Halloween Decorations: Magic Potions

Halloween is not spooky enough without a bit of witch craft and magic! So I made these concoctions which will satisfy any child's magical imaginations. Some glass jars with coloured water and icky gooey looking stuff will make an ideal potion display. There are lots of images on the web for potion labels, I've printed out a few of them (just google for potion labels) to go on my glass jars.

For Witches Brew I have just filled water with some red food colouring in a jar, as this is the most popular one in the magic store the jar is almost empty! Snake oil is water with a bit of food colour and oil (If you shake the bottle the oil bubbles give a spectacular look) 

  Wing of Bat is water with green food colour and a fig stem with one fig on it. i think a few more leaves can add more substance. Ogre snot is green olives. The rest of the jars have water with a bit of soy sauce and some dark colour jujubes and a chalk in the other one. These jars would look perfect on a window sill with some cobwebs around them and candle lights all around.

 So easy that you can get kids involved in the process and let everyone's imagination run wild to decide what to fill in the jars, the more the better. Halloween is coming get your magic working!

Halloween Treats: no bake slice

Halloween treats are so much fun to make as they can be a real challenge to be tasty as well as look disgusting or scary all at the same time. This is my first treat for this year's halloween. Well it is a bit early so we will be eating this batch and I'll make another batch for later. This was an experiment which I am very happy about as Elina really enjoyed these slices.

 Ingredients:
150 gms Unsalted Butter Softened
1 Table spoon cocoa powder
1 table spoon icing sugar
8-10 wheat or milk biscuits
1/2 cup Kellogg's Nutri grain
1 cup Kellogg's Coco pops
350 gms White Chocolate Melts
Fondant for decoration or Icing Pens

Recipe- Mix butter, sugar and cocoa in a bowl until well combined. Crush the biscuits and Nutri grain together in a kitchen towel or just wrap in a cling wrap and crush. Mix the crushed mixture with the butter mix and add coco pops. Combine well and line them in a slice tray or a baking dish. It is best to line your slice tray with baking paper first so that the slices can be removed easily. Pat firmly with a spoon and refrigerate for 10 minutes.

Melt the white chocolate in microwave or over a pot of boiling water. Remove tray from the refrigerator and spread white chocolate evenly over the slice. Refrigerate again for one hour or until firm.

Now comes the fun, remove slice from the tray and cut into square pieces as evenly as you can. I found it is easier if you dip the knife in hot water before chopping. I have used fondant to decorate these slices in these ghost and vampire faces in black and red.

I couldn't resist making some of these more colourful monsters as well. Let your imagination run wild and have fun with these easy no bake slices.

Halloween from days gone by

It was a fun year and the greatest halloween party we ever had! We had fun preparing for the party although it was a very last minute decision to have a party, all our friends made it and looked just the part. Memories become more dear when we have shared them with our friends and family. With halloween not so far away now I just loved digging into these old photos and I'm really excited about Halloween this year. 

For this party a few years ago, we decorated the house with cob webs and spiders everywhere with candles all around the room. We hung strips of tissue paper on the window instead of curtains.

My husband and I were dressed as corpse bride and groom. With such short notice we tried to make the best possible with what we could find in the party shop near by and with our imagination.

I replicated this haunted forest salad from a picture I came across on the web. Ghost eggs with olive features, broccoli trees with green coloured spaghetti vines. I cannot wait to get started on this year's halloween with my little daughter.

Dots Appliqué

Another one of Elina's basic striped dress has now got my handmade marks all over it! This is a very basic but comfy striped dress which Elina has worn a couple of times. I found a print that would look good on green stripes in my bag of fabric pieces, feels like I am rummaging through a goodie bag with lots of treats. I don't like throwing away any fabric which is more than 5 cms wide and especially if the print is really interesting. This print is paisley in bright colours on a white colour base. There is something about dots and stripes together that makes anything look bright and fun. I really enjoyed this very easy appliqué  These dots are just circles cut out of a printed fabric and stitched together with running stitch done in a spiral pattern. I have left the edges raw so that they fray after wash and would give a  different look after wash.

Here is a close up of these appliqué  I have used yellow, green and pink colour threads to embroider the spiral pattern. I like asymmetrical patterns so I haven't placed the dots in any particular pattern. 

I have another dress in Pink stripes for Elina and this time I think I'll embroider it a bit traditionally with a modern twist maybe!

Birdie Appliqué Onesie

Basic clothing look good but they look even better with a bit of handicraft. When I was shopping for my baby  I just felt that there are quite a lot of options in the market yet there seems to be something missing, could be just me. I just wanted to add something handmade to my baby girl's wardrobe. I enjoy gifting handmade clothes as much as I love receiving such loving gifts. during my maternity leave I just went a little overboard and made quite a lot of stuff including clothes, toys and bedding for Elina. She enjoyed everything I made and I loved it when she noticed the bright patterns and colours of my handmade creations.

