Oh, Hi There.

Hello, world. It's been awhile.

I've finally made the conscious decision to come out of hibernation and get back into life. It's actually more of a hassle than it sounds, but surely it's worth it. While in lock-down, I've been missing my friends. I've missed writing and crocheting. I've missed planning, dreaming and scheming.

Ash has settled into a vague routine, Boo is as compliant as a fiery four year old can be, and I'm generally caffeinated enough to function effectively. I think it's time to get out of my metaphorical pajamas, and put on a flowing hippy dress to dance around the campfire of an active and fulfilling life in.

So, bring on playgroup and coffee dates, blogging and projects, crocheting and craft, (...perhaps a tiny bit of study) - and above all, extreme housewifery.
Hey, I need to make what I do sound exciting somehow.

Take care, and I hope to catch up with you sooon!

Introducing: Pacman!

Why, hello there.

So I seemingly fell off the face of the Earth during the last couple of months or so. I had every intention to blog, continue projects and catch up with people. However, being heavily pregnant and therefore one mega moody whale of a woman, I let a lot of things slide - first to go was any interactions with the outside world.

But! We are here now, and there is someone I'd like you to meet.

PACMAN.

Who will be known as "Ash" from now on.

Side note: I don't believe I ever told you why he had the nickname of 'Pacman' in the first place. One night at the dinner table, Boo was interrogating Benji and I over details of how the whole baby thing works. One gem she said was "is it in your tummy floating around and eating all of the foods?" and he has been Pacman ever since.

First of all, let me just say: yes. Child birth really is THAT painful. I don't know how I managed to forget that. Don't let me fool myself into believing otherwise again, internet, no matter how cute my kid is.

Ash is just two weeks old now and we're all adjusting well. This past fortnight has been one incredible, beautiful, emotional blur full of lessons and blessings.  We have had such amazing support through this transition time, and I can't express my appreciation enough. I would just like to take a second to say a very special thank you to my parents for having Boo both before and after Ash came about, and to the lovely people from church who have been so kind and generous to drop meals around. Absolutely blown away by how thoughtful people are.

Boo is doing really well, and enjoys being a big sister (...most of the time). One darling thing she does is sings "Hey Diddle Diddle" when the baby cries. Apparently her voice is magic or something and will soothe him. It worked once. However, the more Ash is around and cries, the tireder and more exasperated the song sounds. She really is beautiful with him though. 

This guy has been amazing. One proud father and an absolute natural. Benji has spent the past two weeks at home with Boo, Ash and I, and honestly, I could not have asked for a more helpful, supportive partner. I could gush on about this guy for hours, but I will just leave it with this: I am so unbelievably lucky, and thankful, to have such a wonderful, loving husband.

As for me: I'm exhausted! However, surviving each day as it comes and finding blessings among the chaos. Being a mother-of-two is time consuming and mentally draining, and I've been a little concerned about how I'm going to manage when Benji returns to work this week. Yet, I do love life at the moment, and am starting to view each day simply as a challenge to get on top of. 

I'm going to leave this here as it is far too early and I am under-caffeinated. I'm hoping to post more often in the future - just in case you were starting to miss photos of crochet items and cake!

Have a beautiful day xx

Woolly Mammoth Lamingtons

So. A week after the first Cake Challenge, I am finally ready to post about it. I had intended to BLOG about it that night (which will be the aim for Cake Challenges in the future) however, Miss Boo came down with a temperature and so the rest of that day was spent cuddling on the couch.
However, we are here now. Better late than never, right?

The Cake Challenge:

LAMINGTONS

Just to recap from my last post: each week I'm choosing a cake from this book to create at home. And where else to start, but from the beginning? The first cake of the chapter: Lamingtons. A real 'Aussie' thing. Also plain and easy and yawn - in my opinion at the time.

I was wrong.

For those unaware of what lamingtons are, essentially they are a sponge cake dipped in chocolate icing and covered in coconut. They are fiddly. They are time consuming. They are something I would usually snort "stuff that" at and bake cookies instead. However, the book said I must make these little coconutty jerks, and so I did. 

For starters, you need half a dozen eggs. That made me a tiny bit concerned that I would wind up creating chocolate coated quiche, but still I continued. They are beaten for what feels like a bazillion years (10 minutes) and then beaten some more while sugar that is gradually added dissolves. Luckily, we have the mixer these days - prior to my wedding (which was catered for by friends and family) I didn't have any form of electric beaters. I would have been incredibly cranky trying to do this by hand.

Then there was the sifting of the flours (cornflour, self raising flour and plain flour). Now, this apparently is a big deal. The flours wanted sifting three times. THREE TIMES. Who has the time or patience for this wankery? However, I continued. 

And then there was the folding. But not too much folding, because a sponge is a precious creature that needs to be light and fluffy. Well. Light and delicate is not my way, and there were lumps and boy did those lumps need to come out.

...which may have been my downfall. 

But hey - my cake mix was so bubbly. LOOK AT ALL THE BUBBLES. I had never made a sponge before so this was super odd to me, but I was impressed. BUBBLES. 

And into the oven it went.

Oh yeah - this was supposed to be my helper. 

And this is me drinking peppermint tea while waiting, and ignoring the massive pile of washing beside me.

The cake seemed to take forever. And I got quite impatient and began to poke it with things to see if it was ready yet. After forty-five minutes or so we had this:

A SPONGE.

Then there was the waiting for it to cool, and the slicing of it into around sixteen pieces. The chocolate icing consisted of three cups of icing sugar (the recipe said four. I said "recipe, ease up. You're a little excessive"), cocoa powder, butter and milk. The pieces of sponge are dipped in the icing mix, and then tossed in desiccated coconut. 

