasures

My questions for these bloggers:
1) What got you into blogging?
2) What got you into crafting?
3) What is your favorite media for crafting (fabric, paper, wood, etc.)?
4) What books are you reading?
5) If applicable what children's books are favorites in your house right now?
6) What is your most accomplished craft?
7) What is your greatest craft dream?
8) What do you aspire to be?
9) Do you own or plan to won an e-reader (Kindle, Nook, etc.)?
10) What recent craft trend are you excited to try out?
11) What's the best gift you have ever received?