Ripple Blanket Pattern from Attic24

I came across this ripple blanket pattern by Attic24 a while ago when so many people linked to it from their blanket creations on Pinterest. Since then, I've finished three blankets and I'm almost half way through my fourth...

The first ripple blanket - this one was a loooong term project. My speed was pretty bad at the beginning - lucky SIL was gifted this one for her birthday :)

My second blanket - we repainted our bedroom just before Henry came along and it needed a pop of colour. I love cuddling underneath this colourful mood lifter!

The start of something wonderful...

I'm so in love with how my rainbow ripple blanket turned out! Hmm I wonder who will receive this ;)

A work in progress - I'm about half way done so far as it's a large 60" square but I'm loving the sunny yellows.

Crocheting a blanket of sunshine in the sunshine - yay for summer!

Number five will have to wait until I finish the sunshine one, but this is the idea of colours. Neutral with a little zing of the mustard yellow - for the sis this Christmas. I asked her to pick out colours from my enormous stash.

Thanks Lucy for this awesome pattern - I'm a convert forever :)

PS - I use mostly 8ply acrylic yarn by Moda Vera Marvel available at Spotlight.

Embroidery Hoop Art

Last week's market was a bit of a disaster with hardly any turnout, but it was a good excuse to try out my new market display ideas and to debut my new embroidery hoop artwork!

Aren't they darling? Henry had the longest nap ever that day so I managed to get these done start to finish.

The bow ties look great hanging on this wire draw from my craft cupboard - go ikea! I also finally got these little chalkboard clouds to use as the price points - I love them so much.

Christmas has begun

Yay! Christmas is coming! My favourite time of year! Every year I like to have a colour scheme and it usually ends up with me buying a whole load of new decorations, mostly from Myer. Ooh their displays are gorgeous. This year I'm thinking of going a bit untraditional and using pink...but more on that another day.

In the meantime, the Christmas orders have started rolling in for Bebe Bouton, which is so exciting as it means I get to dig into my new christmas fabric stash.

Yep, chevron is still kicking along. I do still love it. I also love that it's ok to be bright and colourful for Christmas - bring it on.

Eep aren't these shoesies delicious? There's a bodysuit coming to match these and the shorts for a photoshoot. *Update - now available to order in store at Bebe Bouton*

Oh, and I tried out patterned applique! Normally I just go around one shape, like on my moustachio tops.

Again...delicious! I think I might have to add this kind of thing to the shop. I love how the raincloud one came out. The raindrops were a bit fiddly, but so effective.

I've been getting a lot of initial top requests lately too, which are great little christmas pressies...

Busy busy busy - love it!

MPK Expo Weekend

Gubby came along with me to do our first family day at the Mornington Peninsula Family and Kids Expo at the normally amazing Morning Star Estate in Balnarring. I say normally as this particular day was the wettest, most miserable day all spring - a great day for an outdoor event! heh.

Our new marquee held up pretty well, although by the end the guide ropes tied to trees were the only thing stopping us flying away! Oh and our bunting sign lost a few letters...time to stitch them on I think. Next market I'll probably move the sign to the back wall to add some colour. It looks a bit bland back there now that I look at it.

Essential wet market day wear...my target gumboots :)

Would you believe that is a shoe rack? Perfect to hang Gubby's new christmas bibs on with tubs of her teethers and dummy clips on top.

I've had a surge in beanie orders lately, which is a really nice change to churning out nappy covers. These two Spock ones are in 6-12m and toddler sizes - there are going to be some super cute little Vulcans on halloween!

A newborn size Viking Helmet...

...and this 6-12m size aviator beanie.

Tee hee - so much cuteness.

Toddler Recipes - Pikelets

So we've hit the fussy toddler stage. Well, I guess Henry isn't as fussy as he could be, he's probably more bored than anything of what I keep serving up to him. Today I looked around for a basic pikelet recipe that I could sneak veggies into and first go was a winner winner chicken dinner!

