Granny’s Jam Drops

One of my favourite childhood memories is eating home made jam drops. I would carefully nibble the biscuit around the jam centre and once there was no more biscuit to hold I would pop the little jam filled well in my mouth.

My Rooster also loves jam drops, however until today he had only had the supermarket variety. This is something that needed to change.

The recipe I have is the same recipe my great grandmother (aka Granny) used to make, I think I just remember eating hers, I definitely remember eating Nanny’s and my Mum’s though.

To make them you need

120g butter

3/4 cup of sugar

2 eggs

2 cups of plain flour

2 tsp of baking powder

a splash of milk if needed for consistency

your favourite jam

Start by creaming the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs and beat well,

gradually add flour and baking powder, if necessary add a splash of milk for a smooth consistency, I didn’t need to do this, so you most likely won’t either.

Roll teaspoon fulls of the dough into balls and place on a lined tray.

Now you need to make little wells for the jam to sit in.  I found using my knuckle gave the best results, a nice round deep well to hold all that lovely jam.

Spoon in your favourite jam, we used strawberry.

Now bake for about 15 minutes at 160ºC

My mini men couldn’t wait to get into these, they hadn’t even cooled before they were munching away on them.

Rooster declared they were the best jam drops ever, so much better than the supermarket ones, which made me feel happy as he often is not fussed on the home made versions of his favourite bakery/supermarket treats.

I already have a request for a second batch for his soccer carnival next month.

They were just as perfect as I remembered them too.

Stained Glass Christmas Decorations

A few months the Minimen were right into craft activities, so I have been really looking forward to Christmas and all the great things we could make together.

However, things haven’t turned out the way I had pictured in my head. Their interest in craft has waned and I have been left to make by myself.

A couple of days ago I made these cute stained glass decorations using just some  clear coloured pony beads and an egg ring.

First I turned my oven on and set the temperature for the hottest setting.

I placed some baking paper on a tray and tipped the beads into the egg ring in a single layer. You could also use any metal biscuit cutter to make your decoration.

I put them in the oven for about 20 minutes. After this time the beads were soft but not fully melted. I pressed down on them with the back of a spoon to squish them together more.

It easily removed from the egg ring and the plastic hardens up really quickly once out of the oven.

There were little gaps where I was able to thread some string to tie it to the tree.

I really like how it turned out, I was hoping that the different colours would melt together more, maybe they would if I wasn’t impatient and had left them in the oven longer…..that might be an experiment for another day.

The great thing about these decorations is that you don’t even have to put them away after Christmas. Enjoy them all year round by hanging them in a window to catch the light.

Related articles

• It’s beginning to look at lot like Christmas… (thestripedtshirt.wordpress.com)
• Day 6: Easy to Make Christmas Decorations (outdoorsy.gardenxl.com)
• Christmas Decor! (frillsandbows.wordpress.com)

 

Making Candles

I didn’t think I would be doing this today, but somehow I did a bit of candle making this morning.

As a teenager I had a candle making kit and made candles often, but as with most things like this as you get older you often don’t have time.

Today when I was cleaning up I was going to throw out these slightly drunk, heat affected guys, but they smelt so lovely I just couldn’t do it.

 I thought rather than throw them out I would upcycle them into a fabulous new candle.

So I started to search around the house for some other supplies and I found some plain taper candles and for a mould I used the lid of a take-away container and I reused the wicks from the candles.

First I put some holes in the container using a skewer and threaded the wicks through. I secured them with some play dough, this also stops wax leaking from the holes.

Then I chopped up the blue candle into chunks of varying sizes

I filled my prepared container with the chunks.I wrapped the other end of the wicks around some pens, This holds them nice and straight until the wax sets.

I melted down the taper candles in a saucepan,  I let this cool so that it didn’t melt the wax chunks when it was poured into the mould, it only has to be cool enough that you can touch it safely.

Once it had cooled I tipped it into the mold over the chunks, gave it a good tap to expel any air bubbles that may have been lurking in there, then left it to set. Actually I didn’t leave it, I continually returned to poke, prod and examine it while it set. I slid the pens out of the wicks while it was still soft and pushed the ends into the candle, but you could chop them off, I just took the lazy option.

When it was solid I pushed it out of the mould, It came out pretty easily, to make it easier you could probably give it a spray of oil during preparation.

And TA-DA a new candle!

Edit: I am adding this to the Linky party over at And so we craft

Related articles

• How to Make Homemade Candles (untrainedhousewife.com)
• Candle Jars (spoonful.com)

Puppy Beanie

So while I was making this Dog scarf for Rooster he requested a beanie to go with it. I went on a bit of a Google search and the cutest one I found was from Repeat Crafter Me.

It was really easy to follow, made up quickly and has sizes from infant to adult.

I think it is just the cutest, what do you think?

Pinecone Art

Before starting this blog my Minimen showed very little interest in creative activities and when I started doing crafty things with them it could be difficult to gain their interest.

Now, after around six months later they are initiating activities themselves, like this afternoon on our way out of daycare, Rooster picked up a pinecone from the ground and while we were driving home he asked if he could paint it . Of course I was delighted and said yes.

As soon as we were home they bounded out of the car and ran upstairs to find some paints and brushes.

Rooster set everything up himself and both Rooster and Duckman happily painted away for all of about five minutes and together they created a lovely painted pinecone.

Duck man missed the pinecone occasionally, getting a bit more paint on the table

 

 

 

 

Duckman really hates dirty hands at the moment, this is him showing some concern over the paint on his hands.

