The Happy Creator

Another Reindeer Craft

2010-12-07T14:58:00.001-08:00

Here’s another reindeer craft we made. The kids traced their hands and cut them out. They also did the same with their shoe. Then we glued them together to make the reindeer. The kids added eyes and a nose.

Reindeer Ornament for Kids

2010-12-07T14:53:00.001-08:00

I made these with my preschoolers this week. Aren’t they cute?!

Here are the supplies we used.

I hot-glued three popsicle sticks to make the reindeer head.

The kids picked a glitter glue color and painted it on.

I attached the yarn to the back and then placed on the eyes. The kids picked the nose color.

Older kids would be able to do it all on their own with liquid glue.

Harry Potter Party

2010-11-30T15:46:00.001-08:00

It’s been so long since my last post! Getting married sure kept me busy. But now I have time for my creations once more. My latest baking was for my first get-together at my new house. And what better a theme to have on the premier weekend of The Deathly Hallows Part 1 than Harry Potter!

Follow me through the Hogwarts Express…

And check out all the treats!

We used Cream Soda as the Butterbeer and added a layer of whipped cream on top. It tasted exactly like the real deal from The Wizarding World…Which was our honeymoon destination, haha!

My husband and me!

We even had a Sorting Hat, which was a quiz on our computer. And I made badges!

I made the owls and signs, too.

I love seeing my house full of my friends surrounded by my creations!

Fishing

2010-07-20T04:40:00.000-07:00

Fishing was a part of life growing up. My dad never had a little boy, so I filled in as his fishing buddy. I never remember a time of life when I wasn't bating my own hook or taking off the fish. That was one of dad's rules: If you want to fish with it or fish for it, you have to touch it.

My dad bought a little farm with a lake a few years ago, and it's been our fishing get-away since.

My friend, Justin, creates his own flies for fishing! Check it out in his new blog The Great Outdoors.

Puppy Pictures

2010-06-20T13:20:00.000-07:00

My family was on our way to Indianapolis to hang out with family for Father's Day.

Here's Mollie trying to be comfortable in the back seat.

That's better!

Here are all the family dogs. Hehehe!

We're all dog people...if you couldn't tell...

Apple Butter

2010-06-07T13:04:00.000-07:00

My parents went out of town this weekend, Andy went to a conference, and Mollie and I were left all alone...so we went on a little trip to our new family's house!

My wedding is in September and I've finally pinned down the theme. Elegant Fall Festival. For the wedding favors, I wanted to have jars of apple butter sitting on the tables along with the center pieces. Luckily, my in-laws-to-be both grew up on farms and canned for a living! So we spent all weekend making apple butter and jarring it:)

Look at all our jars! We first cut up two bushels of apples and cooked them on the stove till they were mushy.

We used a ricer to separate the good stuff from the skin. Being the curious person I am, I had to know why the ricer got that name. Andy's dad looked it up and apparently the holes of a ricer are not much bigger than a grain of rice. Interesting!

I then added tons of brown sugar and cinnamon. Unfortunately I cannot tell you how much exactly. We just kept tasting until it tasted right. With a different spoon each time, of course!

We poured the apple butter into jars, placed the lids on top, and put them all in a pressure cooker. It took about 5 rounds of this until we had all the jars finished. Here's how the pressure cooker worked: The jars sat in a bit of water under a lid until the pressure gauge showed 5 pounds. Then we removed a pressure cap and let it sit for five minutes. This sealed the flat part of the lid to the jars. Once the jars cooled, the flat part popped in. So when you hear the pop of a jar when opening it, that's the pressure being released. If you don't have a pressure cooker, you can place the lids in boiling water and then place them on top of the jars. However, the experienced canners felt that the pressure cooker would better ensure the freshness of the apple butter.

I cut out a bunch of circles on adorable fabric that I felt was perfect for the apple butter jars. The lid can screw off since the flat part of the lid is sealed. See, you may have figured that out already, but I went into this knowing absolutely nothing about jars and canning!

And here's our final product!

