My neighbor has been holding amazing craft classes for kids this year.

M made apple pie cookies and a cornucopia in the first one. Consistent with her behavior since birth, she cried when she heard she was going. Luckily our neighbor was there.

We arrived to find Devorie’s mini apple pie station.

A healthy snack table with some of the baking supplies.

A chill out area where the kids could draw and relax on a bean bag chair.
M still looks mildly pained at leaving our house.

The baking table.
Part of what makes this class so different from others is, can you see what she has for each child? Yep, besides a slotted wooden spoon they get their own apple peeler. Unheard of in this age of us helicopter parents!

First you must put on an apron:

When I arrived to pickup M she was finishing assembling her cornucopia.

She had already peeled and cut her apples (yep, with her own knife!), assembled & baked the mini apple pies.

At home we baked the cornucopia. It was beautiful!

Unfortunately for it, it was tasty and the girls couldn’t stop tearing off hunks to eat. It never got full of plenty but now we know how to make one next year!

We ate the apple pies SO quickly. Luckily Devorie stopped by with the extra filling the kids had made. So we made our own dough and took a stab at them that weekend.

We took them across the street to dinner at the neighbors’. Delicious!

The second class we attended was an ornament making class.

There was a hot chocolate station awaiting the kids!

Embellishment Station

Chill area

Does anyone have a brush around here?

Hot glue gun table

Hard at work as the sun set

Here are the ornaments they made:

K-Cup Snowman Hat Ornament

They also made Yarn Hats. M hasn’t finished hers but I’ll post a pic when she does!

When I got there to pick up the kids they were all having a big time! Some had gone off on their own project tangents but everyone was engaged in something. Devorie’s class is unique in that it’s very experiential. Instead of focusing on the end product she lets the kids focus on the experience of using all these materials. She is even teaching them how to use glue guns carefully and safely. It’s amazing! They feel so excited because they are able to do almost every part of the project themselves.

There is one more class left in December if you’re interested. It’s at Devorie’s house in Santa Monica.

Tues. 12/15 3-5PM
$30

Darn the class is FULL. Hopefully she will start up again in 2016!
Feel free to email me for Devorie’s contact info!

[email protected]

This is so cute. There are many variations on Pinterest. I think the original idea came from the Free People blog which is worth looking at.

I had these animals – they were plastic animals in a tube called Safari Ltd Arctic Animals Toob

I was going to make some necklaces with them but never got around to it.

First they need some bling.

My girls started blinging out the rest of the animals in the house.

When they ran out of animals they took the dinosaurs out of the garage and got them done up too!

Basically I hot glued any tiny beads, felt, sequins, fine yarns or cording/string onto the animals – really anything I liked. I stuck to a blue/silver/white color scheme. Kids refused to adhere to that so their animals are not welcome on my tree. I had some old moss from Michael’s from a few years ago so I used that too. Oh and tiny pine cones from Clover Park.

Tiny white lights would be cute if I didn’t have to go shopping for them etc. etc. I have a tiny set but the battery pack is huge and I’m afraid its weight will tear the whole shebang off the wall.

Here’s what I used:

- 4 or 5 animals embellished (you don’t have to but it’s fun!)
- sequins/beads/string/felt/fabric scraps etc for embellishment
- small to large sticks. Thick enough to hold some stuff on them. I was lucky – I collected so many I didn’t have to cut any.
- thumb tacks
- hot glue gun & tons of glue sticks
- moss
- tiny seeds/pinecones etc that can be found outside

You can get anything at Michael’s that can’t be found outside.

1. I laid out the sticks on the table.

2. I held them to the wall one at a time to see how they would best lay against the wall. I picked two spots that would touch the wall and squirted a big blob of hot glue there and stuck the back of the thumbtack in the blob. Then I used a hammer to hammer the whole kit and caboodle to the wall. Sometimes the thumbtack cracked off or fell off but at least I had the placement and could just hammer the thumbtack into the wall then hot glut the stick onto the thumbtack again.

3. I made the little star out of some tiny twigs I had – I just wrapped yard around them to hold them together. Kind of like starting a God’s eye. You could also make a tiny stick star and paint it gold etc! Or make a yellow/gold god’s eye! Add glitter!!!

4. Now the fun part, add moss/seeds/shells/nuts etc. with hot glue. Finally glue your animals on. Mine are Narnia inspired.

I love how it came out!

Thanks, Pinterest!

Got ‘er done.

Bea gave me this card after daycare on Valentine’s Day.

Bea: “I made this for you.”

Me: “Thank you!” (opening it)

Me: “Which person is you and which is me?”

Bea: (Laughing) “Actually, one is Olivia (her friend) and the other’s Beyonce!” (Laughing uproariously now.)

Boo hoo!!! I’m crying because I used the rest of my lemons on this cake. I can see more on Eileen’s tree next door. Just need to pull some pantyhose over my head tonight, drug her dog “Amanda Barks-A-Lot,” sneak on over there & help myself… That or ask her for some.

You probably have most of these ingredients:

You might not have lemon curd but can buy it pre-made at most grocery stores:

Lemon curd (click photo for recipe)

INGREDIENTS:
Crumb Topping
1-1/2 c all-purpose flour
2/3 c sugar
1 TBSP lemon zest
1 TBSP orange zest
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 c cold butter, cut into pieces

Cake Batter
1/2 c butter, softened
1-1/2 c sugar, divided
3 eggs, separated
1-1/2 c flour
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/2 c plain Greek yogurt
1 TBSP lemon zest
3/4 c lemon curd
1/4 c powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350.

Make the crumb topping first. It’s easy. Combine flour, sugar, lemon & orange zest and salt. Add butter & cut into flour mixture with a pastry cutter.

Voila!

Cover & chill in refrigerator.

Now make the batter:

Beat the butter until creamy.

Then add 1-1/4 c of the sugar and beat for about 3 minutes. You want it fluffy. Add egg yolks.

The original recipe says to add them one at a time but I added them all at once because I have 2 small children who get all up in my business when I’m trying to cook.

(And here I thought I was being fancy by having them separated at ALL.)

Beat just until they’re incorporated.

In another bowl, whisk together flour & baking soda.

Just this leetle teeny tiny amount of baking soda makes a big difference!

Add about 1/3rd of it to butter mixture, then add 1/2 the yogurt,

then another 1/3rd of the flour mixture, then the rest of the yogurt and finally the last 1/3 of the flour.

Finally, stir in the zest. Be careful not to over mix this.

In another bowl – beat the egg whites at a high speed until foamy. Then add the last 1/4th cup of sugar, a little at a time, until stiff peaks form.

Fold whites into the batter. Pour batter into a greased & floured 9×9″ square pan.

Drop dollops of lemon curd on top of batter.

Swirl curd into the batter with a knife.

Sprinkle crumb mixture on top & pop into the oven for 45-50 minutes.

I definitely needed to bake mine for 50. Original recipe says stick a toothpick in to see if it comes out clean BUT it might not b/c of the curd. My curd tricked me and I baked it too long. What I recommend is gently shaking the pan – if it jiggles a lot it needs a little more time.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar & serve. YUM!

 
Source: Southern Living Magazine