We have a dollhouse!

Since a young child I always dreamed about having a little dollhouse... Even now, as a grown person I would endlessly stare at the dollhouses at any toy store, imagining which furniture would be better suited, how to rearrange it, daydreaming .... ! 

Recently an opportunity for us to buy a second hand dollhouse showed up locally and we did it, we bought a dollhouse!!! 

As it stands, this dollhouse is in need of loads of tlc, and we all are quite happily to providing it! Since we picked it up from the seller, both myself and kidos are quite happy to open it up, and having little toy figures moving through it! As it stands, the dollhouse is quite empty and cold. Nevertheless,   just its empty walls are providing  happy hours of  play time! 

Apologies for the terrible resolution of these photos. These were taken with my phone and I did not remember to take more pictures...

But, back to my dollhouse plans... I have already very happily sketched plans to how this dollhouse will be revived. It will definitely be a very long term project to 'fix it up', but we are all ( kidos included) contributing to this project.

I have already removed the front opening to give the dollhouse a thorough wash, and left it outdoors to dry. I  also started to sand it as I will be painting it all white. 

The pink colour however lovely it is or better, was, it is not our family's favourite.... particularly not mine! So I intend the house to feature mostly white or neutral tones. These neutral tones not only will be featuring outside as well inside. I also plan to  insert some new windows to have more light coming in, and change the door frames. I want the house to look more modern:

Not only I will be changing the dollhouse's features as I have also draw some plans about the furniture, which will mostly be quite modern. Whilst I searched online about 'modern dollhouse furniture', a whole new world was shown! I was completely stunned by the miniature world that I discovered.... Happily I found that I am not alone in up-doing Dollhouses! There are so many different blogs and Youtube channels featuring tutorials in how to paint, wallpaper and actually building miniature dollhouses and furniture. 

I updated my blog Library to feature these new sources of tutorials.  There is this 'modern dollhouse' world online that I was completely unaware! I was a bit daunted about  how I should venture into this new hobby, but I am not alone in this.... I will present my adventures in this new found hobby of mine as often as possible. This is a long term project, and hopeful I will be posting about my progress often....

Our half term: We went on a bear hunt!

How was your half-term? I know this was a couple weeks ago, but it has been really difficult to sit down and update my blog. Nevertheless I am catching up more often than use to!

Our half-term was spent at home, but we were able to do a lot of activities... The local libraries and our local art gallery were offering diverse holiday activities for both toddlers and young children. I do try to be creative and to come up with crafty things for both kidos to do, but if I can have the fun and have less mess up to clean up afterwards, the better. So we went to our local library, we read lots of books... And for crafty things we went to our local art gallery and made some pinatas! However,  our favourite activity was attending for the very first time the Nuffield childrens' theatre, which was featuring until the 2nd June 'We are going on a bear hunt'!

The kidos absolutely loved the show, and to be honest so did mummy! The activities and the excitment began even before the show. The Nuffield theatre prepared an actually 'bear hunt', a treasure hunt really. We could ask at the ticket office for a map to look for bears around  Highfield Campus. My oldest was so excited to follow the map and find the bears! My youngest, its just fun to run around tailing his older brother! The actual 'bear hunt' was a fun way to release some energy before the show! And it was also educational, not only had my oldest to read a map, as the bears had letters and we had to form a word. And after finding all the bears and the missing word, it as theatre time!

The show was really engaging, with catchy songs  -  which until today are sang 'we are not, not not, not not scared!'

The dog was absolutely delightful to hear sing, extremely funny  and so very expressive therefore it became instantly the favourite character for both kidos: wof...!

I was concerned that since my youngest since he is only two, that staying for almost an entire hour watching a show might be too pushy, particularly since he is really active. However, as the show was full of surprises, splashes and so engaging that the  hour went on a flash, and both my oldest and youngest were attentive following the show. The actors  began by asking what does a bear look like, which every kid was so excited to answer and explain... The contributions were dutifully noted... Nobody has seen a bear live did we? 

