The Week That Was

I have been a little under the weather of late, thus explaining my short absence from the lovely blogging sphere...
But while I have been somewhat quiet with my writing, my hands have not been idle, for there is always something to be done, sewn or baked, and today I find myself pretty tired after quite a busy week...

Let me give a you a glimpse life lately...

Whilst watching Sense and Sensibility again in the evenings, I embroidered a few leaves onto the new patchwork cushion I am stitching...
I dearly love the story of Sense and Sensibility, but I have come to realise I prefer the 2009 BBC adaption...how about you?

We began our week with these lovely gourmet burgers!  Hmmm...how good they were!  

 Autumn has offically arrived, and I rejoice in the cooler weather which we should hopefully experience soon!  Look how beautifully these kale seedlings are growing!

...A busy week for stitching...
I am going away in April, and thus have to ensure I have enough stock to see me through the markets, which my sweet sister has kindly agreed to do for me during my absence...


I have sadly neglected Heartmade's blog as well lately, but I intend to share some of my new creations in the upcoming week!  Here is a new Miss Lettice I made this week...

Easter is near at hand and we have begun our Easter craftting!

  Do stay tuned for a craft tutorial post coming within the next few days or so!

 
Then there was some lovely baking... 
My mom and I had lovely Honey and Muesli muffins at a coffee shop last week, and we enjoyed them so much that we decided to try them ourselves!
Recipe coming very soon!

 ...With all the eggs we have been using for our crafting recently, we have been able to enjoy using them in our kitchen more regularly too!  And lots of eggs means French toast, does it not...?

~

Oh, and I have some lovely news to share...  Our two little hens, Ethel and Edith (my younger sisters named them, in case you are wondering...) have begun to lay eggs for us! 
Of course their eggs are still very small, but how exciting, for these hens are the daughters of Sybil, one of our original hens who surprised with a clutch of chicks last spring.

We have had such warm weather lately...  Miss Rebekah cuddles her guinea pig, Hot Cross Bun outside...

How was your week, dear friends...?

Sunday Afternoon Tea

I love the idea of tea on a Sunday afternoon...  The clinking of pretty tea cups, lively chatter from sweet family members and the smell of a freshly baked cake, all make for a charming and delicious atmosphere of enjoyment...

This morning I thought I would put my skills (and patience) to the test and conjure up a lovely looking lemon meringue pie for our Sunday afternoon tea...

 Recipe to follow...

Shortcrust Pastry

250g all-purpose flour

½ tsp salt

125g butter, chilled and cut into cubes

2 egg yolks, beaten

1 ½ - 2 tbsp cold water

1.  Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.  Sift flour and salt into a large bowl. 

2.  Add butter and rub together using fingertips until mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.

3.  Add egg yolks and water and mix through by hand.  Gently knead until a smooth ball forms.  Do not overwork the pastry.

4.  Shape into a disc and wrap in clingfilm.  Refrigerate for 20 minutes.

5.  Dust surface with flour and roll out dough until 3mm thick.  Wrap pastry around a rolling pin and transfer to tart tin.  Press tightly the corners and trim off excess pastry.

6.  Dock the base of the pastry with a fork.  Place in the fridge for 15 minutes to rest.

7.  Cover pastry with a sheet of baking paper and fill either with ceramic baking beans, dry beans or rice.

8.  Bake for 10-15 minutes or until the pastry has set.  Remove the beans and baking paper and return tart shell to the oven for 5 minutes or until the base is golden.

Makes 1 x 24cm tart shell or 4 x 10cm tart shells.

Lemon Meringue Pie

For the Filling:

1 x 385g tin condensed milk

3 egg yolks

Juice and zest of 2 large lemons

For the topping:

3 egg whites

110g castor sugar

1.  Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.  In a bowl, mix condensed milk, egg yolks, lemon juice and zest until well combined.

2.  Pour lemon mixture into a prepared pastry shell and bake for 7 minutes.  Remove and allow to cool.

3.  Reduce heat to 150 degrees Celsius.  To make the meringue topping, whisk egg whites until soft peak stage.  Slowly add sugar and continue to beat until thick and glossy.

4.  Spoon dollops of meringue mixture onto baked lemon filling, return to oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until meringue is set and golden brown.

Hmmm...  Perfect!

What family traditions do you enjoy on a Sunday?

