Saturday, December 15, 2007

Homemade Fingerpaint

Today, besides baking up a storm, (I will post that tomorrow) I made homemade fingerpaint, which is part of Mr K and The Princess's gifts to their friends this year. It seemed to turn out really well, and what I loved is that we can give it to all their friends, even the young ones who eat everything, in fact, its perfect for kids just learning how not to eat their craft supplies! Completely non-toxic, I don't even think it would upset the stomach. Can't taste that great tho....

One batch fills 4 baby food jars, so I made 4 batches in all. Very easy, there's some yellow left for the kids are we are going to use it tomorrow, but I tried the blue myself tonight and it worked like it should lol.

The jars and the snowflake flannel are from the reuse center here, which was also a godsend for all my baking tins (I think I took about 15 and there were STILL tons left) . Very excellent place for crafters, and we took note of everything they accepted as well so we can get rid of what we don't use. I attached little cards with the ingredients listed on them, and one of them has the recipe for the older girl on our list, but if anyone else wants it, it follows below this picture.

Original Fingerpaint

Ingredients

1/2 cup cornstarch
3 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups cold water
food coloring

Directions

In a medium pan, mix all the ingredients together to make the finger paint. Cook over low heat 10 to 15 minutes. Keep stirring the finger paint mixture until it is smooth and thick. After the finger paint has thickened take the pan off the stove and let the mixture cool.

After cooling, divide the finger paint into storage containers depending on how many colors you would like. Add a few drops of food coloring to each container. Stir the coloring in to the paint to determine the shade of color. You're ready to finger paint! Cover tightly when storing.

Friday, December 14, 2007

Speaking of Ingesting Things: Mincemeat Tarts

Yes, time for my annual treat for Mike, his mincemeat tarts. Pretty easy. Thank the gods for pre-made no-name tart shells (I was impressed, all hydrogenated free this year!) and President's Choice 5 fruit mincemeat.

The only hard part is defrosting about 12 tart shells, rolling them all together, then taking a baby food jar and cutting out the circles for the top. So the direction are: put mincemeat filling into frozen shells (always frozen for any tarts), cut out tops, put on tops, bake at 350 till brown. Then let Mike proceed to eat them till he's sick, forget about them until next December. Repeat.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Now There's Even More Ways For Your Child to Ingest Lead!

Kids Jewelry

Description: This recall involves the Codeena Princess children’s jewelry. Only jewelry with item numbers KS1367SS and KS1369SCP are included in the recall. The item number is printed on the back of the packaging. The children’s jewelry sets were sold in a variety of sets including pink or white pearl-like necklace, bracelet and earring or ring combinations. Some sets have studded charms dangling on the bracelet and the necklace.

Sold at: Discount stores nationwide from September 2005 through August 2007 for about $5.


Lion Teether
Hazard:
The plastic nose can detach, posing a choking hazard to young children.

Incidents/Injuries: Infantino® has received eight reports of the nose detaching, including one report of a child gagging on the bitten off nose.

Description: This recall involves Infantino® lion teethers. The yellow and orange plastic teethers have date codes 6116, 6129, 6158, 6137, 0606, 0806, 0906, and 1006. The date codes are located on the back of the lion’s head, above the Infantino® logo. Lion teethers with other date codes are not included in this recall.

Sold at: Babies “R” Us, Pottery Barn Kids and other specialty stores nationwide from June 2006 through December 2007 for about $5.



Dollar Store Toys...

Hazard: The recalled toys contain excessive levels of lead, violating the federal lead paint standard.

Incidents/Injuries: None reported.

Description: The Baby Bead & Wire Toys are colored wires and colored beads that can slide on a natural wood platform. These bead toys have item number 903419 and date code 71 printed on the back of the packaging. The Speed Racer Pull Back & Go Action! Cars are yellow with black stripes and white with red stripes. Item number 873820 and date code 77 is printed on the back of the packaging.

Sold at: Dollar Tree, Dollar Bill$, Dollar Express, Greenbacks, Only One $1 and Deal$ stores nationwide from March 2007 through October 2007 (Baby Bead & Wire Toys) and from September 2007 through November 2007 (Speed Racer Cars) for $1.



From US Consumer Product Comission

I know my titles are sarcastic, but really, at this point I am not shocked. I just hope that nobody has these toys... and you can subscribe by email to the above site as well. Nothing like your recalls with your morning cup o' coffee to start your day!

