baking and making with my family of 9
I’ve seen some pretty cute name tags for the Sew it Together name tag swap but everytime I saw one it was a gentle reminder I still hadn’t started mine! Quick trip to spotlight yesterday for my supplies and I’ll whip it up tonight……
just in time for tomorrow’s deadline to be in the post!
You can never have too many craft or cookbooks! And I have a real soft spot for japanese books translated into english…here is my latest purchase
I know keira doesn’t start school till next year but I think she could have the best lunch box in kindergarten with a hello kitty riceball!
teddy bear pancakes
I can’t wait to try out a few recipes on my little ones and I’m sure they’ll play with it before they eat it!
I just have to keep the book away from them all in the meantime as they are all fighting over it to have a look….and that means ripped pages!
I have lots of bolts with little bits of fabric left on them so am clearing them out, slow sellers and old stock also priced to clear, all izzy n ivy patterns $15 and while you’re there check out the new magazines and craft books I added yesterday (edited to add be quick as things are selling out quickly this morning)
I feel like a good spring clean for the store so I can start ordering in more lovely things from Japan…..
ooohhh I love a good baked pasta dish and a good vegetarian cannelloni is top of my list! here is my very easy recipe which I’ve been making for years and I ate plenty while I was pregnant with the twins…..
1 box frozen spinach
500g low fat ricotta
700g passata (or a jar of pasta sauce)
1 onion, diced
cannelloni shells
dried herbs
grated cheese & parmesan
* Firstly, make tomato sauce by sauteeing onion in some oil with salt, when softened add passata and plenty of dried herbs to taste. Season well and leave on low heat to simmer.
*Defrost spinach, press out water in sieve then stir in ricotta, a few tablespoons of parmesan and season well. The mixture can taste rather bland if you don’t season it well and add the parmesan at this stage.
* Using a teaspoon, stuff each cannelloni shell with the ricotta mixture but don’t overfill, I do mine 3/4 full. Use up all mixture and place in rectangle baking dish topped with the tomato sauce mixture and lots of grated cheese and a dash of parmesan
* cook in 190 degree oven for about 30-40 minutes till shells are soft and cheese is golden on top.
I had a bit of spinach mixture leftover so mixed it with a cup of peas and 8 eggs, topped with 4 cheese slices and baked in a square tin for 20 minutes in 200 degree oven and the babies have a delicious frittata for lunch tomorrow.
happy easter from me and my bunnies to you and your bunnies
and I have a month with no markets (ahhhhh, a break), so I got out the knitting needles tonight and some new melody yarn with the hope of making each of my bunnies a new cardigan for the cooler weather!!!!
OK, well I don’t actually have a craft budget but if I did I’d be in trouble as Amy Butler is releasing a range of yarn and a pattern book this month….yes yarn, not fabric!!!
oh my, there is going to some serious spending by yours truly when this is released….till then here is a sneak preview! And the colours……just gorgeous
or spoon dropped tempura is what we had for dinner last night! I really enjoy being pregnant as it’s the one time I throw all diet caution to the wind and eat whatever I like! I made this last week and just had to eat it again! This recipe comes from my japanese cooking and pattern making teacher who sadly went back to japan and isn’t teaching anymore…..
1 potato
1 carrot
1 onion
2 french beans (I used peas today)
1 egg
1 cup iced water (just pop a glass of water in the freezer for 1/2 hour)
1 1/2 cups sifted plain flour
dipping sauce
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 packet fish stock (I used 1 tsp)
2 Tbsp sake
4 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp sugar
canola oil to deep fry
– cut all vegetables into fine strips and place in bowl. Combine egg, iced water and flour and whisk before adding to the vegetable mix.
– now make sure everyone is out of the kitchen and entertained so you can get down to deep frying! thankfully I’m locked in my kitchen with 2 safety gates these days to keep little people away from the hot oil.
-heat oil in large frypan or saucepan to deep fry. When hot, drop tablespoon fulls of mixture by rolling them into the pan on the side, We like ours with lots of mixture but you can also have them with hardly any coating on them for a crispier less pancake kind of tempura.
– after a minute or two turn over and when slightly golden on both sides take out and let drain on paper towel. I do about 8 or so at once and then pass them on the table
– serve with boiled rice and dipping sauce. To cook sauce just bring the sauce ingredients to the boil and serve in small bowls.
Now I’ll just warn you that the way it works in this house is that everyone else gets to sit down at the table and enjoy their rice and tempura while mummy is still in the kitchen doing the next batch so I just tend to eat mine while I’m still cooking…..BUT it’s so worth it! And check out this food blog…..la fuji mama…I think I could be doing all my meal planning over there. And I found a few more tempura recipes online for you too……here , here, here and here
ok I’m seriously late drawing a winner and I won’t bore you with the 50 million things I’m trying to do each day but the winner is number 10 according to www.random.org and that was made by jots mum!
I’ll be in touch……and a new giveaway next week which I promise to draw quickly afterwards!!!!!!
The beauty of having back to back markets is that most of the preparation has been done! Allie’s Attic is on this Saturday in Mosman from 10-2pm and I don’t need to pack or sew or do much at all!!!! I will cut some more new fabric including these two lovely bolts that arrived today…from the Colour Basics range by Lecien…perfect for binding, quilts and clothes.
and I’ve been busy making more cute tags on my new cricut….yes I couldn’t help myself! I bought a cricut expression and am so in love with it. Although I’m not a papercrafter, the cute little tags and cards you can whip up in no time make life easy for markets and there are sooo many options per cartridge. I had previously been using my moo cards for tags but was always running out so seem to have solved the problem.
