Our Over Sized Okra

Our Garden as of now

     As you can see, our okra is HUGE!  I don't know if it got that big because we planted REALLY late into the summer or the seeds we used hmmm...  We only have okra and tomatoes and they are STILL producing!!  

     And other than our garden, this post is about...

Halloween!!!

   I wanted to talk about mine, my sister's, and brother's costumes.  So, my costume is going to be a Masquerade Ball Girl!! I am sooo excited about wearing it!! I have always been into wearing dresses, gowns, and BIG, puffy dresses!  I am going to be wearing a silver/gray dress with little jewels at the top with a really cool mask that (almost) matches the dress!

     My brother is going to be Spiderman.  He is also VERY excited!  He has been looking forward to getting and trying on his costume.  We finally got it at Target the day we went to Tellus for Heavy Metal in Motion (see my other post Tellus Cotton Day! to see more about Heavy Metal in Motion).  We kept it a surprise until we got home.  We told him, "We have you a surprise!", and he was super excited!  He told us on the way home why does it have to be a surprise, can't I just know?  Haha! Once we got home, he couldn't wait any longer and opened the package and put it on.  Once he got it on (with some help)  he went over to my mom and said, "Did you get the shooters?" (As seen on their commercial.)  My mom said, "No, we just got your costume."  He then said, "Aw man, I wanted those cool shooter things! (and he struck a pose, you know the one Spiderman makes when he shoots a web? Pow! Pow!)

     As for my sister, she is going to be what she has been fascinated with for years!  A Toilet! Just kidding about the fascinated part! But, she REALLY is going to be a Toilet.  Well, I don't really know if that is her final decision (she keeps on changing it!).  She (thinks) she is going to make the whole costume (with my mom's help, of course!).  She is going to cut out the bottom of a large box and step into it, add a toilet bowl (to hold her candy, or so she says), and add a flush lever.  

That is what has been going on with me.  Halloween costumes and admiring our over sized okra before it, **Sniffle** **Sniffle**, DIES!:(

                                                                                   TTYL

                                                                                (Talk To You Later)

                                                                                                   ~Zoe

I just decided I am going to put pictures of mine and my brother's costumes (not my sister's because well, it hasn't really been made yet! Haha!).  

             

Bye! :),

Zoe

Tellus cotton Day!

     On Friday, October 13, 2012, me and my family went to the Tellus Museum in Cartersville, Georgia.  We went to see their annual Heavy Metal in Motion.  They have many different "generations" of firetrucks, a 1932 Rolls Royce, a bunch of tractors from different years, race cars you can climb into, a Georgia Power truck, an old Shell gasoline truck, a Black-hawk Helicopter, and my favorite!  A Hovercraft!  And after all of that, they even had more vehicles to see! They had a Monster Truck themed bouncy house, snack stand, and a miniature train that gives kids (and parents) rides around the front of the museum.  They even had stuff inside the museum!  We got to do a couple of crafts like, make your own hovercraft, make an engineer hat, and you got to guess on one solar powered car (little toy race cars) were going to be the fastest then, you got to see them race and find out which one was the fastest.  They also had all of the normal exhibits open so we went back through the Gem Panning and My Big Backyard.

Tellus web site Heavy Metal in Motion

     So after that great day, it got EVEN BETTER!  On the way to Tellus we had seen a bunch of cotton fields.  We had said that it would  be cool to stop and just SEE not PICK.  On the way home my mom actually spotted someone who had stopped, pulled over, and was admiring the cotton.  So what did we do but, pull over too!:)  She turned the car around and stopped on a not-so-busy road.  We all got out and...it looked like it was snowing!!!  We got some REALLY good photos! Here they are!

