I hate to make excuses but I have been working so much that my posting has been rather lackluster.  I just filled 150 fabric sacks for a party and thought…I can post this.  Quick and simple…

Cut fabric in 30 cm.  squares (cut around edges with pinking shears if you like), add your goodies (cookies in my case) in the center.  Bring the four corners to the middle and tie.

Imagine how pretty with a variety of patterns, too…

Every week my daughter Georgia watches the planning and conception of party after party. She always knows the name and theme of the celebrant. She is interested and she is a good sport–especially considering she has yet to have a big bash of her own. In Portuguese, the expression: “casa de ferreiro, espeto de pau” is spot on…in the house of a blacksmith you’ll find a wooden stick i.e. shoemaker’s son goes barefoot. Yes, I know.

So last week, my kitchen and craft room were finally devoted to Georgia’s Hello Kitty (her choice) Birthday Party. My mother and aunt on a visit from the USA stepped off the plane and into an apron. And we all worked non-stop, inviting more people than our living room could hold and feeding the children more sweets than the dentist would ever allow. And we partied. (I found a brigadeiro in the plant!) Face Painting. Puppet Shows. Mini Burgers. Salgados. Sandwiches. Kiddy Music. Three cakes….oh my.

A special thanks to the unbelievably talented Alice Abramo for the charming invitation and graphic touches. I initially approached her with the idea of collaborating on Georgia’s party because I hoped to partner up on future collaborations.  Because, quite frankly, I love absolutely everything she does.  And since Georgia’s event, we cannot stop exchanging emails on ideas for more, more, more.  Stay tuned!  The fun is just beginning…

Happy Birthday Georgia!  And thank you everyone for helping my girl to not go barefoot anymore!

I just arrived back from Buenes Aires.  Aside from eating lots of red meat, dulche de leche, MALBA, the Zoo, and San Telmo market, I tried to do what it seems like all Brazilians love to do in BA:  shop.  (The prices are much friendlier, for certain.)

But there is nothing better for your credit card statement than shopping with a three year old and a five month old.  So if you are heading to Argentina with your little ones and would like to attempt shopping, here is the one store I would visit.

Pehache:  Bom, bom gosto for you and your home plus a little pond with fish for the little ones and food (a cafe) for your husband.

In search of a Sunday morning activity, I decided to make paper dolls with my daughter.  My idea was to cut out the dolls and use some printed paper for simple dresses.  I imagined our dialogue would be about the colors and patterns of the dresses as Georgia is a little “fashionista” these days.  How frivolous am I?  Fashion?  Colors?  Please.  My little girl wanted to talk about the paper doll’s emotions.

Just as I was about to ask which doll would like to wear the purple dress, she asked me. “Why don’t they have faces, Mommy?”  To which I responded, “Why don’t you draw their faces then.”  And since she just turned three last week and had only recently started drawing circles, I wasn’t expecting much.  Then I saw her draw the eyes, the nose, the mouth….and the tears.  “She’s sad.” said Georgia.  And then I got nervous thinking about those exercises child psychologists use to understand a child’s emotions.  (Mommy guilt about working too much last week.)  And then she continued with the other faces.  Next up:  Happy (ufa!  whew! relief!).  Followed by:  mad, sleepy, and scared.

And I might be a proud mommy (mamãe coruja), but I can see the expressions clearly.

And I am pretty impressed.

Now that my daughter is almost three, she has definite ideas about how her hair should be fixed. In the mornings before school she declares, “Bun.” “Ponytail.” “Pigtails.” or “Braids.”  And she enthusiastically selects the barrettes and rubber bands for the job. Lately, to my dismay, she only chooses the plastic store bought variety with glitter. But once a week I still manage to sneak one of the homemade variety. My favorite: the strawberry.

So if your daughter still allows you to put a fruit salad in her tresses, here is how to make your own felt strawberry barrette.

What you will need:  green and red felt, green, black, and red embroidery thread, scissors, needle, metal barrette

1. I imagine everyone can draw a strawberry. Think fat raindrop first. Or use a clip art image like this one.

2. Cut the strawberry shape twice with the red felt

3.  Cut the leaf part once with the felt

4.  Using black embroidery thread sew little black dots (a single stitch or a knot will do) to just one of the strawberry shapes

5.  Using red embroidery thread, sew the two strawberries together.  Switch to green thread and sew the leaf together with the two strawberries

6.  Tie a knot and finish your strawberry.  On the back cut a slit into the strawberry and insert barrette (as if it were entering into a sleeping bag).