I think the jars are so cute! And I can't wait to share them with the people at my wedding:)

I love my wedding theme. It gives me an excuse to start fall crafting early:)

Favorite Quotes from Pre-K

2010-05-22T18:36:00.000-07:00

My Pre-K kids make me laugh every day. It amazes me how funny little kiddos can be! So here are some of the best quotes of the year. Funny quotes are so common that I forget and they come back to me later. So this will probably not be the last post about this.

At Circle Time - Prior to my engagement:
Kid 1: Why aren't you married, Miss Lyndsay?
Me: I'm still really young.
Kid 2: So you're still a teenager?
Me: No, I'm just a young adult. Younger than your parents.
Kid 1: You're still a teenager if you're not married yet, Miss Lyndsay.
Kid 2: Do you have kids?
Me: No, I'm not married yet.
Kid 3: Uh Oh....
Me: What do you mean, Uh Oh?
Kid 3: (With head down ashamed) You should really have kids, Miss Lyndsay. Yeah, you're defintely still a teenager.

While watching Tarzan
Kid 1: Is Tarzan real?
Me: Well, it's just a cartoon movie.
Kid 1: (With legs crossed like a little lady) I really wish Tarzan was my husband.

At Circle Time. A child saw me at Target the night before with my fiance.
Kid 1: Miss Lyndsay, I saw you with your son last night.
Me: (Laughing like crazy) My son? That was my boyfriend! (My fiance is much taller than me!)
Kid 1: (With head down and face red) (Gasp!) Miss Lyndsay's boyfriend...

She repeated this comment over and over throughout the day, completely surprised she had seen me with him. I don't know why, haha. Kids are just funny about stuff.

I gave my kids a final assessment for Pre-K. One task was to write the ABCs. A certain child was doing really well. Then he stopped at K and looked up...thought about it...then looked at me:
"Miss Lyndsay, I forget how to write an eleminopy."
I must not have done my job! He thought L M N O P was all one letter! I tried so hard to keep a serious face when I said, "That's okay! Just move on to the next one."

An ongoing funny thing: No matter what is going on between parents at home, I hear about it. The most interesting comments to hear are, "Daddy slept out on the couch last night" or "Daddy decided to stay at Grandma's for a few days".

More funnies as I think of them!

My Writing

2010-05-19T03:00:00.001-07:00

I found a group of bloggers that write. …This statement sounds kind of ridiculous because that’s what blogging is…But these people write stories. And I was asked by Mr. Jon to share about my writing. At first I was intimidated for two reasons. Number one: I love to write, but I don’t consider myself very good anymore. It’s funny. College kind of dumbed down my writing. I look back on what I wrote in Jr. High and High School, and sometimes I’m blown away that it came from my pen! Or if I only vaguely remember writing it, I google it to see if I copied from someone else. Which has never happened, but is always a possibility in those “searching for myself” Jr. High days. In my college Elementary Education program, I feel I was almost discouraged from feeding any creativity into my writing. Just write the facts. Although I did try to practice more creative writing when it came to taking standardized writing tests. If only I had copies of the wild stories I made up just to keep from going insane. (I’m not a fan of standardized tests, even as an educator myself. So I have banned all standardized testing from my preschool class.) Reason number two for my intimidation was a comment I heard recently. When asked how he felt about authors like Stephanie Meyer and J.K. Rowling, Stephen King stated, “The difference between Stephanie Meyer and J.K. Rowling is that J.K. Rowling can write.” …I happen to have enjoyed both the Twilight Saga and Harry Potter. I guess my judgment on writing is based on how much it captivates me when I’m reading. And only once have I read a series of books where I thought the writer wasn’t as talented as most. However, even with that series, I’ve heard of numerous people really enjoying it. Anyway, I am not a critical person and wish others weren’t either.

But then tonight happened. I’m least intimidated and most clear headed when my insomniac tendencies kick in. I became an occasional insomniac in college. As I’ve grown older, a typical night for me is to fall asleep, wake up a few hours later, and lie wide awake in bed. In college, I’d use this time to study and found that I’m most aware of my thoughts at this time. There are no distractions. Of course, this was acceptable in college because I could take a nap during the day. But now, if I have too many nights like these, I have a hard time chasing my preschoolers around during the day. I try really hard to fall back asleep during the school year, but summer vacation welcomes my sleepless nights so I can write!

