Cute DINNERTIME recipe book

In April, I made a recipe book for meals to match my cute recipe book that I posted about here. I made one for myself and my two sisters. My younger sister's and my books have a darker colour scheme (the first picture in each set)but I made a lighter, more pastel one for my eldest sister. I divided it into 5 sections.....

Pastas

(I struggled with making something looking like pasta, until Ella suggested pasta in a jar...Thanks Ella)

Light meals

(for things like homemade pizza, quiche, fajitas...all those meals that are good for summer)

Warming Dishes
(casseroles and yummy winter food)

Meat Dishes

(for marinated meat, roasts etc)

and Soups and Side Dishes which is pretty self-explanatory.

I've yet to make the fabric covers but I was going to label it Dinnertime Favourites rather than Sweet Favourites.

Soft furnishings on a budget

I wanted a bunch of blue, pastelly cushions for my lounges without too much effort or cost, and I just happened to hit the paydirt at St Vinnies. No, not cushions, but pillowcases for 50c each. That takes care of the cost and as they're already sewn with just a bit of tweaking to do, that takes care of the effort as well.

Of course they're a bit long and the tinsiest bit wide so I just cut them down to size along two sides, sewed them up again and whoila. Total time...about 10 mins per cushion.

I love the embroidery detail on these ones. I just kept the part of the pillowcase that had the folding opening and cut off the top.

I thought this floral pattern was very cottagey and I added some blue ribbon to hold them closed.

These ones were made using offcuts from the other blue pillowcases (the ones with the embroidery) and some leftover material and and lace that I had.

I also made some with a back opening from a tablecloth with a blue sprig pattern that I picked up for $2. It made some cushions for this lounge...

one for this chair...

and a chair pad for my rocking chair.

I needed to change the curtains to match so I bought a white single sheet for $2 which I cut up and added some lace and ribbon for some cottage prettiness. (Just don't look at how dirty the walls are. The crisp whiteness of the material really brings out the grime.)

And here's my oven mitt that I made out of the cot sheet that I found earlier from St Vinnies. I actually made two, and also a pot holder which I haven't quite finished.

Total cost excluding the ribbon, lace and cushion inserts which I already had.....$6.50. Not bad.

I feel very special and loved today...

...thanks to my wonderful children who really went out of their way to make my Mother's Day special. I kidd you not when I say I heard whispers and stealthy noises and the microwave opening VERY early this morning...4 am to be exact. They got up extra early and snuck out to the chicken coop in the dark to get some eggs (even though there's a huge resident spider who sometimes blocks the path...now that's love and sacrifice) to whip up these cake towers for me.

AND they washed up afterwards.

But I was greeted this morning in bed at a more reasonable hour by a paper flag banner (because they know how much I like them) a menu to choose from (which even included tuna on toast, something I confess to having quite often for breakfast much to the girls' disgust and much nose holding...again more love and sacrifice) and Rosie and Ella dressed like me in my poor boys caps, scarves and big boots.

After eating my delicious bacon and eggs they gave me their presents. From Rosie I got a really cute bunny mug (she said she chose it so I could use it for Easter decorating...she knows me well) filled with lollies and Ella gave me a great hand spade with a packet of lettuce seeds. Plus she gave me a pot that she painted in class.

My favourite things though were the cards/pictures that the girls made. Here's Rosie's.

I'm saying "Oh, no, not more washing", Sir Mitchell is saying "Who used all the toilet paper?", Princess Rosalie is saying "Ewww, Ellanor, you're feral!" and Princess Ellanor (in a Robin Hood outfit...very appropriate) is saying back "You're a yam-wam." No, none of us, except Ella, knows what that means and it drives Rosie nuts when Ella says it to her, hence it's effectiveness. So now you all have a little window into what our family life is really like.

Ella's picture is my favourite. Last week after taking the girls to see the local play of Oliver, which was VERY good, I mentioned that if I could act as anyone, I'd love to play Calamity Jane, of course. So Ella made me my own "Mummity Jane" poster complete with a photo of my face stuck on the picture.

