Blogtoberfest Day 14 - Self Portrait

Ok so I'm a day behind, nothing new there. Cathy suggested yesterday be self portrait day but by the time I got on the computer last night I had already blogged and I missed it.

Blogtoberfest Day 13

Belinda posted about this app the other day so I decided it might be a good time to start getting fit so I started yesterday while Charlotte did touch footy. It was tough going with Lucy taging along so I'm not sure I'll be doing 5K by the end of it but if I'm fitter and lost a bit of weight I'll be happy.


Image from here

Blogtoberfest Day 12

What do you do when your child puts a bottle of apple juice in your bag and the lid isn't closed properly?

Buy a new bag of course.

I ended up buying this bag

and this wrislet.

Something different to use for a while.

Blogtoberfest Day 11

I'm thinking of getting one of these bags

from here

Baking - Blogtoberfest Day 10

It's been a day of baking here. I've made some chocolate chip biscuits. I bought same pre-made cookie dough from a teacher at work as her son's school was doing it as a fundraising. They taste quite nice not as nice as homemade but they are quick and the kids do it themselves, I just pop them in the oven.Then I made some of Bianca's sausage rolls. I love these especially cold so I'll be taking these to work for lunch this week.

Lastly I made some banana and cinnamon scrolls. I used a recipe from Food for Fit and Healthy Kids but I changed it a bit. We haven't tried them yet but I'm hoping they are yummy.

Finally there is a chicken roasting in the oven as we speak.

Productivity - Blogtoberfest Day 9

We've had a quiet Saturday here today. Charlotte went to a sleep over last night at her best friend's house and didn't come home until 4.00pm so it meant I could be a little bit productive today as there were no arguments to referee.

I made Lucy 3 pairs of simple elastic waist shorts for pre-school.

Sorry about the dodgy photo taken very late on an overcast day

Hoping the productivity continues tomorrow

Blogtoberfest Day 8

I just realised I made a mistake and I have two day 5's so if you are trying to keep up just ignore that little blooper.

I'm just scraping in tonight at 11.15pm. Don't really have anything to post and I've just been out to dinner with a couple of mum's from Mother's Group. Charlotte is at a sleep over at her BBF's house.

I promise I'll try and do better tomorrow

Blogtoberfest Day 6

Yesterday I took the girls to the Sydney Childrens Festival. We went last year and had a ball but this year we didn't do any of the paid activities we just went were we felt like it. As soon as we walked in the girls were lassooed.



They then decided to do some singing lessons which meant I could sit and have a cup of tea with my mum, who came with us.

We then trotted off to Hickory Dickory Rock. The guy who did this was great not only did he keep the kids entertained he had some jokes for the big people too. In the same room was some little kids dress ups. Halfway through Lucy decided to dress up in a clown outfit and she insisted on donning an orange wig. Next thing I know she's up on the stage encouraging other little kids to get up as well. She's definitely my little show off.

We met some dinosaursAnd did some circus tricks
All in all a great day. There is still time to check it out if you are in Sydney.

Blogtoberfest Day 5

I finally got a chance to use the Mod Podge Fabric I got a while ago. I've got a few ideas for it but decided to start small to see how it went. Adds sent me a tin recently that had Aunty Cookie fabric on the lid so I thought I would give it a go.

I didn't want to waste any good fabric so just used this dress up bunny one. I used the Mod Podge Fabric over a larger piece following directions from here. Then I cut it up and used normal Mod Podge to stick it to the tin and seal it.

I've been using this tin from Claire to hold my Moo cards now I just have to get some more tins as I can see them being used for everything.

Blotoberfest day 5

Woodsy Peg People Doll House Cottage
Originally uploaded by anniescupboards

I am in love with these little doll houses.

Blogtoberfest Day 4

Day 4 and I'm struggling already. It's been a rainy weekend here, I took the girls to a play centre for 4 hours yesterday to get them out of the house and to let Jeff watch the footy in peace. I whipped up these little chicken pies with some leftover chicken a few weeks ago luckily they went down a treat so I think they will be on the menu again.

Buy Nothing New Month

October is a busy month, not only is it Blogtober but the Salvos have also declared it Buy Nothing New Month (I also saw this mentioned on someone else's blog). I'm going to try and buy nothing new but surely they don't mean fabric, surely. The dollar so good it's going to be hard not to buy but I promise not to buy anything else new, ok well maybe promise is a bit of a strong word but I will try!

