Footy and Sewing

I bought one of these on the weekend!
I've been thinking about it for a while because I sew plenty of clothes for my kids (and other people's kids) and I find that I'm hopeless at finishing the seams properly because it take too much time on my very basic sewing machine. And now that I'm a bit addicted to upcycling op-shopped t-shirts it's really nice to get a professional looking finish.

Anyway, I popped into the sewing machine shop on Saturday around lunch time. Brought it home and set it up and missed the first half of the AFL Grand Final. The kids were being entertained by their older cousins so it was the perfect opportunity to do some daytime sewing!
I had some overlocker thread spools in my craft room (an op-shop find) so got straight down to sewing another Lil Blue Boo Hoodie for Kelvin. I have grand plans for summer shorts, winter cords and some pj's for us all. Now I just have to stop buying clothes for the kids - they might be cheap but mummy-made must be better (at least for now anyway!!).

I did vaguely watch the last half and definitely enjoyed the last 5 minutes. For us the draw was perfect, Collingwood didn't win and Trev won the $2 sweep at work! We hosted our first bbq for the season and enjoyed a crazy house full of friends.

Now what to do next Saturday? Footy or sewing?

Crap Cake made by Crap Wife!

It was Trev's birthday on Tuesday and I'd promised to make him a Czech Honey Cake. We discovered this delicious cake in 2004 whilst touring around Europe and haven't come across anything similar since.

Thanks to a google search I was able to discover that it's called Medovnik and seems to be an eastern European thing because some claim it to be Russian Honey Cake or even Polish Honey Cake. Anyway, I ended up settling for a recipe from here and forging ahead!

It was time consuming. Make the honey biscuit layers, let them cool, make the filling and refrigerate until it sets (which never happened), cut the bisuits and make the cake then leave it to go soggy for a couple of days before eating.

And the Crap Cake / Crap Wife title is because I kept forgetting I was making the cake. Trev kept having to remind me "What are you going to do with these huge biscuits you've left lying around the kitchen?" , "What's this sour cream stuff doing in the fridge?", etc, etc.

Anyway, the sour cream filling was ultra runny so the cake kept leaning perilously to one side and most of the sour cream ended up running off the plate and all over the kitchen benches. And the recipe asked for 1 litre of sour cream but I was struggling to try and keep a third of that in the cake!

Anyway, we ate it on Tuesday and it was pretty yummy even if it didn't look very pretty. I found another recipe for this cake that has a condensed milk and honey filling so I might try that one next time (if there ever is a next time!).

Happy Birthday Trev!

Is blogging narcissistic?

I don't think of myself as having an inordinate fascination with myself or an excessive amount of self-love nor do I consider myself overly vain (thanks to dictionary.com for the definition). But I do have a blog - so does this make me narcissistic?

I was out for dinner with some girlfriends on Friday evening and we got around to talking about blogging and the other four ladies (who don't know I blog) were quoting the movie Julie and Julia where it was claimed that blogging is narcissitic. And all four of my friends agreed wholeheartedly. Needless to say I kept my mouth shut!

All weekend I've been feeling a bit down on myself after this dinner. Maybe because I wasn't brave enough to pipe up for myself and my blog or perhaps because I regret not having had another glass of wine and let the conversation slide. Anyway, I feel like I should have stuck-up for myself, because I enjoy writing my blog and especially enjoy reading other people's blogs and getting inspiration and sharing ideas and the sense of community you have with people who share my love of all things handmade! Many of my real-life friends just don't get it!

I feel like the bloggy-world is like the 19th Century village I would have lived in, where I'd pop over to your place and we'd sit down with some knitting and chat over a cuppa. My blog is a place where I can record what I've made (successful or otherwise), what we've been up to as a family and things I aspire to do or make. I don't keep a diary so in some respects this is a place where I gather my thoughts in one place!

And this post? Definitely narcissistic!!

Post Box Bombing!

Our local post box has been yarn bombed...

...and paint bombed...

