My Place and Yours- My Secret Weapon

This week mybricole wanted to know our secret weapon, and this was a very easy call for me.
You see, i bake. A lot. For friends and family, for myself, even just for the love. And up until relatively recently i'd been using one of those hand-held beaters, which was ok, but then this happened:

Isn't she a beauty? She was a suprise from my mum and my boyfriend. It wasn't my brithday, it wasn't christmas, they just knew how much i would love it. I think 'just because' presents are so lovely, i feel absolutely spoiled :-)

We cook together a lot, so far we've made cakes and biscuits, tarts, ravioli, pavlova, and the most incredible sponge cake. But what i would really like to tackle next is bread. I love dense, chewy sourdoughs. And fruit loaf really floats my boat too. Is homemade sourdough starter YOUR secret weapon? I'd love to hear your recipes :-)

Let's pop over and see pip to check out other people's secret weapons.

Yarn Bombing

Wandering round my neighbourhood yesterday, i discovered some lovely knitted graffiti.

What a great idea! It's amazing to think that somebody has invested so much time and effort to brighten up the day for passers-by. How generous!

I think the tree-cosy above would have to be my favourite. I love the colours, and just check out those ruffles! Cuuute!


If i could knit like this i'd be yarn bombing all over the place, then wandering past to see people's reactions :-) Have you ever been a gurilla knitter??? I want to hear some stories.

It's nice when such a small thing can make your day, thankyou mystery yarn bomber!

Melbourne Cup hat for a seven year old

This is for a very sweet little friend of mine, who has a Melbourne Cup hat parade at school tomorrow.
I hope she likes it!
Now to organise something equally over the top for myself...

My Place and Yours :: Bedside

This week Pottymouthmamma came up with 'bedside' for the new My Place and Yours. And i had some tidying up to do. My bedside table is generally the place where old receipts and bobby pins go to die. Being just inside the bedroom door, it's where pockets are emptied upon returning home.



After a good dust and a quick tidy it still seems quite cluttered, but these are the bare necessities i promise.

Some things to make me smell nice; perfume and deodorant (his too)
Some things to make me feel nice; pawpaw ointment, a massive bottle of sorboline, and some water
Some things that just are nice; a good book, a magazine, and some pretty flowers from the markets
Please note that the vodka bottle is actually our water bottle, we've used it ever since waking up one morning with a moth in the water glass.

I love having flowers in my room, and the markets at Carriageworks have heaps of them for really cheap. I have been treating myself each week. These beautiful roses were only $5, and they smell delicious too. I just love the pink buds, they look like an old fashioned painting. Ahhh, such simple pleasures :-)

My Place and Yours :: On the Shelf

I'm playing along with a game that pip came up with, called My Place and Yours. The first theme is 'On the shelf,' so here is what is on the shelf in our dining room.

Ahhh, teapots. Can you ever really have too many? Most of these little guys were brought home from the op-shop or adopted from the side of the road on council clean up days. I don't know why people wanted to throw them away, but i guess i'm glad they did. It's always fun to think about the former lives of your second hand treasures; somebody bought these teapots brand spanking new in the 1970's, they're older than i am! what have they been up to all these years i wonder?
One of my favourites is the bright yellow enamel number on the far right. He was a birthday present a few years back, and came filled with home baked cupcakes :-)


The little albino glove bunny was a christmas in july present from my friend lisa. One day she's going to teach me how to make him a little girlfriend.
The outrageous glass teapot and cups on the left were hand blown by my housemate zoe for an Alice in Wonderland inspired artwork a few years back. She's currently in sweden for a glass blowing internship(Hi Zo!), and i'm sure she's making some amazing work.

So it turns out my shelf is pretty full, i don't know what i'll do next time i see a teapot that tickles my fancy. But i am curious to know what you keep on your shelves, check over here if you want to play too.

Seedy Sunday

Last night we over-indulged at a huge warehouse party with lots of trendy young things in attendance. 9:30am counts as a massive sleep in for me these days, so i let jarrah sleep and made breakfast for the house. A slightly seedy sunday morning definately calls for pancakes.

