My Place and Yours - What's in Your Bag!

I thought I would place along this week with Vic's meme. It was chosen by The Textured Leaf and she wants us to show what's in our bag. So here is what's inside my bag:
♥ my phone (thank you my darling hubby)
♥ my red Jag purse that I've had for ages now
♥ some tissues in a homemade tissue holder
♥ some chapstick
♥ hand sanitiser
♥ a post it note holder, looking a bit tatty after being tossed around (maybe I should make a new one)
All of these things are in my new Cath Kidson bag I finished making this morning, yipee a bit late on my January to do list but not tooo bad.

Thanks for the great theme this week and for stopping by. Have a good week!

Smiles Catherine xo

A bit of this and a bit of that!

I'm sorry I've been a bad blogger this week and haven't posted but I'm back today and I have pictures to show you. So how has your weekend been so far?

So far so good on the productive front! I did my housework today not very exciting but I'm a bit of a fuss pot and like to do it all once a week and I'm pedantic enough that I like to do it on a certain day too. I know I get told all the time that it doesn't matter it will still be there tomorrow but I love routine so it suits me. And then it was outside and into the garden. I finished planting my seedlings, finally and have only lost a few to the heat but it felt good to get out and get dirty. My friend gave me some organic corn seeds which I thought I would give a try so they are in the garden too. I usually buy seedlings so I hope that my wish for a garden of fresh organic veges works. As I type they are getting a good watering in from the rain so they are getting a good start.

A week ago I shared with you some mango seeds, care of my bestie friend, that I was trying to sprout in some water, well here is the result. So today I planted them into a pot and put them in full sun so cross fingers I might have a mango or two to plant in the ground.

One of my regular blogs to visit, Mel at Day to Day, did a post a while ago on making your own dish washing liquid. It seemed quick and easy and I wanted to give it a go. I bought some of the ingredients at my local health food shop as well as having the vinegar already in the cupboard at home. It doesn't soap up at all but it seems to get everything clean and smells fresh with the lemon essence, mine is a bit strong because it kind of came out a bit quick when I was making it but I love citrus smells so it doesn't matter. Check out her post for the recipe.

With the girls back at school I got back into the kitchen and made a couple of yummy things to put in their lunch boxes, Chocolate Cherry Slice out of the Super Food Ideas magazine and Apple Banana Bread out of the Woman's Day. Here are the recipes for you to give a try, the Chocolate Cherry Slice was a favourite but the girls enjoyed eating both of them which is great because Miss 6 can be a bit lets say, choosy when it comes to food.

Chocolate Cherry Slice (Makes 24 pieces)
1 cup plain flour
½ cup self-raising flour
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
⅔ cup caster sugar
1 cup desiccated coconut
100g red glace cherries, chopped
200g butter, melted
½ teaspoon vanilla extract desiccated coconut, to serve

Chocolate Icing
1½ cups icing sugar mixture
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
50g butter, softened
2 tablespoons boiling water

1. Preheat oven to 180°c /160°c fan forced. Grease a 3cm deep, 16cm x 26cm slice pan. Line with baking paper, allowing a 2cm overhang at long ends.
2. Sift flours and cocoa into a large bowl. Stir in sugar, coconut and cherries. Make a well in centre. Add butter and vanilla. Stir to combine. Press mixture into prepared pan. Bake for 20-25minutes or until a skewer inserted in centre comes out clean. Cool completely in pan.
3. Make chocolate icing - Sift icing sugar and cocoa into a bowl. Add butter and boiling water. Stir until smooth. Spread icing over cooled slice. Sprinkle with coconut. Set aside until icing has set. Cut into pieces and serve. You can store slice in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

Apple Banana Bread
125g butter, chopped, at room temperature
3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 ½ cups self-raising flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
½ cup very ripe mashed banana (about 1 large banana)
2 small green apples, peeled, cored, chopped
1/4 cup milk Butter, to serve

1. Preheat oven to moderate, 180°c. Lightly grease a 10 x 20cm loaf pan. Line base and sides with baking paper.
2. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. Sift flour and soda together. Fold banana, 3/4 of apple, milk and flour mixture into creamed mixture until combined.
4. Pour into pan. Sprinkle with remaining apple. Bake for 55-60 minutes, until cooked when tested with skewer. Cool in pan for 5 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool completely.
5. Serve spread with butter. *Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week. This cake can also be frozen.

I hope you are having a good weekend whatever you are up to.

Take Care
Smiles Catherine xo

Happy 6th Birthday My Sweet!

This week has been a bit emotional seeing my little girl starting grade 1 and then today she turned six, wow! We had a wonderful time celebrating today with family in the park followed by dinner at Red Rooster and Cold Rock Ice cream by the river, all her choices.

