Happy Birthday Lily! 3 Today

3 years ago today, I gave birth to my first child. A beautiful little girl weighing only 6 pounds 6 ounces (2.9kg). We named her Lily Mae Tasker, and she had blue eyes and dark hair with little ginger tips. 

5-6 Hours Old 

She came on her due date, and she was lovely.

She is full of life, and has brought great happiness to our little lives!

She is funny, witty and absolutely gorgeous, and I feel blessed to have her in my life. 

Today, my little girl turns 3, and has never been more loved, more funny, more witty or more beautiful.

It has been a long road here, full of many trials and errors and many more successes, and I am loving watching her nurturing instinct come out in caring for her baby brother, she is just amazing.

Happy Birthday my not-so-little girl. We love you very much!

Love Mum xoxo

Cherry Goodness

YAY!

Only about 4-5 weeks ago, I planted my first ever miniature fruit tree (of the cherry variety). This was given to me as the coolest tree present ever, by my lovely friend Katrina.

And today, I found my first fruits!! I am really excited, as I wasn't really expecting fruit this year, being the first year in its new home, I was more looking forward to my bounty of next year! 

As you can tell, I am a little bit excited! We have always had strawberries, but Josh has always been the main carer (and as anyone who knows us knows, he really loves his strawberry plants). But having a real life fruit tree, makes me feel so ... homely and fruity and fun!! 

This is one of the TWO budding cherries on my tree!! TWO PEOPLE! That's more than 1. After a long couple of weeks mood wise this is exactly what I was looking for to cheer (get it cheer *cherry* !! it's ok, I think I'm funny) me up. I have been lovingly watering and feeding this tree every 2-3 days for the past few weeks, planted it all by myself and added extra potting mix (and I really do not garden), and I feel like I have achieved!!

Yay for achieving! It really is the little things in life that can you lift you up sometimes!

Expect to see more of me, I will not neglect my lovely blog any longer. 

PLUS, 

The Make Cafe opens this Saturday, opposite Bush Inn, and they will have fabrics and coffees, I may never leave. And this will fantastic inspiration for new projects! Check it out www.themakecafe.co.nz

LouLou xoxo

Saturday Family Day

Wow, 
What a lovely day. 
Days like today I feel blessed and lucky for the family and friends I have got.

We went out for breakfast today, went to Drexels at Riccarton. Such good food, such friendly service. They always have colouring in pages for kids, they have bottomless coffee. Its like heaven!

After breakfast, Lily and I, along with 2 friends went to a musical performance by the "Polkadots" singing group. It was a fantastically noisy, free, children-fun event, that highlights that you really don't need to spend money to have great fun with your kids. 

After an awesome boogey with my girl, we picked up Hartley and went to the Encraftment Market at Addington School. Such beautiful handmade items, and such lovely local business owners. And such cool fabrics! Went with my mummy, so nice to catch up and get out of the house. Dropped by a friends house on the way home.

Now all thats left is to make some pudding, get the kids in bed and put a DVD in the player. 

I love weekends, and I love my family. 

Days like today are why we have weekends. To embrace every chance to do something different, to be busy but not stressed, and to enjoy each other.

LouLou xoxo

KCWC: Day 3 & Day 4

I finished the dress!!

It's taken a bit of time over the last 2 days, I made a sash for it, and I also had to figure out a way (without a pattern!! :S) to make it more comfy for her, as the top of the netting skirt and tulle on the inside was quite scratchy. So after a fair bit of mucking around I installed what is essentially a sash on the inside, that will stop the itchiness from now on!

I feel really invigorated by this project! And Little Miss 2 is so excited! 

I am onto making some more bandanna bibs for Little Mr 0 now, as he currently has 3, and that is absolutely not enough!

Loving this week of project sewing goodness!! 

Really needed a focus and some drive to continue creating. And the more I make, the more confident I feel.

Note to anyone ever planning on making a skirt using chiffon btw: do not buy polyester chiffon. It frays! Nylon chiffon does not. I wish I had waited longer, found the nylon chiffon online or something, because it made this project A LOT harder. 

My sewing machine was pushed to the limit with this one. 

Feeling good, great in fact! I finally have Josh home for 2 whole days! 2 DAYS!! Yay, I have missed him, and so have the kids! The new Mitre 10 Mega in Hornby is up and running, now I just need to shop up in the kitchen department!! I wish...

Talk soon, 

LouLou xoxo

Foodie Penpals

So, I just discovered this fantastic idea over in the US, on the Lean Green Bean. 

http://www.theleangreenbean.com/foodie-penpals/

Take a look at the link above. 