                                   You can really see how far           
                                      the cotton goes in this                                  
                                                  picture

                                           --------------->

This one is zoomed out and again
   you can see how far the cotton
                    goes

<----------------

                              I took this picture up close
                                                   --------->

                                       

 

                                 



And I put the camera under
    the cotton and snapped
                a photo.
<------------

                                                   


                                                                                                       
                                          This is another beautiful
                                                     picture!
                                                    ------------->




                                                                                                                                                   

This is one of my favorites! 
   I actually took this 
           picture.
<------------

I hope you have enjoyed hearing about Heavy Metal in Motion and our cotton adventure! And be sure to find out more about Heavy Metal in Motion at Tellus because it really is worth going to see, especially if you have a little boy who is really into big trucks. (Like my little brother!)  :)

                                                                                                                        ~Zoe

"NG Kids My Shot"

     This post is going to be small but, I just wanted to tell you guys that I am going to enter a photo in the National Geographic Kids magazine   I'm not sure if it will really reach their magazine (they pick their favorite to go into it).  If it does then, please make sure to check it out!:)

                                                                        Talk to you later,

                                       

                                                    

                                                                                                                      ~Zoe     

My profile on National Geographic.com    

Homemade All Natural!!!

     My mom is a big fan of all natural.  I think my whole family is!  1 its good for you and 2, who doesn't love knowing REALLY, where their stuff came from?  My mom suggested that I find out more about all natural soap you can make yourself. With her help, we found one that our family can actually use! Maybe yours can too!

All natural-homemade Washing Detergent

What you'll need:

1 five gallon bucket

1 bar of Ivory, Zote, Naptha, or any

other natural soap brand

1 cup washing soda

1/2 cup Borax

4 cups of water to boil in a pan

3 gallons of hot/warm water in bucket

a wooden spoon

     First, grate the soap you will be using.  Next, add grated soap to the water boiling in the pan. Now, add 3 gallons of hot tap water to your bucket.  Then, add the boiling water and soap solution, into the bucket.  Now, using the wooden spoon mix the soapy water and regular water.  Add the Borax. After you add it you are ready to add the Washing Soda.  Mix one last time and either pop the top on your bucket or place plastic wrap over it. Let the mixture sit for 24 hours and then use. Make sure the solution stays warm.  Note: If the Washing detergent is jelly like, then it is ready to be used. But, in summer it may not become jelly like. You can still use it just like you would when it is jelly.

Tips:

•   Stir with the longest wooden spoon available to you.
•   My mom uses Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps 18-in-1 Hemp LAVENDER PURE-CASTILE SOAP Made with organic oils, not for the soap but for the smell.

Did you know?

      If a family of four was doing five loads per week (using homemade detergent) their first load of homemade laundry would cost 5 cents a load (Because you have to buy the supplies) and future batches would cost  1 cent per load. By the way one batch will last you 4 months and takes 10 minutes to make!  So, in the first year the detergent will only cost you $13.00, as compared to the store $9.97 (Gain x2 liquid detergent) every single time you buy ONE. If that same family bought the stores type (Gain x2) it would last them a month and a half. That would cost them $79.76 a year, whereas it would cost them only $13.00 a year if they made their own. That would be $66.76 in savings!

Here are some pictures of us making the soap

     I hope you have enjoyed our little "Science Expirement"! I think we could get used to doing this especially with it only taking 10 minutes to make, costing 5 cents a load, letting us save $66 a year, and it being all NATURAL! It couldn't get much better!

                                                                                                                                   

                                                                                                                                            ~Zoe

     I actually JUST found another recipe on Squidoo and its how to make homemade aluminium-free deodorant!!

Aluminum-free Deodorant

What you'll need:

1/3 cup coconut oil (in its solid state)

1/4 cup baking soda (Aluminum free)

1/4 cup Arrowroot powder

Essential oils (optional, to make it smell
also lavender kills bacteria which is what makes you smell)

Container or small jar (anything to store it in) 

1.      To start, they say to mix the baking soda and Arrowroot powder in a glass bowl or jar. 
2.      Add the coconut oil (do not melt it!) use a fork to scoop it out into the bowl and blend throughly with baking soda arrowroot mix.
3.      Add 5-10 drops of your favorite essential oils blend completely.(optional)
4.      Scoop into small jar or container, whatever you have to store it in!
5.      To apply, use your fingers to get out a pea size drop and massage onto your armpits. Use daily or as needed (as with normal deodorant).

