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Don’t forget Daffodil Day

August 20, 2010 By corrie 9 Comments

You might have noticed the little button down there on my blog for Daffodil Day. You see, next Friday 27th August is Daffodil Day, the annual fundraiser for the Cancer Council and this year they are hoping to raise $9m. For my family it has special significance as my mum’s cancer doesn’t seem to get the message to go away. My family have asked that I not blog about it but her brave battle is never far from my thoughts. So I decided to get the message out there on this little blog of mine about the upcoming day………….

I know lots of my readers and their families and friends have been affected by cancer too, so let’s not forget. I will be donating to the cause and hope when you see someone selling merchandise that you’ll do the same! The statistics are scary and there is no cure but wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was…………..

Filed Under: cancer

worry doll whoopsie

August 19, 2010 By corrie 14 Comments

Thank you for all the birthday wishes for retro daddy! I’ll tell you about our dinner dramas when I hear back from the supermarket and food authority (it’s a bit of a gross story). Let’s just say we ended up going to our favourite sushi train and left the creamy mashed potato on the stove……….

But yesterday I enjoyed a few hours to myself in my sewing room. I now have a lovely babysitter who comes over for a few hours each week to give me a bit of time to myself. It’s heaven. So, after a quick trip to Spotlight, I came home motivated to get cracking on the cushion from Kellie’s gorgeous Worry Dolls pattern.

Selecting fabrics took me a while and then I got the hair wrong not once but twice. So overall I spent almost 1 1/2 hours just getting to this stage. I thought it was all perfect, I ironed it, I was so excited! And then I saw it……….waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I just wanted to cry…can you see what I did? I didn’t put the hair and head together properly so I’ve given her a wonky neck and you shouldn’t be able to see the change in fabrics.

So I’m thinking of giving her a turtle neck or peter pan collar to hide my whoopsie and hopefully this weekend I’ll get some free time to do the applique stitching.

Filed Under: don't look now, kellie wulfhson

I cheated on the pesto recipe

August 17, 2010 By corrie 10 Comments

Firstly, thank you for your reassurance about Tillie, I am feeling sooo normal this morning!

Last night I had the best dinner and thought I better share. I bought all the ingredients to follow a recipe for pesto but as dinner time rolled around (and kids were going nuts for dinner) I decided to just go with it. So I’m calling this my cheat’s pesto as I didn’t follow the recipe, I didn’t follow quantities, didn’t chop a thing or toast my nuts. I just made it to taste and let my blender do it for me. Have I shown you my blender? Earlier in the year I got a Kitchen Aid blender to match my kitchen aid and the dear little thing hasn’t had much of a workout but pesto put her to the test yesterday.

2 bunches of basil (roughly 2 cups and you just want the leaves)

2 garlic cloves (peeled and flattened with your knife)

about 100g pine nuts (you can toast them if you have time but I had none and was in a rush)

about 1/3 cup grated parmesan

about 3/4 cup good extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

So I just chucked in the basil leaves, garlic, pine nuts, parmesan and 1/2 the olive oil and blended. Make it as chunky or fine as you like. I made ours fine because I wanted to test it out on the kids. Then add in the rest of your oil while the motor is running and you have the consistency you’re after. Season with salt and pepper. Put in a bowl/jar and cover with a bit of oil so that it doesn’t dry out or turn brown.

This makes enough for 2 dinners so last night was just simple fettuccine with pesto and tonight I’m thinking some salmon fillets with pesto on top and some mashed potatoes (comfort food here we come). I don’t know that I’ll do PW mashed potatoes which are the ultimate comfort food with cream, cream cheese and butter……….

Filed Under: dinners, kitchen aid, recipe, vegetarian

Kidspot Top 50 Bloggers

August 16, 2010 By corrie 3 Comments

How exciting for little old me to be nominated as one of Kidspot’s Top 50 Bloggers! There are some big names in the list there so it’s exciting times…..and you can vote for me too. Oh dear, I’m no good at these popularity contests or asking you for things, but if you’d like to vote for me then I’ll love you forever and ever and ever!

Image from here

Ok, well I love you all anyway but you get the picture…………

Filed Under: kidspot top 50 blogger

and more hexagons

August 16, 2010 By corrie 9 Comments

Oh I think I have my sew-jo back! I finished these two hexagon flowers over the weekend and am feeling pretty proud of myself for getting back on the hexagon wagon. I used 2 inch hexagon papers from here and some bliss charm squares for these ones………

And here is a reminder of what I’m working towards from Rosalie Quinlan’s ‘A Stitch in Time’…….

Yep, I have a long way to go but am enjoying the ride…………….

