clink

I saw these guys on telly tonigt - and I think they're pretty ace so I had to share...

coomfy cosy

We're having an extremely hyggelig autumny weekendy evening chez us tonight...

** Another slow cooker dinner **

After the success we've had with the Sally Wise's chicken dishes I was inspired to invent my own dish to satisfy our love for mexicany foods.
I threw about 600g of sliced chicken, a tin each of kidney beans and crushed tomatoes, 3 or 4 tablespoons of tomato paste, a few teaspoons each of ground cumin and dried oregano, about a cup of frozen corn and peas, a carrot and a cup or so of chicken stock, into the slow cooker, and cooked for 4 hours on high - I'm calling it 'mexi-slo-co' ;o) It was delicious in fajita's last night, and would be excellent in enchiladas too, I reckon.

** Sleeping kitties **
Jinx

Max


** And yarny goodness **
I'm through one repeat of the body chart of 198 yds, and the blue crochet there is my first shot at ripply crochet - I followed this ace tutorial from Attic 24

Hope you're keeping cosy too! =)

xo

mmmmmacarony

An end of week treat - Friday night footy, knitting, a cup of tea and some gorgeous macarons



These guys weren't made by moi - I picked them up at Croissant D'Or in civic yesterday arvo.
It was too hard to choose, so I decided on one of each ;o)



Besides, they look too lovely all different colours together like that =)
I think the pink (raspberry) is my favourite.

Snap!

I've been doing some sewing and playing with snaps this past week, and now I finally have something all finished to share - dresses!



eeek - sorry about the sideways photos! goodness knows what blogger is up to tonight - I'll try to fix it tomorrow, but for now it just won't co-operate!!

I used a free pattern (vivienne) from the burda style website, and (as you may have spotted) these two are actually one reversible dress - see



And, can I just say, I am in love with the snaps press!
So cute, and easy



xo

Mediterranean Chicken

Mmmm another chickeny slow cooker recipe - and again I can't take the credit for the cooking - the guy put this on while I was out on Saturday.



This one is Sally Wise's Mediterranean chicken - chicken, chorizo, tomato and olives.
And delish! I thin this might just be our favourite so far (although a lamb dish I haven't shared yet was also pretty ace).

this month I'm cooking from Slow Cooker by Sally Wise

Lovely Sunday

For the first time in sometime, we had a lovely at home Sunday with no need to leave the house =)
Not only did my football team win, it was also an especially crafty day here.

There was sewing


and knitting


and there's minestrone in the slowcooker for this weeks lunches. mmmmm

Hope your weekend was lovely too =)

cast on

Well, after a hiccup (where are all my dpns???) held back the mittens earlier in the week, it was probably fitting that a technical hitch (where is the printer cord???) foiled plans to cast on my new shawl today.

So this morning, over a delicious breakfast, and in excellent company, I cast on my first mittens for the season =)


These feel like they're going to be super warm and cosy and are, as I had imagined, going to be pretty quick - I got through the cuffs this morning and am about halfway through the first mitten now.

New ETCO for the shawl is Tuesday - I'm think these babies might be all done by then =)

xo

winding

Tonight I'm winding this...

...so I'll be ready tomorrow to cast on this

(assuming, of course, that I can find the right needles.. unlike for the mittens yesterday...)

My Creative Space :: 20-05

This week I have a little furry helper in my creative space*.



As well as getting on some knitting, I've got some sewing planned for the weekend, so I've been printing, taping together and tracing off a pattern from Burda Style.

Lots more creative spaces to see at Kootoyoo! =)

*ok, to be honest, anytime I try to do ANYTHING there's sure to be a little furry helper there in seconds. Lucky they're so cute ;o)

knittin' mittens (again)

Ok, so,after all that talk about shawls, I've been dreaming of mittens!
I'm still planning to cast on a shawl on Saturday, but I have a mitteny idea I want to get out, and I just can't resist starting a pair of these warmest mittens first!



I'm using Patons Jet - either in the blue there, or that lovely bluey/greeny/yellow jet comes in (colourway 9 on the website).

The fat yarn and biggish needles should make them a super quick knit =)

itch to knit

I can't tell you whether it was too many wooly fumes at the OBDM on the weekend, or the promise of a chilly January calling my name, but after something of a hiatus I'm starting to feel the itch to knit again.



I'm thinking a little triangley kind of shawl - I haven't knit one before and it is definitely that sort of weather here in the mornings at the moment.

And I do have some gorgeous stash just begging to be something lacey, like that malabrigo up there... and this Lucca:


Now just to decide on a pattern... I saw a gorgeous Swallowtail on the weekend (oooh and look at all these!!), then there's the 198 yds of heaven and traveling woman..

So many choices!
Any fave little shawly recommendations?

xo

Satay Chicken

Whilst I was out enjoying the Old Bus Depot Markets 'Celebration of Wool' day today, the guy was in charge of testing out the next on our list of Sally Wise Slow Cooker recipes - satay chicken.

The chicken recipes all require much less cooking time than the red meats - 3 hours on high with some peanut butter, coconut milk and a few other bits and pieces, and our chicken was transformed into a delicious (albeit not especially photogenic) dinner!



