Maya has been sorting through Grammy’s button box while Grammy has been sorting through Great Grandmother’s pattern collection. By happy coincidence, here’s a project from the patterns that uses the buttons!

Circle of life…
and busy, crafting women!

Elastic thread 5″ long run through two buttons, tied firmly, makes a smart ponytail holder.
Wrap it around hair -
slip one button over the other!

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On a regular day, in an average week, I don’t suppose I’d take much notice of a celebration of Jello.
Today will not be a normal day – a major snowstorm is headed our way. Not the kind of kid friendly snow that invites playing outdoors -this will be a heavy snow with strong wind – no school – we’re going to be needing something fun to do.
Celebrate Jello Week is beginning to sound like a reason to celebrate after all.
Care to join us?
Here’s a half dozen ideas to get you started…

1. Sweet Smelling Valentine’s Day cards using paper and jello from About.com Family Crafts

2. Scratch ‘n Sniff Art – painting with Jello

3. Jell-O Play Dough

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup salt
2 tablespoons cream of tartar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup warm water
1 (3 ounce) package Jell-O (any flavor)

Combine ingredients and cook over medium-low to medium heat until it thickens and pulls away from the sides of pot and becomes dull.
Knead until cool enough to touch. Store in a closed plastic bag in the refrigerator

4. Make tasty stickers with Jello

5. Wiggly Jello Art – an edible mixed media collage

6. Visit a gallery of photos from the Eugene, Oregon Jello Art Show for more inspiration

Enjoy more of Works For Me Wednesday - Visit Kristen at We Are THAT Family

Have you seen Kristen’s Do It For Others Project #2 for February?

It’s a great project for kids  to help with – Maya and I will be joining in. How about you?

Still working on that same theme – what works for me in our new, lovely, smaller space?
Last week, it was those really neat storage “hackusses”. We’re still loving those.

This week we started taking a look at what we want for the bedroom. One thing we want a lot less of is furniture. There is just not enough space for a wardrobe, two bookcases, my desk, the bed, the desk chair… we need all of these pieces – just not in the bedroom.

In the kitchen is a microwave cart not doing much of anything other than holding up the microwave and providing a small drawer beneath it. The cart is located in a space wide enough to fit one of the bookcases nicely. But… it’s under the kitchen window. I don’t want to put a bookcase in front of a window. It will look awful from the outside (and probably violate some senior housing authority rule about fire safety – they’re big on fire safety here) and it will block the light coming into the kitchen.

But hey…
if we take the back off the bookcase we can still use the shelves-
the light can still come through -
and the bookcase will fall down.
I guess I’m not that well versed in the construction of bookcases. (you need the back to support the frame. )

How about if we cut off half of the back of the bookcase? The half that covers the window? We could leave the bottom half of the back on for support. (Grampy sort of frowned and muttered a half-hearted “we can try that if you want to…)

Yes!
Here is the bookcase in the its new location, providing a whole bunch of space – both on its shelves and in the place it vacated in the bedroom – and letting the light shine in.

I suppose we may still be violating some sort of fire exit rule but we’ll worry about that when someone mentions it. Until then – works great for me!

Enjoy more of Works For Me Wednesday – Visit Kristen at We Are That Family

Maya has developed a passion for Dunkin’ Donuts grilled cheese flatbread.

It is good.
But at three dollars and change for the flatbread, another couple of dollars for orange juice (really, now!), add a flatbread and some coffee for Grammy and a donut for dessert (we are at Dunkin’ after all) – well, our little lunch checked out for pennies under twelve dollars.
A nice enough treat to follow a trip to the library, but not one that we can indulge in often without making Grammy wince.

This morning, we decided to try making our own flatbread and cheese.

We dissolved 2 & 1/2 tsps. of yeast (or one packet – but if you bake a lot, it’s much cheaper to buy yeast by the jar) and 1 tsp. of sugar in 1/3 cup of warm water. We let it rest for 10 minutes or so, until the mixture was smooth and bubbly. (if you’re tempted to explain to little bakers about yeast being alive and eating the sugar, creating the bubbles and making the bread rise – Don’t. It will only lead to worry about cruelty to yeast.)

Callously dump the yeast mixture into a large bowl

Mix with 2 cups of flour. Add more water, a tbsp. at a time, until the flour is moist enough for the dough to gather.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for a minute or two.
Lightly oil a large bowl, put the dough in the bowl and turn it to coat with oil. Cover and let rise in a warm place for a half hour.

Punch the dough down, knead it again lightly, then roll out on a floured surface.
Preheat your oven to 475.
Place the dough on a lightly greased cookie sheet and brush with 2 tbsps. olive oil.
Salt lightly.
Bake for 15 minutes (check after 10). When bread is nicely browned, cover with grated cheddar and return to the oven for a couple of minutes to let the cheese melt. (slices of American cheese work too)

As good as Dunkin’ and served with the pride of accomplishment. (but without the donut for dessert. We’ll have to work on that part.)

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