The garden and all that is good .. including warm and fuzzy creatures.

Well winter is here :(  and I don't like it ..... but it does give me the yearning to do yarn craft .... so these are my creations for the last couple of weeks.

 A little ball of a bunny ... just perfect for a new baby.

 A snuggle bunny ..... actually made for someone who is expecting a baby .. but Madalyn claimed it.  So I guess I will just have to make another.  

 If you saw an earlier post about a little mouse I crocheted .... well this is the new improved version!

A few friends have asked me to crochet their children mice ... so of course I wanted them to be perfect. 

This fellow here is my absolute favourite.  I'm currently knitting these two a little scarf each too.

 These two are going to a friend with twin boys.  So I wanted each one to be a little different.

 My garden is doing so well!  This was todays picking .. a lovely cauliflower, huge brocoli, turnip, lettuce and silverbeet.

and yep still making my own bread .. and loving it!

I hope you are enjoying life and getting time to create ..... may it be craft, in the garden or in the kitchen.

Here's to good health and healthy pass times.

xoxox Carly xoxox

Double Yummy ... a delicious dish and a recipe to share with you.

Hi .. I have two yummy dishes to share with you today.  The first one is a recipe from a magazine that I tried ... and LOVED! but it had quite a bit of wasted semolina at the end.  So I'm going to include a recipe that gives a way of using up the excess semolina.

So this delicious dish is called BAKED SILVERBEET AND RICOTTA GNOCCHI and the recipe can be found in the Winter 2013 Family Circle Magazine.

 Once the gnocchi is made it needs to be buried in semolina overnight.  So the next day when I went to cook the gnocchi (mmmmm see picture below) I realised that I had over 1 cup of semolina sitting there .... wasn't about to throw it out as thats just not me .....

 So after scouring the internet for a healthy semolina recipe ..... I found some yummy bread recipes.  This is the end result.  I will give you the recipe below.

Ingredients

1 cup semolina
1 cup low fat plain yoghurt
pinch of tumeric
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup water
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp sugar
sesame seeds (for top)
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1/2 cup mixed frozen veg .. I used peas, corn and capsicum
1/2 cup grated carrot
1/2 tsp grated ginger

Preheat oven to about 160 degrees celcius.
Mix together the semolina, yoghurt, salt and sugar and leave it aside
Heat some oil in a fry pan and add the mustard seeds, onion and ginger ... sautee until onions are soft.
Add the carrot and vegies and cook for a few minutes.
Add the vegie mix from the frying pan into the semolina mixture.  Mix well and use some of the water if needed.  (it is quite a thick batter)
Add the baking soda and mix well.
Blog it all into a prepared loaf tin and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Bake for 35 minutes or until skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

This is absolutely sensational ... I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Cheers :)
Carly

Seafood Pies and a mouse ....

Hi there ... How are you today?

I've had a busy week ......  but I'm so proud of myself .... today I finished crocheting a mouse for Madalyn and made seafood pies for the first time ever.  Both were loved by my gorgeous girl.

 Isn't he a cutie!  I would love to do jointed arms and legs .... will have to work out how to do it.

 Here are the seafood pies!  I just layered some filo pastry in muffin tins and baked that in the oven first.  While the pastry was cooking I cooked some leek and garlic, then made a white sauce .... simmered the fish and prawns in that then at last minute added cheese and fresh parsley.  Oh!  I almost forgot ... I also cubed some sweet potato and cooked that in the microwave and stirred that through at the last minute.  Spooned it into the pastry cases and done!  So simple and so delicious!  I sued frozen prawns and white fish ..... but next time I think I will use some smoked salmon .... mmmmmm yum.

I hope you enjoyed your day and your evening meal.

Until next time ... happy crafting, baking and enjoy life.

xoxoxox Carly

Peppa Pig, Baked Goods and the good life .....

Well its been a while ... have been busy I guess .....

Here is a snapshot of the last couple of weeks ....

Knitted Peppa Pig for Madalyn .... she loves it.

My Mother's Day gift from Madalyn.

Planted lots of new trees ... Fuji Apple, Two Way Plum, Almond, Quince and an English Plane Tree

cuteness!

getting trailer loads of rocks to make a feature in the garden

my very first spinach and ricotta pie ... AWESOME!

a cute creature we made using bits I found on my walk.

Foccacia ... yum!

English Plane Tree

Crocheted a Beret for Madalyn in her favourite colour.

So just a few of the things that have been happening ..... be back again soon with some recipes and cards.

xoxoxo Carly

I am a robot ......

Hi there :)  Sometimes I wish I was a robot ... then I could just be plugged in to recharge and I also wouldn't be needing (or wanting LOL) to eat all the time.

I made a couple of quick cards with some new goodies I got from Kaisercraft recently.

I used the Technologic 6 1/2 " Paper Pad and the Technologic Clear Stamps.  I coloured in the stamped image with copics.

Busy day for me ... so just a quick post.  Just wanted to share my robot cards with you.

Happy crafting and blogging.
xoxoxo Carly

I would love to enter this into :-
Crafty Catz - One For the Boys
http://craftycatzweeklychallenge.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/challenge-179-this-ones-for-boys.html

Feathery Friends

Good afternoon my lovely craft friends.

Today I would like to share a quick card I made using some techniques I have not tried before.

I have used a Kaisercraft stamp called Periwinkle Birds.  I love bird stamps and I thought this one would be super versatile.  I stamped it on white card with black ink .. but then ran some ink pads over the top to give some colour.  Kaisercraft Splice - Green, Versacolour Vanilla and Versacolour Chateau Grey.

The base card is a piece of white card and I ran an ink pad around the areas that would show using the Versacolour Chateau Grey.

The background patterned paper is from a Prima 6x6 pad called Nature Garden Collection.  I distressed the edges with a distressing blade and then used my Tim Holtz idea-ology plastic ruler to pierce holes all around the edge.  First time ever!  I love this ruler .. its clear plastic and has grid lines and one edge is metal .. so good for cutting with a knife or just tearing off paper.  It also has little holes so you can pierce through!
I then hand stitched using some lovely green cotton (doubled up) and then stuck it on the base card.

It doesn't show up but I did use clear spica pen on the flowers in the bottom right corner.  A Kaisercraft sentiment up the top was the finishing touch.  Once again colouring white cardstock with ink pads.

Very pleased with my card .... and all done whilst my 3.5 year old watched an episode of Playschool and was bribed to wait a bit longer with a bowl of green jelly!  So know I'm off to give her a bath.

Have a glorious weekend ... I hope it is filled with nature, song and of course craft.

xoxxoxoxox Carly

More Chocolate??

Hello :)  Did you eat lots of chocolate over the weekend?  I'm typing this up in advance .. and I sure am hoping that I didn't over indulge.  The Easter Bunny usually forgets to leave me something and this year I won't really mind because I have been exercising and really watching what I eat.

Anyway .. this post isn't really about chocolate .. but a chocolate colour is involved.

Yes it's another Gorjuss Girl stamp. ..and there will probably be some more later in the week LOL.  I'm just loving this image so much.  And I have decided that since my craft time is very limited these days that I will colour a whole sheet of images and then put them together when I get a chance.  I can do the colouring whilst my daughter is colouring you see :)

I really love the colours in this one.  I have used some chocolate coloured textured card stock, a scrap of blue ribbon and the polka dot paper is from Fancy Pants Designs Time for Spring pad.

Oh its nice to be colouring and creating again ...... I hope you are getting things done too .... we need our therapy :)

Big hugs ...

xoxox Carly