Disney DVD overload

We have one sick princess here cuddled up on the couch in blankets and towels (oh the towels I need to wash), one tired princess napping on the couch and one little guy sitting in the barbie couch just chilling out. And this afternoon's entertainment has been sorted thanks to the very nice people at Disney who sent me some great brand new Playhouse Disney DVDs to review last month. We are huge Playhouse Disney fans in this house so they came to a good home. Don't even talk to me about the times when I haven't had the foxtel on! First up was Handy Manny - Manny's Pet Round up, perfect for the preschoolers and little boys.....it's all about helping other people in the community with a bit of Spanish thrown in!

My Friends Tigger & Pooh : Chasing Rainbows or as Finn calls it 'tigger poo' is perfect for little people the twins age. They love it. Cute songs, cute themes and cute characters. Perfect if you're 2 or 3....keira pretends she's not into it but she watches it along with the twins.

Next up was Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Mickey's Great Outdoors - well you can't beat Mickey Mouse can you? We've been watching him since Keira was a little one and the twins love to yell out the answers to Mickey. Educational and fun and I love that everyone can watch and enjoy the show together.

And my favourite (and Keira's)...Little Einsteins: Oh Yes, It's Springtime. Oh we love Little Einsteins. Classical music and art, cute themes, songs and actions to join in on. This would have to be one of my all time favourite shows because it's so educational and when Keira was 3 and knew what a violin was I was pretty sure it was because she loves Little Einsteins (is that so wrong?).

All of these titles have just been released and are out in the stores now. They make the perfect addition to your DVD library or as a present. And can I just say that we owned about 3 DVD's before we had keira and one of them was our wedding DVD.........now it's an overflowing shelf! I think they'll come in handy when I'm in hospital as retro daddy isn't accustomed to the late afternoon shift with my three.

new shoes

Well today was a new day! Everyone woke up happy including this mummy because she knew retro daddy was home for the day and then a gymboree order had arrived on her doorstep. We decided  to head up to Avalon for some lunch and to pick up some Salt Water sandals ......we were in desperate need of summer sandals for both girls. Is it wrong that I think miss keira also needs a few other colours in her wardrobe? I'm thinking silver next.......

I won't mention the tantrum that went on when they didnt' have miss tillie's size. She was so after a pink pair too that even when I just wanted to work out her size she'd pull her feet away from the blue ones and refused to have them near her. So retro daddy took her down the street and I figure I now have an excuse to get keira another pair while I hunt down a pair for miss tillie. 

one of those days

Firstly, don't worry - the Cottee's $1,000 giveaway is coming back. Sorry, but the Terms & Conditions just have to be approved but all of your entries have been saved and the competition will go live again in the next day or two! But boy it's been one of 'those' days. A day where I think my children have woken up and secretly conspired that it should be 'make it hard for mummy' day. Firstly, just getting out of the house is hard enough......no wait just getting ready to get out of the house is hard enough.

Then you get to the bottom of the stairs and little people want to go and climb them again while you are standing at the car 'nicely' hurrying them along. We had to make a trip to the GP's for a referral before the paed visit tomorrow and of course I sit next to the lady with 3 girls under 5 making it 6 kids under the age of 5 spread over a few chairs  n-o-i-s-y but at least they were entertained for most of the half hour wait for a 5 minute appointment.

time for a ride on the trampolines at the mall - something keira had no interest in last year but was desperate for all weekend! Meanwhile, Tillie had a huge tantrum the entire time, jealous as she wanted to be with keira. Love that person walking by who said 'listen to that naughty child crying' - oh nice one lady, real nice....I could hear you!

then it was a quick morning tea stop (make a mess in the nice cafe) for babycino's and banana bread before braving Big W for some fold out couches. Dear Lord if I'd known how much fighting would go on with Finn desperate for a barbie couch or the huge tantrum the twins had at the checkout - well we would have avoided the store and couches. I'm beetroot red trying to pay for everything, trying to lift Finn from the floor who was doing his deadweight trick with his feet hovering over the floor and my mum is pushing the pram telling everyone we're leaving and laughing to keep it lighthearted and I'm thinking get me out of here......now!

this one is to show Daddy how high she got

And then we came home to play outside, fight some more over the fold out couches (everyone wants Keira's Barbie one it turns out), drive grandmummy home, watch the latest Nanny McPhee movie on foxtel and this little guy just summed up how I felt...............pooped! 

