living on the crafty side of life

when life gives you basil.... make pesto

I returned home from my parent's house recently with a huge bag of basil... beautiful fragrant lush green basil. When I'm in possession of such a large quantity of fresh basil (whether I've grown it myself or raided my parent's herb garden), there is only one thing I can think of to preserve it, MAKE PESTO!

Pesto... It is a delicious combination of basil, garlic, toasted pinenuts, parmesan and olive oil, and it is VERY VERY VERY EASY to make.

Basically this is how it's made. Wash the basil and carefully inspect for any freeloaders looking for a free meal (those little green caterpillars can be tricky to find on the basil). Toast the pine nuts. Grate the parmesan cheese. Peel the garlic.

Throw it all in the bowl of a food processor and blitz. Drizzle in the olive oil.

Many recipes will say to pick the leaves from the stalk and only use these in the pesto but I use the whole thing, leaves AND stalks. The stalks have the same lovely basil flavour as the leaves, and you will dramatically increase the amount of pesto you will make using the stalks.

Pack the pesto into little containers and drizzle some extra olive oil over the top (this stops the pesto from turning brown).

And this is the preserving part, the pesto freezes really well, so all that lovely summery basil goodness is now in my freezer ready to use when we need a quick tasty meal. If you've packed it into smaller containers, such as half a cup, you can defrost just enough for dinner.

I have to say, I love having my iPhone in the kitchen to be able to take quick photos on the go :)

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Fiona

Better Homes and Gardens LIVE Melbourne ticket giveaway

The BHG LIVE show is coming to Melbourne! It's on 24-26 February 2012 at the Royal Exhibition Building, Carlton.

The three day event will host four stages, with live demonstrations from the Better Homes and Gardens TV experts, plus there'll be over 300 companies exhibiting at the event. You can read all about the show on the Better Homes and Gardens LIVE website.

To my Melbourne readers, start planning your day, cause I have 10 double passes (a total of 20 complimentary tickets) each valued at $40.00 to give away.

If you live in Melbourne or will be in Melbourne town on the weekend of the show and would like a couple of tickets, please send me an email.

Enjoy the show :)

Cheers

Fiona

 

 

easter school holidays round-up

.... in photos.

I'll start with our own little cute Easter bunnies, here's Butterscotch:

and Bubbles:

I bought the girls these groovy "new polaroid-style" cameras for the holidays, they've had a great time taking lots of photos:

These cameras take business card sided polaroid photos. In a world of digital photography, I'd forgotten the joy of seeing your little photos come to life in a couple of minutes:

We love going away to Hawks Nest with these girls, and their mum :-) We've been friends since the older girls were in pre-school, and still love to get together for a few days away:

One night the girls wanted to create some sparkler art. Best $2.00 entertainment of the holidays. They created a few words, then made some shapes (next time I'll take my tripod away, would have made this activity a lot easier):

 

 And there were a few blooms left on my old frangipani tree up at Hawks Nest:

We went to the Sydney Royal Easter Show, ate lots of chocolate easter eggs, caught up with family and friends... all the usual stuff that happens over Easter.

Now we're back into the maddess of school term time, not to wish time away, but bring on next holidays!

That's about all, thanks for visiting.

Cheers

Fiona x

Homegrown, cooking and crafting

Yesterday we picked some of Phoebe's produce from her veggie patch. It's only a small space (we converted the old sand pit in the back yard to a veggie patch a few years ago), but she grows some fabulous veggies and herbs.

 

This year she's grown three different varieties of tomatoes... and basil (summer would be the same without fresh basil in our garden), as well as some other herbs.

 

This is our second "harvest" from the garden recently.

So dinner last night was fresh tomato and basil pasta. Very quick easy and delicious. Here's how...

• Roughly chop the tomatoes, no need to peel the tomatoes and keep all the juices and seeds.

• Heat some olive oil in a fry pan, add a little garlic (1-2 cloves, chopped) and cook. Add the tomatoes and gently cook for about half and hour, stirring occasionally.

