Spring Crafts for Kids

I hope you all had a nice Easter weekend. The weather here was wonderful, but I spent all my time indoors. I've spent all my weekends for the past month dealing with stuff for my dad, and this weekend I had to concentrate on my own income taxes for my daycare business. A tedious chore that I'm sure no one enjoys, but it's pretty much ready for the accountant now. So Easter weekend was not what it used to be. It used to be a traditional Good Friday hike with my entire family, usually somewhere along the Niagara Escarpment where my parents used to live. Then it was an Easter dinner on the Sunday at my parents' place. Really missing all of that now, but hopefully some of these family traditions can be revived in coming years.

In the days leading up to Easter I did a few springtime crafts with the daycare kids. I wasn't really into the whole Easter holiday at all this year with my dad having recently departed, but I enjoyed working on these easy things with the kids. I didn't put much out for Easter decorating in the house either, and I realized too late that I didn't get out any of my decorated eggs that my own kids worked on many years ago. I'll be more into my game soon ... hopefully by the next holiday which is Canada's 150th birthday! Onto the craft ... these are just some small wicker wreaths I picked up at the thrift store last year. I cut out a bunch of large felt flowers, circles and butterflies for the kids and they glued them all together. The small flowers were purchased at the dollar store.

We also made these cute bunny masks with big pom pom noses. I didn't have all the colours I would have liked with the foam sheets, but they turned out not too bad. I only remembered to take a photo of one of the masks before the last child headed home on Thursday afternoon.

I like to give the kids a few chocolate treats for Easter, and normally for the babies and toddlers I will add something handmade like the little knitted rabbits I made a couple of years ago. I posted the pattern for these in a separate page which you will see on my sidebar.

But this year I wasn't on top of all this stuff and didn't have time to make even one knitted rabbit. I just stuffed a few stickers in the small bag for the little guys, but did quickly make a couple of bookmarks for the two school-aged kids who are avid readers.

Just a short post today. Tomorrow be sure to stop by for the teacup reveal with The Enchanted Rose teacup exchange! See my sidebar at the top for details. Have a great day folks :)

Wendy

After Easter

Well Easter is over for another year. I like Easter since there isn't a lot of  craziness (in my family anyway) to buy gifts and to decorate and to bake months in advance! I do things simply at Easter. A few decorations on the table, dry sink or buffet.

Knitted Easter Egg Pattern

We had our Easter dinner yesterday, with just my little family of four. We did a delicious roast beef with vegetables in the crock pot and a loaf of rosemary bread ... actually my husband did the main meal. My son and I baked Hot Cross Buns on Saturday for Sunday's breakfast. They turned out really well (recipe at the end of this post). I love Hot Cross Buns, but have only made them once before. My mother made them every year and shared them with us, so there was no need for me to bake them until she passed away. It was good to taste that familiar spicy bun once more :) The lemon squares were made on Saturday as well, and they were a hit. The recipe does make a lot, however, so now we're stuck with a lot of lemon squares ... terrible, right? I sent some back with my daughter, but that pan is in the fridge staring back at me every time I open the door :[

I didn't hear from any of my other family this year, although I did see dear ol' Dad on Saturday for a visit in the morning. His memory was on a one-minute loop that day. Conversation was difficult with the repeating questions. I finally brought out a couple of photo albums to look through with him. He gobbled up the pictures eagerly, as we strolled down "non-memory" lane. The only people he remembers now are his own mother and father. I had to repeatedly tell him they had died many years ago. It's bad enough to have to break the news to him that his parents are dead once in a visit. On Saturday I had to break the news to him about ten times! He took it rather well, but was surprised at the news every time, "Oh, I didn't know they had died". Ever see the movie "50 First Dates"? It was like that. I love that movie. It makes the whole dementia thing a little lighter to bear without demeaning people who have it. 

We drove my daughter back home yesterday after our early supper. There's still snow in the woods alongside the highway there. It was a gorgeous day yesterday, and I was able to have the patio door opened a crack while our roast cooked. It was nice to hear the birds singing all day :)  Today started off with a thunderstorm really early (before I got up). Now it's raining steadily.

I've written out the recipe for the hot cross buns here if you're interested. I realize it's a bit moot to post this recipe after Easter, but maybe you'll keep the recipe for next year. I've not made bread very often, and found this recipe quite easy. We couldn't get candied peel at our grocery store (?!), and then we forgot to buy the raisins. My son and I opened up the pantry cupboard to look for raisins, and saw the box of Raisin Bran cereal sitting there. We looked at each other and silently agreed that we would steal those raisins ... and we did! Thank goodness for those "two scoops of raisins"!! Here's hoping you're better prepared if you make these.

