Play Dough!! Plus a secret ingredient!

So... I have been lacking inspiration for posts, and have been busy with life, but I do really want to get back into blogging. The best way I can think is to at least make a post when I am hit by motivation - however few and far between they are (maybe they will slowly start to become frequent again).

I have been wanting to do a project with/for the kids and play dough has been in the back of my head for awhile. One day I actually sat down and search the internet to find a recipe that was easy but would still yield some good play dough. I wanted a no-bake/no-stove-top recipe, as well as a recipe that did not require cream of tartar because here in Bulgaria I have not been able to find it (at least in the shops in the town I live in).
I found this helpful YouTube video and began by following it. You need separate bowls of water plus the added food coloring and oil, to which you add the flour and salt mix. I had four bowls, two with regular food coloring and two with unconventional attempts at dying ingredients from my kitchen, one I wanted to see if I could get a color from a very purple fruit tea, and another one I added an effervescent magnesium tablet that I had, that produces a very pink color, I wanted to see if it would transfer the color to the play dough.
I began working the dough of the first bowl (the magnesium experiment) and it turned out soft and very workable and I didn't have to knead it for very long at all (though the pink did not hold up and it turned out to be just white play dough, but that was fine). Next I turned to the tea experiment and right away it needed more water while I was kneading and I felt the minutes ticking by as I was working the dough, after a good while of kneading and collecting the falling scrapes and kneading some more I got it to stick together as good as I could but it was not a very good play dough consistency in my opinion and was rather hard to work with. I summed it up to a tea fail, thinking maybe the tea had a drying effect......or something(?). Picked up the next bowl containing the blue dye and began the process of mixing then kneading, and had the same hardships as the tea dough (I added both a bit more water and oil trying to get the same consistency and softness I had in the first play dough ball). The blue one did turn out better then the tea one, but still not as good as the first. SO I decided to grab a magnesium tablet and dissolve it in the green dyed water/oil that was my final bowl to mix up, just to see if that was what made the difference. After it was completely dissolved I mixed it and kneaded it AND! I had the very same results as the first batch!
I have no clue why magnesium would make a softer, better play dough (for a no-cook method), but it did!

The magnesium tablets I used.

I did get one shot of the dissolving table, before forgetting my camera again.

I redid two whole new batches for the dud colors - blue dye, and the tea experiment - with the added magnesium, and they both turned out great as well! The tea one yeilded a color that was not as purple as I was expecting (I used about 4 tea bags to the 1/4 cup of water) but it made a nice greyish-purple none-the-less.

Now the unfortunate thing is I do not have step by step pictures :( I was meaning to take pictures through the whole making-of process, but I got so wrapped up in making play dough and watching the kids having fun with the finished ones I completely forgot I had wanted to take pictures. Sorry! I did take one or two pictures though, not very informative, but at least you can see that the kids enjoyed it! If I make more I will try and remember to have my camera ready at each step.

All the good play dough balls.

The two 'duds' harder and much more 'flaky' or crumby.

Even Daddy was getting into the play dough action!

They seem to like the blue one!

I have been keeping it in the refrigerator, wrapped in cellophane when it is not being used, and let it sit out to get as close to room temperature before being played with - however seeing it in plain site on the table and waiting to play with it is a hard thing for toddlers.  The kids have been asking to play with play dough now multiple times every day! As soon as I see it beginning to dry out I will try restoring it as I would with store bought play dough, kneading it with a little bit of water. I have noticed if the kids play with one color for more then an hour it starts to get a little bit dry, and so far squishing it all together and wrapping it in cellophane has halted any drying and the next time they use it, it is back to normal.

Bulgaria, blogging, home...

So I haven't been blogging steadily, or really AT all, since our bike trip across the states and our time in Maine. We have been bouncing around seeing bits of Bulgaria, Romania, and such. However, now that we are at home in our own apartment and will be living in Bulgaria full time for years to come I think I should start blogging and writing again.

This is more a started/affirmation for myself post. I will be thinking within the next couple weeks where I want to take this blog, and how often I would like to create posts...in other words set a few goals. (Not very strictly of course seeing as having the kids and now Voda running the house I am leaving myself leeway...)

Hopefully there will be new posts very soon!!!

The Meaning of Ave.

Ave - All hail.

Aireon-Rohe - A melodious boundary.

Aumvati - Possessing the power of Aum (the universe).

Nuada - Protector.

Varanasireku - The powerful ruler of the holy city Benares.
This is taking a city name in India that we thought was beautiful, and adding 'reku' on the end. Reku is also in Soeren-Raedeks name, and is Icelandic in origin. Reku means powerful ruler.


I don't think I mentioned Soerens full name and meaning in my blog yet so here is his full name + meaning:

Soeren-Raedek, meaning "Stern counsel, of a swords edge." Soren is Danish/Dutch/Scandinavian (which is most of my background), Chris thought of it one day and mentioned it, and it just clicked, and it means stern or strict. "Rad" comes from Old Germanic and "Raed" comes from Olde English both mean counsel or advice. "Ag" or "ek" comes from Norse and Germanic origins meaning "awe, terror, fear; the edge of a sword". And I combined raed, and ek, and fellin love with it. So we combined them to really give a meaningful, powerful name which paid homage to our Scandinavian/Old European roots; Soeren-Raedek. We really liked the look of the double vowels and it helps a little with the phonetics. The "oe" makes is a long "O" and the "ae" makes it a long "A". Or well, it is supposed to anyways, but people will still mispronounce it.

Sivananda (Siva (She-va)- is Sanskrit, meaning 'The bliss of Siva (or God, Divine, Universe, etc.). It was originally just used as a place holder because Chris had a little obsession with the amount of syllables in naming the baby, so that the name would sound like a poem. Chris really wanted to have a Vedic/Indian name because he is Hindu and worships Lord Siva. It eventually just crept in and stayed. Sivananda is sort of for our feelings that he is a gift from the Universe, Divine, God and children are bliss.

James, meaning 'The supplanter'. Well, James had been a topic of debate throughout the pregnancy. Chris' middle name is James, I personally have a love for the name because my deceased grandfather's name was James, and Chris as well had an uncle whom he really cared for whose name was James . So that name is in honour of three people. It was still up in the air whether or not James would be in his name. Once he was born, I decided finally that it WOULD be in his name.


Athanazereku, (Ah-tuh-NOSS-re-koo) meaning, 'The immortal powerful ruler'. This is another bit of a story. Chris' Great (Great??) Grandfather was named "Athanase" and he really wanted an "older" name from our family. One that isn't still often used. I found the name "reku" while researching the name 'Soren' actually. It comes from Icelandic and means powerful ruler. Then, the same day I found out that Athanase was actually ancient Greek and meant "immortal" so we put them together to make "Immortal, powerful ruler."

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