Thainie Craft: Dino TO-GO

Cute and easy craft for your dino lovin' munchkin!  Also great for easy clean up and travel!

All you need:
 -  Tin lunchbox (these are from a small shop inside BTS Phromphong, 200-400 baht)
 -  Felt 
 -  Toy rocks and shrubs (snatched a few from my son's stash)
 -  Glue gun
 -  A dino loving kid

 Instant hit, although this happened...

Thainie Craft: DIY Personalized Tee

Still need a kiddie present for Christmas or a birthday?  How about a personalized tee?  

All you need:
 -  Basic tee (Hanes from Big C, comes in assorted colors/sizes)
 -  Iron on Felt Designs (from BeTrend Emporium)
 -  Stencil
 -  Fabric paint or any Acrylic paint (these are Fabrica 45 baht for each and they worked really nicely)

Mix, match and gift!

 

Thainie Gift

This was a gift for one of my best friends and wanted to share this, a cute way of giving a pair of earrings. 

Santa Sack

Our Christmas tradition for presents is that Santa's presents are not wrapped and everything else from family and friends are wrapped.  Well it's a nice surprise in the morning for the children, I just thought they would appreciate each gift more if they saw them one by one rather than it all spread out.

And so I remembered Santa Sacks that they sold at holiday fairs and thought of making my own.  It's a really easy sew and I also custom made little tags that had their name and good/bad tick areas too.  Can't wait to see their faces Christmas morning!

Polka dot and white fabric from IKEA and stripes fabric from personal stash.

Ginger---Ahhh Sugar Cookie House

So my children aren't crazy about gingerbread cookies but I wanted to do a gingerbread house.....so why not make them with sugar cookies?  They were easy to make and bake (using my go to recipe here) and the kids had a fun time making their houses--well---more like sheds since I wasn't good at the structural planning initially.  No matter what, they still had fun and enjoyed their sugar cookie houses!

 This was actually last year's edible craft that I didn't get to post, I had made these from sheet cake (any cake batter baked on a thin sheet) and cut out shapes so that the kids could decorate with frosting.  Another alternative to cookies and they were with a gluten free batter.

Thainie Craft: Tree Decorating Cards

We did these cards at school and it was a big hit.  They're great for card giving, gift tags or just a Christmas keepsake.

All you'll need:
 - Craft paper
 - Contact paper (it's just clear sticker plastic that you can find in big poster size and also A4 packets--not sure why it's called paper since it's really sticky plastic??)
 - Embellishments, glitter, sequence...anything that can be neatly pressed over with the contact paper 

Cut out your tree, presents, stars, snowman, etc... and have the kids place them however they like on the paper and when they're finish just place the sticky contact paper over and admire!

 *** If you like those plastic jars, they are absolutely marvelous and a deal!   You can find them at Makro (I got them at the Bangna one/across Mega Bangna) and they are 10 for 80 baht! 

Thainie Craft: Another IKEA Christmas Ornament for the Kids

IKEA is great for getting some inspiration and sometimes I pick something out not even thinking about it and it turns out to be a great Christmas craft like this one.  

Got these heart cardboard ornaments and paired them with cut up cd pieces for a quick, easy and beautiful ornament for the tree!  

Dino Birthday Party Time!

Did I mention December is crazy?  Crazy busy with birthdays and holidays!  

This was also the first year that I was organizing a birthday party for my son.  Since the big (costly) hoopla that was my daughter's first birthday my husband and I both decided that it was much more practical and memorable if the children actually were at an age that they could understand birthdays as well as be excited about who they were going to invite.  So my son was turning 4 and he was ready for his party!   

The theme of course was dinosaurs and we had it at Playtime, which I love since it's not too big but we didn't get a room since the kids spend more time playing then in the room and we just had an area near the cafe for snacks and the birthday cupcakes.

I don't have much pics of the party since I was pretty much occupied entertaining but I did want to share some items that you might want to use.

This was the invitation:
You might not be able to see but at the corner there was a big chomp that I cut out with the Silhouette Cameo.

