Who's been sleeping in my house?

It has been a very long time since I blogged. I have been keeping up to date with everyone but just haven't felt the need to blog until now.

Tonight is the premiere of the new ABC series "Who's been sleeping in my house?" at 8pm. The reason for me flogging this on my blog is that the host, Adam Ford, is a friend. Our house is buzzing with excitement at seeing him on TV after hearing about all the work that has gone into the series.

Take a look, I'm sure you will not be disappointed.

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=who's+been+sleeping+in+my+houose+adam+ford+youtube&docid=1426858049617&mid=2BB0E6F4ADB3AB2B07742BB0E6F4ADB3AB2B0774&FORM=VIRE1#

Friday

So far today my side kick and I have set up the train set and made lots of awesome bridges.

We have crashed it down again and packed it up.

We have set up his car track set thingy that hooks onto to a table and sees the little cars hurtle down towards a plastic gorilla with cars in its hands.

More crashing.

We have eaten healthy snacks.

We have watched Marmaduke.

We have played hide and seek.

I've been told where to hide and pretended numerous times that I didn't know where he was.

I almost fell asleep when I didn't follow his orders and hid instead under the bean bags.

We have eaten homemade cookies.

He drank warm milk.

I drank coffee.

I did a little housework in between playing.

I have been sneaking back to the computer in between playing.

We checked the mail.

He told me he gets sad because there is never anything for him in the mailbox.
He is a funny, precious little creature.

He is my boy.

Grateful

This week I'm grateful for.....

Friends

Watching my little ones with their friends brings me so much joy. My big girl's bestie is moving up to Queensland at the end of term. She is, so far coping well and is savouring the time they have left together. They are spending as much time together as they can while they can. I am finding lovely little letters written to her friend telling her not to go and that she will miss her so much. It breaks my heart.

Progress

You've got to love it when there is progress in the renovation department. Floorboards are layed, wall colours are being chosen. Lots of debate about the colours of walls in the kiddies rooms. They have all chosen colours I'm not too keen on so I've decided to paint their rooms white with a feature wall. I'm generally not into the feature wall but figure that it is much easier to paint over than a whole bedroom.

The husband and I had a date this week. It was just a coffee after school drop off but it was just the 2 of us. Something we rarely do but need to do more often. A walk along our beautiful beach ended our date before the reality of returning home to breakfast dishes caked in cornflakes and pyjamas flung from one end of the house to the other.

For more...

http://maxabellaloves.blogspot.com/2011/06/this-week-im-grateful-for-deadlines.html

I apologise for the strange happenings on my blog, blogger is wreaking havoc. I can't seem to change font, highlight text and so many other things.

Comfort food - GF Pudding

In my last post I mentioned that I have redisovered my love of baking and as a consequence I have recieved a few requests for recipes. My eldest daughter is a Coeliac, therefore she cannot eat anything with gluten in it. Sounds easy, but gluten is found in a huge and strange variety of foods. She has been living with this for 5 years now and is completely accustomed to it, as we as a family are. Hubby and I are thankful that it is reasonably easily managed and not serious in comparison to other allergies.

I have been baking cookies once a week and have decided that one night a week we will have a tasty dessert. This recipe was so good, but next time I will definately be cutting down on the amount of sugar, it was super sweet.

BUTTERSCOTCH PUDDING

190g (1 1/2 cups) gluten-free SR flour

1 tsp gluten-free baking powder

80g (1/3 cup firmly packed) brown sugar

170 ml (2/3 cup) milk

60g unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 egg

1 tbsp golden syrup or pure maple syrup

165g (3/4 cup firmly packed) brown sugar, extra

2 tbsp golden syrup or pure maple syrup

Preheat the oven to 170 C. Lighly grease a 1.25 litre ovenproof dish.

Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl. Stir in the sugar, then make a well in the centre. In a separate bowl, whisk the milk, butter, egg and golden syrup/maple syrup. Pour into the prepared dish. Place the dish on a baking tray.

Sprinkle the extra brown sugar over the batter. Combine the extra golden syrup and 420ml (1 2/3 cups) boiling water and carefully pour over the batter. Bake for 30 - 35 minutes or until a skewer inserted halfway into the pudding comes out clean.

Set the pudding aside for 5-10 minutes to allow the sauce to thicken slightly before serving.

HINT - To make this free of dairy and egg, replace the milk with gluten-free rice drink, the butter with dairy-free margarine and the egg with egg replacer.

Grateful for ..... so many things.

This week I am grateful for ......


- Redisovering my love of baking. I have whipped up Gluten Free chocolate cookies, Honey and Ginger cookies and last night tackled a Gluten Free Butterscotch self-saucing pudding. They were all delish and the coeliac of the family was a very happy girl.

