Big Bumper Homemade Christmas

Sorry for the delay in posting, but as you will see I have been literally snowed under with making gifts for everyone for xmas!

All my family got the following from me:
A calico bag each decorated by the children (the picture is of my bag - my kids did 1 side to decorate each)

Some homemade bath salts in both cinnamon and coffee, and green tea and ginger scents

A keyfob each

Some chocolate spiders

A journal each for my mum and grandma

Cooling neck ties
Also made a meatloaf for each family

For my kids:

A library bag each

A softie monster each

A dolls house that I painted

I'm hoping to do mostly handmade gifts again next year, so I'm on the prowl for good tutorials so that I can get my ideas organised before I start uni on campus next year!

Hope everyone had a wonderful christmas!

Menu Plan Monday

 This is my menu plan for the next fortnight. Most of these recipes are from Annette Sym's Symply Too Good To Be True recipe books!

Porcupines
Meatloaf
Crumbed Chicken Tenders
Pizza
Stroganoff
Rissoles
Chicken and Bacon Risotto
Steak with Hot and Spicy Sauce
San Choi Bau
Mild Chicken Satay
Slow Cooked Mushroom and Thyme Risotto

Menu Plan Monday

This is my menu plan for the fortnight. A lot of these recipes are thanks to Michelle at Make 5 Dinners in ONE Hour.

• Slow cooked asian pork chops with glazed carrots and snow peas
• Meatloaf with mash potato, peas and gravy
• Chicken pasta bake
• BBQ stuffed potatoes with a green salad
• Slow cooked beef and gravy with roast potatoes and sugar snap peas
• Crunchy oven baked chicken tenders with mash potatoes and peas
• Slow cooked mongolian beef with steamed veggies and rice
• Apricot chicken with broccoli and rice
• Porcupines with potato or rice
• Layered dinner with roast potato and sweet potato
• Asian beef and broccoli with rice

39 squares challenge - Square 4 Flower

4th square already!!!

39 squares challenge - Square 3 Butterfly

Another square of embroidery finished!! Gone from none in 6 weeks to 2 in less than 12 hours!

39 squares challenge - Square 2 Ladybeetle

Finally finished square number 2! At this rate it'll take me about 5 years to finish lol.

39 squares challenge

I've started a challenge as seen on this blog, where I do one square per day. I did my squares a little larger than Amy (3.5cm rather than 1 inch). And I realise that with everything else going on I probably won't be able to do 1 square every day - however my goal is to do some sewing every day. My first day I did a dinosaur.

The last couple of days I've been working on a lady beetle.

Look forward to sharing more sewing with you all soon!

Upcycled clothes #3

Had time this morning to make 2 more pairs of pants. Have another 3 or so to do. Should have them all done by tomorrow night I think.

 

DD pants - they were meant to gather, and they are gathered, but was hoping that it would be more than that - will know for next time to do more fabric, this was double the length, but I would probably go at least 3-4 times the length next time. Though these were a lot more time consuming, so not overly sure that I'll bother doing them again!

 

DS's pants - these were extremely easy, took about 20-30 mins to do as it was knit fabric so I didnt need to hem them etc.

 

Back view

Upcycled clothes #2

Here are DD's pants - please excuse the out of focus photos! I'll try and get modelled shots tomorrow.

 

Front of pants

 

Back of pants

Upcycling clothes!!

We're on a really tight budget this year for clothes. So I've been looking for every idea that I can find to save us money.

Just my luck that this morning I received an email in my inbox directing me to this link on how to make short sleeved shirts into long sleeved shirts! I've put this on my todo list.

I decided to use this as inspiration and lengthen some pants of the kids so that they will last another season.

Here is a pic of DS in his pants

 

Front view

  

Back view

 

Close up front view

 

Close up back view

I'm hoping to do some for DD tonight so watch this space!!

Day at the Zoo!

We set out very early to get to the zoo. It took us a car, 2 trains and a boat to get there! Once we were there we went on the skyline, and then made a beeline for the giraffes. Soph made us laugh when she said that the giraffes had a kennel.

We then had a look at the elephants, and the baby (so cute!) while we were waiting for the seal show. The kids thought the seals were so clever as they did their tricks.

We then made our way down to the farmyard animals, where the kids patted some goats. They thought it was incredibly funny that one of the goats was eating its food while standing in the trough!!

While we were there they had a petting zoo section, and they had a guinea pig, a bunny and a blue tongue lizard. Soph would happily pat the lizard, but wouldn't go anywhere near the others! When we left she was upset because she was going to miss the lizard.

We went to watch a bird show, where Lachy very quickly decided he'd have a snooze. The poor kid fell asleep standing up.

We then went back to look at the elephants. The baby was just beautiful playing with his mummy. This picture doesn't show just how little he is, but I thought it was one of the cutest!

 The kids were so good, even though it was such a long day we barely had any fights and they were relatively happy.

The day was a long day for both the kids, and Soph crashed on the ferry on the way home.

It was a wonderful day. So long though, we left about 5:30ish, wasn't home again til about 8. So don't think we'll be doing it again anytime soon!!

Zucchini Slice and Ham and Cheese Muffins

I have been busy feeding the freezer again.

I made three dozen ham and cheese muffins.

 

And three dozen zucchini slice muffins.

 

They are just so easy to make, and it's great to know that I have some food in the freezer if we need it. This week I am hoping to cook meatloaf and sweet potato coconut curry soup.

My wonderful kids

As much as they drive me up the wall sometimes. They really are great kids. For the most part they usually get along. In one of the photos Soph is sitting playing with Lachy's hair. So cute.