Posted by 2 Sisters 2 Cities on October 4, 2012

It’s yet another rainy day in the Boston area today…will it ever end? I’ve had this recipe for homemade playdough for awhile and it’s been on my “to do” list to make it forever. Baby T was about to turn into a Disney character himself if I did not tear him away from watching yet another episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse today. It was easier than I expected to make the homemade playdough- I made three small batches so I could use three different colors.

I love how this recipe is all food-based ingredients. T is at an age where he tries to eat anything he can get his hands on. He definitely thought the red playdough was watermelon and put a piece in his mouth before I could stop him. Boy was he surprised when he tried it…he made quite the face! He recovered quickly after a couple sips of water and a bite of banana. Once he realized it was something to play with, he had a lot of fun checking it out.

Homemade Playdough

Author: m

Ingredients

½ cup flour
½ cup water
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
3 tablespoons salt
1 and ½ teaspoons vegetable oil
food coloring drops

Instructions

Mix together all the ingredients (except food coloring) in a small saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, constantly stirring. When the playdough starts to thicken, add the food coloring drops. Continue stirring until the dough begins to gather around the spoon. Remove the dough from the pan and cool on wax paper.
Repeat recipe as desired for additional playdough colors.

Source: Adapted from Musings from a SAHM

Do you have any favorite rainy day activities?

Posted by 2 Sisters 2 Cities on July 8, 2012

We are fully in the midst of summer and I wanted to share some fun summer party ideas! The theme for my party was actually a red, white, and blue Fourth of July party, but a lot of these ideas could be customized and used at any summer party.

At my family’s annual reunion, each year we have a wiffle ball tournament. For those of you that don’t know what wiffle ball is, it is similar to baseball/softball except played with a plastic ball and bat. You probably have seen them at the grocery store or Target/Wal-Mart during the summer.

My family is extremely competitive and the winners of the annual wiffle ball tournament get bragging rights all year. A few years ago, we started hosting the wiffle ball tournament at my parent’s house because of their large back yard and proximity to where everyone is staying. After the wiffle ball game, we then have a lunch for everyone.

This year, my mom and I started thinking about summer party ideas weeks before the lunch. We wanted dishes we could make ahead of time and pull together easily after the game. Some of the desserts are repeats of recipes I have posted about, but the rest of the recipes are new and I will post more details about them through out the week.

Our Summer Party Menu:

Lunch
Mediterranean Dip with Pita Chips
Tex-Mex Pimiento Cheese Dip with Red, White and Blue Tortilla Chips
Mixed Greens Salad with Strawberries, Grilled Chicken and Poppy Seed Dressing
Sliders with Cheddar, Colby Cheese or Plain
Baked Beans
Kielbasa with Caraway-Root Beer Sauce
Kettle Chips
Lemonade, Ice Tea, and Water

Vanilla Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting
Sea Salt Caramel Brownies
White Trash Party Mix
Party Favors:
Sugar Cookies

Summer Party Decorations

I was inspired by Pinterest to make decorations for the party with a Red, White, and Blue theme since it was Fourth of July weekend. Earlier this weekend, I posted about the Pennant Banner that I made for the party. I hand-folded the stars in the background by following this post at The Gunny Sack.

For the flowers we bought red carnations and white filler flowers, and then cut lavender from my mom’s garden. We placed them in mason jars and tied red, white, and blue ribbon around the jars. Then we placed the jars in a red 2-tied basket.

For the napkins and silverware, I wrapped the plastic silverware in a white napkin and then wrapped a red or blue star napkin folded in half around the bundle and tied with the opposite color ribbon. I found two small red and blue baskets at Jo Ann’s Fabrics that I placed all the bundled silverware in and topped off with flags in the sides of both displays.

Here is a close-up of the flowers:

Outside we had two tables, chairs and a tent. I made confetti for the tables using a paper punch and some leftover red, white, and blue paper. It was a very windy day so we used tablecloth clips to hold down the tablecloth and taped down the confetti.

Simple, yet beautiful center pieces we made for the outside tables. We had to wait to bring these out to the tables because of the wind.

