Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Found it at the library

 

‘The busy girl’s guide to Sewing’ is a different kind of sewing book and one that you will love not just for making the projects that are in it but also reading about each creator.

The book written by Carrie MaClennan, is a journey of how she finally decided to learn how to sew with 13 projects that she has gathered from other designers.

girls sewing guide Collage

It has been broken down into 3 different sections, 30 Minutes or Less, One Hour or Less and Four Hours or Less.

So if you are thinking of teaching yourself to sew or just looking for a new project to tackle, or looking for something to read why sipping that coffee, then this is a great book to pickup at your library.

What have you found at the library today?  Would love for you to share it over at my Facebook page!

Happy Reading

 

Blogger Labels: how to,patterns,sewing,library,Carrie,MaClennan

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Tutorial Time: Subway Artwork

 

My next door neighbours daughter recently gave birth to her second child, Ella and I wanted to give them a little keepsake for the babies room, so I thought why not a Subway Artwork picture.

Here is one that was created in Picnik.com by BCheniful:

gabe subway art

I have seen a few floating around on Facebook business pages and pinned on Pinterest and thought can’t be that hard and why not use PicMonkey to create one.

For my example I am actually going to create one using my Jorja’s details just in case the family doesn’t want their babies details on the big world wide web.

Ok here goes, first you will need your blank canvas and to get one all I did was click on create a collage and select what format I wanted the picture to be eg landscape or portrait. 

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Now don’t worry about the outline of the individual frames as they will not appear when you open the blank collage in photo edit.  I chose Pinter-etsy so that the picture would be in portrait. 

You can also choose what colour you would like for the background here on the left hand side by clicking on the little paint palette.  Just give it a name I’m calling it Jorja’s subway art and save it to your computer.

Next step you will need to close this collage and then click on Edit Photo and upload your blank canvas.

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So this is what you should be looking at now:

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Let’s start adding our babies details. Click on the P icon so that you can start typing.  Now you can put whatever details you would like on the subway artwork anywhere you like.

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I am going to put Jorja on the first line using the BUDMO JIGGLER font, size 100 with the colour code E000E2.  Then on the next line I am going to enter her middle and last name together and in a lighter shade. I am also going to use different shades of pink and blue for this.

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Now for her birth date, weight and what time she was born.

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I used the font Schoolbell size 82 for her birth date and to turn it on it’s side you hover your mouse over the top toggle until two around that are in a circle appear (the picture is showing the toggle that I am talking about but unfortunately the arrows don’t appear when using print screen):

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For her weight I used BANGERS font size 116 and for the time I used Droid Serif size 100.  To change the size you can place your mouse over the corner of the box that the writing is in and when the arrow appears you can drag the corner up or down by holding down your left button on the mouse till you get what size you like or you can change the size using the slide bar on the text box on the left hand side of your screen:

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I thought I might add her weigh in as kilos too and her length.  I used Special Elite and Chelsea Market size 115:

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There are also overlays/pictures that you can use to put on your canvas by selecting the overlay icon on the left hand side:

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I have chose a butterfly overlay and used the colour 00BDAF. What do you think so far.:

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Just one more thing to add and I think I will put in Monday’s Child as she was born on the Monday.  And here you have it.  I used Georgia font (thought it was fitting) size 88 and I changed the size of the time of birth to make it all fit better. Oh and I just can’t get enough of her freckles (Marcelle Script size 100):

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I love it and I’m going to do one for Grace and Ethan and put them all in a frame that holds 3 pictures and hang it for all to see.

So what are you waiting for head on over to PicMonkey and start creating.  Would love to see what you came up with over on my Facebook page.

Have fun!!!!

PS don’t forget to save your work along the way!

Blogger Labels: Tutorial,Subway,Artwork,keepsake,babies,room,Picnik,BCheniful,Facebook,Pinterest,PicMonkey,canvas,collage,Pinter,computer,font,text,pictures,Child,Script

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Subway Artwork

 

Stay tune tomorrow for my Subway Artwork Keepsake tutorial!