Filed Under: hexagons, quilting

I love sundays + hexagons

August 15, 2010 By corrie 17 Comments

Oh I do love a good Sunday. We had church this morning and Keira was so excited to be going to children’s liturgy now that is has started at our church again……and talk about being a good girl. She sat in the front row, did a beautiful sign of the cross, tried to copy the prayers and put up her hand to answer a question (I just couldn’t believe this because she was with much bigger primary schoolers). Oh so proud of her and she got so much out of it so yay to my church for bringing back children’s liturgy.

And it was such a gorgeous day that retro daddy decided to take us all out to lunch!

And this is why you should always keep your camera in your handbag………to capture sweet moments like this. Talk about twin love….they were just so cute sharing the same glass of water. Like little love birds.

And they knew it……………………….but then the weather turned pretty nasty on us so ice-cream plans were cancelled and we had to race to the car to escape the sudden wind, rain and sand blowing around everywhere. I guess spring hasn’t really arrived in Sydney yet! But I did manage a bit of sewing when we got home.

Last night I was very inspired by this lovely blog to pull out some hexagon papers and cute fabrics and start making things for the baby. The baby that is due to arrive in less than 2 months!!! Normally I would be so much more organised but I just have too much on and am also really missing my craft at the moment!

It was just so nice to plug in my machine and do a bit of sewing, it has been way too long. I used a blanket stitch and am just loving the finished onesie….so one thing made for the new baby! Hope you had a lovely Sunday too……

Filed Under: hexagons, japanese fabrics, sewing, sundays

cookie love

August 13, 2010 By corrie 18 Comments

I want, I want, I want. Liss kindly made some of these cute cookies for the twinnie’s birthday and I just want her cookie cutters…………..who doesn’t want cookie cutters that you can personalise. Oh the possibilities.

Unfortunately (or fortunately if your name is retro daddy) they don’t post to Australia………….but I’m thinking retro mummy cookies, christmas, birthdays, anniversaries and just because cookies.

Filed Under: baking

paris hilton meets legally blonde

August 13, 2010 By corrie 9 Comments

Life is a fashion parade for this girl and I must admit I don’t help the situation! When I saw this outfit on gymboree I had to get it for my Keira since she heads off to school next year. I mean look at her……how could you not shower this little model with new clothes.

It’s just so preppy and cute and she adores it. She quickly found matching shoes and sunglasses to complete the look.

And as you know with this model of mine, we have no problems posing for the camera but she always manages to squeeze a silly face in….here is today’s special!

Oh she does make us laugh! This morning she gave Finnie a boost up into the car and I said thank you and she quickly replied ‘Glad to help you out, mummy’.

Filed Under: camera, gymboree

Win a Panasonic Lumix G2 Digital Camera

August 10, 2010 By corrie 232 Comments

Sponsored by Nuffnang

The very kind people at Panasonic have given me the Panasonic Lumix G2 digital camera to review here on my little blog. But it gets better because you can win one of these cameras too!! And a funny thing happened because I saw the tv commercial and had a giggle just the night before I was asked to review the camera (cue twilight zone music). Mind you, I feel a little guilty because my Dad is the camera guru in our family, he selects and buys all of my cameras and would have loved to do this review for me. Sorry, Dad.

My first impression is that the G2 looks and feels like a SLR. In fact, I kept re-checking the box to see if I had missed something. But it’s a compact digital camera with interchangeable lenses, loaded with lots of features you’d expect to find on a bigger camera. It’s aimed at sitting nicely between a point & shoot and SLR and means you don’t need all the technical knowledge and experience you would normally need to use a SLR to take amazing photos. It also comes in a choice of 3 colours – black, red and blue. Oh, they must have had me in mind when they designed this one!

So of course after opening up the box, I read the manual cover to cover. Well no, I didn’t actually (does anyone?) but I covered all the essentials and my favourite functions, charged up the battery and put on the lens. For my technical readers out there, this model comes with a 14-42 lens which is Micro Four Thirds standard. My Dad informs me that Panasonic and Olympus developed this together and several manufacturers make lenses to fit. The G2 will also take the bigger Four Thirds lenses with an adapter, perfect if you already have lenses at home for your SLR.

So what do I love about the G2? Well, I love the touch screen and scrolling through options and images. It makes using a camera so easy when you can touch the screen to tell it what to do. You can even find your subject and use the touch screen to focus on it, and if the subject moves (let’s just say my children) then the focus box moves with it. Too easy.

