How to make a play kitchen for your kids!

Every time we go visit friends or our playgroup and there is a little play kitchen, Luke spends most of the time role playing. So I have been for the past month looking into buying a little play kitchen for him, one who won't break the bank. They can range from $130 to $400! I really loved the wooden kitchens but of course they were the most expensive of the range. Ikea has a really cute wooden kitchen on display at the moment but still our budget just doesn't allow us to buy it. After a lot of looking around I have decided to make one for Luke from an old empty packing box we had left from our move. After just one hour putting the kitchen together I was surprised by how great it looks. It was also a great activity to make together even if he is just 20months old, he was very excited by the process. So here is how you make a play kitchen for your kids for less than $10.

Supplies:
1 large empty packing box
4 roles of contact paper (any colour u like)
1 stainless steel bowl
2 felt sheets (black and red)
1 empty paper towel role tube
1 kitchen tap- optional
play food
play pots and pans
Stanley knife
ruler
pen


Instructions:

1. Find a packing box that will be a good hight for your child. A tall box could be used for a refrigerator or laid on its side for a sink and counter. I decided to use mine on its side because I wanted to use it as a sink and stove top. Tape the box shut in all its sides. 
2. Cover all the box with contact paper of your choice. 
3. For the oven, on the front side of the box, cut across the top and ½ way down on both sides, to form the oven door. Place tin foil on this pull down door to represent the window to look through.
4. Mark area beside the oven door to make a cupboard and cut so you have two doors so your child can put all their pans/pots and play food away when done playing.
5. Cut three sections of the paper towel tube to make three handles. I made one wider for the oven handle. Glue these on the top oven door and cupboard doors with craft glue.
6. Glue the black felt on the top counter area above the oven and make two red circles with your red felt. Glue the two red circles on top of the black felt to make the stove top. You can also glue some milk bottle covers on the side to make the stove top controls. 
7. For the sink get your stainless steel bowl and cut a smaller circle to insert the sink. 
8. I had an old kitchen tap which I used as a sink tap, this of course is optional.

Handmade SHORT FILM by Dennis Kamioka

DENIS KAMIOKA - Handmade from nkcrida on Vimeo.

Denis Kamioka is a Brazilian Japanese director who made the following 6-minute short in 2006.  It’s hard to describe but it has some neat effects.  Check out the official site.  Enjoy!!!

Busy as a Bee!!!

Hi Everyone sorry yet again for the long silence but it really seems that there are not enough hours in a day to get all things done, specially updating my blog!! We FINALLY moved in to the "new" house. Of course like any renovation we had more costs involved then we thought at the purchase of the house. As mentioned in my previous post we were going to renovate the kitchen but unfortunately that did not happen seeing we found leaks in both bathrooms in the house. The leaks were so bad that we had mold all over, underneath the carpets on the walls, so we naturally had to replace the whole floors with new timber floating boards, which the costs of this and the repairs to the bathroom showers had us scraping at our budget. So kitchen is not done and looks like a war zone. At the moment I have no cook top or oven, been cooking with our microwave oven (which is on its last legs:meaning we will need to replace the bloody thing soon enough) and the barbecue. I was very fortunate to have my mother in lay give me a electric frying pan, it really saved the day!!! I have no pantry so cant really take anything out of the boxes just the essential stuff that I use everyday. My dishwasher is a storage area for all the plates, cups and cutlery.

Now enough ranting....Luke is doing very well. He is almost crawling properly all his little teeth are coming out and he is just an adorable little man. My mom left back to Holland on the 5th of Feb and we do miss her so. Luke specially, was very cranking for a week! I have been pretty busy getting our garden looking descent after many years of neglect of the previous owner. But we can see the light on the end of the tunnel. I have planted a little herb garden which is looking pretty good for some one who never had a chance to do any gardening in her life! Unfortunately I have no pictures for all of you because I have no clue where my cables are to be able to upload pictures on to the computer, this is another item on my to do list for this weekend. We also managed to start of our compost bin last weekend so all the veggie scarps and bread scraps are being put for a good use. We also have a recycle bin now which is a great relief because in the previous house there was none and every time I had to throw out glass, paper and plastic my heart filled with guilt! We also had insulation put in, in the nick of time before the government rebates were scrapped because of government scandal regarding it. So we only paid $120 to insulate the whole roof. We can really feel the difference now, its not as hot as it was when we moved in, seeing we had no insulation and no air-con, it was blood hot in here!! But all in all the house does look much better, we had everything painted and new showers. Once I find the cables I will put pictures up of before and after. Its far from done but its getting there slowly.

