Masterchef

On Saturday evening my resident masterchef cooked up a lovely dinner from our latest cook book purchase, Jamie Oliver's 30 Minute Meals.

We'd seen the 30 min meals show on TV and when Glen saw this recipe for Piri Piri Chicken he wanted to get the book. Wellllllll.... I hopped online and bought the book right away, any chance of not having to cook myself and I take it :)

So here he is at work.

It was a great way to make use of our vegie garden as the Lemon Thyme, Parsley, Coriander, Chillies etc were all home grown.

Here it is ready to go into the oven.

And dished up with the sweet potato and feta mash - YUUUM!

You can get the recipe here, it's really delish! And then we watched 'The Blind Side' on DVD, it was a really good movie.

How was your weekend? What did you get up to?

Have a great Monday,

I hope your weekend is filled with....

some fun and frivolity...


mmmm, some of this...
MMMMMMm....and some of this...

and especially some of this...
images via here

Flood Appeal Update: I worked out the proceeds of the My Sweet Prints QLD Flood Appeal efforts and I'm so proud of the amount we've been able to achieve! Thank you everyone for your orders, posting, tweeting or FB'ing about it! Glen's work is matching donations from staff members dollar for dollar so we will put this donation through his work as well so that even MORE will go to the Flood Appeal! How generous is his work!

Have a great weekend everyone, I'm going apartment-hunting with my sister!





P.S. Where do you think is the best place to sell rolls of vintage wall paper?
etsy, ebay, craftalumi, through my blog??? Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Cute kids rooms via a happy customer

A very lovely customer, Paula from Adelaide has kindly shared her beautiful children's rooms with me.
First up is William's room (great choice of name too hey!), you can see his customised World Map print above the bed. And don't you love the red and blue with the matching bunting? It's made by a lady in Adelaide called Kelly Kitching and here is her website http://www.littleboombalada.com.au.
I love the high ceiling and the original light fitting too!

And next up is bubby Edward's room.

I love these soft blues and off white tones!

Paula and her husband have undertaken massive and extensive renovations to their old bungalow in a gorgeous leafy suburb in Adelaide but it has been a major feat!! Mostly because for nearly a year of it they lived in three rooms with no kitchen and a small child and with Paula pregnant with little Edward!!!

Thanks so much for sharing these pics with us Paula! And if you have any photos or a house tour you'd like to share with us then please feel free to email me, I'd love to share!

Have a great Friday everyone,

Our Australia Day

We had a fantastic Australia Day yesterday as we attended the Citizenship Ceremony for D&S, Glen's Brother and his family. It was held at Wahroonga Park by the rotunda and even though it started at 8.30am it got pretty hot by the end of it!

They had the Rotary Band, Scouts, Don Burke did a speech as did Barry O'Farrell (or Bazza O'Fazza as I call him) it was such a nice ceremony and I felt so proud, no only for my Country but for D&S and the kids.

Afterwards we had a lovely picnic under the big fig trees and the kids ran around playing in the park. We had to leave early though for Will to have his sleep.

So then in the afternoon we went back to D&S's house (made ourselves at home in their swimming pool as they weren't back from the park yet). And managed to cool right down.

Here is my Little Aussie getting ready to jump in the pool, look at those cute little leggies!

When D&S and kids got home they joined us in the pool and we had so much fun, eating dip and chips and left overs from the picnic as well as a celebratory bottle of Moet. D blew up a big camping mattress and floated it in the pool, it was so cute seeing all the cousins rumbling around on top of it!

We only got home after 7pm so Will went straight to sleep in his clothes!
Here is the Little Aussie this morning doing what he loves most at the moment.
Walking in Mummy and Daddy's shoes!


How was your Australia Day?

Have a great Thursday and thanks SO much for all your laundry feedback it was great to read all the suggestions and I'm looking forward to getting into it!

Laundry Ideas and help please

I would love to give our laundry a mini makeover and I'd love some ideas or feedback from you if you wouldn't mind.

Here are some of the laundry rooms in my inspiration file (now I know this is not possible until/when /if we rebuild) but this is to give you some eye candy and inspiration.

Gorgeous! And I love the table

I like the idea of the ironing board and shelving hung like that.

I think this is the other side of the laundry in the first photo. How pretty do the jars etc look!

This one is a laundry/craft room which would be great when we 'loose' the study to a 3rd bedroom one day.

Nice to have a featuring light and the cupboards and storage are great.

But here is my FAVOURITE laundry ever...

It's the laundry of my lovely blog friend Rachael of A Room for Everyone and don't you just drool!?!

Look at all the clever storage on the right hand side too - you're a decorating/renovating expert Rachael!

Now here is our laundry, we don't have too much to work with and the walls are asbestos so I don't really want to mess around too much.

But I'm thinking of painting the faux wood panelling either white or Dulux Hogs Bristle Half.
Then making a little roman blind to match the kitchen one for the window.
And then put a white shelf with baskets above the sink.
I think I'd also put new tap cover thingies on, you know the ones that are/look like chrome, instead of the off white plastic ones.