I hope all you mothers out there have a lovely day being spoilt by your families. May you do no laundry, may your dinner be cooked for you and may all your dishes be washed and the house stay tidy with out you lifting a finger. Amen.

Real rag balls and what to do with them.

I've often had rag balls around my house for decoration but just fake ones with foam in the middle. But now I have a reason to have real ones.

My crafting buddy and good friend, Lisa, has recently shown me how to make braided rugs by crocheting strips of material that I ripped from old sheets. To stop these strips getting tangled, I wind them into a ball and hey, presto, a rag ball that is both pretty and functional.

My first rug I started on, I unwound and redid several times as I practised getting the tension right as it always seemed to pucker and make a hat shape. Then I decided I didn't really like the country colours anyway, and started on a new one in shabby greens and blues to put next to my bed to keep my footsies away from the freezing floor boards in winter. I'm nearly finished and I'm really happy with this one.

I've always loved the look of braided rugs but new, factory-made ones are sooo expensive. I much prefer the fact that I've made it myself and did a bit of recycling in the bargain. And I've never really liked when things that are old-fashioned from a make-do time are mass-marketed. It's like you get the look without the work, just buy it all from a catalogue for an instant finish. Although I've certainly been guilty of that at times. I've always felt a bit fake having ragballs that weren't real. I much prefer the real thrifty beauty of reusing and prettying up old things for a new purpose.

Lisa came over today for our fortnightly craft morning. Last time she taught me crocheting, this time I helped her make one of my recipe books. She bought me this cute spotty mug and pretty teatowel because the cupcakes made her think of my recipe book. Isn't that lovely.

I've also been wanting to make myself a new double-handed oven mitt in pastel colours (my old one is in bright blues and greens and is really grubby) and I found this cot sheet with little teapots and cupcakes at Vinnies today for $1.

It'll make a great oven mitt to hang on my oven door next to my new teatowel, don't you think. And there'll be heaps left so maybe I'll make some placemats as well to replaced my dark blue primitive ones.

I usually just have the morning off on Thursdays but Rosie's a bit sick today so I took the whole day off. I think I needed it too because I sprained my ankle really badly at netball last night. I'm sure I heard or felt a real crack it seemed, and I had to hobble off the court and spend the rest of the game with ice on it. I managed to drive home okay but when I got home and Mitch bandaged it up for me with ice, I burst into tears like a baby. It really, really hurt and I think I got a bit of a shock. It's okay today, although swollen, and I'm limping around, so an afternoon on my feet running around after kids probably isn't a good idea.

A bathroom re-do

It's a deliciously drizzly day today with a surprising touch of autumn in it. I say surprising because autumn doesn't usually start until about May, we have about a month or two of coldness and then it skips straight to heat again. I'd love to live in a place where there was a real change of seasons. Netball was cancelled today because of the rain, and it was such a cozy afternoon that I let the girls park themselves in front of the TV with a big bowl of popcorn and a quilt or two....a rare treat because usually TV is banned on school afternoons.

And our internet is finally working properly again (it kept dropping out after about 5 minutes or less - very frustrating) so I am parked in front of the computer (obviously) with a mug of tea and some chocolate. A chill breeze is coming in through the window next to me and I can hear the trees rustling and a soggy magpie chirping on the telephone line outside. Heaven!

I was in a bad mood on the weekend, in one of my "the housework is never-ending and as soon as I clean up one room, people just mess it up again, and don't you dare just place that dirty mug on the sink, you wash it up right now" mood. The ladies at work asked me if I was pregnant because I've been going on a cleaning and organised rampage the last few weeks. Sadly, I'm not pregnant...just frustrated by chaos I think.