Okay. So here it is. My writing. Or I guess I should say, a history of my writing.

Let’s start at the beginning.

Above you will see my “girnool” from kindergarten and 1st grade. (My spelling has unfortunately not improved since then…nor my handwriting…)

Early poems…The top I remember writing in church and thinking it was really funny. This is the first thing I ever remember writing and I felt quite a sense of accomplishment. The bottom poem does not make sense, but I remember trying to be like Anne of Green Gables. She spoke a poem in the movie, and I just wanted to sound like her. So I wrote it and walked around my yard reading it like I was Anne.

And finally, you’ll find a riveting tale of having to move seats in class. Traumatizing, I know!

Throughout the years, I have always been a writer. I’ve always had a HUGE imagination, and I spent so much of my free time in grade school and Jr. High writing stories about being a princess or living on a deserted island. Here is some of my writing from those years:

And then I have the diaries…

Like I said before, college tried to kill my imagination in writing:( I had an idea dry spell for about six months after college. Then in a desperate plea, I cried out, “God! I just want to write! Please give me something creative and exciting to write about!” And the result… is in this notebook…(cue choir of angels).

That’s right. Five Star. This notebook contains a story I’ve been working for about a year now. It’s details came after my prayer from a lesson I was teaching a third grade class about outer space. And right then and there, I said aloud, “What if…..!” And my mind has been planning and plotting ever since. Most of my hesitation in actually writing too much of it has been who to write it for. Children? Young Adults? Older adults?…nah, too boring. Finally my fiance and biggest supporter said, “Lyndsay, just write it for yourself. Who cares what others think about it?”

Ta da!!!! Magic! Andy’s comment made me realize that I need to write like Little Kid Lyndsay again. When I was growing up, I never cared what anyone else thought about my writing. And I wrote and wrote and wrote. Maybe adults become scared to write because we care too much about the opinions of others. When it really doesn’t matter.

Therefore, I hereby create the new genre of Lyndsay. It’s a genre characterized by fascinating plotlines and love stories that always end happily. Main characters will be a lot like me: enthralled with nature and determined to make the most out of life. My genre may not be of interest to many others, but it will captivate me as I write it, and I refuse to write anything else! And when Stephen King says it’s terrible, I will laugh in his face and say, “You may have millions of dollars, but I have happiness!” Hahaha!

That’s all…time to try sleeping. Pre-K graduation is on Thursday! After that, bring on the sleepless nights!

Here’s Mollie sleeping by my bed. I couldn’t resist sharing her cuteness.

“Really, Lyndsay? Did you have to wake me up with the sound of your camera?”

Happy Mother’s Day!

2010-05-09T12:13:00.001-07:00

I made this flower bouquet for my mom.

The flowers were really easy to make. I’ll post a tutorial later:)

Here are the pups basking in the sunshine of this beautiful day!

“Woo hoo! Something new to eat!”

Happy Mother’s Day!

A Little Bit About Me…

2010-05-07T18:30:00.001-07:00

This is me in Hawaii on a trip I took last summer BY MYSELF…I flew by myself, went on a LOST tour by myself, spent most of my time reading on the beach by myself…

Don’t I seem so adventurous? So independent? Don’t I seem like such a perfect example of a young girl out of college ready to see the world???

Actually, these words do not describe me at all. If I learned one thing in Hawaii, it was this: I’m not as independent as I’d like to appear. I like the idea of being that heroic independent female in the books that I read…but that’s not me. If I’m going to save the day, I want a friend to help me. If I’m going to fly to Hawaii (which scares me to death!) I want the person next to me to be my best friend! …If I learned another thing in Hawaii, it was this: I’m in love with the Midwest. I love living where the trees change in the fall, where it snows, where it gets super hot in the summer and makes my curly hair huge with humidity. I love teaching preschool, eating mom’s home-cooked meals each night, and playing with my puppy, Mollie.

This is Mollie…so cute!

And now, almost a year later, I’m getting married! I must share my love story soon…I’m excited to have my best friend with me on plane trips now.