Note the speedy two-pan-production-line.


And suddenly, Sunday morning seems even sweeter.

Yum!

mmmmm mulberries

I never picked mulberries as a child. Maybe they don't grow down south. Maybe my parents thought they were too messy. Whatever the reason, i turn into a kid as soon as i start picking. Perched on a branch, hands and lips stained bright purple, and scoffing berries by the handfull, i can't help but giggle to myself.



I discovered a new tree today, on my way home from work. It's just around the corner from my house :-) You have to crawl under a fence on your belly to get to the good branches, but my haul of berries made the grass-stained skirt all worth while.



I was planning on making jam, but i think i've already eaten too many of them

My first embroidery ever in my whole entire life

The cold kept everybody inside today. Nobody even ventured out for coffee! In short, i got an early mark from work, came home, and spent the afternoon working on my first ever embroidery.

I got the pattern from a blog called badbirds. I wanted something simple to start with, but i think you really can use any design or drawing you want.


Next time i would like to try some variations of stitches. I think i've got the backstitch pretty much down, but his little heart would look sweet filled in.

Now that he's done, i'm not quite sure what to do with him... I do want to try and tackle a mini quilt one of these days, perhaps he could make a cameo appearance.

A Cosy Sunday Crafternoon

Today we had Crafternoon Tea!

I was very excited, and spent the morning baking.


then i set the table


and then my friends came over for a cup of tea and some craft.


It was lovely.



I had a messy work space.




We made little birds from spool sewing's free pattern
I think they're very sweet


Can you guess who made each one?

Eat Me Brownies

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Tara had an Alice in Wonderland themed birthday picnic. Now, i love dress-up parties almost as much as life itself, but a long-planned family trip to the snow meant that sadly, i couldn't attend. I decided to make some wonderful little treats to send along in my place.

I think they turned out rather well :-)

A few people have asked for the recipe, so here it is.

Super Easy-Peasy Chocolate Brownies or Blondies.

Ingredients:

• 185g dark chocolate (white if making blondies)
• 125g butter
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup castor sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup plain flour
• 2/3 cup coarsly chopped macadamias (pistachios are good for the blondies)

How To:

• Preheat oven to 180C
• Grease and line 20cm square cake tin
• Melt chocolate and butter in double boiler
• Remove from heat
• Stir in egg, sugar, vanilla
• Fold in flour and nuts
• Bake 20-25 mins
• Cool in pan and cut into squares

This recipe has the most incredible effort:taste ratio, it's so nice and simple. I never actually bother with the double boiler, i just whack everything in a saucepan, melt, mix, and then voila! Super easy, and only 1 pot to wash up makes for a very happy baker.
Also, don't forget that 2 batches are always better than 1, and this recipe doubles very easily. Allow an extra 10 mins or so in the oven, and don't be nervous if it still looks a bit soft when you take it out of the oven, it will firm up a bit as it cools. Besides, have you ever seen anybody bite into a brownie, turn up their nose and declare 'ewww, it's a bit gooey'? I, for one, am all about the goo...

Here Goes...

Over the past few months, i have been reading some amazing blogs by some very clever people. It's almost verging on addiction. Well, it's definately a habit, anyway. I can spend hours jumping from blog to blog, admiring images of handcrafted toys, drooling over homemade treats, and pining after homemade dresses and jewellery. I find it all very inspiring, to think these treasures were all made at home, with a simple needle and thread! And i start to wonder if i, too, could create such joyous delights...
Being Blog-tober, i guess this is as good a time as any to start my own creative blog. I'd like to use this space to document my crafty and culinary adventures, keep friends and family up to date, and most importantly- to share. I think it's really beautiful that so many talented young things are posting ideas and comments, free tutorials and instructions, and lovely images of their unique and inspired designs. Being an amateur crafter myself, i need all the help i can get!
So i would like to dedicate this blog to all the people i have never met, but who have taught and inspired me. Also to my crafty friend Lisa, my crafting buddy Zoe, and my friend Lisa, who hosted my first crafternoon tea.
Here goes...