New Year’s is a coming

An unlikely couple!

Christmas was lovely. Easy, fun, lots of laughs and enough presents yet not too many and both girls loved the dolls. Amelia spent a full minute or so cuddling her monster saying “Thank you mummy!” which was all I needed and Lily immediately started chomping on her doll which indicates love, I am sure.

I am taking a three week break from updating Kiddley.com and I can’t tell you how LOVELY it is to be doing nothing for a few days. NOTHING! While Kiddley is a great joy, it is also a great commitment and to have some time where commitments just slip away for a while is a fabulous thing.

We have been doing lots of mooching around in our pjs, colouring in, eating left over plum pudding and reading our Christmas books.

I am conserving my energy ready to leap in to my New Year’s resolutions. I have lots as usual, all about balance and organic food, walking every day, eating more Green & Blacks white chocolate etc. etc., but also about things I have been putting off… like.. I am finally going to start writing and illustrating a children’s book in the first part of the year. While I have done illustrations for others I have never actually created my very own book and I have been meaning to since I was 11, so it’s about time. About bloody time!

I have an idea, and a I have a main character with a great name… so to mark my commitment I opened a sketch book yesterday and did a very quick first pass on how she might look:

That’s as far as I have got. As you can see, I have a lot of work to do. But stay tuned!

Two more sleeps

Merry Christmas!

I am going to take a few days blog break as there is plenty that needs doing around here and then plenty of not doing that needs doing after Monday.

I will leave you with this festive looking drink mix which I tore from an old Real Living mag and have stuck on the fridge (above) ready for Christmas day. I am not sure how it will taste but it looks gorgeous and christmassy.

Virgin Sea Breeze
(Add 200ml vodka for an alcoholic version)

Serves 4 - 6

12 mint leaves
1 lime cut into 6
1 litre of cranberry juice
1 litre ruby red grapefruit juice
Ice

Mix the juices together with mint and ice. Squeeze lime wedges into the jug and pop them in. Stir and pour into tumblers.

See you next week. xx

WIP - Lily’s Christmas stocking

This is a detail from the Christmas stocking that I am whipping up for Lily. It’s almost exactly the same design as the one I made for Amelia two years ago but using different fabrics, buttons and trim. Perhaps I should have come up with an entirely unique design but I kind of like the matchy-matchy thing, and the different fabrics make an enormous difference. Plus there is the mad rush to the finish and a couple of other gifts which need some speedy resolution.

Speaking of counting down to the big day, our advent activities have sadly fallen by the wayside this year. Nobody seems to have the energy for joyous activities in the evenings at the moment - it seems to be enough just to get through dinner and baths and bedtime stories without falling over — neither girl is sleeping terribly well and so our days are running a little on autopilot. Apart from the lack of energy, Amelia also seems quite disappointed with each activity after they are read out to her in the mornings. When she heard that the we will be making cookies we were met with “What? Another cooking one? SIGH” and I have also heard “When can we do something fun?” and “When will be doing something like last year?”. Even the ones she is remotely interested in get forgotten during the day, and begrudgingly followed through if reminded. I liked the idea of “Make a family tree” but I could tell by Amelia’s expression that she thought it was a stinker. I will have to rethink this next year. Tonight’s “Play Katamari Damacy” was by far the most popular but I don’t know if I am keen on the idea of 24 video game nights. Hmmm. Maybe Andrea’s Christmas Fun Jar is the way to go.

Smoked

A little black and white cat comes to visit us on the front deck every morning and Amelia is besotted. There is a gift wrapped (a small rubber ball for chasing) and placed under the tree ready for “Jessie” and she spends vast amounts of time sitting by the front window waiting to catch a glimpse so she can dash outside for a quick conversation with her new best friend.

She can’t sit outside and wait because it’s hard to breath out there. The sky is a pale orange today, and everything smells like smoke. I woke in the night and wondered if perhaps the house was on fire, but then realised it’s still the bush fire smoke blowing across the city. I suddenly started noticing how dry the suburbs are when I was driving around a couple of days ago. Lawns are dead, bushes are dying, dust and smoke hang in the air and inside we are cutting out snowflakes from paper which hang in garlands and dance in the air conditioning.

I am feeling a little tired of 2006, but rather than feeling gloomy about it I am already planning projects (home, web and craft) and resolutions for 2007. Hopefully 2007 will bring some great changes or at least some rain.

Christmas crazies and Gingerbread

I think I have gone into Christmas denial. It’s probably not a bad way to be, because, honestly Christmas seems a little out of control. Too many presents, too much rushing around trying to find a little something for so-and-so who really doesn’t need it anyway, too much too much too much. Next year I am going to do it differently. I am not sure how, but it’s going to be better because surely it can be. Maybe it’s handmade goodies, or more baking or more oxfam goats or more about family and less about stuff. I can’t help feeling a bit saturated.

But one good thing this year is that amazing gingerbread recipe — it’s SO easy; it’s a melt and mix on, so no creaming of butter and sugar required and it’s really yummy. It’s from a kid’s cookbook called The Children’s Step-by-Step Cookbook (which is the one that tends to inspire Amelia into a kind of food frenzy).

Gingerbread folk (makes about 30 biscuits)

Ingredients:

340g (12 oz) flour
115g (4 oz) butter
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
1 beaten egg
4 tablespoons of golden syrup
175g (6 oz) soft brown sugar (I use dark brown sugar here)
A few currants

Melt butter, sugar and golden syrup over low heat.

Sift the flour, ginger and bicarb soda into a bowl. Add the syrup mixture and the beaten egg.

Mix everything together and then knead it into a ball.

Chill the dough in a plastic bag in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven at 190c / 375f / Gas mark 5.

Grease baking trays (I just use baking paper).

Sprinkle flour on bench top and rolling pin and roll out dough to a thickness of 1/2 cm (1/4 inch).

Cut out shapes and place on a baking tray. Decorate with currants and then bake for 10-15 mins until they are golden brown. Lift them onto a wire rack to cool.

Try not to eat all of them before you give them away. This step is extremely difficult.

Moomin cookies

A lovely parcel arrived today — some Moomin cookie cutters from Hanna. Thank you Hanna! It’s warm and revoltingly smoky outside but it smells a little like Christmas inside.

Gear

A couple of days ago I put some designs up in Cafe Press which we have put on a bunch of gear - including tshirts, bags, mugs and hoodies. This is a kind of experiment; these two designs will be available for a limited time. You can choose between a little space guy:

And a couple of paper doll making crafty girls.

W.I.P. Friday = Monster almost done!

Well, Amelia’s ugly girl is almost finished. I just need to stitch on the flower and add the spare eye to the other hand and she’s all ready to wrap and stick under the tree. Amelia hasn’t seen her yet and I am looking forward to her discovering it on Christmas morning. I made a late change to the design by adding a tooth - at Amelia’s request. Here’s the original drawing again:

While I haven’t made an exact copy (which perhaps would have been nice - a little like Lizette’s work) she is soft and cuddly and similar enough to an Ugly Doll, which I think is what Amelia was trying to capture in her drawing anyway. Now I just need to finish Lily’s doll and we’re set. It’s taking me so long this year!

James Kim

Sad news about James Kim today. We have heavy hearts and our thoughts are with his family and friends.

Safe returns

I guess it’s the hormones - or perhaps it’s because our girls are the same age, and we move in similar worlds, but I couldn’t even tell Big-P about the Kim family without blubbing. I have been following their story for days now and it is so good to hear that Kati and the little girls are safe and well. I am now waiting, waiting to hear the news that James is safe too. I am sending all my best wishes out into the universe for this.