Category: Making things

Easter Egg Hunt with a Difference

Easter is just around the corner.

Adults associate Easter with different things like religion, long weekends and stuff like that. Many kids see it as a time to have a chocolate bunny or egg. In some households, there is a tradition of hiding goodies for children to find – usually outdoors. Brightly coloured bunnies poke their heads out of bushes and eggs nestle in odd places where no self-respecting chicken would ever dream of laying.

This year we decided to do something fun – an Easter egg hunt with a difference!

We’ve painted lots of pebbles and rocks and we’re going to hide them around the neighbourhood for other people to find. They can either keep them… or hide them again in another place for somebody else to come across.

“Yeah, yeah, Sibo,” I hear you saying, “what’s this got to do with me? I just can’t wait to get my teeth into a yummy choccy egg – not a painted stone.”

“Well… I was hoping that you’d join us, and paint a pebble or two and hide them in your neighbourhood, where ever you are in the whole wide world.”

You could team up with a friend or two, share paint and have some fun in the process. Your stones can be as fancy or as simple as you please. If you don’t have paint, you could draw on them with felt-tip pens, chalk, nail varnish or anything else. You could even stick a pretty picture on a stone.

You don’t have to go far to hide them either – you could simply put one in your neighbour’s post box. They wouldn’t know it was from you.

The whole point of this is to give something pretty to somebody else.

Ginny gets her paint from PNA in Silverwater Crossing – it is acrylic (waterproof) and costs around R20 for a little pot. You only use a teensy bit of paint on these stones. She uses a stick and the back of an old ballpoint pen (she uses the tip, too) to decorate the stones. They’re mainly a series of dots, all joined together to make flowers. Sometimes she goes overboard and they look a bit crazy, but they’re still pretty.

If you don’t have any stones, you could always use bottle tops – those work nicely too.

If you decide to join in the fun, why not post a photo of your creation on Sibo’s Facebook page—we’d love to see your ideas.

This is a pebble painted by Isabella – Ginny’s granddaughter.

So… if you live in the Meyerspark area in Pretoria East, keep an eye out next weekend—over 150 painted pebbles and stones are going to be hidden over Easter.

These are stones that different people from around the world painted and hid in their neighborhood’s. Faye from Canada, Heidi from the Isle of Weight, Lisa from KZN in South Africa and Judy and Hamish from Cape Town. Thanks very much for participating everybody.

Beady Plastic Waterfall

A fun way to use plastic bottles ~ by Ginny Stone

Ginny made a bead curtain out of old plastic bottles and other stuff.

Rubbish! I can hear you say.

Well… yes! Exactly that. She’s made it from rubbish.

Just so that you know I’m not talking complete bolly – check out this photo. 

You are all probably busting to know just how she used those coke bottles in this bead curtain, right? It’s not that hard – but if you are a small person, please get an adult to help you.

You need the following stuff:

  • plastic bottles (cooldrink, water, etc – try to get different coloured ones)
  • fishing line,
  • beads and other cool stuff to thread or tie on,
  • 2 pieces of 80gm paper,
  • iron,
  • sharp knife,
  • scissors,
  • glue,
  • sharp point (a nail works well).

First things first, wash your plastic bottles very well – you don’t want sticky or oily goo all over everything.

Using a sharp knife, make a slit in the middle of the bottle.  Then using scissors cut the plastic into strips.  It’s easier to work with strips than huge pieces.

Believe it or not – that plastic is sharp, so work carefully.  And be careful not to leave little bits of plastic lying around either for other people to tromp on and cut themselves.

Once you have the plastic cut into the shapes you want – squares, triangles, circles, oblongs – whatever! But don’t make them too small – Ginny used round shapes, a bit smaller than the bottom of a glass.  (Don’t bother to make them perfectly round either – when you get to the next step you’ll see why.)

Next step… again get an adult to help you and for goodness sake – ask your mom first if you can actually use her iron. Ginny has an old one that she uses for fabric painting. (Plus she’s actually the mom – so if she ruins her own iron – toughies hey!)  Although we should point out that it doesn’t ruin the iron – as long as you don’t iron directly on the plastic that is.

Heat up the iron. Not on steam setting though. 

