I learned this last year at a meeting of my teaching sorority. It is the easiest way to make a homemade fresh wreath that I have ever seen. Even the kids helped a bit.

Materials:

• Artificial Evergreen Wreath (trust me, they’ll never know)

• Lots of cut evergreens.
• (Optional) Dried flowers and seed pods from the garden.

Directions-before making the wreath

• Gather the evergreen cuttings. Start collecting early. Mine is cedar, boxwood and other clippings from the yard. Honestly I have no idea what the variegated stuff is. The cedar we scored down the road. A neighbor was cutting back some shrubs and left it out for trash collection.
• Put the cuttings in a bucket of water until ready to use. Keeps then nice and fresh.

  

Directions-How to make the wreath

• Start by setting up your work area. If working inside put down newspaper.
• Put the wreath form back-side down on your work surface and push apart all the branches. Basically you will be using these branches like pipe cleaners to tie the fresh greens to the form. It is easier to do this if you untangle a bit first.
  
• Cut the fresh evergreen into bundles about 4 to 5 inches long.
  

  

• On mine form there are two rings, one inner and one outer. I started on the outer ring.
• Place the first bundle down and twist two branches around the bundle, about 2 inches from the cut end of the greens.

  

  
  

  

• As you work make sure to lay all the cuttings in one direction, overlapping by about 3 inches. Try to tuck the branches of the artificial wreath behind your cuttings. It fluffs up the wreath, and fills in any gaps, but is otherwise invisible.
• Continue adding bundles until you have gone all the way around the form.

  

• Tuck the cut ends of the last bundle under the end of the first bundle, twist into place.
• For mine I did the outer ring in cedar, then for the inner ring I alternated boxwood and the mystery shrub. I then added dried flowers from the garden-gomphrena, seed heads from garlic chives. You could also use pine cones, seed heads from crepe myrtles, berries, bows, whatever you have on hand.

  

Note: I checked with my garden savvy stepmother-the yellow speckled stuff is Aucuba.

We’re finally getting some chilly weather here. Lots of hope for snow this winter. Last year, after the move back from Florida we got about 3 flakes, so my little flakes really do not remember what snow looks like.

We’re starting to work on our Christmas list. Last spring I made the girls a Family Memory game. I think we might duplicate this for their cousin in Williamsburg. The girls have love this, and it’s been a fun way to remember everyone.

We’re also starting to think about teacher gifts. This is a hard one for me personally. I teach, and the last thing I want is to saddle someone else with a bunch of “apple-crap”. I am also on a public schoolteacher’s budget, and like the idea of hand made.

So we’ve been working on a hot chocolate recipe, and think we’ve hit the final formulation. Little-sis likes to play Top Chef when we do our taste testing which is pretty funny. The plan is to put this in small cellophane bags and put this in a holiday mug.

Hot Chocolate:

• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Put in small jars or gift bags.

For the tag:

Mix 2 teaspoons with 1 cup of hot milk. Stir and enjoy.

The girls are still at the point where they like goofy hair accessories. This is the Santa Barrette cover made of felt.

Here are some plain red ones with light blue snowflakes.

Materials

• Felt in various colors
• Embroidery Floss
• Needle
• Clip style Barrettes

Directions

• Print out the pattern below and cut out all pieces. The top and back are flesh colored, the hat red and the beard white (duh)
• The bottom rim of Santa’s Hat was done in French Knots
• Add the face-eyes French Knots, Mouth in an outline stitch
• Use a Blanket Stitch to attach the beard to the face
• Put the back and top pieces together, wrong sides facing. Put the hat on top. Work around the back piece using the Blanket Stitch, making sure to catch the hat as you go.
• Slip the barrette in, and your set to go.

Need some help with the stitches?

That snappy gal over at Primrose Designs has an excellent stitch school with directions. Very clear directions and great pictures.

Enjoy!

Why bother? Well, for us it comes down to three things:

1. I have sensitive skin, and standing in front of a class of teenagers scratching like mad is a bit disruptive to the educational process.
2. The husband has a rather sensitive sense of smell, and doesn’t like any of the laundry detergents that don’t bother my skin.
3. Cost! Rather Than spend $7 on a box of detergent, this costs us about $1.41 a batch, and lasts about the same amount of time. That is a savings of about $145 a year. That’s yarn money people.

There are a lot of recipes on-line that let you make a big gooey batch that you ladle out. That doesn’t appeal to me much, so we use a dry version. The final product will smell like whatever soap you use. You can add essential oils for scent if yo want.

If you have never used washing soda I really recommend it…works very well on greasy stains. I’ve been using it lately to pre-soak the kids socks and it work much better than bleach. Supposed to be a “Green Cleaner” if you are into such things.

Ingredients:

• 1 bar of soap, any kind will do, we use ivory, but a lot of people like Naptha.
• 1 cup Borax
• 1 cup Washing soda, NOT baking soda, it’s in the laundry aisle and it’s pretty cheap

Directions

• Grate the bar of soap
• Mix all the ingredients in a airtight container.

** Be careful with the washing soda, especially if the kids are helping. Avoid contact with the eyes, don’t swallow, etc.
To use just add 3 - 4 Tablespoons per full load of laundry, depending on how dirty it is. I find it works best if you add it while the washing machine is filling.

