rainbow cupcakes

slack slack slack, I know... Im sorry :)

I have ( for a reason not quite known yet) taken on a new venture and it took up a HUGE chunk of life and effort last night.... I have become a Body Shop at home Consultant :)

No, I dont really have alot of time to do this, but the lure of having a few nights out a week to have a conversation with an adult and pamper up new friends AND earning a few dollars for myself was way to strong to resist. So Monday night is order night and so I didnt get a chance to blog about our awesome rainbow cupcakes. Are you still holding your breath for them????

Will share the disaster cum triumph that they were :)

Friday dawned cold and grey here. We had two (actually three) cases of what-can-we-do-Im-bored-itis and so I scrounged the cupboard wondering if we could make something edible (since the cupboard was so beyond bare it just wasnt funny). I had flour, a few eggs and sugar so I decided that maybe we should try cupcakes from scratch. And heres what happened.....



First problem... we had no butter. But not to be swayed, I found we had cream in the fridge. So I stuck it in a container and shook the crap out of the stupid stuff shook it vigorously to make butter. 25 minutes later, I had this tiny amount.. I needed 250 grms. So instead of butter, we just added the cream. Same thing right??

Amahli helped by putting in all the patty pans. I had exactly 12 left so that was perfect.

She then took each of them out and scrunched them up.

And then she squeezed an egg... luckily I had a few spare... trouble is raw egg was making me dry retch....

They both wanted a turn so Jared carefully stirred the gloopy stuff...

Amahli had a turn too, but I stupidly added flour before letting her stir, which of course gave us an instant kitchen snow storm ( no photos of this one! it was everywhere)

Our mixture was a touch too bright, thanks to Jared and his "just a bit more mum" helping with food colouring...

We poured MOST of the mixture into the patty cases ( nicked from next door)

And then I paced the oven for about 15 minutes, willing these lovelies to RISE...

And rise they did :)

And I realised, even as I surveyed the absolute destruction that used to be my kitchen, that they were TOTALLY worth it :)

Who knows if they are edible?? They are very photographable!

Shock!! They are YUMM!!!

To top it off, I made the most amazing icing with cream and icing sugar and glittery yumm stuff...

BEST CUPCAKES EVER :)

Rainbow Friday

On Fridays, my favourite blog, Soulemama, does this:

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Thought today I would do the same :)

(considering its taken me over two hours to work out how to post the photo bigger you are luck y to be getting this much!!!! grr to crazy tricky fridays)


You'll have to wait to find out about these!!

photo fun/ simple stuff

Today was a simple day.... a photo-y day....

I have ben mucking around more with my camera lately, someone else in my family is about to outdo me in the camera/lens state and its made me look harder at how I take photos. Luckily I have semi willing subjects ( except for Jared) and today the littles were content on playing their own games, which left me to click away happily for a little while..
I have taken a whole heap of Jumeirahs cartwheels at the moment, at her request as she wanted to see what she looked like. I set the camera to a spotrs mode so it takes lots of photos in succession. I then used Picnik to stitch them together so she could see how cool she looks flying through the air :)




If you have a camera that allows you to do this, I totally recommend it. We had such fun looking through the photos and realising how many muscles moved, how strong her arms are getting to be able to hold her up, and the funny positions her legs got into.

Amahli, never to be missed out, did her own flying air trick too, which I captured.



So, instead of heaps of words, here is my day in photo fun :)


We played with a small world of pets. (I love small world play!!) ( lots more of it coming up)




Deefer dog became kennel trained by leading dog hypnotist, Amahli.



We watched madame Bean Sprout sing and dance her opera in the wind ( seriously, does this not look like some awesome performer??)



We pulled the ultimate "cheese" photo



I again wished I had a macro camera lens but enjoyed taking the centre of our new flowers.




And Jumeirah and I had a great chat about where meat comes from as she is beginning to want to prepare more at dinner with me. Tonight she made the chicken kebabs ( after much talk about NOT touching her mouth while she does it) incredibly precisely and is really enjoying being allowed this task of preparing raw meat.