Have Patience....

For some reason, for each post I put up, I have to specifically chose to "allow" comments, not sure why I have to click that option EVERY TIME I post now, but I am trying to change it. So for those who wondered where my comments are, its just that I forgot to enable them on that specific post. I went back and re-did the last three that I forgot... PITA.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Simply Scrumptious Shortbread

Since I am not making it for everyone in their baking this year, Mr K and I made some shortbread spur of the moment tonight. And we had a fantastic time screwing around and experimenting with it. I usually do a cookie press, but saw on Jane's blog that she used an icing bag and tip to make swirly round ones. A lightbulb went off above my head when I saw that and my brain went "oh..ooooohh...oh MY! The fun I am going to have with THAT!!" I had all the materials needed from my cake decorating supplies.

And boy did we ever!

Snowmen, letters, candy canes......

A truck! A Train! A Reindeer or two!
Ok, I can't draw a train most days, not sure how I managed this masterpiece, our shortbread train! Mr K thought I was Supermom for this one. Indeed, I am rather proud.
Most of the cookies didn't break, but the reindeer's antlers were too fragile and any that were too thin were delicate as well. The secret is to make them thick and they won't break as easily....oh. but it was just so much fun doing it! Like drawing, but with cookies!

Sunday, December 09, 2007

Sunday Night Non-Aggravating Craft #2

I'll post this, because some of the other stuff just doesn't count as non-aggravating :) Cleaning out baby food jars and getting the glue off them IS annoying!!

Homemade gift tags/cards. I chopped some of my olds cards that had just the beautiful square on the front, then cut out a matching back from the inside. Nicely enough, they say "Blessed Christmas" on the top inside, just happened to work out that I could reuse some of the print as well. Hole punch them in two spots, run ribbon thru and tie with a bow. I used metallic pens to write my messages inside. And they look a million times prettier now than just the plain card.

Hallelujah!

Why am I posting a pic of dragon toys? Well, lads and ladies, I went to the Goodwill this afternoon to find some jeans (double freakin' hallelujah, I found 2 pairs!) and of course Mr K has to look through the toys. Actually, scratch the double, its a triple Hallelujah, he found a recycle truck that is always the boy's favorites while playing in the sand, so there's another to squibble over ;)

I digress. Can I introduce to you one of The Princess's presents, good ol' TupperToys. Made in the US of freakin' A!

Dance of joy....dance of joy.....I don't know if they are STILL made in the US tho, they say 1992 on them. Not only are they awesome fun and adorable (I remember those old elephants etc) but they aren't made in China.

Ahhh I have something other than socks for her!

BTW of course you have already guessed I will email Tupperware and ask where the products are made now..

Some info: (come on, do I still have to cite my source??)

Tupperware was known, at a time when women came back from working during World War II only to be told to "go back to the kitchen", as a method of empowering women, and giving them a toehold in the post-war business world. The tradition of Tupperware's "Jubilee" style events continues to this day, with rallies being held in major cities to recognize and reward top-selling demonstrators, managers and distributorships.

On May 9, 2007 Tupperware announced Brooke Shields as the celebrity spokesperson for Tupperware’s "Chain of Confidence" campaign in the USA. The campaign invites women to celebrate the strong bonds of female friendships and the self-confidence derived from those relationships.ChainOfConfidence.com serves as an online community where women can share their confidence stories with one another and join an online discussion about the importance of female friendships and confidence.As part of Chain of Confidence, Tupperware is donating over one million dollars to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America to sponsor SMART Girls—a program dedicated to promoting confidence in young girls ages 8-17.

I was beginning to get beyond frustrated this weekend. I literally spent a half an hour in the doll aisle reading boxes. Mike had to take his tire in to get fixed so I can time to spare LOL! I think the Walmart worker thought I was a crackpot. Both sides, every doll. Not ONE that wasn't made in China. In another aisle I found some Crayola markers made in the US, and some sparkle glue made in Taiwan. Deee-pressing.

What really made me sad is there were some horses (oh, she loves her horses) that kids can literally sit on (up to 80 lbs) and pretend to ride. So the Princess is sitting on one and just looooving it. She kept trying to take it back off the shelf, and its bigger than her. Soo cute. She's trying to tuck this damn 3 foot horse under her arm and take it home. Sigh. You know, you just can't win. Damned because you buy your children possibly toxic toys or damned because you can't get them what they really want to play with.

Where did my angora goat run off to.....