Today's Projects

Today Kimmy and Wolf came over.

The kids played and we did a bit of craft. 

I have been saving tins to mod podge so we did a little bit.

The conversations are unreal when we are doing this stuff.

Alot of laughing and stupidity.

We got a photo of us today, standing in front of the fabric piles and ironing board where the best work happens.  Now she has gone over to her sisters to bake cakes, for no reason, just for fun.  What a fun day she will have had!  p.s. they are entering my kitchen rules as a sister duo, lets hope they get in!

Here is my latest crochet project, this one will see me through till next winter I'd say.

It's a Lucy inspired from Attic 24 Granny Stripe Blanket.

I thought it would be a good way to use up some wool.  I am not thinking about the colour combinations, just using up wool but making sure there is enough to complete to rows in each colour at least.  It's pretty long, so we'll see how quickly I get bored with it. 

This is a crochet hat for Lilly.  It is a touch too big.

I finished this off when the kids were fishing the other night.  See where I ran out of light pink wool, nevermind I think the darker band looks ok.  And the flower was pure scraps, which I made up as I went, the centre is a little dodgy!

Here is the little boy in his new crochet hat he had to have.  His is plain blue 100% wool and fits like a glove.  I've got his size and pattern sorted just need to perfect Lilly's.

Pumpkin Festival

Today we went to Goomeri, to the Pumpkin Festival.

It was awesome!

On the way, I crocheted. 

And on the way home I crocheted. 

And now I am almost finished the front of my cushion! 

Will be revealed soon!

We watched the street parade.  This is the winning whopper of a pumpkin!

We saw horses, stock whips, drafthorses, working dogs, bands, old cars, pumpkin pagaent princesses...

Mum and I checked out the crafty section and saw some quilts including this gorgeous hexagon quilt, which was massive and the hex's were tiny.  Now... I haven't made many quilts so I'm not really in a position to be too critical BUT I would never ever spend a trillion hours hand piecing something like this and then machine quilt it with a revolting bright green thread in a pattern that just doesn't do anything for anyone! 

Machine quilting is def the way to go, but surely a nicer colour and pattern would have been better.

Here are the cute mini pumpkin themed quilts!

We ate pumpkin scones and pumpkin pie! 

This is pumpkin pie, it was good. 

They (the CWA type ladies) were very secretive about the recipe for pumpkin pie which kind of made me mad, cause I really didn't want their exact recipe, I just wanted to know if there was a pumpkin pie recipe in the special cook book they had for sale!

Me and my BFF Kimmy and the pumpkins! 

Our super cute kids enjoying the fairy floss.

Kimmy insisted on going in the famous Pumpkin Rolling Competition and she entered herself and her son Kai.  He chickened out (actually I think he realised his Mum is nuts)  so my boy Joey stepped up to the mark. Here he is trudging up 'Policeman's Hill' to the starting line.  All 680 of them lined up ready to roll their pumpkins!

And here they are with their tagged and numbered pumpkins getting marshalled! 

 It is big business and you can be disqualified for stepping over the yellow line!

Kimmy ready to roll, she was number 367!

And she is nuts, but I love her!

Joey and me waiting patiently, he was number 162!

The view down the hill from the starting line. 

Somewhere down there at the bottom is our family dodging flying pumpkins that hit gutters and got airborne!

Joey's pumpkin went well, flying down the middle then hurtling off to the left...

...and came to rest somewhere around here.  The policeman you maybe able to just see is standing nearby to the special yellow spot that marks $1000 if your pumpkin comes to rest right on it! 

No one won the $1000 this year!

We picked up 6 pumpkins! 

They are in pretty good condition too considering they were hurtled down a bitumen road.  Actually everyone picked up pumpkins.  I thought it was a bit wasteful at first, but every single pumpkin was taken away and we have pumpkin soup in the slow cooker ready for dinner tonight!

We loved the Goomeri Pumpkin Festival and have marked it in our calendar for next year!

Mango Macadamia and Caramel Cheesecake

This is really yummy, not sickly sweet at all and uses delicious fresh ingredients.

My best friend Kimmy makes this heaps, well she used to!

