The art of contact

My mother taught me early-on the necessary skills to apply Contact to my school books. Now that I’ve been doing it for 20-odd years, I can see why she was eager for me to learn how to cover my own!

These days the crafter in me sees a myriad of uses for Contact (or Duraseal, whatever brand you choose!), and you can find a fair bit of it slapped up around Claire’s room. (Alongside the removable wall stickers of course)

Today’s adventure in contact was to spruce up a chest of drawers for Claire. We picked up a half-price Malm chest at Ikea last week, marked down due to some chips out of the edges. I don’t mind chips – Claire is sure to do way more damage to that piece of furniture in the course of her childhood. And it’s a perfect excuse to brainstorm some creative covers.

Don’t mind the bubbles (I don’t). It took me a good 20 minutes to get this stuff onto the top, and then another 10 minutes of negotiating with Claire on the placement of the bird, butterfly and flower stickers. But it now looks a little more girly than it did when we brought it home, and is in keeping with the loose ‘Flower Garden’ theme we have going.

(Ikea is getting some good business out of Claire. She also had fabric bedhead covers made from their textile department, a doona cover and some soft butterfly and snail toys stashed around the room, as well as the obligatory hanging toy storage!)

Healthy sweetie treaties

I’ve lost my Mini-Pinny mojo for the day – I’ve stuffed up two already so time to give it a rest. Instead, I’ve turned my hand to the kitchen and whipped up some yummy ‘leftover cereal’ munchies for us and for Playgroup. I call them my Cereal Crackles.

These are perfect for using up the leftover dregs of cereals, nuts, dried fruits and even fresh fruits sitting in your cupboard. You just bung them all in loose quantities into a bowl, then add melted butter, honey and peanut butter and bake for 25 mins!

Want to make some of your own? Here’s what I did:

Ingredients:

100g butter
100ml honey (or golden syrup)
1 heaped dessert spoon of peanut butter (you could try nutella or even tahini)
2 tablespoons of coconut cream (this is optional – you could add more honey or something else creamy)

1 1/2 cups of rolled oats
1 cup leftover cereal (I used Cheerios, but cornflakes sultana bran and rice bubbles work just as well)
1 cup (of combined) raisins, dried fruit or currants, dessicated coconut or other chopped up nuts
1/4 cup ground almonds, hazelnuts or any kind of ‘meal’ (I used besan today – whatever you’ve got in the cupboard!)
1/4 cup plain flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons of orange, lemon or lime zest
a splash of vanilla essence
(and I threw in the pulp of two passionfruits for extra sweetness)

Instructions:

Melt your honey and butter together, stir in the peanut butter until it’s liquidy, then pop in the coconut milk. Mix up until smooth.

Bang all your dry ingredients into a bowl and give a quick stir to combine.

Sprinkle the zest (and passionfuit pulp) over the top, then make a well in the centre of the bowl.

Add the honey/butter/creamy mix in three portions, mixing the dry ingredients well between each pour.

Mix until all the dry ingredients are moist, shiny, and sticky. If you think it’s still looking a bit dry, pop a little bit more honey in (I find the squeeze-bottle honey is easiest for this step)

Scrape the sticky mix into a slice tray lined with baking paper (overhanding the edges so you can easily remove it later), or if you’re lazy and don’t want to have to cut it up (like me), line some muffin trays with patty cake wrappers and put one spoonful of the mix in each patty pan. Squish the mix down firmly into the trays/liners with the back of a spoon or base of a cup.

Bake for 25 minutes at 170 degrees celcius.

Remove from oven and cool until the mixture is firm.

Lift out using the baking paper ‘handles’ and slice with a sharp knife.

Store in an airtight container in the cupboard for up to a week.

These quantities made 24 mini crackles
and 12 muffin-size crackles for me.

Bon appetit!