In the crafty front I have started a little sweater for Luke. Its a free pattern from Lion Brand. Also two weekends ago had a great Saturday with my mother in law. We took grandma to these really nice fabric shops for patchwork and also had a coffee with some cake at Wolly Latte's (its a yarn shop that has a really nice little cafe inside with some great coffee and wonderful cakes). Also when we went to get Tiiu's things as patchwork workshop that she organised, there was this lady who gave the workshop who takes care of little orphan Joey's (Baby Kangaroo). She had one with her and it really was the sweetest thing ever, Luke was so impressed and he even stroked it a couple of times. So so sweet, I have the pictures but yet again no cable grrrrr... Well that is all the update I have time for today. Hope all of you are well. Take care!

Winter = crafty projects!!!

Winter for me was always cold, wet and windy when living for 12 years in Holland and as any one in Holland I was always complaining about the cold, the wind and the darkness that engulfed the land during the 6 months of Autumn and Winter. Snuggling under a warm wool blanket with woolly socks with a nice hot cuppa tea watching movies was something that I used to love to do in the cold dark winter months. This has long changed since we moved to OZ. Mind you, it is still cold for us here, Rob and I even bought a gas heater to warm up our little house in the evenings but nothing at all like the winter's in Europe. My red winter coat has been left in the dark closet and has not been worn at all this winter in OZ. I guess I am still not completely acclimatized to the weather because when I go out for walks with Luke everyone seems to be wearing their winter coats and scarves. But for me its just a nice sunny day and only a light jacket is needed to keep me warm. It has rained a bit, which meant that Luke and I stayed inside most of these wet days, giving me a chance to finish a couple of projects that have been sitting beside my sewing machine. I also went for a workshop and made Luke a very cute bean bag to sit, when he gets older. The shop that gives these workshops has become my favorite fabric shop in Perth. Its called Hot Possum, it is such a wonderful little shop with a great selection of fabrics. They also have a lovely blog where you can see all their quilts and other designs. So I have been busy while Luke sleeps or has his naps during the day. I managed to finish a little pram quilt for Kim's new baby boy. Also made some baby pants and a little elephant (which I forgot to take pictures) for Isobel. I think Kim must be receiving the parcel next week, I hope everything fits the baby because they do grow so fast. I also am working on Luca's quilt which I hope to finish for him for Christmas and my latest project is a cute cover for my sewing machine. I am still getting used to the mild winter here in OZ and still feel a thrill that most days the sun is out and the weather is around 20 degrees Celsius. I wake up to see the sun shinning outside, the blue skies greeting me and there are no clouds to be seen threw most of our winter days in OZ. But secretly I wish I could use my red coat again and walk on snow to hear my footsteps on the white silence and feel my red cheeks become numb from the cold wind blowing on my face on winter mornings.

So here are some of the pictures of the little projects that I have finished. Hope you all like it.

Brazilian Pudding (Pudim de Leite Condesado)

I have noticed that this particular post is very popular, so welcome to my blog, please feel free to also see other posts and features in my blog. It would be great if you would come back now then and see whats new. Well enjoy!!! For all of you who want a very nice dessert with no fuss, you should try this classic Brazilian pudding. It has a lot of sugar so its not something you should make every week. This dessert can make any occasion special and it will hit all the right places. But please be warned that this dessert is addictive, once you start eating you cant stop! It needs to be cold so take that in consideration when making it. I usually make it on the end of the day and eat it the next day. Like any pudding there are a lot of variations to this traditional recipe out there, I have altered the recipe as well just because I like an extra hint of orange to my pudding but they are all basically the same. The big secret of this recipe is how to make the pudding have the little bubbles in it, don't worry this recipe guarantees the bubbles in your pudding. The method seems very difficult and complex but when you do start you cant believe how easy it is! I will write this recipe in English and Portuguese so bare with me OK. Lets start....


