As the day of the baby's arrival draws every closer, names are very much on our minds.
We won't be imparting any "final decisions" here until after we meet the new little addition, but I thought I'd share with you some favorites that have come out of Ella's mouth since she first learned she'd be a big sister:
- Baby Diamond
- Alice in Wonderland
- Shiny Ariel
- Ariel Flower
- Melody
- Aurora
- Sunshine
- Yellow Rose
Mind you, as far as she's concerned, it's going to be a girl. End of story.
We'll see~ ;)
Well, until then take care and Happy Baby Names!!
Friday, March 30, 2012
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Homemade Yogurt!
Finally.
After two failed attempts (one that made me quite sick, I might add) we finally pulled off making our own yogurt at home.
Behold~!
If you want to make your own yogurt at home, there are tons of sources online, but the one I referred to was on Soulemama's post here and all the accompanying comments.
But for a simple rundown (sans photos, gomen!!) this is how we did it:
Materials:
- cast iron pot
- big glass jar
- candy thermometer
- milk (2% in our case)
- store-bought plain yogurt (has to have live cultures in it)
- space heater
Directions:
1) clean the big jar and scoop 1 cup of the store-bought yogurt and plop into the bottom of the jar
2) heat the milk over medium heat until it reaches 180 degrees F
3) once milk reaches 180 degrees, remove from heat, and allow to cool down to 110 degrees F
4) pour the heated-then-cooled milk into the jar
5) whisk it around a bit to mix with the store-bought yogurt at the bottom
6) place near the space heater in a way that keeps the heat rather contained (Dash made our table into a kotatsu, so the space heater underneath the heavy blanket made a rather effective incubator)
7) leave there for 8 hours
8) after the 8 hours are up, stick it in the fridge to cool to usual yogurt-eating temperature
9) enjoy!!
Now that we've been successful once, I am confident that this is the way we are gonna go from now on (using the last bit of our homemade batch as the starter yogurt for next time so as to completely eliminate the need to buy store-bought again). It is very cost-effective and you reduce the amount of plastic in your life. That's hitting two birds with one stone!
Maybe I'll take photos next time because it can be very grueling sitting there by the oven with the thermometer in the pot waiting for the mercury to rise up to 180 F -- there are many visual cues to alert you as to when you are nearing the correct temperature. Hopefully I can capture that on camera next time ;)
Well!
Best of luck to all your DIY adventures and Happy Yogurt Making!!
After two failed attempts (one that made me quite sick, I might add) we finally pulled off making our own yogurt at home.
Behold~!
 |
| About one gallon's worth! |
If you want to make your own yogurt at home, there are tons of sources online, but the one I referred to was on Soulemama's post here and all the accompanying comments.
But for a simple rundown (sans photos, gomen!!) this is how we did it:
Materials:
- cast iron pot
- big glass jar
- candy thermometer
- milk (2% in our case)
- store-bought plain yogurt (has to have live cultures in it)
- space heater
Directions:
1) clean the big jar and scoop 1 cup of the store-bought yogurt and plop into the bottom of the jar
2) heat the milk over medium heat until it reaches 180 degrees F
3) once milk reaches 180 degrees, remove from heat, and allow to cool down to 110 degrees F
4) pour the heated-then-cooled milk into the jar
6) place near the space heater in a way that keeps the heat rather contained (Dash made our table into a kotatsu, so the space heater underneath the heavy blanket made a rather effective incubator)
7) leave there for 8 hours
8) after the 8 hours are up, stick it in the fridge to cool to usual yogurt-eating temperature
9) enjoy!!
Now that we've been successful once, I am confident that this is the way we are gonna go from now on (using the last bit of our homemade batch as the starter yogurt for next time so as to completely eliminate the need to buy store-bought again). It is very cost-effective and you reduce the amount of plastic in your life. That's hitting two birds with one stone!
Maybe I'll take photos next time because it can be very grueling sitting there by the oven with the thermometer in the pot waiting for the mercury to rise up to 180 F -- there are many visual cues to alert you as to when you are nearing the correct temperature. Hopefully I can capture that on camera next time ;)
Well!
Best of luck to all your DIY adventures and Happy Yogurt Making!!
Monday, March 19, 2012
Rapunzel Hair!!
Howdy, all!
So this month has been a tad bit more crafty than I was expecting. What with the growing belly, I haven't been sleeping as well and I'm also really "nesting" oriented right now with funny little things on my To Do List like "wash walls" and "install new carpet"!
But!!
This past weekend, Ella Rose and I worked together on something she's been asking for since Christmas -- her very own Rapunzel hair!
