Shop Swap {What I Received}

Do you remember me rabbiting on about Shop Swapping a month or so ago...and probably more than a few times since...?  Well, Louise from Elsie May and Bertha and I paired up.  Ummm...mostly because she was the only sign-er up-er!  Never you mind.  The two of us have had a whole lot of fun and excitement with wrapping and sending and receiving our parcels!

So?  Would you like to see what goodies I received in my parcel?

Lots and lotsa pink knitted goodness!

Pretty, dusty pink, soft, knitted goodness.

There are 8 little facial cleansing pads and a super soft wash cloth.

...and they were all wrapped up inside this pretty little bag.

I do not knit - so these knitted lovelies are just perfect.  I am totally pleased with my swap goodies!!

Do yourself a favour and pop on over to Louise's shop and blog.

A Dolls House - One Day

When I was a kid (and played with Barbies) we converted a section of my bedroom cupboard into a dolls house.  It was a built in cupboard - floor to ceiling...something like 60cm wide with shelves top to bottom.  I don't think we did anything fantastic or amazing to the 'house' - no wall paper, no carpet.  But each shelf was a house floor. My Barbies lived in a mansion!  I loved it!

Anyhow, I have seen a few children's dolls houses around - like fancy-pants wooden ones that you'd be fleeced £200 for the privilege of owning.  Definitely not on my wishlist.  But, we visited a friend yesterday and her little 3 year old has been given this really great cardboard dolls house.

It is just like this one, but it is white.  I have just done a bit of googling and I see that you can purchase one of these here.  So fun.  I especially love that it is created for drawing on and that a budding little artist can go totally nuts on it or leave it completely minimalistic...and then when it's days are over, just recycle it.  No dilemma's or guilt over what to do with it when the enjoyment has fizzled out!

On my cardboard dolls house google travels, I also found this one.  I just have to share it!

How completely crackers is that?!  I love it.  The creativity appeals to me in a beeeeg way.  There are a few more must see views here.  Nappy boxes here - we - come!

Ok.  I got distracted.  This is actually where I was heading before google-land side swiped me....

It's a book shelf turned into a dolls house.  So, totally pretty.  Ok, I love this even more than a recyclable dolls house.  I love that I could re-purpose something that we already have.  I love that it can be re-purposed back into regular storage when the girls grow out of dolls houses.  Not that they have grown into dolls houses yet....maybe One Day...some day soon....I want to make a dolls house already!  Our family need a home!

Oh - if you know of any great dolls house furniture DIY's - I'd love to hear about them.

Lovely Summery Weather

Today is the 4th day of the most awesome weather.  31 deg C is again the forecast high today.  I am melting, but loving real summer!

I always walk through Russell Square on my way home from work - it is a relatively small, but lovely and green park with a lovely little fountain in the middle.  One of those fountains that just looks like paving when it is off, but bubbles and spouts through the paving when it is on.  I took a few photo's the other evening.

It was around 6:30pm and really, really warm.  As you can see, there were loads of people just chilling on the grass.

You can just about see the fountain is in the distance.  There were a few littlies in their swimming cozzies splashing around in the bubbling jets.  So nice to see people enjoying the warm weather and just enjoying being outdoors!

The pictures are a little fuzzy...I blame it on my phone camera, again...It's so nice to have windows and doors open to the breeze and warm weather.

Screen Printing Love

What is it about screen printing that is just so darn addictive?  The more paint I mix and slop around, the more I want to do it again.  I want to print and print and print until I get the technique just right and am rewarded with a perfect print.  Then I want to mix a different colour and start it all over again....

The whole process can be really rewarding or really, REALLY frustrating.

Either way - it is a-d-d-i-c-t-i-v-e!

So, I was allowed an hour or so at the weekend to get messy.  And whipped out a few green apples and green robots.  I mixed the green myself - the on screen colours don't do the colour a great deal of justice.  It isn't an emerald green, definitely not an olive green or even a granny smith kind of green - it is a lovely vibrant, summery, sunshiney green.

The colour is probably somewhere between the Pantone Summer Green and Bright Green.  It is g-g-g-gorgeous...if I do say so myself.

