ASL /Homeschool Puppet

I was looking up puppets for a Little House project and I spent some time admiring professional puppets.  They look like so much fun! We have a few at home that we play with, and they are great for story telling and role playing. And as I was web browsing I saw some puppets that were two handed-one for the mouth movements and the other fit into a shirt sleeve that was on the body of the puppet and into a gloved hand. It really helps to animate the the puppet.
So my gears started working and with the puppets I had seen, including a puppet on Dr Wonders Workshop, and the desire to add a new activity to our ASL learning I came up with Paws. You don't need a working mouth for an ASL puppet, but two working hands!

He is an over sized 20" stuffed animal that I bought at the thrift store, a size 6X boys long sleeve jersey shirt and a pair of fleece gloves. (You could use stretchy gloves from the dollar store as well) All those supplies cost me a whopping $3!

Here are the directions....

Materials

1 large cuddly stuffed animal of choice (make sure there is a forehead and a mouth area and a chin area on the head, sounds crazy, but trust me! Round headed animals are the easiest)

1 long sleeved shirt that fits the animal (don't worry about extra long arms or length, just have a pleasant fit around the body and neck. Make sure that you can fit your forearms into the sleeves and your hands past the cuffs.)

1 pair of fleece, nylon or stretch knit gloves. (Thick heavy gloves or chenille gloves don't work because you can't shape signs with your fingers well enough)

Tools Needed

scissors

stitch ripper 

pins

a strong all purpose thread in the color of the shirt and the animal

hand needle

sewing machine

Directions

Prepare the Bear (or other stuffed animal like our lion):Carefully with your stitch ripper, remove the arms of your animal and then with your needle, whip stitch the body closed. (I know, a sad thing to do.  That's why we didn't pick a toy from our own toy boxes) Set aside and pick up the shirt.

 Armholes: Carefully cut the back seam of the shirt arm that runs from the shoulder to the under arm along the seam. Roll and pin the now cut and open area into a hem and sew all around with your sewing machine.

 

Hands: Sew the gloves by hand to the inside cuff of the shirt. Stretch the gloves and cuff with your non sewing hand inside of them as you sew the two together around and along the shirts natural hem. This way you know you have enough stretch to get your hands through

Shortening and lining the shirt: Now here comes the tricky to explain part.... the shirt will probably be way to long for the puppet, but you are going to use the extra length to create a liner so that you don't have stray fur or color popping out of the arm openings as you use your puppet.

- From the shirt bottom, fold the shirt up inside itself until the bottom hem at the side seam reaches the shoulder seam right by the neckline. With your needle and matching thread tack the shoulder/neck seam and bottom hem together. Repeat for second side.

- Lay the shirt flat on a table inside right, and with the bottom hem still tucked up inside,  even up the fold around the bottom and pin all the way around

- Sew around the shirt 1 inch up from the fold edge. This makes the shirt look like it's hemmed.

5. Place the shirt on the puppet. With a needle and thread tack the shirt (at the same place you tacked the shirt at the neck) to the top of  where you whip stitched the arm holes together. This would be the shoulder of the puppet. Do this on both side so that the shirt won't be removed. The remaining tucked up shirt fabric is just left alone, unless you find there is too much bulk, then you could tack it in various discreet places to the puppet.

6. Now have fun! Go to Paws To Tell You or SigningSavvy  to learn some ASL alphabet and favorite words (manners like "please" and "thank-you" are good preschool signs to start with)

Place an arm down each sleeve and place the puppet in your lap. Keep your elbows tight to your side as you move the arms of your puppet. (or it will look like a puppet gone out of control with dislocated joints!)

GF Rice Bread Recipe

SO I went to the store last week to buy GF bread for the boys and was shocked to find it went up a whole dollar, to $7.69 a loaf. YIKES!! So I really went to work this week trying to work out my own recipe.
I have a favorite Honey Oatmeal bread that I make for DH and DD and myself, so I have been experimenting with it and researching other 5 star rated GF breads. A lot of GF recipes call for eggs and cake style ingredients, which really doesn't help keep the cost of making the bread down. But I have now come up with a "standard pantry ingredients" recipe that my son declared today was better than the store bought. I make mine on the dough setting of the bread maker and finish it in the oven.