If you don't find the time, the basic idea is that on a monthly basis you are given a "penpal", on the 5th of the month, and by the 15th of the month you post a package of foody goodness, whether it be home baking, local goodies or whatever (use your imagination). Then on the 30th of that month, you post about your received goodies!  You must also include something written, whether it be a little letter, information about what is enclosed, or a cool recipe that you would highly recommend. Maximum spend is $15, so you avoid over spending.

I am super interested in this concept. Do you know anyone who is currently doing this here? Or who has tried previously? Would you be interested in being involved in a system like this?


Let me know your thoughts on this, if your keen, if you have any further information, because I am always looking for cool stuff, new ingredients, local goodies from around the country. 


LouLou xoxo

KCWC Day 2: This is getting addictive

Wow, 
I really can't stop myself. 
I think I have a sewing addiction. 

Have been working on Lily's princess dress, and though it has taken less time than I originally thought it would, I will admit I have done WAY more than my required 1 hour on this one. 

I am genuinely concerned about what it is gonna be left for me to do by the end of the challenge this week.

The dress is not finished yet, I have a bit of sewing left to to attach bodice and a sash to make. 

It's just kinda awesome!

I really like it. 

It's pink and purple and full of lovely delicious flounciness, perfect for a beautifully girly, almost 3 year old. 

I even went back to my sewing machine manual and figured out how to make button holes!

And they worked!

And it looks cute!

Can you tell I am excited?!

I will show you all the finished product tomorrow!! 

YAY! Look how productive I am.. 
(still unsure what I am going to do for the other 5 days...)

LouLou xoxo

KCWC Day 1

I may have sort of cheated.

Well, not cheated, just... set myself up for a massive success on Day 1 of the Kids Clothing Week Challenge. 

I started a dress last week, and today realised I had forgotten about it, and all it needed was a hem to complete!

So, technically, I finished a dress for Day 1. 

To make up my required 1 hour for the challenge, I went to Spotlight and bought all my fabric for the princess dress! When I got home I printed the pattern, cut out the paper pattern, pinned and cut out the pieces for the bodice!

Look at me go! I feel inspired by what the week shall bring!

Kids clothes galore!

LouLou xoxo

The awesome fabric for the above dress is from the lovely www.sewpretty.co.nz ! They are about to open their own store right here in Christchurch, opposite the Bush Inn, called The Make Cafe! I am really excited, I absolutely love their range.

For a fabulous free tutorial on this dress visit : http://www.theribbonretreat.com/blog/lets-fly-a-kite-sundress.html 

6 Days Down, 1 To Go... Until Next Week

It's been a long week in our house.
The new Mitre 10 Mega opens in Hornby in a matter of days and Josh has been heading the merchandising team for the new store. 
Needless to say, it's been a huge few months for him, all culminating into a big stress of a week this week as they get ready to open their doors. 
Josh has worked (so far) about 65 hours this week, which is a lot. 
It's a lot of late nights, early mornings and a lot of time that I have also been at home with a 3 month old and an almost 3 year old. 
So, our week is almost done.
Tomorrow night he will be gone most of the night, but this time next week, it will all be over. 
I am just so proud of how hard he has worked, and how loyal and consistent he is.
And can still come home and bath Lily and get her into bed for the night while I settle Hartley. 
It was a bad week for me to pull a muscle in my chest wall, really bad timing. 
But that's ok, as I say, we are almost there. 

Looking forward to Kids Clothing Week Challenge starting Monday to keep me busy!

Super smiley face,
LouLou xoxo

Kids Clothes Week Challenge

I have had a princess dress pattern staring at me for a couple of days now, and this incentive of Kids Clothes Week Challenge is a great way to ensure that I hash this out over the course of the next week. Starting October 8, I will commit to sewing for 1 hour a day minimum, making clothes for my kids. I really think this is such an awesome way to push yourself to get some new clothes ready as the weather warms up, I know Lily is in desperate need of dresses and skirts for the warmer weather, if we actually get a real summer this year. 

And with Lily's 3rd birthday next month, I will be making her an awesome dress that I got a pattern to make off Etsy. 

Because my daughter is ... well, super girly, and she REALLY is, her princess dress is gonna be a pale pink. She wanted hot pink, but I just can't do it, it's all too much for me. Still unsure quite how I ended up my wee sparkle-loving, super pink beautiful girl, but I love her desperately for it!

Wish me luck, and if you want more information on the KCWC, pop over to 
http://www.elsiemarley.com/kids-clothes-week-fall-2012.html

This is where I caught onto the awesomeness of it all in the first place. 

