Cake - and a wee bit of Chaos...

Let's get the 'Chaos' bit out of the way to start with.  Our fridge reached the end of it's warranty this week and promptly decided to stop working properly (the bottom part of the freezer is freezing, the top part of the freezer is cold and the fridge itself is warmer than it should be but colder than the kitchen!).  Whatever happens in the next couple of days will, no doubt, give me plenty to blog about. 

Obviously, having a family of 7, our fridge and freezer are usually pretty well stocked, thankfully it was looking pretty empty this week.  One thing I had a surplus of was overripe bananas that I had bought for $1 thinking they would be great for smoothies.  We had a big clear out at lunch time, lots went in the bin, some things got moved around and others have been put aside for dinner tonight.  But 8 huge bananas.  What to do with them?  I consulted a few of my recipe books and found a few recipes that looked good but I was missing ingredients for, then turned to good ol' Google.  I found this recipe  for Banana Cake which followed my criteria of a) having all the ingredients, b) being quick and easy and c) being well reviewed. 

I doubled the recipe, put them in muffin trays and half an hour later we had 24 Banana Muffins!  The kids were so desperate to eat them that they washed up all the dishes, emptied the bins and picked up all the stray bits of lego from under the sofa!  I have stashed some in a corner of the freezer for lunch boxes when they all go back to school on Monday. 

I then managed to send them off while I enjoyed one with a lovely cup of  Green Tea.   

Bliss!

Edited to add that the recipe IS a good one, they were yummy!

Crochet

I thought I would use a post to show some of the things I have made in the last 6 months. 

I am pretty hopeless with stuff like this usually, but after going to The Olive Tree Markets I felt inspired to give something crafty a go.  A link somewhere (can't for the life of me remember where now) lead me to Lucy at Attic24.  She has a bright, cheery, colourful blog, with lots of idiot-proof tutorials.  I bought a hook and a cheap ball of nasty acrylic yarn to practice on.  I started off making snowflakes from her pattern to send home to my parents for Christmas, followed by stars (from Michelle at The Royal Sisters tutorial) that were spotted by a friend one day.  She comissioned me to make as many as I could manage for her Christmas tree!  These were, in turn, spotted by another friend who is very involved in the whole crafty artisan scene in Newcastle and, with a group of other crafty ladies, runs MakeSpace on the Hunter St Mall.  She asked me to make even more stars to sell in the run up to Christmas!

In the meantime, I have started a GrannyStripe Blanket, completed a Granny Square Blanket, made numerous neck-warmers, scarves and hats as presents for friends back in the frozen UK, summery scarves for Miss M (that I regularly 'borrow'), bookmarks for lovely friends who share my love of reading, and am in the middle of a Summer Garden Granny Square Blanket, loosely based on Lucy's pattern, for Miss M.  Once that is completed all the boys have put in orders for Ripple Blankets, Stripey Blankets etc to snuggle up in when it turns cold here. 

If you had told me I would be writing this a year ago, I would have laughed, but I am really enjoying  an hour or two of "hooky" every evening while the tv is on!

Chaos!

I was delighted this morning, to see a message from an old university friend on my facebook page, regarding this blog, urging me to "include some chaos"!  Well, Mrs R, I don't know if you wished today on me...

Today has been Australia Day for those of us Down Under.  This means everyone has the day off work to head to the beach, have "barbies" and generally chill out with Mates.  This meant Husband had an enforced day off.  Unfortunately he doesn't really do holidays so sneaked off to do some work this morning, leaving me to deal with scraps over Lego, cars, doing the breakfast dishes etc.

With the temps in the high 30's we decided that we would head to the beach after lunch.  This is where the chaos began.  The usual "do you have your swimmers/rash vest/towel?  Have you put on your sunscreen?  Has anyone cleaned their teeth today/this week?"  took longer than usual, followed by an angry toddler screaming "NO! MUMMY DO IT!!" when Daddy tried to strap him in the car.  This meant that we finally hit the beach after 3.30pm.  Everyone piled out with great excitement until Husband opened the boot and asked "Where's the bag?" "The bag?"  I asked.  "Yes. The Bag.  The Bag with the towels." Husband replied.  Long story short, everyone had walked past The Bag at the front door, including Husband and Myself.  I controlled my desire to scream and sweetly said I would drive home to get The Bag, when Middle Boy found a towel he was meant to have brought in after our last beach trip.  We figured there was enough of a breeze to air dry everyone and went for it. 

We had a great hour or so after that, diving through the waves, building sand castles, Miss M learnt to duck under the waves and was thrilled to pieces with herself! 

The Big Boys then decided to head off to explore the rock pools while I guarded our stuff.  10 mins later I looked up to see no.2 Boy being carried by Husband and Smallest Boy being carried by Biggest Boy, both having sliced bits of themselves on the rocks.  We managed to patch them up, with help from the lovely Life Guards, then cut our visit short and headed home, looking forward to watching Andy Murray when we got there. 

But the match was over!!

 To console myself, I had a G&T while I got dinner ready.  Instead of a BBQ we were having some leftovers which I beefed out a bit, only today has been special and clearly nothing was going to be that simple!  I managed to scrape enough for 6 people.  Ah well, I can stand to lose a bit of weight!


So Mrs R, perhaps tomorrow you could wish me a bit of time for some crochet!

Hello!

Well I have finally got around to starting a Blog.  It's something I have been considering for a while, mainly because I always seem to say too much in my Facebook statuses!  I love reading other people's Blogs, seeing their various WIP's, what books they are reading etc, I think I'm just plain nosy!

I have 1 husband, 5 children and a dog so plenty of Blog fodder there already!  Our house is always full of noise and a huge amount of chaos.  I do my best to keep on top of it but sometimes I'd rather shut the door on it all and go for a walk at the beach!  I have recently discovered crochet and try to find as much time as I can for a wee bit of "hooking" every day.

This is the first peek at my latest, and most ambitious, project.  Remember, I'm new to this and I DO have 5 kids to contend with!

See you soon x