Archives for "General"
Blueberry Pancakes
Miss S started listening to Audiobooks when she was about 18 months old. One of her favourites is Curious George Makes Pancakes.
It wasn’t until she was about 2.5 that she found out what pancakes were. I finally found the most wonderful scottish pancake recipe by Sophie Gray (here’s a link to the recipe on Craving Fresh). Add a handful of frozen blueberries to each pancake, a good pour of lemon honey or maple syrup…. yum… that’s usually what we have for breakfast most Saturdays.
Blueberry Pancakes
When we asked Miss S where blueberries came from, this is what she said:
Miss S: The Freezer.
Us: No.
Miss S: The Supermarket!
Us: No.. we’ll show you.
So, we decided to take a drive down to Ngatea to pick some blueberries.We made a day of it. Miss S was so excited about the fact that she could pick them off the bushes and straight into her little bucket. We all loved it (it was my first berry picking expedition too – the lone raspberry cane in our garden doesn’t count as we only get about 5 fruit each year).
Rows and rows of blueberry bushes
Yummy Fresh Blueberries
Methinks it’s time to make another trip. The 3 kgs we picked did not last very long – Miss S loves to snack on a bowlful of frozen ones every now and again.
And this leads on to the next post… Felt Blueberries and Pancakes!
Various projects
Well, it has been a busy couple of weeks. We’ve finally started working on the outside of the house. The deck got scrubbed and painted, The exterior of the house is about 3/4 painted. New baby gifts were made and distributed, books have been read, etc. Now that Mr K is back at work, we have to relegate the painting to weekends only. In which case, I had time to finish a few projects that I had been working on.
1) The ice cream dress:
The Ice Cream Dress
Miss S had been bugging me to make this dress for her since the pattern arrived in October (see post). I’ve since found out the reason why. As soon as I put the dress on her, she said “Where’s my ice cream, Mummy? This is the ice cream dress, so I get an ice cream.” Anyway, she picked the fabrics from my stash – I was a bit dubious at first, but they seem to work well together. I love the pockets, it was the first time I’ve made pockets and will definitely make them again.
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Dolly’s Bed
I read this post on fromanigloo.com, and thought, hmmm…. I’m going to give this a shot.
It has been many years since I’ve done wood work at school. And let me tell you, trying to saw a bit of wood by hand and have the edges nice, straight and neat is really REALLY hard. However, I wasn’t going to give up. And after a few afternoons in the garage (with Miss S who made lots of chalk pictures on the floor):
I present to you Dolly’s Bed.
It was so much fun, I made 3 more.
3 Dolly Beds, All In A Row
We had a blast, especially Miss S who found out that the 3 other beds were for her friends for Christmas. Mr K thought it was so cool that he started making something too. Perhaps that will be in the next post.
If you’d like to make a bed, here are the plans from ana-white.com. I’ve made some modifications to the ones I made as I didn’t get the exact wood sizes as specified – so the beds I made are single beds for 12-14 inch dolls.
fromanigloo.com have posted a few tutorials on how to make the Pillows & Pillowcases, Fitted Sheet & Quilt.
If you feel like giving this a try, go for it! It’s very satisfying to hammer in nails, to sand, paint, make a mess in the garage and not have to clean it up immediately. 
Patterns in the mail
I finally caved a bought the Ice Cream Dress pattern by Oliver + S (and the Birthday Party Dress pattern + a Heather Bailey pattern).
And they arrived in the mail today!
The package was wrapped like a gift:
Pretty polka dots
Isn’t that wonderful? I was so impressed!
See, I love this sort of thing. Some people might say, “What a waste of paper. Think of the trees!”. But I for one really enjoyed it. It’s probably something normal for them to do, but it made my day and made me feel happy. Maybe it’s just me being dotty about polka dots, or the pretty colour combination, but I loved it. It made me feel special even though it was not a present…. well, technically it was since Mr K paid for it.
To the owner of Bella + Vintage Chic, thank you for making my day and I wish you the very best for the future.
The patterns
Guess what came in the mail today?
I got something in the mail today. It was from hyggeligt fabrics. When I saw the package, I was so excited – the pattern is here! I skipped all the way back into the house. I’ve had my eye on this particular pattern for a few months and because of the competition on www.fromanigloo.blogspot.com, I’ve won one!
I tore into the envelope, and found this:
Sunday Brunch Jacket + Skirt Pattern
It was the Sunday Brunch jacket and skirt pattern.
I was deflated – they sent me my 2nd choice. Maybe they ran out of the ice cream dress pattern, who knows? It was rather disappointing not to get my 1st choice.
But no matter, I was still happy to get such a nice pattern and I will still get to make some really cool jackets out of it. I might just have to shell out the USD 16 (plus international shipping) for the ice cream dress pattern one of these days.
Thank you www.fromanigloo.blogspot.com and hyggeligt fabrics for running the wonderful competition!
Jigsaw puzzles
Miss S has discovered she likes jigsaw puzzles.
We were loaned a set of 2 train puzzles – an alphabet and a number train – and she decided that she would work on that on the kitchen floor while I cooked dinner one day. It was terrific – she completed the puzzle in 2 hours (meaning I had 2 WHOLE hours to cook in peace without someone hanging off one leg and wanting attention). And she didn’t need my help – except to show her how to put the first pieces together and look at the picture on the box as a reference point.
Now here lies the problem. Having completed the puzzle, we tidied up after she showed Mr K what she accomplished when he got home from work. A couple of days later, I asked if she wanted to play with it again. She said, “But I’ve already done it”.
So, I made her some “new” puzzles from some stuff we have in our house.
The 3 puzzles
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Outlines
Here’s a great idea (it was Mr K’s).
Cut out a big piece of paper and get your child to lie on top of it while you trace around his/her body. Give him/her a bunch of crayons and this will keep them occupied for ages! It’s also great to do when they have friends come over to play and they want to do some crafts. (Gives you a bit of a break as they are busy colouring in) .
Ladybugs
This is another paper activity that is a favourite with my daughter – paper lady bugs.
Yellow ladybugs
For 1 Ladybug:
“Girls”
We made linked paper dolls a while ago, and my daughter has never tired of them. In fact, she asks to make them again and again very often. She calls them “Girls”. These “Girls” won us a craft book from the huggies craft ideas competition. It’s an old classic, but it is so much fun. I think I had more fun than she did.
Paper Doll Chain