We had mason jars with ribbon tied around the rims and colorful patriotic themed paper straws all ready for my family to use as their drink glasses. The paper straws are from this cute store called Shop Sweet Lulu. I made homemade labels for all the food and drinks, which I will be posting about later in the week to explain how to make your own.

Another view of the island being set up for the lunch. I hung handmade paper garland from the lights by sewing together scalloped edged circles punched out with a paper punch (adapted from Nest Of Posies.)

The dessert table decorated with white tablecloth, red runner, and the handmade garland.

The drinks station set up on the counter.

The Mediterranean Dip with Toasted Pita Chips. Recipe to come soon, this one is a keeper!

The Tex-Mex Pimiento Cheese Dip before it went into the oven.
$Tex-Mex Pimiento Cheese Dip with Tortilla Chips$

After is came out of the oven, it was gone after a few minutes. Please don’t worry though- I have made it twice since because I wanted to get good photos of it cooked. The sacrifices that I make for our loyal 2S2C readers! Kidding- this dip is seriously amazing, I really have made it twice since, but it was by no means a sacrifice. Yum!!
Delicious Baked Beans, and yes, that is bacon on the top.

Sliders with your choice of cheeses or no cheese. I have decided that a slider is the perfect size burger for me. I was so full after one (and all that pimiento cheese dip .)

We had these really cute squeeze bottles filled with ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise and a bowl of dill pickle chips for the sliders.

Mixed greens salad topped with Strawberries, candied almonds, grilled chicken and poppy-seed dressing.   This is one of my favorite summer salads.

A tower of my classic vanilla cupcakes and buttercream frosting.

The cupcake liners are also from Shop Sweet Lulu. Love them! They really inspired me to keep the cupcakes simple with white frosting and flag toppers.

These Sea Salt Caramel Brownies were heaven! I am dreaming about them now.

The White Trash Party Mix placed in small polka dot red and blue paper cups, which we also bought at Shop Sweet Lulu.   I added patriotic sprinkles to this batch of white trash and I was so happy with the results.

Last, but not least, the sugar cookie party favors were given to everyone as they left.

This party was a lot of fun to pull together with my mom and sisters.   I know that Fourth of July has already passed, but many of these ideas can be translated into Summer cookouts or summer birthday parties. I can’t wait to share more details about the recipes and craft ideas from this party with you for the next week or two.   Stay tuned!

Posted by 2 Sisters 2 Cities on July 4, 2012

Happy Fourth of July everyone! I had quite the busy weekend preparing for a luncheon at my parent’s house for our extended family. Every year on 4th of July weekend, my entire family on my Dad’s side get together for a family reunion. We meet at retreat center in Syracuse that is only 20 minutes from my parent’s home. For the last two years we have hosted a lunch and wiffle ball tournament at my parent’s home.

With all of the blogs my mom, my sisters, and I read, we had a lot of great ideas for the party. I will be posting about the party for the next couple of days. This first post is about how to make a pennant banner which is something I created with Patriotic fabrics to be a decoration at the party. I was so pumped about the results, I want to make one for every holiday now!

How to Make a Pennant Banner:

Supplies
2-6 different types of fabric
solid thin ribbon (match fabrics)
Pennant Pattern
Pins
Fabric Scissors
Pinking Shears
Sewing Machine
Iron and Ironing Board

Iron fabric and then on cutting board, pin pattern to folded fabric and cut out flags. (I used straight fabric scissors to cut the top and pinking shears to cut the sides.)
If cutting out two layers on a fold, be sure to cut the folded line after to make 2 separate flags.

Cut as many flags as you need. I made 36 flags total, 6 of each type of fabric.

Iron the pennant flags, folding over the edge (line showed in pattern.)

With sewing machine, sew ribbon so that it is sandwiched between the fabric in the turned over edge, making sure to catch the ribbon in the stitch.
Continue with rest of flags putting them right next to one another and repeating the order of the fabric (ex. red, white, blue, red, white, blue, etc. )

Cut off excess folded over corners so that they aren’t seen from the front of the flag.

Hang up and enjoy! The best thing about the pennant banner is that it can be used over and over again. This patriotic banner is perfect for Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Flag Day, and Labor Day! You could also make a pennant banner for birthday parties, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Easter, St Patrick’s Day, etc. You could also color-coordinate the flags to match a baby’s nursery or child’s room!

