.FAB FROCKS!.

Introducing a new Make It Perfect pattern....FAB FROCKS!

Fab Frocks are two stunning yet simple dresses for little girls who like to play in style.
The Swing Dress features thin straps tied at the shoulders...
while the Party Girl Dress is made with thicker shoulder straps, secured with large buttons.

Quick and simple to sew up, making a few of these in your favourite fabrics will be no hassle at all.
Layer the dresses over a t-shirt or long sleeved top and tights to wear them all year long! You can easily turn The Swing Dress and Party Girl Dress into tunic tops by simply making the skirt a little shorter!

Head over to the Make It Perfect website to see more photos and check out the fabric requirements for Fab Frocks.

If you have a store and want to stock this or any other Make It Perfect patterns, contact Creative Abundance to place an order.

If you would like to purchase a copy of Fab Frocks for yourself, they should be popping up in retail stores very soon. Ask your favourite store to get one in for you!

Thankyou once again to Eden Lane Photography for capturing these images so perfectly!
Would you like to win a copy of Fab Frocks? Well, we better have a giveaway!

To be in the draw, leave a comment on this post. For a bonus entry, post about this giveaway on your blog, then come back and leave another comment letting me know that you have blogged about it!

(Giveaway will close Wednesday 20th January and winner will be drawn via a random number generator.)

.Christmas Sewing: Play School Library Bags.

When I got word that my nephew was attending school using a green enviro supermarket bag as a library bag, I knew what I should make him for Christmas!

I used my Play School library bag pattern to make this for Mason...And seeing as Maya is starting school too this year, I made one for her aswell...
I'm sure the kids weren't thrilled with their gifts, but their Mum was! They serve a useful purpose at least!

SUPPLIES:
Mason's Bag -
Sprout Design One Fish, Two Fish in Red/Blue
Red linen
Jennefer Moore Mingle, Circles in Espresso
Blue homespun
Red spot - unknown
Maya's Bag -
Amy Schimler Creatures and Critters, Tropical Snails in pink
Yellow spot - unknown
Erin McMorris Park Slope, Leaf Dots in Green
Valori Wells Olive Rose, Curves in Red
Amy Butler Midwest Modern, Fresh Poppies in Rose

.Introducing the DECK.

There has been some hard yakka going on during Jaron's holiday from work during the last week and a bit...his grand plan is to build a deck off the side of our house. I have to admit I doubted that he would be able to pull it off without any major problems in the beginning ;) but he has done an AWESOME job! And he has built the whole thing all by himself. Who said architects don't know anything about building?!

I haven't posted pics of the house since the outside cladding has been on - here it is! Don't mind the colour, it is ALL going to be painted. A few people have commented that our colour choice is "interesting" thinking that these are the colours we choose for the exterior! Hopefully the painters will start on that this week and I'll be able to post some more photos then.
The deck is going to be really big. I'm excited. It will be a great area for playing, eating, entertaining, etc. and easily visible from all of the living area windows.The other thing I really like about it is the privacy it will give us from the street and side neighbours. The fence between our house and theirs is quite low and you can easily see into our living areas from their side. Jaron is building the deck so that it extends up the fence and also along the front side of the house - so that it will be a fence/wind breaker.
He is also building in bench seats around the two walls of the deck. This will be great as it will mean that we won't need to fork out for an outdoor setting and there will be heaps of bench space for people to sit when we have visitors. (And lots of space to lie down with a few cushions and a good book on a sunny day!)
He has done heaps during his time off. All of the framework is finished and he has started putting the decking boards into place today. Hopefully it will be all done by the time we move in (only 4 or 5 weeks!!) as the rest of the yard won't be finished and will be nice to have a clean area for the kids to happily play outside.And I had to take this photo as proof that it is all level... :)

.Recipe Monday.

This is the pav that I made for Christmas Eve dessert. YUM! I Love a good pavlova :)

PAVLOVA
6 egg whites
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
pinch cream of tartar
300ml thickened cream, whipped
strawberries, kiwi fruit, bananas, Ferrero Rochers to decorate

Preheat oven to 120 degrees Celsius. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Mark a 23cm circle on the paper.
Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Add caster sugar. Beat for 10 minutes or until sugar has dissolved.
Add cream of tarter, beat for 1 minute.
Spoon mixture into circle on tray. Using a spatula, shape into a circle with high sides. Make "furrows" up the sides.
Bake for 1 hour or until firm. Turn off oven. Allow to cool in oven with door slightly ajar.
Top pavlova with whipped cream, fruit and chocolates. Serve.

.Goodbye 2009.

