A New Day... A New Blog

I have moved over to my new Blog it can be found here Please go have a look at my new pages and enter into my Draw for prizes to celebrate the new Name and blog.

Changes

Life is full of Changes and I am no exception, I have been thinking a lot over the last year or so about changing the name of my blog because when I first stumbled upon blogging I just typed in anything for a name and it of course has stuck.

I am in the process of making a new blog and it should be ready in the next few days, keep an eye out because I will be having a giveaway to celebrate the new name. I do hope you all will follow me there...

I am of course only a novice at all of this blogging stuff and it does take me a little bit of time to get things done to the way I like it.

I will make pages for recipes, Sewing, handy hints etc...simply because that is how my blogging life has been lately.

So keep a watchful eye out for my big launch...

Happy Stitching

Busy Busy Busy...

What a busy time I have had…Plenty to read about here.

I have had fun cooking different things lately as you could gather from my last post.

Mine got a bit burnt, but tasted fantastic anyhow.

 I decided I wanted to try the amazing Man Pleasing Chicken recipe from over at “Witty in the City”. Now this is an unfortunate name, I am afraid if you Google it I cannot be held responsible for whatever images may show up, follow my link instead.

Grated potato, egg,flour, salt & Pepper

To go with the chicken dish I wanted to make an old fashioned recipe my Mum used to make in the 70’s when we lived in Darwin, she called them “Mock Fish” I am not sure why though because there is no fish anywhere near this recipe (I am allergic). It basically would be called home made hash browns today…They were a big hit with the kids.

Very Yummy...

I have also tried a nice Banana Crème pie recipe from “Joyful Baker” and as you can see from the picture it did not last long…very yummy indeed.

In March I went to the Craft fair here in Brisbane with my Friend Khristina from Sew Prim Khris and her friend Julie (lovely Lady). we had a fantastic day looking at all the craft on offer and I admit I spent a little bit of money (ahem or more). After the day was done and we were sitting in the restaurant having a lovely and well deserved coffee we recognized someone walking past and He blew us kisses and posed for us…Do you know who this is???

He is much taller in real life I must say…

Finally I have had a chance to play with fabric, but alas not my sewing machine…I have been meaning to recover My sewing chair for ages and finally did it.

Love the fabric. 

Sorry I have no before pictures, but it was an ugly grey/black colour.

I am pleased with it for sure.

How about you? Are doing much sewing or are you like me and being a bit slack in that area..

I must find my Mojo again and get stitching.

Till the next time my dear friends.

Many Happy Stitches to you…

An Awesome Dinner

I just have to share about Dinner tonight…I was having a great time checking out a lot of different people’s Pins on Pinterest this morning and found some great ideas for dinner…

It was just a 2 course dinner but we had something very different.

Slow Cooked BBQ Meatballs…

We had an amazing slow cooked BBQ Meatballs which I found just a small bit about on the pin because the original page has disappeared.

It had a Picture.

And simply said 1 jar of Grape Jelly, 1 bottle of Ketchup and a pack of frozen meatballs in the slow cooker. Because we live in Australia and finding Grape Jelly would be very difficult, I imagined it was a Jam kind of thing and chose Plum jam…and of course we call it tomato sauce not ketchup… so I put ¾ of a 600ml bottle of regular tomato sauce, 1 whole 500g jar of Cottees Plum Jam and 2 packs of the Coles variety fresh meatballs (approx 24 meatballs) into the crock pot and cooked it for about 5 hours…Oh My they were the tastiest meatballs I ever had, the flavour was just divine.

Cheesy Cauliflower Puree…

We also had some vegetables and a great idea I saw on " I Breathe...I'm Hungry..." having cheesy cauliflower puree, instead of potato’s. 

The original Picture and recipe are the sole property of  Melissa of "I Breathe...I'm Hungry..." and used with her permission.

What a hit that was, I have been wanting to use my new food processor so this was the perfect opportunity.

The reasoning behind using cauliflower instead of potato is simply because it is much lower in carbohydrates, Awesome…

I have to say that my food processor was a bit big and the puree may have been a better consistency if I did it in smaller portions, but boy it tasted great and the Kids loved it.

Pots De Crème…

(Sorry no Photo)

For dessert we had the most amazing Pots De Crème from over at “the Pioneer Woman” blog… I just used vanilla instead of Grand Marnier and it was deliscious…I used the most amazing ground coffee from here in Australia from a gorgeous little place at Montville in the north coast hinterland of Queensland. You can find them here…

This dessert is so Yummy, but be warned it is very rich...I may have been better off making smaller servings and just savouring every mouthful.