• Towards the end add a splash of balsamic vinegar and a splash of mirin (if you don't have mirin, add a couple of teaspoons of brown sugar).

• Cook your pasta, drain, etc.

• While cooking the pasta pick the basil leaves from the stems, don't bother cutting them up, they are yummier left whole.

• When all is ready, toss the pasta into the sauce and stir around to cover the pasta.

• Toss the basil into the pasta/tomato sauce combo and let them wilt slightly. Plate up and enjoy with Parmesan cheese.

We were talking last night after our dinner saying how some of our favourite meals are often the most simple to cook.

And now for some crafting....

Here is another Maya Road project created for their CHA booth.

 

The chipboard book used as the base is the Car Key Chipboard Coaster Book. There are quite a few new products used through this album. Some new trinkets flowers mixed with old.

 

New little sheer birdies...

 

I've used some older tags from a coaster book as the mounts for the quotes. The little birdies rub-ons are very cute and match the sheer birdies perfectly.

 

 

We, the design team, were asked to create a Valentines tag for the Maya Road booth as well.

 

I used pieces from the Maya Road Love Key chain Set which I then covered in Stampendous Fun Flock, which gives a fabulous fuzzy-flock finish to the chipboard.

 

I've also added a couple of the new trims from Maya Road. The Pink Vintage Sequins Edging and a new large pom pom trim.

 

That's about all for now. My girls are now back at school, settled in nicely, new teachers, new classrooms and new schedules to learn.

Don't forget there is still a day or two left to enter the RAK. Leave a comment on this post, you might win a set of Maya Road Cupcakes stamps.

Thanks for visiting, hope you have a great weekend.

Cheers

Fiona x

 

Robot love and other things

I recently bought a set of Darkroom Door's Robot stamps. When I first saw them I thought they were some of the cutest robots I'd seen. And they didn't disappoint when they arrived.

The girls and I had a quick stamping session last weekend and made some cards. The quality of these red rubber stamps is fantastic, the detail in the design is so clear when stamped. We loved the images and colouring them with the bruch pens. Here's one of Phoebe's cards...

 

 

I made some quick gift cards...

   

I'm loving the idea of using embroidery hoops as frames. There are many, manygreat examples on flikr, here are just a few - here, here, here and here. I bought these little hoops a while back, and the little robot stamped image was a perfect size for these. I've stamped the image onto Japanese linen with a permanent fabric/card ink (I think it was VersaCraft ?) and then embroidered and beaded around the image.

 

 

Love these little robots. My girls then pointed out that the other robot set from Darkroom Door has a little drummer robot. With a drummer in our family, I guess we'll be off for some more shopping!

In other news...

This project has been keeping me busy for the last few weeks (one day it will be our new bathroom)...

 

And this has cost us more money than expected (gotta love old houses)...

 

And this is the first glimpse of Phoebe's summer tomato crop...

 

Phoebe and I are working on a Christmas sewing project. We're not quite finished, and will post our finished project very soon. Here's Phoebe sewing away at the machine yesterday.

 

There are a couple of new pencil cases for sale over at Ribbons Galore... these pencil cases feature the gorgeous Goldilocks ribbon.

   

Make sure you visit Mel's blog for a wonderful series of Christmas craft ideas. She's written a fantastic blog post about the Christmas baubles I was selling at Ribbons Galore (which are now sold out).

Also, for everyone who was interested in the cupcake pincushion Kylie made for me. She's now popped a tutorial on how to create these little pincushions. 

Finally, two lovely ladies have mentioned me on their blogs, and I'm very late is responding to these. Ruth Clarke and Lee Mills have both sent me blog awards. Thank you ladies, very, very kind of you both.

Well that's about all for now. My blog has been slightly neglected lately, with Ribbons Galore being so busy and end of school activities starting for my gorgeous girls, my time at the computer has been limited. I will be back with some Christmas projects very soon.

