paint cut paste

i hope everyone had a happy halloweeeeen! thought i’d share with you a little mother-daughter creation: N’s halloween costume!

by “mother-daughter,” this time i actually mean myself and my mom (N’s gwee!) N expressed that she wanted to be an owl this year for halloween… and that they are her new favorite animal now, trumping the fox?!? whaaa? of course, she does have owls all over her bedroom and her shower curtain and bathroom is covered in them, so this isn’t outta no where.

N's felt owl mask

i remembered how awesome all of my halloween costumes were as a kid because my mom made them all! i feel like such a loser that i usually go the pottery barn kids route each year, so when i realized that my mom was visiting us in cali a few weeks before halloween, i jumped on the opportunity to enlist her help with making this costume (and learning more about this sewing machine thing-a-ma-jig collecting dust in my guest room closet.) i was inspired by the artful parent’s post on making bird wings (which was inspired by ones she’d seen on prudent baby.) i figured these would work well for a little owlie girl on halloween night, right? so first, a trip to joann’s fabrics was in order so we could choose fabrics and a color scheme, based around N’s fav color (which is still purple, to my knowledge.)

then we measured N’s wingspan arm length, and i cut a pattern for the wings and “feathers.”

next my mom and i got down to business with a whole lot of tedious (but easy) tracing and cutting. (sorry for dark photos. most of this work was done at night after the little one was asleep.)

the sewing began. (and my mom showed me again how to wind my bobbin and thread my machine. somehow i do not retain this information, no matter how many times i’m told. probably because once it’s done, i don’t touch the machine for a year or more in between lessons.)

costume contains lots of love

the sewing continued and messes were made.

i created a mask out of felt while mom diligently sewed.

we also created an oval patch covered with the “feathers” that we tacked onto one of N’s shirts.

in the end, it was all worth it. my little lady was the cutest owl in town on halloween night!

the other day we had our third annual halloween gingerbread cookie baking bonanza at home! only this year, our cookies are gluten-free (GF). (i discovered my own, and possibly N’s, gluten intolerance this summer.) they turned out quite festive and yummy!

each year when we’ve made these, N has had the best time. witness our halloween baking (with gluten flour) in 2008:

and in 2009 (yup, still ignorant about the effects of gluten here, and eating it):

so this year, i searched the internet for GF gingerbread recipes, and there are tons out there. true to GF form, each one requires 700 different types of flours, but we settled on one that seemed most simple and healthy from veganchef.com, and what’s cool about them is that they’re vegan, so if your child has dairy or gluten allergies, these are a-okay! (i’ve posted the recipe at the bottom of this blog for your convenience.)

luckily, i had prepped the dough the night before and put it in the fridge. usually i make dough with N, but these GF cookies require a lot of my concentration to put together all of the random ingredients, so i opted to fly solo in advance on that one. i think my brain was on overload this week, so it was just easier this way.

well, i didn’t fly totally solo. be sure you have a sneaky halloween cat on top of your fridge to supervise.

the following afternoon, N, craig (daddy), and i got to work on our halloween baking! we were witchin’ in the kitchen!

the master decorator got to work with the sprinkles (and some raisins as ghost and jack-o-lantern eyes)

she was a patient, yet watchful, witch.

it only takes 6 minutes in the oven, but it's a long 6 minutes when you're three.

like most GF baked goods, these cookies can be quite crumbly, so pour yourself a tall glass of milk to go with them, or if you’re dairy intolerant along with the pesky gluten intolerance (they seem to go hand in hand) so delicious makes a tasty coconut milk!

here’s whatcha need:

one of N’s little friends is totally into all things outer space. she adores planets and rocket ships, so this was the theme for her third birthday party. we decided to make her a gift that would be outta this world!

solar system on a string

N and i started by making beads with sculpey modeling clay of different spherical sizes to represent each planet. (i added a ring to saturn.) we poked holes in them with a paper clip.

then we baked the sculpey in the oven while opening all of the windows. (as i read the box afterwards, i realized that this stuff is kinda toxic while baking and probably isn’t the greatest material for younger kids. N colored by a window across the house while it baked.)

