Ice sensory play

Ice sensory play: a cute winter activity indoors to learn more about seasons, cycle of water and penguins.

In this blog you’ll find an easy winter activity idea for your kids, you just need some small collectibles and molds (or the icecubes tray).

On January 20th we celebrate penguin appreciation day, and sorting our vintage collectibles I thought that I should use these penguins for a winter activity.

“Penguins (celebrated on this day in addition to World Penguin Day on April 25th) are beautiful flightless birds whose habitat is constantly at risk.
Penguins live in cold places with lots of ice and snow, so global warming has greatly affected their numbers. January 20th is a day to raise awareness of the dangers facing all species of penguins around the world.”

I looked for a mold and put some water on it, then put the penguins. The day after our skiing penguins were ready to use!

I took a vintage tray and the small icecubes on.

The girls love to play with ice and water so that was definitely a win!

We looked for penguins facts and also added salt and hot water to learn how ice melt.

Here’s a video so you can see how we did it:

It was a really fun study that we’ll repeat for sure soon! A great activity specially now that the weather is really cold and we even had snow here (that never happens!).

What do you think about that ice sensory play idea, would you try?

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Upcycling nesting dolls

Upcycling nesting dolls: in this post I am going to show you how I upcycled a thrifted set of upcycled dolls into a Nativity set.

I guess you all know now how much I love thrifting and vintage finds, we visit feels markets almost weekly and we now have some experience when it comes to buy second hand stuff.

But we’ll never stop learning and we obviously make mistakes from time to time and that’s what happened last month.

We went to a flea market and a lady was selling different sets of nesting dolls. I started to look at two of them and she kindly told me the price and that I could open and check the dolls if I wanted, but she mentioned that the steps were complete.

It was a bit crowded and a kid came and started to look to the second set, so I trust the lady, bought the set and once at home opened the dolls to clean them.

Surprise surprise the set wasn’t complete and the smallest doll was a mix of 2 different sets!
Beginner’s mistake!

But well, I thought that we could paint the dolls and made a Nativity set for Christmas, a fun activity with the girls.

We painted everything white first and then drew the characters with permanent markers.
Then paint again and varnish.
They really love to play with them now? #momwins

What do you think about the idea of upcycling nesting dolls?
Any similar experience to share?

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Easy New Year’s crafts

Easy New Year’s crafts: in this post I want to show you three easy DIY that I made for the new year. They were seasonal activities for the girls, that we used for new years eve but also as props for photos.

1. The 2023 headbands!

An easy DIY with regular headbands and using scraps. I just added the numbers but you can customized them with more scraps of course!

2. The 2023 candle. For that one you just need a candle and wax pens. Create your own design: pattern or drawing, and let dry 24 h!

The easiest way to make your own personalized candle.

3. The upcycled disco ball! My favorite because it’s another upcycling. You just need a paper lantern and foil wrappings.

Cut small squares and glue them to the lantern. Needs a bit of patience but with a small lantern it’s doable!

Hope you liked these easy New Year’s crafts.

They are great to avoid plastic and new purchases that we actually don’t need, so a great sustainable alternative these holidays.

I am loving to use paper wrappings for crafts and already looking for mardi gras ideas with them, so stay tuned! And happy 2023!

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French galette des rois

French galette des rois : the three wise man puff pastry recipe that we eat for the Epiphany ! Find the recipe of this easy recipe and a fun way to shape it!

For that recipe you need two pieces of puff pastry and filling it with an almond cream:

1Puff pastry ( so you need to make two of them):

2 cup flour,1 tbsp salt,250gr plant based butter frozen, 2/3 cup cold water. Grate the butter and add it to flour (I put the flour in the fridge 15min) slowly mixing. Pour the cold water into the dough. Mix. Wrap with a cloth and leave it in the fridge for 30min. Roll the dough,fold a rectangle three times and let it chill in the fridge again for 1hour.

Filling:

1. Custard cream :

30 gr flour, 50 gr sugar, 1/2 L of milk and 2 eggs.

Mix the eggs, sugar and flour while the milk is boiling. Then add the mixture to the milk and keep stirring with low heat. Let rest 2 hours.

2. Almond cream

100 GR grounded almond, 75 gr butter, 1 egg.

Mix everything and then add it to the custard cream. Ready to fill the puff pastry!

For that one I shape it like a crow but you can just leave it round. Preheat the oven 180°c and bake the cake 25 min.

That’s the traditional shape:

And that’s how I bake it this year!

Hope you like that shape for the french galette des rois and don’t forget to add a small surprise inside! The traditional “fève” is a small ceramic character that you put inside the filling, the person that will have it becomes the king/queen of the day!

Chocolat cake log

Chocolat cake log: the traditional french dessert for Christmas! Today I’ll share you an easy recipe to bake that delicious and fun cake

First of all merry Christmas to everyone! Hope you are having great holidays!

