Mammabug

Toilet Roll Telecopes

Little Bug (3-yrs-old) found some empty toilet rolls, and has been running around playing telescopes with them. He hands them out to Mummy and Daddy to join in the game as well.

We can use them to look around the house and name everything we see. We can pretend to be pirates looking for treasure, or spotting other ships. Hours of free amusement and we didn’t even need to paint them

I like to keep little things that we can repurpose for other uses, and the cardboard tube that the toilet paper comes on is very useful. The rolls from the glad wrap (cling film) and foil, or paper towels are the same but a little longer.

Some other things you can make from toilet rolls are:

• Dolls/puppets – just add head made from scrunched up newspaper, then paint or dress as you like
• Construction – they make great legs for anything paper mache
• Shakers – put cling film or foil or masking tape over the ends and some rice or beans inside and there you have musical instruments.
• Angel for the christmas tree – as for the dolls above, but add wings, etc and you can stick it on top of the tree.

Victorian Shrug pattern

Last time I bought some bamboo/cotton yarn from Lincraft they threw in a free “Yarn Inspirations” book. I picked one that had a bolero pattern as I like to wear these little jackets over singlets, or strappy dresses in summer. The little jackets are hard to find in the shops so I figured I would just make it instead.

Much later someone gave me 6 balls of Aran wool, not quite enough to make a kids jumper, but as I was  looking for a pattern that only needed this much wool I found the pattern for a Victorian Shrug.

Basically the shrug is a rectangle (aka wide scarf pattern) where you sew up 20cm each end for sleeves. Then if you want to get fancy you can add a knitted or crotched lacy pattern around the edges.

This was the first “lacy” pattern I have attempted, all the passo, and yo, and stuff like that scared my off. However I asked my mother to show me and it is really very simple.

There is really only 4 rows to the pattern. I am making a large one which should measure 107cm long and 58cm wide when completed. So I cast on 67 stitches using 7mm needles.

1st Row: k1 (yo, s1 k1 passo, k1 k2tog yo k1) to end

2nd Row: Purl

3rd Row: k2 (yo s1 k2tog passo yo k3) to last 2 sts. k2

4th Row: Purl

Repeat until work measures 96cm, cast off loosely.

So to translate…

k1 = knit 1 stitch  – basic knit stitch

yo = yarn over – wrap the yarn over the needle like you were doing a knit stitch (obviously without picking up a stitch from the other needle)

s1 = slip stitch – slip the next stitch from the first needle to the second needle without knitting it or anything

passo = pass slip stitch over – basically pick up the slipped stitch and pass it over the last stitch that you knitted, just like casting off.

k2tog – knit 2 together – just a normal knit stitch, but instead of picking up one stitch put the needle through 2 stitches and treat them like they were one.

Sounds scary, but pretty easy once you try it. The s1 and passo combo, and the k2tog are just different ways of making a hole in your knitting (that won’t run like your dropped stitches). The yo is to put the stitch back on the needle for the next row. You should always have 67 stitches on your needle, NO increasing or decreasing is occurring.

Recipe List

Having just repacked the pantry I realise that I could feed the family out of it for at least a month.

I have tried menu planning before and it never seems to work… there are always too many leftovers, or life gets in the way, or I forget to buy an ingredient. You know the way it works.

However, I love browsing the mags and picking new recipes to try, especially when I have all the ingredients on hand. So, I have decided to write the list of recipes that I have most, if not all the ingredients, on the fridge and rub them out as I make them.

This will also give me inspiration when I’m trying to work out what’s for dinner, and cut down the food bill this month as I clean out the pantry.

On the list so far, all from the March 2011 Woolworths Good Taste magazine, which means they should also be available from www.taste.com.au

• Butternut pumpkin pies, p27
• Lime coconut cake, p29
• Sausage ragu linguine, p35
• risi e bisi (rice and peas), p38
• Spaghetti with tuna balls, p46
• Chickpea pilaf with haloumi, p50
• Chicken & polenta lasagna, p67
• Fettuccine boscaiola, p82
• Speedy dhal, p95
• Pea & Haloumi fritters, p106

Now to go flip through the April edition.

