"Muuuuum what can i draw?"

Because I hear "mummmmmm what can i draw?" several times a day from my picture drawing obsessed cherubs, when I came across the below picture on pinterest I knew we needed to make some of these here drawing dices as a matter of urgency.

                                                                                Source: howsweeteritis.blogspot.com via Melissa on Pinterest

Given the recent build it was not hard to find some pieces of timber laying around outside. Daddy chopped them into squares and we sanded the corners down so no splinters in little fingers..

Then we got busy with the paint and whilst the drawing dices were drying,  got even more creative with the paint...

                                                                       

Once dry, the girls chose animals and feelings to write on each side of the dice..

never short of ideas for drawings now!

Melissa x

big girl room

some snippets of my big girls, new big girl room...

mmm unironed pillow case and all.. please forgive me, nope, not even going to pretend that i would normally iron pillow cases...don't.

She specifically wanted no other color than white (mamma's girl) in her room but we decided that we would incorporate her love of the good old doily into the theme for a little contrast

Her collection of pretties on her bed side table..

 the rock she made and wrote on without guidance, her own words, her own ideas..

and the fake flowers that she made me buy for her years ago.. 

I think she was 6 years of age...and begged me to buy her white fake flowers... 

The lamp she already had, we just hot glued a doily to it and made a sweet little doily flower and pinned it to the lamp..
The pearls - her addition after mumma had finished, only just noticed they were there when writing this post..

Glass jars from the op shop with doily's hot glued on..

mumma's rushed attempt at a little pillow for her bed... Don't look too closely.. I can sew but I am not careful, not patient and like a speed demon on that machine, eager to cross the finish line... I am learning to slow it down...

 my beautiful "big girl"

finding her groove, knowing what she wants..

I have also painted her buffet in her room and when styled I'll post it...

It was a little disastrous actually... I decided to mix my own hue for the cabinet...
I had to paint it twice, the first color was hideous.
She was not overly impressed with the second color either,  I coined the color - "The White Verandah greige blend"  she coined it "yukky greeny grey color"...
 I wooed her with a gorgeous floral curtain to break it up.. She is sold for now.

Now I have you intrigued.. promise I wont take too long to post it..

Melissa x

Gourmet Garden "Blog off/Cook off"

I decided to take part in the Gourmet Garden "Blog off/Cook off" not because I am particularly fantastic at either... but more because I love and appreciate anything that can make cooking the family meal quicker and easier...

So after receiving these little guys in the mail and direction that the meal didn't have to be anything fancy (phew!) I got busy making one of the family favorites...Lasagne..

Onion and Chunky garlic straight into the pan..

Add the mince to brown - no photo required... not very attractive!

add a tin of diced tomato and tomato pasta sauce

slice and dice zucchini and capsicum, throw that in too..

a good squeeeeze of Thyme and simmer away..

normally i buy bechamel white sauce but thought I'd show off especially for the occasion. Not really... just didn't have any.

So this was a basic bechamel sauce off Taste.com here

then layer upon layer upon layer - meat, sauce, fresh lasagne sheets... and so on..

Sprinkle the top with cheese.. in the oven at 180 until the cheese melts..

I got side tracked and left it in the oven a little long, so it was nice and super crunchy!

Kids loved it = big red stained grins!

I'm sure you all know how to make Lasagne... honestly... the Thyme, real bechamel sauce and fresh pasta sheets made such a difference.. and so quick and easy!

Just having a lovely quiet weekend at home this weekend..Long overdue... Pajamas until 12pm this morning, houseworking and fluffing... Fire lit and uggies on - ready for a quiet night in...

Melissa xx

blackboard pebbles

 I have one tin of blackboard paint... And nothing is being spared from my brush...

I have had this bucket of pebbles for so long.. I posted about them long ago and how much I loved them, and how i would do something with them...

They are now blackboard pebbles... well some of them, because I just love them so, all natural..

the girls painted their own little blackboard pebble

so much fun to draw on...

they are sitting in the kitchen awaiting some more words...

We are going to make them "chore" pebbles..

Yet to name these little white buckets...

But they will be named..and when the girls do a "chore" they will write it on the pebble and put it in the bucket..

Good way of adding up who has done what and pocket money payment..