Today we opened the presents, enjoy some family time and eat a simple and yummy meal. We don’t cook lots of food or complicated recipes but we do enjoy the Christmas log cake!

The most difficult part of the log cake is to roll the “génoise”, so be sure that you do this when the génoise still warm .

Ingredients

For the génoise you’ll need 4 eggs, 120 gr of sugar, 120 gr of flour, a pinch of salt.

How to:

Preheat the oven 180°
Separate the yolks and the whites
Beat the yolks with the sugar and let rest
Beat the whites and add 15 gr of sugar
Add a part of the white mix into the yolks mix, slowly beat.
Add the last part of yolks with a spatule, mixing from bottom to top.
Sprinkle the flour and “cut” the dough with the spatule to mix.
Bake ten minutes.
Add the filling and slowly roll with a dishcloth.
Melt black chocolate and cover the “log” using a fork to imitate the bark.
You can decorate with coconut flakes to simulate snow??

Done!

It’s not an easy one, and you can’t replace the eggs or sugar to create that log,that’s why we only cook that cake for Christmas!

Have you already tried this recipe? I love the log shape! And it’s really yummy, perfect for sweet Christmas season.

DIY fake snow

DIY fake snow: the must have recipe for these Christmas decorations and activities with kids.

In this post I’ll share an easy recipe to create fake snow, whether you want it to use it for sensory play with kids, or to add a winter touch to your handmade decorations.

I myself added that fake snow to our nativity scene and the girls always have a great time creating it.

There is only two ingredients needed and you’ll avoid plastics and harmful ingredients plus it’s fun to create it!

DIY fake snow ingredients

For that easy recipe you just need baking soda and water!

Start with one cup of baking soda and then just add slowly 2 tablespoons of water,mow and add more water if needed.

That’s all! You can then use it for a winter sensory play or add it to ornaments or decorations.

Here’s a video of our nativity set and how we added the fake snow:

Last year we used an edible recipe with coconut oil and flour and it worked great too!

For that one I used one cupe of flour and then added a few tablespoons of coconut oil, til a got the perfect snowy texture. It’s a great recipe of you want to plan a sensory bin with toddlers, because it’s an edible and safe one.

Just be sure that there is no allergies danger!

Hope you enjoyed these recipes and that you are ready for Christmas! Just two more sleeps!

Heart shaped Christmas wreath from scraps

Heart shaped Christmas wreath from scraps: in today’s blog post you’ll find the easiest handmade Christmas wreath, just with a few fabric scraps, ribbons ir paper.

Plus it’s the best way to upcycle a hanger, and easily shaped it!

Every year I like to create a Handmade Christmas wreath, usually with wire and greens from our walks. I usually add there our Advent calendar with envelopes or small boxes.

But this year I found an easier way to create a wreath, just with scraps and a wire hanger, so it’s an entirely upcycled Christmas decoration.

Heart shaped Christmas wreath

To create that wreath you just need to shape your wire hanger as a heart (or the shape of your choice).

Then cut your scraps in even bands ( about 20 cm/5cm ).

Finally you just need to knot every scrap into the wire. And cut the hook of the hanger.

Add another scrap to hang on to the wall and the wreath it’s done!

Considering that most of Christmas decorations are made with plastic, handmade and upcycled ones are a great alternative to enjoy these holidays in a greener way!

Hope that you liked that heart shaped Christmas wreath!

Upcycled christmas decorations and a new free printable

Upcycled Christmas decorations and a new free printable : 2022 edition! In this post you’ll find upcycling ideas to craft beautiful and unique handmade ornaments just using materials that you CAN recycle, ( like toilet paper rolls or pinclothes ) and a DIY Advent calendar idea with 24 activities to do this month so you can add them to your calendar: my new free printable for you!

I’ve been having so much fun creating new handmade ornaments this year, trying to look for unique ones and making my really own ideas too.

I have also created some basics, the ones that usually you make at kindergarten with your teacher or simple ones that are always worth creating.

If you don’t remember my ideas from last year, you can find them here .

But this year, I am going to show you how to create easy AND beautiful, handmade ornaments. They even can make great gifts for family and friends.

Upcycled Christmas decorations:

? Christmas stars: with two toilet paper rolls you can make these beautiful stars. Paint them white or leave them just like that and will be as beautiful! You can also add glitter ( don’t forget to use plastic-free glitter ).

? Stars with pinclothes: I’d never imagined that pinclothes would make gorgeous ornaments! You can even use the metallic pieces to make more stars!

? Wrapping paper: create garlands or stars, angels etc just folding the paper like in the video below!

? Use shells like peanut or eggs! I used peanut shells to make Rudolph gift tags and egg shells to make cute Santa’s hats!

