Thought for Food Friday

Green veggies.  Why do so many people not like eating the green ones?  Me?  I love them!  Yumm... bring on the green stuff I say!

This week we have had a few servings of green stuff!  I got some brussel sprouts.  Yumm...  Haven't had those in ages.  I guess they are only just coming into season.  We have been given bunches of silverbeet too.  I love that.  Not quite as much as spinach but it's good.  You know, when we were kids we used to be able to pick something special for our birthday tea.  I picked spinach!  Yep, I did!  Well keep in mind, we didn't have the fast food type things going on in the 70's so we really only knew meat & three veg!  We certainly didn't have much of anything else that I can remember.

Anyway, a couple of great silverbeet recipes we had this week were

Creamed Silverbeet

Silverbeet with Lemon & Walnuts

If you have any great green veggie recipes to share please do!  Always on the look out for more!

Oh & DJ love his food - everywhere!  As you can see!  It doesn't always go in, but it is fun all the same!  Have a good Friday!  I will!

My Creative Space

Here I am again playing with toys!  OK, making them first!  But gee, Mrs Fox is pretty cute I think.  I decided the boys aren't getting this one.  This one is mine.  They can play with it but it's mine.  I will share with them.  Major lessons in sharing this will be!  I started Foxy the other day & have worked on it in bits & pieces, over the last few days.  I actually wanted it done last night but had to stop & get to bed.  So this morning I have done it's tail!  Yep, 7am crochet!  Lovely quiet time.  When the boys are up it will be crazy once more & things like this don't quite get the focus they need to mistakes occur in counting!  It is very important to do a lot of counting in amigurumi work.  Other wise they turn out funny shapes!  Yes I know this to be true.  No point doing a pattern if you aren't going to do the pattern!  Mostly I say patterns are just suggestions.  But if there is a particular shaped toy you are after it pays to follow the pattern!  lol  

Mrs Fox is out of the Amigurumi Toy Box book that I still have from the library.  Thank goodness I have it over Easter.  Not finished with it yet.  Mrs Fox does have a scarf on in the book but I don't know if I want to dress her yet.  Baby Fox has a jumper on & I don't know if I will do that if I do baby fox at all.   We'll see how much time I get before I have to give the book back.  Boohooo...  

Thanks for visiting me today & don't forget to visit other creative spaces! 

Pay It Forward

Would you like to play along in a Pay It Forward with me?  I decided it would be great to do this right now... well in the next year.   Want to know more?  Read on.  

Here's what happens:
I will make a handmade gift for the first 3 interested people who comment on this post.

• I have 365 days to do it in…
• What it will be and when it will arrive is a total surprise!

The catch is that you must participate as well:

• you must have a blog
• and before you leave your comment here, write up a pay it forward post on your blog to keep the fun going. Just cut and paste this one if you like, which I did! 

So what do you think?  Would you like to play along with this with me?  

What's not to love about getting a surprise hey?  & a handmade surprise at that!  

Juneau would love to see you play along!  Who can resist a cute doggie face like that?   

CraftyRie started this a while back I believe.  Want to check out more over on her blog?  

What are you waiting for?  

Happy Wednesday!

Jelly Fish Rock

Especially when they are as cute & pink as this one!  Ok, so jelly fish don't belong in trees but this one was posing for a picture so you know...  have to be different!  This was BJ's special request on Thursday & I even managed to get it done on Thursday, just in time for him to take it to bed!  He loves it!  Last night he forgot it!  It did sound odd having him say that he wanted his jelly fish!  Not something you hear everyday!  

OK, boring news today, but a jelly fish will have to suffice.  So Happy Weekend!

Thought For Food Friday

On Sunday BJ wanted to make cupcakes.  Sure no problem.  But they have to be simple.  Less fuss the better & preferably lemon as we have loads of lemons at the moment.  Google to the rescue like usual!

Lemon Cupcakes

These were easy as anything!  The best thing was that BJ was brave enough to stand & hold the hand mixer & mix while I threw everything in.  Perfect!  Mixed in under 5 minutes!  They were really very good!  Well they must have been pretty good as the whole batch disappeared that same day.  BJ ate more than anyone I think.  I also thought they would be simple enough to whip up a batch for playgroup this week.  I made these in a mini muffin tin using the generic brand of cupcake papers so they aren't huge.  Made almost a dozen in one quantity.  So Monday BJ mixed a double batch.  Really, they were so fast!  But I used way more than the juice of one lemon on them as the recipe said.  I used a couple for one batch.  They weren't lemony enough still.  I think lemon frosting would be good but didn't want to overdo it for the playgroup kids!  Most of them are hyper enough without adding extra sugar to them!  lol  They went down a treat anyway.  I had a few compliments on them so that's always a good sign!


