Currently #1

So I saw this over at Kellie’s blog and I’ve been meaning to do it myself for ages. No time like the present right? Not sure if I’ll do this monthly or weekly yet, most likely I’ll do it at the end of each month.

Currently_sunset

TIME: 8:30, Monday 31st August 2015

LOCATION : Dining room table

FEELING: tired and sick of coughing

LOVING : that spring is almost here.

READING : blogs and a book on keeping backyard chickens

DRINKING : Coke or hot chocolate

ANTICIPATING : Spring!

LISTENING TO : MUSIC : Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, The Fairies (thanks to Miss K) PODCAST : The Paperclipping Round Table

WATCHING : Ramsey’s Hotel Hell, AFL

PLANNING : my Week in the Life album

LOOKING FORWARD TO : Summer. Getting better (I hate being sick)

CREATING : a mess. a plan for a bedroom makeover

NEED TO FINISH : Week in the Life album, bedroom plan

WISHING : it would warm up

MAIN GOAL : to make sure everything is planned and ready to go for the bedroom makeover

What are you “CURRENTLY” doing?

Sharing a magical moment with your little ones every evening

Disclaimer: The following post is brought to you by Nuffnang and Disney Junior The Channel

Story time can bring horror to some parents or, if you are like my husband and I, it’s something you love doing. Reading to children from a young age is such a great way to introduce a love of books and reading and it’s also a wonderful bonding experience.

For both our girls, story time has been an important part of their bedtime ritual. Now Disney Junior is inviting parents and carers to settle down and share a magical moment with their little one every evening on Disney Junior around bedtime with Disney Junior’s The Book of Once Upon A Time.

The Book of Once Upon A Time

Series two of this a locally-produced, interactive story-telling series hosted by Australian actor and playwright Kate Mulvany launched during Book Week (seriously one of my favourite weeks – I mean a WHOLE week. Dedicated to books. What’s not to love?) on Monday 24^th August with “Snow White and the Great Jewel Hunt”. Later episodes will include new Disney stories from “Winnie the Pooh”, “Aladdin”, “Sleeping Beauty” and “Frozen”. I know the latter will be a popular inclusion in our household, especially for a young Frozen obsessed 5-year-old. The “Land of Once Upon A Time” lullaby follows each episode, encouraging children to prepare for bedtime. Children, Parents or carers can tune in for a story every day at 7:10pm on Disney Junior The Channel, or anytime on the website.

Kate Mulvany hosts The Book of Once Upon A Time

Disney Junior’s The Book of Once Upon A Time brings classic storytelling to life, with traditional elements of story time – turning pages, character voices and re-enactment, and classic touches of animation that ignites the imagination. As a parent I aim to seek TV and online content that stimulates our children’s imagination. Parental expectations around ‘educational’ content have broadened from a focus on academic learning to also include social skills, moral values, motor skills, good basic habits and creative thinking. Disney Junior’s animated and live action programming, blends Disney’s unparalleled storytelling and beloved characters with learning components, including early language and maths skills, as well as healthy lifestyles, with an emphasis on social and emotional development.

So what does our 5 year old think?
“I love it and it’s the best story ever.” Then asked if we could watch more and if we could download the Disney Story Central app so I’ll take that as it’s pretty good.

Disney Junior The Channel is where magical storytelling comes to life! Available in all Foxtel subscribing homes; channel 709. If you don’t have Foxtel, you can access Disney Junior’s The Book of Once Upon A Time online on your laptop, PC, tablet or mobile at any time.
The Book of Once Upon A Time features Disney stories that are available as eBooks from the Disney Story Central app, available to download from iTunes

In the Den Kitchen – Chocolate Cake

You can now find previous In the Den Kitchen posts here or on Pinterest. Clicking Recipes in the menu above will also take you to my In the Den Kitchen Pinterest board. I’m slowly reworking some older posts so they will show up there too.
Links to any Your Inspiration at Home (YIAH) products will take you to my YIAH page. You can shop in Australia, New Zealand, USA & Canada from my page. If you are interested in learning about YIAH jump over to my Facebook page.

Last week I mentioned I made chocolate cake. This is a recipe I’ve made for years and came from an Australian kids cookbook called Clarry’s Kitchen Capers (I think, it was in a blue plastic folder, designed for kids.) The recipe was called Mother’s Day Chocolate Cake. Anywho here is my Thermomix conversion

[yumprint-recipe id=’22’]To make it without a thermomix, chuck all the cake ingredients into a bowl, mix then pour into your cake tin 😉

In the Den Kitchen – First birthday edition

Miss A turned one (!!) last weekend so this week I thought I’d share some of the food I made for her party. We themed it around the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar so food choices were pretty easy (You can read more about the party over at From the Wolf’s Den)

Starting with the egg on the leaf I made Devilled Eggs using YIAH Bay of Bengal Curry dip mix

Then apples, pears, strawberries, grapes (instead of plums), oranges and watermelon on a fruit platter

