We always make my Grama’s famous buns when family is going to be home. They are a special treat and the smell brings me right back to my childhood. We always do a knot for these buns. But I thought it would be fun to change it up and try something new for Spring.
There were a couple of different “styles” of bunny buns that were circulating throughout Pinterest that caught my eye. One type simply rolled the dough into a ball. Then you snipped two ears in the top of the bun. This was done with some scissors and the you added two eyes with skewers.
The other method was rolling the dough into a long strip and then folding it over itself and then twisting to make the ears, and adding a little ball of dough for the tail.
We decided to go with the roll and twist for our bunny buns this time. It took a little time to get into the swing of things and get the shape just right. It proved a little trickier than we thought. Needless to say, some of the bunny buns were beautiful and perfectly smooth bunnies and others were well bumpy, lumpy, lopsided bunnies!
At the end of the day, the house was filled with the wonderful scent of homemade buns and even though some were not perfect looking they all tasted delicious!
I am so excited to announce my Etsy shop launch! Introducing to you made by mum market, a place to find handmade creations made with intention by me!
Just over a year ago, with lots of family support I began my blog – made by mum. I have loved writing blog posts and creating content that I am proud of. The etsy shop just seemed like the next natural step in this adventure.
As with anything new, there are always worries about how it will go, will it be successful, what if I fail? But as we always tell our kids – you need to try. I am surrounded by so much support and love and no matter how this little shop turns out, I am proud of myself for trying something that I never thought I would have the courage to do.
So if you want to go and check out my little market at made by mum market on etsy that would be wonderful.
Both my parents have had milestone birthdays in the last 6 months. My Dad turned 80 in November and my Mom is turning 75 this week! When I look at them both I don’t really see them as older. They walk everyday, do their own groceries, love taking Milo for walks, and are both in good health.
I wanted to get my Mom a card to mark this birthday but was having trouble finding one that I liked, so I decided to make my own.
I have played around with watercolours before but I am so happy with how this turned out! I outlined 75 and then started filling in the white space with watercolour flowers and leaves. I let the flowers dry in between adding more layers and this definitely helped to give it a little more depth.
The final step is to outline the numbers with a permanent marker. I was going to erase the pencil line, but I think that I could mess up the line. I don’t want to take any chances.
So the next time you are searching for the perfect card, maybe you should just make your own!
A little glimpse of our Christmas cookie baking and decorating. A few years ago my daughter and I went to a cookie decorating evening with my work. My co-workers’ mom had her own cookie business and she ran a little evening workshop. We learned tips and techniques to create the perfect cookie.
I am usually pretty good at trying new things and on my first attempts I did not do very well. This is so much harder than it looks. You need a steady hand and a lot of patience. I honestly don’t know how these small business’ crank out hundreds of intricately decorated cookies.
As a family we decided to try cookie decorating at home. My adult kids loved it so much that we now do it as a yearly Christmas activity. Our skill levels are all over, and sometimes one cookie turns out amazing and the next is a flop. We continue have our yearly cookie decorating evening and there are always lots of laughs.
Also as an insider tip – sprinkles fix everything!
I simply love visiting local farm shops on the weekends. One of my favourites is Willowtree Farm. This lovely shop is located in Port Perry, Ontario. It has a wonderful country aesthetic and is strongly based on farm to table products and hand made items.
You can be sure on any given visit you can pick up a bouquet of flowers for your table, homemade jam for your morning breakfast, a sweet or salty treat for a lazy afternoon, and all the supplies you need for a delicious Sunday dinner.
This week I was especially excited about their vegetable box, which was an amazing $10 and was filled with potatoes, brussel sprouts, garlic, a red pepper, tomato, an eggplant, rainbow carrots and an onion. It was the perfect combination for 2 people and will definitely jazz up our meals this week.
With Christmas just around the corner, many of the displays are scattered with handmade items. You can find many different kinds of locally made Christmas ornaments waiting to be placed upon your tree. I especially loved the felted bird and snowman ornaments.
At this time of year it is great to be thinking of gifting local products and Willowtree has a wide variety of jams, pickles, chutneys, mustards and many more. All of which would be wonderful for gift giving. Last year we received a basket of local handmade items as a gift. It is great to know that there are so many local artisans creating fabulous products.
I was especially drawn to a display that was full of coffee and tea products. The display was set up in a vintage Grandmother’s Hoosier Cabinet/baking cupboard. We have one of these treasured cupboards in our family and it holds so many happy memories for me. I thought it was amazing that they were using such a beautiful piece for this display.
Will you wander to Willowtree Farm and check them out? I guarantee you will find something wonderful.
On Thanksgiving weekend, we attempted to make ‘pumpkin buns’ by modifying our regular ‘Grama Buns’ recipe. We usually shape the buns into a ‘knot,’ and instead, we used butcher twine to create pumpkin-like ribs. (Fun fact: each of a pumpkin’s ‘ribs’ correspond to a set of seeds inside the pumpkin!)
After mixing the dough and kneading it, we let the dough rise (1st rise), then we measured it out into individual buns. Next, we shaped them with the twine, and let them rise again (2nd rise). We then baked them with the twine on. After cooling, the twine was removed, leaving behind some adorable pumpkins.
This process looked super cute, but removing the twine was definitely tricky. Perhaps next time, soaking the twine would have helped it remove a little easier. Regardless of this small hiccup with the twine, they were cute and tasted yummy!
On a recent Pinterest search I discovered The Hammered Flower by Michelle Moore designs. Michelle has created pieces of clothing and art using the hammered flower technique. Her items on Pinterest and Instagram are simply beautiful and inspiring.
