"Mr Stick"

Meet Mr Stick who was our house guest for one night. My partner found it out near the front door on the fly screen on the front window. We kept it over night as the kids were asleep by then. We wanted to show them in the morning as a surprise.

Katie loves bugs. She named him Mr Stick. It would have to be one of the biggest stick insects I've seen in the wild.

Silly me I didn't think to measure it at the time but Katie is an 8 year old and compared to her, it's huge. Stick insects are quite placid creatures but I didn't like touching it (a big chicken I know LOL). I was scared that I might squish it accidentally. Big creatures without backbones make my skin crawl. I like to look at them but not touch them. Except cicadas......

I love cicadas come to think of it. It was a very quiet season this year. I only saw one Green Grocer this season - last season they were everywhere (I wasn't blogging then). I was hoping to have a cicada count on my blog this season....... well, maybe next season.

Katie was giggling when Mr Stick was climbing over her. She is so brave. LOL.

My mum and dad where coming over for a visit later that morning. They usually have their cameras with them. I put the stick insect on my Peace Lily thinking it would be a nice snack for it while we where waiting, then I would take a few pictures and let it go out in the backyard.

This stick insect only eats eucalyptus leaves so my Peace Lily wasn't a nice snack.

I took it out side and put it on the gum tree and munch munch munch .......

I had a go on my mum's Nikon camera. Wow, what a difference a decent camera makes.
I was trying to capture the movement of it jaws eating the gum leaf. I took a whole heap of photos - here are a couple.

"Eggs"

I wanted to write a post earlier this week but there has been a bit of bad weather in the mountains. There were black-outs two nights in a row and last week I thought the computer was going to pack it in - it was loading up so slowly and being silly buggers.

So, I've been doing a bit of craft. I got inspired by The Magic Onions with her felted eggs. Katie, her brother and I made some of our own. Katie's brother wanted to make a chocolate egg so he chose different shades of brown wool. He got a bit bored after a while with the rubbing of the wool to get it to felt up. It landed in the dirt a few times as well so it got a bit of a rough texture to it. It was a warm day so it was nice to wet felt outside. Little Loopity Lou loved playing with the water and Lux flakes mixture. After a while the soapy water thickened to a goo - it was a nice gooey mess for little finger to play in.

I also got the needle felting needles out and made an Autumn doll but I feel the purple wool that I used is a little dark for a nature table doll. I'll try to think of how to brighten her up a little. For some reason the wool that I dyed turned out patchy but I do like the variations of the purple in the wool. I also had a go at making a needle felted pumpkin. For my first attempt, I'm happy with how it turned out. I would like to make some more for the nature table as these are the only pumpkins I'll be harvesting this season. The pumpkin vine out the back isn't producing pumpkins - they flower and get to a certain size (say about a ping pong ball size), turn yellow and then fall off the vine. I was disappointed. I was hoping to have lots of home grown pumpkins for autumn/winter this year.

Little Brother

It's been a busy week - not much time for blogging. But I have been checking out everyone else's blogs - so much inspiration. Just not enough time in the day with 3 children to do all the crafting that I would love to do.

Earlier this week, Katie was finishing her breakfast and the colour pencils were on the table. She just started drawing her brother in the morning light. I took the photo to show what she saw. :)

I love children's drawings....

Autumn Walk

It's the first week of autumn ........

There are subtle little changes. I notice a slight chill in the mountain air in the morning and in the evening.

Today we took a trip down to Glenbrook lagoon to feed the ducks and go on a little bush walk. The children could see the beginning of the leaves changing colours.

We met very friendly Swamp Hens with their beautiful blue chests and Chestnut Teal Ducks who where happy to have a nibble on some bread. We also saw tiny little fish swimming beneath their legs eating the crumbs that got dropped.

Katie and her brothers collected little treasures from nature that they found on the ground during our walk - a collection of feathers, seeds pods, leaves, scribbly gum bark and a few last remaining cicada shells of the season, oh... and a few rocks that Little Loopity Lou had picked up as well.

When we got home I got out the paints. We picked some Autumns colours - reds, oranges, yellows and greens. We talked about the colours we saw in the leaves and painted leaves and trees. They then mixed the colours of the paints to see what colour combinations (shades of brown LOL) they could come up with.

Home Made Volcanoes

We thought we would end the last day of Summer with a bang - well, a fizzle.

My 4 year old (5 very soon) is a very self directed learner. He can't seem to put his shoes and socks on but he can tell me most of the flags of the world (lol). He has a passion for a subject and almost gets obsessive about it. He has taught me about so many flags, hence the flag counter on my blog. He gets so excited when we have a visitor that adds a new flag.

This passion has branched out to maps of the world and now it moving on to volcanoes. He builds them at pre-kindy in the sand pit and pours water in them. We went to a friend's place this week and her and her son built their own volcano. My son was so excited. So, I decided to build one of our own.

How to build your own volcano! This is messy so it is best done outside.

Step 1:

Get air drying clay (we got ours at the discount shop in Springwood. 2.5 kg for $7.95), a plastic container (I used a shampoo bottle), a board to put it on and some little helpers (Little Loopity Lou was sleeping).

Step 2:

Add the clay to the plastic container. This is the fun bit.

Step 3:

We added some little rocks we found around the garden.

Step 4:

Get some white vinegar and mix a little bit of paint to make the colour of lava.

Step 5:

Get Bi-carbonate of Soda. Pour some in the middle of the volcano then pour in the vinegar mix.
Watch it fizzle.....

... and have fun.

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!