Architecture of a Mom: May 2012

Origami Butterfly Art

12:35:00 PM

As I have already mentioned, we are planning a big redo of my four-year-old’s room. I’ll be posting some big before and after posts very soon. I have a feeling that it will be a work in progress since we still need some new bedding. Anyway, I wanted to create some more art for her room. This is what we came up with:

We had this frame Metall Epok frame from ikea. It’s a long story, but it fell off the wall in our guest bathroom and the glass shattered. So I had this nice, relatively large (20" square, I think) frame, but no glass to protect the artwork. I decided that it was the perfect opportunity to create some artwork with some depth. I took the masonite back board and painted it the same color as the hairbow holder I made here—therefore repeating colors to create unity in the room.

Then over at sugarbeecrafts, Mandy declared one day as origami day. I have been fascinated with origami since elementary school. Her posts inspired me to create some artwork using this butterfly origami pattern and this flower pattern. So I took a big 50% off coupon to Michaels and scored a pack of origami paper for $2.50. This is a multicolor pack of 300 sheets--3inches by 3 inches.

I then took every one of the sheets of pink and purple and folded a whole bunch of butterflies--around 30.

There are a lot of different patterns to make origami butterflies that you can find out on the web. You want to find one that has a reasonably flat backside to allow for good glue contact to the masonite.

The pattern I used to make these butterflies can be found here.I thought it was pretty easy, but I've been folding paper for a while. So after you fold a bunch of little butterflies, you take some craft glue and glue them in a pleasing pattern. I laid them out in a pattern that made it look like they were escaping--and then let them escape the frame a little. Since I had the frame and the paint was a sample, I spent a grand total of $2.50 on this project to get that origami paper--and I have plenty leftover to do some more origami projects! Yay!

I think this should fit right into the butterfly/fairy theme, don't you?

Sometimes I link up at the following places: Six Sisters Stuff, Tidy Mom, Finding Fabulous, MomTrends, Simply Sugar and Gluten Free , House of Hepworths, Positively Splendid, The Finer Things and I Dream of Clean’s Spring Cleaning Challenge, A Little Tipsy, How to Nest for Less, Sugarbee Crafts, Not Just a Housewife, The King's Court IV, The Finer Things in Life, 413 Sparrow Lane and Organizing Junkie.

Designing Family

Happy Memorial Day

2:48:00 PM

Menu Planning

Menu Planning Monday 2012-05-28

5:30:00 AM

Designing Family

Friday Fun--Memorial Day To-Do

11:30:00 AM

This little Friday Fun post isn’t as funny as it is usually. Since it is Memorial Day on Monday for us in the US, We have the day off. So it’s a long weekend—hooray! And for once, we’re staying in town, and we’re trying to get some stuff done. The big project: painting my eldest child’s room. She was moved into what had been the guest room when I was pregnant with the twins, and all we did was move her clothes, hang a couple of pictures on the wall, put a few knick knacks on the table and call it done. She’s been wanting her room decorated for a while, so expect a couple of posts detailing our projects—it should be neat (I hope!). I already shared one project: a picture frame hair accessory holder:

Anyway, a long weekend means a long to-do list, right? Here’s the list so far:

Buy paint & mulch at the home improvement store.
Paint my girl’s room.
Do some art projects for above room.
Go grocery shopping.
Clean house because the hubby is having friends over tonight.
Spread mulch.
Plant some plants that have been languishing with no home since we bought them.
Oh, and adopt a furry pal for the weekend—we’re watching my sister’s dog for them.

When I told my girl to make sure she liked the paint colors Thursday night, she asked, “Are we going to paint the room tonight?” Hopefully she can wait until it’s done. I’m not sure she realizes how much work it is to paint a room. I’m also hoping she isn’t envisioning helping us. I’m so excited for her, though—isn’t it great when a little one starts taking ownership of their space? Don't you love making a little one feel special?

And what's on your "to-do" list?

Sometimes I link up at the following places: Eat at Home,Tidy Mom, Finding Fabulous, MomTrends, Simply Sugar and Gluten Free , House of Hepworths, Positively Splendid, The Finer Things and I Dream of Clean’s Spring Cleaning Challenge, A Little Tipsy, How to Nest for Less, Not Just a Housewife, The King's Court IV, The Finer Things in Life, and Organizing Junkie.

