Welcome to Hogwarts

April 5th was my oldest son's 11th birthday. In honor of this special occasion we help a one night Hogwarts Trial for him and his friends.
We started off with official invitations written in green ink on preachment paper. Here is what they said:

Dear ,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to a one-night trial with the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry staff in honor of Josephs 11th birthday. Hogwarts is temporarily unavailable do to repairs made necessary by the mischievous acts of certain red headed twins. As a result the Ministry of Magic has set up a safe location disguised as a muggle home at (our address). Please use ministry approve port keys or, to not attract attention, please employ a muggle to bring you by car. The trial will take place from 4 to 7 p.m. on Monday, April 9th, 2007. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary equipment for your trial.
Professor Albus Dumbledore

Please Bring
Muggle attire
A broomstick
A cauldron
One sock for Dobby the House Elf

When the kids arrived at our house we sorted them into houses. Because we were in such a muggle infested location we had to transform the sorting hat to disguise it. I think it really worked.

Here is Hannah being sorted. She ended up in Hufflepuff. I had printed off house badge stickers to put on their shirts.

Next the children had to go Olillvander's to get their wands. My nephew Angus was our Ollivander. The children had to try out their wands by swishing them and calling out an animal name. If the wand was the right one, then Ollivander would transform into that animal.

Here poor Owen is laying on the ground recovering from the attack he suffered when he transformed Ollivander into a Lion.

Now the kids were ready to go to their classes and see if they really were worthy to attend Hogwarts. First up was Potions class with professor Snape. Apparently the Slytherins thought it would be really funny to transform the drinks for the feast into water so the children had to try their hands at potion making to turn it back into pumpkin juice. This is very tricky to do.

The potion went as follows. First Snape poured rainbow water into the cups (vinegar) and the water turned a different color in each cup. (the spoons had dried food coloring on them) Then they added powdered unicorn hair (baking soda) and had to stir it properly. If not it would boil over. (well of course it bubbled over and Snape berated them all).

Next they added dried Hinkypunk hearts (pop rocks) and had to stir till it quit crackling.

Next they added Dragon milk mixed with Oil of Sunshine (2 cups white school glue mixed with 1 1/2 cup water and yellow food coloring). To this they added Essence of Boom slang (2/3 cup water with 2 tsp borax mixed in and food color for effect). Then followed a very complicated series of stirrings.

If they messed this step up they did not end up with delicious and refreshing pumpkin juice. Instead they got ....

Troll Boggies. We all gaged and choked.

Snape felt it necessary to show us how it was really done and whipped up some Sour Snape Grape Spirits for us.

(this was 2 bottles of lemon lime pop and 2 packages of grape Kool-aid mix and the left over pop rocks) It was pretty good.

The next class was Divination with Professor Trelawney.

My Niece Rebecca filled in for us. She had them put Dragon's blood (red food coloring) in a bowl of Troll milk (milk with dish soap added) and them read the fortunes they saw. We saw many basilisks. She then used her Crystal ball (round fish bowl) to read their fortunes.

There were many prophecies given such as , "you will eat cake tonight", and "I see treats in your near future" and such. They kids thought it was really fun and thought she sounded like Gollum.

The kids then went to Care of Magical Creatures with Professor Grubbly-Plank. (my Sister in Law, Miyuki)

She taught them the anatomy of woodland creatures and the showed what they learned by making Origami replicas of owls and bats. They had to touch them with their wand to make them fly (they looked a lot like paper air planes).

The last class was Defense Against the Dark Arts with Professor Loopy (Lupin's sister).

I had the kids make Anti Dark Wizard Missiles. We took plastic eggs and added powdered asphodel (baking soda) and powdered boom slang skin (citric acid) to this we added essence of gillyweed (green water). We had to quickly shut the eggs and throw them.

If you were fast enough they would blow up.

Sammy worked really fast. His blew up as he threw it.

The children also leaned to do the Patronus Charm. They practiced on a Boggart we found. (Angus)

Our poor Boggart really got hit hard.

The kids then went out in the field and played quidditch. They were all looking for the snitch (a golden Easter egg).