This onesie was the very first piece of clothing my baby wore. She looked like an angel in Pink (I tried not to buy too much pink but it does look the best)  I have used two different prints and a plain yellow coloured fabric to create this Birdie design appliqué. I have used Blanket stitch to create the outline of the bird. Prior to embroidery I prefer to use fabric glue to place the fabric pieces just where I want them to be. It helps keep the fabrics in place.

Here she is five weeks old and as bright as sunshine. She is the most expressive and candid baby I have ever photographed. Although she grew up to be quite shy from six months of age, Elina is a much more friendly little girl now. I love this picture more so as it catches her trying to move her arms when she sees the camera lens.

Khichdi Tikki Recipe for Toddlers

Ever since my daughter has turned one I have got the license to feed her a variety of foods and develop her taste buds to try avoid having a "fussy eater" at home. Elina is very tiny and her Pediatrician has put her on a fat diet so if the recipe below is a bit too fatty then you can Bake them for a more low fat version and remove the potato from the recipe.

Firstly let me explain how I make Khichdi for my little one. I just heat a teaspoon of ghee or oil in a pressure cooker and add cumin, corriander powder and tumeric to taste. Then I add 1 table spoon rice and 1 table spoon daal(any daal or lentils of your choice). Grate some veggies (carrots, zucchini, cabbage,cauliflower) and add some peas, a pinch of salt and one glass water. Then just pop the lid on and pressure cook for 10 minutes or till the rice and daal are cooked. Just stir them after opening the lid and top up with ghee or butter or just serve as is to your hungry toddler.

No matter how little I make but there is always some leftover khichdi which isn't as good to eat by itself the next meal or day. So I came up with this recipe and it was a success so here I am sharing it with everyone.

Here are the simple ingredients:

1/4 cup leftover Khichdi
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1 boiled and peeled potato
1/2 teaspoon corriander powder
Salt to taste (or leave the salt out for a more healthier version)
Oil/Ghee for pan frying

Step 1- Mix all the ingredients together to form a dough. Add more bread crumbs if required.

Step 2- divide the dough into equal parts and make round balls out of the dough. Now flatten these balls a bit to resemble a patty/ tikki/ burger shape.

Step 3- Heat a pan with some oil or ghee for pan fry you can shallow fry it as well. 

Step 4- Keep an eye on it and turn it on the other side and cook till golden brown or cripsy skin appears.

Step 5- Take them out of the pan and into your dish you can even drain the excess oil on a paper towel first before serving.

I served my Tikki with yogurt eyes and tomato ketchup nose to intrigue my lil one and it did work and she loves dots these days and is being encouraged self feeding. A glass of watered down juice and this can be served as a snack or a brekky.

Happy 39th Birthday New Dad!

How often does it happen that you become a new parent on the same day as you 39th Birthday! Well not quite as often so it is a really special occasion won't you agree. My dear friend became a dad on the same day as his 39th Birthday! I have been so busy with so many things lately that it just slipped my mind that I needed to bake a cake. So I put on my super fast thinker's hat on and got baking! I baked dark chocolate mud cake and iced it with my new favourite dark chocolate  Ganache.It is so easy to make and use under fondant covering and just divine to taste, feels like you are in chocolate heaven!

With whatever time I had left after baking, icing and letting the icing set I got onto colouring my fondant and thinking of the easiest but prettiest look on the cake. I did intend to make a figure of my friend holding his bay but just didn't have enough time to do that maybe I will make it some other time as the thought is quite fascinating! 

I covered the cake in white fondant and added stripes of different width and colours onto the cake. Then added a Star shape to the centre and rolled out the fondant in a cylindrical shape to form the numbers 39 with some tiny stars on top. It's done well it sounds easy I guess! some sparklers and the cake is all set to cut. I don't think you can have too much of anything and although all my recent cakes have been made out of fondant I still feel that I have not got tired of the idea! I love baking and love it even more when I get complimented so go on take a hint!

I  just love my Jamie Oliver  two tier cake stand, it's so retro! Might not work  to display very traditional sort of cakes but anything modern and funky and it is the right stand for the job. I even use it sometimes for afternoon tea to serve sandwiches and pastries. Ooh that makes me want to bake some scones now!

 I prefer random thick and thin stripes more than just one width. Single width stripes might look good if they are adjacent to each other in monotones or similar color or maybe patterned!

Dinosaur Wall Art

He is here! One of my earlier posts are of "It's A Boy Baby Shower", which I threw for one of my close friends. Now the baby in mention is here! He is a very cute little bub named Vihaan. Looks just like his dad and is a chubby  little baby, who I would love to see as a soccer player! It just feels so good to see your friend's baby just one year after having your own. I am super excited and especially because any craft that I do for him would be so different from what I would do for Elina. His room would be all about dinosaurs and cars and although I wouldn't allow my daughter a Barbie she still chooses dolly over dinosaurs but cars are her favourite too! I am not sure if Elina is a very girly girl but Pink always fascinates her even if it is a Pink car. My friends have decorated a really nice nursery for Vihaan and I just made a couple of additions to the wall space.

