Relaxing afternoon

Well, after I did all I wrote about in the last post this morning I wasn't feeling to well in the afternoon. So we spend most of the afternoon in our tiny garden. I love to lie in the grass and look above into the tree tops. I love how you can see little bits of sky through the leaves and the way the sunlight shines through the branches. I remember that I already loved doing this when I was a kid.

And a little picture of my next project ... ehm, well, one of my next projects ...

Chocolate play dough and home-made pop tarts

Another busy day today. After a visit to the pediatrician I bought some cream of tartar and we finally tried a recipe for chocolate play dough I found on the blog The idea room. The dough turned out really great! It smells fantastic* and has a really great texture! My daughter was busy for quite a while. Actually long enough for me to make some "real" dough and bake some pop tarts. The recipe was written down at Bake me more. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to make it. From my time in the US I know pop-tarts, like them, but if you do get them overhere they are SO overprized! So I haven't had them in years!
I think for a first attempt with pie crust they turned out pretty well. But I have to try to roll the dough even thinner next time.



*I have to admit that I was a bit worried to give play dough to my kid that would smell and feel like chocolate dough. What if she tries to eat it?! Well, I can say the dough is pretty safe if it comes to being eaten. If your child will try to eat it - he/she will only do it once and you will instantly know! How do I know? No, my daughter did not try it ... Let's just say the door bell rang while I was kneading the dough and I got a little distracted .... *very yucky*

Easy pear dessert recipe

I wanted to share a really easy dessert recipe with you guys. During the last couple days we ended up with some pears sitting around that I did not want to eat. (Let's just say pregnancy does very weird things to your tastebuds.) So I was searching the internet for an easy way to use them. And I found this really VERY EASY and QUICK recipe. It's basically a pear bake.

You need:
150g sour cream
2 pears
1 table spoon sugar
1 egg
a bit of butter

All you do is peel the pears and cut them up in little pieces. You butter some kind of baking dish and put the pear bits in there. You mix together the sour cream, sugar and egg and pour it over the pears. You bake this for about 20 minutes at 225 degrees C/ roughly 425 F. It should be a bit browned on top. DONE.

I was quite skeptical at first because it has so few ingredients. But it actually does taste quite nice. Even my daughter, who does not eat alot when she is sick, munched away. I like it best when it has cooled - but that might just be me.

Just a little advice:
I actually made this dessert twice and can say from experience - forgetting about it after you put it in the oven and taking it out after more than 40 minutes will effectively ruin it!

Does anybody know what I am talking about?

I long while ago I read in some blog about some tool (on the internet?) which you can use to record your voice. At this blog they had recorded the laugh of the children or child ... But I cannot find the blog entry and also don't have any idea what the tool was called or where you can find it. Since I don't know the name google-search also did not come up with something helpful ...
Does anyone have an idea what I am talking about or happened to read the same blog entry as I did (and actually recognizes it from what weird stuff I am writing here) ?

Stuff to keep the kid busy

So, my daughter has been sick since Sunday and I had the privilege to stay at home with her since Tuesday. I was quite happy not to go to work. Since I am pregnant I rather dread working since I never know how well I will feel during the day. So I rather like to stay at home ... close to everything that will satisfy all the food, drink or bathroom needs one pregnant woman could have. I was especially pleased since my daughter was not THAT sick anymore - so no taking the temperature every hour or being terrified whether she might throw up or something. I figured we would have some nice quality time together. Well, ... turns out that you need ALOT of energy to keep a kid busy all day. :-)
So by now I am pretty much very desperate and trying everything I can get my hands on which might keep her busy for a couple more minutes. Don't get me wrong - I love reading to her! Which is her favourite past time so it seems to me. But not all day every day!!! Sorry, I am just not THAT patient.

So yesterday we finally finished a project that we had started already a while ago. I do not remember where I got the idea for this one from. So if anyone knows where this project is described please let me know. It's really easy to make. All you need is round filter paper. (I hope that is the correct term - am not sure. It's that kinda paper that you use when making coffee with coffee powder.) You let your child colour it. Afterwards you - or your child - cut some of the round papers in half. By attaching the half pieces to the round pieces you can make fish. Yesterday my daughter coloured onto a big sheet of paper a sea and we glued the fish into it. Since my daughter used pretty much the same colours for the fish and for the sea the fish do not really stand out very much. But I guess in nature that would be perfect. Those would probably be the fish that lived the longest ... no predator would ever see them ... :-)

Today I was very keen on trying this modeling clay recipe I found on Sweet thing(s). It is basically like play dough but you can let it air dry and it hardens.
I am not sure if I did something wrong .... trying to talk on the phone with my mom, helping my daughter to dress up as a witch AND trying to measure the salt for the recipe at the same time probably is not the best idea ever ... when I stirred all of the ingredients together the stuff instantly turned to a thick mass and I was unable to stir any longer. So I decided it might be done ... and let it cool a bit. We made some stuff out of it which is drying at the moment. Am very curious how it will turn out. Good thing is - as you can paint it after drying this will hopefully provide even more busy minutes! :-)


Also I tried to make a pin wheel out of foam sheets today. I had the instructions for it in a craft book ... oh well. I thought it should be something that is easy to make. Well, it probably would be, if you actually do follow the instructions and have all the supplies needed. As usually - neither of it applied to me! So now we have a very cute looking pin wheel - that unfortunately won't really spin ...

I decided the next pin wheels I will make are going to be from paper. It'll will be much easier (and cheaper in case I mess up). I just need to get some sticks ....
Here are some pages with instructions if you want to join me. :-)
Apartment therapy
Martha Stewart
Heather Bailey