How clean is your shower?

Sponsored by Nuffnang &Viva

Ahhhhh, cleaning. One of the many home duties I am supposed to be on top of. But anyone with children at home knows how busy they keep you. Or how many distractions you can find before you get to the cleaning. And if you'd asked me a few weeks ago how clean my shower was? Well I would have told you it was lovely as I have a cleaning lady, thank you very much. But she is gone and I am the cleaning lady. Mind you, retro daddy tends to do the shower and gets right in there with the bleach, super strong cleaners and elbow grease. He's good like that. When you remind him.

my first pinwheel

Well my housework has been neglected for a few days and the washing pile is out of control - pile because the basket is overflowing and it's raining so I have to work with how fast my dryer can do a load. Oh  and you can hardly enter my craft room either since it's full of market stuff. So it's the perfect time to avoid the more pressing issues of the household to try pinwheels. Turned out to be more like twenty minutes because someone is teething and needed cuddles on the couch.

i love markets

I really love doing markets. I never love them at 10.36pm the night before when a baby doesn't want to sleep or dishes need to be done, clothes need to be laid out, instructions need to be written, tablecloths aren't out or I think I need to take more fabric. It seems like I'll never be ready. But I always make it. I just stress myself out in the process. But I could never do markets without my retro daddy. He loads up the car and gets me to my market in no time and can unload the car in under 10 minutes. It would take me about half an hour. Or more. He is good. I think all of us who do markets with a big strong man are pretty grateful for their services.

Today I was loving my new layout of an L shape. This will sound silly to some of you but each market you are given a different spot and you kind of have to work with whatever you get. So I created my L and Liss had her L so we had a giant horseshoe that was very open and really worked!

And I had lots of fun today. I set up with Elodie in her ergo on me and we kept each other warmies and I could have kept her on me all day. Meanwhile grandma betty was totally spoiling the kids with breakfast in bed (don't get used to that, kids), picnics and making beds. Apparently it's really fun when grandma betty shows them how!!! It's kind of cute because grandma betty would teach my sister and I how to make beds when we were little too!

And so it was a great market for me and my little stall. Thank you to everyone who popped by. I love seeing customers and friends come back to see me and all the new customers who find my stall. Plus there are always lovely ladies who buy fabric and tell me they can't sew. Sometimes starting with pretty fabric is the best way to get started!

And another reason I love markets is grabbing 5 minutes to check out new stores. The reality is coming home with nothing for Keira is a big market no no. And today was easy as I was so in love with this cute cookie stall. Then  Sarah told us it was her sister. Let me tell you that I was the best mummy ever when I presented Keira with a selection of cute cookies.................to share with her brother and sister, of course!

But markets are always exhausting and so I like to finish market day with some thai takeaway and a quiet night on the couch. Unfortunately being sunday there are shirts to be ironed and a school bag to pack but I will get there. You know my motto, I'll get there........................eventually.

cream cheese sponge cake

Another day, another cake. I had a packet of cream cheese in the fridge that was crying out to be baked into something. Or maybe the truth was that I was feeling a little grumpy with a cold and had nothing for morning tea. I searched the internet for a sponge cake baked with cream cheese. And I found lots of american recipes for Cream cheese pound cake which is baked in a ring tin. Unfortunately I don't have a ring tin or bundt pan. So I decided to make the recipe lighter with self raising flour and bake in a large flat tin

And despite taking that gamble it was a lovely cake. Lighter than the pound cake would have been, cooked in less time and absolutely delicious. Now don't freak out over the quantities of....ahem......fats in the recipe aka butter and cream cheese. There is a lot of cake to go around with this recipe and it tastes so light you'd never know.

375g butter, softened

250g cream cheese, softened
3 cups caster sugar
2 cups self raising flour, sifted
1 cup plain flour, sifted
6 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla paste (or extract/essence)

Cream butter and cream cheese until smooth then gradually add in sugar and beat until light and fluffy. This doesn't take long but you do need to scrape down the bowl once or twice. Now add in your eggs two at a time. Beat gently after each addition. Add in vanilla and beat a couple of seconds. Add the flour one cup at at time and beat after each addition.