And that was my day...and I still have bathtime and getting them all off to sleep before daddy comes home . And he is actually looking forward to his 6 days with the little people while I'm in hospital - good luck with that!

Win $1,000 with Cottee's

Sponsored by Nuffnang

Now I'm sure that got EVERYONE's attention. And you thought my giveaways were pretty cool so far, but who doesn't want $1,000 cash. Oh the possibilities............and we love Cottee's in this house. For some reason I crave cordial when pregnant and drink it by the pint - some people send their husband out in the middle of the night for ice cream - this pregnancy I've sent retro daddy out for Cottee's cordial! Water or juice just was not going to cut it!

So, Cottee's are relaunching all of their delicious cordial flavours in new 1L bottles and doing away with the 750ml and 2L bottles. Less packaging is better for the environment (of course) but the cordial is now more concentrated so the 1L bottle still makes the same amount of cordial as the 2L bottle. Good value. The smaller pack is also easier to carry, easier to store and easier for the little people to help themselves too. Mind you in this house mummy has to hide it otherwise the little people want it with breakfast, lunch, dinner and before bed.

little hands love the smaller bottle

So to enter the giveaway and win $1,000 cash (and who doesn't), all you need to do is tell me about an experience or time when good things have come in small packages! For me it's most of my family since I'm 5ft and I'm slightly taller than my mum, her mum...........well let's just say I come from a long line of little people. And growing up I always heard that old saying that good things come in small packages and I am one of them! Ahhh, nothing like being on the end of the front row almost every year of school photos!

chief taste tester

So have a little think about it and tell me and don't forget to include your email address in your comment so Nuffnang can contact the winner! Full terms and conditions can be found here. Good luck! So wishing I could enter this competition myself...............

dresses, dresses and more dresses

Deciding to do Mathilda's next month with a new bub is not something I would have done with my other babies. But we have sooooo many bolts of fabric here at casa retro that I decided I just had to go. Retro Daddy will be my helper for the day (can't wait to see him in action at my very girly stall)  and I promised him I would be ready for the market before bub arrives (2 weeks, 2 days and counting). I have 40 dresses coming with me and just had to share some of my favourite fabric combinations so far.

I love this aqua print - it's certainly a break from pink for me - and I loved that the binding fabric was already in my stash from last summer. A combination that was meant to be!

And this Flower Sugar number is very pretty and shabby chic, it reminds me so much of Cath Kidston.

and another Flower Sugar dress - I am loving this combination too, so summery and Keira's favourite!

And although I have 40 dresses, of course I still need to add retro mummy name labels, price tags and give them a final press....maybe next week.

where do weekends go?

yes, where do weekends go! You wake up on saturday morning with it all ahead of you and before you know it it's sunday night and you're getting ready for the week of pre-school/outings/work and so on. And this weekend flew by. Saturday we did shopping (I now have a few pairs of pretty pyjamas for my hospital bag and a new baby bouncer), odd jobs around the house mixed in with a bit of AFL - secretly I think retro daddy is happy it was a draw because now he has another excuse to get some beer and chips into the house for a saturday afternoon in front of the tv while I look after the little ones!

Sunday was church and we were rostered on reading and morning tea which means getting there early and leaving late but I love the chatting while you're on morning tea (retro daddy doesn't see this benefit as he chased the kids around the playground in the sun for an hour). Then it was sushi train for lunch, a bit more shopping as I hunted around for the perfect slippers for my hospital bag (work with me here - I'm in there for 5 nights and everything so far screams grandma not new mother).

And the afternoon was spent doing more jobs around the house including cleaning the pool and washing the weatherboards and windows out the back. I should point out that I sat on the couch and 'supervised' the work while doing my knitting. Here is my Baby Kina progress so far, it's going well (ok I'm not so proud of the edging down the front) and is a quick knit. I should be finished this week and can't wait to put it in baby's wardrobe......

 Hope you had a great weekend too!

Win a HP Photosmart Wireless e-All-in-One

Sponsored by Nuffnang

Gosh I'd love to win this printer as I don't actually own a printer. I send things off to retro daddy at his office to get things done but to have a printer at home would be heaven. I would print off the latest patterns and recipes I found on the net as well as photos of my lovely little ones.

