Bloomin' marvellous {Blogtoberfest day 31}

This is how the garden looked a couple of days ago. See how the mass of spring blooms swaying in the warm breeze and dappled sunlight were cluttering the place up? Ixia flowers everywhere.



Thankfully some 50mm of rain has taken care of the problem.



Yep. Shredded. Decimated. Shuffled off the mortal coil. Ex-Ixias.



Along with that pesky rose. The one with dozens of buds that were threatening to flower. The branches fell off overnight. (That should save on pruning).



I'm not upset. No. No. Its fine. Really.

Bye, bye October - it was fun being part of Blogtoberfest. Thanks Cathy for hosting the month long blogging festival.

A Mooo review ... and a giveaway too {Blogtoberfest day 30}

When Ben at Mooo Design contacted me recently and asked if I would like to review a product, I was delighted. Yes, yes, yes I would!

If you're not familiar with Mooo Design, its an Australian store online, that specialises in unique baby and children's gifts and clothing. They offer a range of really beautiful personalised products for baby, toddlers and kids. Their website is brimming with eye candy.



Anyway, Ben's offer was serendipitious. Back here at Chez Hoppo Bumpo, I'd been bemoaning the fact that the main wall in the playroom was looking a bit shabby (read: decorated with tattered Star Wars posters and some unauthorised orange pencil). So I asked whether I might review the (removable) Chalkboard Wall Stickers.

And this is what turned up - a beautiful mixed pack of large stars, space ships, cars, robots and other fun shapes.



Argy and Bargy were pretty excited and gave me a hand with putting the stickers up. The shapes were up in no time at all and looked fantastic (see above).



The boys have really loved drawing and "writing" on the fun shapes. The robots and cars have been particularly popular.



Even after being heavily decorated, the high quality chalkboard wipes perfectly clean with a soft cloth. Fabulous!



If you are looking for a fun way to decorate a wall at home - or for a gift idea - I can highly recommend these Wall Stickers. With a range of shapes and sizes to choose from, what's not to love?

A special thanks to Mooo Design for your generosity - you've transformed our playroom!



Now for the fun bit for you.

When I was looking around the Mooo Design website I noticed that the store has gift certificates. So, I would like to give one reader a gift: a voucher to the value of AUD$20 to use for a spot of shopping at Mooo Design.

To be in the running all you need to do is leave a comment here (... and don't forget to go take a look around Mooo Design, too!).

Please make sure that you leave a valid link or e-mail address so that I can contact you if you win. Everyone is welcome to enter. I will randomly draw a winner from the people who have commented before midnight on Sunday 31 October (local time, Melbourne Australia) the following morning. The gift voucher will be e-mailed.

Good luck!

EDIT: Entries have now closed for the giveaway.

To see more of October's blogging festival Blogtoberfest hop over here.

Captive {Blogtoberfest day 28}

Stockholm syndrome: paradoxical psychological phenomenon where a hostage begins to have positive feelings towards his/her captor

I found this so-called technical book in Mr HB's possession this morning. But look closely at the title. Is there not something a little odd there?

Friends, have the mountains of stashed fabric at our place finally taken their toll?


For more of Blogtoberfest pop over here.

An elephant birthday cake {Blogtoberfest day 24}

Here is Bargy's 4th birthday cake depicting (as requested) his cuddly elephant, Ellie (below).



I fashioned the sugary Ellie using Wilton's Ready-To-Use Gumpaste. Its quite pricey in Australia, but is easy to work with and sets very well.

The hardest part was trying to reproduce Ellie's sad mottled grey-blue, saggy appearance. (Her replica is possibly just a hair's-breadth away from being Cake Wrecks-worthy).

Jalie t-shirt {Blogtoberfest day 22}

If you look carefully, this blog is littered with evidence of unequal numbers of project starts and project finishes. Put bluntly: my craft completion rate is slower than a herd of turtles stampeding through peanut butter. Thankfully a lack of summer attire and a patch of warm weather have forced my hand a little on the "finishing" bit.

