Whole-Wheat Cinnamon Sugar Pretzels

Well I love the Baked books - I have all 3 now and I stumbled across Baked Sunday Mornings and I like that I don't have to committ, as suffice to say my life is pretty insane at the moment.

But I promised small cherubs that we'd make these, so we did.

I cheated in that, I popped all the ingredients into the breadmaker as we walked down to the markets, as I was feeling very off.  But I am pleased to report that they mix up awesome in the bread maker, and they were easy to handle.

I found the baking soda flavour a little much in that it got into the crevices of the pretzels and the kids turned their noses up, I think I just need to drain more thoroughly before popping them into the oven.  I obviously need to practice my pretzel folding skills, cause they were pretty poor lol!!

Given the rate at which they were inhaled though, i'm guessing they are a winner :)

I also made the Antique Caramel cake this week, but I forgot photos but let me just say OMG yummy as.!!

First Harvest

Gotta love that we discovered we would out of spuds for dinner, and we went and harvested a plant - these are desiree along with a small handful of sugar snaps and beans. yummo!!!

Katherine tells me there are 16 potatoes and she is very very excited to be harvesting them lol!  Also very excited when I told her that no the tomatoes are now big enough to leave the flowers on, and we don't have to take the flowers off.  Stay tuned for more fresh vegetables

More gardening

Well the weather surely is odd at the moment, cold then hot, then storm, not that we got it nor much of the rain :(

But we are slowly, slowly adding row by row to our front garden.  My theory was, intersperse flowers with vegetables to bring the bees and theoretically more pollination, ergo more abundant croppings of peas/beans and tomatoes.

So far so good.  The tomatoes, peas have gone gangbusters and for the first time, I might actually get a decent crop of beans, for some reason they have been hit and miss.  Some of the plants were seedlings, some have been seeds, I need to have more heirloom varieties, but I forget to order online and something will catch my eye at the markets and that's what goes in.

So far we have planted
Broccoli - sprouting apparently and it rained and the seeds all ran together, but they dont seem to care
2 different tomatoes, and no I cant remember what sort
snow peas
sugar snap peas
lettuce - mixed varieties
beetroot
bush beans
potatoes
shallots
garlic (though it's all pulled up now)
carrots
strawberries
lemon
lime
mandarin
passionfruits - which has yet to date failed to flower and it's suppose to be a grafted one :(

Flowers we have lots of different ones, including a good bug mix from Green Harvest, which does bring those bees and lots of nasturtiums , which you can eat, but we don't we let them grow, die off and just regrow.  I missed planting the sweet peas and could kick myself, but this year has/is been a bit weird and challenging anyways.

The sandpit was also pulled up today :(  to make way for a chookie house and the lumber from it, was added to the existing beds, as we found a couple of them, got wet feed in the wet season and ergo no good for the plants, as we are clay based soil here anyways with an underground creek.

After that epic tales, pics

Beans

Newly planted beetroot with potatoes behind

garlic and shallots

snow peas

lemons

lettuce and marigolds

limes

mandarins - they are weeny teeny still

snow peas

sugar snaps

Click on the photos to make them bigger :D

Happy Birthday Mr W!

Happy Birthday Mr W

He had an awesome weekend

Saturday - Madagascar 3 with 2 little friends and his sister, though apparently it was a chore to take the sister lol!

Sunday was off to Inala to go for his yellow belt in Tae Kwon Do

and he got it yellow belt with two stripes woo hoo!!

Tae Kwon Do is obviously his thing, as he's only been going since start of Term 2.

Lots of lego for presents and some clothes 

And for dinner he chose pot stickers and fried rice 

and 

cheesecake!!!  With yummy strawberries.

Wordless Weekend

Would you like to win an iPad?

Well it's super easy 

Just pop on over to 

Mindful Parenting Magazine iPad Spring Giveaway

Follow the directions and away you go

The iPad is valued at $539 and will be drawn on the 30th September

And of course we are about a week through the nappy hunt as well.  The Cherubs are working very hard and adding random stock every couple of days to the site.  Don't forget to take advantage of the hunter discount of 10% for instock items.  We are also happy to hold orders so you can combine postage.  

Cloth Nappy Hunt

I dont seem to be too great at this blogging game lately, oops.

Anyways it's September which means

Cloth Nappy Hunt

An online scavenger hunt to find pesky little icons - some say look like an owl.  This years icon is round, flashing and rainbow coloured, so sure to stand out.

If you haven't joined up you can do so here

Don't forget only one entry per household.  Don't share icons.  And play fair.  There are hint threads at the forum if you get stuck, and remember you have a whole month to find them, unless you are going for the speed prize lol!!

Cherub's Kiss will be adding stock very regularly throughout the hunt, so there will be no customs up for grabs whilst we make sure the store is stocked.  And don't forget to use your discount code for

10% off in stocks

But you can find us over at Gossamer Dreams on the 15th as always and I'll also be appearing at Red Riding Hood Yarns Birthday Showcase on the 6th of September.