Pikachu Furikake

One of my favorite things about going to the Japanese Market is I never know what I'm going to stumble upon. At our last trip to the market I found this Pikachu Furikake. We use furikake all the time but I've never seen pikachu furikake before. Furikake is for sprinkling on your rice. It usually is a combination of sesame seeds, salt, sugar, seaweed and dried fish. As for the pickachu faces, I'm not really sure what they're made of. All I know is it's edible and my children love it. They also have hello kitty, hamtaro, and power ranger furikake at the store. If you're interested in trying furikake, you should be able to find it at most Asian grocery stores.

P.S. Craft project coming soon, I promise.

Felt Strawberry Pinwheel

Here's what I've been making over the weekend, Strawberry Pinwheels. I got the pattern from the book, "My Favorite Felt Sweets". If the book title sounds familiar to you, I wrote a post about it a while back here.

If you're in the mood to make some of your own felt sweets, listed below are a few links to free patterns.


cake

cherries

cupcake

cupcake with a face via CRAFT

doughnuts

doughnut #2

fortune cookies

fried egg

icing

little loaf of bread

orange slices

strawberry scroll looks very similar to the strawberry pinwheel

sugar cookies

New Post Coming Soon

My computer is in the shop so I haven't been able to post anything lately. I'm using my husband's work laptop to write this post now. Keeping my fingers crossed I'll get the computer back Monday. Until then, I'll leave you with this.

Strawberry-Banana Popcorn Ball Recipe

I made popcorn balls for a birthday tea party. Since popcorn balls always leave your hands sticky, I decided to make some on sticks. It ended up working out quite well and made for a nice presentation. Then I just placed them is small cellophane bags and tied on ribbon.

The nice thing about the popcorn ball recipe is that you can make the balls any flavor. I think these would look great orange with some added black licorice for jack-o-lanterns. Maybe I'll make some for Halloween if I get the chance.

recipe below



Supplies
1 cup corn syrup
1 cup sugar
20 cups of plain popped popcorn
3 oz box of strawberry-banana jello (or any other flavor)

medium size lollipop sticks


*yields about 24 popcorn balls

1. On the stove top, bring corn syrup and sugar to a boil.

2. Remove from stove and add jello mix, mix well. If you would like the flavor to me more subtle, use only 2oz of jello.

3. Add mixture to popcorn and mix till well coated.

4. Form into balls. Use about one cup of the popcorn mixture per ball. You'll want to work quickly. The mixture hardens up roughly the same way rice crispy treats do.

5. With one hand hold onto the popcorn ball when you place the lolipop stick down the center of it. You might need to form the ball again, if it begins to break. Let set up for about an hour.

Birthday Tea Party

As promised, I said I would share more about my daughter's birthday tea party.

1. I made this newspaper banner using Maya*made's tutorial. The newspaper roses in the post below were inspired by this banner tutorial as well.

2. Since this was a child's birthday party, all the details were more whimsical. For added surprise, I filled the sugar bowl with pink sparkling sugar.

3. I purchased lace gloves for all the children at the party. You can find great deals on gloves after Easter. I found some for 20 cents a pair at Target. I'm sure you could find some in the clearance isle after Halloween as well.

4. For favors, I made all the guests strawberry-banana popcorn balls on sticks. I'll be sharing the recipe later in the week.

5. Italian cookies with pink frosting. One of my favorite cookie recipes.

Birthday cake made by Auntie Susan

The little teacup is a cake too.

Painting the Newspaper Roses Red

"Would you tell me, please," said Alice, a little timidly, "why are you painting those roses?"

"Five and Seven said nothing, but looked at Two. Two began in a low voice, Why the fact is, you see, Miss, this here ought to have been a red rose tree, and we put a white one in by mistake..."

Alice in Wonderland

The past week I've been working on decorations for a birthday party. I'm trying to make most of the decorations out of newspaper. This is one of the ideas I came up with. I feel like it is missing something, perhaps some newspaper leaves. Suggestions welcomed.

Easy directions to make the newspaper roses below.

Supplies:
Acrylic paint
Newspaper
Scissors
floral tape
green floral wire

1. I first made the paper roses the same way I make tissue flowers. You can find the directions, here.

2. Tape the newspaper rose to the floral wire. Wrap the bottom of the rose with the floral tape to cover up the tape and any seams.

3. Paint roses with acrylic paint. I chose to leave some of the newspaper showing. If you want all the newspaper painted, paint the newspaper before you make the flower.

Re-Ment Miniatures

For quite sometime now I've been drooling over the Re-Ment miniatures. Well yesterday, at a trip to the grocery store, I decided to purchase a set. I purchased a box from the Mushroom Paradise series. I ended up getting #5, the diner variety. Each little piece is just adorable. Pictures below.

Want to find out more about Re-Ment? Here are some helpful links.

Re-Ment International Inc.

Re-Ment Addicts Flickr Group

SuperBuzzy - Buy on line

Stores in the US that carry Re-Ment: Mitsuwa, Kinokuniya Book Store

Back of box. Each themed series has ten sets plus one special set that is not shown on the box. When you purchase a box you don't know what set you will get. Click on the photo to see a close up.

To give you a sense of scale, the plate is about the size of a quarter.

Chunky Cable Knit Scarf

Now that the cold weather is approaching, I've been in a knitting mood. I discovered this lovely scarf at FrankenSkein. The actual pattern for the scarf can be found at Stitch DC Blog. I knit this scarf up in one day! If you've never tried cable knit before, this would be a great project to learn from. I think you might be surprised how easy it is.

On a side note, I think my neighbors must think I'm crazy. My neighbor was out cutting the hedges when she saw me wrapping a scarf around the fence and taking pictures of it. I also wrapped it around a tree to take pictures. And you can bet this wasn't the first time. Perhaps if they knew I blogged it wouldn't come across as so odd. But, I'm not giving out that information. I'm fine with being the strange neighbor in their eyes.


sad attempt #1 - taking a picture of myself wearing the scarf. I kind of look like a mannequin in this picture because it's so blurry.

sad attempt #2 - proof that this is in fact me and not a mannequin, not the most flattering shot either

Easy Halloween Pop-up Card

The card above was inspired and made from a paper lantern decoration. Unlike the lotus pop-up card that I made last week, this card only takes about a minute to make, if that. I purchased the pumpkin lantern at a party supply store. Since these tissue decorations are used for all holidays you could make just about any themed card with this concept. Simple directions below.

Supplies: double stick tape, tissue decoration(something like the one above), card stock

To make the card you will only need half of the tissue decoration. Simply cut the tissue decoration in half. Tape it to the inside of the card stock lining it up to the fold(refer to picture). Place double stick tape on the side that is exposed. Press the card closed.

Now when you open the card your decoration will fold out just like a pop-up card. Done.

Vintage Halloween Peg People

Inspiration for the Halloween Peg People came from a vintage image over at Faerie Dust Dreams. Directions Below

Supplies

Wood Person Peg - I got this at Michaels for about two dollars.
Acrylic Paint

Gloss Varnish








For "pumpkin face" paint the body of the peg black and the entire head orange. Let dry. Paint on the details. Painting in layers works best. When the paint is dry brush two layers of varnish on the peg. Done.

For the cat, paint the whole peg black. Then follow the same steps as the "pumpkin face".

For some reason I had this song (click here) in my head when making these. Anyone else remember this song?