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a few crochet questions answered

April 30, 2012 By corrie 11 Comments

I’ve received a couple of crochet questions by email and have been a little tardy replying so thought I’d put them into one blog post! Kill 2 birds and all that.

First up the lovely Michelle asked me what is worsted weight yarn? I call it a 10 or 12 ply. I like to use Bendigo (no surprises there) Luxury 10 ply or Rustic 12 ply when I need a worsted weight yarn. Another lovely one is Debbie Bliss cashmerino aran which is also lovely, more expensive, but lovely too. I found this very useful website here which had a great chart with all the yarns and weights.

Michelle also asked about crochet hook sizes and what do all the letters mean. In Australia we use metric measurements for our hooks and needles and I found this simple conversion chart which I hope helps.

Then last week I received a lovely email from Betty. She’s a grandma betty like my grandma betty! And she wanted to crochet hats for children and teenagers with leukemia and wanted to know where she could find some free patterns. I have a cute and easy pattern here which I wrote for Samaritans Purse. Ravelry is also an amazing search engine in itself. I found a couple of lovely free ones here, here, here and here. And I couldn’t go past this baby one here. Seriously cute.

I hope that helps! As for me I’ve cast on another baby kina for elodie and about to cast on the placket knit from last minute knitted gifts for her too. She’s really short of little knits at the moment so thought I’d do two at once to beat the boredom!

and this is monday morning at our house! I’m blogging from just near the window, they are playing, the washing machine is working hard and I can hang it out while they play! It’s a great little set up but took almost an hour before I could sit down for a bit as someone wanted something then something else and so on! Oh and we’re still waiting for foxtel, they’ve rescheduled on me for this morning after cancelling yesterday and ringing the wrong number to tell me. Then they rescheduled again for late this afternoon. So not a happy customer and hoping nothing goes wrong this afternnoon! Please foxtel, 4 small children and an exhausted mummy.

Filed Under: bendigo woollen mills, crochet, ravelry

sundays got better

April 29, 2012 By corrie 18 Comments

Almost sunday lunchtime and I’m sitting staring out the window praying that it doesn’t rain so that Foxtel can come and connect us again. We’ve already been delayed a week by rain and I’ve gone quite long enough without my foxtel thank you very much. So cross your fingers for us. But I am loving our sundays a bit more now that mass is 10am at our new church. That extra hour makes all the difference.

I got 2 loads of washing out, vacced the floors, moved couches ready for the foxtel man and had everyone dressed and ready to go, wrote out my dinners for the week and shopping list, sorted and folded clean laundry, got most of it in bedrooms and managed to get a quick pic before we headed out the door. All before church. High five me! Of course no other sunday will ever be this organised now that I’ve bragged about it!

And it does help you when precious little one wakes up before 7am and refuses to go back to sleep. You can get anything done…………………………..

hope you’re enjoying your sunday!

Filed Under: church, sundays

PW’s pasta with pesto cream sauce

April 26, 2012 By corrie 18 Comments

Oh look, she’s cooking in the kitchen again. I think spending those weeks in the little apartment have left me wanting lots of home cooked food and an excuse to use my thermomix again. Plus receiving the new PW cookbook in the mail has me itching to try out recipes like this one. This was a huge hit at our house and I think it’s because it’s a little bit more subtle than straight pesto on pasta. Everyone including elodie gobbled it all up and we have some leftovers for dinner tonight since retro daddy was away. The original recipe is here and also in Pioneer Woman’s latest book but I’ve converted this to the Thermomix.

p.s the recipe called for heavy cream but I try to substitute with lower fat alternatives especially with dairy when I can. It means I can eat more chocolate and dessert (KIDDING!!!!!!!!!!!!) but seriously this recipe tasted great with low fat cream.p.p.s how do I take photographs and convert a recipe at dinnertime with 4 little kids and a cat at my feet? A huge playroom

5.0 from 1 reviews

PW's pasta with pesto cream sauce

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

30 mins

and perfect for a simple dinner that EVERYONE will eat. I love Pioneer Woman

Recipe type: Dinners

Serves: 4

What you'll need

1 bunch fresh basil
¾ cup parmesan (cubed)
3Tbsp pinenuts
2 garlic cloves peeled
salt and pepper
⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
½ cup light pouring cream
2 Tbsp butter
400g pasta (fusili or whatever you have going)
4 roma tomatoes, diced (I used mini roma tomatoes)

Instructions

Place parmesan in TM bowl and process on speed 9 for about 10 seconds to grate cheese.
Add in basil leaves, pine nuts, garlic, salt and pepper and process on speed 3 with the MC off.
Gradually pour in the olive oil to make the pesto and increase speed up to speed 5 which takes about 1 minute.
Taste and season well. Set aside and rinse out bowl well.
Now pour cream and drop butter into TM bowl. Heat for 2 minutes at 70 degrees on speed 2.
Pour into pesto and combine. Add extra seasoning if required.
Add in tomatoes.
Now add in your hot cooked pasta which will be ready and stir well.
Serve and enjoy. I loved lots of extra black pepper on top but that’s just me.

