If you have children in school, there is always the pressure (from your kids) to get each of their classmates a Christmas gift.  I’m all for making gifts, although I don’t know if these turned out any cheaper than buying what we made.  We had fun anyways, and that’s what counts.  Plus, I think our homemade playdough kicks butt in terms of softness!  Thank you Pinterest for the recipe!  Here’s what we did, in case you need a quick gift idea too.

First we started with the containers.  The Pinterest post on this recipe used re-purposed baby food containers with lids.  Since I don’t have a baby, I needed to buy containers.  We found these plastic cups with lids (and a bonus spoon) in the baby section of the Dollar Tree.  They were 2 for $1.00.

Then the ingredients:  flour, vegetable oil, salt, water, food coloring, and cream of tartar.  You’ll probably have all of these lying around except the cream of tartar.  And now my assistant will show you the steps…

One cup of flour…

One cup of water….

1/4 cup of salt….

Two teaspoons of Cream of Tartar…

One tablespoon of oil….

And the food coloring!  It’s probably easiest if you add this to the cup of water before putting all the ingredients in the saucepan.  It won’t hurt adding it on it’s own though.  Brooke & I realized that these food coloring bottles reminded us of the cast from Gnomeo & Juliet…haha!  She chose to make purple for her first batch.

Stir all of those ingredients in a sauce pan.

Then add the sauce pan to medium heat on the stove top.  {Adults only, please}

Keep stirring this gloppy mixture until it starts to stick to itself.  It will pull away from your saucepan & form a clump around the spoon.  Just grab the last bits off the sauce pan so you get the most dough for your ingredients.

See…it stuck!  Put the whole blob on wax paper – careful, it’s hot!

Then knead & knead…knead all those frustrations out.  This might be a tad hot for little hands.  You can put a dishtowel over the wax paper so they can knead too.  It’ll cool off in about 5 minutes.  And you’re all set!  Keep it for yourself, or give it to a friend!

Super Soft Homemade Playdough

1 cup flour

1 cup water

1/4 cup salt

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

food coloring

I’m pretty sure the store bought Play-Doh brand packets are cheaper, but this stuff is softer by far – especially good for little hands.  Plus it’s a fun winter break activity.  Slap a sticker on it, tie a ribbon on, and attach a cookie cutter.  You’re done!

It’s typically a habit of mine not to fall prey to advertising & succumb to the NEED to have some particular thing.  However, when the Dyson came out, & when I had a puppy & a newborn, I NEEDED to have one.  I HAD to have one.  I’d DIE without one!  And, as ever, my loving husband Josh gave in to my whining & pleading & manipulation techniques for why it’d be so great to keep the floors clean for the baby.  We got a Dyson (paid cash like smart people) & I have loved it ever since!  My “baby” is now almost 5 & my Dyson is still running strong.  We are on child #2 & puppy #2 and that vacuum cleaner is still one of my BFFs.  I mean look at the thing…it’s so sleek, so clean, so simple – and the guy who makes them has a cool accent!  Who wouldn’t want one?  Really though, I can attest to it’s ease of use.  I’ve taken the thing apart, cleaned it, put it back together, & it still works.  And I’ve sucked up some pretty brutal stuff too!  Just go get one, because I said so!

This image is me vacuuming up the pine needles that our dying Christmas tree left behind.  We got our tree again this year at our neighbor Jack’s nursery – Bay Ridge Nursery.  We like doing business with local people if we can, because Josh & I are local businesses.  So this tree looked big outside at Jack’s shop, but in our house, I swear it doubled in size & girth!  And then going out the door just an hour ago, it doubled again!  It was a great tree, & I’ll miss its scent.  But I will not miss its needles.  Which, by the way, probably dropped sooner than they would have if our dog Ruby hadn’t kept drinking the water from the tree stand.  Farewell dear tree!  And good riddance stinkin’ needles!

