Winter jacket for your pooch!!

If you have a 4 legged family member, you know that they become more than just a pet! Our beautiful Staffy, Miss M, is a very pampered pooch.

 She may even actually rule our house. She has been known to push the chickadees off the lounge to get the best spot, she has full use of the whole house & can be found sleeping under the blankets on someones bed on a cold winters day, lay down under the car when she knows we are going out in protest of being left behind & has even learnt how to open the front & back doors to let herself in & out.

She makes us laugh everyday. She smiles like a human, now I mean she actually smiles!! Lifts up her top lip, you can see her full set of teeth & smiles!! We have tried so hard in her 2 years of life to capture it on camera but you just never know when it will happen.

Now, when it comes time for Miss M to go outside for the night, it is getting harder to get her to go out willingly with the cold Australian winter nights. She had a beautiful leopard print jacket that had seen better days & by the morning it would have fallen off. The Velcro was no longer working, the under clip had broken & was also a little bit smelly (no mater how much fabric softener I used!). On the weekend I came across a pack of 2 polar fleece blankets that had been reduced down to $6. In total there was about 4m of material so it was an absolute bargain!!! Now, because Miss M is a very fashionable pooch, I used one colour for the top & one for the underneath making it completely reversible!! Pink & purple were the colours of choice!!

Now if you are replacing an old & tired jacket, use this as your pattern.

This was Miss M's original jacket, it had a webbing strap around the middle. This would often cut under her front legs & as you can see, she had chewed on it to try and undo it. I wanted to make the new one more comfy so this is what I did........

The 2 rectangles on either side are actually the under belly straps. Now I cut 2 pieces, one in each colour for extra warmth & so that it can be reversible.

On the right side of the fabric on both pieces, pin 2 strips of Velcro for the under belly strap & 3 for the around the neck strap. This will make sure that it is secure & wont come off during the night. Sew the Velcro on. Make sure that you have the soft Velcro on one colour & the hard Velcro on the other so that they will attach to each other properly when on the pooch.

With right sides together, pin the 2 pieces together. Make sure that the Velcro is on opposite sides to each other so that when you turn the fabric right, sides in, they will match up when on the pooch. Make sure to leave an opening at the bottom of the jacket, about 10cm so that you can turn the jacket in the right way.

Close up the bottom opening. & hay presto...............you have a winter jacket for your pooch!!!
Now in true Diva form, Molly was not very co-operative in the following photo's!! She really just wanted to lay down & snuggle in to her new jacket!! Hopefully you can get the idea on how easy this is to make & how it fits on her................

Notice the placement of the tail for modesty!!! And yes, she does sit up like this!

Yes, that last photo is her Zoolander pose!!!

When I went to get Miss M this morning after her first night with her new jacket, she was very reluctant to get out of her bed because she was so warm!! I am thinking that I may even make her a matching liner for her bed!! Only the best for Miss M!!!!

Marshmallow fondant

Well, last week I finaly gave in & had a sneak peek at Pinterest & now I am hooked!! For a very long time I have heard about it, been invited to join it but had resisted the urge................now I can't stop looking!! One of the first things I found was the best recipe ever for Marshmallow Fondant.

I have always wanted to make my own rolled icing & this is perfect!! It is cheaper & tastes better than the store brought ready to roll fondant. You can make it what ever colour you like & can even add flavouring to it to make it whatever flavour you want. You can cover a large cake, cut it into circles to cover cupcakes & you can even cut out to cover cookies!!! I think that if it is edible in my house..........it may get covered!! Miss K had made a lovely batch of chocolate cupcakes using the no more packet cakes recipe from one of my earlier blogs. We had nothing better to do on a Saturday night than cook so we tried the marshmallow fondant! It does take a little time as you have to mix the icing sugar in a little at a time & you have to knead more icing into it but it is worth the effort! It keeps for a few weeks in a snap lock bag with all of the air expelled so make it ahead of time. You can also cover a whole cake with one colour then make up some other colours & use cookie cutters to cut out shapes to decorate the cake!! Simple & beautiful!

The recipe & instructions for this were so well done that I am not going to change anything & I hope you all go & have a look at the recipe on Clockwork Lemon. I will share the photo's that we took while we were having fun in the kitchen!