Yes, life sure is lovely…

P.S. Mollie isn’t so small anymore:

Mother’s Day in Pre-K

2010-05-05T14:00:00.001-07:00

My Pre-K class is working on paper flowers for Mother’s Day.

How cute!

I traced each kid’s hand 3 times and then cut them all out. If the child was able, he or she cut.

Then each kiddo colored the thumbs yellow. This will be the center of our flower.

I poked a pipe cleaner through the bottom portion of the palm and then rolled the thumb into the middle.

When the paper was wound tightly, I used the end piece of the pipe cleaner to wrap around the flower and keep it in place. This was a lot easier than using glue and holding it together for 5 minutes till dry:)

After that, we rolled each of the fingers down with a pencil.

Paper flower bouquet, anyone?

The kiddos are so proud:)

Aliens!

2010-05-03T20:25:00.001-07:00

My last theme in Pre-K is outer space. The kids LOVE it!

We made aliens for our ceiling.

I folded a piece of long construction paper in half…

Cut out random alien shapes on the fold…

And there you have it. Simple as cupcakes!

Pre-K Fun

2010-04-22T14:47:00.001-07:00

Oceans in a bottle! We’re just finishing our Oceans unit and made these today.

We had a gazillion of these…

And all of this:

I filled the bottles about 1/3 of the way with blue water (food coloring). Then I filled another 1/3 with vegetable oil. The kids added glitter, confetti, and sequence. I glued the lid shut with Elmer's glue and then hot glued the edges just to be sure those little kiddos could not open them!

The kids LOVED every minute of it. They were mesmerized by their oceans when they were finished making them.

Edible Easter Baskets

2010-04-03T20:16:00.001-07:00

Another great Bakerella idea…

Happy Easter!

Edible Easter Flowers

2010-04-01T11:31:00.001-07:00

I knew I was going to make these for Grandma’s big Easter brunch this year, and I’ve been so excited. So at 1:30 this morning, I started baking!

I’ve never made cookies on sticks before, so I wanted to make sure the stick would not fall off. If you can tell, there’s extra dough on the back of the cookies to make sure the stick stays put!

The back looks kind of funky, but the other side is really cute! I’ve always piped/flooded cookie icing, but I wanted to try painting it on. If you get the right consistency of icing, nothing flows over the edge. Let me tell you, this saves time! And if you take your time, it looks just as good;)

I bought these buckets and foam at Hobby Lobby!

The ribbon was intended to be placed around the bottom of each cookie, right where it meets the stick…but I did not succeed in tying beautiful bows. Maybe you’ll have better luck!

Here’s the finished pink one…so cute! (As you can tell, I finally finished when the sun came up!)

And here are the rest. Edible Easter flowers! Yum! They will look so nice on Grandma’s tables.

With the rest of the sugar cookie dough, I made bunnies and carrots.

I used a sugar dough recipe from a simple online search. For the icing, I mix together 2 egg whites and 1 teaspoon of lemon juice. Then I add 3 cups of powdered sugar. I add water to find a consistency that works for me:) Enjoy!

I must quickly show what a Pre-K mom made for our spring party! These bags are so adorable!

Hopefully these pictures inspire someone, somewhere:)

Getting ready for Easter

2010-03-28T08:21:00.001-07:00

Easter morning is huge at Grandma’s house. Over 100 people come to a big brunch and egg hunt. Guess who’s doing the baking!

I felt the need to practice a bit before the big baking days. Here are my chick cake pops! I got the idea from bakerella.com

These little guys are just cake balls…no pops. I’m glad this is just practice, haha!

For a more classy look, these are the same on the inside, but dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with nuts.

To make cake balls, just get a cake mix from the store, follow the directions on the box for baking and then let it cool. Once cooled all the way through, break it apart and mix it together with 16oz of icing. Form into balls and put in the refrigerator to chill. If you want cake pops, add the stick before putting in the fridge. Once chilled, dip in chocolate and Viola! Again, this idea was found on www.bakerella.com. Yum Yum!

Baby Shower

2010-03-27T13:49:00.001-07:00

My Pre-K kids threw a surprise baby shower for our aide. I made baby cookies:)

The kids loved them:)

Cake Pops!

2010-03-09T16:45:00.001-08:00

I love cake pops.

