Happy St. Lucia’s Day

St. Lucia’s Day is a mostly Scandinavian holiday.  Though St. Lucia was actually Italian.  We have Danish ancestry so we love celebrating Scandinavian things to help us remember our roots.  I love the thought that in Denmark they started celebrating this holiday to bring light in a time of darkness, in 1944.  This was a protest to the German occupation!  Danish history during that time is fantastic!  You should read about how the tiny country of Denmark banded together to protect their people.  They did not see Danish Jews as anything other than Danes!  AMAZING!! 

 

The above picture was one of our star boys in our St. Lucia’s Day procession last year.  In traditional St. Lucia’s Day parades you carry an actual candle, this was our safe version!

The holiday tradition is to have a parade where one unmarried girl gets chosen to wear a crown of candles and comes bearing saffron buns.  The children in the procession all wear white with a red sash.

In our version we sing the traditional Danish song and some boys even wear a Nisse Cap (the red one in the picture, not the blue sesame street cap worn by my teenage nephew!).

 

Papa (my Father) goes along with our procession to help the children sing the song (they have written versions they are reading from in the picture above).  We get together with my siblings and all my Nephews to do this at my Mom and Dad’s house.  These pictures were from our St. Lucia’s Day festivities last year.  We are all gearing up for our celebration today after the kids get out of school!  I have the only girls in the family so my oldest daughter always gets to be our St. Lucia girl!

 

I hope you might try some version of this to help your kids learn about other cultures.  I always loved learning about how other countries celebrate Christmas!

 

What traditions do you have that are from other countries?  I’d love to hear about them or even give me a link!

 

Rebecca

Happy Thanksgiving! Turkey Cookie

Happy Thanksgiving!

My Top Ten Thankful List:

1.  The most amazing children!

2.  Friends and family

3.  Home in a great neighborhood, in the United States (thank you military)!

4.  Great teachers for my children

5.  The opportunity to go back to school myself

6.  My van and the mechanic who keeps it running

7.  A kitty for my children that snuggles so well!

8.  Technology (computer, IPad, IPods, cell phones, the internet and blogs)

9.  Time to spend with those that I love

10.  Milky Way Bars (you have no clue…)

Bonus-The wonderful community that I have found on the internet through my blog!!  I love you guys!

 

I love making these thanksgiving turkey cookies.  I remember making them sooo long ago with my Mom and siblings.  My Grandma even had one in her curio cabinet that she left there for YEARS! 

I made a few modifications from how we used to make it.  We never had a full face, we used just the red hot for the waddle.  We also used gumdrops for the body!  But I had the pumpkins on hand.  Maybe I can talk my Mom into making some with me next year, using the original way we made them!

 

Either way, I think they are so cute and fun!

 

We boxed these cuties up in a cute tiny bag with fun metal thank you tags and fall colored ribbings and then gave them out to those we love and are thankful for (teachers, friends, and family).

 

Rebecca

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving, drives safely, and enjoys family and friends.

Retro Mice Ornament

Yes, that is a walnut shell! I have always remembered these sweet ornaments that my Mom made with us kids. They hung on our tree for years. That crafting time with my Mother is what inspired my own Walnut Shell Mouse Christmas Ornaments!

When we made these with my Mother, we used a homemade clay recipe. I tried getting details about these from my Mom and Anjeanette, and this was what I came up with. We did not have Polymer Clay growing up, so I was quite excited to do this craft using Polymer Clay (not that I have an obsession with Polymer Clay…I swear I don’t have every shade imaginable…). With Polymer Clay you can add so much more detail and finishing touches.

If you look closely at these, I made them all with minor differences. My favorite is the one with the Santa hat! Some have paws holding onto the top of the blanket, others have pink or white centers in their ears, I added cute tails to some, and I changed up the colors for their bodies. Other differences are the size, whisker marks, shapes of ears and heads, and kinds of eyes. One even has feet, but what is the point of that because you will never see the feet (though I know they’re there, and that’s why I did it…it makes me smile).