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Filed Under: dinners, pioneer woman, recipe, thermomix

cooking in the new kitchen

April 26, 2012 By corrie 14 Comments

There is nothing glamorous about cooking in the new kitchen. Mustard yellow surfaces, limited bench space, smelly cupboards, no room for a microwave…….this kitchen really has it all. But for the next two years I will be proving on this blog that you can still cook delicious food no matter where you are or what you’re working with. I thought my new kitchen would be 3-5 years off but I’ve already ‘advised’ retro daddy that I’ll be getting Michael the kitchen guy in next year to draw up plans and hopefully do it in 2014. Thankfully no building work is required which was our biggest cost last time so I’m hoping I can it get over the line!

3m caesarstone island to this!

On Friday my easter present finally arrived, PW’s latest cookbook and I’m going to go so far as to say that it’s better than her first. Yes. You heard it here first. This book is jam packed full of more recipes. Even retro daddy picked it up and was impressed. This is someone who does not pick up my cookbooks for a flick through. First cab off the rank had to be Barbeque Chicken and Pineapple Quesadillas. Easy, fun and a great way to test out the kitchen. Her recipe is here.

I just did a couple of variations. Canned pineapple instead of freshly sliced because I was lazy and had been unpacking all day. We added avocado before we cooked them because mexican food needs avocado in this house. We left out the jalapenos and I cooked my quesadillas in a little oil rather than butter. Just because.

And these got the thumbs up from everyone in the family. They aren’t spicy so everyone can enjoy them, elodie loved a plateful of chicken, avocado and cheese and the kids couldn’t get enough of them. Retro daddy told me twice what a great dinner it was so that’s a big thumbs up. And there was no time for fancy styling of the quesadillas because everyone wanted another bit as soon as they came off the frypan.

So give these a go! And add the book to your wishlist. I’ve already got the ingredients for 3 more recipes from the book this week!

Filed Under: cooking, pioneer woman, recipe

PW’s barbeque chicken and pineapple quesadillas

April 26, 2012 By corrie Leave a Comment

I might not have a fancy kitchen anymore. I might be cooking with a small mustard yellow worksurface and with appliances from 1972. But let me tell you that doesn’t stop me cooking delicious food. And for easter I treated myself to a copy of PW’s latest cooking book – it finally arrived in the post and is her best ever!

Filed Under: dinners, everything else

this family goes out for a day

April 24, 2012 By corrie 6 Comments

Sponsored by Nuffnang and Yoplait

If there is one place my little ones love to visit it’s Taronga Zoo. I’m a little sad that we live so close and only visit once a year. And so when Yoplait asked me to plan a family day out I knew exactly where everyone in my little family would want to go. The zoo. And we had a lot of fun singing our favourite zoo song in the lead up – Daddy’s taking us to the zoo tomorrow, zoo tomorrow, zoo tomorrow and so it goes on…and on and then on some more. Until then I suggested we start singing a different song!

Keira visited the zoo last year for school and became our self appointed zoo guide telling us what we had to see, where she went last time, who in the class got lost (boys of course) and so on. This visit we spiced things up a little by taking a different route and finally visiting the seals and penguins. I know. Living dangerously.

Finn reminded me of one of the characters from Little Britain. He’d ask again and again to see the seals, then we’d get there and no sooner had I put the pram brake on than he wanted to go and see the next thing………before he’d even seen what we’d stopped to see. It went on the whole zoo trip but of course he hasn’t stopped talking about everything he saw. He just wanted the express zoo visit.

We hadn’t even been at the zoo for more than 30 minutes before someone got hungry and we realised it was lunch time – see just getting out of the house is an event in itself.

And since this was about taking some Yoplait yoghurt with us it was the perfect snack for Elodie. And Yoplait has been reformulated and the entire range is free from artificial colours or flavourings. Perfect for a snack to give to little ones.

that girl loves yoghurt! no more baby packs for her, she can eat a regular tub on her own.

