doily love

i am loving doilies at the moment. i love them on children's clothing, accessories, and i love love love doily bowls. so i made one. yep. just like that. i'm calling them 'old new doily bowls'. old doily turned in to something new. i'm thinking silver paint? pink for a girl's room? plain white is probably going to look best though. not exactly fit for your morning weet-bix but they do look lovely on a shelf or dresser to serve decorative purposes. i might just make a few more one day.

drawings by lachlan

as you might know lachlan has been behind in pretty much every area of development since about 6 months of age, which is something we will be investigating further soon, so it's pretty exciting for me to see him drawing pictures now instead of just scribbles. above is 'robie' the real robie is the one on the left in case you couldn't tell.

this is lachlan with his kindy pal noah. note noah's glasses :) such attention to detail!

this is one of my favourites. a shark surrounded by bubbles. he has since been drawing them with top and bottom fins too.

a happy fellow. what i am loving about these drawings is i have had no input in them at all, except the praise when he's done of course! it's all from his head, all his ideas.

brownie cake

cassie's rich brownie cake

supplies:

200g nestle dark choc melts
100g dark or white choc bits
1/4 cup chopped walnuts or almonds (optional)
200g chopped butter
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup of caster sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup SR flour
icing sugar and whipped cream to serve

instructions:

Preheat oven to 160 degrees. Grease a 20cm spring form cake pan. Line with baking paper.

Place butter, dark choc melts and 1/4 cup of hot water in a heat proof bowl. Microwave uncovered for 2-3 mins stiring a few times until smooth. Add cocoa to warm chocolate mixture and stir until smooth. Stir in vanilla, caster sugar and egg. Sift flour over chocolate mixture and stir to combine.

Throw in the choc bits and nuts if you want them and stir them in gently. Pour batter in to the cake pan and bake for approx 55mins or until a skewer inserted has moist crumbs clinging.

Leave cake to cool completely in the pan so it's nice and moist. Serve it up at room temperature with a dusting of icing sugar and whipped cream on the side.

Store in an airtight container for 5 days or so in the pantry. If you keep it in the fridge it will be like a hard slice, much nicer at room temp.

Hope you enjoy it!

to market, to market

hair clips! this was tonight's efforts. the clips that is, not the crochet flowers. i've been doing a flower here and there for a few days. the collection is growing quickly. i could have ironed the cloth before i set them up on it i suppose. meh.

these little eskimos are my favourites. these are all for market. i've also come up with a really cute hair bow pattern. i've almost got it just right. yippee for hair stuff. now if only my darling daughter had some hair! i'm sure it's on it's way :)

rich and dark is how i like it ;)

beetroot risotto. recipe from comfort food, gary mehigan. interesting colour, it tasted good. it didn't turn out as loose and i wanted it, the stock kept running dry but it will be better next time. i saved us the calories and omitted the extra 30g of butter that was supposed to be added at the end of cooking.

and here is dessert. chocolate brownie cake. soooooo good. see, that's why i didn't add that extra butter to the risotto, so we could eat cake afterwards. he he.

i finally got gracie's crochet edge blanket done the other night. i like it. lachlan has put in a request for one with dinosaurs and blue crochet edge. sure lachlan i'll just add it to the never ending craft list. i just tried to make a flower shaped yo yo with one of those clover gadgets. FAIL. sadly i even tried twice and both times it just looked like a scrunched up bit of cloth. i think i'll stick to the plain round ones. i'll post the brownie cake recipe sometime this week in case anyone wants to try it.

mermaiden

august wee wonderful mermaiden is done! yippee! i'm pretty happy with her. she took much longer than i expected. so much hand sewing. my fingers are killin'. her hair is parted to the opposite side than what was pictured in the book cos it just looked better that side (ok so i stuffed up the stitching on one side). i reckon i'll make another one, maybe purple hair next time. i hope i can keep up this doll-a-month challenge. it'd be great to see 24 of them all lined up together.

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now i don't have photo evidence of this, that would be cruel, but today harrison was wearing a red skivy bodysuit, leopard print pants, ugg boots and a mohawk. if you'd like me to dress your children just call me and i'll book you in xD. a mohawk you say? yes he has a mohawk. that's what happens when you leave your child with your partner for 10 mins while you take your other child to the toilet at the shops. now i don't mind lachie with a crazy hair style like that cos he can get away with looking a bit more edgy. harrison on the other hand suits a more preppy style. nevermind, it will grow back very quickly.

Well my book finally arrived on friday! Feels like i've been waiting months for it but it was worth the wait. The cuteness, oh the cuteness! It hurts my eyes! Stu has challenged me to make one every month. I've decided to start with the mermaid since i have everything i need to make her, plus she looks like one of the easiest ones. The best part about the book is full sized patterns are included, no enlarging, yay. Just trace the patterns and get into it! I can't stop looking at this book, it's just so nice.