Essentials for Work, Rest and Play

Sponsored by Target

Sarah and I love nothing better than a Mother/Daughter shopping trip. With the arrival of some warmer weather, we recently cleaned out our wardrobes and have donated clothing that we no longer wear. We made a list of a few things that we need and headed out to Target.

Target is always a great place to shop for basic clothing essentials - underwear, socks, sleepwear, T Shirts, shorts, sneakers, jeans etc. They have a great range at a good price. Teens can be a little particular when it comes to clothing, but at Target they have clothing which is on trend and suitable for different age groups. We love to buy our basics at Target and then add a few pieces from fashion boutiques to complete the look.

Target generously gave us a $100 shopping voucher to try out the Women's Essentials clothing range. We managed to buy 10 items for our $100 - which is fantastic value. The Essentials are easy to spot with the distinctive green Target logo.

Work
Sarah and I both wear black trousers to work, and I was in desperate need of a new pair. I always love Target trousers, especially the different leg length options. Although I love to sew, I hate adjusting clothing, so trousers in a Short length are perfect for me. I found this pair for $20 and teamed it with a reversible camisole top in Phantom for $10, and four pairs of knee high stockings for $4. Sarah needed a new black camisole to wear under her work shirt too.

Rest
Target have a great range of sleep tanks and T-Shirts, which are made from a really soft cotton fabric, in a range of solid colours. Sarah selected a Sleep Tank and Shorts ($8 and $10 respectively). As you know, we love to sew and generally make our own sleep shorts and pants. I selected two sleep Tops ($12 each) - one short sleeved and one long sleeved, and will sew some sleep pants to match.

Play
Target  have a wide range of T-shirt, tanks, shorts, bike shorts, and leggings in their Essentials range. The basic T-Shirts and Tanks are great for DIY projects such as our DIY Ombre Tank. Sarah found some 3/4 length leggings with lycra  for $12 which are really comfortable.

Another essential that we added to our basket were some Cosmetic pads ($2.50).

It is hard to believe that we bought all of this for a little over $100. If you need some Women's Essentials, Target is the place to shop for quality at an affordable price.

If you don't live near a Target store, you can shop for Women's Essentials online. Check out Target's Facebook page to stay up to date with their deals of the day.

Target on Facebook  /   Target Online

Gifts for the Home

Christmas sewing is our favourite type of sewing - decorations and gifts - so much fun!

If you have any home cooks on your Christmas list, here is a patchwork pot holder and tea towel (dish towel) that are easy to make using lovely hand printed apple fabric. In teal and grey, with a touch of yellow, it makes a modern set for the kitchen. Best of all, they can be easily made in a couple of hours.

The Pot Holder is made with a layer of Insul-Bright and a layer of  batting for good insulation.

Pot Holder

Finished Size: 8 x 6 inches

Materials:

• 8 1/2 x 6 1/2 cotton fabric (pot holder front - shown as Teal apples, large)
• 2 x 1 1/2 inch white linen (patch on pot holder front)
• 1 1/4 x 1 1/4 inch  (pot holder front - yellow apple)
• 3 x 6 1/2 inch cotton fabric (pot holder back - shown as Teal apples, large)
• 6 x 3 1/2 inch cotton fabric (pot holder back - shown as Teal apples, small)
• 3 x 3 1/4 inch cotton fabric (pot holder back - shown as Grey apples, large)
• 3 x 3 1/4 inch cotton fabric (pot holder back - shown as Grey apples, small)
• 8 1/2 x 6 1/2 Insul-Brite
• 8 1/2 x 6 1/2 warm and white batting
• 2 1/2 inches yellow striped ribbon 1/2 inch wide
• 4 1/2 inches yellow striped ribbon 3/8 inch wide
• small piece of fusible appliqué web, such as Steam a Seam

Method:

1. Layer the front of the pot holder onto the batting, and quilt as desired.

2. Following manufacturer's directions, apply fusible appliqué web to the wrong side of the yellow patch. Remove paper backing, and fuse patch to the white linen. Apply fusible web to the wrong side of the white linen,. remove paper backing and press patch onto bottom right corner of the fabric used for the front of the pot holder, allowing approx 1 inch from the bottom and side of the fabric. Stitch the patches in place.

3. Fold the 1/2 width ribbon in half lengthwise. Position it on the bottom right hand side of the pot holder front (refer to photo for placement). and baste in place.

4. Following the photo, sew the bottom of the large grey apples to the top of the small grey apples, to make a rectangle measuring 6 x 3 1/2. Sew the small teal apples to the grey apple panel. Add the large Teal apple print to the bottom, to create a rectangle measuring 8 1/2 x 6 1/2.