Spread into lined large rectangular cake tin. Now I think I had a few air bubbles in there so smooth out the mixture in the tray and tap tray gently on your bench if you want to remove any air bubbles. Bake in 160 degree oven for about 50-60 minutes until the top of your cake is a nice golden colour and a knife comes out  clean. Lift out by baking paper and cool on rack. Cut and serve. I  think this would be delicious with a serve of berries or a dollop of cream. Or both.

And just remember to forget the amount of butter! OK?

Mathilda's Market this Sunday

Well it's friday afternoon so if you're planning your weekend make sure you put Mathilda's market in your schedule. Sick children were not part of my plans for this week but somehow (don't even ask me how) I got a few things done this week and have pulled out my market stock and am packed. Of course there are lots of little jobs to do as there always are before a market. I have a nice assortment of new fabrics to show off this Sunday including some really cute cosmo fabrics. Sherbet Pips charm squares and fat quarters anyone? I have plenty as I did a reorder.

And a new delivery of charm squares arrived this afternoon including some white charm squares to start making pinwheels. They are really easy to make if you have one pack of patterned charm squares and one pack of white charm squares. I hope to make a few sample blocks to bring with me on sunday! Or maybe not as we have a busy weekend with family things on and my grandma here. Honestly, I don't know why I say stuff like that because I never get around to it. Oh well. This is fabric photographed one minute after the box has been opened. I am hanging out to get stuck into these.

I've decided to just sell my fabrics at markets from now on as I just can't do the whole open 24/7 online store and post off orders thing. It has just about killed me and I love to meet my customers so it's win win. Plus four mathilda's markets a year is much more doable even if they do sneak up on me.

I also love this venue as it is a dream to unload and there is plenty of free parking in the school grounds. You'll find me on the right wall (next to my buddy Liss) and I hope to see you there!

five

Well yesterday my big girl turned 5. And I'm going to sound like a real mum now - and this happens every birthday - I wonder where the years have gone and how she got to be so big. My first baby. And now she is 5 and I still can't believe it. She is my little rock, my helper, mediator, cuddler , little mummy, diva, shopper, giggler, smarty pants, singer, dancer, poser all rolled into one. And they don't come more girly girl than keira.

I thought she'd love a little laptop to play on and do her reading eggs and games on. No. An iPod touch to play angry birds and barbie games? No. Little dvd player to take away with us on our drives. No. Just dolls. Dolls. That is all she wanted. And I delivered!  These are Littlest Pet Shop Blythe dolls and I may have just ordered her another 4 - or maybe I ordered them for myself. They are so cute! And hours of fun for keira when she lets the twins play too. At the moment they are in 'new york' aka upstairs playing. And retro daddy did talk her into an ipod touch after dinner!

She has grown up so much this year. At the moment she is loving walking in to school on her own and I love to watch the older girls give her cuddles and stop to talk to her. They all love her.  She loves school and is doing so well despite being the tiniest and one of the youngest.

She has a photographic memory and keeps us entertained all day long. She always tells me who the naughty ones were that day, who was distracting her and other very important details.

She had a special day. Her buddy brought her a present and the big kids at school made a fuss. I sent her off to school and said try not to talk about your birthday all day. Her teacher told me she spoke about it in news, she read about it, she wrote a story on it and she did talk about it all day.

But that kind of excitement is infectious. She had pink cupcakes with her classmates, sushi train for dinner and pink cupcakes with mummy and daddy when she got home.

There were tears. It wouldn't be a 5 year old birthday without some tears. A waterfall in fact when she discovered that her party wasn't actually on her birthday. It looked like dinner wasn't going to happen and some serious talking and calming down was needed before we left for dinner. Her party is next sunday. Gymnastics, as requested.

I couldn't have imagined having a more beautiful little girl - beautiful inside and out! She's still a great model for my blog too. Happy birthday gorgeous girl. You mean so much to us and we can't imagine our family without you!

simple party cakes

After sending keira off to school with 22 cupcakes, I realised that I didn't have enough butter left to make another cake for the family that night! Mini crisis! Elodie was overtired and crying, the twins still hadn't had lunch, I couldn't face a quick trip to the shops for butter and there really was no butter left in the fridge. Oh no wait! What do I see? I found 50g butter wrapped up in glad wrap from earlier in the week.

