Christmas 2012

In previous years - especially since having kids we have found Christmas to be pretty stressy, especially since my husband has had major deadlines at work around the same time. So this last festive season in 2012 consisted of us trying to keep it simple whilst trying to stick with the things we love to do.

We like to get a real tree, shop for the kids gifts together, attend carols for children on Christmas Eve, make a few decorations, bake ginger bread with friends and eat some cherries and other summer fruit (we are in Sydney after all). With kids you tend to do lots of fun things, for example we do Christmas craft at a friends house and playgroup Christmas party complete with farm animals!

It was fun to visit the Christmas windows in the city and visit the Swarovski Crystal tree at the Queen Victoria Building. It is totally magical!

We ended up with 17 people in the house on Christmas night and yep, I was cooking. I tried to keep it simple and prepare ahead of time so I could enjoy the day as well.

Spring in the garden

Lately we have been enjoying some beans from the garden and some fresh salads - we have, rocket, mizuna, mustard and some other salad varieties. A lot of things are getting eaten by the possums, the spinach is especially popular! Just when I think it's almost time for spinach pie it gets whisked away! Never-the-less we do get to eat some things. We also have corn and tomatoes on the way.

Carnations from the kids Grandmother "Marnie" by the cubbyhouse. On our to-do list - oil that cubbyhouse!

Mad Hatter's Tea Party

For my daughters second birthday we had a Mad Hatter's Tea Party. The kid loves hats so it just came to me one day, we had to have a Mad Hatter's Tea Party!

I nade a bunny cake (complete with coconut fur). We borrowed extra kids chairs from our neighbours, so we had lots of mismatched chairs which looked kind of mad. The kids decorated their own party hats with stickers. For food we had fruit, gingerbread hearts, cucumber and egg sandwiches, fairy bread and my husband likes to make rainbow jelly cups.

Baking with paint and paper

Have been itching to paint cupcakes for awhile. I have lots of friends who are master bakers and I always envy their baking skills. So I was inspired to paint some cupcakes. Hmmm... feeling hungry now!

Christmas 2011

Christmas wrapping, Pavlova and Nibbles wreath (idea from Pinterest of course).

Autumn flow

This Autumn we have been busy. We kicked some goals with the home renovations. We agree that the house feels more ours now and more homely too. We finally have a back fence which is an amazing feeling, privacy from the neighbours (lovely as they are), safety for the children and we can now plant some plants and make other changes to the backyard.

We went camping with the kids for the first time, it turned out well and the kids enjoyed it a lot, especially our oldest who had a ball.

I have been sick with a cold for over a month and the kids for several weeks. E is so sick now with Bronchialitis poor little man. He has been quite clingy. It makes me realize how much comfort I give him as his mum, which is a nice feeling.

I have also been making a lot of baby food. I love making it, I find it relaxing but haven't had as much time as I'd like to try different recipes. The William Bartlett pears have been amazing, but most of them go into baby food.

3rd Birthday Party

E's third birthday was last Sunday. We had a train party because trains are his current obsession. I had so much fun organizing this party, I think there is a frustrated party planner in me... what with the Wedding and High tea I planned last year for my sister. It is nice that he is a bit older now so they can play some party games. We did pass the parcel and some train craft activity. The train cake was the first cake I had made on my own. My mum made the cupcakes last year and for his first birthday mum helped me make the aeroplane cake.

Gingerbread House

The Mister bought this kit Gingerbread from Ikea for me to put together with E. Several hours later it had collapsed in on itself.

This year has been crazy. The Christmas cards are going to be late, and I'm not making them this year. We do have a real Christmas tree though, so our Christmas traditions aren't completely broken.

Christmas activites

My friend from Mother's group held a Christmas craft party for the kids, so I decided to make some gingerbread men with E to take to the party. I must admit I find it hard to relax and let him get too messy while cooking and crafting, I am too much of a control freak and my husband hates mess too. The recipe is a great one from Donna Hay's Modern Classics 2. I want to use this recipe to make a gingerbread house because it made a nice sturdy gingerbread.



She read a book about the Christmas story, we sang Silent Night and we did some craft activities like these star pictures using bits of paper stuck on vellum with a star frame around it. When you stick it on the window it looks really pretty with the light shining through it.

Summer food

One night when we had my mum and sister to visit I made this asian style sago dessert.

Soak 1/2 a cup of sago or tapioca with the contents of 1 tin of coconut milk for about an hour. Pour into medium sized pot and add 1/2 cup of water, 30grams of castor sugar and 3 cubes of Jeeny's palm sugar. Simmer on the stove stirring constantly until the sugar dissolves and the sago turns completely translucent right through. Pour into dishes and leave to set a little. Add chopped mango on top(optional) and serve.

