happy birdycake

Earth day is everyday... pass it on!

This April for earth day, my little daisy girl scouts earned their "green petal" for "using resources wisely".   We took on an easy sewing project inspired by Martha Stewart  for recycling old t-shirts.  (So if you have any old concert t-shirts from the 80's gathering dust in your closet... bring 'em out!!)

We learned that we use about 500 billion plastic bags every year. 500,000,000,000!! That's almost 1 million bags per second! Far too many of these bags that are littered, enter the ocean too. Plastic bags essentially never biodegrade. Instead the sun breaks them into small pieces that choke and kill marine animals such as turtles and birds.  They are a primary source of litter since they are light and are transported around easily by  the wind.

So we thought to bring awareness to this terrible polluting problem and make this great project that not only  recycles old t-shirts that we might not need anymore or would go to the garbage but also replace the need of plastic bags with a bag  we could re-use... and that sure is a "good thing"!!

Here is the link to Martha Stewart's video how -to ( here ) or you can see how we did it below!!

 All you need is an old t-shirt... cut the neck off and the sleeves.

 

Turn the t-shirt inside out and sew the bottom close.

 

 

 

 

 

Taaadaahhhhh!  your recycled bag is done!!

Can't get any easier than that!

 

 

Now on to work on mama's old concert t-shirts...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Earth day is everyday... pass it on!!

easter

For Easter this year, we tried 2 new recipes from martha stewart... a delicious coconut macaroon and homemade peeps!

Here is the Martha coconut macaroon recipe  (here) ... with the addition of candy eyes and beaks by me.! ;)

 

 

 

 

 

 

a little card making from the kid...

 

Trying to play a little dress up with Molly...

 

 

 

 

And homemade peeps !!  Martha's recipe (here)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Molly and kid

Dog keeping is a subject we have added to our homechooling and I must say that it is looooove around here.  If we are not collecting teeth for the puppy toothfairy or jumping knee deep in mud puddles, you might find us sewing or reading with a new companion in hand.  That unconditional love that a dog has is unbelievable and this cat person finds herself suddenly converted.  And as for the kid?  well... I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo Happy 6 months Ms sweet molly may. xoxoxoxo

Muddy buddies....

embroidering...

 

sewing a tooth pouch for molly

For the puppy tooth fairy

 

reading buddies...

bird watching from the couch...

spring beach day

 

baby robins

This spring as new birds begin to seek out our bird houses, we are starting to wonder who we will study next!  We have been observing the tree swallows try to win realty over the blue birds and our friend the red capped woodpecker has brought his mate along this year for the first time!!  This year daddy bought 2 new birdhouses that you can lift a flap that is encased in plexi glass and you can observe nesting activity!! (Like this ) So that is exciting.  We will see!! 

Last spring we had the amazing chance to observe baby robins nest under our deck.  Here are some photos of our baby robin experience !!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A look at a set of robins hatching ( here )

 

 All about robins from The Cornell lab of Ornithology ( Here )

 

and crafts about robins  ( here ), ( here ) and ( here )

 

 

American girl mini books

Book lovers, that's what we are. True blue book lovers.  

I had a dream when I was younger and it happened after I saw the movie "My fair lady" with Audrey Hepburn.  If you are a true blue book lover you would have guessed right about now which scene I am thinking about that makes me sigh and dream... The one where she is in the huge floor to ceiling library that involves a book ladder and she is swinging around searching for books. That library was dreamy! 

There are enough books in our house on all different subjects and in all kinds of sizes. Need to know anything about something? We probably have it. And you know books are a priority when you comfortably can guide costumers through Barnes and Noble even though you don't work there and no one has asked for your help ... you just volunteer.  But anyways, I digress.  

My kid came up to  me the other day needing to make her American Girl doll some books to read.  She wanted her dolls to have a collection of their own favorite books just like the one she has. I can't begin to tell you the giant smile on my face that I gave her.  To know that something like that is so important to her,  like it is to me and to want to share it with her dolls was really awesome. So we came up with this idea of making mini books.  If you'd like to do the same here is a quickie easy project to do with your kid...  share the love of reading!!!  

 1. First pick a title of the book you'd like to make.  We chose here Harry Potter.  Search for it on google images.

 2.This is what the search gave us.  Pick the image you like.

 

3. We chose this one.  We have a MAC... so all you have to do is drag it off the Net onto your desktop.

 

4.Dragging it onto the desktop.

 

5.It comes in as a JPG.

 

6.Double click on it. And click print.

 

7. Scale it down before you print.  We scaled this one to 25%

 

8.Here is the image printed.

 

 

9.Cut around it leaving white space for the back of the book.

 

 

10.Fold over so you have a rectangle folded in half.  Half of it is the image.  Looks like a book cover.

 

11.Trim off the excess paper.

 

12.Cut more paper for the inside in the same size.

13.Put all the sheets together like a layered sandwich.  Staple together.

 

 

14. Taddah!!! Some of our favorite books!

 

Now the extra fun part is having your kid fill in the words inside and adding pictures too!!!  Fun project for little hands!!

