So Fresh Peg Bucket

When we were challenged this month over at QFD Creative to make a tutorial that related to storage, I decided to make a Peg Bucket. I have been using my new peg bucket this week and it is a big improvement on the one I was using. The carabiner hook is perfect for quickly attaching it to the washing line, and the drawstring closure prevents the pegs from ending up everywhere inside my laundry cupboard.

You can find the tutorial over at QFD Creative, as well as all the fabric supplies. You can easily purchase a carabiner (sometimes known as a karabiner) from an outdoor or camping store (they are used in hiking, canoeing, sailing etc).

My clever daughter, Sarah,  used her graphic design skills to put together the Project Image below. Fortunately I took the outside photo a week or so ago when it was sunny!

My Name is Lisa and I am a Bookaholic...

I have a bit of an addiction to craft books, I'll admit it. Another one arrived in the mail yesterday. It is the classic, Densye Schmidt Quilts (2005). I have often seen this book referenced by bloggers and was unable to find a copy in the local library system. I found it here.

The book has 30 projects - 20 are smaller sewing projects with many suitable for a beginner including eye pillow, cards, oven mitt and slippers.

It also includes 10 of her stunning quilts. My goal this year is to make a few projects using only solids.

I have another book on order and then I had better restrain myself! But just in case I feel the need to go book shopping again, what is your favourite craft/sewing book that you would recommend?

Things We Love About a Wet Weekend...

It has been cold and wet here in Perth this weekend, the first real rain we have had in ages. It has been the perfect weather for:

Knitting - We stopped by Lincraft yesterday and Sarah found some lovely red wool and has already started on knitting herself a scarf.

Sashiko - I bought myself a sashiko kit in Japan earlier in the year and finally got it out to stitch in front of the TV. With the stitches already marked on the fabric it is perfect for when I don't want to concentrate too much!

Comfort Food - I made up a big pot of Zucchini and Leek soup, and some home made bread. Perfect winter sunday lunch.

Movies - Watched "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" which was very moving and sad. Sarah is studying the Holocaust at school.

Craft and Quilt Fair - I spent a few hours yesterday at the Craft and Quilt Fair. I met up with a crafty buddy for some retail therapy. I was drawn to the Japanese supplies and bought these fabrics.

Christmas Projects - I always find it strange working on magazine projects a long way in advance. At least the weather this weekend reminded me of the Christmas' we have spent in the Northern Hemisphere as I stitched away.

Hope you have all been enjoying your weekends!

Tomato and Chilli Relish

We had a lovely family dinner out on the weekend at a hamburger place -  one of the nicest things about this restaurant, other than the family friendly atmosphere (we all love the paper tablecloths that you can draw on - I usually sketch out quilt designs, Sarah draws cupcakes, while my DH and DS draw engineering diagrams), was the delicious tomato relish they put on their burgers. I have never been a big fan of chutney, mainly because I have only ever had the commercial variety. After some research, I found a great recipe here. I modifed it to halve the sugar content, and added some dried chili flakes for a bit more kick. I also used half verjuice/half vinegar for a softer flavour.

It tastes amazing - I think I will be putting this on my cold meat and salad sandwiches that I take to work from now on.

What are your favourite types of preserves to make?

My Growing Library

This week I am reading I Love Patchwork and Sewing with Scraps - two craft books that have been written by bloggers. My sewing/craft book collection seems to be growing but I always enjoy looking through them. I love how shopping at the Book Depository makes it more affordable for Australians to buy books at a fraction of the local price.  (I am waiting for two more books to arrive as well - I love Birthday money - I think my extended family know how much I love selecting craft books!)

I love the zakka style and have a growing collection of Japanese craft magazines so was drawn to I Love Patchwork. It was nice to find a book in a similar style that is written in English. I love the use of natural linen that Rashida Coleman-Hale uses in her projects. Teamed with brightly coloured quilting cottons, they have a timeless appeal. Most projects are suitable for beginner to intermediate sewers. Here are some of my favourite projects from the book:

Sewing with Scraps has some brightly coloured projects in it - many suitable as gifts for children, and the projects are aimed at beginner to intermediate sewers. I would have loved to have seen more photographs in the book - as each project is only photographed once - some detail shots, and overview shots would have been helpful, rather than just hand drawn diagrams. All templates are full size which is a bonus.