5. Layer the back of the pot holder onto the Insul-Brite and quilt as desired. Position the 3/8 inch width ribbon at the top of the pot holder to create a hanging loop, and baste in place.

6. Layer the pot holder front and back together with the right sides facing. Stitch around the outside, 1/4 inch from the edge, leaving a 4 inch gap for turning on one long side. Clip corners, and turn out right way. Press. Top stitch around the outside edge using a scant seam allowance to close the gap. Stitch through the middle of the pot holder, through all layers, to create a fold line when using the Pot Holder.

A plain ivory tea towel has been enhanced with the addition of a patchwork strip: feature patch and tag; and a hanging loop.

Stitch together a patchwork strip measuring 3 1/2 inches x (the width of the tea towel + 1/2 inch). Press under 1/4 inch on all sides. Sew the patchwork strip onto the tea towel approx 2 1/2 inches from the bottom edge (include a 2 inch fold piece of stripey ribbon if desired). Stitch a yellow apple patch on the tea towel patchworks strip if desired, following the directions in the Pot Holder. Add a hanging loop from a 6 inch piece of ribbon to the top of the Tea Towel if desired.

                                                                                                                                                                                 Thanks to our lovely sponsors,

• Maria from Blueberry Ash for providing the lovely hand printed Apple fabrics used in this tutorial.  Check out the fantastic range of wonderful hand printed textiles available at Blueberry Ash.
• Fiona from Ribbons Galore for providing the yellow ribbons.There is a wonderful range of ribbons for all your projects at Ribbons Galore.

Brown Sugar and Cinnamon Cookies

If you are after a plain, crispy cookie, you will love these brown sugar and cinnamon cookies. They are quick and easy to prepare and taste amazing fresh from the oven. Sarah baked up a big batch on the weekend while I was vacuuming  - it was so nice to be treated to fresh cookies and a lovely cup of tea when all of the housework was done. The recipe makes up a big batch ( approx 3 dozen) and they freeze really well. We have been popping them in the lunch boxes this week.

Brown Sugar and Cinnamon Cookies

2 cups plain (all-purpose) flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
170 g (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature

Preheat the oven to 190 deg C (375 degrees F). Prepare baking sheets with baking paper.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon. Set aside.

Beat butter and sugar until smooth and creamy. Add the egg and beat well. Add flour mixture and beat until well incorporated, scraping sides of bowl as you go.

Use a cookie scoop to drop large tablespoonfuls of dough onto prepared baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. Bake for about 8-10 minutes until edges are browned. Cook on wire rack.

(Adapted from Chelsea Bakes)

Some of our other favourite cookies include:

Maple Cookies
Vanilla Bean Cookies
Chocolate Cookies


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A Cool Escape

Sponsored by Cold Rock

We are finally getting some decent Spring weather in Perth, with the thermometer reaching the mid 30's this weekend.  When the weather heats up, we love to walk down to the Boat Harbour to get some fresh sea air. Tonight we dragged the teens out with us - they have been busy with uni exams, school work, and part time jobs- so a treat was in order. They never refuse ice-cream!

After a wander around the Boat Harbour and an early pizza dinner,we headed to Cold Rock,
our favourite ice-cream store. They have a huge range of flavours, and we love being able to mix in your choice of lollies, fruit or chocolates. The combinations are endless.

Choose It. Mix It. Smash It. Love It.

◦                     Choose It: You choose your favourite ice-cream flavour...

◦                     Mix It: They mix in your choice of lollies, chocolate, fruit & nuts.

◦                     Smash It: They smash the mix-ins into your ice-cream.

◦                     Love It: You enjoy it!

We ordered four of the very generously sized kiddie cups- Coconut ice-cream with Twix; Banana Ice-cream with Bounty; Coconut Ice-cream with Mars Bar; and Cheesecake Ice-cream with Cookie Dough and M & M's. Yummm...

It was a lovely end to the weekend, sitting on a wall overlooking the Boat Harbour eating our Cold Rock
whilst the sun was setting over the Indian Ocean. Life gets busy with teens, so taking time out together is always wonderful. Now we are ready for the week ahead!

Cold Rock are currently running a cute promotion "Save the Gummi Bears". Until November 16 you can  buy Cookie Dough Mix-in for 50 cents with the purchase of any other Mix-in. Everything tastes better with Cookie  Dough!  (The Gummi Bears will thank you).

We love to support Australian businesses and Cold Rock is 100% Australian owned and made. Cold Rock Ice creamery is part of the Franchised Food Company. If you want a Smashing New Business, what could be better than having your own Ice-Cream Store? 

