Christmas 2013

Christmas and Boxing Day this year was spent at my parents... with a full tree, the sounds of squeals while opening gifts, alot of follow-up Lego building and way too much food.








Christmas Day in Sydney was cool with a bit of rain, perfect for our hot feast of roast pork, turkey and ham with all the trimmings... and the warmer Boxing Day was our new tradition from the last couple of years of seafood lunch with marinated prawns, prawn cocktail and a salmon. I've never made a prawn cocktail before, but I made up a sauce from Taste website and it was delicious (with a change to the cream from the recipe).

Prawn Cocktail Sauce
1/4 cup tomato sauce
1/4 cup thickened cream
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
Dash of tobasco sauce

Just throw all the ingredients together and mix. For the adults we drizzled it over the prawns and shredded iceburg lettece and the kids had it as a dipping sauce.

As a first this year, I didn't make our Christmas Pudding but instead we tried Heston Blumenthal's Hidden Orange Christmas Pudding. Last year it sold out so we grabbed it early this year and it was delicious. We decided to microwave it instead of steaming for 3 hours, which I think dried out the sides a little bit, but it was lovely and moist inside. Not a huge pudding though... well not for my hungry clan!

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas with their family. Our first couple of days are being spent doing a BIG clean-up of our toy room, I am being ruthless in toy culling and in the meanwhile making room for all their new Christmas goodies.

My world right now

My world right now is consumed by the upcoming holidays. I have been gathering supplies, building a big box of craft goodies and activities for the kids for their month of school that starts this afternoon as well as preparing for Christmas at my parents house. I have also been pinning lots of ideas over on my Pinterest boards if anyone else is in search of things to do for the kids.

Our plans for these holidays are to just relax. There are no plans to travel anywhere, no calendar full of activities, just a rough idea of a couple of things we want to visit like the Zoo and Powerhouse Museum and perhaps a movie or two, but mainly to just let the kids sleep in, have lazy afternoons and trips to the beach just down the road.

My little old blog which started as a record of the kids when they were born, has become a bit of a sewing blog which gets left idle when sewing doesn't happen and I don't like that.. there is so much else going on around here, fun things like our new addition Lucy, an 11 week old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel that I want to share. While I do have plans to sew during these holidays, I am going to try blogging more on everything else that comes with living in this crazy home... 

New to Etsy Store

My etsy store has sat bare for a while (If you count over a year a while) but I'm very excited to FINALLY have got my latest project out of the way and up in the store.

Everyone knows I love a good party, and every year I make up party printables and lately I've been lucky to be working with a few customers and creating party printables for them as well, so I thought I would offer them up to others. (Bonus points that I really love making them and coming up with new ideas)

There is just a small selection in the shop at the moment, but it will be expanding as I release more designs, and I am always open to custom designs if anyone is after something specific. The range include invitations, party co-ordinates and some prints. Check them out visit my etsy shop.

      

Cockatoo Island

This weekend we travelled to Cockatoo Island as part of Liam's birthday. Just me, Bella, Liam and my Mum travelled over by ferry and spent two days exploring the island's old buildings, tunnels and sights and the kids had their first camping experience.

6th Birthday

My boy turned 6 Friday... and he had a marvellous few days to celebrate. 
On Thursday, he spent the day with his two best buddies, seeing the new Disney Planes movie followed by a playdate and cake. (Of course).

They had so much fun, just as it should be when you have a birthday. He is also adamant he grew overnight.

Deciding to do the whole Disney Planes movie, we went with that theme for his party. I made up some decorations including a party banner, water bottle labels, cupcake toppers and some flags for his thank you's which were plastic test tubes full of jelly beans.. a big hit with the boys.
On Friday we headed to Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour for a camping (glamping) adventure... lots of beautiful photos from that one and all for another post.

Knitting piles

Last week this pile started falling over. My big pile of knits finished and waiting to be blocked and buttons sewn on. A big pile of clothes the kids should really be wearing while they can before it gets too warm or they grow out of them.

A few hours later and some are now ready to be worn
Pattern: Granny's Favourite (still needing buttons) for Bella
Yarn: Bendigo Woollen Mills Luxury 8ply in Bracken
Pattern: Evie for Bella
Yarn: Nundle Woollen Mills Chaffey
Pattern: All over Eyelets top for Eva
Yarn: Leftover single lonely ball of Bendigo Luxury 5ply

I did modify this pattern to not have the rolling armholes and neck, instead I crocheted a scalloped edge and as always added length. Pattern: Paulette for Eva
Yarn: Patons Emotion 4ply

I must admit, after using this yarn on two different tops, while I LOVE the top pattern and the finished design, the yarn is not a favourite. Both tops were "fluffy" before I even washed them. Another version of this, perhaps in a Cashmerino would be lovely.
And that is half the pile done. The rest need buttons and one cardigan needs some serious blocking.