Life is Sweet

My beautiful friend Christine is coming on board as my Caterpillar Cupcakes business partner. This is her farm, where we spend a LOT of our spare time. Spring is well and truly here and it really is so idyllic to sit in the sun with a dear friend, stitching and planning and watching our children-5 of them between us (although baby Nathaniel is still a babe-in-arms) play and explore so happily in Nature. Life is sweet.

Right Now

Loving; This picture of Kyan and his friend Ezekiel, taken a couple of days ago. Despite the apple in K's mouth, the runny noses on both of them, and the red eye, I love it. It makes me smile every time I look at it. Ezekiel was born two weeks before Kyan, and when I held him, as a newborn, across my huge stomach, Kyan began to kick insistently, and Ezekiel stirred in his sleep and wiggled his tiny fists. It was the first time they met and they've always been friends.

Listening; To Otis Redding on my new Ipod dock-a bit of an impulse buy at the supermarket of all places, but well worth it!

Making; A purse, a cat, a gnome. Rotating the three (short attention span!)


Wondering; If I actually love them a teeny bit more when they are sick?

Hoping; For a bit less rain over the weekend if possible? Mother Nature are you listening?

Drinking; Twinings English Breakfast. Always.

Enjoying and Appreciating; The peace of this quiet moment (after a very busy week!)

Letterbox Lovliness

Now I love the Internet and email as much as the next person. But something I worry our children may miss out on these days is the joy of running to the letterbox, finding a handwritten letter inside that's just for you (and um, not a bill!). When I was a little girl, with most of my family living in England, I used to read and reread a letter from my Granny, a cousin or an aunty. I treasured those letters and still have them today.

So it's pretty great that young Charlie, from the Heartfelt household, and my Isla have become penpals! Thanks Charlie, for another gorgeous letter and an AMAZING treasure map xx

Our Father's Day...

There's a reason we're smiling chocolately smiles today. Not only is it Father's Day in our part of the world, but it's also Liam's birthday-this means extra special chocolate cake for him!

Chocolate Birthday Cake

2 Tablespoons good quality cocoa

1 Teaspoon baking soda

pinch of salt

1 1/2 cups plain flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup castor sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

100 grams melted unsalted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1/2 cup black instant coffee

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

In a large bowl, sift together the dry ingredients, then mix them together using a dry egg

whisk. Think "airy"...

Beat the eggs, butter and vanilla together in another bowl, then add to the dry ingredients carefully.

Make up the coffee, then add the baking soda while it's still hot.

Mix everything together then pour into a very well greased cake tin.

Bake for about 40-50 min-until a skewer inserted comes out cleanly.

Ice and decorate when the cake is completely cooled. The shamrocks were Isla's idea-celebrating Liam's Irish-ness! Eating leftover icing, half of which ends up on your face and all over the kitchen cupboards then smiling a cute chocolately smile is optional. But recommended! Happy Father's Day everyone!

Winter Beach Love

The children and I agree that we like the beach just as much in Winter as we do in Summer. We go nearly every day. How could we not, when it's just over the road?

Having lived here at the beach for almost a year now, I'm not sure I'd ever want to live anywhere else!

What's your favourite time of year for beach visits?

An Isla Original.

She's rather into fashion, my girl. I really should take more photos of her fabulous outfits! I adore her individuality and also, her creativity-it's not unusual for her to bring me a piece of ribbon and ask me to braid it into her hair a certain way, or to bring me a scarf and ask me to tie it "like a dress". She loves to browse The Satorialist and The Uniform Project. Tutus are everyday wear, as is a two sizes too big flamenco dress from the op shop, in fact, just like Rhiannon-pants are out for Isla. Skirts rule. Ayway-yesterday she suggested we get out the sewing machine and make one. She chose all the fabrics and the overall design. An Isla original.

Finally the sun is shining after two days of continuous, heavy rain. I wonder what creative adventures today will bring?

Happy Tuesday xx

The Shindig

Today was such a wonderful day! Isn't it great when you can say that? We had Kyan's 2nd birthday party and really, it couldn't have gone any better. Prepare for a very photo-y post!

The two cakes, one for Kyan and the other for his friend Alicia. I kept the cakes very simple-just a plain sponge with butter icing.

My dear friend Margie (Alicia's Mum) procured a Western saddle and it even had the number 2 on it! How cool is that?

Jumping hay bales- so much fun! They also made excellent seating, baby lying spots and climbing frames...

Cowboy cupcakes, inspired by this article in Littles Magazine.

