Easy Hand-Drawn Gift Wrap
First off, here’s a little photo gallery of the wrapping I did for some of his gifts!  Toby loves turtles, and so the theme of course, was turtles and turtle-doves.  This is our favourite method of wrapping: brown shipping paper and sharpies or markers. I googled “galapagos turtle” and found a few images I liked, using them as models for my free-hand drawing. Then, I did a bible word search for “turtle” and found a nice reference to turtle doves in the Song of Solomon that I thought was most appropriate for the gift of a bible sent from our family out in California. Et voila: turtle wrapping of all kinds!

Marbled Oreo First Communion Cake

Ingredients
1/2 recipe of your best chocolate cake batter  [in a pinch? use a box mix and amp it up with vanilla or a shot of alcohol!]
1/2 recipe of your best white cake batter [in a pinch? use a box mix]
1 recipe of your best buttercream frosting [in a pinch? use pre-prepared icing!]
Gel Colour or Food Colouring of your choice [We used Wilton Kelly Green Gel Food Colour]
7 chocolate covered oreo-style cookie or plain oreo-style cookies
[We bought ours from the fabulous Ed's Real Scoop ice cream shop here in Toronto - Yes! They do fab chocolates, too!]
1 package of oreo-style cookies, smashed into bits with a meat cleaver or rolling pin [We used PC "Eat the Middle First" Cookies]
Wilton Cross-Cake Pan [We found ours at Bulk Barn - and we share it with other families at the kids' school]

Method
Heat the oven to 350.
Spray the Cross-Cake Pan with baking spray or grease and flour it as you see fit.
Prepare each batter in a separate bowl.
Pour small clumps of each batter into the cross cake pan.
Use a spoon, fork, skewer or coffee-stirrer stick to swirl the batter in the pan.
Bake the cake for 40-55 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
[Okay, it's a little weird "testing" a cross cake with a knife or pick!]
Cool completely.
Make Frosting.
Colour Frosting with gel or food colouring of your choice.
Invert Cake onto a large serving dish.
Frost Cake.
Decorate top of cake with chocolate covered oreos.
Using your hand, press smashed oreo bits onto the sides of the cake.
Enjoy!

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We recently had word that Tobes received a scholarship for his excellent “Prep B” piano exam last January.  As part of the excitement, the Conservatory requests that the recipient write them a note or letter of thanks to let the board know about the student’s particular interests in music and anything else they’d like to say about themselves.  Congratulating Tobes, and handing him a plain notecard, I gave him “carte blanche” to do whatever he wanted by way of expressing his thanks. Tobes got out a green marker and a black pen and got to work. He decided that a “Thank You Turtle” best represented himself, and so he decided to draw one on the front of his card. He also drew a loose outline of a turtle on the front of the envelope so that we could enclose the address of the recipient in something similar.  His message of thanks extended onto the back of the note-card, where he described how much he is enjoying playing the book of “Studies” that goes along with his new Grade 1 repertoire.

We’ll have a lot of thanks to extend this month (some of them ridiculously long overdue)…so stay tuned!!

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The theme of the month has been to celebrate the launch of Blaise’s new book of poems,  Zeppelin (Nightwood Editions, 2013).
We had been searching around for a while to try and find him a set of zeppelin cookie cutters. We finally found some cute ones on Etsy, but they weren’t quite the right shape (the airship on B’s book is long and narrow, not quite so blimpy), so we decided to make some ourselves!  Rather than going the home depot route for plumber’s strapping or strips of copper or aluminum (though, we were sorely tempted!), we decided to hit the dollar store for some work gloves and el cheapo aluminum baking pans. Cost of our supplies? $2.26 – and we could have made about 4 more cutters from the supplies we had!!

DIY Cookie Cutters: The Zeppelin Edition

Supplies
Disposable Aluminum Lasagna Style-Pan or Pan Lid [we only used the lid]
Scissors
Work Gloves
Ruler or Folding Bone
[Optional] A Printed Silhouette of Your Desired Shape [We just googled "Zeppelin Silhouette"]
[Optional] Ruler and Pencil for shaping

Method
Wearing gloves, cut a long rectangle shape [about 4 inches wide] from the aluminum pan or lid.
Fold the aluminum in half lengthwise and re-open it.
Fold each of the sharp long edges of the aluminum inward toward the crease.
Refold the aluminum along the original crease so that you have a long lovely aluminum strip with no exposed sharp long edges.

   
Once you have your aluminum strip, begin to shape it into a ring so that the short edges meet.
Carefully insert one of the short edges into ONE of the v flaps of other short edge as shown below.
We had about an inch of overlap.
Crimp the v-flap shut again.
No glues or fixatives needed. It just stays put!