Note: Allow a minute or two with the deodorant on before getting dressed. This deodorant does not stain or show on clothes!:) Make sure you store your deodorant some where it will not melt, especially during summer you may need to refrigerate. (Coconut oil melts at 76 degrees Fahrenheit.)

     I  am definitely going to tell my mom about this recipe because we have been looking for a homemade deodorant!!  Bye!:)

                                                                                                                                        ~Zoe

Thanks to Squidoo for your awesome recipes!!

Squidoo

Spooky Sweets

     I know I said that I was going to post some seasonal desserts but today my mom, me, my brother, and my sister were making a really cool Betty Crocker recipe.  My mom remembers making this recipe for my sister when she was in Kindergarten (at a public school.)  We made Frankensteins, Spiders, and Ghosts.  Here's the recipe and pictures of how we did it and what they look like.

Spooky Sweets:

Makes 12 brownies

What you'll need: 

1 box of Betty Crocker brownie mix

2 tubs of 6 oz. Betty Crocker icing

M&M's

Betty Crocker gel food coloring

Decorating gel

(at least) 12 Large Marshmallows

Gummy Worms

1 roll of Betty Crocker Fruit Roll-Ups

     These are really fun but, a little challenging.  To start, bake the brownies according to the brownie mix package.  Let them cool for 1 1/2 hours.  Now your ready for the fun part!  Take your large marshmallows and place them on top of your cooled brownie (This batch makes at least 12 regular size brownies so, if you want an even number of each creature, make 4 of each.)  The Spider's marshmallows needs to be laying on its side, the others can stand up long ways. Go ahead and divide the icing into 3 bowls.  Now, choose which type of creature you want to start with.  You can go in any order.

                Spooky Spider:   Start by placing the gummy worms underneath all of your spider's marshmallows.   Then, color the first bowl of icing the color you want your spider to be. (We colored ours a purple color but the Betty Crocker recipe said to color the spiders red or pink. Either way it won't affect the outcome of your spiders.)  Mix the color in really well.  Now place into the microwave for about 15 seconds.  (Microwave more if you want the icing to be thinner or microwave less if you want it thicker.)  Take it out of the microwave and pour spoonfuls over your marshmallow topped brownie until the marshmallow is no longer visible.  Wait about 1 minute (or until you think your icing is hard enough to hold M&M's eyes.  We did some of ours right after it was covered and the eyes slid down the marshmallow.  Others we waited a little longer and the eyes turned out perfectly!)  Once your eyes are secured on the iced marshmallow, place decorating gel pupils, mouth, and eyebrows.  Do all of your spiders the same way as the first.  After your done move onto the next creature.

                   Boo-Brownie: On the ghost, really all you do is the same as with the spiders except don't color your icing.  To make the ghost, take the next bowl of uncolored icing and put it into the microwave.  Take the bowl out and drizzle icing over your marshmallow brownie.  Wait for the icing to cool, just a little bit, and then place the M&M eyes on.  Take black decorating gel and draw on the moaning mouth and eyes.

                    Franken-Brownie:  Take your next bowl of icing and squirt in the gel coloring of your choice.  Microwave for about 15 seconds and pour over your brownie.  Let it cool a tad and add the eyes and bolts on the sides of his neck.  Now, cut a strip of fruit roll ups.  Make cuts (but not all the way through it) until it looks kind of like a grass skirt.  place on top of Frankenstein's head.  To finish him off, give him decorating gel eyes and a mouth.  

These are Betty Crocker's brownies

My brother's ghost

     

My Frankenstein

My ghost

I hope you enjoy this recipe! It is one of my favorite desserts especially, around Halloween time!

                                                                                                                           ~Zoe

A special thanks to Betty Crocker for this great Halloween Tradition!

Betty Crocker's Recipe

Columbus Day Crafts

Today is Columbus Day! I have some crafts and facts about Columbus Day.

Columbus Day

     Columbus Day is celebrated on the second Monday in October, for the US of course.  We celebrate Columbus Day in honor of Christopher Columbus' voyage from Spain to North America in 1492.   Christopher Columbus' crew sailed on the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria.  The Santa Maria sank in North America but, the Niña and Pinta made it back to Spain.  It took Christopher five weeks to reach North America.  His original goal was to find a route to Asia in order to trade valuable spices. 

