Happy Holidays!

Here's a fabulous way to keep the kids busy while they wait for holiday festivities or any day of the year!  And, it's a recycling project too!  It uses #6 plastic containers - and things from around your home.

 

I Shrunk the Plastic

Materials Needed

Cookie cutter, plastic or other plastic item for hanger

Wire or fishing line

#6 clear plastic containers

Plastic decorations: beads, toys, etc

Permanent pens

Scissors

Hole punch, small

Cookie sheet

Oven mitt

Candle

Paperclip

Plastic ring

Glue

1” wide braid

Oven or toaster oven

Directions

Draw design on clear plastic with permanent pens. NOTE: The designs will shrink about 50% of the original size. Cut out. Punch holes in top and bottom. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Place clear plastic designs on cookie sheet and place in oven until they lay flat. This will only take a few minutes. Remove from oven using oven mitt. With adult supervision, make holes in plastic decorations by heating paperclip in candle flame. Insert into plastic to make holes. Thread beads, shrink plastic designs, toys, etc. on wire, knotting below item to secure. Make holes around bottom of cookie cutter edge with hot paperclip. Thread decorated wire in hole and knot. Repeat for all wires. Make three evenly spaced holes around top of cookie cutter. Cut three 12” pieces of wire. Insert each wire into a hole and knot. Gather wire at top and tie around plastic ring adding a bead, if desired.

Tin Can Creations

 

Here's a fun craft project to keep the kids busy!!! Use items from around your home to make this monsters inexpensively and you can get started right now!

Materials needed

Cans

Magnetic sheet with adhesive backing

Ideas to dress-up your Monsters: toy pieces, nuts, bolts, washers, brackets, colored foam sheets, wiggle eyes, pompoms, chenille stems, wood and plastic rings, beads, scrubbing pads, battery operated flickering candle, cork, chain

Glue

Pencil

Toothpick

Scissors

Directions

Clean cans. Let dry. Cut magnetic sheet to fit piece. Peel paper backing and place magnet on piece. For crazy hair, curl chenille stems around pencil. Poke hole in cork with toothpick, add a dab of glue on end of chenille stem and place in holes or glue chenille stems to a piece of foam cut smaller than top of can.

Veggie Animals

Keep the kids busy whether it's holiday break, summer time or a Saturday with Veggie Animals!  Set up a creation station with all sizes and shapes of veggies and let the imaginations take over!

What You'll Need
Stick Pretzels
Veggies: Mushrooms, Broccoli, Cherry Tomatoes, Carrots, Celery - experiment with your favorite ones
Olives
Knife
Toothpicks
Foil
Low-Cal Dressing for Dipping
Egg Glue - Eggs and Low-Fat Mayonnnaise


How to Make Them!
1. Set out the veggies and have fun connecting them with toothpicks and pretzels. Egg Glue (a mixture of eggs chopped up really small and a little mayonnaise) keep the animals together and adds details.
2. Place the animals in a setting by using broccoli as the grass and tomatoes for flowers.
3.  Make a 'water tank' by folding foil in several layers and folding in at the bottom. Place dressing in 'tank' for dipping.

Make Leaves from Bread or Cornstarch???

Incredible Dough Leaves

Materials Needed:

• Aleene’s® Original Tacky Glue

• Bread, 1 Slice White or Cornstarch
• Plastic Cup
• Craft Stick
• Small Plastic Bag
• Measuring Spoon
• Acrylic Paint for Leaves
• Paintbrush or Paper Towel
• Rolling Pin - Optional
• Wax Paper
• Leaf

Instructions for Bread Dough: 

1. Remove crust and discard. 
2. Tear bread into small pieces, placing in cup. 
3. Add 2 tablespoons Tacky Glue. 
4. Mix with craft stick until coarse ball forms. 
5. Place ball into plastic bag. Knead until smooth and pliable. 

Instructions for Cornstarch Dough:   
1. Place 2 parts cornstarch to 1 part glue in plastic bag. Close bag.
2. Mush until completely mixed. Add more cornstarch if it's too sticky or add more glue if it's too stiff.


