My Creative Space

Good morning:) In my creative space today is my first attempt at quilting. I've wanted to make a quilt for a long time and when I saw this cute pattern in the book Sew Darn Cute I thought it would make a perfect start to the world of quilting. It's just the right size for me because it's small so it didn't take too long, it was fun and not too daunting. I decided that it would make the perfect picnic blanket for a little girl who loves to play with dolls and with some food and accessories it will be making it's way to her soon.

*The little food on the plates are actually erasers from Kmart that I thought looked cute and the jar of food I bought at my favourite doll shop in Brisbane*

For more creative spaces head over to Kirsty's blog.

Catherine xo

Homemade Yogurt

When I make lunches for my girls I like to give them a balanced diet. They always have some fruit, something I've cooked, a sandwich, dried fruit and/or nuts and yogurt. My Mum bought me an EasiYo Maker for a present a while ago and I really enjoyed making yogurt for the girls whenever we needed it rather than buying it from the shop but they didn't always like the flavours no matter how many I tried. I read the Down to Earth blog daily, it's always filled with ways to get back to basics and reconnect with your home. I was inspired by a post some time ago and decided to make my own yogurt from scratch, that way I could flavour it more to the girls taste. I used this recipe on the net because I had all the ingredients but there are many more on the net and because I already had the yogurt maker I had the perfect container for it to ferment overnight. The taste is a bit tart but with some organic honey added to it, the taste is just delicious, even better knowing that I made it from scratch. If you really like yogurt and enjoy trying a new recipe then I would give it a go, you'll be proud of yourself. :)

Catherine xo

I hope that your day is full of smiles! Artwork proudly produced by Miss 6:)

Have a wonderful day.

Catherine xo
*Edited to add* No food was harmed during this artwork production for you or eaten!(lol)

Our New Family Addition

Last week I asked for your opinion about what puppy we should choose for our family, thank you for all your helpful comments. It was a really hard decision because there is always a for and against for any decision we were about to make. In the end we just wanted a dog for us all to love and be a part of our family, one that was friendly and a puppy we could train so we have a well behaved dog. With some help from my mother in law who volunteers to look after guide dogs we have started the training and lots of cuddles from the family, I think this little ball of fluff is just perfect. So here is our new family member, Molly. She is a Moodle and we have fallen in love with her. She is very sweet, placid but has her crazy moments like all puppies which are just hilarious. At the moment she is sound asleep, cross fingers for me that she sleeps through the night!:)
Catherine xo

Some Blog Awards to Share

I was given a couple of blog awards from some very sweet blogging friends while I was on holidays and wanted to say thank you to both of the lovely ladies, Amanda of Homely One and Nellie of McCarthy Designs.

So the first award that I received was given to me by Amanda was the Sunshine Award. Amanda is always popping by to leave sweet comments and her blog is all about her sharing her home, her creative cooking and her family, sweet little Grace. Stop by and say hi you'll enjoy visiting.

The rules of the Sunshine Award are:
1.Put the logo on your blog or in a post
2.Pass the award on to 12 fellow bloggers
3.Link to the nominees within your post
4.Let them know they have received it by leaving a comment for them
5.Share the love and link to the person who gave you the award.
The lovely ladies that I wanted to pass this award onto are some of the sweetest ladies who always take the time to stop by my blog to comment.

1. Lynda at A life of charming moments of Miss Prudence Knits
2. Meagan at ecoMILF
3. Tammy at Girls Wear Blue Too
4. Megan at happy little magpie
5. Knicky Knacks
6. Cathie at m.e.
7. Kelley at My Front Porch
8. Jacqueline at Zippy Zippy
9. Karlyn at Rosa's Room
10. Kylie at Kylie's Cards and Things
11. Cathy at Little Eve
12. Tina at Rubies Place

The next award was from Nellie over at McCarthy Designs. She is always so sweet and her blog is full of beautiful pictures she and her husband have taken, craft and home decoration projects.
The rules of the Master of Karate and Friendship Award are:

1. List 6 things you are a master in.
2. Pass it on to 6 bloggers you think are masters at friendship and make blogging awesome.

So here goes:
1. Making and decorating birthday cakes. I love doing it and each year I take a photo of my creations, they really are fun to create.
2. Collecting cooking and craft books. I think I need to build an office quick smart to house my growing collection.(lol)
3. Being intuitive. I can get a sense of how people are feeling, most of the time.
4. Cooking. I love to try something new and always have fun trying.
5. Remembering phone numbers. I memorize most of my family and friends numbers, not sure if that means I talk too much but it's handy.
6. Card making. I love to create cards that are individually made for someone and surprising them with something you've made for them.