And I've been asked to tell you about the HP Photosmart Wireless e-All-in-One and I've got to say what a great printer! Now there are two things I really love about this printer. The first is that you can send things to print from your mobile phone or any remote email device......now that is cool. It means you can be out and about and find something on the net or take a cool picture and send it back home to print while you're out. And we're talking about sending it from anywhere in the world back home.....fabulous.  

But it also has really cool apps to use like Web Suduko, daily news, colouring pages from DreamWorks Animation, personal calenders from Google Calenders and more to come as HP work with partners to develop new apps. And you don't need to log into your computer to use them, just use the touch screen on the printer - too easy. I think I need this printer just for the colouring pages......no more hunting around for paper when the little people are getting bored! And the apps are free, which I really love too!

So you can find out more about the printer here and with a retail price of $129 I think I need one right now!  But guess what, you can win one right here! All you need to do is answer this simple question....“How would you most like to use the HP e-Printer and why?”. 

Don't forget to include your email address in your answer so that Nuffnang can contact the winner. Full competition details are here and the T&C can be found here. Competition closes 22nd October 2010....good luck!

a new project

Nothing like starting a new project before you finish your last one. Story of my life. But when a bag of wool from Bendigo arrives on your doorstep and your whole body aches from the growing baby inside your little body then there is nothing to do but start a new project and get a little satisfaction (and rest!).

Over the weekend I discovered these very cute patterns and think the Baby Kina will be perfect for my little bub in the warmer weather. I also love that you can buy the pattern for bigger girls and their mummies too. To buy the patterns just follow this ravelry link for more details, but basically you just pay US$5 per pattern to her paypal address (kidstricots@gmail.com) and just let her know which pdf patterns you would like in english. Too easy.

I'm making it up in Bendigo 4ply Luxury and just using a smaller needle. So in between 2 loads of washing and entertaining the twins you'll find me on the couch today.......

ballet open day

Keira loves wednesday afternoons....it's the highlight of her week, ballet with Miss Cassie. This mummy loves ballet and did it for almost half of her life but finds taking everyone to ballet is an event in itself - the finding a carpark on a busy road, getting everyone out of the car and in to the hall safely, getting up and down the stairs safely and keeping the twins entertained for almost 45 minutes in a small room. It's not the highlight of my week and I can only see it getting worse when I add another baby to the mix but I remind myself it won't be like this forever. 

But today was ballet open day and so cute to see miss keira doing her dancing 

she was very cute and very focused the whole class and I was so proud of her and I learnt my lesson from last time and took the right lens for my camera so I could take photos from a distance!

next highlight of the ballet year will be the ballet concert in november when she is a little bird!

a knock knock joke

Keira loves a good knock knock joke and I heard this one on tv this week and knew she'd love it (any bottom humour she finds very funny right now). So thought I'd share it with you........here goes.

knock knock

who's there

I did up

I did up who (I did a poo!)

insert laughter here................

Keira kills herself laughing every time we tell this one......love to hear your best knock knock joke!

Uncle Toby's Lunchbox Challenge

The very nice people at Uncle Toby's sent us out a lovely big hamper to make up some very yummy and healthy lunchboxes this week. The little ones couldn't keep their hands off it. But I do have some big eaters in this house and it came to a good home. Although no one is at school yet we do lunchboxes every friday for playgroup and it has to serve 2 meals - morning tea at playgroup and lunch in the car home when everyone is starving! I also try to pack lunchboxes whenever we go out because it's much more affordable than buying snacks, drinks and lunch x 3 - not to mention being healthier. And I always try to think of all of the five food groups when making them up to make sure they are balanced and healthy.

First lunchbox I made up was for for Finnie, my bottomless pit. The little man who eats 3 pieces of vegemite toast and a banana for breakfast everyday (yes he is 2). So for morning tea we have some fresh fruit (a must for any lunchbox and strawberries and grapes are favourites in this house), an Uncle Toby's Le Snak (he'd eat 3 if I packed them) and an Uncle Toby's Fruit Fix bar which is 99% fruit and a healthy little sweet treat for my little guy. Lunch would be a ham sandwich made on high-fibre white bread (he also adores cream cheese in his ham sandwich), some cheddar cheese cubes and for a little snack later on, an Uncle Toby's muesli bar. And trust me, he would eat this all up during the course of the day.....I must be raising a future rugby player at this rate!

