Brownie love & baking bloopers

I have had a very, very busy week/month/year so far with there not being much sign of it letting up....  

Part of that has been that I have been doing my share of hosting things and my final (for now) 'hosting' event took place this morning and, whilst I love my book club, I have hosted the last three meetings (they are every fortnight) and every single one has coincided with something stressful just before.   The first meeting was the morning after a party for 40 the night before (p.s. NEVER have a big party on a Tuesday night....).   I like to do most of the catering for these things from scratch so more fool me really!   Anyway, I managed to pull off all the salads (I had a little help with the salads to be fair) and desserts for the party as well as a morning tea spread for 10am the next morning for about 25 people.   That was not a fun first round!   The second one found me with one 'ear infected' child and another vomiting child all the night before (thank you dear Hubby for doing most of the night shift!) and, today, the third one came 3 days after another partly self catered party for about 30, an attempt to find a kinder for my youngest and helping some dear friends shift house (not that I did that much, sorry Em & A! - running out of steam....).  

So, here is how last night went:

5pm - cook dinner for starving children, feed aforementioned starving children, bath children etc.

8pm - children in bed

8.10pm - hop on internet for quick look and sit entranced in a semi-conscious tired state

10.45pm - finally force myself to realise that I REALLY need to decide what I am going to cook 

11.45pm - after much toing and froing finally start to actually cook

12.10am - drop a hot pan of melted butter all over cooktop and kitchen floor (I told you I was tired)

12.11am - stand looking at it and realising I am even past the point of being able to cry about it

12.11.35am - dear Hubby comes running, looks at me and hastily runs for a bucket of hot water to clean the floor for me (no, he does not have a single brother!)

12.20am - resume cooking

1.00am - finish both dishes, turn lights out and off to bed!

That 7.30am alarm call came all too fast I can tell you......so, with that in mind, enjoy the picture of my labours and I am outta here and laying on my oh-so-sweet pillow!  Buenos noches...

Thanks all around!

Just a very quick post to say a big THANK YOU to Whip Up for featuring my teacup pincushion tutorial.

A big THANK YOU to FaveCrafts as they also asked me to contribute to their site. Check out my silhouette and Kid's Bag ID tag tutorials over there!

THANK YOU to Craft Gossip for linking to my teacup pincushion as well!

How Turnoff Week went...

I have to say that the turnoff week challenge (read my earlier post here) was actually pretty easy. For the kids. For me? Hmmmm. I don't have a problem with the TV as I hardly ever watch it but my computer?? Well, let's just say it was eye opening to see how often I actually just 'pop up' to my computer space to check on things. What on earth am I checking on so often? Well, you know, there might be some interesting new photos on flickr, what cool stuff is coming up on Google Reader?, any emails from friends?, what is happening with my friends on Facebook (a serious time sucker that one)? and, my personal favourite, to just not be 'Mum' for awhile. I feel like I need to write a disclaimer about how much I love my children etc. but I think we should all know by now that that is a given but I know you understand we ALL need some downtime.

Ok, well, needing downtime aside my great epiphany for the week is that I need some balance with my computer usage. I really love the world of blogging and the outlet this blog gives me but it is getting to the point of mild neglect of my family and that is not something I am comfortable with. So, my pledge at the end of all this is to severely limit my use through the day to a quick email check and enjoy it, guilt free, after the kidlets are in bed. Oh, yes, and to not go to bed too late every night!

I can't wait to hear how everyone else went!

p.s. Thank you to the Choose to Move site for the image I have used.

Magnets and crayon rocks

Hmm, these two topics aren't related in any way except I just happened to do both these things yesterday. One successfully, one not so much.....

I saw this cute idea for coin magnets in the latest Better Homes & Gardens magazine so made some straight away. So easy and I have been wondering what to do with the bits of foreign currency we have lying around the house. I used very strong magnets that I picked up at a hardware store and some of the coins were attracted to the magnets so I didn't glue those ones. I would suggest using a very strong glue for these. It makes for a fun reminder of your travels! Could be a cute idea for my homemade Christmas present idea list too. Of course, now I have lots of ideas for other things to stick to my magnets....let me know yours!

