I'm such a Sucker....

Seen as though the weather is cooling down in these parts I though I'd better whip the little princess up a couple of skirts to wear with tights and boots. On Friday night I got a chance to make this one up using Kate's (from two little banshees) fantastic and super easy skirt tutorial.... (excuse the DIRT all over the skirt, she wore it on Saturday before I got a chance to take a pic...)I used a cotton/linen blend in Navy that I purchased from Spotlight for the top panel and some of the gorgeous nursery rhyme fabric I bought back here for the bottom. I'd of loved to of made 2 of these gorgeous skirts on Friday night but the big hand on the clock was fast approaching 1am as I was sewing up the hem on my first one and seen as though I had an early start on Saturday morning I thought that SLEEP was definitely my main priority.... LOL!!!

We jumped in the car at 4:30am on Saturday morning and did the 450km trek to Orange. We were certain we weren't coming home until we had ALL of the supplies needed to renovate our new/old bathroom...

After a lot of hunting around I finally found and bought the vanity I've been dreaming about. It may not have started it's life as a vanity but it was surely destined to be one in our house. We're cutting a whole in the top of a hall stand (purchased from this divine shop) and inserting a wash basin.... Sounds scary I know but I have complete confidence that my DH and our builder (his best mate) will be able to pull the whole thing off, if they don't, LOOK OUT!!! LOL!!!

DH tells me all the time that I'm 'such a sucker' but how could I let these 2 little kitty's go to the big kitty heaven in the sky. Let me introduce you to Lilly and Tabbitha, the newest additions to our family.... I'm sure that if the little princess has anything to do with it they will be feeling very welcome in their new home in no time at all..... Thank goodness we have a 'huge' back yard...

I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend.... ;)

Happy Easter!!!!

Every year I like to bake all family and friends that live close by something delicious..... This year I made up a nice big batch of Choc-Mint Slice... I made all of the deliveries on Thursday afternoon with the little princess and let me tell you now.... It was a HUGE HIT!!!

I packaged the grown-ups treats in some little cellophane bags (you can buy them in packs of 12 from spotlight, they cost around $2 per pack) and then wrapped them in some gorgeous polka dot scrap-booking card stock (I also bought this from spotlight, it was 50cents a sheet and 1 sheet made 3 packages).
I cut a little window in the shape of a bunny out of the card stock to give it an Easter feel, put a couple of whole punches at the top, threaded a ribbon through and attached a label.... Too easy!!! This idea would work really well for any occasion, just change the shape of the cut out to match...For the little kiddly-winks I wrapped their treats up with some yellow cellophane and tied a big bow of raffia around the top.... Super easy and super cute....Here's the recipe for the slice....

Choc-Mint Slice

ingredients...

250grams sweet biscuits, crushed

1 - 2 mint crisp chocolate bars, chopped

1 x 300ml tin of sweetened condensed milk

150-200grams of good quality chocolate like Cadbury's, melted.

hundreds and thousands for the top if you like...

method...

combine biscuits, sweetened condensed milk and mint crisp bars in a large bowl and stir with a metal dessert spoon until well combined...

press into a 5cm deep slice tin (there is no need to grease the tin but you could line it with tin foil, this makes it easy to remove the slice once it has set) and allow to set in the fridge for an hour...

Pour melted chocolate over the top of the slice (this is where you would be adding the hundreds and thousands if you were wanting to use them) and allow to set at room temperature, this makes it easier to cut...

Once the chocolate has set cut the slice up and store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.

The beauty about this slice is that you can add what ever you like to the biscuit mixture. If you don't like mint crisps or can't buy them any where you could add some honeycomb or smarties instead, what ever treat takes your fancy....

On the home renovation front.... We finally finished gutting the bathroom and boy-o-boy was it a BIG job... We didn't get a chance to head over to Orange to buy our bathroom supplies so have planned to make the trip this coming weekend, fingers crossed nothing pops up before hand.

I had such a lovely Easter long weekend with DH and the little princess. I hope that everybody else had a wonderful Easter break with their family too.... :)

Sneak Peak....

