A singing princess.

A trip down memory lane.

When Clementine first showed an interest in princesses I cringed. No, not pink! Not princesses! No, please no! I gave in of course. I mean, I do like pink myself at times and why should my daughter not follow her imagination down the fanciful road of princesses dressed in long gowns. She has plenty of time later to learn the truths about not needing a prince to save her and live happily every after. Fairy tales are entertaining. We embraced it and like all things little kids are passionate about, it was short lived. I sort of miss those days when she would come down to dinner dressed in her gown and fancy shoes. I found this video when I was sorting through pictures on the computer. Clementine is three here singing a song our babysitter taught her from The Little Mermaid. It made me cry. I remember those days and how I would sometimes count down the minutes to bed time. Now I wish I could slow it all down. It all goes too fast!

 


easter splatter. Making a beautiful mess.

This year's Easter theme was a messy pastel splatter. I've always loved what it looks like when all of the egg dyes drip all over the tray as we are dying our Easter eggs. I suppose that's where the inspiration came from. Plus, what a fun project to do with little hands to help!

In my ideal world I was hoping to do this project outdoors. This is Portland, I should've expected it to be raining. With a drop cloth on the floor of our dining room, four buckets of dye, and some droppers we got to work splattering. The napkins came first. I happened to have a bunch of white napkins that were stained from use. This was a great way to give them new life! We used rubber bands in addition to the splattering. It was a rinse and repeat process. Each napkin was a little work of art. Freedom came when working on the tablecloth. I found myself using my hands and scooping out the dye tossing it wildly through the air hoping that it didn't reach the walls. All went well. 

There definitely was a lovely satisfaction to setting the table with our creations. We could sit and enjoy our Easter breakfast and admire our work! 

Rainbow cake for st. patrick's day

Apparently rainbow cake in some form has become a St. Patrick's Day tradition in our house. We've made mini versions and the more classic version  so this year I wanted to finally make this take on the rainbow cake that I have admired for some time...The leprechaun trap cake featured here. Since Clementine had already created her own leprechaun trap (and let's be honest, I really didn't have the time or energy to make it as beautiful as the recipe showed) I decided to just use the technique for the rainbow cake and frost it in simple white buttercream with festive nonpareils and shamrocks. Probably my favorite part of this is it is baked all together in one pan. It wasn't perfect but it was fun!

little hands weaving

The little miss has an overabundant appreciation and interest in all things Native American. She also enjoys crafts and has a fascination with weaving. Those two things made this peg loom one of her favorite holiday gifts. Her love of rainbows inspired her first pattern which she did all on her own with just a little assistance on the knotting and starting of new colors. Then she used fluffy cream yarn to complete her vision; clouds, of course! It was a fun project and she was so proud of herself. She beamed when we hung it up in her room. This definitely makes our list for favorite gift ideas that are Clementine approved.

Egg Carton Dragons for Lunar New Year

Clementine saw this idea somewhere and had her heart set on making dragons for Chinese New Year. It was a really fun project. 

With long tails of crepe paper streamers these dragons were so fun to dance around with!

We also celebrated at The Lan Su Chinese Garden. Tossing gold coins and rolling oranges for good luck, wishing trees, fortune sticks, and dancing lions in a beautiful city oasis make for a great morning!

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

 

Arrows and Valentines

Since the little miss is VERY into bows and arrows we thought the classic Cupid's arrow through the heart would be a great valentine to make for her classmates.

On our walks we collected the straightest small sticks we could find and I cut them to the proper size. Two punched holes made it easy to slide our stick through the heart. As I hot glued the feather to the top of the stick she glittered the tiny heart shaped arrow heads. Sweet Valentine!

 

rainbow valentine

When you're 5 it's all about rainbows. I love it. This year we cut out hearts in shades of the rainbow and I sewed them together. We hung them in windows or from the ceiling and smiled as they gently spun throughout the day. It seemed only appropriate to make a rainbow from flowers and plants to match.