It's here!

IT came! I seems that a lot of the blogs that I follow have been using one of these little beautys lately. So Miss Green over here just had to have one too. I am also pleased to say that they now have a Quilt binding tip for the machine, so I can make all my half fold bindings in no time.

I have a 1/2 metre of fabric and when I head to sewing later this week I am sure that this will be a great distraction for me and maybe a few other ladies too! and no doubt just the beginning, who knows how many different binding I will come home with...

CQS has them in stock at the moment, including the extra tips, winding buddies and storage boxes. I just can't wait to try it out!!! Stay tuned...

First knitty for 2011

Whoop whoop! I have just finished my first MAJOR knitting project and am so happy with it (well almost)

The only thing is I could fit double my chest into this little baby and that means the neckline is VERY wide and I get the feeling that it will drop a bit more and be even wider. That will teach me for not knitting a guage swatch first! So... this little number I think will be Grandmas birthday present this year and I will start another, the next size down for ME.

I had the perfecto dress picked out to wear with this little number, I had hot red necklaces to co-ordinate, I dreamed of bright sunny yellow topped with a beautiful Blue... so many possibilities for this one. Not to worry. I am thinking though that I could still make mine in this navy, or I could go turn about and pick a hot red to make instead and wear the navy necklace... oh how it would have been so much easier if you had fit me!!!!

The pattern was a freebie over here, where might I add I just finished posting my first project onto Ravelry!!! I am starting to get the hang of it... and I got my supplies from this lil store.

Dino Digging

Well the boys sure have been keeping busy lately...
They have been having an absolute blast digging up Dinosaur bones!

These kits are f-a-b-u-l-o-u-s. Admittingly they do make a little mess once you are getting to the end with all that dirt that they are excavating but hey... what's life without a little mess?

Big Brother now wants to be an Archiologist or a Palaeontologist when he grows up...
just a bit more adventurous than his last dream job of a Painter!

Wanna get your own Large Dinosaur Excavation Kit? Try here!

Child labour

On days like today when I begin cleaning the house I wonder why I go to the park sometimes and don't just pull out the vaccum. I am followed everywhere by Little Brother who just LOVES to help.

Being a wee bit smaller than me and a touch more agile he is able to get to all those 'hard to reach places'



Cartoons? Bleh... there's cleaning to be done Mum

What to do when Mum takes to long to get the vaccum for you.

Everything is done with extra GUSTO

... and the best part? When all the cleaning is done, we have spent a fun morning together, house is clean and Little Brother should hopefully have a rest, so the Mama can sit, take off her shoes and ENJOY the cleanliness before you can blink and it's gone!

Here's cheers

 to you my little Man on another birthday!

I have kept this one out of Little Brothers birthday post just so I could

So why not pop over and join in...



ANZAC goodness

Ohhh how we heart ANZAC biscuits in our house. They are such a simple recipe and quick to bake too.

The trick is getting these yummy balls of tasty dough into the final product that can be crunchy or soft or a bit of both, mmmm. And so I've found a way, well sort of!

Now days when I make a batch of biscuit dough I make a double batch and freeze the leftover in a long round log.

Ready for the unexpected playdate or if you are in the mood for homemade goodness without the desire to clean the spilt flour from the floor or the buttery handprints from the cupboards.

 Just grab a roll, peel of the cling wrap, slice into rounds and pop onto baking trays. See that took all of 2 minutes and the oven has barely begun to get hot!

The added bonus, I feel, is that I am sooo much less likely to want to eat the raw dough because I have only looked at it for less than 2 minutes. My will power can only hold out so long you see, but 2 minutes I seem to be able to handle. Phew.

 I kind of laughed when I pulled out my biscuits today, it just felt like Goldilocks and the 3 bears a bit. Only 10 minutes for the first batch so they are soft all over for Dad, 11 minutes for the Mumma coz she likes it both ways, little crunch on the outer and a little soft in the middle and 12 minutes for the Boys coz they want 'em crunchy all over.

The Daddy bear has made these with the Boys a few times and likes to change it up a bit. One time he made sausage shapes about as long as his finger and as skinny as too, then baked them. the boys thought it was f-a-b-u-l-o-u-s that they had 'SCHMACKO'S' <--- Did I spell that right? You know what I'm talking about... yep, dog treats! But hey, they LOVED them and that made Dad feel super proud. I would prefer to think of them more like the shape of a meusli bar though, just feels better.

Happy baking peops.

