Birthdays, Baking and taking care of business.

The last few days have been a buzz of activity in the house of BOB & MABEL.

Firstly, my crazy middle child turned 8 yesterday. I can't believe that my little darling has been with us for that long already.   She is growing into a very independant girl that is smart and funny.  She is my special little darling.

Our days at the beach are numbered.....

with Cornflake the Guinea Pig, lots of cuddles.

Having a birthday dinner at the local Pizza place.

I made up a sewing kit for her as she loves to spend time with me at the sewing machine.  I found a great little vintage suitcase and filled it with lots of goodies of her own, it was a hit.
I've been baking up a storm in preparation of the birthday party on the weekend.  We can't wait for a house full of 8 year old girls!  The excitement and anticipation is overwhelming.  A Number 8 cake is in order and I just hope I can pull it off.

I have spent the day photographing and listing a few new things in my store.  It's been a long time coming I must say.  Although I always feel the need to create, I often get bogged down with more mundane tasks and have been very slack the last few months.

I have had quite a long break from BOB & MABEL and am really looking forward to tackling a few markets again.

I've loved making these hot water bottle cozies.  We've had such cold weather lately, so its nice to sit down with a cup of tea, a blanket and the warmth of a very pretty hot water bottle.

Drumaniacs!

My little darling Poppy and I have been having Djembe drum lessons for a while now and today we were lucky enough to take part in a drumming festival, Drumania.  It was so much fun and we are both becoming quite accustomed to performing on stage.

There is nothing like seeing your little one perform, I am so proud of her.

Little drumming angels.

 Bestie shenanigans!

Drumming is hard work, time to re fuel!

Fresh Horses Brigade - Funeral Song.

Today I am playing along with Edenland's Fresh Horses Brigade.
This week she is asking you to choose your funeral song.
I've thought about it, more than a few times. Actually, its something I think of regularly. Weird? I don't think so. I think we all think about these kinds of things.
I change my mind often and maybe I need to keep a file on itunes to keep Hubby updated!

The latest is Dan Kelly's version of Sinead O'Connor's Nothing Compares To You.

If you haven't checked out Eden's blog you MUST. It is one of my faves.

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.