my week in pictures

 

  

* paper planes and hugs, looking after nieces and nephews while mum and dad go rock out

*  sending presents in the mail

* new ukulele strings and chess games in the lounge

* Anzac day biscuits which turned out a little funny... but still yum. 

* poker. poker poker poker. we love poker. 

* making yummy breakfasts

* live music in the library with a friend

* making duck enclosure for Clementine

blog love- easy peasy organic

Delicious recipes? Bucketloads. Sustainability and thrifting, heaps and heaps. Lovely photos, ohmygoodness.

I really like this blog, it's one of those blogs which effortlessly mixes the personal life and thoughts of the genuine and lovely Amanda, with wonderful cooking resources (amazing recipes! how to make pickles! applesauce! with a very handy reference for tricky ingredients too!) and a good dash of thrifty sense and sustainable/eco ideas. She also writes elsewhere, like this post on how to shop for second hand clothes. And has an etsy store too.

Read it to be inspired and go buy a thrifted dress, make your own lipbalm, and cook a feast.


Thanks Amanda, you rock my blog world.
x

vegemite and naps

(bought this mug in a thrift store in Vancouver. makes me giggle)

Phew! I'm back!



Oh the things I have seen, the places I've been. I cannot hardly even start to think about where I would start to begin. I have gazillions of photos to show you, but I will try to narrow it down to a few. hundred. Canada was incredible, Denmark was gorgeous, my family rocks (and we didn't kill each other! hooray!) and I am sleepy.



For now I am enjoying vegemite on toast more than I ever imagined I would (who knew?) and taking naps at strange times as my body catches up to this timezone. And listening to magpies in the mornings as I write more lists and rearrange my studio.

25 things to do with a glass jar

via

1. make it into a home for a pet snail

2. make a lovely terrarium and keep it on your kitchen shelf

3. keep the sun with you all day (and night) with a sun jar

4. crochet a cover for your jar from your favourite colours

5. make it into a cloche to protect a new seedling in the vege patch

6. keep it on your dresser for your spare change. after a week donate it to a homeless shelter

7. make iced tea in your jar, and take it on a picnic

8. make a time capsule with your family and friends

9. make infused vodka for the weekend

10. make a jar pincushion to hold your sewing pins

11. pick some flowers and make a painted jar vase

12. make an educational matching game (or this one) and play

13. use it to make salad dressing, and store it in the fridge

14.every day write something you are thankful for and put it in the jar

15. use wire to make a handle and turn it into a tealight candle holder

16. pick some rose petals and make a potpourri air freshener

17. make some sand art in your jar and use it as a paperweight or bookend

18. pop it in the kitchen cupboard and use it as an extra drinking glass

19. pretend it's christmas and make a snowglobe

20. fill it with biscuit ingredients and give it to a friend

21. cover it in fabric and use it to hold your pens

22. stock up at the markets and make some jam, or pickles, or chutney or relish

23. use lots of little jars to make this awesome spice rack

24. use it to hold your crafty bits and pieces

25. revert to childhood and make a papier mache volcano experiment

what else could you do with a glass jar?

biscuits to bake

via

Because it's Autumn. Or Spring if you're over that side. Because it's Monday. Because they're delicious. Because you don't need a reason to bake biscuits. Or cookies. Whichever.

* Anzac Biscuits (oh classic. yum. chewy or crisp? an ongoing debate.)

* Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies (peanut butter AND chocolate. Need I say more?)

* Gingernut Biscuits (I love ginger, and these are goooood)

* Traditional Shortbread (mostly sugar and butter. delicious.)

* Iced Vovos (homemade= yummier)

* Macaroons (so many recipes. such an art. better start practising.)

* Fortune Cookies (write your own fortunes. how fun.)

* Jam Drops (makes me think of Nanna's and doileys)

* Passionfruit Melting Moments (you'll melt. in passion. for these biscuits.)

* White Chocolate and Cranberry Biscuits (oh yep. bit unusual. noice.)

I think sweet treats are even better if you make them yourself. Why go bland store-bought when you can dance in the kitchen with a bowl and be covered in cocoa? Why?

I like to draw what I eat

It's more interesting than writing a 'food diary' (boooring) and makes me remember everything I eat in the day. I can see at a glance a good day (satisfied feeling) and a not-so-good day (oops-that-last-biscuit-was-probably-too-much feeling). Plus I get to colour in.