Basic Pikelets
Thanks to Exclusively food for the basic recipe (I omitted the 2Tbsp sugar for savoury pikelets):

150g (1 cup) self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
36g (2 tablespoons) caster sugar
166ml (2/3 cup) milk
1 large egg
20g (1 tablespoon) butter, melted
Extra butter to grease pan
-Makes about 20 pikelets

Whisk up the milk and egg in a bowl and add to the dry ingredients, then whisk until nice and smooth. Add the melted butter and stir until combined.

Now add whatever bits you'd like - I added 1 Cup pureed sweet potato and 1/2 Cup grated cheese. Heat up your non-stick pan, add some grease (butter will do) and put tablespoonfuls into the pan. If they're not spreading very well, ie the mix is too thick, just add a bit more milk until it's the right consistency.

Cook on one side until you see bubbles coming through the top, then flip and cook until brown on the bottom. Let cool on some paper towel - make sure they're cool in the middle enough for bub!

I reckon these would be yummy with creamed corn and chives or some chopped mushrooms - remember that most veggies would need to be precooked before you add to the mixture.

He polished off 8 of them for lunch! What a guts, but I'd say that's a success :) Have you made pikelets before? What combinations worked - leave a comment and let me know. Henry will thank you :)

Messy Old Week

So my plan to get all of the Christmas outfits ready for the expo this weekend kind of went out the window and became a week just for me and Henry. We tried out a few new ideas for messy play as we realised he doesn't exactly like getting his hands dirty, although I don't blame him for not liking vegemite hands.

First up was "Yoghurt Finger Painting". All I did was add food colouring to some baby yoghurt we already had in the fridge and put it in a separated plate. At first he was pretty hesitant, but by the end he was sucking the yoghurt out of the plate and rubbing it all over the table. I'd say that's a win!

Next up was "Rainbow Rice" which is just dry rice I coloured by putting 1 cup in a zip lock bag with a tablespoon of vinegar and enough food dye to make it nice and bright. I shook it up to mix the colour in and then dried the rice out on a sheet of waxproof paper. Yep...I'm going to be finding rice for yearrrrrs!

Yesterday we had a go of "Rainbow Spaghetti". You make this by cooking spaghetti then colouring it in a zip lock bag with a tablespoon of oil and some food colouring. This one wasn't as popular although this mummy was smart putting it in the paddling pool outside! I had to rinse it off under water to get the excess food dye off, but bub was still coated in a rainbow poo kind of smear. I think what he didn't like was that as it dried out, it stuck to him. Oh well...baby steps.

This evening I made some Play Dough using jelly as the colouring, although I had to add just a touch more food dye to make it bright. The recipe is from Learning 4 Kids. We might try this out tomorrow - who can't love play dough?! I may have to join in on this one hehe.

OK so I did get a couple of dinosaur beanies done and some bodysuits moustchio'd up...pics to come!

MC Hammer Pants

Hammer time! So, Henry's still crawling. There is a lot of baby packed in there and so most pants in the stores are either too skinny (why oh why do babies need skinny leg pants) or too low at the back cos of his huge nappy clad butt and when he crawls around his crack hangs out. Enter the awesomeness that is harem pants...or MC hammer pants lol.

The pattern is by Suburbia Soup - another freebie and the fabric is a gorgeous soft cord from Spotlight. I made these in the 18-24m size but they're still too long for the little man so I just rolled up the hems. They should last him for a long while...fingers crossed!

Being all nonchalant...

The pattern also has options for pockets in the sides and outer pockets near the knees, so I'll try that next. I love them - plenty of room for him to move about freely and they're not too tight around his massive belly. This makes me happy :)

I also finished a Spock beanie for a custom order going to the US...I had to try it on bub. tee hee...

This is the 2T-4T size lol...my massive headed munchkin. You can order one on Etsy!