Put one piece of paper on a flat surface. 
Lay your plastic bits on top of it – only one or two at a time. 
Put the other piece of paper on top of the plastic bits.

Iron them flat. 

In fact, you’ll have to experiment a bit and see which way works best for you.  Ginny found if she put them with the curved side on top, they shrivelled into very funny shapes. If she turned them over – they stayed flatter with just the sides curling in.  Either way – she found a use for most of the plastic bits she ironed.

Very important – like we already said, do not iron the plastic without a sheet of paper on either side.

Once you’ve got a whole pile of ironed odd-shaped plastic bits – you can start making your curtain strings.  Be sure to have a long enough piece of fishing line. Put something nice and heavy at the bottom – like a big glass or metal bead or tie on something else interesting – bells or bottle tops also work nicely. 

Make holes in the plastic bits using the nail and thread them onto the fishing line. You can also glue beads onto the plastic – or make lots of holes in larger plastic pieces and thread the beads through.

Go wild, use mirror bits, feathers, old nuts and bolds, pretty beads, old beads, piece of fabric, you can even thread bottle tops, cork and straws.  Just make sure you tie or stick them properly, otherwise, they’ll fall off at some stage. 

Of course, you don’t have to make a curtain either – you can just make a pretty mobile or dangly thing for your room, or for a friend. Or even Christmas decorations.

Main thing to do is have fun in the process.

Feel free to post pics on Sibo’s Facebook page so that the whole world can see how creative you’ve been. 

Pecan Surprise

How to make a delicious home-made pecan pie.

Some friends gave us pecan nuts and Mum decided she wanted to make pecan pie. Dad found her a recipe on the internet. She looked at it and groaned. Mum’s not good with fiddly things—remember the cheesecake a few weeks ago?

Luckily for Mum, Dad cracked those nuts because otherwise she would have broken her nails.

The ingredients needed for the pastry were the following:

  • 1 cup of cake flour
  • a pinch of salt
  • cup of cold butter (cut into small blocks)
  • half a tablespoon of caster sugar
  • 1 large egg yolk
  • 1 teaspoon of lemon juice
  • 2 teaspoons of iced water

You had to sieve the flour and salt first. Then, using your fingertips, rub the cold butter into the flour until it’s all crumbly. Then add the caster sugar to the flour and mix in the egg yolk, water and lemon juice. Knead the dough for around ten minutes, then wrap it in cling film and let it chill in the fridge for an hour.

After an hour, you roll out that dough that’s been chilling in the fridge (literally – hahaha) and line a pie tin (or a pie dish). Prick the base of the pasty with a fork and blind bake it in the preheated oven for 10 minutes at 180oC

That’s just the pastry base people.

For the filling:

  • 3 large eggs,
  • 1/4 cup melted butter
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
  • 80ml golden syrup
  • 3/4 of a cup of pecan nuts.

While the base is cooking, whip up the filling quick. Beat the eggs (you can chuck in the left over egg white from the pastry too), add the melted butter, brown sugar, golden syrup and vanilla essence. When the mixture becomes sort of foamy, it’s ready.

When the base is cooked, fill it with the nuts and pour the sweet eggy mixture over the top. Bake it for about 40 minutes.

Mum made the pie exactly according to the recipe the first time. It was absolutely divine.

The second time (a week later) she did not bother with any of the fancy stuff.  She melted the pastry butter in the micro, mixed all the ingredients up, chucked the dough directly into the pie dish and baked it immediately.

Sometimes you have to make something properly the first time, to realise that you can take short cuts.

It tasted equally delicious!

Sibo

PS – If you’d like to know how to crack a pecan nut – see here.

Pop-Art of a different Kind

It’s that time of year when school is finished and kids are on holiday. The first few days are fun because the alarm clock is on holiday too and there is no need to leap up early in the morning, but if you are anything like me – after a few days you start to get bored.

One way of keeping busy is to make awesome festive decorations using stuff like toilet roll cores, old magazines. Make your own glue too by mixing flour and water into a paste (don’t make it too runny or too thick – experiment).

It’s more fun to get a group of friends together, plus you can pool your resources and share – like paint, glitter and stuff like that.

