Brazil nut balls

4 Jan

My husband and I have been changing our eating habits. Not to lose weight, but rather to eat better for our bodies. We’ve increased the good fat in our diet while trying to eliminate sugars and starch. Hubby has been doing this longer than I have, and is much more disciplined.

Today I made the tastiest snack – brazil nut balls. They were simply delicious. Devoured by the whole family in less than half an hour. And that’s why there’s no photo, no time to grab the camera before they were gobbled up! The kids loved them. You can find the recipe here. I omitted the cacao nibs – who stocks these? – and made 20 small balls. I highly recommend this yummy recipe.

Let me know if you make them! xo

Christmas bunting

12 Dec

Our house wasn’t looking particularly festive. Our tree is up but that’s about it.  I’ve always wanted to make bunting and using this tutorial, I whipped up some Christmas bunting.

Miss B and Master M were enthralled by it. Master M stood and pointed to it with a big smile on his face. And that’s what it’s all about!Christmas bunting

As usual, I bought too much material but at $5 a metre it was a steal. Our tree could use some more decorations.

Is your house jazzed up for Christmas?

Christmas gifts

11 Dec

I’ve been busy making gifts for Christmas. My original intention was to make gifts for everyone, but that hasn’t really gone to plan. That elusive thing called time. And I think I was being over-ambitious!

Here are some items that were gifted last weekend – coasters, paper covered pegs (what a fun project to do with Miss 3!), hair clip holder, headband and baby tag blanket. Christmas gifts

I enjoy making things for family and friends, and hope the recipients appreciate them as much as I enjoy making them.

Are you making any Christmas gifts this year?

Making a donation

9 Dec

I cleared out my wardrobes and will donate the clothes I no longer wear to charity. I try to do this twice a year. I’m always amazed at the clothes that I’ve kept. It’s like a walk down memory lane – the top I wore to my first client meeting, the skirt I bought in Rome because after 2 months of France & Italy my clothes no longer fit, the pants I fell in love with and then recieved them as a Christmas gift. And on it goes!

I’m sentimental about my clothes, but have been ruthless. I would rather someone else wear my clothes, then have them sitting in my cupboard like a time capsule.

How often do you clear out your cupboards and donate?

 

Completed: Miss A’s quilt!

28 Nov

Hello neglected blog! I knew i hadn’t written a blog entry for a while, but didn’t realise it was almost 2 months!

I am so pleased that I finally finished Miss A’s quilt last week. I really enjoyed making my second quilt, and loved how it all came together. The colors worked well, and I had such great help from the ladies at GJ’s with selecting backing and binding material. The pattern appeared quite straight forward, though I found elements of it difficult, such as making sure all the rows lined up correctly. I am very fussy! My very talented mum helped me MANY times for assistance and advice. Thanks mum!

Miss A's quilt - front  Miss A's quilt - back  Miss A's quilt - front and back I gave the quilt to Miss A, and there were smiles all around. I hope Miss A likes and uses her quilt now and in the years to come.

I’ve been working on some other things too, more on that in the next few days. Promise it won’t be in 2 months’ time.

Thanks for stopping by. xo

I’m a metric girl

3 Oct

I’m a metric girl – millimetre, centimetres, metres is what I learnt and use. Enter the sewing world where it’s (mostly) imperial – inches, yards, feet and it’s enough to make my head spin. I’m forever looking at my tape measure to check the conversion. I can’t picture 1 inch (ok maybe 1 inch), but 10 inches, 30 inches, 1 yard? Is that as long as my laptop, or as long as my kitchen table? I like to visualise size and imperial makes it difficult for me.

You can imagine my surprise when I was told today by the lovely ladies at GJ Fabrics that it is illegal for them to have an imperial tape measure to ‘officially’ cut fabric for customers. How extraordinary! It must be metric, which was music to my ears. But with patterns generally quoting imperial measurements, surely it must be annoying for them having to convert to metric.

Maybe one day we will all live in a metric world.

 

 

 

Progress of Miss A’s quilt

1 Oct

I have been busy piecing Miss A’s quilt. Thought it would be easy-peasy, but it took me a little while to line up the rows. Read: unpick and call mum for help! Today I purchased the backing material, binding and batting so I’m almost ready to start quilting – which is my least favourite part of making a quilt. Wish me luck. Miss A will be receiving her quilt next Saturday, 7 day countdown is on.

Stacked coin quilt

Picture quality and colors not the best – photo from my phone!

 

 

 

Love a fabric bargain

21 Sep

Today I went to Spotlight with the intention of buy the sashing material for Miss A’s quilt. Instead, I was sidetracked by the sale table. Oh my goodness, I could not believe the stock that was reduced. Such lovely material. And at $6 a metre, how could I turn a blind eye? I think I did well with my purchases. I have a few projects in mind, and now just need to find the time and slot them into my projects.  What bargain material have you picked up?

Father’s Day present

5 Sep

Miss B and Master M adore their daddy. Their faces light up when he arrives home and they rarely leave his side. Their daddy is much loved, by the kids and me! Both nonnos are also much loved!

I decided to make personalised t-shirts for Father’s Day. Miss B had recently drawn a picture of Daddy and Nonno. I photocopied and enlarged them, purchased plain white t-shirts and some Crayola fabric textas. Then I simply traced the picture, using the same colors as the original drawing, ironed and there you have it – 2 personal Father’s Day presents.


I might make this a tradition – a new t-shirt for each Father’s Day. Would be good way to capture the kids’ creativity and development.

Oh – and the t-shirts were much loved by Daddy and Nonno.

Happy children, happy mum!

1 Sep

Miss B and Master M love going to the park, and I love taking them. They have fun on the swings, slides, ladders, tunnels. The fresh air and running around does wonders for their souls.

So that’s what I did today – made the kids happy by taking them to our local park. It was a lovely day for a walk and Miss B was so sweet, picking flowers for me on our walk home. When we arrived, she asked for a vase to put them in. What a thoughtful little girl she is.

Park = happy children

Flowers = happy mummy

How did you spend this glorious day?

← Older Entries

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.