I’ve made these Brownies 3 times now and they’ve been an absolute hit! So decadently chocolate. Served with cream, their perfect for this cool weather.
From 1 June, travel restrictions in NSW will ease and we’ll be able to visit anywhere in regional NSW for holiday or recreational purposes. Here’s looking at you Kimo Estate!
I recently bought some beautiful Vintage Floral Unpaper Towels from the Little Eco Shop and I’ve been loving the switch from paper towels so far! Totally recommend these if you’ve been sitting on the fence.
Wow! I can’t believe that Miss K is already 18 months! The days go by slowly by the weeks go by so fast. A few old things and a few new things on her shelf this month. I hope you enjoy taking a look!
Top Shelf
Various Homemade Shakers – see previous description here.
Kmart Wooden Fire Truck – a few of Miss K’s books feature a fire truck, so I thought I’d add another vehicle to her toy collection. She likes to roll it around and loves it when I add sound effects!
Grapat Nins Carla and Grapat Coloured Mates – this was my first foray into the wonderful world of small world play and I was fortunate enough to get the Grapat Nins Carla set and Grapat Coloured Mates during a recent restock from Oskar’s Wooden Ark. The full Nins Carla set contains 12 Nins, 72 rings and 36 coins in rainbow colours. To go with this set, I also purchased the Mates and the Nins fit perfectly inside. They are all beautifully handcrafted and perfect for little hands. So as not to overwhelm Miss K I’ve kept out the main primary colours. To be honest, she hasn’t shown too much interest in these yet but I hope she’ll get more fun out of them as she gets older.
Coloured Felt Squares – one of the areas I’m focusing on teaching Miss K at the moment are colours, so I cut out some large felt squares in different colours. There are 2 of each colour as I thought we could pair and match them up when she’s ready. Miss K doesn’t yet acknowledge colours but their great at incorporating the vocabulary into her play. She loves to stick them to my back and will often grab a square to fold or wrap around objects around the house. Every now and then we’ll watch a short video about colours in Cantonese and I’ll grab these out to reinforce the concept.
Bottom Shelf
Very Hungry Catterpillar Jack in a Box – see previous description here.
EverEarth Pop Up Bunny Toy – see previous description here.
Duplo Heart Box – I was tossing up between getting Miss K wooden blocks or Duplo and decided for now to get her some Duplo. Although the box states that it’s for ages 1.5+ she’s still a little too young to play with them independently. This set contains instructions on how to make simple structures such as a helicopter, icecream and duck, so I’ve put a few of these together for her to play with. She loves to pretend to lick the icecream and sometimes says duck! Miss K doesn’t yet know how to click the blocks together and isn’t strong enough to pull them apart but likes to see me do it. I loved Lego as a child, so I’m glad that this is her first introduction to it!
Schleich Wild Animals – after getting Miss K her first set of farm animals, I purchased a few wild animals to go along with some of her board books. These are all so beautifully detailed and made. Miss K doesn’t usually play with these on their own, however she’ll grab them when we’re reading an animal book or playing with play dough. Although she can’t verbalise the animal names or their sounds yet, she’s able to correctly pick up some of the animals when I ask for them.
While I was pregnant with Miss K, I took so many wonderful pictures of my growing bump that I had to scrapbook them all in a single album. The only challenge I gave myself was to use scrapbook supplies that I already had and I was pleased to use up some things that had been gathering dust for a while!
I chose an A4 pink album and protectors that I’d been holding onto from my very first Japan trip. They were originally going to be used to scrapbook my Japan album but there were too many photos. This would be the perfect scrapbooking project to use it for.
The majority of the papers are also from Japan and are wonderfully textured and painted. The photos really don’t do them justice. The rest are scraps from old scrapbooking projects. I didn’t really go for a theme or think about things too much. I just threw things together that I felt looked together, put some embellishments on and left it at that. It was a relatively quick and fun process.
While I was pregnant we went through some other major life changes including our move from Perth to Albury, so it’s great to look back on and remember all the craziness involved while heavily pregnant. I’m also glad that I was able to let go and use up scrapbooking supplies that I’d been ‘saving’. It’s such a bright and fun album and definitely one of my favourites so far!
The pictures above are only about half of the album. It was a fun way to document my pregnancy and I can’t wait to look through these photos with Miss K when she’s older.