Some of my favourite projects from the book are:

As you know, I am a big lover of Japanese fabrics, especially all the kawaii prints. I received a lovely package last week from Sarah at QFD with some fun Kokka and Lecien prints, teamed with some co-ordinating spots, checks, and stripes. I have some fun plans for these - stay tuned! Sarah is giving away a $50 gift voucher to her gorgeous store, go over here to enter.

I have been super busy sewing up a storm lately - unfortunately there is nothing I can show here at the moment. Hope to be back with some sewing projects before long.

Sashiko + More

Sashiko ( literally "little stabs") is a form of decorative reinforcement stitching (or functional embroidery) from Japan. Traditionally used to reinforce points of wear, or to repair worn places or tears with patches, this running stitch technique is often used for purely decorative purposes in quilting and embroidery. The white cotton thread on the traditional indigo blue cloth gives sashiko its distinctive appearance, though decorative items sometimes use red thread. (Excerpt from Wikipedia.) 

I have always been interested in Sashiko, since I made my East Meets West Quilt around 10 years ago. I love to incorporate a bit of sashiko into my projects. For Mothers Day, I was given a lovely book "Sashiko Zakka". It incorporates sashiko into many lovely projects, and has a mix of traditional and modern designs. 

 I read somewhere that the stitches represent little grains of rice. I love how a little bit of stitching can transform anotherwise plain object. 

This tea cosy and matching coasters is seriously cute!

The stitching works well for running writing. 

Like most Japanese craft books it can be easily followed from the pictures and diagrams. I bought my copy here. 




Terri has done a great book review of Sandi Henderson's new book, Sewing with Scraps. You can read the review and see some pictures here.  It looks so good I have ordered a copy with some birthday money! (I seem to have a weakness for sewing books and magazines) and could always use more inspiration of projects to use my scraps!  

Sarah and I used the random number generator to select the winner of our Cupcake giveaway (Baking papers and cupcake box). Congratulations to Natalie - We have sent you an email. 


We are happy to announce that we have a new sponsor for May - Scrapsidaisy - a great shop selling Inspiration Kits which are compiled by their Design Team exclusively for Scrapsidaisy along with the latest in scrapbooking and cardmaking supplies. If you mention A Spoonful of Sugar when placing an order, you will receive a free gift! For more information on this great store, read about it in our Sponsor page or hop on over to Scrapsidaisy. 

Success at Last (the Macaroon/Macaron Challenge!)

It was a case of third time lucky yesterday when I made another batch of chocolate macaroons to take to our Mothers Day celebration. (The Australian Women's Weekly cookbook refers to them as macaroons so that is good enough for me!) Now that I have mastered the chocolate version (made with some delicious Dutch cocoa) and using the recipe from the book that Susan gave me, I can see many more of these in my baking future.

We had a wonderful time catching up with all the extended family and there was loads of yummy food to eat. Sarah made some Macadamia and White Chocolate Chunk Blondie's

and some Hazelnut Crescents.

I made some Thai Chicken Sausage Rolls

and my Mum made a wonderful Cupcake Tower.  Needless to say we didn't need any dinner after all the afternoon tea :-)

Hope all the Mothers had a wonderful day yesterday!

In the Kitchen

Our jam supplies were running low (since I have started making homemade jam we seem to be consuming much larger quantities of jam - probably because it just tastes so amazing when compared to the shop bought stuff and I give a lot of it away!). With winter just starting the suitable fruit available for making preserves was dwindling. My DH mentioned that the plum jam I made was his favourite, so I made up another batch with the last black plums of the season (I think the supermarket had frozen them - don't you hate that!). This time I made Vanilla and Plum Jam, and let me tell you the addition of the vanilla made this jam so MUCH NICER! I used the recipe I found here.

One of my favourite things about making jam is dressing up the jars. Usually I make my own labels but I found these simple labels at domestifluff and they were perfect! Teamed with some Heather Bailey fabric and some raffia, my jam was ready for giving and eating.

During the week I found a fabulous tutorial for dyeing paper doileys with food colouring. You can find the instructions and sweet images at Charlottes Fancy. I have a thing for doileys lately and have been using them in gift wrapping, for displaying cupcakes etc, and it was oh so fun to colour my own in pretty pastel shades. Once they were dry, I ironed them flat and they are now ready to incorporate into some projects. I think they will make an appearance at our family gathering tomorrow for Mothers Day.