HOT CROSS BUNS

Buns:

4 cups all-purpose flour

8 g pkg quick-rise instant yeast (I used Fleischmann's)

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp cloves or allspice

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/2 cup raisins (steal them from your favourite cereal if none on hand)

grated rind of 1 lemon

1/4 cup chopped candied peel

1/4 cup water

1 cup milk

1/4 cup butter

1 egg

Glaze:

1 egg yolk

1 tbsp water

Icing:

1/2 cup icing sugar

1 - 2 tbsp lemon juice

Set aside 1 cup flour.

In large bowl, combine remaining flour, undissolved yeast, sugar, salt, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, raisins, lemon rind and candied peel.

In small saucepan, heat water, milk and butter until very warm to touch (120 - 130F). With wooden spoon, gradually stir into dry ingredients. Mix in egg; beat mixture smooth. Stir in enough of remaining flour to make a soft dough that pulls away from side of bowl. Turn on to floured surface, knead dough  five to seven minutes until dough is smooth and elastic, adding more flour if dough is too sticky. Cover with tea towel; stand 10 minutes.

Divide dough into 12 equal pieces, Stretch and shape each piece into a smooth ball, pinching at bottom to seal. Place seam-side down on greased baking sheets about two inches apart. Cut crosses in each bun with sharp knife. Cover with tea towel and put in warm place. Let rise 35 - 45 minutes or until doubled in size.

Mix egg yolk with water, brush over surface of buns. Bake in preheated 375F oven 15 - 18 minutes, until golden brown. Cool.

In small bowl, combine icing sugar and enough lemon juice to make a good consistency to drizzle. Beat until smooth. Brush or drizzle icing on top of each bun (I used a decorating tool).

Makes 12 hot cross buns.

Enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by today :)

Wendy

Linking up with Judith of Lavender Cottage and Mosaic Monday

Easter Greetings!

These days I don't do a lot for Easter ... my kids (no longer "kids") will still get their chocolate bunny, and we'll still have a nice dinner together, but that's about it. The crafting days with my own kids are finished, and I no longer suffer from headaches brought on by blowing out eggs to decorate! However, I still work through a few crafts with the daycare kids for them to take home. I chose this idea from Pinterest. I liked the handprint wings. These are popsicle sticks painted yellow and everything else is construction paper.

These next little chicks are made from pinecones. We painted the pinecones yellow, then stuffed them with tiny bits of fiber fill and a couple of feathers for wings. Google eyes and paper beaks complete them. 

For my card and tea exchange group, I made some cards up with some fabric bunnies. I drew the silhouettes of rabbits onto "Heat and Bond", a double-sided adhesive. I then ironed that onto the wrong side of fabric. I cut out the silhouette from the fabric and ironed the final piece onto the blank card. This method works really well, and I was quite pleased with the results. I used the same method to iron on bunny heads on the envelopes as well.

These are some little rabbits I made up with pretty cotton fabric on one side, and burlap on the other. Fronts and backs were stitched together around the outside edge, and they were stuffed with a small amount of fiber fill. Some tiny buttons were used for the eyes. 

They're rabbits, so they multiplied very quickly!

Today was our last farewell to Winter! I know Spring has officially arrived on the calendar, but in reality Winter decided to throw us one final ice storm to bid us adieu. Thank you Winter, but you really shouldn't have! It started with rain, then snow overnight. This morning the snow turned to freezing rain and everything was encrusted in ice for the morning commuters. 

I tossed lots of bird seed out for my feathered friends, and the patio has been a flutter with activity all day long ... even the squirrels and rabbit came to enjoy a little treat. Later this evening after supper, the Coopers Hawk flew into the mix and almost flew into my patio door ... again!!! After watching the little birds all day, I can't say I was sorry that Cooper missed his mark.

I worry for the flowers that were just coming out of the ground and the buds on the trees and bushes. Hopefully, everything will survive. The poor plants have started to come up a few times during this unseasonably mild winter, only to have the tender shoots frozen in snow again. The ice wasn't too thick today, and some of it melted away as the day wore on. It certainly wasn't nearly as bad as the ice storm of 2013. Take care out there if you have to drive in it, and hopefully things will be cleared up again by Saturday when we can expect a high of 8C!

Here's a sample of how thick the ice was in 2013 ...

... yes, I'd say we got off easy today.

Happy Easter Everyone!

Wendy

Linking up with:

Photography, Sparrows and a Lemon Dessert for Easter

Good morning everyone! I hope you all had a lovely weekend. We had some great weather, sunny, sunny, sunny. Still a little too chilly for garden work (for me anyway). My weekend was full with visiting my dad and then errands. While with Dad, my sister arrived unexpectedly, so we took the opportunity and went out for lunch once Dad was settled in his own dining room for his. 