I referenced a couple of sites, to put together a wig that we are all happy with. It looks something like this:
I really should have taken photos for the steps, but I was really not sure how this would work out...so please see the written out steps below for how we did it:
1) Find something sturdy and long to wrap the yarn around -- in our case, a bench...could be a table or countertop too. It should offer the length that you desire. To reach the floor, we needed her hair to be about 50", which was the exact length of our bench. Score.
2) Tape end of the yarn to one edge of the bench and wrap around and around until you have done so 30 times.
3) Tie off at the far end from the taped end with a little bit of yarn.
4) Cut off at the taped end, and you will have this 100" long bundle of yarn that is tied off in the center (where it's tied off is the "part" of the hair)
5) Repeat this until you have 11 bundles total (this took us 2 whole new skeins and this random skein I had on hand...). Then lay those aside.
6) Take a pair of kids size tights and stick over your child's head nice 'n' snug.
7) Tie a knot on the top of the head using the two legs, then chop off the legs so you just have this little knot on top.
8) Turn cap inside out on the head
9) Get your kiddo to stay pretty still (ha! good one!) as you start at the front of the stockings and sew your first bundle into the cap. I used a darning needle and the yarn used to tie the bundles in the first place to attach with a nice double knot.
10) Continue all the way to the knot on the top of the head.
11) Now pull back aaaaaall that "hair" into a low ponytail (also using a yarn to tie it off, not a real rubber band of anything)
12) Braid!
13) Tie off at the bottom
14) Stick fake flowers in as you like~
And that's just about the gist of it.
I look forward to many a dress-up session with this new wig and some fun times around town.
Look out, cuz Rapunzel's in town! ;)
Well, hope you enjoyed and good luck making your own wigs! With all the different colors of yarn out there and potential lengths of wig, the sky's the limit!
Until then, happy wig-making!!
So this month has been a tad bit more crafty than I was expecting. What with the growing belly, I haven't been sleeping as well and I'm also really "nesting" oriented right now with funny little things on my To Do List like "wash walls" and "install new carpet"!
But!!
This past weekend, Ella Rose and I worked together on something she's been asking for since Christmas -- her very own Rapunzel hair!
I referenced a couple of sites, to put together a wig that we are all happy with. It looks something like this:
 |
| Sitting on her tower (the stairs) |
 |
| Now you can get a sense of the length. She wouldn't let go of her french toast... |
 |
| Flowers "woven" throughout! |
I really should have taken photos for the steps, but I was really not sure how this would work out...so please see the written out steps below for how we did it:
1) Find something sturdy and long to wrap the yarn around -- in our case, a bench...could be a table or countertop too. It should offer the length that you desire. To reach the floor, we needed her hair to be about 50", which was the exact length of our bench. Score.
2) Tape end of the yarn to one edge of the bench and wrap around and around until you have done so 30 times.
3) Tie off at the far end from the taped end with a little bit of yarn.
4) Cut off at the taped end, and you will have this 100" long bundle of yarn that is tied off in the center (where it's tied off is the "part" of the hair)
5) Repeat this until you have 11 bundles total (this took us 2 whole new skeins and this random skein I had on hand...). Then lay those aside.
6) Take a pair of kids size tights and stick over your child's head nice 'n' snug.
7) Tie a knot on the top of the head using the two legs, then chop off the legs so you just have this little knot on top.
8) Turn cap inside out on the head
9) Get your kiddo to stay pretty still (ha! good one!) as you start at the front of the stockings and sew your first bundle into the cap. I used a darning needle and the yarn used to tie the bundles in the first place to attach with a nice double knot.
10) Continue all the way to the knot on the top of the head.
11) Now pull back aaaaaall that "hair" into a low ponytail (also using a yarn to tie it off, not a real rubber band of anything)
12) Braid!
13) Tie off at the bottom
14) Stick fake flowers in as you like~
And that's just about the gist of it.
I look forward to many a dress-up session with this new wig and some fun times around town.
Look out, cuz Rapunzel's in town! ;)
Well, hope you enjoyed and good luck making your own wigs! With all the different colors of yarn out there and potential lengths of wig, the sky's the limit!
Until then, happy wig-making!!
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Recent Artistry
This is something that Ella's taken to doing recently:
drawing faces that actually resemble faces! :)
Her best friend, Clara, is her favorite subject to draw and I thought I'd capture her in the midst of her creativity for your enjoyment~
drawing faces that actually resemble faces! :)
Her best friend, Clara, is her favorite subject to draw and I thought I'd capture her in the midst of her creativity for your enjoyment~
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