A Day of Extremes

Well today has certainly earnt its title. Either absolute success of abject failure and nothing in between.
First of all  were my Easter baskets for Mum and Caroline. It was obvious this morning that I had been working on them quite late last night as some of my 'logic' had gone astray and there was quite a bit of unpicking to be done before they were finished this morning. BUT, I am very happy with the way they turned out and would be very happy to receive one myself (especially if it is filled with chocolate eggs).

I put these down to absolute success #1.

Absolute success #2 is the easter tree. After searching our dying maple tree for the right branch, this is how you are now greeted as you enter our house.

Our house is white, not pale pink like the photos show but I could not get the white balance right today for some reason. Absolutely no chance on the little automatic (pic1) but getting a little closer (still not good) with the DSLR (pic 2). I will put it down to the funny light today and the fact that our front door is bright orange and alters the colours in the hallway.

Absolute success #3. All my market stock is made ( including a large pile of teaspoon bookmarks which were not actually planned for thoday) and packed in the car before 6pm. This may not sound like a big deal but I could count on one hand the number of times I have been ready for a market before midnight the night prior , and I have been doing markets for 7 years now. I can always find something to do, a sign to remake etc, designing a new stall layout. You maket goers know what I mean - well I hope you do, and I am not the only one who does this.

All these successes had made for too good a day and the failures were about to begin.

Abject failure #1. Beer battered fish and chips for dinner. Hard to muck this up I hear you say-  well maybe, but not if you are me - I can stuff anything up - just ask anyone who has attmepted to eat my scones!!!
I had borrowed MIL's fryer to cook the fish, but all it did was stick the batter to the bottom of the basket so that when it was time to dish up my beautiful orange roughy, it came out in a multitude of pieces followed by crushed/smashed batter. It tasted alright but looked pre-digested. I changed the way I placed the fish in the oil each time but as the basket rotates and lifts the item being cooked out of the oil for short periods, the batter or just plain fish with no batter still stuck and ended up looking the same. A  good night to be a blind dinner guest in our house tonight.


Abject failure #2. Attempting to put royal icing on marie biscuits so that the girls can draw on them with the new food pens. We ( or mainly I ) decided that pre-made biscuits should be easier to ice than home made ones but try as I might I could not get the icing to stay in the desired shape or for that matter not stick to the bench when I rolled it out. I muddled my way through 6 biscuits and gave up. There has to be an easier way amd will be a task for another day. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Failure #3. Hot cross buns were not even attempted today. Maybe tomorrow, when I get home from the market so we can take them for lunch on Sunday, but then again, if I am as tired as I normally am after a market ( and it does go for an extra hour tomorrow), then it will just be dinner and bed for me tomorrow before the Easter Bunny hops his way into our house.

Here's hoping your day was full of success and sunshine and have a Happy Easter.

P.S.  If you are looking for something to do tomorrow and are near the Mornington Peninsula, pop along to the special Easter Market at Mornington Racecourse.

My Creative Space

My creative space this week finds me enjoying Easter fun with the girls.
We have blown eggs ( free range of course - no cage eggs here - Sarah's attempting to get the whole school  to boycott cage eggs by the time she leaves grade 6 in Dec), drawn on them with crayon and then died them and many little fingers along with them.
Here are some of my favourites

I know there are flash spots on them but it is such a miserable wet night here in Melbourne that I cannot get enough light without the flash.

Now comes the assembly of the tree for a centrepiece on Sunday. This was going to be done today but with a shuffle of work days and me working today, it will have to become a Good Friday activity.

Hopefully it will end up looking something like this.....

As my family are not big chocolate eaters , I usually find/make a small present for them with some chocolate ginger etc hidden inside. With a hankering for scones, which I absolutely cannot make, even with no-fail recipes ( mine could be sold to the army as ammunition), I thought this years present to mum and  'lil sis could be something to give them a nudge in the scone making direction.
A long time ago I saw some lovely scone baskets by Mud Tea  and thought that I might be able to make something similar from my ever growing fabric stash. I think Kate has come up with a wonderful idea and it is not as simple to put together as it first appears. My version does not look nearly as pretty/neat but heck - it was made with love and a lot of experimentation and I am still rather happy with the outcome.

Next on the family easter/holiday craft plan is bajing some of these...

with this excellent recipe from none other than the Womens Weekly ,

and, also baking ( my oven wont know what's hit it - poor thing) some biscuits decorated with my new food pens.
After reading a lovely post on Christen's blog Twirling Betty about her children decorating biscuits, I spent the night scouring the internet for food pens that would not cost the earth and I could get before the Good Friday holiday. Baking Pleasures in Brisbane came to the rescue and the pens arrived today - YAY!
Still haven't decided whether we will make bunny biscuits or just plain round ones and let them create their own designs. - Maybe some of both.......

