Whole Wheat Pizza Crust

My friend Marci gave me this pizza recipe, and I LOVE IT!  It is simple, fast, and delicious.  What more can you ask for?! The crust has a grainy texture without feeling too heavy, and it is tasty too.  This is the fastest pizza recipe I have ever made, and it has quickly become a family favorite.

Mix together:

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 1/2 Tbsp yeast

1 1/2 tsp sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

3 Tbs oil

3 3/4 cups whole wheat flour (add a bit more if your dough is too sticky)

Mix all the ingredients until a ball forms.  Knead in the bowl just a bit, then immediately press into a large cookie sheet, or into two cake pans.  No rising required!  Add toppings (I like to use canned spaghetti sauce and a variety of veggies and cheese) and bake at 460 degrees Fahrenheit for 12 min. 

Marci said this recipe tastes great for taco pizza as well. Just use refried beans mixed with salsa on the crust, add cheese, onions, and olives.  Bake, then sprinkle with lettuce and even taco sauce if you want. 

Silverware Hooks

One day while shopping at the DI (I could start so many stories with this line), my husband found a set of hooks made out of bent spoons.  He showed me, knowing I would LOVE the idea.  The four "hooks" were screwed onto a piece of wood, and the hanger cost $2.  I knew I had scrap pieces of wood at home, and old silverware only costs $0.25 a piece, so I opted to make my own for a lower cost.  One of my AWESOME sister-in-laws (I have the greatest sister-in-laws ever!) cut me a saying out of vinyl that she had found on the Internet.  It was so me, because I do not love washing dishes!  I thought the saying, coupled with the old silverware bent into hooks, made a darling kitchen decoration.  You could do so many different things with bent silverware hooks!  My husband helped me bend the thicker pieces of silverware (I'm a bit wimpy), and then he screwed them on from me with his drill, my hero! :o)  It's a fun little craft, and it would even make a nice, inexpensive gift.  The other thing I love about it--you can actually hang things from the hooks!  Not only are they cute, but they are utilitarian as well.  I love it!

Vintage Window Family Tree

My cousin gave me a beautiful six-pane window from an old house.  I had been wanting to try doing something with an old window, so I was really excited.  After toying with a lot of ideas, I decided to make a family tree to hold old family photos on.  After sanding off all the the old paint that was flaking, I painted the frame (including the little pieces between the glass panes) with magnetic paint.  I had never used magnetic paint before, but it was simple and I liked the results.  The paint has metal shavings mixed into it, thus magnets will stick to whatever it is painted on.  I also painted the trunk and branches of my tree with magnetic paint.  After that dried, I painted over the magnetic paint with brown paint for the frame, and black for the tree.  I used a dry brush technique for the distressing (use hardly any paint on your brush at all, wiping most of it off before you touch your surface), and then I randomly added leaves.  I really love how it turned out, and I think the old window makes an awesome background for a family tree and photos! 

Hair Clips?

Here's a little hair do I did for fun.  I found a package of multi-colored mini binder clips in my crafting drawer.  I think my mom gave them to me for some reason.  They were so cute I thought maybe I could come up with something zany to use them for.  Well, you see the results.  I took sections of hair, twisted, then clipped.  I ended up with a whole bunch of clips in my hair, and it looked fancy, fun, and whimsical all at the same time.  So, if you have any binder clips lying around, here is one possibility.

Vinyl Hair Bows

I can't wait to get started!

Here is a throw-back craft from my childhood.  In elementary school I had some friends that came to school with the CUTEST little bows in their hair.  Their moms had made them, and lucky for me and all of you, they told me how to make them.  They are made with curling irons/straighteners and vinyl from bags that comforters, blankets, etc. come in.  Vinyl is also sold on rolls at fabric stores, so you could just buy some or use scraps left from a different project.  I love the thought of turning trash to treasure, as it were, so I always just use what I have around.  In addition to the vinyl and straightener, you will need scissors, a thin gauged wire, a button or large bead for the middle of the bow, small things to put in the bow, and a hair clip.  The fillings for the bows are endless.  You can make them to match specific outfits or seasons, or go for multicolored bows.  So far I have used glitter, sequins, seed beads, assorted plastic beads, pony beads, colored salt, confetti, and colored rice in the bows that I have made.  As soon as I buy some, I am going to try out cake sprinkles in the bows.  I think the sprinkles would be super cute!  Now let's get crafting...





