small kitchen tales

We were out for the day at the Melbourne Museum and just came home and I anxiously wanted to pick the winner of my cupcake papers giveaway straight away, so decided to just use random.org as it would have taken me quite a while to write down the overwhelming 99 entries. Thank you for the amazing response, the winner determined by random.org is Selina Congratulations Selina, hope you enjoy your cupcake papers, happy baking. And, as there was an overwhelming response I decided to draw another winner to send out a packet of cupcake papers, so the 2nd winner is Liss . Congratulations Liss, choose a pattern of cupcake papers and I will send them to you. Thank you to you all for visiting and entering my giveaway, it was great fun to read your comments and jokes and will definitely do it again. Hope you will come back and visit for future giveaways and of course the never ending supply of recipes . I will also do a post about photo tips during the week. Hope you have a fabulous Nov...

.....how we think that little ones around us sometimes don't understand. Above is a drawing my 3 1/2 year old drew of our family under a rainbow, dad, mum, Aidan & Amelie. "I drew mum sad"... Even though we try to shield them from certain things like the pain of grief , it managed to get through and appear on a day when I thought I was 'happy mum'. We try not to shield them from too much because we feel it's very important to their development, emotionally, socially and physically. so yes, I may sometimes be 'sad mum' but I hope that it's something we will be able to talk about together and be able to deal with. what do you think? So it's the final day of the fabulous Blogtoberfest and I have definitely enjoyed visiting many new and wonderful people and hope you have found some new ones to love aswell. Great thanks to the fabulous hostess and ever so lovely Tinniegirl and the wonderful blogtoberfest giveaway festivities hostess the ever ...

hope you have something exciting planned for your day ♥ if you haven't entered my giveaway you have until tomorrow night, goodluck . ✗ ♥

My creative space today is to put together a heart brooch from the heart brooch kit I was very lucky to win from the fabulous Dear Fii very excited indeed!!! Thank you Fi Why don't you pop round to Kirsty's for more creative spaces . ♥ edited..because I keep forgetting..oops, have you entered my giveaway :) ✗ ♥

Today is absolutely beautiful here, it is singlet weather which is great and the kids are happily playing in the gorgeous sunshine. I thought I'd make them a healthy treat, which is also a great after school snack for littlies. Cranraspberry Smoothie ingredients 1 cup frozen raspberries 1 cup vanilla yoghurt 1 cup cranberry juice method blend all ingredients together and serve, easy as that you can add some honey or maple syrup to sweeten it up a little, I didn't and the kids loved it. it makes enough for one adult and two littlies. enjoy the day whatever the weather is ♥ ✗ ♥

Thank you so very much! This is what happened when a 3 1/2 yr old ripped open my mail and did a happy dance. thank you for making us smile on what started out as an emotional day ♥ ✗ ♥

I have been extremely lucky with blog giveaways lately and have won an extremely beautiful pack from the gorgeous and lovely Liesa at Handmade Heaven and a very supercute Bugga Bugs giveaway hosted by the very, very talented Alicia at The Red Deer , so a very BIG thank you ladies! If you haven't visited them yet, why don't you pop by for a visit and enjoy their fabulous blogs! So to give back to the good Karma giveaway fund, I visited a cake decorating store for some inspiration...and I came out with a box full of cupcake papers, that's about 600 or more. I think I was in that shop for a good 45 minutes, I am not joking, it's like a kid in a candy store...or a fabric store for my lovely sew crafty blog friends :) Now all you have to do is leave a comment, nothing much, just a hello or share a joke. I'll leave it open till midnight Saturday the 31st of October and also the end of Blogtoberfest and draw a winner from a hat or bowl or bag and announce it on Sunday...

...."it's always good when daddy stays home on the weekend" what about you, hope you are having a fabulous day. ♥ ✗ ♥

I absolutely LOVE visiting peoples creative spaces so I thought that I would join in today for the first time. So my creative space today is of course in the kitchen where alot of baking is going on for a cake order. I'm off for now, the timer has gone off. Thanks for visiting and I hope you can come back for a berry recipe in the next few days, but for now why don't you visit some more creative spaces here . ♥ ✗ ♥

{This post has been proudly brought to you by Blogtoberfest } ✗ ♥

This is my most favourite shelf at our place at the moment, it has inspiration and calming all in the one place. Playing along here if you want to see more shelves. ♥ ✗ ♥

I read over here about recipes that were good to make in about 30 minutes and since reading that I have been trying to think of what I could make in that short amount of time. I then remembered this recipe(cannot remember where I read it). It's a mini chocolate croissant using puff pastry from the freezer. Now, I know that I bake EVERYTHING from scratch, but puff pastry..hmmm, who has time to make that. So we made this today as a 'treat' for potty training, now I know some parents may not agree with this kind of reward, but I see it more as an incentive, and it does work :) well sometimes anyway. Mini Chocolate Croissants ingredients Puff Pastry chocolate (dark or milk) method defrost puff pastry for about 10 minutes preheat oven at 200 C dust bench with a little flour, cut one sheet in half, then cut each half diagonally down the middle to make two triangles put chocolate on the bigger end of the triangle and wrap towards the smaller end pinch ends together to secure ...

Peek a boo! Hope you are having a great Friday! We are baking for the market tomorrow and organising a giveaway for the weekend. So pop back to enter. ♥ edited to add that the above hands are definitely NOT baking! ✗ ♥

My mum's mandarin tree has been fabulous this year and produced buckets full of mandarins. The kids have eaten so many they seem to smell like a mandarin. So what do you do when your mum turns up with a bag full of mandarins...well make jam of course! Just made it up as I went along and it turned out great, I put less sugar than the equal part fruit to sugar ratio, but you can add as much as you want. a few tips you can peel the mandarins and take out the pips if you like if you do take out the pips, wrap them in muslin to add back to the saucepan as pips contain pectin which helps set the jam the pips will eventually rise to the top so you can spoon them out whilst the jam is cooking the skins will give the jam a marmalade taste to sterilise jars and lids, wash in hot soapy water and place on an oven tray, put in the oven on 120 C for about 30 minutes pour jam into hot jars, holding the jar with an oven mitt or tea towel, close jar and turn upside down to create a seal Mandarin...

When: Saturday, 17 October, 11am to 3pm Where: Multicultural Hub , 506 Elizabeth Street Cost: free Join us in celebrating the Multicultural Hub’s First Birthday. View the Hub’s great facilities, watch cultural performances, shop at our own multicultural craft market and get a taste of all the activities you can enjoy. taken from website Sounds like a fun filled day, come along and enjoy the entertainment, the market and grab a cupcake or a gingerbread aswell. ♥ ✗ ♥