Still broken

One year ago today.
My heart is still broken.
I don't think it will ever mend.
Even with super strong craft glue.

Clicketty Click

Clicketty click over for a look at my beaut new blog header.

I only know the basics of photoshop, and I can't use illustrator at all, so I decided to ask a professional.

The very lovely and super talented Katy from What Katy Did Design interpreted what I wanted perfectly. I only provided a couple of pics as inspiration for the type of pattern that I liked, and then asked her to use a colour pallette of red, orange and pink.

I think she did a superb job! Thanks so much Katy.

My green thumb

I promised that I'd elaborate on my gardening skills after sharing last weeks green corner.

This is what my backyard looked like when I moved in.

It's taken me an entire six months of hard toil in the garden, sweating, labouring, getting callouses and blisters......


to

end

up

with

this!

So what do you think? Impressive eh!

Edit: There seems to be a bit of confusion sorry.... these are all weeds. I craft. I don't garden.

Recipe - Tasty Chicken and Vegie Balls

I love making various different types of meatballs using minced lamb, beef, turkey, or chicken.

They're a great way of incorporating vegies into a meal (for those of use who don't like eating our vegies), and they're also a really inexpensive meal for a family.

These tasty chicken and vegie balls can be served with salad, vegies, or chips, and they're also great to use in spaghetti and meatballs - just boil some pasta and make a simple tomato based sauce to go with it.

Ingredients (makes approximately 30 small balls):

250g chicken mince
1 large carrot
1 red capsicum
1 small zuchini
1 medium onion
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 cup breadcrumbs
2 eggs

Method:

• Put the carrot, capsicum, zuchini and onion through the food processor using the small grater attachment (alternatively just use a hand grater).

• Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl (except for the breadcrumbs) and combine well.

• Add the breadcrumbs and mix well.

• Check the consistency of the mix - you should be able to roll the mix into balls that don't fall apart. You may need to add more breadcrumbs if the mix is too gluggy.

• Roll the mixture into little balls (a great job for the kiddies).

• Shallow fry in some olive oil until cooked through.

• Eat!

Twas a Bonanza indeed!

The Thornbury Craft Bonanza returned to my house yesterday (not really in Thornbury I know).

Bev bought over these delicious cupcakes that she made using the Chocolate Fudge Cake recipe from Homemade - The Handmade Help Recipe Book.

Liesl bought over her soon to be prize winning scones - good luck with getting the scones to the showgrounds today Liesl!

I spent the afternoon whipping up a couple of adult sized crazy chefs hats.

Bev and Anna are going to wear them at the official launch of Homemade - The Handmade Help Recipe Book.

But first, we had to test them out, just to make sure that they could withstand the pressure in the kitchen.....

Serena doing an impression of the Swedish Chef from The Muppets!

Me - all chef hatted out (can you see my new curtains in the background)?

Bev selling the Cookbook
Bec looking like she's disco dancing....

....and Annabel who managed to colour co-ordinate the chefs hat with her t-shirt...clever girl!

Now why didn't we get a silly photo of Liesl in a crazy chefs hat????

We all missed Cathy who was sick in bed today..... can't wait 'til the next one girls.

The green corner

I read lots and lots of crafty blogs on a daily basis, and it seems to me that most crafty bloggers are also a dab hand in the garden. I ooooh and aaaah over lovely veggie gardens and flower gardens and native gardens.... heck any beautiful garden!

So while taking photos of my creative space on Thursday, I was inspired to take a photo of the latest thing that I'm growing in my garden.

This is the view outside my loungeroom window. It seems that I'm a dab hand at growing rather large weeds. If I'm brave enough next week, I might even take a photo the latest view of the backyard weed garden!

Something to think about

I was just reading this post over at Blog Chicks, which is originally from Cathie at The Year of the Cat, and it's something that I've never ever given any thought to before:

What will happen to our online identities when our physical ones are gone?

Head on over and have a read.....very interesting.

Obviously

Obviously, what I thought would be completely obvious, is in fact, not obvious at all.

So, this is an update after some more stitching lastnight - and a one word clue to the mystery object on my quilt square: Showbags

Can you guess what it is now?

First correct answer wins a prize!

I feel like I should be spruiking at the show.....

Update: Sandi is the winner - it is going to become a Ferris Wheel. Thanks to everyone who played along and tried to guess.

Recipe Tag

I've been tagged by the lovely Kat for this recipe tag which has been making its way around blogland.

The rules are:

• Choose an ingredient from the taggers recipe and post a recipe using that ingredient on your blog, linking back to the taggers recipe.


• Tag four people to do the same.


• To keep it exciting please post within a week of being tagged

Kat posted a recipe for Meatballs and Rissoni using Beef stock, so that's the ingredient that I've chosen.

My recipe is for a super simple Braised Steak and Onions - an oldie but a goodie, especially on a chilly night. You can also substitute lamb chops for steak.


Braised Steak and Onions

Ingredients:
Steak (I used Porterhouse but any type will do as braising will tenderise cheaper cuts)
Beef Stock
Gravy Mix
Onions
Water

This quantities I'm using for this recipe make only a single serve, but just multiply the quantities to make larger amounts.

Step 1 - make gravy

Use a half and half mix of beef stock and water with the appropriate amount of gravy mix to make a nice rich gravy. For a single serve, I would make approximately 2 cups of gravy.

Step 2 - assemble ingredients

Slice up one small onion and lay the pieces in the bottom of a casserole dish.
Place a piece of steak on top.
Tip the gravy over the top.

