Simple pleasures

Mother’s Day for us over at our household began with a huge serving of delicious banana pancakes. That’s one serve there pictured below – specifically , my serve, my reward from the family I guess on this special day.

We then headed outdoors to the local playground for a bit of a play….

And then made our way to the botanical gardens to spend the rest of the day! Autumn in the gardens is quite breathtaking, check out the gorgeous orange and red colours on this tree that we saw along the way!

There were plenty of dried autumn leaves for everyone to kick around in, I couldn’t resist picking up a few to keep as a souvenir….

All that walking around did make us tired so we stopped by a bench for some lunch and cake!

A pretty relaxing and pretty perfect day it was today! Hope you had a lovely day too!

The Easter update

Ok so Easter is officially over and I’m a little late in updating my posts. But that’s because we’ve been having lots of fun touring the peninsula!

Easter for us began with the traditional unwrapping of the chocolate eggs….

Once we had taken care of that, it was off to the grounds of the beautiful Heronswood gardens for a visit!

The Diggers club is also on site. I was really tempted to get a few seedlings and seed packets home, especially after we spotted this….

And this and lots more amazing produce during our walk through the gardens!

But the Dude reminded me about our success rate with gardening -currently its pretty dismal. So instead we did the more sensible thing and spent our money at the lovely cafe onsite indulging in this gorgeous orange flour less cake!

Our next and final two destinations were to beaches. First up, the Dromana foreshore….

And then to the famous Gunammatta beach where we managed to catch incredible views of the surf and the ocean beach!

Bugs had a ball exploring the gardens and the beaches. But she was especially thrilled when the Easter bunny paid a visit in the evening bearing, yes, more chocolate eggs! Here he is, the Easter bunny that I’d crocheted a few weeks ago….

And watching tv with us after we had consumed his gifts of joy…

The holidays have been fantastic for all of us! Hopefully they have been for you too!

Till later folks!

A new lesson

Parenthood teaches you a lot of things…..

Like how the rules that you grew up thinking were important are actually not….

Like how sometimes just letting go and relishing in the moment can make life a lot more happier than it usually is…

Especially when there’s water play involved!

The old me would have pulled Bugs away from the water feature, fearing that she might catch a chill (something which I’d grown up listening to) or dreading the inconvenience of needing to change a feisty toddler out of wet and into dry clothes.

But hey, summer is officially over, there aren’t many hot beautiful days left so why not enjoy it while we still can!

I’m hoping that i can keep up my new live in the moment mantra as much as possible! There’s lots more of life to enjoy this way! We are off now to soak up more of the sun and snack on new season mandarins! See you soon!

Our zen place

The Botanic Gardens is a lovely place, tranquil and beautiful….

Perfect for long walks and calming souls…

It’s tough being a toddler sometimes. The world is such an exciting place – lots to do, see, touch and taste! It gets particularly frustrating when people don’t seem to understand what you want or like to do! That on top of needing to grapple with changes to your body makes things extra difficult! That’s why the wide open and unrestricted spaces of The Gardens are fantastic for Bugs! That’s where Mommy lets her roam free and….

Stop and explore whatever catches her interest…

And when it’s time for a break, there’s always a bench or two around the corner to rest our tired feet (or erm… stand in this case)….

The Gardens are our favourite go to place when we are seeking to find a bit of inner calm!

Well in case the pictures and post don’t do it for you, I’ll leave you with this famous last word that I learnt from yoga class might restore some balance in your day!

“Ohmmmmmmmmmmm…..”

Piece of cake

We visited the toy library recently to return and refresh our toys. That’s Bugs playing happily with this shape sorting toy – anything that keeps her sitting still for more than five minutes and does not require batteries (Humans not counted) is a real surprise to me!

Anyway we picked up this pamphlet while we were there….

Yeap! It’s cake stall time again! How quick the year has flown by! This round we managed to get a recipe sheet of suggested cakes to make, just in case one had difficulty in finding a cake recipe to use!

The cake monsters in us just had to give some of the recipes a go. First up, a delicious and spicy apple and cinnamon teacake!

Mmmmm this was truly the perfect complement to a cup of steaming hot tea for the afternoon!

The next one that we made – a lemon yoghurt cake was a real winner in our books on a couple of fronts: One – it was ridiculously easy to make. All we had to do was to put all the ingredients into a food processor and give it a whizz….

Pop the mix in the oven for an hour or so and after all that, you have one perfect cake on your hands! I love how even this cake rose in the oven! It smelt incredibly lemony too while it was baking!

Now the second reason as to why this cake is a winner is that it tastes great! Moist and fluffy, citrusy and not too sweet, this cake was the perfect perk me up for a hot summer’s day!

When life gives you lemons, use two and some yoghurt to make a cake!

Hope you are keeping cool somewhere ! I’ll end off with a picture of Bugs siting in a tub of water during playgroup this morning!

The perfect red

The local market looked a bit more festive than usual when we visited it today for our weekly shop.