And then there was the goodie bag:

 Using the same dino artwork, I made stickers for the ziploc bag.  The goodie bag had a bunch of finds from Sampeng.  
  - Light baton/saber (12 for 120 baht)
  - Little Angry Bird bags (5 for 100 baht)
  - IKEA Tolsby frames (49 baht) --- this is my go to goodie bag item that I love and it's always an artwork cut out that you can insert your photo into.  This time it was a dino jungle and I've posted the artwork below for personal use too.  Just use the "Select Trace Area" in the Silhouette program and it will cut the inside. 

 

   - Sweet treats bought bulk from Makro Bangna

 And then there were the birthday cupcakes that were frosted and decorated with chocolate rocks and a little dino to take home too (bought from Pinata in soi 39, 12 for 100 baht).

Hope you thought this was dino-myte!

Thainie Craft: DIY Christmas Frame for Kids

With Thanksgiving and Christmas around the corner, I'm getting a head start on everything.  Beginning with preparations for our Thanksgiving dinner, we'll be having friends over with their kids and so I wanted to organize a fun but easy craft project for them to work on before or after dinner.  

I had a bunch of sequins and embellishments (from hoarding of course) and thought the children can glue them on to the IKEA NYTTJA (comes in pack of 2 and all colors) frames.  You can also make these goody bag treats too and just organize them in sets for giveaway.

Note:

- Sadly I'm not close at all to any Michael's but all the sequins and embellishments in the photo are all from Sampeng in Chinatown and range from 80 baht to 100 baht for a bag full.  You can also check out B2S and BeTrend, they have some as well, not a whole lot but beats a trip to Sampeng at times!

- I recommend TOA glue or Elmer's since it's easy to use and it really sticks well once you let it dry properly.

Sugar Cookies Success Story!!!

 Baking cookies has always been a challenge, even with the best or the world's best recipe, it usually ends with failure and lots of fish food.

Then this recipe came along and happy days!!!   Perfect from the first batch.  Cookies and icing!  I also mixed everything in a food processor and it worked out perfectly.

Kids had a fun time decorating but it was quite difficult to make them understand that frosting should not be more than the cookie itself!

Halloween: Pumpkin Costume

 Halloween is approaching and I usually try to finish the children's costumes ahead of time so that I wouldn't be pulling my hair the last week of October.  Fortunately this year, their school had requested more "Halloween" themed costumes and not the usual superhero or princess.  I'm not at all against any of those costumes (or the school) but I can honestly say my children would have never chosen a pumpkin costume if it was up to them.  So luckily they wanted pumpkins!  

What I got (2 plump pumpkin costumes for 3.5 and 5 year old):
- 3 meters of orange fabric (cotton mix)
- 1/2 meter of green fabric (cotton mix)
- 1/2 meter of green felt
- 1/2 meter of black felt
- iron on webbing
- matching threads
- elastic 

I had actually searched the web for a children's pumpkin pattern, which I found and paid $8 (240 baht) but it had printed out about 120 pages and I was lost---this pattern paper fiasco is now being recycled for my kids' artwork.  I'm just not capable of patterns!  Gave up and just took one of my daughter's dresses and put it on the fabric and pretty much drafted my own pattern.   Cut into sections and sewn them together.  I'm sorry this is not going to be a very good tutorial but I can offer the following amazing references to help guide you there as they guided me.

Making your own pattern from clothes you already have
MADE

Sewing dress and lining (applicable to this costume!)
Cool People Sew

For the pumpkin features, first take felt and iron on webbing then trace the eyes, nose and mouth, cut pieces and iron on to the pumpkin.  If you want to, I stitched over the pieces.

Leaves Pattern for felt leaves
Pink Suede Shoe 

*** Print out the leaves the size you want or you can search on the web for any kind of leaves you like and cut out green felt

Note, the lining for the plump pumpkin was a padded quilted fabric (you can get this at Fabric House) and you just sew the same as a lining.  Lastly, fold up bottom at insert elastic.