The six lovely ladies I'd like to pass the award onto are:
1. Bianca at Bianca Jae Makes Stuff
2. Deb at Handmade with love by Deb
3. Megan at Happy Little Magpie
4. Vic at Punky and Me
5. Liesa at Handmade Heaven

My sweet blogging friend Amanda from Homely One has invited me to play a blogging game called Photo #6. I'm meant to go back to the 6th photo I ever uploaded to my blog, re-post it to share with you all, and remember the moment. So here it is...
I made these party bags or bag-a-lopes, because they are made using an envelope, for my Miss 6's 5th birthday party. We have a birthday party only every couple of years and on the alternate year we go to the park for lunch with family, which I love the best. I love coming up with things to make for their parties and especially the cake, that part is my favourite. It's hard to believe a year has already passed by and now she is six.

I'm supposed to pass this award onto six more people so I will leave this award open to any of the lovely people who take the time to stop by my blog. I think some of you may have already played so for those who haven't played this blogging game feel free to give it a go.

Please don't feel like you have to play along with the game or take the award if you don't want to, it's my way of saying that I think all of you are great and just to have some blogging fun too.

I hope all of you are having a good long weekend.

Talk soon
Catherine xo

Puppies!

We have a bit of a dilemma in our family at the moment and thought I would ask for your opinion to help make the decision a bit easier. My girls have wanted a dog for a long time but I have put it off for a few reasons we already have a persian cat who is now 15 years old and I didn't really want to cause her too much stress because she is old after all. The other reasons were that puppies are so very cute, I know, but they are alot of work and also without a side fence the puppy might get out onto the road. So my hubby has built a side fence now so the puppy can stay around the back and away from my cat so she won't be disturbed, my daughters have assured me they will be feeding and tidying up after the puppy so now there really isn't a reason for me to say no. The problem we are having is what dog to buy? We have narrowed the options down to a Moodle (Maltese/Poodle cross) or a Bichon Frise and then do you choose a female or a male? The reason for these two dog breeds is that they are a small dog which we wanted for the girls and they don't malt hair. They are both such cute dogs the girls really wouldn't mind what we picked but I don't know which one. So what do we choose? I'd love to hear what you think, so here are a couple of pictures to help you along.

MoodleBichon Frise

Talk to you soon.
Catherine xo

Today in Photos

Today there was some baking, some painting, enjoying nature in the outdoors and seeing my plant flowering, and the accomplishment of a job well done to finish the evening.
What did you get up to today? I hope you enjoyed your day:)

Catherine xo

Tassie Touring Part 3

Hi there and happy Sunday! I hope that you have had a good weekend. Yesterday was date day with my hubby so we had lunch and a movie together and what did we see Date Night, funny hey! I try to be funny anyway:)

So I thought I would show you a few more pictures from our trip. It's really hard to narrow down some of the pictures because there is some many natural wonders to see in Tasmania that are truly beautiful that I want to share all of them with you, here I go.....

After our stay at Bicheno it was time to head out on one of our biggest drives of the trip to Taranna. It is located just before Port Arthur on the east coast of Tasmania. Because it was such a long drive we took a few stops along the way to break up our day so when it got to lunch we chose to do a little detour to Richmond. First was the stop at Richmond Bridge, did you know it is the oldest bridge in use in Australia completed in 1825 using convict labour? And of course we had to feed the ducks. We then drove into town and took a walk around the Richmond Gaol before heading to the town centre for a walk around the shops spotting this delicious lolly shop called Sweets and Treats. Still with more driving to go it was back in the car but not before one more stop at the Sorell Fruit Farm. I just love berries of all kinds so when it meant we all got to taste some beautiful fresh Tassie strawberries I was ready to go and pick some. It was great fun for even the big kids.:)
The next day we started early and went to Port Arthur spending our entire day exploring it's history and beauty. We did a short tour with a guide and also hired out an audio tour for each of us, which I highly recommend. My hubby wanted us to experience as much of Tassie as possible so after Port Arthur we headed a short drive down the road to see the Tessellated Pavement, just spectacular. Standing on it and exploring it's surrounding and taking in the view of the ocean is something to remember.

Today we were going to our next destination, Hobart. A stop along the way at the Tasman Arch and the Devil's Kitchen gave me more happy snapping opportunities but today the most important stop on our agenda was the Cadbury factory. My Miss 10 was so excited to visit and so were the adults stocking up on lots of yummy chocolate!
Thank you for stopping by and I love hearing about your holiday experiences that some of you have been sharing, in the lovely apple isle. It is such a pretty place to visit! Let me know if I'm boring you because I still have a few days of posts left to share with you and heaps of photos!(lol) Have a good week my lovely friends, have you got any exciting plans?

Talk to you soon
Catherine xo

My Creative Space

was all about keeping creative while I was away on holiday. I had fun relaxing but two weeks without doing something creative with my hands would have just felt wrong and I had the incentive of my brother's baby whose appearance was supposed to be made the day we arrived home but has decided that they are just not ready. So I needed something portable and I needed to make something that wasn't gender specific, some singlets, a needle and pretty thread and away I went creating some little designs to keep the bub looking cute and cuddly.I finally taught myself how to do pearl stitch, not hard but you know it can be kind of scary learning something new. A bit silly but hey I had fun and got making a few more washers for the kitchen. It was tricky doing the moss stitch, took me a few tries but I love the look of that stitch.

