Valentine's Day lanterns

Here is an easy way to transform Ikea lanterns!  I made these for Valentine's day but after the holiday, you can keep the ribbon on to dress them up a little.

Just take the glass off of the metal holder and hot glue the ribbon either around the top or bottom of the glass.
Hot glue Valentine heart candy on the ribbon.

Quick Valentine's craft!

Singed flower headband

I have seen these flowers all over and have been dying to make one.  Finally came up with an excuse to make one!  I made a headband and singed flower to go on the headband for my daughter's birthday.
Its not hard!  Slightly intimidating since you are "playing" with fire!
1) Find polysatin fabric and cut it in imperfect circles.  You will need about 8-15 circles varying in size.
2) Find a candle that sits in a shallow candle holder.  Light the candle
3) Hold the fabric edge of the circle close to the flame.  You will see the fabric melt and curl some.
4) Keep turning the fabric edge above the flame until the entire edge is melted and curled up.  If you have the flame heat the fabric further into the circle it will cause the fabric to curl more creating a nice dimension

5) Cover a plastic headband with ribbon- use a low temp glue gun.

6) Use a low temp glue gun to glue each fabric circle on top of each other.  Begin with the largest on bottom and work up to the smallest on top.  As you glue, you can manipulate the fabric to so that it gathers some in the center where the glue is causing the flower to have more dimension.

7) Glue the flower to the headband with a low temp glue gun.

(Note: some people like to add tulle in between some of the fabric layers.  I didn't have tulle on hand so I did not do it.)

For those that don't prefer colored pancakes...

While my daughter was enjoying rainbow pancakes, I was enjoying my own kind of pancakes.  These are similar to the IHOP version of the Harvest Grain N' Nut pancakes but with some healthier alternatives!
I typically experiment with different nuts and flour ratios each time I make them.  Feel free to play around with the recipe!

Ingredients:
3/4 c. oats (try to use regular oats)
1 1/4 c. whole wheat flour (you can use a mix of wheat and white flour too)
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 c. skim milk
1 Tablespoon white vinegar
1/4 c. applesauce ( you can also do a mix of applesauce and oil)
2 eggs
1/4 c sugar
1/4 c. nuts ( I have been using all pecans because that is what I had on hand but you can mix it up with walnuts and almonds too)

Mix the milk and vinegar together and let it set for about 5 minutes.  Add the remaining ingredients to the milk mixture.  Stir until just mixed.  Heat griddle and spray with non-stick cooking spray.  Pour batter on griddle and what for bubbles to appear on surface.  Check for underside to be darker brown.  Flip pancake.  Cook other side until it is a darker brown color.

Rainbow Pancakes

Occasionally, I will be posting awesome recipes and cooking / baking ideas.  For my almost 3 year old daughter, we have been working on color recognition.  She knows most of her colors already, but I am using books and projects to reinforce what she knows and to learn the other colors she is not too sure of (grey, black, brown, etc).
The other day we made rainbow pancakes.  I had found them on another blog (not sure which one- sorry!) and thought it would be a great way to work with various colors and get to eat them!
Begin by using your standard pancake recipe.  We love this Fluffy Pancake recipe from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• cooking spray

Directions

1. Combine milk with vinegar in a medium bowl and set aside for 5 minutes to "sour".
2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Whisk egg and butter into "soured" milk. Pour the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and whisk until lumps are gone.
3. Heat a large skillet over medium heat, and coat with cooking spray. Pour 1/4 cupfuls of batter onto the skillet, and cook until bubbles appear on the surface. Flip with a spatula, and cook until browned on the other side.

After you have mixed the batter, divide the batter into little bowls.  We used 6 bowls for red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet.  I only colored enough batter to make one small pancake for each color.  (My husband and I were okay with plain and boring pancakes!)

Add food coloring to each bowl to make the color your prefer.  Stir well.  Pour into a griddle, keeping the colors separate.  Cook as normal.

My little girl loved them!  She ate all of them and didn't even use syrup!

(Be warned... she was CRAZY after eating them!  Maybe there is an argument for artificial coloring causing attention deficit problems!)