We finally had a feast. We had Wesely Cheesy Weezy Pizza, Pumpkin pasties, our Snape Juice and a Madd Eye Moody Eye cake.

Everyone was really grossed out by the cake. It was great!! (it was baked in a Pampered Chef mixing bowl and we put a blue jell-o eye on top.

We sent everyone home with a bag of treats from Honeyduke's candy Shop.

We gave them Chocolate frogs, Fizzing whizbees, Bertie Bott's every flavor beans, Drooble's best blowing gum, Owl Droppings, lemon drops, Acid worms and a squirting frog. Joe also made each of his guests a wand for them to take home. He will be selling these in his own Etsy store soon. They looked really great!

This party was so much fun. We love to have fun at birthdays and celebrate our family this way. I couldn't have pulled this off without a lot of help from my friends and family. Thanks to Vea for giving up our craft play day and helping me pull this off. Thanks to Sam, Miyuki, Angus and Rebecca for filling in as faculty and Characters.

I hope you enjoyed sharing in our day.

Easters

We had a fun Easter party this year and my brother said I ought to post it somewhere so I will post it here. (maybe that way I can remember next year what we did!) Hee Hee.
We had 17 cousins together this year for the hunt which made things fun and a little complicated.
We divided the kids up into smaller group, babies - up to 2, Littles - 2 to 5, Bigs - 6-9, and biggers 9-11. (we have a 9 year old girl that wanted to stay with the bigs and a 9 year old boy that wanted to go with the biggers as they were all boys).
For the babies we put 1 jelly bean each into several eggs and scattered them in my mom's back yard as it is pretty small and a protected area. (the babies both fell asleep so we skipped their hunt and will do it tomorrow when they come back for babysitting)
For the littles we put treats into 12 eggs each. The older ones had fun counting up to 12. It was fun. We hid them in my mom's front yard which has many fun places to hunt.
For the Bigs, we had 12 different kinds of eggs from them to each look for and gave them a check list to help them keep track of what they were looking for. They seemed to love this. It really extended the hunt because in got harder and harder to find specific kinds of eggs. We hid these in my back yard (I live next door to my mom). It is a real mess with long grass so they really had to hunt for them. I also had my 13 year old nephew hide them and he really hid them well. It was a lot of fun.
For the Biggers, I arranged a scavenger hunt with rhyming clues around my front yard. That was tough for me but fun. On each clue there was a letter. These letters had to be unscrambled to find the candy cache. Which was my mother's treasure chest. That was fun and a lot harder for the kids than I guessed.
I will post some pictures when I have time but I wanted to put this down before I forget. This was successful enough that we would like to repeat a version of this every year. It wasn't that hard and it was so fun having so much to do.

Match Book

I saw these this week and just had to make them. They are so fun and cute and fast.
Michelle at Greetings Art has a great tutorial on how to make these. Go check it out. These are really too much fun. My kids are in love with them and the fun they are. Caroline is my journalist and has already taken possession of one and is journaling in it (in very tiny print). I love projects that I can hook the kids into. They already have plans to make their own now and maybe in different sizes. For myself, I thought it is a much cuter way to keep track of bits of information such as e-mail addresses and websites I must see or even for jotting down those bits of inspiration that seem to hit me and then evaporate when I get time to act on them. :o)

Happy Easter

There are some things that are just plain happy.

We only get to have this cookie only a couple of times a year and Easter is one of them.
I have to share the recipe.
Sugar Cookies
Mix and set aside:
2 cups white flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg* (this is optional)

In a mixing bowl cream:
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar (I use 1 cup)
1 egg
When this is fluffy, add:
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
Really mix this well and get it good and fluffy.

Add the dry ingredients and mix well. Refrigerate 2-3 hours.
*(a note on the addition of nutmeg, If you are going to bake these right away, the nutmeg flavor is a little strong so in that case I leave it out. However, if you can leave the dough in the fridge for a couple of days, the nutmeg mellows out and gives these cookies the most wonderful flavor.)

