We’ve had several craft project disasters this week.

First there was the attempt at making salt dough with regular flour that made me sick. (Evidently breathing in gluten is worse than eating it for people with gluten sensitivities. Who knew?!) Above it as far as we got before the whole thing went into the trash.

Then we tried to make a gluten-free salt dough with cornstarch and that turned out to be a giant mess. We even followed a recipe, but to no avail! After we had tripled the amount of cornstarch and salt called for in the recipe in a last ditch attempt to save it, the whole thing suddenly turned into a feta cheese-like consistency and we knew the project was over.

I thought the whole activity was a disaster, however our daughter loved every moment of the messy, water play. Half-success?

Our next less-than-successful project: we tried to reveal secret messages (written in white crayon on paper) with water color paints. That sort of worked.

Unfortunately it wasn’t enough of a success to merit it’s own blog post or a place in our daughter’s new room.

Good thing we’re all about the process here in our house, rather than the final product.

Sigh.

So, how’s your week going?

Printables featuring my daughter’s favorite book characters?! Perfect for this little girl.

Lilly, Chester, Angelina, Little Bear, Winnie the Pooh, the Very Hungry Caterpillar, Frances…

Every day when we read their stories, we visit with them. To my daughter, these storybook characters are dear friends.

I’m thrilled she loves and admires these wonderful characters instead of drooling over Disney characters or Princesses. (Although that stage is probably just around the corner, knock on wood.)

The best part about these printables? They are free. So many children’s illustrators have wonderful websites and many of them contain fantastic games and coloring pages to download and print to share.

Here are some of our favorites:

+ Kevin Henkes, author/illustrator of Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse and Chester’s Way

+ Tomie dePaola, author and illustrator of Strega Nona

My level of gluten-interolerance recently took a turn for the worse. As a result I’ve become extra careful not to ingest (or breathe!) any gluten; no more occasional treats here and there. Gluten is officially off the menu and on it’s way to being out of our house! And, wow, do I feel better. It’s hard to say it’s worth it, but my goodness it’s SO WORTH IT.

In response to this, I’ve spent more time finding yummy gluten-free bread-like alternatives. Here are some recipes that we’ve been enjoying lately.

Chickpea Pancakes with White Bean and Basil Tapenade (adapted from the March issue of Clean Eating Magazine and surprisingly not yet posted on their website)

1 cup chickpea flour (I used this chickpea and fava flour mix)
5 tbsp olive oil, divided
1 cup canned or cooked cannellini beans or white kidney beans, drained and thoroughly rinsed
3 tbsp chopped fresh basil leaves
1 clove garlic, minced
salt and pepper

Prepare pancake: In a medium bowl slowly whisk chickpea flour into 1 1/3 cups water. Let sit for an hour at room temperature. (Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.) Add 2 tbsp olive oil, 1/2 tsp salt and several grinds of pepper to the chickpea mixture.

Heat a 10-inch cast iron skillet on medium-high heat. Add 2 tbsp oil, pour in batter and cook for 1-2 minutes until edges of pancake begin to lightly brown. Do not flip. Place skillet in the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes, until crisp around edges and light golden brown. Slide pancake onto a cutting board and cut into wedges.

Prepare tapenade: In a food processor, add beans, 1 tbsp oil, 3 tbsp water, basil and garlic and puree until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Super yum!

I plan to make these pancakes even more figure friendly. If my recipe works out, I’ll post about it.

Brazilian Cheese Bread (adapted from here)

1 egg
1/4 cup olive oil
2/3 cup milk
1 1/2 cups tapioca flour
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon of salt (or more to taste)

Blend ingredients in a food processor or blender, pour into a greased muffin tin and bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 20-25 minutes, until puffy and lightly browned. Serve warm.

I definitely blew my calorie count for the day eating these yummies. I dare you to not eat them all up. So freaking delicious!

Word to the wise: when an eyeglass designer opens her studio and has a trunk show featuring her designs and thousands of vintage frames, GO! You never know what amazing finds and deals may await you.

Oh, my! We had such fun trying on glasses.

We scooped up these vintage sunglasses for me.

I adore them.

And I’m not the only one!

And, yes, she inherited all that kookieness from me, thank you very much.

We know how to have fun over here in Spritzer Leyba Land.

In the past two months we’ve visited both the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the California Academy of Sciences here in the Bay Area. Both experiences were formative for our three year old and she frequently talks the magical things we saw there (dinosaur bones! penguins! (stuffed) lions! fish!).

Yesterday she announced that she needed a map for her upcoming (pretend) museum trip and so we immediately set about making one.

I was there for spelling help and letter forming support.

She picked the animals, designed the museum layout, and drew it herself (except for one word that I wrote, but I bet you spotted that one already!).

In our daughter’s world dinosaurs are alive and well, my friends. After reading the classic I Can Read Book, Danny and the Dinosaur, there was so convincing her that they are extinct. If Danny can ride a dinosaur around town, than so can my daughter.

After all, as I am frequently reminded, you can do anything in your imagination.

Another post in the never-ending arts and craft storage organization saga…

If money were no object, I would immediately snatch up these beautiful, handmade Serena and Lily boxes for our arts and craft storage:

Alas, $88 for a set of three (on sale!) seems pretty steep for a budget organization project, especially when I’d need several sets. Besides, I like the patterns now, but I may not care so much for them in a couple years. I don’t know about you, but my taste changes over time. And those are some crazy, vivid patterns.

In the meantime, these more affordable boxes from IKEA are growing on me:

I was hoping for something other than cardboard (thank you all for your fantastic storage tin suggestions!). Unfortunately after several (unsuccessful) trips to various container stores, I’m slowly reconciling myself to the idea of cardboard storage boxes. I especially like this green color and the various size options. I’m concerned about the construction and how they’ll hold up over time. I also think they look, well, cheap.

I prefer these PVC-free scrapbook storage boxes from Amazon, but I am not sure the sage green color will match the IKEA boxes and these Amazon ones only come in one size (that I can find):

Maybe we can make this size work. I think we’ll need a bunch of them though. We have a lot of art supplies.

Updated to add: Be still my heart! I found them in other sizes (though they are still on the small side). Finding the boxes in the sage green color (without paying outrageous shipping costs) may prove to be a challenge though. Is it worth it?

To shake things up even more, I saw this garden storage cart in the April issue of Country Living magazine:

I love the re-purposed wooden crates with the chalkboard painted sides. I even have chalkboard paint in the garage waiting to be used. I didn’t have any luck finding the crates at the thrift store today; maybe I’ll have better luck at a flea market. I like the idea of spray painting them turquoise too.

I actually like the idea of incorporating both types of boxes — mixing and matching the green archival boxes with the charming (bright blue!) wooden crates.

What do you think I should do?

One of the benefits in living close to a large wetland is the extraordinary wildlife that visits our front yard. This beautiful egret was a recent early morning visitor.

“Mom, what is that?”

“An egret.”

“Oh, he belongs in water.” (We drove past a group of SEVEN egrets last week standing in shallow water on the way home from the grocery store. The girl remembers EVERYTHING.)

Well, it’s pretty darn wet out there.

In most parts of North America “April showers bring May flowers.” Here in Sonoma County it rains consistently from November through April and then we (typically) have a dry summer. Only a few weeks more of this rain and then our spring will really begin…