Next up is Keira's lunch box, she loves her fruit and yoghurt and has a real sweet tooth. So morning tea would be a piece of fruit, yoghurt and an Uncle Toby's Roll up (strawberry flavour of course). For lunch a ham sandwich and some cheese on the side with an Uncle Toby's muesli bar for later on when she gets hungry again.  

and this last one would have to be my lunchbox on the run - my 'oh man I only have 5 minutes to get out the door, nothing is in the fridge but I still have to pack 3 lunchboxes and we're going to be out for the day'. A banana which we always have in the fruit bowl and a Le Snak for morning tea, for lunch a ham sandwich and an Uncle Toby's Roll Up (a special treat for keira) and for later on Uncle Toby's Fruit Breaks bar - Mummy loves these bars too as they are nice and sweet inside.  Tillie would love this lunchbox as she is another of my little sweet tooths but she is also my little bird so she'd have a bit of everything but not too much of anything!.

Everyone also gets a big water bottle too to keep them going during the day too. I'm sure the school mums out there are much more experienced with lunchboxes than I am so I'd love to hear your suggestions too. Do you think of the 5 food groups every day? I do, always trying to make sure they've eaten enough fruit and vegies for the day is one of my big things at the moment as I have one fussy miss who is hard to please. And if you need a bit of inspiration in the lunchbox department, you can also find some great lunchbox recipes from Uncle Toby's here.  

a sunny afternoon

Well I have 5 product reviews to photograph and write up today so I'm going to leave you with some pictures of our sunny saturday afternoon in Manly. Oh we just love the warmer weather and living near the beach is so much fun.

You can feel like a tourist and pop down to Manly for an ice cream and walk along the beach.....mind you buying ice-creams has just got a whole lot more expensive now there are 5 of us to buy for.

And Finn has been known to finish his in record speed and want another one.........look at him tucking into it as if he's never had an ice-cream in his little life! He was so focused on eating it while tillie was taking in the view and passers by.

and yes, I think I own Australia's dirtiest pram. It lives in the boot of my car....please tell me you have trouble keeping your prams clean too???????

The Weekly Times

Although I'm a Sydney girl, it was fun to hear that my Notebook article was included in the Weekly Times last week. But I've just opened my store email account today to find lots of emails from readers looking for the actual patterns! Thank you for taking the time to email me and I'm so sorry that no link was included in the article.

So here you go....................to make the dress just go here and to make the pants just go here. The patterns are available there to download and you just stick them together with tape. Also I've been told the pants run on the small side so go up a size just to be safe. They were modelled on my girls!

Happy sewing...........

Australia's next top model at church

I've recently been swapping bedrooms around upstairs making room for baby! For keira it has meant a bigger room with a smaller but much more organised wardrobe (photos to come once new beds arrive). It also means she picks out her outfits each morning. Sometimes the look is not so hot but I was so proud of her choice for church this morning!

She teamed a little Country Road tee (which has a cute fabric necklace attached), osh kosh skinny jeans and gymboree mary janes! And the modelling......well we had to put our strawberry lip smacker on and then she was ready for some serious modelling with attitude. Tillie came along for the ride but is still not up for posing......yet!

unfortunately the attitude followed Keira to church and it was not one of her best outings! Oh dear, I'm sure there must be someone looking at us thinking 'and that woman is about to add another one to that lot'.......or maybe they are thinking I wish we had sat somewhere else this morning!

knitting in the sun

We are having the most gorgeously sunny day here in Sydney today. Retro daddy loves to go for long runs in weather like this so I thought to myself why should I be doing the housework on my own while he runs. So I took my knitting and the kids outside for some playtime..............

Here is the little lace vest I'm making. I'm sure my little bub will look much happier than the model they have here. Anyway, I've ditched the February Baby Sweater as it was knitting up rather large and my pregnant brain couldn't get with the lace pattern either. So with not long to go I've decided to make a few little pieces baby can wear as soon as she comes home. 

And here is my progress....I started last night and it's a lovely easy little lace pattern, nothing too fancy and the front and back are identical so I think I can have this finished in a week and ready to add to baby's new wardrobe.

I'm picturing this over the top of a very little sweet floral dress.............

the one where she shows her belly

Yes, this is the post where I show you my baby belly....all under wraps of course! Those of you who were reading my blog when I was pregnant with twins might remember there were quite a few belly shots....ahhh memories. That belly really was huge but I'm pretty proud of the baby belly I have going on right now.

