Vintage Caravan Cake

Last weekend we had a belated celebration for mum's birthday as she was on the Central Coast visiting her brother on her actual birthday.  Mum & Dad came to our house for dinner and we had soft chicken tacos and this delicious cake.

 

Mum and Dad are always talking about when in a few years time they are going to pack up and go travelling around Australia in a caravan.  Mum loves vintage caravans so I thought this would be the perfect cake for her.

I got the idea from this cake and it was pretty simple to recreate.  All it took was some fondant, a licorice roll, some food safe pens and one silver cachous.  I named the caravan Pos because that is my mum's nickname.  All her brothers and dad call her Pos and all my cousins call her Aunty Pos.

The cake was white chocolate mud cake and it was delicious!  I had to make Mum and Dad take the left overs home so I didn't spend the week eating cake.

I'm really happy with how this cake turned out.  This is the last birthday in my family before Squishy comes along so who knows when I will get to make another cake like this.  I have an idea for a nice simple cake for Corey's birthday in November and I am just hoping that I can manage to make it for him around looking after Squishy.

The Good, The Bad & The Bump(y)

The Good

• Corey starting working later so we get to spend the mornings together. It's a nice change to him leaving while I am still asleep.
• Buying the last little bits and pieces for Squishy. We did a shop of nappies, wipes, baby bath etc on the weekend so we are all stocked and ready!
• Packing part of my hospital bag. All Squishy's stuff is ready now just to pack my stuff.
• New pyjamas to take to hospital. I figured I deserved them after what I am going to go through :-)
• 3 weeks left of work!!!!
• 2 short weeks of work - Gold Coast public holiday this Friday and a day off for a hospital visit next Wednesday. Yay!!!

The Bad

• Trying to get comfy in bed is becoming really hard! Even my snuggle pillow isn't helping.
• Vomiting in my sleep. Not like projectile but in my throat. Wakes me up with a start and it's not very comfortable. I need to talk to my doctor about it tomorrow morning.
• Running out of work appropriate clothes. Lucky I only have to get through 3 more weeks.

The Bump

 

Holy moly check that belly! She is getting big in there. I am kind of worried about how big she is going to be given that I am going to have to get her out soon. Hopefully she has a little head :-)  Only 6 more weeks to go and 3 more weeks of work. To say I am excited is the understatement of the year. I seriously can't wait!!! Work is becoming a bit of a struggle because I haven't been sleeping well but I am lucky to have a really good team that I work with who help me out a lot.  This past weekend I figured I better start packing the hospital bag just in case she decides to make an early appearance.  I packed everything on my list that Squishy needs but I still need to pack my stuff.  I think I will do that this weekend.  Long weekend!!! I am very excited for the long weekend.  I love a good long weekend because usually Corey works Saturdays so we only have 1 day together.  But whenever there is a long weekend we get 3 whole days together. Very exciting!!! 

Where has the past 1001 days gone?

Friday 24th August 2012 marked the last day of my 1001 days that I had to complete my list of 101 things.  I can't believe I started this list back in November 2009. It is just crazy how fast the time has gone!!!

(#13 - Get Married)

Below is my list.  The items in bold are those which I managed to complete.  The ones in italics are those which I started but didn't finish.  All the other ones never got finished.

Personal/Health


1 - Be more active!
2 - Give blood.
3 - Go to the dentist for a check up (I haven't been since I left school)
4 - Get prescription sunglasses.
5 - Eat 2 fruit and 5 veg every day for a whole week and see the difference it makes.
6 - Move out of home (30/01/2010).
7 - Get a manicure
8 - Be more confident.
9 - Get a massage.
10 - Get a facial.
11 - Get engaged (June 2010)
12 - Take a multivitamin everyday for 2 months(Dec 09/Jan 10).
13 - Get Married
14 - Get Pregnant
15 - Learn how to drive a manual car

Uni/Work
16 - Graduate Uni (31st July 2010)
17 - Get a job in events full time (28th May 2010)
18 - Write a business plan

Read/Watch
19 - Watch the whole 1st season of True Blood (December 2009)
20 - Reread the Twilight Series (0/4)21 - Reread the Harry Potter series (6/7)
22 - Read the Sookie Stackhouse series (the books True Blood is based on) (10/10)
23 - See a musical

(#23 - see a musical & #30 - go to London)

Travel
24 - Go to Paris
25 - See snow in real life (June 2010) 
26 - Have a snowball fight (June 2010)
27 - Make snow angels (June 2010)
28 - Go to Italy
29 - Get a new passport
30 - Go to London