My little one she is full of life, a quick thinker, loves to give things a go, enjoys drawing and colouring and loves to have fun. Happy Birthday Sweetie, we love you lots and are very proud of you!

Smiles Catherine xo

P.S. I thought I would show you my January projects finished eg. the draw set, a dress for the birthday girl, as well as the birthday girl's card I made and the chosen birthday cake from the birthday cake book. Thanks for popping by!:)

Materials
Stamps: Greeting Farm
Ink: SU Chocolate Chip, SU Soft Subtle Markers
Cardstock: SU Whisper White, SU Pretty in Pink
Accessories: SU Gingham Ribbon, Kaiser Rhinestones, Kindy Glitz, Pink Paislee Sticky Letters

I thought I would stop by and fill you in with the frog and snake update. Last night the girls brought the frog 'Damp', as they named it, up on the deck in it's container filled with some water, to keep it safe. Before I went to bed I went outside to check on it and it had jumped out of the container and onto the bench seat so 'Damp' must have been feeling better, in the morning 'Damp' was gone so I'd like to think all will be ok and 'Damp' is recovering safely. And the snake is no longer in the cubby house but I'm still wary.I was asked about my experiment with the mango seeds the other day so I thought I would share with you what I have done. Once the seeds had dried I carefully opened them up to reveal the pod inside. After some research I decided to put the pod in some water and once the pod sprouts I will plant it in some soil and hopefully I'll have a mango tree. You could put the pod straight into some soil but I thought it would be a fun and visual experiment for the girls, hopefully I have better luck than I did with the hyacinth I tried to grow in water.

Over at Vic's her meme this week was What are you reading? At the moment my favourite books would have to be the craft books, I also have a book on top that isn't really a reading book but a book of Find a Word puzzles I bought when we stopped by Kingscliff. I am also reading a good book about dealing with child behaviours called 'Your child, your way'. I am relearning and teaching myself to look for the positive behaviour, not focusing on the negative and I'm getting some great results.:)

Thanks for popping by.

Smiles Catherine xo

Today's Adventure!

My hubby started his day motivated and went outside to get some tidying up done before working on a gate for our side fence. He went over to the girls cubby house to get rid of some branches which had fallen, but to his surprise he found two black beady eyes staring right back at him. He rushed back to the house and grabbed the camera and took some pictures and I came upstairs to check out what we had visiting us. On the computer I went and googled Green Snake Queensland and was relieved when I read that it was non-venomous. That wasn't the end of the adventure.... later he went up the cubby house to discover it had made a nice comfy home in the cubby this time and was have a bit of a snack on a green tree frog.:( I know that's what nature does but I just love those frogs. So my hubby has rescued the frog, the girls are watching vigil hoping it will survive but it doesn't look well, and the snake is still happily living in the cubby so no playing in it today. Have you had an exciting day?

I hope to pop back later and share with you what book I am reading. Vic over at Punky and Me is hosting the meme My Places and Yours!

Talk soon
Smiles Catherine xo

Some Handmade Heaven!

Hi there sorry it's been a while since I've been here I hope you didn't miss me too much.;) We have been a bit busy here with only a few days left of the holidays we've been catching up with friends, going on adventures to new places, swimming and just hanging around home.

When I went visiting my old school friend not only did we all have heaps of fun, lots of chatting went on and discovering new ways to live life. My friend lives in the country and loves her simple life and after staying with her I really think that I want that for me too. As a child I didn't like living so far away from everything, I was bored, I felt I was a city girl at heart and I still am but as I am getting older I just love the peace and quiet of the country. I'm not sure when or if this dream will eventuate but I can make choices to live more simply and in a wholesome way. This is a picture of what was in my shopping basket today. So to go along this path, after some research from another friend, I thought I would invest in buying some organic heirloom seeds. She found this great source to buy them from and the benefit of these seeds is that you can collect them afterwards and store them to be used again.

I always make an effort to cook things from scratch for my family but lately I have been really motivated to go that extra mile. So last night I cooked us some pizza using homemade dough, today I made pikelets for morning tea, the girls ate home grown finger mangoes (we are now drying the seeds) and cheese and bacon rolls for lunch. It was such a good feeling knowing I made it all and that I knew what we were all consuming and it tastes so much better!

I have watched some other wonderful blogs exploring this lifestyle and with my friends help I want to keep on living a simpler life.

Hopefully I haven't rambled on too much for you today. What have you been up to lately?

Talk to all of you again soon.