Ingredients (Ingredientes):


2 cans of condensed milk (2 latas de leite condesado)


2 cans of milk -use the same cans from the condensed milk for mesaurments. (a mesma medida de leite comum)


5 eggs (5 ovos)


1 orange zest (1 raspa de laranja)


Vanila extract (estrato de baunilha)


sauce (calda):


1 cup of castor sugar (1 xicara de acucar)


1/2 cup of water (1/2 xicara de agua)


*You will need a bunt baking pan; the one that is round with the tube in the middle.


Methode (modo de fazer):

1. Start with the sauce. Please be extra careful with this step specially if you have small childeren at home because the caramel can be very hot and make a lot of damage on little or adult fingers. Bring the sugar and the water together in a small sauce pan. Let it boil in medium heat on the stove. You have to keep an eye on this all the time because it can burn and then your pudding will become bitter. When the sauce is becoming a lighter brown keep steering so it wont burn and turn the heat down a little. Let it get a little darker, you will know when its ready when it reaches a medium caramel color. In a bunt baking pan pore the caramel and make circular movements so the caramel covers the sides of the baking pan (be careful with this because the pan becomes hot so use cooking gloves). Set aside to cool completely (this is very important because if you don't let it cool completely it will make scramble eggs of you pudding). While its cooling get a deep backing pan in which the bunt baking pan will fit inside. Poor warm water in it and stick it in the oven and pre heat your oven 200 Celsius. This will insure that the water will be warm when you put the pudding in the water in the deep baking pan. This is the secret for the little bubbles in your pudding!

Misture o açúcar refinado com a água e leve no fogo sem mexer no comeco e depois quando comecar a escurecer mexa até ficar com cor de guaraná. Coloque em forma de buraco no meio e mexa a forma até caramelizá-la por igual. Espere a calda ficar em temperatura ambiente. Caso contrario a temperatura da calda poderá talhar o pudim.

2. When the caramel is cool you can start making the pudding. Put all the ingredients together the eggs, milk, condensed milk, orange zest and vanilla extract (its up to you how much you want from the vanilla) in a blender. Blend it on high for 5 minutes. Pore the liquid into the bunt baking pan. Put the bunt pan on the water in the deep baking pan, who is already hot in the oven. Let it bake uncovered for about ten minutes or till you see the top becoming a nice golden colour. When this happens just cover the pudding with aluminum foil and let it bake for 1 hour, keep an eye on the water and be sure to top it up, you need the water so it wont burn the pudding.

Bata todos os ingredientes no liquidificador por cinco minutos. Despeje o pudim na forma já caramelizada. Para você conseguir um pudim com bastantes furinhos, leve ao forno em banho-maria com a água já quente. O forno deve estar pre-aquecido 200 graus. Deixe o pudim discoberto ate ele comecar a ter uma cor de caramelo ai voce pode ccobri-lo com papel aluminio. Deixe em fogo alto por uma hora.

3. You should be able to see if the pudding is ready if it has risen like a souffle and if you prick the middle with a tooth pick and no liquid comes out than you can take it out of the oven. Let it cool completely before bringing it to the fridge; please leave the aluminum foil on or your pudding will take the flavour of your fridge and that is yuck.

Voce vai poder saber se o pudim esta pronto quando ele crescer como um souffle. Ele quase dobra de tamanho. So pra ter certeza faca o teste do palitinho. Retire do forno e deixe esfriar completamente antes de coloca-lo na geladeira.

4. The next day you can take it out of the fridge and in the same deep baking pan add hot water and let the pudding sit on it for a while, this insures that the caramel will melt and make it easier for you to turn the pudding on a plate. I leave it in the water till the water cools down.

No dia seguinte ou depois que o puddim esteja bem gelado coloque em banho maria novamente so para a calda degrudar da forma. Voce nao presica colocar ele no forno!!!! Deixe ele de banho maria ate a agua esfriar.

