The best of winter

Went a bit retro primary school on the weekend when tidying up the lounge room turned into fiddling with things, as it often does. Everything was taken off the mantelpiece and we introduced a bit of a nature-table feel to it. (The wooden cow was made by The Child in her technology and design class at school.)

It's lovely at night with the fire blazing below and the candles twinkling. It's a work in progress, as I can see it needs another element, which I'm working on with some wool and wire. If all goes well, I'll post a pic later. If all doesn't go well, I'll forget I ever mentioned it.

As we're heading into the third of the six coldest weeks of winter, it's fun to embrace the weather rather than fight it. We sat in front of the fire yesterday afternoon, cups of tea, warm milk, freshly baked cake, Cat snoring. Perfect afternoon.

The nature table approach (a rather fancy term for leaving sticks, stones and leaves lying about) is starting to encroach upon other parts of the house too. We visited the house some friends have just bought on the weekend and came home with a bunch of rosemary from an enormous bush that grows in their garden. I love rosemary used in a vase just for how it looks but don't often get my hands on big enough bunches.

The rosemary love doesn't stop there either as when it starts to dry out we'll either use it to cook with or throw it on the fire. Smells good, looks good, tastes good. Is good.

My cup runneth over

The people at Ikea are smart. Nothing to do with clever design at affordable prices, the vanilla-scented tea lights or even the anemic-looking hotdogs that kids seem to love (which is all about the self-serve sauce, surely). No, for me, it's the Daim chocolates.

We are now the proud owners of 400g of weekend happiness for just $9. Okay, now 350g and counting (down).

Like a surgeon

I love this old shopper, which hangs in the hallway. In summer, it contains sunblock and lipbalm and is grabbed on the way out to the beach. In winter, it's empty and becomes the bag of choice for trips to the corner shop, library and deli.

One of the handles had been coming loose for ages, which I conveniently ignored. But as that's no way to treat a (bag) lady, I lined up some craft glue, jute string and a tapestry needle to patch her up. Pretending I was starring in an episode of Grey's Anatomy, I asked The Child to scrub in and pass me the crucial implements - needle, stat! However, my upturned palm remained empty and I realised I was alone in the field. Never mind, I stitched the limb back on and declared the procedure a success.

To see what the genuinely creative are up to today head here.

A little ray of sunshine

"It's not spring yet, is it?," asked The Child when she opened her curtains this morning. All because, there, on the otherwise bare-branched tree that grows outside her window was a single fully opened pink cherry blossom sparkling in the bright winter sun. Just the one.

Spring may not yet have sprung. But it does seems to be having a little think about it.

'Molten lava' cakes...

...are it turns out just a fancy name for soft-centred chocolate puddings. So I dug out a recipe I've had for ages but never tried. My mistake.

They are ridiculously easy and quick to make, which suits The Child just fine.

Soft-centred 'molten lava' chocolate puddings

• 200g chocolate (we used 100g of Green and Black's milk chocolate and 100g of their 70% dark chocolate)
• 100g unsalted butter
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 2 tbsps flour

Melt chocolate and butter over some simmering water on the stove.

Mix eggs, sugar and flour together before adding the chocolate mixture.

Bake in four ramekins or small pudding bowls (of about a one-cup capacity each) in 200C oven for 15mins.

The puddings should have a set top and be nice and gooey in the middle.

Great with ice cream, cream and some berries.

Happy days

The alarm will not ring for two whole weeks. At 8.30 this morning, I slipped back into bed for a second cup of tea and a few chapters of my book. As long, luxurious lie-ins are mandatory during this time, I love the school holidays almost as much as The Child does.

The weather is crisp and today's schedule has nothing more to it than a coffee with friends followed by baking some sort of 'volcano cake' as described by The Child. When pushed for a few details, she produces a recipe for a molten chocolate cake.

Oh yes, we can do that. Day sorted.

Harden up

Popped into High Tea with Mrs Woo in Paddington a couple of weeks ago and left with this handprinted linen tea towel, $26, by Laughing Bird, a little studio based in the Blue Mountains area of NSW. Native flowers with splashes of teal blue against lineny white was just too much for me to resist. So home it came.

It's now hanging in my hallway on a pretty ordinary coathanger until I source something better, but it does the job for now.

As the linen is quite stiff, the tea towel is hanging nicely but some wouldn't. If you'd like to do something similar, try the old stylist's trick of using masking tape to line the edges at the back as this gives a bit of structure or body.

If you've ever bought Oxford pillowcases (the ones with a border all round) and wondered why it didn't sit perkily on your bed like it did in the glossy brochure/editorial/ad, now you know.