Thank You

Thanks again to Karen at The Graphics Fairy for featuring my clock tutorial once more on her blog.

Recently Karen did a feature on her blog titled  "14 Amazing DIY Wall Decor Ideas" in which my clock was included.
It was a lovely surprise and I feel very privileged to be featured.

You can find the wall clock and thirteen other ideas here.

Karen is an inspirational and generous blogger.

Do stop by and visit her.

I'm sure you will be motivated by her enthusiasm. 

Upcycle Queen

Here in Australia, we have what we call a bunny rug which is an essential item for newborn babies.  It is a large square of fabric usually made from one hundred percent cotton flannelette and used to swaddle baby.

Little Miss Six of course had many of these as a newborn.  She loved being swaddled and without swaddling would have trouble getting off to sleep. 

Recently, her Mum has made a little bit of pocket money by selling no longer needed items of clothing, toys, etc on an on-line garage sale site that we have here in the Blue Mountains.  But it seems everybody wants new bunny rugs for their babies because these just do not move.  So, I bought them off her and made myself some very long lasting dish cloths with them.

I ironed and folded each square into four using the fold line to then cut it into quarters.

This one originally had rounded corners so I marked the freshly cut corners using a plate of the right size as a guide to match the original corners.  

Next I trimmed them with sharp scissors to match the original corners. I kept the original hemming and simply finished off the newly cut edges by matching them to whatever was on the original rugs.  Those that had overlocked edges I overlocked.

 Those that had turned edges I turned.

  

In all I made sixteen new dishcloths.

Of course, new dishcloths need a tidy under-the-kitchen-sink-cupboard.  So I gave it a spring clean, even though it's almost autumn.

Happy Birthday Mr Honey Pie

It's Mr Honey Pie's birthday and I couldn't wait to try out the new toy I received at Christmas time.  This is the first opportunity I've had to use it for gift giving.  I will update you later with the wonderful things this toy can do.  But for the moment, you can see the paper doilies I made to embellish some upcycled paper sacks and a birthday card.

I spent a whole day baking and decorating a birthday cake for Mr H.P.
I'm getting a bit tired of making the same cake for birthdays so I decided to try something a bit more adventurous.

So I made a Battenberg Peek-a-boo cake (instructions here). 

This cake is a bit reminiscent of my rainbow cake from last year 

  

(The above cake is the cake I made for Miss Six and my niece's shared celebration).

But I still felt a little surprised with the height of the cake even though it was a four layered cake.

A little hint, or maybe two hints...first individually plastic wrap and freeze the layers or chill them very well in the fridge before you start cutting into them. Then, make sure you clear ALL THE CRUMBS AWAY before you start to cut into the cake and while you're working...I had to brush off all the crumbs before I could coat the cake with the jam wash to prevent a big mess.  I used a cream cheese frosting rather than the marzipan used in the recipe because our Daughter does not like marzipan.

I only used one batch of frosting but I should have made two...The amount I made barely covered the cake.

Little Miss Six was as excited as Mr H.P. to about his birthday present.

We have a running joke in our household now that both of its occupants are hexagenarians and it goes like this: too many candles, not enough cake.

So you see, that is why the cake needs to be a little more outstanding the older we get!

What do you think?

And I will certainly be making this again...this was just a practice run!

Oh, and by the way, I'd run out of pink food colour without realising it (who checks their food colour before shopping?) so I used green instead!

Mismatched Tea Cup Trio

I can't believe it's taken me this long to tell you about our Christmas tradition.

Is it February 2014 already?

Well, here goes anyway.

Since the publication of the first Guinness World Records edition of the year 2000 (previously published as the Guinness Book of Records)Son Number Three has received a copy under the Christmas tree from Santa. 

So, Christmas just gone makes it his 15th copy of the book and he still enjoys pouring over it during the month of January.

All our children are adults now, so we haven't fussed too much about the fact that no one else receives a surprise gift from Santa.  That is until the past few years...

Only because our Grand Daughter, Little Miss Six, is liable to pick the fact that only some people and not all, receive gifts from Santa.

You see, when Eldest Son was about eight years old, The Easter Rabbit brought everyone in our house a mug nestling an Easter egg; everyone that is, except me.

For mother's day the same year, Eldest Son gave me a beer stein.  (It was a weird gift to receive from him, since I loathe the taste of beer). When I asked him why he had made the purchase he said he bought me a mug because the Easter Rabbit had not left one for me.  What a silly Easter Rabbit!

So this year Santa left me a tea cup trio that I know for a fact cost the grand sum of three dollars...yes, three dollars.

The set comes in the regal colours of royal blue and gold, on white.  (I'm guessing the above is a George Jones & Sons mark).

Their shabbiness means I feel comfortable using them daily for my morning coffee...which has to be an affogato. 

To make an affogato, take a decent scoop of the best ice cream you can afford (or make your own; recipe here).

Over the ice cream, pour a double shot of espresso coffee, freshly made.  I like to allow my ice cream to melt a little before enjoying.

We purchase our coffee from here / here   

Well, as you can see, the cup proclaims its royalty, since it's a Royal Albert cup.

Poor Santa, he must have been in a bit of rush to pick these up and not realised his mistake...after all, I think they're a pretty good match don't you?

(Whispering: I think Santa made his purchase here or perhaps at the Markets because Peppa Loves Vintage also loves to visit the Glenbrook Rotary Markets once a month on the 3rd Saturday).

Linking to Terri's Tea Cup Tuesday.