New blog

Hello & thanks for visiting- I have decided to discontinue this short-lived blog & start up a new blog called Sweet Rustic- the name better suits my new country lifestyle and vision of my (hopefully) future online-store. The blog will feature similar stuff to what I've posted on here previously + more... vintage, homemade, baking etc

please feel free to follow:

sweetrustic.blogspot.com

thanks to my loyal followers xo

Best kids sites part 1: Blogs

I've been culling my blogs & website favourites list lately (out with the old & in with the new). As I was going through them I thought I should feature some great sites I've stumbled upon, just in case you haven't heard of them before.

These ones are for the kiddies:

source

Childhood 101- features include learning, fun, health, parenting, family time, home. I personaly love the outdoor fun section (where above photo was sourced from)- So many beautiful activities that I'll be doing with bub when he's a bit older.

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Fun in the Making- Green crafting website for children & adults. I love this tea cup mouse! The site has lots of great craft ideas & activities where children can learn about ecology in a fun way. Truly inspiring.

That Artist Woman- Getting children interested in art with some great art projects divided into school grades and the seasons. Some fantastic ideas.

Bloesem Kids Craft Projects- A range of mixed craft projects from a bunch of different authors.

Smashed Peas & Carrots; Projects for littles- Just love their name!! Painting, bubbles, chalk, slime, craft- what more could you want!

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Little Lovely- From playtime to partytime, inspiring bedrooms to imaginative play. Music, reading, craft, cooking. Little Lovely is exactly what they say... lovely ideas for little people (including this hot air balloon cupcake). Check it out.

and finally I have mentioned this one before, but thought it was worth mentioning again...
Made by Joel- Playful toys & crafts made with paper, fabric, found objects, whatever is on hand.

I hope you enjoy these sites!

Still to come: great kids websites, projects & emags.

First Day of Spring + Free printables

oh how I love spring- flowers blooming, birds singing & there are baby lambies around everywhere here at the moment.

Hubby picked me some beautiful flowers. There are so many manchurian pears & prunus' starting to bloom around here. Just beautiful.





Sunday is fathers day- Unfortunately I wont get to see my Dad this Fathers Day. So I'm sending him a little parcel of some old psychology books, a lotto pack and this "Dad you Rock!" card found at kind over matter- Dads into rock music (well any music really) so I think he will like it.

Check out the other freebies at kind over matter including some lovely spring-looking affirmation cards. Gotta love a site dedicated to kidness & inspiration!

I'm loving using good ol' brown paper from the supermarket for packaging, it adds an old fashioned touch. Now I just need to get me some bakers twine.

Happy Spring Everyone!!

Op-shop brag

I haven't been blogging much as we have moved far far away to the country & everything's been hectic. It's been a total change of lifestyle & a bit of a culture shock (even though we were only from a small town before) I had previously only ever lived 20 mins drive from my parents at most but now its a 6 hr drive. Although it was a massively hard decision & I miss our family & friends like crazy, it's become a great new adventure & a chance for me to afford to stay at home longer without the pressure to return to work. It has also meant that we have been able to look at purchasing a home, something that we thought wouldnt be possible for a long long time back in the hunter. So we're about to exchange contracts on our first home & we're so excited.

All of my craft stuff is packed away & I haven't done any baking as the oven in our rental is not so good- but that will all hopefully change soon. In the mean time I have still been op-shopping & finding some bargains.

Today I found these vintage doilies, a timber tray, Peter Rabbit toy & a little milk jug in roughly the colour I'd like to make our study/craft/storage room when we move in & renovate it.

I spent under & $5 and that also included a few other doilies & a couple books I got.

The jug was just 80 cents!! I love finding bargains & supporting a charity at the same time.

Creative People I Know: Jess at FUGU Fashion + Freebie!!

Jess of Fugu Fashion

What does she do:
Creates modestly priced handmade items including cute fabric handbags, purses, felt dolls & stationary.