Roll the dough out on a well floured surface to about 1/4" thick. Cut as desired. Place on a baking sheet and bake at 375*F for 10 - 12 minutes. Personally I like these cookies a little brownish. I like them crispy. Just my own personal preference.
Let them cool and frost them with butter cream frosting and add some sprinkles (Mary Kay for cookies, not necessary but so much more cute.)
Butter Cream Frosting
(we put this on very thin so that we can afford to eat just one more cookie)
1 stick butter
3 3/4 cup powdered sugar
3 - 4 Tbsp milk
2 tsp vanilla
food coloring
cream the butter and sugar together, add the vanilla and then the milk until it is nice and fluffy. I divide it into bowls and add a few drops of color and frost away.

Mama and Baby Byrd

Do I really need to write anything here? Doesn't she say it all? I HAD to make this last night when I saw it. Sometimes you just have to do something just for mama. This little Mama Byrd sits above my desk and watches over my crafting dreams till I get time to work on them.
Here is her little baby.

Here is a fuzzy close up. Sorry.

She is just too much fun. I am going to have to help the girls make their own little babies and eggs today to play with. (They keep sneaking off with this mama to play with her.)

If you got the bug not and just HAVE to make one, the tutorial and pattern are at MollyChicken.

Big Blue

I so wanted to post the April Apron pattern here today but it isn't going to happen. It is simple but it just didn't happen this weekend. Some other things happened instead.
Sarah went to her first sleepover. We all missed her so much.
Joe fixed tin foil dinners without burning anything down. They were fantastic!
We listened to 4 sessions of General Conference from the convenience of our own living room.
My Monkey Diaper fabric came and I had to sit down and make this.

I make clothe diapers for Jeddie and love it. I have about 12 more cut out and just need to sew them up. You can get the pattern here. The fabric is not available yet. When it is, I will post a link.
I also made this.

Here is his back side.

Rebecca and Clara came over and were looking at the pattern and so I decided to whip one out. He is for Jeddie. The red smudge on the face is strawberry freezer jam from Jeddie's kiss. He is now sleeping tucked in Jeddies arms. Too cute.
You can get the pattern here. It was pretty easy to make but the feet are a little tricky. I am going to have to work at that. All the other kids want one now. I will have to see what I can do.
I start working tomorrow at the health department as a peer lactation consultant. I am pretty excited about that. I get to take Jeddie with me in a baby carrier. I hope he co-operates.

March Apron

I know this is really late. I am sorry. I had these done for a little while now but just have been so busy sewing other things (that I will post about later) that I just haven't had any time to post this.
This apron is very simple and fun. I guess I should tell you the background story first. Last month on the 22 of February, I found the FLY Lady. She has changed my life. I have to tell the truth that I have lived in CHAOS (can't have anyone over syndrome) for years. I am a little ADD (OK maybe a lot) and I get lots of projects going and then move to the next and live a very busy life. House cleaning is not my favorite thing to do. I have never been very successful at it. I just seem to get so distracted with it that I end up starting everything and finishing none of it. Things seem to pile up and I don't know where to begin. Well, when I was led to the Fly Lady site, things changed for me. She has a wonderful plan of baby steps that helps the distracted to focus on their messes for only 15 minutes at a time. This concept is changing my life. My home is now not perfect yet but I can have people over without just dieing of mortification. My family is also slowly picking up these good habits and we are seeing family changes that are making life so much better. I know that her program isn't for everyone, but if you have been living with CHAOS or have clutter problems, I recommend giving her site a visit.
The March Apron was inspired by the Fly Lady ideas. It is my Fly Baby apron. It is simple in design so it can be quickly made and it is very functional. I use it when I am cleaning house. The pockets in the apron are made to carry my timer too help me manage my work. There is another pocket for my notebook. I use it as a mini "control journal" to keep me focused on what I am doing. I have spot for a pencil and a large middle pocket to put those things you pick up and need to put away. I love this little apron and hope you do too. You will have fun making it.

Here are the instructions:
First, get a good heavy dishtowel. If you don't have one then just cut out a rectangle of heavy fabric and hem it up. My dishtowel is 27 1/2" by 17 1/2" finished.


Next I attached the ties. For this apron I had my good friend Jill over and she brought her grommet press and put grommets in for me 3 1/2" down on each side. We did this so that the top of the apron can fold down in front over the apron ties. You can do it this way or you can attach them at the top corners of the apron. You don't need to use grommets. We just liked having and excuse to use the press. Hee Hee.
Here is a close-up of the holes. We added a scrap of heavy fabric to the back to re-enforce the grommets.

