Homemade Clay Craft - Penguin Project to do with Kids

I wanted to make some little penguins  so I bought some clay and started modeling the little guys.

Here's how to do it.

First buy some clay at your local craft or hobby shop.

Make sure you get the clay you can bake and not the remoldable clay - which doesn't harden and can always be squished back into a pile of clay.

Then make a pear shaped object out of your clay.

After you've made the pear shaped object, cut out some wings and stick them on the sides.

After you have the wings, you need eyes, feet and a beak.

Stick the beak, feet and eyes on to the pear shaped figure. Rub them into the figure at the connections. Then bake the little guy - per  directions on the clay package.

When he is finished baking, add a little paint or you can use markers.

Before you bake him, you can smooth him a bit. I accidently made indentations in his  body with my fingernails.

I think this little guy is cute but I want to practice a bit so I can make a little penguin pond in my garden ;D I think kids  walking past my little "pond" will think it's fun. 

DIY Victory Garden

Victory Gardens were a common sight during World War I and World War II. They were started to help supplement rations and keep up morale. 

And, gardening can be more than useful. It can be fun.  Plus, you can have your kids help you create this garden and even start it inside the house using old plastic pop bottles, as makeshift greenhouses.

Homemade Greenhouses

Seeing herbs, vegetables and fruits, you've planted from cuttings and seeds, sprout and bloom is thrilling to watch.

Victory Gardens were also called Food Gardens or War Gardens. And since this historical pandemic is a World Wide War against the Coronavirus or Covid-19,  I think it can’t hurt to have some extra food in our own yards. 

Most of us who live in a big city, have already experienced some shortages at local grocery stores,  such as flour, sugar, yeast, and  toilet paper. So, although we  might not be able to do much to stop the toilet paper shortages, we can try to limit some of our own food shortages—at least during the spring, summer and fall by being a little proactive and starting our own small Victory Gardens and by preparing our own jellies, jams, and preserves.

So, I thought I’d share some tricks, tips and ideas I’ve been using to create my own personal Victory Garden. I live in a big city, on a small city lot, but I've found ways to grow-up rather than to grow-across a wide area. And, if you live in an apartment, you can grow plants in pots and out on balconies, or in shared spaces. Some cities even have community gardens, where you can share a plot of land to garden on.

I’m hoping these ideas might help other people build their own Victory Gardens.

Here is a small list of recommendations:

•  Don't waste food.
• When you have food that starts to spoil, such as potatoes, onions, beets, etc. think about whether or not you can take a cutting from the vegetable and plant it out in your garden. 
• You can use old wood to make stakes, trellises and tomato cages to grow your plants up toward the sky.
  

This is the top of a  potato I cut off, while I was preparing a pot of potatoes for dinner. I simply stuck some bamboo skewers in the cutting and placed it in a cup of water. The raw edge of the potato barely touched the water (using a type of hydroponic gardening) or gardening without having the plant in soil. Usually people amend the water (or enrich it with nutrient mineral solutions), when they hydroponically garden. But, I simply placed my potato cutting in a little water inside a coffee mug. Then I watched it grow.

Some people have simply planted rotting potatoes and had a lot of success that way.

I'm hoping you'll try this because it's one way to help stretch your food budget and keep your food supply within reach.

And, if you try your hand at a Victory Garden, please let me know. I'd love to hear how you do.

I’m also planning to share some of my successes and failures growing my own sour dough starters. Sour Dough starters can help you always have access to bread, even if the store is out of yeast or bags of bread. :D

PENGUIN POPS

If you want to make these fun Penguin Pops, just follow the EZ steps below. 

Of course you need penguin pop molds, which you can get at candy making supply shops like Blake's Decorette Shop in Portland, Oregon

Then you need some white chocolate and some food coloring: Orange and black will do. You also need a food quality paintbrush...or two. All you do is paint the food coloring onto the mold.

Then spoon in your melted white chocolate.

Put your molds in the refrigerator to chill for a couple hours and voilÃ.

Penguin Pops

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