LouLou xoxo

image used from Etsy pattern listing : 
http://www.etsy.com/listing/85261502/chloe-dress-pdf-pattern-tutorial-ebook

Little Girls Ruffle Skirt

In the interest of all good crafting, it seemed absurd to slowly teach myself all the little tricks of my new sewing machine. It seemed totally sensical to just jump in head first, buy a tricky-looking pattern, and do it.

And I did it! 

And it is not a massive failure. There are a few mistakes here and there, that I know are there, but I learnt big time from this awesome pattern, and I really feel like I have accomplished with this. 

I purchased the pattern off Etsy from a store called ViolaLee Patterns. 
This pattern was so awesomely written out, with easy-to-follow directions and step-by-step on how to do a gather stitch and getting even ruffles. 

I am just not at the point yet, where I am ready to jump in head-first without inspiration and direction. I have a lot more fun picking out the right patterns. 

I am a direction follower though, and I am ok with that. Learning the skills and being able to do it, is just as exciting to me!

I got the fabric for this from Spotlight. 

Yay! Totally inspired by the fun that I am having with my sewing machine, and    how productive and useful I feel!

LouLou xoxo

Seriously Awesome Baked Cheesecake

Do not assume you don't like baked cheesecakes. 

Because this is divine. 

This is what all cheesecakes should taste like. 

This is a classic baked cheesecake, with a whipped sour cream and icing sugar topping, then coated in a raspberry sauce.

Looks good huh? Go on, give this a go.

I found the original link for this cheesecake over on simplyrecipes.com, and I have made small changes to the original to suit my taste.

But this is GOOD.

INGREDIENTS: 

CRUST:

1 packet of Digestive biscuits (2 cups tightly packed)

2 Tablespoon sugar

Pinch salt

70g unsalted butter, melted (if you use salted butter, omit the salt)

FILLING:

900g cream cheese, at room temperature
1 1/3 cup white sugar
Pinch of salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 Large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream
2/3 cup cream

TOPPINGS: 

2 cups sour cream (475mL)
2/3 cup icing sugar
400g raspberries (fresh is best, but I always end up using frozen because fresh is available and affordable in a short space of the year here)
3/4 cup sugar

EQUIPMENT NEEDED:
23cm springform pan
Heavy duty, super wide tin foil
A large, high-sided roasting pan

METHOD:
prepare the springform pan: You must prepare the springform pan so that water does not leak into it while it is cooking. Place a large square of tin foil on a flat surface. Wrap tin foil up sides of springform pan and fold as neatly as possible at top edge without folding it into the pan itself. Repeat this again with another sheet of tin foil. I know this seems over dramatic, but if that water gets in you are gonna have a poached crust, not a crusty crust. 

Prepare the crust: Preheat the oven to 140 degrees Celcius, with rack in lower third of the oven. Pulse the digestive biscuits in a food processor until finely ground. Put in a large bowl, and stir in the sugar and salt. Use your (clean) hands to mix in the melted butter. 

Put all but 1/4 cup of the digestive biscuit mixture in the bottom of the springform pan. Save that last 1/4 cup just in case there are holes or gaps, it can come in handy. Gently press down on the crumbs using your fingers, until the crumbs are an even layer, with a slight rise on the outer edges. Be careful not to tear the foil while doing this. Place in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove and let cool. 

Prepare the filling:

 Cut the cream cheese into chunks and place in the bowl of an electric mixer, with your paddle attachment. Mix on med speed for 4 minutes, until smooth and soft. Add sugar, mix for another 4 minutes at med speed. Add the salt and vanilla, beating each in before adding the other. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition. Add the sour cream, beating until combined. Add the cream, beating until combined. Remember to consistently scrape down the sides of your bowl, and scrape off your mixer for any left over bits of cream cheese. 

Cooking the cheesecake: 

Place the foil-wrapped springform pan in a large, high-sided roasting pan. Prepare 2L of boiling water. Pour the cream cheese filling into the springform pan, over the digestive biscuit base. Smooth with a spatula. Place the roasting pan with the springform pan in it, in the oven, on the lower rack. Carefully pour the hot water into the roasting pan (without touching the hot oven), to create a water bath for the cheesecake, pouring until the water reaches halfway up the side of the pan, about 5cm (or you can add the water before placing in the oven). Cook for 90 minutes. 

Turn off the heat in the oven, but leave the cheesecake in the oven, leaving the oven door open slightly, for about an hour. This slower cooling of the cake will help stop it from cracking. 

Cover cheesecake with foil without it touching the cake itself, and place in fridge for a minimum of 4 hours. 


Prepare the sour cream topping:
Place the sour cream and icing sugar in a bowl, and whisk until smooth. Chill until you are ready to prepare the cake. 

