My Holiday House

I have been struggling with my blog and blogging for a while now. Working out how it fits in with all the things I want to do and want to be is challenging. But rather than stop blogging, I have decided that My Black Cardigan is going to be my holiday house..... a place I love to visit, where I get to catch up and visit friends, and where I can leave the day to day life behind.

But even though holidays are wonderful, there is no place like home. Home is where the heart is, where my heart is. Home is where I am needed more at the moment and it is where I want to be.


But I am going to leave my suitcase packed so that whenever I have some time, I can grab my bag and head on down to my holiday house. See you then xxx

Little People

My sister made these gorgeous little people for my gorgeous little people.

And they have been busy - getting together around the dinner table to share a meal, play Pictionary or have family meeting...

... and being tipped out the back of the dump truck along with the trains, cat and rocks!

If you'd like to make some bead people, Trudi is having a giveaway - a pack with all the bits and pieces you need to make your own. Head over and say hello to enter.

My Creative Space

One day soon, little hands will help small people climb up high in these branches,

show animals (and let's be honest, probably trains too!) that they can play and rest in the shade,

and help dragons and dinosaurs reach up to munch on the leaves to fill their bellies,

and I look forward to sometimes sitting back and watching the adventures, and sometimes being part of them.

This thrifted woollen blanket is going to be a playmat for my kids. The plan is to dry-felt a river and make trees and rocks and flowers and hills and lots of things the kids can move about and set up in whichever way they want.

I started with this tree. It is made using beautiful felt that I got from a new online shop, Me & Ewe. It is 100% wool and hand-dyed.... by my sister. She's taken a big jump into her own business and I'd love you to stop by and check out the gorgeous pure wool felt she has... and to say hi to my taller-but-she's-still-little sister!

For other spaces full of creative goodness, Kirsty's got the list!

A tart, a pie and stuff that starts with "t"

I tell my husband that 'I am a lover not a cooker' in the hope that his mind may start to wander and he wont notice that I am serving up chicken snitz and vegies for the third time that week. The truth is that I don't enjoy cooking. It just seems like a whole lot of time and effort put into something that will be gone in a few minutes.

Having said that, if push comes to shove, I can sort of cook. We had some friends over for dinner so I made this delicious lemon tart for dessert. Thankyou Cathie for your help.. you know your lemon tarts are my weakness!

Because I only had a smaller than suggested pan, I had some pastry left over. A quick call to Mum and I made a sweet Cherry Pie (at the risk of ruining my reputation, yes I did sing and hum and dance to this while I was baking.... and it felt good!).

This is an easy one that looks and tastes way better than it should for the amount of effort required. Blind bake your pastry. Drain a jar of pitted cherries. Add a couple of tablespoons of arrowroot or cornflour to the syrup and stir until it thickens. Spread the cherries over the pastry. Cover with the syrup. Allow to cool then put it in the fridge. It tastes extra good with icecream.

Then after dinner and too much dessert, I set my friends up with the "stuff that starts with T" tea towel. I am pleased to report that they passed with flying colours and all 48 "t" pictures were identified.

How about you? Can you name all 48? If you think you can, visit Tania and let her know. She's having a giveaway of this fab tea towel/dinner party game that she designed.

My Creative Space - My Baby Doll

Remember old "What's her name?".......? Well she's all fixed up and it wasn't too difficult. Here's what I did....

Unpicked about 10cm of a side seam and pulled out the stuffing.

Washed her in the washing machine and hung her on the line (Steph, I can hear your cries of fear from here!).

Soaked her head in a bowl of boiling hot water which smoothed out the lumps and bumps and gave her face a good scrub.

Restuffed her with lots of new polyfill stuffing.

It is amazing what a difference these few things made.

She is now slightly less creepy (honestly, who can be that happy all the time!) and I must admit it is kinda cool to see my kids playing with something I used to play with... especially now that she sits up properly to be fed.....

...although I think I need to let me boy know that she is not ready for solids just yet!

Head over to see Kirsty for more creative spaces.