Around here the days are getting shorter and the nights are getting colder. Miss K is almost 18 months old and she’s at such a fun age! She amazes me everyday. Every morning she’ll call out “mum!” and is so happy to see me.
We’ve been spending more time at home as a family. My husband has been so hands on and helpful. Being at home with a toddler all day can be exhausting.
Some of the restrictions in our state have started to ease and I’m looking forward to coffee catchups and playdates in the near future. I’m very thankful that we’re all happy and healthy.
I’ve recently discovered the wonderful world of Grimms and Grapat. I’m in love with our first purchases. Be warned, it’s an addiction!
I’m trying to focus on things that I can control and not worry about the future too much. I hope that things get better worldwide soon. I’m not sure if things will ever return back to how they were before and that’s okay.
We currently live in a medium sized 3-bedroom rental, so unfortunately we don’t have a separate playroom for Miss K. Instead, she shares her main play area with us in the living room. So far it’s worked out well.
At 17 months this is Miss K’s current play area:
Montessori Shelves
I’ve dedicated the 2 middle shelves of our bookshelves to place some of her toys and activities. These generally get rotated monthly with a combination of her own toys and toys borrowed from our local toy library. Unfortunately due to the current lockdown situation, the toy library is closed and Miss K is quickly becoming bored of her own toys. I ended up buying a few more toys for her and am trying to engage her with other activities.
Activity Table
Next to her shelves is a small wooden activity table that we received from Miss K’s godparents for her 1st birthday. It’s beautifully made and apart from a few bite marks, it’s held up well! There are 4 main sections: shape sorter, hedgehog cogs, bead maze and animal screws.
Miss K first learnt to pull herself up on the table and plays with it almost ever day. She loves pulling the animal heads off and I often find them together in a pile next to the couch. Now that she’s older we practice shape sorting and loves having a play with the beads.
Play Kitchen
The play kitchen was a recent addition that I was undecided for a long while. On one hand, it goes against Montessori philosophy as it’s pretend and on the other hand, I believe pretend play is important. I also have very fond memories of playing with my play food, cups and cutlery with my sisters and cousins while growing up.
In the end, I decided to purchase a play kitchen and found a simple but beautiful wooden kitchen from Temple and Webster. There are plenty of hacks online on how to convert play kitchens into functioning kitchens for little humans but for now I’m happy to keep it as pretend play for Miss K.
I bought a mixture of pots and pans, wooden food, and utensils from Ikea and Kmart, and am eyeing off some items from Erzi. Miss K loves her little kitchen and will happily cook, open the doors, and carry items around her play area. Needless to say it’s been a hit!
Shopping Trolley Book Storage
Next to the play kitchen is a wooden shopping trolley purchased from Kmart that stores some of her books. Miss K loves to flip through her books and will hand me a book to read. While she doesn’t have the concentration to read a whole book from start to finish, she loves the process of finding a book and sitting in my lap to flip through the pages. She can do this for up to half an hour or until I’m ready to call quits!
I love reading myself and am so happy that I’ve fostered this early love of books in my daughter. No matter what I’m doing, I try to stop what I’m doing and read at least 1 book with her before I go back to what I’m doing. My motto is there’s always time for a cuddle and a book!
Small Table
I found a really beautiful solid wooden side table for a great price at one of our local op shops late last year. It’s the perfect height for Miss K and she often plays with her toys or activities on this table or eats snacks on it. It was a lovely find!
Playpen
The playpen was bought in anticipation of confining an active crawling baby, however in the end Miss K skipped crawling and started walking late so we never used it for its original purpose! It takes up a lot of space so I somewhat regret buying the playpen. However, it’s been useful in helping Miss K learn how to pull herself up and cruising around.
At the moment it houses her soft toys and we’ve popped some pillows in there to create a cozy place for Miss K to lie down and relax. I’ve seen her sit and read a book amongst her cushions, so we’ll hang onto the playpen for now.
Do you have a separate playroom or a play area incorporated elsewhere? What sort of must have items do you have in your playroom? I would love to know in the comments below!
I’m so excited to share that yes, we’re pregnant again!
We’re expecting our 2nd bean in August and for a short period of time we’ll be having 2 under 2! It’s going to be a crazy time but I’m looking forward to welcoming our newest family member very soon.
If anyone has any tips for surviving 2 under 2, do please let me know!