We haven't done much more than that in our cooking this week.  It's been a crazy week so time has been very pushed with grumpy kids & managing only the most basic of meals all week it seems.  We have also been given another load of different vegetables through the week so we have been blessed with that!  So very basic meals, but that doesn't matter really.  It's all food & it's all healthy & all keeping us going.  So a few nights of my cooking plain ordinary food isn't so bad on occasion!


We have been doing well with the meal planning & the whole point of reducing waste & saving on groceries.  Groceries cost enough these days without buying stuff that gets tossed out don't they?  Scary really.  I shudder when I see trolley loads in the supermarket now that are way over the top.  Shudder for sure...   I was about mortified when I saw a couple with 2 trolley loads once.   I won't judge!  I am hoping they only shop once a fortnight!


Happy Friday!  & go make these lemon cupcakes!  They are good!

My Creative Space

Breakfast anyone?  Coffee & an egg?  OK you can't eat the egg as it's just hatched!  But you could try the coffee!  It is a happy coffee after all!

I've been playing as you can see.  This was play time yesterday.  I have the books from the library, Amigurumi World & Amigurumi Toy Box.  They are great!  Both by Ana Paula Rimoli.  Very good. So good in fact that I found the first one on fishpond for a bargain so hopefully that arrives soon!  Oops!  But really, it was over 50% off!  You can't go past that can you?  So today I have to fit in a bit more amigurumi making.  I will work out of the Toy box book now.  It's a toss up on what's first!  The fox, carrot with the rabbit inside or the jelly fish!  I am not a fan of jelly fish at all but I saw a bunch of them in rainbow colours & they looked awesome!


Boy that was perfect timing... BJ just walked in the room.  I showed him the finished egg.  The look on his face was priceless.  He likes it!  So now he has just picked what he wants out of the book.  A jelly fish is next by the look of it!  They really are cool!  & a pink one at that!  These don't take long so that's fun!  It will be interesting to see how long the jelly fish takes.  I used a 4mm hook on the coffee cup but changed to a 3.5mm on the egg.  Will do another cup in the smaller hook as the spaces are a bit big for a toy.  I even had the eyes on hand.  I got them at work a while back for just this sort of thing.  I even found them!  (after only about 5 minutes of looking!)


For some more creativity today, check out all the other creative spaces won't you?

A Few Of My Favourite Things

"Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With String

These Are A Few Of My Favourite Things"

...especially when they come in the mail from a friend far away!  

& so it did! Arrive I mean.  A brown paper package hiding inside an Aussie post plastic bag address to me!  From Sal .  A brown paper package tied up with string!  Not to mention a little granny square on the string & a tag with a lovely message on it to tell me that the gift inside was something for DJ.  

Can you believe, dear Sal has spent her summer in the stifling heat over there, hooking up this gorgeous blanket for my baby boy!  

Yes, this blanket you see right here, that DJ is obviously very happy with.  He knew it was his.  He grabbed his rusk & went over to it & rolled right over & lay there.  He just knew.  He is very excited about it too.

You know what I did after sitting in shock at such a gift?  I rang Sal up!  Yep, her number was on the Aussie post bag.  Hmmm... that would be so much cooler to surprise her back.   How do you thank someone for such a gift?  The least I could do was surprise her back with a phone call!  So I did.  Right that minute.  (I didn't even consider so much what time it would be there!  Phew it wasn't early morning!)  We talked for about 5 minutes.  I think we could have talked for about 5 hours.  It was like talking to an old friend!  Very special.  

Thanks so much Sal.  My family thanks you!  

