Fast and Dirty Pinwheel fun!

I set my kids to making pinwheels.  Just giving them a craft to keep them occupied.  Since I couldn’t find my larger brads they had to make do with the small ones…which meant no attaching pin wheels to straws that day.

With 4 kiddos I can’t supervise each one at the same time, so we didn’t measure, didn’t use a template…quick and dirty was the name of this pinwheel making game.

Supplies:  scissors, paper, brads

The optional supply is the hole punch, you can easily punch brads threw the paper, but I have this ultra-tiny punch so I put it to use.

We used scrapbook paper (12x12) for the big pin wheels.  Gluing two pages wrong sides together gave our pin wheels a bit more character:

Here’s the quick and dirty:

Fold the paper on the diagonal both ways, cut along the diagonal to about a thumb length from the center point,

punch holes (or brads) thought the (same) corners of each “ triangle”,

feed the brads through each hole and through the center point, open the prongs....

TADA!  You have a pin wheel!

After making a few Missy M decided we needed to make some smaller ones.  For these I just cut the scrapbook paper into quarters and let them go at it.  Some of my “fancy” paper scissors came out and the kids made pinwheels with scalloped and zig-zaged edges. 

We gave each child who attended the “cake 1” get together a chocolate wrapped in scrapbook paper with a pin wheel on top.  I think they turned out cute!

I haven’t been doing much sewing lately, but I do have a number of projects in the works!  Right now I’m enjoying the sunshine in the Seattle area, but the next rainy day will find me back in my sewing room working on back to school fashions and a fabulous (I hope) new leather bag!

The Cakes

We celebrated Missy M’s 11^th birthday last week…with cake number 1:

 

And cake number 2:

And at some point we’ll have a third cake when we have her school friends over for a party.

I’ll be officially caked out by then.

My mom is with us this summer and it's been great!  She made both cakes.  the first was a quick, recipe right out of her head kind of cake....and it was really good!

For me to replicate cake 1, I probably wouldn't go from scratch like she did.  I'm not that talented in the kitchen! Instead I'd...

• buy a pre made angle food cake
• rip it apart into tiny chunks
• slice up some strawberries
• mix it all together with some (pre made) vanilla pudding 
• Press it into a mold (in my case just a 13x9  glass Pyrex pan) and leave it overnight in the fridge
• The next day, flip it out of the mold onto a plate/cutting board/cake board and whip up some heavy whipping cream to frost
• Decorate with strawberries and refrigerate until party time.

Lucky for Missy M that I wasn't making it.

Cake 2 came from my McCall's cooking school binder of recipes...no longer published but if you can get your hands on one I strongly recommended  it! I've never has a recipe go wrong and everything I've ever made has turned out perfectly!

Now I've got to figure out the next cake and the details of her party...and if I figure it out soon I can get out of baking that cake too!