Mischief Managed - a kid sized Harry Potter vest!

 When you grow up in a house with Hogwarts banners on the walls, Slytherin scarves and ties draped over furniture, and a mother who says "lumos" and "nox" when she turns the lights on and off, you kind of have no hope in coming out the other end NOT a Harry Potter fan.
It's entirely my fault that when my 3 year old daughter, Malorie, plays outside, she HAS to bring Ron Weasley with her. It's because of me that when she goes to bed, she needs her plush Fawkes and Fang tucked into bed too. And I'm taking the blame for the fact that at story time, her Dobby toy has to help me turn the pages whenever I say "ding!".

We recently started reading The Philosopher's Stone. I had intended to read her one chapter a day but she became so intrigued that one chapter turned into two, two into three, and before either of us knew it we were six chapters in and the sun was beginning to set. She curled her little body into mine and said, "I love this book, mummy. But I'm getting very sleepy."

 This shared love of the Harry Potter universe inspired me to get out my scissors and paint, and get crafty. It's getting warmer here in Australia, which means all the winter clothes are on sale, but very impractical. I picked up a couple of denim vests on the cheap, and decided to try my hand at modifying one of them.
I cut off the sleeves and used a white eyeliner pencil to sketch a Hogwarts crest onto the back. While the movies are magical, my heart will ALWAYS be with the books, so I copied the crest from the title page of PS and used the film colours as reference.

The front of the vest was what had me scratching my head for a little while. The thing itself was so teeny tiny that it was difficult for me at first to work out what to paint and where. Eventually it came to me; when I was 18 I wanted to get two big lightning bolts tattooed over either collar bone to immortalise my love for the series. Thankfully I changed my mind and got a cherry blossom branch instead, but why not kind of live my short-lived dream out through my eldest daughter? That's what kids are for, right? So I painted one on each lapel. Zap.

The Deathly Hallows symbol was a given, but it took me a couple of sketches to decide where to place it. You can see the white eyeliner marks pointing out the failed placements in the instagram photo above. Protip: buy tailor's chalk or use a white pencil if you try this at home. I was ill-prepared and had to makedo with what I had and while it's easy to wipe off, the proper materials would have been easier.

I was pretty happy that this jacket had gold buttons, because they made the perfect body for a golden snitch! All I had to do there was paint two little wings - one on either side - and sit back and admire my work. Between you and I, I'm still pretty pleased with that little stroke of genius. But, uh.. I'm really a very modest person. What? I am!

All in all, the vest experiment was a success. I've got friends requesting painted wears for their kids and themselves, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tempted to magic up some things I have in my own wardrobe.

Harry Potter is a part of me. It's given me confidence, hope, and some amazing friends, and now Harry Potter is a part of my children's lives. I hope it brings them the same joy as it brought me.

Mischief managed. 

Junior Masterchef Australia?

Miss Mally Macaron

One of my fondest memories as a child is watching my mum bake. She used to make all sorts of things from scratch, like cheesecakes and chocolate cakes and pavlovas, and I was always in awe of her skill. The birthday cakes she made for my brother and I were second to none, and I looked forward to each birthday with a kind of excitement that is only now matched by the excitement of making cakes for my own children.

It seems that Malorie is a lot more like me than I realised, and she too finds joy in making desserts. We usually only tackle simple things and bake for the fun, not for food, but we are extending our horizons as each day goes by.
One of the newest things in our repertoire is macarons. As a family obsessed with Masterchef Australia, macarons are something we've always been interested in making. Watching contestants fail to make them time and time again had me too scared to even try, no matter how many times Malorie begged me for them, but then I got wind that Adriano Zumbo had easy-to-use macaron kits. That meant a trip to Coles was on the cards.

I bought an electric beater after our first endeavour.
No more hand whisking for me!

We picked one up on special (bargains are my favourite!) and rushed home to try them out right away. I was, to say the least, unprepared. I didn't have an electric mixer, or a sieve. That meant hours of hand whisking just to get the meringue mix to peak, and it meant manually breaking up the bits of almond meal and folding it in with the spatula. But they turned out great, and Malorie had so much fun helping me out. She even piped her own and made a macaron tower to rival even Zumbo's! 

Maybe soon we'll be able to make them from scratch, and put to use that macaron recipe book Malorie keeps under her pillow.

"Mummy, I'm a cat! A cat making macarons!"

Two whisks are better than one!

Heart eyes forever.