The BFG

We had a lovely day at Berrima today.  Just spending time together as a family, enjoying each other's company and the glorious Spring weather. 

We visited Harper's Mansion, a lovely house built in the 1830's. 

Just look at this sweet little nursery, with the crisp white linen and lovely pink and white quilt!

We all enjoyed finding our way through the maze in the back garden, and took the opportunity to take afew happy snaps.

Playing eye spy in the car while doing a spot of crochet for my current WIP which I shall christen the BFG (Big Floral Grannysquare) project. 

I started the flower squares back here, then got side tracked with other projects.  I've been itching to get back into it, especially after seeing this fabulous blanket over at Attic 24, a favourite blog I discovered only recently.  I decided I needed a crochet blanket for my bed.  I hadn't decided what to do with the flower squares, so the BFG project was born.  I've been whipping through the little granny squares making 2, 3 or 4 a day.

Will certainly keep you posted with my progress....

My new favourite dress

I ducked into a local fabric store afew weeks back and bought some fabric for making summer clothes.

Miss A's shirt is from the Simplicity pattern 4206.  Sweet and simple!

It passed the test of shakin' and movin' quite nicely.  She takes it all so seriously God love her.

I also got down to business and made this Built by Wendy 3835.   I just love it.  Light weight, comfy, but something a little more special than shorts and a t-shirt you know.....  Think I'll be making afew more of these.  I bought both these patterns, and more from here.

Free at last

Free from the mind numbing sheer bordom I experienced over the past few weeks trying to get this blanket finished. 

I kid you not, I started this blanket when I was about eight years old.  It's actually how I learnt to crochet.  Each winter I would pull it out and add a few more rows.

Then for some reason afew years ago I started another blanket using the same colours (I know - I don't know what possessed me).  The colours where chosen by my mother all those years ago.  She professes to love the colour brown and when she saw this finished blanket the other day she oooohed and ahhhhed over it! 

Anyway once that one was finished I gave it to Miss A to use on her bed in winter (it fits nicely on a single bed).  So of course Miss B wanted one too.  That's when I pulled out the original blanket to finish off for her.  Needless to say I couldn't match the wool colours 24 years later hence the multi coloured yarn. 

I have progressed to more complicated stitches and patterns since beginning this blanket way back when, so this repetitive, humongous granny square was B. O. R. I. N. G.  But with tunnel vision and persistence I got there and am very pleased to say that little Miss B loves it - thank God for that!

I've also been spending some time working on Miss B's quilt.  I was somewhat inspired by a Soulemama post regarding the making of a quilt for her daughters birthday.  A quilt that had been waiting to be made for the past 2 years.  And so I made a little pact myself and committed to working at least a little on Miss B's quilt every day.

All 24 squares are finished, I now need to edge each with the white sheeting and then put it all together.

So far so good.......

ps - Sorry about the less then impressive pictures.  My poor camera is slowly dying and the photo quality has been getting progressively worse over the last few months.  A new one is definately on the cards.

more home-baking goodness - oh my goodness!

I'm on a roll! I can see my waistline expanding as I'm sitting here writing this.

While we're on the subject of food, I've been tagged by Sophie to play along in this recipe tag doing the rounds in blogland at the moment.

The rules are:-

-I post a recipe here which uses at least one of the ingredients from my taggers recipe, linking back to their blog

-I tag four people who then post a recipe using at least one of the ingredients I have used in my recipe, then they tag four more people

-To keep it exciting please post within a week of being tagged!

So Sophie posted a yummy looking Spaghetti Bolognaise recipe that included zucchini so my recipe is:

Zucchini and Haloumi Cakes - these are Scrumdiddillyumptious!!!!

Ingredients:

melted butter, for greasing

2 zucchini, grated

2 shallots, finely chopped

120g haloumi, grated

3 eggs, beaten

1/3 cup SR flour, sifted

1/4 cup olive oil

freshly ground black pepper

1 Preheat oven to 180C. Brush a 12 hole patty pan with melted butter and line the bases with rounds of baking paper (this is important). Put all ingredients in a bowl, season with pepper and mix until well combined.

2 Spoon mixture evenly into prepared patty pan. Bake for 25 - 30 mins until golden and puffed. Allow to cool for 10 mins before loosening from the pan.

Delicious warm or cold!

Not the kind of thing I usually cook due to the numerous food allergies my little sweetpeas have but I made these recently for Miss A's birthday party picnic and they went down a real treat.

I'm tagging four bloggers who regularly post about food -

Corrie from retromummy

Amelia from duyvken

Gemma from loz and dinny (again!)

ok, I'm having trouble coming up with a fourth blogger who regularly posts about food (who hasn't already been tagged anyway) so I tag

Nannette from Rummage just because I love her blog!

Afternoon Tea

It has dawned on my of late that I have barely six months more of this bliss I have been living for the past five years. You see next year my oldest will start Kindergarten and life as I have known it will change forever.

I am keen for her to go to school, I know there is nothing I can do to change it - but it makes me feel a little sad to know I wont have her around all day to do the things we do together. So in an effort to embrace these last six months I have decided to spend less time sewing just for the sake of sewing (I still have clothes that need making and quilts to be finished) and more time being with and enjoying my lovely lovely little sweetpeas....

Today we made mini cupcakes and had a proper afternoon tea together in the backyard.

The simple pleasures!

One for the WIP's

I've been working on a very uninspiring crochet blanket of late. So uninspiring I haven't even posted about it. Last night I could take it no longer and decided to knock up a quick and cute little bag to stash WIP's (uninspiring or no) in. I needed something to inspire my creativity again. Here is the result....

Thank you all for your lovely comments on my last post. It has been a week of celebrations in these parts with no less than three parties for Miss A. The last was at our Playgroup. I made this cake, decorated with simple lollies ('cause all kids love lollies). This recipe is quick, yummy and allergy friendly to boot (so my youngest could eat cake to her hearts content!).

Here's how..

Chocolate Cake

1 1/2 cups SR Flour

3 tbs cocoa

1 cup caster sugar

1 cup water

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 tbs white vinegar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

Add flour, sugar, cocoa and water in bowl, whisk then add remaining ingredients and whisk again. Put mixture into a greased and lined cake tin and bake in a moderate oven for 35 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Stand in tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack.

Icing

Mix together 1 cup of icing sugar, 1 tablespoon margarine and some warm water to make a smooth paste. Spread over cake and decorate as desired.

Easy peasy!!

This one is a picture of my dollies dressed up for party number 2 - the 'friends' party.