And the Saturday foods….

chocolate cake and cupcakes (orange and banana) – I’ll be sharing the chocolate cake recipe next week. You can find the orange cake recipe here, I iced them using some YIAH Choc Orange chocolate powder and my banana cake recipe here

Ice cream cones. There’s a bit of a story here… we started off thinking we’d use ice cream lollies, then I found a recipe that was choc filled cones with a marshmallow on top but we couldn’t find mini ice cream cones, so, I trawled Pinterest and saw marshmallow cones. Perfect. Found a recipe for sherbet and a recipe for marshmallow. The sherbet tastes like Wizz Fizz and the marshmallow was soft and fluffy. I did learn a lesson from this adventure – make it on the day you want to serve it otherwise things go soft and the 100s and 1000s loose their colour.

Swiss cheese and salami, a glass full of lolly pops, mini savs for the sausage and mini cherry pies (which were made in paper gelato cups with a square of puff pastry filled with tinned cherry pie filling).

The green leaf was represented by a green salad. Cocoons were made by cutting puff pastry in half then cutting those haves into 2 triangles. Spoon a blob of nutella on the long end then roll up towards the point (like a croissant). Bake for 30 mins in a 180C oven. Butterflies were a last minute decision – fairy bread cut into butterfly shapes.

So there you have it. Food fit for a Very Hungry Caterpillar.

and she turned into a beautiful butterfly

Like that our baby is one!

We had an awesome day and Miss A was totally spoiled.

Mum & Dad decorated their house

and there was loads of food

and cake

and of course our gorgeous little caterpillar

who was spoiled and got lots of new goodies including this

Now onto planning the next birthday (which is February for Miss K’s 6th!)

The Life:Captured Project – July 2015

You can see my previous Life:Captured Project posts here.

01 Describe a moment from today that you want to remember always.
Having lots of cuddles with Miss A. She’s had a rotten head cold and all she wants to do is cuddle into me.

02 What do you love the most about little children?
Snuggles. Watching them grow and learn.

03 When was the last time you chatted with a neighbour? What did you talk about?
About a month ago, when our neighbour moved out. We talked about our other crappy neighbours and travelling

04 If you could grow anything you wanted, what would you grow?
Mangoes

05 When it’s really cold, how do you like to warm up?
Snuggly jumpers, hot chocolate, wood fire

06 What happens on a Wednesday?
Usually Miss K is at school. Every other week is payday so on those weeks – paying bills, grocery shopping, trip to town. If not, just pottering round home or working.

07 What do you usually have for breakfast?
Hot chocolate & toast or cereal. In summer, fresh fruit.

08 What can you see outside your bedroom window?
Our driveway, the road and the side fence

09 Write about three things that you are thankful for right now.
Having a roof over our head, having wood for our fire and lots of good food to eat.

10 What does unconditional love look like?
The love of a parent for a child.

11 What do you think is the hardest thing about being a parent?
Watching your children grown up and become independent

12 When was the last time you cried, and why?
The other night cause my little one wasn’t well and I was just feeling very stressed.

13 Do you find it easy or hard to make new friends?
Sometimes hard. Other times it just clicks and you know you’ll be friends.

14 Who are the people you always go to when you need someone to talk to?
My mum

15 What are some of your family’s favourite dishes?
Chicken, pretty much anything chicken. Chinese BBQ pork. Toblerone Cheesecake

16 What would you say to someone who was grieving?
I’m hear if you need someone to talk to or just want someone to listen

17 Describe your ideal holiday.
Somewhere warm, somewhere we can relax but still go do stuff if we want. Location doesn’t really matter.

18 How do you feel about traveling alone?
I’d love it but I would really miss my family (but some alone time would be nice)

19 What are you feeling stressed or worried about right now?
Not really stressed, just worried I won’t have everything done in time for our daughter’s first birthday

20 What is the first thing that you usually do when you wake up?
Check my phone and turn off the alarm

21 If you could only keep twenty-five things, what would they be?
OMG how hard is this? My laptop, my camera, my phone, my scrapbooks, my thermomix, my pink teddy bear, my favourite jeans, my favourite black boots, my willow tree collection, our D&D collection, my scrapbookng supplies, a printer, my planner, my ipad, ….. i can’t really think of anything else right now

22 When you are gone, what do you want your child(ren) to remember about you?
I was kind and loving

23 What do you like to have with pasta?
Usually spaghetti bolognaise or a chicken/bacon pasta bake

24 Whereabouts in the world do you want to grow old?
Traveling around the world. Would love to be a grey nomad and travel when we retire

25 Write a letter to your parents, and tell them the things you’ve always wanted to say.
Oh I’m not sharing this one on the blog. Sorry world but there’s a few things I’d say that I don’t want to share.

26 Write down your love story.
The short version :p We met. Became good friends (even though both secretly wanting to be more than friends). I ended relationship I was in. We went on holiday together. We moved in together. Started a business together. Got married. Bought a house. Had a child. Decided no more kids. Had another child… TBC 😀 Celebrating 10 years of marriage next year!!