Oh & Sal, by the time I got off the phone, BJ was sitting there with his atlas waiting for me to show him where you lived.  :-) 

Not The End Of The Squares

Well I thought this would be the last square of the CAL but we are going to keep it up in a month or so.
Yay!  I do plan to finish up the blanket in this time though & start some new colours on the one.  This square is Kata & was actually OK, considering it was by the same designer as the one that proved to be hellish a few weeks back.  There were a lot of instructions on the special stitches - more than the pattern itself!  That is a bit off putting but it was OK to make up.  So next I will have to make up a couple others to make this blanket a little bigger & then join it.  Hopefully I will get that all done fairly soon!  Crazy week here so it probably won't be this week!  Have a good one!

Bits Of This And That

Well I am still going along with the Mystery crochet along on Ravelry.  We had a little break from the whatchamacallit for St Pat's Day yesterday.  So I got the clue up in the evening.  I did get it done before bed even though I had a brain fade & it was not making sense.  Lesson learnt once more to just do what patterns say & don't over think them!  

So this morning we had Tad the Leapfrog sporting our little leprechaun hat!  Cute!  

Then with everything else I should be doing, (like ironing!) I decided to sew this morning for a bit.  It was naughty really but it's done.  lol  It is a Rosalie Quinlan designed bag pattern.  The fabric is Heartstrings  by Red Rooster fabrics which just arrived instore at work this week.  It's not usually appealing to me the Red Rooster stuff but the colours in this lot were a bit brighter.  Since we needed this bag pattern done in some updated fabric I did one in this new fabric.  I only used 2 fabrics for the main part instead of 4 like it says.  But I did use the large square design as pockets with its little cute pictures on it to feature that instead of as the pattern has with embroidery & stuff done on it.  I quite like the size of this bag so may use this as my go to bag pattern for a bit.  It's easy as anything.  I am sure I could come up with a few variations just from stash instead of gorgeous new stuff at work!  I think it would be fun out of strips too all sewn up & then cut to size!  Lots of potential here!  

Happy Sunday to You!

Thought For Food Friday

It was a fairly boring food week this week!  We had some of my favourites again, like last weeks stuffed tomatoes & the potato & onion frittatta.  So good!

We were given a pile of celery from someone & then a stack of silverbeet from someone else, all on the same day.  So just like magic, there appears ...

Celery & Silverbeet Pie 

Who would have thought it hey?  It was OK.  I wasn't over keen on it but Stu liked it.  I think I would have preferred it without the capsicum in it.  I just find that can be too overpowering at times.

We are still powering our way through zucchini too.  It will be nearly finished in the garden though so I'd better make the most of it.

This one was good.

Lemon, Zucchini & Chicken pasta

So simple but quite tasty.  A great quick meal in a hurry & being pasta, quite filling.  All good!  Hopefully we come up with something more interesting next week though!

Happy Friday!

My Creative Space

What a mad crazy week it's been with a teething baby & a sick & miserable big boy!  Exhausting to say the least.  Somewhere in between all the misery & sleeplessness I have managed to play a little with this.  Last Thursday evening I had this crazy urge to start knitting with this yarn.  It's Paton's Stretchy Socks colour Fruit Slices.  I got it last year from Bubs2GrubsKnitting.  I really liked the look of it!  I had the crazy urge to knit a sock right that minute.  So I started the cuff.  Got the cuff & some of the leg started & this was my Sunday project when my Ravelry group of ladies met up at the chocolate factory for coffee & cake again.  I need mindless stuff to work on there as the conversation & show & tell sessions is very distracting.  (especially when we all have to model a new cardi that one had knitted & said cardi suited everyone!  Very surprising to see but it really did suit everyone - style & colourwise!)  Anyway, I got quite a bit knitted on Sunday.  I have finally got that jolly heel turned yesterday!  I had to consult the MIL on that as I couldn't remember that bit on the pattern. No wonder as my pattern is written wrong.  She had the updated correct version.  Phew.  So I have adjusted mine!   Hopefully today, since the big boy is acting like his usual self, I will be able to finish this one off.  I am working my way along the foot section & with a bit of luck I will get to the toe before too long.  It's great watching the stripes appear.  When you look at it & think that each stripe is only about 3 or 4 rows it doesn't seem to take long to knit up!  

Hopefully I also can catch up on my mystery crochet along on Ravelry too.  I'm 4 days behind on that!  The green blob from the other day is stuffed & sewn up.  Now I think we are doing arms & legs.  Who knows! Stay tuned for that soon!  

Do yourself a favour & visit some of these other creative spaces won't you!  

