Jellyfish DNA

My little scientist

Snow Day Survival!!!

    
Today was out third snow day in as many weeks!  Between snow days and sick days, I'm having to come up with a lot of things to do while I'm trapped in the house with a 5 year old.  I'm a little out of practice.  These days, when she's not at school, we're either playing outside, visiting friends or at the Science Centre...we don't spend a lot of time in the house anymore!
The last day she stayed home due to weather, it we got about 20cm of snow, today it poured rain all day...weird weather!  So, we decided to make an equally weird experiment...SLIME!!


Cornstarch Slime
 
 What You'll Need

• bowl
• cornstarch
• water (the amount of water required will depend on the amount of cornstarch used)
• large spoon
• food colouring

What to Do

• Place the cornstarch in the bowl.
• Use the large spoon to stir the cornstarch while adding the water a little at a time. Keep stirring and adding small amounts of water until all the cornstarch is wet.  It won't be easy to stir, you might have to use your hands...it's weird stuff!
• Add a few drops of food colouring to the mixture.
• Keep adding small amounts of water and stirring until a thick slime forms.
• Pick up a handful of slime and squeeze it, it will feel hard, open your and and watch it run through your fingers!  It's messy but an easy clean up.

It is the ‘shear force’ which causes the slime to become thicker.   As soon as the shear force is removed, the slime becomes runny again.
Try mixing plain flour with water – does this behave in the same way as cornstarch slime? It is a little bit messier.

Peep and the Big Wide World

We LOVE these guys!  No matter your age, I think you'll love it too!  To feed my daughter's obsession with character playing with her daddy, I had to create these characters somehow.  A couple of years ago I found this pattern on Esty for Peep, Chirp and Quack and then the other day, after watching the episode called Newton's Big Adventure , she asked me for a "Newton" so I had to get busy.

Newton

What You'll Need :
Acrylic, worsted weight yarn.
Polyester Fiberfill stuffing.
Hook Size: 3.50mm

Shell
With shell color
R1- Make a Magic Ring and work 7 sc into ring
R2- 2 sc in each sc around (14 sts)
R3- *Sc 1, 2 sc in next sc*, repeat around (21 sts)
R4- *Sc 2, 2 sc in next sc*, repeat around (28 sts)
R5- *Sc 3, 2 sc in next sc*, repeat around (35 sts)
R6- *Sc 4, 2 sc in next sc*, repeat around (42 sts)
R7- *Sc 5, 2 sc in next sc*, repeat around (49 sts)
R8-20: Sc 49


Change to the color you want for the bottom of the shell, I used a light green
R21- Sc 49 through back loops only
**Leaving the front loops for the bottom edge of the bottom
edge of the shell**
R22- *Sc 5, dec 1*, repeat around (42 sts)
R23- *Sc 4, dec 1*, repeat around (35 sts)
R24- *Sc 3, dec 1*, repeat around (28 sts)
R25- *Sc 2, dec 1*, repeat around (21 sts)
R26- *Sc 1, dec 1*, repeat around (14 sts)
Stuff shell
R27- *Sk 1 sc, sc 1*, repeat around (7 sts)
Bind off, weave in loose end.

Bottom Edge of Shell
Using the same color as the top part of the shell and holding shell upside down, join yarn to one of the front loops we left in R21 and:
R- *Sl st 1, sc 1, hdc 1, dc 1, hdc 1, sc 1, sl st 1*, repeat around (49 sts)
Bind off, weave in loose end

Eyes (make 2)
R-1 with white, ch3
R-2, sc in 2nd chain from hook, 3sc in next st.
R-3, turn and work on underside, sc in next st, sl st in first sc.  Bind off

Eye Lids (make 2)
R-1, Using the same green for body, attach yarn to the back loop of the eye about mid-way on the long side.  Sl st in the next 5 sts.
R-2, ch1, turn.  Sk first st, sc next st, sk next st, sc in last st.
R-3, ch 1, turn. Sc across.  Bind off

Head
R1- Make a Magic Loop and work 6 sc into ring
R2- 2 sc in each sc around (12 sts)
R3- *Sc 1, 2 sc in next sc*, repeat around (18 sts)
R4-7: Sc 18

