Book Corner

We have this little nook, beside our lounge, which we have turned into a little book corner for the girls.

Last week I added Photo Curator to the wall....which I bought from Made By Others, a beautiful Art & Design store in Moss Vale. These nifty little strips allow you to display photos directly on your walls ~ you simply slide the photos into the grooves.

I thought it would be a nice way to put up pictures of our last trip to the Southern Highlands, somewhere that the girls could see them. Every so often we will switch them around and put up new photos. Halloween pics will be next!

Today, I also added a painting the girls did together.

I got the idea for Fingerprint Trees on Pinterest. Livvie painted the sky while Elly painted the grass. Then I covered their hands and arms in brown paint and help them stamp them onto the canvas. Afterwards, they decorated the rest of the picture with fingerprint leaves, a sun and some flowers.

I just love the colours...

And it's the first piece of art they have made together {without fighting!}

Tissue Paper Bowl

Today's craft was a great rainy-day activity. All you need is a bowl, cling wrap, non-stick spray, some glue (1/4 cup flour to 1/2 cup water) and strips of tissue paper.

Step 1: Turn the bowl upside-down, cover with cling wrap and spray with the non-stick spray.

Step 2: Apply a layer of glue, then a layer of tissue paper strips.

Then more glue;

Then more tissue paper strips.

Continue doing this, until you have done 5 - 10 layers.

(Elly did about 15 layers ~I don't think she wanted this little activity to end!)

It was very cold today, so we had no chance of drying Elly's bowl before the end of the day. I sped things up a bit by using a hair dryer; approximately 5 minutes for the outside, then carefully start pulling the cling wrap away from the {real} bowl and your tissue paper bowl should pop out. Then another 5 minutes with the hairdryer on the inside of the bowl and it's done. Voila!

Just a tip: Black tissue paper bleeds like crazy. We used it on our first layer and that was enough for the whole bowl!

And there really is nothing better than the look on your child's face when they pick it up for the first time and see that they have made something tangible, and beautiful too! Elly just can't believe she has made 'a real bowl!'.

Halloween Gingerbread House

We started the celebrations early and made this Halloween Gingerbread House today.

Elly did a great job sorting (and sneakily eating!) the smarties; it was her job to decorate the house once I had applied the icing...

I have only ever made one gingerbread house before, which I constructed in full before decorating. Big mistake! Much easier to decorate, then construct the house, as we did today.

We kept things simple this time, using just licorice and smarties;

And a bit of one red jelly snake for the Red-Back Spider on the other side of the roof;

I had intended on making a licorice spider's web, but there is nothing like being brought back to reality by a three-year old asking, 'Wouldn't it just be easier to make a spider, Mummy?'. Yes! Much easier.

After dinner, we gave it the 'sparkler treatment';

{The girls sang 'Happy Birthday dear Halloween'}

Then Nick did the honours and smashed it open!

What a short life, this little house had. And I believe, tomorrow a bag of Halloween Gingerbread pieces will take up residence in Nicks drawer at work...

Dolls House

Yesterday our girls got really lucky. We took them to the Loreto Spring Fair and in addition to eating Fairy Floss and lollies for morning tea and going on nearly all the rides, we bought them this beautiful dolls house from the Trash 'n Treasure .... for only $25!

Nick being a good Dad and husband, carried it back to the car for us;

Inside, we found 26 pieces of furniture...

Twenty-six!

Each room was colour coordinated;

There was even a little fireplace!

A nice long tub, a toilet and vanity for the bathroom;

A Country-style kitchen;

With little cloth napkins and tiny food on the shelves!

Windows and doors that open and close;

It also came with six dolls! So of course, we made sure there were two sisters, sleeping in twin beds, just like Livvie and Elly;

Last night I stitched up a few 'soft furnishings' to make the house a little more homely.

Pillows for the beds;

(The family from our other dolls house tested them out)

Cushions for the lounge;

And soon there were other 'friends' popping in;

I love watching my girls enjoy this sort of open-ended play and the clunkety-clunk as they move the furniture around;

And I definitely think I will be sewing up a few more things for the house... I'm thinking tiny quilts for the beds, some rugs for the floor and a teeny-tiny door mat with 'Welcome' stitched across it!

From Gift Box to Gift Tags

For my birthday a couple of weeks ago, Nick's Mum gave me this beautiful Sugar and Creamer set.

