Softie Food

Felt Softie Monster

My latest creation, felt softie monster.......rrraaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!

Chicken Soup Recipe 2

This is my patchwork inspired layout for chicken soup recipe 2. It turned out ok, fits the theme but I just wasnt feeling it. Will try again next week. I am ejoying their blog however, its a fun idea. http://mojoschickensoup.blogspot.com/

After our last scrapbooking seeion I really wanted to create something else while all my things (mess) was out so I did this.

Scrap and Bitch Session 2

We had our second monthly Scrap and Bitch this morning. This is what I achieved in 3hrs (!), while also feeding, settling, entertaining baby etc......... I went for an aqua and pink theme as it was very hard to match the colours in the photo but I think it worked well in the end. Can't wait for our next one!

Caramelised Onion, Cherry Tomato and Blue Cheese Tart

This was such a good recipe I just had to share!

Pastry
2 cups pl flour
125g cold butter
1/4 cup finely grated parmesan
1 egg, lightly beaten
chilled water

Filling
2 tbsp olive oil
3 onions, sliced
100g blue cheese
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup cream
1/2 cup finely grated parmesan
pinch nutmeg
1/2 punnet cherry tomatoes, halved

1. To make pastry, put flour and butter in food processor and blend until mixture resembles fine bread crumbs. Add parmesan and mix 10 secs. With motor running, add egg and enough water to bring the mixture together (up to 60ml water).
2. Tip dough out on a floured surface and work into a ball. Flatten ball, wrap in cling wrap and refrigerate 30mins.
3. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Roll out dough between two sheets of baking paper, remove top sheet and place in a fluted loose bottom tart tin. Push pastry gently into the tin.
4. Blind bake (line with baking paper and baking beads) for 10mins. Remove paper and beads and bake for another 5 mins or until pastry is golden.
5. Heat oli in a pan, add onion and cook until caramelised. This can take 20 mins. Allow to cool.
6. PLace cooked onion into cooked tart shell then sprinkle with blue cheese. Whisk together eggs, cream, parmesan and nutmeg and pour over the top. Top with the halved cherry tomatoes. Bake on a baking tray for 20-30mins or until set.

Cloth baby wipes

As i am a MCN (modern cloth nappy) user naturally the next step to take is to using cloth baby wipes. After researching online I found the most popular materials to use are terrycloth and flannelette so I made both. This project didnt cost me a cent, I just used up some old pillow cases and towels I had, cut them into squares ans sewed them so they were double sided. I think I like the flannelette ones the best as they arent as thick. I just have a spray bottle next to the change table with water and a tiny bit of baby wash in it so I can just spray the wipes first and i just wash them with the nappies!! easy

scrap and bitch

The scrap and bitch was fun this morning, even though I had a lot of late cancellations. Many have promised to attend the next one. It was very interesting to see how different our styles were. This is what I produced. Its our dog when he was a puppy. Adorable

real cupcakes

I am entertaining this week, two groups in two days. Thursday is my first "scrap and bitch". Its a group of friends I have set up similar to a stitch and bitch but for scrapbooking. I'm really excited about it. Then on Friday I have a mums and babies group coming. I love catching up and seeing all the beautiful bubbas. So, today I have been shopping, baking, cleaning, getting photos developed.....and of course its 5pm and I am nowhere near ready and havent even thought about dinner. Of course the cupcakes are ready though, I always do the fun things first! I made chocolate mud cupcakes with chocolate ganache, which are seriously rich, and carrot and pineapple cupcakes with cream cheese icing. The carrot cakes are bit healthier (if cupcakes can be healthy?). They have pinapple, carrot and olive oil in them. The mud cakes are calorific!!

My cake batter, lots of yummy carrot. These would be good for a kids birthday party as they hide fruit and veg.

The recipe asked for 40g almond meal and when I went to buy it I couldnt believe the price! So, a bit inspired by my mums Thermomix I decided to make my own, but I used the mortar and pestle, the old fashioned (she would say slow) way.

mmmm, yummy, yummy. I wanted to pipe the cream cheese icing on top but I must have lost all my piping bags at work. I improvised and used a ziplock bag. I just cut the corner out and put the nozzle in. It worked but was a but tricky.



mud cake batter




These are the cupcake for the scrap and bitch, I decorated the choocy ones with white chocolate flowers

And these ones are for the mums and bubs which I decorated with the babies names, even though they will be too young to eat them. You could do this instead of party bags at a kids bday, very cute. If anyone wants the recipes just post a comment and I wil put them up.

baby sock cupcake gifts

This was the next step for the baby sock cupcakes. I bought some more socks to experiment and found they work the best with one thick sock and one thin sock. The cupcakes are just so adorable, I cant wait to give them. So all I did to create the gift boxes was cut the bottom off some boxes (eg cereal boxes) and covered them with paper, ribbon and a little heart embellishment. This one is my favourite, for a girl

another girl one

Boys sock cupcakes

I think I will put these ones together with this card for a gift for friends of ours who are having twin identical girls!! So if you guys are reading this.......pretend you didnt see anything! I will also cook them something I think because I know how hard it is when you get home with a newborn...let alone two....and its so hard to get dinner prepared but you dont want to resort to take-away.

a bit more than plain bbq

We are going to a bbq dinner tonight and have been asked to take some food. Instead of your plain old sausages and toss salad I have made lamb koftas with garlicy tzatziki and an asian style cabbage salad. Bit of a cultural mix. You need to give this salad a go, whenever i make it everyone loves it. I got the recipe from the back of the Changs oriental fried noodle packet.

