Tuesday, May 20, 2014

MineCrafting

Moomintroll has a passion for Minecraft, as many young people do nowadays.  I set her a challenge the other day: Could she build our house on Minecraft?  Well, after a short time talking about how our house is constructed and discussing what was important enough to include in the rooms (the tv and couch were a must) Moomintroll built it. It's pretty accurate and I particularly like the way she made the shower.
Here's a short movie I made of her talking us through our home.


After a trip to Kryal Castle recently both girls have been designing their own Minecraft castles. They are also working on rollercoasters, hotels, restaurants and farms.

After many months of searching for a healthier Nutella substitute recipe and many failed experiments with said recipes I have finally found a winner! And I made it up on my own out of sheer exasperation.  It should have known it would be easy but as usual I got sucked in by all the flashy looking blogs and websites out there showing off their beautifully presented superfood laden creations with all natural, organic, gluten/dairy/sugar/everything else - free ingredients.  I love spending time sifting through all those blogs getting wonderful ideas but sometimes the pictures are so intimidating and the instructions are so complex that it's easy to forget that I can just do it myself without a professional camera, lengthy explanations and pretentious looking Mason Jars.
So this is my recipe:
150g packet of hazelnuts
175g dark choc bits (I used Coles' Homebrand ones)
a slurp of oil. I used Rice Bran Oil as it's what I have in the cupboard and I didn't think extra virgin olive oil would taste right.

Throw it all into Vera the Vitamix who will kindly grind it all up into a lovely dark chocolately paste.
Moomintroll is happy with her chocolate sandwiches now and that's all that matters to me.

Monday, May 19, 2014

Rainbow Looming

The latest craze has been here at our place for some time now. The Snork Maiden's skills are getting better everyday, and I do mean everyday!  She spends hours in her room with You Tube and her looms and our house is littered with stray rubber bands. Moomintroll also enjoys looming, but not as much as her sister does.

L-R: Rose Garden; Beaded Fishtail; Chevron; Butterfly (own design)

L-R: Triple Single Starburst (own design); Triple Single; Zippy Chain

L-R: Ten Pin Dragon Scale; Sailor's Pinstripe; Triple Fishtail
After mastering bracelet designs and coming up with her own patterns, The Snork Maiden moved on to bigger and better things.

L-R: Snow White, Cinderella, Princess Aurora

L-R:  Someone; Elsa and Anna (from Frozen)

just a bunch of people

more people just hanging around

another person and Ponyo (from the movie Ponyo)

The Simpsons
iPod covers

pencil toppers; Penguin, frog, Hello Kitty, duck (?)

a bird, Jake from Adventure Time, a Seussian Barbaloot
more bracelets

more bracelets. The THINK bracelets help us to remember to speak nicely to others. Is what you want to say Thoughtful, Helpful, Intelligent, Necessary and Kind?  If not then don't say it!

purse

more bracelets..

DNA Double Helix bracelets. These were custom designed to Dr P's specifications.


and some more bracelets..

and finally....

headbands for unruly hair.
So you see, there's no time for maths books and art lessons. There is way too much Looming to do!