My day's excitement

I am so excited to share this with you guys. It has been a work in progress for about a year now! One day last year I got sick of the pile of bags that would happen after school/kindy underneath our breakfast bar (which has never been used as a breakfast bar, more a storage area as we don't have much storage space in our house!)

I have always had a couple of plastic drawer units which have housed art and craft stuff for the kids, and some toys. Beside the drawers, the school bags would get dumped. One day I was inspired by Pinterest. I didn't get the idea directly from there, but just various different pins made me come up with the idea.

I had a few white shelving units lying around from The Warehouse. It's their old ones, the wider version of what they have now (which would work just as well if not better as they now sell canvas boxes that actually fit in them! But they are also narrower so it depends on the bags you want to store in them). Anyways, I took the top shelf out, and put them back together. The kids now store their bags in the big space created and I always intended to get baskets of some sort to put in the bottom, for them to store stuff they need for school and kindy (homework books and whatnot). Instead, the bottom stayed basketless and junk just got shoved in.

Until today!

You all know how cheap I am, which is what delayed the basket getting as I loathed to spend money. Well a while ago my husband brought home something in a wine box (unfortunately it wasn't wine!). I discovered it was the PERFECT fit, just a bit tall. Finally I remembered to remind him to bring home 3 more wine boxes for me (the first one was long gone of course, being a few months ago!). Then I had the issue of prettying them up. I did toss up the idea of just painting them black, but then I worried I wouldn't be able to get it looking tidy enough. Plus, how boring! But then I had the idea of covering them with fabric. And again, I'm cheap. I went to the local Hospice Shop (op shop) and scoured their shelves of material. I got really lucky and found a piece that not only looks perfect but was the perfect size (typical me didn't measure how much I would need before going there, I just happened to get the PERFECT size by sheer luck). $5! What a score.

Anyways, this is what I came up with:

And now I will guide you through how to cover boxes in material the best I can. My main advice is to look at some youtube tutorials and then muddle through it yourself that way, as I couldn't take very good photos while I was actually DOING the hard bits (like the corners) as simply I don't have 100 hands.

To cover a wine box, you will need material roughly 83cm x 113cm. Turns out the material I got was super easy to use because of the dots - they made perfect cutting guides and made lining things up super easy!

Firstly, plonk your box in the middle of the material and make sure all sides go up and over with a bit of excess material for just in case. Then cover the bottom of the box with glue - you can use a piece of cardboard off-cut to spread it out so you don't get ugly glue lines everywhere. Stick the box down in the middle of the material and smooth out to remove any wrinkles.

Now do the sides that won't be showing to the front (Ideally. I accidentally did it the opposite way around with my 3rd box, I was getting a bit cocky by then and not paying as much attention haha, and it still looks fine, but for your first try especially, do the sides first as your first is never as neat as your last).

Before gluing the sides, you will need to cut them. Cut them roughly 2cm from the actual side of the box, right down to the line that the bottom of the box makes. Does that make sense? You can sort of see in the photo where the cut stops. Try not to cut too far!

Now cover the side with glue, spread it out, then lift the material over it and smooth it over so there are no wrinkles. Repeat on the other side.

Now to do the front and the back. Firstly I cut the excess material, the same as doing the sides, roughly 2cm excess. Then I glued down the overlap bit from the sides onto the box. Next, cover the box side with glue and spread it. Add a line of glue down the edge of the loose bit of material on the overlap part (left and right hand sides). Then don't worry about that part for now. This is the tricky bit but once you have it worked out its really quite easy. Lift the material over the glue.

This bit is the hard to explain part. You want to fold the material underneath itself to create a straight side. The fold should already have glue on it from before, therefore will stick to itself. Pull it tight and smooth it over the box, repeating on the other side. Then turn the box over and do the front (or back, depending which ends up as the neatest side haha!)

You should now have a box that covered in material on the outside and an excess of loose material on the inside.

I chose to cut off the excess and just keep about 4cm to glue down as I don't care what the inside of the box looks like. You might like to cover the inside with material too, that's up to you to work out how to do haha!

And voila, a fabric covered box!



Another One Bites The Dust

Well, another challenge crossed off my list anyway... I may just have Queen on the mind after a fun singstar night doing Queen songs last night!

