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Fairy Wings on the Fly

wings 3 Suuki was in a full panic wanting to have a costume for the New York Renaissance Faire. Unfortunately the Dollar Tree was out of their usual fairy wings so I had to come up with Plan B. Plan B was making my own set of wings. All the items you need can be purchased at the Dollar Tree.

You will need:
2 Plastic clothes hangers
1 Pair of Trouser Socks
1 Package of Gem Flowers
1 Package of Tulle Butterflies.
1 Roll of Tulle any color
1 Roll of Colored Duct Tape

Take 1 trouser sock and carefully slide it over the triangle part of the clothes hanger. Repeat for the second sock.
Place the two hanger handle to handle so they make a wing shape and using the colored duct tape, secure the handles together by wrapping the colored tape around the handles.
Glue the gem flowers and tulle butterflies all over the wings using a hot glue gun.
Wrap the duct tape in the colored tulle to give it a whimsical look.
Use the tulle to make shoulder straps. I cut 3 foot strips of tulle for this. Throughout the wear during the day we learned to tie it 3 different ways: around each arm tied in the front, coming under the arms and tying behind the neck, and going over the shoulder, under the arms and tying in the back.
Optional Step: I used ribbon I had leftover from a previous project to decorate the wings more.

I used the left over tulle to decorate their ponytails into a banded style.

Tags: diy, fairy, fairy wings, make your own wings

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Categories Crafts

Spaghetti Pie

25 May

There was one unusual thing that my mom would make us as kids that my friends always loved: Spaghetti Pie. It is a very simple recipes that offers a unique experience and, if there are kids around, will have them begging their parents to make it too. My friend, Jane, came over on my Birthday with breakfast and a little crumb cake with a candle on it. We decided to have Jane and her son over for Spaghetti Pie. Not only are the ingredients simple, if you have a gluten-free diet you can use this recipe as well.

Spaghetti Pie

Makes: 3 -4 pies

Ingredients:

1 box of spaghetti (You can use gluten-free is needed.)
1 small tub of ricotta cheese
1 lb of shredded mozzarella or Italian cheese mix
1/2 lb of ground meat (We used ground beef but you can use any ground meat or Italian sausage with the casings removed. My sister once did this step with TVP.)
1 jar of marinara-based sauce or make your own
6 eggs
3 – 4 pie tins

Directions:

Cook the spaghetti as directed on the packaging.
While the spaghetti is cooking, brown the ground meat. You can season it if you like with some garlic.
Prepare you pie tins by greasing them with the oil of your choice.
Beat the 6 eggs in a small bowl.
After the spaghetti is cooked, drain thoroughly and divide into the pie tins. You may need to press down with a spoon to help it fill the tin to look crust-like.
Pour the egg around the edges of the pie tin coating the outer “crust” of your pie.
Pour a good amount of sauce in the center of each pie.
Top the sauce with the ground meat.
Top the meat with the ricotta cheese.
Top the ricotta cheese with a little bit more sauce.
Top the pies with the shredded cheese. (If you choose to prepare this a day ahead, save this step until halfway through cooking the pie.)
Bake for 35 minutes as 350 degrees. (If you are putting it in the oven from the refrigerator, bake for 45 minutes at 400 degrees.)

Tags: cooking, food, pasta, pie, spaghetti, spaghetti pie

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Categories Food

Frozen Party Theme

29 Apr

Did I mention being a bit behind? Also a bit out of order? Although I just posted my son’s birthday cake for this year, his sibling’s birthday was February 2nd but I haven’t shared their special cake….or should I say cakes.

Suuki really wanted to see the Broadway musical Matilda. Instead of a birthday party, they agreed to have two friends over to watch Frozen and have a mini-party.

The Frozen Cupcake

Ingredients:

1 box of ice-cream sandwiches
1 Wilton White Sugar Sheets Edible Decorating Paper
1 Wilton Blue Sparkling Sugars
1 Wilton White Pearlized Sugar Pearl Sprinkles 5oz
2 tubs of White Frosting

Directions:

Cut a ice-cream sandwich in half.
Frost the top of one side and place the other side on top. This will create a layer effect.
frost the outside of the layered ice-cream sandwich.
Place in the freezer. Repeat until you have done all the ice-cream sandwiches this way.
Freeze at least 1 hour before going to the next step.
Frost the outside of each “frozen” cupcake once more.
Sprinkle the top with Blue Sparkling Sugars and White Pearlized Sugar Pearl Sprinkles.
Serve on light or aqua blue plates.