How do I know her:

We went to school together & she’s also the sister of one of my husbands best mates!

Free offer:

Fugu fashion is currently offering a free fabric bookmark for those who join the mailing list- see website for details!! Be quick as the offer ends 1st September.

Where can you find her:
Website & online shop: http://fugufashion.weebly.com/

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White Chocolate ANZAC biscuits for ANZAC day

Today is ANZAC day- Lest we forget. 25th April

I have made my husband's Aunty Evi's ANZAC biscuits today and thought I should share her yummy recipe (hope she doesn't mind). It's a variation on the original as they are softer and contain chocolate!! A luxury that the troops didn't have on theirs.

For any Aussie/ Kiwi readers you will know the story but for everyone else ANZAC biscuits were sent to Australian and New Zealand soldiers by their wives during WW1 as they kept well and would last the long distance it took to get to them overseas. They are still popular today.

A couple of people have commented on not knowing about ANZACS so I should mention that it stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corps and ANZAC day is a day to commemorate those who fought at Gallipoli in WW1 (and also all those who've served in the armed forces)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups desicated coconut

2 cups plain flour

2 cups rolled oats

300g butter

2 tbl golden syrup

2 heaped tsp bi-carb soda

1/4 cup boiling water

Chocolate for drizzling

Makes about 24
Method:
1. Mix together all dry ingredients except bi-carb.
2. Melt butter & syrup in a seperate bowl.

3. Dissolve in bi-carb soda with boiling water (be careful!!) then pour this mixture into the butter mixture and stir.
4. Add butter mixture to the dry indredients and mix well.
5. Roll mixture into balls and place on greased & lined trays flattening the balls out a little and leaving a fair sized gap as they expand. You will need a couple of trays or to bake in batches.

6. Bake on 170*c-180*c for around 12 minutes rotating the trays half way. Cook until golden brown- they will harden a bit on standing.
7. Drizzle melted chocolate onto each biscuit whilst still hot. Cool on cooling rack.
8. Enjoy!
Other variations add 1/2 cup crushed nuts
OR
a few raw blanched peanuts each


For futher info on the ANZACS please read:
http://www.anzacsite.gov.au/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anzac_Day
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anzac_biscuits


I'm linking these to:

and:

Made it Monday @ The Persimmom Perch

http://thepersimmonperch.blogspot.com/2010/04/made-it-monday-42610.html

Tasty Tuesday @ Balancing Beauty and Bedlam
http://beautyandbedlam.com/when-did-you-learn-to-cook/

White Chocolate & Gingerbread Slice

My father-in-law and I have started baking together once a week(ish)& he brought over this recipe from a Coles Christmas free magazine that he got last year. It's a White Chocolate & Gingerbread slice.

I'm not a huge fan of ginger, but the ginger flavour wasn't too overpowering so I enjoyed it- if you love ginger you could add some more.

Here's the recipe-

100g Unsalted butter, chopped

3/4 cup golden syrup

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1/3 cup milk

2 cups plain flour

180g white chocolate, chopped

Icing sugar for dusting

1. Preheat oven to 180 c or 160 c for fan-forced. Grease & line slice pan with baking paper.

2. Place butter, syrup, sugar, ginger & cinnamon in a saucepan. Stir on med heat for 2-3 mins, until butter has melted & mixture is well combined & smooth. Remove from heat & cool slightly. Add eggs & milk and mix well.

3.Sift flour into a large bowl. Add chocolate. Fold through egg mixture and mix until combined.

Fill prepared pan and bake for 30-35 mins, until firm.

4. Cool completely in pan. Dust with icing sugar and cut into fingers to serve.

Enjoy!

I'm Loving $1 & under Op-shop (thrift-store) bargains

I've joined the bloghop/blog party thingy -I'm loving it & Tidy Mom (one of my fav blogs) If you found me there welcome to my blog- feel free to comment & I'll say hello in return!

I'm loving Op-shopping & Bargain hunting!!!!

