Layout and My Birthday

I fiddled with Sketch 155 from Pencil Lines on the weekend and this is what eventuated.....

....the Rose Moka paper and splash of white paint were perfect for the "grafitti" look.

The family surprised me with lunch out yesterday for my birthday here....

...at the Riverwalk Cafe.

Another customer kindly offered to take our picture at our table on the verandah.  But soon after the chilly wind sent us inside....the food was very yummy and afterwards we strolled around the gardens looking at a display of gorgeous vintage Morgan cars which happened to be passing through town.  When I'm retired that's what I want to do!  Go touring around the countryside with Tim in a very cute and impractical convertible sportscar while wearing a scarf and a funky woollen hat....!

Notice the Pandora-style necklace I'm wearing?  That was one of my many pressies!  Lucky girl I am.

On the way home we called in to our friend's place and I was doubly spoiled with a black forest cake and too many glasses of bubbly.  A fabulous end to a fabulous day.

Making a beef and red wine pie and its in the oven right now smelling SO good..........!  What's for dinner at your house tonight???

Ta ta for now and thanks for calling in. xxx

All by myself!

ACDC Rock and Roll Train is blaring....no little voices to interrupt my thoughts....and its bliss!  The fam are off on secret birthday business (yep, it's my BD tomorrow....!) and having lunch out together without me.

Wanna see what I did yesterday?

....the girls over at Home and Scrapped very wickedly challenged me to create a page with NO DOODLING!  How mean is that?  I still couldn't resist outlining my lettering to make it stand out....but that's not counted....is it?  Here's the whole layout.........

How adorable is the new Nutmeg range from Cosmo Cricket? Yummy yummy scrumptious I say....

Another fun school holiday activity we love is making PIZZA........the girls love to watch the dough rise and then have turns at kneading..........

...and they taste oh so good!  Have you tried making your own dough before?  You should!  So much better than bought ones.  I'll give you the recipe we use.........

HOMEMADE PIZZA DOUGH

Makes 4 bases

Mix: 2 x 7g sachets dried yeast,

20g caster sugar,

a good couple of pinches of salt,

and 1 tbsp olive oil

in 250ml lukewarm water.

Cover with cling wrap and sit for 10 mins until foamy.

Sift 3 cups of bakers grade flour (I use Lighthouse brand Bread & Pizza flour) in big bowl, pour in yeast mixture and bring together with hands.  Turn out on floured bench and knead until smooth.  Place back in the bowl, cover with a teatowel and stand in a warm place until doubled in size.

Punch air out of dough, divide into quarters to make 4 bases.  Knead each blob until nice and smooth.  Roll out to about 5mm thick (thin, in otherwords!).  Place on hot pizza stone (or tray), prick all over with a fork and add all your toppings quickly while tray still hot.  Bake 220 degrees about 8 mins until crust is golden and crisp.

Here's a big hint - put on your pizza sauce, then your cheese before all the other bits AND don't overload with too much topping!!!

Happy munching and see you next time!

xxx

A Thai Recipe and a Camping Trip....

Planning to go camping in the Xmas hols here....

....Wilpena Pound in the Flinders Ranges National Park - a stunning part of Oz that I didn't know existed.  Looks awesome doesn't it!  Then travelling all around the coast here....

....along the Eyre Peninsula in SA.  Of course, the kids think its wonderful and are jumping out of their skins about it.  Even me (with scary childhood memories of camping trips past!!!) - I actually think it will be a fun adventure for all of us!

These hols have been nice and laid back......Tuesday we went and saw...

....this movie is GORGEOUS....go see it, honestly!!!  You will love it to bits.  And the final credits may give you some scrapbooking inspiration!

Yesterday Kate went to a friend's for a sleepover and I took Bessie and Mimi to town for a wander around The Dust Jacket, our local cosy bookstore, then to Coles for the weekly shop and lastly a browse around FDB's - which is never actually a browse....always end up finding a heap of handy little things I "have to have" and find myself spending $50 plus at the checkout!!! 

No scrap pages to show you.....I am busily sorting out the linen closet.  Decided I'm going to pack all the sheet sets into their pillowcases to save all that time rummaging around for matching sets.

