Homemade play dough

It has been raining all day here. I guess we got lucky, because other parts of Alberta got snow (I know, it's almost June aka summer!). Good thing I made a big batch of homemade play dough last week. It came in handy.

It's such an easy yet colorful recipe, I thought I'd share it with you.

Homemade play dough

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup salt
• 2 packages kool-aid (or other juice crystals). Use the small pks, that would need to have sugar added to it to make juice with it. We don't drink them, as my son reacts to sugar and food coloring, but we always have some on hand for play dough.
• 3 Tbsp oil
• 2 cups boiling water

In a bowl, mix flour, salt and juice crystals. Measure boiling water in a cup, add and mix oil to it. Pour over dry mixture and mix until well combined. At this point, you will probably need to add more flour. Depending on the "color" of juice you choose, you may need a bit or a lot more flour. Continue mixing and adding flour until it's no longer sticky. Knead until it cools off and then it's ready to play with. Store in an airtight container or in resealable bags.

I like to divide the recipe in half and make two batches, to make two different colors. It looks colorful and smells great too!

Mmmm! Nothing like some yummy strawberry play dough cookies!

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog!

I thought I would introduce myself for this first post, and I will try my best to give you the abbreviated version.

My name is Stephanie, I was born and raised in the outskirts of Montreal. (Well, more like in the country outside of the outskirts :) We lived in a house in the country, surrounded by fields, some woods and right by the St-Laurent River. As a kid, I spent my days riding my bike, playing outside with my friends, walking on the path by the riverbank searching for treasures left by mother nature or skipping stones. When I was not outside playing and getting dirty, I was in the house, crafting. My mom had even made me my own craft corner, with work table and crafting supplies galore. I loved every minute spent at that craft table!

After high school, I went to C.E.G.E.P. (Quebec's version of College) in Arts for a year and I was right at home. I had classes such as history of art, theory of color, sculpting, observation drawing (with live nude models at that!), etc. My true "hippie" self fully emerged at that point and I really had found myself at that moment in time. But life circumstances made it that I was unable to continue with my art studies. I then went working full time in an office and within a year, I met my wonderful husband. I moved from Montreal to Prince Edward Island (where he is from) and lived there 6 years.

Fast forward 3 more years, we now live in Alberta (in an apartment for the next couple years), I am a stay at home mom of two beautiful children, Ashton 4 1/2 years old, and Arianne just turned 3. My hubby works away for 14 days at a time and is home for 4 days. So when he's gone, I have to be both mom and dad.

I did have a blog before, called Purplelicious. It has been such a great outlet to help me find myself, as I felt so incredibly lost as a person. I quickly became obsessed with food and nutrition while blogging, as I discovered that my son had some food sensitivities. But also, during that period, not only was I completely obsessed about food and nutrition, I found myself addicted to reading blogs and spending time on the Internet and my children became addicted to watching TV. I realized not to long ago, while on a camping trip with my hubby and kids, that if something didn't change, I was going to miss out on one of the most important period of their lives.

That's where this blog comes in.

This blog is me, changing our life focus to something more natural. I recently discovered the wonderful world of Waldorf education, and while I wont pretend knowing a whole lot about it yet and don't plan on homeschooling my kids (though I leave that as an option, you never know), I must admit it made me realize how important it is for us to slow down our pace right now, and go back to basics. This blog is our journey to notice and enjoy the little things in life. I will share with you some recipes, some crafts (both mine and for the kids), share how we plan on bringing more color into our white walled apartment and how we will bring in more nature into our home, even though we have no yard. I want our lives to be greener, happier, craftier. A little less blogging, and a whole lot more playing and crafting. Because honestly, I was a lot happier when I was a laid back, crafty hippie. And a happy mama also means happy kids!

I hope you will enjoy reading about our journey!