Anyway, I did a little redecorating of our poky,dingy hole...I mean, bathroom, on the weekend. I look at some people's posts about how they complain about their bathrooms and how it desperately needs a paint job and I think "Lady, there ain't nothing wrong with your bathroom. Come and check out mine". It is literally tiny, 2m by 2m, no, in fact not even that big as the linen cupboard juts into it. It has peeling beige paint, plastic sheeting on the walls, horrible brown lino on half of the floor and brown tiles around the toilet. I don't have many before photos to show you the true extent of it's horribleness but here's two.

I would LOVE to have a bath but it's just not possible as this 4 square metres houses shower, basin AND toilet. But it does the job, so I'm thankful for that.

It needs a total overhaul but that's way down the track so I thought in the meantime, I'd make it a bit more bearable and workable. We had already replaced the toilet and on the last day of the christmas holidays, Mitch replaced our old cabinet which was a stunning combination of rotting chipboard and a yellow fake marble top. When we took it out, we just looked at it amazed that we had put up with it for so long. We were just going to replace the taps but they had this cabinet on sale so we decided to get it. One nightmare and expensive plumbers bill later, it was in and it made a huge difference already. It had a lovely big china basin and a good cupboard

so the next thing I was able to do was take down the cabinet on the lefthand wall which jutted out in front of you as you walked into the bathroom.

On the weekend, I put up a shelf above the mirror (which I'd like to replace) to hold some pretty jars with soap and cotton buds etc.and some plates and this Royal Albert tin ($1 from Vinnies) which holds my makeup. I'm going for a white and red scheme and it really brightened up the bathroom. No, that's not a ghost in the corner of the photo, just a dirty camera lens. I'm such a professional.

Next I made a hook rail for our towels from this old scalloped piece of wood which I had removed from an old dressing table.

Before this, we only had one towel rail and the other towels hung on hooks behind the door, so they didn't dry very well, also due to our teeny, tiny window.

Next, I made a hook for a hand towel for guests because I don't know about you but I always feel really rude drying my hands on other people's bath towels. I am going to make some prettier handtowels, maybe with red gingham ribbon or something. (I need to paint that screw.)

I think it's all made a huge difference and the ugliness of the bathroom isn't as noticable anymore. (This photo's not that good, everything doesn't usually have that pink glow.)

Everytime I come into the bathroom now, it makes me smile. I think if we replaced the brown shower cubicle and gave the room a paint and maybe put in a larger window, I wouldn't feel like I have to build a whole new bathroom. It's amazing what a few strategic changes can make.

On another note, don't you love this vintage chenille throw that I bought from Vinnies for $4.

On another note again, remember Matt Caltabiano, the bad sport who Mitch fought in Caloundra last year. He died in a motorbike accident last weekend. I feel a bit bad for trashing him now...but it was kinda true.

I don't wanna grow up.

Ella asked me today if I was an adult or a grown-up. Not quite understanding the difference, I replied, "Both."

"So you've grown up and don't like to play games or have fun anymore? Because you said when I've grown up I won't be interested in those things as much." she replied.

It was a real Peter Pan moment. I can't believe I ever said that to her. Shame on me.

"Sorry, Ella, I didn't understand you. I'm an adult but definately NOT a grown-up."

But I have to admit, growing up has been creeping up on me and I've been in danger of turning into one of these.

Full-time work, coaching the girls' netball team, assistant treasurering (is that a word?) for the gymnastics club and housework doesn't leave much time for sponteneity, fun and games...IF YOU LET IT. It's always good to get a reminder now and then to ease up. My crippling migraine that sent me to bed last night at 6pm was one of them. I'd been promising myself an early night for ages but never took it until my body rebelled.

The conversation made me think of this gorgeous box that my sister Mary made for me for my bridal shower years ago which I keep all my "special things" in. It's decorated with a collage of "Esther" things and pictures.

On it is a scrap of note paper on which is written in my teenage handwriting, "I, Esther Plant, solemly vow to never grow up. 30/3/92" When I was a teenager, I was ennamoured by the movie Hook and the message behind it. I hope that I can keep remembering it and stay in touch with my child-like self.

As an inspiration to help me keep going, Kimba had a great post on her blog today. Check it out here.