collaboration

My obsession with applique on children's tops (ie. fast easy projects) continues. But now, I have a very special helper. Two-and-a-half year old Olive has progressed from random scribbles to drawing things. In order to preserve (and show off!) her best efforts I have been tracing then reproducing the drawings as applique. I give you ...

whale

person (with eyes and legs)


Baby Bear - He's sad. Who has broken my chair?

Goldilocks "asleeping in the bed". I'm not sure why she has pink hair, but the designer insisted.

We are so proud :)

choc-orange self-saucing pudding recipe

Yummmmm. I was craving jaffas this week but as a vegan who doesn't eat chocolate, I can't have them. So instead I invented a jaffa pudding. I have shown you the mainstream ingredients but my vegan carob version is given in brackets.

Sauce
3/4 cup soft brown sugar
1 1/2 Tablespoons cocoa (or carob) powder
1 cup boiling water
juice of 1 orange

Place all ingredients in a greased, high-sided casserole dish and stir until the sugar is melted.

Pudding
1 cup self-raising flour
1/2 cup white sugar
2 Tablespoons cocoa (or carob) powder
a pinch of salt
grated rind of 1 orange
2 Tablspoons melted butter (or dairy-free margarine)
1/2 cup milk ( or soy/rice milk)

Sift dry ingredients into a mixing bowl.
Add remaining ingredients and stir to combine.
Pour pudding mixture into casserole dish on top of sauce.
Bake for 45 mins at 180C (350F).
Serve warm or cool with icecream.

build a fort

To celebrate the upcoming release of the Where the Wild Things Are movie, Booooooom recently hosted a contest asking people to build and photograph their own Wild Things' Fort. The results were so beautiful, and the day was so rainy, that I decided to give it a try. The result was a very fun morning and a cosy place to play.

Would you care for a cup of invisible tea in a plastic eggshell?

These are some of my favourite official entries:






Happy fort building to you :)

apron dress tutorial

How to make a cute dress for a toddler in less than an hour.
Step 1: Purchase a half apron from your local op shop.
Step 2: Remove the ties from the sides.
Step 3: Re-sew the ties on as shoulder straps, removing any excess.
Step 4: Add a button and button hole at the back.

I even managed to do this while my toddler was awake. Amazing!

I'm sure there's a child somewhere under all that hair ...

Microscopic beauty

It's taken me 35 years to find it, but I am now i rapture over the images from Nikon's "small world" microscope photography competition.

doxorubin by Lars Bech

quantum dot nanocrystals by Seth A. Coe-Sullivan

rat retinal artery by Dr Rong Wen

thin nematic film (liquid crystals) by Dr Oleg D Lavrentovich

happy mothers day

Today is Mothers Day in Australia.

As a daughter, it is a day for letting my mum know how much she means to me, and for reminding me to treasure her the whole year through. I hope she likes her present - a hat made using this pattern by Rachel of i dream of knitting. The bone coloured wool was inherited from my mother's sister, who died in a car accident six years ago, and the blue soy/cotton was left over from a dress that I made for her youngest granddaughter.


As a mother, it is a day to appreciate my children and give myself a day off. I love the fact that within Olive's playgroup, every single one of us mums has bought our own Mothers Day present. My gift to myself is this gorgeous print by Tollipop.

I am in love with this painting, which has helped me to do so much more than just make the house look pretty. Immediately after Aggie was born (six weeks ago already!), I became haunted by the number three. I have three children, three daughters, but only two of them are living. Having a new baby is a stark reminder of all that I missed out on when Millie died, and yet there is so little in the material world to reflect her huge presence in my heart. So this simple painting has helped me enormously, serving as a visible and permanent acknowledgement that we have three girls. Later today, we will take some flowers to the cemetery and my family will be together for the first time.

dance

This makes me happy :)
Sound of Music: belgian Train Station