My EB Secret Santa

In return, I loved what I received from my EB Secret Santa, Andrea. There was a Christmas apron (which I loved wearing while making Christmas treats!), coasters, a beach bag (which we have used numerous times already) and a crayon/colouring-in case for Kaptain K. How lucky am I?

I met-up with Andrea and Suzanne from the EB group just before Christmas and it was lovely to meet them and their kids and have a chat about everything and sewing! Andrea also made up a gorgeous bias tote bags for each of us which was a lovely surprise! I hope that we can meet-up again soon early next year.

Kaiden's birthday presents

Our little boy was certainly spoilt again for his birthday, he is so loved by his friends, family and our street 'family'. His present list:-

*Wiggles book
*Matchbox cars
*Bob the Builder drill set and work apron made by the fabulous Nerida (photo to come soon)
*Soccer ball and $1 coin 2008 uncirculated coin from Desley
*Elmo DVD and Elmo Live from Mummy and Daddy
*Little People garage set
*Floor puzzles and book from Nan and Pop
*Foam alphabet from the Marsdens
*Bowling set from the Lindsays
*Teddy bear puzzle from Picky (aka Vicki and Ian
*Plus money from Cousin Annette and Granddad "Georgey") which will be put to wise use (probably something fun once we work out what that might be after his recent birthday and Christmas present haul).

Creamed corn and bacon quichettes

As promised here's my yummy recipe for quichettes. Easy to make and can keep in the freezer for up to a month.
Enjoy!

Creamed corn and bacon quichettes
Makes 30.
3 ½ sheets ready-rolled puff pastry, partially thawed
250g shortcut bacon, chopped
3 green onions, thinly sliced
420g can creamed corn
2 eggs
2/3 cup cream

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Use a 7cm (diameter) round cutter to cut 30 rounds from pastry. Line a 12 x 1 ½ tbls capacity patty pan with 12 pastry rounds.
Place bacon into a non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring often, for 5 minutes or until light golden. Add green onions. Set aside to cool.
Combine creamed corn, eggs, cream, and salt and pepper in a jug. Whisk with a fork until well comined. Spoon a little bacon mixture into base of each pastry case. Carefully pour corn mixture into cases to 3/4s full. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until golden and puffed. Repeat with remaining pastry and fillings to make 30 quichettes. Serve warm or cold.
Can keep frozen for up to 1 month.

Secret Santa with Scrap with V

Aren't I just the luckiest? This bundle of goodies came from my Secret Santa over at Scrap with V. Lots of goodies - stickers, rub-ons, blossoms, coloured staples. Now to have the time to scrap!

Party fun!

For Kaptain K's birthday party I put together ittle thank-you bags. I made these little hair clips to go into the bags for the girls.

Manic!

From the top (sorry I can't get this blog to co-operate)..

I finished off this little outfit for a Secret Santa - Butterick pattern for the pinafore top and pants, and Michael Miller free online pattern for the booties. It was just like sewing little doll's clothes. I hope she likes them!


It's getting to that time of year, with Christmas now not far away and two birthdays coming up in December.

We had Kaiden's daycare Christmas break-up on Saturday at a local park. I finished a pair of Christmas shorts for him, featuring monkeys who are looking a bit Christmassy. Toddlers - can't get them to stay still! The fabric was on sale from Kelani and the pattern is the fabulous Burda pattern which I have used before.

We went into the city on Friday night to see the lighting of the Christmas tree. Here are my two guys. Yes, that is a mo on Brett's face for movember. It very quickly disappeared at the end of the month.


There was a smiley face in the sky last night. It is better in this wonderful photo here.

Secret Santa stuff

Well this means it isn't secret anymore but the person I'm sending to doesn't read my blog so I think it is pretty safe. Not the best photo, my camera doesn't do close ups well. I decorated a Kaisercraft tree album which can be used for photos or recipes or anything Christmassy.

EB Secret Santa swap

The ladies in the sewing group over at the Essential Baby are having a Christmas swap. Here are some Q and A's to help my swapee..

Would you like something handmade as a gift? Yes but it doesn't worry me if there is nothing handmade.

Do you have a favourite Christmas Colour? You obviously haven't seen our house at Christmas - any colour goes but I love purple decorations for the tree.

