Blogging by Request: Blue Sweater!

Thanks, Tom, for reminding me of the beautiful sweater you made for Waylon when he was born!  The sweater was tucked into a drawer just waiting for its moment to shine.  Your prize is a spontaneous photo shoot, a playdough (sp? playdoh?) recipe, and your very own blog post about it all. 

It's always nice to receive baby gifts to grow into a couple years down the road.  This sweater is thick and soft and perfect for a chilly fall day like today.  Coincidentally, two of Waylon's favorite words to say right now are "poncho" and "cozy".  No joke, Poncho is one of his nicknames.  And all day long he refers to anything soft as "cozy."  It's the sweetest thing to hear.


And it pairs perfectly with...
No pants!



Here's the thing.  I do not consider myself to be a particularly crafty mama.  A creative person, yes.  But not super great at the organized kids' craft projects.  For example, this summer I told myself that one way to battle the July "too many long, lazy, lonely afternoons in a row" blues would be to pick one simple project off of Pinterest for each weekday in July and do them with the kids.  That place is a treasure trove of ideas, and they are not all fancy or complicated, believe me.  This routine lasted exactly one day.  Actually, to be more precise, it lasted about 30 seconds.  We mixed baking soda and vinegar in an empty jelly jar, watched it fizz, and called it a volcano.  But that was only after the kids annoyingly and relentlessly BEGGED for this science project to commence - all day long.

While I may have room for improvement in my Pinterest success rate and my overall craftiness, once I discover an easy project that the kids and I enjoy, I find myself returning to it repeatedly.  This playdoh recipe is an example of that.  Don't get me wrong, we love the store bought kind, too, but this stuff is fun to make occasionally and only takes about 5 minutes.

Playdough (doh?) Recipe
Ingredients:
1 cup Flour
1/2 cup Salt
1 tablespoon Cream of Tartar
1 tablespoon Cooking Oil
1 cup Water

Directions:
1. In a medium sized pan, combine all dry ingredients and mix well. Add wet ingredients to pan and, again, mix well.  (I like to add gel food coloring at this point, but other people prefer to do it after the dough is done.) 

2.  Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly until it forms a ball.

3. The dough is ready when the mixture pulls away from the pan and when the wet parts begin to look dry. 

4. Turn the dough onto your countertop or some waxed paper and knead it until smooth. It will be quite warm to the touch.  

(Adapted from Counting Coconuts)