I made these wall hangings for Vihaan's room. I covered the canvas with fabric stapled to the sides. Then cut out dinosaur shapes (I printed out some dinosaurs for shape reference) on foam sheets and pasted them over the fabric covered canvases. You can use any tones you like bright pastels or monochromatic these canvases look so classy and will beat any of the wall arts in a kids boutique store! Easy and charming don't you think so?

 My husband made this "V" from some leftover Pine we had  and I painted it Yellow. The dino shapes are again just cut out from foam sheets. I pasted these shapes with Blu Tac just so that it is easy to come out and can be replaced with any other pattern or photos or maybe just left plain as the decor of the nursery changes! My friend hung this on the wall outside the nursery and it looks nice at the entrance of Vihaan's nursery.

If you don't want to make one with wood them you could make something similar with cardboard or thermocol. Anything simple but crafty goes so well in kids rooms.

Pinwheel Party Invitation and more

I believe this should have been the first post in my series of Pinwheel themed party but I was just so caught up with the preparations that just didn't get time to post anything. Here is the handmade invitation for my daughter's first birthday party.

Here are the party hats which were left inside on my shelf as it slipped my mind to bring these out for the party. Too much to do I guess!

 Hot Pink lootbags with shiny pinwheels for everyone! I baked and iced these cookies with fondant to go in all loot bags with homemade rockyroad and candies. Just circle punched these Thankyou notes and stuck them on these loot bags.

Elina really enjoyed her cake smash although it wasn't quite a smash as much as an exploration of something pretty and new. I patch worked ribbon and added some stones on her tee for the cake smash. I also added some stones, ribbons and feathers for her party hat.

Pinwheel Birthday Party

My Daughter turned one and I wanted to throw a really grand party which is full of color and fun! After weeks of changing my mind I pinned down Pinwheel as the party theme and my husband and I wore our work pants for three months and did craft every night! Believe me it was fun, so much fun that we now don't know what to do with our time. I would ask my husband what I wanted and how to make it and he would get straight onto it. I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as we enjoyed creating each and every piece of decoration. 

Pinwheels made of foam sheets, paper plate chandeliers, zig zag streamers  made from foam sheets, paper fans, paper lanterns, bunting and bright signage were the  decorations indoor and outdoor.

Dessert table was filled with birthday cake, cupcakes, cake pops, candies and a chocolate cake with Elina's favourite toy "Charley Bear". Please view my older post for the detailed pictures of the cake.

I made a photobooth with some props for everyone to take funny pictures. The photobooth was next to "Elina's Pinwheel Garden". the entrance to the marquee was decorated with lights made of paper cups in bright pastels to go with rest of the decorations.

Food had to be Indian as I am so good at it! There were five curries with rice and rotis for mains, but I did mix it up a bit with the starters. Veg Burgers on multigrain and wholemeal buns, mushroom and paneer tikka pinwheel puffs and chilli chicken. Kids menu comprised of fruit salad, noodles and chicken nuggets.

   

I asked my guests to sign or embroider a piece of fabric which I will sew together to make a quilt. This would be my next project!

In my next post I'll show the beautiful invite and the other crafts I did for the party.

Pinwheel themed Birthday Cake

Here it is! My daughter's first birthday cake. The theme of her party was "Pinwheel"and I just didn't want to make pinwheels alone on the cake. So I made her favourite toys along with pinwheels in fondant and gum paste. The cake was a success even before I put it together as my lil one wanted the fondant figures over her actual toys!

The top tier was strawberry flavoured with white chocolate gnache and the bottom layer was chocolate cake with dark chocolate gnache. Everyone got a piece of cake to take home as well!

DIY Number Pinata/Prop

My Daughter's first birthday was last week and I spent almost three months preparing for it! I will soon post photos of the party but lets start from some crafts that I did as part of decorations. Pinatas are not really for one year olds but I just feel they are such a big part of a birthday party that I did something similar and made a table centre piece for the buffet.

Here are some of the pics of how I made it with step by step instructions.

1. Take two cardboard sheets or carton which is of the same length as the pinata you want to make. I used an old packaging from one of Elina's toys and used the reverse side which was brown.

2. Draw  and cut out the number that you want on two pieces of cardboard. As these will make the front and back side of your pinata, ensure that these are the same length and width.

3. Use a sticky tape or a masking tape and join both sides with strips of cardboard which will make the width of the pinata. The cardboard pieces joining both sides must be of equal width.

4. Cover your cardboard pinata with foil or any colored paper as you like. You can even cover it with tissue paper fringes to make a traditional pinata.

 5. Stick the cupcake wrappers on your foil covered pinata in the order and color of your choice. I used all purpose glue to stick them and turned the cupcake wrapper inside out so that the colored side was on the front. This would look good with printed or dotted cupcake wrappers as well!

If I haven't been very clear in my instructions then please visit this link http://ohhappyday.com/2013/06/watermelon-pinata-diy/ 

for step by step picture instructions for a watermelon pinata.