Do you decorate the whole house or just a part of it? Yes the whole house, the front lawn, the fence, the deck......

Do you have any Christmas Traditions? We normally just have a family Christmas get-together.

What sizes are your children? Kaiden is a size two.

Do you like quick projects or things that take a little longer? I like anything that I can actually get around to finishing.

Is there anything that you like to collect? Craft magazines, buttons, patterns, fabric, I'm a shop-a-holic when it comes to sewing!

What fun!

Susan

Boo!

We don't normally get into the Halloween spirit but it was Daddy day on Friday so the boys got a bit dressed up for a BBQ we were going to on Friday night. Unfortunately Brett didn't take a photo of himself - he was dressed as a Zombie priest but here is Kaiden. The story of Brett chasing him around the house with the green hair spray while K was yelling "Stop it" just cracked me up. Oh and sorry Susan there were no gingerbread girls, maybe next time!

The Gingerbread man's man

At Mr Smith's request, Kaiden and I spent the other afternoon making gingerbread men. Kaiden loved decorating them with sultanas. Can you pick the boy one?

Not quite a Santa baby

I received gorgeous Christmas-themed scrapping materials in my monthly Scrap with V kit and this is the result. The kit is now for sale. I also made a little card with the scraps, which seems to be the thing at the moment because I have made a few others as well. I did a bit of a clean-out and donated a heap of papers and punched out a tonne of retro flowers for Kaiden's daycare so hopefully they can use them in some art and craft.

This is family...

How lucky am I to get these gorgeous papers in my monthly kit for Scrap with V. The kit is for sale now....

Felt food!!!

These are truely good enough to eat...hand-made from felt by me! Everytime I see the doughnuts I get hungry. I made a couple of each type to give away as presents and a set for Kaiden to cook with.

Tutu Bag

Despite sewing on the handles the wrong way - yes it is possible! I have finished my ballerina bag. I think it looks so cute - perfect for a little girl. Oh and I sewed a button on a shirt - it's out of my "to do" pile so it counts towards my tally for the year which now sits at 28. I'm about three months behind in my goal of completing one sewing project per week. It will take a huge effort to catch that up!

For Ben's birthday..

I made this stand-up photo thingy using one of the Kaisercraft goodies in the hamper I won at the Scrap with V retreat. It features his two very-much loved pets - Fudge and Marshmellow. Cute names.

For a bit of fun...

And something different I joined in the cybercrop over at Chook Scraps. While I didn't have much time to chat, I did complete two challenges. This one was an Olympic challenge to use circles (or something similar like blossoms), something silver and an Olympic colour as the base colour.

And this challenge was to be inspired by this painting. Took some thinking...

Puppy love

Just finished off this applique t for Kaiden. Luckily it's a size two as it seemed to take me ages to do. I think machine rather than hand sewing would definately be quicker.

Papercraft #44

Here's the latest layout. I always wanted to write down the story of Kaiden's birth so there would be a record that outlived my memory and my life!

The section at the top lifts up to reveal extra pages with more writing.

Sewing #20, #21 and the 80/20 rule

I have this innate belief in the 80/20 rule. It was also reinforced by the book Sorted (which is excellent) which mentions that the 80/20 rule also applies to your 'stuff'. Like 20% of the clothes in your wardrobe you wear 80% of the time. Then the question is which of the 80% can you get rid off to declutter your life. I have started putting some into practise although I'm finding it hard to part with some clothes - you just never know!

Anyway, the 80/20 rule as far as I'm concerned also applies to people. Like 20% of the people in this world spoil it for the other 80%. A couple of weekends ago our car had an encounter with the 20%. It was innocently parked outside Brett sister's house when we staying over on Saturday night and idiots who were partying up the road decided to karate kick each of the doors. Result = police = four doors being replaced = insurance claim. And while the police took a report, photos, footprints, these people will no doubt get away with vandalising other people's property and will do it again. Lock up your cars people!!

In other news, Kaiden had his 18 month injections and while there was a slight hurt, it was quickly forgotten with a jelly bean. He has started to string more words together like "Mummy read book" with a few new words as well like "pretty". He kisses properly and can point out his head, shoulders, nose, mouth and eyes. I think helped by the fact that they are learning "head and shoulders" at daycare. Trucks, tractors and big machinery are his favourites and he loves the book from his Grandad which has pictures of all of these.