The Frozen Float

Ingredients:

1 carton of vanilla ice-cream
1 blue colored juice (Note: If you wish to avoid “bad colors” you can color white grape or apple juice with natural blue dye from Color Garden or another natural food color.)

Directions:

Place 1 scoop of vanilla ice cream into a clear glass. (I used plastic wine glasses.)
Pour blue juice over the ice-cream.
Serve on white plates with white spoons.

Now you are ready to pop some popcorn, slide Frozen into the Blu-Ray, and watch 3 8-year-olds sing through the entire movie.

The Family Cake

We live in the same town with a lot of our family. Both of my sisters live here with their families and my parents live here as well. Family birthday cake time is a big production in our family. Suuki has wanted 1 cake for the last year. They saw this cake 2 weeks after their last birthday and never forgot it. There is a bakery one town over called Carousel Cakes. They sell a wonderful Blue Velvet Cake accented with silver pearls and sugar snowflake. I used Wilton Blue Ready-To-Use Icing to write on the cake.

The Blue Velvet Cake is unique because it is vanilla. My mom is allergic to chocolate so this is a nice change of pace from red velvet. They also come in cupcake form.

Huge bonus: They ship nationwide so you don’t need to live here to enjoy them. Check their site out because they have amazing cakes of all kinds including a Pink Velvet Cake during the month of October with a $1 of the purchase going to breast cancer research. Their Red Velvet Cake is apparently one of Oprah’s favorites that they renamed it: Oprah Red Velvet Cake.

Matilda

As for Matilda and our Mom & Me Night in Times Square, Suuki had a blast. We browsed through a few stores before eating at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company which, sadly, I felt was WAY overrated. Shrimp should not really be almost clear. At the theatre, I experienced massive sticker shock when we bought 2 ordinary-sized candies, a water, and an apple juice which totaled $24. The play itself was wonderful and amusing. Suuki said they was fighting herself not to sing along with the kids.

Tags: cake, cupcake, food, frozen, ice-cream, ice-cream sandwich

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Categories DIY, Food

TARDIS Birthday Cake & Math-A-Thon

24 Apr

It was my son’s birthday yesterday. His birthday wish is really sweet. It is too raise $500 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in the Math-A-thon. So please feel free to donate to such a worthy cause.

Time is short this year so I needed a quicker cake to make for my son’s birthday. No Dalek Cake Toppers this year.

Here is a pretty simple TARDIS cake that anyone can make.

Ingredients:

2 small Tootsie Rolls (I used the Vanilla Midges)
1 Wilton White Sugar Sheets Edible Decorating Paper
1 Black Wilton Icing Color 1oz
1 Royal Blue Wilton Icing Color 1oz
1 Wilton White Icing Writer™
1 Black Pearlized Sugar Pearl Sprinkles 5oz
1 Cake Mix (Any flavor)
2 tubs of White Frosting

Directions:

Bake the cake mix according to the instructions. Be sure to use a rectangular pan.
Put one of the tubs of frosting in a small mixing bowl. Using the Royal Blue Wilton Icing Color mix in the color a bit at a time until you reach TARDIS blue.
Unwrap the tootsie rolls and knead them to soften. Pull 2 small strips off to shape into door handles. Shape the rest into the light for the top of the TARDIS.
Take the Wilton White Sugar Sheets Edible Decorating Paper and on the plastic side draw the shape of the TARDIS windows and 2 police box(call box & pull to open shapes) signs. Using a clean pair of scissor or sharp tipped knife, cut out your shapes.
Make sure your cake is cool. Using the white frosting, light frosting the outside of the cake and then place the entire cake in the freezer for 30 minutes.
Take your chilled cake and frost completely with the TARDIS-blue frosting.
Take a little of the white frosting and mix it into the TARDIS-blue frosting to give you a lighter shade. Place the Tootsie Roll light at the top of your TARDIS cake and frost it with the lighter blue.
Peel your cut outs off their plastic baking and place on the cake.
Using the Black Wilton Icing Color 1oz, paint the top police box sign black. If you have a fine detail brush, you might try to paint the pull to open sign as well. Let dry. (Note: Make sure either the brush is new or only used on non-toxic paints.)
Using the Wilton White Icing Writer™, draw the square door panels on the cake and write ‘Happy Birthday’ or another message on the black police box sign.
Take you 2 small tootsie roll handles and press into place.
Take 1 Black Pearlized Sugar Pearl Sprinkles 5oz and press into place for the door lock. (I still had my jar from the Dalek Cake Toppers.)