Next I made the pocket for the aprons. I made these of patchwork strips of fabric.
The pieces are :
black 10 1/2" x 5 1/2"
black 10 1/2" x 3 1/2"
red 10 1/2" x 5 1/2"
Plaid 10 1/2" x 3 1/2"
Sew the 5 1/2 black to the plaid. Sew the red 5 1/2" to the black 3 1/2". Next sew those two sections together.

Now attach the pocket to the apron. To do this, I top stitched around the outside of the apron. Then I stitched the pocket spots down. I went over about 1 inch for the pencil. Then I went over 4 inches from that and stitched along the seam of the black and plaid for the notebook pocket. On the right side of the pocket, I wet over 4 inches into the red fabric for the timer pocket.

To finish off the pocket I added a little patch with Mama Byrd on it. She is my little logo for Mama Byrd Creations.

As usual I did make up some extras and this time Rebecca got one for being my Fly baby partner and always cheering me on. Jill got one too for helping me with the grommets.
I do have a few left over and will put them on my Etsy site. Sorry these instructions are so sketchy but I feel really terrible that I didn't have them on before and really need to post them for you all.

To Vea, Michelle, Emma, and Jill

Yes this one is just for you (all other's reading are welcome too.) I was led to this site today and when I saw it I knew that you had to see it. I also know that I won't remember to show it to you for weeks if we have to rely on my memory so here it is. Eat your little aproned hearts out!

Easter Bunnies

My niece and I have been working on this doll. I am thinking of making a pattern for it if there is enough interest.

I got a custom order for one of these for Easter this year so I made up several at once and they sold really fast before I could get them loaded in here. I have 3 left and they are posted in my Etsy store now.
I have a Dark Chocolate Bunny,

A Carmel Bunny,

And a Marshmallow White Bunny.

Each mama bunny has 3 baby bunnies hidden in her skirt.

My girls love them. So does Jeddie. I am trying to work up a Daddy bunny version now with pockets or a backpack for babies. Little boys need to play "Family" too.

Conchas

We have a new Paneria that opened up in Neosho. We are so excited to be able to get Mexican treats not. However, we decided we wanted to try these at home. So I searched Pan Dulce recipes and did some tweaking so I could eat them too. I love Pan Dulce but can't have that many carbs all at once. I have come up with a whole wheat version that I like and my kids like. Even Bryan ate them which was amazing.

Here is my version.

Here is my recipe.
Whole Wheat Conchas
1 stick butter
1 1/2 cups milk
2 1/2 Tbsp yeast
2 tsp salt
6 cups Whole Wheat Flour
2 Tbsp Gluten
1/3 cup honey
2 eggs
2 Tbsp Lemon juice
4 Tbsp Flax Seeds
Melt the butter and milk together in a pan to 110 deg. F.
Mix the yeast, salt, gluten, and 2 cups of the flour with a whisk. Add the milk and butter mix to this and beat well for 2 minuets.
Add the honey, eggs, lemon juice, ground flax seeds, and 1 more cup of the flour. Beat for 2 minutes.
Add the remaining flour until you have a stiff dough. (no more than the total 6 cups - remember that whole wheat flour takes time to absorb the liquid but when it does it can leave a stiff dough very dry, NOT GOOD).
Kneed the dough for about 5 minutes. Cover with a dish cloth and let rise for 1 hour.
Meanwhile, make the topping.
Vanilla and Cinnamon topping
1 cup powdered sugar
3/4 cup butter
1 pinch of salt
1 1/2 cup white flour
3 tsp. ground cinnamon
3 tsp vanilla
Yellow food coloring (optional)
In a med bowl bead the butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy. Add the flour, vanilla, and salt and mix until it has the consistency of thick paste. Divide the paste into 2 containers. Add the cinnamon to one and the food coloring to the other. (in the bakery they have yellow, pink and brown conchas).