Cold Rock on Facebook    /   Cold Rock on Twitter

Spicy Tomato Ketchup

One of the things we love about Spring and Summer, is eating more meals outdoors. We enjoy our BBQ's and grilled foods. One way to make your home made burgers and fries shine, is to add some home made spicy tomato ketchup. It has a richer complexity of flavour than the store bought varieties. If you package it up in a nice bottle or jar with some BBQ accessories, it also makes a great gift for BBQ Lovers!

Our Spicy Tomato Ketchup is easy to prepare. You can vary the amount of chili powder to suit your taste - we love a bit of a kick to ours! If you don’t have a vegetable garden with fresh tomatoes, you can use a tinned variety.

Spicy Ketchup Recipe

Ingredients: 

·                     2 tablespoons olive oil

·                     1 small onion, chopped medium

·                     1 clove garlic, minced (or 1 teaspoon of garlic granules)

·                     800g (1.75 lbs) crushed tomatoes

·                     1/3  cup packed dark brown sugar

·                     1 tablespoons of white vinegar

·                     1/2 teaspoon sea salt

·                     1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

·                     1/8 teaspoon chilli powder

·                     1/2 teaspoon paprika

1. Heat oil in sauce pan over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 5 minutes. Add in garlic and stir until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the rest of the ingredients, bring to boil and then reduce heat to low and simmer until thick, stirring occasionally, for 45 to 60 minutes. 

2. Puree in food processor until smooth. 

3. Strain through a fine mesh strainer, forcing all sauce through. 

4.  Pour ketchup into a sterilised jar (pour boiling water over jar and let sit for 1 minute), seal, and store in the refrigerator for up to a month.

Spicy Tomato Ketchup makes a great gift. Download and print out our labels onto white cardstock; cut to size; punch a hole and tie to the jar with ribbon or twine.

You can find the Spicy Tomato Ketchup labels here.

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Halloween Craft

Halloween is certainly growing in popularity in Australia, if the number of "Treat or Treat"-ers that we get knocking on our door in recent years is anything to go by. We really enjoyed our three Halloweens spent in Texas. It really is such a fun holiday and it wonderful to see all the neighbourhood children dress up and go around their neighbourhood. 

However it isn't such a healthy holiday - with so much chocolate and lollies consumed. Here is one Halloween Craft activity that the kids will enjoy creating, and then they will have a healthy addition to their school lunchbox.

Jack O'Lantern Fruit

You will need:

·         Oranges, mandarins, or tangerines in different sizes

·         Toothpicks

·         Chenille sticks (aka pipe cleaners)  in shades of green

·         Black card

·         Pencil

·         scissors

·         Sticker machine or double sided tape

Firstly you will need to wash your fruit well and allow to dry. It is best to use fruit that is at room temperature (as the face will stick on better).

Draw some eyes, noses, and mouths on black card. Cut out your facial features and place them in the sticker machine. When they are sticky, position the faces on the fruit.

Wrap a chenille stick around a pencil so that it is curly. Place a toothpick in the top of the orange and press it down so only a small part is showing. Twist the curled chenille stem around the top of the toothpick.

They are so much fun to make and they are a great way to encourage your children to eat more fruit. Make sure the toothpick is removed before giving the fruit to young children.

They make a great Halloween centrepiece for your table.

Not long to go now until Halloween! I wonder how many Trick or Treaters we get this year? We had better stock up on lollies - not sure how they would react if we gave them fruit:)

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Chocolate and Vanilla Swirl Cookies

Chocolate and vanilla are our favourite cookie flavours. Sarah has combined them in these Chocolate and Vanilla Swirl Cookies. They look really effective with the swirl. We might make a big batch of these for Christmas.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups plain (all purpose) flour
3/4 cup icing (confectioner's) sugar
1 cup, plus 2 tablespoons (250 g or 2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 tablespoons cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 tablespoons Dutch Cocoa powder
1 egg white
2 tablespoons sugar

Line two baking sheets with baking paper. Sift flour and icing sugar together, and cut in the butter.

When the mixture starts to come together, add the cream and vanilla. Divide the mixture in half and add the cocoa powder to one half. Knead the separate doughs lightly until smooth. Roll out each dough into a rectangle. Stack one of the doughs on top of the other and roll up into a log. Wrap in cling wrap and refrigerate until firm.

Preheat over to 190 degree C (375 F). Brush log with egg white and roll in sugar. Cut into 1/4 inch slices and arrange of baking sheets. Bake for 8 - 10 minutes, and cool on wire rack.