- Having a day to myself.

- Op shopping that day away and bringing a load of goodies home.

- Seeing my 9 year old get her ears pierced with her 2 best friends, truly delightful.

- the husband's floorboard laying ability, it's coming along nicely.

- TV. I love it, can't get enough of it. Good or bad, serious or funny.....hello Angry Boys and Offspring, I do love you both. Also, loving the multitude of episodes of Grand Designs.


For more grateful offerings, do pop on over to Maxabella Loves.

Wordless Wednesday

For more, take a peek over here.

Mother's Day

After a sleep in, the morning started with lots of cuddles, gorgeous handmade gifts and one very special self bought gift (the kids think their Dad picked it out!).

Nothing like a photo shoot not long after you open your eyes.....

Made to model my new bike panniers or saddlebags as I like to refer to them by. Now I just need a new bike! Loving my Basil double pannier bought online from Ruthy's Rides.

End of the day for the littlies. We were all feeling a little tired at this stage.

Last photo of the day. Exhausted but happy.

I hope that all the Mum's out there had a fabulous day. x.

A little catch up.

Once again I have slipped back into non-blogging status. I have been missing but there has been no action to speak of, craft wise. I have thought about blogging, clicked on "new post", but just haven't had anything to say. I have been reading blogs and sometimes commenting. So, I am hoping to get some sort of blogging routine happening.

During the last month we have...



A day trip to Kennett River and Wye River. Can't wait to go back and camp. Stopped in at The Wye River General Store, amazing! Great coffee.


The kiddies enjoying a hot chocolate in our daggy campervan that will one day look much prettier. A quick camping trip to my MIL's in Casterton for her 90th birthday bash, complete with CWA afternoon tea, yummo!


Caught up with friends in Melbourne and then a trip to Phillip Island. We got to see the Penguin Parade which was a definite hit with the kids, and us for that matter.

Checked out The Nobbies . Wow, what a view.

The girls decided to have a little shop on the nature strip. Lots of bookmarks, drawings, posters, paper weights and lemons.

Reuben was on hand to act as security guard.

Getting ready for Ms Blondie's 7th birthday party. Thank goodness she has agreed to a sleepover with only 2 friends. I'm sure that between them they will make enough noise.

I'm grateful for.......

This week I am grateful for......

Old friends
On Thursday I dropped my kiddies off early at my sisters and drove an hour and a half to Ballarat. My reason for the drive was for a long overdue catch up with a lovely friend. We both started teaching art the same year in country Victoria many years ago. Now, after marriage, mortgages and children, catching up is not so easy. She is mid way through her pregnancy and I am so excited that she has baby number 3 on the way.
Our day consisted of coffee, lunch and our true passion..........op shopping. This woman has style and can spot a treasure a mile away and she knows where to go to pick up a bargain. As always I received a HUGE bag of vintage clothes from her, Wow!
I just love those special friends that although you may not see each other often, when you do its back to where you left off.....very special indeed!


Driving by myself
- no toilet stops
- no fighting
- no asking when we will be there
- no packing of snacks, drinks, extra clothes and activities to keep little ones busy
- no answering questions, reading road signs aloud, refereeing arguments and generally no talking....
- listening to my music and singing as loud as I wanted!



For more take a look over at And then there were four.

My Creative Space

I've been making wrap skirts with some gorgeous vintage fabric. It's been so much fun and I've found it difficult to stop. Even my dog Reuben wanted to be in the photo shoot!!!







I'll be adding these to my shop soon but for today I am off to Ballarat to visit a lovely friend of mine that I haven't seen for way too long. Have a great day everyone.

For more take a look over at Maxabella Loves..

Map Drawers

My birthday pressie. Only a few months overdue but I don't mind. The wait was certainly worth it. We rescued these drawers from the side of the road about 9 years ago and they are finally looking as fabulous as I knew they would.

I'm grateful for.......

This week I am grateful for....
Having my big girl home from her Grade 4 camp. It wasn't the same around here without her and although she is known as the quietest of the 3, it seemed so quiet without her. The 2 nights away seemed like an eternity and I was so excited to pick her up this afternoon. Apparently she didn't feel the same and had so much fun that she didn't miss us at all!!!!
I have loved listening to her tales of camp. I've heard the highlights (jumping off the diving board) and the lowlights ("the food wasn't even homemade!!!") and everything in between. It was lovely to see her collapse in to an exhausted but happy slumber.



For more.

My Creative Space

I've got my sewing mojo back......to an extent. There is nothing like a little pressure of an upcoming market to push my arse into action.
This cushion was previously a table mat. I've been making them for a few years and keep thinking that they would look great as cushions. Done. Finally. I donated it to my girls school's fair for their silent auction. Funnily enough it was purchased by Miss Blondie's best friends Mumma.

