Paleo Banana Split

I love my children to bits but some days are a little harder than others. Some days its a non-stop stream of this:

This particular tantrum was because she had to give one of three cloths she had to Ava so Ava could wash her face.

Days like these normally require copious amount of chocolate (as opposed to a normal day that requires high levels of chocolate). Today it did not seem like chocolate alone would be enough and so the Paleo Banana Split was born.

Paleo Banana Split

Ingredients:

One banana

Strawberries

Dark Chocolate - I like 85%

Some sort of Nut Spread - Cashew is my favourite

Side note here. I am slightly annoyed that Coles Online decided 70% dark chocolate was an appropriate substitute for 85% and Almond, Brazil and Cashew spread could sub for Cashew Spread!

Start by cutting your banana down the middle (harder than it looks) and slicing your strawberries. Eat the ends of the strawberries as you go because it's important to have flat parts for the split! Melt a couple of rows of dark chocolate. At this stage you could dip those strawberry ends in the melted chocolate to make sure it was properly melted...

Arrange your banana on a plate and then spread with nut butter. Lay your strawberries on and then finally drizzle with the dark chocolate. If your fruit has come from the fridge then the chocolate will harden on top. 

 Eat, enjoy, but most importantly be thankful the children are asleep and you don't have to share!

Oliver + s - Reversible Bucket Hat

I've been quite the busy little bee getting these hats ready for the weekend. We didn't end up going to the Food Festival but we had a great weekend nonetheless. On Saturday I took a trip out to Spotlight with my favourite sister, Tamsyn. I picked up the interfacing and a spool of thread. We oohed and ahhed over various fabrics but managed to restrain ourselves to what we needed!

The hats went together very easily and by Sunday morning I was done. The most time consuming bit was topstitching the brim but I love the look that it gives. I'll admit I struggled with the blind hand-stitching but I think I got the hang of it in the end. Technically the hats are reversible but they will probably alway be worn denim side out.

The girls loved the fact that I was making them hats. Throughout the construction Emily would wander off with bits of them and I would have to go and find them. When the hats were done and ready to be worn they both wanted to wear them straight away. 

We headed over to Tam's house so we could work on a wall hanging for above Ava's bed this morning (more to come later). They wore them the whole time we were inside!

But they found it a bit harder to keep them on while jumping on the trampoline!

Later on this afternoon we headed out to the park so they could have a play. I tried to get some more photos of them wearing them but most of the time they were too busy having fun. Ava loves her new hat and was happy to pose for a few shots.

Emily on the hand would not keep still and so this is the best of the bunch in terms of photos. Lots of side shots. It's funny she would look at me and smile but as soon as I tried to take a photo something would distract her. Toddler fun!

I'm really happy with how they turned out. It's definitely a pattern I will make again and an easy weekend project.

Strawberry, Lemon and Apple Juice

A little while ago my Mum gave me a giant bag of home grown mandarins and lemons. Emily and I ate the mandarins very quickly leaving us with a giant bag of lemons.

Well you know how the saying goes, "when life hands you lemons, make lemonade". Except we don't eat sugar. So we decided sweeten ours with other fruit.

In the fridge I found half a punnet of strawberries and an apple. I decided three lemons would be good. I couldn't find a juicer so decided the food processor would have to suffice.

I recently got this nifty gadget that peels, cores and slices apples. It's good fun and I'm always looking for a reason to use it! I put the sliced apple, lemon flesh and strawberries in the processor. Whizzed it, added about 600ml of cold water then whizzed it again. There was still a LOT of pulp so I strained it through some fabric.

Voila! Strawberry, Lemon and Apple Juice. Emily and I really liked it but Ava thought it was too tart. She has such a sweet tooth that one. If you're used to drinking sweet things you probably won't like this but if you don't mid a little tartness then this is one refreshing drink!

September Hat Sew-Along

I saw this book a little while ago and I  knew instantly that I had to have it!

I waited patiently (around 2 weeks) for it to arrive then poured over it with delight with all the projects. There is not a single thing in there that I don't love. But where to start?

Luckily as I was going through reading my daily blogs I noticed that Carmel was planning a hat sew-along. I decided it was the perfect way to get my sewing mojo back. There is the most adorable bucket hat pattern in the book.

It's also available as a free download here.

I'm planning on taking the girls to the Real Food Festival this weekend and new hats is just what they need. Now I just need to pick from my enormous stash of fabrics and get sewing. Although I think a trip to spotlight will be in order to get some interfacing. Such a shame to have to go fabric shopping...

So how about. Are you in the mood to sew a hat this September?