Whirlwind In A Mama's Head

Making tutus for babies and tots is surprisingly easy, but tedious. The good news is, it's a lot cheaper to make it yourself unless you get a really good deal when you buy one, and you can almost multi-task when making it. In this tutorial, I will explain how to make an adjustable tutu and a fixed one. Miss Kiki all danced out What you need: Spools of 6" wide tulle (1 or 2 of 25 yard would be enough, depending on how fluffy you want it) Elastic measuring the wearer's waist minus 3". Ribbon (for adjustable tutus) Decorations like flowers, beads, rhinestones, ribbons (optional). The How To: Decide how long you want your tutu to be, multiply by 2 and add 1/2". For example, if you want the tutu to be 7" long, then 7" x 2 + 0.5" = 14.5".  Lets call this "x". Cut your tulle into many strips of x length. In my case 14.5" long. For adjustable tutus: Cut your ribbon to get two 20" long strips. Sew a strip on each e...

One of many things my late mother-in-law was really good at was making cakes. One of her specialties was this 12 (yes, twelve!) layered cake, made from dough, whipped cream, and some fruit (pineapple or sour cherry), and walnuts. This "Winnie The Pooh" cake, that's how she called it, was always a hit at parties, and she was nice enough to share the recipe with me. Her recipe calls for making 4 very thin dough, and then you layer each of them with whipped cream and fruits, with walnuts on top. As for me, I don't have the time nor patience to make the dough, so I quickly figured out a shortcut by using lady fingers biscuits instead. Update: I've tried this recently (enough) with malkist crackers instead of lady fingers. They worked well too, if not better! Ingredients: 2 packages of lady fingers biscuits or malkist crackers 250 ml carton of whipping cream or sour whipping cream 1 small can of pineapple or sour cherry, chopped to 1/4" cubes, save the j...

Somehow I manage to find my inner crafty self again today, and made Miss Kiki a twirly skirt using one of my old t-shirt. What could be more satisfying than a huge grin from my 19-month old when she saw her brand new fashion piece, and when she immediately tried to take her shirt off to try the skirt on. :) You will need: An Old T-shirt. Mine was an XS ladies t-shirt from Garage. A strip of fabric twice as long as the shirt's diameter, about 3" tall. 1" Elastic Leftover T-Shirt and ruffled bottom tier ScoobyDoo fabric for the bottom tier The how to: Cut your t-shirt parallel to the seam at the armpit level. Discard or put away the top part. Decide how long you want the skirt to be, minus 3", add seam and elastic allowance (about 2.5"), and cut the t-shirt to that height. This would be the base skirt. Cut the leftover into 1" tall strips, cutting out the side seams. Ruffle the t-shirt strips at the centre and set aside. Ruffle the strip o...

If you have a wee one in your house and you spend some 'online' time everyday, you've probably heard of weelicous before. It's a website by Catherine McCord, who shares healthy and mostly simple and easy recipes that is great for all ages. A recipe that I tried today and turned out really well was inspired by her Baked Zucchini Coins, but I used eggplant instead. This time, I used half of the flour called in the recipe, but more egg and panko-cheese mix.  Yummy! Recipe adapted from weelicous 3/4 Cup Panko or Bread Crumbs 3/8 Cup Parmesan Cheese, grated 1/2 Tsp Salt 2 small Eggs 1/8 Cup Flour 1 long Indian Eggplant, cut into 1/4 inch coins (about 2.5" diameter) 1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees and coat a large baking sheet with cooking spray. 2. Mix the first 3 ingredients in a bowl. 3. Whisk the egg in a separate bowl. 4. Place the flour in another bowl. 5. Make an assembly line with the bowls, and first dip the eggplant coins into the flour, ...

There are a few blogs that I follow and excitedly wait for new entries to arrive on my Google Reader. One of them is Lia's Crafty Journey . A couple of weeks ago she blogged about receiving this Chocolate Stout Cake that was made from a stout beer and she was nice enough to share the recipe which was from a blog by Kevin in Toronto. From the original recipe, I substituted sour cream with yogurt, Guiness with Jamaican Stout, and Irish Cream with Kahlua. And instead of baking them as a big cake, I made them cupcakes. The recipe makes 18 cupcakes. I used cupcake papers and I didn't find that I needed to grease them. At 350C, I baked them for 25 minutes.

Today, we are celebrating Canada Day. How did July 1st get to be Canada Day? This is something I've always wondered about but never bothered asking... or wiki-ing. But today, with some Canada Day spirit in me, I took a few minutes of my very rare free time to read about it. This is what wikipedia says Frequently referred to as "Canada's birthday", particularly in the popular press, [1] [2] [3] the occasion marks the joining of the British North American colonies of Nova Scotia , New Brunswick , and the Province of Canada into a federation of four provinces (the Province of Canada being divided, in the process, into Ontario and Quebec ) on July 1, 1867. Canada became a kingdom in its own right on that date, [4] [5] [6] but the British Parliament kept limited rights of political control over the new country that were shed by stages over the years until the last vestiges were surrendered in 1982 when the Constitution Act patriated the Canadian const...