Oh yum,  we have invented our own recipe of hot chilli CHOCOLATE. (We watched the movie and decided it had to be a winner) Down here in tassy it is still the shoulder season so the evenings are ripe for hot drinks and schmoozing. It is supposed to be 13 degrees on Wednesday so I may even pull one out in the middle of the day they are sooooo good.

Start by buying some good dark cocoa. (Surprisingly Woolworths Home Brand is quite deliciously dark.) Multiply the recipe by however many mugs you’d like to make. (2 teaspoons of cocoa for two mugs, 3 for three mugs etc)

FOR ONE MUG

Place one heaped teaspoon of cocoa in a small pot.

Add two level teaspoons of raw sugar

Add one shake of chilli powder (or to taste -NB the chilli gets spicier as you heat it so if you taste it now it won’t have as much kick as it does at the end.)

Add enough boiling water to disolve cocoa

Add one mug of milk ( l like FULL creammmmm)

Stir over medium heat until milk is hot (not boiling)

Stir in some bitter dark chocolate pieces while it’s heating if you like things rich.

Pour into a comfortable mug (make sure you get all the bits of chocolate off the bottom) and enjoy.

This is one thing I’ll miss when the weather warms up. I’d post a picture but  I drank it already…

Ell

The other week I discovered this pair of trousers in my scrap knitting box. They must have been lurking there for a while unbeknownst to me. I emptied the box out late in the afternoon – in a vague effort to find something interesting for my lovely 1 year old to play with while I cooked dinner- and lo and behold the trousers metaorphosized on the floor.  All I had to do was sew them up. One minute a jumble of misshapen squares, a fanciful flukish flick of the wrist and wahlah, there before me were the trousers. Suddenly my mind was opened up to an entire wardrobe made out of simple granny squares!

Ava's magic trousers

Don’t you love it when things just seem to create themselves?

This morning my lovely chickens FINALLY blessed me with an egg. HOORAH. Not only was the egg deliciously smooth and creamy clad, but it was left delicately balanced in the roosting box. Miracle of miracles. There was no scrounging under the bushes bound for disappointment today. One simple lovely egg in its right place. What a calming effect it has had on my day.

In my HUGE four hours a week of childfree time, this week I am going to take stock and deliberate. My overlocker is broken and all my projects seem just too difficult without it….what was life like before I had machines? Lots of slow hand stitching and spinning…..deliberation while I sewed. Deliberation has become somewhat of a lost art in my household since I have had children. I can’t seem to wake up early enough to beat the rush of weetbix and yoghurt, I can’t seem to settle long enough amidst the endless endless questions of the day, and I can’t seem to raise my eyelids without my eyes crossing after 9pm. (deliberation with my eyes closed?  Heh heh deep meditatve slumber more like) So today, I am focusing on arriving home. I landed, unpacked and washed over two weeks ago. I have been snuggling with my husband and children for a fortnight, and yet only yesterday did I begin to feel like I was actually home. I have settled a little, my feet are beginning to reattach to the roots under the floorboards. I had a wonderful journey in China. It was amazing to visit a country with such a rich and vast history of people. Chengdu is beautiful and ravaged and sad and hopeful all at once. It is in reflecting that I guess the full impact of this incredible place will begin to seep into my being and settle with me at home. Ah, to journey and come home again. To let the land pass through me and leave me richer and more blessed where I am. I loved China. I love China. I love its people. Going there has reminded me of how precious we all are. Underneath the surface- without the distractions of language and culture- we all long for the same things, even if we can’t put a name to them.                Ellen

The GREAT Wall

It’s always surprising what you find at the bottom of your bag. I have a bit of a Mary Poppins bag myself. It seems to be able to hold the endless array of bits and bobs that I carry round. Only trouble is I’m constantly losing and then finding stuff again and often things don’t come out the way they went in.

I made this felt ipod cover for my husband and it’s come in handy for the scrapes that seem to befall the ipod. Who knew it would also be useful for collecting the eucalyptus lollies that were roaming freely around the bottom of his bag quite forgotten after the sore throat had gone?  

