Thrift Store Score

 

Vintage linens...for a patchwork quilt maybe?  I'll definately need more!

Cuteness from Bluebird Russian

Right at the beginning of my blog, I posted about and entered a giveaway for a cute clip from Bluebird Russian, which I (amazingly!) won.  That really doesn't happen very often!  I was very excited to receive it in the mail and then life in general got in the way and I never got to post about it.  So here it is, better late than never!

Bluebird Russian makes funky knitted and embroidered wear and can even do custom orders!  Her Etsy shop is fairly new and I always think that it's lovely to support a new Etsy-er, especially when they are creating something a little different from the norm.

Here's Miss Five doing a wonderful job modelling our cricket cola clip...

It's a pretty cute clip, is it not?

It says "Twist For Happiness".  Miss Five likes to pretend to twist it and cranks her smile up with each twist.  I told her her that she should actually do "The Twist" while she's wearing it.  Her response was *eye roll* "Muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum!"
Something tells me I'm not going to have much of a chance of wearing this when Miss Five is around.

Friday Lunchbox # 5

In keeping with last week's theme of mini-food...

Morning Tea - Red and green apple slices*, seaweed and plain rice crackers
Lunch - Mini-burger containing garden fresh cos lettuce and tomatos, cheddar cheese, beef patty and  organic tomato sauce.  Strawberries and blueberries.
Drink - Water

*Hint: Use a squeeze of lemon or lime juice over the apple slices to stop them browning.

You could probably buy those small dinner rolls to make these burgers, but here's the cool thing.  Remember the easy bread base recipe for the stromboli from Friday lunchbox #1?  It makes the BEST bread rolls EVER.  All you need to do after the dough has risen is knock it down and give it a quick knead before dividing it up and shaping into small rounds.  Pop them on a tray covered in a little clingwrap which has been sprayed lightly with oil and put them in a warm place until they have doubled in size.  Glaze the tops with a little milk ( sprinkle on sesame seeds if you like - we didn't since these are going to school and there is someone there with a sesame allergy) and bake in a hot, hot oven for 15 to 20 mins - you can tell they are cooked if they sound hollow when you tap them.  You could probably make about 8 or 10 mini ones from one batch of dough, I made a variety of sizes as we enjoyed burgers for our dinner the night before!  And it's super easy to make a few tiny beef patties when you are making those too.  I don't really have an exact recipe for my patties but they usually contain high grade low fat beef mince, fresh (not dry) breadcrumbs, onion, egg,  parmasen cheese, fresh parsley, thyme and rosemary, cracked black pepper and a smidge of salt.

Maybe you'll try out making some bread rolls this weekend?  Go on - they make your house smell delicious and I know you'll love them!!

Have a good one!

Crochet Rocks! Yes It Does.

Have you seen these yet?

I've been enamoured with them ever since seeing them for the first time and quite often since, on Geninne's beautiful blog.

So here's my own first attempt at one.

 
I didn't use a pattern and since I only know how to chain and  treble stitch, that's what I did.

Perhaps not as exquisite as Margaret Oomen's beauties but I think I did ok.  And it's just perfect for posing with an illustration from a beautiful vintage book of Australian wildflower illustrations by Patricia Weare.  I discovered this book in a thrift store not so long ago - it was a nice find!

I think this one will be destined for a lovely little display on my craft room window sill.  I have two more similar pebbles and some different coloured thread...but perhaps I should learn a few more stitches first.

Friday Lunchbox #4

Todays lunch...

Morning Tea - Stewed apple and natural sultanas with cinnamon sugar sprinkle
 Lunch - Cold beef curry and cheddar cheese mini-pies.  Fresh strawberries in vanilla yoghurt (Jalna All Natural pot-set yoghurt)
Drink - Water


The mini pies can be filled with what ever you have on hand as leftovers from your nightly meal - a hearty stew or casserole filling would be just as lovely!  We had delicious beef curry leftovers, so that's what I used, especially as it's one of Miss Five's favourite meals.  Take a small amount of your leftovers and chop any chunky meat or vegetables so it's a fine consistency.  I mixed a little cooked leftover rice in with ours too.  Then use two circular scone cutters to cut bottoms and tops for your pies from ready-made frozen puff pastry.  (Miss Five liked helping with that part!)  The cutters we used were 7cm and 6cm in diameter.  Spray a muffin tray lightly with olive oil and place in your larger bases.  Top with a spoon of your filling and a small amount of grated cheddar cheese.