Financial
31 - Save up a house deposit
32 - Buy a new car (July 31st 2010)
33 - Buy a house

(#25 see snow in real life)

Sewing
34 - Learn how to make my own patterns
35 - Learn how to sew knit fabric
36 - Sew a pair of pants or shorts.
37 - Make a pair of swimmers
38 - Make all the patterns in my collection (19/35)
39 - Make a quilt (25/04/2010)

Cooking
40 - Make cake pops like Bakerella
41 - Learn how to make ice cream (23/01/2010)
42 - Make all the recipes in the Crabapple Cupcake Bakery Book (8/33)
43 - Make swiss buttercream icing
44 - Learn how to "flood" cookies with icing
45 - Make a fondant decorated cake
46 - Hold a dinner party (03/05/2010)
47 - Make my own pasta
48 - Make bread from scratch
49 - Make Corey breakfast in bed (see here)


Fashion/Style
50 - Develop my personal style 
51 - Have 30 handmade items of clothing in my wardrobe - made by either myself or bought from etsy or the markets (17/30) 
52 - Be happy with how my hair looks (Jan 2010)
53 - Spend a whole day op shopping (July 2011)
54 - Learn how to braid my hair
55 - Paint my nails everday for 2 weeks (17th - 31st May 2010)
56 - Learn how to curl my hair either with rollers or a curling iron.
57 - Take photos of my outfits everyday for a month and upload them to my blog (Me Made May 2010)
58 - Buy a real vintage dress

(#99 try out embroidery)

Photography
59 - Take a another photography class
60 - Buy a tripod
61 - Learn how to use photoshop
62 - Buy photoshop (14/02/2010)
63 - Take 15 portrait photos of other people that I am happy with (4/15)

Do/See
64 - Throw a surprise party
65 - Have a games night with friends (board or video games)
66 - Go to the strawberry farm and pick my own strawberries
67 - Complete a 1000 piece puzzle
68 - Do the 30 day letter challenge
69 - Spend a whole weekend without using the internet
70 - Buy a dog
71 - Buy a clear umbrella (04/05/2010)
72 - Dance/Play in the rain
73 - Roast marshmallows over a proper fire (see here)
74 - Put together a piece of Ikea furniture without Corey's help
75 - Enter a craft/cooking competition
76 - Go bike riding for a day
77 - Finish writing another 101 things list by the end of 1001 days
78 - Climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge
79 - Swim with dolphins
80 - Have a colour coordinated Christmas tree (see here)
81 - Get professional photos taken with Corey
82 - Play golf with Corey
83 - Go indoor rock climbing
84 - Go to the Science Museum
85 - Learn Italian
86 - Have a proper picnic with Corey
87 - Beat Corey at wii tennis
88 - Go to a Gold Coast Blaze game (17/01/2010)
89 - Go horseback riding
90 - Do a 5k run
91 - Fly a kite
92 - Play a real game of tennis with Corey
93 - Go to Wintersun
94 - Go to Greazefest (1st August 2010)
95 - Plant a vege garden
96 - Start a journal (Jan 2010)

Other Craft Stuff
97 - Learn how to crochet
98 - Try stamp carving
99 - Try out embroidery
100 - Make another scrapbook
101 - Make 10 of the items in my Ravelry queue (10/10)

I only managed to complete 67 of the items on the list and had another 6 that I had started but not completed.  I am still pretty happy with what I managed to get done.  This list helped me to try things out that I probably wouldn't have otherwise (like embroidery or stamp carving).  I really enjoyed doing the list and I just can't believe how fast the time has gone!  You will notice that I had as item 77 to write another list of 101.  I have done this but I will wait till another day to share it and start working on it. I am feeling too lazy today to make make it day 1 of my 1001.

Holy Sheet!

Oh wow! Is it the baby brain making my blog titles go down hill? Let's hope so. Expect better title in approximately 7 weeks.

This weeks project for Squishy's room was to make her some sheets.  The room is slowly coming together and I have managed to get my to do list down to about 3 items which is exciting.  Especially considering we are so close to meeting her and the weeks just keep slipping by.

The sheets were loosely based on this tutorial by Dana Made It.  I read over it and then realised my measurements might be different.  To get my measurements I measured the length and width of the mattress then added the depth of the mattress plus 3 inches for a hem and to fit under the mattress.  They were actually really easy to make and nearly all the fabric was left over from the quilt.  I actually made 3 sheets for the cot but 2 of them were different pink stripes and looked basically identical in photos.