GF Honey Oatmeal Bread

1 1/4 cups warm water
1/4 or 1/3 cup honey
2 tsp GF yeast
(dissolve honey in water and add yeast without stirring. Let sit for 5-10 min, even if making in a bread machine)

Add in order:
1 cup quick oats oatmeal
1 tsp salt
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp Xanthan Gum
2 Tbsp skim milk powder
2 1/2 cups GF Flour mix (that has no xanthan gum)
1/2 chickpea flour

mix and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour or until you see an increase in size by at least half it's original size. (double would be a great achievement though!)
Punch down and knead into a loaf and place in a greased bread pan.
Place in a pre-warmed oven (no more than 150 F) to rise for 1 1/2 - 2 hours, until it fills the pan. DO NOT remove from oven, but place a cookie sheet on the oven rack above the loaf and turn your oven up to 350 F. (you can remove the pan once your top element goes out)
Bake at 350 F for 20 - 30 min until golden.
Remove from oven and brush top with butter and let cool some before removing from pan.

New Scarf Pattern

So I am so far behind in ...(???!?!?! life in general?!) I am just starting to catch up with my emails and projects I started in June. To anyone waiting on me,  I am SO SORRY :o( Email me with a reminder.

This weekend was Thanksgiving weekend here,as well as my SIL birthday.  I made 2 pies, to lots of buns, an applesauce cake and a giant birthday cookie (Pizza pan sized) Some how  I had time to designe a quick gift for her on Saturday to give to her today. I give you another free pattern......

Bethany Scarf

 

Made for a Canadian October, I designed this for my SIL birthday. I completed this scarf in 4 hours.

Materials

1 ball 3.5 oz/100g Bernat Satin (worsted weight yarn)

J hook

Needle to sew in ends

Abbreviations

ch - chain

dc – double crochet

dcdec – double crochet decrease

st - stitch

Bethany Scarf Directions:

Make a ch of 42 leaving an 8 inch tail on each end. Cut yarn from skein and ravel into a ball to use later.

Row 1 :ch 4, dc in first chain (makes first loop) ch 4 turn work

Row 2 :dc in same chain as ch4, skip next stitch ch1, dc ch 1 dc in next st, ch4 turn work

Row 3:dc in same chain as ch4, skip next st, (dc in next st, ch1) dc ch 1 dc in last dc, ch4 turn work

Row 4-9 :repeat row 3, adding a dc at each end (as row 3) and dc ch1 in each stitch across (6x's)

Row 10-11: dc ch1 in every dc across

Row 12: repeat rows 4-9

Row 18-19:repeat row 10-11

Row 20: 3:dc in same chain as ch4, skip next st, (dc in next st, ch1) dc ch 1 dc in last dc, ch 45 turn work.

Attach set aside yarn to the opposite side of your row from your hook and chain 41 st with your J hook and end off.

(Where gray is your scarf and black is the added yarn )

Row 21: dc in 4^th chain from hook, skip next stitch ch1, dc ch 1 dc in next st, complete across, including across the added chain. dc ch 1 dc in last st, ch4 turn work.

Row 22:dc in same chain as ch4, skip next st, (dc in next st, ch1) dc ch 1 dc in last dc, ch4 turn work

Row 23-26:repeat row 3, adding a dc at each end (as row 3) and dc c1 in each stitch across (4x's)

Row 27: dcdec in next 2 dc, ch1. dc ch1 across until 3 dc remain. dcdec in next 2 st, dc in last st. end of and tie in strings.

Tassels

The tassels on mine is made of artisan mohair in the same color as the acrylic/wool blend to add some texture. The strings are looped in half, pulled though the open work of the scarf along the diagonal edge and then pulled through the folded top and pulled tight. Tassels are cut in varying lengths.