Smiles Catherine xo

My Day in Photos

Today it was hot but not at hot as the southern states so we have been pretty lucky so far but I could see the girls were starting to get a bit bored, so out came the sprinkler. We have a water tank and a couple of weeks ago we had plenty of rain so with a tank of water and two hot girls it was a recipe for fun. Do you remember running through the sprinkler to cool off? It was such a fun summer time tradition which can't be done these days with water restrictions, which is a shame. While the girls were busy I got into the kitchen and baked away ready for a play date tomorrow at the park. I made some chocolate chip cookies with some pecan nuts in them and some banana cupcakes with maple cream frosting. And while I was in the cooking mood I put the slow cooker on and made some Ribollita which means reboiled and is a traditional Tuscan soup. It is a bit hot for soup but it was good to put everything in a let it cook away and I like to try a vegetarian dish once a week they feel really wholesome.
Enough rambling from me. I hope that you have kept cool and are enjoying the school holidays. Thanks for stopping by to visit.

Smiles Catherine xox

Raspberry Suite Colour Challenge #21

Hi there everyone how is your Saturday going? I really enjoyed my chance to get some card making done today it seems like ages since I've made any and I needed some cards to give to a couple of friends so I thought I would give this challenge a go. Thanks Dawn for the great colours I really enjoyed working with these.:) Thanks for popping in to visit.

Smiles Catherine xo

Materials (Friend to Friend)
Stamps: Hero Arts Background Stamp, SU Pocket Silhouettes
Ink: SU Chocolate Chip
Paper: SU Very Vanilla, SU Chocolate Chip, SU Bashful Blue
Accessories: Fiskars Border Lace Punch, Kaiser Pearls, SU So Saffron Grosgrain Ribbon, SUDistresser Kit

(For You)
Stamps: Hero Arts Background Stamp, SU Great Friend, SU Fifth Avenue Floral
Ink: SU So Saffron, SU Chocolate Chip
Paper: SU So Saffron, SU Chocolate Chip, SU Bashful Blue
Accessories: Decorative Scissors, Kindy Glitz, SU Very Vanilla Grosgrain Ribbon, SU Dimensionals

I'm Finished!

Tomorrow is the day we are going to a party so when did I get the dress finished, umm tonight, I really need to work on my procrastinating!(lol) But I got it made and it looks kind of cute. My Miss 10 picked out the fabric which is very sweet and hopefully the birthday girl likes her choice. So my next project this month will be another dress just for Miss 5. Have a great a great weekend!

Smiles Catherine xo

Our Creative Day.

I enjoy school holidays with my girls home with me and so finding things to do can start to get difficult when we are now in week four so today I planned on keeping us busy with lots of creating. We started the day off with some painting on a plate and cup that will go into the oven tomorrow, these were a Christmas gift. Miss 5 and I were busy in the kitchen creating play dough, blue and pink and as an added sensory experience I added some coconut essence when I was manipulating the dough after I cooked it in the saucepan. After some one on one time with Miss 5 it was time to do some cooking with Miss 10 and use some of her new cooking utensils. We decided on making some afghan biscuits finishing them just in time for afternoon tea with our neighbour. My goal was to get a bit of sewing in but I didn't get any done but I did get some bias binding that I needed for the dress, so tomorrow I'll get a wriggle on and show you my progress. Thanks for coming by to visit, I'll leave you with this play dough recipe which I love to make.

Cooked Play dough
2 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 teaspoons cream of tartar
2 tablespoons oil
2 cups water food colouring

Method
Mix together dry ingredients.
Mix together water, oil, colouring.
Pour liquid into dry mixture and mix well.
Put into saucepan and cook for 3-5 minutes.
Knead into a ball whilst still warm. (add essence now if you want)
KEEPS FOR ABOUT 2 WEEKS

Smiles Catherine xox

Image from here

A quiet night for me
Sitting and having a cup of chamomile tea
After a rest
Tomorrow I will be at my best
Ready for a day
full of sewing, cooking and play........

Smiles Catherine xox

Beachy Break

Today was the last day of my hubby's holidays so we decided to go for a day trip to the beach. The weather was not looking the best but we thought we would try anyway and decide what to do when we get there if the weather wasn't shining. It rained on the way down but when we arrived it was cloudy and warm so we were ready to give the beach a go. I have been to Kingscliff many times when I was young, each weekend my Nan and Pop would take my brother and I on a Friday night to stay in their caravan, buy us fish and chips then take us back home on Sunday. It has changed a bit since then, everything seems much smaller than what I remember, isn't it funny how that happens. Anyway I had to have a walk past the shops and see what there was to offer and there were some little gems I have to say. A book shop with some great finds, something for me, something for Miss 5 for her birthday and something for my mother in law for mother's day.{getting organised ;)} There was also a shop that sold lovely eco friendly products so I bought myself an aluminium drink bottle. If you are in the neighbourhood it's worth a little stop by to Kingscliff. I hope you had a good Sunday too!

Smiles Catherine xox