Porcupine Meatballs

This is one of Iris's favourite meals. She usually asks for seconds when I serve it and you know how rare that is with a picky toddler!!

420g can concentrated tomato soup
500g beef mince
1 brown onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup long grain rice, rinsed
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1/4 cup flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
mashed potato to serve

Place soup and 1 3/4 cups cold water in a large saucepan over medium high heat. Bring to the boil.

Meanwhile, combine mince, onion, rice, garlic and parsley in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Using one tablespoon of mixture at a time, roll mixture into balls.

Add meatballs to boiling soup. Reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for 40 minutes or until rice is tender and meatballs cooked through. Serve with mashed potato.

A new friend for Lou

This is Lou's new friend Bunny (original I know lol). He's from one of the funky friends factory patterns I got at the stitches and craft show. It was a pretty easy pattern to sew up. The instructions were clear and easy to follow and I didn't make any silly mistakes requiring unpicking for a change. I think now I'm familiar with the pattern I could sew another one in a few hours. Lou caught sight of him as just as I was finishing sewing the stuffing hole closed and sat at my feet saying "that that that" and pointing until she could finally give him a cuddle. I haven't been able to get a photo of her holding him though because she kept flapping him around her head and squealing excitedly. I also bought patterns to make a monkey and an elephant and I'm hoping they're as quick and easy to sew as the bunny...

Stitches and Craft Show 2010

I've been excitedly waiting to visit the Stitches and Craft Show for a few months now. Last year they introduced a space called the incubator which included stalls from some of my favourite craft bloggers and designers and it was the highlight of the show for me. When I heard the incubator was coming back again this year I couldn't wait to get there! Well I certainly wasn't disappointed! There were so many great stalls to look at and everyone I spoke to was friendly and helpful. I got to meet some of the faces behind the blogs I read and see some of their creations in person. There were lots of activities to participate in as well. I really liked the craft bars where you could pull up a chair and try your hand at a new craft for free. I had Lou with me and her patience only held out long enough for me to do some knitting but I managed to learn an easier way of casting on and holding my needles while I was there.

As usual the show was a difficult exercise in self restraint lol. There were so many lovely patterns, pieces of fabric and craft bits and bobs to choose from it was hard not to blow out the budget but this is what I came home with...

I got some lovely fabric, a skirt kit and an oliver + s pattern from Earthgirl Fabrics, a children's jacket pattern from Kelani, some fleece softie patterns from Funky Friends Factory, some felt flowers from Papoose and a lovely big piece of rainbow felt from Winterwood to make the girl's birthday crowns with.

The show is on till Sunday and the details are here for anybody thinking about going...

More plagerism

I'm working on a post that could take a while so to fill in the time meanwhile I have decided to copy my all my friend's blogs and get you to ask me a question...

You can be random, or funny (or try to be) or serious or a little bit naughty... and I will endeavour to answer them all...

so what do you want to know...

One a Month Challenge February

I thought I had better hurry and make up my mind what I was making this month because I'm running out of time.

For February I'm going to cook something out of the CWA Victoria Cookery Book.

I haven't decided what I'm going to cook yet. There are lots of casserole recipes that look tasty though.

The craft book I've chosen is Amy Butler's Little Stitches For Little Ones.

I know what I'm going to sew but I don't want to say because it's a gift for a friend. I've read reviews from a few people online saying that the pattern's from this book can be hard to follow so wish me luck!

Winner!

I got an award from my friend Kint over at Domestic Delusions.

The rules are to share 10 honest facts about myself then give the award to 7 other bloggers who inspire me.

1. I am terrified of deep water, particularly the ocean. I think it's partly to do with how bad my eyesight is. Without my glasses I can't tell if it's a rock I'm swimming over or some hideous sea creature who'll devour me lol.

2. I'm a coffee snob who doesn't drink coffee. I used to work as a barrista so I know what a decent latte is meant to look like and not many coffee shops around here make them!

3. I left school when I was twelve years old and didn't go back until I was sixteen. I just woke up one morning and refused to leave the house and no threats or bribes could convince me otherwise. The reasons I stopped going are worthy of a post of their own so I won't go into it now.

4. I love to collect things! I've collected many different things over the years but at the moment fabric and cookbooks are what's making my money and storage space disappear. You know your cookbook collection is getting out of control when the bookshelf holding them collapses (true story lol).

5. I was named after a one-eyed sheep (or ewe to be exact). My mum loved the name Sarah-Jane so much that she called her pet ewe Sarah-Jane. By the time I was born the ewe was old, grumpy and could only see out of one eye but my family has had lots of fun over the years teasing me about who I was "named" after.

6. I'm in love with my iPhone. I'm not really that fussed about the phone part it's more the fact that I have almost constant access to the internet thanks to it. I have withdrawl symptoms when I'm in an area where I don't have 3G net reception. I keep thinking what if something interesting happens online and I don't know about it!

7. I'm planning on homeschooling/unschooling my kids. There are a few different reasons that I came to make this choice that I'll explain another day but I'm really looking forward to all the adventures I'll be able to share with my girls because they won't be locked up in a class room.

8. I love mandarins. I love everything about them, the taste, the smell and I love pulling them right apart and eating them one tiny little juice filled bit at a time. When I see them finally come into season and arrive in the shops I do happy dance every year.

9. It's taken me waaay to long to think of this many facts about myself so I'm glad I'm nearly at the end.

10. I'm a major night owl. Pre children if I was in the middle of a good book or creative project I would think nothing of staying up all night but I've had to curb this habit recently because somehow I've managed to give birth to not one but two children who regularly wake up at the crack of dawn.

I'm too tired to think of seven people and Kint has already mentioned my favourites so the bloggers I'm going to pass the award onto are...

April because I'd like to get to know her better and if Sazz likes her she must be awesome:)

Yan because I want to get to know her better as well.

Majikfaerie because I find her parenting and unschooling style really inspirational.

That's all I can think of for now...

One Per Month January Challenge = Success!

So for January I set out to make a bathmat from the book Handmade home and Margherita Pizza from the Ultimate Mixer Cookbook. Both of them were a success!

I started by making the mat first. I cut up an old towel that had a large hole ripped in it to use for the base and I used part of a vintage doona cover as the patterned top. I bought the doona cover and two matching pillowcases from my local Savers op-shop about a year ago and it was the best $7 I've ever spent! I've made sooo many things from it and I still have lots of fabric left for other projects. In the book Amanda sews strips of toweling onto the top of the mat as well but I liked the pattern on mine too much to cover it up. It was an easy project to sew and if I hadn't been so picky about wanting the patterns in the middle to stay aligned I could have had it finished in under an hour.

Here is the finished product plus some approving toddler feet.



Iris like the mat so much that she wouldn't get off it so I could take a photo and she spent a good portion of the rest of the day asking "where mat hiding?"

I have another vintage bedspread sitting in my fabric stash that I think would be perfect for making a more "girly" looking bathmat. I have a relative who loves that kind of look so I think I'll be using this pattern again soon.

The Margherita Pizza was a lot easier to make than I thought. This was my first time making pizza from scratch so I was a bit scared but it was it all came together really quickly thanks to my new kitchenaid. I can't imagine trying to make any kind of dough without one! The hardest past was trying to reach around a sleeping Lou in the ergo to add ingredients.



I'm going to use the recipe for the dough and make my favourite kind of pizza BBQ chicken next time. Yum!

Now to decide what I'm going to make for the challenge in February...