If you do have extra time, making a few Dalek to accent the cake would be really fun.

Tags: cake, math-a-thon, mathathon, st jude's, tardis. doctor who

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Categories DIY, Food

The TARDIS Trunk

13 Apr

It all started so innocently. I have always wanted an old-fashioned trunk. Towards the end of the summer, I passed a garage sale on my way home from work and came across a very beaten up trunk. They were actually selling the stuffed animals inside of it and you got the trunk for free. For $5, I bought my trunk and donated the stuffed animals to charity. The new trunk had seen better days. Someone had painted the outside bright green and then used green and pink shelf paper to line the inside.

I got to work scraping and cleaning the trunk as best I could. I peeled away all of the shelf paper. Using sandpaper, a paint scraper, and buffer, I cleaned, peeled, smoothed and scraped away the inside until it was clean enough to look slightly presentable. While cleaning a plan had formulated. I was going to turn this trunk into a TARDIS.

To start changing this trunk into the TARDIS I needed some materials from both a hardware store and the craft store.

The Trunk Base

Supplies:

Several cans of Blue spray paint
1 large plastic tarp
Several rolls of Blue duct tape

In a well ventilated area, place your plastic tarp on the ground and slide the trunk on top.
Spray the entire outside of the trunk Blue. (This may take several coats and turns.)
Cover the entire inside of the trunk with the Blue Duct Tape. (I did try painting it at first but it didn’t work so well on this texture. I also tried contact paper which would not stick to the wood.)

Now that we have a base, the hard part starts. I was going to paint each bit but then I got a better idea.

At work, I used Rowmark LaserMark Blue/White to laser cut out the door panels. The windows and door signs are designed by me and laser cut from Rowmark Flexicolor White/Black with 3M backing. The Police Box sign was also designed by me and laser cut from Rowmark Flexicolor Black/White with 3M backing. Once I put it all together, it looked FANTASTIC.

I tried to think about what inspirred the idea of making the trunk into the TARDIS and I think it was a Neatorama article about a TARDIS Bookshelf. I remember thinking how cool it would be to turn my own furniture into Doctor Who-themed items.

Tags: diy, doctor who, homemade, tardis, tardis trunk, trunk, whovian

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Categories Crafts, DIY, My Geekiness

NY ComicCon Part 2 – Heroes and Such

13 Apr

Our journey to NY ComicCon 2013 was almost complete. We just needed a good costume for T. He was going to go as the 10th Doctor but after reading about how hot it gets walking around. I decided rather than spending the day hearing him complain about how hot he was and carrying the suit all over the place that we needed a more comfortable costume for hot areas.

Rory Williams costume
We were able to put together a Rory costume from Day of the Moon (6.2). We already had the polo shirt, shorts, and sneakers so it was only a matter of tally marks and the sharpie around Rory’s neck.

The tally marks: I used waterproof black eyeliner to draw on the tally marks all over the place. I figured they would be easy to remove when we got home but hold up to any sweating that may occur.

The sharpie on a string: I took a dried out sharpie and glued it to a piece of twine to be worn around the neck.

Rory costume is complete.

Now Off to NY ComicCon.

The kids started off their day at the “Kidditch” (aka Kids Quidditch) which was presented by the International Quidditch Association in the Family Room. At once point, my son turned to me and told me he had found “his” sport. They both had a blast as they each took turns in the groups for lessons in tossing the quaffle, throwing the bludgers, and chasing the snitch.

