Pre-orders are away!!

Woo hoo, I thought they were going to be late going out, but by a miracle, they have all gone today - bar those waiting on other things.

Next stocking will be next weekend - focusing on little bubbas, so Auriel's in size 0/1, HoneyBoy! in newborn and small - yes I know it's been ages, but these aplix naps are awesome for little wrigglers with those lovely rolled in legs to keep in the pooplosions!! Some raphaels, wipes and wetbags. I'll preview starting on the 1st and the time and date will be on the items for sale.

Have an awesome long weekend and catch you on the flip side!

Daring Baker's April Challenge

The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet.

We had a choice between the traditional suet and butter puddings, but the basic type and cooking method were the same.

I ended up not going with the suet as I started looking on Good Friday and nothing was opened. You can get a suet mix from Tandaco and whilst I have seen it in the past ,the 4 supermarkets near me that I tried didn't have it - so I went with butter instead.

I choose both a steamed syrup pudding and a lemon one. Both recipes I pulled off of Taste.com.

Both were delicious, though I must admit I think the golden syrup one could have been cooked a bit longer, I think I did the 3 hours of steaming and I put in heaps more syrup than they suggested so it collapsed a little on removal from the pudding dish.



I loooved the lemon one - but then citrus is my favourite taste, I teamed it with custard and ice-cream -



vowing never again to use custard powder from Home Brand but it was a last minute addition lol!!

Monday Baking

Well it was a wee bit chilly, with a southerly wind blowing through the house, so perfect for baking. I asked the children but they were less than helpful with picking what to bake. So I decided for myself.

I was going to make a chocolate fudge cake but when the recipe called for 250g of butter I balked. So I went back to old faithful - Devil's Food Cake, though I tweaked it to have 1/2 the sugar brown sugar instead of all white, hoping for a more fudgier taste.



Recipe is - throw it all into the mixmaster together - taken from Family Circle Cakes

1 1/3 cups of plain flour
2/3 cup cocoa - but I don't like super chocolate so I use 1/3 cup and just make the flour 1 2/3 cups
1 teaspoon of bicarb
1 cup caster sugar - this time I used half caster, half brown
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk - I use whatever I have in the fridge, today it was lite.
125g softened butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix on low until combined, then mix on high, till lighter in colour and fluffy. Bake at 180 deg celcius until baked - I usually use a deep 20cm tin for about 40 - 45 minutes. But today it was 2 x 20cm tins for about 25 minutes each. I iced it with chocolate buttercream that I had in the fridge. It's also awesomely good sandwiched with whipped cream and chocolate glace icing.



Then standby chocolate slice from the Presbyterian Cook Book that is very well worn :(

And then Anzacs as I love them and I made a double batch.



And the recipe for Megsie :D

1 cup rolled oats
1 cup plain flour
1 cup caster sugar
3/4 cup coconut

Mix together the dry ingredients.

Melt together 125 g butter and 2 tablespoons of syrup.

Mix together 1 tablespoon of boiling water and 1/2 teaspoon of bicarb of soda. Pour this mixture into the butter/syrup. It should fizz and bubble.

Pour into the dry ingredients and mix till combined. Place spooonfuls on tray. Cook in a slow oven for 20 minutes

Randomness!

Yes that's what's happening today - total randomness. Nappies going up at random, no rhyme no reason, I know, I know it can be annoying, but please don't sit refreshing all day - just take a chance that the universe will provide. I hope to have about 20 nappies up - most will be pre-orders, but they be out in the post by the end of next week. Some will be made up, details will be in the listing.

The ones previewing at the moment are mostly decidely girly but boyish ones are coming.

And oops look at that, some are up now :D on OZeBaby

If you'd like to combine your order if you grab 2 nappies, please wait for a revised invoice before paying.

And these little nappies went yesterday - I love how the music one turned out - it has a pink front and a chocolate back and the other jungle babies another favourite here is a weeny size 0

Aren't these divine?

