Tight-Arse Thursday and Charli's Birthday

Yeah, it's Friday... I couldn't get the photos to upload yesterday. So here it is, better late than never!

Happy birthday to my beautiful girl!

I know, I know, it's totally cliche... But I honestly cannot believe how fast the time has gone! It blows me away to think that this...

... was three whole years ago!

And now...



 Sheesh, it really does blow me away.

Lets move on to the Tight-Arse Thursday bit...

I was trying to think of something creative to do in Charli's room for her birthday. She LOVES butterflies and rainbows at the moment, so I thought... why not rainbow bitterflies?!

I went to the local Mitre 10 and grabbed a heap of colour cards...

... then folded them in half lengthwise and cut out half butterfly shapes. Open them up, and voila! Butterflies!!

 

(Apologies for the bad pics, but you get the gist!)

I wanted to stick them up on the wall and over the ceiling, but quickly discovered that blu-tak pulls ceiling white off really easily.

One of the other things I made is this dolly. Charli's named her "Tedlan"... I don't know why!

The gorgeous pattern is a slightly modified version of the "Easy Doll Pattern" from Dolls and Daydreams. https://www.facebook.com/dollsanddaydreams

Sarah has a whole heap of gorgeous patterns that are so simple to make!

Tedlan only took me 1 1/2 hours to make - super easy!

I've had a few requests for similar dolls, and I'm totally happy to make them. Just let me know what colour hair / clothes you'd like, and if you'd like a boy or a girl.

On that note, I'm off for the day. Washing to fold, lawn to mow. It's a gorgeous 31 degrees here today, so I reckon we'll be outside for the day.

Love on ya's all,

sof

 xxxx

Tight-Arse Thursday: Make your own stock.

Welcome to Tight-Arse Thursday!

Frugal Friday sounds good too, but it doesn't quite have the same ring to it, now, does it?

Throughout my forays into the depths of the Internet (or, the un-depths of facebook might me more like it) I have discovered various money saving, tight-arse, DIY tips. I've decided to do a regular post with a tight-arse tip.

This week we have: Making your own stock! (How exciting!) This one's from the lovely Ange Smith.

Keep a giant snap-lock bag in your freezer. Whenever you use carrots, celery or onions, put all the bits that you'd normally throw out (or compost or give to the worms if you're a good girl/guy) into the snap-lock bag. That includes the skins and all the fuzzy bits - just nothing mouldy. Aim for around 1/3 carrots, 1/3 celery, 1/3 onions. If you'd like chicken stock, pop the carcass of your roast chook into the freezer once you're finished eating all the yummy bits.

 Once the bag is full, whack the lot into your pressure cooker, slow cooker or pot. But make sure you take the scraps out of the bag - it probably wouldn't be to tasty if you put the bag in too. One bag of scraps makes around six litres. Add some salt and pepper, some parsley, thyme and a cinnamon stick if you feel like it. Add your chicken carcass here too. Fill 'er up with water and cook it for a long time - 12ish hours on low in a slow cooker, 6 ish in a pot, 2ish in a pressure cooker.

When your stock is smelling good and everything in it is hugely mushy, strain it through a sieve and into freezer-proof containers (or more snap-lock bags). I do a few litre lots, a few 500ml lots and a few 200ml lots so I don't have to defrost a whole heap that I not going to use all at once. Give the chunky bits to your chooks, or compost, or whatnot, write the date on your containers and pop them into the freezer.

Voila! Your own, home made, yummy stock, and it was almost free.

Enjoy!

Food pictures are awesome!

In an attempt to give myself some sort of regular creative outlet, I've started making the kid's lunches into funky shapes/pictures. I should've taken more pics than I have, but here's a couple:

A really simple "Mama", as per Charli's request:

And, since the Goddesses are going camping this weekend without me, campsites:

I guess at least I can go camping vicariously through food... or something.

I was talking about this with a friend, and through her have discovered the awesomeness of "Bento Boxes". Charli's going to be getting some bits and pieces for her birthday. My favourite things are the egg molds, they're so cute!

You can check out Bento boxes, egg molds and other cool kids food thinggoes at http://www.neat2eat.com.au/ - She's an SA Mama, and has a blog with all sorts of cool food ideas.

Enjoy!