Can you see my helper in the window?

Shared at:

Posted by 2 Sisters 2 Cities on May 31, 2012

Our front door had been looking pretty lonely since January when I took our Christmas wreath down. I had not been able to find a spring wreath that I liked, so I started scouring Pinterest for some ideas. I knew I had found just what I wanted when I saw this pin – a hydrangea wreath. Hydrangeas are one of my favorite flowers and they were the main type of flower I used for my wedding. Our new house came with three hydrangeas in the yard and I can’t wait to see what lovely shade they will bloom in.

Since this is the week of making stuff found via Pinterest (see Basil Lemonade and Frozen Cupcake S’mores), I knew I had to get this project done this week. I bought all the supplies at Michael’s to make this. I am so pleased with the results- it gives our front door the perfect punch of color. For the complete step-by-step tutorial on how to make this hydrangea wreath, see Vanessa Christenson’s blog V & Co.

What are some of your favorite projects that have been inspired from Pinterest?

This post is linked up at:

Posted by 2 Sisters 2 Cities on March 6, 2012

Even though Easter is still a month away, I like to start hiding away things for my son’s Easter basket as I come across fun ideas in stores or on-line. Since young babies can’t have a basket of candy, here are some alternative Spring and Easter-themed goodies you can include instead for baby’s first Easter basket. I actually started this post a year ago after Easter, but I thought it would be more timely to post it before the holiday occurred this year. Although this was my son’s first Easter basket, many of the items would also be suitable for baby’s second or third Easter as well!

The basket itself is from Pottery Barn Kids. I filled it with books, bunnies, chicks, and a couple pieces of Easter candy for mom and dad! Here are some suggestions for what to include in baby’s first Easter basket:

Books:

–Pat the Bunny (Touch and Feel Book) by Dorothy Kunhardt- my son loves to pat the bunny, play peekaboo with Paul, and put his fingers through “mummy’s ring”…a great interactive classic.
–My First Easter by Tomie dePaolo- We had all of these “first” holiday books for my youngest sister growing up…a cute board book.
–That’s Not My Bunny (Usborne Touchy Feely Board Books) by Fiona Watts- We own the bunny, monkey, dinosaur, and baby version of this series. It’s so adorable!
–Baby Touch & Feel: Farm by DK Publishing- A fun farm animal book.
–Peter Rabbit Naturally Better Classic Gift Set by Beatrix Potter- While this book may be too complex for young babies, but it would be a great gift for your child to have over the years as they grow.
–Baby Touch ‘n Feel Easter Bunny by Roger Priddy
–Where are Baby’s Easter Eggs? A Lift the Flap Book by Karen Katz- same author as Where Is Baby’s Belly Button?
–Spot’s First Easter by Eric Hill
–Moo Baa La La La by Sandra Boynton- This is hand’s down my son’s favorite book!

Stuffed Animals:

–Angel Dear lovie blanket– The bunny, duck, or lamb lovie would both be a great gift for baby’s Easter basket. My son has the monkey and is infatuated with it (we had to buy two in case he ever lost the first one!)
–Angel Deal stick rattle

Toys:

–Hide N Squeak Eggs– I’ve known a few people who have had this toy and their kids really seem to like it!
–Easter stickers

Snacks/Food-Related:

–Peter Rabbit Organics– 4 oz pouches- I just recently noticed these at Target…my son loves pouches!
–HappyBaby Organic Puffs
–Baby’s First Easter bib

Check out our Baby’s Easter Basket Amazon Store for more gift ideas!

What do you like to include in your baby’s Easter basket? What did you get in your basket when you were a kid?

p.s. A note about our Amazon store that I have linked most of these items from….We created this Amazon store to share some of our favorite products that we use. Products found in this store are the same price as the regular Amazon site. You can use your normal Amazon account to buy these items through our store and add other Amazon items to your shopping cart. We get a certain percentage of store sales, which helps us diffuse some of the on-going costs of running our blog. Thank you! :)

Posted by 2 Sisters 2 Cities on February 5, 2012

As you might have seen in my part of the Super Bowl Appetizer Contest, I had NY Giants appetizer picks in my Buffalo Chicken Bites. I thought I would share with you how I made these. They are really easy to make and are cheaper then going to a party supply stores for team decorations.

