Confessions of a slack tooth fairy

The tooth fairy has made an appearance at our house twice in the last three days. The first time she was well prepared. She even found the time to reply to a sweet little note left for her. The second time her services only became required late in the evening after a school event where all her gold coins were donated. What was she to do? A little girl was asleep dreaming about a magical night visitor who would take her tooth leaving in its place a shiny gold coin. She did what any tooth fairy would have done. She found the shiny gold coin from two nights earlier and used that as payment {again}. Let's just hope that all the excitement from having had the magical visitor distracts one little one long enough to acquire another shiny gold coin.

a long time

It has been a while.
A long while.
Last time I wrote I was still in the early days of growing this sweet boy inside me. He turned one not so long ago.
I even forgot my password. But I forget alot of things.
I have been craving this space of late. Craving an outlet for my thoughts. The same reason that I started this blog but different.
This blog is for me. To record and remember the simple things that make my life rich. The things I would forget. The things that I don't want to forget. This blog is also for a little bit if my ramblings.
I look forward to spending more time here.

When the sun shines....

....my daughter makes scarecrows....

...to scare away the crows from the strawberry flowers that we just discovered....

...and then she made a couple more....

....to keep the birds away from our sunshine filled picnic.

I love seeing the changing of the seasons through my children's eyes, something I never thought twice about before they came into my life.

KCWC ~ doily dress

I have had the idea for this dress in my head for a very long time know and KCWC was the push I needed to give it a go.
I have not been able to get my daughter to stop long enough to model this dress so a coat hanger picture will have to do. As always it sits a little different on her then it does on the hanger {I am sure she will want to wear it to church again this week so I might try and get a photo then}.
I didn't use a pattern so there was alot of improvising along the way. It didn't turn out quite like I had envisaged but I am still happy with it {and so is my daughter which is all that is really important}.
The doilies are from the op shop {this could have easily been called op shop challenge} and I have had the fabric, which I think is chambray for a while {about as long as this dress idea has been in my head}. The dress fabric is also brown not grey as it looks in the photo, though grey would be cute too. This is the first dress that I have made with a zip and I am really happy with it and how easy it was, though I am sure it I did not put it in the conventional way but it works and doesn't look bad.

That is KCWC for me wrapped up.

KCWC ~ raglan tops for my little ones

I made both my little ones a raglan sleeve shirt using an Ottobre pattern.
Hers ~ floral print from op shop ladies shirt.
His ~ navy and robot fabric from op shop men's shirt. With his little robot on clothes obsession the raw edge robot applique means I know he will be happy to wear it.

KCWC show and tell~ robot pants

I made my little man some long pants as well. At the moment he has a little obsession with robots on his clothes and pockets so he is pretty happy to wear these pants {which is why it has taken me so long to post them as they get dirty before I get a photo}. The main fabric is from a pair of men's pants from the op shop that I bought to make little satchel bags for the children with {I still have the pockets so I may get around to it....one day}. I just used a shorts pattern which I extended. The crotch is pretty baggy which is not the worst thing because of his cloth nappy but I think I will need to tweak or maybe make the size smaller next time.

They have robot side and hip pockets as well as a robot waistband.

a recipe~ chocolate mudcake

A couple of years ago I made this cake all the time; it was my never fail-go to desert recipe. Last week was my brothers birthday and he only had one request, could I please make him one of my mudcakes? Here is the recipe.

Chocolate Mudcake

Preheat oven to 150 degrees Celsius and grease and line a large round (I use 28cm) springform cake pan.

In a large pot over a low heat melt together (stirring regularly)

250 grams good quality dark cooking chocolate

200 grams butter

1 tablespoon chocolate nesquick

2 cups white sugar

1 1/2 cups water

Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly before mixing in (I use a whisk)

1 1/2 cups self raising flour

1/4 cup of cocoa

2 eggs

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

Bake for 1 hr 15 min

I find this cake is really sweet and does not need icing, just a dusting of icing sugar and a big dollop of  double cream.

Enjoy.