 Every now and then in the middle of the show we could hear a bear roar. A footprint was also found! All kids were eager to let dad, girl and boy about it! This kept my kidos inquisitive, so where is the bear? Did you see the footprint? Mummy did you hear a bear? Unsurprisingly, the best part for both was when we finally met the bear. My youngest screamed with delight when the gigantic Teddy Bear made his appearance on the stage.... He could not stop saying 'Its a bear' 'Its a big bear' 'Muuuuummmy its a bear' he was so happy! 

We all loved this show... And we are definitely going 'On a bear hunt' when given the opportunity again.  Here is a sample of the show:

Since we enjoyed going to the theatre so much we are also making plans to watch another show! Actually, it was the kids that when seeing the 'Gruffalo' said that wanted to see that show as well! And we most certainly will!

xx

My Sunday Photo || {The Ordinary Moments}

My Monday Baking: Sweet Buns "Arrufadas de Coimbra"

Hello you!

It has been a long time since I last posted my baking adventures... Since Easter is arriving, I wanted to try some sweet buns recipes. So I ventured and I attempted a new recipe, Coimbra's sweet buns. These sweet buns are based on a Portuguese recipe, their original name are "Arrufadas de Coimbra" and are very typical for Easter. It has been a long time since I last had "arrufadas",  these are really hard to come by in the U.K. (actually,  impossible!). And since I had no idea how to bake these, I did what anyone does, googled a recipe and .... lets bake!

I found a recipe at Doces Regionais ,  and adapted it. I did not used the original measurements that that site suggested. I felt that using 2000g of flour would be a bit too much! Considering that most probably I would find myself having a failed first attempt (which I actually did), I did not wanted to waste so much. Also, if you feel like trying this receipt, bear in mind that it will take a long time to actually bake these buns, as they have to be proofed for a whole night. 

These are the ingredients I used:

650 g flour

4 eggs

20g fresh yeast

100g butter

165g caster sugar

salt

And a picture of my sweet buns looks! Yum!

And the method....:

Mix the flour, sugar and a bit of salt.  I also had to activate the yeast before adding it to the flour mixture. I had to use warm water,  sugar and mix it with the yeast.  Then, I had to wait until there is foam on top of the liquid mixture and that's it, my yeast is active! Then mix it with the previously prepared flour mixture, add the melted butter, eggs and mix it for 10 min.

Now it's time for the troublesome kneading stage... The dough is very sticky, so kneading it was very difficult. I followed this video, which had some good pointers:

After the dough is kneaded, I left it to proof during the night.  I covered the dough with cling film in a large bowl and waited for the morning to arrive. Yes, it is a very long proofing stage.

But my dough more than doubled the size...!

After the proofing stage I divided the dough in eight small dough balls and placed them in an oven tray and proofed for another 30min. Afterwards, I brushed the buns with egg yolk and sprinkled with both icing and caster sugar. I preheated the oven to 200C, and placed my sweet buns in the oven. After 30min, your sweet buns are ready! Yummy sweet buns ready for breakfast!

I am thoroughly proud of how these sweet buns turned out. Bear in mind  though, that this is a second attempt...

In a first attempt I did not used fresh yeast but regular dry yeast. It did not work for me, the dough did not rise once proofed. Heres a photo of my first attempt at these sweet buns and the second more successful bash:

The difference between the buns texture is pretty obvious... My first attempt resulted in very hard buns. Not fluffy and tasty as my second try. I am not sure what went wrong with me using the dry yeast, but I could see that during my kneading stage that the dough was not changing and becoming elastic, the gluten was not activated. It worked with the fresh yeast though!

I will be defenitely baking these again as these are really tasty yummy! And both kidos loved them... So kids' approved sweet buns!

Did you try any new recipes for Easter?

My Sunday Photo || {The Ordinary Moments}