My OB predicts baby's weight will be about 3.6kgs and since she's coming out a week early I think that's pretty impressive for this little lady. Mind you, I did marry retro daddy.....all 6ft 2 of him and I don't really do small babies! And I won't reveal how many pictures I took to ensure there was no big double chin..... but there were a few.....and I really should have wiped those little fingerprints off the mirror too. Glass and mirrors don't stay clean for long in this house.........

my sewing room

Well after 2 years in this house I have permanently moved back into my sewing room........and am loving it. It's still a work in progress and there is nothing fancy but I love that no more exchange students means I can stay put and have everything at my fingertips. I also love that it's a little craft refuge away from the rest of the house. Mind you, look who likes to follow me in there. And can you see I've been sewing .....lots more dresses for Mathilda's.

We moved the bookshelf in so I have all my craft and cooking books in one spot...this is just my craft book and magazine collection with an overflow of a couple of cooking books. I also devoted one cube to childrens books in case I get little visitors (and I do.....often). I just need to train the little visitors to put books back instead of spread them across the whole floor!

Odds and ends and craft supplies are in this bookshelf....unfortunately some things are in reach of little people and buttons and fabrics are very popular to play with.

I turned one of my market tables into a makeshift cutting table and have set it up with a mini ironing board, iron, snap press machine and cutting mat. I am loving this table and it sure beats the floor!

and here my little Brothers sit side by side for some sewing action. I put my scissors, pins, measuring tapes and machine supplies in the basket behind my machine which I am also loving. No getting up trying to find something which is what usually happens.

and my market rack is also set up so I can add dresses to it as I go and also remind myself I still have lots more dresses to get done before October 30!

and then behind me is a huge double wardrobe overflowing with fabric and batting. I'll need to fold and tidy it up before I show you. I am actually very spoilt by having 2 adjoining rooms and my own bathroom as my sewing room.  The bathroom is hiding christmas presents and the other room is crammed with 12 big plastic tubs stacked to the ceiling full of fabric, wool and patterns and all my market stock too.........that's for another time when it's looking neater! Like I said...work in progress!  

Good old fashioned cake

I don't have any quaint little handwritten recipes passed down to me from older relatives tucked away at my house. But I do have the CWA Cookbook which I think makes up for it! I just love that I can make something yummy with just a few ingredients that I know I have in the pantry and fridge! There are no fancy ingredients and since we are having a home day (in other words the weather is terrible and I'm exhausted), I decided to try the sultana cake.......

Sultana Cake

Cream 225g butter and 230g (1 cup) caster sugar in a bowl. Add 3 eggs one at a time beating well after each. Sift together 2 1/3 cups of flour, 1 1/2tsp baking powder and pinch of salt, Sift 3 times. Dust 1 3/4 cups of sultanas in flour and flavour 150ml milk with a little vanilla essence. Add flour, sultanas and milk alternately to the butter mixture until incorporated. Grease and line a 20cm square/round cake tin with baking paper and bake in 180 degree oven for 1 hour 15 minutes (mine was done in 50 minutes because I need my eyes checked and added too much flour but keep an eye on your cake in the oven). Cool in tin

You'll find all the recipes in the book are written like this in paragraph form and there are no pictures but you'll get used to it.  If you want to try a few more I found some on their website too. Happy baking................ 

cameras

I never thought I'd really be a camera person. I leave it all to my Dad who tells me which model to get and orders them for me. So I've been having a play around with some of his lenses recently. You see I wanted a macro lens so decided on a 35mm macro lens, then my dad started talking me into the pro series 50mm macro lens which is what he uses............

and gosh I love the photos I took at home testing it out

but then he showed me his pro-series 14-54mm and I loved that one too. Not loving this face too much, this is an all too often scene at our house when things aren't going princess tillie's way.........I might keep this one for her 21st. But now when I look at this photo I feel very sad thinking she can get this upset over the littlest thing.............

So it's a toss up between the 50mm macro and the 14-54mm or it could be both if I'm good for Santa this year.  Of course pro-series means more expensive!!!! And I was very sad to give them back to him.

But the good news is that when I do buy them I can also use them on my lovely Panasonic G2 with an adaptor which makes them very versatile! 

Are you a camera person and has blogging led you to become one??????