It all came together

After a bleak, cold and windy Saturday we were truly blessed by the weather for my littlest one's Christening last Sunday...

Many of our (very large and lovely) extended family were able to make it, and the kids sat along the playground like galahs on a fence - probably knowing they were being easily supervised by their parents...

As the last one of my brood, with exactly eleven years to the day between the Christening of the first and the last, it was a little bit emotional but pretty much perfect. I had lots of helpers with the food and children, and just added a few special touches to the day, working on the 'papercut' theme that I'd started with the invitation artwork.

Lovely now that the full set have been 'done', to look back and see that I've changed my way of doing things a little...

Child Number One didn't even get his name on his candle.

I made the white garment for child number one, so thought it'd be interesting to look back at each child wearing it. With only about eight photos to choose from for the first two, and about 200 each for the last two (hello digital cameras!), the photography has definitely improved. But not the waistline. Must get back to that project...

Now for little J's confirmation and first communion later this year...

Green Soup

I think most green soups look better at the start...

...than at the end.

But they are yummy.

Here are the details of two green soups we've been enjoying around here lately.

Basil and Zucchini Soup (a Weight Watchers Recipe, actually. Even my husband likes this one.)

1 tbsp olive oil
1 large chopped onion
1 tsp minced garlic
4 cups boiling water
3 crumbled chicken stock cubes
7 chopped zucchini
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
375ml evaporated low fat milk

Heat oil in large saucepan and cook onion and garlic until soft and golden.
Add water, stock, zucchini and basil. Bring to boil, lower heat and simmer 10 mins or until veges are soft.
Process or blend until smooth. Add milk and heat. Don't boil. Serve with parmesan. You're done.

Broccoli Soup

4-5 heads & stems of broccoli, roughly chopped
2 large leeks, washed and chopped
3 large potatoes, peeled and chopped
3 chicken stock cubes
1 tsp nutmeg and pepper to taste

Throw all of that in a big pot, cover with boiling water and simmer til tender.

Blend up and serve with a swirl of cream and a sprinkle of grated parmesan.

Yum.

My Creative Space - giddyup

Cue Godfather music...

We're getting ready for a christening and a 3rd birthday party in the coming week, so there's actually plenty of creative stuff going on around here this holidays. The horse head was pretty easy, and will hopefully be the first of quite a flock (what is the multiple for horses again?) as S wanted a 'merry-go-round' theme and I'm planning to make them all gallop in circles on hobby horses... that's lateral (and economical) thinking for you.

And my child isn't trying to be The Joker, that's vegemite from her toast.

Her invites were a group effort with my drawings, the boys writing and her extra swirls and were also delivered yesterday...

It's such a lovely thing to have so much to report! Now I'm off to get more polar fleece out for the friendly 'herd' (is that the word?).

To check out some other lovely creative things, head over to Kirsty's at Kootooyoo!

That Donna is really quite clever

Having recently watched Masterchef's Masterclass where Donna Hay showed the final 8 contestants how to ice a four layer chocolate cake, I scoffed as they all oohed and ahhed and pronounced her a 'genius' for measuring the amount of filling between each layer so they were all totally even.

Here is a pic of Donna's cake from her magazine:

I hearby apologise to Donna, because here is mine:

Now I'm not complaining. And I'm not beating myself up about it, because it was well received by the birthday boy (hence the car cake topper) and, if Gary, George and Matt are to believed, "it all comes down to the taste", well then, I succeeded. It did taste good, and oh, that chocolate cream cheese icing is terrific...

But I used tins that were 20cm round (not matching ones either) instead of 18cm round, and my first two cakes were so flat I ended up making another batch. And I lined the tins with paper but my bottom circles were bigger than the bases and I cut notches in them, instead of cutting notches on the side sheets and leaving the bottom circle neater (that sounds very confusing, are you still following me?). And perhaps I should have used real buttermilk rather than resorting to my usual 'dash of vinegar in the milk' trick...

Here ends the debrief.

I just wanted to say, I take my hat off to you Ms Hay. I may not gasp 'genius' as you ice a cake, but you certainly know your stuff.

