Home sweet sweet sweet home

Pablo has been on a mission to get a candy cane unwrapped, under any circumstances, and he finally hit on a successful angle when he begged to build another gingerbread house ("mum! The candy canes need to be the gateway!") Last year we bought this awesome mould from Lakeland and had so much fun decorating it, so I couldn't refuse! Plus the candy canes do make a perfect gateway... This year Indy joined in too and they both took the whole thing VERY seriously, with only the occasional pretend cough to sneak a sweetie or murmur of "mmmmmMMMM!" as Indy licked yet more royal icing from her fingertips... If you can get your hands on one of these moulds from Lakeland they really are fantastic and make the whole process very easy and painless, with beautiful results. If you're feeling brave you could also just make your own templates! I added some cute little clay figures and deer from my grandmother's Christmas cake tin, and the kids decorated with sprinkles and sweeties galore, plus some glittery pumpkin seeds. 

Treasures for my troubles

What a week to run out of coffee... both kids have decided to have some kind of ill advised circadian rhythm shift and start rising at 6ish - a full hour and a half earlier than usual. Simultaneously I'm in recovery from the brunch pop up I did on Sunday (think 200 red velvet waffles, endless cauldrons of hot blueberries and bourbon syrup, very very sore feet by the end) and have been lent a lump of new Game of Thrones episodes - which means bed before half past midnight is a thing of the past. As is staying up late for valid, cool reasons...but that's another issue. It's another almost-week before the next delivery of my absolute favourite coffee, so I was powerless to refuse an invitation to join my friend Hannah for a relaxing (with two toddlers - ho ho ho) dose of caffeine at our local cafe. The cafe, Arts & Crusts, exhibits local artists and the lovely gal who served our coffee had her beautiful work up in the window - lovely, quirky embroidered vintage handkerchiefs. I might need to own one and hang it on my wall. Check out Poesie Grenadine. 

these two were my fave

sew...

I made some more moccs, for little Ivy's first birthday present. I'm getting good at these now, just need to invest in some more exciting leather. I'm also desperate to scrap the tassels and makes some little be-pompom-ed ones. It has to be done. Watch this space... ​

raspberry ripple birthday dreams

My gorgeous husband had his latest birthday on Monday, and we were under strict "no presents" instructions, so Pablo & I conjured up a home made gift of his favourite raspberry ripple ice cream and a hand-crafted card. Then I decided that if we were making ice cream we may as well make an ice cream cake (a first for me!) Our freezer is now full to bursting with raspberry ripple but Konch had a lovely birthday and we all made ourselves feel a bit sick eating too much cake. ​

the little sew and sew

I made some little moccasins for Indiana! It's my first attempt and I'm rather smug about the results. After some wrangling with the sewing machine tension it was a lot less tricky than I imagined. Going to make a zillion more pairs when I can next rustle up the time. Many thanks to my mama for helping to draw the pattern, which was loosely based on one I bought from i think sew about a year ago and have been aching to use since then.