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six months

September 30, 2011 By corrie 33 Comments

Yesterday marked six months since my own beautiful mummy left us. I thought I’d be too upset to write about it. I just don’t think you ever recover from the loss of a close loved one. It’s always there. The pain. The cruelty of being taken too soon. It feels so sudden eventhough you knew that was the way it was going to happen. And the questions from the little ones about why she doesn’t come over anymore are always the hardest.

This photo is just so bittersweet. It was taken the day elodie was born. My sweet mum got to meet Elodie but she also started another round of chemo the very day elodie was born and in the same hospital. She knew she wouldn’t see Elodie or any of her grandchildren grow up. But I remind myself that at least she got to meet Elodie and I took her in to the hospital every day for the last few days of her life. Just sitting in the room together. Sometimes it gets easier but sometimes it just feels worse as it really starts to sink in.

Filed Under: my beautiful mum

The Search for Australia’s Trackmaster + Giveaway

September 25, 2011 By corrie 19 Comments

Sponsored by Nuffnang

Well we have just one little Thomas & Friends fan here. He is very much outnumbered by the Dora and princess fans being the only boy amongst 3 girls. But he loves his Thomas. And as usual when I have to write a blog post about something that includes a YouTube video for kids, they are climbing all over me. And we have to watch it again and again and again.

If you have a little Thomas fan at your house then you are going to love this competition. And I actually think this is the biggest competition I’ve announced on my blog. The search is now on for Australia’s Trackmaster. And the prizes are huge. HUGE. Are you ready for this?

First prize – a trip for 4 to Thomasland in the UK with accommodation, car hire and $3,500 spending money thrown in. I’m not kidding you. And $500 worth of Thomas Trackmaster toys as well. AND your little Thomas fan will be titled Australia’s Trackmaster. What I love about this competition is that the whole family wins since you all go to the UK on a family holiday. And what a holiday it will be. I’m sure you could swing by Oxford St or Liberty of London for a spot of shopping too.

Now it’s really easy to enter. All you need to do is video your little Thomas fan saying the following tongue twister 3 times – “Thomas runs clickety clack on Trackmaster track that I click clack.”. There are tips and some more information here. Here is Keira giving it a go:

You can view other entries on the Search for Australia’s Trackmaster website here and there are some real cuties on there. And when you’ve made your video just enter it here. Don’t feel like making a video? Then be sure to pop over and vote for your favourite video. And this would be how not to do it – keira’s blooper

And another one! Honestly, we had more bloopers than proper videos! You know it goes once you get the sillies……

So get your thinking caps on and get creative with your entry to show that you really have Australia’s biggest Thomas fan living at your house! I can’t believe you win a trip to England with your family and all that spending money! Good luck and I really hope one of my lucky readers wins……………be sure to let us know your entry too so we can all vote for you.

Oh and I get to giveaway a Thomas playset to one of my lucky readers! Just tell me a little about your Thomas fan and why they’d want to win a new playset. Too easy. The competition is open to Australian residents only.

Filed Under: giveaway

zucchini slice

September 25, 2011 By corrie 12 Comments

I have to admit I’ve never made zucchini slice before but since it was pouring with rain and a dreary sunday I decided I’d bake something delicious for lunch. And retro daddy loved it so much he said I just need to add pastry on the bottom and it would taste like his beloved egg and bacon slice from Sunbeam bakery in mentone. Growing up his mum would always buy egg and bacon slice for special occasions and so now someone misses it. In fact we spent our first Christmas together in Paris when retro daddy was living there, all that lovely food around us but all he wanted me to make – egg and bacon slice from Sunbeam in Mentone.

I’m sure you all make this for your family but if you don’t then definitely give it a go. We loved it and within 10 minutes it was all gone. The recipe comes from the Thermomix Gluten Free Wheat Free Cooking book.