OK, this in no way supports our less-sugar theme this week. I am probably thinking about this kind of recipe more since we are off the “sauce” for a while. I’m revampint the front page, and this is something I’d posted there back in the spring.

We use Soy Milk because the husband is lactose intolerant. This also works with milk, or leftover egg-nog.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

* 3 large eggs
* 1 cup vanilla soy milk
* 2 Tablespoons sugar
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon almond extract
* 12 slices stale bread (potato bread works well)

Note: The bread should be very dry. Leave it out overnight or toast it lightly.
Directions:

1. Mix the first five ingredients in a large mixing bowl. One at a time dip the bread slices into the mixture, coating both sides thoroughly. Let it soak in the mixture for a few seconds.
2. Cook over medium high heat in a nonstick skillet. Let the first side brown, then turn over.
3. Serve with syrup or honey.

This also works with squash and zucchini blossoms. Whatever you have on hand.

Pick the blossoms early in the morning. We put them in a glass of water to keep them fresh until it is time to cook them with dinner. They’ll close as the day goes on, but they are still fine to eat.

Ingredients:

• 8-10 pumpkin blossoms
• 1-2 cloves garlic crushed
• 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

• Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a skillet. Ad the garlic and saute for a few minutes, being careful not to burn.
• Add the squash and saute until the blossom wilts, about 2 minutes.
• Add salt and pepper to taste and serve.

This is a recipe from my Mamaw. It is best with fresh fruit. I’ve also added blueberries or blackberries for a more Fourth of July look.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups peaches cut into 1/2 inch slices – fresh or canned
• ½ cup sugar (use 2 Tablespoons if using canned peaches)
• ½ cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup milk

1. Mix peaches with sugar and set aside.
2. Set oven to 350. Put butter in a deep baking dish and set in the over to melt.
3. Make the batter by mixing the other ingredients. Remove baking dish from the oven and pour the batter over the melted butter. Put the sugared peaches on top of the batter. Do not stir!
4. Bake until the crust is lightly browned, about 30 minutes.

Serve warm with ice cream.

Our family is scattered all over the place. We have family in Tokyo, Chicago, L.A., Florida, Dallas, New York, not to mention Iraq and Afghanistan. I wanted a way for the girls to remember every one, so we made a family themed memory game.

It’s easy to build, plus the game helps build logical and spatial skills.

Materials:

• 12 pairs of small photos
• 3 sheets of matching scrapbook paper
• clear contact paper
• glue stick
• Corner rounder paper punch

Directions:

1. Gather your photos. The easiest way I found was to upload the photos to a photo service like Flickr.com, then order wallet prints. This gives you 4 x prints of each photo.
2. Cut out two of each photo.

   

3. Glue the pairs of photos to the back of the scrapbook paper.

   

4. Cut the photos out of the paper along the edge.
5. Use a paper punch to round all the corners.

   

6. Cut two pieces of contact paper large enough to hold about 4 - 6 cards. Remove the back cover and lay the contact paper on your surface sticky side up. Place the cards photo side down on the paper leaving at least a half inch in between the cards.
7. Remove the backing off the second piece of contact paper and place it sticky side down over the cards on the first sheet. Make sure all the edges of the cards are covered.
8. Use a spoon to burnish the cards, especially the edges.
9. Use a pair of scissors to trim the contact paper about 1/8th an inch from the edge of each card.

Not enough people take math seriously. This is a pet peeve of mine…I do teach math and computer science, occupational hazard.

The truth is math equals opportunity. The more math kids master, the more opportunity thay will have later in life, no matter what thet decide to do.

Here’s a simple project to help kids build basic math skills. The bracelet sticks to one-digit numbers, and the key-chain uses two digit numbers.

Materials:

• Prepainted Wooden Beads square
• White wooden beads
• Beading elastic
• Paint pen type

Directions:

1. As you work hold the beads so that the holes are on the right and left sides.
2. Using the paint pen put a + on four sides of a square bead.
3. Do this again with the = sign.
4. Label the numbers on the beads as listed below
5. To make the:
   1. Bracelet: String the beads on the elastic with a square bead, then a round bead. Make sure the number beads go on in the right order. Add enough blank beads to fit yout child’s wrist.

The Baby Bun-Downsizing Dinner

My kids have dubbed these mini-burgers “Baby Buns”. Serve with American cheese and ketchup for the under five set, or go more upscale by adding blue cheese and bacon.

Makes about 30 2-inch burgers.

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups Italian Breadcrumbs
• 1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese
• 2 Tablespoons Pick-a-peppa Sauce, or any good steak sauce
• 1 pound lean ground turkey

Serve with:

• Dinner rolls. We used 1 1/2 inch potato rolls cut in half
• Roma tomatoes cut into slices
• Small pieces of lettuce
• Sliced American cheese, cut into quarters
• Ketchup, mustard, mayo, pickles-the works!

Directions:

1. Mix the first four ingredients in a mixing bowl.
2. Add the ground turkey and mix by hand. Don’t overwork the meat or your burgers will be tough.
3. Form the meat mix in to 2 inch patties.

   

4. Wash those hands!
5. Grill each burger over medium heat. Six minutes on the first side, then flip and and cook for two additional minutes.
6. Serve and enjoy!