Note: this amount of sour cream produces way more than fits on the cake, leaves enough for people to chuck some on the side if they so desire. If you don't want to add it on the side, you can almost half this amount. 

Preparing the raspberry sauce:
Combine raspberries and sugar in a saucepan and bring to the boil for 4-5 minutes. Cool until serving time!

Preparing the cake to serve: 

Using a large palette knife, and spread sour cream topping evenly over top of cooled cake straight before serving. 

Top with raspberry sauce!

Will make up to 16 servings!! Seriously!

Give this a try, it takes time, but its not hard work, and is totally worth it.

Let me know if you try it, and how much you enjoy it!

LouLou xoxo

DIY Feltboard!

I have been working on this for a few weeks now, and  had the idea and desire to do it for a fair few weeks before this. I really want Lily and Hartley to have toys that are homemade, battery free and good clean fun in their lives, that I also can be involved with.

So, I made a felt board. 

And may I just say, being a bit short in the cash department on only one income at the moment, this project was super cheap money wise for the amount of time that it has already been used for. 

Though time consuming, Lily and I have both really enjoyed the felt board. Lily requests all the pieces herself, hence the fact so far we have a tiger, polar bear, horse, house, wolf/dog, 3 butterflies and 3 pigs. 

Apologies for the terrible photography here. A) I have a terrible camera, that I dream of one day replacing. B) Felt is fluffy, and seems to be almost impossible to make it look quite right with a cheap digital camera. 

I made the felt board itself out of an old memo board I had lying around the house for the last 3 years, and bought felt off the roll from Kutwell Fabrics in the central city (only $6 a metre)! After that, I just stocked up on cheap sheets off felt, and let Lily and I's imagination run wild. 

The tiger joined the family first of all, and he was a real learning curve for me. I have cut these out with my little scissors and it is a bit of a mission, but so worth it. 

I sketch all my designs out on paper first, cut them out and either lightly draw around them onto the felt or pin the paper to the felt and cut around from there. 

Butterflies have since been added, which I am quite a fan of! 

And yes, I am completely aware I am living vicariously through my daughter!

And over the last few days, I have been working on Lily's current favourite story "The 3 Little Pigs"
2 more houses to go, but they are quite time consuming, so they are slowly getting there.

I would highly recommend this as an easy and cheap DIY project , easily interchangeable to suit your child's personality and age group. 

I have heaps more plans with this felt board. Lots more stories and characters are on the way, and I would love to make her a cupcake decorating set, maybe an ice cream one too, before we start doing numbers and letters on here too.

For anyone wanting to give this a go, I have simply sewed the 2 colours of felt together to depict sky and grass, and then used my staple gun to attach it tightly at the back of the board. 

Give it a go!

Talk soon
Lou Lou xoxo

Selena Singer the Sewing Machine & Bandanna Bib Pattern Link

Yesterday, an amazing thing happened to me. 

Yesterday I bought my first ever sewing machine. 

On my vendetta to feel more creative, productive and just plain crafty, I decided a sewing machine was an absolute must-have. 

Lately I have been going crochet crazy, which I will post some photos sometime soon I promise.

Anyway, my local Lincraft store had an amazing deal on a Singer sewing machine yesterday, which I very quickly scooped up, as a birthday present for myself, from Josh (don't judge, we have been discussing getting me a sewing machine for like a month now). 

When I got home I realised a terrifying thing. I haven't even threaded a sewing machine or actually sewed anything since I was in my first year of high school, so 12 years old... But I am proud to say after a fair bit mucking around and reading the manual a lot, I have a fully threaded machine, and I am pretty sure I could do it again in MUCH less time the next time. 

And the rest, as they say, is history!

Now it was time to create. I grabbed a couple of fat quarters and a pack of cheap flannels while I was at Lincraft, and set to making Hartley a bandanna bib, as he has become quite the drooler lately, and they are ridiculously expensive for a bib when bought in store.

If you want to give it a go yourself, I used this fantastic free tutorial over on "Sew Love It". 
http://sewloveit.blogspot.co.nz/2012/03/tutorial-bandanna-drool-bib.html

The bib is fantastic, though I am more than happy to admit that the first attempt looked great, but was way too small. The sewing isn't overly tidy, and I may have to redo the fasteners on the back, as they are a wee bit wiggly. But I am very proud of my first sewing machine creation. 

Helps that I have such a darn cute son. 

Onward and upward from here! Hopefully...

