SUNDAY BAKER

6/16/13

{Nature Magnets Craft}

I made these with Henry and friends the other day for Father's Day gifts, but I think they are really fun to make for any time of the year. The kids really liked doing this easy project. We started off with a "nature" hunt through some little forested areas around our house to find various flowers and leaves. They then each chose a favorite to use for the project. I used this oven-bake clay from Walmart:

The kids softened the clay by rolling it in their hands for a few minutes. Then we rolled it out for a bit with a rolling pin and used a small plastic knife to cut our desired shape. We laid the leaf/flower onto the smoothened dough and then used a rolling pin to softly roll over the leaf and impress the image onto the clay. Carefully remove the leaf.

Next I baked them for about 20 minutes in a glass dish and a 275 degree oven, and let them cool completely. The kids painted them with Tempera paints and then we used a cotton swab to softly rub other paint colors over the images to bring out the pattern. I then sealed it with a paint sealer and hot glued on magnets once dry. So simple! We wrapped them in brown paper bags and made cards too.

Fridge art!

Follow me on Facebook

Follow me at Instagram

Tweet with me at Twitter

Pin with me at Pinterest

6/9/13

Week In Photos: Nature's Revelations

School's out. We've been hiding away camping and there, amongst pure and raw nature, I always find peace in my heart and the revelation that events in life do not have to be large and grande and fancy to be completely fullfilling.

Hearing the loon's mysterious cry to it's partner across the lake...watching an eagle soar over the water looking for it's next meal....seeing my sons run and play with their arms stretched out in the sunshine... all of these things quiet down that voice in my head that says, "You need to do more in your life, accomplish more, have more, get more!" Go go go go go! That is our life and our focus, sadly, while all around us is this absolutely magnificent earth filled with liveliness and splendor than any of that other "stuff". As I sit and watch I can feel the stress exiting my body and I literally change inside.

Being out in the elements amongst nature's finest is not for everyone, but it should be. I highly recommend it!

Rich found this nest in our yard after a windy storm. The inner layer is made out of our dog Sophie's hair. How cool is that? I just feel bad for the poor birds that worked hard to make the nest and lost it.

If you haven't tried PB2 (no, I'm not paid to talk about it!), do so! It's peanuts pressed into powder, therefore removing the fatty oils, therefore WAY less cals and yet awesome taste! I've been putting it in and on my oatmeal and it has me hooked. Delicious and good for the waistline ladies!

Don't forget to enter for the chance to win an LG Easy-Clean Double Oven of your own HERE!

6/4/13

{More} Printer Art ~~Spring and Summer

I was going through my basement and found a bunch of old frames. I have quite a bit of empty space on my walls so decided to try out some more printer art. What's printer art? Well, it's art that is free and easy and can be changed at any time because it's virtually just a piece of printer paper taped into a frame.

I am really cheap when it comes to art because I tend to get tired of looking at it after awhile and therefore want to change it. If I paid a lot of money for it I feel guilty doing that. So , I usually make my own or print it off.

I found a great site full of free printables called Vintage Printable and printed off some pretty botanical images as well as a cool vintage flower pattern. I think it turned out very spring-like and pretty and now I have a completely free piece of artwork for my entry area!

vintageprintable.com

vintageprintables.com

There are several other really wonderful sites out there with free printable images. I browse them for hours sometimes. Just print, measure, cut, and tape!

Summer break starts Friday....I'm really excited! I always post more in the summer months due to more time. This summer I plan on doing a really fun weekly post on interviews with people who inspire me, fitness and healthy recipes, kids crafts, beauty and more. Hope you'll join me!

5/22/13

Messy Kitchen Fun! {Product Feature and Giveaway!}

I've never met a kid who doesn't love to bake. Usually they don't care what they get to do, as long as they get to help. Whether it's cracking open some eggs, stirring the flour (all over the kitchen), or filling the cupcake tins, they are just giddy to be a part of creating food and being a helper. My favorite thing to do is to find a recipe that gets the whole family together in the kitchen.

One of the most fun recipes to make and eat is "Cupcakes in a Cone". I think we've all attempted this one time or another. If you have, you know it is a MESS! A fun mess, but a really not-fun one to clean up. The batter gets all over the kitchen, dries like glue, and drips down into the bottom of the oven as it bakes. In fact, most of my batches end up doing this:

Oh boy!