13. Cut flowers, weeds, tree branches whatever is there and arrange them in a vase creatively.

Here they are

A florist I am not, and those were literally ALL the flowers from my garden haha, I think I left maybe 2 of the purple ones, took all the red ones.... Not many flowers survive in my garden! If you can call it a garden...

And to update on other parts of the list:

3. Join the gym - and go at LEAST 2x a week - joined 14-2-12 - Ok, only been 2 weeks but so far have been going 4x a week, and I'm loving it (actually, I only went 3x last week as I couldn't get to my usual Wednesday night Zumba class there as we went to see the Roger Waters concert).

11. Collect all my family and friends birthdays, put them into my calendar and send them all birthday cards by post - collected 10-2-12, yet to send any - well, the first birthday is tomorrow. My Step-bro. Um, I haven't been organised enough to get a card out in the post to him, oops, sorry! The next birthday is on Friday.... We shall see how I go :)

32. Do a triathlon - Have decided to just do a run instead. The aim at the moment is 10km towards the end of the year, around October-ish. My friend from http://theramblingsofanothermother.blogspot.co.nz/ is going to do it with me :) I can't run to save myself, so it will be interesting. I can manage 10 minutes on the treadmill, which is only about 2km lol. And I don't think I could run 10 minutes on land, it's a lot harder. So I have a long way to go!

I have completed 9/101 so far. Not a bad effort for only about 2 weeks into it.

Spaghetti Cupcakes - say wha??!

Ok they aren't exactly cupcakes but hey. But here is another way to use up a tin of spaghetti. From the 4ingredients website. So quick (I had them whipped up long before the oven had time to heat up) and seriously easy. And my taste testers approved them.

You could probably leave out the cheese if you wanted them dairy free, I added it to be naughty.

Makes 12

• 420g tin spaghetti in sauce
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 2 cups (200g) mozzarella cheese, grated
• Spray oil

Preheat oven to 180°C. In a bowl beat eggs, then add 1 1/2 cups cheese and the spaghetti and stir to combine. Grease muffin tins and evenly distribute the mixture across 12 muffin cups. Top each with remaining cheese and bake for 15 minutes.

Optional: This is a great easy kids’ meal as they can even decorate the tops of their “cupcakes” with sliced olives, mushrooms, ham or capsicum.

Something I not only haven't made before but

also I have never eaten before! Scotch Eggs. Have you had scotch eggs before? Did you buy them already made at the deli, or did you make them yourself? It's something I have never had before. I like sausages. I love eggs. Why on earth have I never had them? lol

So guess what was dinner tonight? It's a hard one. And they were bloody yum! Not so good on the ol' diet though. One scotch egg is 383 calories. Then if you are a hungus like I am after an intense session at the gym, you will aim for 2 haha. I will be honest and say I was full enough after one. But I reallllly wanted another, so went another half in the end. I am full now that's for sure!

Anyways, here is the recipe if you have never made them before (it's all very straight forward but never mind)

Scotch Eggs

4 eggs, boiled and peeled (I wanted mine slightly soft/runny in the middle, to get that I put the eggs in a pot, fill it with enough water to cover them, and then turn the element on high. Set your timer straight away for 11 minutes. Perfect. If you are wanting runny yolks do 10 mins, and if you are wanting hard boiled do 12-13 minutes depending how hard you want them).

450g sausage meat

1 cup breadcrumbs

some rosemary, chives, parsley, salt and pepper (though if you buy supermarket sausage meat it's likely to already be salted, I omit the salt).

What To Do:

1. While the eggs are boiling, mix the herbs with salt and pepper. Divide the mixture into four.

2. Peel the eggs, then flatten one piece of the meat mixture on a floured board. Pop an egg in the middle and with wet hands roll the meat around it to form an even coating, then roll into a ball. If the meat gets a bit too sticky to handle, use a little seasoned flour. Coat well with breadcrumbs (you can dip in beaten egg first before crumbing but I found it wasn't necessary). Set aside while you make the remaining three eggs.
3. Heat oil in a frying pan on a medium heat and fry the Scotch eggs, turning constantly so they are brown all over. Next, lower the heat and cook for 20 to 30 minutes, turning often, to ensure the sausage meat is cooked through.
4. When cooked, drain on kitchen towels and leave to cool. Cut them in half or quarters and serve with salad.

YUM!!

