Day to Day

Eraser collection

Tucked away in a shoebox in Bella's wardrobe, is her ever growing eraser collection.  The craze started in February when one of her friends gave her a couple of Gomu erasers for her birthday. 

The Gomu erasers are pretty special because you can pull them apart easily and interchange the colours - if you have two the same.  You can buy them from newsagencies, Big W, Kmart, Target, etc... So, pretty much anywhere in Aus.  

Series two of Gomu has recently been released, which has caused another stir of excitement in our household.  Of course there are a few erasers in the collection that aren't Gomu, but most of them are.

At the end of the day each one is thrown back into the box.  Never used, just there for looking at and dreaming which new eraser might make it into the collection next.

I'd love to know what your children collect.

New weekly feature - my top ten

Thank you for the lovely response I received for my newest weekly feature -  kids in the kitchen.  Bella was especially excited and has been cooking up a mini storm here, creating several recipes already for the upcoming weeks.

I'd like to tell you about a second weekly feature that I've been brewing up, called My Top Ten.  I'll be sharing my personal top ten list of all sorts of wonderful treasures - my personal favourite top ten blogs, winter activities, cute shoes, books + many more.

The first post in this series will be going up early next week, I hope you'll enjoy reading along.

I'll be popping back in a little later today to share a new (and fast growing) collection that we have happening at our house.  See you then,

P.S.  Thank you so much to the lovely Tamar for creating my super cute button for this series.

I went to Typo and bought....

You all want to see my Typo purchases, right?  I could have bought so much more, I was just well restrained - actually I think it was more yummy product overwhelm!

Babushka snow dome (for Bella), canvas letter J (for James), Babushka tea towel, peg magnet, owl salt + pepper shakers (oh, yes!), notebooks, tags and the sweetest little four pack of fridge magnets.

I think I want to live in that store.

Giveaway: Edward Gant's Amazing Feats of Loneliness tickets

Are you based in Sydney?  I have two lovely tickets to give away for Edward Gant's Amazing Feats of Loneliness.  From watching the trailer it looks like a wonderful production.

If you would like to go, please email me at onecraftymumma@internode.on.net - the first person to email me can have the tickets!  I'll pop a note on this blog post once they've been snapped up.

Here are the details:

This Saturday 2 July 2011 at 8pm

Wharf 1, Sydney Theatre Company, Pier 4, Hickson Road, Walsh Bay

**WOW, you girls are fasst! Sorry everyone, the tickets have been taken**

Typo + Madam Tojos

Feeling sad to be coming to the end of my final day on the Gold Coast.  Tamar and I had a super busy morning, working on Teapot and other dreams until 2pm, then we headed out for some shopping and afternoon tea at the most glorious coffee shop I've ever been to, seriously!

Serious stationery heaven! I bought lots of goodies from here, which I'll be sure to share when I arrive home.

Behold, Madam Tojos!  The extra little details were amazing, especially the vintage suitcases - love, love.

How was your day?  I'm flying home early tomorrow morning, armed with cute Typo gifts for everybody :)

My day in photos

7.30am - breakfast:

8.30am - school run:

9.30am - driving through Hobart:

10.30am - at the airport:

11.30am - flying to the Gold Coast:

12.30pm - lunch time snack on the plane

1.30pm - Driving to Tamar's house:

2.30pm - comparing Blythe dolls:

3.30pm - chocolate cake for afternoon tea:

4.30pm - spending time in Tamar's craft room:

5.30pm - Sofia's yummy chicken dinner, ready to go in the oven:

6.30pm - pre dinner nibblies:

7.30pm onwards: Beautiful food, lovely company, lots of chatter!  We have a full day planned tomorrow before I head home.  So fun!

Pop over to Tamar's blog to see her version of our day.

Up, up and away!

{photo source}

As you read this post, I'll be jet setting my way to the Gold Coast for a super quick two day adventure!  I'm catching up with my lovely Teapot partner and dear friend, Tamar.  

We'll be working on some upcoming issues of Teapot, dreaming up new plans and sipping copious amounts of tea. Oh, yes!

I'm capturing my day in photos, one every hour - I'll be back tonight to share.  See you then.