I have made 2 in the last couple of weeks since Mango's are good right now and we have a good supply of mac nuts too.

Mango Macadamia and Caramel Cheesecake

Base
1 pkt Marie biscuits crushed
125gm melted butter
Mix together and press into bottom of spring form tin (grease first). Refrigerate.

Filling
500gm phily cheese softened
1 cup cream
3/4 cup caster sugar
3 teaspns gelatine dissolved in 1/4 cup hot water
1 tin ready to serve caramel
1/2 cup crushed mac nuts
1 mango peeled and sliced up into wedges or you can use tinned mangoes
Beat phily cheese, add sugar and cream, beat together. Add gelatine mixture and mix well.

Assembly
Cover refrigerated biscuit base with a layer of caramel.
Sprinkle with 1/3 of the mac nuts and 1/3 of the mango wedges.
Pour over 1/2 of the filling mixture, add more caramel and swirl through
the filling with a knife lightly.
Sprinkle more mac nuts, add more mango wedges and then the remainder of the filling mixture.
Top with remainder of caramel and swirl through again, add remainder of mac nuts and mango. Set in fridge.

...and here is our lovely Mango tree, and again this year it flowered......look closer to see the flowers below...

...now look really closely (next picture) to see the baby Mangoes!

Yippee, last year the tree flowered but no fruit.

Lilly spotted the tiny green dots from my bedroom window, the tree is covered in them, lets see what happens!

This tree is also home to Mango Possum and Possum Cutie, our 2 resident Ringtail Possums. They have possum nests high in the top made of leaves and stuff, they look a bit like birds nests.

My New Favourite

Sandi Henderson has released her new fabric range!

Meadowsweet...

I love it!

I am so sorry Farmers Market, but you are out and this is in! Actually you will probably work together, so you can stay. I still have 2 metres of Vintage Cherries in my stash, one day I will hang it in my bedroom when the bedroom gets built...

This seems a bit more grown up but still so pretty. I love this combination (below) which Sandi says she has a dress combination cut out for herself in.

I have got a couple of favourites picked out, but a bit tricky to describe which ones for now without single images. And I have just had a teleconference with my best friend Kimmy discussing which ones we love the best, so Kelani you had better get these in stock ASAP! Please!

All images from Sandi's blog Portabellopixie.

Kaffe Fassett Bag and Zippered Pouch

Kimmy purchased this absolutely gorgeous fabric recently in Sydney with no particular project in mind. She wanted a Glam Green Bag lesson, so this is what we did.

we had the smallest bit left so made a zippered pouch using this tutorial, it took no time at all and is so handy inside these roomy bags.
I love this Kaffe Fassett fabric and we used a favourite small leopard print for the lining.

Sydney part Two

...here's a few quick pic's of Mothers Day in Sydney!

Tulips

my completely most favourite flower in the whole world, although these roses are up there! as are most things in Mum's garden.

But gee I love tulips especially when you see them in big bunches like this.

Moving on to the most deliciousness thing I've ever eaten on Mother's Day...

High Tea at the Queen Victoria Building.

Holy smokes was that the best thing I've ever had, nothing nothing was wrong or even a tiny bit wrong. We (Kimmy and I) sat in there for 1 1/2 hours savouring every treat on that plate, drinking 3 cups of tea each, watching all the goings on, marvelling at the sheer amounts of Old Country Roses strewn all over the room and most strangely having our voices change into new alter-ego's.... Sarndra and Sateen (the Prue and Trude type). Private joke.

We had sooooo much fun and spent too much money but gee we missed our children. Next Mothers Day I have promised Lilly and Mum I'll take them to Sydney for High Tea.

On the craft front here at the Mummy Made It house, its all crochet crochet crochet. I have done 2 beanies for Lilly, which are too small, they only take 2 hours or so to do and in my experience I need to follow the pattern exactly the first time before I go changing things to suit. So now I am working on the changed versions. When I get it right, I'll tell you all about it, including links to the tutorials I used and what changes I made to suit my kids heads! I've got Mum working on a matching scarf, a stripey ripple scarf to match some new pumpkin patch leggings I got Miss Lilly. And I've half done a beanie for Joe boy in some lovely Jet wool. We are headed to New Zealand in August so we need lots of winter woolies.

p.s. I've turned off the auto music so you need to press play to hear it now

and the new song is from the Tinkerbell movie and so sweet! We love it!

