day seventeen: carrot cake recipe

a delicious, moist carrot cake

day seventeen and i was up EARLY baking today's creation before spending time with two lovely friends crafting, then having dinner with some lovely neighbours who helped us out while we were away ... so good to have so many lovely people in my life!  todays carrot cake recipe was pinned onto my recipe must do's board from fresh in the kitchen, a site full of clean, refreshingly simple recipes from new zealand.

outcome: can i just say this carrot cake was a one bowl wonder that took no machinery to make, was SO incredibly easy .. oh ... and it tasted smashing! yes that's right, it was a huge hit after dinner tonight, took 10 minutes to make (15 if your husband won't grate carrots for you) and then it does the rest in the oven by itself for an hour while you shower and clean the one bowl and spoon you used to make it ... sweet, doesn't get any better than this when you have a busy day ahead of you!

big thanks goes to the lovely fresh in the kitchen website that clearly has well tested, delicious recipes :)

photo fun challenge day twelve: sun flare

this is as sun flared as it gets for winter in nz!

day sixteen: sewing a peasant top

the finished top in all its redness!

day sixteen and its yucky weather outside so the perfect day to do some sewing! today's inspiration came from my general crafts board, a peasant dress from the gorgeous blog ta da creations ... super cool blog, love the materials she uses.

ok i didn't have enough fabric that could coordinate well enough to make a full on peasant dress, so i made a top version! pollyanna chose the material she wanted from my stash ... hence the red polka dots you see here!  i used a kwik sew pattern to form my measurements and we were away ... did not take too long and whala a top was added to the wardrobe of my youngest!  actually the top was done with enough time to make a pair of boy shorts as well ...

i'd take a photo of them too but the oldest has them on (even though its cold and raining) and won't let me take a picture ... sigh ... next time i ask him to try something on to see if it fits, i'll remember i need to take the photo first!

outcome:  can't wait to pick up some material and make the full on peasant dress ... in the meantime i have a daughter who is very excited to have a new top and a boy that says the new shorts are so comfy he won't take them off ... awesome, productive day i'd say!

thank you so much to ta da creations for the inspiration to sew my children's own clothes ... its inspiring ideas like the peasant dress pinned to my board that make me get up each morning excited to create .... love that feeling :)

photo fun challenge day eleven: silhouette

love her!

day fifteen: a goodie bag for the librarian

the goody bag ready to give!

day fifteen and its friday ... yeehaa! as home schoolers the library is a big source of books for us ... and we have one librarian who is amazing, always helping with books and putting holds on books for the kids and i that she knows we will love.  so today's pinterest 365 challenge was a goody bag pinned to my home school projects board from the sweet blog of sun scholars.

all that's required, bag, lollies, bag topper :)

i originally intended to gift these goody bags to the kids after we returned from the library for their reading time ... and i still will one day soon :) ... but for today i thought they were the perfect gift for our librarian who does so much for us AND loves to read!

outcome:  the concept is easy and with a little design on powerpoint, a clear bag, and of course some worm looking lollies you are good to go ... easy, quick, and a much nicer surprise for her than the chocolate bar we gave her last time and this shows how much we care.

big ups to the sun scholars blog, it has lots of lovely crafty goodness and no doubt i will find more inspiration from her site to pin to my boards that i can try later in the year!

photo fun days nine and ten: fresh fruit and animal

day nine's fruit ... mmm lemon season

day ten's animal ... cookie the kitty!

day fourteen: miniature weaving for the kids

polly's miniature weave .. she is so proud of it!

day fourteen brings me to one of my favourite boards on pinterest, my home school projects board.  this is where i pin all those things i want to use and that have inspired me with regards to home schooling.  todays craft was teaching the kids how to weave and the pin came from the skip to my lou website, which i can highly recommend having a browse through!

putting the verticals in place

this is my pollyanna learning to weave, i used some cardboard squares that i cut notches in at both ends and we used a thick wool so we could have big bang for effort ... always a good idea when you are teaching little ones something new i find!  and as it was nice thick wool we also went without the needles on these initial weaves which worked really well, no pricked fingers here!

doing the weave!

she did a great job and was so proud of herself, it was really neat to see!

outcome: the kids loved the weaving so much they ended up making multiple squares, ben's are for blankets for his action men when they are out camping and polly is using all of hers in the barbie house ... no surprise there!  something the kids can now do on their own and they love and feel so proud of their new skill .... big thumbs up for weaving here :)

a great deal of thanks goes to the lovely skip to my lou blogger for the excellent tutorial on mini weaving and the cute things you can make with the end results, love the website and this craft :)

day thirteen: best chocolate chip cookies

nyt's best chocolate chip cookies

day thirteen leads us to the best chocolate chip cookies, well according to the new york times.  that sounded impressive to me so they were definitely worth baking.  the recipe is pinned onto my pinterest recipe must dos and is from the lovely blog of i am mommy.