...and we love him!

My version of Spaghetti with Spinach and Coppa!

I have been reading the Tuesday Easy Peasy Dinner Winners over here for the last few weeks and been quite inspired. I work three days a week and often find it hard to be inspired to cook decent meals for the family on those days. The kids get a warm midday meal at childcare so I feel less guilty about vegemite sandwiches or baked beans the days they get them for dinner!

I don't claim to be a masterchef of any description. I can cook (generally following a recipe). I have a massive collection of recipe books - because I like the pictures but I rarely use them, tending to rely on my tried and true favourites. Although, we do challenge ourselves to cook something new a couple of times a month - just for variety, and to try and add some new faves to our repetoire! That's how we came across the Spinach and Coppa spaghetti from the Women's Weekly Italian Cooking Class book.

Grab...

olive oil
1 clove of crushed garlic
small red capsicum (finely chopped)
small brown onion (finely chopped)
1 small red chilli chopped (or the equivalent from a jar or tube for us!)
6-8 slices of smoked ham (finely chopped)
baby spinach leaves (finely chopped)

Heat oil in a frying pan and cook everything but the spinach for a few minutes. Then add the spinach and cook until its wilted.

In the meantime cook some spaghetti (we like the wholemeal). When its ready, drain it and add it to the frying pan and mix through the sauce.

Serve with grated parmesan cheese. I love to use my Microplane grater with a block of parmesan - feels very sophistocated, especially since we're not!!

Yummo!

The most time consuming thing is the cutting. I often use scissors to cut the spinach leaves, and always use my "stick blender with food processor attchment" to chop the onions and garlic (quick with no tears). Matilda loves to help with dinner so if we're in less of a hurry she will cut the capsicum or ham or both.

Can the next one have pockets?

I've made another hoodie - this time for Matilda!

I used two old t-shirts (for the hood and arms) and some new fairy fabric for the body. Matilda loves it but she did ask if next time it could have pockets! Nothing like constructive criticism!!

Salmon Ponds

With the days getting longer the kids are up and about a bit earlier and we feel like getting out into it again with the warmer weather. So on Saturday we decided on a trip up to the Salmon Ponds about 1/2 hour away from home.

We stopped by the cemetary on the way there - to visit family members gone but not forgotten. But it raised lots of questions from the 4 year old girl. How do they dig the holes? Why do they put those concretes (a gravestone) on top? What happens to the person? When will I die? etc. etc. We had a full and frank discussion about it all and she and her brother happily skipped back to the car, playing hopscotch on the gravestones!!

The Salmon Ponds were fabulous and not very busy for a school holidays weekend. We bought ourselves a tub of fish food and threw it into the water and were promptly splashed by the enthusiastically eating rainbow trout!

Matilda loved it...

Kelvin was very wary (which was quite a surprise to me)!

Whilst walking along the riverbank there were some interpretation panels about platypus that visit the area. I explained it to Matilda who then turned to Trev and said "platypisses are very shy"!

We decided to stay for pancakes by the pond before heading home.

Perfect!

Lazy Afternoon

The boy is asleep, the girl is playing at a friends place and I'm induging myself with a cuppa, a cupcake and a quiet read in the Springtime sunshine!
Hope you can find a quiet moment too before the craziness that often comes with weekends!

Wet but Productive Weekend!

I've managed to get a bit of sewing done this weekend! It's been wet, the kids have been watching TV with their dad and I've made the kiddo's some new clothes from old t-shirts (and a tiny amouont of new kids prints from Spotlight) using a couple of really easy patterns I bought from Ashley at Lil Blue Boo.

I haven't really sewn stretch fabric before but it's pretty easy and very forgiving!

I love the fabric combination in Matilda's dress - it's girlie without being "pink" (if you know what I mean)! And she really loves wearing it - super comfy in old t-shirt material!! Same with Kelvin's hoodie - it is so soft and cosy!

The Man who is Dad!

Happy Father's Day Trev - you're great!