A few favourite photos and moments from 2009...Happy New Year!!!

.Picking Berries.

This week has been perfect for holidays. We have been trying to make the most of the week and a half Jaron has off work over Christmas/New Years and have been blessed to have lots of beautiful warm, sunny days.

The house is well under way now and Jaron's "holiday project" is to build as much as he can of our deck. He didn't want to miss out on hanging out with the family though so we have formed a loose routine for the week. He wakes up earlyish (7am) and spends the morning working then comes home around 10am for 3 or 4 hours. We have been trying to take the kids out and do different things each day, today was really warm and we went to the pool - something I can't do on my own with the three of them! Lil still has a day nap, so while she is sleeping Jaron goes back and does some more work on the deck and then comes home around 4pm and we have been going to the beach for a play and swim before dinner. Then after all of that he heads back to the deck until it gets dark around 9:30pm! The deck is progressing nicely, as fast as it can when it is a one man show - will share some photos soon.

Our kids are big berry lovers so yesterday we decided to take them out berry picking. There is a pick-your-own strawberry farm about 25 minutes from our house (at Turners Beach) that we drove to only to find that they were closed for a few days over the holidays! So, back home we drove to a berry farm that is a 2 minute drive from our house!! The last time we picked berries here was 2 years ago and we turned up only to find out that they don't do "pick-your-own" anymore!! The man who owns the farm must have seen the disappointment in our faces and said to us, "oh, come on then...there's an overgrown patch out the back that hasn't been picked for a week - eat your hearts out!" We were very lucky!!

Oscar was determined to find the biggest strawberry...Lil was determined to eat as many as possible...
Then they discovered the raspberries and there was no stopping them!
We had the missionaries for dinner so shared our pick with them accompanied by cream, icing sugar and ice cream!

YUM! I LOVE SUMMER!!!

.Christmas Sewing: Birdie Slings.

With the Christmas gifts given, I can share some my Christmas sewing now! First up, bags...three Amy Butler Birdie Slings, to be precise. I really love this pattern, love the size and shape of the bag. Mine goes everywhere with me...big enough to use as a nappy bag or just for me. (I like big bags!)

This one for my sister-in-law, Whitney:This one for my sister, Carli:
And this one for my Mum:
I lined the bag with fabric I stamped and used for a table cloth at AQM last year! I have 4m of it and am not likely to use it again so thought I should put it to good use! It looked pretty cute, but I forgot to take a picture.

SUPPLIES:
Whitney's Bag - Anna Maria Horner Good Folks, Small Gathering in Sea
Amy Butler Midwest Modern 2, Honeycomb in Forest
Carli's Bag - Amy Butler Lotus, Morning Glory in Linen
Amy Butler Lotus, Full Moon Polka Dots in Cherry
Mum's Bag - Paula Prass Summer Soiree, Centerpiece in Gray
Paul Prass Summer Soiree, Mints in Gray

.Recipe Monday.

I am kind of addicted to making homemade marshmallow at the moment. It is cheap, easy and delicious! The original slice recipe used a different marshmallow recipe but I like the one I have made before, so used that instead. There is a bit of left-over marshmallow so you can either reduce it a bit or spread it in another dish to set on its own.

Rice Bubbles and Marshmallow Slice
180g white chocolate, chopped and melted
2 1/2 cups rice bubbles
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
2/3 cup hot water
2 Tbs gelatine
2/3 cup cold water
1 tsp vanilla essence
pink food colouring
100s & 1000s

Mix melted white chocolate and rice bubbles together. Spread into the base of a baking paper-lined slice tin. Place in the fridge to set.
Grease and line a large slice tin.
Place sugar and hot water in saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until sugar dissolves and syrup is clear.
Place gelatine in a bowl and our over cold water. Use a hand whisk to combine. Pour gelatine mixture into hot sugar syrup and cook, stirring constantly, until the gelatine has dissolved and mixture is clear. Set aside to cool to room temperature.
Pour cooled mixture into a large bowl and use electric beaters on high to beat for 5-10 minutes or until the mixture is very thick. Add the vanilla and pink colouring and beat to combine.
Quickly spread marshmallow over rice bubble base and sprinkle 100s & 1000s over the top.
Leave to set for an hour then slice into squares with a wet knife.

.Christmas 2009.

Christmas just seems to get more and more fun the older my children get. Every year they "get it" a bit more and are extra excited. This year Oscar was really excited...lucky for us he isn't a 4:30am waker, like some other children I know (YUCK!) and we got a lovely sleep in until 7:30am on Christmas morning!