And everyone in the house loves the HD movie and playback feature. No need to lug around your video camera anymore. Hours of entertainment if you have little people because all they want to do is perform then race around to the back of the camera and watch the performance. The quality and sound is amazing so you can record your little person singing, dancing and carrying on like a little diva. Oh no wait, that’s my child who does that. ……meet Keira.

Another feature I love is the intellegent auto (iA) function – if you press the little red button it will automatically adjust everything for you. I’m talking about all that technical stuff like light, shutter speed and focus to give you professional photos. I need this feature as I’m totally clueless in that department and if you’re like me you’ll love that too. Yes, I own a big DSLR but I am strictly an auto funtion kind of girl. And to prove it, all of the photos in this post have been taken using this function. If you know what you’re doing then you will love the camera as there are loads of modes including a manual mode where you can adjust all the settings yourself.

And I love the art functions, there is a little button that looks like an easel and brush and you can select a range of art features like black & white and pop art. This is a really fun feature for bloggers because you can play around with photos for your blog. My favourite so far is the black and white.

The overall photo quality is fabulous. I honestly keep thinking I’m using my SLR when I’m not. For me this camera is perfect for us bloggers and keen photographers who want their photos to look fabulous and professional but are daunted by the move to a bigger camera. It’s nice and compact too so you’re not lugging a big camera around either when you’re on the go.

And while we’re talking cameras and photos here are my top 5 photography tips:

– Remember the rule of thirds – my Dad taught me this one many years ago and it really makes your photos look oh so professional. Divide your frame into 3 and keep your subject on the right or left third rather than smack bang in the middle. You’ll see this is done everywhere in photos, on tv and in movies.

– Natural light is your best friend. I take almost all of my photos in daylight, I just love the natural look that daylight gives you.

– Don’t be afraid to take lots of photos – you can just delete them if you’re not happy with them and it means you have lots to choose from and don’t come home disappointed. For example, on Sunday I took 100 photos at the park and later at lunch. It gave me plenty of options when it was time to load them up to my computer that night.

– get to know your macro function – that would be the little tulip icon on your camera. It allows you to focus on a subject close up and is one of my most used camera functions especially with my craft projects.

– And lastly, use an editing tool. I use picnik on flickr to crop, resize, take out something that I don’t like and add cute text to my photos. It’s another way to make your photos look professional and add something special to your blog. It’s a lot of fun!

So I love this camera and guess what – you can win one too! Yay! You know I love a giveaway and I think this is the best I’ve seen in blogland! A big thank you to Panasonic and Nuffnang as this camera retails for $1299, making this a very generous giveaway! Just answer this question: How would the G Series camera make you a better photographer?

You can comment here on my blog at this post OR on the nuffnang blog. Either way your entry goes into the big draw to win a brand new G2 for yourself. Please be sure to include your name and email address so that Nuffnang can contact the winner! Full terms and conditions of the giveaway are available on the nuffnang blog too. Good luck, I’ll be secretly hoping one of my lovely readers wins…..

I know you’ll love this camera as much as I do. And if you don’t win, make sure it’s on your shopping list/Christmas list/wish list…..you’re going to see lots more photos on this blog as we become best buddies. Got a question about the camera, just ask………….Please pretty please don’t forget to include your email address in your comment!

Filed Under: panasonic G2

Shop 4 Kids

August 10, 2010 By corrie 13 Comments

Oh what an unglamorous morning….it went something like this. Take all 3 to the doctors – Tillie for her constipation (now I have to tell you this just to show you how unglamorous it was) and Keira for her tummy rash. Finn goes nuts because he can’t eat crackers in the dr’s room and then the dr pretends to tell him off which makes Finn turn into a wimpering mess and need lots of cuddles and reassurance. Ok, next stop newsagency where Finn screams at the top of his lungs to get out of the pram and go through all of the birthday cards (read pull every card out of the display), make a quick exit. Sushi shop where Finn jumps out of pram, loses a shoe and screams out for sushi. Next stop post office, which is bad enough just getting through with a twin mountain buggy and the obstacle course they create with silly cardboard displays and storage units randomly dotted all over the store. Wait in line…right next to 3D Disney books, everyone goes nuts, avocado gets thrown out of pram onto floor with everyone’s sushi wrappers, give in and give them a book and then when we finally get served Keira announces at the top of her voice ‘I’m having an unlucky day mummy’ stamps her foot and crosses her arms and proceeds to tell me ‘ You are NOT coming to my birthday party, mummy’ and in case anyone didn’t hear it (but of course they did because they are all laughing) she says it again! I do my best fake smile to the guy behind the counter and get out of there.