 

 

California

Over the holidays we took a 2 week trip west to visit family and to sneak in some hands on homeschooling too!  

Here are some of our adventures...

This is one of our favorite books to make bread... so visiting La Brea Bakery in L.A was a must!!!

 

 

We visited the gorgeous Getty Museum!!!  Look at that view!!!

 

Spotting the Hollywood sign of course ...

 

Took a drive to Santa Barbara... 

(Gotta love that app for the iphone "hipstamatic" for some of these fancy photos!!)

 

 

Building fairy houses where ever we can...

 

Walking the walk of fame in Hollywood...  

(Kenny G has a star but not Molly Ringwald?!?!?!...sad...  so sad...)

 The man... 'nuff said...

 

Ferris?...Ferris?....Ferris?.....

 

The only James Bond of course... 

 

 

mmmmmm....

 

 

Great places we ate at...

 

 

Driving to Palm Springs for some fun and relaxing...

 

 

Taking the Palm Springs Aerial tramway  up the hills of the Chino Canyon to the top of the San Jacinto Mountains.  Elevation 8,516 ft!

 

A bit of nature hiking at the top of  San  Jacinto.

 

 

 

Finding animal tracks on the snow...

 

and finding a snowman...

 

 Smelling "jeff"...

 

 

 

Mya  completed the hike and officially became a junior ranger!  Here she takes her oath...

 

and receives her badge!!

 

 

 

We enjoy Aunt K's world famous apple pie, "palm springs style"...  

 

We ate at the gorgoeous Parker hotel in Palm Srings at "normas" .

 

 

Mama's sunflower waffle... with a brulee center!  yum!!

 

 

kid in waffle heaven...

 

 

Visiting "The Living Desert zoo" in Palm Springs...

very sweet giraffe

 

nesting...

 

ox with extremely large horns!

 

mountain rams...

 

 

love that beaver tail cactus!

 

 

need to get this...

making friends...

Hiking the Joshua Tree national park...

 

 

 

A quite jurassic desert sun spider...

 

and a quite jurassic desert beetle...

 

 

It would not be fun if we didn't find some scat...

 

 

 

I do believe that was the tush rock up above...

 

prickly!

 

 Getting some Astronomy in at the Griffith Observatory...

 

 

Ring a bell?... think "rebel without a Cause".

 

 

 

Fun with aunt K

 

 

 Visited the California Science center...

 

daddy tries the hurricane machine...

 

 

 

Visiting American girl cafe in LA ! :)

 

 

And some down time learning Sudoku from the master himself...

pop pop !

 

 

It was a wonderful trip west and we will miss everyone!!!

Homeschooling indeed!

^_^

 

 

Meet Molly!

 

 

We have a new addition to our family!  

Meet little Molly!! (I say molly ringwald, kid says molly the american girl, daddy says sweet molly may)... all in all she's a little yellow labrador retriever, all love and full of snuggles!!  

Here she is coming home...

 

 

and zzzzzzzzz

 

 

Here she is home!  Kisses!

 

 

 

Happy kid!

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

and more zzzzzzzzzzzz

First puppy well visit at the vet... more zzzzzzz (wow! pups sure do sleep a lot!)

 

 

At 9 weeks!  

 

 

At 10 weeks

 

 

 

At 11 weeks.... playing in the rain!

 

and 12 weeks during christmas!!  

 

 

Love love love of course!

 

 

Two sweety pies enjoying each other for the long haul.  

Best of friends. :)

 

 

Someone in "America" 's got talent...

I know it's been a long while since I've posted. The busy of the exciting full force everyday happenings has ran off ahead of me and though I manage to capture it all with photos, the sneaking away to post has officially taken back burner.  That's ok....the wonder woman in me has come to terms with the fact that 24 hrs in a day is all we can get and only superman can spin around the earth reversing time. So here I am with some minutes in my hand and I shall take you back to early fall and a great adventure we had! The homeschooling, girlscouting, cooking, crafting, traveling  bit will have to be postponed for another day.

For now...  Someone in "America"-'s got talent!!!  Yes... our own little birdy!

That little girl who adores music has developed into quite the little song bird!!  She's had it in her mind for a while that she wanted to audition for American Idol or X-factor  or just plain be on TV... So imagine our excitement when we found out that America's got talent was hosting auditions in NYC (all ages)... So off we went!!! 

Never met a kid with more drive... I mean, I still remember a huge sour memory of my own great  third grade stage disaster involving me, the mikado and a frozen solo moment where tears just flowed down my face.  My parents never talk about it... ever. Heh heh.  So I am so very proud of her for her gusto, self confidence, passion and belief in her own dreams... quite powerful for her six years on this earth.  

So here we are arriving in NYC... I think her stance says it all.

 

 

Here she is waiting on line to get into the audition...

 

 

The official bracelet to get in...

 

 

Go her number!!

 

 

Now the waiting begins...

 

A little more waiting zzzzzzzzz.....

 

 

A bit of mayhem at Javits...

 

 

And then her turn!  

 

Singing "Fly me to the moon" by Mr. Siantra himself,  she says - "I aced that!!".