 

 

This is the end result

 

Destashing with some cute little Ellies

Today while roaming around on Facebook I found these sweet little Elephants

They come from Jen over at Jam Made. The Minimen saw them and just like me fell in love and of course both demanding one to be made for each of them.

So this afternoon I got started destashing some of my grandma’s yarn (I knew I would find a use for bubblegum pink yarn!)

Here’s how I am going so far…..

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I’ll keep you updated as I go.

Snap Painting

During the week I promised The Minimen we would do some snap painting, we ended up being to busy during the week to do it so from early this morning Rooster was onto me to do it today.

So after a visit to the farmers markets, a quick Facebook check in and a lot of nagging I finally set them up to do their painting.

Snap painting is so easy and you should have most things you need around the house.

Gather some rubber bands, something to wrap the bands around, we used a plastic container but a shoe box or even a cake tin would also work well, paper that will fit inside your chosen box and of course paints.

Put your paper in the bottom of your container then wrap the bands around the container at varying intervals.

At this point it the kids will love to explore the sounds the rubber bands make when being snapped. Both Rooster and Dukman are really into music, so they both had a blast playing their “guitars”.

After the musical diversion we used our fingers to smother the bands in paint,

then it was time to flick away!

 

Even Duckman joined in with this activity, usually he is distracted by being outside when we paint, but this one

was right up his alley.

 

Both Minimen really enjoyed this art activity and stayed focused the whole time and they ended up with some really great paintings! I had been expecting this to be really messy with all the flicking bands flinging paint everywhere, however, it wasn’t any thing like that. All the paint managed to make it to its desired destination, which left a super easy clean up. This is something I really like.

This was a great activity. It provides tactile and musical experiences and it was really interesting to watch the way the paint splattered when the band was flicked and it will be engaging for a range of ages.

Here’s some of the art works The Minimen created

Fab Finds Friday – 5 Activities for Boys

I am always looking for things to keep The Minimen busy and get them interested in things other than TV or destroying my house, which seems to be their two favourite pastimes. Recently I found the Kidspot website. Not only is it full of helpful parenting advice but is a wealth of kid friendly activities!

Naturally, I was drawn to the section “Activities for  Boys: Five things to make and do”

The five activities were

Make your own Lava Lamp

How to make Green Goey Slime

 we have already done this one check it out here

Make a Rubberband CD Car

Make a Cool Bubble Snake Maker

Make a fleet of Peg Planes

There are written instructions for all activities as well as short videos for those of you who prefer visual guides.

Along with these there are so many other craft ideas on this site, go have a look, I will definitely be getting many ideas from here in the future!

Have a great Friday, go get crafty!

Stacie

Autumn leaf Printing

Autumn is just about over here and sadly, unlike other parts of the world, in Brisbane we don’t get the explosion of red and orange leaves all over the ground.

This week we wanted to make our own Autumn inspired paintings.

A few days ago I took The Minimen down to the park to collect some leaves of different shapes and sizes. It was a really wonderful experience for them running through the field and looking at the different plants and their leaves, they even encountered a dog on the walk which as always is a highlight of any day with these boys.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we were too late getting home and it was dark outside we were unable to make our prints right away so I pressed the leaves in a book to keep them from curling up.

This morning we set our printing up, we lay out several sheets of paper on the table, squirted acrylic paint onto plastic plates (each colour got its own plate to avoid mixing them)

and we had a rolling pin.

We pressed leaves into paint and then onto the paper leaving colourful impressions when we peeled the leaves away.

We also sandwiched painted leaves between two sheets of paper and rolled with the rolling pin.

The prints worked best when the leaves didn’t have too much paint on them and had already been used for several prints.

I ended up doing most of the printing as The Rooster, although initially very excited about the project, once he had had a turn,  became distracted by creating “prints” with a wet washer on the deck instead and Duckman showed no interest at all, preferring to jump on the trampoline in the rain.

This project gave us some wonderful bonding time during our walk through the park and the printing allowed colour experimentation and gave them some simple print making skills.

T-shirts, Pouffs and Entry ways.

Recently I saw this sweet entry way on Pinterest, and immediately I was in love.

I thought, “when I eventually get an entry way in my house this is how I want it to look.”

Then, through a bit of Googling, I found these cute little crocheted pouffs

and another site on tshirt yarn.

The next logical thought was, “I am going to make one of these little pouffs out of t shirt yarn to put in my non existent entry way.”

Yesterday I cleaned out Duckmans clothes so I had a bag full of little t-shirts  with which to practice making t-shirt yarn.

First, you need to cut off the bottom hem and the top bit just under the sleeves.

Then fold the shirt in half leaving about an inch allowance.

Then you need to cut strips, probably about and inch or so wide, if it is too thin the fabric will snap later on, and don’t cut the allowance.

Now, open it up so that the uncut bit is in the middle.

To turn this into one long strip of fabric make diagonal cuts from one strip down to the next one.

After this you should end up with one long continuous strip.

Now for the fun part….pull and stretch the strip so that it lengthens (extra yarn…yay) and curls in on itself.

It is best to use t-shirts with out side seams if you can, otherwise you will end up with bumpy bits like these…

but since this was just a practice run I wasn’t  worried.

This was quick and easy to do. I think I will now be scouring the op shops for some old seamless t-shirts to upcycle so that I can get started on my pouff. Oh and I also might have to get Mr Minx to finish renovating the front of my house so that I have an entry way to put it in!