Helping the Hungry

The other day whilst entering our local supermarket, a lady was standing at the entrance collecting food for charity. I went over to her and asked what types of food they really needed the most. She said "cereals" as these are really quite expensive for low income earners and benefit recipients.

Food is the second largest expense for families. A lot of families have limited access to decent healthy food due to lack of money and other resources. That includes many children who need those nutrients for growth and development.

Many soup kitchens in the Sydney area alone serve around 1000 meals a week to the less fortunate. And one in four people in a soup kitchen line is a child.

If you can give some food to the needy, can you do so this week. The Salvation Army and St Vinnies accept all non perishable food.

It's absolutely horrid to think of little children going hungry especially in this cold weather.

Hope everybody is enjoying this woolly weather as much as I am - although I have the most horrible sniffles.

Wednesday

It's starting to get a bit wintery out there now isn't it? I'm loving this colder weather, especially at night time when we all snuggle under the extra layers on the bed. I am in bliss under all my vintage eiderdowns. I bet there are a few readers out there who have never even heard of that word before - eiderdown. It's what doonas used to be called when I was little.

Unfortunately I have succumbed to the household illness doing the rounds. I woke up yesterday with a sore throat, runny nose, watery eyes and a headache. Nothing for it but to lay on the lounge all day. Luckily I had stocked up on some new loves, oops, I mean books to keep me company for the day.

The new arrivals

Did you notice that they are lying on the blanket I have knitted for Miss Rhianna. Not quite finished yet. I will have the big reveal soon. But don't get too excited as my blanket is the very essence of "homemade".

First book I purchased is "Homemade" (what a funny co-incidence) which was co-written by Elspeth Thompson.

I have followed Elspeth's blog for a couple of years and logged on last week to congratulate her on her new book only to read a short post by her husband saying that Elspeth had committed suicide a few days prior. I can't tell you the absolute shock I felt upon reading this.

In her previous post there is no hint that all is not well. And she was such an accomplished person writing books and the like. But depression has no mercy even on the very talented, creative and just plain lovely people of the world. I suffer from depression myself and this was a timely reminder to keep taking my medications and to remind myself that we all have our demons to battle in this life.
The book is lovely and I got my copy in Big W. Have a look, it really is a gorgeously styled book.

Second book is the Cath Kidston book called MAKE. I adore her craft and sewing projects and it looks pretty easy. The pictures are very English and kitschy.

The last book I bought was a a bit of a bargain purchase from Lincraft. It's a papercraft book so it has a mix of scrapbook ideas and lots of other cool things to do with paper and cardstock.

Anyway, I am inspired by all this printed goodness and cold weather to get creative. Hopefully I'll get back here to post some results. But first, the knitted blanket needs to be completed. One project at a time.

A Homemade Gift

We have had one of the first little girl parties of the year yesterday. And a perfect opportunity to get started on my homemade gifts.

I've been dying to make this brownie jar. It contains all the dry ingredients needed to make a quick mix brownie. The dry ingredients are layered up the jar to create a sand jar effect.

All that needs to be added are eggs and butter. In order from the bottom are flour and baking powder, cocoa, sugar, choc bits and coloured mini marshmallows. So easy and (I think) so cute.

I've added the recipe to the front of the jar and prettied up the top a little with some scrappy bits and pieces.

Yesterday was a bit of a day out for me. I had both my hubby and son home sick so I wasn't about to hang around all day playing nurse maid. I did that on Sunday when it should have been Mother's Day.

I'm loving my stationery at the moment and picked up these bits and pieces. What I'm going to use them for, I have no idea but that's not really the point with pretty stationery is it? For me just looking at them and ohhing and ahhing over them is almost enough.

Hope you are enjoying your week.

Saturday

Some crafty fun was had today and I have to say, I love it when I find a little project that uses up all the stuff I already have. Saves my money and my patience. Today we made some little pom pom owls. We had a bit of wool lurking around from the blanket I am knitting and the rest is just felt pieces and googly eyes. They are really cute and we had a lot of fun making them.