Pretty!

Tissue paper balls are not new and noteworthy.  But I still think they are one of the easiest ways to make a room festive and pretty when you are short on time and money.

Here is how:

Stack 8-12 pieces of colored tissue paper evenly on top of eachother.  Fold in an accordian like fashion (think paper fans made from programs in a hot concert hall or church).  The folds should be a few centimeters.  Once you have your long fan (and before opening), cut the edges in points or round them out.  Tie a piece of wire exactly in the middle and spread your fan out in a circle.  Carefully peel open the layers of tissue paper.

Fluff:  Instant party atmosphere!

One of my very favorite customer requests is the Pigpen Cake. There is no holding my breath while trying to level the layers and crumbs are your best friend. The messier the better!

How to:
The little pigs are made of fondant (store bought works just fine). Dye the fondant pink with food coloring. The pig shape is pretty simple to mold…conjure up art class moments and clay! The nose (poke with a toothpick for the nostrils), ears, feet and tail stick with a dab of water. Dot the eyes with black food coloring on a toothpick. Let the pigs dry overnight.

For the cake…whip up your favorite chocolate recipe, add a puddle of chocolate sauce or brigadeiro in the middle and throw lots of cake crumbs in the pen. Add your pigs in a variety of lounging positions…

Oink!

Aside from being beautiful subjects of still life photos, figs are the symbol of abundance, fertility, and sweetness….a good reason to include them in your life and diet. Plus they are delicious. Here is a recipe for fig chutney. I usually make big batches at a time and freeze some. It is great with all types of cheese on toasted bread (salty and sweet), on top of salads, and paired with meats–especially a dollop on your turkey or pork.

450 grams of fresh figs cut in pieces (about 8 figs)
200 grams of dried figs
1 minced onion
2 cubed pears or apples (preferably green)
1 teaspoon of all-spice
1 teaspoon of lemon peel
1 cup of granulated sugar
1 cup of brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 1/2 teaspoon of pepper
250 ml of red wine vinegar or apple vinegar
100 ml of water

Place all of the ingredients in a pot and cook on medium/high until the mixture begins to boil. Then reduce heat to low, allowing chutney to simmer, stirring constantly until the smells start to take over your kitchen and the liquid is dissolved. If needed add a bit more water. Let cool.

Enjoy!

One of the best things about working from home is having constant access to your children.  One of the worst things about working from home is your children have constant access to you! And although I wouldn’t trade my home office for the fanciest atelier in the world, some days are better than others when the combination is little people and work.  Try decorating a cake while your daughter climbs your leg or talking to a client with a screaming child on your hip.  And just as I realize that I need quiet time to focus and work, my daughter needs “stop everything” quality mom time to play.

The solution?  Organization (as always).  Work time is work time and play time is exactly that.  So I separated a few hours every afternoon to focus just on my children (although Sebastian just wants to nurse!)–leaving the computer, cell phone, and sugar in my work space.  Monday I took Georgia to the art museum and Tuesday to the park during the designated recreation hours.  With the afternoon downpours, we ended up on the floor in the toy room on Wednesday and Thursday.  By Friday, she was desparate to go outdoors.  And then it started to hail outside and no chance.

I had to come up with something.  And that is when we made homemade clay…

The recipe:

3 cups of flour, 1 cup of salt, 1/4 cup dishwashing detergent, 1 1/4 cup water, food coloring.  Mix together and have fun.  Store in plastic bag or tupperware.

It was a productive week for all!

Things that never cease to amaze me about motherhood:

1.  It is entirely possible that I will change more than 3,000 diapers this year.

2.  How adept baby boys are at squirting pee pee in every direction every single time you forget to put a cotton ball over their private parts.

For this reason, I wanted a pretty and practical place to tend to my little one’s bottoms.  I didn’t want to buy a traditional changing table that would be discarded after I no longer had to spend a significant part of my disposable income on wipes/pomades/pampers.  And also decided it would be wise to invest in a multiple changing table covers in washable terry cloth.

I bought my changing table (actually a comode in disguise–that will eventually return to being a comode) in a used furniture store and painted it a preppy green.  But what makes the piece special are the knobs from, the always fantastic, Anthropologie. And the cover is essentially an “envelope” sewn from terry cloth towels (Buddemeyer is the best.) with piped green grosgrain ribbon.

