Memorial Day

Ok, I know I'm a day early, but I have lots going on tomorrow so I wanted to take some time this weekend to remember what our holiday tomorrow is about.

For those of you not in the USA, the last Monday of May is our Memorial Day. It is a day to honor all the men and women who have fought for our country and gave the ultimate sacrifice.

So please take a moment to remember all of our soldiers and say a prayer for them and their families. And especially for the families of our fallen heroes. I know I have a hard time imagining what it would be like and I feel for them.

Memorial Day Weekend often is seen as the unofficial start of summer here in the States. I often think we forget why we celebrate these holidays between our cook-outs, parties, and swimming. So I am taking this break to remind you and to say a prayer myself.  Dear God, Please let us remember the sacrifices so many brave men and women have made for our freedom. Please be with their families and bring them strength and healing. Please keep our soldiers and their families safe. Please let our soldiers return home to their families soon. Bless each of them for they are doing their best to protect us. Please help us find a way to put our differences aside and make peace on earth. Amen. I wish you and your family a very Happy and Safe Memorial Day!

  Here is a simple Memorial Day craft...a placemat made with clear contact paper, stickers, felt stars, red and white stripes, scrapbook paper. For some other patriotic ideas you can check out what we did for the Fourth of July last year. And for even more ideas you can check out my Patriotic Pinterest Board.

Sharing Saturday #21

Wow, I'm always amazed by what people make. If you have not checked out all of last week's entries, please visit and check them out!! 

Also a reminder that I am hosting a link party for teacher gift ideas. If you have any past or present, please come share them!! And of course if you need an idea, please come see what others have shared!

My Features:

Here are a few of my favorites from last week. The first one is a combination of two from the same person. Since they were both birds I thought I would feature both of them together. (Please note the picture is linked to the Flamingos, but the Hummingbirds are the next post if you click Newer Post on the bottom of the Flamingos you will get the Hummingbirds.) Did I mention my father's obsession with hummingbirds and my daughter's with flamingos?

From Taming the Goblin: Butterfly Playscape (I need to do this for Hazel's room!)

From Sunny Sweet Life: DIY: Kool-Aid Dyed Play Silks (Ok, after my week of dyeing and of course this being play silks how could I not feature it?)

From Creative Playhouse: Pretend Playdough Cupcakes (I love this idea!!)

If you have been featured here, please feel free to grab a featured button here to post with pride on your blog. Please visit my co-host, Mama Mia's Heart2Heart for her features including the most clicked on this week.

From Your Hosts:
From Crafty Moms Share: Sun Dyeing Yarn with Foods and Flowers (there are 3 parts, but here is the third day's experimenting).

From Mama Mia's Heart2Heart: Ice Boats

 Now for This Week's Party

A Few Simple Guidelines:
1)  Please follow both hosts via GFC (or one of the other ways that work for you).  

Hosts are Crafty Moms Share and Mama Mia's Heart2Heart. 

2)  Link any kid-friendly, child-centered post. Please no etsy shops or giveaways, etc.  Remember to link to your actual post.

3) Post the button on your sidebar or somewhere on your blog to help spread the word.

Button Code:

<a href="http://craftymomsshare.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="Photobucket" border="0" src="http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g424/cpericola/SharingSaturdayoption2-001.jpg" /></a>

4. Optional: Like us on Facebook and Google+
Disclaimer: By sharing here, you are giving Crafty Moms Share and Mama Mia's Heart2Heart permission to use your photos for features and to pin your craft at Pinterest. 

All right everyone...This is a PARTY!! Have Fun!!

Natural Dyeing Part 3

Ok, this is really from my second day of experimenting with dyes and techniques, but it is the third post since I already posted Day 1 and Day 3. On this day we did some experimenting. I tried to make the process easier and a bit more kid friendly. I made a crucial mistake though. I did not pre-soak in the mordant. My colors washed away much more and are not as deep as they could be.

Celery Leaves

We started with Hazel chopping some celery leaves. We were hoping to get some green yarn. Unfortunately, it did not seem to work for us. I don't know if the pre-soak would have affected it or not. Half way through the day I added baby spinach with more vinegar and water, but it still didn't do anything. I actually re-dyed this yarn on Day 3. My new method is to put the chopped vegetable, fruit, flower in the jar with the mordant and then add boiling water. This way I did not have to use the stove (I have an electric tea kettle) and Hazel could help more.