100g cheese

350g zucchini

1 large onion

3 rashers bacon, roughly chopped (make it vegetarian with corn kernels instead)

5 eggs

100g flour (the recipe calls for rice flour but I used self raising)

50g oil

salt and pepper to season

If you have a thermomix then grate your cheese for 3-5 seconds on speed 6 and leave aside. Put zucchini in bowl and grate 3-5 seconds on speed 6 and leave aside. Place onion and bacon in bowl and process for 4 seconds on speed 6. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add oil and saute for 1 minute at 100 degrees on speed 1. Add in rest of the ingredients including your cheese and zucchini and process for 10 seconds on speed 3. Season well. **Place in lined square/lamington tin and bake for about 35 -40 minutes in 180 degree oven. Slice and serve.

keira set a picnic lunch for us including lemonade to beat the rainy Sunday blues!

If you don’t have a thermomix then grate your cheese and zucchini and set it aside. Finely chop your onion and bacon and saute in a frypan for a couple of minutes. Whisk eggs and add in rest of your ingredients and whisk well. Season and follow instructions from **.

Filed Under: baking, dinners, recipe, thermomix

change of plans saturday

September 24, 2011 By corrie 12 Comments

Don’t you love it when your plans for a day totally change but it turns out to be a better day than you had planned. We had organised to take my dad on a picnic for fathers day and his birthday. Everything was packed and by the door but just as were leaving the rain started. Don’t you hate that! So instead of picking up the hot chickens we went to a gourmet pizza place where we had the outside terrace all to ourselves………….this is important when 5 small children are involved.

and they had all the good stuff that kids love – lemonade, kids pizza, colouring on the tables and we finished with chocolate cake. In case you’re wondering it’s the never fail chocolate cake with a quick chocolate frosting and bag of freckles. And I layered that frosting on so thick – it was so good. I actually had frosting after breakfast and it was a great start to the day. Really recommend it.

And how convenient that the restaurant was opposite the Birkenstock store…….and when buying 4 pairs of birkenstocks they threw in a free 2nd pair for Keira too. OK so they are bedazzled and have ladybugs on them but they were a huge hit with keira. But do not try this at home. Taking all 4 into a shoe shop to get fitted is a noisy and expensive affair. Definitely something to do with retro daddy. But at least we have summer feet sorted and I have long loved the quality and comfort of the Birkenstocks. I always get myself a new pair every summer and am loving my pick for this year – perfect to wear with jeans, skirts,shorts and dresses.

YES! I have little fat feet

And then as we were walking to the car I saw a cute store called Neck of the Woods which I hadn’t seen before but it had 40% off everything in store. I need to go back (of course!). Oh and they had saltwater sandals but not in red which I’m really itching to have this summer. But I did manage to pick up a few market props for my next Mathilda’s which will look great on my tables – if I can ever get them back from Keira that is.

And to finish off the day we took a drive up to North Head to try to get little people to sleep. I took it as an opportunity to jump out of the car and take a quick pic. Man, I love just being able to jump in the car and drive somewhere as beautiful as this lookout.

Now that is what I call a great saturday – totally different to what we had planned but a great one. Or if you ask retro daddy he’d say a much more expensive day that he had planned! I prefer to look at it this way – we supported our local economy and spent our money close to home.

But whichever way you look at it- we got the kids out of the house and totally exhausted them which then gave me a nice long rest on the couch in the afternoon.

Filed Under: birthdays, cakes, manly, saturday

my summer knitting plans

September 22, 2011 By corrie 10 Comments

Well I know some people are winter knitters but I’m an all year round knitter and love knitting in the warmer weather. I don’t get as much done but I do love it. Favourite yarn to knit with in summer? Has to be Bendigo’s cotton in 8 ply! Huge fan of the Bendigo cotton as it’s silky and knits up beautifully and every year Bendigo add new colours to the range. They also tend to take a few colours away which sees me stocking up on my favourites.

I picked up some Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino for a couple of baby kina’s . This was knit in Bendigo 4 ply and I must get some buttons on this and finish it off.

and I’d love to make each of my girl’s a little shrug to wear over dresses. This is the Debbie Bliss’ Party Shrug and is knit in 2 pieces and then seamed up the back. Super quick and easy and by sticking to a neutral or girly colour will go with everything in their wardrobe.

and I just bought this book and would love to make this for elodie.

image source here

and then I found this lovely little bolero last night which would be adorable on my Elodie and Tillie.

image source here

oh and I love this little dress from Phildar – it’s in French though. I really need to stop falling in love with french knitting patterns because I’m sure i’ll spend more time translating than knitting.

