What a great day!

I've had the best day.  Cuggles! creations are selling quite well, I'm feeling productive, Toddler Cuggles has been entertained morning and afternoon with playdates and I got some great news about a friend this afternoon.

Been busy busy lately!  Here are my new boardies for little men which are in Handmade Heaven.  Sizes 1-2 and 2 - 3 so far.

I've also delived a batch of 'Ginger Cuggles'.  Packs of 4 are $2.50.  They're like ginger snaps but with that bit of extra 'cuggliness' about them.

Meanwhile amid the mad sewing and baking I had another briliant score at one of our fav op shops yesterday.  Toddler Cuggles now has a little table for drawing and doing playdough.  (Thanks Kylie for the cinnamon scented glitter playdough, also available at Handmade Heaven).  The table needs a good sand and a coat of white paint but is solid timber, well made, a great height for a little chair and was just ten bucks.  Bargain!

What a great day!  Just finished my cuppsy so off to bed.

Hangover!!

We went to a beautiful wedding on the weekend.  The bride was gorgeous, there were butterflies released, great entertainment and plenty of Moet.  Too much Moet for this little Mummy Cuggles who normally sticks to cuppsy tea in order to sew straight at night.  Have had a hangover since Sunday, is that really possible??  If you would like to see a photo, close your eyes.... imagine a thumping in your head... and a sweet little voice pleading 'Mummy.... mummy... bickie... mummy..... drink... mummy... 'shwings'... park.... mummy..... mummy.  You get the idea.  

Meanwhile, thanks to Created By Kylie Toddler Cuggles had a playdate with Little Guy this morning and I had a heavenly couple of hours to myself to sew.  It was very productive time thanks Kylie.

Golden Cinnamon Biscuits

This biscuit recipe is SO easy I sometimes make the dough while cooking dinner.

60g butter
1/3 cup golden syrup
2 tblspns brown sugar
2 tblspns caster sugar
1 1/4 cups SR flour
3 tspns ground cinamon

Preheat oven to hot - 220 - 230 degs

Combine butter, golden syrup and sugars in medium heavy-based saucepan, stir over low heat until butter is melted, cool 5 minutes.

Stir in flour and cinnamon.  Roll rounded tspns of mixture into balls, place about 2cm apart on lightly greased oven trays, flatten with a floured fork until 1cm thick.

Bake in hot oven about 10 mins or until browned.  Stand biscuits 5 minutes before lifting onto wire racks to cool. 

Makes 30 - This is from Womens Weekly, Biscuits, Brownies & Biscotti (2003).

** I usually make double quantity of these.  You can put 1 quantity in baking paper, roll into a log, wrap again with foil and freeze.  Then when you take it out of the freezer it's really easy to slice rounds about 1cm thick and put straight into the oven so you have a fresh batch at your whim in about 10 minutes.

Bums, Bickies & Bargains

BUMS!  Fat little bums wear nappies, and sometimes you don't want the nappy to be the couture.  My very good friend and 'bestest' customer asked me to please make some nappy cover thingys for her 9 week old boy.  So, out came the butcher's paper, pens and tape measure, a couple of calico drafts then a final and bigger draft in pink gingham for my 18 month old and I'm ready to go.  So far I've cut out, finished edges and joined seams on the real ones.  Now just to do the elastic and they're done.  Here's the fabric I'm using on the right.

Bickies!  I borrowed this book from a friend, it was new and in very good condition when we left her home with it.

Then....

the wonder girl Toddler Cuggles found the book, and found a pen while I was washing up breakfast dishes.  She made a few working notes of her own.

This is the back cover.

This is the index.

She didn't stop there.  This child scaled furniture with a stealthy silence, the quiet really should have triggered my 'mummy alarm' to reach the book and same for the pen.  After drawing on every surface of our furniture and walls some time ago we had banned pens and offered pencils only but thought even they were out of reach.  Anyway, we'll be replacing the book.  Oh, and here are the result of borrowing it int he first place - Ginger and Rum BICKIES, not Cookies. : ) 

They're ok, but a bit sweet for my liking.  With 499 others to choose from in the book there's sure to be something more my taste. 

Speaking of finding things to my taste, I absolutely SCORED with my opping today.  It was the Salvo's at Bundamba that made me so happy. We got a pair of gum boots for Toddler Cuggles for 50 cents; a little Ralph Lauren dress for $4; some patterns for $1 each, including a knitting pattern for you if you're reading Liesa, Merry Xmas; a children's clothes pattern book $2 an etchascetch in good enough condition $2 and the bargain of the day?  A black sexy dress which I plan on wearing to a wedding this Saturday for.....$3 because it's Wednesday.  Tomorrow it would have been $12, and a bargain even at that.  No label but who cares, it fits and it matches shoes and bags I already own with no special stick on bra requirements or any such trivia.  Sold.  Here's some of my loot:

Well I've had my cuppsy and bath so off to brush teeth now and to bed.  So many things to do tomorrow!  Starting with scrubbing those gumboots!

Wooden Spoon not Required?

We felt like some fresh bread (ok, damper) this morning.   So we mixed with our hands......

That must have been the secret trick because it came out beautifully, and tasted even better.  Happy Friday, time for another cuppsy. : )

Xmas Day skirt - Want to win?

I know it's still only October but I have been working on a Xmas Day outfit for Toddler Cuggles (can't justify referring to her as 'baby' anymore).  I'm pretty pleased with the result of this little skirt with tutu ruffle so thought I might make some more for the Handmade Heaven shop.  Do you know any little girls that would love twirling in this?  For your chance to win something from Leisa's beautiful store have a look at her post from 2nd October - you can name your preference for the prize it will be drawn tomorrow so you better hurry! 

Baby has sleepover = Productive weekend

What a wonderfully productive weekend I've had!  Baby Cuggles had a mini holiday at Granny and Pa Cuggles house and I sewed all weekend!  Daddy Cuggles and I even managed to have a conversation or two.  It was lovely to remind ourselves that we still have the same values and have things to talk about other than how many poos the little one did today.  So, while someone else was changing nappies these are the photos of what I was doing.  A few more kid's aprons, an owl for my Cuggles! Tree and a bucket hat for a little boy.  I'm in two minds about whether to sell the tree and owl.  It needs a few more leaves so I can procrastinate until I've finished.  Now, I think I'll tiptoe into the kitchen for a well deserved cuppsy.

 

Hot Toddie Recipe for a Cold or Flu

I thought that after a week or so of no blogging I'd share the family Hot Toddie recipe.  While I have been coughing and sneezing I have still managed to make more Cuggles creations, but just haven't gotten to the blog, as I was feeling pretty.... 'blog'.

Makes 1 super duper strength hot toddie:

Put these things into a coffee mug -

Juice of one Lemon (half if you're a woos)

A tablespoon of good honey

A shot or 2 of Bundaberg rum (half if you're a woos)

Fill the rest of the mug with boiling water.

When it cools a bit, sip slowly until its all gone.

*Obviously you can leave the rum out and cool it down more if you're making this for a littlie. 

I hope it might help you if you have a cold or flu, this is my husband's late grandfather's recipe.  'Pa's Hot Toddie recipe'.  It works a treat every time for me.  I usually bat my eyelids at my hubby and ask him to make me one while I have a shower before bed.  Then I can sip away with a good book before settling down to sleep with a soothed throat and warm tummy.