Culinary Creativity

Quick Parmesan Pasta with Chicken

7:35:00 PM

Sometimes, you throw together something from leftovers and have few expectations from it. When I made this dish, I was just hoping for edible. What I ended up with something I call Parmesan Pasta with Chicken, and it's really good—my husband had some critiques (we need to add a little spice)—but he had seconds. So did I, as well as one of the twins. The other twin had 4 helpings and I finally cut her off. The four-year-old wouldn’t touch it at first, but after some coaxing decided it was ok—I think since it looked different she decided she didn’t like it. My husband asked that I make it again—extremely high praise for a reworking of leftovers, I would say!

The star ingredient: low or non-fat evaporated milk. If you are craving something creamy, but don’t want so much fat, this is the way to go!

12 oz very small pasta—also called pastina—I used stelline, but orzo would work too

1 cup of small chopped vegetables—I used carrots

1 can lowfat or non-fat evaporated milk

2 cups cooked shredded chicken (I used leftover sticky chicken)

2 oz sun dried tomatoes packed in oil, chopped and drained drained + 1 tablespoon of oil

1 cup shredded parmesan (or other cheese of choice)

Salt and Pepper to taste

Put on a medium pot of water to boil. While water is heating to boil, heat the oil from the sun-dried tomatoes over medium high heat in a medium pot or skillet. Saute vegetables in oil until crisp-tender.

Lower heat of vegetables to medium-low. Add pasta to boiling water in the other pot and cook until done according to directions on the box. Add milk and chicken to vegetables. Simmer (do not boil) until thickened slightly. Add sun-dried tomatoes, stir to combine.

Turn off heat. Add drained pasta and cheese. Stir to combine. Because of the small size of the pasta, it has more surface area to stick to the sauce, so don’t panic that your sauce looks runny before the pasta and cheese is added. It should thicken up quickly.

My husband suggested that for grown-up tastes, it could use a little more spice. I would add either some ground mustard or maybe some paprika. If you combined everything in an oven-safe skillet, you could toss some breadcrumbs on top and brown it under the broiler for a couple of minutes, too.

Just a heads up: if you are using larger pasta, you will probably have to cook your sauce down for longer or add a thickener.

Like I said, this was a big hit at my house—a pretty good use of leftover chicken. I think this meal took less than 15 minutes from start to finish—no more than 20 minutes! Enjoy!

Creative Outlets

Picture Frame Hair Accessory Holder

9:42:00 PM

Special note: This post could also be titles, "What to do when your project starts to go wrong." That would be because this project almost went completely south. But I think it turned out all right in the end.

As I’ve mentioned before, one big challenge in having girls is the hair. Both my husband and I have basically straight hair, but apparently my “just enough wave to cause problems” hair has been passed on to all my children. Luckily enough for us, the babies have not had much is the hair growth department, but my four year old has pretty blond hair that is about shoulder length. And with long hair comes...hair accessories. I’ve managed to contain the little ponytail holders in a little “treasure chest” but we have been looking for a way to contain the hairbands and hairbows. I had something for the hairbows but since we are redoing her room, I wanted to have a different look.

Enter this post at theparopost: a cute pink hairbow holder--not crazy about the color, but I thought the idea sounded cheap and easy--two things I definitely like!

This is exactly what I wanted. So I grabbed an old frame:

Then I painted it, and then took some sandpaper to the edges to antique it.

Then I grabbed my staple gun and some grosgrain ribbon—I wanted something a little more dynamic than the original, so I put the ribbon at angles.

Then I realized that the staples were too long for the wood of the frame. Perhaps I should have planned better….

But then I improvised, and covered the staple with homemade bows.

Then we put the hooks in. I opted for a larger hook to accommodate more hairbands per hook instead of a whole bunch of hooks.

And here is the finished product. I think I see something similar for the twins in the future! This project cost me nothing. The frame was an old certificate frame, the paint was a free Valspar sample, and I had the ribbon, staples, hooks, and glue on hand!