I took my little princess over to Dubbo last Friday (the 7th) to see The Wiggles in Concert. OMG... It was sensational!!!! It was an hour of action pact fun, lots of dancing, singing and interaction with the crowd... The little princess just loved it!!!! (she's the little groover with the green/blue number on) At only $20 a ticket it was well worth it. I've never been to a children's concert before and after this one I'll definitely be going to more in the future....

I got a chance to finish the wash cloths for my younger sister's b'day pressy that I mentioned in the last post. Here's a sneak peak.....I'll post some better pics after the 28th (that's her b'day). I'll even try and find the link to the patterns for anyone that's interested... I used the most divine yarn to knit them, it was an acrylic cotton blend, 55% acrylic and 45% cotton. I just bought it from Spotlight and the brand is Yarn Bee...

Everything on the farm front is going full steam ahead..... DH and I started working up some country that we are wanting to sew down to wheat this year. These are the views out the front (first pic) and back windows of the tractor..... Pretty dusty hey???? We've worked up about 600 acres so far, that leaves about 1400 acres to go....

On the homestead renovation front.... We're gutting the bathroom this week if everything goes according to plan, than hopefully the builders can/will commence with building the new one the following week.... I'm heading over to Orange on the long week end to pick out my vanity, tiles and bath.... Now the hard decisions begin.... LOL :)

Recipe Swap...

Last month Randi over at I have to say came up with a great idea to do an online recipe swap... She's given this month a theme - Money Saving Recipes....

I love this theme!!! I'm always creating meals out of nothing, trying to stretch the budget as far as I can without feeding the family on bread and water... LOL!!!

If you'd like to participate, post your recipe on your blog, and then leave your name and post URL (this is located in the address bar at the top of your computer screen) in the auto-link on Randi's blog.

Here's my money saving recipe....

Salmon Mornay Pasta Bake...

Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons of Butter
1-2 Tablespoons of Plain Flour
1 Onion Chopped
1 200g Tin of Pink Salmon (you could also use tuna)
1/4 Cup of Cream
1-2 Tomatoes Chopped
1/4 Cup Freshly Chopped Parsley
1 Cup of Fresh Bread Crumbs
1 Cup of Grated Cheese (I use a combination of cheddar and Parmesan but you could use any cheese you like)
1/4 Cup of Grated Cheese (Extra)
2 Tablespoons of Lemon Juice
Salt and Pepper to Season
250g of pasta (I used spiral)

Melt butter over medium heat. Stir in chopped onions and saute. Stir in flour and cook for 1 minute. Add cream making sure to stir well so that lumps don't form and cook for 1 minute. This is the base of your mornay sauce.

Add the tinned salmon to mornay mixture, juice and all. Add chopped tomatoes, parsley, cheese's, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Stir well to break up the salmon chunks. Cook over high heat for 5 minutes. Set aside.

Cook pasta in salted water until just cooked. Drain pasta once cooked saving 1/2 a cup of the water. Return pasta to the pot you cooked it in, add the salmon mornay you prepared earlier and mix together well.

Poor the pasta/mornay mixture into a baking dish. Top with combined bread crumbs and extra grated cheese. Bake in a hot oven until top is golden and crispy. Serve with a green salad and crusty bread.... YUMMY!!!

I popped by the local op-shop on Wednesday afternoon and picked up this gorgeous fabric...

There's just under 3 metres of it and you won't believe how much I scored it for..... $0.50 cents, yes that's right, 50 cents for the whole lot... Talk about a BARGAIN!!!!

I must admit I'm a bit hooked on dish/wash cloths at the moment. With my little sisters b'day coming up I wanted to create her something that she'd absolutely love. It had to be original, she's not a production line kinda girl, so I put my thinking cap on and thought that a couple of funky wash cloths teamed up with some delicious handmade soup would be right up her alley.

I'm one wash cloth down and have casted on the second... I know that she reads this blog often so you'll all have to wait for a couple of week before the big reveal... Sit tight, I promise it'll be worth it... :)