a moment

Following this post by soulemama, here's my moment in time, happy weekend

snug

I needed a baby present fast and I immediately thought of this post by craftykin. I have a stack of felted thrifted woollens perfect for turning into these little snug pants. They were so quick and easy to make, thanks to an excellent tutorial. These pants were made from a beautifully soft Esprit top that is a mix of merino and angora, lucky baby. I wish I had pants like that for winter. Now just to work out how to make some for my nearly four year old.

jack be very little

This is the one and only pumpkin to come out of my garden this year. It's a Jack be little variety and no it's not meant to be quite that little! I grew some last year and had much more success. I'm not too sure what went wrong as the plant looked very healthy and lots of pumpkins formed. They did however all shrivel up and fall off and this one didn't grow too much at all. I planted them in a different spot this year and maybe it didn't get quite as much sun or not enough water. Miss E thinks it's perfect for playing kitchen with, and she's right, I don't think it's perfect for much else. I hope I have better luck next year.

on my lap

I few weekends ago I heard Wendyl Nissen on talk back radio talking about her homemade cleaning recipes and she had me hooked. A quick look on her website wendylsgreengoddess and all the great recipes there left me wanting more, so I bought her book. I'm not disappointed.
There are loads of natural recipes for cleaning in there and some great tips for sustainable living. I was initially drawn to her oven cleaning recipe that you can find here, I hate cleaning the oven and it's a job that is mostly left to my husband as I often get a headache from the smell of oven cleaner. I was so surprised how well the baking soda and washing soda worked and there was no nasty chemicals and no scrubbing. So now I'm hooked on replacing all my cleaners to more natural ones. I've been making my laundry powder for some time now and wouldn't go back to store bought, even though it requires a little more effort. The added bonus of all of these green recipes is most of them work out much cheaper than the store bought equivalents.

figlicious

I'm excited, my little fig tree is bearing it's first real crop of figs. Figs I found out recently are not in fact a fruit but actually an inverted flower, that is why they just appear like magic on the branches. It's also probably why, when perfectly ripe taste like sweet ambrosia. I have to beat the birds to them as the second photo shows (and the ladybirds too). I have grand plans to have enough figs to make fig chutney but realistically that is a few years off yet, I'd need to have quite a few ready all at the same time. But for now I'm enjoying just one or two a day, straight off the tree while I take a stroll around the garden (well a few steps really, it's a small garden).

inspired

I was inspired by this post from Melissa of tiny happy to make a necklace with some wooden beads that I've had for a long time. They were from a bracelet that broke, instead of threading them on fabric like she did, I crocheted them on some green cotton. The photo doesn't really show much detail but I crocheted the necklace long so it can wrap a couple of times around my neck and still hang long.

We have been enjoying some vegetable fritters here for a few weeks, I grate a couple of zucchinis and squeeze out the excess moisture, grate a cup or so of carrot, beat in an egg or two and about a handful of breadcrumbs. Mix it all together and cook in a fry pan with a tiny bit of olive oil. You can add lots of other vegetables in there too especially if carrot isn't your thing. They are quite plain (the kids love them like this) but they can be spiced up with some curry powder or served with a spicy sauce. I'm amazed how fast they disappear from the plates, a great way to get a few more vegetables into our diets. Our favourite thing to serve them with is homemade garlic pizza bread, yum. I must post that recipe soon.

I grate the vegetables on the finest grade on my grater so the cook a little more quickly and have a finer texture that the children find appealing.

adventure

It's been a busy week with a real sense of adventure in our lives. We were caught out in a summer rainstorm on our walk home from preschool. It was really heavy rain that quickly filled the gutters along the side of the road and the pavement started to get covered in water too. Without proper wet weather gear we quickly became soaked, our summer shoes waterlogged and slippery. They were quickly discarded, walking barefoot the rest of the way home, splashing in every large puddle we came across. Had it been the middle of winter it would have been a miserable experience but being the middle of summer the temperature was still high and we loved every minute of it (me perhaps more than miss E, it's not often I get to splash in puddles). Needless to say it was raining too hard for photos although I was very tempted.

A few days later on a walk we spotted a tree covered in cicada shells, miss E (nearly 4) had never seen so many of them in one place before. We quickly gathered them all up and I mean ALL of them, apparently we couldn't leave any of them behind, "they are a family and must stay together". They were her special news when I was mother help at preschool the next day. I love how her news is always nature inspired or handmade things, like they are the most newsworthy for sharing, and rightly so.

I love to watch all the wonder and excitement caused by these simple little adventures, they cost nothing, and mean the world to me.

drought

I haven't been in the mood for sewing for what seems like the longest time, so to try and get my self out of this sewing drought I made this little dress for miss E. The fabric (a skirt) was a bargain thrift find, I love toile fabric and I was so disappointed that the skirt wasn't my size. But the upside was that there was enough fabric to make something for miss E. The pattern is New Look 6639 with a size range of 3-8. I bought the pattern well over a year ago, cut out the paper but never made one. I have been know to do this quite often, so this year I'm aiming to sew some more patterns that I've bought but never tried. It was a hit with the little one, although I imagined her wearing it with a top underneath, suitable I hope for both summer and winter. Now the drought has been broken I am ready to open the flood gates with loads of sewing projects lined up.

from the weekend

I tend to find a recipe that I love, make it lots, then forget about it for months and months as a new recipe takes it place. Many years ago I used to make these caramel and pecan swirls quite often on a weekend as they are a favourite of my husband. At a loss as what to make this weekend I discovered the recipe, handwritten on a scrap of paper (probably copied out in a hurry at some waiting room) and thought why haven't I made these in ages? They are best served warm soon after they come out of the oven, delicious, I wish we still had some left!

3 cups flour
3 t baking powder
80g butter
1 1/4 Cups buttermilk ( I often use half and half normal milk and unsweetened yogurt rather than buy buttermilk especially for this recipe)
1/3 C brown sugar
1 C pecans, roughly chopped ( I just break them with my fingers into smaller pieces)
extra 40g butter cut in small pieces

Caramel glaze
20g butter
1/3 C brown sugar
1 Tablespoon water

1: Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Line a shallow baking tin with baking paper. Sift the flour and baking paper in a large bowl. Using your finger tips rub in the butter. Make a well in the centre and add the buttermilk. Stir with a flat edged knife until well combined and a soft dough is formed.
2: Turn the dough out on a lightly floured surface and knead quickly until smooth. Roll out the dough to a 1cm thick rectangle, measuring 36 x 21cm. Sprinkle with sugar over the top of the dough. Top with pecans and extra butter.
3: Carefully roll up the dough from the longest side. Using a sharp knife cut through the roll to form 12 rounds. Put the rounds close together on the prepared tin. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until crisp and browned. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Brush each swirl with caramel glaze.
4: To make caramel glaze: Put the butter, water and sugar in a saucepan and stir to combine. Simmer, stirring for 3-4 minutes until the mixture is smooth and the sugar dissolves.