I had to decide what kind of material to use for the blanket, and what/how to tie them to the tree. I have a nice collection of ribbon (again, not something I would be obsessed with, I’m just saying) and first wanted to go with a delicate ribbon that ties in a bow at the top. However, once I decided to go with felt for my blankets, I knew I wanted to do a simple loop with yarn, to carry the retro feel of these ornaments. Tonight my kids and I are carrying on the tradition of making these. I can’t wait!

A few tips for when you make these. When using yarn, I just hot glued the yarn on the side but I also made sure to coat the yarn end with the glue so the yarn didn’t come apart (but use it sparingly so that you don’t even see it). Also, hang the ornament on your finger to make sure that they are evenly balanced. I also hot glued these mice into their shells. I would hate for them to fall out and end up broken (or just missing…not that things would go missing in my house…especially tiny things…).

Rebecca

I love this month. I love being reminded to be grateful for what I have. Right now I am very thankful for all the wonderful teachers. I truly believe in the old saying of it taking a village to raise a child. I wholeheartedly believe that children will be more successful by being taught by many different people in their lives. I am so thankful to teachers that take a special interest in my children (this is professional teachers as well as my friends and family that my children also learn from). Erika will be teaching one of my daughters to cook/bake. My Father-In-Law did a wonderful series of once a week art lessons for my children. There are so many instances where my friends and family are helping to teach my children and shape them into who they are! I am so thankful for this. I have been so lucky that my children have gotten some phenomenal teachers at school as well. These teachers can make or break a child.

Thank you to all those who teach and inspire people! Your time and effort is invaluable!

Technorati Tags: christmas,ornaments,retro,mice,walnut,polymer clay

Rebecca,

These are adorable!

For our readers I have a tip for you on how to easily crack a walnut in half. First of all look at your walnuts. Some of them have a seam that basically cuts it in half. Some of them when you look at the smaller end look like they have a seam that splits them in thirds, you don't want to use these. Now that you have selected your walnuts with a nice seam. Get a hot pad to work on so your nut does not slip around. You will need something like a butter knife or flat chisel. Hold your walnut with the fat end up and insert the tip of your knife into the center of the seam (there is a bit of membrane there that is easy to push through). It may not look like it but your knife should slip in at this point with a little pressure. Push the knife in as far as it will go and then slide it down the seam (kind of like when cutting a melon in half). Some of your walnuts won't separate into two perfect halves but your will most likely get at least one good half out of just about all of them.

Katrina

We are adding to the Christmas fun by joining some link parties here and here.

Heartfelt Thanksgiving Letters

I love November! What a great reminder to be grateful for all we have in our lives. This bucket is filled with scrolls of cute autumn stationary that I printed up on my computer. I love quick, easy, but with meaning. This project is all of that.

I was raised with parents who instilled thankfulness in us children, by their examples. My parents really are super, wonderful, giving people who I am so very thankful for. I would not be able to enjoy my life if it were not for them teaching me to be happy in the here and now. I really do love my life, even with all the chaos and downtimes. I have a list that is too long to list, of the many things in my life that I am so very thankful for. I am blessed to have the best family. This starts with my children, my parents, siblings, grandparents, cousins, nieces, nephews, and goes on and on! I have wonderful best friends who truly are amazing people. All of these people inspire me to be a better person. They celebrate with me in the good times and support me in the bad. What more can I ask for then this? Thank you to all of you!

I am loving Anjeanette’s project of activities to do with my kids. What a great twist on the thanksgiving tradition of being thankful. I also love Katrina’s tree, and do something similar with my kids. I like her twist of the leaves falling off the tree instead of being added to the tree as I have done in the past.

This project is about sharing with others the reasons that we are thankful for them. I first filled out one of these for each of my children. I was very specific about all the things about them that make me thankful to have them in my life. My oldest’s independence is something I totally admire, the next is so laid back and easy to love, while my youngest has such a fantastic energetic imagination. These are just 3 of the specific things I listed for them. I’ve done this activity before with my children. We left the scrolls as place holders on the thanksgiving table that year. This year after we finish filling these out we will hand deliver them and then mail the rest to the out of town people in our lives that are special to us. I want my kids to think through not just who they are thankful for. But this will help them see why we love those people so much.

