Trying new things

I should be making Christmas pressies, instead my mind is flooding with new things to try. Fleur's kindy kindly lent me one of their screens for the weekend & Fleur happily 'showed' me how to use it!

I'm addicted

today in my garden

It's been a funny old week. I've been relishing in the peace that the first week of school going back brings, but I've been shattered so not much else has taken place other than boring domestic stuff!

The garden however has taken off. Things are happening in the glass house, my lovely put some stones down the middle as a path and plumbed a tap in there which is connected to a rain water tank off the studio. I'd usually be a lot more organized on the vege front by now, a reminder of how a new babe can disrupt the 'routine' for a lot longer than you always anticipate!

I'm trying a few new tomatoes including one called German red strawberry. Last year I grew 'Black from Tula' It was a total winner & I'd strongly recommend it. Cherokee purple is another good cropper with large fruit. When it comes to greens you can't beat Cavelo nero (A kale member, bottom pic) It just grows & grows even when every thing else has been eaten by the snails or caterpillars. You feel healthy just looking at it!

So....whats growing in your neck of the woods?

Pop on over to the above link & sign up for Rie's fantastic universal craft blog directory...

then enjoy the rest of your Sunday surfing other wonderfully like minded craft goddess's alike.

xxx

What's for tea?

I recently found an amazing recipe for a 'yum as' dip.

It went quite nicely with my little lamb pies, so I thought I'd share it with you.

Little lamby pies

300gms (ish) minced lamb

1 onion diced

2-3 cloves of garlic crushed

1 tsp cumin

1 chopped chili

2 tsp paprika

2 Tbsp tomato paste

1 hand full of fresh mint chopped

2 Tbsp of pine nuts or sunflower seeds

Vege of your choice I used a big bunch of chopped kale but you can do what ever you fancy, or none at all!

2 sheets of puff pastry

Oven to 180C

Cut the pastry into 1/4's and pop into 'monstor muffin' pans or something equivalent.

Brown mince, drain fat, add onion, garlic & spices, then T-paste, vege, mint & seeds. simmer, adding more liquid if needed ( this mix is dryer than your normal Spag bog mix) Set aside.

Bake some kind of wedges. I made kumera wedges. Bung your little pies in the oven until the pastry puffs nicely.

Yummy dip

Caramelize an onion in 1 Tbsp of butter for around 20min. Pop in your blender/mixer with 1 Tbsp of wine or cider vinegar, 1 Tbsp of whole grain mustard & 3/4 Cup mayonnaise.

serve it all up with fresh green salad type thingy. Yum!

P.S: I often make this mince mix and pop it in a free form gallet shape with home made short pastry, making a layer of grated cheese on the bottom first in super nice.

Enjoy! xx



And the winner is........

And the winner is:
Number 6
Amy from Amy seven stitches

Please e-mail me: mushroomlane at hotmail dot com with you address etc & I'll post your goodies this week. Thanks to everyone who enetered. I'll be popping some of my aromatherapy range into my FELT shop before Christmas if anyone is interested.
Now....... I've come up with an idea for a swap. How does a vintage fabric swap sound? I'm apprehensive about the whole organisation swappy thing, but if anyone is keen to take the bull by the horns.....(Stella for example (said under the murmer of a cough) who did such a wounderful job with the vintage kitchen swap , or anyone else...anyone????
Let me know what you all think? If I can't bully anyone into it, I guess I could (hopefully) figure it all out? HA ha
Well that's all from me for now...glass of red with my name on it...Over & out

Up -cycling

A few months ago I bought a GAP merino turtle neck jumper from the oppy for $3.50. I'm not a turtle neck girl but the colour & quality were too good to pass up so I thought I'd whip up something for Anya. Initially I just intended to shorten the sleeves & cut the neck off, as well as turning it into a cardy, however the more I played around the more I realised I could be a bit more creative. We both loved the buttons on the cuffs so I cut the sleeves & re-attached the cuffs making it a 3/4 length. I used strips cut from the neck to bind the new neck & attached satin ribbon instead of heaps of button down the front, which I reckon gives it a more feminine/ vintage feel.

Yes I'm a little bit chuffed with myself! Ha.........

Now for that over flowing bottom shelf in my sewing room of 'other' potential up-cycle buys!!!

How's your weekend going?

Square Eggs

What's for breakfast in your house this weekend?

Jamming

Oh you pretty things

Thanks for my cool retro awesome-ness Gran xxx

Ooowh don't forget about my giveaway below. I'm drawing it on Sunday 14th xx

A Giveaway

Back in August I had the best intentions of having a little giveaway....here we are in October & I've finally got here!

So you ask...whats up for offer???

Well Summer is on her way, so I have popped together a little bundle of smelly goodness, including:

Sun burn lotion

Mozzy repellent

Hyper Cal anti-septic gel

Lemon, Lavender & T-Tree soap.

All vegetable based & made by moi

To go into the draw leave a little comment below & as a bonus if you pop a link on your own blog I will give you another chance to win, just pop me a message to let me know if you've done so.

Yay for giveaways!!!

I think that's all............?

Oh...I will post any where in Nz & Oz...sorry peep's living elsewhere xox

Making & Reading

A few goodies I've been making over the past week. I am determined to have a decent amount made for cross hills market in November. I recently tried out a new baby shoe pattern, a free pattern off the web for reversible slippers. I wasn't all together happy with it as I found the hole for babies feet too small, so I have gone back to my own one I've adjusted over the years. I am however looking forward to trying out THIS pattern over the next few days.

Now for some seriously beautiful knitting..I found this book at the library the other day. It is divine! All the patterns in THIS book are classic well made styles with beautiful detailing.

Vintage knits for modern babies

Hadley Fierlinger

ISBN:978-1-58008-960-9

Well I hope you're all enjoying the obvious changes in the weather. I know I am. Serious gardening has begun at our whare. I was lucky enough to score 5 bare rooted fruit trees from the Hort department at Massey in the weekend for $50. Our fence is now displaying 2 apple varieties (including one called 'peasgood nonsuch' what a name!) a quince, elephant heart plum & a dual peach. Its the first time we've tried 'espalier' growing, so I hope we don't kill them!

How is your garden growing?

xxx

Pretty Carrot Muff's

Best carrot muffins ever

2 Cups Flour

3/4 Cups white sugar (raw or brown would be fine)

2 tspn Baking powder

1/2 tspn Baking soda

pinch of Salt

2 tspns Cinnamon

1 tspn mixed spice

1 Egg

1 Cup of Milk

1/2 Cup of Oil

2 grated Carrots

1/2 Cup Sultanas

1/2 Cup Walnuts (or sunflower seeds)

Sift dry ingredients, mix wet ingredients & add to dry stuff. Fold in carrot, sultanas & nuts. Spoon into muff pans & bake at 180 C- 200C depending on how mental your oven is.

Ice with cream cheese icing:

1/4 Cup cream cheese

1 Cup Icing sugar

2 Tbsp melted butter

zest of 1/2 a lemon

Beat all togeather.

Nom Nom

xxxxxx