Chocolate Fudge

This is the easiest dessert I have made in my kitchen.I got the basic recipe from a colleague of mine, and I tweaked it a little bit as per my taste. Actually, it was my son who made this fudge.  I just helped him in pouring the final result into the pan.

You need

• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup dark chocolate chips
• 1 can of condensed milk
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp butter
• wax paper

Steps

• Mix the chocolate chips, condensed milk and butter, and heat in the microwave for 1 minute. If the chocolate is not yet melted, mix and heat 15 sec at a time.You don't want to overdo this. 
• Mix in the vanilla extract.
• Pour into a 9 * 9 pan lined with wax paper. You can also line it with aluminium foil sprayed with baking oil.
• Let it set in refrigerator for 2 hours.

• Cut it into squares or whatever shape you desire. Its easier to cut it when its right out of the refrigerator.
• To pack it as a present for my son's classroom, I wrapped it in wax paper with a hemp string around it and added a card.

Dig into it!

Knitting Project

With the temperatures finally dropping here in our city, I have been itching to start a warm cozy knitting project for my baby girl. After all the baby dresses I made for her(never got time to post about those), I thought it was time for a sweater. With no patience to wait until I could go buy some girly colors, I decided to start with whatever I had. From my stash, Green and Grey combination it is.

 Hopefully, I will be able to complete this project before this winter ends.

Mason Jar Snow Globe

As always, I have been working on many small projects and crafts, but too lazy to post. This snow globe is an easy breezy project I did with my 4 year old. He made it not just for himself, but also for few of his friends to take to a Christmas play date. So, I could use few of the mason jars which I had stored over the years.

Stuff needed

• Baby oil
• Mason Jar
• Fake snow or styrofoam ball
• Miniature tree
• Figurines
• E 6000 glue

Steps

1. Attach the tree and the figurines to the base of the mason jar lid. I used E 6000 glue. On one globe, I had used hot glue, but the tree came off after few days. So, I would advice against using it. For the tree in it, I cut a small branch of the artificial Christmas tree.
2. For making snow, we rubbed pieces of styro foam ball. You can also use fake snow or glitter sold at craft stores.
3. In the mason jar, add the baby oil and snow, and close the lid(to which figurines are attached) using some glue. 
4. Screw the other part of lid.

Shake it, and enjoy!

Super Hero Birthday Party

This last year, all my son wanted was to turn 4. For him, 4 is a super big age that would enable him to do so much more and he would be powerful like his favorite super heroes. Like any kid his age, he is totally into super heroes, and can spend whole day in a character, talking and enacting like one. So, it was not a surprise that he wanted a super hero birthday party. Well, I really did not think I could pull this off with so much going on at our home, but with my Mom's help it was a success and kids had lots of fun.

Super Hero Invitations

Here is a look at the invitations. I took the batman comic image for the background and added the details with some splash of color. 

Here is my Batman just hours before the party waiting for his friends and the party to start.

Cake Table

Along with cake and cupcakes, there was jelly, cotton candy, chocolate dipped strawberries and a small candy buffet. For the backdrop, I used empty boxes wrapped in black paper to make buildings, with yellow windows from post its.

Super Hero Cupcakes

For kids, I made Kabir's favourite chocolate cupcakes topped with super hero fondant toppers. I ordered these fondants from CupCakesCentral on etsy.

Batman Cake

Kabir asked my mom for a Fruit and Nut cake for his birthday, and that is what she made. Watching her make this cake made me realize how slow I am in baking(and kitchen overall). She left the icing and decoration to me. For the color of icing, I tried the color spray for the first time, and liked the result. Not sure how much color it would have needed to get that dark color otherwise. So, spray was a good option. Finally, added the fondant buildings and batman logo.

Banner closeup

This party was all about reusing all my older party stuff. I reused this burlap banner from Kabir's Dino party and just changed the age from 3 to 4.

Superhero Suckers with felt capes.

Cotton Candy Cones

These cones are made out of prints of comic page off internet. This was a super easy project.

The boxes for candy cones, and pops were thermocol packing material covered in super hero comic pages. Our local comic shop normally gives out free sample comics with every purchase. I used these free comics for decoration.

Kryptonite Jelly

Juice Boxes wrapped in Spider Man comic pages

Chocolate dipped Strawberries

Candy Buffet

Framed Comic covers

Super Hero Capes

These are no-sew capes from felt and were super easy to make.  

A teeny tiny cape my Mom sew for my baby daughter. Kabir insisted that she needed to dress up for the occasion as well.

Super Hero Masks

Foam masks matching with cape for each kid.

Super Hero Wrist Cuffs

Coloring sheet for kids 

I drew the skyline and some logos on the rolling sheet. This kept the kids busy until all the kids had arrived to start the games. I got this idea from another super hero party online. Its still on our wall, and Kabir likes to color it on and off.

Goodie Bags

Ordered these bags from amazon. Filled it up with super hero mugs, 3D notepads and some candy. It was big enough for kids to stuff their capes in it as well. Hopefully, these bags will last over multiple uses.