No groceries that I needed and straight to the car at which point I turn around in the car and tell everyone to say goodbye to the mall and that they are never, ever coming back again. No more donuts, no more sushi at the mall and no more treats. Of course I can’t keep that promise and the twins just sucked on their thumbs and stared at me but it was enough to get keira to apologise and ask for a hug!

And so after all of that, I came home to find I had 3 little pieces of fabric in the latest Shop 4 Kids magazine! I love Shop 4 Kids and have been a regular reader since it was first launched! It’s such a great mag full of lovely ideas (read new places to spend money) and I look forward to it – my only wish is they published it more often. I keep every issue and just adore it.

So I’m thrilled to have some fabric in there…I’m down to fat quarters of some of those fabrics but with 60 bolts of new fabrics set to start arriving next month I’m sure there will be something for everyone who pops over to my website from the magazine. And being in Shop 4 Kids has totally cancelled out my nightmare morning!

Ok and a couple of double chocolate cookies…..I totally needed those!

Filed Under: magazines, parenting, retro mummy, shop 4 kids, store

slowing down

August 9, 2010 By corrie 10 Comments

The most popular question at the moment is when am I slowing down……….and trust me I’m working on it! Retro Daddy is hanging out for a home weekend with nothing to do, the vegetables at the back of my crisper have seen better days and I am about to start a major declutter to swap bedrooms around and get the house ready for the baby. And let’s not forget that this little baby needs a pram and a few essentials before she arrives in October. And if you’re waiting on an email from me, an order from last week or a giveaway prize it’s coming this week……..trust me I’m in catch up mode after a few very busy weeks.

And hopefully things will slow down now that my markets are behind me for a while. And can you notice anything wrong with this picture – well there are a few things! Firstly, I sent everyone off in the morning yesterday with shoes and socks but they came to pick me up in sandals – how very summery, retro daddy. Then we have keira’s hair which escaped a hair brush that morning. And then there is Finn’s head which required glueing on Saturday – I’ll never forget the call from retro daddy. Don’t panic but I’m at the hospital with Finn – who took a tumble down the front stairs.

I should point out they are the same stairs he does about 4+ times a day without a problem. Anyway, we spent 4 hours for observation in which time he ate 2 sandwiches and 2 biscuits, showed off by counting forwards and backwards on his own and reassured us that he was back to his normal self.

And now I have to share this little video of keira I made yesterday – my new camera (more on that coming this week) records video and it’s all she wants me to record these days. And once I start the singing and dancing starts……

And in a step to slow down, I have a couple of sponsored blog posts coming up this week which are all written and ready to go, which means I can take a little break from blog writing for a week, catch up at home, reply to lots of emails and do some craft (oh yay). Hope you enjoy the reviews coming up, we had some fun doing them!

Filed Under: pregnancy

another lovely mathilda’s

August 8, 2010 By corrie 11 Comments

Well, I’m recovering from another lovely Mathilda’s Market. I love the venue at Riverview, it’s easy to set up as a stallholder, there is plenty of parking and plenty of space once you’re inside. The early start can be a challenge when you have to get everyone ready but we always get there……my alarm was set for 5.30am and I gave myself an hour to get myself ready, 3 little people dressed and out to the car and retro daddy enough time to load up the car (there is no way I could do markets without my big strong man).

I was working solo today but had the lovely Liss next door who kept offering me her homemade orio’s (oh yum) and letting me take bathroom breaks and use her eftpos! What a lovely buddy to be next to and the kind people on the other side offered me their seat but I assured them I wouldn’t have time to sit down – and I didn’t! And a big thank you to Sheridan who popped over at just the right time before the market started so I could take a bathroom break!

The day just flew by and I was so busy. I even had to take a second to make sure the baby was moving around…I always get a little worried if I don’t get those reassuring kicks. Then ‘Careless Whisper’ by george michael came on and all of a sudden I got lots of kicks —mmmmm interesting song choice, baby. Anyway, it was a great day, and at about 12.30 I at last got the time to grab a lemonade and another bathroom break (yes there were several!)

I love the familiar faces of stallholders, customers and lots of new faces who pop along to come and say hi and check out my stall…..lovely to meet blog readers face to face (waves to you all) and know that I’m not talking to myself! And how cute are all these little babies who went home with my hats…….thank you so much Liss for taking all these photos for me….so many cuties…….

One lovely reader Jenny dropped off a bag of baby knitting books which I can’t wait to start using. Thank you so much!

And before I knew it, the day was over! It was 1pm and retro daddy came in with my little ones to pick me up.

It was also great to see one of my twin mummy buddies at her first market stall, her range was just gorgeous and I’m so proud of you kelly for being there and launching your range!

here’s another happy baby…………

So thank you Mathilda’s, thank you lovely customers, thank you to the lovely people who helped me get through the day and I’ll see you at a market later in the year once I have a baby in my arms!