My daughter had a bit of a diva moment and decided she wanted it to be more dressy (you can take the princess dress away but you can't take the princess out of the kid), so I cut around the existing pattern (copying her dress) and just added the green cotton lining and cut the bottom zig zagged, luckily we had kept a cute black petticoat skirt that belonged to my older daughter and was able to use it under this dress.

Happy sewing!!

Easter Baskets

 Luckily we have been in a strawberry eating frenzy and I was inspired to make Easter baskets like we did in elementary school.  Very easy, cute and perfect for collecting all those chocolate treats from the Easter Bunny tomorrow morning.  

All you need to make these nifty baskets are:

- Strawberry plastic boxes or any box/bowl you have on hand will do just fine.

-  Pipe cleaners, if you don't have them then you can use some rope or any kind of string.

-  Decorations, I got a bunch from Chinatown (hoarder!) and B2S.  Scored these crazy cute dinosaur ones out of the blue too!

- Scissors and  a hole puncher (loving Martha Stewart's Crafts Screw Punch)

And then you're ready to make your baskets with the kiddies!

- First have them braid or twist the pipe cleaners.

- Then fold the green paper and have them cut thin strips out.

- Punch holes on each side of the basket and have them lace in the pipe cleaner and twist shut.

- Add the paper grass filling and decorate!  

 Ready for the Easter Bunny!!

Happy Crafting!!!

Foodie Friendly

Love sharing the foodie love, here are some local Bangkok food makers and bakers that have been tried, tested and tasted!!!

Urban Pantry Personalized artisan bread and gourmet food delivery in Bangkok.  Must try their Zuni Zucchini Pickles and Cajun Pita Chips!!!

GMT Farm Fresh, delicious, clean, quality vegies.  Must try their salad dressings!!!

The Bangkok Bread Boys Yummy baked good, coffee and more.  Must try their muesli and brownies!!!
 

Pancakes....

Yes, finally a pancake recipe that actually lives up to the hype!!!  It was like some sort of sweet serendipity that I had been watching Cake Boss this past Friday evening and he was making some yummy looking pancakes!  I'm not so much of a pancake lover but my family loves them and they're easy to make in a big batch and refrigerate for the rest of the week.  

So after a bunch of literally deflated supposedly "the best" recipes, finally the Cake Boss delivered.

Fluffy Pancakes for Sure!!!

Makes around 7-8 nice sized pancakes/about 2 dozen mini pancakes (we like doing these)

  

2 1/2 cups of flour (all purpose flour)

2 BIG pinches of granulated sugar (I did about 1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons...this is really up to your sweet tooth)

4 teaspoons baking powder (the magical ingredient I believe)

Scant 1 teaspoon fine sea salt (go ahead and live life!  Put an actual teaspoon!) 

2 large eggs

4 tablespoons of butter melted and slightly cooled (yes cooled, you will be making some custard if you put it in hot or warm, I suggest melting in microwave and popping in freezer for a minute or until cool)

2 cups of milk (I will be trying a batch with rice milk and let your know)

The original recipe that I searched on the web didn't have the directions but my pancakes turned out pretty perfect so I will stick to what I did. 

Whisk the eggs in a good sized bowl and add milk, melted butter, sugar, salt, baking powder and flour, yep all in the same bowl!!  Stir until all the flour bits are gone but I still leave the batter just a little lumpy.

Take a laddle or spoon since this batter is slightly thick and drop your pancakes into a nonstick pan and do as you do in cooking pancakes!  Hope this recipe works out for you!!!! 

Valentine's Day Treats

Happy Valentine's Day!!  Just wanted to share what I did for my kids' classmates this year.  Used a basic sugar cookie recipe, supposedly the best sugar cookie recipe but I'm still searching so if you have one please share.  The cookies weren't that bad, the kids loved them but who doesn't love a cookie?  

Well I wanted to share that I used a small rubber stamp with the word "LOVE" to stamp the cookies and it worked out actually nice.  Will have to try some other stamps and share how they turned out again!  Also, food coloring, LOVE Wilton's food coloring gel, totally recommend for any baking treats.  It doesn't stain and the colors really are very rich.

 ***  Please ignore the burnt looking ones, they were from the first batch!