I wish everyone Happy Holidays and hope you are taking the time to see all that you have to be thankful for as well!

Rebecca

Technorati Tags: Thankful,notes,idea,thanksgiving,childrens project,lesson

Join the Roots and Wings Co girls for 8 weeks of Heartfelt and Handmade Holidays!!

Today’s topic is determining what is important for each holiday and setting your priorities.

If you are anything like me, you are busy.(Ha ha! Busy is such a small word for the reality of it.) I find that if I don’t sit down and plan out what is important to me, those things come and go and I’ve missed them completely only to have done or participated in something that I could have done without. I am certainly not super woman. I have learned that there are things I have to say "no" to. I enjoy my holidays when I can take a breath and really experience things with my husband and children. Someday I will have entire place settings that match, a wonderfully decorated house, and all of those nice-to-have things. I have nothing against all of that, it just doesn’t fit our budget or time. Right now, those things are not on my priority list. My priority list is about the feelings, values and memories I am making with and for my children.

I have to sit down with my husband and we talk about all the things that are important to us. We talk about what memories we want to be making for our children. I have the most amazing memories from when I was little. Our Grandma calls them memory pockets. She talks about saving up all our happy memories in these pockets and tucking them away. Then when we are having a tough time we can reach into our memory pockets and pull out a wonderful memory to make us feel warm and make us smile. What a great way to think of memories. I also think memory pockets are for the times when things are going well, too. They are great to remember and be thankful for all the amazing things we have done in our lives.

Some of the things on our list this year are the Angel Tree with our kids, driving around looking at Christmas lights, picking out special ornaments for each son and spending as much time with family as possible. I like to shop online in the evenings as much as possible because I would rather spend my time interacting with my family, than pushing through crowds of people. There is no right or wrong answer here. We are simply suggesting you go ahead and sit down and plan out the feelings, values and memories you want to make with your kids and set up your priority list now, as we are ramping up for the slew of holidays coming our way. I hope that 30 years from now, my kids will be telling their children great stories from their childhood. When my kids remember these memories, I want them to feel warmth and love in remembering these things.

Now I am asking you to link up and let us know what is important to you? What are your must-do items for the holidays? What memories do you want to make for your family?

And because it is November, the lovely month of Thanksgiving, I thought it would be nice to remember what I am thankful for. The thing in my life I am most thankful for is my little family! We had a difficult time getting pregnant in the first place. This is almost unheard of in our very fertile family. But it was a struggle. I had a laparoscopy to remove as much endometrial scars as possible and we tried and tried. I was extremely sick with hypermesis for both my pregnancies and had a handful of difficulties during my second pregnancy. It wasn't just easy for us to even bring our sons into this world. I am thankful EVERY DAY for the two children I do have. I don't know how or why I got so lucky to have them, but they are mine! I am amazed by them and am just so thankful to have them!

Anjeanette

Rebecca here: I love this 8 weeks of Heartfelt and Homemade Holidays. I'm quite excited for what we have coming up for you! I think each topic is near and dear to my heart! But I especially love this week's topic. I used to run around crazy, at the holidays, trying to do too much. I've changed and now want enjoyment out of the Holidays, as well as down time with my kids. The down times are some of my favorite moments. As Anjeanette mentioned, we really do have great memories from our Holidays. That is why it is so important to me what kind of memories I am passing on to my kids. I actually sit with my kids and ask them what their priorities for Christmas are. Every year they say something different. One year it was having Hot Cocoa, and another year it was sledding in the snow (for us that means a day trip to somewhere that actually has snow!). I make my own list of priorities. Then, I literally schedule it all out. If things don't get scheduled, they don't happen. I make sure my 3 kids top priority will happen. Then, we talk about the things that are on my list. This helps me keep their priorities in with mine. For me my priorities are a Christmas story each night before bed, to do something (even super simple like writing out our lists to Santa, or drinking hot chocolate with Santa shaped marshmallows) Christmas-y each day, watching Holiday Inn with my children, the Angel Tree like Anjeanette said, Christmas Eve with my side of the family, and the smells and sounds of the seasons are also quite important to me. I also feel it's a time to teach children about other people's customs, and to focus on thinking outside of ourselves. This is done by celebrating other countries traditions, as well as actually thinking through (and hopefully making) great gifts for the wonderful people in our lives. I have a whole slew of other things we will do as well, however, these are my MUST dos. This time of year is so magical to me. I am sure it is from the wonderful memories that I have from my childhood. I am determined to provide my children with their own magical memories of this time of year.

