I had plans to make beautiful dresses for my little ones to wear to their uncle's wedding. Instead, my dearest took them shopping and let them choose. I'm happy to settle with just making some capes to go over the top. I'm remembering how tricky it can be to get a collar to sit right and surprised the fabric had a whole lot more body that I was expecting. It turns out this is just the thing to wear over purple bubble skirted sequinned dresses.

The most successful thing in my vegetable garden this summer was the peas, that grew when I spread pea straw around the strawberry plants. The kids will grab a bowl and help themselves. They tell me the peas are for dinner, but very few of them make it all the way to the kitchen.

As you can see the pumpkins are making their slow march across the lawn. With peas almost finished, our next trick will be pumpkin spotting.

There have been a few detours on the path to completing the wedding quilt. While I can proudly announce that all the blocks are finished for the front, the chocolate afghans were good too.


I can't believe that it takes so many walnuts to get the perfect halves for the top of each glistening bickie. With nutcracker in hand it finally hit on the solution - crush shell and pass the rest to the kids to prise off. They appear to have the perfect combination of enthusiasm, patience and small hands.

My dearest is a dab hand at making these biscuits with the kids. My attempt was cheered on with cries of "Dad doesn't do it like that" and a few over eager requests of "Can I lick the bowl now?". It turns out their favourite ones are iced, but without the nuts. Next time I am tempted to put walnuts on them all, just to see how long it takes for the kids to work out that the toppings are only temporary.