warm

It's been very warm around these parts this week, it really does feel as if Summer is arrived. My nana picked me a bunch of very warm looking flowers from her garden for me. They worked in well with these stones that I've just finished off, a few requests from friends. My camera wasn't really doing a good job at picking up the warm colours however and trying to warm it up has turned it kind of magenta, you'll have to trust me when I say they look much better in real life.

Happy weekend my friends.

sushi rut

I'm feeling like our night time meals are in a bit of a rut. I seem to be sticking to the same few meals and I'm starting to feel like I need to try something else. The one meal though that we all don't mind eating week after week (sometimes twice a week) is homemade sushi. I'm sure sushi purists would probably turn their noses up at what I turn out of my kitchen, but it's the one meal I know every plate will be left clean. The best part is how quick and easy it can be prepared and how simple the ingredients are too. I'm glad we are in a sushi rut.

I love to eat my sushi from this plate which is a Crown Lynn one, a thrift find. I've found three of them over the past year, two bread and butter plates and one dinner plate, I'm sure there must be more out there to find!

envy

I love watching project runway, the pressure, Tim Gunn and of course the trips to Mood! This season I have noticed a lot of wrist pincushions and growing envious of such a cool sewing accessory decided to work out how to make one. I used a metal jar lid for the base part (I'd hate to prick my wrist with pins every five seconds) and scraps of this and that for the rest of it. It's stuffed with wool and seems to be a great addition to my sewing essentials - once I stopped reaching for my regular pin cushion - OK I haven't quite stopped reaching for my old one, but old habits die hard.

Interested in making your own? I'm thinking of doing a tutorial for these in the very near future.

green + a recipe

My friend bought over a big bunch of flowers for me from her "snowball" tree on the weekend. They are brightening up my kitchen bench at the moment and make me smile when I look at them. They are being kept company with a casserole dish that was a birthday present. It's sole purpose is to collect kitchen scraps for our compost bin. I was using an empty ice cream container that I'd whip away when guests arrive, it was also causing trouble with the youngest member of the household as he thought it was ice cream there just waiting for him. Now on to the recipe, I've been making these biscuits for quite a few weeks now, a batch a week. They are oaty and disappear quite quickly. Yum!

Oat Biscuits

125g Butter softened, 1/2 Cup Sugar, 2 Tablespoons Honey, 1 Cup Flour, 1 Teaspoon Baking Powder, 1/2 Teaspoon Cinnamon, 1 1/2 Cups Rolled Oats.

I also add around half a cup of dried fruit eg diced apricots or nuts walnuts or pecans or chocolate chips. This is just my addition mainly to use up a few little bits and pieces that have been floating around my pantry waiting to be used. Feel free to leave these out.


Preheat oven to 180oC. Cream butter, sugar and honey together. Sift flour, baking powder and cinnamon together. Add the sifted dry ingredients and rolled oats to the creamed mixture, mixing well. Roll tablespoons of the mixture into balls and place on oven tray. Flatten slightly with a fork, bake for 15 minutes or until golden. These biscuits spread little if at all so feel free to place them close together on the tray.

(I've actually started decreasing the amount of sugar the more of them that I've made, especially if I'm adding dried fruit to the mix)

enjoy!

i heart you

I haven't really found the inspiration to get back into this space. It has taken a long time to get over the tummy bug that swept through our family, and life at the moment seems oh so very busy. It is my hope that I'll get back into some more regular blogging very soon. I've got many a work in progress to share and some ideas for the festive season too. Till then xx

I've signed up for the Christmas Ornament swap over here, have you?

green

There has been an abundance of green around here, well an explosion really. I wish I had one of those fancy time lapse cameras and could show you the changes in my garden over the last week. The fig tree has gone from having no leaves to lots unfolding, pea seeds have changed into seedlings and the strawberry plants have loads of flowers that I hope will turn into big juicy strawberries before I know it.

The weather has been fantastic this week, but we haven't been able to enjoy it much. The nasty tummy bug that was going around preschool seemed to have waited till the holidays started before it caught up with us. It has left no member of the family untouched so it's been a very long week. Hopefully next week will be a better one and I can share a few of the new things I've been working on.

Happy weekend!