Katrina Here,
From the perspective of a special needs mother here are my thoughts on the holidays. I absolutely love the holidays and would be crushed not to celebrate. Early on, the holidays were good because my son was too little to understand it all and that was OK. It was normal for a baby or toddler to have a bad patch because of missing a nap. We didn't know any better. After my son was DX'd with Autism everything changed. I joined a parenting autism news group. When the holidays came around so many of the parents were anti holidays because of bad experiences they had with their children, family and friends Nobody understood that it is IMPORTANT for their special needs child to have a place, in a house full of people, that is quiet where that child can go to escape all the noise and fuss so that they could regroup themselves and not have a meltdown. I stopped reading the news group. It was too depressing. I love the holidays and all that goes with it and I was not about to let others take that away from me. Oh dear this was suppose to be short! Sorry.

Here is what I do to celebrate the holidays with my family. I set my priorities by thinking about where my son is at and how much he can handle. I am a big fan of decorating the day or weekend after Thanksgiving. We always trim the tree together, always. We set aside time to write lists for Santa. Oh and one of his elves started visiting us last year. Elphie was our elf on a shelf. We set aside time to go visit Santa and go for walks to see all the lights around our neighborhood and others near by. Afterwards we all have warm chocolate to warm us up. Generally speaking we don't do too many holiday parties and we play it fairly low key. I take my cue from what my boys want to do. I have stopped trying to have them help me pick out a toy for the toy drive. Instead I pick the toy and together we drop it off at a toy drive. If the lines for Santa are too long we go during the week when the lines are shorter. We read Christmas stories. I always try to find at least one book that has a story that has a trait that I would like my boys to learn. I don't want the holidays to be all about what they get on Christmas eve and day. I like to share traditions that I remember as a kid like going to the mountains and cutting down our own tree from a tree farm. Pick what is important and let time slow down. Take lots of pictures of each event. My boys have grown to LOVE all that comes with Christmas. My oldest always has a quiet place to go when we visit family. They love and understand him and how he is. We don't get upset when he does not want to open gifts with everybody else (he just can't take all the noise and distraction). However, he gave us a lovely gift last Christmas and came in to open gifts with everybody else. He is always invited to do the things everybody else is doing but he is also able to choose to opt out. My point is don't ever stop giving them the option to join in. I don't let my son's autism keep us from doing things. We look for ways that he can join in.

Hoping you and yours have a Fabulous Holiday Season.
Katrina

***
W would love it if you left a comment with a link or just a note saying what is on your priority list. What are your must-dos for the holidays? What memories do you want to make for your children? What things must you do in order for your heart to be filled with warmth and love?

Or even better, leave us a link, on our McLinky, of your blog post telling us how you set your priorities. Be sure to link directly to the post and not just your blog.

Anjeanette

Halloween Party

Welcome to our Halloween Party. First, set the tone by decorating your entrance. Can you tell that we enjoy Halloween? ;) Anjeanette has this banner and sign that she puts our for her entrances.

Next, decorate inside of your house. I love these dollar store buckets! Just nest a glass bowl inside the plastic bucket (as the dry ice will melt the plastic bucket). Add dry ice and water and you have the most fun decorations. Seriously, we can’t get enough dry ice throughout the house. For decorations don't forget to fill your crocheted pumpkins with candy corn! And if you made this table runner and banner, or this hand towel, make sure they are out!

