How Our Garden Grows, Late June 2013 ed.

The raspberries, bee balm, and lavender are particularly photogenic right now.

Comments

Shauna K said…

I think I may need to have a powwow with you guys about gardening... ours looks so pathetic compared to yours!! :( Can't wait to see the continued bounties of your garden :)

June 30, 2013 at 3:59 PM

Clay Cookie Craft

Though school is out for the summer there are a few things my little lass and I are still trying to work on consistently--reading, piano, and art. Now, I have some fine art background but I don't consider myself very crafty, at least when in comes to coming up with fun projects for kids. I loved this project from The Little Hands Art Book because it combined some great elements of cooking, sculpture, and painting. I like crafts that actually teach something. The bonus here is that we ended up with some great looking little cookies for my daughter's play kitchen. Here's the salt dough recipe you need to get started (click on the photo to see it full size):

We left out the alum and baked the cookies. We also halved the recipe. I had my daughter (who is 4) pour the ingredients into a bowl and after I got the mixing started, I taught her how to knead the dough like bread.

The dough becomes smooth and pliable.

I split it into two sections to make it more manageable and l…

Quadro: The Coolest Toy You've Never Heard Of

Usually the content of my blog falls under either parenting, homemaking, or food. Sometimes you get a poem or some thoughts as I meditate on what God is teaching me through his Word. Usually my goal is to encourage, inspire, and perhaps amuse. Today, my aim is not so noble--I just want to share a unique thing my family has been enjoying.

This is Quadro--modular building toy, a prop for imaginative play, and active play equipment.

Winters are always rather intense in our neck of the woods, but this one has been particularly frigid. Nevertheless, my son asks to go outside to play pretty much every day. I've had to say no a lot, or risk little frostbitten fingers or losing short stuff in a snow bank. How's a little guy to burn off energy when running circles through the living and dining rooms gets old and his best playmate (his older sister) is busy with school? This was one of our considerations as my husband and I discussed Christmas gifts for the kids this past yea…

Post-Christmas Reveal: Handmade Gifts for Kids

Quite a few secret projects have been underway here recently, and I'm thankful that there was time to finish them all before Christmas. My sewing machine has been a near constant fixture on the dining room table since Thanksgiving, and now that they've all been unwrapped by their intended recipients, I'm excited to share the fruits of my labors. :)

It's hard to come up with gift ideas for the youngest of 4, but my baby is outgrowing babydom and his hooded infant towels as well. I love the convenience of hooded towels, which make it so easy to scoop a little one out of a bath and quickly envelope them head to toe in warm coziness, and so I decided to make him some larger towels. This project used two full size bath towels and one matching hand towel, split in half and rounded off, to form the hoods. The center point of the hood was then matched to the center point of the bath towel, and attached, hems enclosed in bias tape, with a few rows of stitching. If you don'…

Egg and Twig

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