A room of my own

This week, while Mr D and the Large Fries were on school holidays, we moved the home office computer upstairs into the (not very) old dining room. This is significant for two reasons:

1. Mr D will no longer be absent for hours at a time formatting websites and writing movie reviews in the depths of the garage (where it’s freezing this time of year).

2. The empty room has now been taken over for my sewing!

Oh! The joys of having your sewing machine and overlocker in the same room! And being able to roll your chair from one sewing desk to the other! Never mind that the moving process has left it looking like a complete bomb site, and I haven’t set up any storage for all my fabric. There will be no photos until I’ve sorted that out I’m afraid – it’s just too embarrassing for public viewing.

The convenience of co-location meant I was able to finish this Etsy custom order for Kylie.

And I fully intend completing two pairs of lounge pants for Susan’s boys later today. I hope Mr K like bright colours….

In other news, the CHA craft swap has been in full swing. This morning, we received this lovely parcel from Lana.

And this is what we sent to her earlier in the week.

I’ve never participated in a craft swap before and it was so much fun! Waiting to see what lovely surprises would arrive for us in the mail. Claire has been getting stuck into her AromaPlay Clay, although she’s not quite sure what to do with it. At the moment she scoops out a bit with her finger and then flicks it on the ground, where it’s cuurently making a lovely pattern against our polished wood floors. Oh well, at least it’s all natural colouring!

Don’t forget to pop over and see what Lou is doing this week too.

Saturday afternoon fun

Learn how to blow bubbles in the garden?

Or get in touch with our inner rockstar and get a tattoo?

Hmmm, what shall we do next?

At our house this week

What are we doing this week, asks Lou…

Well today, it’s a bake-a-thon!

The non-waster in me MUST use up all the excess fruit that hasn’t been eaten in the house, so today we made:

(not very successful) banana/sultana mini muffins

Jaffa upside down cake (this one’s heading to Playgroup tomorrow to be devoured by frazzled Mums)

Tonight, we’re also going to bake:

Orange shortbread stars (WIP)

and a belated Hapatooie cake for Daddy to take to work and celebrate with his colleagues (because his lazy family didn’t get him any gifts yet, and the trial cake we made last week was devoured before the actual birthday).

What do you get a Daddy for his forty-somethingth birthday? He asked for new headphones and a tie, but I think that’s a bit dull. Any other suggestions?

While you were out…

… at the movies, the pub, the soccer, generally having a life

I made this!

7pm:

Just a pile of remnants

9pm:

A cute bag!

It’s the 1 hour bag from RicRac. Okay, so it took me 2 hours, but my laminated Marrimekko fabric from local supplier I just Love That Fabric was a bit of a shock to my no-name brand sewing machine and I have to manually feed the straps through to prevent sticking.

There’s a wee little pocket to hold my phone, a pen, some business cards. The strap is held on with a groovy button from my Nana’s stash – I think it matches the modern aesthetic perfectly.

Laminated Marrimekko fabric pocket

Retro button from Nana's stash matches perfectly

Maybe I’ll take it to the Ron Mueck exhibition this morning, to mingle with the arty types

Comfort sewing

This week we have all been afflicted with colds, flus, and for poor Little C, pneumonia. So needless to say, it’s been pretty quiet around the house.

Today I took some leave from my day job and spent the day relaxing at home. While relaxing and sniffling, my creative fingers got a bit itchy and I found myself trying out one of the Mani Mina patterns I treated myself to from Etsy a few weeks ago.

The first dress off the machine was this red linen beauty, as modelled by an unusually enthusiastic toddler. She actually WANTED to wear the dress as soon as I showed it to her – almost unheard of. There’s usually substantial coaxing required for her to put on any on my dresses, but some reason this one took her fancy. So much so, I can’t get it off her to sew the final embellishment, a cute cat button from Buttons by Lou Lou. Oh well, tomorrow night’s task!

