Winter Eco-Art with Kids

I love being eco-thrifty by recycling things into art supplies. In this case we used cardboard rectangles from packing materials received at my shop, snipped branches from our Christmas tree (a volunteer doug fir that chose a bad spot and grew faster than we could dig it up for transplant), and stuffing from an old futon.

We painted the cardboard one day, cut the branches and glued them on the next and finally glued on the "snow". Not bad!

Kids 18mo - 4 years enjoyed this one. For the gluing I squeezed clear elmer's into small jars and kids scooped it out with wide popsicle sticks and smeared it onto the cardboard. Making the branches stick required pressing and holding down with both hands - and sometimes some big person help.

Snow Recipe

Lots of snow this week! We've been evolving the Murphy Snow Shake that my brother and I invented (so we say!) as kids. The old version is snow + bit of milk + powered cocoa -- all mixed up. These days is't snow + my chocolate nut milk = yum, yum, yum!

Here's my raw milk recipe:
Handful of nuts (any kind - we've been using cashews & pecans lately)chopped, or blended up 3 cups water
Spoonful of honey
Spoonful of cocoa (or cacao, or carob powder)
dash of cinnamon
splash of vanilla

Blend up in a high powered blender and strain out the nut granules if you like. My kids don't like the texture of the nutty bits so I pour off the top for them and drink the last of it myself.