Little House on The Prairie Homeschool Activities

This is a great site I have been working on with some Ravelry friends.  We are going week by week through Laura Ingalls Wilder's books and are coming up with matching activities for each chapter.  Feel free to follow along and don't be afraid of starting in at the beginning of the projects in book one even if we are much further ahead. We have a matching email account, so that if you finish a project you can  submit pictures and comments frontiergazette@ymail.com   Come over and have a browse
Little House on The Prairie Homeschool Activities

Handicap/Geriatric Clothing Conversion

Grandma has been in the Hospital for some time now and is going to be moved to a Home. (She had an unfortunate fall which included a broken bone. ) She's not as mobile as much now. But I was a little disappointed when I saw  how her personal care was being handled.  Her hair wasn't being done everyday (She has long silver hair that she always braided and wrapped around her head). And her Hospital gown looked a few days old. She was quite anxious when she saw me and fidgeted with her gown and hair quite a bit.
When I worked in a Palliative care floor in a local Home, I saw it important to allow residents to still be well maintained in their clothing and hair and hygiene.  It made the resident, despite their condition, feel less conscious about  themselves and also made the family more comfortable when visiting. It definitely made for happier "endings". But regular clothing is difficult to change on a bed ridden or chair bound patient. Front buttoned gowns are very helpful and look very nice, but are still difficult to maneuver when trying to toilet a patient.  From a care persons vantage, open back dressing is much ore accommodating. There are a a lot of companies that sell dresses made this way, but a completely new wardrobe is not always an option for every patient. So in passing messages between my dad and his sister (who my Grandma was living with) we are hoping to change some of Grandma's  clothing to make it usable for  her. She always wore dresses, so that does give us a in closet selection to choose from.
My Aunt is a quilter, so I have written up a set of directions for sewing panels into the clothing , that I will now share with you!  It is a PDF download, the link will direct you to the PDF I have downloaded to  scribd.com. I am still exploring ways to make it a more direct link.....
Handicap/Geriatric Clothing Conversion 
P.S After a chat with the palliative care director, they are now combing Grandma's hair more regularly. :o)

10 minute Jello Pies

So I ran into this sweet little old lady at the dollar store today in the "grocery isle" and she stopped me with a grin on her face and gave me an unsolicited recipe for 10 min fruit pies. They sell graham cracker crusts at our local $ store and jello which she had in her hand. So here's what she told me....

10 min Jello Fruit Pie
1 cup water
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 pkg Jello, favorite flavor
"matching" fruit if desired, fresh or frozen and thawed
1 small graham pie crust ( or GF crust, see directions below)

Prepare fruit and set aside
Boil in a saucepan the water and cornstarch, careful not to burn
as soon as it thickens into a cream, add the jello and then gently turn in the fruit
Pour into the pie crust and set until firm in fridge

Done!!

So of course I had to figure out how to make this gluten free!!
I ran over to recipe zaar for a Graham crust recipe and then improvised with this....

GF Crumb Crust

1 bag of GF arrowroot animal crackers, crushed in the food processor

Combine
1 1/2 cups of crumbs
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/4 cup cane sugar
1/4 tsp pure vanilla
Salt
5 tblsp melted butter

mix well and press into 2 small pie plates or one large
Bake at 350 F for 5 - 7 min until golden brown Cool before filling

It comes out with a shortbread kind of taste to it. I also intend to freeze my extra crust for later.

I have made a lemon an a raspberry that were fruitless But I would like to try a Raspberry with berries, and a raspberry with fresh kiwi or an orange with frozen mango. And DS wants a cherry done too.

I'm seeing potlucks in the near future!

Proud Moment

Today we took a crazy thought and biked with it! As a youth I biked...ALOT. Usually it was to keep my mom happy as I followed my brother out crazy distances (we are talking towns away from home) to keep her from worrying about him being by himself. But quite frankly, since having children I am out of shape. But I miss my biking days and today was such a nice sunny yet cool day, I talked DH into biking out to Hibou Park where there is a pleasant beach on Georgian Bay. I had our youngest son on a front load carrier, DH had middle son in a bike trailer with all our beach stuff and Dearest Daughter BIKED THE ENTIRE WAY THERE AND BACK!!!
She is just 7 and has never been madam energy, and I worried about her ability to keep up. It is 8.2 km ONE WAY. Some of the way is on 2 lane highway roads and some of it railway line bike trails. But she was awesome!
We had a wonderful time at the beach, sat out on the rocks in the water and learned ASL alphabet and had fun burying the children in the sand. The trip back was pleasant with a cool breeze that blew a our backs. And we ended the afternoon with Popsicles. It will be a day to remember!