And then it hit us- the sounds of cymbals clashing and drums beating, a lion dance to celebrate the Chinese new year!

This lion moved pretty fast through the crowd! I managed to squeeze in a shot before it finally disappeared into the market!

There was a little stall set up in the square which was giving out free chinese calligraphy pieces….

We were lucky enough to snare ourselves this huge piece of prosperity! Perfect to hang and invite luck into the house!

All this festivity has inspired me to start prepping some wool for another knitting project! So I dug deep into the stash bag and pulled out this gorgeous skein of deep red aptly named “Bucharest”!
Can’t wait to get started on it!

Hope your Saturday is going great! Till later folks!

How to make a robot

Here’s how we make a robot…

Take one body and add on some eyes…..

Install in the antenna at the top of the head….

Fix on the arms….

And the wheels (how else does a robot get around!)….

And voila! One robot or Luvbot as the brilliant Anna Hrachovec who designed this pattern calls it!

Mildred or Milly in short (my robot’s name – I’m terrible with coming up with techie names) was a stealth knit – I had to hide it from The Dude while I was working on it. That meant knitting during Bugs’s naptime as quickly as I could!

Milly’s hands looked a bit empty so I knitted up a mini pink heart for her to hold! There! Doesn’t she look much happier now?

Add a little note…

And my Valentine’s Day gift for The Dude is complete! Yay!

It was M&M’s for The Dude last year, hopefully he doesn’t mind the lack of chocolate this year! After all, as our favourite author Mo Willems puts it, how can anyone be sad around a robot!?

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

Time in the sun

Happy year of the snake everyone! We’ve been a bit busier than usual lately celebrating the new year. Bugs has been tagging along with us as we scuttle about running our many errands of late. So today we decided to take it easy and take Bugs to visit one of her favourite play spots of the moment – The beach!!

We stopped by the brand new playground for a look see….

There was lots to explore, like this huge circular platform that turned when you pushed it….

Or even running the extra fine sand through your fingers was interesting enough for little minds!

The view from the playground was pretty stunning no matter which part you were at….

If you look closely enough, you can see the great Spirit of Tasmania ship docked at Station pier in the picture below!

And but of course no trip to the beach would be complete without an actual trip to the beach !

Whoever knew that seaweed could be so fascinating!

Oh if only everyday could be this idyllic! One can only dream!

Have a great day everyone!

Shorts story

Summer is the time for…..

Lazy evening walks and camel rides (only valid if you weigh less than 15 kg)…..

And shorts! Yes – shorts!

Lots and lots of shorts!

The sewing machine and I have been busy lately you see, churning out pair after pair of this summer essential wardrobe item. Here’s the most recent pair that’s just done , made with some cute Spot the dog fabric, which Bugs is a fan of.

It wasn’t completely on easy street making a pair of shorts. I am still quite the novice sewer. The first pair of shorts came up too small- a bit disappointing but luckily enough, it was just the right size for one special member in the household!

The second time round was way more successful (as you can see from Bugs modelling the shorts in the pictures above).

So I was really encouraged with my successful shorts story to date and decided to try my hand at making a pair of pyjama pants! Kind of like shorts but longer, yes?

This tutorial that I found online was a real gem. It took me just under two hours ( with a few brief pauses taken to read a story to the little one when required) to finish a pair and here’s how it looks…..

Not bad eh? It passed the wear test too- Bugs was quite happy prancing around in them when we tried them on her yesterday evening!

A new pair of pants for just about everyone around the house, just in time for the Chinese new year! I think it’s safe to say we’re all happy here!

Have a great day everyone!

Sunny side up

We’ve been hit unfortunately by a terrible stomach bug recently. By we, I mean all of us, the whole tribe. Tragic, I know. Especially since it was over the Australia Day long weekend!

It started with Bugs early one morning. By dinner, The Dude and I were taking turns making sprints to the toilet. Thankfully all of that unnecessary exercise lasted a day. By Monday, things felt a lot brighter (and lighter -an unfortunate side effect).

We mustered up enough strength today to head out to our beloved IKEA for a change of scenery. Being cooped up at home for three days does make one a bit stir crazy after a while.

Anyway we picked up this cute little basket of felt vegetable toys that Bugs had a blast playing instore! I love everything about it – from the pull apart lettuce leaves to the lifelike button mushrooms, only thing was it costed us fifteen bucks!

Pretty pricey if you picked up the other sets as well – a brekkie set, fruit basket, sandwich, salmon and of course dessert, five extra sets in total which meant an extra sixty five bucks or eighty bucks in total for the collection! That’s quite a bit of chump change for toy food I thought!

So I whipped out my trusty crochet hook, selected a suitable pattern and coloured yarn….

And hooked up a fried egg while Bugs took a snooze in the afternoon!

This was so fun and quick I had to make another! Now this vegetable basket looks more protein enriched than it did before!

We all know eggs are good for you! Just make sure one doesn’t land where it doesn’t belong!

Hmmmm I wonder what I can make next… There are a few ideas, I’ll have to sleep on it to decide!

Till later everyone!