"Keep it Simple, Sweetie" with Craft - Mother's day heart necklace

We start by make home made modelling clay. This is so easy. Try it.

Ingredients

1/2 cup of PVA glue (white)

1 cup of cornflour

Method

Put the PVA glue into a bowl.

 Add the cornflour

Stir them together.

 Then knead.

Flour the table then knead into a ball.

I then place a small piece into a heart shaped mould but you can roll it and use a cookie cutter or cut out a shape.

Flour the mould slightly.

 Place a small ball into the mould.

Gently turn them out. I made as many as the ingredients allowed, for a playgroup craft, but you can make as many shapes as you like.

 To make the necklace. First dust the a skewer with flour.








Then use it to pierce a hole into the top of the heart. Don't go too close to the edge or it will break as it bakes.

Place them onto a baking tray then bake in an oven at 100 degrees for an hour and a half. Or leave it out over night to harden.







Now we get to paint it.

I just used poster paint in red. You can also use inks or food colouring.

 Make sure the hole is still big enough after the baking.

 Then paint and allow to dry.

 Using a large needle and some string. I used kitchen string.

Thread the string first throughout the hole towards the front of the heart.

Then thread back through the hole towards the back. But don't pull all the way through.

 We end up with a hoop at the front of the heart.

 Thread both the string ends back through the hoop.

 And Waa Laa. You have a great heart necklace.

To make it have an adjustable height necklace. Tie a knot with one end of the string about 10cm from the end of the other string.

 Do the same with the other end.

So now both ends are knotted onto the other string and can be pull along it.

You can then make your necklace longer.......

or shorter. xx

"Keep it Simple, Sweetie" with Craft - Easter Hat Parade.

So today is our final Easter Hat parade for this year. I think between my 3 kids we have probably attended about 7 parades so far. So this year I was prepared and made this for my kids. Totally gorgeous, sort of promoting KISS for Kids, lots of effort, looks great. Some would say I even cheated because I went to so much effort and my kids involvement was close to zero.

Well you will be pleased to learn that these attempts were rejected by my children. They wanted to make their own. And we ended up wearing this gorgeous little number.

 I am actually really proud of my daughter for demanding she make her own and she did this totally by herself except stapling it together.

So since I have been to so many parades this year, I have seen some fantastic hats. My friends son went like this. Where his whole head went inside an egg shaped awesomeness.

 There were so many other awesome creations. It really did amaze me how creative people are.

 So what did you do this year? Did you cheat or did your kids make their own? And what we the best Easter hat you saw? I need great ideas for next year. xx

"Keep it Simple, Sweetie" with Cooking; Cajun Popcorn.

I have decided this was a great way to get a bit more spice into my kids life. They loved it. We eat plain popcorn all the time for a healthier snack but this is something a little bit more special and can be a great adult snack too.

Ingredients;

2 teaspoons onion powder

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon sweet paprika

1 teaspoon garlic salt

85g of popping corn (you can use a microwave popcorn packet of this but try to go for no added salt or butter).

Canola oil spray

Method;

Place onion powder into a small bowl

Add oregano

 Add paprika

 Add garlic salt

 Combine together

 Add popping corn to popcorn maker. (If you don't have a popcorn maker just follow the instructions on the packet.)

 Sing the popping song to make sure it all pops.
"It's a pop, pop, popping,
pop,pop, popping,
Pop, pop, popping along."

Spray on the oil while it is still warm. Toss it around.

 Add the spice mix.

 Mix it around until fully coated.

 WAA LAA. Yummy cajun popcorn. A little bit spicy but my kids couldn't get enough of it. xx

"Keep it Simple, Sweetie" in the Garden; A healthy worm farm.

I love worms. I love that I can tell my kids that we can't have a pet because we have about 1 thousand already. They are so easy to look after and great for my kitchen waste and my garden. Did I mention I love them?

What you will need;

We got our worm farm from bunnings. You can get everything you need and they even sell the worms. Easy peasy. 

 Things you need to know;

Make sure you put the work farm in a shaded warm place. Not too hot, not too cold. These little animals need to be comfortable. They also need to be moist, so you need to spray the top layer about once a week.









You can feed them; kitchen scraps, grass clippings, wet cardboard, and newspaper. You need to keep the farm a little bit aerated, so paper and stuff is good for that.






 DO NOT feed them;

no citrus,
no onions
no garlic
no meat
no bread

You need to hand trowel top layer bedding about once a week. It is best to do this when there is no surface food on top. Be gentle with your little pets.

It can take about 6 months for a new worm farm to really come into it's own. Don't worry if not much is happening or they are not eating much. If they haven't eaten what you are giving them in a couple of days then just reduce the amount you are putting in for a while. When it is fully working the worms should eat about 250g of food a day.



And when they start doing that you will have some lovely worm juice to put on your garden. Make sure you dilute it first, by 10 parts water to 1 part worm juice. Have fun with your lovely pets. xx