Linking up to:

~ She is like merchant ships, bringing her food from afar ~

Our Week in Pictures #3

I really cannot believe another week has passed and it is time to show you what we did this week again!  It is now only four weeks till New Baby is due – it seems too close to believe.  We had quite a productive week cleaning up and organizing a new routine for school and chores and I think it will work much better.  But, now for our week pictures:

I prepared a really yummy lunch of spinach and cheese muffins with a garnish of tomato, red cabbage, olives, avocado pear and red cabbage.  Everybody loved these and you can find the recipe here.

Gabrielle and Rebekah played together and were really very cute!

I sorted out our courtyard garden for my mother.  It really looks lovely now!  You can read more about it here.

We visited friends for supper and the girls played with ball guns – it kept them busy for most of the evening, phew!

I love this picture.

I discovered some more amazing and beautiful flowers...

The sky and the clouds were incredible early one morning!  We now find with the sun rising earlier and the weather being warmer, everyone (almost) is up and awake at about 6am or 6:30am when Dad usually leaves for work.

We also organized...

...And sorted out the schoolroom/Nancy and my bedroom.  It looks really nice now and it is going to be wonderful working in there.  However, a ready hand needs to be kept on it so I am ‘in charge’ of doing a quick clean up at the end of the day.  We moved our sewing table and sewing things into our room too, so now I can sew at night and not bother anybody (or be bothered...:)

We did ‘Time for Tots’…

…And acted cute! The tots and I made paper bag kites and you can read more about it here.

Oh, and by the way their ‘Mouse’s favourite book of the week’ is ‘The Most Precious Thing’. Little Bear finds a beautiful blue stone one morning and says she is sure this stone is the most precious thing in the whole world, but Mommy Bear says there is an even more precious thing than that beautiful blue stone! It takes Little Bear a long time to search for it, but eventually finds out what the most precious thing is…!

I read a few more of the Chronicles of Narnia books this week when it was afternoon naptime. I really enjoy the peace and quiet of naptime and when you’re really tired, it comes as such a pleasure!

Days Till Our New Baby Brother/Sister is Born!!!

How was YOUR week? What did YOU do/achieve?

Blessings for the week ahead,

Kelly-Anne

Our Week in Pictures – #2

Hi everyone! We experienced many long and rainy days this week which put rather a damper on all the fun things we had planned to do! At least one lovely thing happened this week, and fortunately the weather played along – we celebrated the first of spring!

Here is our week in pictures:

We celebrated the first of September which inspired me to step outside and take a few shots of flowers {I love this picture so much!}.

I {Finally} finished my drawstring bag!  I love it so much, even though it did take hard work, patience and a whole lot of perseverance!

{The adorable Three Blind Mice: Gabrielle age four, Beth age seven and Rebekah age two.}

Our ‘Mouse’s Favourite Book of the Week’ is ‘The Sleepy Dormouse’ by Mark Ezra. I’ll leave you to find out what it’s about!

Gabrielle loved Snowflake, the farm’s old mare.  Don’t you just love the ‘moodiness’ of this picture?

My barley grew some more...

...And so did my beetroot. {Coming soon}.

Beth also loved the horses...isn’t she too cute with her new haircut?

Sensational Sewing Challenge #2 was posted – ‘Accessories’ is the new theme! You can enter HERE.

I read the following books this week while listening to the rain drumming on the roof:

The Indian Captive by Lois Lenski

The Railway Children by E. Nesbit

Prince Caspian by CS Lewis

Horrible weather meant no tot school :-( It was just ‘one of those’ weeks, but hopefully the next one will be better!

My resolutions for the week are a) to be more cheerful, b) to do Time for Tots, despite the weather, c) to finish another bag I’ve started :D

Exciting bit of News: Cocoa, Beth’s guinea pig had three more babies: Snap, Crackle and Pop.

How was YOUR week? What is the weather like where YOU live? Do YOU have any exciting news or resolutions for the week? Please leave me a comment below!

Blessings for the week ahead,

Kelly-Anne

My Week in Pictures - #1

Hello everyone, what a busy week our family had! I meant to do some more posts over the weekend, but we ran out of bandwidth, so we have just enjoyed a few days of ‘isolation’!

Here is what we did this week:

Nancy blew bubbles for the Three Blind Mice (Beth, Gabrielle and Rebekah).

We read stories.