And in crafty news, I finished this pair of pants from the Ottabre Summer 08 pattern book I received for Mother's Day. They are meant to be made from lighter weight stretch material but I had this fabric so thought I'd do a test. They turned out well. The binding on the pockets gives it a nice finish. I'm also trying to finish of something in my pile of "to do" each week so #21 was fixing up a pair of trackpants. Hardly exciting but it's done!

Papercraft #40

A layout completed at the Scrap with V retreat, I just needed to name and date it and that took three weeks!

Last Sunday

We went into Roma Street to drop Dad off at the bus then over to the Queensland Day celebrations. It was busy as, too busy. So we had a quick walk around then spent some time exploring the gardens which Kaiden loved.

Papercraft #38

Using crop sketch by Kerry over at Scrap with V.

Update and Sewing #15

We're back from a weekend up at Caloundra. The plan was for Dad, Brett and Kaiden to enjoy a weekend at the coast, playing in the park and the beach while I spent a weekend scrapping at the Scrap with V retreat. So we would all have fun.
Didn't quite go to plan. Dad caught the bad, bad gastro that is going around ending up with a drive to hospital in the early morning hours. Weather was unpleasant, wet and windy with most of the time spent inside. But I did have a good time with the lovely ladies in the group and did do some scrapping although my mojo seemed to be elsewhere. I did a gorgeous class with Kerry using stamping and watercolour pencils. Can't share now as Kerry's original is going to be published but will put up a photo down the track.
I was lucky enough to win the raffle. A huge basket of goodies.
I've finished a couple of more appliques during the week. This one using a free Ottobre pattern.

Kaiden had his first hair cut the other Friday. He sat still like a good boy and didn't mind the attention at all! Kaiden is adding new words every day. His last favourite was "Harrywee" except everyone was "Harrywee" luckily including the dog. Last night he said "lift up" and a bird (or a plane) is a "ba".

Sewing #13, #14

I have finished a couple of more little appliques.

Papercraft #35

The latest creation for the May class kit for Scrap with V. A hard one, I'm not used to using pink!

A few things we have been up to....

Last week we took a family trip to Dreamworld which we all loved. The best bits were
feeding the baby animals

going on the teacup ride and being able to make the cups spin
and getting aquainted with Dora the Explorer although it took a little while for Kaiden to warm to her.
On the home front...nudie runs after baths are a popular pastime

Kaiden MUST feed himself.
Loves looking in the mirror.
Favourite word is "ouchish".
Can follow simple instructions, like "take this to Daddy".
Recognises objects (especially cars!)
Recognises the actions that go with certain songs.

Scrapbooking Creations magazine

It's been a while since I have had a layout published but I'm thrilled that there are two in this month's Scrapbooking Creations magazine.

Makes U Happy

For the Scrap with V DT challenge of using an advertisement as inspiration. Here's the ad

and my layout

Kaiden update

Weight 10220 grams = 25th percentile
Height 80cm = 50th percentile
Head circumference = 463mm = 25th percentile

New words are "no" but normally in a string so it is "no no no no no no". Our boy has learnt one of the most powerful words in the English language! Wore his first pair of sneakers the other day and at first it was like he was walking in moon boots. Had his first swimming lesson today where Dad sat on the side of the pool while he was in the lesson with the instructor (no Dad in the pool which Brett said he would miss because he likes singing the silly songs), and yesterday he had his first day in the toddler room at daycare and had an absolute ball including a 2 1/4 hour nap on the mattress on the floor (no more cot).

Applique

Another boy applique...

And a pair of pants for a little girl, made and appliqued....

Papercraft #23

Here it is - the April Scrap with V kit. Just perfect and ON SALE NOW! Thanks for the photo Mrs N K.

Seaworld

Here's some more photos from our adventure at Seaworld.
A little snack while watching the Sesame Street show...

On a ride

Saying hello to the fish

Papercraft #22

This kit is now available with full instructions from Scrap with V. Had lots of fun doing it with this photos (although not perfect photos they encapsulate the fun just look at his face). And those pants - I hope his Mum uses OMO.

Plus there's a bonus card to make as well!