:

And so I went to old faithful, my CWA cookbook, and found 1 minute cake. Yipee it only needed 1 Tbsp  of melted butter. So I tweaked the recipe to make it fancier and use what I did have. And I've got to say SUCCESS! You might like to call this 'I just have enough butter to make a cake' cake or 'mummy has saved the day' cake. Or how about 'save yourself a trip to the supermarket' cake.

simple party cakes
1 cup self raising flour

3/4 cup caster sugar

50g butter melted

3 eggs

3 Tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla paste (or extract or essence but I like the little vanilla bits in the paste)

Sift flour into mixing bowl and add sugar, eggs, milk, butter and vanilla. Beat for 30 seconds or so until just combined. Scrape down sides of bowl with spatula then beat for another 2 minutes on medium. Divide between 12 cupcake wrappers. Bake for 15 -20 minutes in 180 degree oven then cool on cooling rack. These are lovely, light and moist and I don't think you'll need to use a fancy cupcake recipe or a packet mix again!!!! Try not to eat them straight away or you'll find the edges of your cake stick to your paper wrapping. Let them cool first.

my very easy and delicious frosting

90g butter, softened

90g cream cheese, softened

500g icing mixture

1-2Tbsps milk

Beat butter and cream cheese for a minute or two until paler in colour then add in icing sugar gradually and the milk. Keep adding icing sugar until frosting is thick and creamy. I also add a drop of colouring when my icing is the right consistency as my kitchenaid distributes the colour better than I do with a spatula.

Give Ability Day

Sponsored by Nuffnang

If you asked Keira to describe a perfect afternoon I am pretty sure it would include fairy floss, face painting, a merry go round and a petting zoo too. Oh and a happy meal to round out the afternoon with Goldilocks and one of the three bears walking past to say hi.

And that is how we spent Saturday afternoon when we visited Westfield Chatswood for their first ever Give Ability day. The centre, along with all Westfields around Australia, was raising funds to be donated to their local charity partner, The Shepherd Centre. You might remember that they help hearing impaired little ones attend mainstream school and with 70% of their revenue coming from fundraising it's great to see a big business like Westfield getting onboard to help out.

It takes a special someone to collect money in shopping centres for charity but the collectors were having fun – maybe it was because they were standing so close to the fairy floss machine. I know I’d be pretty happy there myself. We let Keira put money in the tins and she loved to take her time putting each coin in one by one. It was a slow process but great if you want to get the money shot!

See how happy the volunteers were! It was great to see lots of customers stopping by making donations and those with little kids letting them have some fun. There were activities spread all over the centre and as soon as I heard the words 'petting zoo' I knew we had to head there. In fact it was definitely the hottest place to be. Kids everywhere and I struggled to get a photo of just my little ones in there. But at $5 entry it was good to know that all of the money collected was going to the Shepherd Centre. You don’t have to be an accountant to do the maths on that one and know it will be a great day for the charity!

My favourite part of the day was the fairy floss. Poor little keira would innocently give it to me to hold and I forgot how much I loved the stuff and how long it had been without it. Yum.

Keira decided she wanted to go back to the shops tomorrow to do it all over again and I had to let her down lightly that everything was there for a special occasion to raise money for little children. Well done Westfield and all of the lovely people who volunteered their time on the day. For your first Give Ability day it was a very fun event for the little ones and unfortunately has sent a high standard for shopping trips out from now on. How to explain there won't be face painting, fairy floss, a merry go round or petting zoo the next time we go to Westfield.

But I’ll definitely mark my diary for next year’s event. And I can’t wait to hear how much money was raised by all of the Westfield centres around Australia on Give Ability day to help little ones with disabilities.

Westfield Style Session with Donny

Sponsored by Nuffnang

Westfield are quickly becoming my favourite sponsor. I mean life is tough when you have to head to Westfield without the kids for a day of shopping! I knew all that practice over the years would come in handy. Remember the giveaway for a Style session at Westfield and $500 to spend? Well Amy was the lucky winner and we just had her special day at Westfield Eastgardens. Amy and I organised to meet up early for some coffee and toast and did a spot of shopping and a lot of chatting before meeting up with Donny.

You might remember that Donny is one of Westfield's stylists and is based at Eastgardens and Parramatta.  The pressure was on me to look good.  Had I been listening at my own style session? Three outfits later and I was dressed comfortably but stylishly. But today was all about Amy! Donny got to know Amy over a coffee and determined her body shape, current look and went over the essentials she needed for her wardrobe and body shape. This is important stuff.