First off I want to share some photos I took recently. Now I am not a manual camera person. I prefer putting the camera on automatic and clicking away. I just find it quicker because I'm usually with little kids, or the dog, or I'm taking wildlife photos and don't want to miss the shot. Sometimes it gets annoying when the flash continually want to go off, but I work around that in my own way. My camera, however, does have manual capabilities! Now with Soma's help in her Wandering Camera series, I am challenging myself to do more. Soma recently spoke about setting the ISO properly. This morning I played with that a bit, and here are the results. Nothing note worthy, but it shows you really do have to play around with the camera ... and again I can't say how thankful I am that these are digital :)

The photos were looking a little better as I kept changing the settings. These are shown in order of taking them. The lighting wasn't great this morning with clouds moving in, but with a beautiful sunrise first thing. What do you think Soma?

These next two were a couple of photos from the automatic setting, and then I touched them up on the computer (which is my normal lazy photographer method). Please note the snow. It was -4C this morning ... ugh.

Obviously, I need more practice, but I've dipped my toe in now and will force myself to continue.

And now a few shots of a sweet little song sparrow that I took through the back patio door. Not great photos, but I don't see this guy very often. If I had opened the door, he would have flown away. (automatic setting ... these were taken a few days ago)

And lastly, I'd like to share a favourite recipe of mine and my daughter's. Now this recipe is light tasting, but it is not light in calories. We happened upon this recipe many years ago, and although it's a bit of work, it's very easy and delicious! It keeps for a few days in the refrigerator (if it lasts that long). If you like lemony desserts, I've got to say, this one is superb! The real lemons make for a very mouthwatering lemon taste. I'll be serving this after our Easter meal of roast beef & Yorkshire pudding :)

LEMON HAZELNUT SQUARES

Crust:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup powdered sugar (icing sugar)

3/4 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts (filberts)

Heat oven to 350F. Spray 13 x 9-inch pan with nonstick cooking spray.

Combine flour, powdered sugar and butter; mix well. Press dough evenly into pan. Sprinkle with hazelnuts; press lightly into dough. Note: I chop the hazelnuts very fine and add them right into the flour mixture instead. Also, if you want to enhance the flavour of the hazelnuts, spread them on a cookie sheet and set in the oven no more than 10 minutes at 350F.

Bake at 350F for 16 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely; about 30 minutes (I often set it in the fridge before the next step so the filling doesn't melt when you put it on.)

Filling:

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1/3 cup cornstarch

1 1/2 cups water

2 tablespoons grated lemon peel

1/2 cup lemon juice (I use about 2 lemons for both the peel and the juice)

1 (8-oz) package cream cheese, softened

yellow food colour, if desired

While the crust is cooling, in medium saucepan combine sugar and cornstarch. Gradually stir in water; blend until smooth. Cook over medium heat for 10 to 12 minutes or until mixture boils and thickens, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Stir in lemon peel and lemon juice.

In medium bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Slowly stir in hot filling mixture and food colouring (just a few drops) until well blended. Cool 30 minutes.

Spoon filling over cooled crust; spread evenly. Cover; refrigerate 1 hour, or until chilled.

Topping:

1 1/2 cups whipping cream

3 tablespoons powdered sugar

   whole hazelnuts (filberts), halved, if desired

   fresh mint leaves , if desired

In medium bowl, beat whipping cream and 3 tablespoons powdered sugar until stiff peaks form. Spoon over cooled lemon filling; spread evenly. Cover; refrigerate at least 4 hours or until serving time. Garnish each serving with hazelnut halves and mint leaves. Note: I don't bother with the hazelnuts on top, or the mint leaves, and you can still taste the hazelnuts in the crust. 

15 servings

Thanks for stopping by!

Wendy

Linking up with Judith's Mosaic Monday, thanks for hosting Judith.

Easter Birds' Nest Treats

One year at Easter many moons ago, I found a recipe for birds' nests made with chow mein noodles mixed with a hot, gooey peanut butter mixture. I started making them for our family's Good Friday hikes, and handed them out to all the nieces and nephews for dessert with our lunch which we ate on the trail. They were fun to make with my own two kids, and it became a tradition for me to bring the birds' nests on our hikes each year.

As the years went by, there were fewer and fewer of us going on the Good Friday hikes. When the kids were no longer joining us, I stopped making the birds nests. My daughter came home for the Easter weekend from university and texted me earlier this week asking "are you making the birds nests for Easter?!" Well, I couldn't disappoint her, could I? So an old tradition was revisited this weekend. My sister and I were the only two who went on our Good Friday hike this year (there used to be 20 of us on the trail). When we stopped along the trail to have our lunch, she asked "so no birds nests anymore?". And I had to admit I hadn't made any for our hike, but that I was planning to make them when we got back home at my daughter's request. These are full of sugar and chocolate and peanut butter ... but fun to make and fun to serve to kids (no matter how old).