once the beads were hardened, we painted the planets all different colors, (and realized that at their most basic hue, many the planets almost follow ROY G BIV!) also, we opted to include pluto in the line-up for old times sake…

carefully painting the beads

after the beads were dry, we strung them onto a soft black cord (like outer space!) and made it into a very cool birthday necklace!

in a ring around the sun

we have comcast cable in our home, and usually N watches little bear on the nick jr. on demand channel each day after her nap. for some odd reason, they aren’t offering the amaaaaazing winter solstice episode this week. (can you tell i’m also a huge fan of this earthy, sweet show?) instead, the new one for the week includes an episode called “little bear scares everyone.” right up N’s alley! little bear scares everyone by collecting fallen leaves and creating a mask out of them.

screenshot from "little bear scares everyone"

naturally, N wanted to do the same as her furry hero. today we went for a stroll in the park, hung out with some mallards, and collected pretty leaves. N said she wanted to make herself a scary mask with them. now i realize that i could press the leaves or even wax the leaves, but with toddlers, sometimes it’s all about instant gratification, right?

when we got home, we gathered some materials we had around the house. i probably should have used mod podge or some other glue, but i’ve been on a hot glueing rampage since making pine cone ornaments, so i figured it was strong enough to hold the leaves and dries quickly enough. problem is that it’s NOT kid-friendly, so she couldn’t do the glue part of the project.

we cut a shape to fit her face and eyes. we punched holes in the side of the mask, and threaded ribbon through them while the glue was heating up. N arranged the leaves on the mask (and is a fan of symmetry, not surprisingly.)

then i hot glued the leaves down quickly while N practiced writing her alphabet on the scrap paper. the glue did dry quickly, and then… N bear scares everyone!

after doing this, i found a much more elegant way to make a leaf mask online at one of my most favorite blogs, five orange potatoes.

a few months before our upcoming loooong flight across the country with our toddler, i saw a great idea in cookie magazine, dog-eared it, and executed when the time came to whip out a fun mid-flight snack… a crunchy, tasty version of the candy necklace — a froot loop necklace!

all ya need are dental floss and froot loops (or any cereal with a hole in the middle, but froot loops are nice and colorful. uh, admittedly not the healthiest choice.)

morningtime materials

just string the cereal on the floss and tie it around your little one’s neck. the smaller the kid, the bigger i’d make the loop for ease of use and snacking.

on the second leg of our flight, i brought out the rainbow treat and she crunched away, smiling at the novelty of eating a necklace!

flying high on a rainbow of froot flavors

if you know kids, you know that they are at their best (and often most creative) when they are freely exploring outside in nature. i, however, have to find some sort of diversion when i am outdoors in order to make me forget the oppressive humidity and pesky mosquitos where i currently live. so, i turn to one of my greatest loves: accessorizing! my daughter, who was born to play dress-up, loves to work this into her outdoor play, too.

so we’ve been making adornments from nature. hey, the boho chic look is in – earthy and fabulous! i’ve been making clover necklaces, bracelets, and headbands in the backyard since i was N’s age, so the other day i asked her to collect all of the white clover flowers she could find and to pull the long stems with them (hey, free weeding!) and bring them to me. i knotted them together to make a headband that can rival any of those in the spring line at free people.

clover headband

we also made a groovy nature bracelet in our backyard recently. i saw this idea on makingfriends.com, and thought it was simple and stylie enough for my little one to enjoy. all you have to do is put 1 inch masking tape around your child’s arm with the sticky side out. then go hunting for tiny leaves, flowers, berries, seeds, feathers, etc. to stick onto the bracelet.

ooh la la!

another cute idea i saw on a great blog called chasing cheerios (that jives with the magnolia trees growing all around us) is to make a crown fit for tiny royals. N loved to pretend she was the tree princess in her majestic magnolia leaf crown all afternoon long. just collect medium to large leaves. leaves that are more rigid, like magnolias, work especially well. then cut poster board or cardboard to fit the circumference of your child’s head, and staple or tape it together. then staple the leaves to the paper, and hark! all hail the nature queens and kings of the land! (N’s little monkey friend even became a prince with a golden magnolia crown today on their parade around the neighborhood!)

the prince and queen on a wagon parade!

what are your favorite homemade natural adornments?