Once you've been shopping with Donny you suddenly have a whole new world of shopping open up to you. You become a focused shopper quickly looking through racks in a store determining what will suit you and avoiding what won't suit you. First stop for us was Target. Donny revealed that he had recently had a style session with a client who purchased her entire wardrobe basics from Target. And for under $500. So you heard it here ladies.

Next up, my new favourite store, Diana Ferrari. Let me tell you if you haven't been in there yet, well ladies this store has your name written all over it. I may or may not have gone back after Amy's session to buy my 4th Diana Ferrari dress in a few months. I could have bought a lot more. Donny believes that wrap dresses should be an essential part of every woman's wardrobe and they really work wonders for every body shape. He shows you how to dress up and dress down an outfit so you won't just buy a dress for special occassions but know how to work it for the school run, meeting friends for coffee and something a bit more fancy.  

Hello hot mumma. And please do we not agree that Amy has pretty spectacular curves and hot legs. I really hope Amy starts wearing more dresses because let me tell you she was channeling her inner goddess in these dresses. Smokin'. I also 'suggested' to Amy that her husband better take her out for a night out with these dresses in her wardrobe. Notice how the colours suit her, show off her assets and fit like a glove. Amy admitted she would never have walked in to the store if she was out shopping as it looked too expensive but she was surprised at the prices and there were so many things to suit her in there all following Donny's principles.

I loved this dress and bought it for myself with a cute little black cropped jacket for a wedding coming up.

The great thing about a Westfield stylist is that they are accessible, you just ring up and book a session and they work to your budget but best of all to your shape. Many a time I have left a change room swearing to give up chocolate or sugar for the rest of my life because I couldn't find something to fit. But Donny doesn't operate like that. He finds the clothes to fit and flatter your body. No dieting required. In fact a lot of us are buying clothes too big for us because we think they are comfortable but we could go down a size and show off our best bits. 

I think the best thing about having a one on one session Donny or a Westfield stylist is that they are there to help you. They know their stuff and are out to make you look fabulous. And they can achieve your  look on your budget. I love that Donny starts with a basic wardrobe list that involves using what you already have and building on those basics. 

I know Amy enjoyed herself and has the tools now to dress for her body shape and lifestyle. And best of all the confidence to know what looks good on her. Amy learnt to go into new stores and the colours and styles that will suit her body. Here we are accessorising! Donny is a big believer in shopping anywhere including budget jewellery stores to complete the look.

A huger than huge thank you to Westfield and Donny for this great opportunity. I'm hoping Westfield will offer this opportunity for spring (nudge, nugde, wink , wink) to another one of my readers because we had so much fun and this really does change your life! Retro daddy wants a daddy makeover where we nominate a husband for style session with Donny. What do you think? Spring makeover for a mummy? Daddy makeover? You tell me and I'll tell Westfield!

cat's big adventure

Mishka, the latest addition to our family, is an indoors cat. But when I woke up this morning she wasn't following me downstairs and I spent a good half hour searching the house and outside for her. I couldn't figure out how she would have escaped and did the whole shake the cat biscuit box/ tap her bowl with a fork/make kissy kissy noises/shine a light behind the clothes dryer and calling out her name.

I drove to school slowly looking everywhere for the cat. When I came home ready to search for her retro daddy said I found the cat, I said where, he said don't freak out - on the roof. Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat. So I went out the back and there she was....on the roof with a very scared meow going on. I kept talking to her and walked over to a higher part of the backyard and in a couple of minutes she had come down via the awning, fence and into the pool area and back to us. Phew. And that was one cat's big adventure.

totally sick weekend

Yep my weekend was totally sick! As in the children throwing up sick not totally cool sick. Elodie decided to throw up just after I had put her in the car at lunch time yesterday. All over her new cardigan. On it's first outing. Boo hoo. Quick change and I packed a towel for her and spare pair of clothes but little did I realise Finn's asthma would play up on him and he would have a huge asthma attack and throw up everywhere. At the shops. All over himself. That towel came in handy but unfortunately Elodie's change of clothes wasn't going to help us. It was a long walk back to the car!

he zonked out for one long nap this afternoon!