Here is what you need:

– A computer with internet connection
– White Card Stock Paper
– Colored Printer
– Scissors
– 1 1/2 inch circle paper punch/or stencil
– Double Sided Tape
– Flat Toothpicks

On a word processor, paste your teams logos (you can get them off the internet on Google Image by searching for your team.) Size them so they will fit in a 1 1/2 inch circle (I did this on MS Word.)

Print out on stock paper and punch or cut out into 1 1/2 inch circles. (if you don’t have a circle punch, you can trace a circle around the images with pencil and then cut them out)

Cut as many circles out as you need toothpicks for, then make as many blank circles as you made logo ones.

Take the blank circle and place two pieces of double-sided tape on the circle. Place toothpick on the tape.

Take logo circle, logo-side up and line it up with the tape-side up circle with toothpick in place ( making sure to line the logo up with the toothpick so that the logo will be straight)and press together. Press hard until everything looks stuck together.

You can make these for different teams or actually anything! I made the following for my friends who are fans of these teams:

And put them in cupcakes with green frosting and homemade chocolate footballs.
New York Teams!

Group Picture! GO Jets, Bills, Giants, Panthers, Eagles, and Cowboys! Note there are no Patriot cupcakes.

I made my favorite cupcake recipe, which I have already posted about 2 years ago. In the post, I referenced a guy I was dating. Well that “guy” I was dating is now my boyfriend and we have been together for 2 years as of yesterday!

-k

Posted by 2 Sisters 2 Cities on May 2, 2011

For T’s baptism, I decided to do my own floral arrangements since I had a relatively simple arrangement in mind. I originally wanted to do a mix of blue and white hydrangea in a silver bucket, but did a slight design change when I priced out the hydrangea. The blue was twice as much as the white, so I opted to go with all white flowers and incorporate the blue into the arrangement with a blue ribbon tied around the bucket.

This project cost me about $75 for three of these baptism flower arrangements:
-$60 for white hydrangea and greenery
-$2.50 for three silver buckets from Target
-$7.95 for Pool 36mm wide ribbon from Paper Source

If you are looking for other floral ideas for a baptism party, check out my post on the flower pot favors I made as well!

-m

Posted by 2 Sisters 2 Cities on April 22, 2011

We had T’s baptism and baptism party last weekend and I wanted to give everyone a small favor to thank them for coming. While planning our wedding, I remember seeing people giving small pots of flowers for wedding or bridal shower favors. I decided (with my mom’s help) to replicate this for for the baptism.

Materials:
-terra cotta pots
-small flowers
-primer
-metallic paint
-extra soil
-wooden skewers (cut in half)
-colorful paper (to print flags on)
-ribbon to tie around flower pots (optional)

My mom, T, and I headed to a gardening store and picked up some small terra cotta pots. We also picked up some small perennials already planted in plastic containers. We scrubbed the labels off the pots and soaked them in water to allow the air pockets in the terra cotta to saturate. Then, we dried them off for a few hours before painting them:

Next, we laid out newspaper in an open area and spray-painted primer on both sides of the pots:

Once the primer was dry, we brushed on silver paint to each pot:

When the silver layer of paint was dry, we then started the process of planting the flowers. We first took broken terra cotta chips to put in the base to help with drainage. Then, we transferred the flowers from the plastic pots and added a bit more soil on top:

I created tiny flags that read “Thank you for coming!” using PowerPoint word art. I cut out each flag and sister C helped glue gun each flag to a small stick (1/2 of a wooden skewer). We then stuck a flag in each flower pot:

At the baptism, I made a tiny sign telling people to take a flower on their way out and left paper bags for them to carry the pots in:

It was a fun project and brought a little bit of early spring to the party!

-m

Posted by Keelin Hollenbeck on October 20, 2010

My little sister and I made a cake out of diapers for M’s baby shower. My mom had the idea after seeing it at another baby shower. She bought us all the supplies and we made it the night before M’s shower after looking at pictures of diaper cakes on-line.