This ladies' top was sewn yesterday. I used Jalie pattern #2005. Its a popular t-shirt pattern with variations on sleeve length (3/4 and short) and necklines (V, scoop and boat). My version has the V-neck and short sleeves and is made up in a knit that I purchased from Spotlight a while back. The pattern is great - I will definitely make more tees from this.

However, I must not mislead you into thinking that this was a project started and finished in a single day.


Source: Jalie patterns

You see, Jalie #2005 is out-of-print pattern - available only as a download. At USD$8.99 its very reasonably priced and delivered as quickly as you can press Add to cart and Purchase. But there are some 72 pages to print and tape together.

And according to records it took me more than 6 months to complete the sticky taping. I don't think paper-craft is really my thing, do you?.

My review of this pattern can be found at PatternReview.com

My creative space {Blogtoberfest day 21}

Sitting on my desk this week is a small stack of Jalie patterns. The near parity between the Australian and US dollars means that I was able to buy these online for nearly half what I would pay in Australia.

To avoid too many questions about this purchase, I have arranged the acquisitions so that this trouser pattern is on top.



Friends, there is no way Mr HB will want to investigate said purchases if he thinks that I might want to sew him something. You know ... to wear.

Of course if you have used Jalie patterns before, you'll know that they are multi-sized from child to adult. This one is intended to be new trousers for Argy and Bargy. But there's no need for Mr HB to know that ... we'll keep that our secret. OK?

In fact I might even add a tape measure and a pad and pencil close by ... with alarming things like inner leg jotted on it.


To see more lovely Creative Spaces head over to Kootoyoo.

Head over here for more of Blogtoberfest.

Happy birthday, Bargy {Blogtoberfest day 20}

Bargy ...



... master of disguise ...



... and wanton vandal ...



... is 4 today.



Now if you could excuse me, I think you'll see the necessity for investigating why its gone so quiet downstairs.

Four warned {Blogtoberfest day 19}

Do you ever have a brilliant idea ... only to find that the execution is completely flawed?

Its Bargy's 4th birthday this week and as is customary, we needed to make a little something for his kindergarten classmates. My smashing idea was to colour ready-to-roll fondant (white) icing, before cutting out simple decorations for cupcakes.



I rifled through the playdough cutters and got to work on cutting out blue circles and two dozen red fours.



It wasn't until I'd embarked on this venture and passed the point of no return (read: coloured half a kilo of icing in an alarming shade of carmine), that I realised there was a problem.

Yup. The triangles. Can you guess how tricky removing the middles from two dozen fours is?

Four crying out loud: please always check your playdough cutter font before getting started.



This has been a community service announcement.

Jersey how quickly it can all go wrong? {Blogtoberfest day 17}

A couple of weeks ago I stumbled across this beautiful piece of black and avocado jersey (when I say stumbled I do mean in the sense drove 8kms to a fabric shop and looked for half an hour). The beautiful drape and slightly abstracted tulip motif looked perfect for a skirt. I decided to use my new self-drafted knit skirt pattern and set to cutting out the two yoke and skirt pieces.

The fabric was lovely to work with.

The pieces sat obediently flat as I cut - there wasn't even so much as hint of a curl at the edges. It pinned together and machined like a dream. I gazed at the soothing green print. I began to think it was the nicest fabric I had ever used. In fact - I loved it.

That was until the incident.

Now as you might be aware, that most sewing events that are classed as an incident, involve an overlocker. And this was no different.



As I tried to make unfinished edges look pretty, something alarming happened. Nom, nom, nom said the overlocker as it took saw-toothed bites out of the fabric and then vomited thread everywhere.

As I was at my dressmaking class, my teacher came to see what was happening and gently explained that overlockers don't much care for single layers of jersey. Being as its so slinky.