Camping

I am so happy to say that this most recent camping trip went soooo much better than our first! This time we grabbed a friend or two and all headed over to the Warrumbungles National Park. It was a quick trip but we had a great time.

We threw in the boys bikes and ever since Little Brother has been obsessed with his bike insisting on riding it practically everywhere. The boys love being outdoors and thought it was great fun trying to sneak up on these unsuspecting Kangaroos!

Right on our backdoor we had a little creek that was flowing. Trying to keep 'Red boy' outta that water with those super cute Cowboy boots proved to be a little difficult.

I love this picture of Little Brother taking a swing. The world is whizzing by and I get a little motion sick each time I look at it. Oh dear, I can't wait to get to the theme parks when the boys are older and scream my guts out on all the fast rides but each year older I get the more queezy I get, just looking at swings. Gulp.

We went to look at the exploratory. Boys didn't seem very interested in doing anything other than running around like headless chickens.

Bushwalking was great. We headed up the experienced track, yep because that was the silliest thing to do but anyways, and stopped when we reached this point. Scrambling up rocks on my knees and sheer rock drops with 3 very excited little guys who loved to be 10 steps ahead all the way, was just too nerve racking, thank you.

 Big Brother and Mumma having a rest before making the long hike down again.

Yep, the long hike down...

We also packed water pistols and the boys had a great time, they just need to spray AWAY from the tent please! Oh and that fire cooked some delicious marshmallows, I just forgot the crackers and chocolate for SMORES. Next time I will certainly not forget that one!!!!

But all in all this trip certainly didn't feel like camping, not with a nice warm shower (road side in my underwear - that bit mighta felt a bit like camping, but not the cleanliness that followed)

Dinners were beautiful. Stew the first night and then a delicous salad the second. Mmmm this tasted so good.

Even dessert was covered each night we were there! Thanks Ruthy for a yummy camping 1 pot recipe.
So after this weekend I am super happy to say that camping was a good time, just needed to pack those crackers, chocolate and my knitting next time.

A present to be 'wrapped' about

The boys got a quilt each from their very talented Granny this year and they just loved them. They are absolutely Gigantic!

 

Pretty easy to see that this is Little Brother all wrapped up in his Thomas the tank engine quilt.

Big Brother was very excited about his creepy crawly bug quilt! He's just so glad that they aren't real, maybe this will help him get over his super fear of crickets!

Seriously?

Yes I am considering becoming a pastry chef/cake decorator, just for this 1 very busy month of the year. I have another post for Birthday cake. This is definetly not the time of year to start, or continue a healthy eating plan that doesn't include CAKE.

I just wanted to cover the outside of this cake in green coconut for grass but didn't think the kids would love it quite so much. Hmmm 

Magical cake that makes your tongue go BLUE!

Made for a special friends birthday as part of his gift. I was quite surprised that my boys didn't tell him the secret inside.

More cake

Little Brother just LOVES 4WDing. It is his most favourite thing to do and sure enough no matter where I may walk he wants to be 4WDing down bumps, through water, over sticks! So guess what kind of cake he wanted this year?

This 4WD did 2 full laps of the cake before this...



yep and you guessed it, his favourite dinner, sausages!

Snake Cake

Snake Cake, Snake Cake, Snake Cake... now that's fun to say!



Big Brother wanted a snake cake for his party and, well I think he was rather impressed!

The boys were asked what they wanted for their birthday dinner and Jayden was very specific that it was to be sausages, mashed potato, peas and carrots. No complaints here baby!

The things we'll do...

Oh the things we will do for just '5 minutes more'!

I was so close to finishing Big Brothers new jacket I just had to sew down the other side of the zip and I would have been finished. If only they could have waited...

but no instead they brought me the face paints with pleading eyes as wide as saucers!

Ok, Ok just make sure that you only paint your face and not my bathroom! I told them. It was very cute the little giggles that were eminating from the bathroom. They did an amazing job of keeping the face paint off everything except their faces. Gold stars all round.

So Yes I got to finish my sewing, with no extra mess to clean up right now, just a little to wash off tonight in the bath, but 2 happy boys + 1 happy Mamma = Bliss

Chicken Balls

Ohhh baby, these are definetly a favourite in our house!

Throw in some:

Chicken mince

Coconut cream

Corriander

Fish sauce

Garlic

Ginger

Grated carrot

Sweet Chilli Sauce

Salt and Pepper

Get your hands messy mixing it all around and then form yummy scrummy balls!

Roll them in breadcrumbs and cook!