Then top with the smaller circles and press edges down gently.  We used some baby shape cutters to cut shapes from the leftover pastry to top the pies with but you certainly don't need to do that if you don't want to.  Instead you could try sprinkling with sesame or poppy seeds if you fancy those!  Or just leave them plain - whatever floats your boat!

Bake in a 180 degree celcius oven until brown and crisp.  Mine puffed up an awful lot and leaked a little - I just used a knife to push all that yummy goodness straight back in as I popped each one out of the muffin tray to cool on a wire rack.  Once cooled a little, store in the fridge until needed. If you have a piemaker, you could make larger size ones for adults too (or just use this size as a snack).  Delish!

To make the stewed apple and sultanas, peel and core a whole large cooking apple and add it to a saucepan with a handful of natural sultanas and a dash of water.  Cook on a low heat until apple is soft and sultanas are plump.  Remove from heat and sprinkle a small amount of cinnamon sugar - stir through.  Once in lunch container, sprinkle an additional small amount of cinnamon sugar on top and refrigerate.  (This is also a lovely one to use for dessert with caramel or vanilla icecream or custard.  Mmmmmmm!)

Hope you've enjoyed our lunchbox today.  Have a great weekend!

Almost there!!

I have two more rows of fourteen squares to go before it's time to start stitching it all together!!

 

I hope I have enough white yarn left!!

Friday Lunchbox #3

Today's lunch...

Morning Tea - Strawberry and tinned pineapple fruit salad and "Mousetraps"
Lunch - Cold cheese and baked bean mini-jaffles with matching "mini" apple : )
Drink - Water

Miss Five begged for cheese and baked beans today so I had to at least do something a little different with them.  To get "mini" jaffles, just use your jaffle maker as you normally would, then once cooked, turn your jaffle 90 degrees and close the lid again.  It cuts the jaffle in half and seals it (hopefully!) to make mini-versions.  These are great for a warm and healthy after school snack as well as popping in the fridge to chill for the next day's lunch.  I chanced upon those tiny apples at our local greengrocer - they are just the right size for kiddies.  I love mini food - it's all so cute!!

The "Mousetraps" (in the pink container) are just slices of wholemeal bread sprinkled with cheddar cheese and baked in a slow oven (about 150 deg celcius) for about an hour until the bread and cheese are both completely dry and crispy. You should take them out of the oven at the halfway mark and use a sharp bread knife to cut them into whatever shapes you want - fingers or triangles are the easiest.  They end up tasting like wholemeal cheese crackers but without all the yukky additives those foods tend to have, so a lot nicer, really!  (And a whole lot cheaper!)

Hope you have a great weekend, everyone!

Somewhere Over The Rainbow

I absolutely love anything that's rainbow coloured!!  This week at our place there's been...

Rainbow bands in our hairstyles...

Rainbow lorikeets in our gardens...

and rainbow coloured 100's & 1000's on top of our homemade icecream...

You can only see a little of them here - I had to take the picture fast cause the icecream was meeeeelting, meeeeeeeelllltttttttting!!!!!!  Ha ha ha oh dear.

Any rainbows in your life this week?

Friday Lunchbox #2

Today's lunch...

Morning Tea - Orange and Strawberry fruit salad, plain rice crackers and chedder cheese triangles
Lunch - Double decker sandwich fingers (Light Philidelphia Cream Cheese & Lettuce, Tomato), Ladyfinger banana
Drink - Water with mint leaves

Both the tomato and lettuce are from our vege patch.  Delish!!  To stop the tomato making the sandwiches soggy, I press it in between some paper towel to remove the excess moisture before putting it in the sandwich.  I'm normally not a "crusts-off-sandwiches" type of mum, but I think you have to with double-deckers, they just look so much yummier!  I took the crusts off before I made the sandwiches and they've joined the bag of bread ends in the freezer.  They'll end up being breadcrumbs or croutons!

A few garden fresh mint leaves make the iced water mildly minty - I think Miss Five thinks it's special 'cause that's what I do with my water sometimes!  At the very least, it encourages her to drink lots.

Strawberry Fields Forever

Look!  My strawberry plants are flowering and beginning to produce berries!  Hooray!

I love strawberries.  Now I'm off to make strawberry icecream for Miss Five (and myself!) with some awesome berries I picked up at the farmers markets this weekend. Yuuuuuuuuuum!!!