Jorjas subway collage

 

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In the garden

 

My little rose garden bed seems to coming along nicely.  The roses that I planted a few weeks ago are doing really well and there are 7 new buds on the first rose bush I planted.  Can’t wait for them to bloom.

I recently purchased two more and have yet to plant them, a white Ice Berg and a Red Christian Dior, don’t you just love that name lol.

rose collage

I also transplanted my white gardenia as it wasn’t doing so well in the pot it was in and hasn’t flowered for sometime now.  The caterpillars seem to enjoy eating all its leaves poor thing.

Now all I need to finish the bed is some smaller plants to compliment the roses.  What a lovely day it is to be out in the garden today.

Hope you are having a lovely day too!

 

Monday, July 23, 2012

Mango & Coconut Tea Cake

 

Who doesn’t love a yummy slice of cake to go with their cuppa.  While waiting for the final episode of Revenge, I made hubby and I a Mango and Coconut Tea Cake.  Well that is the name that I have come up for it.

It is the recipe for the Apple & Sour Cream cake only I swapped the apple for the mango.  EASY!

mango and coconut sour cream cake

Enjoy!!!!

Blogger Labels: cooking,Mango,Coconut,Cake,Revenge,recipe,Apple,Sour,Cream

Linkup Party Like #28

 

Wow what a week.  I have looked all over the house and I just can’t find my motivation.  I haven’t been getting much sleep due to Miss G waking up what feels like every hour on the hour for silly things and I just can’t work out why.

Today hubby is off helping a mate fit something to his car and all I have managed to do is put dinner in the slow cooker (we are having port wine and garlic marinated rib roast, mmmm) and sit in front of the computer looking through pinterest.

So I thought I would have a look through what all you lovely people have been up to and see if my motivation can be found and what did I find but a whole lot of  link ups for some yummy recipes. 

Get a load of these:

28 Collage

  1. I so have to find out if you can get Crescent Roll here in Australia as I have found a few recipes on pinterest that use it and I am just loving the look and sound of this Chicken Broccoli Ring over at Happiest Mom on the Blog.
  2. And I am going to make these zucchini chips as soon as I get mine growing in the veggie patch.  The recipe is over at Shop Girl.
  3. What about these stuff zucchini’s as well I’m getting hungry just looking at this picture thanks for sharing Recipes We Love.
  4. Who doesn’t love pizza especially if you put on all the toppings you love yourself. This pizza uses French bread for the base. Thanks Creative Mammas.
  5. We are having homemade soup for dinner tomorrow so I couldn’t resist sharing this delicious recipe for Irish Potatoe soup from Southern Mom Cooks.
  6. Wraps are a staple in our household so I will have to try this Avocado Cilantro wrap from Real Rural Mom.
  7. The name for this one was what grabbed me first and made me laugh and who doesn’t love nachos.  But this one has pork on it YUMMO!! Have to make this one for hubby.  You can find it over at Moonlighting Mama.
  8. And it just wouldn’t be right if I didn’t share a dessert recipe.  Checkout this coconut and pineapple cheese cake.  Perfect for those summer bbq’s.  Thanks Sweet Yarns.

Have I made you hungry yet.  I know I will be making these for the family.  Thanks for sharing this at the linkup parties.

I don’t know about finding my sewing motivation but my stomach is motivated now lol.

Have a great day!

Oh and don’t forget to grab a button!!!!!!

 

 

Blogger Labels: chips,Linkup,dinner,port,Crescent,Roll,Chicken,Broccoli,recipe,French,bread,soup,Irish,Potatoe,Wraps,Avocado,Cilantro,pork,Sweet,recipes,Yarns,hour,hubby,pinterest,zucchini,pizza,

Monday, July 16, 2012

What’s on the Menu

 

Cranberry & White Chocolate Sugar Cookies

Over the school holidays my niece came over for a couple of days and when my sister picked her up she brought with her some really yummy Cranberry & White Chocolate cookies. 

OH MY GOODNESS they are delicious and I just can’t get enough of them.  I don’t have a real sweet tooth but when I have some chocolate I just have to have white chocolate.