Changs Cabbage Salad
1/2 to one chinese cabbage sliced finely
6 green onions (some of you may call these spring onions or scallions) sliced finely
100g slivered almonds
1 pkt Changs fried noodles

Dressing
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup castor sugar
1tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp sesame oil
1/2 cup olive oil

Combine all dressing ingredients and stir until sugar dissolves. The packet says to put the ingredients in a sauceoan and heat, then cool but I never bother. You could make the dressing in a jar and shake it instead of stirring.

Add salad ingredients together in a bowl and toss through dressing. Dont add the noodles until just before you are about to serve as they will go soggy. Another hint may be to slice your cabbage on a mandolin to save time and I always add coriander to this salad because I love it and put it anything that I can get away with!

mmmm...num num

farm fotos

These are some photographs I took on my grandparents farm before my grandmother finally moved into town. I love photos of old things. This is the cellar, its built alone into the ground. My grandpa used to grow mushrooms in there as it was nice and cool. It was a treasure trove of old junk and probably some valuable things too. The first photo is the old fig tree, old old old fig tree. I love the farm.

last day of autumn

The ants

My favourite tree

leaves

after some decent rain

a deadly drink

I thought I'd take a few piccys of my garden for the last day of Autmun. It doesn't rain much here, so my garden is generally neglected, although every now and then I razzle up some enthusiasm and get out there. I think the dissapoinment of losing so many shrubs over the last couple of years has dampened my spirits. My favourite gum tree always looks good however, and the ants and birds love it too.
I have been working on my photography lately and believe I am improving. To see some really talented work see my cousins flickr here.

UFOs

Unfinished Objects. I am a great one for this. I get a great idea in my head, this is going to be wonderful, my best creation yet. Then I start, do it for a couple of days and another idea pops into my mind, hence, my home is full of UFOs. Cross-stitch, tapestry, long-stitch, paintings, sock monkey, knitting, my attempt at teaching myself to crochet............

Cards cards cards

blank theme

valentines card

blank theme

house warming card

Here are some of the greeting cards I have made. I started making cards when I was a teenager as I got a recycling paper kit given to me and needed some way to use my recycled paper. Soon I enjoyed making the cards more than the paper so I just started buying card stock. I have made hundreds of cards and try to sell them but havent yet found the right place to sell them . I have also found I cant sell them for much so its still just really a hobby. Doing craft as a source of income is still just a dream for me. I will keep posting more cards as I make them and will do a few step by step ones too.

Baby Change Mat

This is a baby change mat mum and I sewed as the one I had I got from an op-shop and it had a hole in it and I didnt like it much. This one is a lot cuter. Rolled up it holds either 1 wipes case and 1 MCN or 1 wipes case and 2-3 disposable nappies. I used a layer of microfleece (purple) and layer of shower curtain material in the middle to prevent accidents soaking through and some pretty flowery material for the outside. Just cut all materials to the same size, place them ontop of each other the wrong way up. Sew together using a straight stitch and incorporating ribbon or elastic on one of the shorter edges. Leave a section to pull material through. Cut the corners off so they are not bulky. Turn it right way out then sew around the edge again using a straight stitch. I then hand sewed the open side closed which is optional because the stitching does hold it together but it gapes slightly. Then sew a button in the appropriate position so when the mat is folded it can be done up.

Baby leg warmers

As I am a MCN (modern cloth nappy) user I have found that some pants dont fit my baby very well. They are either too tight around the bum or too long, so I began investigating gorgeous baby leg warmers. I found they were quite expensive ( around Au$20) so of course decided to make my own. These cost me $2 - $3 each!.

All I did was purchase ladies knee-high socks, cut the foot off just above the heel. I took the foot piece and cut the heel and toe off to leave a tube, then cut the side of the tube off and stitched it back up to make it smaller. I then sewed the small tube over the cut end of the sock to create a cuff. This end goes at the babies ankle. Very cute and simple.

sock cupcakes

This is a first attempt at a baby shower gift. They are baby socks rolled up to form cupcakes. I have a few pregnant friends at the moment and I think this is what they will receive as gifts. I started with the idea of making a bouquet of baby socks that I saw on Martha Stewart but these are much cuter and simpler. The ones in the piccy I made from some of my baby's socks as a test run. I found the instructions here.

starting out

As both my baby and I are home sickies and I just love reading other craft blogs I have decided to start my own! I am mainly a card maker and scrapbooker but have just started sewing and will give anything a go really. So the plan is to blog all my ideas and projects so that it inspires others out there to give things a try too. I am also a chef by trade so might blog about any fab recipes i find too!!