Fathers day crafts for kids to make

OK, so it nearly Fathers day. Time to get thinking about presents. My girls love to make gifts. I know that some of the best gifts that I have ever received have been handmade gifts. Poems with handprints are always my favourite thing. We have many in the photo albums & a few in picture frames on the wall.
Here is a few sites that can give your kids some ideas on what they can make for Dad for Fathers day.

Click on the pictures to take you to the sites.


Tip Junkie has heaps of printable for all occasions.

DLTK is a great site for 100’s of free printable crafts for kids.

    Disney Family Fun

bhg.com

                                                             Free kids crafts.com

kaboose.com

I hope this gives you some ideas for handmade gifts for Dad!

Enjoy!

I have been featured!!

Ok, so I have been linking some of my blogs to “Blog link parties”. This is when bloggers allow you to link up with there blog to share what you have been up to. It is a great way to get inspiration & also show off a little (giggles a lot!). I have been overwhelmed with the response that I have gotten. Especially with my sewing tutorials. It is such a great feeling to wake up, check my blog & see that over 200 new people have visited my blog in 1 day!! Makes it all worth it!


Made it on Monday featured this dress.


 


Bacon time with the hungry hippo also featured this dress






Even though I am blogging about things that I do everyday, writing & editing a blog can be very time consuming. There are photo’s to be taken through out the process, patterns to be drafted & a LOT of writing! My best blogs have been written while my husband is away in the truck because I am able to sit for hours once the chickadees have gone to sleep. Your wonderful comments on this blog & via the Facebook page are very appreciated. I love chatting with you all & I hope that we can all keep this going. If you ever have any questions about any of the tutorials or recipes, please do not hesitate to ask. The best way to get a quick answer from me is on Facebook. Here is the link to the page.Sew, Cook, Laugh & Live  Feel free to ask any questions about sewing & cooking in general. The page is growing in followers everyday & there is a lot of other very accomplished sewers & cooks who may also be able to help you out. Also, if there is anything that you would love to see made, please let me know & I will see what I can do. If you have made or cooked anything from my blog, please feel free to post a picture on the Facebook page. I would love to see what you have been up to.

Thank you all for the amazing support & kind words of encouragement. It means the world to me!

My yummy BBQ slow cooked beef ribs!

I have been getting my chickadees to try new things for dinner. Now that they are 10 & 12 years old I think that it is time to introduce new flavours for them to try. Now, I love beef ribs! So yummy, juicy, sticky & can be eaten with fingers. There is something very caveman/cave lady about them. Whenever I have ribs I picture myself in a diner straight out of the Flintstones!




I needed to make an easy diner as we are still (sigh!) painting & living in a half demolished house. Miss G had to go to the Drs for some minor foot surgery this afternoon so I needed to do dinner in the slow cooker. Ribs it was to be! I needed to make a sauce that the girls did not find to spicy or overpowering. This is what I came up with & if I do say so myself (and I will!), it was DELICIOUS!!!





Here are the ingredients for the yummy, sweet, sticky marinade….
1kg of beef ribs
1/4 cup of BBQ sauce
1/4 cup of sweet soy sauce
1/4 cup of honey
1/4 cup of tomato sauce
1/4 cup of tropical cordial concentrate
1/2 teaspoon of minced garlic

Put the ribs in a slow cooker.




Measure all of the marinade ingredients straight into the slow cooker. Mix to coat the ribs well.





Cover with the lid & cook on low for 6 hours.





Turn the temperature up to high & finish the cooking with the lid of for half an hour.





Serve the ribs with some big chunky chips & a side salad.




These ribs are finger licking good!!

Enjoy!!

Sometimes life throws a curve ball!

Today I am struggling! Every muscle in my body is screaming, “NO MORE!!!” I have been doing my own little renovators challenge. Let me take you back to the beginning. We brought a little 3 bed, one bath house over 8 years ago. A “renovators dream” was the label given to this house. Well, I have to admit that this last week it has become my worst nightmare! (insert screaming here!).
My husband, for those who don’t know, is a long distance truck driver. He is away most weeks & can be gone for up to 3 weeks. He has not always been a truck driver, he left the corporate world to fulfil a life long dream of driving road trains.



Now, that is great, for him! I was left behind with this house that has been slowly falling apart because the renovations never got finished. Last week, I had gone & booked new carpet for the bedrooms. After the floods that we had at the beginning of the year, my 30 year old carpet had seen better days. We had a little bit of water damage down one side where the water came through our yard. Now, to get carpet laid, you have to rip up the old carpet. Oh no! The shower had been leaking into Miss G’s room!!



So this week has been rather busy. My husband has been away, Miss G had minor surgery on her foot, Miss K has been preparing for hockey finals this weekend & I have had to paint all 3 bedrooms, organise a bathroom renovation & still be a Mummy & a nurse to Miss G. Let me tell you, I am exhausted!
Miss G’s room has gone from this….(don’t look at the mess!)



To this……



It has gone from a garden themed room to a lovely shade of blue.

Miss K’s room has gone from this…….



To this………



As you can see by the look on Miss G’s face, we are all going a little mad!

The chickadees & I have been sleeping in the lounge room as all bedrooms smell like paint factories! It is still not finished yet! 2 more coats in Miss K’s room, maybe another 2 or even 3 in my room, all the skirting boards need to be replaced. Last coat on the ceilings (when my 6 foot tall husband gets back!) & the bathroom is getting completely demolished. Carpet is getting laid on Tuesday morning so time is not my friend at the moment!

