Today was one of those wonderful days... Symon had the day off, so we and the girls ventured into town. I was a bit sneaky and left Symon in the car with the girls while I popped into a couple of thrift shops and a fabric store and then bribed him into buying me a latte... mmmmmmmm... coffee! Anyway, after picking the boys...

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I have proof... Mandrake has gone to the other side... he has begun to sew a softie! Maybe it was the inspiration of seeing his boys sewing the other day, or the competitive side of him that wants to give everything a go. Or maybe, just maybe he has been subjected by Miss 4 to watch far too many replays of "Highschool Musical"....

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I was inspired the other day after coming across these amazing looking biscuits in my Nana's latest NZ House & Garden magazine... they are refrigerator biscuits - I love refrigerator biscuits!!! My other Nana used to make almond refrigerator biscuits when I was young. The cool thing about them is that you store the log of biscuit dough in the fridge and cut...

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Spotted this recipe in my nana's latest NZ House and Garden, and decided to give it a try... very yummy and easy to make! Basically all you do is boil a few potatoes and then dice them, put them in a bowl and add half a head of broccoli that has been blanched, chopped parsley (I didn't have any for mine), 150g of...

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I remember as a child absolutely loving being allowed to "make mixtures". My children also love doing this... although I usually make them do it outside! Miss 4 had an awesome time a couple of days ago making mixtures. She popped the different bowls in the fridge as each one was finished, and fed the bits she didn't want to the chickens. I...

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Today Symon turned into 'House Hubby' for the day while I took a First Aid course from 8:30am til 4:30pm. When I was picked up at the end of the day, I was met by a car-full of happy kids, hot pizzas and a camera diary of the girls adventures with daddy (while the boys were at school). So here are some of...

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While hanging my paisley aprons on the line, memories of my great-grandmother flooded back to me... these paisley aprons were once hers, and I am now proud to call them mine. Unlike many people, I had the privilege of growing up near, and often visiting my great-grandmother. Nandi lived 5 houses down the road from ours, and I loved going down the road...

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Just thought you'd all love to see some evidence that my husband does do "womanly household chores". The girls thought he needed a hand with hanging out the washing though... they are still training him up! ...

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Today has been one of those awesome days... catching up with good friends, eating yummy food, and being with the family. The house was tidy for once, no one was sick and there were no dramas (namely baby playing in toilet or falling off the edge of the sofa). Don't you love those days! A few months ago I had a yummy quiche...

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Two more little softies finished in the last couple of days... already gone to good homes... I must get around to trying some more styles!!! ...

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There is something about comfort food... especially on a rainy day! So, for all you comfort food lovers, I decided to take a photo of the yummy, comforting and most favourite dinner we had for tea last night... macaroni cheese with ham and breadcrumbs on top (my version anyway). So quick and easy to make... and most of the family enjoyed it! For...

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Today I was so blown away by a very thoughtful Mandrake... popping into the fabric store (now that in itself is like a fish out of water) on the way back from dropping the boys to school, to choose a few pieces of fabric on the specials table as a surprise for me. The amazing thing is that two of them I had...

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I don't know about other families, but our family life can get pretty busy. We often make time to go on outings with the kids and do fun things together as a family, but it is so easy to neglect the one-on-one relationships (parent to child). So somewhere along the way we picked up a really cool concept of "special time"... this is...

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Latest softies sewn ready for friends orders... I love the blue floral one (got that antique toy bunny look). ...

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Recently a friend mentioned to me that she had been asking God to help her have more love for other people. Not long after that, she went through quite a hard patch with a good friend, and realized that you can only truly learn to love others when they are hard to love!I started to think about parenting, and how at times it...

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Just home from spending the night in hospital with Mandrake Jr. after an asthma attack. We spent over 4 hours sitting in a room in A&E and finally got a bed for the night in the Children's Ward after 1am this morning.Boy it's hard to help the time go by with all those white walls. I wasn't prepared to stay the night so...

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I hope Mandrake doesn't mind... but I got the boys into sewing the other night.They each have a small mound of favourite soft toys that sit on their beds, and are constantly begging me to sew weird and wonderful things... so I decided to let them have a go themselves.I was quite pleasantly surprised! Son of Mandrake drew his own design, cut it...

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Okay - I just have to write this post right now, while the smell of flyspray is just about making me gag.... what is up with guys and flyspray? From a young girl (to this present day) I have memories of my dad overdoing it with bugs and flyspray... ants, flys, bees, wasps, whatever the bug, if they entered our house, everyone was...

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I am still amazed how the most simplest of things can give so much fun... like bubbles, balloons, big boxes... and paper & sticky tape.For some strange reason last night, right before bed, the kids decided to make superhero masks (and a princess crown) out of paper and tape... (big ups to Nana for her much needed creative input while visiting). ...

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Don't you love coffee art! I just discovered latte art recently, and was really impressed with some of the awesome designs people are attempting!I am not that flash personally - still struggling to get a nice creamy top on most of my latte's (thanks Alex for your tips!)... but maybe oneday I could attempt some of these!! Anyway - probably only for people...

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