These are crafts that the kids made, and the top bucket was one of the cute buckets that Anjeanette gave us when she “Boo’d” us. I just filled that bucket with treats for the kids to go home with (spider rings and other Halloween trinkets, you could also include pencil toppers).

A MUST have for us is the meal in the pumpkin! Oh it’s sooooo yummy. Not only do you cook the meal in the pumpkin, you then take chunks of the pumpkin with your serving. Delish! I think this is my favorite tradition of Halloween. Other Halloween foods are dry ice root beer, skeleton cookies, candy corn rice krispies, pumpkin cookies, white chocolate ghost suckers, apple pie spice drink, oreo cookie spiders, popcorn fingers, edible gross body parts, etc!

On to the games. This is my favorite. Dangling Donuts. Because who doesn’t need more food (especially highly sugared food) after our Halloween meal!?
All you do is get donuts (we get a variety). Tie a long piece of string onto each donut. Grab a dowel or long sturdy stick. Decide who is going to go against each other (don’t go against Anjeanette…she is the QUEEN of this game…that’s all I’m saying). Each person picks their own donut. Tie donuts on the dowel and go at it (without using your hands!). For our little kids we’ve let 3 go at a time, but otherwise we stick to 2 at a time. This is also best played outside as it leaves a mess below.

Another really fun game is this Pin The Hat On The Witch Game I made one year. I love variations of Pin The Tail On The Donkey. Don’t forget the other games like bobbing for apples (no pictures because I don’t want to show our kids)!

You could do this as place settings for the party (though this was what I had for my kids on the first day of October). I just printed out a pumpkin on orange paper and wrote out Happy Halloween _______ using my awesome Halloween fonts. That was for their placemat. Then they got Halloween cups to use all month, that were filled with Halloween pencils and toys. I also give them their Halloween shirt for the year, on the first day so that they can wear it the whole month long. These were shirts that I added beaded Halloween designs to.

The Gals here at Roots And Wings Co just love holidays and Halloween is right there at the top of the list. We have Halloween parties every year. We just had ours last weekend (thank you Anjeanette for hosting an awesome night). I am holding another one for the kids on Friday. So many things to do. I love doing the same things year after year, and I also love adding new things every year. Some things for the kiddos party will be tossing bean bags into my large cauldron and crafts. We always make Haunted Houses at this party (like gingerbread houses for Christmas except we use chocolate frosting to make it spookier, and you construct your house funny so it's a crooked haunted house). For crafts we will be making fingerprints in orange, green, and black. Then, we draw parts on them that turn them into witches, pumpkins, and monsters. I turn these into stickers and then the kids make Halloween cards for family using their fingerprint stickers.
Hope you enjoyed the party. For those of you that are still hosting a Halloween party this week (or for your fun Halloween night dinner) I hope this gives you some fun ideas to try.

Rebecca

Hot Spiced Orange Drink

Technorati Tags: Drink,Orange,Hot,Make-A-Mix,Thanksgiving,Family,Traditions,Autumn

Mmmmm, yes that’s me, sitting back enjoying a hot drink and thinking about all I have to be thankful for. Seriously, even through my hectic, chaotic life, I’m loving every minute. You will probably hear me go on and on during this time of year. But I have the greatest family on Earth (I swear, even the extended family members are so super awesome and amazing!), wonderful friends, and a new cute little house. What more could I ask for?

At this time of year there are so many things that I am thankful for. One thing I try to never forget about during the seasons is the smell and taste of the season. See this post of mine for more smells of the seasons. Because my Mom used to make the same things at the Holidays, certain smells or tastes will always remind me of that Holiday! I hope to pass these kind of memory invoking things on to my children. We make this drink, and another one called Wassail, during Autumn and Winter.

This drink is from a mix that you make and then just pull it out all Autumn and Winter long. When Erika got married, the sisters got together and made up a bunch of those Make-A-Mixes (we love making those together because you can get more bang for your buck! We’ve done them a couple of times over the years). This is one of the mixes we found. It’s great because I store the jar in my pantry and whenever I feel like just a cup of hot spiced orange drink, I whip it up!

