My Poor Sewing Machine

Today I went on my Wii again, gee can't believe my dedication (cough, cough) not sure if I will make it to three days in a row but I will try. Anyway I am sure you are curious about my blog post title, well today I invited my friend Megan over to do some crafting with me and decided that I would get out the sewing machine to use on a card that I had planned on making. That was all ok until I got the sewing machine down from up in my cupboard when crashing down came the sewing machine foot, smashing on the floor. It broke a bit, I put all the pieces together but unfortunately it no longer works so there is no sewing on this card and no sewing until I buy a new foot. Oh well better not do that again! I did get the card made and it turned out well despite the mishap. I made it for a good friend who's husband is celebrating a birthday next month. I hope you had a lovely day. Bye for now.


Smiles Catherine xox
Materials
Stamps: SU Polka Dot Background, SU Trendy Trees
Ink: SU Chocolate Chip, SU Old Olive Paper: SU Kraft, SU Very Vanilla, SU Chocolate Chip, SU Old Olive
Accessories: Circle Punch, SU Distressing Kit, SU Piercing Mat, Ribbon, Brads, Dimensionals

A Lovely Surprise

Today I received some lovely mail from Bianca from when I commented on her funny blog (go and check out her blog) and I was the lucky winner, how cool. (yes I do say that word, am I daggy ?) So inside my parcel was a wrapped pressie (in Amy Butler fabric) with lots of things as you can see from the photo. So thank you Bianca you really spoilt me and I will have to try and get motivated to do some more sewing so I can use that pretty fabric. I hope that you have all had a good day, I have because I finally did some exercise on my Wii Fit, yeh! It took some motivating but I did it and had some fun even being told I was 9 years younger than my real age! (lol, I know it's just my Wii Fit age but a pretty good don't you think since it has been a month since I exercised!) Anyway I will hopefully see you again soon and maybe I will have done some card making to show you. Take care.

Smiles Catherine xox

Sunday

I haven't got any paper creating to show you today but I do have a bit of cooking that I have done. Today we went to visit some friends to see their house building in progress and so I made some apple muffins to take along. I got the recipe from the Donna Hay Kids Issue Cookbook, it was an easy recipe to make and tasted lovely. There are some really easy recipes in this book to make and some fun birthday ideas too.

I will leave you with this photo from the park today of my two little ones enjoying a swing.

Thanks for stopping by and for all my lovely birthday wishes.:)

Smiles Catherinexox

Happy Birthday to my Wonderful Husband!

Hi there everyone! I'm not too sure if anyone is reading my little blog but I thought I would come back and visit for those of you who like to read my posts and see what has been happening in my little world. Anyway it has been a very busy week here in my home with my birthday being on Monday and my lovely husband having his birthday on Wednesday. We both got to share out special day with each other and on Wednesday went to the movies to see the latest Harry Potter film. Today is a bit of a catch up with a couple of birthday photos to show you from Wednesday also the card I made for my husband and a card I made for a good friend who has her birthday today. I was lucky enough to get a Martha Stewart for my birthday from my other lovely friend Jodie who visited America recently so I got to play with it on this card, I think is is very pretty! I hope you enjoy the cards I have made and my birthday week in photos. Thank you for stopping by and I hope to see you all again soon.


Smiles Catherinexox
Materials (Male Card) Stamps: SU Sincere Salutations, SU Yummy Paper: SU Kraft, SU Chocolate Chip, DP Kaiser, DP October Afternoon Ink: SU Chocolate Chip Accessories: SU Square Scallop Punch, SU Buttons, SU Twine, Dimensionals, SU Distresser Kit Materials (Butterfly Card) Stamps: SU Fifth Avenue Floral Paper: SU Whisper White, SU Tempting Turquoise, Yoyo Yellow, Pink Passion, Orchid Opulence, DCWV Blossoms and Butterflies Ink: SU Real Red Accessories: Martha Stewart Butterfly Punch, SU Scallop Edge Punch, Kaiser Rhinestones

Hello and Happy Tuesday to you!

