Gift Idea :: All About My Dad

Back in my blog hibernation we celebrated Father's Day.
I thought I'd share what we made here. While it's a while away until the next Fathers Day (whether you are in NZ, the UK or somewhere else) I think this could be easily adapted for a Christmas or birthday or just because present!

I had seen some great ideas and inspiration for children's questionnaires on Pinterest and as Mr Mischief had recently turned 3 I thought it would be a great time to have a go.
I did a search to see if I could find a template to use but some of the questions weren't quite right for our situation or there was American spelling so in the end I came up with my own version.
I jotted down the questions and one morning over breakfast posed the questions to Mr Mischief. I noted his answers and then created an electronic version in Word.
Once the questions were typed up I added a recent photo of Mr Mischief and his Daddy, had a play with fonts and colours and got it printed in colour. Then we found a frame to fit the trimmed down questionnaire, added some scrapbooking paper for the background and popped it in the frame.
G loved it and it now sits on his desk at work to make him smile.

I've copied below the text so you can see what questions we come up with. This is something I'd like to repeat in the future asking the same questions to see what answers come out differently!

I'm happy to share the Word file if you'd like to adapt it for your own gift. Leave a comment here or email me (the link is in my blogger profile) if you'd like me to email you a copy :-)

All About My Dad

By: Mr Mischief        Age: 3

What is Daddy’s Name? Umm...Gxxxxx

How old is Daddy? Like this much (holding up 2 fingers)

What does Daddy do for a job? Go to the shops, he works hard all day

What is Daddy’s Favourite Colour? Like that (pointing at Rhett who is black)

What is Daddy’s Favourite Food? These (Honey Puffs, which Luke was eating for breakfast)

What Colour are Daddy’s Eyes? Same colour as Me (Grey/Blue)

What Colour is Daddy’s Hair? Like Mummy’s

What does Daddy always say? “I want to go to work”

What is your Favourite Thing about Daddy? Giving Him a Cuddle 

Why do you Love Daddy? Because I love him lots 

--- HAPPY FATHERS DAY – SEPTEMBER 2013 ---

This week I'm joining in with Show and Tell

Recipe :: Homemade Basil Pesto

My husband makes an amazing Basil Pesto. He's been making it for years. Our Basil plants don't tend to live through Winter so up until now it's mostly been a Summer treat.
This year has been different...we kept our Basil plant inside in the kitchen near a window and it's thrived. To the point where we decided we had to make pesto to use up some of the leaves!

Luckily I talked hubby into sharing his recipe so you can have a go at making your own :-)

G's Homemade Basil Pesto

Ingredients:

30g Basil Leaves

30g Parmesan Cheese

30g Pine Nuts

1 clove Garlic

Pinch Sea Salt

Drizzle of Oil

Method:

Stick it all in the food processor and mix. Easy as that! Spoon into a bowl. Find a cracker and get stuck in. 

Delicious spread on crackers, mixed in with pasta or even added to pizza!

Enjoy :-)

Linking up with Fun with Food

A Crocheted Baby Blanket

I have a long time friend that I've known for 20 years (give or take). She used to live a few houses down the road from me and we used to get the bus to and from high school together. 

We've not been fantastic about regularly keeping in touch since leaving school (not to mention me moving to Scotland and then NZ) but a couple of times a year we normally catch up via email and notes in Christmas cards. And everytime I've visited the UK since leaving we have had a catch-up. 

A wee while ago my friend, M, got in touch to say she was pregnant with her first baby. She was fairly far along when I found out and I instantly knew I wanted to try making her a blanket. 

Mr Mischief and I headed to the wool shop and he "helped" me pick out some neutral colours as we didn't know if M was having a boy or girl. 

I got busy with a small ripple blanket and worked on it everyday. 

I worked it up to be a similar size to my rainbow ripple. It's a small blanket designed for tucking around baby in the buggy or car seat. 

The ripple worked up fairly quickly and then I added a simple border all the way round. I did think about trying to fill out the ripple to make the border straight but decided to keep it ripply in the end. 

I was really pleased with how it turned out and it was a bit of a wrench packing it up and sending it off to be honest.

The good news though is the blanket has arrived safe and sound and my friend M and her lovely baby boy are both very taken with it!

Linking up with Show and Tell.

NZ Mug Swap 2013 :: What I Received

In case you missed yesterday's post you can  read all about how the mug swap worked and see what I sent for the Mug Swap here.

Today I want to share the parcel I received in the swap. My parcel came from Becky Boo.

I received a lovely blue mug with it's own accessories!

Becky had made a jumper, a scarf and a hat for my mug...

Aren't they cute!?

Thanks Becky! And Thanks to Alisa for organising the swap.

Here's hoping it will become an annual swap!

NZ Mug Swap 2013 :: What I Sent (including a crochet cup cosy)

I recently took part in the #NZMugSwap2013 hosted by Alisa. You can read more about the swap on Alisa's blog.

The swap was random rather than being assigned a partner and buying for each other. It was up to the sender if they wanted to remain anonymous or not.

I decided to make myself known when I sent my parcel...partly so I could blog about what I sent here!

My swap person to send to was Sima J and luckily she wrote a blog post especially for me about all the things she likes!

Here's a look at what I popped in her parcel...

I bought her a Tea Infuser mug which is a plain blue mug but it comes with a little "net/basket" inside so you can infuse loose leaf tea in hot water. The mug also comes with a lovely lid for infusing the tea.

I also added in:

• Organic Peppermint Teabags (I love peppermint tea!)
• A little purple windmill
• Horse stickers
• Handcream
• Organic Chocolate
• Some face cleanser sachets  

And I also crocheted a mug cosy. Here's some extra pictures so you can see it close up...

To make the cosy I crocheted 5 little two round granny squares which I joined together as I went along. I then added a scallop border all the way around the edge. At one end I added a chain loop and at the other I sewed a button on so that the mug cosy could be clipped around any mug. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out :-) 

And you can see Sima J's reaction to the parcel over on her blog :-)

Come back tomorrow to see what I received in the swap!

Linking up with Show and Tell.