Make a bowl of popcorn – either on the stove or in the microwave (yes – you can eat some of it). But remember not to put any salt or butter on the popcorn that you are going to use for your decorations. Ask your mom for a needle and some cotton and thread a length of about 60cm of popcorn.  Make sure to knot it properly (or glue it) at both ends so that it does not fall off. You can also spray these with some gold or silver spray paint to make them look even more festive.

Squish the cardboard toilet roll core slightly and cut it into strips of about half a centimetre. Use five strips to make a flower shape and either glue or staple them together at the centre. Paint them and string them up with the popcorn to make a fancy daisy chain.

Paper beads are also fun to make. Roll up a strip of paper (2cm wide x about 7cm long) into a tight thin little tube (use a tooth pick or twig to roll it around) and stick the end down with a dab of glue. Once the glue is dry you can paint your paper beads if necessary.

Other easy and really cheap but effective decorations to make are paper chains. Find an old magazine and cut strips of paper (about 2cm wide x 15cm long). You can either staple or glue them together to make a long chain. Try experimenting by making the strips wider or thinner and see which ones you prefer.

You could make one string of decorations using all of the above methods!

Have fun,

Sibo

Silly Season

No matter how good our intentions are during the year to start buying thoughtful little gifts when you spot them, somehow it never happens.

Even though the shops start sending out tendrils of temptation a few months before Christmas; reminding everybody that it’s just around the corner, dangling tantalizing goodies in obvious places, December always creeps up rather fast.

The reality is most people expect presents at this time of the year.

I was listening to kids talking at school the other day. The one kid was saying that he expected his father would buy him a play station for Christmas.

His friend looked at him strangely and said, “But how? Your father doesn’t have a job at the moment?”

The other kid just shrugged, “He’ll make a plan—he always does. Otherwise Mum knows I’ll sulk.”

What a brat! In our house, we receive gifts on our birthdays. That’s your time to get a fancy present, or something that you really want. Maybe.

When it comes to this time of year, limits are set for presents of R25 or less each.  It may sound completely crazy but it means that people have to put their thinking caps on and get creative. This takes time and planning, which is, after all, the point of a gift. It’s supposed to be thoughtful and meaningful.

For instance, my Gran bakes cookies. She uses recycled packaging attractively and hands out those for gifts. Her mince pies are legend, we all love them.

I usually make vouchers because even R25 is way too much for me. Fancy, decorated ones and I try to make them useful—even if I don’t like what I’m offering to do. Mum absolutely appreciates tea in bed on a Saturday morning. I offer to wash dogs, baby sit hamsters, rake leaves, water plants etc.

Mum makes little gardens in old containers that she jazzes up. She pinches bits of succulents from friends’ houses and collects interesting looking stones and twigs. My cousin makes awesome jewelry. Another cousin makes dream catchers. My auntie makes up interesting sweetie jars. My Dad scours second hand book stores.

Not only do we all end up getting loads of cool stuff, but we also get to see how everybody else appreciates what we’ve taken time to make or find. It works a treat.

Get creative people – the gift is in the giving.

Sibo.

 

Circle of Life

Hah! You didn’t really think you were going to get away without a blog on exercise during women’s month… did you? (No! Power posing does not count as exercise.)

Whilst smiling and complimenting might exercise your soul (as well as those of other people) and laughing might be great for your belly and face, it is important to stay fit.

Exercising releases those endorphins that make you feel happy and lessen the perception of pain. Apparently it does not matter how long you exercise for to release those hormones – the effect is the same, whether you go for an hour long jog or jog on the spot for ten minutes.

If cycling, jogging or gym is your thing – then great – you don’t have to read any further. However, if you are one of those ladies who groan at the thought of doing some physical activity – then this is for you.

Hula hoop people!

It’s the most awesome activity that the whole family can do.

It strengthens core muscles and improves posture no end, in addition to shaving centimetres off the squidgy bits of body and defining leg muscles.

Kids can happily use the normal hula hoops that you find easily in shops.

But ladies… here’s the good part – you can make your own, extra-large hula hoop, very cheaply!

Toddle off to the local hardware store (or nursery) and buy five metres of 25mm black piping. Yup – the stuff that gets used in the garden or irrigation. At the same time, get a 25mm connector and some insulation tape.

