How not to make Bubble Art

Last week we decided to do some bubble art. It came about because Miss Daisy LOVES to have a straw and if there's a straw then there's bubbles being blown into the drink! 

This particular day she had a juice popper and was trying to blow bubbles but couldn't see them! To avert such a tragedy I asked if she'd like to make some bubble paintings! This was met with a cheery, 'yes please!'

So I set off to grab some yogurt pots, straws, coloured paint and dishwashing liquid.

I put a little water and dishwashing liquid in each pot then added some coloured paint. I stirred it up with one of the straws and smiled at my success.

We had so much fun blowing our bubbles. They grew and grew. We giggled and giggled.

But when it came to printing they didn't quite match up to what I remembered from the days that my mum set this activity up with us as children.

We had bubbles, we had colour but it didn't make much of an attractive print.

I learned a few things from this activity... it was a great reminder of process vs product. What was the goal of this activity... to have fun with Miss Daisy's love of blowing bubbles. Tick - we accomplished that!

Miss Daisy also thought that printing the bubbles on the paper was magical, regardless of the end result.

And to top it off she was actually quite thrilled with the end result anyway! We decided to let them dry and keep them to draw on later, as we could see some shapes that we could use to draw from.

We'll give this another go once I check with my mum what the trick is! I think one of our errors could have been the yogurt container being too tall?? Any tips you know for successful bubble art?

Here's a clever take on it from
Lesson's Learnt Journal

...and a successful looking bubble artwork from Picklebums too!

Have you done bubble art? How did yours turn out? :)

Look who's one!!

Can it really be a year ago that this beautiful little girl came into the world? Wow!

Happy Birthday cheeky little girl! Our joy & delight!

Best Ginger Spice Biscuits Recipe

This was an experiment on Monday night! Right before bath time I decided I felt like some ginger cookies, with a little bit of extra flavour! When I was pregnant with Miss Daisy and wanting to get labour started I baked/ate some 'labour cookies'. These contained a mix of spices, pepper, chili and other things that seemed weird for a cookie, but they actually tasted quite nice. I haven't been able to locate the recipe since finding it again when Miss Daisy was 1 for a friend who was awaiting the arrival of her first baby. 

I made some ginger biscuits from this recipe last weekend when my dear hubby and his BFF installed a ducted heating system to utilise the heat from our combustion fire in the rest of the house. They all disappeared but I found the flavour a little too ginger! If that makes sense for a ginger cookie!

Anyway, Monday night I decided to create a little recipe of my own, and if you read here often enough you'll know that if I create a recipe it usually involves brown sugar!

Here's what we did! :) You're welcome!

Ingredients::

2 cups plain all purpose flour

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp garam masala (we had this on hand, but you could just use ground cloves)

pinch of salt

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar, extra (see below)

2 tsp golden syrup

1 Tbs water (more if needed)

1/2 cup canola oil

1 large egg

Brown sugar mix = 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1Tbs water, 2 tsp golden syrup. Dissolve sugar in water, add golden syrup and microwave for 20 seconds

Method::

Combine flour, baking soda, spices and salt in a mixing bowl. Make your brown sugar mix and in another bowl mix together your brown sugar, canola oil, egg and brown sugar mix until smooth.

Add your wet ingredients into your dry ingredients until dough comes together. Chill for roughly 20 minutes (or however long it takes you to bathe and dress 2 kids!)

Preheat oven to 180'C. Line your cookie trays with baking paper.
Use teaspoon size portions of dough and shape into a ball. Place on trays with about 2 inches between each biscuit. Bake for around 8-10 minutes depending on how crunchy you want them.

Like most biscuits these will come out of the oven soft but will firm up. Leave them on your baking tray then once cooled slightly transfer to wire rack. (Alternatively steal them red hot from the oven and explain to your toddler the perils of eating biscuits before they've properly cooled!)

PS. Note the two sole survivors... that's what happens when you don't take photos as soon as you bake them! :) Lucky for me I didn't have to bake another batch, oh wait, hang on...!

Whimsical Wand Tutorial: Includes video tutorial

A little while back I sold some of my handmade children's clothes and accessories at a local market. I decided to make a few simple toys to sell as well and these became a hot seller on the day!

I remember our school fetes when I was in Primary School having characters and felt creations on sticks that we could carry, dangle and wave around like mad! These seemed to get just the same reception from Miss Daisy and then from my happy customers! (I also made some rocket ships but neglected to photograph them before they went to their new homes!)

I decided to put how to make these together into a quick video tutorial, please forgive the shaky camera, the slip ups in my instructions and all those other things that we apologise for when we video ourselves or our voices! (Nowhere near as bad as on a cassette tape though - did you ever record yourself on a cassette?) Anyway, enjoy! And I'd love to see your wands if you ever put some together yourself!

And here is the tutorial to help you to blanket stitch two pieces of felt together!

What other shapes do you think would be fun on the end of a wooden wand?