The rest of today ( after work that is  and probably into the mystery hours of tonight) will be spent finishing the other  scone basket, sewing some hats for the market on Saturday and if possible before it gets too late - bashing spoons, especially lots more bookmarks for Saturday too.

I hope your week and holidays have been creative  and you have a lovely Easter

Elephants in Easter Bonnets

Not your ordinary title but then Mia's first Easter bonnet parade  deserves someting special. Its not every day there is an Easter Elephant!
The 3yr old ECC group at Sarah's school doesn't normally get to participate in many of the 'big'school activities as they are only attend on a Friday ( 4yr old group does 4 days) and most whole school activities take place on a Thuesday. BUT, end of term is end of term and always falls on a Friday. Our house was a veritable buzz of excitement this morning - Mia 'cos she got to dress up as an elephant ( even though the day was going to be 26'C) and Sarah because nearly 3 weeks holiday were starting. Gotta love Easter and Anzac day bumping into each other.
Here is how our fleece elephant set out this morning....

Mia had cooler clothes on underneath  but when I arrived after lunch for the parade, she was still in the costume, trunked hood and all, admitting she was a little hot but this would not stop being Mali, an Easter Elephant. After a lot of begging, cajoling, requests, Mia finally relinquished the hood in exchange for her Easter bonnet she made earlier this morning  just in time for the Easter Bonnet Parade.

With a 7 year age difference there will not be many activities that both girls will get to do at school together, so it was great that Sarah was also part of Mia's first foray into the world of parades

A very proud bonnet maker...

My Big and Little with their creations demonstrating summer and winter fashions all on the one day.

We are now looking forward to a busy school holdays filled with visits to the Tutankhamun exhibition at the museum, beach romps, exploring new parks, sleepovers and taking full advantage of all the beautiful autum days that will hopefully grace us with their presence.
On that note my coasters are now dry and ready for their next coat of modge podge before the waterproof sealant tomorrow so, I will leave you hoping that your weekend is full of fun, laughs and sunshine.

My Creative Space

My Creative space this week is very uncreative due to a rather persistant fever that is leaving me blurgh and cold. Even though this week needs to be one of my busiest creatively, as craft markets have approved all my new products for sale, and so therefore I have to build up to market stock levels rather that just one or two on hand for madeit sales, all I have been able to manage is the bird present for my sisters birthday the other day.
These are not very good photos as I did not  realise I had not taken any photos of the finished product until I was running late on Sunday  and was desperately trying to wrap everything before we left for lunch. So the photos were taken on my phone and the focus is not very good when inside or when under pressure.

So rushed was I that I didn't even think of moving the unused fabric from behind the cage.

This one, not so bad

And this one please excuse the birght orange bag that sort of grabs all the attention and something I didn't even notice till I was posting the photo to this page.

Oh well, I will claim that I was starting to get sick when they were taken and I am definately sick now, so therefore the design part of the brain was and is severely out of whack.

Play along with your better photographed creative space at Lou's.

30 Photos in 30 Days - Day 29 and Wordless Wednesday (but with a few words)

Carolines Birthday

Again no photo taken today as it took all my effort to drag my body out of bed and off to work this morning. Pointing a camera at something was the furthest thing from my mind. This fever/flu thing has taught me more about what medications work for me. Panadol does nothing, Codral Cold and Flu make me feel wierd but sort of work, Dimetap and Sudafed I react very badly to but the best thing for both fever and head ( no good for the nose) is good old Aspro Clear - who'd have thunk it? I am only sitting at my computer tonight thanks to good old fashioned Aspro Clear.
So
Happy Birthday to my dear sister with whom I share this blog ( she is odd socks) and welcome to the upper levels of your 30's (hehe). So for todays photo we will have one of the birthday girl.

I thought this photo appropriate as the drawn Grand Final (where this photo was taken) has affected both our birthday's - but at least my party didn't have to be postponed due to the match replay (again hehehe) and Wordless Wednesday should be of one day that can never be repeated.

For Wordless Wednesday just ignore all I wrote, look at the picture and play along here.

30 Photos in 30 Days - Day 26

39 Today!

no I am not 3539! I shared birthday celebtrations with my sister whose birthday is on Wednesday.