Cute two pieces of vinyl into rectangles of the same size.  You can choose whatever size you want to make your bows.  Around three inches by 1 1/2 inches makes a cute little bow.  I never measure mine.  I just eyeball it.  I'm not one to take time to be exact, and this craft doesn't require exactness (thank goodness!).  Put your two pieces of vinyl together, and use a curling iron or straightener to seal three of the four edges, leaving one edge open for filling.  Be fast when you seal!  If you hesitate at all, you will burn a hole through the vinyl.  Just do a quick pinch and release.  If your edge doesn't look sealed enough, pinch it quickly with the straightener again.  You can also press the edge while it is still warm to further help the seal.  If you do melt a hole all the way through, no worries, just cut more vinyl.  It is easier than trying to make a patch (which I did try, and found was not worth the effort).





See how I cleverly model the sealed edges with my scissors inside...

Add whatever you want to fill your bow with.  Leave a little space at the top so you can adequately seal the bow, and so there will be enough space to pinch your rectangle into a bow.  Quickly and carefully seal the open edge.  You can trim your edges a bit if you feel the sealed portions are too wide for your bow.

Pinch the edges of the bow together in the center along the two long sides to form a bow.  Thread a piece of wire through your large button/bead, and twist in the back like a bread tie.  Trim off the excess wire, then slide a hair clip between the wire and vinyl. 

There you have it! Your very own (and very cool 80's fashion) vinyl hair bow.  My girls love wearing their bows, and it makes even a simple ponytail look fancy.

Good Night Gorilla Unit Study

Well, hello!  I decided to actually start posting again.  It's only been ten months(!) since my last post.  I've been working on all kinds of fun crafts, money saving strategies, and preschool/homeschool lessons and activities.  Now I just have to try to get it all onto my blog...

I was shopping at the D.I. (Deseret Industries, a second-hand thrift store run by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), and I found an AWESOME book!  I was so excited!  Children's books at the D.I. are usually $0.50-$1.00, but larger books can cost more.  This book was $4.00, but it was worth every penny. The book is The 20th Century Children's Book Treasury, and it is a compilation of favorite modern children's books selected by Janet Schulman.  This treasury is chock full of my favorite children's stories:  Madeline, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Goodnight Moon, Guess How Much I Love You, Where the Wild Things Are, and many, many more.  The pictures are smaller than in the regular books, so if you really want the full effect of a story you may want to buy it separately, but for us this is a great way to have 30 or 40 favorite kid books in one volume.  I love it!!!!

One of the stories in the treasury is Goodnight Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann.  This is an adorable story that is perfect for preschoolers through around second grade.  It has very few words, and the words that are used are repetitive and simple, and the majority of the story is told through the colorful and entertaining illustrations.  I found a printable preschool unit study on http://www.homeschoolshare.com/ to use with this book here.  Click on the blue hyperlink for the printable lapbook activities.  You can pick and choose what activities and things work best for your little ones.  I printed the activity with the different colored cages and the coordinating colors of keys for my preschooler and two-year old to practice matching with.  They loved putting the correct key with each paper cage and opening it to find which animal was hiding inside.  Before doing the activity, we looked at the illustrations and saw how each cage opened with the matching colored key.  Then the kids got to try their cages. 

Another fun activity to do with the book is to read it through, then point at the different animals and see how many your toddler/preschooler knows the names of and what sounds each makes.  There are well known animals like an elephant, a gorilla, and a lion, but there are also a couple of less familiar animals, like a hyena and an armadillo.  You can then play charades and take turns acting like an animal and guessing what kind of animal it is.  Animal cookies would be the perfect snack for this activity, or different foods that animals eat, such as bananas, nuts, berries, meat (not raw, hee, hee), or you could even get animal cookie cutters and decorate animal sugar cookies.

With my older child, we used Good Night Gorilla for a science unit study about animals.  My daughter got to pretend she was a zookeeper.  We read about different kinds of animals in our encyclopedias and online, and then Jasmine drew pictures of animals in a habitat she designed for each animal at her zoo.  For example, one animal Jasmine learned about was a hippopotamus.  She learned what kinds of foods they eat in the wild and in captivity.  The San Diego Zoo has a really fun interactive website that allows kids to learn about animals in the zoo http://kids.sandiegozoo.org/animals.  Then she drew a picture with water and land for the hippo, and she wrote notes about what foods and activities she would provide to keep the hippos happy and healthy.  This can be expanded as much as you want, and you can put the drawings and/or notes in a folder together at the end to make a nice little book for your little zookeeper (and don't forget to let your kiddo name their zoo!). :o)

You can make the week's spelling list the names of the animals in the books, and any more advanced animal terms you wish to include (reptile, habitat, etc.).  You could also work on journal entries/fiction writing with animal story prompts such as:

• Write a story about what you think animals do when no one is around.
• If you could be any animal, what animal would you be, and why?
• Write about an experience you have had at a zoo or national park.
• If the animals in a zoo could talk to you, what would they say, and what would you say to them?
• Write a story about a giraffe who wanted to roller blade.

Feel free to post any other activity suggestions you have to go along with this book in the comments!  I love outside input!