Day to Day

Washcloth wind up

Wow - 168 dishcloths!  That's how many we all managed in the create-a-long, plus 6 scrubbies and 2 wash mitts.

Thanks so much to everyone that played along, that was fun :-)

Filling in a weekend.

With 1/5th of the kitchen complete, I felt like a little bit of cooking yesterday - as you do when you're up to the elbows in mess.  It was quite, um, difficult, to even find a spot to cook....as you can see:

 

But the crammed space was worth it - divine waffles (Apples for Jam recipe book) for lunch:

Today there was more cooking too, this time some delicious tomato soup using up a big bag of home grown tomatoes from Mum.  The recipe link (HERE) was given to me by Mel via twitter this morning.  Not long after I had the tomatoes roasting in the oven and the soup was under way - I love twitter friends, they always have the best links!

 

There was also some crafting with Bella - a new funky headband that she was eager for me to help her make:

 

And a bit of Blythe doll play:

How was your weekend?

Baking & gifts

 

 

I felt like a spot of baking tonight. I regretted it slightly half way through because it was smack bang in the middle of dinner that I had the urge to cook.  So - half baked cake, dinner dishing out, dinner cleaning up, cake cleaning up, icing to be made and then washing hanging out somewhere in the middle of it.  But, it's all cooked now and being enjoyed by the little vultures. 

The recipe was a new one that I thought I'd try, from one of my current library books - Ladies, A Plate, Traditional home baking by Alexa Johnston (available from Fishpond).  I left out the filling and used my own icing recipe, but it turned out really well.  There are quite a few more recipes in there that I'd like to try too.  I love being able to sample books at the library, this is one that I'd like to add to my cookbook collection at some stage.

There was also a very sweet gift in my mailbox this week too - some fabric letters from the lovely Leisa at Scrapsidaisy.  Thankyou very much Leisa, that was so kind of you and I can't wait to start my project with them!

**Dishcloth update** Our dishcloth total is at 49 dishcloths, 5 scrubbies & 2 wash mitts.  I don't have totals for 23 people yet, so we might even hit the 100 mark.  Please be sure to leave a comment with your final tally on it :-)  

Create-a-long wind up

Thanks so much to everyone that played along over the last two weeks.  Did you have fun and make lots of dishcloths?  I can't be sure, but I'm thinking Tracy might hold the record for 'most dishcloths created' - 21 of them on her last blog post! How good is that!!?

Please leave a comment on this post and let us know how many you managed, then I'll do a grand total and share.  

Here are a few more that I've spotted from you all over the last few days:

 

By Allison.

By Amber.

By Amy.

By Anne.

By Cheryl.

By Grace.

By Lisa.

By Mandy.

By Sew Funky.       

By Teresa.

They're all so pretty.  I squeezed in eight and I'm thinking that another create-a-long might be in order a little closer to Christmas time so I can whip up some for last minute gifts.  My Mum (who is now also madly knitting dishcloths) taught me how to do blackberry stitch a couple of days ago, so I'm going to try and attempt a blackberry stitch dishcloth over the weekend, I'll let you know how I go.

Okay, let the tally begin:

Me: 8 dishcloths

Some scrapbooking.

I haven't been doing a lot of scrapbooking lately, but I thought I'd share a few layouts using the new Tarisota collection for February:

 

I love this photo of Bella, concentrating hard on all the marbles as they make their way down the marble run.

I love this photo of James too, taken while we were camping at Christmas time.  That river was so refreshing to cool off in on the mega hot days we had - the tiger snakes thought so too, we had to keep our eyes out for them as there were many that crossed the river throughout the day.

I squeezed in a Blythe doll layout for Bella too! 

And one of my birthday boy spending his birthday money on a new Star Wars toy for his collection. 

Let's do a dishcloth/washcloth round up post tomorrow - I'll share some more photos of the ones you've created and we'll start a dishcloth count to see how many we squeezed in.  Fun!      

See you then xoxo

Piles & piles

That's what we have at our house this week - piles and piles of everything from books, preserves, lego and yarn (not to mention the entire contents of our kitchen).  The piles are in the hallway, the bedroom, the laundry, the lounge room floor and with each section of the kitchen we do, more piles seem to accumulate.

Ahhh, I cannot wait to find a nice new home for them all when the renovation is complete!

