weekend

 Thank you all for the lovely birthday wishes. It really made my weekend!

Soccer : I never really liked the term "soccer mum", but here I am on the sidelines for a second season.  Saturday's game was a bit of a washout, but we had a good (though a little cold) vantage point from the car.

That afternoon we made pizza and bread dough, with Julia most insistent on creating her own dough. It was just her size. We rolled our doughs together.

A few hours later we assembled our pizzas - plain garlic with olive oil and tomato and cheese. No fancy toppings this night.

 And after a little too much pizza "Happy birthday" was sung. Though I did have to make the "cake" myself (more about the brownies here). We could only find four candles in a rummage through the bottom drawer.

I do hope you all had an interesting weekend.

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recently

In this latter part of the week I have been :-

• Rising earlier. The first few minutes are the most difficult. Nothing like seeing the sun rise.
• Smiling at Violet and her "playmate", Julia's doll.
• Thinking that artichokes substitute for flowers quite nicely.
• Eating delicious eggs from our local health food store. Feeling guilty that we still don't have a chicken coup.
• Knitting another dishcloth. A heart lollipop one.
• Finding stamps of an avid collector in rather odd places.

I do hope your week has been a pleasant one. If you haven't already please check out the giveaway.

chocolate

Every week at the kid's small school the parents take it in turns to provide "Monday munchies" and so they bring cake, slice or biscuits and the kids buy a piece for thirty cents. This raises a little money for the school and also makes the kids feel that they are not entirely missing out by the absence of a school canteen. Somehow I don't think they are missing out at all.

So it was my turn this week (of course leaving it to the last minute on Sunday night) and I thought I would try something a little out of the ordinary. I usually make Cinnamon anzacs, butter cake or these.  But I felt like something a little more decadent, namely, chocolatey. Because of course I made a double batch, keeping one at home.

I used this recipe for chocolate brownies. If you haven't tried it you really must. The best brownie recipe I have tried, and surprisingly, it uses Dutch cocoa, not real chocolate. Which is great for someone like me who buys chocolate with the best cooking intentions, but it then disappears mysteriously. I cannot store chocolate. Of any kind.

It does require a little heatproof bowl/saucepan simmering, but apart from that it is really quite simple. With a deliciously moist chocolate result.

Is it just me or does anyone else have "difficulties" storing chocolate?

within a day

Drizzle

Sprouting bulbs

More sleeping baby

Eggs...for lunch

For both of us

Colour

 

Indoor drying

and cutting fat quarters for the vintage sheet swap


Wishing you all a lovely Wednesday.

burp cloth tutorial and a giveaway

Before I had Violet I had a rather long list of all the things I wanted to make and sew before the impending birth. Most, of course, were baby related. Funnily enough, most things didn't even get started until the third trimester, but somehow I managed to cross a lot of those items off the list. The bibs didn't get done, or much knitting either, but a cot quilt was made, new born nappies sewn (from Soulemama's Handmade Home), many little pairs of reversible pants from Handmade Beginnings, handmade wipes and a few little dresses. Because I could not help but find out the gender at the ultrasound.

As I was to discover it was not all about the sewing, but also about the process of feathering the nest for a brand new little one. There was this urge to not only get things ready for this new addition, but to also create some beautiful little things and welcoming corners of the home.

I never had burp cloths with my first two. I had just used spare towelling nappies to clean up the inevitable messes that babies make. I did think it would be nice to use something a little prettier. Afterall you do tend to wear them on your shoulder permanently for the first few weeks. So, after a little research online and combining a few ideas I sewed up a batch of a dozen burp cloths. I used many a day the first few months and they are still being used right now. In fact, I may have needed more than a dozen. When I'm finished with them they will make a great addition to the rag collection.

I thought I would give a quick tutorial on how to make these. Great for those expecting or with a little one already, or you could sew a few as a gift for a new baby.

 I used vintage sheeting backed with two layers of flannel. The sheeting to look pretty and the flannel for absorbency.  You could use any combination of new cotton and replace the flannel with towelling. Natural fibres are best as they absorb far better. Though I did use a few poly cotton blend fronts with no adverse effects, as long as the back is absorbent.

I cut out one rectangle 42 x 27 cm in the sheeting cotton, and another two in the flannel.

cotton sheeting

flannel sheeting

Place together all three layers, with one layer of the flannel and the cotton sheeting right sides together.

Pin together.

With approximately 1cm seam allowance sew around the edges of the rectangle, being sure to leave a gap of a few inches to allow it to be turned out.

Trim corners and edges if necessary.

Turn right way through gap. Press.

Slip stitch to close the gap.

Sew a seam about a centimeter inside the rectangle to hold it together nicely.
(And I am sorry about the late afternoon, progressively getting darker shots!)

Finished! Burp cloth completed.

Which brings me to the fact that I have three burp cloths to give away. You don't have to have a baby to enter. Just leave a comment below and I will pick a random winner. Comments close on Sunday at midnight AEST. Winner announced Monday. Good luck!

the shed

My parents have a little weekender, dubbed "the shed", that is only a ten minute drive from our place. It is literally a shed fitted out as a cozy little one room weekender. No power, but they enjoy candle lit nights and campfire food. Mum potters around watering her fruit trees or working on a new oil painting.

On Saturday we had a family get together at the shed, with my brother and his family making the drive down from the coast. It is always nice to see how kid's have a connection with their cousins, despite the distance and rare opportunities to get together.

So we enjoyed catching up for lunch, feasting on a barbeque and salad ( classic shed fare), while the kid's got around to exploring and making cubby houses. The weather was unusually (almost) warm, enough for the babies to sit outdoors. I had a play around with the new camera, so please forgive the less-than-perfect shots.

All finished off with a cup of tea from the billy and a packet of biscuits (a rare treat for our kids) before we all went our separate ways... with our overtired children, who had been fighting over said packet biscuits.

I do hope you all had a lovely weekend.