Face Painting

So with the weather being miserable here again we have been trying to find things to keep us occupied indoors. While I was doing my make-up the other day Miss Olivia asked to get hers done too and this is what I came up with:

Not my best work but she love it! Since then we have been experimenting with actual face paints which come off MUCH easier and are easier to work with.

Miss Naomi even got a little flower

and I got a snake

This is a great little activity to do at home to make your kiddies feel extra special and you can do it with stuff you already have at home or buy a cheap set of face-paints from a dollar shop. Olivia just loves it if we go out later in the day and people comment on it!

Public Breastfeeding

There are HEAPS of groups around who's main aim is supporting women in breastfeeding and campaigning for acceptance of women breast feeding in public. But seriously who has a problem with women breastfeeding in public?

I have breast fed everywhere schools, shopping centres, cafes, benches, playgrounds, national parks, public pools, the beach and never once received a negative comment. Surely these people with a problem are in the minority? So I used my facebook page to ask “Does anyone actually have a problem with breastfeeding in public?” Out of the thirty-five responses I received only one person that said they disagree with public breastfeeding. Interesting side note: this person does not have children and works in hospitality. I know that if I'm out and about and bub needs a feed I will stop at a cafe or restaurant and eat or get a drink while I nurse. My assumption is she has developed a negative attitude towards it as she has been caught up in the middle of a dispute within a restaurant where someone complained about someone else breastfeeding or maybe copped a eyeful when a baby has pulled off unexpectedly. That happens to everyone right? Not just me? Anyway she went on to say when she has children she will express and bottle feed. I really wanted to say 'yeaaahh riiighht!' This is waaay easier said then done! Not only does bottle feeding have the potential to cause nipple confusion but expressing is HARD WORK! I work one day a week and I STRUGGLE not only to pump enough, but to find time to pump enough! Good luck finding the time to pump every time you need to leave the house!

A few people said they feel uncomfortable with breastfeeding in public, which I get. I feel uncomfortable watching it as well and I do it myself. So I don't watch it duhhh? Common sense? I don't think anyone feels as uncomfortable as the woman with her boob out. If I can speak on breast feeding mothers behalves for a moment. There is no way in hell we would be sitting in the middle of a shopping centre, busy street, restaurant etc with our boob out if we didn't need to feed our child.

As for nursing in mothers rooms provided at shopping centers, its GREAT they provide them but at the same time that's where mothers take there toddlers to change there poo-ey nappies. Who wants to sit in there smelling that? And if you have other kids its not much fun for them. Having two children, I would personally much prefer to go and sit near one of the indoor play grounds for children or get some food somewhere to keep my eldest occupied while I nurse baby.

One negative response out of thirty-five kinda makes me think there is a lot of media hype over this for nothing? Or people are harbouring negative views but know they will be ridiculed if they publicly voice them so they keep them to themselves.

Just my thoughts. What are yours?  

Quick Easy Lunch

Here is a recipe I use all the time as an easy lunch for me and my Miss three to get some extra veggies into her! She loves it and so do I.

Ingredients:
cherry tomatoes
onion, chopped
baby spinach
boiled, cubed pumpkin
olive oil
salt
pepper
milk
parmesan cheese

1. Chuck some cherry tomatoes onion spinach n pumpkin (i used some boiled pumpkin i had for the baby) into a baking dish with olive oil salt and pepper and stir.

2. Bake on 180 degrees untill the tomatoes r cooked

3. Whisk some eggs with a tiny bit of milk salt pepper n parma cheese poor over the top of the vegetables.

4 Sprinkle with parma cheese and bake until the egg is cooked.

I make this all the time with left over veggies capsicum, zuccini, potato, whatever! We don't eat meat but you could add bacon or chicken as well. Super easy, super quick and super yummy!

:-)

Ladies Night

So.. the other night I had a much needed girls night with my beautiful sister and sister-in-law. We began the night with the intention of having yummy strawberry daiquiris

Ingredients:

Strawberries

Lime juice

Ice

Sugar syrup

White rum

(The amount of each ingredient depends on your personal taste and the sweetness of the strawberries you are using).

