Sunday 4 November 2012

Baby expo

I haven't blogged for ages! Every spare minute for the last six weeks I've been sewing for the baby expo. I ended up with just under fifty pieces of clothing and twenty five accessories. I did sizes 3 months - 3 years, girls clothing and a few unisex bloomers.
I'm planning to branch out and do some boys clothing too, every second person asked if I had anything for boys! The expo went really well, I'll get some photo's up soon of our stall, until then here are a few pieces I made...














Saturday 13 October 2012

the way to use a bug box

Olive got given this cute wooden bug box for her birthday, I explained to the girls that we find bugs, place them in the box, look at them then set them free. They have a much better way of doing things.... pick as many flowers as possible put them in the bug box and apparently "it's a nest for all the bee's and they will fly in and make it there home" says Isla. Very cute, such great little imaginations!






Wednesday 3 October 2012

cheap chalk fun

It's the holidays, so no kindergarten or play centre for two weeks, so far we've been busy catching up with friends and spending lots of time outside. My friend gave the girls a whole tub of chalk on Monday, they're loving it, hours of fun!





Sunday 30 September 2012

simple summer t's

It's just about summer so I sorted out the girls clothing this weekend, moved all the warmer clothes to the bottom draws and found all there summer t's, shorts and dresses.  I realised Olives has a whole draw full of t-shirts and Isla only has three! I guess that's a pro of being the younger sister, Olive gets all Isla's cute hand me downs! So I went op-shopping and got a few cute tops, then I came home and made these two. I love the floral on the sleeves, much more pretty than plain grey. For the pink top I used the material from  a nature baby wrap, I brought for $2 from a garage sale. Now to make a few more and she should be sorted for Summer!







Thursday 27 September 2012

picture perfect

I found this framed cubby-hole shelf at a church sale today ($5), I have a slight obsession with cubby-holes so I was extremely happy to find this little gem! I didn't like the dark stain of the wood so I gave it a quick spray with white paint and with the placement of some cute op-shop ornaments (all between 20cents - $1) I think it looks gorgeous! And how do you like the beautiful bird mobile my friend Amy made for Olive, isn't she amazing!








Wednesday 26 September 2012

my baby turned two

Yesterday was Olive's second birthday, I can't believe she was born two whole years ago, they have flown by so, so fast! Here are a few pretty pic's from the day...













Friday 21 September 2012

the early bird catches the worm

Olive has been waking at around 5:30am for the last couple of weeks, not surprising considering how light it is that time of the morning. I can't wait for day light savings to kick in! This morning we made the most of our early start and went to the flea market, Neal and Isla were still fast asleep, lucky!

These are my bargain's.... x7 avocado's $4.50, x3 broccoli $4.50, cauliflower $1, apples $2, x2 bags of mandarins $4, tulips $4, x2 leeks $2, walnuts $3, plant $2, x8 items of clothing for Isla $8...... 

grand total = $35.oo 

I love the flea market!!!







Monday 17 September 2012

A little bit of summer

This is my latest little top for Olive, I love the material, it's so girly and feels like summer! I've misplaced my original pattern so I've been working out the sizing again, lucky it's such a simple pattern!



Monday 10 September 2012

cardamon & ginger biscuits

Cardamon is high on my list of favourites, it's so delicious, I have a great Indian carrot cake recipe (which introduced me to cardamon about five years ago.) For these cookies I've used the good old Edmond's classic biscuit recipe and added cardamon, ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon. The recipe is below...


125 grams softened butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups self raising flour

Beat butter and sugar until fluffy, beat in egg and vanilla. Sift spices and flour into wet mixture and combine. 
Roll into teaspoon sized balls and flatten with a fork. 
Bake on 190°C for 8-10 minutes.
When the biscuits have cooled down apply a ginger icing (melt 1 tablespoon butter, add 1 cup icing sugar and 1 teaspoon ginger, add water to make a spreading consistency)
Makes about 25 biscuits

Happy baking!



Sunday 9 September 2012

relax

We had a very relaxing weekend, Neal started prep on the claw foot bath (we're doing our bathroom up this summer,) the girls spent lots of time outside playing, Olive has upgraded from a baby swing to a big girls swing. we went to my sister-in-laws yesterday to celebrate two birthdays, we ate banana cake, lay around in the sun, took in the lovely country view and looked for ladybugs in the grass...