Recap from the Year: Felt Food

Here's a recap of my felt food obsession for the year (plus a few new things)...

1. Tea Bag (tutorial)

2. Farfalle (new)

3. Pancake (tutorial)

4. Raviolli with Basil Leaves (new)

1. Donut (tutorial) and Flour/Sugar Sack (tutorial)
2. Tea Party Kit with Sugar Cookies and Brownies (tutorial)
3. Valentine Cookies (tutorial)
4. Strawberries (tutorial)

1. Green Eggs and Ham (tutorial)
2. Fortune Cookies (new)
3. Pot stickers (new)
4. More Sugar Cookie Sprinkles... always fun

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Inspiration from South Africa

I love how the blogosphere brings people together from all over the world.  It creates this amazing sense of community for sharing ideas.  There are so many crafts that other bloggers have inspired me to delve into... felt food, freezer paper stenciling, ribbon barrettes, etc.  I'm indebted to so many.

I was honored this past week when Joyful Mama (from South Africa, host of the World Cup, which I hope everyone is watching) wrote that she was linking to my felt sugar cookie post.  Even more exciting was when I looked at her creations.  I have to make that cupcake.  Isn't it too yummy!

SOURCE:  Joyful Mama

http://joyfulmamasplace.blogspot.com/

You can check out more at Joyful Mama's Place.

Who has inspired you today?

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And more strawberries... long-lasting ones

For my budding chef... a few more strawberries for her to enjoy.  I really liked how these turned out.  And watching her play with them bring back memories of her first strawberry picking experience last year when I kept catching her squatting in-between the rows, eating more berries with the juices running down her chin.  She was a strawberry lover at an early age.

Want to make your own?

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Baking Supplies

Here is another project for my daughter's Easter basket.  She loves to help me bake, so I made a flour and a sugar sack for her kitchen.  I'll be putting it in with some wooden eggs and hopefully a little mixing bowl, as well as the donuts.  (She already has measuring cups.)  I imagine many more cooking sessions in her room.

I wanted the label to be on printable fabric but wasn't able to locate it locally.  I'm using paper right now, but I want to replace them one day with something longer lasting.  Luckily, that should be a pretty easy change.

Now back to work on some more projects for the baskets.

This project is linked to:

Keeping It Simple: Motivate Me Monday

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Donuts, donuts, and more donuts

I can't believe that Easter is coming up so quickly.  I am definitely running behind in getting together goodies for the kids.  I decided this year that I wanted to make some homemade items for them, and you are welcome to come along on the ride.

I've already shared with you my obsession with Felt Food.  I am fighting the desire to make more cookies, though little spring sugar cookies would have been so cute.  Instead, I decided to tackle donuts.  I am a Dunkin' Donuts girl.  Thankfully, they aren't convenient to get to from our house so donuts are only an occasional treat (meaning we are in that part of town).  Now, though, we will have these calorie free alternatives to play with.

I wanted to make a diverse collection.  After all, who picks just one kind of donut?  You need the variety to keep things interesting.  That and I just like so many different types. 

For Easter, my daughter will be getting...

• two donuts with chocolate icing and pink and green sprinkles (because pink and green matches her room)
• one boston cream donuts (Mommy's favorite)
• one chocolate glazed donut
• and maybe a few more if I end up with some spare time before Easter

These are easy to make and easy to customize.
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Seuss Extravaganza: Green Eggs and Ham

I do not like them, Sam-I-am.

I do not like green eggs and ham.

Excerpt from "Green Eggs and Ham" by Dr Seuss

I'm actually planning on giving these to my daughter for St. Patrick's Day, but I couldn't let this Seuss celebration pass without posting here.  After all, "Green Eggs and Ham" is a classic.

This is really simple if you want to make your own.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of the process.  The steps are pretty easy though.  This could be a great gift for a child to accompany a copy of the book.  Hmm... future birthday party gifts.
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Wrapping Up Old Projects and Beginning New

I spent this past weekend wrapping up old projects, starting new projects, and looking for inspiration.  I have really been enjoying the Celebrate the Boy month and can't wait to start some new things for my son in addition to my daughter.  And with St. Patrick's Day, Easter, and Spring, it seems like there is inspiration everywhere.  So, expect new projects in the next few weeks.

Until then, I wanted to share one of the projects I was wrapping up this weekend.  This is a variation on the tea set, but I customized it for a co-worker of mine.  She and her husband are big Hokie fans, so in honor of their daughter's 2nd birthday, I made a custom Virginia Tech set.  As much as I love the sweetness of the pink goodies, I've enjoyed the variation.

Oh, and here's the other thing that I enjoyed this weekend. He is so ready to crawl.  Not bad considering he isn't even five months old.