Hot Spiced Orange Drink Recipe:

1 10 oz jar Tang orange crystals

2oz Lemonade Mix

2 C Sugar

2 tsp Ground Cinnamon

1 tsp Ground Cloves

Mix and store in a covered container.

Jar instructions:

To make into a drink, mix 2-3 tsp of Hot Spiced Orange Drink powder mix and 1 C boiling water.

Make a jar of the powder mix. Then, make yourself a cup. Then, put your feet up, relax, and enjoy. Hot drinks are always so soothing to me.

Rebecca

Thankful Turkey Keepsake

Every year I try to come up with an activity to do with my boys that will reinforce being thankful.

In 2007, I cut out leaf shapes from colored paper and used my trusty Xyron machine to stick them to the back of my entry way door. Each day my son wrote something he was thankful for. I had great plans to put the leaves in a scrapbook to forever remember the sweet things he wrote. Unfortunately, they got really stuck to my door. It was a disaster. (I won’t say who, but someone I know, just may have left them on her door for …oh say a year like this because it was soooo hard to get them off…) BTW, this one said Family Time…before I tried to rip it off the door;)

Last year, I made these cute turkeys for my boys. They wrote what they were thankful for on a feather each day. It was nice but took a while to make two. They had their names on them and said “*name* is Thankful”. My boys really enjoyed this.

This year I wanted to make something we could use every day…and then year after year! I know! Brilliant.

My friend Melanie over at Sugardoodle…wait, have I told you that I grew up with Melanie? I did. I know her and love her. Anyway, she has this Thanksgiving Countdown she posted from Valerie Lee. There is a download that is full of a whole month of thankful activities to do with your kids, like “I am thankful for Grandparents. Call and tell them I love you, I am grateful for you. “ Sweet!! Some of the days don’t work for us because of food, but the rest are just awesome. I’m going to print them out and put one in each pocket on my little keepsake. My boys will take turns revealing their note. Next year my little one will be a little older. He should be able to write his thankful things down himself. We will probably go back to writing our own things we are thankful for next year.

Alright, let’s make one!

Right click on the above image and save as for the pattern.

I am going to assume you have a little sewing knowledge, otherwise this would be waaaay too long of a post;)

You need

• Fall colored felt for the feathers, beak and waddle.
• Brown felt for the turkey and coverage too.
• Peltex Pellon to make your hanging sturdy.
• clear vinyl for the pockets
• Ribbon or trim to hang it
• the rest of your typical sewing needs;)

I cut out 18 of the outer feathers and arranged them onto some Peltex Pellon. It is quite stiff and will hold the shape nicely.

Do the same with 12 of the skinnier feathers. Lay them out on some Peltex too.

Sew them down to the Peltex and trim around the tops of the feathers. Here both rows of feathers are done.

It is hard to see, but I cut out some vinyl to the shape of the feathers (like a rainbow) to make the pockets.

This stuff is tricky to sew on. I placed a piece of tape over where I wanted each seam to be. Each feather is going to be the guide for my pockets. I stitched between each feather to hold the vinyl down. I used a short stitch length to make sure that the tape would come off easily.

I cut some brown felt to cover the white Peltex that was showing on both rows of feathers.

Then I just stitched the layers together. I layered the top row of feathers on top of the bottom row of feathers and stitched around the arch. I then stitched the top curve of the already assembled turkey to the stack of feathers. I was careful not to sew any of the pockets closed. I hand stitched a little ribbon to the top so I could hang it.

Can you see how the vinyl made little pockets? I am slipping one of the countdown notes into each pocket. Double check to see if my math is correct…there should be 30 pockets/feathers, one for each day in November.

Enjoy! If you make one, I would really like to see it.

I am thankful for my family. Every day of my life, I am amazed at the two amazing little boys that are mine! I don’t know how or why they are mine, but I am so thankful that they are! I am thankful for my husband who works very hard to provide for us, and who adores us with every part of his being. I am thankful for my extended family too. What a bunch of crazies we are!

What are you thankful for? Do you have an activity that you do to reinforce what you are thankful for during November?

