Letter to a true friend

Dear Big Box,
Thankyou.
For the one hour that you held the attention of my daughters this morning, so that I could do some more packing, I am truly grateful.
Sincerely,
Katherine

P.S. Do you have any friends who might be available for an hour tomorrow? Mr Ball of Wool, or Ms Jar of Bubbles perhaps? Please give them my number.

Pom poms

I saw a great red hooded towel (at Sambag) and wanted to make one for India and my niece Rayya, for Christmas last year. I couldn't get any red towelling or pom pom trim at the time so we ended up with a more subdued version of white with peppermint green trim. I must admit that the white hood looks a little bit scary (KKK like?) from the back, but from the front her cheeky eyes and grin framed by that string of pom poms could melt your heart! I found out afterwards that the towel fits Elara too, though it's a lot shorter! Though I used towelling by the metre, you could also easily cut up an old towel, and hand towel (for the hood) to make this. I figured this pattern out myself because I wanted the design to be just like the one I'd seen (!), but there are plenty of tutorials for similar online.

Blossom bunnies

These blossom bunnies were last years Easter gifts for India and my niece Rayya, just 4 and 6 months old at the time! I used denim for the bottom third of the body and inserted a small sack of beads in the base to help them stand upright...alas they still prefer to lean! They were designed by Sarah at red felt flower, or can be found in the first 'softies' book.

What to wear on Wednesday: Vintage style dress-ups

If there is one thing I enjoy about packing up a home, moving, and unpacking your home again, it's the finding of old memories. So this week, or until we actually move, I thought I'd show some pre-blogging projects and/or recollections that make me smile.

This is a dress-up collective that I made for a lovely friend of Elara's. All in bone, white and pink vintage style, it included:

• thrifted, then embellished, gloves
• gold sequin bolero
• bridal veil
• fluffy shawl
• flower and lace hair combs
• fan, and a
• pretty pink parasol

It turned out a charming gift, and so much fun for me, finding and crafting all these little things!

Easter

We've had a wonderful Easter... I hope you have too!

The colour of love

Easter loves: blue skies, brown hot cross buns, yellow easter eggs, pink smiling lips, green grass for hunting, orange eggs to paint.

Easter love is... purple bruises, red blood, black sky, white hope.

Autumn + pyjamas = snuggles

Thanks to a few weeks of rainy weather, it finally feels like autumn! This only occurred to me as I tried to find a second pair of long pyjamas for Elara the other night. One pair is not enough if you have rainy days and no clothes dyer! So, I put her to bed in mismatched warm, and not-so-warm clothes, and quickly sewed up these pjs with some fabric remnants. The next night she was happy to have proper pyjamas and showed her enthusiasm by spilling pasta sauce all over :)

Rosie

Last weekend, the girls and I went to a garden themed first birthday for the lovely Rosie. I made her a rose/garden themed crown, inspired by Rubyellen's (at Cakies http://mycakies.blogspot.com/). It was made to fit for years to come (one year olds generally don't put up with hats, clips, bands or anything on their head)! I hope it always reminds her that she is a princess to the King who made the gardens!

Recovering

I love things with history, that tell a tale or hold memories of some kind, and have been known to display, wear or restore things of that kind. But vintage is not my greatest love. I think I'm more of a 'old made new' kind of girl. I love to see something well loved given a makeover or refashioned into something slightly different but just as lovely, fun or interesting as it's former self (Hmmm, I'm a youth worker/counsellor by trade so maybe this goes for more than just objects?). Anyway, here are a few small housey items I have recovered recently.

Dolls pram... I think it'll need recovering once a year - it gets a lot of use now that India is bigger and loves dolls! I just used the old cover for a template, and used bias binding to edge it all.

Camping mattresses... I cut an old foam mattress into two, and recovered them, using an old (and really soft - must have been a good quality one back in the 70's!) queen size sheet. I didn't even bother with a zip because they won't be used for much other than camping trips and cubbies.

Stereo speakers... they are so boring looking in the girls colourful room so I just clicked off the cover, made four holes in the rainbow fabric for the legs of the cover, folded the edges in and clicked it back on!

Stay tuned for trickier projects soon...

Vintage fare

During my recent short blogging hiatus, I missed sharing some lovely homemade treats with you. These pistachio and orange cakes were made with a vintage tea in mind. They reminded me of a era gone by but were exceedingly enjoyed by us modern girls (and even the kids). There are lots of ingredients so maybe enjoy just at very special occasions!

125g butter

1 cup caster sugar

2 eggs

1 cup roasted pistachios, chopped coarsely

2 cups SR flour

2/3 cup milk

1 tbls icing sugar

1/2 tsp ground cardamom

2 tsp gelatine

2 tbls water

125g cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup caster sugar

2 tbls lemon juice

1/2 tsp orange essence

1 cup marscapone

300g thickened cream

1. Preheat oven to 180 c. Grease 2 22cm spingform tins and line base with baking paper.
2. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time until combined.
3. Stir in nuts, sifted flour and milk, in 2 batches.
4. Spread mixture into tins, bake about 40 mins. cool
5. Make filling by sprinkling gelatine over the water in a heatproof bowl. Stand jug in saucepan of simmering water. Stir until gelatine dissolves. Cool 5 mins.
6. Beat cheese, sugar, juice and essence until smooth. Add marscapone; beat until combined. Stir in gelatine mixture; fold in cream.
7. Split cakes in half. Cut out circles with cookie cutter. Dollop filling on half of cake circles, and top with remainder. Refrigerate at least 3 hours.
8. Serve dusted with sifted icing sugar and cardamom.