Saturday, April 30, 2011

Our Easter Adventure - the final chapter

One last little story fromour Easter holiday would be about our campfire cooking. Now the best part about camping in the Flinders Ranges at this time of year is our fire bans were lifted and we could sit around a fire at night sing, talk, read, toast marshmellows. Darling Husband has a camp oven and is still learning and testing it out so was very rash and declared before leaving that he was sur e he could bake a cake in it. Anyway the first night we made sultana damper in it which was very yummy - amazing for just flour, water and sultanas. The next night we did damper on sticks (not as successful), and more marshmellows. The last night we toasted Kabana (I strongly reccommend this) and the family attempted to make a cake. Now we don't have a thermometer on this oven but needless to say it was a little too hot and the cake turned out quite burnt after half the reccomended cooking time - but it was only burnt on the out side (I wasn't allowed to photograph it) and after a bit of work with a sharp knife - a generous serving of Double thick cream spread over it - all was good (lucky I bought the cream I must have had a feeling).So this was my cake after surgery (above0 and below with cream and sparklers and singing



Thanks guys for the special family birthday.


That is the end of all the Easter and Birthday posts. Tonight is date night (the second one this week) and we are off to see Wicked.




Cheers










Holiday Hexagons

Of course when one travels 5 hours to get to a pretty spot one feels the need to be busy (it helps me stay awake which is safer for my darling family). I started this little project 2 years ago on another trip and thought this would be an opportune moment to keep going. I think i have made about 60 hexagons over the Easter weekend all made using scraps from Little Miss B's smocked dresses. I am still not sure quite what to do with them. I have visions of maybe a baby quilt or a bigger quilt years in the future but for now I keep cutting up these fabric scraps and making them into Hexies and hexie flowers - maybe some lucky quilter will find them at an op shop in the future and do something grand with them who knows.

Any suggestions are welcome

Cheers

Friday, April 29, 2011

Our Easter Adventure Part 3

On Easter Sunday we did our first ever four wheel driving. It was a track on a sheep station called SkyTrek. This was good as we don't know anybody else who owns a four wheel drive -so it would be unsafe for us to go alone. The station saw 50 vehicles go on the track on the Saturday and 30 on the Sunday so we knew we weren't alone. There were some great views and some steep ups and downs, It was very challenging for our driver and very bumpy for us passengers.







This was an old hut from the original sheep station that had been restored Sir TP thought the sleeping conditions were pretty good - although a little dusty.At the highest point on the property we added our rock to the Cairn and enjoyed the view on another spectacular day. The trip home had us driving through twilight and dusk and saw lots of native animals. The wet conditions have meant a soaring number of giant Orb spiders (I could have lived without this), strangely we never saw a single sheep on this property.Cheers















Thursday, April 28, 2011

Our Easter Adventure Part 2

We like to take the children on some walks when we are camping - so we walked up from our campsite and into the pound. This is the original homestead of the old Sheep Station (it is like Rundle Mall at Easter Time).

The children mimicked the native poses on this fake rock sculpture and read the story about the original inhabitants of the area.We looked at old equipment left behindWe went up to the look out - a steep climb and ate our lunch looking over the Pound. The days were beautiful, the nights were chilly. The children were a little anxious as to whether the Easter Bunny would find them - he did. And then if the native animals would find their eggs first and eat them - they didn't. It was very chilly dashing around finding little eggs around the tent and car but it was fun



A little bit more to come


Cheers

PS the 'tame' life around the tent.















































Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Our Easter Adventure Part 1

Over Easter I was away from the house and the computer experiencing the Great Outdoors - something the family just loves. We took advantage of the 5 day long weekend to explore The Flinders Ranges. I must say now this was our best camping trip ever. Perfect weather, children and The Flinders Ranges were in peak form green and lush from the rains and not miserably dusty and too many flies(as in past experiences.



