Spring Flower Craft

I've done this flower petal stain glass window craft with Chloe every Spring (and every Autumn with pressed Autumn leaves) since she was about 2. 

 Of course when Eva was old enough, she joined in too.

 Each year, Chloe's windows get more complex. I love watching her creativity grow!

The original idea can be found here for Spring, and here for Autumn at The Artful Parent. Seriously take some time and have a look around this very clever blog! There are some AWESOME ideas for kids craft on here. One very talented woman indeed!

Do you have any seasonal traditions? I'd love to hear them!

Spring has Sprung!

Just like everyone else in bloggy land that lives in the Southern Hemisphere, I am SO grateful for the emergence of Spring! I'm a little over walking to school on the drop-off and pick-up in gale force winds and sheet rain!

 These freesias are my absolute FAV! I love the smell!!

I hope you're enjoying the change of season where ever you are! =)

Rainbow Quilt.

Chloe's teacher is having a baby. She ended up finishing at the end of last term even though she isn't due until September because she, unfortunately, has had some problems. Baby is all healthy and growing nicely though :)

So I thought I would make her a quilt for bub. She isn't finding out the sex, so I thought rainbow colours would be perfect. I went with a chevron pattern, it's my favourite one to make!

I put  strip of rainbow onto the back as well to make it big enough. It breaks up the blue nicely I think :)

I am really, really not very good at making quilts :/ BUT I really, really enjoy it! So what they lack in workmanship, they make up for in love and joy!

I very nearly kept this one for myself, I just LOVE rainbow colours!!

Alfalfa Animals!

A quick, mess free activity the girls and I did after school the other day! Alfalfa seeds in egg shells!

Needed:  Alfalfa Seeds, half eggshells, eggcups, cotton wool and water.

Pop cotton wool in eggshells and water.

Sprinkle seeds on top of cotton wool.

Sprinkle, sprinkle.

Done! Just wait for them to grow. Make sure you keep them moist. When they've grown the kids can even have them with eggs on sandwiches!!

Back Very Very SOON!

Been a bit quiet on here lately! I've been unwell, but am definitely feeling better. I will be back in full force very soon with lots to share!!
xx

If You go Down to the Woods today....

So we had a (very) little party for Eva this year.

I thought we'd have a Teddy Bear's Picnic theme, one last party before the princess and fairy and pinkness I'm sure she will beg for next year.
I kept it simple

 Home printed birthday banner.

 Teddy bear cupcakes all with natural food colouring, and as many of the lollies as I could with natural colouring, flavors and no preservatives. Bottles of water with home printed labels. Reusable kids plates.

The rest of the food was again as natural and healthy, but still yummy as possible! Fruit, veggies and popcorn.

I made some Teddy Bear Pizzas using English muffins for the base and also some peanut butter and honey sandwiches that got devoured before I took a photo! They were Teddy Bear shaped too. We had the table down low so the kids could all help themselves. I'm so glad we did this, it made it much less stressful for everyone to get their food!

 We set up a little picnic tent with a net we found at bulk collection (and washed very well and aired out in the sun!)

 A teddy bear cake, again as natural ingredients as possible.

Having their picnic.

 For activities everyone brought along a teddy bear. Using scraps I made up some scarves, mittens, skirts and chopped up some ribbon for everyone to dress up their bears for the party!

I also printed out some teddy themed colour pages for everyone to colour in.

 I grabbed some face paint crayons and painted everyone's face. Very amateur! But the kids loved it! You can see the butterfly faces above too.

Mr Teddy Bear!

 The birthday bear!

For some reason I didn't take photos of what was in the party bags! I made the little Teddy Bear ear headbands that Eva's wearing for everyone. I also popped in a sheet of Teddy Bear stickers, an all natural fruit stick and a stamp.

It was such a great afternoon! Very relaxed and simple, but still plenty for the kids to do. We were very lucky to have such beautiful weather too. Eva had a great time!

Did You Say Cake??

I like to bake...a lot, actually I LOVE to bake. To the point that if I didn't I'm 100% sure I'd be about 10kg lighter. I also like to decorate said baking. I need to have about 20 more kids so I can make all the cakes I want to make! I even sold some of my cakes for about a year or so.

I thought I'd share with you a few (dozen) cakes I've made over the years. There are A LOT more but this is enough overload. (you'll have to excuse the bad photos, some of these are pretty old).

I started out pretty basic, with good old Woman's Weekly cakes and progressed on to more involved ones, like the Superhero cake and my sister's Topsy Turvy wedding cake!

 mmm, choc caramel swirl cupcakes.

 "over the hill 51" cupcakes...geddit??

 lemon meringue cupcakes

 Princess cake, my Oma's fav.

 This one was rainbow inside too =)

 This one was so much fun!

 This was too!

Well I don't know about you, but I'm off to find myself a piece of cake....