Alice's Birthday party

Grandpa adores his youngest grandchild.

Oh my! I was going through archives and I realised I forgot to post Alice's second birthday, so here it is.

The theme was Teddy Bear picnic, and all the children brought their own teddy friend along. I planned to have it in the forest, but it rained and rained, so inside it was.

All the boy's have lovely hand dyed felted birthday crowns, but after seeing Lily's beautiful crown, I just had to make one.

I still can't believe I have my first and last child born on the same day, I mean really, it blows me away everytime I think about it.

I always give a mother a hug on their childs birthday, I know that feeling, of how very special that day is, how every hour, minute, every second of that day is filled with an overwhelming love for your precious baby.

Can my baby really be two?

We sung Alice's favourite songs, five little ducks, heads and shoulders, skip to my lou.
Dan did ' The very hungry caterpillar story', all the children have had the same story at two years.

If you go down in the woods today, you better go in disguise
If you go down in the woods today, your in for real surprise
For every bear that ever there was, will gather there for certain because
todays the day, the teddy bears have their picnic........

Teddy bears picnic cake

I had a lot of fun making this cake, underneath is a banana cake.

I love how the bears are sitting, having cups of tea.

Autumn Fair

How wonderful it is to see such community spirit.

We had wonderful organic sausage sizzle, Rod's famous curry's, delicious cakes and real fair trade coffee. Wonderful stalls, beautiful hand carved wooden animals and trucks, childrens coats made of woollen blankets, handdyed felt.

Jim was out busking on his didgeridoo, and Joey who has only just started playing the recorder at school, bravely played some tunes, and then with the coins, went to the cafe and ordered a hot chocolate and a chocolate cake.

Our Steiner school is small, but we are growing, it's so nice watching how well all the children get along. My flynn who is four, has no trouble asking the grade six's for help, and Alice had many hands to hold.

For my stall I mainly had my gorgeous wool, and hats of different styles and slippers for sale.

It was a very joyous day.

This summer I finally bought a dehydrater, and I use it everyday. We have an orchard full of fruit, which I am gleefully preserving.

I made some sun dried tomatoes that are delicious. I quartered the tomatoes and put them in my dehydrater, you could use your oven if it goes down to 50c. Then I mixed a cup of vinegar with a cup of water and let the dried tomatoes absorb the liquid for two hours. I then stuffed them in jars with fresh thyme and sliced garlic, and covered them in extra virgin olive oil.

I made a foccacia, and with a jar of these beauty's and a handful of olives, I was in business.

The Easter Hunt

All children love a good hunt don't they?

Our hunt is in our forest.

Hope that you got to spend the holiday doing what you love.

Hot Cross Buns

This week of the holidays has been fun, lot's of cooking and crafting happening.

I think they are making bunnies out of the dough.

My recipe; these are really yum, the eggs are what makes them special.

1 1/4 cups milk
15grams dried yeast
4 cups flour( I used a cup of wholemeal spelt
2 teas salt
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 teas mixed spice
60g melted butter
2 eggs
2 tablespoons currants
Glaze:
2 tablespoons each of milk and sugar

warm the milk, put a tablespoon of it into a cup with the yeast and pinch of sugar. Leave for 15 mins. Put the dry ingredients in a bowl, make a well, pour the yeast, butter, eggs, and milk in . Knead, keep the dough as moist as possible ie; go easy on the dusting flour. add dried fruit, continue kneading. cover bowl and let rise in a warm spot. 2 hours, or until doubled. knead again and divide into 20 portions form into a ball. place on tray , cover, for 30mins. prehaet the oven 190c (375f) make a cross on the top with flour and water. cook for 20mins. boil the milk and sugar for the glaze and immediately brush the buns when they come out of the oven. two coats.

Yes, in case you're wondering I am a Christian, I just forgot the cross. The children were mortified, apparently that is the most important bit to my children.

So yes, I'll make some more, this time with crosses.

Easter Bunny Tutorial

These little bunnies are a great project for little ones.

You will need, cardboard, tops or slivers wool, glue.

Firstly draw an egg shape, any size you want. This size 20cm x 15cm was for the big bunny. You will need two. Place the two together.

Then wind the sliver around the two pieces of cardboard. Keep winding till you can't fit anymore in the small hole.

Cut in between the two pieces of cardboard, and tie some yarn tightly a couple of times around in between the cardboard.

Okay, yes your right, it's a glorified pom pom.

Now for the ears, place some tops thinly in a flat container, put a thin layer of pink over the top. add a little bit of detergent. Then(adults only), pour boiling water over it. I use a potato masher to felt it up. Then roll it up in between a sushi maker board, and agiate it. let dry.

Cut out two ears and glue them deep in place, you want the bunny to be soft, so don't put the glue near the tips of wool.

Now the fun part, you all get to play hairdessers, or the children do. Trim the pom pom into shape.

Joey(always Joey) asked if I could do hopping back legs, nope I said, just crouching ones.

I need your Help

After many months maybe even years, I'm going to do it, yes, I going to open a real shop selling quality fabrics.

In Australia, we really don't have, well I can't seem to find, really beautiful fabrics.

We do have great quilting shops, but I think there's a market for clothing, swiss bastiste, Italian silks, Irish linens, european prints, organic fabric, Australian knits and pima cottons from America. childrens, womans and men.

I'm stuck, I need your help, a name is so important, don't you think?
I've loved some names, then after a while I grow tired of the them. And most names I come up with are taken, yeah, all the good ones.

I'm down to two; Gingham Girl or Bloom.

What do you think? I'm open to new ones too!