And when she wasn’t eating yoghurt, Elodie’s favourite part of the zoo was sitting down (or bottom shuffling in her case) to the big glass viewing area. I decided that was my favourite part too until retro daddy went off in search of the toilets with finn and left us there for 20 minutes. Suddenly the novely wore off and I was stuck with 2 prams, keira couldn’t push either of them straight and 3 kids. But Elodie loved it

We did a lot of walking and also a lot of calling out to daddy to wait for mummy! Hello! Pregnant lady pushing a pram up some pretty steep hills to get out of the zoo!

about half way back up the walk back to the top we decided to stop for another break – yoghurt time! Luckily this is a sponsored post so we had plenty of yoghurt on us for a little snack. And I don’t find the food at the zoo to be that healthy (or inexpensive) so taking the yoghurt along actually came in pretty handy. And I was supposed to tell you that Yoplait yoghurt is now lid lickingly good – but look keira did it for me. No script required.

Now elodie was not impressed that we were having yoghurt without her so she had some more too.

until there was no more yoghurt left! what a face, Elodie!

Now be sure to look out for the new Yoplait packaging at the shops and especially the big clear tubs which the kids are going to love since they can see the yoghurt and fruit pieces inside. And thank you to Yoplait for a great day out at the zoo. We had so much fun and I love that when I asked each person what their favourite part of the day was – well Finn decided that the ‘seal shortcut’ (as in taking the lift instead of walking the long way) was the best bit!

And if you love family days out then Yoplait are holding a Blogger Day Out event in Sydney this weekend which will be lots of fun for the whole family. You just have to be a Nuffnang blogger to come along with your family and can book here.

Filed Under: everything else

welcome to craftaholics anonymous

April 24, 2012 By corrie 28 Comments

When I think of fabric and my love of it, well I prefer pictures like this. All pretty bolts of fabric being cut and organised. Such a pretty picture. No one needs to know the tubs and boxes and excessive fabric hoarding that goes on behind the scenes.

I also love this pic of my craft room totally decluttered and made to look like a guest room/sewing room. Like it ever stays this tidy!

So now I say, welcome to reality or craftaholics anonymous. I know I’m amongst friends with my readers and craft stashes. I’ve got 3 sewing machines in the doorway, 1 overlocker and lots and lots of stuff. At least I can say I ran an online fabric store and still have a lot of fabric to clear out. But still.

Yesterday we had everything delivered from storage and a lot of my stash had to be put into storage in order to make the house look uncluttered when we sold it. I’ve done a quick count of over 20 tubs/boxes and today we’ll bring them inside and into the new craft room. And hope that eventually I get to it.

Before the baby gets here would be good!

Filed Under: craft, i love craft, the new house

blogging from the house

April 20, 2012 By corrie 33 Comments

Well we are in the house! We own it! Our mortgage is now bigger and better than ever before – ok bigger not better. And we have had quite an afternoon and night getting used to the space and visitors (huntsman in one room, a very active wasps nest outside another room and loads of daddy long legs). We picked up the keys and a bottle of Veuve just after 2.15pm……combined with the 2 bottles of Moet we got for selling our house it looks like the next baby’s baptism could be the best one yet.

I ordered domino’s for an early dinner – healthy eating starts tomorrow – and we ate it on the loungeroom floor where I quickly appreciated the beauty of green and brown swirl carpet with orange flecks. It hides food really well. Like you really have to get down on your hands and knees to find what you are looking for. It looks much better in black and white than colour. Roll on October when I can get the carpet ripped out.

My sister and her little family popped over to visit and drop off an extra airbed and much needed pump for the airbeds. Honestly, such a blonde for bringing the airbeds but packing up the pump with the removal! Retro daddy was not loving me so much for insisting we move in here straight away. He wanted an extra night at the Sebel in the big comfy bed – probably because he was off working everyday and I was in the apartment with these crazies everyday and night. I could’t wait to get out of there. He also won’t be loving the 5am tillie tantrum that had everyone up with high pitched screaming because someone else was sleeping with her sheets!

And I’ll leave you with my little cooking corner – it doesn’t get more retro than this – right down to the orange floral cooktop covers.

Lucky they call me retro mummy………

Filed Under: the new house

why I love my Kitchen Aid AND my thermomix

April 19, 2012 By corrie 44 Comments

A lovely reader asked me to tell her more about my Kitchen Aid. And I’ve been meaning to write a post on why I love both my Kitchen Aid and Thermomix so here it is! Retro daddy bought me my lovely Kitchen Aid while I was in hospital with the twins. Such a good husband and he picked the colour perfectly for me too. I had been wanting one for a while and it makes the best cakes and beats egg whites in no time. I love that I can see what I’m doing and also that I can chuck ingredients in, let it get to work and walk away to get more ingredients or do something nearby and it’s still busy working for me. And of course it looks so good on your kitchen counter and is made to last.