27 What are three things from this past month that have made you think twice?
Silly arguments. Rereading The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Listening to other people.

28 What are three things from this past month that have enriched your life?
Renewing old friendships. Having new friends. Big deep and meaningful discussions

29 How are you feeling today?
A little tired but glad Miss A is on the mend. Overwhelmed by how feral our house has become while she has been sick but motivated to get stuck in & clean it up. Looking forward to next weekend.

30 What is your favourite thing about Thursday evenings right now?
It’s almost the weekend 😉

31 What are you most looking forward to next month?
Miss A’s first birthday. And hopefully getting our tax return back

Decorating caterpillar style

Very Hungry Caterpillar Party ideas

Yes more party planning. This will be the last post about it before the actual party.

We’re keeping it pretty simple, some balloons, some streamers, a paper lantern caterpillar and a photo caterpillar.

Yet again Pinterest has heaps of ideas…

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That’s just some of my favourites. I’ll be sharing my decorating efforts after the party 😉

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The Very Hungry Caterpillar ate some cake

and mummy went a little mad trying to work out which cake she would make

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Yet again, Pinterest will be the death of me 😉 so many cake options.

Do I do something fancy like these?

The very hungry caterpillar cake and cookies http://butterheartssugar.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/very-hungry-caterpillar-cake-and-cookies.html Elaine's Sweet Life: The Very Hungry Caterpillar Cake with Butterfly. Made with fondant and hand painted.

or something simpler like these?

Very Hungry Caterpillar Cake, fondant fruit around base A Very Hungry Caterpillar Birthday Party - Rainbow Cake by Made With Pink, via Flickr Google Image Result for http://betweenthepagesblog.typepad.com/.a/6a0120a5924ef0970b017ee74a0ae7970d-pi The Very Hungry Caterpillar Cake by Relznik, patacake-parties via Flickr

or something really simple like a cupcake caterpillar?

Very Hungry Caterpillar cake! #birthday #party #cake Gives tips on how to swirl the frosting colors to resemble the colors in the book.

What we’ve chosen will be a secret til the day of the party 😉

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I’m konverted, I think

So. If you’ve been anywhere on the interwebs recently, you’ll probably read about or heard people talking about that book, or things that spark joy. No idea what I’m talking about (where have you been :p)? It’s The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo

(From Amazon)

This #1 New York Times best-selling guide to decluttering your home from Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes readers step-by-step through her revolutionary KonMari Method for simplifying, organizing, and storing.
Despite constant efforts to declutter your home, do papers still accumulate like snowdrifts and clothes pile up like a tangled mess of noodles?
Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes tidying to a whole new level, promising that if you properly simplify and organize your home once, you’ll never have to do it again. Most methods advocate a room-by-room or little-by-little approach, which doom you to pick away at your piles of stuff forever. The KonMari Method, with its revolutionary category-by-category system, leads to lasting results. In fact, none of Kondo’s clients have lapsed (and she still has a three-month waiting list).
With detailed guidance for determining which items in your house “spark joy” (and which don’t), this international bestseller featuring Tokyo’s newest lifestyle phenomenon will help you clear your clutter and enjoy the unique magic of a tidy home—and the calm, motivated mindset it can inspire.

Mum bought me the book & I’ve read it, twice and I have started to KonMarie my clothing. So far – 3 bags to donate (admittedly some of the clothing was the girls) and the way she suggests folding and storing your clothes seems to be working well for me. Lots f the book really resonates with me and how I’d like our house to be.
I’ll be interested to see how it goes in coming months and see if I personally can stay decluttered and organised. I’ll keep you updated.

Have you read the book? What do you think? Have you been Konverted?

A very hungry caterpillar went looking for some food

and found sooooo many ideas on Pinterest it wasn’t funny. Seriously, how many ways can you do food that is themed to the caterpillar?
I’m keeping it simple, mainly cause Miss K has soccer the morning of the party and I need to make it as easy as possible!
How much more simple than taking my cues from the story!!
In the light of the moon, a little egg lay on a leaf – devilled eggs on a bed of lettuce leaves

it's me, andrea.: A "Very Hungry Caterpillar" birthday party.

For Monday (one apple), Tuesday (2 pears), Wednesday (3 plums – thinking we might do grapes), Thursday (4 strawberries) and Friday (5 oranges) – a fruit platter
Saturday…

chocolate cake – brownies
ice cream cone – maybe small ice cream cones filled with something not ice cream or ice cream lollies
pickle – not sure about this one
Swiss cheese – and biscuits
salami – maybe some twiggy sticks
lollypop – mini lollipops?
cherry pie
sausage – mini savs
cupcakes
watermelon (on the fruit platter)

Sunday The Caterpillar ate through a nice green leaf – a salad
The cocoon – these nutella ‘cocoons’