R8-10: Sc 18
R11- *Sc 1, dec 1*, repeat 6 times (12 sts)
R12-16: Sc 12
Bind off, leaving long tail for sewing.  Attach eyes: Fold green behind the eye and fasten to head in proper place. Stitch with green yarn, when you get to the white of the eyes, use the stitches in the back loops to secure the whites of the eye.  Also, make sure to use a couple of stitches to secure the green lid to the side of the white of the eye (see photo)
Embroider a cute little smile


Stuff head and sew to shell (I used a couple of extra stitches to make sure his head stayed up)

Legs - make 4
R1-Make Magic Ring and work 5 sc into ring
R2- 2 sc in each sc around (10 sts)
R3- (working in back loops for this row) *Sc 1, 2 sc in next sc*, repeat around (15 sts)
R4-6: Sc 15
Bind off, leaving long tail for sewing, stuff and sew to shell

Tail
Chain 5
Beginning at second chain from hook: sl st 1, sc 1, hdc 1, dc 1.
Bind off leaving long tail for sewing and sew to bottom part of shell.

Please let me know if you have any questions, I am an amateur pattern writer.

Mud Room Before and After

Before

After

I bought this great fabric at Walmart, it was sold by the yard and the measurements seemed right (I'm not the most accurate measurer) but once I finished the curtains they were a wee bit too short...I haven't made very many curtains.  Anyway, it worked out well because I had to think of something to fix the problem.  I came across this tutorial on pillow case edging and decided to try it with the curtains and I think it turned out great!

Meatloaf 101

This recipe is modified from Martha Stewart's Meatloaf recipe.  It's almost exactly the same except that I leave out a few of the fussy things that take extra time that don't really improve the taste at all.  

I also always make and bake two at a time.  I don't buy my ground meat at the meat counter so I am almost always buying a pound of each at a time anyway.  Also, it freezes really well.  I usually pop the fully cooked meatloaf in the freezer on a plate overnight and then put it in a freezer bag the next morning, That way, more of the glaze stays put.

Another trick is that I buy the larger packages of  ground meat and mix them all together, remove the three pounds I need for the meat loaf (I have a kitchen scale...a great investment) and use the rest to make a meat sauce.  You might as well while you have your hands in the meat...not my favourite thing to do.  I also freeze either the mix of meat in a freezer bag or make the sauce the same day and freeze it as well.

Ingredients

(makes 2 loafs)

6 slices white bread

2 large carrot, cut into 1/4-inch-thick rounds

2 celery, strings peeled, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1 medium onion, roughly chopped

2 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled

1 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves, loosely packed

1 cup ketchup

1 Tbsp dry mustard

16 (1 lb) ounces ground pork

16 (1 lb) ounces ground veal

16 (l lb) ounces ground round

4 large eggs, beaten

1 Tbsp salt

2 tsp freshly ground pepper

2 tsp Tabasco Sauce, or to taste

1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary

Glaze

1/2 cup ketchup

1/4 cup dark-brown sugar

1 Tbsp dry mustard

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove crusts from bread, and place slices in the bowl of a food processor (I use a blender because I don't have a food processor). Process until fine. Transfer breadcrumbs to a large mixing bowl. Do not substitute dried breadcrumbs in this step, as they will make your meatloaf rubbery. 

2.  Place carrots, celery, onions, garlic, and parsley in the bowl of the food processor (or blender). Process until vegetables have been minced.  Chopping vegetables this way saves lots of time.  Add vegetables to bowl with the breadcrumbs and toss together lightly. 
 
 



3.  Add 1 cup of ketchup, dry mustard, pork, veal, beef, eggs, salt, pepper, and Tabasco. Using two forks, toss the ingredients until thoroughly combined.  Use the forks to fold, cut and toss together.  Don't over do it or the loaf will be tough. Now add the breadcrumb mixture and fold and cut with the forks again.  The texture should be wet, but tight enough to hold a free-form shape. 

 
 


4.  Set a wire baking rack into an 11-by-17-inch baking pan. Cut a 5-by-11-inch piece of parchment paper, and place over center of rack to prevent meat loaf from falling through. (Also cover the baking pan with foil for easy clean up)  Divide the mixture in half and using your hands, form an elongated loaf covering the parchment.   I also use my fingers to make a few grooves down the centre of the loafs to keep a little extra glaze on top but it's not necessary.