Its fairly benign looking, but then I cant handle bones and things myself so I think she is doing really well!!

I also decided to bite the bullet and put my Peek a Boo bags up for sale on Made It, an Australian hand made website ( kinda like Etsy but no where near as cool. ) See how we go!

threading fun for little ones

I began dinner tonight, only to race away from it to the sounds of screams and water... when I came back, instead of finding a half burnt mess, this little guy has perched himself ( rather precariously I might add) and is happily stirring the bacon around. " S' ok, mum. I'll do it". love :)x

Have been feeling a little glum today.. its probably just the combination of gloomy weather, sad ending to season final of Greys Anatomy, and general tiredness...

Just recently, a favourite blog of mine Mom Tried It, suddenly disappeared. Something I read almost every morning to start the day, apparently this blog was shut down and it threw me into a panic. Not only can I not find something to replace my daily read ( I also read Soulemama so I am not completely desolate but still....) but I am wondering if I should work out a way to print my own. Its not much really, but its been something I have done almost every day for awhile now and captures so much of what goes on in this place, kinda like my diary really.
Have any of you printed out your blog? Or know of a good online place to do it???
Id be devastated to lose it!

Today I was trying to finish off a whole stack of UFOS ( unfinished objects) in order to sell somewhere, somehow. A friend encouraged me to do it, so I started in great enthusiasm but its fading fast....

pizzas
Doughnuts
Quality Tester

Peek a boo bags

Amahli and Jared both wanted to do some stitching too. So I got them both a big blunt needle and some bright thread and also so plastic threading mats I had off cuts from making Jumeirahs underwater cave at christmas.



We sat down and I showed them how to do it. Amahli did need a fair bit of help but she really enjoyed this "big girl" activity.



Jared didnt want my help at all, I wasnt even allowed to watch because I kept interupting him with encouragement, apparently!





"Sorry mum, but you not helping me!"

I was amazed at how long both of them sat and did this.




The plastic threading mat can be bought really cheap from Spotlight and other craft stores.
It was a perfect quiet activity for a laid back day :)
Amahli finished first and then set herself up with a money box full of 5c pieces and began to post them into the top.



This is something both girls have loved doing and spend ages completing the task. Amahli puts in each coin and exclaims " I did it!" with her hands in the air.
Gotta love that self esteem :) xx

cornflour paint turned to body art :)

Seems I was a little over zealous with my art creations.. still we had such a great time I dont think anyone really minded :)

The day dawned in the most perfect winter-in-Australia day... crisp morning but very quickly turned into the most glorious outdoorsy day. The littles were absolutely determined to get as much time out there as possible so we set up a few things and I made up some cool cornflour paint to use on the fence.

I made this paint up at christmas time and loved it so was happy when it was well receieved again.
Its a mix of cornflour and cold water, with food colouring added to it. It paints smooth and creamy, and dries like chalk. Its a great paint to use for outdoors and its really vibrant.


We started off painting the wall. Both kids were happy to create there, crossed eye brows and serious expressions showed they were both working hard and concentrating.





Amahli experimented with trying to do some hand printing but it dried to quickly on her hand to do this.




Dont know what happened to this photo.. colour is all wrong

Jared was done after about 20 minutes ( a record for him!) but Amahli was still happy painting. She then decided to move her painting to the upturned clam shell we use for a sand/water pit and began painting that.

Flick painting on the clam shell

And then, in quick motion, she had stripped and was painting herself. I joined her :) ( in the painting, not the stripping although I was very tempted)

She was the most marvellous canvas :) Between the three of us she was absolutely covered head to toe in gorgeous paint. Jared had a go with me to decorate her back in "flick painting" and she giggled all through it.





I must admit, it was incredibly fun.
Soon after, we hit the bath and scrubbed her down as much as we could. Food colouring does stain for a few days so I am glad we didnt use red! Would have looked really bad, more like I'd whipped her with a cat-o-nine tails.

Body painting is such a fun sensory activity, and whilst it is messy, its also great for body awareness, and simply enjoying the sensation of paint on skin.

Try it!!