Theme cakes

 

July is a month full of birthdays. So why not dedicate a post to delicious cake, Theme cakes. Kobe is a mad fan of search & find books so I made him a "Where's Wally" cake for his birthday. It turned out really good considering it was my first time using royal icing. I did stain my hands from using food dye to colour white royal icing which washed off after a few days.  

 

 

We recently watched & enjoyed "The Lorax" (I now want the catchy soundtrack lol) so I made these cupcakes for Poppy's birthday.

 

 

 

Not to exclude some talented mummies I know, my friend Kira aced another birthday cake with this doll cake dotted with fluffy marshmallows.

 

 

And what little girl wouldn't wont a Frozen cake? My friend Nicole made this for her daughters birthday last year. The snowflakes were divine!

 

 



Happy Wednesday friends!

Grace

 

**I apologise if your on a diet while viewing these delicious cakes...

27/52

 

"A portrait of my children, whenever I can in 2016".

 

Catching big brother Kobe jumping in with Dylan to entertain him while I ran around getting a couple chores done.

 

Kobe: obsessed with activity books & Where's Wally books.

Dylan: cut his first tooth.

 

Its been a while here in blogland but hopefully I can get back to a somewhat regular posting soon.

 

Happy Wednesday friends!

Grace

*Joining in with The 52 Project.

City farm community garden

Tomorrow is "Botanics garden open day" so in the theme of embracing nature & gardens, this post is to celebrate community gardens. To me there is nothing more refreshing than going outdoors & wandering thru greenery & being inspired by what others can grow. So when City farm community gardens had an open day as part of an eco festival I jumped at the chance to wander thru the gardens.

I love the vertical wall planter, made up of multiple pots of herbs slotted into the wall. I just wish I wasn't so hopeless with gardening. I try try try then turn my back for a day or too & the damn snails have buffeted on the seedlings. I still have hope for my beetroot & corn & Im excited for the broccoli that my 4 year old is attempting to grow in an upcycled water table come pot.

 

 

 

Im so intrigued by these insect hotels like the one in the photo above.

 

City farm community gardens is a Men of trees iniative & produce grown is supplied to the City farm café. On occasion they host workshops covering gardening, compost, worm farms, even healthy food cooking for kids. On Saturdays they have stalls of artisans who sell local produce & art.

If your ever near the city its definitely worth a stop.
Happy Saturday friends!
Grace ox

The cloth nappy debate

It can be overwhelming to be mindful of every factor when it comes to environmental issues.
I have read online that disposable nappies take between 200-500 years to break down. And that in Australia alone we dispose of more than 5 million a year?!? An alternative is cloth nappies which ultimately save a disposable nappy from landfill but use other resources such as energy & water to clean them.
With this in mind, I use half & half disposable/cloth nappies with Dylan saving about 21 nappies from landfill a week. I did the same with Kobe until he was fully toilet trained. Cloth nappies is definitely not the easy road but its not hard fete either (though I have thrown out some nasty soiled cloth nappies that I gagged & could not bring myself to wash). I prefer cloth nappies at home (but not overnight sleep) & use disposables when out.
20 years ago when my sister had her babies she diapered them with the old school square towel nappies & a pin to secure them. I'm so lucky nowadays there are more variety in cloth nappies. I either use the all in one nappy with a mioliner (sort of like a paper liner that catches the poop making it easy to clean) which can be composted (but I bin them) or the nappy covers & line them with a bamboo or polyester/nylon (sadly a sythetic fabric) cloth liner which I wash with the cloth nappies.

*Bumgenius is my number one choice for cloth nappies. Available in velcro or snap button fasteners in a range of colours. I find it fits best to both my boys bottoms. Layered with organic cotton inserts. The snap button front allows you to shorten the nappy to fit a smaller baby however I leave it like a harry highpants.
*Bambino Mio. Love these. I use the Miosoft nappy cover with velcro fastening (with a liner). Covered by a thick layer of plastic so quite absorbent & easy to wipe. Liners are a mix of polyester & nylon which are both synthetics sadly. The Miosolo all in one nappy come in a range of patterns & the one size (adjustable snap buttons) fit from birth onwards. When Dylan starts potty training in a couple years, I will be getting him the potty training nappy.
*Peapods are so easy to use (Dylan is wearing the green one in the photo below). I use the one size nappy. The bamboo inserts go inside & can wash separately. Every now & then, these are soiled heavily (because I didn't put the extra nappy liner in) & the plastic coating inside even survived an overnight soak in hot water. They do attract a fair bit of fluff from the microfleece inside which seems to help keep the moisture in.
*Eenee designs. I use the pouch nappy pants which have a thin stretchy outer with a plastic clip on inside. I always insert a cloth liner. Its the least bulkiest cloth nappy which is great under pants. Easy to wipe & wash. I think it's great that their website has a section devoted to preloved nappies.
*Bambooty . I was baby gifted to Kobe & reused on Dylan the newborn easy nights all in one cloth nappy. So bright & comfortable. The inserts are sewn in & fold up. The only downer was both boys grew too fast for the smallest size. I definitely will be investing in more of these but in the larger size.
*Baby beehinds.  I use the bamboo fitted which comes with 2 bamboo clip in liners. This nappy did harden when I soaked it overnight in hot water. I found it quite bulky so I usually let Dylan wear it without pants or a nappy cover. Baby beehinds do sell water resistant & wool nappy covers but I haven't use them.