Instructions to Make Leaves: 

1. Place wax paper on work surface. Flatten dough to slightly larger than leaf with your hands or using rolling pin.
2. Press leaf into dough with veins on dough. Remove by pulling it straight up. If desired, cut around edges with a knife. Let dry.
3. Squeeze out a small puddle of paint on wax paper. Paint with brush or dabbing on with paper towel.

Create beautiful roses, sculptures, kid’s crafts and more with this Incredible Bread Dough. Make any size amount of dough using the ratio of one slice of bread to 2 tablespoons Tacky Glue.  Check out more amazing ways to use this dough in the Make Healthy Fun! book, ebook or video.

Fall Leaves

Head out for a walk and gather up fabulous colorful leaves for decorating an unusual part of your home (or office).  Glue or tape the leaves to ribbon and hang from your ceiling for a Thanksgiving celebration! Thumbtacks work great for anchoring the ribbon to the ceiling or add them to your ceiling fan for a fantastic look!  Check out the Make Healthy Fun! book, ebook or video for more recipes and ideas to keep kids busy and healthy.

Happy Healthy Halloween!

Hello my pretties!

I have on my jack-o-lantern socks, ghost earrings and an orange blouse.  Let the fun begin!

Play-Doh's Halloween Treat without the Sweet

I love Play-Doh's Treat without the Sweet idea!!!  Way to go!

Reality TV and Self Image in Girls

Girl Scouts of America released a press release regarding reality tv and tween and teen girls..

As reality TV has become staple entertainment for young people and adults alike, tween and teen girls who regularly view reality TV accept and expect a higher level of drama, aggression, and bullying in their own lives, and measure their worth primarily by their physical appearance, according to Real to Me: Girls and Reality TV, a national survey released today by the Girl Scout Research Institute.
Check out the entire press release at: http://dnorville.com/article.php?id=214

Photo Scavenger Hunt

Bundle up the kids, grab a couple of disposable cameras and head out on a scavenger hunt!  It's a great activity to get the entire family out and moving.  For the younger kids, be sure to have supervision for each child.

Make up a list of items the kids need to find.  Have them photograph the item when they find it and keep going for a specific amount of time and then everyone meet back up to see who found the most items on the list.

Make it extra fun by rolling up the list like a pirate's map, attach stickers and tie on raffia.

Don't forget about prizes for whoever photographs the most items on the list!

Download or print the photos and see what exciting shots they got!  Enlarge the special photos for holiday gifts.

Have fun!

Garden Fresh Sugar Snap Peas

Fresh from my garden, sugar snap peas.  Not only are the plants beautiful with their tendrils and delicate looking flowers, the peas are mighty tasty.  They grow quickly too - perfect to keep a child's attention during the growing season!!!  Time to go plant more!

Home Grown Sugar Snap Peas

Talk about FRESH - I just picked my first sugar snap pea from my garden and ate it right there!  Can't wait for more to come on - I have been planting them off and on so hopefully I'll have them for months.  Going to go plant some more seeds.

Sugar Snap Peas

I have sugar snap peas just about ready in my garden.  Who has the hummus?  How else do you use sugar snap peas?

Green Beans and Trader Joe's

I have a new recipe for green beans...I have to admit in years past big chunks of bacon were always in the pan to add flavor to green beans but not now!  Enter Trader Joe's Balsamic Vinegar.  I steamed / boiled my green beans then about the last five minutes I added some balsamic vinegar and let it reduce - so very yummy and light on calories. 

My sugar snap peas are blooming and I can't wait for the pods to form and chow-down with some hummus.

It's Apple Time!

Gather up the kids and head out to your local apple orchards or if you live in the city, head to the grocery store for some crisp, yummy apples! 

I visited a local apple 'area' near San Luis Obispo called See Canyon and The Avila Valley Barn - two of my favorite places for apples and goodies.

Gopher Glen, an apple farm in See Canyon, boasts 62 different varieties of apples.  I have gone there for years and years!  You HAVE to try the apple cider!

Here are the two varieties I got - had one with my breakfast along with a glass of apple cider.

Head out into fall and enjoy a good crunch!

Make Healthy Fun!