They are even better than cake.

And cake balls are delicious, too. These are cake pops…without the stick.

Candy molds make me happy:)

Yum, Yum!!!

Cupcakes!

2010-03-02T18:39:00.001-08:00

It’s been so long since a post…but I have a legitimate excuse. I’m engaged! More on that later. I must show an adorable cupcake pin cushion my friend of a kindred heart helped me make.

How adorable is that! A little background knowledge…my puppy, Mollie, ate my last cushion…

Yes, really…those are pins in the bottom left of her X-Ray.

She was one sick puppy. But now she’s a few months wiser…a few months more mature…

Wait…

Uh oh…

Okay, this might be a problem…

Aunt Dene’s Red Velvet Cake

2010-02-07T18:49:00.001-08:00

My parents built a cabin in a quaint, little town located in Southern Illinois. The town consists of narrow country roads with old houses appearing ever so often. The only vehicles that drive on these road are pickup trucks and four wheelers. I prefer the latter. When riding down the roads, I think about the vast history of each homestead, the generations of actual people who lived their lives there for the past two hundred years. A tiny graveyard in the middle of a clearing in the woods even shows stones from the 1700s. On weekends, we attend a one room church that practically doubles in attendees when my family is present. The same people have been there every Sunday morning, week after week, year after year, for their entire lives. Aunt Dene is one of the members of the church and she’s the youngest woman in her 80s I’ve ever known. Aunt Dene, who is “Aunt” to everyone, has never lived anywhere else but this narrow, country road on which our cabin is built. Her stories display a lifetime of memories. I had the privilege of hearing these stories when Aunt Dene gave me the gift of time as she passed down her Red Velvet cake recipe that had been in her family for many years. To gain the authentic feeling of baking Red Velvet cake in Aunt Dene’s kitchen, make sure the weather is a pleasant 65 degrees, open the window above the sink to let a breeze blow through, occasionally open the creaking screen door to pet the stray cat who has made your porch his home, be sure the only background noises are the hummingbirds feeding on the feeder outside and the clanking of cooking utensils, drink sweet tea, and bake. Bake slowly. Take great care in each step of the recipe. Patience is the secret key. And you’ll bake the most fantastic Red Velvet cake you’ve ever tasted.

Main Ingredient One: Patience

Sift together 2 cups and 4 TBS Swans Down cake flour, 1 tsp salt, and 2 TBS cocoa. Sift 3 times. Patience in sifting makes the cake taste like velvet.

Main Ingredient Two: A Touch of Love

Hand mix 1 1/2 cups sugar and 1/2 cup of butter flavored Crisco.

Main Ingredient Three: Acceptance of Changing Time

Add two eggs, 1 tsp vanilla, 1 oz of water and 1 oz of food coloring (An ounce can be converted to 6 tsp.) Mix these with an Electric Mixer. “This was not as easy when my mom was young.” –Aunt Dene

Main Ingredient Four: Smiles and Stories of days long ago.

Add 1 cup buttermilk and the sifted ingredients. Alternate starting with sifted and ending with sifted. Then add a combined 1 tsp baking soda and 1 tsp vinegar. Mix with electric mixer.

Fold with a spoon to remove air bubbles. Pour into 2 greased and floured 9 inch round pans. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Let cool under the window. Attend evening church and then come back for finishing touches.

Now, picture the window still open, the sounds of crickets and cicadas singing their nightly songs, and the occasional scent of a burning bon fire.

The Icing on the Cake:

Warm 1 cup of whole milk in a sauce pan.

Wisk 1/3 cup of Gold Medal Wonder quick mixing flour and 1/2 cup of milk

Add to the sauce pan.

Cook on medium heat till boiling and boil for 1 minute.

Put pan in ice water to cool, stirring occasionally.

Mix the cooled mixture with electric mixture for 1 minute.

Add 1 cup white Crisco, 1 cup sugar, 1 tsp vanilla, and a pinch of salt.

Mix with electric mixer for 5-7 minutes till creamy and smooth.

Piecing it all together:

Use a knife to cut an incision of about an inch around the circumference of each cake. Be sure this incision is in the middle.