Fridge Notes

If you are like me then you are always forgetting things and writting yourself notes. While looking around the kitchen for a place to put a whiteboard, my eyes fell on the fridge. There it was big, white , looking a lot like a whiteboard. So, I tried it! Works perfectly with a whiteboard marker, rubs off clean. If you leave the pen on too long then you will need something like windex to clean it off with.

Movie Review: Your Highness

From the trailers I thought this would be a half decent movie, but I was wrong.

Natalie Portman’s character only appears half way through, when it looked from the trailer as the focus of the movie. The plot is weak, and obvious. The humor is mostly of the toilet variety.

Not worth the price of a movie ticket, possibly good as a rental DVD.

However, it is so bad it may acquire a cult following of The Princess Bride variety (don’t get me wrong, I love The Princess  Bride).

Movie Review: Hoodwinked Too

We went to see Hoodwinked Too at the movies and throughly enjoyed it. My three-year old sat through the entire thing without running up and down the aisles so it must have been good.

Carrying on the tradition of fractured fairy tales like the first Hoodwinked, Red and the Big Bad Wolf must work together to save Granny.

I would recommend this as a good family movie for all ages. The grown ups will have fun spotting all the fairy tales references, and the kids will just have fun. A little bit scary, but predictable enough to stop the kids from crying.

I will consider adding it to my collection when it comes out on DVD.

Zucchini and Tomato

I forgot to plant the zucchini, so in went 2 seeds today. Luckily we can plant zucchini all year around here.

One of the 2 tomato seeds I have in a pot in the kitchen window has sprouted. Yay!

I got an upside-down tomato planter from woolworths at half price, so I want to try growing it on the porch, see how it goes. Another couple of weeks and it should be big enough to plant out.

No sign of the tomatoes in the garden bed yet. However, there are now broccoli, pea, beetroot, and a few onions showing their faces.

Bat Fold

Once the baby is a little bigger the Bat Fold is better fitting and more absorbent because there are 6 layers in the middle which acts like a booster.  This fold is also known as the Butterfly,  Origami,  or Chinese Fold,

Start by folding the nappy into a square, by folding it in half to form a rectangle.

Then in half again.

Pull the top layer by the corner out to form a triangle, if it does not work in one direction change the direction you are pulling by 90 degrees.

Flip the entire nappy over carefully so the square is on top of the triangle.

Fold the square in half.

Fold it over again.

Now doesn’t that look like a bat? The body in the middle and wings spread out. You can probably also now see where the Origami name comes from there are a few slightly tricky bits like you would see when doing origami. I think the Chinese name comes from people think origami is a chinese thing.

Now add a baby and fasten with a snappi.

Triangle Fold

The largest nappy fold is the triangle.

Basically just as it sounds, you fold the nappy into a triangle, corner to corner. 

You need to boost this nappy, either with another nappy folded into the middle, or with other boosters. I prefer bamboo for it’s absorbancy.

Simply place baby on the nappy and fold the corners in to meet, I usually start with one layer between the legs, then the sides, then the other layer between the legs and secure with a snappi.

The nappy on the baby will look like this.

Book Review: The Land of Painted Caves

The long awaited update in Alya’s life has been released. What started in Clan of the Cave Bear, and has excited us through Valley of Horses, Mammoth Hunters, Plains of Passage, and Shelter’s of Stone has been completed in Land of Painted Caves.

This has meant that all the old books have been released as well. The good news is they have been released in ebook form. The Land of Painted Caves has also been released in ebook form. Brilliant idea, and I’m glad to see this author is keeping up with the times and her fan base.

The book itself is a little disappointing. As a standalone book I would probably have chucked it out. However, as this is the last in a series I am already hooked on and invested in the characters I had to read it. This means that I also know the back story which while restated where necessary to the plot, adds a framework in which to place this novel. As always I really enjoy the historical and reconstructed archeological tidbits that Jean is so good at slipping into Alya’s everyday life.

Enjoyable but not enthralling. Good for the fans, but not likely to pick up a new generation of fans.