These were so easy I decided to whip up a few for the bassinet as well.  Considering the baby shop is selling bassinet sheets for $18 each this is a quick and easy way to save money.  I was a bit lazy with the bassinet sheets and simply lay the mattress on top of my fabric and cut around it.  They worked out perfectly though!

Making your own sheets is so quick and easy and for cribs and bassinets that don't need that much fabric they work out quite cheap compared to buying sheets.  And if your a bit anal about colours matching like I am you can make sure your sheets are the perfect match for the rest of your room.  When I have my last few items crossed off the list I will get a few more photos of the nursery to share with you.  Hopefully that will be within the next few weeks.

Swap Fun

A little while ago when I posted about this bear hat for Squishy I received a comment from Reana Louise telling me that I should make these to sell.  This sparked a long trail of emails from which we decided to do a little swap.  I would make Reana a grown up bear hat and she would make me something in return.

I was a bit nervous about making a hat for someone else and it being the right size but with the help of Reana sending me her head measurements I found an adults beanie pattern to use as a starting point.  I used this pattern for the hat and then upsized the ears from the original baby pattern.

I also popped in a few little goodies for Reana to enjoy.

And do you want to see the amazingness (yes, that is a word!) that I received in return....

Isn't that picture amazing!  It was inspired by Reana's favourite nursery rhyme "The Owl & The Pussycat".  It is even more gorgeous in real life then this photo does justice for.  I am pretty excited about this dress too! I think it will be a perfect first project for summer after Squishy is born because it isn't too fitted.  It'll be a great dress for summer especially in that gorgeous orange fabric that Reana sent me.  I had so much fun taking part in this little swap.  If anyone else out there is keen to do a little swap let me know. I am always open to sending and receiving happy mail!

The Good, The Bad & The Bump(y)

The Good

• Going to the Big Brother live show last night. Lot's of fun!
• Mini pink suitcases for storage. Adorable!
• 4 weeks left of work. I am seriously counting down.
• Labour ward tour this at this weeks antenatal class. I am really looking forward to this.
• Sunday mornings spent at the markets.

The Bad

• Realising I should probably pack my bag for hospital but I have no idea what to pack!
• Crappy sleep. I think this item will be on the list from now until I stop doing these posts.

The Bump

I feel like I haven't grown much in the past few weeks in my belly but I think my butt has started growing :-) My jeans feel a little bit tighter.  I am not doing weekly doctors visits which is making the weeks go even faster.  I'm still not having much luck in the sleeping department and I spoke with my doctor who gave me some tips.  Nothing seems to be working though so I think I am just going to have to live with it.  I have a suspicion that it is because my brain is constantly thinking about what I have to do at work before I leave.  I have 3 big events in my last 2 weeks so my to do list is pretty big.  Once I am on maternity leave I will hopefully get more sleep.  Fingers crossed!  Apart from the sleep I am doing pretty good. I am just so ready to meet our little girl. I have had 2 friends have babies in the past 4 weeks and I am so jealous. I want my little one here so I can kiss and cuddle her. I said to Corey yesterday I am sick of talking to her through my belly. I just want to be able to look at her and smile at her.  Knowing my luck though she will be late just to try and teach me some patience.  Patience is not exactly my best attribute!

Happy Birthday Mummy

Happy Birthday to my darling mummy today!  Your are the greatest mum in the whole entire world and I know you are going to be an even better nana to our little Squishy.  I hope you have an awesome weekend in Copa with the family and I look forward to celebrating a belated birthday with you next weekend.  Love you millions xoxo

A Quilt....Finally!

That's right folks I have finally finished the quilt for Squishy's room.  I actually finished it about 1.5 ago but it took me till last weekend to get photos and then till today to post about it.  I am so so so happy with how this quilt turned out.  It is a massive improvement from the first quilt I ever made.

When we first found out we were having a girl I went to Spotlight and chose a bunch of fabrics as the starting point for decorating the nursery.  The fabrics became this quilt and will also become some sheets and a cot skirt hopefully in the next couple of weeks.

I learnt a few things while making this quilt:-

• If your doing a pieced back you should probably line it up with one of the stripes on the front to avoid a sewn line in the middle of your stripe.
• I need to use more pins to hold my layers together while quilting. I don't think I used enough so I have a few puckers in the layers.
• When your not good at sewing straight lines sewing a quilt that emphasizes them can be frustrating.
• Invisible hand stitching for quilt binding is not as hard as I imagined.

Regardless of it's imperfections I am really happy with how this quilt has turned out. I have worked my way up from a pram sized quilt to a cot quilt and who knows next time it might be a single bed quilt.  I am getting a bit more confident with the idea of quilting so I think I will definitely be making some more.  Maybe just not for a little while!

