StressLess Momma: We Love to Paint!

The girls love painting!! They ask to do it all the time and I always put it off. I will admit I don't share their love for the hobby.  It's not the actual process that I dislike because actually painting is kind of fun, it's the aftermath, the mess.

So I have a couple little tricks that make it a little less "painful."

supplies

I buy both finger paint and kid paint for the kids and let them choose which one they want to use.  Usually they'll make a couple paintings with both.

We use freezer paper for our paintings.  It's super cheap compared to painting or finger paint paper and is pretty much the same thing!!  Use the dull side for the kid paint and the shiny side for the finger paint!

When it comes to the kid paint (I think it's probably similiar to tempera) my kids are still in the stage where they like to mix and they don't clean their brush so well.  So I don't allow them to dip their brush right in the paint jar or else they will instantly ruin the paint.  Instead we use a styrofoam egg carton!  I put a small dallop of paint in egg section and if they mix it, so what?

just getting started



muddled up colors



painting with a spoon

stamping with a plastic cup

Who says you have to paint with a brush?  Give them a variety of "tools"! Lillian used a spoon, fork, and plastic cup.  You can also give them a cut up sponge, paper towel, suction cups. straws.

and finally where do you dry all their creations?

A laundry drying rack of course!!

Don't make the same mistake I did and start at the top!  Start on the inside and lower rack first then move up, that way you don't have to lean over wet paintings to hang the rest.

keeping it all together

love the handles, we can take our supplies anywhere

A couple more ideas!

Make ice cube paint:
1. Mix equal parts kid paint and water.
2. Put it in an ice tray or popsicle mold to freeze
3. Pop em out and paint away. 
When they are finished you can put the cubes in a ziplock bag and re-freeze!

Batik or Wax Resist
Batik is an artistic method where artist block out a certain section using melted wax then dye the rest.  Later they remove the wax to reveal a blanked out section.  They may do this multiple times to build color on color and design.
This is a fun "magical" technique for kids.
Supplies:
paper
crayons
watercolor paint

1. Draw a design with the crayons.  They can use white crayons to write a "secret" message or drawing.
2. Paint over the entire paper with watercolor!  The areas of crayon will resist the paint!

Marble Painting
Supplies:
marbles
paper
box with high sides
kid paint (tempera)

1. Cut the paper to fit inside the box.
2. Either dip the marbles in paint or put small blobs of paint on the paper.
3. Put the marbles in the box on top of the paper then tip the box from side to side allowing the marbles to roll around and make a "marble" painting.

Monster Jam Painting

Supplies:
Monster Jam trucks
kid paint (tempera)
paper plates and plastic spoon
large sheet of paper (the freezer paper would work for this but I love to use the brown drop cloth paper from the hardware store)

1. Drop one color of paint per paper plate and spread it out a little using the spoon.
2. Help the kids run the trucks tires through the paint so they are completely coated all the way around.
3. Drive the trucks all over the paper re-applying paint as needed!

Piggy Bank

I came up with this project when the twins and I were learning about the prodigal son.

It is also a great project for learning about circles, sorting by size, and line of symmetry

What you will need:

Mason jar and ring
Pink construction paper
googley eyes
black construction paper
glue
scissors

Directions:

First you need to trace a bunch of circles.
Using the ring from the mason jar trace two circles on the pink paper for the piggy's head and bottom.
Find a circle smaller then this and trace it five times on the pink paper for the snout, tail, feet, and ears. Draw one "line of symmetry" on three of these circles.
Find an even smaller circle and trace it twice onto the black paper for the nostrils

(oops forgot one medium circle but I added it later)

Give your child all the circles and allow her to sort them out.

Next assemble the pigs face

It's pretty self explanatory by the pictures.

Once the face is dry cut a slit under the snout for the pig's mouth large enough for a quarter to pass through.

On the lid of the mason jar you are only going to use the ring!

Apply a line of glue around the tip of the ring.

Add the face! 

Glue the remaining four circle halves to the sides of the jar for feet.

Glue the other large circle to the bottom of the jar for the bottom.

Cut the final medium sized circle into a spiral for the curly tail.  Only glue the middle of the circle to the bottom.

 

Piggy Bank!
You can "feed" your piggy coins through its mouth and later get them out by simply unscrewing the lid!!

Pretty Princess Tutu Bucket

So lately my inspiration has been to de-junk, de-clutter, and organize.

The twins "princess" accessories  have been a nightmarish mess for a while now and driving me up a wall. 

In organizing their dress-up clothes I started tossing all the necklaces, bracelets, rings, tiaras, yadda yadda into this large cheese ball bucket just to get them out of the way.  Then inspiration hit!!  Why not keep them in it?  Only challenge would be to make it "not so ugly"

Then inspiration hit again.  I get so aggravated at the jumbled mess their tutus become and constantly having to straighten them out whenever they way to play with them......ding ding ding, put them around the bucket. 

Bucket decorated, tutus mess resolved!!!

and here it is in their Dramatic Play Center, right next to the dress up clothes box!



Dinner Planner

What's for dinner?

I think this question gets asked every night in my house at least 4 times! 

Not only by my husband and the twins but often I ask myself this: What's for dinner?

Chaos and disorganization seems to have taken over our household lately and I am so done with!  So I'm taking back control and one of those ways is to plan out our weekly meal plan yet again.

When I plan our weeks meals, often I will plan meals that can be tweeked and multiplied.
I will plan one dinner: for example this week we had Chilli, then plan other meals off of that, for example on Thursday we had a Potato Bar and chilli was one of the choices of toppings!