I've recently started hanging my apron on a hook behind the door and I'd maybe think of putting some more hooks on the wall behind the door, maybe mount the clothes drying rack behind it? and maybe a shelf or two above the door for more storage.
And see the massive hot water heater? I'm thinking of building a timber screen type of thing to enclose it so it doesn't look so messy. And putting a more attractive hook contraption up (or is there a way you can think of hiding the dustpan and mops?

Oh and that's our recycle bin, that would have to stay.

So what do you think? Any good ideas you can give me? I don't want to spend much money on the makeover but just make the space more attractive and efficient in terms of storage etc.

First five pics via decorpad.com

Thanks lovelies,

New Print - I heart

Happy Monday!

How was your weekend? What did you get up to? Mine was great except for spending half the day in bed yesterday with a migraine. But I got to see my little sister who's just back from her Europe trip and I'll have to show you some of the goodies she brought back for me :)

Anyway, as you can probably tell I've been in one of those designing moods the last few weeks and I've got a new print which just went up on the shops last night. It's called 'I heart' and you can customise it with whatever YOU heart!

Doesn't everyone? :)

Here's the blurb: You've seen the T-shirts, now get a customised print made to show the world what YOU love. Whether it be chocolate, coffee, hubby, twilight or hugs... this funky, modern design is classic black, white and red and will suit every room, every frame and will be a great talking point in your home! The print measures 11 x 14".

I think it should actually read, I heart coffee too much!

What do you think? When I was making it I was thinking, now this is just too simple a design, but then, I want one for my house so maybe others would too...
And I had a nice suprise this morning to wake up and find it was featured on two etsy treasuries last night here and here!

I hope you have a great Monday everyone,

A little makeover

A change is as good as a holiday - not quite as good if you ask me...
But I decided to give my little blog a mini makeover, did you notice? What do you think?


I've also been doing a little rearranging around the house too.
Do you like the little blue bowl I got this week? It's fun playing around with things and mixing it up isn't it.

And have you started thinking about Valentine's Day?


And just a little reminder that the My Sweet Prints Flood Appeal ends next Wednesday.


Have a great Friday everyone, where has the week gone?!?!
Love,

My Grandfather's favourite quote

Yesterday, something reminded me of my Grandfather's favourite quote...

“Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.”

John Wesley 1703-1791

Image via here

Have a great day,

Sew La Tea Do - latest sewing projects

I thought I'd share a few of my latest sewing projects with you today.

First up, is a draw string bag I made to hold Will's wooden train set pieces (which usually end up everywhere).


I made the draw string bag from a spare tea towel and some left over ribbon from Christmas wrapping. This is the easiest sewing project you could ever do, so if you're wanting to start sewing why not give this a try!

First up lie the tea towel out flat with the 'good side showing.

Then fold one side over onto the other so the good sides are facing each other.
Then sew along the bottom and up the side, leaving about 1.5" un-sewn.

Then fold the top over and sew along to create the part to draw the string through.
Then choose your ribbon, attach a safety pin to the end of the ribbon and feed it through to create the draw string opening.

Cut and tie the ribbon and there you have it!

The next sewing project is a dress I made on Saturday.
When you think about it, this dress is just a bigger, more tailored version of the draw string bag. I didn't make it from a pattern, just sewed the basic form then took it in where needed.


Don't you love this red and white material! I got it on sale at Spotlight so the whole dress came to about $6!

And here it is on me yesterday. I ended up wearing it with a black belt which looked nice but when I'm having a 'fat' day I'll just wear it without a belt.


I got the next idea from watching 'The Circle' interview with crafty queen Pip Lincoln.
It's a project from her book Sew La Tea Do which I've just ordered online.

Speaking of ordering online, thank you so much to Jane from Life on Planet Baby for her www.Booko.com.au recommendation. It is the best place to find out where to buy your books online. This is now the second book I've order after looking it up on Booko so THANK YOU JANE!

Anyway, here is the Sew La Tea Do inspired cushion I made....

Nice material isn't it!
Where did I get the material from you ask???
From one of Glen's old shirts!!!

And no, I didn't just help myself to his wardrobe, hehehehe. It was a shirt he'd decided to chuck out a few weeks ago but I asked him to put it in my material box as I love the material. So when I saw Pip's idea of making a cushion from a shirt I was like BINGO!

I'm thinking of putting a dark blue square trim around it to finish it off, what do you think?
It's SO simple to make, so watch the circle interview or buy Sew La Tea Do for instructions.

Sew yeah! hehehehe..... get sewing everyone, it's sew much fun and SEWWWWWWW rewarding!

Love,

BB Fest 2011

'BBs' (abbreviation of the words 'Baked Beans')

1927 Heinz Baked Beans ad via here

I'm not sure if you're aware but there is a festival happening at My Sweet Prints HQ at the moment. It's called BB Fest 2011.

Here is the participant of the BB Festival...

Yep, this little cherub has discovered BBs and for the last 2 and a half weeks has been requesting 'BeeBeeeees?' for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

As I'm dishing them out into his bowl he lets out a little squeal and his face lights up.


If he can't shovel them in fast enough with a spoon then he just dives right in...


And to check that there are no BBs left in the bowl the bowl is then turned upside down onto the counter top and any remaining BBs are almost inhaled.

I'm wondering when BB fest will end...? At least they are nutritious and keep his little tummy regular :)

Have your kids had a food 'Fest' of some sort? How long did it last?

Have a great evening,