 I can be happy about this birthday as I am still under 40 ( which according to both my children is really old)
When I was in my twenties the idea of being nearly 40 was something I wanted to avoid - turning 30 was going to be bad enough but today at 39, I can say that I do not feel any different to the 20-something girl - just a few more responsibilitieswith a few more, actually a lot more, wrinkles and wobbly bits.
So after a day of being totally spoilt by my family I thought I would see if I could list 39 things about myself that you might not know and maybe I have not realised about myself until now.

1. I am a real red head - although I do have help hiding some of the greys
2. I am perfectly happy celebrating my birthday with family and no big fuss.
3. I like myself better now than in my early 20's and I would not go back in time.
4. I love being a mother, and having 2 children is not twice as hard.
5. If there was not such a large gap between Sarah and Mia I would love to have had more kids.
6. I still love cute shoes - although my collection is slightly smaller than in my 20's
7. I always have a tape measure in my handbag.
8. I love Thai food
9. I love seafood.
10. I am more confortable in my own skin now than I have ever been.
11. I love it that my girls and I all have birthday's in September although it can be a strain on the wallet.
12. I hate blue cheese.
13. I play piano and have taught it
14. I wish Brett and I could spend more time together - life is so hectic at the moment.
15. I have all my teeth - including wisdom teeth and have had since I was 15
16. I dont drink nearly enough water.
17. I am a planner - everything is planned in advance.
18. I am not good with going with the flow.
19. I love photography and wish I could spend more time learning about it.
20. I love to cook cakes but....
21. I would happily give up cooking dinner every night.
22. I hate food shopping.
23. I would love to own a car which had back doors. - especially with 2 kids
24. I have only owned hatch back cars.
25. One day I will get married.
26. I will never get a tattoo.
27. I would love to have my own craft room. I was supposed to in this house but 3 wks after moving in I found out I was pregnant with mia - bye bye craft room, hello babies room.
28.  I hope my girls grow up to be as close as my sister and I.
29. I love vintage silver at the moment and cannot find enough of it.
30. I wish my metabolism would keep up with the fact that I love cakes.
31. My eyes change colour depending on what I wear between blue, green, grey, hazel and a wierd kind of dark yellow ( I hate this one and avoid wearing colours that bring this out).
32. I have had a cat all my life.
33. I love 80's music
34. I love jelly snakes and am a sucker for licorice.
35. I ADORE dark chocolate and hate white chocolate - not even a chocolate in my book.
36. I would love to be more daring in my wardrobe.
37. My perfect house would be overlooking a beach with no close nieghbours.
38.  I am a hoarder and don't like to throw anything out (much to the dislike of my husband)
39. I have realised that age is only a number and it is how you live and feel that counts.

Oh my, that was hard. I do not think I will repeat it for my 40th, but I am glad I did it.
Now I think it is time to curl up on the couch and relax before the week starts again tomorrow

30 Photos in 30 Days - Day 13 and @ my house

I am cheating here and putting 2 posts into the 1 and then also including more than 1 photo..........

Apparently I have been a little stressed the last couple of weeks. This would have nothing to do with birthday shopping for 4 people in 2 wks, seemingly endless cake baking, 2 girls who could not wait for their birthdays, standard sister squabbles, sewing, spoons, 'normal' work, trees falling on sheds and very slow insurance companies. Quite a quiet fortnight really.
Any hoo, this is the face that Mia used when she was pretending to be me this morning with her toy family.
This is her stressed face.

She even had some of the wording down pat too.....'Dont even think of touching that cake if you want one for your birthday' 'Just give mummy a minute' ' can you two get along for just 5 minutes please' and the best one of all.... 'because I said so and I am the mum'

All of this was said as she sat at her new kitchen baking pancakes and strawberries for her toys this morning.

I was a little disappointed at the size of this kitchen when I set it up. The picture in the catalogue had a 3 year old ish standing next to it - not kneeling. Oh well Mia likes it and that is all that matters.

What's happening at your place? Have a look here.

30 Photos in 30 Days - Day 12

*** Mia's 3rd Birthday ***

Today my baby baby turns 3 and as she told me in no uncetain terms today, she is now too old to be a baby - especially as she now has one of her own (courtesy of Nanny and Grampy). Mia also thought she was extra special having a second party on her actual birthday. The other non-party was simply candles and the happy birthday song followed by cupcakes  for everyone at playgroup, but for Mia it was a party with all her friends. Oh how I wish parties stayed this simple as they grew up.
Today's party was only family - this is big enough when everyone turns up - and the birthday girl was totally spoilt and seems to love all her presents as they have all been played with and declared her favourtie at different times throughout the day.
Now we just need a bigger house to fit them all in - a new kitchen set and associated food, train set, dolls cradle and pram, dolls house and scooter all take up precious space. Then there is only jsut over 3 mths till Christmas when it is all added to again ..... Arrrghhhhh

But for now Happy Birthday my darling  Mia and may you always look and feel as happy and special as you did today when Happy Birthday is sung to you.

see you tomorrow.....
oh and yesterdays photo is finally up.