I have been coveting these crayon rocks (for the kids of course) for awhile now. I just love them. Love their shape and how they make me want to grab them and draw. Sooooo, being the somewhat crafty person that I am, I think to myself 'well, I could probably make those'. You know, just melt some crayons, wait until they have cooled off a bit and mold them with my hands into pebbly type shapes. Sounds easy doesn't it? Well, it sounded easy in my mind when I first thought about it but in reality, the melting in your muffin tin is easy but waiting for them to cool off to the right temperature and consistency is extremely tricky. Then there is the molding part. Not so easy either I found out! A lot of normal, sane people are saying 'well, d'uh' right about now but I am hard to put off when I get an idea in my head. Anyway, here is my one lonely successfully molded attempt. Too lumpy for me and waaaaaay too much effort (again I can hear the 'well, d'uh' comments!). I think I will admit defeat and just buy the darn things....

p.s. Yes, I did notice that it is rather unfortunate that the surviving crayon happens to be THAT colour and the final result looks somewhat like something left in the backyard......lol (c'mon kids, it IS a crayon, really....).

Teacup pincushion tutorial

For Earth Day, I did a recycling type craft today (like most people). I have been wanting to do this teacup pincushion for awhile and finally got around to it...

You will need: teacup, fabric, stuffing, needle & thread, glue, scissors and a scrub bud to help keep your pins and needles sharp (this is optional).

Step 1
Cut out circle of fabric. The diameter of my teacup is 10.5cm and the diameter of fabric needed is a little bit more than double that (my circle was 22 - 23cm diameter).





Step 2
Stitch around perimeter of fabric in a long running stitch – no need to knot the end.

Step 3

Gather up the circle about halfway and fill with stuffing (and scrub bud if using) until nice and full. I didn’t overstuff mine as I wanted it to sit down in the cup and not above the lip too much.

Step 4
Pull the gathers as tight as you can at the bottom and tie a knot in the thread before trimming off.

Step 5
Apply liberal amounts of either hot glue or normal tacky craft glue to inside of cup. Firmly press fabric ball into the cup and wait for the glue to dry. Note: Make sure to not get too high up the sides of the cup with the glue so it doesn’t squish out over the fabric. You only need to secure it from underneath.

Only thing left to do is to stick your pins in it now (or box it up for a present of course). I am thinking this one might be one of my handmade Christmas presents for someone...

Day Two of Turnoff Challenge

Another easy peasy day as far as reduced screen time....well, to be honest, for the kids anyway (A - 0 minutes, Miss E - 20 mins). I am not doing so well personally! However I am blaming it on my insomnia - what is a girl to do at 5am while everyone is sleeping?

I had such a busy day that not much crafting was done but I did manage to doodle on some rocks quickly. Pretty lame but amused me for a couple of minutes! Looking forward to a quieter day tomorrow......

Sooo tired after being up at 5am (especially seeing as I went to bed at midnight......yes, Katy, night guy got me!!) so I am outta here. Good luck with turnoff time for tomorrow everyone (including myself)!

Day One of Turnoff Challenge

I'll start with the worst bits - there weren't any really! The kids did ask to watch TV/play on the computer a couple of times but weren't too bothered when I said they had used up their time already (first thing this morning!). Considering I had one sick child home from school...not bad!

Other activities done instead: lots of drawing, I finally cleaned up my craft/office area, kids did some bug catching and set up a trap to try and catch a bird (good luck with that one!), lots of outside play (they always do that anyway though), cards made for relatives, reading, stamping and a little bit of sewing. More than has been done in a week! Aims for tomorrow - maybe we will make butter together!

Best comment of the day came when we were sitting together chatting at dinner. My six year old asked how long the turnoff challenge was for (I told her maybe for good!) and then I told her that I enjoyed not having tv for a couple of years when I was a kid. Her response: "did you have funner times without tv in the olden days?" (hence the photo....)

Olden days???? How old do I look????? (breathe, breathe......) Just kidding, made me laugh!

(somewhat related story: a few years ago when my sister and I were driving past our childhood home we pointed it out to my sister's daughter - who was about 7 at the time - and she responded with 'wow, and it is still standing!') That was YOU, darling Jamie, if you read this.......xxx

p.s. I might show Miss E that photo and tell her I am third from the left or something...she will probably believe me!

Turnoff Week Blog Challenge

Ok, I am going to join in the blog challenge being hosted by Unplug Your Kids this week. My kids watch too much tv and I spend waaaay too much time on the computer. I really enjoy blogging but I also do a huge amount of linking, linking, linking and looking at other people's blogs to the point where I am letting things go around here... It is so addictive when there are so many of you amazingly funny, heartwarming and inspiring bloggers out there!! So, anyway, here are my goals for the week:

1. The kids negotiated 1 hr screen time per day (a total for tv, computer games and computer time).

2. I will limit myself to only 1 hr computer time per day. That should give me enough time to check my email, maybe write a blog post and get a little bit of my daily blog surfing fix. The rest of the time I might actually get more craft done (oh, and tidying up of course...)!

Ok, well I have nearly used up half my time already so I am outta here.....