Hi there long time no see! I have been a little quiet here on the blog because I have been doing a little bit of paper crafting and celebrating a few birthdays. Last week I mentioned lots of male birthdays, well today I'll share some things I made for my brother's birthday I made and I haven't made it yet, but tomorrow my husband has a birthday so I will post his card later. So this weekend was busy with celebrating birthdays with family which was lovely and yesterday I also got to celebrate my birthday! Yesterday I turned another year older and had a wonderful time celebrating with my husband and with my girls before and after school. I was lucky enough to get some very thoughtful gifts from my family and one of the special gifts I received was this Pandora bracelet. The girls chose the heart and rose beads and I got to pick the flower bead for myself yesterday. So I was a very lucky lady and with all the thoughtful wishes from my family and friends yesterday was perfect, so thank you so much everyone. Here is a picture of my girls and I yesterday on my birthday. My husband and my girls made this wonderful card for me from scratch without any help and they chose everything themselves from the local scrapbooking shop. So on to some of my little creations. I have used an old coffee jar for this gift and put in some chocolates for my brother, and this is the bag I made to put his gifts in just using a pre-purchased gift bag.



If you want to know the details then you can check it out on my Splitcoast Gallery or just sent me an email. I hope that you are all having a lovely day and thanks for stopping by.

Smiles Catherinexox

Another Male Card

Hello there! Hope you are all having a fabulous day today. As I mentioned yesterday I have a few male cards to make this week so I thought I would share them with you. The card I am sharing with you today is for my younger brother. The layout I used is not my own but one that what found on Splitcoast Stampers and given to me, along with the other ladies at stamping, as a challenge to do over the holidays while stamping class was having a break. I used a few brads, added the sentiment and some DP to add a personal touch to the layout.

I also had a request by my Miss 5, she was invited to a party over the holidays but we already had plans and so wasn't able to go but she wanted to give her friend still something for her birthday. So I already had a little something in the cupboard for her to give but still had to wrap it up. After looking at Spoon Full of Sugar I decided I would make a gift bag. It was pretty easy and as I didn't have any wrapping paper I used some Ikea paper and decorated it with some stamps and stickers.

Thank you for stopping by and I'll see you again soon.

Smiles Catherinex

Materials (Card)

Stamps:SU All Holidays

Paper: SU Very Vanilla, Old Olive and Brilliant Blue, October Afternoon DP

Ink: SU Old Olive

Accessories: Brads, Dimensionals, American Crafts Thickers

Materials (Bag)

Stamps: Hero Arts Dolls

Paper: Ikea

Ink: SU Real Red, Cameo Coral, Pretty in Pink and Pumpkin Pie

Accessories: Stick on Flowers Heidi Grace, Kaiser Rhinestones, Crop-a-dile, Gingham Ribbon

I'm Still Here

Hello there everyone, long time no see. I have been around and still visiting everyone but haven't posted because we changed over computers and so didn't have my camera software uploaded and no pictures to show you, and blog posts looks so much nicer with a picture to share. Today was my first day without my little ones since they went back to school and I am happy to say that although they wanted to stay home, they still happily went to school and both had great days which makes me happy! With a bit of uninterrupted time I made a belated card for my friend's boy who celebrated his 7th birthday earlier this month. It can be hard to know what is suitable for a boy at his age so I went with monster paper which I think will be pretty safe, and I think it is kinda cute. So one card down and more to go, I still have my nephew, my brother and my husband, so a male week of cards to show you this week. Hope to see you again tomorrow with another card, bye.

Smiles Catherine

Materials

Stamps: SU Fundamental Phrases (Basic Phrases AUS)

Paper: SU Kraft, Whisper White, Old Olive and Pumpkin Pie; October Afternoon DP

Ink: SU Creamy Caramel

Accessories: SU Linen Thread, Dimensionals, Buttons

What are you up to this Wednesday?

My Miss 9 wanted to make some patty cakes today so she could give them to one of the swimming teachers this afternoon after she had shown him her cookbook and promised she would make him something. So we made some quick and easy patty cakes from my old and trusty Day to Day cookery book that I have had since high school.

They turned out well and she had fun colouring the icing and choosing the decorations.

My Miss 5 has wanted to paint her face and knowing this is a messy activity tried to put it off until holiday time, and today ended up being the day that she has fun creating her own painted face. This is her first face that she created, a clown I think. And this is the third a cat, the second was a gate but that has already been washed off.

I hope you are enjoying your Wednesday!

