Paper Fashions

Klutz books have always been a favorite around our house, but this latest one, Paper Fashions, has got my daughter obsessed!

A couple of her friends have the book and she would pour over it whenever we went for a visit. Luckily, she got it from her grandpa for Christmas, and it seems to be her favorite gift as she's spent hours making different outfits over the past week.

I especially like the two shirts on the right in the above photo.

The evening gown is also very elegant.

Now if only she would take up sewing!

Gingerbread House

On Thursday we went to visit some friends for a little Solstice get-together. They have a really neat reversible cast iron mold that makes two styles of gingerbread houses. Since we've been enjoying the Little House on the Prairie books for the last little while, Bee decided on the log cabin style.

We got the house constructed, but brought it home to decorate, which Bee did last night.
The gingerbread mother, standing by the door, is wearing a blue apron and calling the kids in for dinner. Santa is up on the roof getting ready to go down the chimney. I love the vivid colours she chose for the icing, and the little added details such as the skating marks on the pond and the holly decoration on the front door. The warm glow coming from the windows looks very welcoming.

Merry Christmas!

Homemade Caramels

The kids absolutely love the caramels that one of the vedors sells at our local farmer's market, and I was planning to contact the woman who makes them to see if I could get some for stocking stuffers, but then I got to thinking that surely there must be a recipe for them out there, and I could just make them myself. I did some searching and finally found one that looked promising.

These are the resulting caramels - glossy and creamy and unbelievably good. They might even be better than the ones at the market! They taste a little like the Werther's hard candies, but are soft and chewy and melt in your mouth.

My plan of putting them in the kids' stockings flew right out the window when they started going stir crazy from being stuck at home while I was in the kitchen baking, so I put them to work wrapping the individual candies in waxed paper. Bee (my little manager) took great pride in wrapping them just so, and was so pleased to show off our huge pile of professional looking candies when her dad got home. I think we've got a new holiday tradition on our hands.

The recipe that we used to make these delicious treats can be found here.

Piano Lessons

Bee started taking piano lessons last spring, and loves to play her favorite songs over and over, (one time as fast as she can, the next time really slow).
Her brother has music in his soul (he's always humming quietly to himself), but he's never shown any interest in learning an instrument. Until last week, that is, when he asked Bee to teach him how to play the piano.

They spent almost two hours that day working on the first two songs in her lesson book. I was stunned by her patience, and he was thrilled to be getting so much attention from his big sister. The next day, while she was away at a class, he decided to learn one of her favorite songs. He worked on it steadily for about an hour and a half (with a little help reading the music from me - I played the guitar and clarinet in my "youth"), and by the time she got home, he could play it no problem. I think he may have found himself an instrument!
While they were practicing the other day, I peeked into the room and saw her playing the piano, with him beside her resting his head on her shoulder. Trust me, they can fight like you wouldn't believe (especially now that she's maturing and he's, well, a typical 7 year old boy), but I think the bond they share will serve them well throughout their lives.

Word Cloud

Here's the essence of our blog summed up in a "word cloud".

Click here to make on of your own.

Door decor

We've been busy doing most of our Christmas decorating over the past few days.

We made this wreath several years ago using gloves and a hat. The photo is a bit washed out - his nose and bow are supposed to be red, not orange (and the door is actually dark blue like the one below).

The kids made these gorgeous snowflakes using patterns from a book we borrowed from a friend. We've never made such pretty ones before!

Favorite Things - Chess

Playing chess is one of our favorite ways to pass the time.

Making Candles

We bought a bunch of beeswax a while ago and have finally gotten around to making some candles with it.
This wax gets its nice brown colour from the buckwheat that the bees got their nectar from. It smells absolutely heavenly.

The kids helped me get the votive molds ready by sticking the pre-tabbed wicks down with a bit of Tacky Wax.

After pouring the melted wax into the molds, we used some chopsticks to hold the wicks in the middle until it hardened a bit.

When the wax cools, it shrinks, making it possible to tap the candles out of the molds.

Making candles this way is incredibly easy. The kids are going to give these ones to their various teachers as thank you gifts.

To read more about our attempts at candle making, click here.

Online Snowflake Maker

Now that our own snow has started to melt, the kids are having a ball with this website where you can make virtual paper snowflakes, and they've made some pretty incredible designs. There's also a gallery where you can see some of the amazing flakes that others have made.
I love it because I don't have to sweep up thousands of paper bits!

Make-a-Flake