Dough craft

Well today we decided to make a name plate for the door. First we had to make the dough (300g salt, 300g flour(i used spelt), 1 tablespoon oil, water to bind the dough). You mix the salt, flour and oil. Then you add th e water a little at a time, until the dough comes together. Sprinkle some flour on the counter, and work your dough until it is smooth and elastic. We used half the dough to make the name plate (you can make any shape you want- we made a rectangular shape).





Then use a straw to punch out two holes, so you can thread a piece of ribbon through. Then decorate the name plate,






George today made a little man figure (he was making his as a present to his grandfather who is in hospital) and asked me to scratch his name into the other side of the plaque. You could also roll the dough in between your hands to create a thin 'sausage' which you can then make letters out of to put on your plaque. The plaque is ready to bake- we baked ours at 150 degrees c for 2 hours. (if you bake it for a long time at a low heat, it gets very hard!)












Then of course it has to cool, before you paint it. George painted ours, with premixed paint- then finished it all off with glitter. I'm sure his grandfather is going to love it!






Et Voila!

We haven't done any crafts for awhile, and i was startin to get...mummy, i'm bored! So i got some rocks from the beach:











and then i cut up the plastic box the eggs came in and put the paint in that.
I put the aprons on the kids, and away we went! George wanted to paint a beach scene, with sand and sea,









tina was apparently painting a pig :)
















Then came the colour mixing,










followed by body painting,
and a swift introduction to the bath :) Happy children! Result!

swwt tooth

I haven't posted for a while and i'm feeling guilty, so here are two recipes for you:)
First is my shortbread recipe- this is vegan as i was trying to make biscuits for my father in law (he was fasting at the time so couldn't have egg. Anyway imagine my surprise when i pulled my biscuits out of the oven, and they tasted just like shortbread, all buttery and yummy :)

Here's the recipe:
480g spelt flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
0.5 tsp salt
200g sugar
225g vegetable oil

1) Sift all the dry ingredients together (flour,baking powder,salt & sugar)
2)Slowly add oil, little at a time until incorporated into a wet dough
3)preheat oven to 200 degrees C (400 F)
4)If needed, use a little more flour to get the dough tto a firm consistency. Then roll our and cut out cookie shapes or into bars
5)Bake until golden brown. Let cool, then dust with icing sugar
Enjoy! :)

The second recipe is for pancakes-these can be hard to make with alternative flours and alternative milks :) I've been searching for awhile, and ended up inventing my own recipe. This works well for thick (think american style)pancakes.

3/4 cup spelt flour (or gluten free flour)
3/4 cup chick pea flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 cups soya milk
1 egg.

1)mix all the ingredients together, until you get a thick batter.
2)pour into a frying pan, a little at a time
3)layer them on a plate with greaseproof paper and keep them in a preheated oven to keep warm until you have finished all the batter.
4) serve with butter and maple or with favorite toppings. Any leftover pancakes can be frozen, then defrosted one at a time and reheatd in a toaster for a quick no fuss breakfast.
Thats all from me today, i will post pics of the two recipes, just as soon as i can get the energy to make them :)

baaa, baaa white sheep :)

Hello everybody! This week has been abit manic, (washing machine died, iron died, then the water supply got contaminated so i have to dash to my mothers every night to wash the kids!) hence no blog writing. But I have prevailed, and i'm back. I have been dying to get on here, and show you George's latest creation. He wa complaining that he was bored, so i sat him down with a toilet roll (minus the paper :), white glue, scissors, pipe cleaners, white fluffy cotton, and a few bits of foam paper. Then i asked him what he was going to make, he looked at me as if to say, hello...with these ingredients theres only one thing TO MAKE....a sheep. First he poked the pipe cleaners through the toilet roll to make the legs, then he covered the roll with glue and stuck on the cotton (below left). Then mummy had to help by picking the sheep up, so he could glue the cotton to the underneath . Then he added the finishing touches. He made a head, by wadding up some toilet paper, and covering it with more of the cotton. Then he took some foam paper, and cut off little bits, and stuck them on as the eyes. Voila , a cute littel sheep, that my daughter insisted on sleeping with that night!

Bathtime Madness

I first bought bath crayons when George was much younger, and he didn't really get into them. This time, both the kids have gone mad for them. Now bathtime, always a playtime to look forward to, has been transformed into an extra special art time!
George and Tina get very excited about the fact that they can create something, and then pick up a cloth and delete it effortlessly.



Tina has yet to gain complete control of the crayons, so her art is still a little abstract. But George is progressing day by day. We started with faces. Daddy has spiky hair and a beard, and Mummy has long hair and eyelashes (not sure why i only have one eyelash on each eye?). Now we have elaborate drawings of daddy with Tina on one side, and George on the other. Please not , all the figure now also have bodies. We have got to the point point of putting in 'boobies' (George likes boobies!) but haven't progressed to other anatomical features yet :)
Hope you like todays art, tune in again soon for another recipe.
Light and love, Viki

cupcakes and crayons

Well, we are invited to a 2nd birthday tomorrow, so that means an afternoon in the kitchen awaits me.
You see, with george's allergies he can't eat any of the typical birthday fare, so i end up taking a picnic of alternative goodies with us. Funnily enough i have to make large quantities, because the stuff looks so good that other kids always want some! This is george's favorite cupcake recipe, and it is such a simple one, that George already has it memorised! :)

George's cupcake recipe:
3 eggs
3/4 cup of sugar
1/2 cup oil
205ml soya milk (or orange juice)
1 1/2 cups self raising flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
(for chocolate cupcakes add 1/2 cup cocoa)

Sift flour and add baking powder. Sift cocoa (if wanted) , and then sugar. Now add eggs, soya milk and oil. Mix well and turn into cupcake trays.
Bake in a preheated, moderate oven (150C) until a knife comes out clean.

NB this mixture can also be made into a cake baked in a loaf tin.
The picture above shows George and Tina decorating a cake that we made in a loaf tin for their grandmothers birthday.

Hello everybody, this is my first try at a blog, so please bear with me :) As you have already gathered, i have two beautiful children, who are currently testing my arts and crafts abilities to the max. George has been off school for a week now, and i am trying hard to come up with new ideas daily to keep them occupied. Our project for this week has been magnets. I got some lollipop sticks (different coloured ones) and George stuck them togethertwo wide, with another stuck on the back. He then stuck magnets to the back 'stick' and then decorated the front of the fridge magnet with different thigns. I had quite alot of different things in the 'art box' and he used the lot.
First we got out the leftover beads from the name necklaces George made for his friends as thank you presents for coming to his party. He made his own name first (he knows how to spell that so he did it all by himself.)He then asked me to help him spell out the names of his family. We made one for his little sister tina, mummy and daddy of course, then uncle chris, auntie veronica, and finished up with his two cousins whose new house we were going to visit later that morning.
We then progressed to pompoms, which were great fun, and even tina took part choosing and sticking the pompoms down. Next came out the glitter glue and shiny things to stick down. We had a ball!
Well thats all folks for today, check back soon, where i'll have some more exciting projscts on the go, Light and love to you,