**ETA Peltex is a Pellon product. It is basically a thick stabilizer. You can sew it in or get one that is fusable on one or both sides. You purchase it where all the stabilizers are.

The vinyl I used is the thickest I could get. They sell it to use for stuff like table covers etc.

Anjeanette

Caramel Apple Spice Drink-AKA Apple pie in a Cup

Last year I fell in love with a Starbucks drink called Caramel Apple Spice. Oh my!!!! It is like a little slice of heaven. Close your eyes and imagine a warm apple pie with whipped topping and caramel syrup drizzled on top. You are sitting in your favorite comfy chair with a blanket over your legs (feet propped up) a fire blazing and this drink in your hands. Oh and you can imagine that the kids are with Grandma for the day. ;)

I last year I started a new tradition. At Thanksgiving I made these for dessert. It was the new favorite for just about everybody. If you like spiced cider, whipped cream and caramel then you will LOVE this.

We also served this at Erika’s baby shower last December. We dubbed it “Apple pie in a Cup.”

Ingredients:
Cinnamon syrup (You can buy it from Starbucks)
Apple juice or Apple cider
Whipped cream
Carmel syrup drizzled on top

Directions:
Pour Apple Juice or Apple Cider into your mug and stir in about 1 teaspoon of the Cinnamon syrup. Heat in the microwave to desired temperature. Top with whipped cream and drizzle caramel syrup on top. Enjoy!
This recipe is from CDKitchen for Starbucks' Caramel Apple Cider serves/makes 1

By the way Starbucks does sell the syrup in a sugar free version. You can also get the caramel in sugar free too.

They have it on their menu in the fall and winter months so you should be able to get the syrup now.

Katrina

~~

Anjeanette here. Oh my! This is HEAVEN in a mug. I wanted to point out that you can do this for a bunch of people. When Katrina did this for Erika's shower, she put the cinnamon syrup and the apple cider in a crock pot to warm. Then serve individual servings, add the whipped cream and drizzle the caramel sauce on top. While you are at it, serve up another one and enjoy it for me. Sadly I can't have them anymore. Now I am going to curl up and cry. This is THAT good!

Technorati Tags: Caramel,apple,spice,drink,starbucks,recipe

Travel Pillows-Pillowcase Tutorial

If you read my Backpack name tag or my Backpack make over posts, you know that my youngest son is going off to Kindergarten this year. We received a lovely letter from his teacher last week. She sent a letter to my son inviting him to come in for a meet and greet. Along with a two page letter telling us, as parents, what to expect for the first few weeks of school. She detailed some things that we could do to make the transition easier on our son. There were some do’s and don’ts and some rules she had pertaining to the first day of school and the first 3 weeks. She also gave us a short list of what our son will need on the first day of school. I love her already!!!

Since it is all day kindergarten, she is aware that the kids will be tired after lunch. For the first 3 months they will have time after lunch to lay down and rest. For this she asked us to send a small pillow and a towel to school, to be kept in their cubby.

I had some fabric remnants that I let my boys choose their fabric from. Funny enough they decided on Halloween fabrics that I had gotten last year. I think they are already getting excited over Halloween. This is a great project for using up some of your larger fabric remnants or even two fat quarters. You will need fabric remnants at least 20.5 x 13 times 2 for this (if your pillow and plastic bag are the same size as mine).

They are great for nap time at daycare, preschool or kindergarten, in the car, camping, sleep over's or as a decorative pillow for the bed.

Travel pillows are PERFECT for this. Walgreens has them 2 for $10. I had actually been considering buying a couple for use in the car on long trips.

In this tutorial, I am going to show you how to take the plastic bag the pillow comes in to make a pillowcase pattern. The plastic bag isn’t sealed it has a fold over flap (kind of like sandwich bags before Ziploc was invented). Please bear with me for the first few pictures. Plastic bags aren’t the easiest to photograph.

If you have a sewing machine, even if you don’t really know how to sew, you can make this. It is a good way to cut your teeth on sewing because it is just straight stitches and very straight forward.