                           

 Rainstick

What you'll need:

Tin or Aluminium foil

Corn kernels, any small dry beans, tiny pasta

1 paper towel roll or any other type of long cardboard roll

Crayons, colored pencils, markers, and sequins

Tape or Glue

Scissors

brown construction paper, card stock, or a brown paper bag

        Using your brown paper trace the bottom of your cardboard tube then, draw a bigger circle around the first.  Draw lines connecting to your smaller circle. Now, cut along your lines you drew to your small circle. Put glue on each end of the cut rectangles. Line up the inner circle with the bottom of the cardboard tube now, gently fold each rectangle to the sides of the tube making sure the inner circle is blocking anything from falling out of the tube, let glue dry and continue. Now that your glues dry, your ready to use your aluminium foil! The piece of foil should be about 2 inches bigger than your tube (about 1 1/2 the length of your roll) and about 6 inches wide.  Roll the aluminium foil into to two thin ropes then, twist both into a spring like form.  Place the foil into your tube. Now, you add your dry bean, kernel, pasta assortment into the tube make sure it is about 1/10 full. (Different size, shape, and weight beans, kernels, and pasta make different sounds).  Now make another topper for the opposite end using the first few steps and your finished!  (You can also decorate using the markers, crayons, colored pencils, and sequins.

2. This is my second and final craft for Columbus Day,

Birch Bark Canoe

What you'll need:

Scissors

string or yarn

construction paper or brown paper bag

hole puncher

Crayons, markers, colored pencils, or tempera paint

     Start off by folding the paper long ways.  About a half-inch from the first fold and fold again. Do this again on the other side (the folds will be the bottom of the boat).  Draw a canoe form in marker or crayon *remember the folds go on the bottom of the canoe*.  Cut out along your canoe lines and punch a few holes following the edges of the canoe.  Using your string or yarn weave in and out of each hole. Push the folded bottom flat to make it stand up.

     I hope you have enjoyed my Columbus Day crafts!  I know there aren't many, but they are really good ones!  I am about to post about my elves, maybe tomorrow. Bye!

                                                                                                                            ~Zoe

I have gotten all of my crafts and information off of Enchanted Learning Thanks for having a really wonderful web site, it is probably my favorite web site for crafts of any sort!


Enchanted Learning

5 Cool, Creepy, and Crafty Halloween/Fall projects to do

So, I just created this blog (with my mom's help:)) and I decided what better thing to do my first post about then these really cool Halloween projects I've been doing!


Since Halloween is coming up, I've been looking for some really cool and FUN crafts, but surprisingly I haven't found many.  I mean, you would think from looking up Halloween crafts on the internet you would find at least a gazillion hits to the word "craft".  So, since I HAVE found a trickle of crafts I decided that I should make my own post on the crafts I find. Stop searching your crafting hot spot is here!






1. The first few crafts I actually found were out of a Family Fun magazine my mom subscribed to a while back.                                                          

                                                       Feather your Nest

                                           

                                              What you'll need:

1 toilet paper roll

Coffee filters or cupcake liners,

really anything with ruffles you can over lap to create

a feather effect*

 Tacky Glue or tape

White or orange construction paper or card stock

1 black marker

                
*Please note: If you use coffee filters you may need to dye them if you want brown and yellow owls. I tried to dye mine and the waves came out when they got wet. 

                  

 To create one of these cute creatures cut one inch off the top of your toilet paper roll, fold in the top, and

use tape to hold in place(1).  Next, cut the coffee filter or cupcake liners into quarters(2), and glue or tape onto your toilet paper roll(3).  Now, keep repeating step two until the front of the paper roll is covered (or until as feathery or ruffly as you want.)  Now, cut out the owls eyes from the construction paper or card stock.  Use the black marker to draw a circle to create pupils in the middle of the construction paper and glue them on the feathered toilet paper roll(4)  (You can also cut out circles from the filters and glue them behind the eyes)(5).  Now, using the orange construction paper cut a triangle for the owls beak, glue it on(6).  For wings, cut rectangles from the ruffles of the filter/liners and glue to the sides of paper roll (7)  Let it completely dry and you have a new fall decoration!

