Muffin Tin Monday - Salad Bar

It's been a while since I have participated in Muffin Tin Monday. I use my muffin tins regularly... I just don't normally take pictures. But, I thought this one was fun and worth sharing.

We used our muffin tins for dinner this time! I made a little salad bar in the hopes of getting the kids to eat more salad. It went over great... while they didn't eat a lot of the lettuce, they at least tried it. Baby steps. They also enjoyed the other healthy choices.

Here's what I included: Broccoli, bacon bits, corn, slivered almonds, cheese, raisins, carrots, ham, bell pepper, turkey, pasta and peas.

At the end of dinner, almost all the cups were empty. Of course my husband and I had a little to do with that :)

Happy Monday!

Be sure to check out Michelle's blog Muffin Tin Mom where you can see other great ideas for muffin tins.

Kid Craft - Activia Monsters

The few weeks ago, my daughter had to come up with something that started with the letter "M". I went through all the things around the house I could think of (that would have been okay to take): monkey, money, marshmallow, etc. She shot everyone of my ideas down. So then I started just naming anything that started with "M" figuring we could figure it out... and we did. She stopped me on MONSTER!

Here's what we did. All you need is an Activia yogurt container (I peeled off the top part of the label so that it wouldn't show - the label was too hard to get off completely), construction paper, tape, glue (we used glitter glue because it seems to hold things better when they use a lot of glue), scissors, pipe cleaner, nail, markers, googly eyes, and anything else you can come up with to make your monster. We used sequins, foam stickers, colored pasta, random stickers (I would have passed on these, but she insisted), yarn and tissue paper.

What I did:

I cleaned the containers and cut the construction paper to fit around it (I just taped it in place). I chose to cover it in white so that she could decorate it on her own. Had I been making my own, I probably would have opted for a color... then I would have glued furry yarn all over. But I guess that's just me.

I also used a nail to poke two arm holes and I strung the pipe cleaner through it. Then I gave her the "blank canvas"

What she did:

She went to town! She chose some flower foam stickers which we cut in half. We sandwiched the pipe cleaner between them to make hands (see picture above). She glued on googly eyes and colored a nose. Then she covered it in random stickers. I helped her cut some yarn for the hair (I just cut about 5 pieces and tied them together in the center). She glued the yarn on top for hair. She also used some dried pasta for horns.

We made about three or four of them and sent them to school with her for show and tell. I understand they were a hit.

I also used the Activia cups to make penguins for the letter "P" - just cover with black paper instead of white. I cut wings from black and a face and tummy from white. The kids glued it all on, added googly eyes and an orange beak. I glued black and white furry yarn on top... but apparently the kids weren't interested in putting "hair" on the penguin.

I continue to save these containers as I think the possibilities are endless... and my kids love the yogurt. I think next, we'll be building a village!

Back in saddle again...

... I hope. I've gone through a long period of not feeling well, a perhaps bit of depression and just all together unproductiveness (yep, I just made up that word). It started with having all four of my molars pulled (not fun) and just spiraled from there.

But I'm back and I have tons to share. In that time I did my daughter's Rainbow birthday party, Valentines, lots of new items for my shops... and a few fun kids crafts.

Let's start with a new toy. For Christmas a good friend of mine gave me a Fabric Steam Press. She has a large one and was always telling me the time saver it would be for me. Especially since I hate ironing which I will put it off until absolutely necessary - which means it takes me long a long time to iron because projects have built up. And of course, I probably would have never bought it for myself.

So she's awesome! It's a Conair Fabric Steam Press. I read a few reviews... then decided to stop. It became evident that these reviewers were using this for something completely different than what I was going to use it for.

The reviews biggest complaint was it's size. Yep, it's small. Which is perfect for me since I currently lack space in my work area. Perhaps when I get more organized... and find more space, I can invest in a full size one, but really, the small one is all I need.

As you can see, it fits my items well. The surface is about the size of two irons give or take. I think my only complaint would be that it takes a while to heat up... but then again, I didn't really know what I was doing. It could have just been the setting I chose. I'll be playing around with it more.

I'm excited to see if this speeds up my production any. I often will let ironing (like the project above) sit for days... weeks even just because I don't want to pull out the iron and ironing board.