I also have the kitchen aid blender thanks to FlyBuys

I’d heard about the Thermomix before I got my Kitchen Aid and I thought it sounded amazing but I was totally put off by the price and knew it was totally out of my reach. A couple of years later I was hearing more about them and started to do my research but as soon as I mentioned it to retro daddy he’d roll his eyes and tell us we had to build the kitchen first before we’d even buy one. I was still in love with it and knew it would be a huge help in my kitchen. Then I got invited to a demo by another mum at school and jumped at the chance. I researched even more and the only negative I could find was price. I went to the demo and was blown away by what it could do and knew it would make great meals in my kitchen and meant I could cook more things from scratch and with a family of 6 that had to be a good thing.

So I bought one using my Nuffnang money and paid for it over 3 payments. At certain times of the year Thermomix offer interest free for 12 months so you can pay for it in 12 instalments which is also a great deal. And then the Thermomix came home and someone even asked had I been given it because I was blogging about it so often. Nope. Paid for and bought myself.

So what’s to love. First up it’s fast. You weigh your ingredients straight into the bowl and the scales set back to zero with a quick press of the button so you can weigh in your next ingredient and get on with your cooking. You can make caster sugar in a matter of seconds, grind nuts and spices and mill your own flour from grains.

But what I really love is making a whole meal in the one machine. Let’s say you want curry. So you put your spices in and you heat them up and grind them. Add in an onion and some garlic and it cuts it up for you and with a bit of oil it then sautes it for you. Add in your chicken or vegies and say tomatoes or yoghurt and with a few pushes of buttons it will cook and stir your curry for you. I then set aside the curry, rinse out the bowl and put my rice in with some water. Stir the rice and water for a few seconds then set it to cook and end up with a basket of fluffy rice. My curry has been kept warm in my Thermoserve bowl and I have one meal ready to go. I can also do a quick custard or sorbet for dessert. Now that is what I call smart cooking.

It did what I thought it would do in that it makes quick family dinners from scratch and even simple dishes like pasta. If your kids love pasta then you’ll love that it makes your sauce (our favourite is chickpea, celery, tomato, stock and water) and you add in your pasta and it will cook and stir your pasta in the sauce and cook it at the same time so you don’t have to boil your water on the stove with the sauce going separately in another saucepan. Add in some grated cheese that you did in the thermomix before you started cooking and you have one healthy pasta dish made from very simple (and cheap) ingredients and your family will love it. Dinner time is always witching hour in our house and so not having to stir pots and meals on the stove and having it all done for me is a huge benefit.

After I got my Thermomix readers were emailing me telling me that they’d always wanted a KitchenAid but now they saw the Thermomix they didn’t know which one to get. And I had to always say that I used both. I still use my KitchenAid because it does the best egg whites and really big cakes and cookie batches. I’ll always love my KitchenAid and it has a special place on the kitchen counter and looks so good too. But if you want something for everyday cooking and baking then the Thermomix wins because it does cookies and cakes too and so much more. If you love to bake then making your own caster and icing sugar from raw or regular sugar is a huge cost saver and just makes sense. I love that it is so many pieces of kitchen equipment in one. You can’t have a KitchenAid without some form of blender or food processor for other dishes but having the Thermomix does that for you.

And the only negative still is price. I won’t lie. It was a huge hurdle for me to get over and took a few years of lusting after before I actually owned one. I know that it’s not affordable. But when I think about how I use it everyday and how may family dinners it makes then it becomes more economical to think about rather than the upfront price.

Tenina – thermomix recipe guru

In a perfect world retro daddy would have said ‘of course honey, if it makes your life easier then of course you can have a Thermomix. Let me buy it for you and make your life easier’. Instead I had to buy it and cook up an amazing 3 course dinner for him served up with a bottle of wine. He wondered why I was buttering him up. Then he walked into the kitchen after dessert and burst out laughing saying ‘so you bought it anyway’ (I married a good man, trust me. I know that). But since then it has made the best pizza he’s ever had and he enjoys all the family meals I make him. His only complaint is when he’s watching tv and all of a sudden a huge motor starts up as I turn the Thermomix up high and grind some nuts or sugar. He does not love that!

And that is why I love my KitchenAid and my Thermomix! Always happy to answer your questions if you have any…………….