5. Now this is the moment of truth!! With a knife cut the pudding from the side of the baking pan. Put a nice big plate on top of the bunt backing pan and turn it upside-down and leave it for a while. Don't mess with it, just let the pudding slowly on its own fall down to the plate. If you mess with it it will brake and you will have an ugly pudding. It will fall, trust me and then there it is you beautiful delicious traditional Brazilian pudding. Very very yummy....specially very cold!

Agora e o momento da verdade. Com um faca descole as laterais da panela. Num prato grande coloque-o em cima da panela do pudim e vir-o de cabeca para baixo para desformar. Deixe ele cair sozinho, nao bata na panela pois vc pode quebraro pudim e ai vc tem uma meleca de caramelo. Deixe o pudim cair sozinho. E quando ele cair vc tera um lindo pudim com furrinhos que e uma delicia!

More photos!!

So here are some more photos of OZ...we had a busy couple of days but we are almost done unpacking!!! Rob and I are very happy with the progress and I will take some pictures soon from the house so all of you can see our place. But for now I have uploaded photos of the baby shower and 3 pictures taken today this late afternoon at the beach. It is very warm here 35 C and after a day organising Rob and I went to the beach at the end of the day to cool off a little, we met his brother and Jasmin (Rob's niece). It was great but the sea was a little rough but very refreshing! You all can see that Greenpeace was almost coming and dragging me back to the sea, I look like a whale with my big belly. The baby is healthy and growing how you all can notice. Not long now I am on week 33 so just a couple more weeks and the baby will be with us. Hope you all are well and miss all of you! Enjoy...

Great little animation videos!!!

I usually don't add any videos to my posts by these are just so funny and simplistic that I could not keep myself from sharing it with all of you! Enjoy the show:

Spring in Perth!!!

First of all I want to say that I am sorry for my silence regarding my blog posts. Its been a very hectic August, not only were we looking for a house (which by the way turned to be a very exhausting experience) but also Rob is looking for work. We did find a house which we liked and we are now waiting for all the paper work to be accepted.

On the baby front everything is going very well. I will have my next ultrasound in a couple of weeks which of course I will post the pictures for all of you to see the little jumping bean growing into a real size baby. I still cant feel the little bugger move, even though everyone is asking me, "Have you felt it yet???". It is just a weired concept that I can feel my child move inside of me, I don't know why but I always get images of the film Alien when the thing explodes out of the chest of its host (hahahah). Oh well it is one of my favorite films...another thing that is becoming increasingly annoying is everyone turning to me and saying, "Enjoy your life now because it will be over soon." Talk about positive attitude towards starting a family, than they are surprised why women get post natal depression. Wouldn't you get depressed if the only thing you hear is that you life will be over when your child is born and when you finally popped it out, not only you need to deal with the fact that you have a tinny life to take care but also all those words of "wisdom" of people around you come to hunt you? I wish that there was a kind of law against being negative around pregnant women. Well sorry guys for all the rant on pregnancy ordeals but I needed to get it out of my chest. I am finally experiencing the happy hormones which they talk so much about. I do feel much better and also it feels like I can take the world, its a nice feeling.

For the rest Perth is getting warmer and all the wild flowers are coming out to greet us. I do love spring I think its my favorite season, not too hot and all that fresh air with flowers everywhere. Last weekend was our birthday (Rob and I have birthdays on the same day) so we gathered his family and went to Kings Park for a picnic. It was a warm sunny day and all the flowers were out. I took some very nice pictures of the park and all the flowers. I hope you enjoy them. I also added in my web album pictures of the Rugby game which Rob, Julia and I went to watch. It was so fun to cheer with all the Australians and it was my first Rugby game so I had a blast! Also in the same album there is pictures of the car that we bought which Rob and I love. So I will only add the pictures of our birthday on the blog and for the other pictures please go to my web album. I will soon update the blog again, please be aware that if the house goes through we will be arranging everything to move so it might take some time for all the updates to come through. Oh I am also working on a little overalls for the baby, I already started knitting it and I already done 50% of it, will post pictures when its done. Well I hope all of you are well and enjoy the slide show.