I hadn’t thought of lollies as an art material but I must say I like the look of the ipod cover with them rather than without. If it could sit on a shelf as an art piece I think I’d leave them on but alas this is a machine in high use and the eucalyptus lollies don’t add to it’s usability so I took this picture instead.

Cheers

Amanda

The highlight of Jasper’s week – a new home just for him and his babees. Renovations by Dadda complete with Jasper’s apple tree .

Cheers,

Amanda

Good morning sunshine. Oh how you thaw me out and warm me up! How can it not be a good morning with buttercup yellow crockery (a delightful find last week at the Op Shop), the sun to bask in and tea with muffins.  A small one for wee Jasper and a bigger one for the not so wee Mumma. I returned a moment after setting these down to find the big one had disappeared and shortly after the little one had too or should I say two. I found Jasper with one in each hand with a bite out of each looking very content. 

Chocolate and Date Muffins (courtesy of the Trident dates packet)

INGREDIENTS

3/4 cup dates chopped

3/4 cup of boiling water

100g soft margerine

1/2 cup of castor sugar

2 tbsp either pecans or almonds, chopped

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp carb soda in 1/4 milk

1 3/4 cups of Self Raising Flour

1/2 cup chocolate chips

METHOD

Pour boiling water over dates in mixing bowl. Add margerine in small quantities and stir until it melts (or warm for 30 secs in microwave). Add sugar, nuts, egg, vanilla, soda and milk, mix well. Add flour and stir in quickly with chocolate chips. Bake in moderate oven 210C for 18-20 mins.

Enjoy – makes 12 muffins

Cheers to Trident – these are mighty nice especially not long out of the oven.

Amanda

Whilst on an attempting to get Jasp to sleep mission I drove past this unusual letter box standing unobtrusively amongst shrubbery. I thought it worthy of a letter box posting -ha.

It’s all about slimline post with this one. The gap is seriously 1cm wide. I can’t quite work out the logic of it with the small hole at the top. It’s almost like a key hole? Rolled up papers wouldn’t fit through? Intriguing I must say – I have never seen one quite like this – I like it.

cheers

Amanda

Late last night our new little friend emerged from the fabric of my society! Due to some emergency babysitting he didn’t make it up here this morning. He is ready with open arms for lots and lots of hugging and sleeping with our little nocturnal possum. 

I ended up deciding on a cat for Jasper as he gets so excited about Biscuit the cat next door and one of his first regular words was Meow!- (can’t decide whether to put some whiskers on – hmmm)  He also loves round things hence the spots and I have a significant fascination with stripes.

I think I made it more difficult for myself in deciding I didn’t want the pattern to be symmetrical!  I drew and cut separate pieces for the legs, arms, ears and made the body and face slightly lopsided with a friendly half smile – Being an art therapist I have been wondering why I was so bent on spending so much time, care and serious attempts at making it handmade and unique – I guess I wanted something that I am hoping will provide some comfort and nurture in the night time and that will remind him of our cuddly and special getting back to the lovely land of sleepy time. I am not sure why I am calling it a he! I’ll sit with it – we’ll see who he/she turns out to be – I’ll let you know as her character develops?

So I’ve been rocking Jasp to sleep with the material on my shoulder for a week. Hopefully he likes the new form the material has taken. I showed it to him today and he called it a “babee” and kissed it (scuse the blurred moment photo), we’ve just finished putting it to bed with the smurf pillow and a blanket. He isn’t a soft toy kind of kid so we’ll see how it goes

Sweet nocturnal moments to you,

Amanda

Well I may have bitten off more than I can chew with this transitional object softie! I’ve been going all day in a concentrated craft-a-thon. The materials I’ve picked focus on being nice to snuggle up to and think of Mumma while I get myself back off to sleep. It’s nearly time for sleep Jasper.

Hopefully this little cat will appear here in 3D by the morning looking vaguely like this sketch? 

Yours in craft banditry,

Amanda