Purple Cabbage

The next experiment was really neat. I had read on Poppytalk (which I found through Pineterest) that using vinegar or salt with red cabbage gave different colors. (She does a neat table runner with natural dyed fabrics--I definitely want to try this at some point!) I wanted to try this. This is actually why I didn't pre-soak. I wasn't sure what to do with the salt at the time. Now I have found recipes on how to do it (on Pioneer Thinking). And the neat thing is I was telling a family I tutor for about the experiment and the student I work with said, "Oh, I know why. We just learned this in chemistry class." She was so excited to see a real life application of it. It has to do with the pH of red cabbage. For more information to use as a lesson or possible understand yourself check out this explanation on About.com (plus it is really a neat science experiment there).

Purple Cabbage 1) Salt Mordant 2) Vinegar Mordant

 Look at the different colors you can get with purple cabbage!! I was so amazed. (It might be worth it to try making the green with the ammonia as the mordant. I just don't know if it will work on wool.)

1) Purple Cabbage with Vinegar, 2) Purple Cabbage with Salt, 3) Celery Leaves/Spinach

Since I did not pre-soak with a mordant, I rinsed with a mordant or should I say post-soaked in a mordant. I do not recommend doing it this way. It is definitely worth taking the 20 minutes to pre-soak. Please learn from my mistake!!

Same order as picture above with original colored skein on top.

As you can see the celery leaves and spinach did not change the color for us. Oh, well. Day 3, I had more success with this skein. Hazel had asked to dye some blue, so I'm glad the purple cabbage and salt worked. Next time I will definitely pre-soak though!! My hopes is for a rainbow sweater for Hazel from all this great yarn! When we went back to Drumlin Farm this week I bought two more skeins. I may retry the red cabbage with pre-soaking and I may buy a good natural green dye since none of my experiments worked.

This is where I share...

Teacher Gifts, Last Day of School

Today (Thursday) is Hazel's last day of school. It is hard to believe another school year has gone by. This is our last parent/child class together. Next year she will be in the nursery program and I will have to leave her there!! We have so enjoyed the Waldorf parent/child class the past year and a half. And we love our teacher and teaching assistant. So we made them each a gift for the end of the year. I know there have been loads of teacher appreciation gifts floating around, so I am hosting a link party to collect them all in one place. So please come share yours...after all, CRAFTY MOMS SHARE!!

I found at our local Michaels these beautiful felted bowls on clearance. I bought four of them. I used one to be a bird's nest for Hazel for play. I found a tan one as well and decided it could also be a bird's nest, so we are giving it to Hazel's teacher. Hazel painted two wooden eggs for the nest and a paper maiche bird. I made some needle felted birds as well.

For the assistant teacher we are giving her a bowl as well, but we filled it with toy fruit. I needle felted some and Hazel painted some paper maiche fruit.

Hazel is a bit jealous of the fruit bowl. I guess I need to make her some fruit for my other bowl. She wants to keep it in her kitchen. I figured they could use it as a centerpiece on the snack table when they do not have flowers.

Ok, your turn to share!! What are you doing for teacher gifts? What have you done in the past?

Banana Muffins

We had some ripe bananas so we made some banana muffins. It is a relatively easy recipe. I changed it from my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook.

Mix:
1 1/3 cups whole wheat flour
1/3 cup ground almond meal flour
1 cup oatmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 chopped/ground walnuts

Hazel mixed the dry ingredients while on the phone with my sister! I had to hold the bowl for her.

In a different bowl beat an egg and then mix in:
1 cup nonfat milk
1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
3/4 cups grated/pureed carrots
2 overripe bananas mashed

Hazel stopped helping at this point but came back to help scoop into the pan. Mix the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients. The batter is a bit thick. Then spray a muffin pan and preheat oven to 400. Scoop into muffin pan. Then bake for 20 minutes. Cool for a bit before eating.

Enjoy!!

This is where I share....