We left very early Friday morning here is Little Miss B stopped in Port Augusta to stretch our legs.We camped without power at Wilpena Pound here is the tent going up. The emus were not at all bothered by us setting up camp and kept wandering past all weekend. Sir Tp busied himself making a fire circle and laying out twigs to get it started.And Miss B waited inanticipation for Marshmellows.I will fill in some more details later


Cheers
















Look Who Has come to Live with US - New Blythe Doll

My Birthday Present from the kids - Raspberry Sorbet Blythe Doll.
I can't wait too play with her and Little Miss B. B has all sorts of ideas lined up for us all. Her name is Gwen - here is Angel meeting Gwen - Angel is a bit cold in the mornings - she has on her uggies and socks. I love Gwens long long hair and her funky satin top. She has earrings and pink nail polish (B is a little jealous).



I also got a treadmill for my birthday - I have given up on going to the Gym it is hard to fit it in around everyone elses committments so I will have to give the treadmill a good try now (I am running out of options to try and stay fit!). We have just got home from an EAster adventure I will share more later but for now I am off to hit the washing pile it has taken over the house.






Cheers





Tuesday, April 26, 2011

SSSH - Its a secret







Don't tell anyone - but it is my birthday today mmm wonder what I will get. I'll share later. forgive me for so little information but it isnt' every year that I get a 5 day long weekend for my birthday so I am enjoying it. Cheers


PS Don't you just love the little flowers on the Y's how cute, and apparently that is me with my new short hair and my new doll!!!

Monday, April 25, 2011

Something I really really want



I really really want to go to this - but can I afford the time and money - mmm - it says places are filling up fast so I think I will miss out before I make up my mind. But I do like spending time with Janelle Wind (well I liked her book and her blog!) mmm it is very tempting. What shall I do? Cheers

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Sunday Silliness

OK so I havent had a lot of time this week to leave comments in blog land but with the kids on holiday we picked this word from the security checks on blog comments

Unrio defn 1. Bad spelling of unreal as said by a 6 year old 2. Not pertaining to the movie Rio

yeah I know a bit weak but before I started posting I saw heaps of cool un words and this week not so many. I will see what I can come up with this week Cheers

An Easter Tradition -the final chapter

Now the teacher instruction for this on Sunday morning is when you wake up in the morning, sneak out to your diorama, remove pipecleaner Jesus from the tomb and hide him behind the back of the diorama. Then go and wake up mum and dad (never mind if they got up at 5am to do secret jobs around the house or have been up all night with babies). When you wake them up say "Mum, Dad come quickly, Come and see the tomb is empty - Jesus is Alive!" Happy Easter all in blog land - don't eat too much chocolate God Bless

Saturday, April 23, 2011

School Holiday Projects

Okay , I promise you i will actually do some of my own craft posts soon (how many times do I say that) but it will have to wait until the children are back at school, Grandfriends Day is over and whatever my work want to do with me (I am sure I will be the last one to know that). Each holiday we are trying to do the work for one of the badges in this little Cub Scout book (yellow). This holiday we decided on the Codes and Signals Badge Level One. This is a simple little badge and Sir TP hardly needed any help to work on it. Luckily I found this book called The Know How Book of Spycraft at the local fair a few weeks back for 10 cents. I remember reading this book when I was at school and it has a lot of observation puzzles and secret codes in it which have kept Sir TP very amused So to get this badge we had to choose three activities - one was invisible writing which we did using lemon juice and then heating it over the stove - Here is Sir TP's invisible message to daddy made visible - quite effective.



Sir TP then had to make a secret code up for his cub pack to solve. He has made from our book a Grille code -which canonly be solved by using a grille (or I would call it a grid).



The third task he has chosen was a simple google jobby which was to learn the International Phonetic Alphabet and spell your name using it. So he will be spending the rest of the holiday trying to memorise that. So hopefully we will have one more badge to add to our uniform next term. If you have any good activities relating to cub scout badge work I would love to hear them. Sir TP is determined to get as many as possible and has his sights set on his Grey Wolf (though we don't have any boomerangs yet).




I am in the midd le of lots of big projects so I may have to do another progress post soon on my sewing - and I am getting further behind on my scrapping. I think blogging and Pinning are getting in the way.




Cheers






Friday, April 22, 2011

An Easter Tradition continues


The children are all rote learned that at 3.00 on Good Friday Pipecleaner Jesus is taken off the cross and laid in his tomb. The stone is rolled across to keep him safe until after the Sabbath so he can be prepared properly for burial. I remember very fondly the first year with my little reception boy. We were at the zoo when he shrieked that we had to rush home and place pipecleaner Jesus into his tomb and he would not stay any longer once he realised he had a job to do (I was a single mom that Easter as Darling Hubby was working OS and had two children at the zoo by myself - so I had to do what Sir TP wanted). Pop back on Sunday for the final chapter do you know how it ends?