Smiles Catherinexox

Today it is miserable here with it drizzling so what a great day for staying inside watching movies and even better it's $2 Tuesday so a couple of new releases were chosen by the girls. They have been watching Hotel for Dogs and Another Cinderella Story and eating popcorn. What are you up to this Tuesday?


I also have been meaning to post this picture, my good friend Kylie (check out her Splitcoast Gallery) sent me this lovely birthday RAK to me last week to celebrate my birthday coming up soon. So thank you Kylie for the lovely card and gifts they will be very useful and very thoughtful of you.


Hope you are all enjoying your day today. Talk to again soon.



Smiles Catherinexox

Some Monster Softies!

Today I thought that we would have a bit of fun and try our hand at sewing. I have been looking through the Australian Homesewn Magazine and thought after seeing how Mel used felt to create one that it would be perfect for my girls. My Miss 5 is still a little bit young but she had a go at sewing on a button and did well for her first go and Miss 9 did pretty much all of the sewing on her own. So today she learnt to back stitch, sew on a button, do blanket stitch and also how to concentrate for a long period of time and stick with something with a fantastic result. I am really proud of what she has achieved, you did a great job today sweetie! So I have a photo of the girls with their respective monsters and a photo of the little monsters on their own. Miss 5 has named her monster Millie and Miss 9 has named her monster Cooshie. Thank you for stopping by, hope you have had a good weekend too!

Smiles Catherinexox.

A Dinner Recipe for you

How has your weekend been going so far? Mine hasn't been too bad, a spot of grocery shopping and fun shopping and then there was the housework, not so exciting. So after all the housework etc. I wasn't really up to cooking anything that took up too much time so I decided to make a favourite in our house, Pasta with Tomato and Red Wine Sauce served with some garlic bread. It is really quick, easy and very tasty. The recipe says it serves 4 but I usually double the recipe because we love it so much. Give it a try, you won't be sorry. Bye for now!

Ingredients

30g butter

1 medium onion chopped (I don't add this because I don't like onions much)

1 clove garlic crushed

410g can tomatoes

1/4 cup dry red wine

1/4 cup water

2 teaspoons tomato paste

1 small chicken stock cube crumbled

1 teaspoon cornflour

1 tablespoon water extra

1 teaspoon sugar

2 teaspoons chopped fresh basil

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

Method

1. Melt butter in frying pan, add onion and garlic, stir constantly over medium heat until onion is soft. Add undrained crushed tomatoes, wine, water, tomato paste and stock cube, bring to boil, reduce heat, simmer uncovered for 10 minutes.

2. Stir in blended cornflour and extra water. Stir constantly over high heat until mixture boils and thickens. Stir in sugar and herbs. Serve tomato sauce over hot pasta.

Smiles Catherine xox

Some Stamps for you!

I promised you yesterday that I would show you some pictures of our stamp creating efforts. Here is my Miss 5 lining all the stamps up and testing each one with the coloured ink pads. She really enjoyed those ink pads even testing them out as eyeshadow, lucky it didn't get in her eyes, she loved that bright cherry pink ink! (lol) I hope that you like our creations, it was more difficult than I had expected but definitely fun creating your own stamps. Talk to you again soon!

Smiles Catherine xox

Randomness

Today I thought I would share some random pictures of the last couple of days at home on holidays. My Miss 9 just loves to collect recipes and also to cook so I thought we would keep busy in the kitchen the other day. We whipped up a recipe from her collection called Ginger Coconut Slice and a good old favourite chocolate cake.

And other than all the learning and building confidence for later in life both for when they go to high school and move out of home that cooking does offer, licking the beaters of course.

One of the things I like about cooking is knowing what is going into my cooking. When I pick up a packet of biscuits and see ingredients in there that I don't know then I just don't really want them to eat it, they are just so full of chemicals. When we moved to a house with a bit of space I always wanted to get chooks, not only do I love having them as pets but I love the fresh eggs that they give us each day which go back into our cooking.

And today we have had the lovely company of my friend come over for lunch today which the girls both loved and happily made some gifts to give her when she arrived. After being full and contented the girls are having fun playing together in the cubby house, which is lovely to see.

I hope that you are having a lovely day to. I'm now off to get some dinner into the slow cooker and do some craftiness with my girls. I bought some print blocks for the girls so we could try our hand at making some of our own stamps after being inspired by Mel and her children, I will keep you posted on our progress. Talk to you again soon.

Smiles Catherine xox