The next time I was at the shops I had to get me some of these yummy morsels.  But alas they didn’t have any on the shelf so the kids and I decided to make our own.

Cranberrry and White choc bic

Here is the recipe I used.  It’s your basic sugar cookie recipe and I just added half a cup of cranberries and white choc bits.

Cookie tin is empty, think it’s time to make some more, here is the recipe for you to make your own.  Enjoy!!!!

Cranberry & White Choc Sugar Cookies

  • 345 g all-purpose flour
  • 5 g baking soda
  • 2 g baking powder
  • 225 g butter, softened
  • 300 g white sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 5 ml vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup white choc bits
  • 1/2 cup cranberries
  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cranberries and white choc bits. Set aside.
  2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Roll rounded teaspoonful's of dough into balls, and place onto ungreased cookie sheets.
  3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden. Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.

Sugar Cookie recipe taken from allrecipes.com

 

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Found it at the Library

Granny Square Love by Sarah London

Granny Square Love is a gorgeous little book with some great projects for you to make. 

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Filled with bright coloured projects, and something lovely to make for each room in the house, this is one book that is great for beginners.

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There are cushions for the living room, crochet pockets for your vintage apron, placemats for the dining room, bed sheet trims for the bedroom and a bath mat for the bathroom.

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The author, Sarah London who is a fellow Aussie, was taught by her grandmother at an early age.  Sarah has a monthly crochet magazine, Hip to Hook and she also founded the Crochet-a-Rainbow foundation in January 2011.

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The stool is my favourite and would be great to give an old one some new life. So why not grab a copy from your local library today and start your next or first crochet project for your home.

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Happy Reading!!!!

 

 

Friday, July 13, 2012

Over at Bits & Bobs 4 Bubs

 

Just thought I would share a picture of my new Kindy Sheet/Library bag that I will be selling over at the made it shop.  What do you think?

flower bag collage

 

In the Garden

 

This has to be the best $12 I have ever spent.  I found this great little bubble machine just before Ethan’s birthday and on the weekend before we celebrated his 1st birthday, Hubby had to replace our water pump for the house. 

This meant that the water was turned off for a few hours and I was unable to do any washing, oh what a same lol.

So the girls asked if we could test out the machine to make sure it worked.  Oh right I said and so I popped it on.

bubble machine

We tried a few different places for it to stand and finally settled on the bird feeder.  3 hours later they decided they had had enough.

Yep money well spent!

 

 

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Thursday, July 12, 2012

Linkup Party Likes # 27

 

Well what miserable weather we are having in Queensland at the moment.  The best thing about it thought is I get to stay inside and sew with the kids in the craft/toy room with minimal fuss and the water tanks get a top up.

My babies are all finally over their runny noses and chesty coughs but for some reason they are still restless at night and want mummy nearly every hour on the hour it feels.  So sorry for being absent but my poor old brain just didn’t seem to want to do anything.

But in saying that I have made a few little changes around my blog with the new GRAB A BUTTON for all the wonderful people that I feature on these posts.  So please if you have been featured here before grab it today!

Grab button

If you would like to make your own GRAB A BUTTON I found this great tutorial at Honeybear Lane that well help you to make your own and I used PicMonkey to design my button.

link party 27 collage

Some great ideas happening last week in the linkup parties and I know that I am going to have to make a few myself:

  1. Roxy Love dresses up this cute little owl journal with some ribbon and cord.  Journals are a great gift and I remember receiving one from an old friend that thought it would be lovely to make a journal of my travels overseas.
  2. I am so addicted to Pinterest and I think I am on there for at least an hour a day and I don’t have a pincushion yet so I think that this is one I am definitely making.  You can find it over at One Lemon.
  3. Get ahead for Christmas and make some gorgeous stockings as a gift. My mum has always celebrated Christmas in July too and I am having here at my place this year so might have to wipe a few of these up for decorations.  I found it over at EmmiGrace and Me.  Love the crayon idea.
  4. My poor girls seem to miss out as mummy is always making things for the shop and other people so I love it when I find an easy to make dress pattern.  This is so simple but very cute and can be found over at The Life of Jennifer Dawn.
  5. And what little girl wouldn’t love this colourful peasant top with flutter sleeves for the warmer weather. The PDF and tutorial can be found over at Scattered thoughts of a crafty mom.
  6. My babies all loved being swaddled to sleep and this tutorial would be great to make for the warmer weather.  Sugar Tart Crafts has the pattern and tutorial for you here.
  7. I love seeing all these great revamps of furniture that are appearing in Pinterest and the linkup parties but do you think that I can find anything at my local recycle centres.  I must not plan to go and just do it on the spare of the moment and might have better luck.  Love this one over at Love at Home.
  8. This coin purse is the cutest thing ever and would be a great party bag goodie.  Thanks for sharing Creative Cookie.
  9. I just have to print this one out and put it above my wine rack, thanks Home 36.
  10. And finally the foam sword.  I think this would be great for those summer pool parties, don’t you.  Checkout Or So She Says for the instructions.  Looks like lots of fun for both boys and girls.

So there you have it, another great week of fantastic tutorials.  I have a few ideas for my tutorial this week so better hurry up and make up my mind which one I want to do first. 

Anyway have fun surfing all these fantastic blogs and if you where featured would love for you to GRAB my new button.

Have a great week!

Jennifer

 

Monday, July 9, 2012

I’m back….again!

 

Sorry for my absences last week but my little people needed me last week due to them all having a terrible chesty cough and runny nose.

Poor Ethan was the worst and the doctor actually prescribed ventolin that had to be administered using a respichamber.

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He was a real little trooper and helped mummy hold it while we waiting for him to breathe in the vapour.

So I will be back on board this week, tutorial and all lol!!!

Stay tuned!!!

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Found it at the library

 

I just love anything to do with Amy Butler so when I found this book at the library over a year ago, it was on high demand and I only had it for 2 weeks.

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Well I found it again on the shelf the other day and just had to borrow it out again.

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‘Little stitches for little ones’ has lots of great projects to make if not for own little ones but also for that special gift for someone else.

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You can make, Snuggle Wrap Blanket, Crib Set, Jumper dress with matching bloomers, Nappy Bag and so much more.

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And how about the fabric, which is what these projects are all about.  Amy is a designer of fabrics, home accessories, sewing patterns and stationery goods.  Checkout her website.

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Happy Reading!!!!

 

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

PicMonkey

 

Photography is something I have always wanted to improve on.  The inside of my house is very dark as we have an L shaped house with a big patio area out the back and all the windows are tinted.

I also read that the best time to take photo’s is the last hour of the day and unfortunately that is when I am getting the house organised and dinner on the stove.

But I have a little hope with this great website that I found through a group that I am part of called The Blogging Library on Facebook.

Its called PicMonkey and it is awesome:

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You can upload your photo and do just about anything you want, add text, add effects, touch it up, use overlays, add a frame or add textures.

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The other great feature is that you can create a collage by uploading all your photo’s and choosing a layout.  I used it to make this collage of my bike caddie, simple but its a start. Can’t wait to have another play around:

purple bike caddie Collage

So if you are like me and wanted to make your pictures look more attractive why not head on over and check this great site today. 

Have fun!!!!

 

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

What's on the Menu!

 

Little while ago the kids had asked if they could have something for dessert but I was at a loss as to what to give them.  Hubby and I don’t really have a sweet tooth and I don’t keep anything other then ice cream in the freezer.

After looking in the cupboard and in the fridge I got this bright idea to use some left over custard in the fridge, the day old bread on the counter and an Easter egg that I found in the cupboard to make a bread and butter pudding.

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Now I have never tried bread and butter pudding nor have I ever made it before and thought it can’t be that hard.

So I just sliced the rest of the loaf, cut it into pieces and layered it in an oven proof dish.  I broke the Easter egg into small pieces and sprinkled it over and between the bread slices and then poured the custard over the top.

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Popped it into the oven that was preheated at 160 degrees and baked it for about 25-30mins.

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And  the end result, yummy.  Definitely will be making this again.

Happy Baking!!!