Sydney part One

I finally made it to Sydney! Yeah!

I had the best time, I went with my second best friend Kimmy (see pic below). We actually went to a 2 day Wound and Skin Integrity conference, which was very very interesting. I learnt so much and updated my knowledge on the latest trends in wound dressing selection and got a few new insights into everyday items, in particular - soap!

We managed to visit one fabric shop, The Remnant Warehouse, thanks to some hot tips from Cass, thanks Cass. We stopped here straight after getting off the plane. Material Obsession and The Craft Depot will have to wait till the next trip unfortunately.

No bargains were to be had, but it was just so nice to see our favourite fabrics in the flesh and not on the computer monitor! I bought 2m of Pop Garden and half a metre each of these cute ones below! No projects in mind, just couldn't go in there without purchasing something!
Proof that we were there, and yep we matched, actually we matched the whole trip. More posts to come of our adventures, so stay tuned!

Mothers Day Crochet

Nanny taught me how to crochet when I was 12 and that is probably why I can still do it, unlike knitting (another recent failure confirms that!) I love crocheting, I have never really done anything besides round and round blankets and granny squares blankets and those handy teatowels you hang in your kitchen. I saw a pattern recently in Better Homes and Gardens for crocheted flowers and got inspired to make some flower corsages, since Mothers Day is this week and I always try and make Mum something hand made to go in her present. This year she got a Pandora Bracelet, the I LOVE YOU charm, some blue tea towels and this gorgeous thing...

This pattern is from here, a new favourite blog to keep track of and the most gorgeous crochet. I added an extra row of petals (the darker purple around the outer edge). I also made one for Lilly's lovely teacher.

And since I am jumping ship this weekend and missing Mothers Day (don't worry I am sick to the core about it, truly I am) to attend a Conference in Sydney with my second best friend, I had an early Mothers Day with my little treasures.

This little boy couldn't wait to give me the present he made at Kindy, a gorgeous card with a photo of us on the front and a bag of homemade Coconut Ice! It was yum, we scoffed it down together, thanks Liza! I love the way Joey says Liza....Wyiza!


And today at Grade 1 the Mum's had a very special pampering complete with massage, manicures (my pink polish is still gleaming and its staying there for the trip to Sydney!) hair brushing, jewellery making, fruit kebab feeding, puzzles, singing, poems and lots and lots of love and hugs!

Happy Mothers Day to all my friends and family who are Mothers, Grandmothers etc, I will be enjoying this on the day with Kimmy and no doubt very very homesick for those 2 little people pictured above, and my husband of course!

antiques and collectibles fair

Here are the treasures we bought...

Lilly chose the tiny little doll with sleeping eyes and the smallest crocheted dress you could imagine. The doll is 60's. I got another pair of Siamese Cats for my collection, a Holly Hobbie book about Mothers, a milk glass cup and saucer, a demitasse cup and saucer, some miniature figurines, some random plates and 2 trio's of Elizabethan Mother (my Mother's Day present and one is for my second best friend!)

Here is the new pink addition to my china cabinet to go beside the violets that I got last year at the same show. These cups are tiny, made in Japan but I'm not sure of anything else about them, so so sweet.

Quick Skirt

This is a Burda skirt I quickly made for myself using Spotlight $3.99/m fabric! So for $6 plus the cost of the zip (the doily is from my stash and the buttons thanks to Nanny's stash of which I've got a few things and treasure sooo much) its a pretty cheap skirt, and very comfortable I might add. Unfortunately this fabric is fairly see through, whoops, so I either add a lining or save it for round the house!!! I quite like it, so I might line it...

And here is the cutest little Royal Doulton teacup in the pattern of 'June'.

My second best friend Kimmy found it down near Iluka during her week long family beach holiday, she is so good to me, she loves teacups as much as me, but she chose to give it to me!!! It is so tiny and very old, I love it Kimbo! What am I going to give you for your birthday next week old girl!!??