Queens Night in The Hague

Today here in Holland is Queens Day, its a celebration of the Queens birthday. Yesterday night was Queens Night, which was fun but because of all the holidays at the same time, everyone just left for vacation so the city was not as crowded as usual. We spent most of the night in Okers which is a nice restaurant/bar. We met with Rob's colleagues there and stayed most of the night there having fun. Around 12:30 am Rob and I left and headed home, on our way we passed by the fairgrounds which was nice and busy with everyone going on rides or trying to win prizes. Close to our apartment it was crowded around all the bars and it took us 1 hour to get through everyone to get home. Today we are just staying home and relaxing from Queens night. Enjoy the slide show.

Goodbye Luna (sniff, sniff...)

Today we took Luna to her new family. It was a sad morning for me and I spend sometime cuddling with her. When we were on our way to Rita's house I cried a little but I didn't let Luna see me cry once through out the morning or this last week. I wanted her to have the idea that this is not a dramatic situation but a happy one. But inside, my heart was very tight and sad to see her go. We got there and Rita let Luna out and she really felt at home at once. She sniffed every corner and inch of Rita's house, she even ventured upstairs in Matthew's room and Lydia's too. She played with the kids and went to eat some food in her cage. I was surprised and even a little sad because she seemed not to mind at all the move, but at the same time very relieved that it went so well. We stayed and talked with Rita and Dave, I played with the kids and they really are wonderful children. Luna is lucky to be part of such a wonderful family. This will be a new home but as loving as what she had with Rob and I. When Rob and I got home, the house seemed so empty and sad without her, even if she was a small ferret, her presence was huge in the house and in our lives. She will leave a void in our lives but she will fill Rita's home with her presence and love. Goodbye my pet....I love you and we will miss you very much!

Engagement Dinner & Morning After

I organised our engagement dinner at the "Tasting Room". Its a really nice restaurant down town and the food is something to die for. Its a small restaurant but we were only 9 people so I booked the small private room for us. We arrived and I asked for my cosmopolitan and Rob ordered a bottle of Champagne. Peter (Rob's dad) gave the toast. We all talked about how many times everyone in New Skies (Rob's job) had made bets on when Rob would pop the question and also everyone agreed that we took our time! Everyone was very happy for us and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. The food was great, I ordered a beef tartar as a starter and a file Mignon steak for the main. I had a chocolate martini for dessert. We stayed at the restaurant till 12:00 and than we went for drinks at the local pub (Firestone) next to the restaurant. Rob and I had a great time but we missed everyone who was not here with us; we wished everyone could have been here with us. The next morning Rob woke me up and everything was white, it snowed! It was really beautiful, everything was covered with 5 inches of snow. I made blueberry pancakes and than I went for a walk to take some pictures. Well everyone hope you enjoy both slide shows. I miss everyone!

Harper's Ferry Trip II

I have been in Harper's Ferry in Summer but in Autumn is beautiful with all the warm colours. We went down only to have lunch and see some parts that Rob and I hadn't seen yet. There is a big rock on the cliff with loads of engravings and some date back to the time of the civil war! I was also attacked by loads of lady bugs hahah on my way up the hill to the rock, they were everywhere on my hair, coat, camera, etc... We had a nice lunch in one of the restaurants and kept exploring the village. We saw a house with two little kittens sitting and playing on the porch it was so cute. It was a very nice afternoon outing. I also bought a recipe book from the civil war which I already tried a recipe for pie crust which was very nice. Well everyone, hope you enjoy the pictures, I need to go cause I have my engagement dinner tonight. Will take pictures of course and put it on the blog for all of you to see. Miss all of you!