Dawn from handmade love likes to paint what she eats. Her pictures are much prettier than mine. I like them very much. I just saw that she is making an art book with pictures of everything she eats. She is swell.

(via handmade love)

It is the beginning of April and in a bid to reduce some of the extra squishiness from this week I am taking more notice of what I eat. I will draw everything I eat this week not on scraps of paper but in a big book. And this month. It's amazing how it helps, I can't help but turn down something becuase it won't look good in my picture. I will show you, and that will help too, I will want to look oh-so-healthy and nutritious to you guys.

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No peanut butter straight from the jar over here, nuh-uh.

older and noticeably rounder

I went to post about my week in pictures, and realised that all the pictures were food. All. Food. This post could be renamed The Week I Ate A Lot. Or, How To Gain Weight Suddenly.

Now I am eating salad again and going to the gym. (still eating chocolate. Chocolate doesn't count.)

Geez it was tasty though.

Tasty Japanese beer (Brewed For Good Times!) at lovely Japanese Restaurant with lovely Boy.

Barbeque with Spanish folk. Those guys really know how cook. and sing.

Delicious Duck Noodle Soup from a little restaurant in an unexpected corner. With condiments.

Birthday cake in the Office

Birthday pizza. And Pasta. And Garlic Bread. And Wine.

High Tea Baby Shower (much more on that later!) with cupcakes and nibblies and finger sandwiches and pastry and cakes and...

then CHEEEEESE TOAST! Oh Sizzler.

Devonshire Tea on the train
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'Aaah.. ' *pats stomach contentedly*

ps. I started this post on Sunday and only just got around to posting today.. it's been a busy week, so much to tell you! And on the weekend I'm going fabric shopping! eeeeehhhh!

Pancakes are Delicious Part II

when will it end?

Pancakes are Delicious

I have said this before. Recently. Lately, I can't get enough. A while ago, I couldn't get enough burgers. Big handmade ones with pickles and mustard. Before that, I had major sushi cravings. All.the.time.

I have endearing food cravings that may last a day or a month. Pecan pie. Wonton soup. And I've talked about bacon and banana sandwiches before. I'm not sure where they come from. On a craving my (then) boyfriend and I went to the shops and bought 8 types of cereal. Then spent a day eating them in different combinations. Yummo.

I am though a believer in honouring food cravings. If you want it, darn have it. (You can have anything you want, but not everything you want). So I do. I had pancakes (again) last night. I may have them today. Or I may feel like something else.
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Do you crave?

Outlaw Icecream

He was my favourite, with red frogs, bought with sticky coins on long summer days. Talk like a cowboy and try to stick your tongue through the bullet hole in his hat.
You can get this cute shirt in a bunch of colours here.
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Does anyone else remember Bubble-O-Bill? And did anyone actually ever eat the bubblegum?

cosy

apple tart, originally uploaded by C.Mariani ( vacation ).

Pip has started a words and pictures blog-along, and this week (or was it last?) the theme is 'cosy'. Anything it means to you.
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At first I was like, yep, cups of tea, rain on the windows, sleeping cats, ugg boots, quilts, lamplight, snuggles. (All the great winter stuff that's coming around again! yay!)
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But then my mind snagged on pie. Pie is very cosy. And for dinner tonight I had tortellini. I love food wrapped in other food. It's comforting and cosy indeed!
cheese and spinach triangles
spring rolls
pasties and sausage rolls
ravioli
tortellini
dumplings
apple pie and cherry pie and all the other kinds of pie
strudel (that one's fun to say too)

can you think of any others?
When the weather is cold I foresee friends and flour in a cosy kitchen for a bakeoff or two.. or three. yum.

p.s. I found a recipe for peanut butter pie last week. Oh yeah.

i heart sushi

I love sushi very much, but only the boring stuff. You know, tuna, veges, chicken, avocado. None of that sushimi business. Now you may argue that I am not a true sushi lover, (I wouldn't do too well in Japan), but I stand by my conviction that seeing as I love it very much, it makes up for the boring part.

This afternoon I met my friend for sushi dinner at my local sushi train. (some of my friends, knowing how much I like sushi, got me a sushi gift card for my birthday. Yay.)

she is funny and caring and wise and sweet and a lot of fun. We talked and laughed and shared, and I came away feeling blessed and sweet.

Around her I feel I can totally be myself. To prove it I held chopsticks in my mouth like a walrus. She laughed and did it too.

(apologies for no image credits)

Then I looked in flickr and it seems everybodys done it. hee hee