Anyway there are heaps of other crafty ladies out there showing us their creations so why don't you stop by Kirsty's and check them out.

Catherine xo

Tassie Touring Part 2

Tasmanian Devil

On day 3 of our trip around Tassie we left St Helens and started driving to our next destination, Bicheno. We made our first food stop of the day at The Famous Mount Elephant Pancakes in St Mary. I stuck with my traditional lemon and sugar pancake but Miss 10 had the pancake with chocolate filling which looked pretty delicious making me wish that I was a bit more daring. Our next stop was Nature World and here we got the rare opportunity to pat a Tasmanian Devil but were not ready with the camera in hand so we missed out on taking a photo. But there was plenty of opportunity to take photos of the little devils in their pen playing, I thought they were kind of cute in their devilish way.

Bicheno Blowhole

We then made our way to Bicheno, found our accommodation and went to check out one of the local natural attractions, the blow hole. It wasn't active on this day but when we visited a couple of days later it was. I've never seen a blow hole before but the simple natural wonder was fantastic to see. The Family at Wineglass Bay

Day 2 at Bicheno saw us go for a drive to see the famous Wineglass Bay. It was an overcast day but the 1 1/2 hour return walk was so worth the view in the end whether the sun was out or not. We were lucky enough to have the viewing platform to ourselves to enjoy morning tea together before the rest of the walkers arrived, it was just perfect. Kate's Berry Farm

After our walk we were ready to see more so we drove on to Swansea and stopped off at Kate's Berry Farm. I love all types of berries so I was pretty happy sitting there eating a raspberry and apple pie with vanilla bean ice cream and a strawberry milkshake, yum.

Ross

Day 3 in Bicheno we headed out to do another day trip to the historic town of Ross. This was one of my favourite places to visit. The buildings were just beautiful in their colour and the texture of sandstone. It was such a cute little town and just had such a lovely feel to it.

Seahorses at the Bicheno Aquarium

At the end of the day we did a short walk (I told you we did lots of walks lol) along the foreshore at Bicheno and stopped of at the Bicheno Aquarium to check out the cute sea horses for the girls. Well I hope that you are enjoying the highlights of my holiday with me and seeing some of our holiday snaps.

Thanks for stopping by.
Catherine xo

Tassie Touring Part 1

(You can click on the map to see it more clearly)

Hi! Thank you for your understanding about my lack of holiday notice here on my blog I really appreciated it, I'll try not to stay away that long again I missed seeing all of you. Did you have a good day yesterday? My day was all about reconnecting with home which meant, grocery shopping, cooking, washing and making lunches. I actually really enjoyed doing it, I have missed my homely life.

Bridestowe Lavender Farm

Now on to some holiday talk. Our trip began in Launceston with a drive into the city and a bit of lunch then it was time to start our adventure. The destination for our first day was Scottsdale. Along the way we stopped into a well known lavender farm called Bridestowe Estate Lavender Farm. Lavender is one of my favourite smells, it's so calming and beautiful to look at in bloom. Unfortunately they had cut the lavender in January but to see the rows was spectacular and the soap we bought was soo nice to use.

St Columba Falls

The next day we were on the move again, our destination was St Helens. There were a few stops along the way, one was St Columba Falls. St Columba Falls is one of the tallest falls in Tasmania with water cascading down from a height of 90 meters. It was an easy walk to the falls and a pretty sight at the end made it worth it. After our walk it was time for lunch at the famous Pub in the Paddock at Pyengana.

Binalong Bay

Once in St Helens and all checked in, it was time to head out for another walk along the beach at Binalong Bay. Binalong Bay is the entrance to what is called the Bay of Fires. It was warm that day and the walk was pretty tiring but worth the view and sense of accomplishment. Today was the start of many walks on our holiday and the start of seeing many beautiful waterfalls too.

Enjoy your Tuesday!

Catherine xo

Home Again

Binalong Bag

Hi there sorry it's been such a long time since my last post. Have you had a good Easter break? My family and I have had an adventurous time over the Easter break exploring the beautiful state of Tasmania. I didn't mention my holiday in my last post because I felt a bit uncomfortable putting it into blogland, I hope you understand. We came home today after a 21/2 week stay, 2500km later, forever grateful to have experienced such an adventure with my family, totally exhausted and happy to be home. Tonight I thought I would leave you with one of the many photos we took while we were away, and over the next week I'll share more happy snaps, hopefully I don't bore you too much:) I'm off now to get a bit rest before I have to get back into the daily routine which I'm actually looking forward too!

Catherine xo