Day to Day

Packing for the road trip!

Today is the day that we head off on our 18 day road trip in the Ford Territory.  Hooray!  As you read this, we'll be busy driving up to the north of Tasmania to start the first leg of our journey.  The excitement has been building all week and the car is all shiny, clean and sparkly in readiness to start our drive.  

We've squeezed in suitcases and all sorts of extras - don't worry, there's still plenty of spare room for any shopping purchases along the way and extra goodies that we accumulate.  I love that the Territory is super roomy like that - if only you could actually see how huge that giant car fridge really is & the best bit?  It connects straight into the plug in the boot area, so it will be fabulous for keeping our milk/butter and essentials nice and cool along the way. 

What else does one take on a family road?  Well, here's a peek at what some other goodies that we have packed:

To make the most of the DVD entertainment system in the car, I caved and bought some brand new DVDs for our trip. Richard also caved and bought series one of The Smurfs too, so there's a whole heap of goodness for the kids to watch along the way.

I bought Pictureka last week, after one of my lovely blog readers told me about it.  We're pairing it with UNO to take away with us for night time playing.

Even though we're going to mostly rely on the Satellite Navigation system in the car, I think it's useful to have a road atlas or map of some kind on hand.  Not for looking up roads or destinations, but just to see the whole leg of our trip in one snapshot, you know?  Bella especially loves to draw her finger along our main road of travel and I think it's nice to be able to whip out the atlas for such things.

Travel journals!  We've always encouraged our kids to record their holiday thoughts in a journal on trips.  It's a fun way to document their days and makes for very interesting reading in years to come.

My crochet. Remember the vlog from a couple of weeks ago? Well, I'm all crochet-ready and a little nervous as to how much that I'll actually get done during the trip.  I'll keep you posted how it's going!  

Remember the Geocaching first aid bag that I sewed last summer?  We packed it full of band-aids, tablets, lip balm, asthma puffer and all sorts of other ailment cures.  We're keeping this nice and handy in the boot of the car, ready to pull out if needed - fingers crossed it will stay nicely nestled in the back.

Ahh, yes - would a road trip be complete without some sweet treats? I think not. 

We have so many other goodies packed too, including one of those giant clear tubs that's full to the brim with some grocery staples for the first few days.  I'm impressed by all the storage room in the Territory, it's so good to be going on this road trip and not be squished in like little sardines.

See you soon - if I can figure out how to install my mobile broadband successfully, I might even blog from the boat tonight.  We'll see how I go.

P.S. I'm on Instagram now and will be sharing lots of photos from our trip along the way - if you would like to follow me, my username is: one_crafty_mumma

SodaStream giveaway...(oh, yes!)

A couple of weeks ago the lovely team at SodaStream sent me a drink maker and syrups to try out.  We've all been using it, but the youngest member of the family is a tad obsessed - she love, love, loves it!

**Please note that we've been adding our syrup first - it turns out that it's easier to pour in the syrup at the end!!  Pop over HERE to read/see my revised step by step photos for this**

I love that the SodaStream is easy to use and child friendly, with just a few steps:

• Step 1: Fill up the bottle with water - to the line.
• Step 2: Pop in a capful of syrup.
• Step 3: Screw the bottle onto the SodaStream - don't be tempted to not read the instructions and just hold the bottle in place like I did the first time. It was not pretty - imagine raspberry SodaStream being sprayed all over the benches, floor and yes, me.
• Step 4: Pump the SodaStream until you hear a buzz.

  

• Step 5: Unscrew the bottle.
• Step 6: Pour and enjoy!  The bottles also keep fizzy in the fridge for quite a while, so long as the lid is on nice and tight. Ours were still fizzy a day later.

Our favourite flavour so far has been lemonade, with raspberry and orange following closely behind.  I've also been enjoying plain old icy cold water with a little bit of fizz - super refreshing.

The best bit is that I also have a SodaStream to give away to one of my sweet Australian readers!  Just leave a comment on this post telling me why you'd like a SodaStream drink maker for spring!

I'll close off the comments next Tuesday (6th September 2011) and announce the winner the following day.  Good luck, it's an awesome prize to win - we adore ours and it will be getting a serious work out all through spring and summer this year.

**This giveaway is now closed - the winner will now be announced when I return from holidays (weekend of 17th/18th September)...**

Road trip ready

I wish I was road trip ready, but the only thing packed in this house are Bella's two Blythe dolls (Miss Tillie & Miss Emily) and their daily outfits - oh yes, enough outfits for 18 days on the road.

My 'to do' list for today is a little large (but also very doable) and here I am doing a morning blog post. I know, priorities!  So, here's a peek at my list:

• Baking - muffins, cake & a slice for us and a batch of muffins for our house sitter.
• Small grocery shop for travelling essentials
• Suitcase packing
• Quick house clean up
• Car packing
• Last minute bill paying
• All the other stuff that I've forgotten about :)

Well, best get a wiggle on.  I'll be back again today with a fantastic giveaway for my Aussie readers and it's a fabulous one, so be sure to pop back in.

Teapot + sponsorship announcement

Hello :)

Just popping in quickly to let you all know that our next issue of Teapot won't be hitting your inbox until late September, due to my Great Ocean Road trip and Tamar's current work commitments.  There just aren't enough creating hours in the day to bring out the next edition until then, we hope you'll understand :)

Also, this means that we won't be offering any sponsorship spots for bloggers and/or handmade stores during the month of September.

