Sunday, December 13, 2015

Unique Gift Wrapping Ideas


With the holidays just around the corner, it's the prefect time to share some unique gift wrapping ideas with you. When I give presents, I try to make sure the wrapping is just as special as the present. A well wrapped present makes a gift feel special no matter how much money was spent on it. It says to the receiver, that you took time with it and didn't just quickly throw something into a bag. For ideas and step by step photos, click below. 

Saturday, December 5, 2015

Children's Apron: A Step by Step Guide


Well it's offical, my oldest bear is now 6 years old! Last weekend we hosted a gingerbread house decorating party and each little guest received one of these cute aprons to use at the party and take home. These would be perfect to make and give along with a set of baking utensils for birthday presents or to make for your little kitchen helper(s) this holiday season. For a downloadable FREE PDF pattern and a step by step guide with lots of photos, click below.

Friday, November 6, 2015

Who doesn't love a party!


It's that time of year again, my oldest bear will be celebrating her 6th birthday soon (how in the world is it possible that she's turing six!) and this year for her party she wanted to decorate gingerbread houses with her friends. I've written about how special it is for kids to receive fun and creative party invites (click here for the post), so this year I thought it would be fun to bake mini gingerbread house cookies to match the invites. For photos of the invites and where to find them along with gingerbread recipe (which makes the softest, tastiest gingerbread) click below. 

Friday, October 30, 2015

Creepy Crawly Cookies Revisited


You may remember the creepy crawly cookies post from last year (you can find it here), well they got a revamp! To learn how to make them super spookie, with the addition of spider webs, click below.

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Trick or Treat... definitely Treat


Once again a holiday has snuck up on me. This week has been a whirlwind of assignments, study, baking, sewing halloween costumes and making treats for the little bears to take to school. I have promised myself that next year, I will be more organised and pace myself instead of the craziness that has been my week! If you're looking for a relatively quick and fun treat to give the kiddos this halloween then these mummy pops are just the ticket. Read on for directions.

Sunday, October 18, 2015

Afternoon Pick Me Up


I don't know about you, but I find around 3 o'clock everyday I get sluggish and hungry. It's way too early for dinner, which is three hours away, and way too late for lunch, which I've usually had three hours prior. I find having a bit of afternoon tea perks me up and I'll admit, makes me less grumpy. The difficult thing about afternoon tea is, that it is so easy to eat something big and spoil your appetite for dinner or eat something that probably isn't very healthy. A while ago I posted this recipe for muesli balls, which I make as snacks for the kids and while they are delicious, I wanted to change things up a bit. What better way than to use two of my favourite ingredients, cocoa and blueberries. For a quick, healthy and delicious snack, make these antioxidant rich energy balls. 

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Start your engines...



So a five month long blog hiatus was not planned, but life got busy, really busy and the blog got put on the back burner. I have been thinking about posts I wanted to do and have taken loads of pictures but have just not had the time, or head space to post. Now that my hospital placement is over for the semester and my uni classes are under control, I have a bit more time at night to devote to the bears four. 

Recently my littlest bear had his fourth birthday and he is hot wheel OBSESSED. So of course the party theme had to be hot wheels. Click below to see photos from the party with ideas, tips, free downloads and recipes that will insure you throw a super duper hot wheels party. 

Monday, April 6, 2015

Most Important Meal of the Day


I've been finding lately that by the time I get the kids dressed, fed, hair done, shoes on, teeth brushed and ready to go out the door, I have barely had time to get dressed and ready myself. Lately I've been so neglectful of myself that it's been nearly noon and I'll realise I haven't even had water yet! Really not good. So to do something about it, I've made these healthy and delicious Banana Blueberry Muffins that I can just grab and go in the morning, so even though I'm still short on time for myself, at least I'm still eating the most important meal of the day. For recipe click below. 

Sunday, March 29, 2015

DIY Easter Treat Bags


I haven't been able to post recently since our camera keeps giving out on us, but I was able to snap a few photos of these cute bunny treat bags I made for the kids friends at school for Easter this year before the camera really died. 

Easter is extra early this year and with exams, papers and hospital clinical rotations, it's lucky the little bears are getting to take anything to school! When I was trying to come up with ideas, I wanted to make something original but also easy and inexpensive. With most of the supplies already on hand, it was virtually free (other than my time). Click below for a a step by step tutorial and photos.  