Baby Shower

Sunday was a very fun day! My mum threw me a baby shower at her house and it was loads of fun.  I didn't get a lot of photos but I did get photos of the decorations beforehand and the presents afterwards. The decorations were made to match the theme of the invitations.

My mum and aunty spent all morning in the kitchen baking up a storm.  We had a delicious spread of cupcakes, brownies, meringues, marshmallows, musk sticks, sandwiches, chicken meatballs, pizza scrolls, spinach & feta triangles and mini quiche.  It was all so delicious and they did an amazing job!

My cousin managed to get a couple of photos of me unwrapping presents.  My camera was playing up so unfortunately most of the photos are a bit blurry but these two turned out well.  The funniest thing going through these photos is some of the facial expressions I make.  I didn't realise I looked like such a goof sometimes :-)

My little Squishy was super duper spoilt in the present department.  She got so many cute things and my sister even threw in a present just for me, a knitting book of vintage patterns.  I am so excited to start knitting some of these patterns.

How cute are all those clothes! She has quite the collection of dresses now. I just need to buy some more little hangers so I can hang them all up.  A massive massive thank you to all my friends and family who came along.  It was a really lovely afternoon and I feel so loved.

The Good, The Bad & The Bump(y)

The Good

• Spending a lovely afternoon with the girls for my baby shower
• Getting organised and crossing things off my list
• Only 5 more weeks left of work!
• Spinach & cheese triangles. I ate so many at my baby shower.

The Bad

• Sleepless nights. They are starting to become more common for me now.
• Stretch marks. I just started to getting them this week and it's a bit devastating. 

The Bump

I feel like I haven't changed much in the past few weeks but other people who haven't seen me for a couple of weeks feel otherwise. What do you think?  I am feeling pretty good apart from being tired all the time.  I am having a lot more sleepless nights lately and they are starting to wear me out.  I am guessing it is my bodies way of getting me used to what's to come.  It is annoying though because I still have to get up and try and function normally at work.  I have 5 more weeks left of work which seems like nothing some days then other days seems like ages.  I kind of wish I had decided to finish up earlier but the sooner I finish the sooner I have to go back.  So a few more weeks of work now means a few more weeks with Squishy at the end of my leave.  I think that makes it all worth it!  And with the way the weeks are going now 5 weeks will be over before I know it.

One Word

Meet Me At Mike's did this little meme last night and I thought it would be fun to play along.  If you play along let me know in the comments so I can check out your answers too.

1. Where is your mobile phone? Table

2. Your hair? Messy

3. Your mother? Amazing

4. Your father? Hilarious

5. Your favourite food? Cake

6. Your dream last night? None

7. Your favourite drink? Tea

8. Your dream/goal? Happiness

9. What room are you in? Lounge

10. Your hobby? Crafting

11. Your fear? Loss

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Home

13. Where were you last night? Mahnee's

14. Something that you aren’t? Athletic

15. Muffins? Yum!

16. Wish list item? Hunters

17. Where did you grow up? Goldie

18. Last thing you did? Ate

19. What are you wearing? Jeans

20. Your TV? Olympics

21. Your pet? Wanted

22. Friends? Crazy :-)

23. Your life? Fun

24. Your mood? Tired

25. Missing someone? Sister

26. Vehicle? Toyota

27. Something you’re not wearing? Shoes

28. Your favorite store? Kitty's

29. Your favorite color? Pink

30. When was the last time you laughed? Yesterday

31. Last time you cried? Unsure

32. Your best friend? Corey

33. One place that I go to over and over? Tamborine

34. One person who emails me regularly? Mum

35. Favorite place to eat? Mum's

3 Wise Owls

A wise old owl sat in an oak,

The more he heard, the less he spoke;

The less he spoke, the more he heard;
Why aren't we all like that wise old bird?

I really wanted to knit or crochet Squishy a rattle and when I found this adorable pattern I couldn't help but make 3.  One for Squishy and two for my niece and nephew (twins) who are due in around 6 weeks.

Pattern: Stripey Owl Baby Rattle by Lovely Little Life
Hook: 4mm
Wool: various leftovers from the stash

These rattles are so quick to make and are the perfect last minute gift for babies.  They are also great for using up all those little leftover bits of yarn that sit in the stash.  I made all three of these out of leftovers from previous projects.  I love that Squishy will have a little toy that matches her two cousins.  I think we will need to line them all up for a photo once they are all here.