The actual process of hammering flowers onto cloth and fabric requires a pre treatment of an alum wash to improve colour and longevity. I however wanted to try this technique on paper. I choose watercolour paper for this application.
My Mom brought me some of her pansies to give it a try. The process was quite simple and the results were amazing. I simply lay the flowers on the water colour paper one at a time. I then covered the pansy with a piece of doubled over paper towel and then used my hammer. It was easy enough to pull back the paper towel to see what spots still needed to be done. There were a few spots that I had missed but I just had to put the paper towel back down again and repeat the hammering.
The exact flower shape and colour transferred onto the water colour paper and then I just had to carefully peel off the pounded flower to discover the print. A recommendation would be to use a pair of fine tweezers to remove the flower remnants as to not smudge your work. It was so exciting to see how well this worked! I am hoping to try it with leaves and other flower petals as well.
My plan is to transform these prints into handmade cards with a simple ‘thank you’ or ‘happy birthday’ message on them. I am also thinking about maybe outlining parts of the flower with a thin lined art marker.
Will you try flower hammered art? This art project is a great combination of my love of gardening and the creative process.
So, the summer has begun and the school year has come to an end. It is a time to rest, renew, and get inspired for the new school year to come. At the beginning of the summer I like to reflect on things I would like to do, projects that I would like to try, and places I would like to go to. This is just a little list of some of the summer things I hope to get the opportunity to do.
- Read at least four books
- Have a picnic with wonderful things to eat
- Go strawberry picking
- Go on a wine tour, maybe in Prince Edward County
- Go to a spa and have a day of complete relaxation
- Learn to use my Cricut with finesse
- Create labels for our classroom using said Cricut
- Organize my craft room
- Create content for my blog
- Walk daily
- Have banana frozen yogurt in a waffle cone
- Visit IKEA
- Spend time with the ones I love
- Afternoon naps
- Make homemade pizza dough once a week
- Have breakfast for supper
- Go to a farm-to-table restaurant
- Go to the farmer’s market weekly
- Woodworking in the garage
- Flower arranging
- Have coffee on the patio
- Complete a felting project
- Kayak
Maybe one of these items sparked your interest and you would like to try it. What items would you have on your list? Happy Summer!
This was a beautiful book that I recently picked up at Winners. I loved the front cover and was drawn to it right away.
The author, Julia Watkins, is the creator of @simply.living.well on Instagram. Her book is jam packed with great tips and diys for living simply and sustainably. What could be better? I have thoroughly enjoyed this book. I highly recommend it as a great read with lots of actionable ideas to implement.
In Julia’s introduction, she shares that, “this is a book your grandmother could have given you. Chock full of tips, recipes, and remedies .”
Using a reusable bag has become second nature to most of us now. Having reusable bags near the front door of your home makes it easy to grab on the way out to shopping. I also recommend keeping a stash of reusable bags in the car. This is very helpful and ensures that you have bags on hand when you need them.
Trying to use what I have on hand has been my most recent challenge. I think my former self just used to go out and get what I needed from the store. Now I try to look around the house to see what I have first. At least half the time, I end up finding the item I needed already in our home. We have a joke at our house that sometimes we need to “shop the basement “.
Using natural choices for cleaning is an important change as well. There are many earth friendly products now on the market for cleaning choices. Julia includes lots of kitchen made recipes for all natural cleaners. Lemons, salt, olive oil, white vinegar, and baking soda are just some of the kitchen items that she uses to create easy cleaning recipes.
With the price increase of groceries we all have had to make some adjustments to our weekly grocery shopping. In our home we create a meal plan that gives us some focus for the week ahead. Making a list to take to the grocery store helps me to stay focused on what I need. Shopping your home freezer and pantry is a great idea as well. We grow our own vegetables in our home garden, and have the guarantee of top freshness.
I highly recommend this book as a great read. I encourage you to try one new simple way to make your home more sustainable and environmentally friendly.
This Spring I have been diligently working to improve our front porch. Slowly, I’ve added some new things that make it a place where I would want to sit and have a cup of coffee or tea, a place where I would like to stay a while.
Porches hold a special place in my heart. My grandparents had a front and back porch, both enclosed with lots of windows and filled with beautiful light. We would visit and have tea and eat homemade cookies on these porches. They were so well loved, and I have so many great family memories of them.
I wanted to try to recreate some of what I loved about those spaces on my own porch. Adding an outdoor rug, new pillows, and new plants has made a huge difference. It’s already starting to feel warm and welcoming.
My latest addition is these planters. I wanted to create a ‘living wall.’ Living walls are usually secured to (non-living) walls, but this one will hang and create some privacy at the open end of our porch. It will continue to grow and fill in as the summer progresses. I am hoping for healthy, lush, trailing plants that will fill the space.
I started by attaching a cedar board to the ceiling of our front porch (with the help of my husband, this is definitely a two person job). This provides a place to anchor in the screw hooks that will hold the new hanging baskets.
I then filled the baskets with a good quality soil, and planted a variety of trailing plants that I bought at my local garden centre, mostly different kinds of ivy. The hanging baskets and inserts were purchased at my local Dollar Tree. I plan on adding some baby spider plants that I currently have rooting in the house for a little more filler over the next coming days.
Overall, I am super happy with how this project is turning out. I am excited to see how my ‘living wall’ fills in and to watch it progress throughout the Summer. I will keep you posted on how it’s doing. Happy gardening!