How to keep your teapot warm

There is a tea cosy competition in Morpeth every year.

It's a great competition, free to enter and they send your tea cosy back.

Last year I made several tea cosies, but didn't end up sewing them together to get them up to Morepeth for the competition (or let's face it, just to be put on display for my tea cosy), but we did go up for a visit so you can enjoy some of the  tea cosies too.

The cosies don't have to be made of wool or knitted or crocheted - they can be sewn too.

Love the Grug one, might have to make one of those.

This one was beautiful - a warratah.

This one was the grand winner (there are categories).  I thought it was great, but my kids weren't impressed, they liked the novelty ones.

And this is what inspired the above tea cosy.

 DS loves koalas so this was his very favourite.

 

 Another Grug.

 I reckon this frog is unhappy because he has a teapot up his backside.

 The kids liked the penguin too.

 One of the ladies from my knitting group won a prize as well, here is her entry.

And downstairs they have a huge teapot display.... here are some to enjoy

 

Not quite teapots, but they'd love to be having a tea party with most of them.

Enticed by the teddies.

 

And the mini teapots for those that don't have room (or money) for the big ones.

Another Skirt

 I made another skirt for Little Miss.  It was a test pattern but has since been released.  You can find it here - Floreala, on Ravelry.

It's a very well written pattern.

I made a larger size than needed to give some room for growth.

Miss likes the fact it's longer.

 It's made from Bendigo Woollen Mills cotton.

 She's happy.

 I might even make one for me.

 

Kenny the Koala Kake

It was Master 4's birthday in July, but I'm pretty sure I haven't posted the pictures of his birthday cake.

Master 4 is very very keen on koalas.  So keen he has a bucket full of koala toys. 

He refers to all his koalas as "Kenny".  (He has one he decided was a girl and called "Kiki" but the rest are Kenny 1, Kenny 2, Kenny 3, Kenny 4 etc - you get the picture, we're up near Kenny 21 at the moment I think)

For his 4th birthday, after changing his mind several times, he asked for a Kenny cake. (I was anticipating a James-from-Thomas-the-tank-engine cake.)

The first stop for Kenny the Kake was the Woman's Weekly Cookbook.

The colour fur was hard to get and he ended up a light brownish colour.

I also had to make do with the cake tins I had, so he has nice big ears.

The leaves on the tree are mint leaves but they are now permanently referred to as 'gum leaves' in our house.

Large portions of the cake got frozen for later, but it's all eaten now and Master 4 assures me that it was the yummiest cake he's ever had.

He has very happy memories about this cake and every time he sees pictures he decides he's having another one for his next birthday.

(It will certainly be easier than the Transformer that he might want.)