Well, I am off to start another day of painting & finish it off with a long hockey training tonight before finals on Saturday. I would much rather be sewing or cooking but I even had to get Miss K to cook last night because I thought that I could be a danger to us all with sharp cooking utensils! She did a great job & this is what we had….



It was wrap night & she cooked yummy sweet chilli chicken wraps. Yum, Yum!!

If you don’t hear from me within the next couple of days it means that I have finally gotten some sleep!

Whatever you are doing today, enjoy!

Vegetable Frittata

I love frittata’s! I love the fact that you can make it for dinner & have it the next day for lunch. One pan & one mixing bowl is also a great thing! Not too much washing up! It is also a great way of getting kids to eat vegetables. You can use any veggies that you have in the fridge & you can even use frozen veggies.



As you can see by the one I cooked last night, you can even please the fussiest of eaters. I love tomatoes but the chickadees not so much. I just put slices of tomatoes on my part of the frittata. Easy!

So here goes…..

Vegetable Frittata

6 eggs
1 cup of cream
2 cups of grated cheese
3 medium potatoes, thinly sliced
I small-medium head of broccoli,cut in to small pieces
1 cup of frozen peas
1 cup of frozen corn
1/4 cup of fresh parsley, chopped
1 zucchini, finely sliced
tomatoes, finely sliced

Pre heat oven to 180 degrees.
In a lightly oiled skillet, layer potatoes.


Cover with baking paper & cook on a medium heat for 10 minutes.



In a large mixing bowl, mix together the veggies, cheese & herbs.



Put the mixed veggies on top of the potatoes in the skillet.



In a bowl mix together the eggs & cream & pour over the top of the veggies.



Cover with the baking paper again & cook on a low heat on stove top for 10 minutes.



Remove the baking paper & place the skillet in the oven.



Cook until it is lightly browned around the edges & a skewer comes out clean.



Cut into wedges & serve.



If you have leftovers, you can reheat the next day for lunch & it also tastes just as good cold!

Enjoy!

Market shopping!

I love going to a Sunday Market. Walking around, looking at all of the treasures is the perfect way for me to spend a Sunday. My chickadees love it too! Especially when they get to home with something. This last weekend was one of those amazing market days where you find more than you could ever imagine! We even got to see a baby Koala on our way! Only a couple of hundred meters from our house!



Now that is the way to start a perfect market trip!

As soon as we got to the markets, the very first thing that we saw was this most beautiful antique chair.

It is covered in a light green velvet material. It is going to go in Miss G’s bedroom once the room is finished being painted & the new carpets go in. I have got the most perfect vintage looking material to recover the chair in from the Spotlight sale. The chair was a bargain at $60!!!

I can’t wait to start working on this!

My next find was at the stall right across from the chair! I found these most beautiful hand painted plates.









I love the waffled edges! The 3 small plates & 2 large plates were $20 all up. I can see a couple of multi tiered cake stands in the making!

The next find was not second hand but is one of my favourite finds.



I have an obsession for everything French so I could not resist this beautiful clock!

In a cute little tie dye shop, I found these little gems.



3 sets of handbag handles for only $2 each!In the same shop, I cam across this vintage sewing pattern drafting board (squeals with delight!!!) for only $10

The last find of the day is for my new look bedroom (still to be done!). I am going for a very relaxed Greek feeling for the bedroom with lots of white, navy blue & a few splashes of yellow. So when I saw this vintage bed throw, I was in heaven!!



Sometimes you just have one of those magic days at the markets & yesterday was one of them!

RSPCA Cupcake Day!

I am so sorry that it has taken me so long to get this blog done! The last 7 days have been days that I would like to forget! Between finding a small swimming pool in Miss G’s room thanks to a leak from the shower & Miss G needing some minor surgery done to her foot today, it has been kind of stressful! Miss G is now resting with her foot up & watching HOP on DVD with plenty of Cookie Dough Ice Cream & the new bathroom is all organised (tiles picked, vanity, accessories, tiler booked), I can get back to my blog! Oh, how I have missed blogging! I think I have become addicted in the short time that I have been blogging!
Now, last week, I tried a new cupcake recipe in honour of the Cupcake day for the RSPCA. Over the years we have used the RSPCA for many reasons. We have purchased a puppy, taken in injured animals & we even had to take our beloved dog Kostya to be put down. It was such a sad time in our life to have to make the decision to put him down. He was very old & had some serious health problems. The RSPCA were amazing. They treated our best friend with the dignity he deserved. Kostya was a true gentleman & they could see that.













So in honour of Cupcake Day for the RSPCA, I am going to share this decadent cupcake recipe with you all. So here goes….


Rose Water Cupcakes

125g of butter, at room temperature
1 cup of caster sugar
2 eggs
2 cups of self raising flour
2/3 cup of milk
2 tablespoons of Rose Water. I brought Rose Water from my local Fruit & Veg shop. I am sure you can find it in most supermarkets, health food shops & specialty food shops. For more on Rose Water, click here

Icing
2 cups of icing sugar
1  1/2 tablespoons of boiling water
1 tablespoon of Rose Water
Pink food colouring

Preheat oven to 180 degrees
Beat Butter & sugar with an electric beater until pale & creamy.


Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each one.



Add half of the flour, Rose Water & milk to the butter mixture & fold until just combined.



Add the other half of the flour, and fold until well combined.



Spoon into cupcake papers in a cupcake tray or muffin tray. Fill to 3/4 full.



Bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.



Cool in trays for 5 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack.



When completely cooled, make the icing.
In a bowl, mix the boiling water & Rose Water with the icing sugar. Stir with a spoon until smooth. Add a few drops of food colouring & stir until the colour is consistent.



Ice the cupcakes & enjoy!!