Filed Under: kitchen aid, review, thermomix

everything you wanted to know about my kitchen

April 16, 2012 By corrie 63 Comments

Ok this post has been a long time coming. I’m going to tell you everything about our kitchen renovation and what I learnt along the way. We had never renovated before so it was a steep learning curve but it was a successful renovation and we had a beautiful finished product. And just to refresh your memory we had an old kitchen at the front of the house, knocked down a few walls at the back of the house and put a new kitchen out there.

kitchen cabinets

First up we found a kitchen company. I had a clear picture of what I wanted – my kitchen inspiration picture and I found that by knowing the layout that I was working with and my style it made the whole process much easier. You really need to have a clear idea of your style and finished product before you start the process. Pinterest and magazines are a huge help. We used Kitchenworks of Belrose who were just amazing. Michael the owner is a real character and designs a great kitchen at a very competitive price. In fact I didn’t shop around. I was so impressed with the price he gave and his service was outstanding. He’d been designing and building kitchens with his brother and they learnt from their Dad. I knew I was working with experienced people.

We also took advantage of a special offer and paid around $17k for the cabinetry. We chose very simple white cabinets with a traditional edge. There are little extras like $500 for the rip out of the old kitchen and $500 for installation of the new kitchen but you know these costs up front and nothing was hidden. We got a clear timeline of when everything was happening and he organised the plumber, tiler and we used the builder’s electrician.

caesarstone

I chose Snow for the caesarstone and was not disappointed. I wanted to keep it all very classic and timeless and a few years ago I would have chosen something with more contrast in it. Now the caesarstone guy does a great price, just $3,700 for all of the caesarstone including the 3m double island and we’re talking nice thick caesarstone. Snow does show up stains and marks easily but gumption becomes your best friend and a glass cleaner gives you a streak free finish. Every little mark or stain came out with gumption! Get yourself some.

tiles

Well don’t you love them? Not all subway tiles are created equal. We went to Hardware & General tile shop and they had a very thin basic subway tile and that was it. I was very disappointed. I only had a small area to tile and I wanted a shinier thicker tile. So I went top of the line italian subway tiles from Tiles by Kate (Manly Vale in Sydney). They came in under $400 but I still have a box and half leftover. And compared to the whole kitchen price they were well worth it. They are uneven so they reflect light beautifully. Money well spent.

cabinet knobs

I think I lost serious sleep over cabinet and door handles. I really wanted traditional little pull handles but the reality is that you then need knobs for cupboard doors. But I’m a matchy matchy kind of girl and I knew this would drive me crazy having knobs and pull handles all in the one kitchen. You can pick up cabinet knobs for $3-$5. I really wanted something substantial so I found this amazing store in Alexandria. =They didn’t have the handle I wanted (Brionne which are made in France) but showed me this one and I just fell in love with them. Now we’re talking $17 each. You’ll find them here. They look and feel substantial, are easy to clean and really complement the kitchen. I’d use them again if I had to. Knobs came from Mother of Pearl & Sons Trading in the PYD building in Alexandria.

tap

Now the tap was always going to be something big and classic. But what finish, like the handles it kept me up at night and I’m not just saying it. I mean it. Losing sleep over the finish of the tap then I’d ask people for advice and end up at square 1 again. I was in love with Perrin & Rowe but didn’t have a stockist near me and found that Nicolazzi taps were sold through restorations online. I didn’t see the tap in person but ordered online and just at the right time since I received 15% off the tap. I went petit mont blanc handles and when the tap arrived it was love at first sight. In the end I got the standard chrome finish and it’s stunning all over. Just beautiful. With quite a plain kitchen it becomes a statement piece. You’re looking at about $945 not on sale which can sound like a lot when you can get tap and sink packages for half the price. Restoration online is a great online store if you love traditional.

sink

And you can’t have a tap without a sink. I went undermount sink and remember that Barefoot Contessa had said go for a big double sink (also known as a butlers sink) as you can hide dishes and things and no one will ever know. She was right. I’ll never go for a smaller sink or one with a divide again. It’s a Franke sink and a real stunnner. It’s big. There is no denying that but it’s lovely. You’re looking at around $950 for the sink. Now someone did ask why didn’t I get the stainless steel drainer to the side of the sink. If you’re going to build a huge island as the centrepiece of your kitchen you want it to be stunning and able to serve food, sit around and so on. The undermount sink is just perfect for a kitchen island.

rangehood

For the rangehood I know that the style is big, stainless steel and on show but that wasn’t going to happen in my kitchen. We found a 900mm slide out rangehood made by Robin Hood and it’s perfect as it’s concealed and very hamptons style. These aren’t expensive and you’ll expect to pay around $200-300.