I couldn't bear to just throw away the box it came in ~ I love the Rambling Rose design ~ so I got my scissors out and cut it up;

Now I have a beautiful sugar and creamer set AND a set of beautiful gift tags;

Fancy Pants

How cute are these pants?!?!? Elly was the lucky recipient of these gorgeous pants, which were made for her by one of the Mums in our Mothers Group. Leanne is a wizz on the sewing machine and I really admire her ability to see something sweet (like a little girl in silky French cargo pants) and then re-create it perfectly;

These pants are so beautiful and soft. It was hard to get a picture of her in them, because she kept dancing around in her 'fancy pants', as she calls them. She wore them to her sister's Orientation Day at 'Big School' and she must have received at least 10 compliments on them.

We love anything handmade, but these are extra special because they seem to sparkle and Elly just loves them.

Thank you, Leeanne!

Cloud Dough

Yet another great idea from Livvie's Preschool; Cloud Dough.

I found recipes online for a Cloud Dough that had the consistency of sand, but the one we ended up making (and the one at our Preschool) is a Cloud Dough that is soft and squishy like playdough, but more rubbery and oily. The best part is, it doesn't lose small balls of dough, like playdough can ~ it sort-of all sticks together, unless you really pull it apart.

The recipe is simple; 6 cups of plain flour, 1 1/2 cups of oil and 1 cup of water. Add tempera paint or food colouring then knead to a dough;

Then you can roll it out...

Chop it up;

And mould into anything you like!

It really does feel great and is a good little lazy-afternoon activity.

Gingerbread Cake

Ikea are now selling their Gingerbread House Kits! I picked one up the other day for about $8. The girls are so excited about it and ask me almost everyday if we can make it. And very soon, we will!

But in the meantime, I thought we would bake the next best thing ~ Gingerbread Cake;

It is delicious. I like it even more than real gingerbread because it is rich and moist and let's be honest, it's Cake! I thought I would share the recipe here (from WW Cakes & Slices), just in case anyone is like us and can't wait for Christmas. This is a nice way to experience a taste of Christmas, just a little early.

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Gingerbread Cake

3/4 cup plain flour

1/4 cup self-raising flour

1/2 teaspoon bicarb of soda

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon mixed spice

1/2 cup castor sugar

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/2 cup milk

60g butter

1/2 cup golden syrup

Sift flours, soda and spices into a large bowl, stir in sugar and combined egg and milk.

Combine butter and golden syrup in saucepan, stir constantly over heat without boiling until butter is melted, stir mixture into flour mixture.

Pour into prepared pan (we used a loaf tin)

Bake at 190 for 50 mins.

Lemon Frosting

60g butter

1 teaspoon grated lemon rind

1 cup icing sugar

2 teaspoons lemon juice

Beat butter and lemon ring in small bowl with electric mixer until creamy and gradually beat in sifted icing sugar and a few drops of lemon juice top make a spreadable consistency.

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I think the secret is in the lemon frosting... it is subtle in flavour, but goes perfectly with all the gingerbread spices.

On that note...

Care Bear Costume

It all started with a pattern, drawn by Livvie;

'Easy Care Bear Costume'

It is her turn to present 'News' at Preschool today and the topic is 'My Hero'. I honestly wasn't too impressed with the topic to begin with and didn't think that, at 5 years old, she actually had a hero. But it turns out she does, and it's the Care Bears, 'because they care and share and love each other'.

So, I was hoping to {make my job easier} buy a pink tracksuit and just add some ears to the hood and a rainbow to the tummy, but alas it was not to be ~ as we are heading into the summer months here, I just couldn't find one anywhere.

I then realised I would have to make one (gulp!) without a pattern (yikes!). I never seem to have any luck with drafting my own patterns and then turning it into something 3D.

Now, this is far from perfect... but after a couple of hours and a large amount of work by my seam ripper, I emerged from a huge pile of pink material, exhausted but triumphant.... to present her with this;

Definitely homemade! Pants too tight. Neckline too small.

It is quite a job, just trying to get her inside it!

BUT.... it is pink and cuddly and more importantly, it vaguely looks like Cheer Bear! {I couldn't resist adding a love heart on the bottom!}

Of course, Livvie loves it and is one happy little Care Bear today;

And all going well, this will double as her Halloween costume.

Thankfully, her sister has chosen to be a Monkey this year;

This year? Well, she has always been a Monkey...

But thankfully, Spotlight sells Monkey costumes!