The dress is from the Summer Everyday pattern, though I lengthened the sleeves and cropped the length of the dress to make it suitable for Lil C to wear with layers in winter. The pattern is really easy to make – I was done in less than two hours (except the button, of course). I am planning to add a bit of Bloombub flair to it, and will be crocheting some cream coloured cotton lace to trim the sleeves and hemline.

When a pattern is so easy, and the finished product so well received, why stop at one?!

This beautiful Cosmo fabric has been sitting in my stash for some time now – I believe it came from my first purchase at Retro Mummy (these groovy pants were also from that parcel).

Miss G admired the fabric, but I was unable to entice Lil C to remove the red dress to try this one on. I took a few extra artistic licenses with this version. Only the back is elasticated, so as not to gather the beautiful print at the front, and the sleeves got even longer and we made a little ‘bell-style’ elastic feature as well to keep the cuffs from flapping about in the breeze (or getting dipped in food, which is far more likely).

I’m contemplating whether to add some black ribbon or white broderie to the edges to cover the overlocking. Maybe I’m just a bit lazy this week and won’t bother.We’ll have to see which dress Lil C chooses to wear to Daddy’s birthday celebrations on Saturday.

If you like the look of the Summer Everyday dress, but are not of the sewing type (or just too lazy), you might like to take a look at these local designers:

MyOneBrownMouse’s Kinder Dress, or

MonPetitPoppet’s Smock Dresses and A-Line blouses. MonPetitPoppet is a local Brisbane mum too, and has just been featured on the Matilda’s Market blog.

Now that I’ve had such success with the Summer Everyday pattern,  I might give the other two Mani Mina patterns a try – the Reversible Kimono Dress (I am repurposing some beautiful purple wool for that one, just need to find a nice print for the lining); and the Round Collar Dress (but maybe that will wait for some spring inspiration…). I also covet the French Ruffle dress… but I think that’s for a slightly older child to appreciate.

Mani Mina e-patterns. Available from Etsy.com

Happy dressmaking!

World Environment Day

Today is World Environment Day. An while we’ve not been particularly ‘green’ this week, what with sick children and car trips to the doctor and various soccer, school musical and work appointments, I have been thinking about all the ways Bloombub tries to be sustainable. We seem to be right onto the ‘minimising waste’ stuff – maybe there are other things we can do to reduce our carbon footprints?

Firstly, if you’ve ever purchased a Bloombub item, you’ll notice I’m not big on tissue paper and ribbon wrappings. Our parcels come in a zip-lock bag (which of all the plastic packaging options, can at least be re-used as it’s quite durable); I use real ribbon to attach our tags; I post in ‘tough bags’ wherever possible to maximise recycling efforts.

The first-ever mini-pinny

Secondly, I hate fabric waste, so my scrap bag is actually more like 3 scrap boxes. The Fat Quarter Mini-Pinny was dreamed up one afternoon after finding some perfectly shaped ‘yolk’ pieces came from the scraps after cutting out a pair of bloomers. A few more rectangles stiched together and some elastic (or a button for bigger sizes), and you’ve got a perfectly cute little summery top or pinafore. While I’m only selling the sewn up items at the moment, if any of my blog followers would like to see how a Mini-Pinny is formed (for private use only), I’m happy to share. Now I just have to take up quilting to use up all those smaller scraps! I also have mad dreams of one day creating a Selvage bag like these fabulously crafty people.

As regular readers will know, the remnant bin is my favourite part of a fabric shop. Lil C is still small enough to fit into an outfit made from less than half a metre of fabric, and I am always coming h0me with scraps of beautiful fabric only large enough to make something for a child. On the odd day that I find something big enough for an adult garment, it usually sits in the bottom of the fabric drawer for months before I get around to doing something with it,

Thirdly, I find crochet to be the least wasteful needlecraft. A Bloombub crochet embellishment has often been made from the last metre or so of a ball of wool or cotton. My initial attempts at embroidery were patchy and i was constantly covered in cotton/thread scraps;  for some reason my childhood longstitch/tapestry never seemed to work out particularly well either. I haven’t cross-stitched for a long time – perhaps I’ll be inspired to re-look at my embroidery or cross-stitch by this talented person.