An Easter Tradition

Sir Tp has the same teacher at school this year for year 3 as he had for Reception and one of her pet Easter Projects is the Easter Diorama. I am sharing this with you on our 2011 Diorama but we have been re enacting this drama for the last few years with Sir TP's reception one. The first year we did this was so cute. This teacher is very precise and she gets the children to really memorise the story and what to do so the children can share it with their families. SO here we are on Good Friday with pipecleaner Jeseus on the cross on the hillside near his tomb. Pop back at 3.00 to see what happens next.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

I {heart} School Holidays - even when I am sick

Another set of school holidays finds me coughing and spluttering -what do you expect after two weeks of a child coughing all over you. We are having some lovely balmy days and enjoying a sampler of activities.
We have watched Hop at the movies - quite funny, we caught up with Cats and Dogs 2 and Annie on DVD (Both children now sing It's a Hard Knock Life while unpacking the dishwasher!! Pullease!)

Little Miss B and Sir TP doing sticker mosaics (Birthday gifts) oh also with their pet caterpillar Squirmy helping (apparently B will give him a new name when he turns into a butterfly).
I am catching up on some sewing which got abandoned and packed away during birthday parties (Squirmy was found on my sewing. He was the same colour as the green check fabric. He obviously jumped on me when we were examining our veggie patch and tried to hide while we were squashing the caterpillars on the broccoli. Now he has been labelled endangered by the kidlets and is a protected species. Too bad about the poor broccolli).

Little Miss B has been busy drawing on her blackboard (giving the environment a rest from her mountains of drawing on paper). Playing schools, and scootering. Sir TP, Miss B and me have also been working on his Codes and Signals badge. More later about that.




Cheers




Wednesday, April 20, 2011

A Finish ( a victory).

Yay - I finished my crochet scarf complete with the wonky flowers on the bottom. Miss B is modelling it for me in the garden on a lovely Autumn day. She tells me it is making her neck nice and warm and I cant wait to wear it camping. It is nice to finish a project lets find another one to tick off the list. Cheers

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Scout Blankets

If it's winter then it must be time to sew on blanket badges!! Coming from a family with a bit of scouting history - it was only natural that Sir TP would be keen to have his own scout blanket ASAP. Grandma provided last birthday a Scout Blanket which is a very uninspiring grey army blanket which gradually gets adorned with cloth badges and scarves etc. Hubby has a great full blanket which he often adds to during winter(I refuse to sew on his badges). Grandad too has a great blanket, and Sir TP is well on his way with a variety of badges from places we have visited and scout events and challenges. My Job is to sew a few extra on like binding a quilt it can only be done in winter and at least if they are on the blanket I cant lose them. So that is my task over the next few days too stitch on badges it looks great folded up - but boy when you open up that blanket you think what a lot of badges we will have to collect to fill it. Cheers

Monday, April 18, 2011

Puffle Power

Sir TP is on a Cub Scout Bender and we worked out that with his painted eggs and another holiday project he was one project short of his Handcraft badge - a fabric sewing project. Lucky for him this is the place to fix that. He decided he wanted to make a puffle cuddly out of red felt. He drew up a pattern for a puffle (this is a creature from a game called Club Penguin for the over 12) and with a few little modifications here and there he cut it out, appliqued on felt eyes, embroidered a sort of back stitch mouth and sewed it together. Thankfully we had a pupil free day and a half day off after Sports Day so he could sew it up in time for Cubs. Hopefully that gives us one more badge for the term. Sir TP has his sights on his Grey Wolf badge whilst in cubs so he has quite a bit of work ahead. The good thing about this project is he was really motivated and knew clearly what he wanted to do and what he had to do and he did it (although he did want to use the sewing machine in the morning when we were doing the before school rush mmm!).
But first we have to nail The Exposition for the dreaded NAPLAN's fast approaching - any tips on how to encourage boys to write?