Thanks for visiting. Have a great week.

Cheers

Fiona x

fuzzy flowers

I made some fuzzy flowers for a tag project over on the Pursuit of CraftYness blog. The theme of our blog projects for this week was "something old, something new". If you visit the blog, you'll see all the projects the lovely ladies have been making over there.

I thought I'd share my "how to" make my flowers. I've called them fuzzy flowers after the funny fuzzy effect you get when you felt the centre of these woolly daisies.

Step 1: I've used an old daisy maker to create my wool flowers. This old daisy maker was my nana's. She used to use it to make daisy decorations on knitted booties and knitted coat hangers that she used to make. You can still buy these daisy makers in haberdashery stores.

Step 2: Remove the daisy from the daisy maker. I actually really like the daisies like this, and have used them quite often in this form.

Step 3: I've used my new favourite gaget to "felt" the centre of the daisy. This needle felting tool is by Clover (once you click to the Clover website, you will have to click the link to felting needle in the left side bar to see the details), and I've had so much fun felting little bits and pieces. By felting the centre of these daisies, they become quite secure and will not unravel.

This is the interesting effect. I did not expect this. When I felted the centre of the flower, the wool loops "pulled" slightly creating a fuzzy look....

The fuzzy flowers:

And the tag that I created with them which is over on the Pursuit of CraftYness blog this week:

I now have several of the Clover crafty gadgets. I own several Yo-Yo makers (these use up all those fabric scraps), their Pom-Pom makers and now the Needle Felting tools. They are lots of fun to make little embellishments and they are a great activity for the kids too (great for their fine motor skills!).

I'm wondering what your favourite flower is to create? Let me know, leave a link in the comments field so we can see your creations.

Thanks for visiting...

Cheers

Fiona x

National Trust, Science week and daffodils

While I was away recently, Phoebe and friends went to the National Trust office here in Sydney for the presentation morning for the National Trust Schools Competition.

They were thrilled to be placed second (and received a highly commended award) in the competition. This is what the judges said about their project: "A beautifully presented description of the Suspension Bridge. The three students have clearly and simply described the history, heritage and significance of the bridge in an engaging way."

The original post about the scrapbook can be found HERE. And the competition press release from the National Trust can be found HERE. I was so proud of them.

This week is Science week at the girls school. The senior kids were given a project to create a mobile from objects found around the home. Emily worked with two friends to create this:

Yep, the classic combination of coat hangers, vegetables and ribbon, all strung together to balance perfectly.

Then it started raining here this morning, and the mobile was meant to be water proof. Sooo, Emily decided to make the mobile an umbrella. (I'm not sure how much glad wrap we have left in the cupboard... note... add glad wrap to shopping list)

And while I was out this morning with the camera I took some photos of our daffodils. Three months back the girls and I planted our bulbs into some pots.

Well, here's what we've been enjoying over the last couple of weeks. They are so bright and happy.

That's about all for now! Thanks for visiting. Hope you're having a great day :-)

Cheers

Fiona x

a couple of scrapbooking projects

Thought I'd share a little project which will be making it's way to the Maya Road stand at CHA Summer very soon.

This is a Maya Road Secret Box and matching Secret Box Chipboard Book. The little book is very cute, only 3"x3" in size. I've used lots of Urban Lily products to decorate. The word "celebrate" on the outside of the box has Derivan KindyGlitz added for a bit of girly shimmer. This little book lists just a few of the many, many things I love about my gorgeous Emily.

Inside I've writting the "I love..." in journaling shapes stamped from the Maya Road Foundations Jouraling Clear Stamps.

The little book can then be stored inside the box.

 

I was also thrilled to have a couple of my layouts using Fontwerks Write Line papers appear over on the Aussie Scrap Source blog last week. I've shared my 'The Euphonium' layout previously, but here's a new one I completed using some Fontwerks papers.