oven

This is a freestanding Glem gas oven (just gas, no electricity) and I loved it. You can roast 2 chooks at the same time, a couple of trays of cookies and more. It’s 900mm wide and a dream to use. I picked this up on sale at Harvey Norman and while I wouldn’t shop there again (who could forget the drama) I do love the oven. And a good price. You can pay a lot more for a freestanding oven but again we knew we were selling and had a budget to stick to. From memory it was under $2000.

paint

You might remember I had the lovely dulux consultant out to pick colours. Best thing I ever did. We settled on Dulux vanilla quake 50% (which means half strength) with Dulux Vivid White for cornices, ceilings and skirtings. The cabinets were a vivid white so it all matched beautifully

table and chairs

we were supposed to be pick up a bargain table and chair setting. But retro daddy chose an expensive one in the end. We saved money on the chairs and stools by buying them at Ikea (Ingolf range of dining chairs and stools) and splurged on thr dining table made from reclaimed wood from Alfresco Emporium in Collaroy. Just go there for the eye candy. I love the table and it will always stay in the family. It’s just something that I’ll never want to get rid of.

flooring

I kind of wish I had chosen a different floor company. No not kind of wish, I do wish. I was very disappointed with the service and quality of finish. Not so much of the floorboards but the skirtings. 3 cracked skirting boards from front to back, cracked right through. The painter said it was the worst he’d seen and the floor company finished the job and wanted payment. I refused to pay the balance of $10k until they were fixed and we are talking one week before the house went on the market.

They also nailed the skirtings in rather than use ‘liquid nail’ and didn’t nail them completely in so we had nails poking out. It was a real mess. I still must write a letter of complaint to them but personally I would steer clear of the company. Just not worth the stress. If I was doing floors again then I would look at other people’s floors, ask the builder or kitchen company and go from there. We learnt the hard way.

So after all of that saga you just want to know what the floors are. They are Boral Silkwood Timber in Blackbutt. An engineered floating floor, so it’s timber but not hardwood floors. Hardwood floors were totally going to blow the budget and again we knew we weren’t staying in the house and selling afterwards. We had a step in the kitchen area so we had to refloor the new kitchen area and then because the front of the house was original cypress pine we had to extend the flooring right through but I’m glad we did that as it created a great flow through from the moment you entered the house and walked right through to the back.

lights

we put fluroscent downlights throughout the new area on the advice of the electrician. They don’t overheat and although you can’t have dimmers with them they are economical and looked great. We had huge problems with overheating downlights in our old house so were happy to try something different.

The large pendant lights were a real find from Light Style a lighting store in Belrose. I didn’t find the pendants I wanted in any of the large lighting chains. These came from a wholesaler in Victoria and retail for about $270 each. You can spent at least $800 on large pendants elsewhere so I was thrilled to find these. They have adjustable poles and really finished the kitchen. I knew pendant lights would be part of the whole hamptons look and these did not disappoint.

builder

I loved our builder just like our kitchen company. Gary Cole who is based on the northern beaches. He did a great job and delivered on cost. He gives you an accurate quote but a fixed quote so there are no nasty surprises. He does a very high quality finish and gets you involved in the process. Even when I was standing there with a blank expression because I had absolutely no bloody idea what he was talking about, well he’d explain it all to me and tell me what he thought was best and I’d generally go with it.

Now building was the biggest chunk of our budget coming in at over $38k. This included the removal of 4 walls, an ensuite, replacing an old brown sliding door with french doors, installing 2 beams into the ceiling and ripping out the entire ceiling and putting a new one in. We could have saved money if we left bits of wall in or had 2 different ceiling heights BUT I always wanted one big room. I can spot other renovations where bits of wall have been kept in. Gary does much much bigger projects than ours but he always made us feel like we were an important client and he’d be the first person I’d call in. He also put in a wall and door upstairs to turn a rumpus room into a 4th bedroom and did a great job with that too

budget

ahhh budget. Every renovation needs one. We had a budget blowout due entirely to the floors. We didn’t get an estimate of the flooring cost until after we had started to go ahead with ordering the kitchen.

Now the budget is I think the most stressful part of the renovation because you need to find money…..somewhere.

regrets?

just the flooring company. Everything else went so smoothly and to schedule and we were really disappointed with the finish of the skirtings. But you learn and for a first renovation and that to be the only thing that went wrong, well I think we did well! Oh and a second power point near the stove. I put one in and really should have put one in on the other side for my Kitchen Aid.

what will I do with my next kitchen?

call me crazy but yes I am already thinking of the next kitchen but it’s going to be at least 3 – 5 years off. The new house has a large eat in kitchen and I’m actually going to keep it as an eat in kitchen rather than open plan because the house is large enough to do it and I like the traditional layout of the house with the kitchen at the back.

image source otter imaging

I hope that answers your questions! If you’ve got one just ask. I just love the kitchen we created and felt very proud when we left the house that I left a little something on the house that was me. It’s a good feeling.

