Something for baby

A sneak peep at some more sewing I have finished this weekend....

A present for a new baby boy of a blogging friend.

{hope she hasn't got time to do any blog reading}.

The wild and wet weather has been very good for sitting behind the sewing machine......in between  tending to all the wants and needs of a family and hanging out at church of course!

 

Rainy day sewing

A wet and miserable day here today...so what better to do than sew...right???

Well I did have some chores to complete first and some errands to run and spotlight to pop into first.

Hmmmm haven't been to spotlight in months and I have been twice in two days.....

But yesterday I discovered by accident they were having a 40% off all fabrics sale for two days.... so what was I to do but lead someone else astray with me...

I had some projects in mind which I need to get on and do . One being the 

Patchwork zipper pouch.

I have been making pouches for a while now  but this was my first patchwork one....and I am pretty pleased with the results....

Just in time for a friends birthday.

My Creative Space

I am a bit behind in trying this skill....

The "handmade button" one.

I was inspired by Alison's gift she sent me....

So I jumped on and ordered my own button kit from here.

I was surprised at how simple they really were and I can't wait to try out a whole range of looks.

Although the simple process is a little hard on the wrists!

Check out other creative spaces here.

Sweetness

I made these super simple and super sweet 

Caramel Cups....

Some for now....

Some for lunches...

Some for a work morning tea....

Maybe another for now!!!

I took my instructions from the very cute Bella...check out her spot here.

What to do?

It was the last day of school holidays and we are about to begin Term 3.

So after a slow morning and finding it hard to decide how to spend the remainder of the day ( we were all home for the day) we headed out to brave the elements.....

Nothing like gale force winds to blow away the cabin fever.....

The little guy insisted we walk out but was quick to insist we head back to the safety and warmth  of the car.....

One good thing about getting a bit cold and wet it required us to stop by and pick up some takeaway hot chocolates!

Then onto home for a game or two....

and luckily that was the impetus we needed to get these two thinking and creating together ,something that was beginning to wane as we get ready to head back to school.

Now just to convince the little guy that school is a must and that his brand new teacher tomorrow will be the best  and that being at home would be terribly boring......

I am thinking that I have my work cut out for me as his last words at bedtime were....

"I'm NOT going to school tomorrow mum!"

The Grand Tour

Now that this guy has finished riding

3,430.5 kilometres

over 21 days

and is now the first Australian to win this mammoth race.....

We can unglue ourselves from late night television watching and snacking....

and find the routine of school returning tomorrow and resuming all that comes with the daily rhythm involved.

Thanks for the Lounge room tour of France and the  riveting entertainment Cadel!

Braiding fun

I don't know about you but I always have a bag full of something that needs to be dropped off at the op shop.....

In my travels around the net I am always on the look out for great upcycling ideas.

I found a great tutorial here....

Re-purposing: Tshirts into 5-strand-braided-headbands

This sounded like my kind of thing to try and seeing as I always have that bag of goodies to donate and a daughter that has a beautiful head of hair that always needs taming...it was perfect.

These two were made using the 2 inch strips...

She was not sure that she was in need of a green one but I was on a roll....next to cut up a purple one for her...this time I will try the narrower strips to braid.

My Creative Space

I have been working away on what I am hoping will be a quirky quilt/blanket for a new baby in the family later this year.

I say hope because I am creating on the fly....from an idea I saw on a commercially made quilt.

I really waned to upcycle some preloved baby swaddling sheets and combine them with some new soft fleece.

I do hope that what I see in my head will equate to a beautiful gift for a new baby.

Other creative spaces here.

Yet more baking

These school holidays I feel like I have done so much baking...which means there is lots being eaten.....hmmmm good for everyone but me!!!

Lemon Coconut Squares ...

These are always a winner and never last very long at all. 