Don't they look sweet with some of my favourite baking cups!

I have used a couple in wrapping my Mum's present for Mothers Day. Notice the washi tape with the lace pattern - I found it here. (My collection of Japanese Washi Masking tape seems to be growing).

Happy Mothers Day to all the Mothers out there celebrating tomorrow!

Birthday Treats

It was my birthday a couple of days ago and I have been celebrating all week! Yesterday I had the delight of catching up with my two favourite blogging friends, Susan and Janelle, for a day of laughter, shopping, and our continued quest to find the best patisserie in Perth. (This time we tried Chez Jean Claude Patisserie in Subiaco )

They spoilt me with some lovely birthday goodies-
Beautifully wrapped packages from Susan

with a lovely hand made card and other goodies

and a wonderful cookbook so I can perfect my macarons/macaroons. I am going to make some chocolate macarons tomorrow for Mothers Day.

Janelle made me a lovely card, and she knows my love of all things cupcake :-)

and she made me a gorgeous bag embellished with roses - perfect for a special occasion (it looks even better in person - the colour is a rich burgundy red).

Thanks so much girls - you are the best!

Chocolate Delights + Giveaways

During the school holidays, Sarah bought 500 Chocolate Delights with her pocket money and has been delighting us ever since with some delicious chocolate recipes. This week she made her version of the Coconut and Chocolate Chip cookies.

Coconut and Chocolate Chip Cookies
115 g plain flour, sifted
40 g self raising flour, sifted
2 tsp baking powder
60 g  brown sugar
60 g caster sugar
1 egg
2 drops vanilla extract
3 tbspn vegetable oil
90 g plain chocolate, roughly chopped
35 g coconut
55 g icing sugar
2 tbspn water

Preheat oven to 160 deg C. Put first 7 ingredients in food processor. Gradually add oil and process until mixture becomes a soft, crumbly dough. Stir in chocolate and coconut and knead well. Roll into 12 balls and arrange on tray. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool. Stir water into the icing sugar to make a smooth paste. Drizzle icing across each cookie. Allow icing to set.

Sarah's Girl Guide group made Mothers Day cupcakes this week. They were all decorated with piped icing and sugar flowers, and presented in a beautiful cupcake box with a hand made card. I was a parent helper for the activity and it was wonderful to see the girls all enjoying the baking and decorating - they were very proud of their efforts.

The Guide Leader had sourced these really sweet Fox Run Cupcake Boxes and Cupcake Baking Papers from All About Bread. I loved them so much, I have popped down and bought some for a giveaway. (Long time readers of our blog would know that Sarah and I have thing for baking cases/patty pans!) So if you would like to win a pack of cupcake baking papers and a matching cupcake box, just leave a comment on this post. We will draw the winner on May 12.

Talking of giveaways, Sarah at QFD Creative is giving away a $50 voucher to her store - more details here. Thanks to Elizabeth from To be Charmed for linking to my Breakfast in Bed Tutorial. Elizabeth has a great tutorial on a stylish DIY Sandwich Wrap that I can't wait to make.

Les Bonnes Idees!

I suggested to my family that they may like to give me a gift subscription to Marie Claire Idees as a Mothers Day Gift. It is a magazine I love and it can be difficult to find in Perth. They happily agreed (it gets them off the hook for shopping!) and my first issue arrived last week. Of course I have no will power and opened it right away :-)

Suzie did her own interpretation of the bag on the cover -check it out, it is amazing!

There is a article of patchwork projects, including the colourful fruit and the cute sleeping dog.

There are a lot of ideas for recycling denim. Ever since I made my denim picnic rug, I have been keeping all our old pairs of jeans - now I have some inspiration to repurpose them.

There are some sweet projects to make for baby.

Some fun Mothers Day Gifts for kids to make. I love the string picture - I remember making these in primary school in the 70's!  The crochet edged hankies are sweet - I have one of these that my Grandmother made for me!

What are your favourite magazines for inspiration?

Than you for all your wonderful comments about my Stitch projects:-)  Thanks also to Whip Up and Craft Gossip for Featuring my Breakfast in Bed Projects that I designed for QFD Creative.  Sarah at QFD Creative has set up a flickr account so if you have made anything using the free tutorials at QFD Creative please post your photos - we would love to see them!