Yours in piles,

xoxoxo

 

       

Slowly

Things have been moving ever so slowly here over the last few days.  Our sudden kitchen renovation prevented the big plans that we had for Bella's baking birthday party.  I felt so disappointed for Bella, but she happily settled for a special sleep over with a close friend and they decided to sleep in our camper (in the backyard) so that made the night ever so exciting for them.  Chocolate and all things sweet, doonas, pillows, portable dvd player and snuggling in the camper together.  I was expecting to hear little footsteps coming inside as soon as the sun went down, but they both slept all night in there, which makes me think it will be perfect for more sleep over escapes in the future.

Then there were the grand plans for a big, fabulous birthday cake, but ofcourse the kitchen made it very tricky to create such a masterpiece, so we settled on a basic round cake with silver balls (chosen by Bella).  Again, I felt a little disappointed that I couldn't cook something spectacular, but Bella was so excited to have a splattering of pretty balls on her cake that the original cake idea was quickly forgotten about.

My dishcloth create-a-long also came to a fast halt for me when I hurt my neck last week.  This time I felt frustrated that I couldn't knit or crochet.  All I could do was lie on the couch and nap, no crafting.  My girl made up for my lack of knitting.  She knitted and knitted and knitted almost all of Sunday (her birthday) and finished an entire project for her new Blythe doll.

I had also planned to finish that secret birthday quilt in time for Sunday.  My neck put a stop to that and I was left feeling incredibly guilty for not getting it done in time.

Then the realisation that this girl is growing up awfully fast.  While I was lying on the couch she was off knitting and crafting and pouring herself drinks and spreading relish on bread and writing her own blog posts.  She's quite self sufficient now and I often think that there's absolutely nothing she can't do when she sets her mind to it.  Ofcourse people are always incredibly proud of their own children aren't they, and we should be like that too - they're all so fabulous in their own ways.  It's just nice when every so often you sit back and think - wow I created this amazing little being and isn't she wonderful turning out so beautiful, well behaved, clever, funny, crazy and sweet.

I'm not sure I know exactly where this post is going, but rewind the last few days and I know now that slow is good. Slow is GREAT!  We didn't need an intricate cake and a fabulous party for great birthday memories.  When I couldn't knit and create, my girl could and it was oh so nice to watch her do just that.  The house and kitchen are hugely messy but we're all still happy and healthy and I know it will be finished eventually.  My neck was a pain in the bottom and slowed me down, but maybe that's what I needed instead of the insanely busy schedule I had planned.  Even though I wanted so badly to have that birthday surprise quilt finished in time, it didn't happen and it doesn't matter because now it can be an Easter surprise quilt, a winter solstice surprise quilt, a next Christmas surprise quilt or a just because surprise quilt!

Hooray for slow!

 

P.S. Ofcourse I think my boy is incredibly amazing too!  P.P.S. Simple is fabulous, but if we decide to do a baking party next year with a cool cake please don't hold it against me.  P.P.P.S. Washcloth round up post within the next few days :-)
   

Birthday girl.

Happy birthday beautiful girl :-)  We hope you had the best day ever! Love you lots xoxo

P.S. If any lovely readers would like to wish Bella a happy birthday, pop over HERE (I know she'd be thrilled to read your comment).

Friday.

Just popping in to say sorry for the lack of posts - I hurt my neck a couple of days ago and it's still not quite right, so no knitting washcloths for me at the moment :-(

Also, I have some sponsorship spots available for the month of March, please email me at goodsellmx@internode.on.net if you are interested.  $25 for the month including a blog button and two sponsorship blog posts.

Have a lovely weekend, hopefully I'll be feeling a little better tomorrow - will see you then.

Introducing: Baby's Got Style

I'd like to introduce you to my new sponsor - Baby's Got Style, a super sweet online store for babies, kids and Mums!

 

A teeny peek into some of the cuteness that you can find at Baby's Got Style:

Oobi Baby retro green dress. Love, love the sweet fabric badges and the pretty green spot.

Apple knee high socks **squeal** 

 

Baby bear beanie - seriously the cutest thing ever!

Amy Butler's little stitches for little ones book.  I borrowed this book from the library a long time ago and it's full of the sweetest projects for small people. 

Russian doll set - soldiers, how good are these?! 

 

Vintage apple lunchbox - cute +++

Forest critters wall decal for little girls - the little birdie on the window sill kills me. 

The very hungry caterpillar book - one of our personal favourite books. 

Pop over to HERE to see more beautiful products.