Recipe here 
(originally found in The Women's Weekly Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits) 

Raspberry Coconut Slice

Base:

90g butter

1/2 cup castor sugar

1 egg

1/3 cup self raising flour

2/3 cup plain flour

1/2 cup raspberry jam

Topping:

2 eggs

1/3 cup castor sugar

2 cups of coconut

Base: Cream butter, sugar and egg until smooth and creamy, stir in sifted flours in two batches. Spread mixture evenly over base of well greased lamington tin. Spread evenly with jam, then with Topping. Bake in moderate oven 40 minutes or until golden brown. Cool in the tin , cut when cold.

Topping: Beat eggs lightly with fork, beat in sugar , then coconut.

( recipe found in Women's Weekly  The Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits)

Then tonight for dinner...

Chicken Balls  

recipe found here.

These were so tasty and a great way to use chicken mince - of which I struggle to do yummy things with.

More mail goodness

I have shared of my love for special snail mail before.

This is my latest special snail mail package......

The very talented Alison from Tweed Thoughts sent me these beautifully handcrafted goodies.

An egg cosy,

bookmark,

buttons and a piece of Harris tweed to play around with.

I love the thought of it coming all the way around the world to little 'ol me.

Alison lives in 

Outer Hebrides of Scotland....

Thank you for the lovely gift I am so pleased with my little piece of "Tweedness".

The Best

After a very busy first half of the weekend ( attending a kids worker conference) it was so special to spend Sunday together with family and good food.....

We are so blessed to be able to church every weekend with three generations of our family.

Our children don't realise how special it is so be involved doing church with their grandparents.

This Sunday we had the added joy of celebrating the matriarch {referred to in the nicest possible way}

She is such special lady and although she is my Mother in Law...next to my own mum she is the next best thing.

We celebrated with some lovely brought in lunch and the most divine chocolate profiterole cake made by my sister in law.......

Back to finish off the weekend with an awesome evening service and we were  exhausted charged for another week ahead.

STOP EVERYTHING

I was tapping away last night replying to emails when something bad happened.......

A message alert popped on the screen and before I had a chance to read it....

everything began to disappear before my eyes..

ARRRRRRRRRRGH

We had been attacked 
by one mean  invader.

Twenty four hours later and thanks to one very talented but frustrated husband I now have everything back.....

Guess what I did first...???

Backed up all my photos...should I have done it before ...sure

but had I ? Nope, not ever !

Have you backed up lately?

Felted Soap

Yesterday the sun was warm and out in full.....today it was very wet grey and cold.....

So luckily yesterday we took the opportunity to try some wet felting.

I have played around with wet felting a little before but saw this fun tutorial for felted soap and thought it would be fun to try.

I found it quite therapeutic rolling the bars of soap in my hands creating a very sudsy mess.....

Some worked better then others. It would have been great to have added some needle felting to the design....maybe next time we have a go.

It was a fun thing to do out in the sunshine .

Winter sunshine

Today we had the most beautiful winter sunny day.

We organised to meet cousins in the park for a run and play.

So we took along  Lemonade scones for morning tea

Recipe here

There was plenty of space to run and conduct "spy games" as boys do....

Us big girls just sat on the wall and caught up on the happenings in each others lives....something we don't do often enough in our busy schedules....

and much to my daughters amusement I worked on a little more crochet..."who does that mum?'

I informed her that I know plenty of lovely mummies that would crochet while sitting watching her children enjoy the great outdoors....

Go on back me up now!

My Creative Space

Yesterday I spent the day with a very talented lady and her little ones....

she had offered to teach me how to bind a quilt.
(she has a lovely new sewing space to hang out in)

So with a practise quilt in hand we set about the task.....

not as daunting as I had thought......

I was more than happy to learn machine binding as opposed to hand stitching for now.....

 It is far from being spot on but I now have the technique locked away to perfect it on my next project ....whatever that may be.

Check out some more  creative spaces here.

More baking and some friends

We spent time with this lovely lady and her little ones today. The plan was for me to learn a new skill from her and that the kids would hang out and have some playtime while we did.

All went to plan...

I learnt my new skill (will tell tomorrow)

and 

the kiddlets played so well.

 and because you can't go anywhere empty handed I baked some 

Doughnut Muffins

as seen here.....