On another environmental note, did anyone else stumble across this article about over 1000kgs of wet wipes being cleaned (by a crane & also buckets) from a Queensland sewerage. I'm left scratching my head why anyone would flush a wet wipe?

** I sourced most of the cloth nappies I use from markets.
** To prevent mould, I try to airdry dirty nappies before I wash them, I dry them in the sun (as the sun is a natural bleacher) & I spritz some lavender oil on them while drying.
**Although I stand by using cloth nappies, my partner Luke & sister Annie dont like them. Their complaint is Dylan has leaked thru on a couple occasions while wearing a cloth nappy (thru to their clothes) but he has also done that wearing a disposable nappy.
** By using cloth nappies, I have an extra laundry load a week & I wash them with socks & underwear.

Happy Saturday friends!
Grace

Clean up Australia day & encouraging children to care for the environment

Last Sunday was "Clean up Australia Day" where once a year likeminded people gather in groups to pick up rubbish & do their part in keeping this earth clean. I took Kobe along to help clean up across from an amusement park (where 80% of the rubbish we picked up came from, yet there were ZERO volunteers from that amusement park which was a BIG letdown).
Most of the rubbish collected was the amusement park wristbands which customers casually discarded once they exit the amusement park. Every time we picked one up, I would remind Kobe we just saved a wild animal from accidentally swallowing one.
It is so important to me to instill values to Kobe so that he doesn't take this earth for granted. That we should all give back to maintain it. He loves picking up rubbish so he really didn't need convincing to help out.
As a thank you, us volunteers received an Onya cloth bag (made from 51% recycled bottles per cloth bag which is awesome considering around 65% of plastic bottles are left in landfill per year taking up to 1000 years to decompose). These bags are so durable, lightweight, can roll up into the tiniest bag & can easily clip onto your handbag. I am madly inlove with them.

If you want to encourage your child into picking up rubbish then look no further than these rubbish pick up tools (they are seriously fun for everyone you just cant stop picking up rubbish with them, plus they are great for picking up sharp objects). And these Little Pope gardener gardening gloves are delightful & come in the sweetest patterns like ladybugs, dragonflys, flowers (& more). I have about 4 pairs for Kobe. The only downer is handwash is recommended & I hate handwashing.

Interested in being more sustainable? (**Most of these are Western Australia based)
*Recycle Australia you can list items you either want to swap or giveaway.
*Recycle right website (& they even have an app) is a useful tool if you want to learn more about what can be recycled. You can even go on a tour of a recycling centre (I'm waiting til Kobe is a few years older until we go).
*Living smart has courses on wormfarms, compost, growing your own food & cutting down on your energy bills.
*Subiaco has a series of nature play themed activities during March for the kiddies.
*Rockingham regional environmental centre  is a non for profit centre with a strong focus on educating everyone on environmental issues. They do charge a small entry fee.
*Canning River eco education centre offers an extensive list of "Nearer to nature" activities (in Mundaring) to encourage kids into nature based activities for a fee.
*Cockburn council has worm farm workshops, bokashi compost bin work shops, city chooks & green gardening work shops to name a few.
*Perth city farm (which Im frequent because I love it so) is hosting an Eco fair on April 3.
*Join in with earth hour at Hilton Harvest community gardens annual twilight fair on March 19.

Happy Wednesday friends!
Grace

5/52

5/52

 

 

Kobe, this is your solution when you hear your brother cry...

 

 

 

Dylan, you have been curiously watching me eat so I gave you a spoon to see what you would do with it. I think you will be ready for solids in a few short weeks.

 

Happy Sunday friends!

Grace

Handmade gift ideas

I have been feeling a little creatively stifled lately so I decided to go thru my photo archives of things I have sewn either for my family or friends/friend's child for gifts as inspiration. This year I hope to be more creative & make most of the gifts we give.

 

 

 

Kobe is a mad fan of "Cut throat kitchen" & "Chopped" so I couldn't help myself by making a few extra food bits & an apron to add to his cooking challenges. A tutorial on how I made the ice cream cone is here. I made the apron from an old smock dress.

 

 

 

I sewed these dolls clothes for Kobes cousin's cabbage patch doll (modelled on my extremely old doll whose hair I butchered}. I love love the retro bathers I made from fabric from a top I bought but never wore.

 

 

 

 

Last year I made a lego/duplo mat for my next door neighbour's boy. I never understood the value of these mats until Kobe received lego for his birthday & Christmas. Perfect for him to play on & then when he is finished I just pull on the drawstrings to close it up like a bag. No more stepping on random lego pieces.

 

 

 

 

Jazzing up some otherwise plain jumpers with cutesy animals.

 

Happy Wednesday friends!

Grace