Family Tree

Now that Mother's day has passed I can post my gift to my mother and mother-in-law.  I saw this family tree on Pinterest.  Smallgood Hearth had a great idea to make a personalized family tree. It was not very expensive, the frame was the most expensive part.  

I bought a canvas and stopped by the paint department for the paint chips. I had the rest of the supplies at home.  I started by painting a tree trunk and making sure to have a branch to hang the swing on.  Next was cutting out all the leaves.  I just free handed them and made sure I had extra.  To make the swing, cut a rectangle to scale for your tree. I used an embroidery needle to get the string through and then tied a knot at the top and bottom.  I glued the swing on and drew the heart with initials.  Next I set the leaves on to get an idea where they would fit, since I was trying to keep the family groups together.  Then I just used Tacky Glue to attach the leaves.  I even left a couple blank leaves for the two babies coming this fall.  I also left room for the growing families to add more leaves, extra leaves were taped to the back of the frame. 

Both moms were thrilled with the results.  I'm really pleased with it too and it wasn't hard to do.

Ratty doll hair fix

I have 5 daughters which means we have copious amounts of all things girl!  I got tired of fighting the barbie explosion  and I put the barbies away in the shed.  The original plan was to just take a break for a while.  The girls kept asking periodically to get them back and my response every time, "Keep your room clean, then we can talk."  Well, they finally did and I wanted to pare down before returning them. 

I also wanted to try out a pin a saw. Tammy at Housing a Forest had a simple fix for frizzy doll hair.  Before "retiring" the ratty haired barbies, I wanted to see if I could spruce them up.

The fix was simple.  Brush out the hair the best you can.  Soak the hair in really hot water. Brush again and let the hair dry.  It worked like a charm!  I have to admit that I used a little detangler on the tough ones.  

The girls were excited to enjoy their barbies again and to be able to actually brush hair too.  Next time I'll involve the girls and not wait until there is such a mess.

Layered Oreo Chocolate Chip Cookie Brownies

I saw these brownies floating around Pinterest with lots of different names, some are not very kid-friendly.  I was excited to try them because it had lots of my favorite things:  chocolate chip cookie, oreos and brownies.  I was disappointed, don't think I'll make them again.  They were just not what I envisioned.  I have other decadent dessert I enjoy a lot more, count this one as a fail.

Baby bow tie

My sister searched everywhere for a bow tie for her baby to wear in an upcoming wedding.  So she asked me if I would make one.  I only had one boy and he's about to turn 16, I was excited do a project for a little boy!  I checked out several tutorials and most closely followed this one.  I wasn't happy with the attachment methods I saw and got creative.  

I wanted something comfortable for the baby and easy to put on or off for the adult wrestling the little one.  My answer was to use the 1 inch wide elastic used for headbands.  It has just enough stretch and soft.  Next I found a swimsuit clasps for the closures, again hoping it would be easy to dress wiggly baby.  To attach the tie, I just carefully hot glued it on.  

I can't wait to see this on my sweet nephew!

Old fashioned McDonald's Fried Apple Pie

My husband loves McDonald's apple pies and now my kids do too!  He misses the deep fried pies but has gotten used to the baked version.  We found this recipe and had to try it for our dessert.  I just used some of our home-canned apple pie filling for filling and served with vanilla ice cream.  The crust was nice and flaky.  These will be a repeat at our house!

Check out the recipe here!

Lowfat Eclair cake

I was craving chocolate but wanted to keep it healthier, so I made some changes to the recipe I tried before.  This will be my go to recipe for summer!

Lowfat Eclair Cake

(Original recipe found here.)

Crust:
1 cup water
1/2 cup butter
1 cup flour
4 large eggs
Filling:
1 cup vanilla greek yogurt
1 large box chocolate sugar-free instant pudding
3 cups milk
Topping:
1 8 oz. container cool whip
chocolate syrup


Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400. Lightly grease a 9"X13" glass baking pan.
For the Eclair Crust: In a medium saucepan, melt butter in water and bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Stir in flour. Mix in one egg at a time, mixing completely before adding another egg. Spread mixture into pan, covering the bottom and sides evenly. Mixture will be very wet.
Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove from oven and let cool (don't touch or push bubbles down).
For the Filling:  In medium bowl make chocolate pudding by beating the pudding mix and the milk for 3 minutes and put in the fridge until set. Make sure pudding is thick before mixing in the greek yogurt until smooth.  Let cool in fridge.When the crust is completely cooled, pour filling in. Top with layer of cool whip however thick you want it and serve with a drizzle chocolate syrup

Lalaloopsy cake!

My daughter was going to have her birthday while we were at grandma's house for Easter.  I wanted to still make a fun cake for her but it was going be a little more challenging because I wouldn't be in my own kitchen.  

I looked around Pinterest and found my inspiration.

Found here.

And this one.

I made a batch of fondant and planned to cut out buttons, table and chairs later.  I was short on time and so I made lots of mistakes but in the end, it turned out because the little girls loved it!