The celebrations begin on Christmas Eve for our family. We seem to have this habit of making special holidays drag on as long as we can (Easter Bunny visits our home for four days over the Easter weekend!). A few years ago we decided to have our hot roast meal on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas Day. It works out really well, means that we can spend Christmas Eve together as a family and also that there isn't as much hot, busy cooking and cleaning to do on Christmas Day and we can all relax and enjoy it a bit more.

This year was a quiet Christmas for us, just Mum & Dad, Ty & Cade and our clan. It was nice though, I think Christmas is fun as long as you have kids around! We had our yummy roast turkey and ham meal on Christmas Eve and were totally and utterly stuffed for the rest of the night. Each year on Christmas Eve, Santa drives around our town on the back of a fire engine with carols blaring and throws lollies at the people waiting in the street. Lil thought this was the best thing ever and I think if this is all that happened for Christmas she would have been very happy! She has not stopped talking about how "Santa got my lollies" ever since! Check out Ty and Cade in the photo below - they had just spotted Santa coming up the street...yes, they are 19 and 22!!
Poor old Dad has warped sense of taste since being on new medication for his removed thyroid. Everything tastes metallic to him, but that didn't stop him getting excited about the big pav for dessert!
We woke up to a glorious Christmas day...sun streaming through the windows, we've had some yucky weather for Christmas the last few years so it was really nice to enjoy the day this year. Oscar and Lil were so excited to open their presents from Santa in the morning. We have a tradition of the kids opening the presents from Santa when we all get up and then waiting until around lunch time to open the presents from everyone else under the tree - yep, spreading out the fun again...
Mum, Dad and the boys came around for a gourmet breakfast - have you ever seen white raspberries? Check them out! They taste exactly the same as red ones, just a different colour. They reminded me a bit of maggots, but are really yummy!
I was a mean Mum and after we had read the Christmas story I made the kids sit in front of the tree for a photo! Oscar was not impressed!!! He had waited so patiently all morning though, I can't blame him!
Lil gave us a great Christmas present and has been toilet training on and off for the last couple of weeks. I held out buying her undies (yes, she wore Oscars!) though because I knew she would be really happy to open some on Christmas day - and she was! She has been really good and going to the toilet for the last 4 days - YAY! Hope she keeps it up, will be great to only have one in nappies!
Check out the t-shirt that Ty bought for Cade...go Twilight!
Oscar is crazy about all things Lego at the moment and was so happy to get three little sets. He it totally into building things and always chooses lego, train tracks, duplo, etc. over any other toys to play with.
And I had to post a picture of Lil with her Giddy-Up horse...she loves it and look at her new gold shoes (I really want a pair for me!) she will not take them off and stops to stare at them every couple of minutes! So completely cute!! Oscar likes his horse too but wouldn't open it up when it was present time. I asked him why not and he said it was because he already knew what it was and told me it was a horse. I asked him how he knew and he said "because I saw it on your blog" - WHAT THE?! Apparently he was walking by the computer when I was writing the blog post about them - I didn't even know that he knew what a blog was!!
After the presents we went down to the beach for a swim and a play, then home for the little ones to have a nap. Followed by an early dinner of cold meats, prawns, salads, cheeses, dips, breads, fruit and other yummy goodies! It was such a fun day - definitely goes too fast, but I guess it wouldn't be as exciting if Christmas came more than once a year! We are lucky to have Jaron home for a bit over a week now so really looking forward to enjoying some fun activities together as a family.

.Recipe Monday.

Sharing the recipes I used to make our Christmas treats this year...there is still time to do some Christmas cooking if you haven't already!!

Oreo Truffles
I shared this recipe a couple of weeks ago - see it here

Peppermint Balls
This recipe came from One Crafty Mama's blog. She makes hers in a log shape, but I had a go at rolling the mixture into balls and they turned out really well.

3/4 tin condensed milk
1 packet chocolate ripple biscuits
1 large bag of peppermints (the hard, powdery kind of ones - XXX, oddfellows, etc...I used homebrand!)
1 Tbs cocoa
Coconut

Crush the biscuits with a rolling pin or in a food processor.
Crush the peppermints into little pieces. (I tried doing this in the food processor but they were too hard and wouldn't break into pieces so ended up wrapping them in a tea towel and going outside and banging them with a hammer on the concrete like Melissa suggests - such a good idea!!)
Mix condensed milk, crushed biscuits, crushed peppermints and cocoa together.
Wet your hands slightly and roll the mixture into balls, then roll in coconut and place in the fridge to firm.