 
Using your printed silhouette as a guide, begin to form your aluminum ring into the desired shape.
[We left the "join" of our ring in the wide tail part of our airship.]
Use rulers to help make sharp bends and pencils or markers to help make curved bends in your shape.
When you have finished making your cutter, be sure to “cut” your cookies using the side of the cutter which is folded as opposed to the double-edged side.
  
Et voila! You’re done!

Here’s a recipe to get you started on your own zeppelins or other designs!

Zeppelin Sugar Cookies
makes 30+ cookies 

Ingredients
2/3 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tbs milk
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder
.5 tsp salt
2 cups flour

for the icing
2 cups icing sugar
.5 c milk (to be added by the tablespoon)
blue and red food colouring (we actually used neon blue and neon fuscia)

Method
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.
Cream your butters and sugars before adding the remainder of the wet ingredients.
Then, sift in the dry ingredients.
Once the dough forms into a ball, divide it in half and wrap each half in plastic film.
Refrigerate  the dough for an hour or so (if you can wait that long!).
Roll refrigerated dough to between 1/4 and 1/8 of an inch.
To make things quick and easy, I roll my dough between sheets of waxed or parchment paper.
Cut and press cookies with the finer side of your zeppelin cutter and place them on parchment lined cookie sheets.
Bake for 7-9 minutes.
Cool on wire racks.
Add milk to the icing sugar by the tablespoon until it reaches a spreadable consistency.
Add food colouring to make a turqouise icing.
Ice the cookies and let the icing set completely.
Add the fuscia icing to the remaining turquoise icing to create a dark purple.
Use a butter knife to create lines and dimension on the zeppelin cookie.
Allow icing to set completely.
Enjoy!

    

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DIY “Book Fan” Shirts

Supplies
Dark Coloured Cotton T-shirt
Gel Bleach
A clean and empty School Glue Bottle or other squeeze bottle with a small spout
[Alternatively, you can use a Bleach Pen]
A large piece of cardboard [Ours was from a pizza box]
[Optional] White Chalk
[Optional] Hydrogen Peroxide, Water &  Spray Bottle
The Book You’re A FAN OF as your model!
Black Permanent Marker

Method
Decant gel bleach into school glue container or ramekin.
Place a solution of 1 part peroxide to 10 parts water in your spray bottle.
Place the square of cardboard inside of the t-shirt [i.e. between the front and the back of the shirt].
Lay the shirt absolutely flat on the table or other protected surface.
Set up your book on the table so that you can use it as a model for your t-shirt design.
[Optional] Use white chalk to outline your design on the front of the shirt. [We didn't bother!]
Use your home-made bleach pen [or paintbrush] to render the book’s title and basic design.
Let the image rest for 10-15 minutes until you have the penetration of colour you so desire.
Rinse the bleach off of the shirt.
[Optional] Spray with the peroxide and water solution to set the design and let sit for an additional 10 minutes.
Launder in cold water with a mild detergent.
Tumble or line dry.
If desired, use your black permanent marker to correct any “bleeding” or to perfect your image.
WEAR YOUR FAN SHIRT EVERYWHERE!!!

You can purchase Zeppelin (Nightwood Editions, 2013) locally in Toronto (Book City is highly recommended) or online: direct from Harbour Publishing or via Indigo,Amazon (Canada), Amazon (U.S), Barnes and Noble.
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Over the past few weeks, the kids have been working with Blaise on a fantastic video project to coincide with the release of his second book of poems, Zeppelin (Nightwood Editions, 2013).  I remember walking downstairs a few weeks ago and being utterly appalled to find that, after several hours of painting their “movie sets,” they had torn every piece of paper they had painted into shreds. It all makes sense when you WATCH the poem.

Here’s the finished project:

You can look at Blaise’s website for more details!: Movie Monster Video!

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We have a dirty big secret! About two years ago, our family bathroom shower began leaking into the kitchen. So, we adults began showering in the smaller very useful basement bathroom. I actually enjoyed my showers there. I looked upon the shower as a kind of basement “grotto-spa,” so to speak. And it was easy to go from workout to shower in a jiffy. However, several months ago, the big family bathtub upstairs started leaking into the kitchen. In fact…and let me see if I can tie it into the “lunchbox season” theme, here….the family bathtub began dripping down from the second floor right onto the weekly treats I was preparing for the kids’ lunches.  So much for my basement mini-retreat. It’s filled with tub toys and spilled shampoo. Let’s just say the notion of four people crammed into a utilitarian water closet is making getting “clean” much harder than it needs to be, particularly in a bathroom. So much for the very large family bathroom (originally, a tiny bathroom and a small den that were combined) we admired when we bought the house four years ago!  Last week, the flusher on the toilet even popped off!! What about the bath-tub-water-gun-wars I had promised the kids for our upcoming Summer of Funner??