Afterwards we headed tot he autograph room to get in line for John Barrowman. As we go in line, I discovered that sometime at Quidditch, T put down the bag he was holding for me while I took pictures of Suuki having their turn. This bag contained my cellphone, $120 cash, 2 credit cards, my driver’s license, T’s Epi-Pen, Suuki’s Lactaid, both childrens’ insurance cards, and the ticket to the parking garage where we parked the van. Basically, without this bag, our adventure was coming to a screeching halt.

A female crew member stayed with my children in the John Barrowman autograph line while I ran back to the Family Room in the hopeless search for the missing bag. The Quidditch people were gone so I began to randomly ask the next group that was setting up. One girl asked me my name. She then pointed me to one of the authors sitting in the Family Room. She said he had found a bag.

Children’s author and comic book writer, Alex Simmons became a REAL ComicCon hero. He found the missing bag and kept is safe for me. He turned our first experience at ComicCon from disastrous to miraculous. Our special trip together was falling apart by Mr. Simmons was there save the day.

Now came the LONG wait in the autograph line for John Barrowman. From 11:22 AM until 2:03 PM, my two ADHD kids, one with Asperger’s, managed to stay in line to meet one of their heroes. Of course, breaking out the DS stash at 12:30 PM helped. I had told them at the beginning that they would have to share a picture of “Jack” because of the amo BArrowman2 unt of money we allotted for the day. The kids were so cute and got all tongue-tied when the got to meet him. As he began to sign his autograph, he noticed that the two of them had only 1 picture. He turned to Suuki and asked them to pick what picture they thought was the best. Suuki pointed to a different picture than the one we paid for. He grab that one off the table, autographed that one, and gave it to them. They each has an autographed picture and giant grins but John Barrowman was finished making everyone’s day. He then told them “Do you know why you have a great mom? *pause* Because she took you to ComicCon. Thank you, John Barrowman, because you made this mom very happy. (I didn’t know my camera was dying at the time so the pictures we took were fuzzy.)

I felt really bad for Gareth David-Lloyd. He was very sweet but this day was for the kids and, well, Torchwood, does not have a kid audience so they did not know Ianto Jones.

We took a quick bit of lunch which I had packed in the backpack and we were off to the vendor floor. Once up there, we did not come up for air until ComicCon closed. The kids had a great time and enjoyed every second. Suuki felt like a movie star when people started asking them if they could take their picture.

Here are a few of the people we took pictures of on our visit:

Check out NY ComicCon Part 1 – Sailor Moon Costume Revisited.

Tags: alex simmons, comiccon, costume, costume for kids, doctor who, halloween, heroes, how to make, jack harkness, john barrowman, ny comiccon, rory, sailor moon, torchwood

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Categories DIY, Kid Fun

NY ComicCon Part 1 – Sailor Moon Costume Revisited

29 Mar

As I have said before, life has me a bit behind with the blogs but I am trying hard to catch up and get back on track. There are going to be some blogs that are older information but still relevant.

ComicCon……a place I have always wanted to go but could never afford. It soon became a place my kids wanted to go to as well. They first expressed interest in going during the Summer of 2012 but it was too late for us to get tickets for Kid Day that year. So we put a plan in motion to head to NY ComicCon 2013.

The kids were so excited when we bought our tickets but didn’t understand that you then needed to wait a few months before the real tickets came in the mail. Costume planning began because they had been watching Heroes of Cosplay on the SyFy channel. They also had me watching the see who was going to be be there on Kid Day. They were hoping for someone they knew and loved.

Suuki was the most picky about their costume. After watching Heroes of Cosplay thry became convinced that thry was only allowed to wear a costume that was homemade because “mom, store bought stuff is really not allowed and looks tacky”. *I can’t image where she got that idea from.* Watch out Cosplayers, my, then, 7- year old will be coming up the ranks with strong cosplay ideals. They finally settled on revisiting their Sailor Moon costume from Halloween but with major adjustments by mom. They wanted it to look even more real now that they had seen through the end of Sailor Moon R.

Costume adjustments began for Sailor Moon Costume for Kids. The original boots were long socks over a pair of faux-crocs. This was not going to work for a day of walking around the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. So I ordered a pair Kid’s Red Shazam Boots from Target. Suuki pointed out that they close to Sailor Moon’s boots but they weren’t quite right. Here is how we altered the boots:

The Boots Redux

Supplies:

1 pair of Kid’s Red Shazam boots
1 role of white electrical tape
2 small g0ld moon cutouts – I made these at work.