Well. good in theory...will see how it works..

Otherwise the pebbles will just be lying around waiting for someone to write something inspirational on them..

Either way.. better than these gorgeous little pebbles just sitting around in a bucket.

Hope your enjoying this cold miserable day!

This is the view out the kitchen window today...mud as far as the eye can see...

We just had the backyard leveled.. but the plumbers are back finishing off the storm water.

The sun flower has again avoided destruction..

Standing tall still

Happy Wednesday xx

Melissa x

Day 20 - Jan photo a day...

I'm going to share our tent we whipped up the other day.... as well as a few pics for Jan..

                                                                                  Source: loveslist.blogspot.com via Melissa on Pinterest

Inspired by this pic from pinterest and the girls relentless cubby making with every.single.blanket we own, I decided I wanted to make some sort of cubby. I was originally going to make a tee pee but really wanted something easy to set up and pack away for when not in use. This tent is amazingly simple to make and takes two seconds to put away  - so we got to work.... 

We took Daddy along to the hardware shop and showed him the picture and pushed him out in front of the hardware man and made him ask for what we needed (us girls don't talk hardware language)...We ended up with....

* 4 x 45x19 pine

* 1 x 22ml dowel

* 22ml spade drill bit - to drill the round holes

Then we stopped at the local op shop on the way home and found a cute as pie freckles doona cover with matching pillow case for just $5.00.... I had some matching ribbon in our making box...

Daddy drilled holes in each of the pieces of wood and popped the dowl through - waa laaa!!

It took me five minutes to cut open the doona cover and sew four ties into place - one on each corner at the back and then a small way down the fabric for the front. This meant that the front had a little extra fabric draping for the door... We were super excited to find the doona press studs were in exactly the right position to "close" the front door...

hours of fun and even a sleepover in the tent that night - inside of course...

 ribbon ties.. 

If you don't have a sewing machine or cant sew you could use safety pins.

So these pics can count for the Jan photo a day challenge " where I sleep" but modified to "where the kids slept"...

And for the summer part - well more making and sleeping in a tent ..

We have been really busy making and will share some more when we have finished..

Melissa xx

musical making

 The girls school put on the most amazing musical every year, where the children write, perform, record and produce the songs and then stage the end of year musical... CD's for sale and all, simply heart warming...

So the mamas got to work yesterday to do some making of the costumes...

Just part of it .... still more to come....

 all different colored birdy wings for the little uns of the school....

 Just so happens, that one of the mamas has her very own little country craft retreat nestled in the green hills. A perfect little spot for busy mama hands, just three sets, working madly - cutting, dying, sewing & chatting on the sunny sunny day we had.

sweet little hats, all 20 of them sewn up with two mamas, two machines and a whole lot of gusto in approximately 15 minutes ( school pick up was looming....) the other mama was busy offering encouragement and tying the ribbon...

We marveled and gave each other a big pat on the back at the end of the day....

I have to say it - us girls, mamas, goddesses - whichever you class yourself as, can achieve so much together - amazing....

Oh and I forgot it at the time, but must mention now... yesterdays post was my 100th... Oh White Verandah, how i wish we could have celebrated together with a glass of bubbly, you and me, sitting...together....Instead I will stand in the mud tomorrow where you should be standing (and soon will be or else...) and toast my 100th post.. Big thanks to all of you gorgeous people that are coming along for the ride, I sincerely hope you are finding it enjoyable - I am, at times, censoring so much of the stressful, yukky, whingey bits to make your ride more pleasurable - enjoy xxxxx

And a picture of the kitchen yesterday before i go - I took 56...but i'll just share one..

Melissa xx

playdough making

After hanging over my shoulder whilst I browsed my new addiction pinterest, the image of gelati colored balls of play dough caught Charlotte's eye......"can we make that?"

She hurriedly scribbled down the ingredients and off to the kitchen we went, little sister in tow, "me too!!!!!"

Luckily, we managed to find all the ingredients in mother hubbard's cupboard.

all cooked up

and colored up...

carefully kneading...

and ready for play....

instantly at work....

so proud of their creations, creativity overload, nothing stayed in the same shape for long...

take a picture of this mummy...

you can find the recipe here...

Oh the joy of watching little hands work and little minds tick tick...