I've done some more op-shopping and recycling centre shopping & have found some bargains all $1 and under this week. I'm looking forward to using them in some of my upcoming projects.


This is the garage I showed you earlier this week. It's had a couple of coats of free red paint. Thanks Dad (Great having a Dad that's a painter) It needs another coat and some other finishing touches yet.


These baskets, trays, frames & spice rack were all $1 & under each. Love em'.
The two frames were from different shops but are quite similar (bonus!!) I'm wanting to start a collection of filigree/ fancy frames all spray painted one colour. I've been waiting 4 years for my hubby to build a spice rack he insisted he'd make & since I still don't have it this $1 one will do!

I LOVE baskets- great for storage & I think they've just got a nice look to them.

I also love trays so was stoked to find these (the little one still had a turkish delight tag on it so it's iddy bitty but will look cute painted up) not sure just yet what I'll use them for- maybe on my desk?!

What have you found for $1 or less?

Op shop finds

My husband & Father-in-law both had Monday off so we decided to go op-shopping. Check out the bargains we found.

Cheese Platter $1 at Father Riley's

I already had this lid which fits perfectly-Yay!! I'm going to give it a make-over like this one at House of Hepworths:

http://www.houseofhepworths.com/2010/03/22/cheese-dome-turned-cloche/

Or maybe I'll make mine white like this one at Thrifty Decor Chick...
we'll see

http://thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com/2010/04/before-and-after-party-diy-cloche.html

Found these bargains for our baby boy for when he's a bit older:

This castle was just $5 at vinnies- has a working cannon and 12 knights.

Just needs a bath.

Can you believe this garage was just $1 at Vinnies?
I love it & I'm gonna give it a make-over too.

Paper toys

From time to time we write letters to our sponsor child over in Kenya. I like to include photos of our family and sometimes a small gift. Compassion don't let you send large bulky items because of possible theft and excess postage costs to sometimes very remote areas. So we send little flat items like stickers and bookmarks that fit into a regular envelope.

I've been wanting to find some other items to send & have thought of paper dolls (I remember having a Barbie paper doll birthday card as a child that I loved- I also had given to me one year a birthday card of a little girl that 'walked' as a wheel of feet spun on the inside of the card held on by a split pin- it was very sweet.)

I adore puppets, felt boards, and toys that evoke the imagination and as I have said before I love paper so I got a little carried away looking for paper dolls and the like. Here are some of the things I've come across.

The toy maker

http://www.thetoymaker.com/2Toys.html

Window to fairyland, Bear Wagon, Chocolate Truck & Paper Dolls

Features toys that move, gifts & boxes, learning toys, animals and bug friends plus lots more.

Paper Toys

http://www.papertoys.com/

Big Ben, Sydney Opera house, Harley, Dinoland

Features lots of buildings & vehicles plus more

Toy a Day

http://toy-a-day.blogspot.com/

Mario & Luigi, Sonic, Pingu, Bob the builder

Features Sci-fi characters, cartoon characters, user submitted toys, art inspired toy & lots more

Made by Joel

http://madebyjoel.blogspot.com/

Paper city, sloted building discs, Paper cowboy

Joel also has plenty of other toys & activities not made of paper to check out

and now for the big kids...

Canon creative park- paper craft

http://cp.c-ij.com/en/contents/1006/

Just do yourself a favour and check the site out- they also have other non toy/model printables including cards, callendars & scrapbooking....Loving it!!!

Now this is where I found the Canon site-

Creative Close Up-

100 Exceptional Free Paper Models and Toys

http://www.creativecloseup.com/100-exceptional-free-paper-models-and-toys

Yes thats right 100 paper models & toys...
you better go buy yourself some more ink!

The Easter that was & cheap chocolate

Easter mischief,

food, fun, games,

and ofcourse chocolate

We picked up most of these Easter eggs on sale after Easter. The Lindt bunnies we're $1.50ea & Lindt eggs 40c at priceline- bargain!!! Lindt is THE best.