Knitting and reading

I’ve decided to give the knitting another go. I’m doing a great little design from Easy Care Knits and I’ve only just started but so far so good!

I’m currently reading a few books at the moment. I’m really enjoying ‘The First Wife’ by Emily Barr – I love all of her books and this one is a bit different than her usual types and took a bit longer for me to get into but all the same it’s a good read! We are doing lots of research on where to live in Adelaide so a where to live guide is often being skim-read (so much to read up on!). I’m also dipping in and out of Gina Ford’s ‘The Complete Sleep Guide for Contented Babies and Toddlers’ as well as ‘Toddler Taming’ by Dr. Christopher Green’ which was recommended by our Dr, we are still struggling with getting little ‘T’ to sleep well so I’m always reading up on what the problem could or couldn’t be!

GIVEAWAY! : ‘Sew Sweet Patterns’

We have on offer today a giveaway from ‘Sew Sweet Patterns’

It’s such an adorable shop with loads of sweet outfits, dresses, tops, dolly clothes and more and today I am offering to giveaway a 3 pack of patterns!

They are really simple and easy to follow patterns – all you have to do is print them, stick them together and cut them out, no measuring required!

Here are some of the adorable patterns available in the Etsy shop:

3 easy ways to enter:

1 – leave a comment below

2 – ‘like’ my facebook page (over there on the right) and let me know you have done so

3 – choose a pattern from ‘Sew Sweet Patterns’ and let me know your favourite in the comments section below.

The winner will be drawn during the 2nd week of December so a nice little Christmas treat!! The patterns will be emailed over you.

 

First frost and our Advent Calender

I woke up yesterday and opened the kitchen bling to see that we had a very frosty night the night before.

Every year when I see the first frst it always reminds me of my niece, ‘A’; When she was much younger she looked out or the window and very matter-of-factly said ‘oh, he’s been to visit’. I asked who ‘he’ was and sahe replied by saying ‘Jack Frost?!’

I love fresh frosty mornings and the feeling of Winter and the festive season so much, I love the feeling of being warm and snug inside when it looks so cold outside. I decided it was a good morning to put up the lovely advent calender for this year too…. hurry up December the 1st I want to put the Christmas music on!!

Clay

After seeing so many ‘pins’ of cute handprints made by little toddlers I decided that I needed to get some air-drying clay for ‘T’ and I to make some things out of. She absolutely loves playing with her play-doh so I thought this would appeal to her (which it did, a lot!) Here are some of the ideas I got from Pinterest (click here to see my boards if you would like to see the websites they are from):

We did several hand prints and a couple of foot prints. She was so proud of the foot ones and kept saying ‘ook’ (look) and pointing to them. It’s so nice to be able to do these activities with her now and I’m really enjoying the almost conversations that we are having, I know it won’t be long before she’s chatting away to herself constantly.

Once the prints have dried we will paint them. Will update in this space once we have the finished pieces!

A crafty week

I’ve been busy adding some more goodies to my Etsy store this week. I’ve made a donut, a couple of fish and a lollipop. I used a different type of felt for the lollipop though I much prefer working with the 100% wool felt. I also finally finished off a little tunic too and thought I would add a dress to the collection. I finished it ages ago and I have spent months deciding if I should list it on Etsy or dress my girl in it. Judging by the amount of hardly worn pinafores that my little girl already has I decided it best to list it in my store! :

Have you entered in the giveaway yet? NO?? Make sure you do! – You have a chance to get your hands on a great trio of cleaning priducts from Natural and Clean – click here for the giveaway………there’s nothing to lose!

And head over to ‘Handmade Monday’ too to catch up with some more crafty bloggers.

I’ve got a few patterns here for some other things too – I think I’m going to start on a super sweet pair of baby shoes next. Hope you’ve all had a good week too!

WINNER! : Bubba Boom ‘Rockin Robin T-shirt’

I have used random.org to randomly generate a winner for the adorable little Bubba Boom Baby ‘Rockin robin Christmas T-shirt and the winner is ‘domestic diva!’

Don’t forget to head over to take a look at the other gorgeous T-shirts and goodies they have for sale……….

Here are  just a few of the adorable designs they have (plus the are all made of super soft great quality fair trade organic cotton) ……………

this moment……….

{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. – soulemama

(feel free to add a link to your own ‘this moment’ in the comment section below)

Beds!

‘Beds!’ is what ‘T’ shouts at me excitedly several times a day………….. she has lately been playing ‘beds’ which is where I have to go to bed and she says ‘shhhh’ to make me go to sleep and then after a few seconds shouts ‘bay-gak!’ (wake-up!) for me to wake up – she NEVER tires of this game and sometimes it can go on and on!

She loves to be snuggled up in our big cosy bed. She has only ever slept in our bed during the first few weeks of her life but she loves being in our bed. I feel very lucky to be able to have the time to sometimes just slow down and enjoy the little things in life as ‘T’ learns about them.

Love you ‘T’, so much xxxx

Dolly walks

A recent favourite activity for little ‘T’ is simply taking Dolly for a walk in her pushchair. I picked the dolly up at a charity store and the pushchair was from freecycle so they are perfect for taking out and about without worrying too much about them getting grubby.

We walk to a park nearby us sometimes, it only takes about 5 minutes if you walk at an average pace but it’s an hour round trip with Dolly in the pushchair.

T loves to show the ducks to the Dolly and last week she saw a snail, stopped and got Dolly out of the pram and said ‘oook Dolly…..nail!’. Oh that melted my heart!!

Sometimes it’s just the simple things that are the most interesting for these little ones and just stopping to look at asnail and go for a walk is so enjoyable for ‘T’, which makes it enjoyable for me too 🙂

Tofu stir-fry with ginger and garlic

Here’s a quick and easy mid-week meal which my little girl loves plus it’s healthy too and cheap to make as well!

Ingredients:

1 x pack Tofu (pressed and cubed)

Wholemeal udon noodles (though any would do) – enough for 3

2 x cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 x clove sized pieces of fresh ginger, finely chopped

1 x teaspoon lemon juice

4 x teaspoon soya sauce

3 x eggs

1 x teaspoon coriander

1 x finely sliced onion

1 x chopped capsicum pepper

1 x cup of chopped mushrooms

Glug of sesame oil

Glug of honey

Method:

Add to a pan half of the sesame oil and wait until very hot. Add in some of the soya sauce and cook the tofu until crispy, once nearly done add in some honey and cook for around a minute. Take out of the pan and dry on some kitchen towel to absorb the oil.

Add to the same pan the rest of the oil and whisked egg and cook until scrambled. Add in the rest of the ingredients and cook for a few minutes, add in the tofu at the end once the rest is nearly cooked and serve!