You can find the blog giveaway here to score one of these awesome hand dyed bamboo flats!!

Or visit The Dappy Shop for other goodies.

Gorilla's in the Mist

Again fabric sent to me by a lovely lady who is another nappy WAHM :)



I thought hmm, this might be interesting, it doesn't really lend itself to hand embroidery those gorgeous silverbacked gorillas. But having just received the gorgeous silver grey and pistachio minky, I set to work with scissors and have created a 3D type effect on the front, it's probably a bit hard to see in the photos, but it looks fab! in real life.



I hope it's new owner loves it!!

Spiderwick!

And isn't he gorgeous - this lovely lady sent her own fabrics for her custom and this is how the fabric spoke to me.



The little spider on the back is hand embroidered with sparkly gold and black legs, and he's chasing across the spiderweb to a monster moth, are his eyes bigger than his belly?



The spiderweb was hand drawn, transferred to the grape minky and then machine stitched by hand, it took me quite awhiles to finish it off, but I think it looks stunning. Hope the new owner likes it.

This aqua number is also on the way to the same household, so clean and fresh.

Awww I have a pretty new blog

Thank you to Lauren from Designer Blogs

I am absolutely stoked at how it's turned out, clean and crisp but still just that bit girly. Can't wait for them to do my business blog next :) I love that I have a cool signature and pretty borders on my photos. If you need a blog makeover like I desperately did and are totally blog illiterate like me give them a shout out. Then interpreted all my vague ramblings to come up with what I wanted.

Are you new to the WAHM world

or are you just thinking about treading down that path?

Preparation and organisation are the key to a successful business - WAHP included. It's not just a matter of saying hey let's make xyz, it takes planning, forethought, lots of dollars and plenty of time, to be well prepared to make a splash.

Don't know where to start - well I can recommend another WAHM to help you out - Pop along and vist Mel at SuperWAHM - she can help you focus your energies to those important areas that often let small business' down.

She's currently running a 2 hour Business Plan program - a Business plan in an excellent way to see where you are and where you are headed. So shoot her an email and tell her I sent you.

I can also recommend her e-books I was pleasantly suprised to discover that I was in fact following most of the recommendations already - so great minds think alike.

Tiptoe through the tulips ............

Tiptoe to the window,
by the window that is where I'll be
Come tiptoe through the tulips with me!

Another BeetleKiss Collaboration and aren't they just beautiful. Nearly makes me want K to be back in nappies, ha ha only joking. But I might just have to make her a gorgeous frock! This fabric is just beautiful, it's from Saffron Craig - an aussie girl who does the most amazing designs.



Anyways, I think these are too cute. You have an Inside Out from Mel and a *splitsie* well that's what I'm calling them at the moment from me. I'm sure I'll come up with a cool name sooner or later, though splitsie is growing on me :) It's up for auction now at OZeBaby

And they are all away

all the nappies from the pre-orders on Easter Monday are in the post - yah!!!

I wish I'd taken a photo now as they were all packaged up in their brand spanking new packaging, so cute!!

Anyways taking the afternoon off now to play with the kids and try and find my clothesline.

Next stocking will be at Gossamer Dreams on the 15th at 8pm Queensland Time, you can see peeks over at the Gossamer Dreams Blog Remember this is the last GD stocking for a few months, so be sure to pop along and check it out, I hear there are some absolutely stunning goodies!!

Hot Cross Buns

Well a little person getting up ridiculously early and what's a girl to do but make Hot Cross Buns - the little people don't like the fruit, so we go fruitless, though I wouldn't mind some apricots and almonds. The man of the house likes the chocolate version, but as you know I'm not really into chocolate. Anyways I used this recipe.

With a couple of tweaks - I used bread making flour instead of the plain flour. I made up the cross mixture with a couple of spoonfuls of bread flour and some caster sugar, then enough water to make them pipable. The glaze was some boiling water, some gelatine and some water. They are bigger than I should have made them - they averaged 85 - 105 grams per bun, but I think about 70 grams would have been better.