image source here

And, I’m also hoping I can squeeze a couple of tiKKi’s patterns in there. First up is Jane which was just released this week. Georgie tells me she is working on an adult version! I can’t wait! And there is a sister pattern to Jane called Elizabeth which is about to go to testing too. Bring it on. I love that tiKKi is a homegrown aussie designer.

thank you Georgie for letting me use your gorgeous photos! 

and maybe I can squeeze in a Baby Acacia which looks like such a sweet and quick little knit for Elodie

Image source here

I think that should keep me busy this summer. And I’d love to know your favourite summer knitting or crochet pattern – nothing like adding a few others to my wish list.

Filed Under: bendigo woollen mills, knitting, summer

George, I love you!

September 20, 2011 By corrie 19 Comments

I know I’ve mentioned it before………my secret crush……………..George Clooney!

I love this ad which I saw on breakfast tv this morning…..he just gets better with age.

Filed Under: everything else

finishing off Quilts for Queensland

September 19, 2011 By corrie 10 Comments

Well I’m almost there. In the last 48 hours I managed to finish 8 quilts and have another 4 to finish off today. To keep them easy and manageable we’ve been doing the fun and modern ones backed with polar fleece or matching flanalette (why can I never spell that word??????).

So far I have 8 large boxes of completed quilts (thank you thank you thank you) and have a few more to collect from my helpers, a couple to quilt myself and send to a long arm quilter and then we are done! I have set a deadline of getting the 8 boxes out of my house by the first week of October and can’t wait. But before that I’m going to photograph all of the quilts before they head off……..so watch this space

P.S if you have a finished quilt or blocks to send me please drop me an email to retromummy@hotmail.com for my address. I know a couple of you have probably emailed me so if you don’t mind dropping me another one and I’ll email you back straight away!

Filed Under: quilting, quilts for queensland

just grab your camera

September 18, 2011 By corrie 14 Comments

Sometimes you really do have to stop what you’re doing, grab your camera and just capture it. So often I just wait for a special moment or occasion to take a picture. But before you know it another month has passed, someone has grown some more or lost a tooth or doesn’t want to get in a photo. Elodie might lose the rolls on her thighs.

Some of my favourite photos of my little ones growing up are the ones I’ve taken as we’re heading the door. Especially like these as we’re heading off to church.

These are the first I’ve really taken with Elodie in there and I’ll definitely be taking more….who cares if no one is looking at mummy and they’re all doing their own thing.

So don’t forget to keep your camera charged and ready for some action…….

Filed Under: everything else

My quinoa burger

September 18, 2011 By corrie 18 Comments

A while ago I repinned the most delicious looking quinoa burger I’d ever seen. I love quinoa but it’s been a while since Ive made it. But then I googled quinoa burger and found another recipe and bought the ingredients for that one. Then I went back to pinterest and realised it was a totally different burger recipe – one was vegan and one was vegetarian. I then realised I didn’t have any cottage cheese for the vegetarian one. So I decided to take a bit from each recipe and what I had to create my own quinoa burger. And they are so good…………………

5.0 from 1 reviews

My quinoa burger

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

30 mins

Total time

40 mins

Recipe type: Dinners, Vegetarian

Serves: 6

What you'll need

1 cup uncooked quinoa
1 can of chickpeas, pureed
¾ cup grated cheese
1 finely grated zucchini or carrot
½ red onion finely diced
¼-1/3 cup plain flour
handful each of fresh herbs (I used flat leaf parsley and coriander) OR tsp dried herbs
1Tbsp vegetable stock powder/concentrate
salt and pepper to season

Instructions

Boil 2 cups water and a dash of salt. Once boiling add in your quinoa and bring to the boil, simmer for 20 minutes until cooked and the water is absorbed.
Place into a large bowl.
If you have a thermomix or food processor then finely chop your onion and zucchini and add in the rest of the ingredients (except for the flour) and process for up to a minute.
Add this mixture to your cooked quinoa and plain flour and mix well. Add in extra flour or seasoning if needed.
You want your mixture to be sticky though (too sticky to handle) so if you don't need the flour then don't add it. I dropped large Tablespoonfuls into a frypan of hot oil, flatten with a fork once in the pan then shallow fry with some oil ( a couple of Tablespoonfuls of oil is good)