We could see it coming. We bought the house for its location, age and layout. We knew full well, not long after we purchased the house from a very “handy” young “dude” and his sometimes-prevaricating spouse, that things around here, even the costly ones, had been splashed about with a rather free hand: old wiring tied to new wiring, well-hidden in the ceilings, where it wouldn’t easily be identified; tiles “around” the toilet; tiles tiled onto the acrylic shower base upstairs (part of the cause of Leak #1) that squished and popped right off; tiles tiled over laminate on the kitchen counter-top; large crevices between the wood-slats in the newer wooden floors…the list goes on.  All “vanity” aside, howver, it’s time to do something about the very large and very useless space upstairs.

We’re artists, not household DIY’ers, so we won’t be doing the work ourselves. However, we’re artists.  So, to save on costs, we’ll be doing all of our own designing and sourcing of materials. While I thought, initially, that this was going to be a spectacular amount of fun, I have to say, it was a lot of hard work, and, at least for me, it is not as ultimately “creative” as I thought it was going to be. In fact, I have a feeling that this will be my first and last post about household design. It just isn’t in me, nor do I think, to be the kind of artist I want to be, it ever will be in me…Not to say there aren’t others who do it brilliantly. Take a look at Aubrey and Lindsay’s Little House Blog for an example of a place where art, home design and family harmonize well, and all the time.

In any case, renovation’s tentatively scheduled from late May to early June. Above, you’ll find a little picture of the types of things we’re planning on putting into the space after we recycle what we can, gut the space, and re-build. I’ll try not to have an asthma attack between now and when it’s shower-time again. Next time you see anything posted here about bathrooms, anyway, let’s hope it has to do with those bath-tub games I promised the kids for late June! One thing’s for sure…I’m not going to be all precious about keeping everything in pristine shape once the new room’s in place. We’ll all be too busy digging in and using it!

Best,

R.S.C.

P.S. Here are the items that we’ve actually chosen for the project. Fairly similar, no?

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We made two kinds of Spirit Bear Puppets today!
Here are our results and a few printable templates for you and yours!

 
Spirit Bear Stick Puppets
I’d like to give credit to Dawn over at dragoart.com. Our Spirit Bear Stick Puppets are stylized versions of bears taken from her How to Draw Bears Tutorial: http://www.dragoart.com/tuts/6277/1/1/how-to-draw-bears.htm.

Print the bear template (below) onto thick cardstock or watercolour paper.
Paint or colour the bears to your liking. Add clothing or adornments if you so desire!
Carefully cut around them with scissors.
Mount them on popsicle sticks, wooden skewers or small wooden dowels using duct tape or glue.

Here’s a modified pdf of our template: Spirit Bear Stick Puppet Templates PDF

Finger-Walking Bear Puppets
I’d like to give credit to the billybear4kids.com website for providing a basic bear-puppet outline which we tweaked to our own needs.

Print the bear template (below) onto thick cardstock or watercolour paper.
Paint or colour the bears to your liking. Add clothing or adornments if you so desire!
Carefully cut around them with scissors.
Use a hole punch or bend the paper and use scissors to begin holes in the finger-hole portion of the puppet.
Carefully cut out the finger-holes.
Insert fingers as bear legs and walk away!

 
Here are PDFs of the above images: Finger-Walking Bear: No Arms pdf and Finger-Walking Bear with Arms pdf

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Today, the kids were going to use coloured pencils, crayons, and textured objects below their papers to create their illustrations. However, we opted to go back to their favourite oil pastels to complete the project.

Bea opted to spend all of her time and energy on a cover design which encapsulated her sense of the spirit of the fourth section of the story:

Tobes did a rough cover and two illustrations, one of Mr. Yeni-Marten, and other of Amap’as Hill, where the bears have a rather dramatic picnic:

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Today, we’re making Spirit Bear S’mores from scratch, with Honey Marhsmallows and Easy-to-make Honey Graham Cracker Cookie Cut-Outs. Since the dough is egg-free, the kids can snack on it as they cut out their cookies!  We would have made our own bear-shaped chocolates, too, I suppose, but the kids have this tendency not to actually eat “cute” chocolates such as bears and bunnies, because they find them too much like the real thing – and so we just opted for good old fashioned Hershey bars. The marshmallow recipe, by the way, may appear a little tedious, but it’s actually quite fun and easy to make. And it doesn’t really take that much time. We’ve made marshmallows at least four times now, over the years, and always with ease and success. You’ll need a good candy thermometer and a mixer…but that’s about it in terms of fancy kitchen gizmos.  Best of luck! And Cheers!!!