Our ‘Mouse’s Favourite Book of the Week’ is ‘A Song for Jamela’ by Niki Daly. What an adorable story about Jamela and famous ‘Afro Idol’ Miss Bambi Chaka Chaka. When Miss Chaka Chaka comes to Aunt Beauty’s Hair Salon, young Jamela is asked to help...unfortunately something dreadful happens and Aunt Beauty makes a terrible mistake! Will Jamela be able help fix the problem without Miss Chaka Chaka noticing?

The younger girls also played a lot.

And helped me water the carrot patch! (Coming soon!)

We did ‘Time for Tots’ and made these adorable caterpillars!  Read more here.

Beth, Gabrielle and Nancy helped me make some ‘Time for Tots’ buttons using powder paint and the bathroom window!  They made handprints, I took the pictures and Nancy held up the background which was a white sheet...they turned out pretty well, what do you think?  Now all you have to do is right click on the image, ‘save as’ and use it as a picture on your side-bar so that you can show others you are a tot school lover!

We visited dear friends for tea...Nancy and Mom made a big lemon meringue pie for this occasion.

I spent the entire afternoon on a walk to take pictures of their amazing farm (coming soon).  Despite the fact that I shocked myself on the fence trying to take a picture of Miss Apple Pie (the cute pig:-), I thoroughly enjoyed myself and had a very relaxing time lying on the grass and doing...um...nothing...!

Don’t you love Beth’s new hairstyle? Freshly cut during the week and I think she looks more ‘Beth’ than ever!

I also read the following books this week:

What Katy Did

What Katy Did at School

And What Katy Did Next by Susan M. Coolidge

I’m no good at keeping resolutions, but here are a few random things I’d like to do/achieve in the week ahead:

Finish my ‘pouch style drawstring bag’ that is – oh, so trying my patience!

Post my #2 Sensational Sewing Challenge!

Take photos of baby guinea pigs that are leaving for the pet shop next week.

Be kind, loving, patient, gentle, self-controlled, etc, etc :D

Exciting Bit of News – six more weeks till new baby is born!!

What was YOUR week like? What did YOU achieve this week and what are your resolutions for the week ahead? Do YOU have an exciting bit of news? Please leave me a comment below!

Blessings for the week ahead,

Kelly-Anne

Time for Tots – Activity #12

Hello everyone!  It is time again for me to share my weekly tot activity with you!  But first I would like to show you all.......

...My new Tot School Sidebar buttons! These two adorable buttons are for you – they are for your blog’s sidebar. You can use either one of these buttons, top or bottom, if you want to – just right click on the picture and ‘save as’. Then you can upload it as a picture onto your blog if you would like to show off my ‘Time for Tots Link Up Party’ every week! The very top one is for your tot activity ideas so don’t forget to use it in your blog post for the link-up party! Read more here.

But now onto my weekly activity and that activity is...

Recycled Egg Box Caterpillars made in six fun and easy steps!

What you need:

A big egg box, cut into strips
Different coloured powder paints
Cold glue
Pipe cleaners of any colour, each one cut into three equal pieces
Googly eyes
Funky ribbon (optional)
Aprons for the tots and you!
Newspaper laid over the table

Step 1:  First paint the egg box strip your desired colours (be careful not put too much paint on your caterpillar or else it will become soggy and break!)

Paint it any way you like – plain green or multi-coloured to make it fancy!

Take your time to give it the finishing touches of an artist.

Step 2: ...Take a break at snack time to wait for your soggy caterpillars to dry in the sun...

...Read a story or two...

Step 3:  Using an awl, poke a hole through your caterpillar’s body for his/her legs.

Step 4:  Bend the pipe cleaners a little once putting them through the holes.

“It’s hard work”!  Rebekah age 2.

The legs should look like this underneath.

Step 5:  Poke another two holes on your friend’s (the caterpillar, that is) head.  Thread the pipe cleaner piece through to make feelers.

Step 6:  Glue two googly eyes onto your caterpillar’s face.

You’re done! Tie a bow in your favourite ribbon if you want to and give him/her a bow-tie!

Three gorgeous caterpillars made by the tots – Beth age seven, Gabrielle age four and Rebekah age two – Supervised by me, age fourteen:D

Go here to see the rest of my tot activities and those of others! I would love to see yours, too, so start linking up using your blog or email! The link up party is open all year!

‘To the tots’,

Kelly-Anne