They are most delish when warm or rewarmed.....

To delish to have hanging around here for long.....not compatible with my 6am gym mornings!!

Baking payment

Even though it is school holidays I needed to head into the office for the day .....

so a little baking  of 

Chocolate Coconut Slice

 hopefully was enough to say thanks to grandparents for letting the kids come and spend the day with them.....

I am sure they would have been happy even if I didn't send the kids armed with goodies but it makes me feel a little better ......

I am blessed to have such generous family.

This slice I made was a favourite of my mums to bake when we came in from school...

today would have been her birthday so as I baked I remembered ...

Late night crafting

School hols have begun today ....it is wet and cold outside - just how we like it for this time of the year.

It is so nice not to be up and out the door in a hurry every morning...no lunches to pack .

I need to work a couple of days both weeks but other than that hanging close to home is the ultimate aim.

The Tour de France has this household in it's grip.....late nights for three weeks...

I must say I have let down my end of the watching most nights this last week..{I just can't do the gym in the wee hours of the morning and be up late hmmmm}

Last year I began my granny stripe blanket to aid with the staying awake....

this year I am working on small projects to help in keep my eyes peeled to the TV.

I completed a little purple bunting for my creative space.....

and also now working on some dishcloths for the stash...

using this great tutorial found here.

Lucky for me the riders are having a rest day today so we are also able to have an early night too.

My Creative Space

My creative space this week has been in the kitchen.....

The Briefs...

Pink Cupcakes wit pink icing and decorations....

{Meg's Year 7 Class party}

Something savoury with no allergy causing ingredients

{Fraser's Year 1 Class party}

Vegemite and cheese scrolls

Desert for our big girls end of term dinner.....

Sticky date pudding...

We are almost there....bring on the school holidays I say!!!!

More creative spaces here.

I Got Mail

One of my favourite things is snail mail....today I got some...the fun and exciting kind...not the bill kind.....

I won a giveaway over at Jennie's Blog...go visit with her she has some fun things jammed into her part of the world.

Anyway the giveaway......

She sent me some really cute paper bags, twine and stickers that would just add a funky little touch to any gift.....

My favourite part of surprise packages is not always the actual gift ( although it ranks high up there) it is the way it is all packaged up ...with such care and offering such intrigue even if you know what is inside it.

Thanks  heaps Jennie for the gift ...I love it!

Child's Play

I am still amazed to discover what it is that switches my 6 year old son on to the point that he will spend a huge amount of time finishing something.....like most boys his age he more often than not has a very short attention span.

So on Friday when I was greeted once again at his classroom with a handful of papers to go into his bag I took little notice of what he had.

It wasn't until the next morning when we cleaned out the bag he grabbed one of the pieces and said he needed to finish it????

He then proceeded to spend a good hour or so completing this very fascinating art piece.

It was a paper towel that had a self embossed pattern on it...he had begun to use textas to go over the pattern in dots.....

The end result was very effective......

Who would have thought ?????

The other thing that I have been amused with is our box of "barbie dolls and horses " that no longer take pride of place in our family but we have decided to keep just because.

We had a very sweet  3 year old little friend and her family join us for lunch on Sunday.

We dragged out the box just in case she wanted to have  a play......

Well we had a very hard time convincing our little friend to have anything to eat...the dolls were so enthralling to her that it was quite amusing to see......

Then today I had my nearly five year old nephew spend the day with me and as the box was still out .....he spent the better part of the afternoon playing with the much loved dolls and their horses....

I am so glad the all the bits and pieces that have been gathered over the years are still proving to be of huge entertainment value...

Gift to go

Sent Meg off to a birthday sleep over tonight for a school friend with a gift the was quick to whip up.

A covered journal and a letter writing pouch.

I am really an old fashioned mum at heart and still believe that the art of letter writing should be encouraged. We filled the pouch with some pens,writing paper and envelopes.

Hello July

Hello July ...you are here with a rush....

we've broken out the hotties and bed socks,reaching for the scarves and jackets and the kettle is being brewed more times than ever.