I have a recipe though, if you'd like it.........As you know, I've been going to Thai Cooking Class for the past 6 weeks.  It's been SO great!  The recipes have all been absolutely scrummy and we now have home-cooked Thai at least once a week.  Here's one of my faves.....

PAD THAI

Flat rice noodles, soaked in warm water until soft (about 20 mins)
Chicken thigh or breast, finely chopped
Tofu, boiled 1 min until firm, then chopped
red onion
garlic
palm sugar (or brown sugar)
fish sauce
white vinegar
tamarind paste
powdered chicken or vegie stock
1 egg
peanuts, crushed
bean sprouts
juice of a lemon
garlic chives
fresh chilli, seeded and finely sliced
shallots
fresh coriander

You will notice there are no amounts given - this is because its entirely up to you - you have to taste as you go.
Caramelise onion and garlic in hot oiled wok.  Add chicken and fry until starting to turn white.  Add fish sauce, vinegar, tamarind paste, stock powder and sugar to taste.
Add lightly beaten egg and noodles and stir through.
Take off heat and lastly toss through tofu, peanuts, bean sprouts, lemon juice, garlic chives, shallots, coriander and chilli.

Mmmm mmmm.....

The girls are watching "Born Free" right now - I picked it up at the Target DVD sale and had to get it for them - it was a fave of mine as a child (even though I bawled and bawled....)

That's your lot for now.....hope to have some scrapping done for next time!

xxx

You Know It's Spring....

....when you get an intense urge to clean house!!!  This does NOT happen to me very often - so I am taking advantage.....more on that later.

September is gone....October is here, along with the start of the school holidays for us, and the start of daylight savings.  This was our September, summed up in a layout....

...and closer...

The weather has warmed up just in time for the school hols.  Here's some of what we've been up to....

Cattle work yesterday.  The bulls go in with their girls at the start of October each year and everyone gets brought in to the yards for vaccinations, ear piercing (as the kids call it!), and the little boys get "the snip" to put it gently.  One sweet little boy oblivious to his fate....

Mia watching the action from a safe distance...

Today the kids dug out their cossies and set up the hose on the slippery dip...

while I planted some seedlings and pottered about in the garden...

Now, back to the cleaning thing....I hate housework as much as anyone, but occasionally I get a serious cleaning bug.  Yesterday was the laundry....today the bathroom....they look so good - I keep glancing through the door whenever I pass to admire my handy work!   I'm battling a head cold at the moment, so I've decided to thoroughly clean one room per day until the whole house is done. 

Tell me I'm weird....but I have to share these little tips with you.  Firstly, this stuff....

...it actually gets all the soap scum off the glass shower screens!!!  That job has to be one of my most hated...so you can understand my excitement....I use it with a microfibre cloth and it's just fabulous.

I have black and white checkerboard tiles in the bathroom and I love the way they look...but I HATE the way they show up every scrap of dust, sprinkle of powder or speck of fluff.  Mopping with half a cup of metho in a bucket of warm water works perfectly (also on the kitchen lino) - and you would think it would smell yukky, but it doesn't, and way cheaper than floor cleaners.  My "mop" by the way, is the broom with an old t-shirt wrapped around its head.....with the bristles underneath I can get into all the edges and corners, sticky stuff scratches off gently and I just chuck the shirt in the wash afterwards.  Love it.

What's your fave house cleaning tip???

That Recipe & Another Dusty Day

Thanks for the reminder Lin....here's that recipe I promised:

Sausage Rolls

3 sheets Pampas puff pastry, thawed  (you can use the cheap brands but won't be as nice!)

500g sausage mince

1 apple grated

1 carrot grated

1 onion grated or finely chopped

1/2 cup grated cheese (optional)

1/2 teaspoon minced garlic (optional)

chopped parsely

Firstly, instead of grating the apple, carrot and onion (brings tears to the eyes!) - I peel, core, etc and chuck all of them in the food processor for a whizz.

In a big bowl mix the sausage mince, whizzed up vegies, garlic, cheese and parsley - mushing it all up with your hands is the only way to go (I wear a disposable glove so its not as gross), then prepare your pastry...