So typically I make my meal list then flip over the paper and make my grocery list.  If I don't lose that piece of paper somewhere between shopping and unloading/putting away groceries, it gets put on the fridge, but even then the question still gets asked:  What's for Dinner?

So here's my solution to that!  I made this as my final craft project with my Eldon MOPS group!  It's really cheap and really easy!

Materials Needed:
Scrapbook paper
Letter stickers
Frame (we used 8X10 or 8.5X11)
Dry erase marker
Velcro with sticky backs
Embellishment (optional)

So it's really simple.  First you trip the scrapbook paper to fit inside your frame. 
Next, vertically on the actual paper add the letters for the days of the week.
Put the paper inside your frame and embellish the outside of the frame.
Add one side of the velcro to the top of the frame and the other to your marker.
And Voila!!   Dinner Planner!!

Sweet Valentine Flower Necklace

So I was making some Valentine's Day flower hair clips for the twins and I remembered this great necklace from The Sisters 4 say More is More:  Striped Tee Necklace 
and I thought how pretty would my flower look on this necklace!

So here you go!

I made two different flowers for the hair clips!

This is the first one.  I took a strip of fabric about 22 inches long by 3 inches wide and made a rose.  I twisted the fabric and basically made a pinwheel.  But I made it way too big and couldn't take it apart. So I had to cut the excess off and it made it kind of shabby, so I decided to try a different approach.

Here's my second one.  Ah much better!

For instructions on how to make the necklace go to The Sisters 4: click here.

To make the rose you will need:

3 lengths of fabric 22 inches long by 3 inches wide

glue gun

Begin by pulling the three strands so that the material curls up as described in the necklace tutorial.  Then line up the ends, move down about 3 inches and tie the three strands together tightly.  Braid the three strands stopping 3 inches from the end then knot again.  You should have a 2-3 inch tail on both ends.

Put a small amount of glue right on the know and fold the braid over onto the knot.

Wrap the braid around the knot adding glue as you go.

Put the glue right on the braid and simply roll it around

For the hair clip I wrapped the end knot under the flower then I cut a circle of fabric the same size of the flower and glued it to the bottom.  The feather is a 2 inch feather puff from a boa.

For the necklace I just glued the know right to the edge of the flower and trimmed the ends to about 2 inches and let them hang.

Here is the back of the flower.  See the 3 inch tail in the middle?  Seperate the strings, two on one side, one of the other.

 Lay your necklace on top of the flower.  The tail ends of the flower should go right below the knot on the necklace.

I decided not to glue or sew the flower on.  I wanted the option to remove it at a later time.

Alternatively you could also glue a clip to the back of the flower so it could double as a hair clup.

Tie the strands aroud the necklace very tightly, double knot.  The wrap the strands around the necklace and tuck the ends under.

I tied it so the hanging tail would be to the right of the necklace!

Hope you Enjoy!  Send me pictures of you creation!!!

Baked Chicken Cordon Bleu

This has been a long time favorite of mine. 

Baked Chicken Cordon Bleu

Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
Honey Dijon Mustard
Swiss Cheese sliced
Ham sliced
Breadcrumbs

Set oven to 350


First you will need to pound the chicken flat.  Most people would say put the chicken breast between two pieces of wax paper and you totally can do that but the wax paper breaks down, tears, then you have to use more.  Instead I use a plastic baggie.  You can zip it closed and then you will also prevent chicken goo from slinging all over your counters.

So place one breast at a time in a plastic baggie, zip it closed squeezing out the air, and pound away.  I use the flat side of a meat mallot but a rolling pin, canned veggies or even a cast iron skillet will do the job!

Take the chicken out of the bag and squirt some honey dijon mustard on it. 
            I put the bottle in a baggie so I don't have to worry about clean hands or salmonella.

Spread it out with the back of a spoon. 

Add a slice of ham!

 A slice of swiss cheese!

 Then roll it up!  You can secure the roll with wooden toothpicks...naturally I didn't have any so I used twine.  I actually think it worked better.  Don't worry if a little cheese or ham is hanging out some will oooze out while baking anyway.

So line them up in a casserole dish then spray with cooking spray.  You could brush olive oil on them but the baking spray lightens it up!

Now comes the breading!  Out of necessity one I had to make my own breadcrumbs and now I will never go back.  I usually save the ends of the bread that no one eats and tear it into cubes and freeze it for stuffing.  This time I took those ends, tore them into small pieces, threw them in my food processor, sprinkled on some italian seasoning and processed them into crumbs. 

Sprinkle breadcrumbs on top of the chicken and pat it down, flip the chicken over and repeat; spray and sprinkle.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until light brown and chicken is cooked through.

Delicious!

Chicken Enchiladas

These enchiladas don't last long in my house.  Make them with your Crock Pot Mexican Chicken they are easier then you think.

Chicken Enchiladas
as with any recipe you can sub whatever ingredients you choose

crock pot mexican chicken
whole wheat tortillas
shedded sharp cheddar cheese
enchilada sauce (leftover sauce from crock pot mexican chicken)

First you will have to roll your enchiladas, same concept as rolling burritos.
Lay your tortilla flat and spoon a heaping spoonful of the chicken in a line just right of center.
Sprinkle about 1 Tbsp of the cheddar cheese over the chicken.

Fold the bottom up and the top edge down.


not sure why the picture turned but you get the idea

 Next fold the right edge over the chicken

Now roll the whole thing end to end.  On your first roll you will sort of tuck that fold in, this will prevent your filling from oozing out.

Put your enchiladas in a casserole dish seam side down.

Pour enchilada sauce all over.

Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes or until the enchiladas are light brown and look crisp.

Enjoy!!!