Sewing. Motherhood. Domestic Engineering.

While helping my mother pack up the Christmas decorations we encountered the same problem we do every year. How do we store the six foot chasms tree? It used to have a cardboard box but this perished after a couple of years and it was always too big and hard to maneuver into the roof space. So after some discussion we decided that we had to custom make something. The bags we did have couldn't accommodate the longest bits of the tree and would easily rip. Mum's idea was to use some old curtains. It meant we got to recycle the material, it would be strong, we could make any size we wanted and could make a number of them.  1. Dismantle the tree, Gold the leaves down and bundle the branches together based on size. Tie them together with ribbon or string and label with a number so you know what order they go on the tree. 2. Find some materials. Can be stuff you just have around the house. In our case they are old curtains that  coincidentally look a bit  Christmasy....

I've had this app for a while now and I'm really enjoying the fun things I can make with it. Here is how to find it  Photo Grid  and below are some examples of the stuff (some (most) made purely for fun) that I've created using it. Five stars for this app!

I have made these a few times over the past couple of weeks. They have been great with a cup of tea but never last long enough for visitors to enjoy them. So instead of friends and family waiting for me to make them I'm sharing the recipe :) I try to used weighed measurements for everything so that there is less washing up at the end. Mum's ANZAC Biscuits 160 g (1 cup) Plain Flour 110 g (1 cup) Rolled Oats (I used Woolies quick rolled oats and they were perfect) 160 g (3/4 cup) White Sugar 60 g (3/4 cup) Desiccated Coconut 125 g Butter (I used margarine - I can't taste the difference in the product) 1/2 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda 1/2 tsp Boiling Water 2 tsp Golden Syrup Combine flour, oats, sugar and coconut in a bowl. In a sauce pan melt the butter and syrup together over a low heat. Mix the water and bicarb in a cup and then add to the melted butter. Add the liquid to the bowl and combine well (might need to get your hands dirty here). Divide into h...

  Review of my recent visit to Kendo's Irish Cafe, 476 New England Highway, Toowoomba, QLD 4350.  This little cafe's location is great, it's right in the heart of Toowoomba's CBD. And when I say little I mean small - I almost walked right past it. But it's cosy. It's pretty basic in fact even a little bit rough around the edges but has a lot of potential. The staff were quite friendly and the atmosphere is nice. The table we sat at was dirty and when I wiped it with my napkin the napkin went brown. And I noticed a lot of crumbs and dirt on the floor on the front area, which is bit of an eye saw. Also the tea cup I was given had a coffee smudge on the lip of it - ewww considering I was having tea... Other than that the kitchen looked clean enough. We had chips and gravy which was really good. I've been told the gravy is guinness flavour - I can't really tell but I liked it.

I recently found out that cafeine reduces iron intake in the body. And for someone who is frequently iron deficitient and drinking between 5 and 10 cups of tea each day this is probably an important point to concider. So I went on an internet hunt to find decafeinated tea. I found Twinings and a few other overseas brands but the two main brands I found in Australia were Lipton and Tetley. Difficult to trach down in the grocery store, but luckily tracked down some Lipton Devaffeinated tea. I had previously been told that it's not too different to normal tea so I wasn't to worried about it not tasting right. To my suprise they taste like normal tea, maybe a bit like a homebrand tea and it's smells ever so slightly odd but still easy to drink. I'm sure it's the sort of thing that takes a few weeks to be come 'normal'. As a decaf tea, although I don't have anything to compair it to, I give Lipton 4/5 and in the scheme of all teas I give it 3/5. I don...

www.vistaprint.com.au/BANNER1 Promo Code =BANNER1 Expires = 31-May-2013 This is the latest Vista Print Special that I get through the fax at work. Just the usual specials... $3 stationary and bits, $15 custom iPhone case, banners starting from $10 for 90cmX50cm etc. Enjoy :)  

www.vistaprint.com.au/PBC250 Promo Code = PBC250 Expires = 15-May-2013 This is the latest Vista Print Special that I get through the fax at work. Just the usual specials... $3 stationary and bits, $15 custom iPhone case, $10 banner etc. Enjoy :)

About $11 from BWS, we gave this a go just recently after having done a wine tasting and discovering that there are actually wines that taste good and even great. Interesting Wine Fact: Colder grapes have higher sugar levels. So wine makers try to harvest the grapes when they are frozen (great in places like Germany where they can have grapes frozen on the vine) or cold - at dawn before the sun comes up and makes them warm (. Cass - 6/10 - Sufficiently sweet, still a bit rough, which seemed to get stronger as we got through the bottle (could just be me). Still nice and clean, went down easy. Bede - 6.5/10 - Not bad for a pinot grigio but not amazing. Looks like water...

How to make delicious carrots that everyone will eat! Peal and very finely slice a carrot or two. Throw them into a pyrex jug and squeeze in enough honey to coat all sides of the carrots. Give the a bit of a stir to get the coverage. Place some glad wrap over the top but leave a little gap or pike some holes for ventilation.  Microwave for a couple of minutes, careful not to over do it as it will make them very soft. Hard to put a time on it because the amount of carrot and honey is different every time.  When you are satisfied with how it is cooked throw in some sesame seeds and stir through. Serve with what ever else is going :) Yummo!

Caramelised Leek & Fetta Filo Triangles   10g butter 2 tbs olive oil 2 leeks, finley sliced 1 tbs brown sugar 2 garlic cloves, crushed 1/2 cup (125mL) chicken stock 150g fetta, crumbled filo pastry sheets 2 tbs sesame seeds   When I made these I reduced the recipe to 1/3 just in case it was a flop. In the future I will make the full recipe, make all the triangles and freeze them so I can cook them when I want them :) This recipe came from a book but I can't remember which one       Trim and wash the leek thoroughly to get all the dirt out. Preheat oven 200 degrees celcium for fan forced. Line a baking tray with paper.     Finely slice leek and fry with sugar for 5 minutes in melted butter and oil in a medium heat pan. Add stock and simmer for 5 minutes, until msost of liquid evaportates.     Allow the leek to cool then stir in fetta.   Cut folo sheets lengthway...

1 day old pigglets! So cute, shame they don't stay little a cute!    

Nothing nicer than a Cherry Bakewell UNLESS it's a Festive Bakewell!! Can get these on special at Coles for about $4 a box of six. They're very cute with a little Christmas deco on top instead of a cherry and they taste exactly the same as the classic Bakewell.   The first time I ever had a Cherry Bakewell was in Abingdon, UK and I was hooked. Super excited when I saw that these are a pretty successful import in Australia :)

We usually have chicken curry but in the absence of chicken I used beef sausages in the curry like mum and dad used to - yummo :) Here is my very no specific recipe but hard to get this wrong: few hand-fulls of frozen stir fry mix 1/2 cucumber, diced smallish bit of diced carrot some cut up baby corn hand full of chopped spring onion 1/2 red onion (which is ACTUALLY purple >__< but I had no white) 1/4 diced capsicum 3 sausages (had no chicken loavers (left overs)) 1 crumbled chicken stock cube 2 heaped tsp of Keen's curry 3/4 cup thickened cream (had no coconut milk) rice Fry the sausages first and then add all veg, followed by curry, stock cube and cream. Add water at any stage if you feel it's needed. Serve with side of rice. I also went a little mental and served with rice AND potato gems...because I felt like it :D All up, prep and cooking took 15-20 minutes. This made enough for mine and Bede's dinners and lunches for the next day. ...