Lay the piping down in the sun for an hour or so to soften it slightly. Then chop off approximately 50cm from either end.

Boil the kettle, pour some boiling water into a mug and quickly dip each end of the piping into the water, then plug them together with the connector whilst the plastic is still soft.

Voila! You have a huge hoop.

You are probably going to look at it and gasp… NO WAYS CAN I USE THAT THING!!

But try it. Go on. Try. You’ll see that hula hooping with an enormous hoop is much easier than one of those small ones.

Taping it up to look pretty is optional. It does make it a little heavier, which is even better for losing weight.

Whilst you are hooping, you can do arm exercises to further tone up.

Or mediate and plan your day.

Let’s all BE who we ARE ladies.

Sibo

xxxx

Tie-dying fun

Its school holidays and sometimes one gets bored – especially when it’s cold.

Assuming you have no desire to read a book (I never give up – do I?)— what about having some fun tie-dying a piece of clothing… or even your socks (cotton ones work best). Although please check with your parental agent first though, before you start adding colour to your wardrobe.

This is what you need:

  • Fabric paint
  • Elastic bands (you can use loom bands – they are cheap and work a treat)
  • Water
  • Old plastic containers
  • Black bag
  • Rubber gloves (or small plastic bags to put over your hands)
  • Paint brush
  • Old white or light-coloured t-shirt
  • Imagination

These days you get Dala fabric paints that actually come in little spray bottles. They make life super easy because you don’t really even need to mix paint in containers with water or extender.

Imagine you want to breathe some life back into an old grungy t-shirt.

First thing you do is make a little peak and wrap a rubber band around the bottom of it. Do many of these all over your garment (including the sleeves) so it looks a bit like a fabric hedgehog.

Put on your gloves, spread out the black bag (or any big sheet of plastic) somewhere where you won’t get into trouble for messing and lay your t-shirt on top of it.  If you’ve got the Dala fabric spray paints, go wild and spray colour all over your t-shirt.  Make sure you do both sides – you can always mop up any excess paint that you’ve sprayed on the black bag too.

If you have jars of fabric paint – put two teaspoons (make sure you wash the spoon immediately or use a plastic spoon) of paint into about half a cup of water, mix it up well and then use your paintbrush to slosh the paint onto your t-shirt.  Two or three colours works best, but one colour will still look cool because it will contrast with the original colour of the T-shirt.

Please ensure you don’t work on a carpet – fabric paint stains. Food colouring is even messier but can be used in lieu of paint. This is why you must cover your surface with plastic.

Hang your T-shirt on the line and wait until it is properly dry before you take the rubber bands off.

Iron it to set the dye – otherwise it will wash out.

Have fun!

Sibo

xxxx

Easter egg hunt and fluffy chicks.

The other day Mum and I were visiting a friend of hers who’s having a bit of a hard time at the moment. Her husband has lost his job and finances are challenged. Aunty Landiwe was moaning about how her kids were not going to understand that they would not be getting fancy Easter Eggs this year.

I looked at her kids – they are only little – how on earth would they possibly know what day it is – let alone that they’re not getting the same stuff that they got last year?

Mum’s friend was sighing and looking really sad.

I had a bright idea.

I asked Aunty Landiwe if she had enough money for some of those cheapie, yet still very delicious, marshmallow eggs that you get. Not a whole box – just a few strings – it would not cost her more than R20.

Mum looked crossly at me. I knew just what she was thinking… Sibo! Keep your mouth shut – you are not supposed to be chipping in on this conversation.

Luckily Aunty Landiwe knows me quite well.

“What are you scheming now Sibo?” she asked.

Told her that I was thinking of an Easter Egg hunt – where she could hide the eggs in the garden and the kids could look for them. It would be much more fun than just being handed chocolate on a plate, so to speak.

Plus… I reminded her… “You are very arty. What about recycling your breakfast eggshells into some fancily painted Easter decorations? You could  get your children to help. I know you’ve got lots of paints and stuff. You could  get the littlies to make their own eggs – even though they are small – give them hard-boiled eggs to paint. They can eat them afterwards.