Filed Under: markets

Don’t Look Now Workshop Part II

August 6, 2010 By corrie 10 Comments

Well I’m getting there, I’ve meaning to post the rest of the photos of our fabulous quilting weekend all week so here you go. No, wait, I think I still have a Part III post to come. The weekend was so fabulous I’m hoping Kellie will be coming up twice next year to teach again for me! And trust me I need all the practice I can get. First up, I had to share this funny photo of Sheridan and Cath – just proving that we weren’t heads down all day…..

and here was our youngest visitor, Noah, the grandson of Janet. I made a very special exception for him to come along so that Janet could attend. What a little angel and so well behaved! Finn kept trying to steal his cookie monster toy and loved it so much that we had to let him take it down the car, swap a toy and take it off him and I’d bring it up to the room!

I think the best thing I got from the weekend was how to use my machine more effectively for free motion. I mastered the knee lift and also realised I was using the wrong quilting gloves. Kellie actually uses Ansell Hyflex gloves which come from the supermarket NOT your local quilting store. Two of our lovely students who are engineers ‘borrowed’ some from their work (shhhhhhhhhhh) and they were fabulous! Very industrial looking in black and grey but if you’re in the market for some serious quilting gloves at a not so serious price then check out here.

And what about Amelia’s work, she was quite the star student with her applique………unlike yours truly who was going off onto the muslin then in too far onto the leaf, then back onto the muslin. Think about it, you are appliquing with the feed dogs down and trying to do flowers and leaves…not easy….

and how about Janet’s machine…….very impressive. A little scary and that’s just the price..

and let’s not forget Kellie’s gorgeous work. To see it all close up and be able to admire it is really something. And then when you actually try your hand at it and realise how hard it is….well let’s keep admiring. This is my favourite of Kellie’s quilts, called Meg’s Garden

and I love these smaller projects……..I’ll be sticking to cushions for the time being

And here is something Kellie’s working on at the moment, her Lilly Pilly pattern which uses needle turn applique. I love that this one is on linen, it’s just so pretty.

more photos coming next week………..

Filed Under: don't look now, kellie wulfhson, quilting, store

thank you and see you at mathilda’s

August 5, 2010 By corrie 8 Comments

Firstly, thank you for all of the birthday wishes! The twins had a great day eating their beloved chippies for lunch and sushi train for dinner. We did a little cake at home, normally I would make it but I have been flat out so I cheated. Retro Daddy is keeping miss tillie’s hands away from the candles as she just wanted to touch them. We had high hopes they’d go straight into their big beds with lots of excitement and instead they fell asleep snuggled together in one of the big beds…oh it was too cute. I guess we’re transitioning!

And life is just going too quickly for me at the moment (for example I just put my first load of washing for the day on at 7.30pm)! I have been recovering from the Don’t Look Now workshop (photos coming later), am teaching crochet this Saturday and still have to test my patterns (it would be a good idea to do this I think) and am also at Mathilda’s market this Sunday.

Retro Daddy has me under strict instructions to clear out lots of fabrics so I have big baskets of fat quarters, lots of charm squares and jelly rolls, lots of new patterns and my usual handmade things! I’m on the far side of the hall so be sure to drop by. I’m also next to this lovely lady which is too handy because it means I’ll be able to go to the bathroom during the market. Phew that’s a relief…..1 pregnant lady + a 5 hour market + no toilet breaks = uncomfortable!

Filed Under: market, twins

at the dentist!

August 3, 2010 By corrie 8 Comments

This girl makes me laugh….honestly she does. Today we had to go back to the dentist so they could ‘paint’ two of her back teeth which have some deep ridges and might attract cavities in the future. Anything preventative is worth it in my books.

I was a little nervous how miss keira would go but talk about being as cool as a cucumber. She had tubes and instruments in her mouth for half an hour and was a doll. She didn’t make a fuss, a noise, a movement or anything. I kept thinking ‘oh my this must be so scary for her’ but she just went along with it and did everything that was asked of her.

I was very proud of her………and like mother like daughter….here she is so busy chatting to everyone in the room before we started! Too funny!

And I’m glad the hair police weren’t out in force! I had spent so long on her hair this morning as she changed her mind about what she wanted done but in between the car and waiting room it was all over the shop, so I had to redo it without a brush! In a word messy!

And so that was keira’s first bit of dental work and we survived!!!!!!!!!! And lets hope we can stick to our regular check ups from now on………

Filed Under: parenting