My Creative Space

My creative space this week , I wish could say finds me resting on my laurels with the success of Sarah's rainbow cake last week, .......

the cake table spread - cake with butterflies and butterfly cupcakes.

 outside view of the actual cake - 

which stood about 25cm tall when all layers were added

and then the inside

 one slice was on the rather large size with each one serving 3 people

 .....but instead I am devising how I am going to make a Thomas the Tank Engine cake for Mia's 3rd birthday this Sunday. It was initially going to be an actual engine but since I  have been making cupcakes endlessley this week - 80 in total - I think the cake will morph into a number three cake with train tracks and Thomas on top. When baking has to be balanced with sewing baby sling orders, filling all the spoon orders and normal work, something has to give. I wish I was, but I am not Superwoman - or magic.
I had also planned to make it to a new craft group (new for me) in not quite my local area tonight, but instead fell asleep in Mia's bed while I was reading her some books, and woke up a couple of hours later - hence the late posting time of this.
I hope your week is creative and a little less hectic than mine (although mine has been delicious).
For relaxation, or inspiration, check out what other people are up to at Kootoyoo.

Wordless Wednesday

30 Photos in 30 Days - Day 5

Happy Fathers Day

I know it is not Fathers Day everywhere in the world today but here in Australia is is and for the first time in a long time I have not been at a market. (oh how I loooove Sunday morning sleep-ins!)
Therefore the photo for the day had to be of Brett and his girls.

Stacks on Dad! (or in Mia speak, 'Blocks on Dad')

picture removed

A Perfect 10

Today, September 4th, my baby turns 10! 
When I look back on it I can say that time has flown but then thinking of life BK (before kids) seems so long ago, I actually find it very hard to remember what it was like.  So, due to today's occasion here is a mini photo story ....

10 years ago, 6 weeks ahead of time we found ourselves here... (oh how young we look)

which produced this....

which 10 years later has evolved to this........ (with the brand new ipod touch)

A great day was had, the birthday girl was totally spoilt by all the  family and my rainbow cake was a huge success - more about that on a later post, but for now it will suffice to say...

Happy Birthday Sarah.
I look forward to to all that is still to come.

My Creative Space

My creative space this week finds me attempting to make this gorgeous rainbow cake from 'I am mommy, I am baker' for Sarah's 10th birthday on Saturday. I will use food colouring to colour the layers as my attempts to use real fruit aka fresh strawberries has always resulted in a soggy cake. To make it a spring birthday theme there will be many of Marthas little butterflies all around - especially on the drinking straws. I am hoping that I will find a large butterfly punch at spotlight today that might mean all the flutterbys do not have to be cut by hand.

the cake

flutterbys

and the drinks

I will also be continuing my 30 photos in 30 days - a photo a day for the month of September. So far it is going well - but it is only day 2.


I hope your week is creative. Check some others out at Kootoyoo

The Power of 3

Why is it that bad things happen in 3's? This time, to be totally different, our three unfortunate events have been 3 new things that I have never done or had occur before. Let me walk you through them.....

1. Jumped under the shower at 5:30am yesterday morning wanting to get my kickstart before the market only to jump out even faster and colder than when I jumped in. NO HOT WATER! Since it was still  dark outside and everyone else was asleep I went with water from the kettle instead of a wakeup shower ( no substitute). Left matches out for Brett  with a note to check the pilot light when daylight came. Got home from the market wanting a 'thaw out' shower however it was not to be. Hot water service dead and new one needed. Unfortunatly not possible on a Sunday.

2. Lost Credit Card. I was out shopping for a birthday present for Brett ( I know a bit late since his birthday is today) when I got the call that the plumber wanted to come now to install the new hot water service. Flew through the checkout as fast as I could and raced home. Went out much later to buy some cream for the pavlova only to find credit card missing! After a few seconds, which seemed like ages, of sheer panic decicded that the last place I had used it was Target - I must have left it in the eftpos machine in my rush. The new security chips might be good but swiping the card meant you never let go of it. Rang the store and asked if anyone had handed it in. The lovely boy checked the safe and all the registers but nothing. What shitty person took my card from the eftpos machine and kept it? Bad karma to that person please. Got home and rang the bank to canel the card. Bummer that it cancels Brett's too. Oh well, better to be without it for a few days than let someone have a spending spree on me tonight via the internet.