I was on a roll… “And that little yellow jersey you knitted last year… do you have any wool left? We could make pompoms and make fluffy Easter chicks! I watched a really easy video the other day. It’s not about how much stuff you get – it’s about quality time spent with your kids and how much fun you have rather.”

Aunty Landiwe grinned for the first time that afternoon.

“Sibo” she said “How did you get to be so clever for such a little person? Those are all great ideas. I do indeed have wool left – do you want to come and help me make some chicks?”

I looked at Mum to see if she agreed… she smiled and nodded.

Have a blessed Easter people.

Sibo

Xx

PS – If you make some of these cute chicks – please feel free to post some pics on our Facebook page – we’d love to see them. This is the one that Ginny made.

 

Fairy sized crackers

Last week we made some paper chains using recycled magazines or papers. This week I thought I’d tell you about the cutie little fairy-sized crackers that I had a go at making.

You need a few basic things to make these – but before you start I should mention that they do not actually crack! (Although you can buy the poppers at some art stores if you really want some.)

You need:

  • crepe paper
  • the inner core of a toilet roll
  • glue, sticky tape, scissors, ruler
  • pretty string
  • shiny tape or wrapping paper
  • goodies to put into the cracker – like sweets, little charms, jokes or even vouchers to wash dishes or make cups of tea or coffee.

First you need to modify the toilet roll core.

A normal toilet roll core is 10cm long and 4cm wide. Cut it down the centre and then cut it in half.  Roll one half around your finger and tape it closed. This should give you a baby sized toilet roll core of 5cm long x 2cm wide.

Crepe paper is nice and stretchy and comes in flat rolls in many different colours. You can get lots of crackers out of one roll.

Put your tiny core in the middle (at the bottom) of a rectangle of crepe paper that measures ~15cm x 11cm.

Roll it up and put a bit of glue on the edge to stick it down.

Carefully tie one side up with a piece of pretty string.

Pop the sweet or whatever you are going to use into the core and tie up the other side.

Then you can decorate the middle bit of the cracker with shiny tape or anything you have handy – stickers, pictures, leaves – get your creative hat on.

The crackers can then be used as table decorations for a special meal, or you can hang them on the Christmas tree if you have one. You could even staple one end of the cracker to your paper chain. Or you can simply use them as little presents.

Remember – you can always adapt ideas and make them your own. There is no right or wrong when it comes to being creative.

The main thing is to have fun in the process.

Lots of love,

Sibo.

Festive Decorations

Somehow the festive season always seems so much more jolly when decorations are involved.

Of course, you could tootle off to the shop and spend money on fancy, shiny, plastic, commercial decorations that might, or might not, land up in the bin after all the festivities.

Or you could make your own.

Like paper chains – they are nothing new – but they’re still fun and easy to make.

All you need is… imagination, an old magazine, scissors, a ruler, a glue stick or stapler.

  • Cut the magazine into strips. (~2cm strips are very easy to use and you get a chain of about 60cm long from one page.) If you make the strips 1cm or less, it becomes a little fiddly, but you obviously get many more strips out of a page so your chain is much longer.
  • Cut (or tear) all the strips in half.
  • Make a circle out of the first strip (overlapping the ends) and glue or staple it closed. Stapling is easier but is less environmentally friendly because when the paper breaks down you are left with little bits of metal that hang around for a whole lot longer.
  • Interlock your next piece of paper through the first circle and close it.
  • Keep going until you have a chain long enough to stretch from one side of the room to the other – or however you want to drape it. Better check with your parental agent before you stick things on the walls though.

Get creative and make little bunches of shorter chains to hang at the end of the long chain.

Traditionally chains used to be made out of coloured crepe paper. You can easily still get this paper and it’s not very expensive. Crepe paper has a bit of a stretch to it – so does not break very easily. It also comes in lovely bright colours.

If you are financially challenged though – magazines work just as well. You can even use newspaper!

You could glitz the chains up with a bit of glitter… but I was reading the other day that glitter is also becoming an environmental no-no. It is now classed as a micro-particle – it gets into the water system and does all sorts of nasty things to birds and other little critters.

Next week we’ll make some more decorations so stay tuned!

Have fun and stay safe this holiday.

Sibo