...collaboration...

 ..she was sitting there this morning as I had breakfast next to her and I realised she was totally surrounded by homemade things from lots of fabulous women in our lives...

(clockwise from top)

Quilt over back of couch - Nanna/ Aunty Glen

Nappy bag and change mat - mama

Animal wrap - friend Sarah

Crochet hat - friend/ Aunty Jade (flower by mama)

Sleeping sac - mama

Flax ball - Nanny Love Lee

Shawl - Nanny Love Lee

Crochet cushion - mama (with help from Nanny)

... how cool is that!!...

...aw, just look at her - isn't she the sweetest thing...xox

...sleeping sac...

 ...this project has been on my to-do list for this winter since pregnancy ... but when lil ice-block was waking during the night again for a hot milk warm-up it got bumped right up that list... still took me a while as I've gone back to work part-time... guess it's obvious, but being full time mum of two, part-time worker, full time housewife does not leave much time or energy for creativity... kinda why I got lazy with the quilting on the front... I started doing a hit n miss kinda thing from the shoulder (totally in love with that idea at the mo)... but then figured this would look really fun too...

...the strips were already cut (during pregnancy) with a cot quilt in mind... which hasn't been started as I can't decide on which quilt style/ pattern to use... but doing this was interesting reconnaissance mission for that project to work with the main colours I'd planned and other bits from the stash.... a stash I need to use up as much as possible as we're moving home to NZ soon - YAY!!

...pattern for the sac is from anna maria horner's book... although as per usual I cannot just Follow. A. Pattern... and made this one MUCH longer...to hopefully last out her first winter...maybe she'll get a quilt to match sometime during that time too...she's already learning that when she goes in the sac it's sleepy time... bliss...

...name pikelets...

 ...another fun afternoon snack idea... one from my own childhood!! Had to use nicknames so each child got the same number of letters.... have to think of tricky things like that... they loved them! Ate themselves twice over!!

...baby shoes...

 ..I do know it's March... but I'm finally thinking about posting shots of Xmas presents... only I find that I was SO late in finishing them that I didn't photograph them before wrapping them... and didn't get a chance after gifting either - except for these sweet little shoes that I made for my baby girl... and now she's grown out of them!! lol...

...also I can't find the reference for the book I got the pattern out of now either - months later!! It was a library book on handmade shoes that intended that these were made out of soft leather for much larger bub... but I made out of felt (cheap Spotlight bargain bin acrylic felt) just to see what they're like... and plan to make a larger pair in next few weeks in nicer wool felt...

...after that I might get adventurous and try crocheting her some booties?! ... we'll see...

...back to school party...

...strange school started them back on a Friday... but I decided was great opportunity for after school feast to celebrate with friends... muffins, afghans, popcorn, juice and fruit.... we gobbled it all!! ...think I'm going to make it a traditional feast day... so fun...

...back to school...

 ...I remember learning to sew zips in... pencil cases were project #1... this year my boy asked for blue... his current favourite colour... and as you can see most his school supplies are blue too...

...I love covered books... usually use recycled wrapping paper, but this year one of the larger books we used an old poster that had a small rip... he was very excited about that one...

...muffins...

 ... I have at at least two blueberry muffin recipes... but this is our fav... came from a library picture story-book from Whakatane library... a modified Little Red Riding Hood story... so we call them Little Red Riding Hood Muffins (although my son was too young to remember the story now!)....

...this version I used mixed berries, vanilla essence and flaked almonds as well as sunflower seeds... and they work just as well with marg or butter... if it wasn't for the sugar they'd almost be healthy!!

Little Red Riding Hood Muffins

125g melted butter/marg

2 eggs

1c sugar

1/4-1/2 teaspoon almond essence

1c wholemeal flour

1c white flour

1teaspoon BP

1/2 teaspoon salt

1-2c blueberries

1/4-1/2c sunflower seeds

Mix butter, eggs, sugar, essence
Add flours, BP, salt.
Stir until just combined
Gently stir in seeds and berries
Spoon into lined muffin tin (very sticky and tricky to get out of pan otherwise)
Bake at 180 degrees Celcius (350 F) for 20-25mins.
Enjoy!!