Saturday, March 14, 2015

Teaching Kids to Sew

My little bears see me sewing all the time and they always want to have a go. They love to take turns crawling under the table and pressing the foot. On a gloomy day not too long ago, Isla came to me and asked to sew a doll herself. Oh man was I excited! The day had finally arrived where I could share something I love to do with my little bear without boring her. I think five is a great age to start to teach the basics of sewing, kids are better at staying focused, eye-hand coordination is there and they can listen to directions well. My mother in law gave me the book, Sewing for Children by Emma Hardy, which was a prefect starting point for Isla's, hopefully, life long interest. Read on for more pictures and review.

Friday, March 6, 2015

Rainbow Art Party Recap

I've been meaning to write a post on this for a few months now but other things ended up taking precedence and I just never got around to it until now. My oldest bear is a crafting, painting, drawing fiend and she decided pretty much right after her fourth birthday that she wanted a rainbow art party for her fifth birthday. This post is a photo recap of her party with some rainbow themed food and craft ideas that were easy to put together and a big hit at the party. 

Saturday, February 28, 2015

Old Made New Again


I love Ikea as you can probably tell from all the Ikea mentions I've had on the blog, but we rarely keep our Ikea furniture as Ikea intended them to be. We pretty much hack everything we purchase from there but one thing I never got around to making my own, was an Ikea Ektorp Jennylund armchair that we bought in the as is section about seven years ago. It hadn't come with a slipcover but it needed one, so we just bought the plainest and cheapest one. I've been wanting to buy a light grey linen slipcover for awhile now and found ones here and here, but we really couldn't afford the price tag. So when Ikea came out with an affordable linen fabric, I decided I'd take the leap and make my own slipcover. For a step by step and before and after pictures, click below. 

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Nothing says I LOVE YOU like a...

Racking my brain trying to think of something to make the bears for valentine's day and this popped into my head. Giant anything is pretty cool, but something giant you can eat is the best! This is a great novelty valentine's day treat and it can be personalised with fun messages like "without you I'd crumble" and "your so cute I could eat you up". For the really tasty and simple recipe click below.

Monday, February 9, 2015

Sweet & Easy School Valentines


Even though handing out valentines at school doesn't seem to be a common thing in Australia, I still make them for all the little bears classmates each year. I remember being so excited when I'd get a valentine as a child. Granted, every kid in class got the same mass produced paper notes with snoopy or some other cartoon character on them and they very rarely had a lolly attached, but it still made me feel special. Last year the bears gave out these DIY heart crayon valentines. Since my oldest started school very recently, I thought a photo valentine would be a good way to introduce her to her new classmates. For a quick how to, read on.

Saturday, January 24, 2015

DIY: Clothing Labels


Until recently I had no idea how much prep went into starting school (buying uniforms, backpack, school supplies, lunch and afternoon tea prep to name a few. I thought I had everything under control until I read the kindergarten manual again the other day. I completely forgot that I have to label all those uniforms, backpack, school supplies and lunch tupperware! After searching the internet for a company that makes cute and affordable clothing name tags I gave up. The cute ones were way too expensive (over $30 shipped) and the cheap ones were just that, cheap. So I came up with a very inexpensive and easy alternative. I made my own! For more photos and directions on how to make your own clothing name tags, click below.

Thursday, January 22, 2015

School Snacks: DIY Fruit Roll Ups


Only a couple more weeks until the start of school, so now is the perfect time to start bulk making school snacks. Following on from last week's post, here is a really simple way to incorporate more fruit into your child's diet. Luckily the little bears LOVE any and all fruit but for those that find it difficult to get all 2-3 serves of fruit in each day, this might be a solution! This recipe is also a great way to use up fruit that may be overripe and would otherwise not get eaten. For the step by step recipe and more photos read on. 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

School Snacks: Apricot Muesli Balls


I can't believe one of my little bears is big enough to go to school this year! Where does the time go? While she's super excited to head off to big kid school, I am trying not to think too much about it. I'm going to miss having one of my sidekicks with me during the week but it's really time for her and she's getting pretty bored of me. One school related thing I have been thinking about is healthy yummy snacks for her to take. I thought now would be a great time to post a healthy snack recipe once a week in the lead up to the start of school. Each recipe can be made in bulk and frozen. Read on for how to  make these delicious apricot muesli balls.