Lastly, we’re sticking to ‘digital’ and marketing and sales for the time being. Apart from our business cards (which actually double as our swing tags by printing them on both sides), Bloombub hasn’t printed flyers or posters, or even whipped up very many ‘samples’ to shop around at real bricks-and-mortar stores. By keeping the majority of our business to custom orders, I’m not making lots of items that take up space and are potentially wasted if a buyer wants a garment in a different size and I don’t have enough fabric. Our Facebook, MadeIt and Etsy stores allow us to minimise waste, continue to purchase small amounts of fabric so your purchase is always a one-of-a-kind, and save me time to spend with Lil C.

Did you celebrate World Environment Day? What kind of ‘green’ things do you do at home or in your craft business?

Rainbow Cake #1

Four hours of baking & decorating later, we had ourselves a lovely Rainbow shaped cake at Playgroup today. The M&M toppings were a huge hit with the kids, though I did notice a bit more rambunctious activity after morning tea.. perhaps a few too many colours and additives??? Oooops.

Claire loved her cake, but we didn’t have enough breath to blow out the candles. It was quite an effort, even for me! Thanks to Lizzie for taking such beautiful pictures of us – there are never enough photos of Mums and Bubs together – Mums are always behind the camera!

Tonight’s task: top these rainbow cupcakes with icing and sprinkles for the final Birthday extravaganza, at daycare! Let’s hope 17 cupcakes is enough… as I’m all baked out. We made a chocolate cake for Miss G’s birthday this evening too, that’s tonight’s dessert (as if I hadn’t eaten enough cake and ‘faulty’ M&Ms today already).

**If anyone is interested, I took some photos during the construction of the big cake, so will attempt my first tutorial on the weekend.

Many happy returns!

At our house this week

What a whirlwind 7 days we’ve had…

Last week, we went to Marsy’s house in Townsville. Here’s some of Lil C’s antics from the tropics:

With the Fishes at ReefHQ

Then, on Saturday, the festival of birthdays began, with a pre-birthday dinner for Miss G in West End. Here’s a snapshot from dessert… yummm

Mmmm, more icecream?

Today, however has been all about Lil C. From early morning birthday present frenzy, to fast food for lunch and now her current position slumped on the couch… we had been watching Dora, but it’s all become too much!

And tomorrow, we do it all again for Miss G’s 15th birthday… lordy, I need a nap just thinking about it. And to top the week out, Miss G and Mr A will be spending ht rest of their evening performing / backstaging at the school musical. More photos of that to come (however, here’s a sneak of the ‘prom’ dress we made for Miss G. It also doubled as her ‘Giselle’ costume for the Disney-themed school social a few weeks back).

I think I might need another holiday just to recover from this fortnight’s festivities.

Thanks to Lou for inspiring us to share our week!

cake conundrum

Lil C has requested a rainbow cake for her 2nd birthday (Monday)… which of these fabulous rainbow cake options should we attempt?

We need to make two anyway – 1 for Playgroup, and 1 for Daycare…. any recommendations?

Inspiration came from Cupcakes take the Cake and Coolest Homemade Birthday Cakes…

Last year we had a Garden Party theme complete with fairies and toadstools!

(Sort of) One Year ago today…

Not quite as glamourous as the ‘one year ago today’ post at TikiBoo Kids, but…

One year ago today we had demolished this Spot 1st Birthday cake at Master R’s party….. time to make another cake for him this week! How the time has flown….

At our house this weekend

Lots of cuddles, and playing with the ‘camma’

Groovy hat making for a special nephew turning two (plus cutting out for a hat for Lil C!)…

Two excitable toddlers watching Sid the Science Kid ahead of a day of running, eating and ‘sharing’ (we hope)