All the cake making supplies came from Kiwicakes, if you're having a party, I can definately reccommend them, fabulous products, prompt delivery and excellent service.

Our goodie bags for the little guests to take home were plain paper bags with a little Thank-You note tied on with string.

"Buttons" the pony (yes really...)

Horsey sandwiches

Sherrif badge biscuits...

"Red Indian" feather headresses...

my cupcake cowboys and cacti...

Such a wonderful day. And now I can sit with a cup of tea and enjoy the peace and quiet as my children sleep soundly, after a day of fun and fresh air!

Yee Haw!

My darling Kyan will be two years old on May 1st. Gosh I adore him-he's really the sweetest boy. And he's into cowboys and horses, so we're having a Wild West party and I'm so excited! My main inspiration came from this article, and recently I purchased this book-and my imagination has been running wild! Some of my supplies are pictured below... Gingham cupcake papers (it's a joint party for Kyan and his wee friend Alicia who's just a few days older than him- so we're going for a red and blue colour theme...), cowboy hat chocolate moulds, and horse shaped cookie cutter...
I've also made some bunting-my first time making it and I'm very happy with it. Gingham again, and the offcuts from the chair I reupholstered a while ago.

Horse head shaped invitations... My friend (Alicia's Mum) also informs me that we've secured a little pony for pony rides, and some hay bales for the children to climb on. Now to locate plaid shirts for every member of my family...

If you have any links or ideas you'd like to share for the party please do! See you tomorrow for Formspring Friday xx

Outdoor Spaces

Don't you love Autumn sunlight?

I went to a professional development course recently, at one of our local marae. It was about Outdoor Learning Spaces and gosh it was inspiring! The speaker was Robin Christie, of Childspace and he spoke a lot about how children NEED to be outside-at least 70% of the time. According to him, anything that can be done inside can be done outside (yes,really, there are these "forest kindergartens" in Scotland, with actual "toilet trees", if you know what I mean?)

He said "children will love what they know, and they will protect what they love." I adored that quote, and dutifully scribbled it down in my diary, and it's stuck with me because we all want our children to love and protect our environment, don't we?

He also talked about how we as adults are so protective of children when it comes to weather! And he was so right! I mean, I can't begin to count how many times I've been outside with a group of children, and it's started to patter with rain, so immediately I've gathered them all together to go inside for shelter! A wonderful teacher I worked with once cut up a tarpaulin into squares, with a hole for the head, and made a set of rain ponchos so that the children could stay outside in the rain-because it's rain-they've got to experience it!

Anyway, it got me to thinking, about how I could implement these ideas at home as well as at work. Winter is fast approaching, but I still want my children to be outside as much as possible. (Anyway, Winter Schminter-apparently there are preschools in Denmark where in their Winter there are only 4 hours of daylight in an actual day, but they still spend almost the whole day outside, they have these amazing snowsuits and the playground is lit by these HUGE globe-like lamps. It's incredible!). So I've set up an outdoor play space round the side of my house. It's close enough that I can have the door open and still hear them, but still outside enough that I can now officially utter that phrase of old that I remember so well from my own childhood...

"Run along outside and play now!"

It seems to be going down quite well so far!

Eggy Goodness

Have you ever tried blowing eggs, to decorate for Easter? We did, and it was lots of fun! You'll need;
A bowl of hot water (not boiling)
Vinegar
Eggs
Pins
Bowls to catch the egg white/yolk
Food colouring
Glue
Sequins, stickers, felt shapes or whatever you can find to decorate the egg
Bamboo skewers

Poke your pin carefully into the top of the egg. Wiggle it round so you break up the yolk and white-which makes it easier to blow it out later. The wiggling also helps to make the hole bigger. Do the same thing at the other end of the egg.

Blow the contents into a bowl (note Isla's wet hair-that's because my children had just had a bath. I'm the kind of Mum that bathes her children and then, when they are nice and clean and sweet-smelling, I give them raw eggs and food colouring to play with, but that's another story anyway...)

When the egg shells are empty, put them into the bowl of hot water and add a good swill of vinegar. This helps to kill any eggy bacteria that may be hiding in the shell. Save the egg yolks/whites for scrambled eggs later on...

Add food colouring to the water/vinegar mixture...

Swish the egg shells around in the water so they are evenly covered, and dye your hands in the process...

Stick the eggs onto bamboo skewers and find a suitable place to dry them where they won't be touching/leaning against anything.

Decorate! Check these out for insporation!

Display proudly! Happy Easter everyone xx