Little Chef

I'm sure I've mentioned before that Jellybean is my little helper around the house. She wants to help with everything from cleaning to cooking. I'm really excited to see how that plays out with her new baby brother. He'll be here any day now.
For her birthday, my mom gave her a jr. cooking set and made her the sweetest apron. Even better, my mom made me a matching apron as well. I can't wait to have this baby and be able to wear our aprons together.

Look at that perfect little apron. She even has room to grow into it. Note: you will not see me wearing mine until my belly no longer sticks out a mile.

Because Jellybean is so interested in helping me in the kitchen, I've been making some forays into cooking and baking with her. It isn't easy and frankly pretty frustrating, but it's fun to see her light up. She clearly enjoys it.
She is 3, so I don't let her do a ton yet, but Sunday she donned her new apron and we got busy talking about measuring, pouring and mixing. Together we put together a batch of Original Toll House cookies (best recipe, still haven't found one that challenges it).

Looking pretty serious.

Last week, I let her help me pour all the ingredients into the hot pan and help stir the pasta sauce I was making (having her stir over a hot pan was nerve wracking, but she did very well and I of course hovered the entire time making sure that she kept her hand and arm away from the pan and stove.)

Mixing the dry ingredients with her whisk.

I'd like to start her on cutting with a butter knife (i.e. cutting chunks of banana or butter), but D is against her using any type of knife even a blunt one.  I feel like she has a pretty firm understanding about staying away from "Mama's" knives. (I yelled at her and scared her pretty badly when she decided to be helpful and opened my knife drawer. I yell when I'm scared, normal mom response?)

What other cooking skills do you think a 3 year old can be learning right now? I'm a little stumped. I suppose pouring and mixing will probably keep her pretty occupied for now.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

The Birthday Crown

I've been meaning to put up some photos of Jellybean's birthday crown.  Birthday crowns seem to be fairly popular. I've seen them around a lot. Jellybean saw one and asked if I would make her one "right now." So, I did.

I asked her two questions: What color would you like it to be and would you like a number or a letter on it. She was very definite in her answers.

Cutting and laying out. Yes I did use my camera lens cap for the small circle.

Stitching it up and adding the elastic back. You can see my beautiful stitching on the back.

She looked sweet in her crown. It was a nap time well spent.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Linking up:

Monday Kid Corner

5 minutes: Clay and Felt Flower Clip

I decided to finally get around to using the extra roses I had laying around from when I put together my rose and lace necklace. I'm calling it a 5 minute craft, but of course, that asserts that you already have the clay roses laying around and ready for use. You do, right?

If you've got those roses, then gather the rest of your materials: A felt circle, felt leaves and a clip to mount them on.

A little hot glue later and you have a springy clip or brooch.  In my case, a clip that looks sweet in my daughter's hair.

I paid that girl 4 orange M&Ms (the only color she'll eat) to pose for pictures. Next time, she's going to want more...

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Hearts Tutu Skirt

Last week my children spent some time at their cousin's house. Cousin A loves to dress Jellybean up in all of her dress-up clothing. This is heaven for Jellybean. When I came to pick Buddy and Jellybean up, Jellybean was wearing a dance leotard with an adorable tutu over the top.  It wasn't a full skirt, just a transparent tutu with some flowers folded into the layers of tulle. Well, I couldn't help myself, I had to make something for Jellybean to dress-up in at home.
So, purchased 3/4 of a yard of pink tulle and a 1/2 of a yard of white poly-satin. Then I commenced cutting out some small red hearts.

I had to add some princess crowns. Jellybean picked them out.

Then I used the same skirt pattern that I used for my first skirt last summer. Because I wanted the tulle to be longer than the white skirt underneath, I cut the underskirt an inch shorter and then gave it a 1/2 inch rolled hem. I also doubled up my tulle, so that I could create a pocket for the hearts and crowns.

After putting in the side seam for both layers, I turned them both right side out and put my hearts and crowns in the tulle. Next, I tucked the underskirt inside of the tulle and pinned them so that there was a generous 1 1/2 inches above the tulle and then folded it inward to create the channel for the elastic. I found that a small zig-zag stitch worked best with my machine and the material I was working with.

Jellybean came out yesterday for a quick photo shoot. She loves her skirt.

It even inspired quite a bit of jumping.

In fact, after we went inside, she decided that she had to go back out for another round of jumping.

That skirt is really something!

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Fall Hair Clips + New Blog Design

So, I used to run an Etsy shop. *Gasp* It was a fun project for a while and I really enjoyed designing and creating hair clips. I don't have any immediate plans to re-open the shop, but I thought I might start posting some of my creations here along with some tutorials as well.

Last year, I designed some fall hair clips for a friend. I thought they turned out sweet and they were very easy to create.

I used a mini sized Autumn cookie cutter set for the shapes (like this one).  Then, I cut out two layers of felt in each design, added some decorative stitching and then stitched them to some 1.25" snap clips. I like using two layers of felt, so that I can hide my non-pretty stitching. Also, I like the snap clips that have the hole in the tip, so that it's easier to stitch them to the felt.

Easy as pie.  I hope I sparked some inspiration for Fall. 

In other news, I'm pleased to present my new blog design courtesy of Tasha @ My Cute Lobster Designs. I found her through Etsy and have really enjoyed working with her. If you are in the market for a new look, definitely check out her work.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

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