Here are the 2 new owly friends perched on the mantlepiece.

The thing I find most annoying as a mother is that I constantly put everybody else in the family before myself. And nowhere is this more evident than in the night wear department.

Look at what I have been wearing to bed for the past 2 winters. A pair of my darling husband's old tracksuit pants and his old sailing jumper. Very warm and comfy but not the least bit feminine or dare I say it, romance inducing.

So, time for some new additions. Now, I am aware that I have bought basically the same thing that I already had, that is, big sloppy pants and a loose sweater type thing. But they are new, they were from the womens department and most importantly they are pink.

At this time of the year there is nothing I love more after a busy day then to have a lovely warm bath, pop on my (new) jammies and settle in for a night of telly and knitting.

Even our dog Finn is enjoying the Autumn weather and has taken to curling up on the lounge at night time in blissful slumber.

Hope everybody is having a lovely weekend.

Hooray for Autumn

Well autumn is well and truly here judging by the temperature this morning around 7am. But I am not complaining. I am loving it. How can I not be happy with the cooler weather, the start of Term 2 at school and this beautiful view out my dining room window.

However life is pretty ordinary around here lately. Much of the sameness day in and day out.

Not a lot new and exciting to blog about I am afraid. The weather has had my thoughts turning to more and more craft projects. If only I could stay awake longer at night time to start any of them.

I find the cooler weather sees me climbing into bed around 8pm with Miss Rhianna to knit and read books. We cuddle up together and most of the time my lovely hubby will bring us down some hot chocolates to lush around in bed with. Who wants to sit hunched over a sewing machine when you can be doing that instead?

But I did manage to drag old Bertha (the sewing machine) out for a little sew up of the knitting squares yesterday.

Does anybody but me (and my friend Julie) remember a magazine out a few years ago called Family Circle? Well it went out of circulation because only tragics like me were buying it. It was a very family oriented magazine with lots of parenting articles, craft and cooking. Since all that home stuff is currently back in vogue, I should not have been surprised to see its reappearance at the newsagents yesterday. Oh Joy......

And inside a very tempting new knitting project for me to get started on.

And finally I get started on some cooler weather cooking. I wonder if you can guess what is on the menu for tonight? One of my favourites with some crusty bread rolls from the bakery.

Keep your beanies and scarves handy today.

Love on a Tuesday Afternoon.

Time for a bit of baking.

It's been quite a while since I've baked something new. I really needed something to inspire me and then Donna Hay appeared in the Sunday morning paper. And suddenly I felt some inspiration hit.

She had a recipe for Melting Moments. My all time favourite biscuits. I've been known to pay up to $3.50 for one of these babies in an up market cafe. And who knew they were so easy to make?

The hardest part was making sure that all the bickies are the same size so you can "glue" them together with the icing. Oh yummy, yum yum......


Of course there is nothing better to go with a lovely home baked biscuit than a cup of cold milk and piles of Milo floating on top. It says on the tin its full of iron...so its actually really, really good for you.

And then Miss R who is learning to read and write at a rapid rate presented me with a little plaque for the kitchen. Never have letter tiles been put to a better use. All this love...I'm enjoying every moment.

Our Sunday

We had a "home" weekend this past Saturday and Sunday. That means that we basically lie around in our jimmy jams all weekend doing as little as possible. We've had a busy few weeks and really needed to recharge our batteries.

I had a little smile when I got up on Sunday and saw all my knitting lined up on a shelf in the early morning sunshine. Not much more knitting to go now and I can sew it all up.


Next up we wanted some new art supplies - particularly some yummy pens for our planned art project today. We found these in the local $2 shop and look at all the yummy colours.

We spent a lot of time at this table this weekend making mandalas. They are our new art love at the moment. They gave us lots of opportunity to talk about pattern and sequence and all about colour wheels.

Here are some of the mandalas we made. It really was so much fun - very meditative and they really look colourful when we put them all together. We were stupidly happy with them.

Hope you all got up to a little bit more than us.