Christmas Market & East Side

Christmas is really hear. Ferderick is full of lights and the fair grounds are now showing the Maryland Christmas Show. So Peter, Tiiu and me went to the show to check it out. It was nice collection of different crafts booths where the main focus was Christmas. I got a nice door ornament, some beautiful tea, herbs (lavender) and so much more. I will give the link of the Tea because it is truly a great tea and an African American woman(the same age as me)grows them and puts the flavours together(you can buy her teas online). I really was enjoying myself that is why I only have three pictures, sorry guys! It was a beautiful crisp sunny afternoon and on the walk back I took some pictures of Frederick but of the East side of town. Well I hope you guys enjoy.

http://www.notjusttea.com/

Meeting with Claire in Washington DC

It was just great when Claire called last week and told me she was scheduled to fly to Washington DC (its about 40 min from Frederick). I was very happy because I haven't seen her since our graduation in 2004. All of us from Uni still keep in touch but everyone just seems to be caring on with their lives and most of us moved to other countries. Claire was one, she went back home (Ireland). I haven't had a chance to go visit her yet so you can imagine how thrilled I was she was coming to the USA! So we planned that we would meet up in Washington, down town. Her Hotel was on the same street as the Brazilian Grill House. We needed to head off to Washington any way because Rob's Dad was arriving from Australia that night at 12:00 am. It was almost like everything was arranged for us to meet! So we met at the Brazilian restaurant at 19:30 pm. I was very happy in seeing her and she hasn't changed a bit, she is more fit than when we were at Uni. We had a lovely dinner with all the Brazilian goodness to make any gathering a special one. We had also some great wine and wonderful deserts. By the end of the meal I was in pain because, I of course, over did it! We went down to her hotel and had some more drinks. We talked about how is everything in Dublin and I updated her on how everyone else was doing. She talked about her wedding arrangments (for those who don't know , Claire is engaged too). We laughed about Uni times in Walsall and before we knew it I had to go because we still had to pick up Rob's dad. It was a sad goodbye but we promised to do this again and I told her I would go to Dublin for her wedding! Ohh I really missed her and I miss the crazy days at Walsall campus. Well enjoy the slide show!

Evolution of the 'F' word

Not only did the word Feminism become a symbol (for our generation) of angry and butch women but now it also brings generations of sisters to argue! Maybe most of you are not aware but there is a war between generations at hand. This for me, defies all rules of our sisterhood. In the article 'Lipstick Feminists' (you can find link bellow) it points clearly that there is much commotion between the 3rd and 2nd generation of women around the topic of what is a feminist. Our older sisters are pist off at us for not appreciating all the work they have done and putting it lightly, for our moronic and degrading 'girlie culture'. Now sometimes, even I get a little concerned by the objectification that the media portrays of women but on the other hand I believe that the women who are being objectified are in control of there bodies. This shows to our older sisters that our generation has been empowered enough by them and that if we choose to be objectified, we are in control of our bodies portrayals. Further more, we are not trapped only in the objectification of male desire but actually we portray women with the desire to be acknowledge in all our traits (beauty, spirit, mind and body). Not only does this show to our older sister's that they have done a wonderful job in passing on the potential and freedom to be ourselves (no matter our sexual orientation, social status or colour). But also this empowers future generations of women not to fear their sexuality or their femininity but to embrace this famine power as part of who we are as women without prejudice of dishonoring ourselves.

Now, there will always be women or men who still don't get it and will be objectified with no power over there image (Paris Hilton for one!). But that is life, some people get it, some don't; you can’t expect the whole world to be enlightened. Our older sisters might be generalising all women because of few rotten apples. Which saddens me immensely!

There is no doubt that our generation is a little spoiled and most of us have no idea what our older sister's had to go through to give us such freedoms. We do take it for granted but also our older sisters are sometimes hard on us. They forget that we live in a very different world and that we might know more of what women are all about today than they do. Not only that, but also we are more in contact with women issues of our generation than they will ever be.

In conclusion to all of this and the article, no matter if you are a feminist or girl power or geek; at the end of the road we are all women. Women need other women to share there feelings and experiences no matter what generation you are. Every woman has there own agenda of issues that they think are priority and that is what feminism is all about. I do agree with Jennifer Baumgardner (she was interviewed in the article) that feminism is something individual to each woman. So instead of creating this communication gap and these walls between each other, why not try to find a common ground. Because at the end, we are all sisters and we all share the same road.

Article: Lipstick Feministas. Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards create a manifesto for Third Wave feminism by Tamara Straus.
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/cruz/11.29.00/feminism-0048.html

Want to find more about 2nd and 3rd generation of the F word check the link bellow: http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/920/context/cover