Talk soon, 

Lou xoxo

The Lack of Baking in my Life

I seem to struggle with the concept and consistency of having a baking/cooking blog.
I couldn't figure out why.
Then Lily had a vicious bleeding nose last night, and I clicked.
I have 2 kids. 2 kids who need food, baths, toilet trips, nappy changes, bleeding noses (not as often as the rest of course) and almost constant supervision and attention.
Although I am pretty sure I will always bake, at the moment I am also enjoying the trials and tribulations of being a mum, of learning new crafts and growing my friendships.
But I can blog about that! Just because I made a blog to write about baking and cooking, doesn't mean I have any shame about admitting that it is totally not working, and that perhaps I just need to write about my day to day life.
There's something so comforting about writing it all down and putting it together.
So, watch this space.
Today is strictly a housework day (after this post), but tomorrow I will show you my new and exciting DIY felt board activity for the kids (well, mainly just Lily right now), which so far is being with various animals.
Over and out,
Talk soon
LouLou xoxo
x

Banana Chocolate Biscuits!

So, the other day, I decided to get rid of some bananas. 
Josh's all time favourite muffin is banana chocolate, so I thought I would make him a treat. 

But... disaster struck... Well, actually laziness struck. My muffin tray was a mess from making wholemeal banana blueberry muffins last week... And I just wanted to bake, like right now.

So, I made biscuits instead. Banana chocolate biscuits. This is a new concept for me, making stuff up as I go. But these are good, like real good. 

Keep in mind at this point, that these biscuits have mashed banana in them, there is no way you are gonna get a thick, crunchy biscuit. These are more like little cakes, in the shape of biscuits. It's also really hard to get them looking "pretty", but if you want something new to try, these are absolutely the way to go. And no muffin tray required!

So:

Banana Chocolate Biscuits

Makes approximately 2 1/2 dozen good sized-biscuits.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
120g butter or margarine
2 eggs
3 bananas, mashed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk chocolate bits
1 1/2 cups dark chocolate bits

Method:

a. Sift flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda into a bowl and set aside.

b. Cream white sugar, brown sugar and butter/margarine until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla and mix well.

c. Add mashed bananas and mix in. Add flour mixture and stir until just combined.

d. Add chocolate chips and stir through.

e. Spoon tablespoonfuls onto a greased cookie tray, and bake at 200 degrees C for about 12-15 minutes or until just browning on top.

f. Attempt to not eat straight out of oven- but good luck, I failed miserably at this.

NOTE: I used margarine in this batch, giving it an even more cakey texture, but butter will work a treat, especially if you aren't 100% on the cakey texture in a biscuit. Also, change your combination of dark and milk chocolate to suit. Personally, I would recommend giving it a go just like this though. It works so well!

Well, have a great weekend all, and I will talk to you next week. 
Love to all and God bless,
Louise xoxo

Attempt 2: The newest blog attempt

Wow...
Last September I created a blog.
And then I promptly totally forgot about said blog, got pregnant, moved house, and then had a baby.
Now it is August 2012, my blog has only my original post from last September on it, about how much baking I will do, and how much I will be posting on this lovely blog.
So, now that I have moved house, have had my beautiful baby (who is just about the cutest thing I have ever seen), I want to get back into the fun and creative world of blogging.
Over the next months, while breastfeeding, I want to basically learn to get fit, as I actually have no fitness level at the moment. I also want to eat healthily and get back to somewhere near where I used to be.
Mainly though, above all else, I want to look after my family, keep my house tidy, and attempt new recipes and creative DIY projects.

All of the above both excites and terrifies me, but as I am currently at home full time, I need something to keep me busy and feeling useful.

So, my lovely people, what I am trying to explain in a roundabout sort of way, is that I have great hopes that this time I really do mean it. This time I want to post blogs about my life, my projects, my baking and my family. And I want to keep it up most importantly.

My next 2 big projects are going to be Lily's 3rd birthday, which she has decided she would like a princess party. For anyone who has met my daughter, this is the most unsurprising thing ever, as she is just the cutest little girly girl ever at the moment, which I am totally loving about her, as it shows me just how much of her own person she is (since I am so not super girly fun-timeness). So, the princess party will be filled with budget friendly princess projects. And for project number 2, for Lily's christmas present this year, I want to make her a large sized felt board, complete with characters, shapes and maybe letters and numbers that we can use as both an educational activity and as a distraction on the many days we have where we do nothing and go nowhere.

I will be in touch my lovely people.
But now, I am going to clean my house and I have the Plunket nurse visiting in 3 hours, so I might chuck some muffins in the oven. If I do well, I might even take photos and post a blog all about it later on tonight.

Love to all and God bless,
Louise!

:)

And just in case you don't believe me on how amazingly cute my newest little man is, here is proof. He is utterly delicious!! 

Awwww..... Sleeping baby!!