 
5.  Place the remaining 1/2 cup of ketchup, remaining 1 Tbsp of dry mustard, and brown sugar in a bowl. Mix until smooth. Divide evenly over the two loafs and spread with the back of a spoon. 


6.  Bake loaf until an instant-read thermometer (best investment EVER) inserted into the center of the loaf registers 160 degrees about 1 hour. Let meatloaf cool on rack, 15 minutes.

 

Frosty the Snowman!

Thumpaty thump thump.....

Here's an Easy winter cake that will make your kids smile!  
To make this cake, I used an 8" and a 6" round pan (I think, it doesn't have to be perfect) and a small 6" or 8" square pan.
Trim a bit off the top of the smaller round cake (snowman's head) so that his hat sits better.
After that, simply stack the smaller round cake above the larger round cake.   
Cut the bottom 1/4 of the square cake off and then cut that in half, so that you have 2 equal parts to use as the brim of his hat:

Ice the cake with a pure white frosting, I used a Seven Minute Frosting which can also be called Boiled Icing:

Boiled Icing

2 Egg Whites

1 Cup Sugar

1/3 Cup Water

¼ tsp Cream of Tartar

Dash of salt

¼ tsp vanilla

1.  In a separate bowl, beat  egg whites until very stiff peaks.

2.  In a sauce pan, boil sugar, water, cream of tartar and salt until clear and completely dissolved.

3.  Slowly drizzle clear sugar mixture into eggs while beating continuously until completely combined.

4.  Add ¼ tsp of vanilla. 

I sprinkled Oreo cookie crumbs onto the hat to make it look black and added candies to make the eyes, nose and mouth.  I used blue chocolate Easy Melts for the buttons and red shoestring liquorice for his bow tie.

I added a little extra icing at the bottom of the cake board and sprinkled it with coconut to look like snow.

I  also found snowflake sprinkles at the Bulk Barn which added a nice touch.

To make the large snowflakes, use Royal Icing and with a small piping tip, pipe snowflake shapes onto parchment paper and allow to dry.  You can just freehand snowflakes so that they are all a little different, just as snowflakes are or, you can lay parchment paper over a snowflake image and trace it with the royal icing.

Make extras because they are very fragile and some will surely break.

I love snowflakes!

Christmas Countdown 2011 - Find out how many days until Christmas 2011

Christmas Countdown 2011 - Find out how many days until Christmas 2011: Set www.xmasclock.com as your homepage to count the number of days until Christmas 2011!

Still Awake

It's almost midnight and I'm still awake which is nothing out of the ordinary but I don't usually have company.  There is a little person cuddled up on the couch beside me, we're watching the Curious George Christmas special that I DVRed earlier. 

What's with kids getting sick so often from school?  Was it always like this?  I don't remember being sick much as a child.  I have a great memory but, I probably don't remember how many colds I got when I was 5 years old...

It seems that I can predict the sick cycle, it goes like this...a terrible cold hits, usually just before bed or in the middle of the night.  This is followed by a week of coughing and constant nose blowing.  The following week, the nose blowing becomes a little less frequent but seems to get a lot grosser.  The third week is usually pretty good, a little lingering cough a few random nose blows and then just as we are getting comfortable...we're up watching Curious George at midnight!

I thought that I might be onto something when I kept Sophia home from school today.  She seemed a little tired and run down so to avoid getting too run down and risk getting sick, I thought we could have a lazy day.  Well, I guess the cold had already gotten a foothold, but, we did have a great day.  We managed to get all the Christmas decorations up including the tree....only one broken ornament, the very first one out of the box.

So here we sit, peaceful, quiet, and surrounded by magical Christmas lighting.

Bless the winter cold :0)

Horton Hears a Who Party!!!

I wanted guests to think that they had stepped into the pages of a Dr Seuss book, but, decorations weren't easy to come by so I had to get creative!  I ransacked many of the local furniture stores' cardboard bins, to find large pieces of cardboard, which I used to create the characters from the book.  It turns out that it was a very simple and I think successful way to create just the look I was going for!

Horton Ears

 

Boo!

Happy Halloween!!