Filed Under: kitchen, renovation

lessons in swim school land

April 14, 2012 By corrie 28 Comments

if I have one regret since having little ones – or I should say if I’ve learnt anything along the way – well it’s that when you have a good swim school stay there. Oh and start them swimming early. Keira started swimming as a baby and we kept it up but when the twins arrived it all just got too hard lugging 2 capsules in with me so I stopped. When I tried to get back in to the school, the waiting lists were so long that they were closed off at the 2 branches near me and weren’t even taking names.

So we went somewhere else and paid our money but almost a year later and the twins at 3 1/2 were still in a mum and bubs class. It was frustrating and we would ask to have them moved up but there was always a reason why. So I started Elodie at the school I wanted to get into and put all the kids into their holiday swim school. And I wrote complaint letters to the old swim school about how the twins were assessed as being more than capable of being on their own in a preschool class. They never bothered to get back to me.

I got the bigger kids into another branch of the good swim school and every week I asked about spots for the others at the one near me. And I just kept asking. I learnt not to ask the older lady who always gave me a flat out no. And this week I’ve managed to get all 4 going to the same swim school that I really wanted.

And even better. Maybe it was because I was asking at the desk surrounded by all 4 kids jumping around like crazy but not only did the lovely lady find me spots but they got the twins into the same class AND at the same time as Elodie. Talk about winning the lottery.

And in just one week of intensive lessons the twins are picking up objects from the bottom of the pool, swimming to the teacher and back to the wall and jumping in on their own. Keira is swimming freestyle beautifully and getting better every lesson. They are being ‘gently’ pushed much further than they ever were at the crappy swim school and we are never leaving again.

And baby number 5 will start lessons as soon as Elodie is in her own class. Lesson learnt. The hard way.

Filed Under: everything else

I am blonde again

April 14, 2012 By corrie 10 Comments

If I had to pick a few things that I couldn’t live without then getting my hair done on a regular basis would be right up there. It used to be a chore going to the hairdressers and spending a few hours there but the more children I have the more I appreciate that quiet time out of the house. And after spending 48 hours solo with my little ones in this little apartment I couldn’t wait to get out the door this morning.

I got 3 hours of peace and quiet. I get to chat to Nicky who has been doing my hair for over 6 years, I get a big pile of the latest magazines, I can pretend I’m in my 20’s and read sex tips in Cosmo (ahem, not that I think we need any with almost 5 kids in 6 years!), I get a lemonade and a tim tam and come out of the salon with lovely blonde hair. What more does a woman need! My idea of a perfect Saturday morning…………….

Filed Under: hair

Kidspot Ford Territory Top 50: Feel the difference

April 11, 2012 By corrie 34 Comments

In case you haven’t noticed the big button to the right of my blog lately, yes that one over there, I’m a Kidspot Top 50 Blogger this year. Very exciting. Even more exciting since they pick you and it’s a lovely surprise to find out that you’ve made the cut. I don’t think of myself as a top blogger. I don’t do the big blog events, the PR launches or lunches or that kind of stuff. Life for me is at home with four little ones and a big pregnant belly. And a laptop.

walking out the door to hospital to have Keira

But next month marks 6 years of blogging for this mummy so it’s rather timely to look back on my journey as a blogger and how I got here. I’ve gone from a first time mummy-to-be to now expecting my 5th baby. In 6 years. Those are crazy numbers but true. And my readership has grown from about 3 to thousands from around the world. I started out as a craft blogger just talking about my knitting and my new baby. Then I started to sew and became more addicted to craft. And all the while my family was growing at a much faster rate than expected. Even when it was mentioned to me a few years ago that I was a mummy blogger, I insisted I was a craft blogger. It’s how I had always viewed myself and my blog. But now I’m a mummy blogger and proud of it!

our little family of 3!

