Dragonfly Designs: 1/1/13

Thursday, January 31, 2013

If you are on Instagram then you know that I have been having a blast making crochet market bags. Umm..... I may be a little addicted to crocheting {make that a lot addicted} hee hee.

Using a big, chunky yarn each bag only takes a couple of hours to create!

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Welcome to Inspiring Creativity!!

Thank you for sharing your creativity with us each week.

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Quinoa {pronounced keen-wa} is a grain that has been getting a lot of hype lately. It can be cooked like rice and has a light, nutty flavour. A couple of friends recommended that I try it, so I threw this Cheesy Quinoa Chicken Bake together.

At only 275 calories per serving this is a great dish. Light, healthy and flavourful.

Begin by dicing the red pepper and zucchini.

Mushrooms, carrots or broccoli would be great additions too.

2 Superhero Crochet Beanies

Monday, January 28, 2013

What to do while watching The Big Bang Theory?

{my guilty pleasure of late}

Why, crochet the boys a couple of superhero beanies of course!

Cameron got his favorite ~ Ironman.

But honestly he would be happy with any of the "red" heroes. Ironman, "red" Robin or "the one that goes really fast" are his usual requests.

Isaiah got...

7 Secret Sweetheart Cookies

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Valentine's Day is the perfect excuse to create some fun

Secret Sweetheart Cookies

How great is it to open something up and find a surprise inside?!!

These cookies combine the old school goodness of my great-grandmas sugar cookie recipe

and the idea of a pinata cookie.

They turned out absolutely adorable and the boys can't wait to give them to their preschool class mates.

I used this *best sugar cookie recipe ever* and my cheater royal icing recipe {found below}.

I was inspired by these halloween trick-or-treat cookies and these classic Valentine's sugar cookies. Yum!

2 DIY Preschool Activity Books

Friday, January 25, 2013

My little guys are starting Kindergarten in September. It's something that I will probably be talking about a lot because both of my babies will be gone... all day... and we want to as prepared as possible.

Cameron and Isaiah turned five at the end of October last year. Because of where their birthday falls we had the choice of putting them in Kindergarten last September when they were four or waiting until this September when they will be five, turning six in October. We chose to give them an extra year at home for a number of reasons: to build our relationship and their attachment to us as parents, to give them more time to mature and develop social skills, to work on their school readiness and prepare them for the years ahead. Being twin boys who had never attended an all day, structured program {like daycare} and who are smaller in size than their peers, they were just not ready.

It was the best decision that we could have made in my opinion. After all, they can go to school the rest of their lives but they will only be our babies for so long. I have seen so much growth in each of them in the last six months that it just amazes me. They are both very different little individuals and I am excited to see how their personalities unfold in school.

With growth and school readiness comes boredom. They are always looking for new activities and games to challenge them. So we put these great little Preschool Activity Books together.

I found these duo tangs, pulled out a bunch of markers and pencil crayons and printed out a ton of worksheets. I went to First School for most of our printable worksheets. I printed writing practice sheets of the entire alphabet as well as thirteen printable mazes.

0 Waffle Beanie attempt…

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Trying out new crochet patterns can be fun... and challenging. In my experience the finished project doesn't always turn out the way you expect or the right size to fit whomever you are making it for.

I follow a number of talented crocheters on Instagram. One of the ladies that has a ton of fabulous hats and patterns is Liz from Playin' Hooky Designs. When I first saw her waffle beanies I knew that I had to try that out myself! So I purchased her Big Waffle Beanie pattern and I have to tell you that she has the best, most detailed patterns that I have yet to come across. AND my hat turned out to be the perfect size for my Dad at Christmas!!! Big time bonus points. So if you are looking for a new beanie pattern to try, check out Playin' Hooky {this is not a sponsored post ~ just sharing a great crochet resource!}

The waffle was easy to create and after a few rounds I really started to get the hang of it. This beanie is created flat {in a rectangle shape} then sewn together at the top. It took a lot longer to make than my usual, crochet in the round beanies but was a fun change {maybe twice the time?}

I might make a few more of these for next year, maybe in a solid colour?

Have you had any luck with certain patterns?

Thanks for reading!

4 Inspiring Creativity

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Welcome to Inspiring Creativity!!

Thank you for sharing your creativity with us each week.

New to Dragonfly Designs?

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1 Peanut - Free Trail Mix

Most of the schools and community programs where we live are "Peanut Free". Meaning that when you pack a snack for your little ones, it cannot contain peanuts or products that may contain peanuts.

I know that I am going to find school lunches hard at first because my kids live off of peanut butter and jam sandwiches. We are very blessed not to have any nut allergies in our home. It must be hard to manage that kind of allergy, especially in young children. Then they go off to school where they may be exposed to all sorts of potentially dangerous foods. Scary. So if we can do our part in a small way and pack peanut free foods, I'm okay with that.

This mix includes; crackers, pretzels, cheerios, raisins and chocolate chips.

I used Goldfish Crackers but Costco has a product called Cheddar Bunnies that I like a bit more because they have less salt than goldfish and are organic. The alphabet pretzels are fantastic! I found them at Superstore {a grocer in Western Canada}. They are a great learning tool and would be fun to use in preschool lesson plans.

I am looking forward to planning snacks and lunches for the boys in September. I need to get them a couple of Bento Box lunch kits. Any suggestions on where I could find some?

Thanks for reading!

2 Polymer Clay Flower Hair Pins and a Whole Port Review

Monday, January 21, 2013

As a child I used to play with Polymer Clay all the time.

You may have heard of Fimo or Sculpey? That's polymer clay.

I remember when I was younger we would create elaborate creatures with clay and film our own shows.

Polymer Clay is very versatile, comes in a ton of colours and bakes hard. It can be used for much more than just creating beads or jewellery.

Whole Port sent me this colourful package of clay to review as well as a silicone mold and bobby pins. The clay is very workable and softens as you play with it. I love the colour selection and can't wait to create more projects.

It is easy to blend the colours of clay. It is important to know that once it has been baked in the oven, it hardens like plastic. So blend colours, attach clay parts and form holes before baking.