Cut each sheet in half to give you 6 rectangles.  Spoon a line of sausage mixture along the middle of each, brush each long edge with a bit of milk, roll up nice and firmly.  Cut into your desired size (I usually cut into 4, but even smaller if doing them for a kids party or finger food), place join-side-down on trays lined with baking paper, brush tops with more milk and prick a couple of times with a fork.

Bake in a hot oven (200 degrees) for 30 mins.  Keep checking and turn trays if needed for even browning.

Tasty little morsels enjoyed hot or cold with your sauce of choice!

Hey, you could get really creative with these and add any filling, seasoning or flavouring you wanted...there's a challenge for you!

I have no picture to show you  - they didn't stay on the plate long enough I'm afraid!

But here's another - the view from my front verandah on Wednesday.  One good thing about dust storms - they show up all your cobwebs!  Lucky for me, I didn't have time to wash the car, clean up the house, etc this week - cos another blanket of dust enveloped us again today! 

I could update you on all the happenings of the past week - but there were too many and I am too tired right now!  But I will tell you I finished Twilight....not the best book in the universe, no, but intriguing enough for me to want to read the next instalment in the series....

If you're bored tomorrow, or stuck inside due to the dust, pop over to the Scrap A While cybercrop - some nice easy challenges caught my eye...

Ta ta for now. xxx

While I have the chance...

This week is going to be so hectic and I know I won't get back to this chair....so here's a quick summary of our weekend while I have the chance.

Such glorious weather!!!  We enjoyed a lovely stroll along the beautiful river bank at the markets.  The girls made a beeline for the jewelery lady....as you do.  Beth and Mia happily sacrificed their hard-earned pocket money for a "Pandora" style bracelet each (just like their big sister's), then all three chose some beads from the rainbow of sparkling pretties laid out before them - heaven!

I finally decided to find out what all the fuss is about, and opened my copy of "Twilight"....after the first 3 chapters I was seriously regretting it....please tell me it gets better!  Well....I'm more than half way through now and I've hardly put it down!

The girls are luckily very good at amusing themselves.....among other things, they had fun on their Jumping Jax...

...and sang their little hearts out on Singstar, while I had my nose stuck in my book and Tim caught up on some much needed zzzzzzzz's.

We all went down to the oat paddock in the hope it was grown enough to let the cows in....Tim, Kate and Digger inspected the crop....

...while Beth and Mia swung on the gate, looking picturesque....

....the decision was made so we called up the cows. 

The inquisitive babies hung around the gate to check us out.....

....while their mums ran in from all directions to go from their regular paddock....

to the gourmet one......

....you could almost hear them say "yummy" as they munched away.

Is that rain???? Yippeeeee!  It IS rain!  Woo hoo!  Oh I do hope it lasts.....phooey to the washing I just hung out!

Well, I'm off to make some sausage rolls - would you like the recipe?  But before I do I'll show you my latest scrapbook page....

It's my fave of the month!

Have a good week, thanks for stopping by, and see you soon.

xxx

H...E..L...L...L...L...L...O...O...O...O...

Speaking to you reeeeaaaallly slooooowwwwllllyyy tonight because my broadband connection is woeful....we have been "shaped" after only 2 weeks into our month!  I am blaming Moshi Monsters which my 3 girls have recently discovered and are totally addicted to.  It's pretty cool...you adopt a monster of your choice and then do daily puzzles and challenges to earn points so you can buy stuff for your monster...but it chews up so much download allowance it's not funny!!!

How has your day been?  I wanted to pop on to share my latest layout...

which I've just emailed to Pencil Lines...it's last weeks sketch Number 151.  What a fun little project to do!

Also I needed to show you what I gave Mum for her birthday...

...how adorable is it!  This delicious little fabric tea set, complete with tea bags, was hand made by the very clever Brenda.  Click on the link to order one for yourself.  Btw, she also does the cutest  little cookies and cupcakes.  Awwwww....

And last but not least, a photo of some special ladies...Kate and Beth with Mum (Martha) on Tuesday morning just before leaving to go home after her visit with us.  We miss you already Marthy!

See you soonishly!

xxx