The letters in the large title {WAIT} are covered Maya Road Philadelphia chipboard letters. And I'm pleased to report our bulbs which we planted in the above layout are now sprouting little green stalks. Bring on Spring!

Thanks for the well wishes for my mum who is in hospital, she is doing OK.

Hope you have a great week. Thanks for visiting.

Cheers

Fiona x

weekly catch up

Really quick catch up, here while I'm having a cuppa tea :-)) Life just seems to be really busy with the girls at moment and time is flying by. Here's a few random ramblings:

Thought I'd share one of my favourite photos from the past week or so. It captures a few of my favourite things... my family, a sunny autumn Sunday in Sydney, a great cup of coffee, some relaxing time together.

This photo was taken Sunday week ago when we went down to Chowder Bay (Clifton Gardens) on Sydney Harbour. We'd heard one of our favourite coffee places had opened up somewhere amongst the old military buildings. Well we found it. BACINO BAR (famous in my opinion for it's "hole in the wall" cafe at beautiful Dee Why beach) has a tiny little kiosk in an old bunker over looking Chowder Bay. And it also has a cafe just up the hill over looking Sydney Harbour. After our coffee we then walked the headland round to Balmoral Beach and back, just beautiful...

Emily cooked this last night:

Absolutely delicious. The girls decided to host a 'surprise' birthday party for their dad last night (he's birthday is actually end of this week). They cooked dinner, hamburgers for our main and Emily's berry bread and butter pudding for dessert. A little tip, Emily used Tip Top's Golden Crumpet bread in this pudding and it was sooo yummy! (Thanks Donna Hay for the recipe)

And although it is only the beginning of May, my front garden thinks its spring. I was surprised to find these little rays of sunshine on the weekend.

We are growing strawberries! Highly recommend these for the kids to grow, nothing much seems to kill them (not even too much love and attention), they just need a little sunshine, and the kids love picking them from the plant and eating them right away!!! {and I think they look really pretty growing in a pot}

Well that's about all.

Have a great week.

Thanks for visiting!

Fiona x

sharing a bit of love today

***warning... this post contains lots of hearts, reds and pinks, proceed with care!***

Firstly.... HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

Well, my valentine has made an early delivery this morning. Along with my morning cup of tea, I was given this beautiful bunch of roses. Aren't they gorgeous and they smell so sweet! What a perfect way to start the day.

A few of the projects I've been working on recently all seem to have one theme... love. So I thought I'd share a bit of these love-themed projects all in one big post today.

Here we go...

I'm loving the new Maya Road clear stamps. Below is a card I made using one of these new stamps, some MR chipboard and velvet ric rac. I promised myself that this year I would get back to sewing more on my projects. I used to sew a lot and, for no particular reason, I stopped. So this year I'm returning to my sewing, cause I always love the look of it and sometimes its the most effective way to attach something to a layout. This card marks my return to sewing!

Next love-themed project is a mini book about my loves, created using a Maya Road 6"x6" Heart Chipboard Binder book, Paper Salon papers and some MR chipboard shapes to decorate.

And a few of the inside pages:

Emily loves to take a little valentine's gifts for each of her friends at school. Last night we made these chipboard heart hangers. The hearts were covered with Paper Salon Smitten papers, then decorated with chipboard hearts and a letter to represent the initial of each friend. On the back she's written a message. We've stuck a chocolate on the back too.

About a year ago {not sure of the exact dates} I taught a couple of scrapbooking classes to forty lovely ladies at the Scrapalicious Tassie Retreat in Hobart. It was such a great weekend, Sarah and Mel were fantastic organizers and hosts of this event. Rachel Richter was there too and she is always fun to be with :-)

Thought I'd share the sample layout from one of the classes, since it is a love-themed layout and today is a day of love. A year after teaching this layout I'm still seeing lots of scrapbooking layouts with big hearts on them.

If you are still here and reading... well done! :-)

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

Thanks for visiting and have a fantastic day.

Fiona

x