Then separate the cake into halves with a piece of string, moving it back and forth until you have sliced the cake in two. Do this to the other round cake and add icing to each of the four pieces. Layer them one on top of the other until all four pieces are held together by the icing. Ice the sides and top of cake till all red is covered.

Final Ingredient: Understanding the memory you’ve just made.

Wish you had brought your camera along to document the process, but know it might not have been the same if you had. Sometimes old fashioned mental pictures are the best you’ll ever take. Hug Aunt Dene and say that her time spent with you was even more of a blessing than she can know. Carefully place the covered cake on the back of the four wheeler and ride to the cabin to share with your family. Smile.

(I made my cakes shaped like hearts for Valentine’s Day, but that’s a lovely part about baking – You are always free to make new memories, even while remembering the old!)

Super Bowl Cookie Puzzle!

2010-02-05T17:56:00.001-08:00

Cookies make me happy. I wanted to try making something I’ve never seen before. (Although I’m sure it has been done.)

I rolled out my dough, cut the shape of a football, and then cut various pieces. It took me a while to get the dough even from left to right. (This baking cookies business is very new to me!) My football did not fit on the pan so I had to separate some of the pieces…

Separating the pieces was necessary but caused quite a ruckus later! Notice how one of my cookies must have been too thin and shrank up a bit as it cooked too long. I had the most difficult time trying to put the puzzle back together:)

But then I remembered I had taken a picture before baking, haha! That was extremely useful.

After the cookies cooled, I piped brown icing around the edges using a decorating bag and a #3 Wilton tip.

Then I flooded the middle of each cookie. I later drew in the lines of the football. Touchdown!

Piping and flooding are so much fun! To make the icing, mix together 2 egg whites and a teaspoon of lemon juice. When those are thoroughly blended, mix in 3 cups of powdered sugar. Set aside about 3/4 cup for later. (You’ll use this to make the lines on your football.) Add brown food coloring and use some of this icing to pipe the outlines of the cookies. (Make sure you cover the rest of the icing with a damp paper towel to keep it from drying out.) Once your piping dries, you can start flooding. Just add a bit of water, maybe 1 teaspoon, to your icing. Stir the icing, adding in just a bit of water at a time until it’s a consistency you can work with. You want the icing to be thinner than before, but thick enough that you’ll have to use a toothpick to spread it around on the cookie. The piping serves as a dam to keep the icing from flooding over the edges of the cookies. When that dries, draw on your football lines! I used a decorating bag for the lines and a #5 Wilton tip.

Happy Super Bowl Sunday!

Hearts for the Teachers

2010-02-04T14:24:00.001-08:00

I made these cookies last night for the teachers at my school…

They were gone before lunch!

So pretty!!! Happiness!

LOST

2010-02-02T17:24:00.001-08:00

Okay…this is definitely a cake wreck…

But if you watch LOST, maybe you can appreciate it. This is Hurley and Locke waiting to blow up the hatch.

The dynamite is made from tootsie rolls and toothpicks. Hey, you have some Arst on you…

3…2…1… KAAAAABOOOOMMMM!

HEY! There’s a man down there!

Well hello, Desmond brothah! See you in another life.

HAPPY LOST PREMIER NIGHT!

Birthday Cupcakes

2010-02-01T14:25:00.001-08:00

I’ve been looking forward to making these cupcakes for weeks!

I received this cupcake tier for my birtHday and was looking for the perfect opportunity to breAk it in. Never having made cuPcakes before, I was a little nervous.

I’m in love with candy molds. I filled each candy Present with my Grandma Marie’s peanut butter filling recIpe. Scrumptious surprise in each bite…

Yellow cake from a box. Chocolate iciNg from a containEr. Still abSolutely deliciouS.

Happy Happy Birthday, Mom!

Creating = Happiness

2010-01-31T13:58:00.001-08:00

I love to create. Bake. Write. Embroider. Crochet (Thanks, Grandma Joy!). Sew. If I’m creating, I’m happy.

Here is my first batch of sugar cookies decorated with Royal Icing.

A little too much fun if you ask me:)

So here’s to creating! I have little butterflies in my stomach thinking of what wonderful happiness/creations will be displayed here on my new weblog.