Activities for Children

Although I am not a full time stay at home, I am always after ideas of little projects I can do with my daughter when she gets to the age where she has the dexterity and understanding of what we are doing.  I happened upon this wonderful website called No Time For Flashcards.  The woman who authors the web site also writes for other parenting blogs and offers some very creative and fun projects for parents and kids to do in order to enhance learning.  You can subscribe to the website via email or Twitter.  I subscribe via email and receive daily emails that I file away for a rainy day. 

Holiday Gifts

It is always a struggle to figure out what to give teachers and classmates for holiday celebrations (with budget an obvious concern).  There are a total of ten children in my daughter's daycare class (nine plus her) so I felt I could spend a little more on each child without spending too much total.  Since they are ages one to two, I didn't really want to get candy or sweets to put in their Valentine's bag, so I decided to go to the Dollar Store to buy stuffed animals (can be found cheap at Michael's, Target $1 spot, Dollar Store, etc).  I made personalized Valentines and had them printed as a 4x6 photo and put them in an envelope, then wrapped the cards around each of the stuffed animals' neck by punching holes in the envelope and tying ribbon through it.  They turned out very cute - the teachers raved about how much the kids would love them. 

Below is the Valentine I made, and at about 15 cents each, it's not that much more expensive than the generic ones you buy in the stores:

For the teachers, I made truffles and put them in a candy box (purchased a a package of 1/2 pound candy boxes at Michaels), which fit about six truffles.  I then put a personalized label on the front of each and tied it with a bow to jazz it up a bit.  

Below is the label I made:

Triple Truffle Tryout Results

It was a toss up on which recipe I liked the best.

Trial #1

• 1/2 cup evaparoated milk
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 3/4 cups (11.5-oz. pkg.) chocolate morsels
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon almond or vanilla extract

COMBINE evaporated milk and sugar in small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-low heat, stirring constantly. Boil, stirring constantly, for 3 minutes. Remove from heat.

STIR in morsels. Stir until mixture is smooth. Stir in almond extract. Refrigerate for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Shape into 1-inch balls; roll in nuts, coconut, etc. Cover; refrigerate until ready to serve.

***This recipe formed very well but was not as rich tasting as Trial #2.

_______________________________

Trial #2

• 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 2 cups (12 ounces) chopped semi-sweet chocolate

Heat cream, butter in medium saucepan over low heat until butter is melted. Remove from heat. Add chocolate. Let stand for 2 to 3 minutes; stir until chocolate is melted. Return to heat for a few seconds if necessary to melt chocolate. 

Refrigerate for about 2 hours or until firm enough to roll. 

Roll chocolate mixture into 1-inch balls and roll in nuts, coconut, etc. Store at room temperature in airtight container.

***This recipe did not form as well as Trial #1, but I only allowed it to chill for 1 hour, so I think the longer it could chill, the better.  This recipe was very rich and I thought it was the better tasting of the two.  

Triple Truffle Tryout

Tonight I tried three different truffle recipes to determine the best 'base' for making truffles.

(1)  Heavy cream, butter, and chocolate;
(2)  Heavy cream and chocolate;
(3)  Evaporated milk, sugar, and chocolate.

I will post the best recipe so you can try it.  My guess is that the evaporated milk recipe will be the best as it seemed to have the best consistency before being chilled.  I will also post pictures.  The wonderful thing about truffles is that once you find a 'base' that works well for you, you can make it in mass and separate it into separate bowls before chilling, so you can add different fillers (coconut, chopped almonds, crushed cookies, etc.) 

FREEBIE: Halloween Card

I created this Halloween card to send to relatives with Natalee's photo in the center.  I figured I would share it in case others wanted to do something similar.  I haven't completed the card yet because I still need to take a picture of Natalee in her costume, but will post it when I'm done.  Please post links to your own creations! 

The fonts I used for this document were all downloaded for free and are the following:

•  Jane Austen 
•  Lithos Pro
  
•  Bleeding Cowboys

Enjoy!

Download Link

FREEBIE: Fun Program

One of my coworkers asked me how to morph two faces into one in Photoshop.  While I am still determined to find the answer to this, I found a cool little online program that allows you to upload photos and morph them into one face.  It takes a little time to "prepare" the images, but the outcome is pretty fun(ny). 

The website is: www.morphthing.com

Enjoy!

FREEBIE: Fonts

You are no longer confined to the boring fonts that came with your computer.  There is a plethora of font types that can be downloaded for free. 

Three sites that I frequent for fonts are:

Dafont
1001 Free Fonts
Urban Fonts

When visiting any of these sites, you can browse by font type, such as Handwritten or Western.  Once you find one you may like to download, right click on the download link.  (Dafont's download link is located to the right of the font and says "Download PC/Mac OS X."  1001 Free Fonts' download link is located to the right of the font and allows you to choose whether it is for Windows or Mac.  Urban Fonts' download link is located to the bottom right of the font and says "Win" or "Mac.")

Directions to download and load the font:

1. Right click on the appropriate download link and click SAVE AS. 
2. Select the location on your computer where the file will be located. 
3. Find the file and extract the files.  (Right click on ZIP and click Extract All).
4. Once the files are extracted, go to your Control Panel (Start -> Control Panel).
5. Scroll to the folder entitled FONTS and double click to open.
6. Drag and drop the extracted font files into the FONTS folder. 
7. The next time you open a program (Photoshop, Word, etc.) your font should appear in the font pull down menu.  Note:  If you currently have a program open when loading a new font into the FONTS folder, it may not show up until you close and reopen the program. 

Enjoy!