Argghh. I felt like a tight-rope walker who had happily made it half way across the highwire. Before looking down. Whoa - whoa - whoaaaaaaa. I lost it. I took the skirt back to sewing machine to finish the waistband and hem. Suddenly the fabric was a slippery, stretchy nightmare. I was swerving all over the place. I lost the motivation to finish - it was hideous to work with.



As you can see I did eventually complete the skirt. But you know what? I hate* jersey. It can jolly well go and live with velvet.


* I mean "hate" in the sense of I will never use it again until the next time I see it on special


See more of Blogtoberfest right here.

Irrefutable evidence the world has gone mad {Blogtoberfest day 16}

I awoke this morning to find the world out of kilter.

To begin, there was white powdery stuff outside. Snow in spring? In suburban Melbourne? Strange.



Then there was news that at the stroke of midnight, one Australian dollar had bought one US dollar. Parity? Fabric bargains online? Strange.



And then Mr HB said he must learn how to use the sewing machine.

What the .... ?

My 1000 words {Blogtoberfest day 11}

I was going to sit down and write a witty thousand word piece.
But in the interests of cutting verbosity, I give you this photo instead (you know: pictures, 1000 words and all that sort of thing).

Sunset, Sunday 10.10.10

The arrrghh-I've-run-out-of-cocoa chocolate cake {Blogtoberfest day 10}

Isn't it annoying when you are part way through cooking something and you discover that an ingredient is missing?

Take for example, the the time I was dining at a beautiful Thai restaurant. The dessert orders had not long been taken, when the waitress returned with news from Chef. Apparently the kitchen was all out of bananas. It wouldn't have been issue but for the fact that all the desserts on the menu contained banana. Hmph.

I had somewhat of a banana moment myself today.

There I was part-way through making a chocolate cake to take to Curlypop's place, when I discovered that I was clean out of both cocoa and chocolate. I doubted my ability to sell the merits of the lesser-known chocolateless chocolate cake, so started frantically hunting for a substitute.

Ah-ha. There it was: granular and brown. My patent disregard for baking rules quick thinking, saw the addition of a heap of super sweet, rich Green and Black's drinking chocolate.

I think the result was quite passable. And infinitely better than it would have been than if I decided to use gravy powder.

The arrrghh-I've-run-out-of-cocoa chocolate cake

Adapted from this recipe at taste.com.au

1 1/3 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
2/3 cup sweet drinking chocolate
2/3 cup caster sugar
1 cup milk
2 tbsp lemon juice or vinegar
2 eggs, lightly beaten (I used 1 heaped tbsp Orgran No Egg, an egg substitute)
125g butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180oC.
2. Grease a 20cm (8-inch) round pan; line the bottom with paper.
3. Sift together the flour, soda, chocolate and caster sugar.
4. Stir the lemon (or vinegar) into the milk, then combine with the eggs, butter and vanilla.
5. Beat the dry and liquid ingredients together with an electric mixer for 4 minutes.
6. Pour into the cake pan and bake for about 45 minutes.
7. Cool the cake on a rack, then ice and decorate (I used marshmallows for the flowers).

The red button {Blogtoberfest day 9}

The boys and I were out and about in the car this afternoon. During a lull in the requisite and relentless back-seat squabbling Argy called out. Hey mum, what's that red button for?

"The one on the dash?" I said nonchalantly "Why that's the eject button."

Er, yes I know. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I shouldn't have. I know that. But somehow I just couldn't stop.

The boys were fascinated. And I was on a roll.

When quizzed as to the function of an Eject Button I sort of described how it could be used to jettison back-seat passengers from the car. Through the roof.

Well I can tell you now, that there were no more fights on the way home. It was quiet. So very quiet. Especially when I went to tune the radio.

My creative space {Blogtoberfest day 7}

As various sewing projects languish (read: gather dust), I have been mucking about this week (read: not dusting) with a tablet pen and my ancient graphics software.