Supplies (aka cake ingredients):

– about 100 diapers (we used the brands and size M asked for her on registry so she can actually use the diapers when baby is born)
– wooden skewer
– curling ribbon, string or rubber bands
– pretty ribbon (like thick pink or blue ribbon)
– large tray or cake plate (we used a large catering plastic plate)
– tape
– scissors
– small baby gifts/supplies- like a bottle, pacifiers, teething toys, rattles, and whatever you would like to anchor on your cake

Start by rolling the diapers up, with the print to the inside (so you only see white) and tie with the curling ribbon. We found it easy to cut a bunch of curling ribbon to the right size in the beginning and then start rolling and tying the diapers up.

Keep tying the diapers until you can form about 12-15 together and to start the base. Tie curling ribbon around the 12-15 to hold them all together. Next, start building around the bundle you have made until you have a base that fits your plate (or to whatever size you prefer). Then, tie a larger curling ribbon around the outside to keep the whole base together.

Next, we started on the middle layer just like we did the first layer, except making it about a row smaller to create a layered look to your cake. When placing the second layer on the cake, we used a couple pieces of tape and then stuck a wooden skewer through the middle to hold it (we made sure not to pierce the diapers because we didn’t want to ruin them!)

Then, we made the top of the cake the same way, just smaller then the middle layer and we placed a bottle in the center filled with light blue M&Ms. You can use your own creativity here! We decided we wanted a smoother frosting look to our cake so we tied another layer of flat unrolled diapers around the outside and tied them there with the curling ribbon. Next, we put light blue and baby ribbon around the curling ribbon to cover it up and make it look like stripes on frosting. Finally, we tucked and tied the toys and other gifts around the cake. Feel free to look at my pictures to get ideas!

Enjoy!

-K

Posted by Meaghan Barry on March 29, 2010

With bridal shower season around the corner, I have started to think about different ways in which I have presented gifts at showers. Since the actual gift itself is usually not a surprise to the recipient, I try to give gifts with a creative spin. By presenting your gift in a fun manner, you can create a conversation piece and make the shower a bit more fun (admit it…it gets boring fast to watch someone open gift after gift for hours upon end). Here are five gift/packaging tips:

1. In most cases, stick to the registry. Unless you have a really great idea for a particular bride, people create registries for a reason. If you end up going off the registry, you are often creating more work for someone as they may not need that particular item. People often think that giving off the registry is too impersonal, but you can make it more creative and personal by packaging it in a nice way. You can also supplement gifts from the registry with some small non-registry gifts (more below).

2. When you are wrapping a gift, you don’t need to necessarily use wrapping paper or the common white wedding gift bag. If you are buying off the registry, the gift likely won’t be a surprise so you don’t need to necessarily conceal it under layers of wrapping. For one shower, I bought a few sets of plates off the registry and tied them together with a piece of thick, white satin ribbon. I had just been to another wedding the previous weekend and had won the floral centerpiece for my table, so I took a few of the roses from the flowers, cut the stems down to size, and tucked them into the ribbon. If you have a large garden, you could also use some floral clippings from your own yard. If you were giving a cooking-related gift, a fresh herb cutting like rosemary would also add a nice touch tucked into the gift packaging.

3. When searching through the registry, try to find a good “basket” and smaller items to fill it with. The basket does not necessarily need to a be a basket per say, just some type of container that could hold other related gifts. For example, for one shower, I bought a colander and filled it with smaller cooking related items. I bought items on the registry like a pasta serving spoon, spatula, and garlic press, as well as a few non-registry items such as a gourmet olive oil, pasta sauce, and pasta. I have also seen a gift combos such as a flatware tray filled with flatware and serving spoons from the registry (tied up with tulle) and a basket filled with rolled-up towels.

4. Scope out a registry early before all the good gifts/gift combinations are taken!

5. Try to stick to a theme. If you are buying wine glasses, add a bottle of wine or wine opener. If you are buying a cooking pan, pair it with a pair of oven mitts. Try to avoid going through the list and picking a random selection of items to get to your price point (a salt shaker, vacuum replacement bags, a bowl, and a pillowcase would make for an awkward gift!)

What are some gifts you have given at showers that you feel presented well?

-m