Gingerbread House

Well here it is, the finished gingerbread house, i must say i was glad i put it together on the kids day at preschool as it was very fiddly and collapsed on me 3 times!!! I eventually glued the roof back together with icing after snapping in half and got the walls to stick together with support from cans and mugs! Very pleased with the end result though! Its my 2nd gingerbread house ive made and will definantly keep up the tradition to see the kids excited faces. They cant wait to eat it! The biccies below i made with the leftover icing tinged with green food colouring and m&m's- they look very Christmasy!

Have a great Christmas everyone!

Kids day

Today was pretty quiet and we had the usual kids day, i try and take them somewhere- today was the library to get some new books and dvd's.
Allie was very inquisitive as to why there was no carpet on the floor at the library anymore so i had to explain our recent floods which was quite hard for a 5year old to fathom!
I also cut out some fabric to make Allies sundress when i get my new Christmas present (very excited)
Tomorrow i'll finish off the gingerbread house!

Handmade thoughts

Showing those we care about is so important in todays fast paced life. Sometimes life passes us by and we forget to tell those we love how important they are to us. Make today the day you take 5 minutes out of your day to tell someone you care or ring an old friend you havent spoken to for awhile.
Theres something special about receiving a gift thats been handmade it means the person has put in extra effort and time on your part. Today i made a special Ferrero rocher bocquet for my beautiful mum, these are her favourite chocolate so im sure it will be greatly appreciated! Heres the finished product

Finally finished!!

Well the advent calender is finally finished......nearly! Just have to get a pic of the 3 kids on Christmas day to scrapbook for the centre insert. The kids are going to love this for years to come and i'm pretty proud of the finished product too! Here it is

This week i will have a busy week organising things around the house ready for Christmas at our place this year. Cant believe 2010 is nearly over, what a hectic year! I wonder what 2011 will bring for us all- if you have any hopes or dreams for the new year please share them with us in the comment section.

Fairy dust....

Allie has been invited to her little friend's birthday party tomorrow and i wanted to make some special party food for her. Her present is based around fairies so thought i'd stick to the theme.

I got the base idea to make these from another blog i follow- Whimsical Creations and just adapted it to my needs.
They are really easy to make: cut a skewer in half and poke into a marshmellow, dip in melted chocolate then roll in fairy dust. You could use sprinkles, crushed nuts or crushed biscuits. Let set on baking paper.
I was wondering how i would present them as thought it just didnt do them justice putting on a plate.
Well i looked around the kitchen saw an empty margerine container and a foam oasis and thought perfect!
So i decorated the marg container with fairy wrapping to match the present then tied a big pink bow on, popped the oasis in then pushed the skewers in.
In Ethan's words "oh wow thats pretty mummy"

Whats the cost of our health?

Im a big fan of muesli for brekkie but am sick of paying high prices for sugar laden products not to mention other strange ingredients (have you ever read the ingredients on your cereal or muesli?) Really we dont need to eat all these foods with numbers in them, what do they really do to our health? So today i decided i'd make a batch of my own, which my mum often does. Then i know exactly what is going in there and it only costs a fraction of the price. You can make whatever variety you like but today i made a pretty basic one with some things i had in the pantry:

I used 3 cups rolled oats
1 cup allbran
1/2 cup each of cranberries, sultanas and sunflower kernals

Looking forward to breakfast tomorrow! this can be used as a normal muesli with milk and yoghurt or you can use it for an extra special birchir muesli.

Ive been working on the advent calender (its proving to be very time consuming and have done alot of it one handed while im nursing Eva!) have been thoroughly enjoying making it though and its looking very pretty according to Allie. Will post some pics tomorrow when i do a bit more work on it. Also have some baking to do as we have another 2 parties to attend this Saturday!

Food glorious food

If you love going to the ever popular Sushi bars but hate paying the high costs why not make your own. If you've never made your own its super easy and super yummy! You can make whatever variety you like, today i made smoked trout with cucumber, and tuna in sweetcorm mayo with cucumber.
The great thing about sushi is you need to make it ahead of time so its great if your a time poor mum like me as you can organise it while bubs asleep. Its also a great option for those on a gluten free diet.

Heres what you need to do for beginners out there:
1. cook your sushi rice, the sprinkle with sushi vinegar, allow to cool
2. put a sushi sheet shiny side down on a rolling mat

3. place an even layer or rice over your sushi sheet and leave a gap of 2cm at top to join the roll

4. place the filling of your choice along the base of the roll

5. using the mat roll your sushi sheet up, use a little water on 2cm at top end to secure your roll

6. cover rolls with gladwrap for few hours in fridge before serving

7. cut into slices of desired size and enjoy!