Good Turn Mouse

For the first Girl Scout Brownie meeting of the year I was looking for a fun project. I found this little poem about the Good Turn Mouse:

This saucy creature is a mouse
Most mothers won't let one in the house
See, this one it has quite a tail,
Each Girl Scout made one without fail.
Take it home and help all week,
and for good turns you must seek
for every good turn that you do
tie a knot in the yarn...make quite a few.
Remember why each knot you tied
and how much to help you really tried
and then next week, please take your turn
to tell us all, so we can learn...
just what you did to help at home
a ready helper you have grown!

I looked at Google images for a felt mouse pattern to sew. I settled on an almost circle that is folded in half and stitched with embroidery floss.

I started with beads for eyes, added little ears, and finally stitched the body from nose to tail leaving the tail long for knotting.

For the girls, I decided to prep the project for them so they would be able to finish in the time allotted and the project would not feel too hard for them.

I cut out all the mouse bodies and ears. Then I sewed on the mouse eyes and added a threaded needed with coordinating thread. I made up directions with sketches and the steps.

The group of second grade girls enjoyed the project a lot and were very excited to do the hand sewing. They did need a fair amount of help and it was great to have a few extra adults around. Everyone finished their little mice and took them home to keep track of all their good turns for the next two weeks.

Unicycle Cookies

My husband is a mountain unicyclist. My 7 year old daughter rides a unicycle too. I had looked for unicycle related items in the past and knew there was a limited supply. Last Christmas I found someone who could custom make a unicycle ornament for us. Custom seems to be the key with unicycles.

A unicycle only race was coming up and I thought it would be fun to bring decorated unicycle cookies. I did a Google search for unicycle cookie cutter. No luck.

Then I did a search for custom cookie cutters and I found this little kit. How hard could it be to make a cookie cutter?

It turned out to be pretty easy. I started out on the big side and then scaled the design down.

Then off to the baking and decorating. I decided to make my mom's recipe for gingerbread cookies. They come out great and are very tasty. The recipe comes from Applehood and Motherpie. I also spent a few nap times learning about frosting cookies with royal frosting. I was intrigued. A blog I found called Annie's Eats had many great tips. I even used the recommended recipe for both the frosting and a batch of sugar cookies.

Having three children and one of them under 2, I had to give myself a few days for decorating. My mom was able to come over and give me a hand and we made a great team.

The first challenge was just making the royal frosting. Everywhere I looked the recommendation was to use a standing mixer. Some people even reported having burned out their hand mixers trying to make royal frosting. I looked into buying one, but they are very expensive and I needed it the very next day!

My mom and I decided we would try to use our hand mixers, but we would use two and switch them in and out when the motors felt warm. It worked!

I had bought some new supplies too: squeeze bottles, decorator bags, tips, and gel food coloring.

With my 18 month old on my back, we started with the royal icing on the gingerbread cookies. It took a long time, but we created unicycle cookies!

I still had the sugar cookies to decorate, but I was running out of time. I made up some buttercream frosting and tried a simplified outlining and very quickly they were done too!

I was excited to complete this project and share the unicycle cookies. Of course the other unicyclists seemed to get a kick out of them too.

Hurricane Irene

In upstate New York near the shores of Lake Ontario we were spared from the destruction of Hurricane Irene. But we did have one of the windiest days in my memory. As we sat down to dinner I suggested we go and see the lake. If it was super windy at our house, the lake shore would probably be even more so.

As we approached the parking lot near the lake, it was very clear that we were not the only ones curious about the lake that night.

Getting out of the car I realized that the force of the winds were bordering on dangerous and we would need to be careful. I scooped up my toddler and strapped her onto my back.

The waves were amazing. Never had I experienced the power of water like this. I could imagine a wave coming up and whisking us away.

Of course the sunset was a nice treat too.

Headbands and Hair Covers

A friend was looking for some kind of head covering and I actually had a decent supply of hats and things. She really liked this head band like cover. I figured it would be easy to make. We measured the original and looked through my stash of fabric.

Later in the week I made one up, then made some more. It was a quick and easy project. I even made some in kid sizes. What is especially neat about it is that it can be customized with different fabrics and widths. It could be made as narrow as a traditional headband or very wide in order to cover much of the head. It is very comfortable too due to the elastic in the back.

Pink Ribbon Walk

Every year since 2007 I have participated in the Breast Cancer Coalition of Rochester's annual Pink ribbon walk. It is held on Mother's Day at a beach along Lake Ontario.

Because it is held early in the day and it's May and it's next to the lake, it's always chilly. Last year I had the brilliant idea to bring along blankets. Then I thought it would be nice to have pink ribbon blankets knowing we'd use them year after year.

I found some nice fleece with pink ribbons and the words HOPE, LIVE, and LOVE on it. There are also butterflies and hearts. In addition I got a coordinating pink print to make the blanket two layers and reversible. I cut two blankets: one for my six year old who prefers to sit in the stroller and one for my 6 week old who would be nestled up against me, but might need an extra blanket across her back. With the leftover fabric I made a scarf for me. All the items consisted of the two layers wrong sides together and serged together.

The next year it wasn't quite as cold and I thought it would be nice for the girls to have matching shirts with some sort of embroidered appliqués. I wasn't sure what to put on them. I settled for HOPE. I really do hope that my girls and my boy never have to deal with cancer.

Birthday Shirts

The idea for a birthday shirt originated back in 2004. It was Kyle's fourth birthday and Sydney was just five weeks old. I hadn't made any special plans for his birthday yet and asked him what he'd like to do. He said he'd like to go to the children's museum with a couple friends. I called the friends and one could come, it was a date.

For some reason, Sydney slept a little longer that morning. It is during these times that I seem to be most inspired! I have the gift of time I did not count on. I asked Kyle how he would like to have a shirt that had a big number "4" on it. It would show everyone that it was his birthday. He loved the idea.

We found a nice plain orange shirt in his drawer and a cute printed fabric in my stash. I drew out a "4" and sewed it on. All with a sleeping baby! It was not perfect, but it worked and he felt special all day.

The next year I made him a 5 and continued on until he was no longer interested. During that time I started making them for my daughter too. I learned some new techniques, remembered to change the needle tension, and even tried out some stabilizers.

This year I even offered to make some as gifts. And Kessa got her first one beginning the tradition anew.

Mini Ice Cream Cakes

When I asked my soon to be eleven year old what kind of cake he wanted, he said ice cream. I had planned on making a cake or cupcakes, but nothing too elaborate. But an ice cream cake I had not planned on making.

I did some research and learned all there was to know about ice cream cakes. I even found a recipe for the chocolatey goodness inside Carvel ice cream cakes. Ice cream cakes work best with pans that have straight sides. That threw out my cup cake pan idea.

I was running out of time and needed to make some decisions. I went to Target and found a straight-walled mini square cake pan. It was like a cupcake pan, except all the cakes were mini squares. I was ready to try it.

I bought strawberry ice cream and chocolate ice cream, I made the chocolatey goodness which is just chocolate wafer cookies crumbled, then covered in magic shell topping.

I let the ice cream soften, worked quickly, then back to the freezer and repeat. It was a messy job and my fingers got really cold! But they were coming along.

My research indicated that whipped cream makes a perfect frosting for ice cream cakes. It worked well, but again I had to work quickly with trips to the freezer.

Overall they were cute, but far from professional. They were delicious and the birthday boy loved them.