Cheers

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Sunday Silliness

Okay this is going to be a new weekly post for us here at Lavender Green. I have been leaving a lot of comments around blogs and even though I find it annoying I am getting a lot of amusement from the words I am asked to type in to verify I am not a random spam computer type program. So every Sunday I will do a little post with a couple of my favourite words on it and I will try to define them - Please join in if you see a good one add it too the comments and if you cant define I will try Todays wordis Lamec (verified from Riches Stitches Blog) obviously a camel going backwards What words have you found today while talking with friends Cheers

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Crochet Flowers


Ok I admit that I have caught a bit of a crochet bug looking at the beautiful crochet rugs and flowers and hats and pillows on the web. I have been struggling along teaching myself but I pretty much have no skill at fibre crafts (knitting included) My hands are awkward I lack speed and dexterity and when I look at the project I cant see what I am doing just a mess of wool so I cant fix a mixtake because I know it looks wrong but I just dont get it!! My mother and mother in law are both good at them which doesnt really help me.Anyway I have nearly finished my scarf - it just depends how long I choose to make it and it needs some crochet flowers on the ends of it. SO I have been practicing I think I am starting to get it thanks to my book and you tube but they still dont look quite right to me. Well maybe on the finished product - we shall see


Cheers

Friday, April 15, 2011

Fashionably Easter Day Five - Easter Bunting






Well it seemed obvious to me that we need an easter bunting - I know their are a gazillion tuorials for this so you might just like to enjoy my finished product with me.


My triangle pattern is 19 cm across the flat end and 27cm down from mid line to the point


I use Cooper Standard font off of my computer as the letter template. Trace it on to vleisoflex upside down , cut it out and iron to back of felt (there are so many nice plain colours in felt I think this is a little easier then using fabric). Machine stitch to bunting flags using straight stitch .



Stitch flags together right sides together, trim off excess fabric and turn through. Take care with the point.



Take a length of 1 inch continuous bias binding (I purchased pre made this time from Spotlight as they have a nice selection). Press in half along the length. Pin flags to the binding sandwiched in the fold and stitch through all layers making a loop at each end.


Happy Easter folks

Cheers

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Fashionably Easter Day Four - Easter Cards

Hey there - wow Thursday already - time flies when you are crafting away. Today the children and I are sharing this years Easter Cards. I know it is a different tradition. Darling Husbands family celebrate Easter just like Christmas - big Lunch, cards and eggs. So we are making some cards for the family . We are going with some simple bunny and chick themes. You will need white card, coloured card, Ink pads in you favourite easter colours a nice black pen (I can't believe I let the kids touch this but!!) So we started with some basic big and small finger prints. Remember to wash hands between inks (yes I am talking to you TP) Then use your pen to add some details - the children used a sponge to make grass and treesI added orange beaks and pen drawn eyes ,wings and legs
On the bunnies on the grass I added ears and tails and face details
Dont forget an Easter greeting - I am boring and stick with Happy Easter
Here is Miss B's chicks under the tree (the last three look alot like walking eggs - that would be tricky during the big hunt)
Stick your white art onto a nice coloured background write inside and share the good news with your friends and family


Cheers

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Fashionably Easter Day Three- Bunny Eggs



Welcome or welcome back even - did you make some chocolates or maybe (if you are like me ) you are still planning to) Today we are making Egg Rabbit Decorations.


For this you will need


Polystyrene foam eggs


glitter,paint


felt, pom poms and googly eyes


hot glue, white glue and toothpicks


Out of the felt cut 2 sets of ears and 1 set of feet that look a little like this (or however your bunnies like to look)



glue the ears together with a little end of toothpick in between them. This helps you attach them to the styrene egg when dry.


Use the white glue to cover the egg with glitter or paint it rabbit coloured. Add googly eyes, a tummy, teeth or a carrot.



Use the hot glue gun to attach the feet to the egg and you have a little easter egg bunny (watch out making these is addicive and they will multiply.



Good Luck


Cheers






PS Come back tomorrow we are making something else fun for Easter.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Day Two Painted Eggs


Sir TP's painted eggs turned out divine - He is hoping to use them to get his Handcraft badge at Cub Scouts this week. Their must be a trick to photographing Eggs I will have another go for you shortly


Cheers