The result is a herd of Ellies in party hats. I'm not 100% sure what is to become of them just yet - they might decorate some cup cake boxes.

I don't think I will show my latest handiwork to the soon-to-be-birthday boy. After all yesterday's request was for an Ellie-in-relief birthday cake ... his next one might be for an ice-carving.

To see more lovely Creative Spaces head over to Kootoyoo.

Ellie {Blogtoberfest day 6}

Meet Ellie. Apparently she is having a birthday in a few weeks.

Unfortunately her outward appearance is a complete misrepresentation of her age. Despite looking like she has been smoking Gauloises and swigging back gin for the better part of forty years, Ellie is only going to be four.

She's had a hard life. But is the much treasured friend of a small boy who will soon also turn four.

The small boy asked if I could draw a birthday picture of Ellie. So here she is in her glory days. Back when she could still hold her head high (... being as there was still stuffing in her neck).



The small boy has asked for this picture to be recreated as a birthday cake. Yep, sure. That will be right before I have cause to take up the Gauloises and gin.

Sewing a Jedi Robe {Blogtoberfest day 4}

Argy, an ardent Star Wars fan, was thrilled to receive a birthday party invitation. The dress code was to be Jedi robes. Master 5 was beside himself with excitement and began counting down the days.

Meanwhile I surveyed our Jedi kit. Whilst we seemed to be blessed with a surfeit of lightsabers, there was nary a robe to be seen. So I turned to the font of all knowledge (Google) for advice. I felt sure there might be a tutorial or two showing how to construct such a robe.

Indeed there was.

But as I waded through the search results, I began to feel as if I had entered a parallel universe. Rather than finding simple instructions for making Jedi robes, I started to find passionate essays arguing fabric selection and seam placement.

For example, its seems that no Jedi worth their telekinetic powers would be caught dead in polyester. Not even a poly-blend, for more your wash-and-wear Jedi. No siree, apparently its natural fibres or nothing. And don't get me started on the two-piece sleeve. Apparently seams are a monumental fashion faux pas. Its enough to have you declared padawan non grata.

I realised as I kept reading that there are people out there, bless them, that think they are actual Jedi Knights. At this point, I'm afraid I ran screaming for the reassurance of a commercial pattern book.



And so it was, that I ended up finding McCalls 3789 - a costume pattern for a hat, tunic and robe. In a stroke of legal genius (and clever avoidance of trademark infrigement), it was described in the pattern book as Lord of the Stars. Feeling confident in my ability to tell my Boba Fett from my Bilbo Baggins, I snapped it up.



Of course I almost fainted when I examined the envelope and realised that a hooded robe would need nearly 7 yards of fabric. Are you kidding? For a costume? For a 5 year old?

Warning: if there are any real Jedi Knights reading, please avert your eyes now.

I made an executive decision that loose-fitting Jedi robes were very 1980. All that excess fabric should have gone out with shoulder pads, leg-o-mutton sleeves and leg warmers. So, I crossed to the dark side altered the pattern.

I cobbled together various pieces of Views B (robe) and C (tunic) and effectively used about half the fabric requirement. There were a few bits of redrafting to do, including a bit of lengthening and spreading, but all in all it went remarkably well.



Pivotal to the success of course, was that old dressmaking rule: always include 8" of fitting ease to allow for the wielding of a lightsaber.

Tricked {Blogtoberfest day 3}

Last week I needed to travel to Sydney for an appointment, so Mr HB took time off work and looked after Argy and Bargy. It was the second week of school holidays.

We all know what that means don't we?
Yes. Mr HB was conned.

You see, an unwritten rule says that during the second week of holidays, sibling must turn against sibling. There should be a lot of whining. And people looking at each other the wrong way. And general affray. Not to mention odd bouts of hand to hand combat. And rain; lots of rain.



As you can see, my trip to Sydney was tough too.



(But I might keep that thought to myself)