? Snowman from cheese boxes: paint them white and draw your own snowman, cut a hat with paper scraps and that’s all!

? DIY Avent calendars : each year I share an Advent calendar wreath where I add envelopes with photos for our yearly family album. This year I wanted to change the format and I made that small cardboard Christmas tree with gifts. Everything is upcycled and recycled. For the tree I used cardboard packaging and for the gifts tea boxes! And inside the boxes you can add photos or if you prefer, download my free printable so you can put a note inside each box.

pdf_20221127_215904_0000 Descarga

Holidays can be simpler ( and greener) crafting your own ornaments and Christmas decorations. It’s is much funnier and might make a great family moment, especially with kids. I hope you’ll consider these options for upcycled Christmas decorations !

I have a few more that I’ll share really soon so stay tuned!

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How to reduce pumpkin waste

How to reduce pumpkin waste: don’t throw away your pumpkins after Halloween!

Each year Americans throw ± 1 BIllION pounds of pumpkins away, ending up in landfills and creating lots of harmful greenhouse gases.
It’s easy to forget that Halloween pumpkins are edible! But they are all edible and there are a lot of other ways to use them besides eating them.

The majority of people don’t actually want to waste their pumpkins, they simply don’t know what to do with them. In this post I am going to share different ideas that you can do with your Halloween pumpkins, whether you carved them or just bought them as decorations.

We can see most of people Halloween’s content online full of pumpkins, butternuts and other squashes. They are indeed really cute, but I was really surprised when some friends told me that after Halloween, they just threw them away in the woods or garbage.

Such a shame because all of these last way longer than that. I actually buy different varieties when autumn starts and keep them until the first weeks of winter.

How you can avoid the waste?

First of all when you carve your pumpkins you can keep the seeds and roasted them or use them to plant them.

If you want to roast them: you just need a little vegetable oil (I always use olive oil) salt and paprika, and bake it for 15 min.
Other roasted seeds flavor ideas are: honey and cinnamon, turmeric and curry or garlic and parmesan.

How to reduce pumpkin waste, roasted seeds recipe

Second you can freeze them and save them for later.

* I make small portions so I can easily use them for different recipes like waffles or cookies.
* Or you can cook it: make purée, pumpkin risotto, soups, pumpkin butter, salads…

* You don’t want to cook them? Then make pumpkin facemasks or use them as bird feeders adding the seeds inside.

* If you just used pumpkins as decor just keep them a bit longer! Biggest ones can be cut in portions and freezed (or make purée and freeze) and cook smaller ones one by one till you’re done!

Thanksgiving is the best occasion to reuse your pumpkins, you can make beautiful centerpieces. Some people empty the pumpkin and squashes and use them as candle holders.

Lastly: donate them!

If you don’t want to throw them away but don’t want to use them, why you don’t donate them to charity associations ? That would be a great way to help other people.

As you can see, there are lots of options to reduce pumpkin waste and it’s a movement that we need to join as Halloween is a global event and nowadays it’s not just one country using a few pumpkins from autumn harvests, but a global event producing a dangerous amount of harmful greenhouse gases.

So let’s turn the tables on the planet and have better consumer habits!

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Upcycled Halloween decor

Upcycled Halloween decor: today I’ll share here some ideas that we have been doing at home upcycling and recycling items like cardboards and glass bottles. We don’t need to buy new stuff to enjoy the holidays, using what we already have or upcycling things we don’t use anymore is the best solution (and it’s better for your budget too).

I already shared easy costumes ideas upcycling or creating your own Halloween costumes. You can find it here

And this year I’ve having lots of fun repurposing different items,find the ideas on the list below:

1. The candle holders: upcycling glass bottles usually from olive oil. I used chalk markers and drew different skull patterns inspired by el día de los muertos.

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGJqPKHyX/

2. The witch broom: remember the broom that we made from sticks? That’s 2022 edition using mosquito nets (that I thrifted!)

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGJqPTgPp/

3. The cookies stamp: I loved to make that one! I used a cardboard roll and some Halloween pasta, glued them to the roll with hot glue and painted black (that’s optional) you can use it for cookies or playdough creations.

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGJqPcyyM/

4. The haunted house: from wc paper rolls,painted black and decorated with white chalk markers and cushions foam.

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGJqPwFKV/

5. The customized phone case: that’s how I made my regular phone and using Canva I made a spookiest version.

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGJq5J46d/

I can’t believe that I didn’t use to love Halloween, now it’s a holiday that I enjoy a lot and inspires me to create lots of crafts and fun food!

Do you enjoy that too? Hope you liked these upcycled Halloween decor ideas! Here is half term and the girls are at home so We have been cooking a lot too, I’ll share the recipes soon! Stay tuned!

Find my DIY ideas and crafts classed by themes on my “about me” page
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