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Sunday 30 June 2013

Bits n bobs clutter

I have this drawer in my buffet that Ive been meaning to clear out for awhile. It has all my picture hanging and some felt pads stuffed in there.


Enter these couple of storage items I purchased cheaply on the weekend. Originally they were going to be used for some crafty items but I thought how useful they would be to help clear out this drawer.


Its one of those quick jobs you wonder why it took so long to get to it!


This compartment container holds all the picture hanging items, although whilst I was sorting them out I wondered if I would ever use them anyway now theres such a thing as command strips! Theres also some cup hooks I bought for another project. Im sure these items will come in handy one day!


The drawers house all the 3M stuff in the top drawer


and the felt pads in the bottom.


All done. And now Im left with an empty drawer to fill!

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26/52
 
Playing with buttons.
 
(unfortunately not the best photo this week but it does represent well of how much our boy is growing!)
 
 
Joining in with Jodi
 



Wednesday 26 June 2013

Game storage

This project came about as a result of another project I'm working on for organising my paper clutter.
I needed the wicker box that these games were originally housed in, so I was on the hunt for replacement storage.

And I found it in the form of another wicket box found at Kmart.


We dont have many board games so this ended up being the perfect fit. It also houses the video game paraphernalia that you end up with when the man of the house loves his Playstation and Wii! 

ooh i just noticed the lid of the poker set popped off

The actual game discs are kept in another box in the TV unit.


I love that its functional but also nice to look at it. A key when I'm buying storage is that I like it to have multiple uses. This, for instance, could also house extra blankets, become a coffee table or a toy box. 



Now that parts done, I can move onto the next one. 'Office in a box' coming soon.


Monday 24 June 2013

Culinary weekend

Culinary actually may be a bit farfetched to describe my weekend but it sure did involve a lot of cooking and baking in prepartion for the week ahead.

Most weekends you'll find me in the kitchen baking snacks and meals either for the freezer or in preparation for the week ahead.

Lately ive been using the weekend to get a bit of a head start on meals for during the week. Husby has been working at least 2 nights a week so having dinner already prepared or at least some of the prep work done beforehand, makes those nights a little less stressful especially when Little Man has had less than the desired amount of sleep in child care.

When writing up our meal plan for the fortnight, i take those nights into consideration and try and plan meals that can either be frozen or are just quick and easy to prepare on the night.

This week I included a Thai pumpkin soup and a slow cooked chilli beef. Both of which are easy to prepare and can be frozen. 


I also whipped up some snacky things, mainly for Little Man but can be enjoyed by all of us - bacon,cheese and mushroom pinwheels and sultana and oat cookies.

I had a little helper for those.He mostly just liked eating the raw mix!


Last night I finished off making us pizzas. I usually buy the base which is bad but I haven't had much luck making it from scratch!
They were delicious. Pizzas are good for using up those leftover items in the fridge. We had some leftover cooked chicken, prosciutto and bacon. Bang that on with some 'pizza loving veges' and you have a sunday night pizza sesh!


Oh and cant forget the ice cream I made for dessert. Simple Vanilla this time.



The only negative that comes with cooking so much in one day...is all the DISHES! For the sake of keeping it real, here was a quick pic after I'd finished most of them. Nope, no dishwasher here! 


So now that some of the hard work is taken out, I can relax a couple of nights this week, even on the dishes!!

Sunday 23 June 2013

25/52


 
25/52
 
'Daddy snuggles. The best kind.'
 
 
Joining in with as always with Jodi. 

Wednesday 19 June 2013

Busy day

As some of you may have read yesterday, I had a really productive day. I had the pleasure of an annual leave day (which incidently coincided with the Adelaide Cup long weekend, so woohoo, 4 day weekend for me!!). Ace was also in child care so i took advantage of a very rare day to myself.
Unfortunately it was a sticky 35C so not the best day for getting down and dirty with it (as some might say!) but I ploughed through since i had no choice.