I threw in a couple of vegies (which I steamed separately first) with about a half hour to go, and served on steamed rice - and it was excellent, absolutely the most tender chicken I have ever eaten! =)
mmmmm!

More about the OBDM later, but I did buy some gorgeous yarn from Fibrewebs, and a gorgeous new Buttontree Lane box (Michelle showed it in progress here - see if you can guess ;o))

xo

this month I'm cooking from Slow Cooker by Sally Wise

That's how I like my footy to be

Today we headed out to enjoy the one and only game for the 2010 season to be played at Manuka Oval.



It was a gorgeous, sunny, warmish, sunscreen-wearing, icecream-eating day (until the sun sank behind the Hawke stand, and the shadows crept across the ground)



The Doggies won, and Barry was pretty good.

Apparently negotiations are currently underway for next year - here's hoping we'll see some live action here in 2011 =)

Braised Lamb Shanks

Mmmm we've been dreaming of lamb shanks ever since we decided to get a slow cooker, so how could we christen our new friend with anything else?



The recipe had a tomato-y base, and calls for a few teaspoons each of chutney and quince jelly. I used peach chutney homemade by me, and loquat jelly homemade by mum - it was nice to use our home made stuff! =)

Our four (enormous) shanks (about 1.75kg in all) gave us enough for a huge dinner last night (a shank each), then we pulled the meat off the other two and had enough for both of us for dinner tonight, two lunches for tomorrow, and heaps enough for him to have for dinner tomorrow night too (I have other plans. Sausage roll, egg and bacon pie, cheese and cake type plans =))

In the recipe the shanks are served on lemon couscous - we actually had soft polenta with ours last night, then made up the couscous tonight so we would have leftovers to go in our lunch. Delish!

I'd love any recommendations about what cooks up amazingly in the slow cooker - so do let me know your favourite recipe, and best slow cooker tips!

xo

this month I'm cooking from Slow Cooker by Sally Wise

slooooooooow

One of my excellent birthday pressies this year from my family was a slow cooker - this 5 litre guy from Breville



We picked it up this arvo, along with Slow Cooker, by the ABC's Sally Wise.



I bought A Year in a Bottle, by the same author, earlier in the year, and found that as well as being full of great recipes, it is a great resource for bottling in general. So, I'm really looking forward to cooking from this one too!

And to kick-start my relationship with the newest kitchen friend, I'm making Slow Cooker my cook book of the month - pop back every week or so to see how I go with the recipes, starting tomorrow with some very fine lamb shanks =)

xo

(ooh, I know, I missed 2 months - March was crazy, then I had every intention of baking a recipe a week from the Essential Baking Cookbook for April, and had even started with the Hot Cross Buns, then I found myself ovenless for the rest of the month =( But in May, it is back on!)

New Shoes

I bought some lovely new purple shoes this week - they match perfectly with my new favourite cardie (very similar to the one below, although absolutely not quite so designer), which my sister gave me.

purple by kraftykuka featuring Luella blouses

I wore them yesterday, not quite exactly like in the pic there, but that's the plan as soon as I can get my hands on a blouse like that.

I think McCalls 5884 is perfect - the view in green.



Now I just need to hang tight until for a pattern sale, and we'll be in business! =)

xo

My Creative Space :: 060510

Honestly, I had something sewy to show in my creative space today - a simple black gored skirt I'm sewing up to wear for work.
I'm using french seams for a tidy (and fray-proof) finish on the inside, and was trimming the seam allowances in front of the tv a few nights ago - but tonight I just can't find it anywhere!



Instead, its a creative kitchen space, and the fruits of tonight's ovening - our delish cottage pie dinner, and some cupcakes (!!) I baked to take into work tomorrow (in celebration of my oven being fixed!)



I thought maybe those sprinkles were a bit crazy bright, but now seeing the pics I think they look kind of like celebratory fireworks! =)

Check out this week's creative spaces at Kirsty's, and hopefully by next week my skirt will be back! (maybe even finished!!)

xo

hurrah!

After being without out it for a whole month, MY OVEN IS FINALLY FIXED!

We're celebrating with a platter of our very favourite finger foods - straight from the freezer section of the supermarket (with the exception of a batch of tasty homemade sausage rolls!)

I missed my oven so much - you can expect a baking frenzy here for the next little while to make up for it!

more cute!

Yes! More cute and more kitties - fabric this time =)



I picked up a metre of this on super sale last weekend.
I'm not sure yet what I'll do with it - for now I'm happy just admiring how cute it is! =)

xo

Gleek out!

Yes, I'm finally on that bandwagon ;o)



I had heard lots of good things about Glee, and especially about the wardrobe - proclamations of love for Emma Pillsbury have been popping up all over sewing and fashion blogs, and I've been stopping by the What Would Emma Pillsbury Wear (WWEPW) blog regularly for a while. If you look too closely, WWEPW is full of spoilers - if you're sensitive to that sort of thing proceed with caution!

From what I had read I was pretty sure Glee would be my kind of show, but I just kept missing it on the tv. I was very tempted when the dvds came out, but the very last straw was when a friend sent me this clip...



Aaah Kurt! You're fabulous.

So, I got my hands on the dvds last weekend for my birthday, and we've been Gleeking out ever since! =)

As unoriginal as I am, you can probably expect to see some Glee inspired sewing around these parts soon ;o)