I am sure you did baby.

Love that spirit.

 

 

After her interview with tons of questions... we wait to hear back in February.  But even if we don't... What an amazing day and what an incredible experience.

And nothing can make me more proud than that girl power inside her.

 

I am sure you'll "fly to the moon" indeed...

 

Happy halloween!!

 

Happiest halloween to everyone!! Hope it is spookalicius!! 

We will leave the tricks for tonight but as for treats... we have already indulged! ;)

If you haven't made any treats yet, it's not too late!  Here are some ideas...

Spicy pumpkin brittle with cardamom and pumpkin pie spices!

Here is the recipe but I do apologize since I have a tendency to eyeball a lot of my cooking and tend not to measure ... so use your judgement as to how spicy you might like it.

I used this basic recipe ( pumpkin brittle ) from the James Beard foundation but added the spices to my liking.

Basic Pumpkin Seed Brittle via Jamesbeard.org

Adapted from a recipe by

Guy Reuge- Mirabelle- St. James, NY

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup water 
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 3/4 cups shelled pumpkin seeds, also know as pepitas

**(I added about 1/4 tsp of cardamom, 1/4 tsp ground cloves, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/4 tsp ginger, 1/4 tsp allspice and 1/2 tsp cinnamon.)

Generously grease a cookie sheet or cover it with a silicone mat. Set aside.

Combine the sugar, corn syrup, butter, and water in a medium pot. Stir the sugar with your fingers to moisten so that no lumps remain. Cook the mixture over medium heat until it caramelizes, about 15 minutes. It's done when it's medium brown; be careful not to let it burn, which can happen in the blink of an eye.

Take the pot off the burner and immediately whisk in the salt, baking soda, and spices. Quickly add the pumpkin seeds and stir until they are coated with the liquid caramel. If the mixture hardens too fast to allow you to stir in the seeds, return the pot to the heat for several seconds. Working quickly, pour the mixture on the baking sheet you prepared earlier and spread it with a rolling pin to about 1/4-inch thickness.

(At this point I also sprinkled it with special pink sea salt)

When the brittle has cooled and hardened, break it into pieces. Store it in an airtight container.

 

 

 

 

 

We made some spooky meringue bones.

Here is the recipe.

• 6 large egg whites
• 1 1/2 cups sugar

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. 
2. Put egg whites and sugar in the heatproof bowl of an electric mixer. Set bowl over a pan of simmering water; whisk constantly until sugar is dissolved and mixture feels warm to the touch, about 5 minutes.
3. Return bowl to mixer, and fit mixer with the whisk attachment. Beat on high speed until very stiff peaks form, about 8 minutes.
4. Transfer meringue to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch plain round tip, such as a Wilton #1A. Pipe bone shapes, each 5 to 6 inches long, onto two baking sheets lined with parchment paper (as shown below). Bake until crisp throughout, about 1 hour. Let cool completely on a wire rack.

*** They are very fragile so make sure they are cooled before you remove them from the parchment paper.  

 

 

Kid piping...

 

Mama piping...

 

 

 

Made some lovely candy corn inspired madeleines...

All you need is to keep the batter thick enough to be able to pipe onto the pan without the batter running.  Work fast!!!

Divide the batter in 3 ziplock bags.  Add food coloring. (I used wilton gels.) Then you can just snip the ziplock bags and pipe directly onto the pan.

Here is a Madeleine recipe to use.

2 large eggs

2/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel or orange peel

Pinch of salt

1 cup all purpose flour

10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, melted, cooled slightly

Preheat oven to 375°F.  Generously butter and flour pan for  madeleines. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and 2/3 cup sugar in large bowl just to blend. Beat in vanilla, lemon peel and salt. Add flourand beat just until blended. Gradually add cooled melted butter in steady stream, beating just until blended.  Bake until puffed and brown, about 15 minutes. Cool 5 minutes. Gently remove from pan. Repeat process, buttering and flouring pan before each batch.

 

 

 

 

 

Happy halloween!

Ruby throated Hummingbird

This spring we had the chance to observe a little fellow that visited us daily... a ruby throated hummingbird.

In fact, he got so comfortable with us feeding him that he loved sitting on our tomato plant cages sunning himself.  Now, I do not know about you but I have never seen a humming bird sit down!!!  They are the fastest little creatures I have ever seen, with their tiny wings fluttering a million times a minute.  But here he is... sitting.  Smiling perhaps? Towards the end of spring he gave us a gift... he brought his mate to visit.  I imagine a little tiny nest was built somewhere amongst our trees and a tiny egg the size of a pea brought forth new life. 

For us it was a great opportunity to learn more about hummingbirds!!  We got a couple of books from the library, wrote about them and even decided to sew our own tiny little hummingbird.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and if you have not seen this amazing video of a man in alaska feeding hummingbirds from his very own hand... please ( click here ) to do so!  So amazing!

A beautiful behind the scenes look at "hummingbirds" a documentary  from PBS( here ).

and the full documentary  ( here )

and  cross-disciplinary hummingbird activities.  ( here )