Finn just got worse and worse and we'd get ready to take him to hospital and he'd fall asleep and stop coughing. At 1am things went downhill quickly so we rushed him to hospital where they first put him in the resus room (oh didn't that freak me out when retro daddy texted me!) but then decided it was croup and moved him to the paed emergency ward. I think it's a rite of passage for all parents - you never see an emergency room until you have children of your own and then you get to know it. Finn is our hospital boy. We know the drill well but it's the worst we've ever seen him. He was home by 4ish and as expected has gotten worse before better but fingers crossed we see an improvement tomorrow.  

We were rostered on for church today so imagine how chipper retro daddy was with 2 hours sleep to read and host morning tea. I ended up making 'cake a la betty crocker' but we survived. I decided to keep the 3 littlies outside all of mass in the sunshine and they were happy enough and didn't bother anyone. Tired, sick and cranky at church is not a good look. Later on some nice ladies cuddled elodie while I helped serve morning tea. Lucky she's so cute and cuddly.

And so after a very light lunch (in case it came up again) everyone except mummy fell asleep on the couch. I wasn't going to waste that time sleeping myself. So decided against baking a cake and felt a sudden urge to go and plug in the sewing machine. That poor machine of mine hadn't been touched in ages and I really did have to plug it in at the wall and get reacquainted.

I decided it had to be a quick and satisfying project like little tissue holders. And it was a great excuse to cut into my new Denyse Schmidt fabric. So cute. Love this little project and churned out 10 in under an hour. These make the best little present. I  like to put cute ones in presents for keira's little friends and give them to family and friends when  you need something little to say thank you!

So it hasn't been a particularly relaxing weekend and I've spared you the details on how much laundry has been done. Let's hope it's a quiet week. We need it!

Elodie's baby cardigan

Well before you all stop reading my blog because there is never any craft here - here it is! Trust me when I say I miss my craft as much as you miss seeing it. And as I took these photos today I realised I need to switch off the computer more often and get crafting. But may I present to you - the first knitted garment of the season. 

Just to refresh your memory this is the easy baby cardigan from More Last Minute Knitted Gifts. You can find it on ravelry here. Truly a beautiful knitting book and a geat price at the moment for a lovely hardcover book. I knit this in Bendigo's 12 ply Rustic but sadly the colour is no longer available. Retro daddy doesn't know this yet but we are heading to Echuca in July for a family wedding and I feel a trip to the Bendigo back room is on the cards.

This is a simple cardigan. Knit all in one piece with moss stitch bands but you could use garter stitch if you're a real beginner. Normally I wouldn't block my all in one knits for babies but this one really needed some blocking particularly on the front bands where the increasing had been done. Now this is the largest size with an extra 2 inches knit front and back for length. We might need to wear it every day to get lots of wear from it this winter.

I just love it when you just finish a little knit and pop it on your adorable model. I could honestly just keep having babies just to have beautiful models for my craft. But there is something wrong with the equation because the more children you have the less time you have to craft but the more time you spend buying craft supplies. Or maybe it's just that they accummulate. Or maybe I just buy too much. Who knows.

And three cheers for Elodie who is one sick puppy and had just come home from her 4th trip to the GP's in 3 weeks and had been sick with a fever the night before. By the end of the mini shoot she was over it. Fair enough, little princess.

To complete Elodie's look (will you listen to me? I've obviously been spending too much time with Donny) she is also wearing a Gap onesie, Country Road linen pants and hair clip from Townmouse.

hexagon giveaway

Ok, it is official. I am turning out to the be the worst giver-away-er in the world. This morning I drew the winner of Sherbet Pips who is Lucky -1 and I think we can agree she is a lucky one! Oh and I finally got around to emailing february's winner and Fat Quarterly about those winners. Yes, it's official. I am crap at drawing winners! And if you're waiting for an email from me then I'm pretty crap at that too. Sorry. When I say I need a PA I'm not kidding.

Anyway, now that I've emailed those winners I can announce a new giveaway for May. Remember I'm doing one giveaway a month this year. And I like this one..........especially as I have a real soft spot for hexagons. And with winter here it's the perfect time to snuggle up on the couch and do hexagons! And if you don't live here then it might be the perfect weather to sit in the sun and do some hexagons in warmer weather. But wherever you live, I'm sure you can find a good use for this prize.

one of my hexagon flowers- you have to do the work yourself, of course!

So here we have three Moda charm square packs and 2 packs of hexagon papers! Anyone can enter, just leave a comment, you can live in timbuktoo but you've got to be in it to win it.