Handmade Christmas Ornament for 2013

I have resolved to start a new tradition of making a new Christmas Ornament each year for our tree.  I love the idea of making something special each year and hope that in years to come I will be able to look back and see all these special things I made. 

This year's ornament is a peace dove made from this pattern.  It looks relatively simple but a lot of time and love went in to making it!  I'm planning on making some more to gift in different colours. 

Strawberry Santas (the dairy-free version!)

Dairy-free, gluten-free, soy-free, sugar-free

I've seen photos of these strawberry Santas going around a lot lately.  They look  really great.  The only problem is that the ones I've seen are made with whipped cream and Jacob can't have dairy.  So we came up with our own solution - cashew nut cream!  I've posted my recipe for cashew nut cream before.  It makes a great filling for strawberry Santas.  You will need to add slightly less coconut milk to this recipe though to make these.  The cashew nut cream needs to be a pipe-able consistency otherwise they will just collapse.

Ingredients
20 strawberries
2 quantities cashew nut cream (with slightly less coconut milk) 
a handful of black chia seeds

Method
Slice off the leafy end of the strawberry so the strawberries sit flat.
Then slice off the tip to make a hat. 
Put your cashew nut cream into a piping bag and pipe swirls on the top of the strawberry base. Replace hat.
Add a dollop of cashew nut cream to the top of the hat and down the Santa's front. 
Add two chia seeds to each Santa for eyes (we actually used flaxseeds as we didn't have black chia seeds!)

Enjoy! 

Pants, pants, and more pants!

I've been having a bit of a pants making 'frenzy' at the moment.  In the last couple of months I have made 6 pairs of pants, most of them being in the last two week!.  I have a couple of friends with babies coming soon so I wanted to make some matching sets for their new additions.  Anyway, here's a snapshot of what I've made...

Some apple pants for Esme

Back view

Some velvety owl pants for Esme

I am really loving the 'big butt pants' pattern at the moment.  Pattern can be found here.

0-3 month old velvety owl pants

Back view

6-12 month old Hungry Caterpillar pants

Back view

6-12 month old owl pants

Back view

12-18 month old Hungry Caterpillar pants

Back view

I've been busy working on the matching tops this week too - I'm hoping to pop those up here too when they're finished.  It's been school holidays here the last few weeks so I'm enjoying the opportunity to get a bit of sewing done without having to rush around picking up and dropping off kids! 

Creativity at work!

I love watching my kids play.  Especially when they are really using their imagination and creativity.  It can often take a while for them to get into this sort of play.  Lazy days at home on school holidays can often induce the kind of play where they can use their creativity.  They can often go a day or more playing with the same things, just using their imagination to create different uses for their 'toys'.  I'm sure I've written before about my dislike of cheap, generic toys so I won't bore you again.  Suffice to say, I don't like that they all have the same look and feel and that they break easily.  I prefer my kids to have fewer but good quality wooden toys.  Or things from nature that don't cost anything!  Although we are not purists in this respect - we do still own some plastic play things ;)

 The play 'scene' - natural objects, plastic and wooden toys combine to make a creative space

About 6 months ago I put together some baskets of things from nature which has turned out to be the best thing I ever did.  We have a basket each of shells, pinecones and river stones.  There is also a basket of tree blocks that my brother-in-law made.  They are always out for the kids to play with and often when they set up a 'scene' for play they will include these objects.  Shells become a 'beach', tree blocks and pinecones become a 'forest' and stones become a 'river'.  It's amazing how they incorporate all these everyday objects into their play and I think they've become the most played with toys out of everything.  I'm looking forward to adding some more things to our collection.  Play clothes are next on the list (once muslin finally comes back into stock at my local fabric store!)

More of the play 'scene'

I think it is important to let kids use their imaginations and creativity more widely and to give them the time to do so.  We always seem to be rushing around and taking our kids to different activities without giving them time to just 'be'.  I know for us, we are usually so busy during the school term that it takes the first week of the holidays for the kids to wind down and start playing together creatively (I seem to spend the first week of the school holidays yelling at them!) I'm looking forward to the rest of the school holidays and seeing what my kids create next! 

New carrier!

I'm very excited about my special new carrier (please excuse the not so great photo of me!)  This is my custom made Olives and Applesauce carrier.  It was made using a Girasol snow rainbow diamond weave woven wrap.  With Gideon getting bigger and still wanting to be carried often, a toddler sized carrier was well overdue.  The Ergo just wasn't comfortable enough for us anymore.  As soon as I put it on I knew it was perfect.  Gideon snuggled right in and fell asleep instantly - always a sign of a good carrier ;)  It was rather a long wait to get this carrier made and cost a fair bit of money but I'm so glad I did.  And it's very appropriate that it's made with a rainbow wrap seeing Gideon is my 'rainbow' baby. 

I made an 'eye spy' bag!

I happened across some pictures of 'eye spy' bags on the internet many months ago.  Ever since then I've been meaning to come up with a pattern to make one of my own.  I finally got around to it the other day.  It took a bit of experimenting (including almost finishing one before I realised that the plastic was too thick to topstitch through!)  but I'm very happy with how this one has turned out.  There's a layer of plastic on the front and the back so it is surface washable (very important in our house as everything seems to get grubby from little hands!) 

The idea behind 'eye-spy' bags is that kids have to look in the window and move the rice around inside to find 'trinkets' which can be easy or hard depending on the size of each trinket!  There's a laminated list attached to a ribbon on the bag that tells the kids what to find.  I made it in the hopes that the kids would use it in the car on long trips but it didn't quite work that way.  They were very interested in doing it when I first made it but then ended up losing interest before our 5 hour trip to Hotham!!

Anzac Biscuits

Dairy-free, gluten-free, soy-free, egg-free

Ingredients
1 cup blanched almond flour
1 cup GF rolled oats
1 cup dessicated coconut
1/2 cup rapadura sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup coconut oil
2 tbsp golden syrup
1/2 tsp bicarb soda
1/4 cup hot water

Method
Preheat oven to 180 degrees.  Line 2 trays with baking paper.
In a mixing bowl combine your almond meal, coconut, rapadura, cinnamon and oats.
Melt the coconut oil and golden syrup in a small saucepan.
Combine the bicarb and water then add to the coconut oil and golden syrup.
Add the frothy mix to your dry mix and combine it well.
With wet hands, shape small balls of the dough.
Place them onto the tray and press down to flatten them a little.  Bake for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown.

Original recipe from this blog but I have made some alterations in my version.