Honey Marshmallows

Ingredients
2 eggs (whites only)
1+ c icing sugar
3.5 envelopes unflavored gelatin
1 c cold water, divided into two half cups
1.5 c granulated sugar
.5 c honey
.5 c clear corn syrup
a pinch of salt
2 tsp vanilla
Additional honey for drizzling [optional]

Method:
Separate egg whites from yolks. (Save yolks for another recipe.)
In a cold mixing bowl and with cold beaters, beat egg whites into stiff peaks.
Transfer the stiff-peaked whites to another bowl, cover, and refrigerate.
Clean the mixing bowl and beaters (unless you have a spare!)
Liberally BUTTER a 9×13 pan (you can use the wrapper from the butter in the graham cracker recipe below) and liberally dust the greased pan with icing sugar.
Place 3.5 packets of gelatin and .5 cup of the cold water into the bottom of the mixing bowl of a stand mixer and let sit.
The kids will enjoy watching it become a gooey sticky alien shape.
Fill a thick-bottomed saucepan with that other .5 cup of cold water, the granulated sugar, honey, corn syrup and salt.
Stir over low heat until the sugar is dissolved.
Then, boil over medium heat without stirring for approximately 10 minutes.
Watch for the mixture to bubble, thicken, and clear. Be patient.
When a candy thermometer reaches 240F, remove from heat and pour on top of the thickened gelatin.
Mix the gelatin and sugar mixture on low for a few moments. It will be hot, so best have the adult take charge.
Gradually adjust the mixer to higher and higher speeds and let mix for 5-6 minutes.
Watch it circle round! The sugar will turn into a marshmallow fluff!
Add vanilla and stiffened egg whites, and mix for another minute.
Pour half of the fluff into the prepared dish.  It usually spreads out evenly on its own, but use a spatula or icing spreader if you wish.
[Optional] Drizzle over the top of this layer of fluff with a very thin swirl-pattern of honey.
Pour the rest of the fluff into the prepared dish.
[Optional] Drizzle over the top of the fluff with a very thin swirl-pattern of honey.
Using a wire strainer or a mesh tea ball dust the top of the marshmallow wtih additional icing sugar.
Refrigerate for at least two hours, until stiffened.
Loosen the edges of the marshmallow with a butter knife.
Overturn the marshmallow onto a cutting board.
Use a mini- or small-sized bear-shaped cookie cutter to cut out of the marshmallows (you waste marshmallow this way)
OR, cut the marshmallows into cubes with a large knife.
Dredge the sticky sides of the individual marshmallows in a bowl of icing sugar if desired.

Honey Graham Cracker Cookie Cut-Outs
adapted from weelicious

Ingredients
1.5 c all purpose flour
1 c whole wheat flour
[may also be evened out to 1.25 c of each type of flour]
.5 c brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
.5 tsp ginger
.25 tsp cloves
.5 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
.5 c unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
.25 c water
.3 c honey

Method
Heat oven to 350.
Pulse the flours, sugar, spices, baking soda, and salt in a food processor until just combined.
Add the cold cubes of butter and pulse until the mixture becomes a coarse meal.
Add the water and the honey and process gently until a dough forms.
[If the dough is still super-sticky, form into balls and refrigerate for an hour.]
Divide into two balls.
Roll the balls of the dough between sheets of wax or parchment paper to .25-in thickness.
Cut the dough into bear shapes with cookie cutters.
Bake your grahams on parchment lined sheets for 12-14 minutes, until slightly brown on the edges.
[Note: if you are having a "sticky" time with the dough, just roll it into a large flat rectangle and underbake just slightly. IMMEDIATELY cut shapes into the crackers with the bear shaped cutter. WORK QUICKLY ! and BE CAREFUL! Wear a glove. The cutter will conduct heat from the grahams and the cookie sheet. Let the crackers cool right there in the pans for a while. Save the excess from around the cut-outs for graham cracker crumbs and ice-cream topping.]
Cool on pans for a few minutes, then cool completely on wire racks.

Spirit Bear S’mores!
You know the drill!!!
Place a square of chocolate on top of the Graham Cracker Cookie Cut-Out.
[Optional] Microwave for a few seconds.
Grill a Marshmallow or place the marshmallow on top of the chocolate topped cookie and microwave or broil for a few seconds.
Top with another graham cracker cookie.
Enjoy!

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Today, we’re playing another Kermode-bear-themed math dice game.  The kids will each get a copy of the sheet and play this with a gummy bear as a game piece and their own pair of dice.  When each of them finishes, they’ll get a prize [a few bear stickers].  The instructions: Help the Kermode Bear Fin His Way Back to His Mother Bear! Roll the dice and add the numbers. If you are wrong, move backward two squares. If you are right, move your gummy bear or game-piece ahead as many spaces as your correct answer. Bonus: If you can also multiply the two numbers on the dice, you can move your bear ahead an additional two squares.

Here’s a less crisp pdf version of our game: Kermode’s Path PDF

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