This Is...

This Is...the contents of my handbag.

I'm a day early for 'This Is...' so please excuse my eagerness!!!

Here we go:- purse, phone, sunnies, pink diary & pen, tissues (in red spotty cover), Nivea lip balm (can't go anywhere without this), Westfield gift card, baby wipes (at the risk of sounding obsessive compulsive...I use these to clean my hands after I've been op-shopping....most of our op-shops are pretty dusty and dirty...and of course I also need these to clean the kids up occassionally) and lastly my tictacs. I love to drink coffee, but I can't stand the after-taste, so I have tictacs.

I know this probably looks like I've cleaned out my handbag especially for this photo, but this is honestly as messy as it gets. The only thing I threw in the bin before taking this photo are a couple of used tissues (and for some reason, I figured you didn't need to see those)!!!

I'm still here...

Yes, I am still here. I haven't dropped off the face of the earth. I'm going through a bit of a lull at the moment, creatively speaking. And when this happens, I try to snap myself out of it by reading blogs and sewing books for inspiration.

I'm throwing around the idea of making a doona cover for Chloe's bed (to go with her new red and white colour scheme). I've found a beautiful one in Amy Butler's 'In Stitches' book, but I'm not sure if I'm game enough to tackle such a big project (not a big project for some....but VERY big for me!!!). I'd love to know if anyone's made a doona cover and if so, how tricky was it? The Amy Butler one is patchworked, so perhaps that may be a tad ambitious for my first try?

Dinner Time...

As a follow on from a previous post of mine (some time ago), I've designed these placemats to encourage kids to help mum and dad by setting the dinner table (and perhaps earn themselves some pocket money). In my previous post, I made some little aprons with a knife, fork and spoon stitched onto three separate pockets for kids to carry the cutlery to the table. And now these are the placemats to show them where to place the cutlery. It's a bit hard to see in this photo ( I need a new camera!!!), but I've stitched a knife, fork and spoon onto the linen fabric.

I've used a heavy linen look fabric to stitch the cutlery onto and the flowery fabric is from Z & S.

This is the backing fabric which is also from Z & S.

Here's a close up of the cutlery. This is purely experimentation at this stage, so I realise the cutlery is a bit wonky. I drew it free-hand and then machine stitched over it, so tonight I'm going to make up some templates to trace and I'm going to try handsewing the cutlery as well to see if that gives a better result. I've also used some 100% cotton interfacing to stiffen them a bit, which has worked perfectly.

I would love to hear feedback on these...particularly the cutlery design. I basically copied my knife, fork and spoon from my cutlery drawer. I'm happy with the knife and spoon, but I'm not sure about the fork. All suggestions welcome!!! But be kind...me ego is fragile!!!

My Little Cherubs...

I didn't have any white paint (can you believe it!!!) to paint the frames, so I used what I had. But I do think this colour is too close to our wall colour. So I'm off to Spotlight tomorrow to purchase some white paint and have another go.

I can't believe the detail in this painting and the gorgeous colours (unfortunately my mediocre camera doesn't do it justice!!!). That blue is way more vibrant. I do wonder who painted them? There is no name on them at all.

And this one definitely needs a white frame. I guess I'll just consider this first coat to be an undercoat!!!

I went upstairs last night as usual to check on the kids before I went to bed and this is what I found when I went into Will's room. Did I mention we are in the middle of summer and it was 37 degrees yesterday. I just had to get a photo of him in his beannie. And that's half a tattoo you can see on his forehead, in case you were wondering!!! He's got them ALL over his body too!!! Both my kids love sneaking out of bed once Glenn and I have said our goodnights and re-dressing themselves in all manner of things. This is Will's usual get-up. And Chloe usually changes her pj's from summers to winters (she knows I won't let her wear winters during summer, so she sneaks them on later), then she adds her eye mask, her woolen gloves and her toe socks...yes, this is also in the middle of summer).

But last night I could only catch her with her winter pj's on. I'll make sure I capture her in her full get-up next time. It really is hilarious. Especially those toe-socks....they are the funniest looking things. Look at my little cherubs...I always think they revert back to babyhood when they're sleeping. I look at their faces and to me, they look just like they did when they were babies. I wonder if it will always be this way??? I hope so!!!

Op Shopping and Gardening...