I already have my eye on the sweet treats cartridge which makes cupcake carriers, the princess cartridge which makes an adorable 3D castle which will be perfect for keira’s princess themed 4th birthday next month! And the paisley cartridge does russian dolls…..I’m thinking a new cartridge per month. My latest purchase arrived just in time today, the easter cartridge which made these cute pop up boxes for easter eggs.
Now, sorry if I’m an enabler but I got mine on ebay! Husbands, don’t blame me!
Oh dear, I feel like I’ve been glued to the computer for the last 24 hours! Emails to answer, craft shows to organise, craft classes to finalise and of course new fabrics for the store! I’ve added 10 new fabrics this morning and here are some of my favourites……..cute little village by Trefle for Kokka, a lovely double gauze that will make adorable pj’s and quilts.
sweet bambi and cute things for girls
and you can’t say no to cute little mushrooms! Imagine this as binding on a quilt….adorable
and I just got a call that 2 more Lecien fabrics are arriving tomorrow! And I still haven’t received one of my huge kokka/cosmo fabric orders so I expect that soon too……ahhh drowning in fabric!
phew! we’re back! exhausted and we still need to unpack the car after such a busy weekend away. We headed down to canberra on saturday morning and checked into our hotel. It was lovely and flashy and everything was going fine until about 12 huge bikies from a notorious gang checked in, you couldn’t miss their gang name as it was all over their jackets! ahhhhh my worst nightmare and you could just see the faces on the other guests! I was terrified when they all got out on our level. Retro Daddy made small chat in the lift reassuring me they were lovely but decided not to tell me they were in canberra for a wake for someone who died a year ago. The next morning he joked to me did I hear the guns going off in the night…not funny retro daddy but they were harmless! We were up early sunday to set up for handmade and thought the venue was gorgeous….
we had a nice corner spot, tucked away from the main room and it proved a perfect location as there was gridlock throughout the day in the main room! In fact I’ve never been to a market that busy before! It was just crazy busy but if you’re a stallholder that is the kind of busy you like! people were 2 to 3 deep at times trying to look at our stall and our bargain baskets proved very popular. Nothing like packing up and having lots more space in your bags
We always rearrange our tables slightly different at each market and this time invested in a $27 card table from bunnings which created a nice little L shape and gave us more room. Thanks jennie for the tip! I’m bringing that baby to every market with me
The tree was gorgeous and we got lots of comments on it and the hats were hugely popular! My mum and I just need to work overtime this week to top up before allie’s this weekend in mosman and make sure we cover all sizes and popular colours.
I did manage to work the room a few times and got some lovely goodies I’ll show you tomorrow when everything is unpacked, my washing is all done and I’ve fully recovered. We did the masters exhibition yesterday which was fabulous but also tiring because the twins are not huge fans of queues and we had a torrential downpour while in the queue. Keira on the other hand absolutely loved it and wants to be an artist and turn our house into her own gallery!
So this was my best market in terms of sales by a huge amount and it’s all going to the bank today for my poor credit card which always seems to have a new fabric invoice on it!!!! A huge thank you to Julie and her helpers (Ros & Rachel) who made the day run sooo smoothly and are obviously doing a great job with this popular market. I think 10,000 people through the door is success in itself!!! We’ll be down for handmade again without a doubt and Sydney ladies who love handmade should definitely make a day of it! It was also great to see so many familiar faces too like posie patchwork, ensparkle ceramics, paperklip, gifts created, please eloise, summerblossom (rochelle is keira’s new bff) and more. Big thank you to katia my stall buddy and her hubby Mark because 2 big men packing up the car makes pack up a breeze!!!! And thanks katia for letting me use your photos as I didn’t have time to take any myself!!!
I love my new camera but the thought of me getting in front of the camera is not my idea of fun. I’ve known since Monday that I needed to take a picture of myself this week and of course I’ve left it till the very end of the week face up to the camera!
So with my gorgeous grandmother’s flower garden quilt hung over the door and a touch of make up retro daddy got to work…..and about 20 photos later we got two I can live with!!!!!
phew, off to the magazine they go! It was much more fun collecting everyone else’s photos for the job than taking my own!
oh dear, more fabric to cut! I’m not quite sure whether it’s a good thing to have this fabric arrive today……. but I’m sure by Sunday when I’m at the market I’ll be glad it arrived just in time.
I love it all and I think I catered for the boys well with 3 new boy fabrics in blues, reds and whites.
and the words are in swedish! thanks ladies for telling me!
and this cream chum chum bear fabric is very retro cute and would make adorable wall hangings, appliques and quilts.
So off to finish my jobs, buy a few last minute supplies, pick up little miss from preschool, grab an early dinner in manly then back to my jobs and packing! Fabrics will be with me on Sunday at Handmade and in the store on monday….
Please excuse my lack of blog posts! There are so many things to organise before we leave for Canberra but top priority is finishing my sewing. I always like to finish sewing a day or two before the market to give me time to do the smaller projects, cut fabric, pack everything for market, pack everything for the trip and children and make sure we are ready to go!
and here is some proof I have been busy sewing….2 days worth of trimming under my feet. I’ll fix it all up tonight when I officially call it quits sewing dresses and get to work on my other jobs before Saturday…….
and no I haven’t forgotten about my giveaway either, I’ll draw a winner tonight!
with retro daddy home this week I’m enjoying a rare moment to sew at 9am on a weekday! It doesn’t happen very often and I hope this is what it will be like when all my lovelies are off at school….which seems like decades away right now.
and while I’m sewing I am also admiring my new tree which looks great filled with little hats and hair ties! Still a few more hats and things to go on but it was definitely one of my best buys this year.