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Felt Brownie Tutorial

Here it is.  I finally put together the Brownie tutorial.  Thank you to Julie and Maria for encouraging me to get this up.  (Yes, I have been reading your comments.)

For those of you new to my blog, this is the tutorial for the brownies featured in the Tea Party gift set.
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Happy Pancake Day

I learned in researching Shrove Tuesday (Mardi Gras) that many countries refer to it as "Pancake Day."  A day where you eat pancakes. That is my kind of holiday. I love the idea. So, our family celebrated tonight by eating Macadamia Nut Pancakes with Ginger Syrup for dinner. (I'm pretending I am somewhere warmer.  Our snow is melting so now it is just cold and gray and dreary.)

Pancake Day also seemed like another great excuse to add to my daughter's felt food collection (see more on this felt food addiction here and here and here and... well, you get the picture).

Pancakes with syrup and bananas... Yummy.  To make your own, check out the tutorial below.
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It's All About the Tea

Each cup of tea represents an imaginary voyage.

~Catherine Douze

Here it is... the tea bag tutorial.  This is such a fun project to make and give.  My daughter loves the tea bags I made her, so much so that it inspired me to make a tea party set for her friend's birthday.  Now it is my pleasure to share these with you as well.  (And a special thank you to Julie of St. Louis for encouraging me to get this tutorial posted.)

The great thing is you can customize these for the recipient.  For the first bags I created for my daughter, I made pink bags with bright pink stitching (middle image above).  Having learned my lesson that the contrasting stitching shows off the "homemade" nature of my stitching (in this case being code for sloppiness), I used a thread that matched the felt for the tea set tea bags.  They still have that sweet girliness (left image above).  Now I am working on a set for a friend's daughter.  In this case I chose to do white bags with maroon stitching (right image above).  What I love about this latest version is that it is a bit more gender-neutral.

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More Valentine Cookies

“Ecstasy is a glassful of tea and a piece of sugar in the mouth.”

~ Alexander Pushkin

Remember these cookies from yesterday? 

My daughter and I made these as gifts for the teachers at day care.  Well, those cookies inspired this surprise for my daughter... sugar free and fun for play.

The pink sprinkle cookies are the same ones that I included in my felt sugar cookie tutorial.  However, as a special valentine treat, I also made her these jam-filled felt cookies.  Almost like the original.

We are going to have some great tea parties on Valentine's Day! Pin It

Tutorial: Felt Sugar Cookies

'Take some more tea,' the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.

'I've had nothing yet,' Alice replied in an offended tone, 'so I can't take more.'

'You mean you can't take LESS,' said the Hatter: 'it's very easy to take MORE than nothing.'

~ Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

 

 
Evenings around here have fallen into a certain routine. At 7:00 it is time for my son's last feeding. At 7:30 he goes to bed. Then we start the evening routine for my daughter (more info here). Around 8pm she is in bed. Once I pick-up the house, clean the kitchen, prep and package the bottles for the next day (and thawing milk if needed), make lunches, and lay out our bags for the next morning, I flop into a chair in the living room and start making felt food. Ah... relaxation.

I discovered felt food in December while looking for stocking stuffers, and my daughter loved them. And I loved making them. So, I made her food on our post-Christmas trip to the beach. And I made her food when we got home. And I made food for her friend's birthday present. It became an addiction. Now I have plans to make her a special food for every holiday this year.

The great thing about this project is that it is so easy. I say that as someone who cannot sew. Seriously, I can't even thread the machine. It is on my list of skills to learn. However, even I, with my completely inept sewing skills, can do the basic stitches needed to make this food.

To kick-off the series of Felt Food Tutorials, let's begin with the simple Sugar Cookie.
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Tea Treats Gift Box

Another novelty is the tea-party, an extraordinary meal in that, being offered to persons that have already dined well, it supposes neither appetite nor thirst, and has no object but distraction, no basis but delicate enjoyment”

~ Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

We have finally hit that phase... friends' birthday parties.  Having just experienced my first play date this past Fall during my three months as a SAHM (following my son's birth), I am still very new to this world of parties and play dates.  So, while I got a kick out of my daughter's excitement over a recent invitation (particularly since I adore the birthday girl's mother and think they are a blast to be around), I was also unsure as to what would be an appropriate present.

The birthday girl is the sweetest child.  I knew that she loves baby dolls and that she has a tea set.  I knew that her mother loves Pottery Barn Kids, Melissa and Doug, and other classic toys as much as I.  And I have a bit of an obsession with felt food these days.  So, the gift of choice was... a Tea Party treats set, complete with tea bags, cookies, and brownies.

The tea bags were made out of pink felt with the Birthday Girl's initials on the tags.

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