But because they are so loved, we just keep trying and eventually get a batch that doesn't resemble a bunch of volcanoes. These are really fun to decorate too.

photo: fakeginger.com

Cupcakes in a Cone
Yield:24
I like to use this white cake recipe minus the Jello
24 ice cream cones
favorite frosting
sprinkles

1. Set the cones in muffin tins. Fill until 3/4 full with the cake batter. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until a light golden color. Remove and cool. Frost and decorate and enjoy!

As for the big mess...this is my least favorite part of baking. Honestly, my oven looks like a food war zone inside because I bake so often and don't always have time to clean it out.

That's why I was excited to discover an oven that does it for you! How cool is that? Without the use of harsh chemicals or high heat (or any elbow grease from me), LG’s EasyClean™ Double Oven Range provide a quick and convenient way to clean your oven, while still being able to use the conventional self-clean method. EasyClean works in three simple steps:

1.Spray the oven interior with water
2. Press the EasyClean button
3.Then in just 20 minutes, wipe away any residual bits of grime*. No chemicals or high heat needed to keep your oven sparkling clean (*Heavy build-up may require additional manual effort or use of the full self-clean feature).

For more information on this awesome oven, click here:
EasyClean™: A Clean Oven in Minutes, Not Hours

If I showed you my oven right now, you would see how badly I could use an oven like this! I really love the invention of appliances like that that make it so much easier for those of us who spend a lot of time in the kitchen, to spend a little less time cleaning up and more time being with our families. This is a big deal for me because I like to have everything in my kitchen neat, tidy and fresh. I just love the idea of something that makes that easier!

Your turn!

What is YOUR favorite recipe that leaves your oven messy?
Let me know in the comments for your chance to win your own LG EasyClean™ Double Oven Range!

Sweepstakes Rules:
No duplicate comments.

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post
Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “#SweepstakesEntry”; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post
Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post
For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winner will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

BlogHer will pool entries from participating blogs and select a sweepstakes winner at random and will contact the winner with details about fulfilling the prize.

The Official Rules are available here.

This sweepstakes runs from 5/22/13 - 7/15/13.

5/19/13

Photo Dumping Ground

I've decided that every Sunday I'm going to "dump" the iphone/Instagram pictures I took during the week here to share. I'm rejoicing in the beautiful weather today!

Spring Bloom!

My Loves!

Clean Banana, Cocoa, Peanut Butter Oatmeal drizzled with honey-ate this 3 times this week. Yum!

Baha-ing!

A good hair day before work

Sam's first prom...!

Gorgeous!

One more week until Memorial Day weekend.

Share your photo dump link in the comments if you have one!

5/9/13

{A Quick Rainy-Day Toddler Activity}

We just can't shake the sick bugs around here lately. We've all been sick and just when I think we're done, someone will get ill again. Rich and I have been taking turns staying home with Henry, who of course gets hit the hardest with the daycare germs.

Here's a fun activity we did the other day when Henry was holed up but feeling pretty good after a morning of napping. I hung a piece of line from one kitchen cabinet to another and gave him a basket of his socks and a bag of clothespins.

He spent over an hour playing with this! What a great activity for fine motor skills and hand eye coordination. He lined up all the socks and then counted them and even sang the ABCs with them. You could also have your child do a pattern or match all of the socks after doing the laundry. Very cheap and seriously the kids love doing this easy idea.

Do you like Henry's pajamas? He chose them himself. :)

Anyone else out there who can't seem to shake the sickness this season?

4/30/13

{7 Recipes That Use Pure Maple Syrup}

Here in Northern Wisconsin, several folks I know have their own maple syrup operation. It is a really cool process. Buckets, like the one in the photo above, are hung on a tap that is pounded into the tree (it does not harm the tree). In spring, when the nights are chilly and the days are warm, the maple trees start to drip their sweet sap into the buckets. The buckets are harvested and put into a large tank that transfers the sap to a big oven, fired by wood. They boil down the sap until it's concentrated and dark and what we know as maple syrup. The aroma of the sap boiling is heavenly!

Most of the stuff we see in the stores is made with corn syrup. It's fake.

My friend's syrup shack-the big oven is inside.

Pure maple syrup is one of my first choices to use in place of processed sugar in sweet recipes. I love the delicious, golden taste and it's natural qualities. I like that it's nature made and nothing is added to it. I feel better feeding it to my family. It's worth the extra cost (it's at least twice the cost of the fake stuff).

Here are some of my favorite recipes that use maple syrup as the main sweetener: