Cover your Guitar Strap

Well Christmas is very quickly sneaking up on us. All our regular classes are finishing and I haven't really had a chance to make any "thank you" presents for the teachers (which is what I had planned to do). However, I saw a great tutorial via the Sew Mama Sew! blog for a guitar strap cover which would be perfect for the front woman of the choir I sing in.

So I made one - in the choir colours of pink and black. I think it's great - I hope she does too!!

Things I'm Loving!

- Fresh white bread from the bakery, sliced thick at home and toasted with scrapings of vegemite!

- Lior's new album, Tumbling Into the Dawn. The whole family are espcially loving the second track "I thought I coud sing on my own" when driving around in the car!!

- Being called clever and cool by my 4 year old. I'm enjoying it while it lasts because I'm sure once she starts school she'll realise that I'm certainly not cool and not as clever as her!!

- Brown paper packages tied up with string (thanks to the sharing of interesting fact that involved stinky vulture legs)! And the contents of the package are devine - head over to Myrtle & Eunice to get your hands on your own amazing tea towel and beautiful cards!

- And I'm especially loving some of the giveaways out there in blogland! Corrie at Retromummy and Judy at Green Fairy Quilts are both having generous fabric giveaways - hop over there and enter yourself (or not, improvem my chances of winning)!! Both these superwomen have newborns and are still managing to host giveaways - amazing!

Mister Maker Inspiration

I'm not sure about your kids but mine adore Mister Maker on ABC Kids. And the last few episodes I've seen he's been using "sticky backed plastic" (aka Contact) to make stuff!

So I have been trying to organise my fabric scraps using and found a method which makes sense to me - over here! And as a result there were lots of useless offcuts in a pile on the table, some sticky-backed plastic in the spare room and a pre-schooler to entertain. As they say, the plan came together!!

You put the Contact sticky-side up and stick fabric, paper, cellophane, glitter, stars, etc onto the paper in a random fashion.

Then you cover it over with a second piece of Contact for a stained glass effect.

I think these might be a great basis for our handmade Christmas cards this year - either stitched onto cardstock or maybe stick inside a card frame.

I think Matilda enjoyed herself (and I did as well because I've achieved a lot of scrap management) - WIN WIN!!

What are you knitting?

I don't know!!

I've joined in Georgie's Mystery Knitalong and am loving it and can't wait until the next clue is released on Saturday! I'm knitting Fratello for Kelvin (in the blue) and Sorello for Matilda (in the pink) and really enjoying my first attempt at seamless knitting - this could be my saviour since I detest sewing my knitting together!!

Photos by the Kids

Matilda has a kids camera and I've just downloaded the pictures and there were a few that I thought would make some prefect animations (now that I know how, and it's slightly addictive)!

Gif animation creator

You can join in here!

Ham & Zucchini Risotto

We made this risotto for the first time the other night and it was yummy and very easy! The recipe has been cut from a magazine but I'm not sure which one!!

You need...

1 leek (white part only), sliced

1 tsp minced garlic

2 celery sticks sliced

200g ham, chopped

2 cups aborio rice

3.5 cups water

3.5 tsp chicken stock powder

375ml evaporated milk

3 small zucchini, sliced

1 cup frozen peas (we omitted these)

2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese

You do...

- Heat a little oil in a large saucepan and cook leek, garlic, celery and ham over medium heat for 3 to 5 mintues or until leek is soft. Add rice and cook, stirring, for 1 minute or until rice is coated.

- Add stock powder, water and evaporated milk and bring to the boil. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 20 minnutes or until the rice is soft. Add the zucchini (and peas if you're using them) and cook for a further 5 minutes.

- Remove from heat and stir through parsley, cheese and some black ground pepper (to taste).

- Eat it (with 5 of your friends because it serves 6)!

Go check out other Easy Peasy Dinner Winners over here.