Games

Kabir had asked me multiple times that he wanted to play lots of games at his party. So, I planned for few. He also had mentioned that he did not want a pinata as he did not like the idea of breaking it. We had a meltdown at his last party after his dinosaur pinata broke down. It is still lying in our store with its head taped back on :-)

Game #1 : Punching Game

So, in place of pinata, we played this punching game which I saw on pinterest. On the back of each punch hole was a super hero cup in a brown bag. I mixed the hot potato game with it. Each kid that was eliminated, got a chance to punch and claim their gift.

Game #2 : Super Hero vs Villains

The kids were divided in 2 teams of super heroes and villains. As per the game, all the super heroes were to get silly string can each, and they had to spray the villains. But when I looked at the unhappy faces of the kids in the villain line, the plan quickly changed and even the villains were handed out the silly string can, and kids ran around spraying each other.

Game #3: Tying the Villains

Again kids were divided into 2 teams, and each was allocated one villain each. They had to tie the villain with the toilet paper. By the end of this game, kids went totally crazy with the toilet rolls, and our yard was filled with it :-)

                                                        Game # 4: Knock the Buildings.   
The buildings made for the cake table were reused to play the bowling game. The buildings were stacked together and kids had to bowl and knock them over with a kids basket ball.

A Super Happy Birthday to my dearest son who is so proud to be 4 these days. 

Flower Birthday Cake

Today is my Mom's birthday and its after many years that we are together on this day. So, I wanted to do a little something for her to make her day special. For all the unbelievable cakes she made for us year after year, the least I could do was bake one for her. 

I can never thank her enough for her undying love and support that she has provided me over the years.. for her unbelievable patience, for all the sacrifices she gave for us without ever letting us know about it, for all the late nights she was up with me during my exams, for not only encouraging my passion of baking but also for teaching me the correct way of doing it, for putting up with my teenage years and for never giving up on me.. and for all the countless things she did, and is still doing for me.

Her love and support never ends. She is here with me these days to help us out with our new baby girl. I really would have gone crazy with a newborn and a preschooler, if not for her.  Last couple of months, I have seen her get up everyday before I do, deal with all the pains that old age has given her, and help with all the house work with such energy and ease (which normally would have left unattended if left to me). And then for keeping my son busy with endless hours of story reading, when I wanted to sleep few extra hours. Thanks my Mommy.

As a mother, if I am able to do half of what my mom did for us, I'll consider myself a successful mother.

A Very Happy Birthday to my Dearest Mommy.

Lots of cutting

I am in the middle of many projects these days, most of which involve a lot of felt cutting.

Here is a peek into the butterflies I have been cutting for my next project. Its hard to find time these days to work on my ongoing craft projects. With a new born, and a preschooler(who behaves like a teenager), these were cut at a rate of one butterfly a day. Hopefully, this will done soon and I will be back with another post once its complete.

Happy Crafting!

Sprinkle Baby Mobile

Couple of month's back, when  my sister threw me a Sprinkle baby shower, there was all the cute stuff she made for it, and I really wanted to reuse some of it. She had made these raindrops from cardstock, which hung from the tissue pom poms. Here is a look.

So before I discarded the pom poms, I detached these drops with the hope of making a baby mobile for our new baby girl.

Few days back I came across this mobile on Bugs and Fishes by Lupin. And I knew that I could reuse the drops that my sister made, to make cloud and sprinkle mobile.

I selected the best 4 drop strings for the lower half of mobile.

Here is the pink color cloud I sew from felt.

Here is the final result after attaching the drops to the cloud.

My daughter loves looking at this mobile, and has given some of her best smiles while playing with it.

Rainbow Birthday Banner

Here is a quick post on the rainbow birthday basket I made this summer. It was for the Silent Auction at my son's school, the proceeds of which were to go to school's parent's association. The package included a birthday banner, cake banner and popcorn cone.

Birthday banner

Cake Banner

Popcorn Cones

Reversible Super Hero Cape

There goes my superhero..

My boy is into superheroes, just like any other boy his age. I often found him wearing a blanket or my shawl as a cape around his neck while acting to be a superhero. So, I thought he deserved a cape, especially, after he patiently witnessed me making many dresses for his soon to arrive baby sister, last month.  

I decided to make a reversible cape, with Batman on one side and Superman on the other.

On looking at various fabric options for the cape: Fleece, Felt and Satin, I found satin best, considering the flow of the material. I followed two tutorials for the cape: the one on Georgia Leigh for the design of appliques and the reversible pattern, and another on come on, ilene one for the shape.

Here is how it turned out:

After one cape, I made another one for Kabir's friend in the neighborhood. Soon came another request for a mask from Kabir. I made a quick one from felt but it didn't turn out that great and was pretty uncomfortable to wear.  In a few days, my Mom was to visit us, and I told Kabir that Nanima(grandma) would make a mask once she was here.  Even before my mom was out of jetlag, she kept my word, and made this amazing mask from foam.

And here is another look...

Happy Sewing!