the recipe makes a huge (fiftyish) amount of cookies, but you'll want that many!  the hardest part of this recipe is letting it rest in the fridge for a day.  i made the mix up yesterday and baked them tonight for dessert.


outcome: they are the best chocolate chip cookie i have ever made, so VERY VERY yummy!  family was devouring them in no time ... see i told you, you would need that many in a batch so the cookies can make it into a tin!

my entire family sends their sincere thanks to i am mommy for putting up this recipe, it is a new favourite in our house for sure!

photo fun challenge day eight: sunrise

man it was cold outside this morning!

day twelve: pillowcase dress

my finished pillowcase dress

day twelve and the home schoolers are learning and so am i ... up at 6am this morning, preparing for the pillowcase dress! this dress was pinned onto my general crafts board from the very cool little big girl studio blog.  some really sweet tutorials are available on this site and you will no doubt see more of her inspiration here as a try some of the other projects they offer tutorials on for my p365.  anyway, with pillowcase in hand, by breakfast i had cut the armholes, sewn in the elastic, and was halfway through pinning my first bias binding onto the armhole.

during morning tea i managed to sew one lot of bias binding on and pin up the other ready for lunchtime.  i am not known for my sewing and i have ... ummm ... limited history of bias binding sewing as the first time i used it i made a total mess of it.  any who, this dress called for it so i went with it, and, while its not perfect, it is acceptable!

so happy with the finished product!

outcome: this dress is really easy in that it takes very little sewing, most of it is in a straight line which is good and if you can sew with bias binding, you should fill your daughters wardrobe with these dresses ... if you can't sew with bias binding, practice, practice some more and THEN you will be able to fill your daughters wardrobe with these dresses as they are pretty, look so cute on, and are ideal for summer :)  still five months till summer here so there is hope i will conquer the bias binding by then and will be able to fill said wardrobe ... here's hoping ;)

my thanks goes to the lovely little big girl studio blog for the very simple, straight forward tutorial on pillowcase dresses, yours was, by far, the easiest to understand and once i get over my phobia of the bias stuff i will be making many more as they are cute and affordable, so i graciously thank you very much :)

photo fun challenge day seven: high angle

my peeps doing some work!

day eleven: barbie sleeping bags

sleeping bags for barbie, ken, and kellie!

day eleven has come with monday madness and a barbie and ken that are off tramping.  i hear you ask, why are barbie and ken off tramping in the middle of winter ... well ... their house is currently a little overcrowded and they need a break away ;)

two little visitors in the third storey bedroom

they do look comfy don't you think!

yes, we have two new kittens who have claimed a room in pollyanna's barbie house and, as such, bedrooms are at a premium!  i did suggest to my sweet daughter we could move the kittens out of barbies house, but she was adamant barbie and ken needed to go tramping for exercise.  however, there was only one problem, being a tramper herself, pollyanna was most concerned they didn't have packs or sleeping bags .... and now you see why day eleven's p365 pinterest challenge are barbie sleeping bags!

okay, after doing a search on sleeping bags for these dolls, i found a great site called mama smiles and pinned these very cute sleeping bags to my general crafts board on pinterest.  we used the barbie and ken dolls to measure the length and width of the bags and found you can make two "adult" sleeping bags and two "child" sleeping bags out  of a fat of quilting material. ... mine are not fleece lined because in new zealand we only tramp in warm weather conditions and i have no side opening for mine because that all seemed a little unnecessary to put my sewing ability through! i did add some american crafts camping ribbon across the top for whimsy, a button and a ribbon loop so they could be rolled up for carrying (very important when you need to take them tramping!) and they were good to go!

a well sorted family ready to tramp :)

... well after i cut up two unused rain ponchos and made ken and barbies some tramping packs!

outcome: if your barbie, ken, and kellie dolls need sleeping bags, i can happily recommend the above pattern, it is low fuss, EASY sewing, in fact, the hardest part will be sewing the button on ... and really, you only need to do the button thing if your barbie family are travellers :)

my sincere thanks goes to mama smiles who, thankfully, had to make barbie sleeping bags before i did and, as such, provided a great template for those of us who have since had to follow down the path of providing our children with pint sized sleeping bags for their barbies

photo fun challenge day six: books

what is currently sitting next to me bed to read :)