...calender pages... take 1...

...my beautiful talented sister gave me a photo calendar for Xmas... she'd started to scrap the photos for me... but time ran out as it does with babies at home... so I get to do some the pages myself!!! ...she did the one above.... of me and my siblings at a placenta planting for two of the next generation...

...I did this one of my gran, my mum and my sister when she was pregnant... all of them are younger sisters... by 7 years... wonder if my sister will have two girls 7 years apart...

...and my boy helped me with this one of him and his sister... he wanted it for his birthday month... such a lovely, loving boy...



...tortilla...

...normally we'd buy... but forgot and I wanted to use up spicy mince from the freezer... so I found a recipe.... my boy and I had fun making too - bonus!!

 Flour Tortilla Recipe (from Edmonds Cookbook)
2c plain flour
1/2 t salt
5 tablespoons oil
1/2c warm water (approximately)

Sift flour and salt into bowl. Stir in oil. Add sufficient water to form a soft dough. Knead dough for 3 mins or until smooth and elastic. Wrap in plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for 30mins. Lightly knead dough again. Divide dough evenly into 12 pieces. Roll each portion of dough into a ball. Cover. Take one portion of dough at a time and on a lightly floured board roll to a 20cm circle, turning dough over frequently during this time. Repeat with remaining dough, stacking between sheets of waxed paper. Heat a heavy-based frying pan. Cook one tortilla for approx 20 seconds or until golden. Turn and cook other side. If tortilla puffs up while cooking, gently press it down with a fish slice or spatula. Transfer to plate. Cover with foil. Repeat with remaining tortillas. Use as required. Makes 12.

...we only made half mix for the two of us which was plenty... we even got to 'test' them hot from the pan for flavour....

Pay-it-Forward 2011

Pay It Forward 2011-Re-post

I promise something handmade to the FIRST 5 people who leave a comment here. However, to be eligible, you must repost this message, offering something handmade to 5 other people. The rules are that it must be handmade by you, and it must be sent to your 5 giftees sometime in 2011. Ready, set, GO!

First time for everything...

...my garden salad...

...disproportionately proud of my gardening efforts I suppose... but first attempt at growing tomatoes... they started to ripen just before we left the country (typical...)...

...so had to squeeze in a (mostly) home-grown salad before we left...

...this dinner is one of my favourite concoctions as pretty much everything can be done in parts/stages well before they're needed to go on the plate - so fits around baby sleeping, dishes, washing, school pickups, etc, etc... Alison Holst's Paprika Baked Chicken coating (which I make in bulk and which some of my family say is better than KFC - high praise from Pacific Islanders?!?!), self-crusting quiche (also Alison Holst's), and our salad veges/ basil plus a NZ avocado bought for exorbitant price in Aussie supermarket...

...harem pants...

....these pants (for my two 2year old nieces for Christmas - mama's don't spoil the surprise) are made from a rectangle of fabric (plus waistband bits)... really good use of fabric and easy to cut out!!! My mum bought some back from her Europe trip and we had a play around with how they were made a little while back... I'm really excited how these turned out...hopefully will add photos of the girls IN them in a month or so?!?

...fishing game...

...birthday present for a lil boy who loves fishing (and orange!)... and I'm sure who's mama waiting in NZ for us to arrive end of the week won't spoil the surprise!

...based on a game I had as a child... my son and I made this version from air-drying plastic clay (a really lightweight version) with safety pins for 'mouths' and goggly eyes from my collection (?!? am I the only one with goggly eyes in her collection!)... I made the seascape barrier to make it harder.. and rods out of florist wire, pipe cleaner, string and magnet secured in blob of craft glue...