Anyhooo, if you are looking to invite a bit of summery green into your life...look no further than here!

On a really exciting note, I have a few days of leave to look foward to at the end of August.  Leave where I will be all to myself!  The girls will be at nursery, Flower Daddy at work (for most of the days) and me at home.  At home!  Designing!  Mixing ink!  Printing!  Exposing screens!  Sewing!  Time - all - to - myself.  Time to do with as I please!

Can you feel my excitement????!

Crustless Milk Tart {Recipe}

When I was a kid Mom used to buy full cream, lightly pasteurised milk from a local diary farm - like 15 litres of milk in a gigantic yellow bucket once a week!  [One time, when the bucket lid wasn't properly closed, milk spilt all over our car boot - yucky sour milk stank out the car for WEEKS!]  It had lovely cream on the top which my dad skimmed off and turned into butter - he had one of those fancy pants butter churners.

Sometimes, when there was milk left over at the end of the week Mom would make some delicious milk tart.  This is the same recipe that I have been eating since forever...    

The more traditional milk tart has a pastry crust.  This recipe is just so perfect, that I have never been bothered to figure out a crusty version.

4 cups milk

2 tbsp margarine or butter

1 cup flour

pinch of salt

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

3 eggs, separated

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

cinnamon to sprinkle over

* Melt the butter, then beat in the egg yolks and sugar.

* Add the dry ingredients, milk and vanilla to the egg mixture.

* Stiffly beat the egg whites, then fold into the mixture blending well.

* Pour into a 35x20cm (can do a bit bigger too) dish.

* Sprinkle cinnamon over (I use LOTS)

* Bake at 160 deg C for around 45-60 mins.

You may need to bake the tart for longer.  Mine is often in for longer than an hour.  Keep baking until the milk tart is no longer wobbly.  I usually wait for the surface to crack up a bit - it is normally ready to eat at this point.  Also - it gets firmer the cooler it gets.  Ours is usually half eaten by the time it is cooled.  It is just too yummy to wait until is is cool!!  It will keep in the fridge for a few days - and is just as delicious cold.

Yum!  Yum, Yum, Yum, Yum, YUM!

I'd love to hear what you think about this recipe - so please give it a go and let me know if you enjoyed it or not.

No Cupcakes Left

If you happen to have visited my Facebook this week you would have seen Chloe hanging off of the oven watching cupcakes bake.  Or, maybe she was just gawping at herself and slobbering on the mirrored glass?  Either way, it was cute.

We decorated the cupcakes with a lovely, yummy, light and fluffy chocolate buttercream icing and Ava sprinkled colourful flowers, spots and miniature smarties generously all over them.  YUM!

But...now....the cupcakes are all finished :(

I am supposed to be on a bit of a diet - as in cutting back on the naughty stuff, so no baking cupcakes again any time soon......{melodramatic} sigh........

Through the Eyes of a 3 Year Old {July 2012}

There is nothing quite like a 3 year old to keep it real...yup, our house is an untidy mess.  That is just the way it is.  No sooner have I tidied a corner, than a bomb explodes in another corner.  So, I have kind of given up.

The dining room table always has piles of stuff on it.  We pretty much live at and around the table - this space has a lovely view of and doors opening on to the garden, as well as lovely light.  The backs of the dining table chairs often have clothes hanging on them - better there than the floor, right?! 

In other 'news':

* As of Thursday Chloe is walking!!  About 2 drunken metres at a time!!  We are so proud!!

*I have been a bit quiet in this here spot because day job + home are sucking me a bit dry - a bit of overtime, cranky commuters, late and disturbed nights, cranky tired children, dreary wet weather all contributing.

* I squeezed in a tiny bit of sewing time for me yesterday.  I have hardly sewn in weeks!  I now have 2 skirts on the go - 1x Burda (kinda wrap style) skirt and 1x re-invented M&S (long to short) skirt a la Noodlehead....more details another day....

And now, Chloe - who has been up since 5:30am (grrrr) - is removing washing from the airer.  Best I go rescue it all before it needs re-washing!

Have a happy Sunday!