Zoo

We had some free passes for the zoo so we took the kids over a few weekends ago.

We always take a photo of the girls with this giant Koala. The girls are getting bigger and he is getting more tatty.We just happened to turn up at the elephants when the show was on. The babies were very cute trying to do everything and at the end the elephants sprayed water everywhere. This one even sprayed the trainer when she turned her back.

We were pretty lucky all day as the animals were out and about and it was feeding time at lots of the exhibits, including the lions and tigers so they were very active.

Blogtoberfest

I don't know where the year is going but it is October already and that means Blogtoberfest. Once again Cathy and Cam are the hostesses with the mostesses. I'm hoping that I can blog everyday but it is going to be a struggle and you may have to put up with some unusual posts.

So if you haven't joined pop over here and grab a blog button and get posting.

And yes I am counting this as todays post!

Sorry I went missing there. Life just seemed to get in the way. I've been buying some fabrics at different places lately and I think more could be on the cards while the dollar is looking good.

These are from Marie-Madeline Studio and are Freestyle Spirit. They had a half price sale a few weeks ago when something different was on sale each day.
Next up are a few fabrics I picked up at Amy's last Friday night while we were there checking out her new storage and fondling fabric. I had a great night talking fabric with Sheridan, Mel, Belinda and of course Amy and can't wait to do it again.

Lastly some fabric I picked up yesterday at Hobbysew while killing time on my way to pick up Charlotte and Lucy who had spent a few days with my Aunt in Bowral.

Going Green

I'm very excited. I saw this on a blog post somewhere a month or so ago (sorry I can't remember where, although I have seen some others post about it too recently). I sent the lovely folks at Inner Green an email and they sent me a free sample to try. It arrived ages ago and I've been slack because I didn't have anything to stuff then I remembered I'd bought some Sweetie Petites from Lisa at the Red Thread while I was at Mathildas. The Sweetie Petites kits come with stuffing just to be clear, but it meant I could do a comparison.

Just so we are clear stuffing is not the easiest thing to photograph.

The Inner Green one is on the right. It felt so lovely and soft I kept wanting to touch it. The Inner Green toy filling is made from 100% natural corn.

I used the Inner Green in the red doll, with a little of the other added in because I didn't have enough and I used normal stuffing in the blue one. I definitely didn't use as much when stuffing the red one and it feels a little firmer but with less stuffing, so the head of the red one is not as puffed out (who knew it was so hard to describe stuffing!).

I think it compares quite will price-wise too. I can't wait forthe cushion inserts to arrive I think they will feel lovely, made I can prise Lucy's manky cushion from her hands. I'll definitely be using this for my stuffing in future.

10 years on

New fabric and op-shop fabric

I seem to be buying lots of fabric lately that I don't actually want to use. I bought all of these from Amy.My blogless crafty friend Peta picked up this vintage sheet for me
Then I found a new op-shop near work this week. It seem a little bit more expensive than normal but I picked up this vintage sheet set (looks like it had never come out of the package) for $10 (single fitted, flat and pillowcase) and the game below for Charlotte for $5. I'm pretty sure I'll be going back there on a weekly basis.

Happy Fathers Day

Happy Fathers Day to the daddy in our house.

He got a nice sleep in
A mug from Lucy that she made at pre-school

A bookmark and card made by Charlotte in class and a dad keyring from the Fathers Day stall.

Then he got to spend the day with his girls while I went to cheer on the Swans!

We've been cooking

There's been some cooking going on over at our house this week.

Lucy loves helping in the kitchen so we made these cakes for Cake Day at Charlotte's school. They are really yummy and moist. The recipe is from here (you have to scroll down a little).

We also made these cheese and bacon rounds. I got the recipe from an online forum.

They are yummy and super easy to make. Here is Lucy making them so anyone can do it.

CHEESE AND BACON ROUNDS

200g diced bacon
2c of grated cheese
1 sml onion finely diced
1c of SR flour
1/2c of milk
1 egg beaten
1tspn of french/dijon mustard

Method

Place bacon, cheese, onion and flour in a bowl.
Combine milk, egg and mustard in a small jug then add mixture to dry ingredients, stir until combined.
Line an oven tray with baking paper, spoon Tablespoonfuls of the mixture onto the tray, allow enough room for spreading.
Bake in a hot oven 200deg for 20 mins or unil golden.

(We left our the mustard and I used spring onions as my kids aren't big on onions)