... we had so much fun making and testing this one that we decided to make one for ourselves!

...bonnet...

...walking to school with her in the sling gets the sun in her eyes.... no longer!... recipe from here...VERY easy...even with my usual not-following-instructions way of doing things... ;)

...and working on matching/ co-ordinating dress and bloomers... maybe even shoes... I LOVE this print from Spotlight... even though not my usual colours... I'm having to expand my horizons since she's such a different colouring from me and my boy...

...bag tags...

...our friend Ty turned 5!!... we bought him his official school issue school bag for his present...and since all the bags look the same (obviously).... I made him bag tags similar to ones my boy has...and like ones I made my entire family for Xmas a few years back... Ty loves Transformers (again stating the obvious?!) so I used the pictures from his invite... the back of the tags has his full name on one and his address/ phone number on the other... a great 5 year old gift idea I think...

....while I'm thinking about Ty and his family.... I love how my 7 year old plays with Ty despite the age (and size difference).... reminds me what a loving, good kid I've got....

...also... Ty's family lives about 200m away from us - but across one residential street... this street is not busy per se... but my boy walked himself to the birthday party on the weekend (including crossing the road by himself) because mum and lil sister weren't quite ready and he didn't wanna miss out on ANYTHING!.... he ended up staying at their place for about 8hrs that day.... anyway - my question is.... what do y'all think about letting our kids out in the neighbourhood to play with their friends... including road safety stuff?? My training and research tells me kids can't judge car speed/ cross roads safely til 8 years old... and I'm infamous for getting my knickers in a twist over carseats/ using crossings/ road safety... but I think I'm almost comfortable with letting do this much by himself now...

...christmas cookies...

...mmmm.....spicy crunchy cookies...he helped me roll these out and cut them out and EAT them!!... they're from a recipe my mum traditionally makes with a hole punched prior to baking to thread with ribbon and hang on the tree... since we not having a tree until get back to NZ didn't bother with the holes....might have to make another batch before we go though - they're disappearing pretty fast..."Who ate the cookie from the cookie jar?!" - remember that song/ rhyme!

...random crochet flowers...

 ...have discovered I can crochet and breastfeed at the same time...I'm so not good at sitting still for that long without something to do with my hands (and don't really like watching TV much)... anyhow... if you can't tell I'm loving crocheting flowers... to the point where I've started using all kinds of random things... the necklace above is 6-strand embroidery thread/ cotton/ whatever you call it... the brooch below is twine that my mum bought to stake our cherry tomatoes with.... yeah, random...

...oven cloths/ mitts...

...I've decided I actually do like quilting random little things like these... although I'm still too scared to try a real size quilt... or anything actually all-that-structured in fact....anyway...my mum volunteered me to make oven cloths for our family farm Christmas this year... I was procrastinating over it something terrible because felt like didn't have the right stuff in the stash to do it... then the man of the house asked me to cut off couple pairs of his jeans for shorts... and VOILA!!! - suddenly I have the perfect fabric precut perfect size!! I also recycled op shop jerseys for the heat protecting insides... with inspiration for the woven detail from my cousin and her wedding invites nearly 8 years ago!!! (Wow cuz!).... and can you tell how much fun I had with the patterns on the machine.... :)

...baby wearing...

...more baby wearing... she much prefers this sling by Nature Sway to the red wrap... probably because the wrap is too hot for Aussie summer... I bought this sling for my boy but he didn't really like it and only used it about 3 times... then it got passed around several of my friends/ cousins and back to my sister... don't think anyone elses bubs liked it much either... so it made it's way back to me and I'm so glad!!!.... getting lots more done now can keep her happy and have 2 hands free...

...oregano...

...the oregano in our garden has gone crazy... so radical pruning today but couldn't bear to just throw it all on the compost heap.... so this was a mildly fragant table centrepiece today... maybe tomorrow I'll hang some to dry...