What my child is reading this week

This is my first meme and it is part of Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.

R's newest favorite book is Where Is My Teddy Bear? by Erica Bing. I looked all over the net and didn't find a picture. The book teaches prepositions in a short, direct, fun manner. The approach is a question, answer format about everyday objects. The page with the answer has flaps to open to discover where the object is. R has it almost memorized. Cute.

This magnetic was supposed to be a Christmas present but the hubby gave it to R for some reason. She likes moving the magnetic animals around but doesn't really have alot of interest in doing it in an interactive way. The book has prompts for the child to place the animals in certain places.

We are also reading bible stories from this fold out book. R enjoys the pictures and the stories are short. We've read The Noisiest Boat (noah's ark) and A Fierce Giant and a Brave Boy (david and goliath)I plan on using The Night Jesus Was Born which is in this book as part of our advent too.

Cakes in a jar and cranberry vodka

Today was a busy day-besides the typical taking care of baby and cleaning, I got started on more Christmas gifts.

The first was cranberry vodka. I thought about cranberry liquer but decided on just the flavored vodka-same idea just no sugar.

MY RECIPE for Cranberry Vodka:

1 liter of vodka-don't go for the cheapo stuff

1 bag of cranberries-chopped

peel of 1 lemon-grated

peel of 1 orange-grated

Dump together in a sterilized glass container with lid and let steep for at least 2 weeks

Shake every day

When ready to bottle, strain solids and rebottle in glass container.

I plan on using 2 yard sale find glass containers w/ stoppers-originally from Pier 1 and possibly an old blue wine bottle if needed.

I also just got through making Cakes in a Jar. This idea seems way weird to me. You bake a cake, any cake in a canning jar and seal it. Sounds simple though. I used this recipe-  http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Banana-Nut-Cake/Detail.aspx since I had lots of yucky looking bananas hanging around in the freezer. I used 1/2 pint (8 oz) Jars and filled them approximately 1/2 full.

If these work, I'll probably try a pound cake of some kind next. A brown sugar one sounds good but most of the recipes I have come across call for shortening. I refuse to use shortening.

I actually hear a few pops..the jars are sealing :)

Felt food

Last night was my first attempt at felt food. I made 1 (one, uno) strawberry. I now know why a product made from 55 cents worth of materials costs much more. I made a simple strawberry and it seemed to take forever. and I NEVER figured out how to make a french knot. All the tutorials said it was easy to moderatley easy. Well, my over-educated, master's degree brain was unable to figure it out.

I guess if I plan to make more stuff, I better get busy on it. At the rate I sew, I will be working all night Christmas Eve to get finished.

I have plans to make: more strawberries, 2 slices of bread, lettuce, tomato, bacon, slice of cheese, sunny side up egg, chocolate chip cookies x 2, a doughnut w/ icing and sprinkles, pancake w/ syrup and butter, and some type of meat. Now that I think about it, maybe I should pare the list down and complete the others by her birthday.

Head wreath/fairy crown

I made little R a fairy crown last night in a little over an hour-including MANY interruptions. I wasn't completely pleased with the results but it wasn't bad for my first try. I used white floral wire, white floral tape, various tiny flowers and 4 bead picks. I still need to add ribbons to the back-possibly with a few beads kept on with knots.
I think it will add a nice touch to her fairy wand and tutu I am working on for Christmas.
I've made these before for costumnes but always used ivy type greenery for a base-never just wire. For a little girl, I think I like these are much better. A big greenery based one might look a bit out of place on a toddler. Pictures to come.