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Filed Under: cooking, dinners, quinoa, recipe, thermomix, vegan, vegetarian

Skinny Cherry Cobbler

September 14, 2011 By corrie 6 Comments

OK well if you’re on facebook you’ll already know that I turned PW’s Blackberry Cobbler into a cherry cobbler on the weekend. I had hoped to try out a German Cherry Cheesecake Crumble ( I know – how good does that sound) but retro daddy forgot to bring home an extra tub of creme fraiche to make it. But I really really wanted dessert so I made a buttery and delicious cherry cobbler. Grandma betty loved it so much and told me she used to make this in the olden days!

Retro daddy loved it so much but told me I was evil for making it. He’s on a diet. Thank you for making dessert would have been nice. But anyway, during the week I turned the cherry cobbler into a skinny version. And I’m happy to report it’s delicious. Not as buttery as the full fat version (obviously) but if you’re on a diet this is a sweet treat to enjoy. So this is PW’s Blackberry Cobbler made into Skinny Cherry Cobbler and I made mine using the Thermomix!

butter for greasing
1 large jar of morello cherries (or up to 2 cups berries)
110g diet margerine (I use nutellex lite), melted
1 cup caster sugar (and an extra 1/4 cup for sprinkling)
1 cup self raising flour
1 cup skim milk
1 Tbsp vanilla extract

If you have a thermomix place your raw sugar in your TM bowl and process for 9 seconds on speed 9. Add in flour and milk and whisk for 30 seconds on speed 3. You might need to scrape down and process again for another 10 seconds to make sure all the flour is off the sides. Add in your melted margerine and vanilla and process for 20 seconds on speed 3. You want a nice thick batter like pikelet batter, if it’s too thin just add a Tbsp more flour and process again.

If you don’t have a thermomix just whisk your flour, sugar and milk together until smooth. Whisk in the melted butter and vanilla.

Grease a pie dish well and pour your batter into the dish. Drain your jar of cherries well and spread over the batter evenly. Sprinkle with the extra 1/4 cup of sugar over the top and bake for 50-60 minutes in a 160 degree oven. Now just to confuse you I’m so used to making clafoutis that I keep putting my cherries in the dish first so I get a higher sort of pie look but if you put your cherries on top your finished result will look different!

Now you can sprinkle with icing sugar before serving and serve with cream. I decided a dollop of creme fraiche would be good – it was – but then realised that probably undoes the diet friendliness of the recipe. You choose. This is really popular with retro daddy who was happy to see I’d made his something to fit in with his diet and healthy eating. Enjoy. I take no responsibility for how many servings you decide to eat. You could substitute with other fruit.

Filed Under: baking, diet, pioneer woman, recipe, thermomix

knitting en francais

September 12, 2011 By corrie 22 Comments

Sometimes I do crazy things………..like ordering french knitting magazines because I’m so in love with the patterns. It all started when I found this pattern on ravelry and added it to my favourites. Slight problem. It’s in french. From a magazine. Published in 2010. Uh oh

So then I started googling and trying to get my hands on a copy.

Oh, so you’re probably wondering by now if I read french. Um. A little. My sweet mummy was a french teacher but I was no star student. My reading is better than my writing or speaking.

Oh ok then. So have you knitted something written in french before, retro mummy? Um, no.

ohhhhhhhhh ok then….good luck with that!

My facebook friends tell me I can use google translate, they directed me to Jorth’s translations here , I found this and of course there is always ravelry.

If you are as crazy as I am, then you can purchase the magazines direct from their website with very reasonable postage here. But if you want the cardigan that I really wanted then I had to buy that issue here. And let’s just hope these don’t become nice to look at magazines and that I actually use them.

All images from the Phildar website here.

Filed Under: knitting, phildar, ravelry

my green decorated cookies

September 11, 2011 By corrie 6 Comments

Keira was asked to bring in green decorated cookies today for a special treat day at canteen. Green decorated cookies. I don’t really decorate cookies and I don’t really do green so I was a little stumped for ideas. I found some fancy ideas on pinterest but they were a bit too fancy for 10.30pm the night before.