So, in spite of all those, sometimes unpleasant nappy changes, it is a pleasant place to be.

And now I must go…change a diaper.

We have done just about everything in our home to try and keep cool these days.  I’ve bought more fans and the children have played in diapers and undies only.  But we are still sweaty.  And today we were sweaty and sticky sweet.  Because we made ice cream sandwiches to try and keep the heat at bay.  Of course the part where we baked the cookies in the oven wasn’t the most genius moment in the process.  But licking those cold treats after lunch had us forgetting that step pretty quickly.

Ice cream sandwiches are, yet another, American guloseima.  But if you want to make them healthy, put sorbert or frozen yogurt in the middle and do a whole wheat style cookie–or even go the lo-cal ice cream route.  Or, better yet, do what we do:  use the fatty stuff and split the cookie amongst the family. (The shapes I bought are quite large.)

But one needn’t travel to the USA to buy the kit.  After making them today, I realized a simple cookie cutter would do the trick.  Here’s how:

Flatten your favorite cookie dough on a cooking sheet or pie pan (about one centimeter in thickness)

Bake and let cool for a few minutes only

Cut your shape and let the cookie continue to cool completely

Cut your shape into the ice cream

Sandwich them together!

A great project to cool off the whole family!  Mmmm…

A client of mine came to pick up sweets for her daughter’s birthday party on Friday.  She looked a bit frazzled.  I thought it was just related to party preparations, until she told me that her toddlers decided to play “hair salon” and give eachother a little trim while she tried to sneak in a shower.  I felt her pain as I remember my brother giving me bangs when my mother was distracted.

The best I could think to do was tell her that everyone would look back and laugh at this episode in the near future.  And when I remembered that I had made some felt crowns a few months back using this pattern, I offered them to for her little princesses…a bit to camouflage the new hair-do’s.

But even more to celebrate her birthday!

My sweet Georgia picked up a nasty virus here at the beach. We’ve spent the last days without a grain of sand pinched between our toes: locked inside with the doors open and the sounds of the waves cunningly crashing the shore in forbidden invitation.

In the need of an afternoon project, we decided to bake two cakes.  One that we could sit our sugar starfish and octopus on and one because I don’t feel like carrying cans of condensed milk back to São Paulo!  The decorated cake was a simple carrot cake with chocolate glaze but the second one….ahh the second one.  I would say it is probably one of the most delicious cakes I have ever tasted.  I don’t know if it is because I didn’t grow up eating pudim de leite…but it is really that good!

Caramelo:
- 1 xícara de açúcar
Bolo:
- 1/2 xícara de margarina
- 1 xícara de açúcar
- 3 ovos
- 1 1/2 xícara de farinha de trigo
- 1 colher (sopa) de fermento em pó
- 1/2 xícara de leite
- 1/2 xícara de chocolate em pó
Pudim:
- 1 lata de leite condensado
- 2 1/2 xícara de leite
- 3 ovos
Preparo:
1. Caramelize o fundo e os lados de uma fôrma com 30cm de diâmetro (com furo central) com o açúcar.
2. Bolo: bata bem na batedeira a margarina com o açúcar e os ovos.
3. Junte a farinha de trigo, o chocolate, o fermento e o leite, sempre batendo, até obter uma massa homogênea.
4. Coloque a massa na forma preparada com a calda.
5. Pudim: bata no liquidificador o leite condensado, o leite e os ovos.
6. Despeje lentamente sobre a massa.
7. Leve ao forno quente, preaquecido, em banho-maria por cerca de 1 hora ou até que, enfiando um palito no centro, ele saia seco.
8. Deixe esfriar e leve à geladeira.
9. Desenforme gelado.
Fonte: confrariadopatchwork.blogspot.com

Enjoy!

It took me a while to adjust to Christmas in the tropics.  I felt sorry for Santa in all that fur.  And I couldn’t imagine a December without mittens.  But then I started traveling to the beach at year end.  And now I wouldn’t want to celebrate any other way.  High summer coincides with Christmas in Brazil and vacation. Ah…vacation…the perfect end to any (usually) stressful year end.  Pure relaxation, simplicity, and a bit of crafting.

Today we searched for shells and strung necklaces.  And then we took a nap.  Sigh…