Australia day cake balls

Oh Australia day, for I do not understand why we celebrate thee. Well I did some baking at least for the occasion. Yummy yummy cake balls in Aussi colours. They taste devine. I'm not a cake person, but these are so good, and the best part is that I can eat one cake ball and that's plenty for me.

Here's how you make them:

Bake a normal cake. Add food colour in the dough before you bake it. After the cake is baked and cooled, tear it in little crumbs. Make cream cheese frosting and mix it with the crumbs. I added some food colour in the frosting too. Then just rall them into balls, and dip the balls into melted chocolate. So easy!

Recipe for the cake:

1/4 cup corn flour
1/4 cup plain flour
1/4 cup self-raising flour
3 eggs (room temperature)
1/2 cup sugar

Sift the flours together three times. Beat the egg and sugar with electric mixer until the mixture is thick and pale. Sift the flours in slowly while simultaneously folding in with a large metal spoon until just combined. Place in a cake tin that has baking paper at the bottom, and cook in the oven (180C) for abbout 20 minutes.


Recipe for the frosting:

120g cream cheese
60 g butter
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 1/2 cup icing sugar

Place cheese, butter and vanilla in a bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat until pale. Gradually add icing sugar mixture, beating until combined.

It really is the frosting that makes it so nice and tasty. I see so many different opportunities with these, for so many different occasions.
But here's to Australia day, greetings to all from down under!

Fishy business

It's hubby's birthday today and we've been doing all sorts of fishy business with Emma. He got a new rod for Christmas and we wanted to make a bag for that rod. I made the bag and Emma decorated it by making fish and jellyfish with her hads.

Emma also coloured him a fishy card. Today we're going to surprise him by picking him up from work, then I think we'll go fishing and have fish and chips for dinner. Sound good? I thinks so. We'll see if I can get a few pictures to share.

My little comforter

My life has been a bit of a rollercoaster this week, lots of ups and also very deep downs. But I am very blessed to have such a precious little girl who brightens up my day. Just yesterday, when I was weeping on the couch, she came to my arms and gave me a big kiss on the cheek. Isn't it amazing how little children express their feelings even though they cannot use words yet. I was blown away how my little girl saw my anxiety and comforted me. I know that she needs me, but yesterday it struck hard how much I need her too. Oh I am so so grateful.

I want to thank you for all the lovely comments, they cheer me up. This is an old picture, but I remembered it while I was taking the pictures for the post before. It's one of my favorites. I like that poem too, it sums up pretty well our relationship. Together they create a good memory to add in her scrapbook folder.

Wishing you all a great weekend!

New life of a curtain

 I got beautiful, but fairly old, curtains from my friend. As soon as I saw them, I knew I had to make a shirt for Emma.

I came up with the design myself and am fairly pleased, though I am making few modification for the next one. The shirt has puff sleeves, a bow at the front and is gathered a bit at the bottom. She looks so darn cute, doesn't she?

And if you wonder how I got one and a half year old to stand still and smile, I can give you in on a secret. Yes I tried wooden blocks and others, but with these photos, I'm actually playing peek a boo with her. It is the best game in the world! At least she thinks so.

Happy, sad, angry, laughing, crying...

Children get angry and sad very quickly. But then they get happy and laugh as quickly too. I think parents need to be teaching their children emotions. That it's ok to feel angry or sad, and how to act when we get those feelings. How do you practice different emotions with children? There are many different ways, but here is one idea that I did with my friends kids.

Use paint to get your fingerprints on paper, let it dry and then just start drawing. First we drew different emotions and then we started drawing different characters and funny people. It's amazing how much children can do. Then they started to look at the colours and thinking what sort of person is a red one and what about a blue one. Children have so much potential, and learning can be fun if we only make it and let it be fun.

Hope you all had a good weekend. I know I sure did.

Worth it

Almost everyone, who know's that my husband is going to be a cop, has asked me if I'm scared or worried or what do I think about it. Well to answer you all, I couldn't be more proud of him and I am so happy for him. Sure I might have had a worrying thought, but it only lasted a second. Turns out it is so easy to support someone when they are determined and happy with themselves. My husband is really living the dream (not my words, but his). He worked so hard to get in the police academy and now he's studying so hard to be a good cop. He's loving every moment.

This weeks get inspired challenge was to use a page from last years calender. I used the page where my hubby had written all the details of his entrance exams and evalutations. The picture is taken on his first day, just after he was sworn in. Emma gave big cuddles for daddy.

Tämän viikon get inspired haasteessa piti käyttää viime vuoden kalenterista sivua tms. Mieheni viime vuonna hajoitteli ankarasti päästäkseen poliisikouluun, joten sivu on niistä päivistä, jolloin hänellä oli nuo kaikki kokeet, haastattelut ja arvioinnit. Kuva on otettu hänen ensimmäisenä koulu/työpäivänä, kun hänestä tuli poliisi. On niin helppo olla ylpeä ja tukea toista, kun toinen on niin innoissaan ja nauttii joka hetkestä.

Our bakery on the side of the road

I've been looking after my friends kids again. We baked bread, gingerbread and chocolate chip cookies. And then we went to sell them on the side of the road.

We got to use our chalkboard (tutorial here) and she got to learn to bake and practice some simple math. 

Oh to be a child again. Everything is so easy and simple for them. I enjoyed this, our bakery on the side of the road. And she actually made $13.

Beach bums

We had some guests over all the way from Finland. So we've been traveling around the state and enjoying the lovely beaches of WA. Weather has been a bit cloudy and even windy at times but still warm enough to jump in the Indian Ocean. Emma even tried using the beach as a bed. Having sand everywhere afterwards, even in the car, wasn't so much fun for mummy.

But I gotta say it's good to be back home.

Painting with a brush

Another Christmas present, but this time made by Emma. I let her paint with a paint brush for the first time and it worked pretty good. She's my little artist.

Spoon full of herb

I have to show something I made for Christmas presents. I couldn't show them before Christmas for obvious reasons and I was in too much of a hurry to get good pictures, so my appologies for that.

I got the idea somewhere in the internet. I'm sure you've seen them before. Had hubby helping me to do the letters and I did the rest. I thought they are so adorable that I want these for my herb pots too.