EnviroBLOX

I first heard of EnviroBLOX back in July, when I attended the Bloggers Brunch in Melbourne.  We all received some samples in our goodie bag to bring home and after a little bit of online research I discovered that EnviroBLOX were pretty cool, especially for kids.  

I contacted the lovely Tracy at EnviroBLOX to let her know how much we enjoyed our samples and she was kind enough to send our family a big box of them to play with.  I say 'our family' because we've ALL been using these over the last few days! 

If you read my blog post on Thursday, you'll have seen that I spent 2 hours sorting out some colours in separate containers, ready to start creating an EnviroBLOX medieval scene.  The castle isn't anywhere near finished yet, but we plan on adding to it when we arrive home from our Great Ocean Road trip - just 2 sleeps to go now!  There are plans for a draw bridge, water, more scenery around the castle and many, many more men and animals in the army.

We continued building our castle on Friday (for family fun night) and I have one word - fun! There were quite a few giggles when Dad decided you needed a LOT of water to join the blocks - he melted an entire section of the castle with water, even after we told him that you only need a small dot of water to hold.  We rebuilt though and put him on a water ban. Teehee!

I love that when we're sick of building/playing castles and tired of the dust accumulating on our structure, we can hose it down in the back yard and watch it dissolve - It is 100% biocompostable and environmentally friendly.  There was some talk by the boys to hose it on the weekend, so they could watch it melt - but the girls put their feet down and said no!

If you would like to order your own fun set to play and build with, EnviroBLOX are offering FREE shipping at the moment - pop over HERE to order.

When we're home from holiday, I'll be sure to pop back and share the next stage of our castle and some other fun creations that we've made.

P.S. 

Some EnviroBLOX facts for you:

• Safe - no paint materials used of any kind (only food dye colorants).
• Environmentally friendly - made from corn starch; "a very GREEN toy!"
• No glue needed, simply moisten and watch the blox stick together like magic.
• EnviroBLOX dissolve in running water like ice - no need to throw in the rubbish bin.

Disclaimer: I was not paid for this blog post.  The lovely EnviroBLOX team (it's a family business, hooray!) sent our family these goodies to create with and enjoy.  They're a fantastic product and I decided to share our experiences with them in this blog post.

Pink lemonade recipe

Helloosh it's Bella here and I'm going to share a pink lemonade recipe with you all. I've made this a couple of times and it's so yummy. You can have it in summer time on a hot day or anytime you like really.

Ingredients:

• 2 large lemons
• 1 1/2 cups of water
• 1/4 cup of sugar
• 4 big strawberries

Step 1: Cut the lemons in half.

Step 2: Squeeze the lemons into a jug.

Step 3: Pour the sugar into the jug and the water. Mix it up with a big spoon until the sugar has melted.

Step 4: Cut the ends off the strawberries.

Step 5: Squish/mash the strawberries with a fork and put them in the jug. Mix it up a bit with a spoon.

Step 6: Drink it!!

I hope you liked making the pink lemonade.

P.S. Because we're heading off on our Great Ocean Road holiday this week, this will be the last of my regular features (Top Ten + Kids in the Kitchen) until we're back home.  I'll be blogging our days on the road instead, Mel xo

Seven

Today my little nephew turned seven. Seven! Happy birthday sweet Oscar, we love you so much xoxoxo

On Thursday

My day went pretty much like this:

• Breakfast, quick clean up & school drop off
• Watching the Book Week Parade at school
• Home to roast pumpkins in the oven & turn them into pumpkin soup for dinner

• Spending 2 hours sorting out some grey, brown and white EnviroBLOX for the kids to use. They are all kinds of awesome - more on that in another blog post.

• Washing, vacuuming and a blog post
• School pick up, mail collecting & a quick bread/milk grocery grab

• Making toasted savouries to go with the pumpkin soup for dinner. 

 

• Helping this girl to build a castle with the grey and brown EnviroBLOX
• There may or may not have been a bit of Scoop playing on the iPad in there as well
• Cleaning up, wiping up the dishes & finishing off the day with a hot chocolate

Owl costume

Is that an owl I spy up there in those bushes?  Why yes, it's Hoot.

With moments to spare before bedtime last night and a bit of dodgy frantic sewing, the owl costume was finally finished for today's Book Week parade.

I just winged the design and pattern, using some owl costumes that I had bookmarked as a base (here and here) and utilising some fabric that I had stashed away in my cupboard.

I drew the mask up on paper first, sewed away and then discovered that the eyes were in the completely wrong spot.  Bella giggled because she couldn't see and I laughed.  Instead of sewing a new mask, I just cut into the holes making them much bigger and then restitched around each eye.  

The wings are separate and hold into place with a little loop of ribbon around Bella's thumb. 

There's a felt tunic under the wings, covered with fabric feathers.  It's a little disastrous if you were to peek underneath because I cut the tunic out quickly by eye - it turns out my eye for measurements wasn't that great this time around.  Never mind though, I sure fixed it with a whole lot of pulling in and ugly zig-zag machine stitches.  That's the beauty of sewing a child's dress up though, they certainly don't care for neat stitching underneath - it's all about the end result.

{Spread your wings little owl and fly away}

I find real enjoyment out of stitching children's dress up costumes.  I'm kind of thinking a Halloween party would be nice this year, just so I could sew something for it.  Is that wrong?

What I wore Wednesday

I'm joining in again with Janelle and Mardi's What I wore Wednesday today. I bought this dress just the other day because it reminded me of spring time, which is just around the corner! 

Cardigan - Brown Sugar

Dress - Big W

Boots - Target

Necklace - op shop

Blue ring - local store

What did you wear today? Anything exciting or fabulous?