Homemade chocolate syrup

My kids aren't big milk fans, but they will drink chocolate milk. However, I got tired of putting chocolate syrup with less than pure ingredients into good healthy milk.
Here is the recipe I use:
3/4 c cocoa powder
1 1/2 c sugar
Pinch of salt
1 c water
1 tsp vanilla extract
Mix all ingredients in a sauce pan till boiling let it cooks for about a minute turn it off and mix in vanilla.

I store mine in old glass pasta sauce jars ( I always save these). This recipe almost fills up the jar and lasts for months. Voila simple tasty chocolate syrup with only a few ingredients!

Buddy's lunch

Now that we are back to school I'm back to planning lunches. I've pretty much always packed my 10 year old's lunch. Last year I bought a goodbyn and could not love it more! We have the larger one with two larger compartments, two smallish ones, a drink container and one tiny spot. The only draw back is you can't really use ice packs. However, my son eats super early so he's fine. I try and pack mixed veggies, mixed fruit and main protein and one or two little "treats".
Here is his first lunch of the school year: turkey, spinach, cream cheese and tomato pinwheel sandwich, strawberries and oranges, radishes, three different peppers, sugar snap peas and carrots (I did say mixed veggies), an all natural gogurt and a handful of m&m's. This lunch only took about 10 min to make including washing and cutting veggies and fruit.

First day of school teachers treats (dipped Oreos)

I've been noticing in party blog land the plethora of chocolate dipped Oreos. So I decided our crew need to start sucking up early--why not the first day! I order (from amazon.com) a Wilton flower mold that said candy and cookies. Thus, it was deep enough for the Oreos. I got Wilton melting candy (light chocolate) and melted it, covered the bottom of the mold, placed the Oreo in and then covered the rest with more chocolate. This was super easy--my 4 year old did a few. Next time I want to get adventurous with colors. This is a really good looking simple treat!

Embroidery--wall hanging

First I'd like to congratulate my wonderful sister as our duel Birthday comes to an end on the best Bday gift ever! Claire Annmarie was born August 10. I wanted to make a special cross stitch or embroidery piece for her room. I decided on embroidery as I'm a bit burned out on cross stitch.
I went to etsy to find a pattern. I found a lovely Irish blessing at Daisyeyeshandmade. I bought it as a kit with the patterned stamped on fabric, with a hoop and floss included for $15.00. It was worth it to not have to make a run to the craft store. Anyone wanted to do some quick embroidery--either a novice or more advanced crafter should check her out I was very pleased.

First sewing projects

Gabby and I bought a sewing machine several months ago and finally decided to sew some pillows for my newish sofa. We bought the fabric when I had brown leather sofas but now I have a lime green sofa and the fabric worked beautifully. We made 18x18 and sewed three sides then stuffed and sewed the fourth. That was kind of tricky but we did it!
We also made a felt flower pillow using the wonderful diy instructions from thecraftingchicks.com.