I didnt get everything done i wanted to but some of the more important bits like doing a good ol' deep vacuum clean in and around the furniture. It really was quite disgusting and I had to empty the vacuum out a few more times than Id care to admit!

I also wiped down all of the blinds and skirting boards.

Now I wasn't a good blogger in that I didn't take photos of shame for you all to see but just imagine furniture that hardly or has never been moved since you moved in 4 years ago! Yeah, that!

Anyway I also did some baking and cooking in which I was more than happy to snap away....

Vanilla icecream in my icecream maker


Cheesy spring onion fritters

and also baked some brownies. I used this recipe which i found on pinterest. It was dead easy and turned out to be delicious. I sat down that evening with a coffee and smothered them in cream. Yum!

I also attached the spice rack i bought a few weeks ago but then never got round to pulling the drill out to attach. 

It was to help clear up this disaster corner of my pantry...


So today was the day but now that its up, I'm not so sure about it. 


The 'grill' design doesn't hold the little bottles that well so i might have to add a cardboard base to make it more stable. It also didn't hold everything I had, so i'll either buy another or maybe one of those Ikea ones.

Time went so quickly and before I knew it, it was pick up time.

I still have some more days up my sleeve to get stuck into some other projects if i feel like it however this weather is insisting on sticking around and it really isn't the most motivating!






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Loving running along this boardwalk at Wirra Wirra winery where we were celebrating a friends birthday.
Such a fun day for this little guy :)

52-portrait a week project

A favourite risotto recipe

This is one of our favourite risotto recipes which I wanted to share so you too can enjoy the magnificent flavours.

Don't be scared by the word RISOTTO. Its not one that you are tied to the stove stirring for most of the night. Most of the absorption is done in the oven. Now I will admit, not being made the traditional way, its probably not the most succulent risotto ever but if you're not a fussy Italian, then I'm sure you'll love it all the same.

Enough with the sales pitch, here's whatcha do:

1 tbsp oil
500g chicken breast or thigh (i used breast)
1 onion finely chopped
1 long, red chilli finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
4 kaffir lime leaves (i left whole and removed but you can finely slice and keep in the mix)
1 1/2 cup aborio rice
1/4 cup red curry paste
2 cups chicken stock
1 cup coconut cream
2 tbsp fish sauce
200g green beans

note: missing chicken and onion as I remembered to take this AFTER they were added!
 Preheat oven to 180C
Heat oil in an ovenproof dish and brown off chicken.

Remove chicken and reduce heat slightly on the stove. Add in the chilli, garlic, lime leaves and onion.

Cook stirring contstantly for 2-3mins until onion is soft.

Then add in the curry paste and rice, coating the rice with the paste for a further minute


Return the chicken to the pan along with the stock and another 1/2 cup water. Bring to a simmer then cover and place in the oven for 25mins or until the liquid has almost been absorbed



Remove from the oven and stir in the coconut cream, fish sauce and beans.
Cover and stand for another 10mins

 Then VOILA, you're done!



This recipe serves 4-6 people. Its also great to double up so you can keep extras in the freezer for those lazy nights.

Enjoy, let me know what you think!

Disclaimer: This is not my own recipe but one i found in the local paper so I cannot link up to original source

A boy and his trainset

I mentioned the other day how I grabbed this bargain trainset from Target. I bought it for great intentions to give to him on his birthday in a couple of months but Husby had different ideas. And I gave in. Well, just because it was SUCH a good deal, I didn't think it would hurt to give to him now :-S !! Spoilt much!



He didn't take to it too well at first but later in the arvo the pictures tell a different story. However, you will notice that most of the time its his cars going round the track! He was loving it!
I had to show you some snippets of his hour of fun! I love how he can just occupy himself now and its so fun watching him use his imagination!









Saturday 15 June 2013

A winter arvo walk

We are lucky to have a lovely bike/walking trail right at the end of our street. One way it ends up taking you to McLaren Vale-wine country. We didnt go that far but thought i'd share some images of our adventure.