Caramel cups

Welcome to a brand new weekly blog feature:

Kids in the Kitchen!

My two both know their way around the kitchen, can confidently follow a recipe and Bella has recently started dreaming up her own recipe ideas.  They both started helping to bake cakes and slices at an early age (oh my, was there mess sometimes) and have progressed to cooking independently over the years.  Admittedly, James has lost interest in cooking over the last 6 months or so (teenagers and all) but, he still has to help prepare dinner and share the baking when asked. 

Every weekend, Bella will be sharing a mix of easy and slightly more complicated cooking ideas that your children can whip up to share with the family.  We're still trying to talk James into joining in - perhaps he'll do the odd guest post every so often :)

Okay, over to Bella:

Helloosh! My Auntie Beth gave me this recipe yesterday and I thought it would be cool for the first Kids in the Kitchen post.

Caramel cups are very easy to cook and they only take about five minutes. Caramel cups would be good for parties, a picnic or dessert. Mum said that they are a special treat and I'm not allowed to make them all the time because they've got lots of sugar in them. I made mine plain but you can drizzle melted chocolate over the tops of them or put whipped cream on the tops. I was going to drizzle the chocolate over, but we didn't have any chocolate and I don't like cream very much.

{caramel cups}

1. You will need some Arnott's butternut snap biscuits, a patty cake tray and a can of Nestle Caramel Top n Fill.

2. Put the oven onto 170 degrees and while it is warming up you can put the biscuits onto the patty cake tray.

3. Get a grown up to put them in the oven for 2 minutes. They will go soft.

4. Get a grown up to get them out and quickly push the biscuits right down in the middle while they are still soft.

5. When the biscuits are cool you put in a big teaspoon full of the caramel top n fill.

6. Smooth out the top n fill with a teaspoon.

Enjoy making them. Bye. Love from Bella xoxo

P.S.  A very big thank you to the lovely Tamar - she created my super cute 'Kids in the Kitchen' button.

Guest blogger

I have two lovely guest posts up this week:

If you pop over to the lovely Seven Cherubs blog, I'm chatting about creativity and happiness.  Go HERE to read.

Bella's sweet softie pattern and tutorial is also featured over at Skip to my Lou, as part of craft camp this month.  Pop over HERE to see it.

I'll be back a little later on today to share my new weekly feature!

A trip to the country

A girlie trip to the country was in order for today!  Mum, Bella and I left home this morning and headed to my sister's house for some coffee cake and tea.

On a side note, is it okay to say that I'm completely addicted to driving my Ford Territory?  It's just so luxurious (hello leather seats) and I've been obsessing over all the nice, innovative features.  Can you imagine the pain I'm going to feel if I have to revert back to my old car - goodbye reverse camera, satellite navigation system, DVD player, hands free for my mobile phone, seven seats, automatic transmission, climate control and whole heap of super cute features that my existing car doesn't have.  Sigh.

Anyhow, back to our trip to the country!

{cuteness in a car}

{wide open spaces}

I always enjoy driving down this neck of the woods.  I only lived in the country for the first 6 years of my life, but it still feels like home.  Green hills, foggy pastures, fence posts, barbed wire, farm animals and sweet little wooden barns filled with hay - they all conjure up dreamy images in my mind of what life is like in the Huon Valley.  The truth is that you'll be frozen to your core down there in the winter months and spring beholds runny noses/watery eyes and a continual stream of sneezing, for those of us (me!) that are prone to hayfever.  

But, there's still something magical about life down that way. 

{pretty tree lined roads}

{country backyard}

We settled in for a lovely morning tea and there was much chatting to be had.  It's my birthday in 1 week and 3 days (clearly I'm counting) and I was totally spoilt with an early gift from my sister, Beth.  The cutest felt slippers (oh, yes!), cooking and Japanese craft books.

I feel like the luckiest girl.  Please excuse me while I snuggle on the sofa (in the new slippers of course), sip tea and drool over my new books.

So, tell me - do you prefer the city or the country?  Or a nice little mix of both? 

 

P.S. I'm so excited to be introducing my new weekly blog feature tomorrow - so be sure to pop back. xo