Enjoy!

Quick & easy home made bread rolls

This would have to be the quickest & easiest bread roll recipe ever. I have been making it for years & it still is number one on my list.

I have decided that we are having home made hamburgers for dinner tonight. Last night on our way home from hockey training we had takeaway burgers. It has always been a bit of a ritual because with 2 training sessions, (one takes an hour, the other an hour & a half) & up to 2 hours in travel, dinner is not what I want to be doing at midnight!! After having the takeaway burgers, we were full but by the time we got home, everyone was hungry AGAIN!! There was a conversation between my chickadees about the fact that they were still full after having so much food. It is all the preservatives that make you feel full, empty calories!! Tonight, while it is still fresh in their minds, I am going to prove that a home made hamburger is more filling. Even though we have been having them for years, I think that the only way to teach kids that home made food is better than takeaway, is to show them. A lot of people are a little scared off from using yeast, but I will show you just how easy it can be with the right recipe. Most of this recipe is done in the food processor (yes, it is my fave kitchen gadget!!), so it really is quick & easy! I will show you the bread roll recipe today. So here goes........................

Home made bread rolls 

1/2 cup water, warm 
1 1/2 tablespoons yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

3 1/2 cups plain flour 

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1 cup water, warm

In a bowl, whisk 1/2 cup of warm water with yeast & 1 teaspoon of sugar. Set aside for 5 minutes until it becomes frothy a bubbly.

From this.......

To this......

Pour the yeast & water mix into the bowl of a food processor, add all the dry ingredients. Process for around 30 seconds.

While the motor is running, pour the extra 1 cup of warm water down the chute.

Once the dough has come together, process for another minute.

Check to see if the dough is sticky (make sure to unplug the food processor when opening the lid!!). Mine was too sticky.

If it is then add a little more flour. I added 1/4 of a cup of Plain flour. You don't want it to dry though. There should be a little tackiness to the dough but not sticky.

Turn it out onto a floured bench & knead for 1 minute.

Divide the dough into 8 pieces for small bread rolls or 6 pieces for large bread rolls. I made small ones because the girls would rather 2 small burgers than 1 too large to handle burgers!!

Place the balls of dough onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Place in a warm place, covered with a tea towel for 40 minutes or until doubled in size.

To this..............

Pre heat oven to 180 degrees. Place a shallow tray of water on the bottom shelf, this stops the tops of the rolls from going to hard.

Cook the bread rolls for around 20 minutes or until the tops start to go golden. My chickadees like their breadrolls to be soft so I took mine out of the oven before they got too brown. If you want them really brown on top, brush them with a little milk before cooking.

Well, I am off to go & make some hamburger patties, pick some lettuce & tomatoes from the veggie patch & make some yummy hamburger sauce. Enjoy!

From this.................

From that to this- refashion a ladies to to a girls.

So I am really getting into the swing of "refashioning" & "upcycling". It is a little addictive!! I have a pile of my old clothes in the shed that I just couldn't bare to part with because they were all my faves at one time. You know the type.......you love the fabric but it no longer suits the style or a little too big or a little too tight??? Well, I give most of my old clothes to our local charity shops but some things..........I just must keep!! Mr P has been sorting out the shed so it has come to the time when I have to make a decision on what I am going to do with them. I have already entered a refashioned jacket  into a little comp held over at Sew Wat, so I thought I would make some more things to enter!! I have this beautiful green baby doll ladies top that was no longer flattering for my figure, was a little short & bulky, so I made it into...............

And this is what it originally looked like..............

You too can make something like this. All you need to do is get a singlet top that fits your child & use it to cut out the correct shape for the new top.

The old top had the same neckline as the singlet but if yours is a little larger then make sure to take the new top up at the shoulders. This is what I came up with....

Sew up the sides, leaving the arm hole opens.

Attach binding to the arm holes & this is what you end up with.............

Miss G loves it!! As you can tell be the modelling she did in these pictures!!

Miss G has been wearing since she got home from school & I think it will be a fight to get it off her!!

Instead of throwing away your old clothes...........why not give them a new lease on life??? You might surprise yourself!

Enjoy!!