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Birds' Nests

1/4 cup butter

4 cups mini marshmallows

1/4 peanut butter

1/4 chocolate chips

4-1/2 cups chow mein noodles

candy-coated chocolate eggs (I use Cadbury's)

Melt butter with the marshmallows in a large saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly. Heat and stir until smooth. Add peanut butter and chocolate chips and stir until all melted and mixed together. Remove from heat and add chow mein noodles. Mix until noodles are thoroughly coated. With buttered fingers shape roughly into nests and set them on a cookie sheet covered with wax paper. Fill nests with about 3 or 4 chocolate eggs (or other egg shapes such as jelly beans). 

Allow to cool before eating. Makes about 20 nests, depending on size. Enjoy!

Thanks for dropping by today!

Wendy

Knitted Easter Bunnies

I have been wanting to knit up a little Easter rabbit for a while now. I've looked online for various styles in Ravelry, but wasn't really happy with them. I wanted the rabbit to be small, but not fussy since I had to make five of them quickly (because I leave everything till the last minute!). I have recently knit a big vintage-style rabbit that took me ages to complete. I still have to attach his enormous ears before I can show him here ... hopefully I'll have time this weekend to finish him. In the end, of course, I just made up something on my own. I didn't want to stitch a lot of arms and legs on the rabbit, just a nice simple form for the body and two ears that will stand up. This is what I came up with ...

I picked up these really cute little Easter treat boxes at the dollar store. Just enough to add a few treats for small kids without overdoing it (I know all these kids will be spoiled by parents and grandparents on Easter Sunday with chocolates).

Smudge Bunny has given these knitted rabbits his seal of approval ;)

Thanks Smudge!

If you're interested in making one for yourself, here's the pattern. They are knit from the bottom up, and are about 3 1/2-inches tall (to top of head, not ears).

KNITTED EASTER RABBITS

Yarn: Bernat Cotton (one 50g ball made two rabbits, with enough left over to possibly make a third)

Needles: 4 DPNs 3 mm

Body

• co 3 sts onto one needle
• kfb of each stitch using a separate needle for each stitch you knit into. You now have 2 sts on each of three DPNs
• join for knitting in the round
• k all sts
• kfb of all sts (12 sts)
• k all sts
• *kfb, k1, repeat from * to end of round (18 sts)
• k all sts
• *kfb, k2, repeat from * to end of round (24 sts)
• k all sts
• *kfb, k3, repeat from * to end of round (30 sts)
• k all sts
• *kfb, k4, repeat from * to end of round (36 sts)
• k next 6 rounds
• *k2tog, k4, repeat from * to end of round (30 sts)
• k all sts
• *k2tog, k3, repeat from * to end of round (24 sts)
• k all sts
• *k2tog, k2, repeat from * to end of round (18 sts)
• k all sts
• stuff the bottom with fibre fill
• *kfb, k2, repeat from * to end of round (24 sts)
• k all sts
• *kfb, k3, repeat from * to end of round (30 sts)
• k all sts
• *kfb, k4, repeat from * to end of round (36 sts)
• k next 4 rounds
• *k2tog, k4, repeat from * to end of round (30 sts)
• k all sts
• *k2tog, k3, repeat from * to end of round (24 sts)
• stuff the head with fibre fill
• *k2tog, k2, repeat from * to end of round (18 sts)
• *k2tog, k1, repeat from * to end of round (12 sts)
• if you need to stuff a little bit more into the head, do it now
• k2tog to end of round (6 sts)
• break thread and run through the last 6 sts

Ears

• co 4 sts
• work 8 rows of stockinette stitch, ending after the purl row
• ssk, k2tog (2 sts)
• p 2sts
• k2tog, break yarn leaving about 6-inches for sewing
• thread a darning needle and run the thread from the top of the ear along the stitches on one side to the bottom; use the same thread to now secure the ear to the top of the head; weaving in ends
• make a second ear in the same way

Eyes & Nose

Using scrap yarn, embroider the eyes and nose with a couple of stitches. Do not use buttons if this is for a young child. Tie a ribbon around the rabbit's neck if desired.

Tail

I forgot to take a photo of the rabbit's behind and fluffy pom pom tail. I just made one up quickly using the old-fashioned method of two cardboard "donuts" and wrapped the yarn around the outside edge of the donut until it was filled in the middle. Tie the pom pom onto the rabbit's bum. They're pretty cute :)

If you want to knit an Easter Egg, I've prepared a pattern for that here.

Happy Easter Everyone, and thanks for stopping by!

Wendy