Just finished sending some Make Healthy Fun! projects and healthy winter 'activity' ideas to a writer for a national magazine article...

Make Healthy Fun! Workshop

What an awesome workshop at the Morro Bay Library!  I was under-the-weather so I recruited some helpers I knew would do a great job and I hear they did!!!  Thanks to my sister-in-law, Nicki, my bro, David and 9-year-old nephew, Brandon who made a fun morning for kids and adult alike making marbles (all you need is some cornstarch or white bread, glue and paint) and creating a container garden complete with beans seeds to get the kids going on growing their very own garden.

Take Them With You Masterpieces

 

Don't file away those great drawings your child creates, scan them into your computer, print them on Wilton T-shirt Transfers, iron them on and in a few short seconds you have a unique way to 'display' and preserve a masterpiece.

My nephew, Brandon, was here this summer and created some great drawings.  School starts for him this week so I created one-of-a-kind t-shirts for his first week of school.  Remember those days?  New clothes, new shoes, even new underwear...

Stores are having amazing sales on t-shirts right now, grab a few, stop at your local fabric or craft store for some t-shirt transfers and be ready for school!

BTW - if you've used iron-on transfers years ago, try them again - they've improved DRASTICALLY!!!
 
Joan

Make Healthy Fun! Workshop

Come join the fun!

Make Healthy Fun! Meets The Central Coast

 

Join me for outrageous creative fun for the entire family.  

It's free!!!

Get Kids to Exercise This Summer

Here's a new way to step it up this summer in a rewarding way.  GeoPalz come in a variety of themes so pick the perfect one for your child, clip it on, and turn them loose to walk, walk, walk this summer.  The GeoPalz track their steps and the child wins prizes!  Check them out at www.geoplaz.com

JUST RELEASED!!!

http://makehealthyfun.blogspot.com/p/shopping.html

Make Healthy Fun! Video 

I am so excited to announce the just released Make Healthy Fun! Video featuring my entertaining and GOOFY nephew, Bman!  It's 52 minutes long filled with exciting craft projects and recipes!  Yes, I'm living in exclamation points because I'm super excited about the video!!!!  

Join Bman and me, in exploring ten fun craft projects and recipes to get the entire family to exercise, eat healthy and unplug.  The projects are quick and easy are made with items from around your home or inexpensive items from the craft or grocery store.  Each project includes a detailed list of what you’ll need and easy to follow how-to steps.

  Projects include:

·   Friendly Monster & Egg Alien – a yummy egg and tortilla roll up that’s transformed into a cute monster & a BONUS Egg Alien

·   How to Make a Garden in Any Container – grab any container and let’s get growing

·   Dough Marbles – combine cornstarch (or bread) and glue to mix up a recipe for hours of family fun

·   Confetti Hot Dogs - colorful and delicious way to get kids to eat healthy

·   Jumpin’ Bubble Wrap Shirt - part exercise, part creativity

·   Bubble Cards – a mix of chemistry and crafting for exciting results

·   Garden Tools – tissue or napkins transform ordinary into something a gardener will dig

·   Veggie Animals & Other Veggie Things – build edible critters for your munching pleasure

·   Bubbilicious Bubbles – make giant bubble with straws and string

·   Celery Rose – stamp on anything with celery!

Length: 52 minutes including hilarious bloopers you won’t want to miss!

Check out our new SHOPPING page at the top of this page.  It's super easy to order and we'll get them right out to you!

S2H STEP

S2H STEP

Is this too good to be true? Walk and get reward...

Is walking your thing? The S2H STEP will reward you with cool products for every 10,000 steps that you walk! Check out their website at http://s2h.com/step

Progress...

What are you having for dinner?

Strive for progress, not perfection. –Unknown

Make Valentine's Day Extra Special

Add a touch of fun to your meals in just a couple of minutes. Cut a heart shape from craft foam or a plastic lid. Place it on applesauce, yogurt, toast, etc. and sprinkle on some cinnamon or a little powdered sugar and dig in!

Happy New Year!

Wishing you a healthy, adventurous, fun, exciting and fulfilling 2011. Happy New Year!!!