Step 3 - cook

Place in the oven and cook long and slow - at least a couple of hours on approximately 150 degress celsius is best, but it depends on the type of steak that you use. The cheaper the cut, the longer you should cook it.

Step 4 - serve and eat

Serve with a nice creamy and peppery mashed potato on the side to soak up all of the lovely oniony gravy.

My creative space

Not much has been happening this week, but I have finally decided on my theme for the quilt project.

Each night this week, I've dedicated my couch and tv time to a little bit of quiet hand stitching in red. Slowly, but surely, it's beginning to take shape.


I haven't had a giveaway in a really long time, so if you can guess what my stitching is going to become, I'll send you a mystery gift. I hope it's not too blatanly obvious just yet!


In other creative news, I bought myself a new little pressie..... a mini HP notebook. Perfect for a bit of blog surfing, and facebooking, and online shopping on the couch. It only weighs 1.2 kilograms, and once I've made a spiffy new padded laptop cover, I'll be able to just pop it into my handbag and take it wherever I need to go.

To check out all of the other beautiful creative spaces in crafty blogland, be sure to visit Kirsty at Kootoyoo.

Quiet

After the last few crazy weeks, I'm desperately in need of some quiet time.

I had a fairly quiet day yesterday, apart from the fact that I had to clean up before I started tripping over things on the floor, and I had to visit the supermarket (which I absolutely dread) as I couldn't wash any clothes without some washing powder.


Of course, there was also the need for more tim tams..... I bought the giant pack - and then a giant pack of mint slice too... just in case of emergency.

I'm busy again today, but I'm planning a day of quiet creativity on Thursday. I can't wait!

A reveal

After receiving my gorgeous washcloth and handmade soap from Annmarie a couple of weeks ago, I just had to put in a request for some more goodies for my mums birthday last week.

I love how the variegated yarn gives a completely different look.... and they're so soft and beautiful.

My mum loved them and that was the most important thing!

Another market wrap

Well it was another lovely day at the Made'n'Thornbury market yesterday. I only managed to take a couple of happy snaps before my camera started beeping to let me know that my battery was flat...drats!

Looking at the photo, I can now see that I had far too much stock on my table - a good lesson for the next one.

It's always great to meet up with the rest of the stallholders for a chat, and we also had lots of other lovely visitors come to say hello too.

We missed Cathie.... we were dreaming of her red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting all afternoon.

I've spent all day today sitting on the couch eating (tim tams, vegemite toast, and cupcakes) and drinking cups of tea, and generally just veging out which has been wonderful.

Hmmm I think I have just enough time for one more tim tam without spoiling my dinner!

You've gotta be quick!

If you cast your mind back to Blogtoberfest last year, you would remember that I was lucky enough to win a lovely crafty day out at Sewjourn.

Well, if you're really quick, you can celebrate Sewjourn's 1st Birthday by entering the latest giveaway for a crafty day out in January 2010.

You've gotta be quick, entries close Sunday at 8PM.

Roll Up, Roll Up

It's only one more sleep until the next Made'n'Thornbury Market.

I've been crafting like a madwoman this week - cutting, stitching, unpicking, sewing, glueing, dreaming, creating..... but I think I'm ready. I just need to tick everything off my trusty list, pack it all into my giant suitcase, and load it all into the car.

There'll be heaps of fabulous crafty stalls including:

• Tinniegirl
• Finki
• Konstant Kaos
• Mrs Beckinsale
• Pivotal Xpressions
• Flickettysplits
• Buttons by Lou Lou
• Cheeky Little Monsters

and many more...

If you need the address:

99 Leinster Grove
Thornbury
Saturday 5th September
10.00 AM - 3.00 PM

See you there!

My creative space

In my creative space today..... a bib production line

Still to do:

• Ironing
• Top stitching
• Labelling
• Snapping

I had to take a photo of the scraps, just because they were pretty!

Kootoyoo - the home of creativity

Merci

I always love it when I arrive home to find a surprise waiting for me in the letterbox, although I really didn't like the very surprising electricity bill that arrived last week!

Luckily, the surprise that I received on Monday more than made up for it. The very lovely Sandrine sent me one of her amazingly beautiful hand-felted merino and silk scarves. It's the perfect accessory for the move from Winter to Spring, the colours are just perfect for Melbourne, and it also matches my gorgeous red beret.

I'm going out for lunch on Friday for my mums birthday, so I'll definitely be wearing it.

Thanks so much for the surprise Sandrine.

It's Tuesday and I can't wait to....

Today, I can't wait to finish putting up my new curtains in my craft space.

I finally have my mirrors on the wall.

Notice the empty curtain rod on the wall on the left. I bought the curtains and the curtain rods (with rings), but I forgot the curtain hooks to attach the curtain to the curtain rings. Today, I'll be getting the hooks and installing the heavy curtains.

The curtain wire has been installed so that I can section off the craft space from the rest of my living space (so I don't have to look at the mess that I've created). I still need to make myself a curtain for that wire - I'm thinking of using something quite sheer and light and plain like a muslin, but jazzing it up with some applique and embroidery.

I think today's task might be to just clean up first!

For more Tuesday's head on over and say hi to Lou (and wish her a happy birthday while you're there).

Handbag Crazy

I can't help myself.....

I just keep on sewing handbags.....

This one was in my creative space last week....

Exactly the same as the other one, but this time, with a brown strap. I really like the shadows in this photo, taken in the early morning light.

Maybe I'll focus on making something else this week.

WHO is it?

Did you see who was in this weeks WHO magazine?

Annmarie's lovely Map 29 purses are featured in the style section. If you hurry, you can head on over and enter her giveaway and maybe win one for yourself.