Wooden Dump Truck Opp Shop Score!

After story time at the Library we usually have a quick look in the Opp shop. Yes, a quick look...

Little Loopity Lou has a short threshold like most kids his age, so it's a quick lap around the opp shop. As the lady was wheeling a trolley of goodies to be put out on the shelf, I spied a wooden dump truck. I love wooden toys - especially well made ones found in opp shops.

It was $8 and in good condition. Little Loopity Lou loves playing with it. The back tips up and out falls all the treasures he has picked up around the house (with lots of giggles).

I got the play cloths from Sarah from Colour Bazaar at Lorien Novalis seasonal markets - she has a beautiful stall.

I have also been awarded 3 Lemonade Awards from these 3 lovely ladies. Thank you Linda from Slightly Unconventional Purple Pathways, Louise from The Figtree and Lisa from 5 Orange Potatoes.

Sorry for not leaving comments sooner on your blogs. My computer has been silly buggers with me and was not giving me word verification, so I couldn't post on your blogs.

Here are the rules:

1. Put the logo on your blog or post.

2. Nominate blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude

3. Link to your nominees within your post.

4. Let them know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.

5. Share the love and link this post to the person from whom you received your award.

Now, time for tagging (in no particular order).

1. Julie at Four Leaves. I love looking at her beautiful photos. She makes ordinary objects look beautiful.

2. Karisma - a wise funny lady.

3. Karen Jane - Bare Feet and Free Spirit.

4. Mountain Pulse

5. Ariad - Rainbow Love Farm

6. Yarrow

7. Mermaid Dreaming

8. Scarlette Rose Fairy - our paths keep crossing over the years and she does beautiful tattoos.

9. Stacy - The Barnacle is My Totem

10. Happy Hippy Mad House - I hope you're feeling better soon.

Banana Date Muffins With Rose Petal Spice

What funny weather. Summer one day and wintery autumn weather the next. Good recipe for a cold, which little Loopity Lou has had for nearly a week, which means not much sleep for his mummy!

While little Loopity Lou was sleeping, his big brother and I did some baking. It was a nice rainy indoor day so we made Banana Date Muffins with Rose Petal Spice (I got the spice from Macro Whole Foods. It's to put into cakes & muffins and its fragrant sweet spices with rose petals smell like chai tea. Yum!).

I love this old mixer mum gave me. When I was a child, mum used the same mixer and I have many memories of birthday cakes with all sorts of ingredients put into it. It is still going strong - it came from an era when things where made to last.

My son loves cooking.......

.... and what's even better is when you get to eat what you've made while it is still hot. Yum!

Sunday Market Shawl

Last year a friend of mine, Christy, went back home to Amercia to visit her family. I asked her to get some wool for me that you can't get in Australia (well, I know I can buy wool on line but I like to feel what I'm buying). She brought this back for me. It's Ellyn Cooper's Yarn Sonnets Hand-Dyed Yarns, Peru (the colour is Chinese Poppy).

It's Cotton. I love the colours - it has purples, reds, oranges and hints of yellow and green. I love purple and that's a colour that I mosty wore a few years ago. Now I'm branching out into the rainbow. I seem to wear purple and yellows/oranges or green at the moment. I have my clothes hanging up in rainbow order (LOL) and pick out the colour I'm drawn to that day ......:)

Anyway, I got 3 cotton hanks and I wasn't sure what to do with them. I came across this free pattern on Ravelry by Knit Fish called Sunday Market Shawl.

The cotton is nice it knit with in this heat. I'm a good way into knitting the shawl/wrap but it seems to curl up on itself on each side.

I'm deciding if I will continue because if it is still going to curl up on the sides, the finished product it is going to annoy me when I'm wearing it. I'll see when I drop the stitches (part of the pattern) on how it will sit. So, I'm at a standstill. I might put it on a stitch holder and try the same pattern with some Noro Silk Garden (yummy rainbow colours) that I bought a month ago down at Berry.

What Bug is that?

My cucumber vine is on its way out but it has given us lots of cucumbers to eat and to share around. We have even been sharing them with the local wildlife. These yellow bugs have invaded my veggie garden. They only eat the outside of the cucumber and leave these cute little tracks. I haven't seen them before. Has anyone out there in blogland seen these guys before or know what they are called? I would love to know.......:)

Crafting

I've been painting and printing bracken leaves onto calico for Katie's class room. Her teacher wanted something to cover the stuff under the shelf in the classroom so I came up with this. In real life the greens blended together in the background and you don't see the line at the top - the camera brings it out more. I was bringing a little bit of the bush from outside into the classroom. Bracken fern grows under the trees in the bush around the school. I love bracken - it is such a pretty fern.

I have also been busy trying to attempt some crafting. I lost my needle felting mojo in this heat.

I've started another doll. I'm looking into Esty but the legal stuff freaks me out - there are only so many ways you can decorate a felted doll (I'm working with wool, not paint) and there so many creative souls out there that some ideas are bound to be similar - like the way one needle felts the flowers and trees. For example, maybe a summer nature table doll is going to be bright and sunny with yellows, oranges and blues. Most likely there may be different versions of a sun on it so there may be many interpretations of a summer nature table doll. Basically I don't want to get in the shit (copyright) for ripping off someones idea when in some cases great minds think a like LOL. I was going to needle felt a mother earth and I was going to have the doll holding the earth. The funny thing is, it was my 4 year old son's idea and I came across a blogger who had done a beautiful mother earth holding the earth! I would have made the doll differently but with similar colours - so the general idea is the same. Get what I mean? So where does one stand?

As I'm new to all this, any advice?....:).

Part of me wants to bite the bullet and do it but I'm probably being a worry wart - lack of sleep does that. LOL

Here's the latest two dolls I've made and they're already sold!

Autumn and Spring - I made these at the end of last year.

But to happy things - I received an award. It is called 'The Tree of Happiness Award' from Leanne at Homemade Rainbows.

Thank you. I have to write 6 things that give me happiness. This is in no particular order.

1. When I'm creating something and finishing it.

2. A full belly and a cupboard full of food.

3. Big sloppy kisses and cuddles from my 3 beautiful children.

4. When my children sing.

5. 5 or more hours solid sleep - if I'm lucky. LOL

6. The amazing world and new friends that blogging has open up to me. I'm a real technophobe -I am still learning my way around the computer. LOL

I'm meant to pass this on to six other people. It's so hard to choose - all the bloggers on my blog roll and those I follow bring a smile to my face. So to anyone who stops by and says 'hello', considered your self tagged. LOL ;)

"Culture Vultures"

On Sunday we went to two plays; one in the morning then another in the evening. The weather has cooled down a bit so it was a lovely day out. The morning play was Hansel & Gretel at the Norman Lindsay Gardens. This was the first time the kids had seen a play in the park. They loved it.

The play was interactive and it was set over different parts of the park. The kids could join in by pretending to be trees and rocks in the forest when Hansel & Gretel got lost. Following the actors around the garden was good for the little ones - they did't get bored sitting in the same spot.

After the play, we wandered around the gardens as the kid played. Of course, Katie had to test out the garden trees.

Katie and her brothers met some friendly goldfish that nibbled their fingers...

... and in the other pond there were some tadpoles that were almost frogs.

In the evening we met some friends down at the Penrith Regional Gallery to see Little Red Riding Hood.

Tree Faeries

Down the south coast in one of the towns called Milton, we stopped at a park and there we found a wise old tree. And in the tree, what did I see flitting around it?

Little tree faeries...;)