1. Cut the edge seams that holds the flap in place.

I have made some lines in sharpie to show you the fold line of the flap you just cut open and a line that shows the edge of the opening to the bag for reference points. (you do not need to do this part unless it helps you)

2. If you are using two different fabrics, like I am doing here, lay one on top of the other. Line up two of the edges. I suggest you put the fabric that will be the back of your pillow on top.

3. Lay your pattern (plastic bag) over your fabric. Leaving room for 1/2 inch seam allowances on two edges (the other two sides you will leave a seam allowance when you cut them down to size).

Here the picture in the picture is reminding you of the earlier picture that shows the two lines I drew on the pattern.

4. Fold the flap of the pattern over to the line of the bag opening. You are going to cut the black, backside, fabric. Cut about 1/2 an inch away from the edge of your pattern.

This is just smaller than the width of the pressure foot on the sewing machine.

5. Fold the flap back out and get ready to cut the front side fabric. Again cut about 1/2 inch away from the edge of the pattern.

6. Cut the fabric on your last side, again leaving 1/2 inch for your seam allowance.

7. Eye ball it….. Fold down ONE edge of the fabric about 1/2 inch (wrong sides together). Either iron it down or pin it in place. This is going to be the edge of the flap that covers the pillowcase opening.

8. Repeat step 7 with the the other fabric.

It makes it easy to sew a straight line when you follow the edge of the fabric with the edge of the pressure foot. When sewing a cut edge, if your cut bumps out in a spot just keep your eye on the spot where the fabric straightens out again and follow your line of sight instead of the fabric edge.

If you plan on adding your child’s name, now would be a good time to do so. I decided to embroider my son’s name on the flap (it will be on the backside of the pillow). You can add your child’s name by printing it out on iron on sheets available at your craft store. You can also use printable fabric and then stitch it on.

9. Line up your fabrics with the right sides together (what you want to show on the outside of the pillow) and lining up the cut edge.

11. Sew the bottom seam. I always back track over my stitching at the top and bottom edges of the seam to make sure my seams won’t open up later on. This way the pillow won’t open up at the corners.

12. Here I folded the black fabric over the flap I folded down and pinned it in place to keep the flap from slipping while I am sewing.

13. Start at the seam you already made (the right side of this picture). This will prevent puckering when you sew the sides closed. When you pass over the flap edge back stitch a bit to help the seam withstand stress on the seems when dressing or undressing your pillow. I also back stitch at the very edge again to reinforce the corners.

14. Repeat step 13 for the other unfinished edge.

15. Turn your pillowcase right side out and cover your pillow.

This is the back side of the pillow. It is hard to see because I smeared out my son’s name but you can just make out where I embroidered my son’s name on the flap.

Steps for using one piece of fabric:

If you are making the case out of one fabric fold your fabric in half.

In step 3 you will line the edge of the pattern (right hand side of the photo) with the folded edge of your fabric.

Leave seam allowances on all other sides as shown in the rest of the cutting steps.

In step 7 you will fold and sew both of the short end edges.

Here is where you will stop to add your child’s name if you wish.

Continue on with step 9 matching up the end of the fabric with the fold again. The rest of the steps are the same.

Here is the first case I made using only one fabric. You cannot imagine how excited my little guy got when he saw the embroidery machine making his name. He thanked the machine and even blew it a kiss. When the pillow as all finished he carried it off to his bed. He gave me lots of love over this one. All because of a pillowcase. With responses like that is it any wonder that I like doing all this stuff for my boys?

These pillowcases were fun and easy to make. They don’t require a lot of fabric, sewing or time to make. I am planning on making Christmas cases for their pillows as well as some everyday ones that will coordinate with their bedding.

As always I would love to see what you come up with! Join our Flickr group and post your finished projects.

Katrina

Rebecca here. Katrina, I love these travel pillows. Years ago I was given one of these for my first child (I only had one child at the time). I remember that it was perfect for all the road trips we do. You have inspired me to make one for each of my kids. We travel so much these small pillows are so perfect to take with us! Thanks for the idea.

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