Making Me Smile Today

She pulled rainbow vintage sheets from my cupboard...she up-ended the peg basket....she reached for my hand...

She lay every towel we own inside for carpet (and I mean every towel!)....she collected a menagerie of teddy friends...

Cups of tea were made....doors were peeped out of....

...and Mumma knitted.

Wishing you a vibrant and adventurous weekend.

Hats

My beautiful girl has inherited her Mumma's pale, pale skin. Skin without a hint of colour. Skin that doesn't tan...just frizzles to a crisp. I gave up that "bronzing" affair many moons ago and decided to be the poster girl for milky white limbs (a tough gig in sunny Queensland let me tell you!).

What with my own Mumma Bear having monthly visits to her doctor for skin cancer zaps...or worse still, cuts. And me having a few dubious moles in the past I have become Super (read: crazy!) Sun Mother defender of all things pale and burnable.

So when mon petit poppet's hat got a whisker too small it was time to make a new one..or three.

One for home for effervescent displays of circus tricks on the trampoline.

Another for the car for impromtu visits to the park.

And a final one to keep at Nana and Ajafather's house (Ajafather if Bijou-ese for Grandfather. She has been able to say "grandfather" for ages but Ajafather has stuck).

Using the bucket hat pattern from Oliver + S Little Things to Sew and shopping my stash once again these pretties were pulled together with some vintage sheeting and odd scrappity scraps of polka dot loveliness.

Whirling around on the swing till she gets dizzy. Magic.
That girl is my sunshine!

Joining a crafty crew over here.
At time of post it has been raining for the entire week! Sun? What sun?

Little Sophisticate

He has sprouted his two bottom choppers overnight without a peep. One day they weren't there...the next they were. His hair is thickening up but is as downy soft as ever.

He is trying to crawl. Oh my! He is growing far too fast for this Mumma Bear.

He smiles....all...the...time!

He is exploring this magic world with more animation and excitement. He grabs everything in reach. He adores his big sister and their relationship only grows deeper with each passing day.

He is snuggly warm.

Little Sophisticate cardigan for Remy ravelled here. (Can't do the buttons up round his round belly!)

Joining in over here today. Yay!

Mish Mash Biscuits

Yesterday saw a bagful of pre loved wintry clothes for my littlest babe arrive on our doorstep from an old and gracious friend with a refusal to take anything for them...not even a shouted coffee.

Today saw bikkies golden yet still squidgy in the middle come out of the oven. A recipe so mammoth it spawns bazillions of them.

A scan of ye olde pantry in search of three bags of chocolate chips (oh yes my friends...3 bags!!!) was fruitless and hence a "mish mash" of said chips, sultanas and nuts became the order of the day.

Roll, squish down with a floured fork and pop in the oven. Repeat....many, many times.

We filled our bikkie tin to the brim, popped some in a container for Papa Bear to take to work and share, some for a lovely friend and her wee one and a huge tin for my gracious bubba clothes bearing friend and her four monkeys. Biscuits ahoy!

Now let's see if she can refuse these!

Choc Bit Biscuits
500g butter (at room temperature)
1 and 1/3 cups of castor clothes
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
395g tin of condensed milk
5 cups of self raising flour, sifted
3 x 250g packets choc bits (or a "mish mash"
 or chocolate, nuts and dried fruit)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Cream butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add condensed milk while beating. Transfer to large bowl. Add flour and choc bits (and nuts, fruit etc.) and mix with a wooden spoon until well combined....and your biceps resemble Mrs. Obama's!) Roll heaped teaspoons into balls and squish a floured fork into them to flatten them slightly. Bake for 18-20 minutes until light golden, swapping trays after 10 minutes. Gobble copious amounts of them cause there are soooo many to share!

Picnic Rug

Dappled sun light....still dewy grass....a bite in the air that sends your outward breath off into the day with a puff of steam....

When sun warmed rooms lure us in to hibernate beneath folds of wool ....we head out of doors.


Country terrine spread lavishly over crusty baguette....piquant cornichons..... yielding, oozy brie...

With every inch of our bodies covered with layers of warmth save our face....cheeks ruddy with the smack of cool....eyes radiant....alive.


Thermos of steamy tea...crumbly cake speckled with cinnamon...with sugar.

Frisbees....daisy chain making....meandering.....

Rolling with gay abandon down lush grassy hills....rising with twigs snagged in flyaway hair...beaming.


Sky so blue and perfect a single cloud dare not teint it's purity.

Winter wrapping it's magic around and intoxicating me like each year before.

Picnic rug I made from vintage sheets and backed with a vintage blanket in exactly the same shades of blue. Serendipitous! Pattern from Handmade Home by Amanda Blake-Soule. Utterly divine vintage picnic basket thanks to  Make Mine Mid-Century who gifted this to us. Thanks so much, we adore it!

Cooking with My Girl

Poppet and I have always baked together. From when she was a wee babe sitting on a blanket surrounded by cushions near the kitchen I would give a Nigella-esque cooking demonstration of whatever fancy I was making that day.

We graduated to the kitchen bench when she was a whisker older and she has happily (and greedily) helped me conjure up sweet treats to satisfy taste buds, tummies...and souls.

On a recent weekly jaunt to the local library to stock up on all things wonderful and literary mon petit poppet chanced upon a child's cookbook. And with this innocent discovery a whole new world of cooking has evolved.

Armed with her pictorial ingredient list she scoured the fridge and pantry to see whether we had all the necessary bits and bobs. Spiced bikkies were decided upon as only one lonely egg could be found.

Following the step by step pictures I guided her to make the dough but quite frankly she was an old hand!

Running tragically short on decorations of the "fun" variety we chose some slivered almonds, sultanas, chopped dried fig and apricots. And so Henri Matisse began her work.

This is me! I love all the almonds on my chest....my big boobies filled with milk for Remy I'm told!!!

A magical experience for both Mumma and poppet. Today spiced bikkies...tomorrow...Master Chef Junior?!
Have a grand weekend lovelies!