3. FIRE! As today is Brett's birthday and since I didn't get him a present for this morning. I wanted to make a big fuss tonight. We started with bunting and balloons, 1/2 dozen oysters each for Brett and I, followed by baked Salmon (sea bream for the girls) with a herb crust, baby potatoes, carrots and zuccini in lemon pepper and broad beans( especially for Brett) and topped off with presents and party poppers before I managed to fit 44 candles on the pavlova. Sarah and Mia then wanted to have sparklers. Once I started to put the candles on the pav I had this feeling of fire and thought that it was just that with so many candles all the flames may join together to make one massive flame, but not, they were all blown out after a hearty rendition of Happy Birthday. My next though twas Brett and his sparkler against the party popper streamers but  again no - these only shrivelled up in response to the heat. I was starting to relax when Sarah started yelling and Brett flew up from his seat. The Bananas in pyjamas couch was on fire!. I was amazed how fast the little couch burnt. Brett grabbed one of the chairs and squashed the fire out on the floorboards. I know I should be glad but all I could think was "not the polished floor". I grabbed the ottoman and ran out the front door. Maybe running wasn't the best as it certainly fanned the flames which were about 1foot high by the time I made it out the door, but there was a satisfying hiss when I drove the stool into the wet grass. The only other casualties were a couple of my large floor cushions and some tulle I had to make a new tutu with. Luckily the surface on the polished floor didn't suffer to badly either. Sarah was inconsolable for ages as it was her sparkler that touched the couch to start everything off. She said she had visions of the whole house burning. ( I think she has learnt her lesson now about respect for fire) She also couldn't understand why I wasn't cross that she had ruined things. I finally convinced her that cushions etc do not matter and as long as everyone was ok everything else was just stuff and that she hadn't ruined the party.


With Mia finally in bed, I helped Sarah finish her recycled fashion assignment. We were initially  going to make a denim skirt from a pair of worn out jeans but we had a major purge last month and all the clothes went to the Salvation Army. With my sewing machine out of action we settled for a tie snake like the one I made Mia last night from and adaption of Vanessa at V and Co's Rattle Snake Buddy. As we dont have rattle snakes here in Australia they would mean nothing to the girls so we made carpet pythons instead as they come in a wide range of patterns.

Mia's 'Snakey' sleeping on the grass this afternoon.

Sarah's 'Mickey the Sake' made from a mickey mouse tie that was the most cheaply made tie on the planet. Amasing what low quality had the official Disney name on it.

Sarah's recycled fashion diorama. A clothesline with clothes made from my fabric scraps held on with Pegs I bought so long ago that I now have no idea what I had planned for them.

Cross Country Chocolate Cake and Trains

Well the lack of blogging for the last few days has been because there has not been the hour in the day for it.

Friday had Sarah running in the district cross country. She did very well improving almost 20m places since last year but still not quite up to interdistrict level. She has great plans for next year.

Our cross country champ

The rest of the day was spent getting the house ready for the real estate agents visit on Saturday Morning and then a delightful dinner (sans children) at a fabulous local thai restaurant with friends ( also sans children). After a sleep in on Saturday morning ( due to fact there were no children home), real estate agents were met and left just in time to collect Sarah and Mia before Sarah's basketball game. Home for dinner and then the sewing began. A tutu for a 2yr old birthday party on Sunday morning and figuring out how to sew the zippers to the new cuff so they are strong yet invisible. Fine curved sewing needles are wonderful but the eye of the needle is so teeny weeny!!! Needless to say it is working exactly as I wanted. ( Big bummer that with all the photos I do take I forgot to take on of the tutu)

Today was spent at the lovely Diamond Valley Miniature Railway to celebrate Annabelle's 2nd birthday. I have driven past this park so many times before and never knew what treasures lay hidden within.

Yummy Chocolate Birthday Cake

 Waiting for the train ride

Big sisters help beat the boredom of waiting
    

 Finally on the train

Mum and Mia

Mum and Mia - my favourite - pity about the sun

Devouring the lolly bag on the way home

Now late on Sunday night with dishes done and school uniforms ready I can finally get some time to myself to read all the lovely updates on google reader, update this blog, and maybe do some more stiching on the cuff. This last thing might have to wait as my eyes are very tired ( not helped by the yummy pinot) and when I think about it so it the rest of the body.