No Bake Apricot Balls
This recipe also came from One Crafty Mama. We used to make similar balls growing up, but without the biscuits so they were very sweet. The biscuits were a nice addition and helped them to set better too.

1 tin condensed milk
1 cup finely chopped dried apricots
1 packet milk arrowroot biscuits, crushed
Cococnut

Mix condensed milk, apricots and biscuits together.
Roll into small balls then roll in coconut.
Place in the fridge to firm.

Homemade Marshmallow
Don't be scared to try making these...they are super easy and delicious!

1 1/2 cups caster sugar
2/3 cup hot water
2 Tbs gelatine
2/3 cup cold water
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 cups coconut

Grease and line a large slice tin.
Place sugar and hot water in saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until sugar dissolves and syrup is clear.
Place gelatine in a bowl and our over cold water. Use a hand whisk to combine. Pour gelatine mixture into hot sugar syrup and cook, stirring constantly, until the gelatine has dissolved and mixture is clear. Set aside to cool to room temperature.
Pour cooled mixture into a large bowl and use electric beaters on high to beat for 5-10 minutes or until the mixture is very thick. Add the vanilla and beat to combine.
Pour into prepared pan and leave in a cool place to set. Once set (about 1 hour) use a wet knife to cut into squares.
To toast coconut, heat a clean, dry frying pan over medium-high heat. Add coconut and cook, stirring constantly until coconut is golden.
Place toasted coconut in a bowl and add toss squares of marshmallow through the coconut to coat.

.Countdown to Christmas #20.

Tonight was our traditional "Gingerbread House" making night. We like the cheats version...using Milk Coffee biscuits. Not as tasty as gingerbread but much easier for me to prepare and the kids don't like gingerbread so I would be annoyed at all of the wastage if we were to make traditional houses! These are good too because they are mini so it means that everyone can make (and eat!!) their own.

I'm excited about this...I was reading this blog earlier in the week about their experience making gingerbread houses out of biscuits and discovered an AWESOME tip... if you have made these houses before you will know that it is a bit of a tedious task getting the biscuits to stand in proper formation using only icing. Walls falling down and roofs caving in are not fun when you have anxious children waiting to get into decorating! So, this year I made up a little bit of toffee mix and while it was still bubbling hot and runny (be careful!) dipped the sides of each biscuit into the syrup before joining them together. PERFECT! I told Carli about it and she did the same thing yesterday and was just as excited about the results. I highly recommend it. We used royal icing to decorate but once the houses are all stuck together with toffee you could use melted chocolate or regular icing. To make the toffee mixture I placed 1 cup of water and 2 cups of sugar in a saucepan and let it boil for about 10 minutes. Test a little bit of syrup by dropping it on the stainless steel sink or a plate or something else that is cool and if it sets then you are ready to roll!
Of course the lollies are the highlight for the kids! I like to control the amount of lollies they have and give them each an assortment to use rather than just open all of the bags and let them go crazy. (Mean Mum!)And Jaron couldn't follow the crowd this year, check out his award-winning architectural masterpiece! There was lot of precise biscuit measuring and cutting for this one...and the toffee was a breeze to help it stick together easily!

.Christmas Sewing: Giddy-Up!.

I said before that I have been doing lots of sewing lately, ready for Christmas. All of the other gifts are going to have to wait until after the 25th to be shared, but I can show you what I have just finished for Oscar and Lil...

A "Giddy-Up" horse each using a new Melly & Me pattern! You know how you see a pattern and know that you just have to make one? It was like that with this pattern. I thought it would be a long shot trying to get two of them finished the week before Christmas but they were pretty straight forward to put together. I think they took me three nights of sewing after the kids had gone to bed.

This one is Oscar's....
And this one for Lil...
Pretty cute, huh? I'm really pleased with how they turned out - now the problem will be trying to work out how to wrap them...
SUPPLIES
Oscar's horse:
Head - Amy Butler Midwest Modern, Garden Maze in Mustard
Pole/Ears - Heather Ross Lightning Bugs, Polka Dots in Orange/Brown
Reins - Prints Charming, Starburst in Aqua
Mane - As Above + Amy Butler Midwest Modern 2, Honeycomb in Forest
Lil's horse:
Head - Amy Butler Love, Sunspots in Tangerine
Pole/Ears - Amy Butler Midwest Modern 2, Garden Maze in Red
Reins - Heather Bailey Bijoux, Tiled Primrose in Yellow
Mane - As Above + Sandi Henderson Farmers Market, Henna Garden in Pink + Amy Butler Daisy Chain, Daisy Bouquet in Turquoise