What a divine dinner we had, if you get the chance to visit the blogs I have mentioned I promise you won't be disappointed.

How awesome is it that you can so easily find many amazing recipes and ideas for meals online...thank you, thank you, thank you to all those wonderful people who share their amazing talents and ideas with us all...it certainly made our family meal a delicious experience.

until next time...

MIA...

I have been MIA sorry Ladies…it has been a big start to the school year and I have been battling a certain “illness” that makes life so very difficult if you are a woman of  certain age…

I have not really had much of a chance to sew, I am disappointed about that but it will happen…eventually.

I just wanted to share a couple of interesting things I found out there on the world wide web…

The Fun, Cheap or Free Queen

This page is awesome, she has some excellent tips. It is well worth the time to read through.

I want to share her  creative savings tip for home Ice Packs…

Find her post on this very handy tip here.

What a brilliant idea, what a great saving by making these yourself.

I love this site I found her through Blog hopping, she has some amazing ideas. Go have a look and enjoy her site …Here…

Ribbon Organizing…

Do you have loads of ribbon sitting in boxes or drawers or just tucked away somewhere waiting to be used? Do yours get as messy as mine? Well Jordan has a fantastic idea here to make messy ribbon a thing of the past.

How very Clever…

I am hoping to continue to blog more regularly, but bear with me friends if I am MIA at times...

happy stitching to you all, I would so love to hear about what project you are doing right now, so why not leave me a comment and I will check out your blog if you have one.

School Starts and Some Tips.

School starts in the morning and darling Son 12 will be doing 8^th grade work from tomorrow so I am going to be a bit busier again.

To keep me sane and give me something fun to do in my spare time (apart from sewing) I will be working on my blog, researching different crafts to do and being inspired by lots of amazing people.

Here a couple of tips that you may not have heard before, have you got any handy tips that might help someone else? I would love to hear them.

Household Tip…

You can divide and store ground meat in a zip loc bag. Just break off how much you need and keep the rest in the freezer for later. So much easier than dividing and individually wrapping. See the tips here...

Quilting tip…

Never use a fabric’s selvedge in a quilt – it may shrink and pucker your finished project.

I am looking forward to starting the new school year on a good note so will make sure I get to bed on time tonight, I am just so  done in if I don't get a good nights sleep these days.

Not much happening here on the "Sewing" front I am afraid, I need to be inspired to get my Mojo back...it is possibly because I am still in "Holiday Mode".

I got some really nice fabrics (french General) a couple of months ago now and had an idea of what I would like to make with them...I just have to make that a reality.

I hope you all are being inspired and are having fun sewing away on your projects. 

Until next time

Happy Stitching...

Summer Break Nearly Over...What have I Achieved?

Well as the title implies our Summer Break is nearly over and exactly what have I achieved?

Did I do much on my “To Do” list, Or have I been a slacker…

Perhaps I should have reviewed my to do list a bit better, included some things and excluded others.

So have I achieved anything?

Of course I have, I have had a fantastic summer of coffee with friends, movies and lunches with friends, Rest and relaxation.

Now is any of this on my list…well maybe not so much, but it could come under the heading of “Have Fun”.

I have spring cleaned some, but not all I had hoped to do.

I still have a week left before school starts so I still may get something done.

I guess the point really is that though you may have big and amazing plans, they don’t always work out the way you imagined them to. Life is like that isn’t it?

I have had a few health issues that have prevented me from doing some things so I am ever mindful of re-organizing my time and prioritising.

Coming up this year I am hoping to have a once a month spot about the people that inspire me, from all walks of life…

So I shall be posting this at the end of each month hopefully. I will also have a few giveaways this year as well. Keep an eye out for more…

I hope you are inspired by others, I hope you are able to use that inspiration to inspire others…

Happy Stitching

A Great Start to 2012...

What a lovely start to 2012 for us, the weather here is perfect and we have about 3 weeks left of Summer holidays...

First Project for 2012 Complete…

Well the first project for 2012 is complete and sitting on DD2’s bed.

DD2 has asked me to teach her how to sew, she picked some fabric from the local fabric shop and chose to make a cushion.

I had purchased an old sewing machine last year for her so she could learn on something that might have a bit more resilience than my modern machines.

Top view of the pillow shows how it joins up nicely…

This is the side Ally did mostly on her own…

This is the side I helped teach Her how to cut, iron seams and sew everything straight.

She did a great job for her first attempt...She will have lots of practice as she has lined up a bunch of projects already...

I love that she wants to learn how to sew...

That is it for me for now, I must get back to the sewing room...

Happy stitching

Amanda