Second Last Square

Finally I am getting a turn on the computer!  & even that is with a boy sitting right behind me waiting to play a game!  So I have to do this really fast!  I don't like this having to share it so much!  lol

Anyway, yesterday I was able to do this latest square in our crochet along.  It's Thankful Stitches.  Not my favourite but it's OK.  It does blend in well with the other designs I have done so far.  This is our second last square!  How sad.  Then I guess it is going to be picking out some others to fill up my blanket & make it a decent size.  I don't know how big or anything.  I will keep going as long as I feel like it.   There are a few squares that I still would really like to try, but having said that there were also some that I deleted out of my queue now as they won't suit.

OK, times up.  It's going to be a long day I think.  Happy Tuesday everyone!

Thought For Food Friday

Having a husband that likes to cook is a blessing!  It seems I am very lucky!  A lot of people comment on that fact & others wonder where they can get one like him!  Cloned maybe?  Maybe not!

He was doing quite a bit of cooking already but having injured his back at this time last year, he couldn't do much else.  There has to be something good about having him at home so much doesn't there?  I wasn't complaining really when I would get up at 8am & find a baked & iced cake sitting on the counter that he had cooked during the night!  (Yes, during the night!  He couldn't lay down much so sleep was rare, & he couldn't sit so walking around was it even in the middle of the night!)  I also wasn't complaining when he was home all the time after DJ was born.  It meant we could split night shift often so I could get back to bed & sleep more.  That made a lot of difference that is for sure!

The best thing about his cooking is that it was always different. Everyday he would go online & search for new things.  I would have cooked, but I just didn't have the be-botheredness for anything other than something that took no thought like meat & veggies!  If someone just told me what to make I would be right!  Boring I know & Stu obviously thinks so too.

He does enjoy doing it though.  Still now, he is doing the majority of our cooking.  Not the baking anymore, but he does cook dinner.  Even if I have been home all day, he will usually come home & cook.  Just recently we have started menu planning again.  It's been so it does help with the decision making especially for me when he is late home, also to stop so much food waste, plus to save some money.  I don't think at this stage I could jump in at Food Waste Friday on Frugal Girls blog.  I would be too embarrassed!  I am certainly becoming very conscious of what is wasted!  I am trying to teach BJ about waste!  Or not wasting rather!  We have such a lot of waste from the boys at the moment though.  It either ends up in the dog or the cows!

Our meals aren't wasted though!  I don't think we have had a bad meal or left overs for ages!  What can I say, but Stu's choices & cooking has been delicious!  I thought I would share a few of my favourites from recently!

Potato & Caramelised Onion Frittata

Zucchini & Bacon Spaghetti

Herb Couscous Stuff Tomatoes

Currently we are using home grown onions we were given, tomatoes we were given & a load of zucchini that we just can't stop growing!  It's all very in-season cooking right now!

I'm looking forward to the surprises in the coming week that is for sure!

My Creative Space

Bit slow this week but here I am.  

I have worked on another square for the heck of it to add to my collection.  This is Falling Star & quite pretty really though very wonky until it gets attached I think.  

Then the other day I played around with some of the others.  This is Spring Fling which was my first square in the CAL.  It was too small & I decided how I would make it a bit bigger.  I like it much better now.  

Check out some other creative spaces won't you!

This Week's Square

The square this week was a nice no brainer!  Aahhhh...  just what I need!  lol  It's called Half & Half & was quite fun to do!  As you can see, the colour change potential is huge.  But I did each row different - so yes I had lots of ends to sew in, but I did sew a few every few rounds.  It turned out quite big.  I have three different sized squares now!  So I will have to decide what to do with them.  This one is the middle size, about 9".  I have a bunch at about 7.5" which I have to decide on making bigger or just keep making squares for a batch of both.  Then I have 2 still bigger than 9".  I'll wait to see what I do with them.  There are only a couple of weeks left of the CAL so I hope to try to keep it going myself after to get some more squares to do something with this lot so far.  I should get at least 2 blankets & maybe the large ones will have to be cushions, as Sal suggested!  Good thinking Sal!  

Mystery For Monday

It's already Monday!  Didn't we just have Monday?  