**1**

                                                                       

**2**

                                                                          

**3**

                                                                                   

**4**

                                                                         

**5**

                                                                         

**6**

                                                                           

**7**

                                                                               

2. This craft was also from the Family Fun magazine,

 Cotton Swab Skeletons

What you'll need:

Lots of cotton swabs

Plastic Wrap or Wax Paper

1 cotton ball

Black construction paper

Lots of glue

Thread

Tape

To make this spooky spine tingling skeleton, you first need to tape down the plastic wrap or wax paper to the surface you'll be working on. Next, build a skeleton form (any way you like, there are multiple ways to make one!) Now your ready to glue! Squeeze the glue, in generous globs, on all of the "joints" (where the cotton swabs connect). Make sure to glue your cotton ball to the top of the skeleton to make a head. Now, use your black construction paper and cut out many different shapes and glue to cotton ball to make the features of the face. Use your thread to hang the skeleton up in your home! (My mom  hung my brother's up through the "ribs" of his skeleton).             ----->

                       

3. This craft I found off of the web site www.kidspot.com.au


              
                                                            Spook your Mantle 

      

  What you'll need:

1 sheet of black construction paper

1 sheet of green construction paper

1 sheet of white construction paper

  1 sheet of purple construction paper

Tape

Scissors

Glue

Silver or Gold Paint pen
 marker, colored pencil, or crayon

 To start, roll the paper into a cone and secure with tape. Now, cut the bottom to make it level. Next, on the white sheet of paper draw a mouth, eyes, and a nose with the marker cut them out (You will use them later). Cut a big circle in the green sheet of construction paper. Cut out the center of the circle leaving about a 10cm band around the circle. Save the scrapes. Now, slide the ring you just made around the cone to make the bottom of the witches hat. Now glue the eyes, mouth, and nose to the witch. Cut the purple paper into strips  about 10cm long and about 3cm wide, glue around the witches head for hair. To finish off your spooky decoration use the gold and silver paint pens to draw the witches buckle onto her hat. 

4. I found this one on Enchanted Learning

                                                   

                                                        Jack-o-Lantern Mask

                                                                     What you'll need:

2 paper plates

orange, green, brown, and yellow crayons, 

markers, or colored pencils

yarn, string, or elastic

Scissors

 1 pen

Hole puncher

 To start, take your two paper plates and put them together ( they will make your mask more sturdy). Next, color your paper plates with orange and yellow. Draw a stem and leaves using the green and brown crayons, markers, or colored pencils. Now use your pen to draw on the eyes, nose, and mouth of your mask ( remember you will be wearing this, so make sure you place each feature according to your own.  When you wear it, you want to be able to see, talk, and breath normally, like you would a real mask.) Use the scissors to cut out each piece. Now, put two hole punches, exactly straight with each other, and tie your yarn so that it fits your head. Congrats! Now you are ready for Halloween with this disguise!

5. I found this one also on Enchanted Learning

A Homemade Leaf Wreath

What you'll need:

2 Paper Plates

A few sheets of black and orange

construction paper

Leaf Template

Scissors

Glue

String

Stapler

Glue the two paper plates together (to make them more sturdy) (1). 

**1**

Next, trace the leaves onto the construction paper and set them aside (2). 

**2**

Now, cut the inner circle out of the paper plates (3). 

**3**

Glue the leaves to the paper plates (4). 

Take the ends of your string and staple to the back of both paper plates.  Now, go and hang your wreath on your front door, back door or wall!

         I hope you have enjoyed my Fall/ Halloween crafts. I know how hard REALLY good ones are to find. So, be sure to visit back to my blog. Also, today is Columbus Day and I am going to post some more crafts! I am also thinking about doing a post on desserts soon!

                                                                                                                           ~~Zoe!

        Thanks to Enchanted Learning, Family Fun, and Kids Spot ,the places where I found all of the crafts shown, thanks again!:) 

                        Family Fun                             Kids Spot                        Enchanted Learning