KID'S TRAVEL ACTIVITY ORGANISERS

I remember going places as a child with my 'busy bag'. Mum put together a bag for myself and my sister that contained a little doll, pencils and paper, a puzzle, and I forget what else. We loved playing with them: on holidays, at people's houses, at church. Sometimes we'd ask Mum to get them out for us to play with at home.

When preparing for our recent trip to Sydney I decided that we needed a variation of this for on the plane.  All four girls would need to be occupied for a considerable time, with only their tray table to work on.  Here is what I made up for them:

I filled them with notebooks, puzzle/colouring books, stickers, a new book [picture book or novel], a few coloured pencils, a lead pencil and rubber.  They were a hit.  I whipped up four over two evenings, no sweat.  And the best part is, they can be used over and over at church, when waiting in the car, other holidays. 

I will post a tutorial soon.  I'm thinking I may need my own, it's just the right size to fit in my bag, and better than any organiser I've ever owned.  You could customize it with pockets etc. to suit your own needs.

THE GREAT WEED BATTLE

At the moment I am at war.  It's not pretty.  This morning I suffered my first injury.  But I'll be back tomorrow to continue my advance.

6 or 7 weeks ago I began the long journey to getting my front garden from work site to garden.  I planted 35 baby rose bushes with the intention of them becoming a hedge in a year or three.  Then we got sick.  I mean, all my girls and me.  Really sick.  Influenza.  It was unpleasant and has taken until now for us to all be over it.

During that time we have had a smidgen of rain, the roses got a bit of water from a hose if Mr E or I remembered, and it has become spring.  Beautiful, sunny warm days and the nights are warming up too. 

Being a pretend gardener [I'm VERY new to all this] I had thought I would come back and mulch my new babies in the school holidays which is now, and all would be well, no weeds, no problems.

Ahem.

I do not like weeds.   At all.

While I was pulling weeds and getting scratched by thorns and crawling around on all fours this morning a passing walker commented "I had no idea there were roses in there".

I have been out early attacking the weeds 3 mornings now.  I am not yet halfway.  This time I am mulching as I go.  On the up side, being outside in the garden between 5.30 and 6.30am is lovely, and a great opportunity to pray and think.

I have no doubt that the victory will be mine.  Hopefully soon.  Did I mention that I do not like weeds?

Miss 2's birthday cake

Miss 2 is into dogs and puppies. Really into them. We don't have a dog. But she does have a stuffed dog teddy. He gets carried around the house and taken out in the car most days. Reading books containing dogs is also a favourite thing of hers to do. And each time we see a dog while out driving, or on tv, she gets really excited. For a little girl who doesn't talk yet, we know she loves dogs. So it was easy to decide what birthday cake to choose for her - Spot the dog.

I used my new favourite gluten free cake recipe: the gluten free madiera [pound] cake, but I made it with vanilla extract rather than orange. It was so delicious, that ALL OF THIS CAKE GOT CONSUMED within 2 days. Usually my birthday cakes get eaten for a day or two but I throw the rest away as it goes stale and yukky.

Heat Wheats - another UFO done [including tips for making your own]

I bought a bag of wheat from our local produce seller ages ago.  I had intended to make heat wheats, new heat packs. But like so many UFO's I never go there.  I was trying to find a place to put the large, rather in-the-way bag of wheat today, when I decided it would be quicker to make some up than try to find a home for the heavy bag of wheat.  I was right.

 This is a shoulder/neck heat pack.  My previous one was a lovely maroon corduroy, but it had seen better days.  Aren't these lovely cotton prints?  When feeling sore, I think they have the potential to bring a smile to my face.

Miss 8 also decided to help me out.  Here are the two that she made:

If you decide to make your own heat packs at home, there are a couple of tips I've learned over the years I've been making them:
1. Sewing channels every so often while filling your pack make it work better - you don't end up with all the wheat down one end.
2. Spritz with water or put a glass of water in the microwave when you heat it up.  Otherwise they could catch fire.  VERY IMPORTANT.
3. Add dried lavender with the wheat when filling for a lovely aroma when it's heated.
4. Make up in a few different shapes for the different purposes you need them.
5. They work really well as bed warmers in winter - instead of hot water bottles or electric blankets.  Make a soft pillowcase for one out of polar fleece you can throw over after it's warmed.  My kids sometimes cuddle them on a cold night!!

FINISHING UFO'S

While moving into my 'new' sewing room, I found a huge number of UFO's I had stockpiled in different boxes in the shed. There is a huge amount of guilt associated with UFO's, and I did not want them hanging over my head as I started new projects in my new room. So I have been working hard at getting them out of the way. There were two bag-along bags I started out with last year, and never finished, one above, and this one here:

This bag has an alternate colourway on the other side:

It felt good to get these out of the way, they are stiffened with buckram, which I have never used before, so it was a great learning experience to learnn how to use it. I think I'm ready to use it to stiffen a hat brim now [which was my purpose for trying it in these bags].

Gluten free orange cakes

I thought I'd try a new recipe, for cupcakes, the other week. It's one I've been wanting to trial for a while now. It is for madiera or pound cake [as the Americans call it]. I found it worked brilliantly, in fact, other than being a little dry, I could not tell it was gluten free.

GLUTEN FREE MADEIRA CAKE
1 cup white rice flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup tapioca flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
170g butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup milk
3 eggs
the zest of one orange, finely grated
1 tablespoon fresh orange juice

Preheat oven to 180 C.
Cream butter and sugar together with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well between each addition.
Measure dry ingredients into a bowl, use a hand whisk to combine.
Add dry ingredients. Mix until well incorporated.
Spoon into cupcake cases, and bake for 15-20 minutes, until cakes spring back to the touch.


Ice with butter cream icing flavoured with orange juice [used instead of milk/cream for liquid]. Sprinkle with chocolate shavings.

MY FAVOURITE GLUTEN FREE PEANUT BUTTER BISCUITS

Oh how I LOVE these cookies. I eat far too many of them at once. I prefer them cold, out of the fridge, so the chocolate is hard and provides a textural difference to the biscuit crumb. This batch I made with crunchy peanut butter [it was all I had in the pantry] and the extra crunch of peanut pieces was lovely. I don't think I'll go back to smooth peanut butter for these.

GLUTEN FREE PEANUT BUTTER BISCUITS

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup castor sugar

1 egg

1 cup dark chocolate chips

Mix all ingredients in a bowl by hand with a spoon. Form into small cookies. Place on a baking tray and bake at 180 C for approximately 10 minutes. DO NOT ALLOW TO OVERCOOK. Cool on the tray and store in an airtight container in the fridge.

RETRO APRON

The next project for my sewing circle girls [the ladies I'm teaching to sew] is a ruffled half-apron. It's so cute to wear. I feel like a real 1950's housewife. It's a lovely apron to wear over jeans, like putting on a pretty skirt when I cook.

I drafted the pattern myself and will post it if anyone is interested.

FUNKY GROCERY BAGS

A very long time ago I decided to work through a sewing book I own "One Yard Wonders" page by page. Then I realised that I didn't WANT to make all the projects in the book, and my To Do list is so long as it is, I should only make the things I want to. My first project from the book was a grocery tote, which I gave to a friend. I liked it so much that I decided to make a whole heap for myself, because I like the idea of making myself fabric bags I can keep clean, and that make me smile when I use them.

I cut them out at least a year ago and then didn't do anything about it... another UFO. So instead of trying to find a place to keep them, all cut out, I decided to sew them up and store them with my grocery bags. It was a pleasure to use them when I did the groceries last week.