So I took milk arrowroots, a quick batch of cream cheese frosting that I tinted green, desiccated coconut to make grass and then topped with a tiny teddy and a snake. Now I actually wanted fruit rings which I’ve used before on a cupcake to make floating tiny teddies…………….but retro daddy couldn’t find any fruit rings at the supermarket. So he suggested snakes and bought them home from the shops. Only problem was that he managed to bring home a bag without green snakes in it. But at least there is some green on the cookies and keira has decorated cookies to take the canteen. And the best thing about these cookies is that 5 year olds think they are really cool. Phew.

Filed Under: cake decorating, cookies

Denyse Schmidt Winding Roads

September 11, 2011 By corrie 16 Comments

Well I can sleep tonight. I have almost the entire collection of Denyse Schmidt’s latest collection for Spotlight at my house. It was a nice excuse to head across town to Birkenhead Point to pick up the fabric and do a spot of shopping as well. Retro daddy who nevers buy anything for himself even came home with new shoes so it really was a good day for everyone. Win Win.

Until we got to the carpark and a very stupid lady decided to reverse at high speed out of a carspot without looking and without warning heading straight to retro daddy and my darling finn. Retro daddy screamed, I screamed, she kept going and then stopped as she passed me to roll down her window and calmly tell me ‘sorry, the parking sensors didn’t detect you!

I was speechless and gave her the filthiest look I could muster while still in a state of shock that her car was about to hit my family. I couldn’t even move I was just so shocked. She then decided to apologise to grandma betty next to me who wasn’t having any of it either! My goodness me – I have parking sensors which I use so I don’t hit a kerb when I reverse in. I don’t use them to detect pedestrians walking in a carpark so I don’t have to look, go slow or use my commonsense. We actually split up the kids with us so we can walk carefully in carparks and near roads so it’s definitely left us a bit shocked and grateful no one was hurt. I think I’ll stick to my local Spotlight from now on………

Filed Under: denyse schmidt, spotlight

the finished present

September 9, 2011 By corrie 7 Comments

Well I spent Thursday night doing a little stitching and am happy to share with you the finished present for keira’s little friend. I am in love with the tee and it’s patchwork feel and am thinking I’ll try it on a little cushion next.

We’ve teamed it with some hairclips and a cute hairclip holder from Please Eloise (every little girl and their mummy needs one of these) and ta da. One finished present. Now on to the present for next Saturday’s party and I’ll try not to leave the stitching till the night before!

p.s. Totally off topic but those of you who came to my last Mathilda’s Market know how crazy it got. So I’ve organised to have 2 stalls at my next Sydney Mathilda’s on Sunday December 4 so there will be plenty of room for you to spread out and take your time at the baskets. It also means I can bring more goodies for Christmas! Also I never serve anyone in the first 30 minutes so if you can get out of the door early go for it!

p.p.s I met a lovely lady at the last Mathilda’s who lived near me and wanted to know where she could learn to sew. Spotlight Belrose have learn to sew classes starting in October on Tuesday’s or Saturdays. I’m pretty sure the sign said $130 for 6 lessons and you work on your own pattern with the teacher. Just call or drop in to the store at the sewing counter to find out more!

Filed Under: birthdays, sewing

the party circuit

September 8, 2011 By corrie 22 Comments

Oh look the party circuit has started again……..and you mummies know I’m not talking about parties I’m invited to. We seem to have lots of parties in a row then it all goes quiet and then they start up again. I was giving away dresses to the first parties but then I never heard anything back about them so ditched the dresses and started buying the presents but now I’d love to make the presents again. I decided to use the cute font from the Don’t Look Now Worry Doll pattern and a pink tee. You can never go wrong with pink for a girl turning 6.

I must admit that my O is looking a little sad as I couldn’t for the life of me find my sharp pointy scissors to really get into the circle!

Now usually I would do blanket stitch around my applique but these are smaller letters than I’m used to so I’m going to do a simple running stitch by hand which should look cute and finish it off. We’ll team it with a few things we picked up at Please Eloise and I promise to show you the finished product tomorrow…………………I’d love to hear what is your favourite/most popular present that you make for birthday parties.

Filed Under: don't look now, sewing