 This I found infuriating. The chocolate icing went everywhere, the coconut went everywhere, the sponge fell off into the icing, the icing mixed in with the coconut and then some of it just ran off the sponge anyway. FIDDLY.

BAM. LAMINGTONS.

I also didn't have desiccated coconut. I had shredded. Which I was like "hey, it'll look more rustic". My husband, however stated that they looked like "woolly mammoth lamingtons" and so the name has stuck. BEHOLD. MY WOOLLY MAMMOTH LAMINGTONS.

For my first attempt, despite my fury, they didn't turn out too bad at all. The sponge was a little dense - I put this down to a) over enthusiastic mixing and b) the wrong size cake tin, therefore thicker sponge and different cooking time to recipe. The shredded coconut didn't hold on as well as desiccated coconut would, however, I kind of liked it. 

Best part of lamingtons - they got even better after a day or two in the cupboard, believe it or not.

So there we have it. My first Cake Challenge was a ragey success. 

NEXT TIME: APPLE CUSTARD TEA CAKE

The Cake Challenge

I was given this cook book by my lovely Mother-In-Law.
I'm not usually one for cook books; to be honest, I generally despise following recipes.

This book is AMAZING.

It actually does have 'absolutely everything'. From meals, to bread, to salad dressing... I am in love with this book. 

Trouble is, I'm finding it hard to find time and energy to broaden my horizons and use this book more in my day-to-day housewife life. Which is a shame. Thanks to this book, I can make PIE. PIE, GUYS.

So, I'm setting myself a challenge to share with you all.

Each week, I'm picking out a cake from this book to try and make. I'm not the best at baking - I'm good at what I'm good at and don't bother with anything too precious - so this should be interesting.

Today's Challenge: Lamingtons.

Wish me luck!

After May

Time for an Operation Nanna update!

On Saturday, a bunch of lovely ladies braved the pouring rain to meet at the Wodonga Plant Farm Cafe. Honestly, I was expecting just my mother and grandmother to rock up - but I was overjoyed to have the table I booked require more chairs!

We spent a little while catching up - introductions were made and discussions were had about potential future venues, how Operation Nanna works and how it may look in the future.

Then the yarn came out. 

I was delighted to watch people being taught how to crochet and check out some of the creations people were working on. I absolutely love seeing people connecting - especially a group who otherwise wouldn't have reason to meet.

So, here is where we are after May:

40 items to donate - including scarves, beanies, blankets and gloves.
+ a much appreciated cash donation.
All going to The Carevan Foundation.

I am seriously impressed!! Thank you to those who have contributed, and those that are a part of the group who are working on warm creations. Thank you to the ladies who attended on Saturday - it was a pleasure to see you there.

Stay tuned for the date of our next meet up - happening late June.

In the meantime - take care of yourselves, stay in touch on our Facebook page, and happy yarn-ing!

(one last thing: it's never too late to join! If you can knit or crochet, or want to learn, get in touch! We have people who can teach and a stash of yarn to share. It's a fantastic opportunity to meet new people, get involved in a community and really contribute to something.)

Operation Nanna: Donation Time!

Hey there Nanna-Enthusiasts!

Finally, I've found some organisational skills, given them a good dusting and set a date for the first donation gathering!

We're going to be at the Wodonga Plant Farm  on Saturday 1st June 2013 from 3:00 P.M. to 4:00 P.M.

Bring along your latest projects, grab a latte and say hello! I can't wait to see how much we have put together to donate to those who need it this cold winter through the Carevan Foundation.

I will also have some yarn with me that was generously donated for those whose stash is looking a little sad.

Until then, happy crafting!

Adulting (Don't Do It)

Once upon a time (read: when I was sixteen), I was so eager to grow up. I wanted to be trusted to make my own decisions, to go where I wanted and do what I wanted without being accountable to anyone. I wanted to get out of my hometown and live on my own. To have a successful career, to travel, to meet new people and try new things and just be whatever I wanted.
The whole idea of being an adult simply oozed freedom.

Well. How wrong was I.

Here I am, seven years later, avoiding all of the things I still have to do today and writing a blog post over a bowl of soup. Boo is having her 'rest time', watching "Despicable Me" so that will give me another forty-five minutes or so of clear (read: child-free) brain time. I have placement things to do, housewife things to do, and project things to do; each time I cross one off my list, another seems to write itself just underneath.

I could, in fact, do nothing. I could drink tea and crochet hats until the cows come home (so to speak. No, husband, I do not mean you). But there are consequences.

See, that is where life gets you. As a youth, you don't really get the idea that one day there will be consequences that actually exist in the real world. Not like 'if you don't clean your room I'm going to do it for you (which means going through your stuff)'. Or 'doing badly in this exam means you'll get a bad score for uni offers (which, despite what we keep telling you, will not in fact ruin the rest of your life)'.

Oh no. In the adult world, there are actual consequences. Like, if you don't pay your rent, you will not have accommodation. Or, if you don't actively work towards getting a career by studying or applying for jobs, you won't actually get one. Or, if you don't do the dishes or the laundry, you and your family will be naked and hungry.

Being an adult is not this carefree, latte-sipping, traveling-pants-wearing, dream-job-having, free-spirit living in a perfect world I'd imagined. No. It's an exhausted, cranky, stretched-too-thin creature who is driven by fear of being naked and hungry.

The moral of this ramble, dear friends, is this: don't start being an adult - because once you do, there is no stopping. Just don't do it.