I like mysteries!  I especially like this mystery!  See that ball of green stuff?  See that little bit of crocheted stuff next to it?  Yeah, weird!  I don't know what it is though.  It's a complete mystery!  Over on Ravelry it is International Crochet Month & so they are throwing a huge party to celebrate.  One of the party rooms is for this Mystery Crochet Along.  It's good as we only get a couple of rounds a day for the whole month!  Something is slowly appearing!  But what, it will probably be a little while before I know but after Day 5 Stu & I were guessing about what it could be!   Lots of fun!  

I did get another Lily Sugar & Cream cloth knitted over the weekend too.  This is the Bee Stitch pattern.  It's really cool to look at.  It was ok to do once I could read the knitting.  You know how you have to recognise the look of the knitting you have done to pick where you are up to?  It took an age.  So lots of undoing as well.  But it was a nice one.  Really easy all in all!  

Happy Monday!  Nearly time to go swimming with BJ!  

Super Creative Day It Was

I did get quite a bit of my cross stitching done yesterday.  But I also managed to do this Diamond dishcloth!  I had a teensy weensy bit of the Playtime Lily Sugar & Cream yarn left.  I had tried to get one last lap around the flower cloth the other day but was short by two shells.  So I had this bit left.  I decided it would do for the border of a diamond cloth.  I actually prefer this one as a pot holder in the kitchen.  I like the shape for that.  So I did.  I couldn't believe it but it was perfect.  I think there was a length of about 15cm left!  How's that for no waste!  That ball went a long way really!  The pink was just some Animal Friends cotton/acrylic that I have tons of.  Perfect match!  & I am pleased as this Playtime colour is my favourite of all of the ones I have & I have got a couple of nice things out of it for me & as well as one gift piece!

So with that & the cross stitch I thought I was being quite productive.  But then I got it in my head that I had to do this....

Yes an apron.  With some very cute sheep!  (excuse the bright spots on it - it's the sun coming through the tree!)  Last year I made DJ some cute pants with some sheep from this same fabric range.  This piece was off the end of the bolt at work the other day.  But we have another bolt so it's all good news!  lol  It's The World of Susybee range featuring Lewe!  So very cute.  Well this sewing project too all of about half an hour.  If that!  I used an apron I have to cut the side shaping.  Sewed the hem.  Sewed the top.  Sewed the edges over.  Then just had a bash with the webbing.  Found the centre & left a decent piece at the top & pins, pins & more pins later I folded the webbing over that slightly curved edge.  Gave it a good extra bit of sewing around those edges where it started & finished.  Folded the end over & sewed & Voila!  One cute as can be apron!  Hmnmm...  This opens up such a lot of potential for nice fabric!  So yesterday was a very creative space!  I still managed to fit in some boring old house work too!  So it's all good!


Happy Friday!

My Creative Space

Here I am with the cross stitch out again.  I don't do as much as I used to because I can't.  It gives me big headaches.  But there are some projects I must get done this year.  Like this one.  I also have to do DJ's Christmas stocking before Christmas!  So I am trying to do at least an hour a day.  If I get a bit longer all the better.  At least I can take pain killers now if I need to for a headache as I wouldn't when I was pregnant to all stitching came to a stop last year.  Small projects only at the time.  Now I can work on the more tricky stuff, but it's still tricky with the boys.  But I must persevere.  It doesn't take long once I get into it!  But here's not to say I won't fit some crochet time in as well today!  

Check out some other creative folk won't you!  

Mug Shot

Haha... what were you expecting?  

I'm playing along with My Place & Yours.  I haven't done in ages & just found it's moved homes again!

This is my Mug!  Well one of two I use often.  Because they are bigger than all the rest, so more coffee!  

I have a lot of mugs!  The cupboard is overflowing.  I have them stacked in the back.  I find a nice mug I have to have it!  Actually, the last one I wanted (about 2 weeks ago!) I saw when I was out shopping with mum.  It was all of $2 but I couldn't bring another mug home.  So I got her to buy it for me to use at her house.  I would have nearly been in trouble if I dared put another in the cupboard.  It isn't that I collect them.  It's just a cheap way often to buy something pretty.  Like the one in this pic, I have a few with dogs on.  But my dog love of mugs is waning as there are so many others out there.  Also a lot of them are broken so I have less.  More that break, the more room for new ones!  I guess I will need lots once the boys start doing the dishes!  

Grab a cuppa & go & visit with some other Mugs at My Place & Yours!