Carefully edge the top of the boots with the white electrical tape.
In the front center, place the moons, crescent points up, to the front center just touching the white.

The Brooch Redux

The next piece of the costume revamp was the brooch. Using the foam was fine for Halloween but my little cosplayer was having no part of it for ComicCon because it wasn’t shiny enough.

Supplies:

1 set of cellphone gems
1 brooch cutout – Again, I made this at work.

Carefully match the color gems to the brooch style you are using. (We used this style.)
Place the brooch in the center of the front ribbon.

The Tiara Redux

This was a basic tweak but well worth it for the look.

Supplies:

1 piece of sticky-back felt
1 tiara cutout on 3M backed gold flex – Again, I made this at work.
1 oval gem
1 strip of elastic

Measure the elastic and the tiara around the wearer’s head. Be sure to leave space for the elastic to be attached to the tiara. (About 1.5 inches should do it.)
Peel the backing the the tiara and stick the elastic in place.
Stick the tiara cutout onto the sticky-back felt to make a soft surface at the back. This will also sandwich the elastic between both adhesives.

The Choker Redux

I kept this mostly the same but just 1 minor change.

Supplies:

1 small moon cutout on 3M backed gold flex – Again, I made this at work.

Replace the old felt moon with the much nicer golden moon. You may wish to add more felt to make sure the moon points do not touch the skin and scratch it.

The Hair Accents Redux

I kept the backs of the old ones as a base but the rest was redone.

Supplies:

1 set of red cellphone gems
2 circle 2″ diameter cutout on 3M backed gold flex – Again, I made this at work.

Place the new golden disks over the old ones.
Arrange the red cell phone gems in a circle pattern in the center of the disk.

The Scepter Redux

The scepter was completely redone from last year.

Supplies:

2 blocks of pink sculpy
2 large moon cutout on 3M backed gold flex – Again, I made this at work.
2 scepter accent cutout on 3M backed gold flex – I designed these based on an image online and made these at work.
2 set of cellphone gems
2 silver golf ball coins
1 small wooden candlestick

Paint the candlestick gold.
Sculpt the shape of the scepter handle making sure that the base fits into the candlestick. The top should taper almost flat. Follow the directions to harden the clay.
Over the top of the wand, place the 2 moons back to back with a small piece of cardboard in the center of the crescent to attach the golf coins later. If you need to, you can glue between them.
Over the piece of cardboard, glue the golf coins back to back.
Place the scepter accents over the wand, back to back like you did with the moons. Again, glue if you need to.
Add the cellphone gems in the appropriate places on the scepter accent.
Place glue into the candlestick and slide the wand into place.
Place a large clear cellphone gem at the base of the candlestick.

Our adventure continues with NY ComicCon Part 2 – Heroes And Such.

Tags: comiccon, costume, costume for kids, halloween, how to make, ny comiccon, sailor moon

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Categories DIY, Kid Fun

Pinewood Derby – The Tardis Car

3 Mar

This past weekend was my son’s final Pinewood Derby before crossing over to Boy Scouts. For his final car, he wanted something spectacular. He had me make him “stickers” at work to go on his car to make it look professional. When I say “stickers”, I mean pieces of plastic with 3M backing engraved into the design pieces he wanted.

Revell makes official BSA wheels in more than just black that comes with the kit you receive from the Cub Scout. He opted for the Blue but you could also buy red and yellow. Seeing how his mom can craft but not really whittle wood, we also bought the Funny Car body. The paints were on sale for 88¢ at A.C. Moore. We used Folk Art Metallic Blue Sapphire and Folk Art Metallic Silver Anniversary. He won a medal from Most Futuristic Car and earned the 3rd place trophy for his Den.

The Tardis Car

Most Futuristic Car

Of course, his sibling made their own car as well because threy felt it wasn’t fair that the Girl Scouts didn’t have a derby too. They layered their paints. the bottom 2 coats were Folk Art Pearl Aqua Moire and then it was topped with Folk Art Extreme Glitter Aqua. They glued seed beads that we had to make snowflakes. The window was done using their brother’s paint.

