Cute Food - Rocky Road

Ages ago Kat suggested that I do a Miss Wendy's Cute Food version of rocky road and I have been thinking about it since then ... rocky road is one of Ashley's favourite sweets and I mentioned it to him recently and he was very keen for me to give it a go ... while I was creating all the goodies for Vienna's birthday (which I still haven't posted) I was thinking about it and last week I finally gave it a go. I just used ingredients that I already had at home, I figured that for a practise run it would be fine, that I needed to work on the chocolate to extras ratio as I am not really a rocky road eater - there always seem to be other things that tempt me instead.

So, I used mostly dark chocolate and a little milk chocolate, walnuts, raisins, marshmellows and soft mint leaves. I put them in my new baking pan that my fantastic Aunty Lyn and Uncle Tony bought back from England for me (because it cost a fortune to buy here in NZ). The baking pan has lift up bottoms that allowed me to pop the mini rocky roads out when they had set.


The finished product looked cuter than I have seen rocky road look before and tasted pretty good too! Ashley and I decided that it needed peanuts as well for more texture when eating as the walnuts are a softer nut and he thinks adding the tradional cherries would just finish them off perfectly. The small size (5cm square) meant that our sweet treats were a sensible portion size and helped them to last a little longer. I do feel a little guilty that Kat didn't get to try any as it was her idea originally but I guess I will have to make sure that she gets some of the next batch.

Creative Minds ...

Last week I discovered a new blog: http://kensworldinprogress.blogspot.com/ . It has great crafts and one thing that really tickled my fancy was the quote in his header:

'creative minds are rarely tidy'

it inspired a little creativity in me and after thinking on it for the night I made this for myself

and then because it is such a cool quote and nice to do things for others, made these for some of my crafty friends.

Ages ago Gypsy sent me a link to some very cool paper doily crafts and then recently she got busy with some of the small doily's I gave her http://seeshareremember.blogspot.com/2010/12/handmade-christmas.html, this inspired me to use some myself and I think they look great in this project.

I don't have step by step photos but I rounded the corners on the patterned paper, inked the edges, sprayed the doily's with walnut ink, printed the quote on bazzil, inked the edges, put the ric rac through the xyron, added some mini flowers from Caz Dezign (http://www.cazdezign.co.nz/), mini brads and a tiny flower bling.

Nappy Cake for Baby Bellhouse

Robert and Rana's baby is due to be born on Wednesday 8th December (that's tomorrow!!!) and I am very much looking forward to being an Aunty!

To go with the great big bag of goodies we have bought for the baby I made a nappy cake. These come in all shapes and sizes but I have settled on a design that works for me, although it does change a little each time I make it.

I can't wait until the baby arrives!

Meeting Santa 2010

On Sunday we were invited by Uncle Tony to the Steel Mill Kids Christmas Party - well Vienna was invited and of course we went along too!

She got to meet Santa who gave her a lollipop to go with her present.

She also saw her cousins, did some dancing,

watched and clapped for the cheerleaders, went on a couple of rides,

visited with some animals (with Uncle Tony and Aunty Lyn),

played with some toys and had an ice block. And then did some great sleeping and had a late lunch at Karaka Kitchens with Sarah, Jess and Christine. What an awesome day!

Thank you sooo much for inviting us out Uncle Tony, we had a great family day out!

Birthday Cupcakes at Top Kids

In October I started working again 12 hours a week in a maternity leave cover job at Top Kids Manuroa Road, to begin with Vienna was staying at home with Ashley but lately he has been working so she has been coming to work with me.

On the Friday before her birthday we took yummy chocolate oreo cupcakes in to share with the other Under 2s in the Nursery and the teachers too.

Vienna was very interested in the fire on the candle - she tried to touch it! And then got stuck in to her cupcake - I think she really enjoyed it!

Dancing

Last week we went with Ashley to Manakau, he was playing guitar with Sarah Aitchison at White Ribbon Day supporting the Womens Refuge.

Vienna loved the chance to share her Dad with others, she made new friends and danced lots :)
It was a great day out although very sunny and hot - I got a little sunburnt (I sunblocked Vienna but forgot myself!)

Bzzzzzzz

I made bees to compliment the flower themed birthday party, they looked very cuted randomly scattered on the food table.

They were however very fussy and fiddly to make, but with delicious ingredients of peanut M&Ms, chocolate and almond slices they tasted yummy.



I found this idea on the internet - I can't remember where but if it was from you let me know and I will put up a link for you.

One

I know that I have been slacking in my blogging lately - it relates directly to how much sleep I have been getting. When I am getting lots of sleep and am full of energy lots of blogging gets done, when I am lacking in sleep even the most simple jobs seem like too much.

Anyway ...

Vienna turned 1

I can't believe that for over a year now we have had this little girl in our lives. That she started out this small ...