Show and tell

I was going to save this for Thursday's Creative Space, but I just can't keep it to myself.

It's my 'new' desk  - so that I don't have to keep moving my laptop and paperwork on and off the dinner table (I do have a perfectly good desk in our office - but it's too far away from little children).

Here's the before... (a handmedown from a friend, that was previously used as a child's desk) ...

And, wait for it ...................... here's the AFTER!

Before you ask, it's covered in fabric that I had in my stash. I had about 3 metres, and think I bought it in the first place simply because I loved the pattern.

I painted each surface with glue and cut and stretched the fabric onto it, added new knobs and a perspex top ($70 - now that was a surprise :( ) and stretched and stapled the red fabric onto the back to give the piece more weight.  It looks great next to the red rug in my 'grown ups corner'. And it was SO much quicker and easier than sanding, priming and painting!

My top tips for gluing fabric on furniture (can you tell I'm also loving Masterchef?) -

1. Paint glue over the whole surface. I started with Aquadhere, then ran out, so finished with 'Weldbond'. I mixed both with a little water as I brushed it on to make sure the whole surface was covered.
2. Cut enough fabric so you cover the whole piece, and then you can cover those rough edges with ribbon or some sort of trim. I've got a few bare bits hidden (but I'm not going to show you!).
3. Use a patterned fabric (at least for your first go). This will disguise any unplanned or unavoidable lumps and bumps, which is bound to happen with an old piece of furniture.

I love LOVE LOVE it, and it's going to help me be more organised and pay the bills on time (instead of putting them on my office desk and never going in there again). And when my kids are bigger and I actually use my office properly again, it'll make a marvellous dressing table.

And here are some gratuitous 'try-hard-stylist' photos.

My gorgeous paintings are by the very talented Nic Hohn. I have a collection of "Hohn's" actually. Must blog about that one day. (Wouldn't it be nice with one of those 'navy' designer chairs...)

Yep. Love it. Thanks for coming.

PS. I forgot to mention that I was inspired by a completely upholstered chest of drawers I saw in a shop window in Paddington (Brisbane) last weekend - it was an impressive piece of furniture - with a $2995 price tag! Makes the perspex price seem quite reasonable...

(And sorry I haven't supplied the Black Forest Pikelet recipe yet - it's not yummy enough. I'll keep working on it.)

My Creative Space - sharpening my skills

After all the lovely encouraging comments last week, combined with a terrific weekend away BY MYSELF at some lively 40th's, I've been itching to bring a few more ideas to life as papercuts. This was last night's effort...

I had a two hour drive home on Sunday night, and when I parked in the garage I had to write down notes about all the ideas that were in my head - isn't it amazing what a little peace can do?

Of course, since I've got home the creative pace has slowed somewhat, and today I've actually lost internet access on my laptop (why does this happen?) so maybe that's the Universe telling me it's time to do some folding.

Tomorrow - a recipe that I'm working on for 'Black Forest Pikelets' ... they're not quite right yet, but we're close.

For today, head over to Kirsty's at Kootooyoo for more creative spaces!

Getting back into the groove

I was humming and haaing about sending an envelope into Pip's envelope project... I really wanted to do it, but I'm trying to prioritise better and I definitely have other things that are higher up on the list...

But then I saw that one of my favourite illustrators, Allison, had gone ahead and done it, and I got all inspired, grabbed an envelope and some paints and bloody well DID IT.

I was inspired by the stamp actually - it was from a 'Country Show' stamp set. Plus S is begging for a merry-go-round theme for her birthday in July, so this is good practice.

And what to put in it... you know when you are in the mood to fill a bag to drop off to Vinnies, and you start, and there's suddenly heaps of stuff you'd like to donate... it was like that. It would have been very easy to get stupidly excited. But I had already stuck the stamp on, so couldn't get too carried away. Here's a peek...

So now I'm all warmed up and have to paint some more. But am also trying to prioritise being in bed by 11pm. Sometimes it's hard to stop...

(NB. It's obviously also hard to stop the full stop thing I've got going on in this post...)