When the dough is done rising, divide it into 16 equal balls and place them on a greased baking sheet (or two). Divide each bowl of topping into 8 balls, and pat them flat. Place the circles of topping onto the balls of dough and pat down lightly. Cut grooves into the topping like a clam shell (thus the name conchas or shells). To do this I used a canning jar lid. Cover them and let them rise for about 45 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 375*F and bake for 20 minutes or until lightly golden brown.

You can make chocolate topping by adding 2 Tbsp of cocoa powder to one of the bowls of mix.
These are great warm or cold and with the wheat and flax seed in there they don't make a bad breakfast. :o)

Behold the Bread

I made this bread in my oven. I am still amazed! And yes, it did taste as good as it looks. So chewy and good.
My friend Jill came to my house for a diaper making day and brought a loaf of this bread and the recipe with her. I am so glad! I love bread and I love making good bread. I have dreamt of making bread that looks like this and now I have. Here is the link to the original recipe. When I made it, I did 4 times the recipe and added 2 Tbsp. gluten. This make 2 nice big loaves. I have tried this in whole wheat and am still working on the recipe to make that work well.
Here is how you do it.
First you mix the dry ingredients.

Then you mix in the water by hand or with a spoon.

This is what it will look like. Very wet and sticky.

Then you cover it with plastic wrap and let it set for 18 hours. It can go up to 24 hours if you need to. This is what it will look like.

Now dump it out onto a floured board and fold in thirds one way and then turn it and turn in thirds again.

Cover with an inverted bowl and let rise for 2 hours. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 450* and heat a lidded dutch oven for 1 hour.
Plop the dough into the hot dutch oven and put the lid on.
Bake for 20 minutes with the lid on. Then remove the lid and bake another 20 minutes.

Pull the loaf out of the oven and let it cool and a rack completely ... if you can. Hee Hee
Then Slice it and enjoy.

New Computer

Bryan got me a new computer today with more memory so I can do things so much faster. It is a nice upgrade. However, he forgot to make sure that the user was also upgraded. Soooo. I am almost in tears now with the frustration of trying to learn a new system. I have not felt the dumb in a while. I am going to have to learn a lot of things over again.
Argggg. Well at least I can still log onto the internet and at least get here and log in. I really shouldn't be posting anyway because I have some custom Easter Bunnies to sew up and I need to get things ready to post the March apron pattern. I am going to have to figure out how to use this computers photo program. !!!! HELP !!!!!!

Missouri Walking Sticks

Ok, if you are on any kind of diet, STOP reading this now!!! This will kill any diet but sometimes you just have to do that!!
This treat is Bryan's favorite. We buy them from our favorite candy house. They are not cheap but we only get them at Christmas (Or Bryan does in his stocking and I get a bite).
They are called Missouri Walking Sticks. I decided to try to make some at home and save myself the torture of a trip to the candy store when I am not supposed to eat any of it.
Here is what I did.
1. Melt down some caramels. You may have to add some cream or canned milk to soften it a bit.

I didn't have any so I just made up a batch of caramel from a recipe I had.
2. Take long pretzel sticks and dip them in the caramel. Give it a good twist to cover the end.

3. Now roll it in chopped nuts. I used pecans.

4. Set the stick on a lined tray to cool.

5. Drizzle the end of the sticks in chocolate if you like. I like so I did. :o)

I guess my drizzle turned out to be more of a dip.
6. Now you are done.

Now are the confessions. Obviously, Mine don't look like the ones in the store. They do taste good, I think. The other confession is that the caramel I made had only a list of ingredients and no clear instructions. Soooo.... I ended up cooking it too long and they got rock hard when they cooled. As a result we had suckers not chewy caramels. Still pretty good though.

My Funny Valentine

This is one of Hannah's Valentines. I just love them. We cut out doggy bone shaped pieces of tissue paper and stuck a sucker through the center, twisted them and secured it with tape. She wrote her name on them and took them to Pre-school. She was so thrilled to get to do what the big kids do and have a "class party".
By the way, her preschool teach had her first baby this weekend. She had a little girl named Elli. Hannah is so excited. We made her a custom Piggy Bag. I hope she gets a lot of good use out of it.

New Monkeys

New Not So Sock Monkeys have arrived on the scene.

These ones are actually making it over to my store. You can visit them here.