Growing our own food

Recently I have been immersing myself in reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and watching "Gardening Australia" and "the Edible Garden" while feeding Zoe. I have been inspired to grow our own fruit, herbs and vegetables and have so far started planting a small amount of herbs and salad greens. We have been delighted with the results, enjoying salad from our own garden most days. It tastes so much better when it hasn't been sitting in storage for awhile, and it saves us buying a massive lettuce or bunch of herbs and wasting what we don't need.

Above is the Mizuna which is a Japanese lettuce with yellow flowers which you can also eat. We also have mustard greens, perpetual lettuce and sweet rocket (which is a delicious spicy flavour). In the herbs we have rosemary (established), lemongrass, oregano, continental parsley, mint, lemon thyme and garlic chives.


I have two types of strawberries, one type has white flowers and they were a gift from a friend, the other has pink flowers and has green fruit now. My white flowering strawberry plants have produced two ripe strawberries so far, but they where nabbed by birds before I could get to them. I might have to put netting over them so I get to try one this season!

My Creative Space - High Tea

Last weekend I hosted a high tea celebration for my sister who is getting married this weekend. Actually it was more of a brunch because more sparkling wine was consumed than tea. The frustrated stylist in me had so much fun putting this table together! I was road testing the cake stands that we had made for the wedding cupcakes. They are made using thrifted plates and glasses. The homemade flavoured marshmallows are from a local Patisserie called Sweetness. The birds I am currently making for a mobile which will go in the nursery. The bird pattern is from Spool sewing.


I didn't get photos of the food once it was all in place but you get the idea. We had Strawberries, Baklava, marshmallows, Orange and Cranberry Oat cookies, Golden syrup slice (vegan), mini quiches, cucumber sandwiches (some with avocado, swiss cheese or salmon), cherry cheese cake, cranberry brownies and chilli chocolate muffins.

Visit more Creative Spaces over here.

Lots of cooking going on...

This weekend we had family visiting so we did a bit more cooking than usual. My favourite Tiramisu recipe I have tried so far is from Donna Hay's Modern Classics 2. It is really simple too.

And Potato pancakes... My husband cooks the potatoes and makes the batter and I do the pan frying. The batter is really delicate and my husband doesn't have the patience for flipping these ones! The recipe is from a Delicious cookbook, I think it is called "5 of the best".


And something I cook if I want to use up some things in the fridge or I am just cooking for me one night. This frittata has pumpkin and mushrooms and a bit of capsicum in it.

Visiting friends

On the way to and from Queensland we stopped in on our friends in Coffs Harbour. Going by what fun two days we had, I think we should have stayed there the whole time we were on holidays!!


My friend Fi created all these fun things for us to do. Steve and her husband went fishing whilst we took the two boys to look for soldier crabs. We didn't find any crabs, but the kids and us mum's loved splashing in the water! Then we had a little picnic and played on the play equipment. When we got home we filled up their canoe for the boys to splosh around in. We threw in some beach toys and empty squirty bottles for them to play with. Then I decided we should do some painting so the boys did some painting and then hopped back in the canoe pool to clean off. Now that's what I call toddler fun! Fi's husband makes homebrew beer, very good ( a bit like bees knees) so Steve had a couple. Fi made 100% fruit sorbet with mango, banana and peach, it was so yummy and healthy. The boys loved it too.

Fi sent me home with some vegies and some orchids she grows in her garden. While we were there she was sundrying tomatoes on the washing line. I admire Fi's energy and resourcefulness in everything she does.

Fun cooking

Recently we have been inspired to cook fun stuff. We made fish tacos with a spicy salsa. These were delicious. I think it would have been better if I had stopped at just the one!

and on another occasion, Vegetarian dumplings - the recipe was from Jeana Sohn's blog. These were a huge hit with the family as well.

At our place

My husband and I have this running joke about eggplants. One of the stores I used to do merchandising for had fake eggplants for room displays and Steve thought they were hilarious! Fake vegetables are pretty funny aren't they! I often found chewed ones around the store which small children (or adults) had gnored on. Real ones are much nicer too look at AND chew on, but these didn't last more than an hour before I put them into a Thai green curry.

This tomato plant came up from seed. It is totally going off!! I hope to have lots of tomatoes soon.

As long as our resident possums don't get to them first. These possums are "very noisy!" as Ethan would say. We call them the Wombats or Elephants on the roof because they sound like they are a lot bigger than they are.