Images I’m looking at:  La Brisa Photography in Brooklyn, New York.  Chris is someone I randomly started following on Twitter & enjoy looking at the stuff he’s working on besides just work.  He recently had a post about a photographer meet up where they met & shot at night!  And I was like, “Whoa…how’d you shoot at night?”  He told me he’s in to pushing his camera ISO  to its limits to see what it can do.  That is totally profound & totally simple all at the same time.  Why am I then afraid to push my ISO above 400?   So, I tried that.  With my image today I was reluctant to use a flash (and hold my Dyson at the same time), so I bumped up my ISO to 2500 & I think it looks pretty decent.  Thanks, Chris, for the challenge!

Well, it seems that Christmas is officially over.  How do I know this?  When I went to Target to get an ornament storage  box & was greeted by bathing suits at the top of the escalator it was a pretty solid indication.  Bummer! 

This photo is a small part of the Christmas cards we’ve received this year.  I’ve always wanted to display my cards in some creative way, but having no fireplace mantle, I wasn’t sure what to do.  We had originally bought this red felt snowflake rope stuff to put around our Christmas tree, but Josh bought a ginormous tree & the rope barely made it half way down.   Emma & I decided to drape it along the ceiling with push pins & tie our cards on it.  It’s been great for the girls to be able to check the mail each day & hang up new cards from friends & family.  Thanks so much for sending us your cards this year.  We’ve loved getting a glimpse into your lives!  I am going to keep this snowflake rope up for a few more weeks just to remind us of all of YOU!  (ps – if you didn’t send us one & still want to, get that sucker in the mail, pronto!).

On a camera related note, I’ve been practicing Amy Wenzel‘s advice & moving my focus points to where I want the focus to be instead of focusing on a spot & reframing my view.  It’s super neat!  Just a small trick, but I like trying it out.  I’m not too fast just yet, but I’m working on it.  I need to learn my camera’s buttons by heart first!

Photos I’ve been looking at:  My friends!  I’ve been following my friends & fellow photographer’s 365 projects.  Here’s a few:  Heather Grace Photography, Stacy Richardson Photography, Stevie T Photography.  If you’re out there & starting or continuing a 365 project, or a 52 week project, let me know!  I WANT to see it!  Thanks!  That’s all.

Well, we are officially done with all of our Christmas celebrations – our little Sroka family, Josh’s bigger Sroka family, my Smith family part 1, and my Smith family part 2…whew!  Is anyone else tired!

I love Christmas though – seeing all the family, extended family, catching up, playing games, playing dangerous games, and just the togetherness.  Thank you to all of our family for making this Christmas so great for us and our girls.  So, here’s a shout out to you ALL:  Thank you Josh, Emma, Brooke, Ruby (the dog), Nanny & Papa, Nanna, Mom-mom, Mom & Dad, Mom & Michael, Dad & Sharon, Aunt Teri & Uncle Bucky, Jennifer, Wes, Aunt Gail & Gary, Tim & Jill, Aunt Lena, Tony & Brittney,  Bert & Laura, Mackinzie, Delaney, Matt & Emily, Robin & Chris, Maggie, Leah, Matt & Ashley, Jake, Hailey, Becca, and Drew.

Here’s a little peek at what our days were like…

Cousins hugging after opening gifts to each other

Princess Jasmine

Sleeping Beauty

Delaney Mae

Bert with his Marshmallow “MForcer” gun

Matt showing me how his Marshmallow gun worked – yeah right!

Both boys testing out their guns

Emma opening her globe lamp with Amaw

Some of my grandmother’s many snow village scenes

Brooke & cousin Hailey playing with the snow villages

Nanny showing the kids her spinning candle thingy

It spins!

Josh’s favorite gift from Bert – the electric shock game

Josh & Matt waiting for the shock

Maggie getting shocked & Mom laughing

Papa laughing too!

Emma on her scooter

Showing off the accessories

Brooke whizzing by on her scooter

Some of Brooke’s accessories

I’ve been waiting to post this blog for weeks, but I was sworn to secrecy by Aubrey’s parents.  See, they were having these photos taken secretly to use as a Christmas surprise for their family.  So there was a strict no Facebook & no blogging policy!  Well, Christmas has past & I’m just itching to put up a few photos of this little beauty!  Congratulations to Jessica & KC on your new, & lovely, baby girl!