And is now so big,


Her birthday was a great success, we had a lovely party at the Auckland Botanic Gardens and Vienna definitely liked her Birthday Cake! She showed off her new walking trick to those who hadn't seen it before and loved being able to play outside. She quickly got the hang of opening all her fantastic presents - thank you so much to everyone!

Pirongia Market 2010

Going to the Pirongia Market has been a tradition for me for quite a few years now and Carrie has joined me for the last 3 or 4 years. Unfortunately it rained a lot at this years market but that didn't stop Vienna from enjoying the sights at her 2nd market (the first she couldn't see from inside her warm and toasty womb!). She rocked out to the bagpipes, ate hot chips from the lions food caravan, looked at all the crafts and enjoyed spending some time Mum and our peeps Carrie and Taryn.

Having the push chair was a bit tricky with the rain and umbrellas but it sure rocked for carrying our shopping!!!

Did you see my cool umbrella? It was a birthday gift from Kat - I love it!

My Heart Is Yours

I can't believe that she has grown so fast, almost a year has past and my baby is growing up ... this is back from when she was still Tiny and not yet Little.

Bless This Girl

Teeny tiny baby Renee all rugged up for a winter visit to Dunedin.

Hammered

You've never tried Jagermiester Carrie? We had better remedy that ...


famous last words!!!


But it wasn't Carrie that was hammered ... she was sober enough to take this photo ... of Ashley, hammered!!!

Peek-A-Boo!

We have recently rearranged our lounge and Vienna's table is now by the curtain. I usually seat her away from it but she has started pushing the table away from herself and also using the table to help push her chair away, backwards, to the curtain.

The curtain is more fun than breakfast apparently!

Valentines Day 2010

Happy Valentines Day Ashley ... I Love You!

First Fluffy

When we were house sitting for Uncle Tony and Aunty Lyn we were frequent visitors to Karaka Kitchens to see our peeps Sarah, Jess and Christine. When Grandma and Grandpa came to stay we took them there for lunch and Jess made Vienna her first Fluffy. Now, she already knew about marshmellows and sometimes gets teaspoon sips of Mum's hot chocolate but combine these things and add frothy milk and chocolate sauce on the top and she was a HUGE fan!

YUM YUM YUM!!! Thanks Jess - You Rock!

Stack 'em Up

Camp layout 3

Renee and Emily with their cousins Taneka and Kauri at Emily's 2nd Birthday party. I was stoked to have caught this moment of silliness and fun - especially as it ended in a squashed mess a few seconds later!

This page came together quickly and was fun! Yay!

Camp Roast

At camp we always have a roast lamb on Saturday night, and it is always my job to carve the roast, and by doing this job I earn the right to knaw on the bone MMMmmmmm. Vienna got back to camp after spending the day with Gypsy and family just in time to share some of the roast lamb bone with me, it seems that she too enjoys the pleasure of the knawing on the lamb bone.

Camp Challenge - October 2010

Camp Layout 2

Each Scrapbook Camp we have a camp challenge where we are given a number of items and a list of instructions and then let loose to create with them. Sometimes I am really inspired by the challenge, other times not so much! This camp I felt a bit of pressure to the challenge as last camp I didn't do it. This time I set out photos twice and then ended up making a layout that was not in anyway the challenge. I think it was the pale baby blue plastic slide that was screwing with my mojo ... so out came the Staz-On and it was no longer baby blue but now matched the felt stars. One of the rules was that we had to do at least one sentence of journalling ... there was a bit of discussion as to how little we could actually get away with and still complete the challenge and be available for judging - I think Glenna won this discussion with her reasoning that if you spelt out the date it counted as journalling! I had a little help from Gypsy with my journalling - thanks hun!

I love this photo of baby Jacob's feet and the black and white photo helped me to not have to match the blue embellishments to the photo.

I really like the finished layout and am very happy with it.


If you want to check out what items we had to work with and what the rules etc were go here http://cazdezign.blogspot.com/2010/09/october-scrapcamp-challenge.html and if you want to see all the finished layouts (including Shannon's winning page) go here http://cazdezign.blogspot.com/2010/10/october-challenge-layouts.html

She Loves To Shower!

This isn't the first time I have discovered a baby in the shower with clothes on! I am thinking that she must really like the shower and be quite disappointed when the appointed chief baby washer has a shower without her! Luckily he doesn't shut the door to the bathroom properly and that is quite easy to open ... then she just has to negotiate the clothes/towel etc on the floor ... climb over the ledge/step thingy ... push the curtain aside ... and viola!

"Here I am Dad! You forgot to bring me, but it's cool, I sorted it out myself."

May Mini Book

So ... I am a bit behind in the mini books for Vienna considering how quick and fun they are to do, it is that I am behind in printing the photos that is the problem!

Anyway, here is the May installment ...

Borrowed

While we were house sitting for you Uncle Tony I borrowed your beanie to go outside with my Dad, I hope that was OK. Love Vienna.

Vienna loved all the outside time we got when staying at Uncle Tony's place in Mauku, expecially visiting with Beth the Sheep.