We had a pretty hot day today of about 37 degrees and I had the urge to garden. If I don't do it when I have the urge, then it doesn't get done. And our front entrance was in desperate need of dressing up. So I trotted off to Bunnings to get some plants. Usually I wander around for ages trying to find the perfect plants, but today I was in and out in fifteen minutes. They had exactly what I was looking for. I'm not the best at keeping the water up to my potted plants, so I needed some that were drought hardy!!! Mother-In-Law's tongue is always a good one and the smaller one is some sort of cordyline I think (can't remember).

I love this one with the red flowers. These are great as climbers, but my girlfriend has a white one in a pot that looks gorgeous. They flower pretty much all year round. And the little one is a Liriope.Just before school pick up this afternoon, I popped into our local Op Shop to have a look. This is what I came out with...these two lovely paintings. The floral one has already gone up in my sewing room and the boaty one will probably go in the family room. I'm thinking of painting the boat frame white to give it a beachy look.

I LOVE eating anything with lemon in it so I had to get this Little Lemon Book. All the recipes use lemons. I'm think I've heard about this little cookbook before, so hopefully I'll find some yummy recipes in it.

And lastly, a beaded bracelet. The beads are wood and I love the colour combination.

Isn't this painting gorgeous. There were actually two more of these, both similar to the two I bought. I did see a few other things I liked, but I find that our Op Shops are pretty expensive (certainly compared to what Eastern States bloggers seem to pay for their goodies), so I left the other things behind.

The Recipe Swap Box - Money Saving Recipes

I've just joined a recipe swap group over at I Have To Say so here's my 'Money Saving Recipe'...

Quick Quiche
Serves 6

4 eggs
3 rachers bacon, chopped
1 cup grated cheese (add extra if you want it to be really cheesey)
1 small finely chopped brown onion
1/2 cup SR flour
1 1/2 cups milk
1 Tbspn chopped parsley

Mix all ingredients together. Pour into a square cake tin that has been greased lightly.
Bake at 190 degrees for 40 minutes or until set.
Serve with a green salad and crusty bread.

Optional - This quiche is lovely topped with circles of tomato before baking.

This is a very basic recipe, so you could omit the bacon and add whatever you like instead...eg. spring onion, cherry tomatoes, chives.

This Is...

This Is...looking out my front door.

I literally stood at the front door to take this photo. I think I've mentioned before, we live opposite a park, so it's lovely to sit out the front and enjoy a cuppa while watching the kids play at the park (my kids, not other people's kids....I'm not a pervert!!!).

And this is where I sit to watch them.


I'm sorry for missing last week's 'This Is...'post. I made sure I got in early this week!!! If you'd like to look out the front of other people's doors, then go to Three Buttons. And thanks to Brooke for this week's topic.

Time for a catch up...

I can't believe it's been a week since my last post. I'm not sure why, but I've felt that there hasn't been anything very worthy of posting about, except the usual day-to-day stuff. And now I've found myself nearing the end of the week without a post, so I will just have to post about the usual day-t0-day stuff. Now is your chance to move onto a more interesting blog!!!

We went to visit Glenn's parents this morning so I baked some chocolate brownie to take. I've made chocolate brownie plenty of times before, but this recipe was a new one. And I have to say, it's by far the richest, most chocolatey, fudgy brownie I've ever made. It's delicious, but you certainly can't eat too much of it because of the richness. Of course, it's full of all the usual chocolate brownie goodness.....tonnes of sugar, tonnes of dark chocolate, tonnes of butter....and just as I'm pulling it from the oven and marvelling at my handiwork, Glenn informs me that his parents have just started a new diet!!!!!! So how bad did I feel walking in the door with, probably one of the most fattening slices ever!!! Needless to say, we brought the remaining slice home with us so it was not a temptation for them, and we had some for dessert tonight.

And here is tonight's dinner....the kids asked what was for dinner and Glenn said a 'Snack Attack'. So I think that will be the new name for this dinner. We've been having it a bit lately on the weekends. Tonight I set up a blanket on the back lawn for a picnic dinner. It's amazing how a slight change to the normal dinner routine for the kids is enough to excite them so much. We had a lovely dinner of shaved ham, jarslberg cheese (my favourite), pate' (mmmmm), hommus (mmmmm), bread rolls and some salad.

And we set up our picnic right next to our rabbit, Roxy. So poor Roxy had drool through her cage at our dinner. She's already spent the afternoon out, hopping around the back yard and eating all my lettuce in the vegie patch.