The Frozen Car

Tags: boy scout, car, crafts, cub scout, derby, doctor who, frozen, pinewood derby, scout, tardis, webelo

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Categories DIY, Scouting

Happy 50th Birthday, Doctor Who!

23 Nov

50th pic

In honor of the big day, I am reposting how to make Dalek cake toppers. Who doesn’t want an edible Dalek?

Dalek Cake Topper

Ingredients:

6 flat bottomed ice-cream cones
1 Wilton White Rolled Fondant 1.5lb
1 Black Wilton Icing Color 1oz
1 Brown Wilton Icing Color 1oz
1 Golden Yellow Wilton Icing Color 1oz
1 Black Pearlized Sugar Pearl Sprinkles 5oz
10 pieces of black taffy (sold by the piece – 15 for $1 at Party City)
4 pieces of white taffy (sold by the piece – 15 for $1 at Party City)
1 pieces of blue taffy (sold by the piece – 15 for $1 at Party City)
1 small package of thin pretzel sticks
1 small package of powdered sugar (This is used to keep the fondant from sticking to table, rolling pin and pretty much anything.)

Directions:

It is a good idea to wear gloves on your hands for steps 2 – 9 to prevent turning your hands blackish brown.

Stack 2 flat bottomed ice-cream cones into each other and turn upside down on a plate.
Separate the fondant into 1 lb and 1/2 lb balls.
Add black icing color to 1/2 lb ball of fondant and knead to desired grey color. (Note: You need powdered sugar to keep fondant from sticking.)
Add brown icing color and just a touch of golden yellow icing color to the 1 lb ball of fondant and knead to desired golden color. (Note: You need powdered sugar to keep fondant from sticking.)
Make 3 balls of golden fondant the diameter of a quarter and place to the side.
Separate golden fondant into 3 even balls and then roll out the golden fondant with a rolling pin. (Note: You need powdered sugar to keep fondant from sticking.)
Place the golden fondant ball in top of the bottom of each ice cream cone and then carefully cover the whole thing with the golden fondant. you can tuck extra fondant under and into the cone to secure it. (Note: Have a small cup of water handy to use to seal the ends by rubbing it with water.)
Roll out the grey fondant ball with a rolling pin. (Note: You need powdered sugar to keep fondant from sticking.)
Cut 3 – 1/2 inch strips of grey fondant. Wet the golden fondant on fattest part of the cone and wrap the grey fondant strip around it to form the Dalek base.
Pour the black pearl sprinkles into a bowl. (Good time to remove gloves.)
Do these next steps one cone at a time: Using your fingers, moisten the bottom of your Dalek just above the grey base to the dent where the cone tapers in.
Carefully place the pearls onto the cone in 4 rows creating columns of “Dalek bumps” on your Dalek.
Unwrap 2 pieces of white taffy and knead them until they are soft.
Roll the taffy and cut into 6 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and then form the lights on the top of the Dalek’s head. Moisten the area you wish to place the lights and the bottom of the lights. Press into place.
Do the stripes one at a time. For each, unwrap 2 piece of black taffy and knead until soft.
Roll the taffy into a thin string and cut it into 3rds. Wrap each piece around the base of your Dalek’s head.
Unwrap a black piece and a white piece of taffy. You will need to pull them together over and over to create a grey piece of taffy.
Break 3 pretzel sticks in half. Wrap one end of each with the grey taffy and shape into a eggbeater. Stick the other end, downward into the left side of the Dalek above the “Dalek bumps”. (The Dalek’s left but your right.)
Unwrap the remaining black taffy and knead until soft. Mold the taffy to make 6 suction cups, 3 slight larger than the other 3.
Stick a pretzel stick into the back of each suction cup and mold the taffy onto the pretzel.
The larger suction cups are inserted on the opposite side from the grey beater shaped pretzels. These make up the Dalek arms.
Unwrap and knead the blue piece of taffy. Form 3 small balls and place them instead the 3 remaining suction cups to be lights.
Unwrap the knead the last piece of white taffy. Roll very thin, almost string like, and wrap around the middle of each suction cup pretzel remaining.
Insert the last suction cup pretzels into the Dalek’s head, dead center.