In other creative news I have whipped up a few ladies wrap skirts for the Festival of the Sea on Sunday. I haven't taken any photos yet but promise to share next week.

For more creative spaces take a look here.

Pterodactyl saves the day...........if only

Whilst talking with the kiddies this morning about what is going on in Japan at the moment and contemplating the fate of so many, the little guy pipes up with "It's okay Mummy, I will turn myself into a pterodactyl and fly up to the buildings and save the people".

If only it was that simple.

I feel so much sadness with what is happening in this crazy world of ours.

Surrounded by apples

Over the weekend I was feeling poorly and spent a good deal of it Nanna napping and just getting through the day as best I could. Although, I will admit to dosing myself up on sudafed so that I could enjoy a girls night out on Saturday night............so worth it!
Whilst I was snoozing the husband made toffee apples with the kiddies. They looked amazing and I must say I was super impressed with his toffee apple making ability, who would have known???

Flea Market Finds

So in love with this little number but haven't been able to wear it as it's a bit big. It is lined, so I'll have to spend a bit of time adjusting it. It was a steal for $3 and when I finally get around to resizing it I will be stepping out with the cowboy boots and floral frilly dress!


This one i have worn so much already. Just a Kmart brand, but it fits perfectly and great for the occasional summery day. I think I paid a whole $2.50 for this one.

I'm sure I'm too old for a pinafore but I don't really care. I like it!

Really loving this fabric and thinking of making some wrap skirts for the Mumma's.

For more Flea Market Finds pop over to Her Library Adventures.

My Creative Space

I haven't experienced much creative energy of late. Instead, I have been back on the paint brush and the sandpaper. Not too exciting but it must be done. Not only do I have all the skirtings, architraves and lots of windows to paint, at some stage I need to get out and paint the outside of the house as well......

For much more creative spaces take a look over here.

My Creative Space

My Creative Space today is actually my 6 year old daughters. I have been teaching her to sew along with her older sister. A lesson in patience for me and a super fun and crafty lesson for the girls.







She is super proud of her cushion and I must say she did such a great job. I love the design!

For more creative spaces....

Pretty, pretty, pretty...

Over the last few days I have seen a few posts about the new website BHLDN, part of Anthrapologie I think. Now, I am already married and have no real need to be checking out wedding dresses or the like. But, I do like pretty things and my god is this site pretty.

Feathered Petals Headband

Vapor Cardigan

Pinwheel Tea Dress

Emerald Clutch

So much vintage inspired loveliness.
I want, I want, I want....

Happy VD

I'll put it out there and say it how it is.

I'm not a fan of Valentines Day.

I am though, a huge fan of Able and Game.

After all romance and laughter go hand in hand.

Happy VD

A gift to me

I had a birthday last month and given that my family live far away and do not trust themselves to choose a gift that I will like, I received money. I'm not talking large wads of cash but just enough for me to purchase some art. Affordable art. I am so happy with what I picked out and can't wait to save a few dollars to buy some more.



I apologise for the terrible photo but this is superb!!!!! Tracy Chaplin is Gretel Girl and she is so talented. I seriously squealed with delight when I unwrapped this little treasure, it was even better than I imagined. To visit Gretel Girl draws blog go HERE. To visit Gretel Girl draws on madeit go HERE. and etsy go HERE




The other prints I bought were these 2 from The Black Apple's etsy store. They are simply stunning and I can't wait to find some frames for them and add them to what will be my "art" wall. I also bought a collection of postcards from the same series of paintings. I plan to frame them also.
There is nothing like original artworks but on my extremely limited budget it is not going to happen. These prints are great quality and will look so good framed.

I'm grateful for.......

1. This week I am so very grateful for a walk along the beach with my beautiful dog Reuben. He get so excited as soon as he sees me put my runners on loves meeting all the other dogs along the way. I've been walking most nights for the past 3 weeks whilst the husband puts the kids to bed. Now that is something to be grateful for, if only they were actually asleep when I got home. Not his fault though, my monkeys are too busy talking and giggling to sleep.




2. I am grateful for my first child free day since last year. I crave time to myself and after the holidays with 3 kids and husband home the whole time I was desperate to have the house to myself. Taking a little time out to smell the roses. Bliss.


3. I am also grateful that my husband has mostly been patient with my crazy premenstrual mood this week. Despite trying to suck up the bitch within, it has surfaced on more than one occasion................ maybe that's why he is almost pushing me out the door to go for a walk at night!!!!


Take a look over at Maxabella loves for more.