nurturing creativity

here's much excitement in the googiehaus.


this sunday the googie cousins arrive for their annual summer visit.


one of the highlights is a present exchange between all the cousins.


we've been working on (what we think) is a cool gift for their two girl cousins, ages 12 and 8.


it started with this:

and then we added this:

a box full of treasures
 we took a paper mache box and covered it with three coordinating papers, all mod podged on. the letters were stickers from the dollar store, also mod podged on.


inside...

all the sewing basics:
scissors
sew on velcro
pins, marking pens, fabric glue, tape measure, ruler
trims, appliques, thread

also, a selection of pretty fabrics, chosen for their pattern and ease of sew-ability (totally a word)

and some super easy patterns sized for an American Girl Doll (or any similar sized doll)

it all fits neatly into the little box

ready and waiting to unleash a world of creativity and self-expression through the medium of fabric :0)

what do you think? will they love it? we hope so! i know my girls keep sighing over it, wishing it was for them! (i feel a little like a bad bad mommy right now!)

Linking up to THESE fine parties!!

popover sometime

i know i've been doing more cooking posts than crafty/sewing posts lately.


i'm not sure why.
my sewing bug has been lying dormant.
maybe the heat?


anyway, one of our sacred traditions in the googiehaus is Sunday morning breakfast.


we eat dinner as a family virtually every night, but there's something special and joyous about enjoying a breakfast all together as a family.


plus, i just LOVE breakfast foods.


and this past sunday, i made popovers.


oh boy.

they are tricky little things.

sometimes they fail to pop.

we've tried tons of recipes, with tons of ideas. anything from preheating your pan to greasing with butter or oil or not greasing or letting the batter rest or baking immediately...

and then good old A.B. came to the rescue.

Alton Brown is my go-to guy for cooking.

and his popover recipe is super simple and basically foolproof.

they popped.

i cooked.

we ate.

 

and do you see that inside? how it's hollow?

just the right size for a pat of butter and some lovely scrambled eggs.

so, sooo yummy.

and if you're ever in Cape Cod, I highly recommend the popovers at Jack's Outback, in Yarmouthport. Each one is easily bigger than a softball, and unbelievably good.

{Homemade Popovers}

Ingredients

1 TBS unsalted butter, melted and cooled, plus 1 tsp room temperature for pan


1 cup flour


1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt


2 large eggs, room temperature


1 cup whole milk, room temperature


Directions


Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Grease a 6-cup popover pan with the 1 teaspoon of butter.
(I don't have a popover pan, I use an extra large muffin pan)

Place all of the ingredients into a food processor or blender and process for 30 seconds. Divide the batter evenly between the cups of the popover pan, each should be about 1/3 to 1/2 full. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 40 minutes. Remove the popovers to a cooling rack and pierce each in the top with a knife to allow steam to escape. Serve warm.

That's it. Easy peasy. Make, eat, come back and tell me how I've changed your life by sharing this.
they puff into golden brown buttery eggy puffs of goodness.

even kitchens get the blues

i am a one-woman renaissance.
truthfully? michelangelo has nuttin' on me.
i have single handedly brought about what will henceforth be known as

the great

play kitchen rebirth

2010

i bought my oldest daughter a little plastic play kitchen at a second hand store when she was about 15 months. it was $10.
up until a few months ago, it was still the play kitchen.
she is 10.
then we received a hand-me-down from a friend.



(you can see the old plastic kitchen in the background there. it's being relegated to the outside playhouse)


overall, a much nicer kitchen set. wood, sturdy, bigger. so i stuck it in the corner, baby bear was delighted, and i didn't really think about it too much.


sure, some of the handles were hanging off or completely off.


sure, the red/green/blue/white/wood color scheme was, how shall i put it, hideous not exactly complementary to my decorating style.


sure, i wish it was like this or this from Pottery Barn. but seriously, $700 for a toy? SRSLY?
then i had a "DUH" moment.


uh, hel-looo googiemomma! aren't you all BFF with spray paint? can this not be painted???


why yes, it can.


and here's how i did it.


first, emptied and wiped down each piece, removed the handles (the few managing to cling on still) and the plastic oven window.


okay, truth be told, also hunted around the house for the missing handles, which i knew were lurking SOMEWHERE.


once i had all my pieces rounded up and prepped, i gave all the brightest colored areas a coat of grey primer





then a coat of the same blue i used on my rooster lamp





and then another, and another, annnnddd another...and, after googiedaddy weed-wacked and it spit little pieces of grass all over the fronts of my drying appliances...another.


the knobs on the stove i taped off and hit with some metallic chrome spray paint, as well as all the handles.


(the sink was basically a plastic bowl, so first i sprayed it with white Fusion spray paint {the kind that bonds to plastic} and then used the metallic paint)



i know that you're jealous of my spray booth/bottom of the kiddie pool~i've said it before~no unitaskers in the googiehaus.


details i added with acrylic paint, like the stove burners





and with paint pens, like the knob details





and a little white detail on the fronts





at the end everything got a couple coats of clear acrylic sealer (which also muted the chrome spray paint. i'm not sure how i feel about that)






i'm completely loving it.


i love it's little retro vibe.


i love that my kids can't stop playing with it.


i love that they set their alarms to wake up early sunday morning to have more time to play with it.


i love that i made the practical decision to buy felt food from IKEA instead of trying to make it...because as much as i LOVE the food people make, and have bookmarked a million tutorials on how to do it, i just don't have the time/energy/desire.










apparently we cook panda around here.


action shot:





and one more because i was playing with photoshop:





for about $10 worth of spray paint and a couple bucks for new screws so that we can have a complete set of handles, i think it was totally worth it.


sushi, anyone?







Linking up at these fine parties!

UPDATE:
i'm also entering this in this week's

the theme is SPRAY PAINT!!!
although, the guest judges are from Krylon...and the metallic paint i used is rust-o-leum....
oh no, hope that doesn't count against me....
i swear~the blue paint was Krylon!!!!