Over time this blog has become more about family and less about craft as our family has grown so quickly (and time for craft has shrunk). And one of the reasons I love my blog so much is that it’s the one place where I can totally embrace my life at home with a larger than average family. It’s where I can just be me and be proud of the life I’m living. No one judges me here on my blog and I don’t receive the stares or comments that I tend to attract when I’m out in public with four little ones and another on the way. Plus no one thinks I’m a nana because I love to knit, bake and craft in my spare time.

then the twins came along

My blog has been a journey of how we went from 2 people to almost 7. I’ve shared each pregnancy announcement well before the 12 week mark, the pregnancy losses and the announcement and first photos of each of my babies. Family and friends know that if they want to find a photo of the baby to come to my blog first because this is where I share everything.

growing up

I think I realised I had ‘made’ it when I started to receive personal emails and questions from readers asking for advice. Emails that started out with ‘I love your blog so much’. And then I started to meet my readers out or people would recognise me when I was shopping. Not always looking my best I should add. How could I forget when at a market a husband came up and introduced his wife, she had to give me a hug because reading my blog every day had cheered her up when she went through a hard time living in a flat in australia with a new baby and other things going on in her life. It was a huge deal to her and it was a huge thing to me as I’d just had the call that my mum wasn’t going to make it through the weekend. That hug meant so much to me and those words at a time when I needed it. And my blog had been there for her when she needed it.

and Elodie makes 6

And when I did lose my mum last year, I didn’t have to tell you all that I was having a hard time because you already knew. It was like I received hundreds of condolence cards in the mail when I read through all of the comments I received.

That’s when you realise that your blog and your readers mean so much more than numbers and statistics. In fact I’ve always been honest in saying that I don’t give much time to my blog traffic. Some weeks it’s up and some it’s down. Some posts get lots of comments and others don’t. But I still know that you’re reading and want to know what I’m up to. I’m certainly not perfect and never make out that I am. Once a reader came up to me and said ‘oh I had to meet you because your kids and house are always so neat in your photos’. Oh no I assured her that I take photos in the same spot or a tidy spot free of toys and stuff and make sure everyone looks tidy.

And so what would it mean to me to win the coveted Kidspot Top 50 Blogger position for 2012 as well as a trip to BlogHer12 in New York City and then to drive around the gorgeous new Ford Territory for a year? Well what an honour that would be for this little stay at home mummy who just dreamed of staying at home and raising a family. It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do and I’m doing it and sharing it with the world. Plus I’d be the yummiest mummy on the northern beaches as well as demonstrating the Ford Territory’s 7 seater capability. People stare at me driving my big bus so imagine what great things people would be saying to see the new Ford Territory with ‘all those kids in the back’.

So please don’t forget to go and vote for me here – it’s win – win because I get a vote and you go in the draw to win $5,000 for yourself. So thank you to my lovely readers for always supporting me and thank you to Kidspot for including me this year. It means so much to me.

Filed Under: Ford Territory, kidspot top 50 blogger

cabin fever

April 10, 2012 By corrie 10 Comments

tomorrow will be 9 days left in the apartment and cabin fever has well and truly set in. I’m not used to living in such a small space and it’s really getting to me. Retro daddy went back to work today so that meant my second pair of hands and my internet access also went back to work too. How embarrassing to have the guy at the front desk have to come out and help me reverse into a tight spot because once I go out my nice easy drive right in carpark gets taken and I’m left with a tight spot with walls on either side.

I took these pictures on the weekend when we out for some lunch. I thought I’d be eating out more but the reality is that the moment the kids know we are leaving the apartment they all jump around like crazies and carry on like that until we get back here again. It’s exhausting but thankfully this week we have swimming lessons everyday which are exhausting the kids and filling up our day. Plus I have shopping. Any excuse and I’m over at the shops. I think retro daddy will be glad when we’re settled in and I’m not so close to retail opportunities.

So I’m really counting the days and might just start counting the hours if it gets worse………………………..having a home will feel so good!

Filed Under: homes

crewelwork can be cruel work

April 7, 2012 By corrie 20 Comments

I think it might have been just a tad ambitious to bring posie gets cozy’s crewelwork alphabet sampler away with me and give it a go while in the apartment. Ummmmmm it’s proving to be a little tricky. It’s called Daisychain ABC’s and looks like this……….

image source and buy the pattern here!

First stitch was chain stitch – I had no idea what I was doing so had to buy a little embroidery book and tried to follow the book. It didn’t go so well. Next day I got onto youtube and found this tutorial which set me on the right track. But it does take time to get the right stitch length and have it looking right. I’m also finding using the wool makes it a little trickier than if I was stitching with a regular embroidery floss.

I’m looking forward to doing this lazy daisy stitch too!

Now I don’t give up easily! I’ve pulled out my work twice and this is all I have to show for 2 nights work!!!!! Um it looks quite good form a distance but not so hot close up (as in this picture). Think I’ll pull this out and go for 3rd time lucky! BUT we all have to start somewhere so I think I might just do some practice stitches for a while before I hit the sampler again!

I do have my knitting for when I get frustrated and need to put it down for a while.

Filed Under: craft