Makes approx 40 cookies.

If you enjoyed these cookies, you will also love our Vanilla Chocolate Butter Cookies, shown below.

Lavender Heat Bag

With Christmas getting closer, we have been working on some home made Christmas gifts. First up, we have been sewing some Lavender Heat Bags, filled with wheat and lavender. We have used offcuts of flannel fabric that we have left over from some pyjamas we made earlier this year. Flannel makes for an extra cosy heat bag. They are great in winter to warm the bed, and are also great gifts for anyone who suffers from muscular aches and pains. If you live in a cold climate, you can also make smaller versions to slip in coat pockets to warm your hands in winter. 

We usually add a little ribbon tag to our heat bags for decoration (although they can be useful for picking up hot bags from the microwave). Ribbon is from Ribbons Galore.

One of our most popular tutorials is our winter warmers Lavender Wheat Bag. You can find our tutorial here      

 if you would like to make your own. 

As we looked over our archives, we realised we have made quite a number of heat bags over the past few years. You can find our Patchwork Heat Pack for necks here ...

... and you can read about our Heat Packs made from quilting cottons here.

We buy our wheat from the pet food aisle of our supermarket. When we run out of wheat, we have also used uncooked rice and that works just as well.

Have you made a start on your home made gifts for Christmas?

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Burp Cloths to Sew

We have been having a big clean-up of our sewing/crafting space this week. All of our sewing supplies have been reorganised. As part of the organisation, we discovered lots of projects from a few years ago, including this set of Burp Cloths that were made for a magazine article.

Burp Cloths are such a great gift idea for a Baby Shower or new Mum. They are fairly quick to sew and with all of the gorgeous quilting cottons available, the hardest part will be choosing some co-ordinating prints. When my teens were babies, I would often have a towel or cloth nappy draped over my shoulder to protect my clothing when nursing. These burp cloths are so much nicer, and are such a practical gift. They look great tied together with some wide satin ribbon.

Materials:

3 x towelling/cloth nappies or diapers

3 pieces of Cotton Fabric measuring approximately 20 cm (8 inches) x  65 cm (26 inches)  

Satin Ribbon

1. Pre-wash the nappies and the fabric.  

2. Lay the nappy out flat on a table  and mark the mid point of the top and bottom edges. Fold the sides in to meet at the midpoint and secure with pins. 

3. Using a zigzag stitch secure the short ends. Zigzag along the  midpoint of the cloth, securing both long edges together. 

4. Measure the burp cloth from top to bottom. Make sure your fabric is 1 inch longer. Press under 1 cm (1/2 inch) on each side of the cotton fabric. Position the cotton fabric over the middle of the burp cloth, covering the seam line. 

5. Stitch in place using a zigzag stitch. Stack a trio of burp cloths and tie with a ribbon. 

Other Baby Shower gift ideas include:

• Baby Wrap
• All Around the Town Baby Quilt
• Cupcake Gifts

Custard Cake

Eggs were left off our shopping list this week. When Sarah went into the kitchen yesterday to bake us a cake for afternoon tea, she realised we only had one egg left - which wasn't enough for the recipe she was planning to make. Not to be deterred, Sarah did a quick search of her favourite site for baking inspiration - Food Gawker and discovered a recipe for an eggless custard cake. I must admit I was a bit sceptical on how an eggless cake would work but the result was delicious.

We love custard powder and use it in baking occasionally - especially when baking our Custard Shortbreads. The custard powder added a lovely texture to the cake - it was moist and soft, and full of custard flavour. The cake looked pretty on my Grandmothers Vintage Cake Plate.

If you find yourself short of eggs or have someone in your family who is allergic to eggs, then this cake is perfect! You can find the recipe over at Kirbie's Cravings.

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Christmas Gift Pouch

Gifts come in all shapes and sizes, so we have made up a few little Christmas Gift Pouches in red gingham and white homespun to match our Christmas theme. These are the perfect size for small gifts like jewellery, chocolates, or other little treasures.

They were finished off with a tag featuring a red stamped doiley and a small peg covered with stripey masking tape, and red bakers twine.

Our fabulous Eiffel Tower Christmas decorations were a gift from Sarah when she visited the Eiffel Tower gift shop earlier this year. She knows how I feel about Christmas and everything French - they inspired our French Christmas theme. Can't wait to hang them on our tree this year.

If you would like to make your own, you can find the tutorial for the Fabric Gift Pouch here. It is one of our most popular tutorials and best of all they are made up in under 30 minutes.

Here is the version we made last year - complete with bells on the ribbon.

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