Kitty Friends and Yummy Treats

Has been a busy week this past week. What with all the car insurance crap (we still are without the car!), and joined the gym, then on Wednesday we appear to have been adopted by a very gorgeous kitten. Have been advertising to see if she was loved anywhere else, but it looks like she may be ours now ♥. A lovely tempered kitty, so good with the kids, and the kids are good with her. We have named her Roxie.

She made herself right at home from day 1! Once we had fed her and deflea'd her etc, she was one happy kitty. And so loved by us now :)

Anyways, haven't had much time to do much of anything, but I'm getting there. Just done some baking for next week's lunchboxes. This is a recipe I adapted from another, has turned out bloody well!

Makes quite a few, I have got 12 standard sized muffins and 12 mini muffins out of one mix

Boysen'choc Muffins

2 c flour

4 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

3/4 c sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

100g butter, melted (marg is fine)

1/2 c choc chips

1 c milk (or dairy free milk alternative)

Mix all the above ingredients together with a wooden spoon until just combined. (The trick with muffins is to not over mix them).

Drain 1 tin of Boysenberries (and keep the syrup if you feel like a special treat)

Toss the drained berries with flour - this helps prevent them all sinking to the bottom of the muffin

Add the berries into the muffin batter and stir through

You can make plain choc chip muffins using the above ingredients, minus the berries - this will only make roughly 12 standard sized muffins

Spoon into prepared muffin tins - fill right to the top, don't be shy. Bake at 220*c for 12-15mins for large ones, and 8-10 mins for mini ones

If you kept the syrup from the berries, boil it over medium heat until it has reduced by half and thickened. Allow to cool. Then drizzle over your muffin and enjoy (make a dessert out of it, add a bit of whipped cream, or yoghurt on the side too. Yummy)

It's been one of THOSE days

Ya know the one. Today I had lots of plans - to join the gym finally, to shampoo the carpets, and to get stuck into some crafty stuff.

Instead, I spent half the morning at the police station filing a report, then the other half of the morning and most of the afternoon on the phone to insurance etc sorting out our claim. On Saturday overnight some mongrels tried to steal one of our cars, leaving us with a smashed window and the ignition ripped out. Tow truck has taken it away now, hopefully it gets sorted soon.

But in between sorting all this with the insurance company, I dropped my cellphone in the bloody toilet. Have a good laugh, because I am - if I don't laugh I would cry. REEEAAAALLLY not what I needed today!

I have decided to ignore most of the housework today (I won't be thanking myself later but never mind), and in the few minutes spare, I actually tackled one of the craft projects I have been meaning to do for quite some time. It actually ticks a couple of things off my 101 Challenges list too -

44. Do at least one craft project a month

81. Create another piece of wall art

98. Make 5 things off my Pinterest crafts board

Ok, so #44 and #98 are more ongoing, but hey, I created a piece of wall art. Incidentally, I also get to cross #73 off my list - I updated the insurance on our other car, something I have been meaning to do for far far far too long. But hey, I was on the phone to them anyway haha!

73. Take care of a nagging life admin item (a trip to the post office, filing an insurance claim, making a doctor’s appointment).

But anyways, onto more fun things - What Did I Create Today?

It was so quick and so easy! Oh and cheap! I made this

Out of toilet paper rolls! Oh and guess what? I'm hanging it outside the toilet door, hehehe, I find it a li'l amusing. I think it looks kinda cool though, don't you?

Got the idea off Pinterest, there are several gazillion pinterest posts for toilet paper craft. Just cut up toilet rolls (I used the Kiwi Soft branded toilet paper, the toilet paper isn't glued to the roll, so perfect for reusing!), approx 3/4" thick, paint as desired (I painted the outside red and left the inside white which looks kinda cool), and then when it's all dry, using a hot glue gun just glue together in the design you like. I quite like the 5 petalled flower look, so glued all the flowers together, then arranged them in a way that I thought looked nice, then glued them all together. Then I just hung it over a picture hook nail in the wall.

My one smiling point for the day :)

The 101 Challenge

So yesterday I decided I was going to do the 101 Challenge, got the idea off my friend from http://theramblingsofanothermother.blogspot.co.nz/ 

To see my list, click on the page link at the top of the blog, or follow this link. I don't know how long it will take me to complete it all, a lot of them require spending money and we don't often have much going spare, so it could take a while but I'm hoping not too long. But follow my progress via the 101 Challenge link, will be crossing off and dating them as they get done :)

http://tastytidbitsandrandomrambles.blogspot.co.nz/p/101-challenge.html