1. Dip rim of cocktail glasses into water then into sugar
2. Blend ingredients together to form a 'slushy' consistency
3. Poor into cocktail glasses

But we found that with only 2 punnets of strawberries between the three of us the daquiris didn't last long... So we rustled up the ingredients for some banana daquiris

Ingredients:

Banana

Ice

Sugar syrup

White rum

Vanilla Galliano

1. Dip rim of cocktail glasses into water then into sugar
2. Blend ingredients together to form a 'slushy' consistency
3. Poor into cocktail glasses

and some mojitos

Ingredients:

Lime

Ice

White rum

Sugar syrup

1. Dip rim of cocktail glasses into water then into sugar
2. Blend ingredients together to form a 'slushy' consistency
3. Poor into cocktail glasses

If you have a great (easy) cocktail recipe please share!!

Coconut Rough

Ok so I know Easter was months ago now but our kids got absolutely spoiled and we still had a HEAP of Easter eggs tucked into the back of our cupboard. Sound familiar? I don't really like the taste of Easter eggs and my husband doesn't really like chocolate (crazy eh?) so I thought I would make them more appealing by making coconut rough.

Miss three and I unwrapped all our eggs and smashed them up. Which was very therapeutic I must say!

Then I melted them down by sitting the bowl of chocolate over a saucepan of water on the stove.

Next we added in coconut. Its really up to you as to how much but I added HEAPS I love coconut!

Then we poured it all into a slice tray lined with baking paper and put it in the fridge to set.

Once it had hardened we chopped it up into squares.

You could also add nuts, fruit, jelly beans, marshmallows or whatever else you can think of.

Yum yum! Enjoy :-)

Making Paper

Hi guys,

This past week the weather has been totally GROSS! Cold and rainy so we have been indoors all week chatting, baking, playing, snuggling and doing craft. Our favourite activity was making paper!

Here's how its done

You will need:

• water
• paper
• scissors
• blender 
• tray
• photo frame
• mesh fabric
• sticky tape
• sponge
• towel
• patience!

1. Cut up lots of scrap paper into small pieces. We used catalogs, reciepts and scaps of paper of other coloured paper from previous craft activities.

2. Place paper in a blender and cover with water.

3. We added pink food dye buttt as you can see from the paper we made it didn't actually make any difference to the colour of the paper..

4. Blend until smooth-ish (see picture)

5. Pour blended paper-water mixture into a tray, (we used a kitty litter tray). You may need to blend a couple of rounds of paper to fill your tray.

6. Take the glass and backing out of your photo frame so you just have the frame.

7. Cut your mesh to fit the frame and sticky tape securely it over the front of the frame.

8. Dip your frame into the tub with the back of the frame facing you so the paper mush is sitting on the mesh in the frame where the glass would normally be sitting.

9. Allow water to drain away

10. Carefully sponge the water out of the paper.

11. Flip the frame upside-down so the 'paper' falls out onto a towel to dry. It may be difficult to get the 'paper' off the frame- you can use your sponge to help.

12. Leave to dry-- ours took a few days

Good luck!

The best spaghetti Bolognese ever...

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 garlic clove chopped
• 2 capsicums diced
• 1 large brown onion diced
• 1 carrot grated
• 2 tins of diced tomato
• 1 tin of tomato paste
• 1 vegetable stock cube
• 1 teaspoon raw sugar
• 1 tin strained lentils
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 1 teaspoon Italian herbs
• 1/2 teaspoon of garlic granules
• 3 Bay leaves
• Spaghetti
• Parmesan cheese (to serve) 

Method

1. Heat oil in a saucepan until hot
2. Add onion, capsicum and garlic and cook until they soften
3. Add carrot, tinned tomatoes and tomato paste and cook until simmering
4. Add in the rest of the ingredients and stir through. 
5. Leave to simmer until thoroughly cooked and flavours have mixed through
6. Boil water and add spaghetti
7. Plate up spaghetti and add desired amount of bolognese sauce 
8. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese
9. Enjoy!

This was the best thing I have eaten in a lonnnng time! Soooo good! If you're not into the vego thing you could use mince instead of lentils, just fry it off when you do the onion and if you're vegan leave out the parma at the end. We use organic tin tomatoes, tomato paste and spaghetti which you can get anywhere but we have found are much cheaper at Aldi. 

Hope you enjoy guys!