Some days

I have made this perfect little cocoon for my family. Our home is our sanctuary. We are free to be who we want to be with no outside distractions. Our home really feels like a home. It is not just a house. It is filled with the smell of flowers in the garden, scented oils in the lounge room, fabric softener fills the air in the bedrooms & the laundry. Everything in our home is comfy & cosy. There are photo’s, shells, paintings & handmade ornaments all through out.

It is our home, it is our safe place.

Now, I feel as though my home is not so calm & tranquil.

Outside influences have disrupted our sanctuary.

Cyber harassment is now part of our lives & it can never be undone.

I can not go into all the details, this is not the place, it is not the time. Things are still going on.

What I want you to do is check your kids social media.

If you do not have access, make them give you their passwords. It is not snooping, it is not an invasion of privacy………It is being a great parent.

Do you know what your kids are writing?

Do you know what other kids are writing to your kids?

I am not just talking about bullying.

There is a lot of other things that go on online than just bullying.

I have always know the passwords, I have the emails linked to my emails, I have done all the right things.

It does not stop others from doing the wrong thing but I am protecting my children to the best of my ability.

I was able to be the protector. I always will be. My kids know that.

People may say that kids should not be on the internet but how can you not let them when it is part of the school requirements. To think that you will never let your kids on the internet is a fantasy. They have to do their homework, they have to do school work. Some schools now even require students to have a laptop. The government is handing out laptops.

Because some other parents are not checking their kids messages, emails & social media, my family & other families just like ours have been shattered by the words that are typed.

I am not pointing the finger at anyone.

What I want to do is raise awareness.

When was the last time you checked what your kids are typing while online?

Blue Cheese dipping sauce. Gourmet Garden cook off

This week I am participating in the Gourmet Garden Blog off/Cook off contest. I received a cooler bag full of Gourmet Gardens herbs & spices tubes.

These are awesome because they are so convenient. I do have my own vegie & herb patch but some times it has been completely empty because I use them all so much! I love garlic but I hate the smell of garlic so to have it in a sealed tube all crushed & ready to go is simply brilliant as I can not stand the smell of garlic on my hands.

So my first recipe in the Blog off/cook off is a really simple

Blue cheese dipping sauce.

It is also great as a salad dressing.

I had it with beer battered potato wedges, steak & pan fried mushrooms on the weekend & it was amazing!

All you need is

1/4 cup of sour cream

1/4 cup of mayonnaise

80g of blue cheese

1 teaspoon of lemon juice

1 teaspoon of Gourmet gardens garlic

Put all the ingredients in a bowl & blitz with a hand blender until smooth

Serve in a small bowl for each person as there will be fights over this dipping sauce!

I did make a second batch & had it the next day to dip my fresh beans into.

You could use it as a salad dressing as well. Just make up a salad with lettuce, tomatoes, a chopped up boiled egg & some croutons. Pour this sauce all over & mix well.

Easy lemon cake slice

After making Dot's easy apple slice, I started thinking of other recipes that I could come up with using a packet cake mix as the base.

Hello Easy lemon cake slice!

Ingredients

1 packet vanilla cake mix (I used a Coles brand packet)

1 cup desiccated coconut

1/2 cup of butter, melted

1/4 cup of lemon juice

zest of 1 lemon

icing sugar for topping

Mix together the cake mix, coconut, melted butter, lemon juice & zest.

Press into a lined square cake tin.

cook for 30 mins on 175 degrees Celsius

Sift icing sugar over the top while still warm.

Slice into squares & serve

This is best eaten on the day you make it.

You spin me right round cake stand. Quick and easy

How awesome is this cake stand?

Pretty awesome if you ask me!

It was so easy & quick to make. If you have some old records & a 2 tier cake stand, then you can probably make this in seconds!

You need the centre piece from the cake stand to be in 2 parts so you can do this..

This would be perfect at a fancy dress rock star party or just to use at your next dinner party as a conversation starter.

The wheels keep turning

Things around here have been pretty good lately.

Mr P & I seem to be back on track. The girls are really stepping up & helping around the house. Life has been really good. Mr P has been home a lot. He has even had a few weeks where he has done a lot of local work. Last week he was gone for 7 days. That shook me a little after having him home for so long. Now, he has gone again & this time will be the longest in months. There is no return date, it will be weeks maybe even longer, until I see him again. I know that I have to get over it, I have to daughters to look after.

{that is not Kiara’s normal photo pose, she was having a moment of madness!}

but some days just suck.

In my email inbox this morning, I read this,

May 9, 2012

"We don't have a lot of control in life, but we really do have control over the objects in our homes. So when the world is spinning too fast and you feel completely crazed, just get the things around you settled."

—  Peri Wolfman

 

That is what I have been doing without even realising. I have been cleaning like a mad woman, sewing from my incredibly large fabric stash, making a million & 1 things from the overflowing craft cupboard & cooking so I can use up my stock pile of cooking ingredients. I have been so busy that I am not sleeping. At 11pm last night, I was rearranging the pots & pans cupboard. I get these serious bouts of insomnia where I just can’t sleep so I clean, I organise & I make.

Then there are the low moments, when the house is quiet & I have time to think. That is the time when I start to think of what I am missing out on with Mr P away so much. Then it starts again. I have to clean & make so that I don’t have time to dwell on things.

 

What do you do when your world is spinning out of control & you need to bring yourself back down to earth?

Dying paper doilies

By now, you all must have realised that I love doilies. I have pictures up the top on the banner of this page, down the side as blog buttons & my house is full of them. I love to dye them all fantastic bright & funky colours. I have just dyed my first batch of paper doilies!

I love them!

It was so super easy. You just need food colouring, water, gloves & a shallow dish that is a little bigger than your doily.

The brighter you make the colour, the better your doily will look.

Just put the food colouring & some water (about 1cm deep) in the shallow dish & mix well.

Make sure you use gloves other wise you will end up covered in food colouring!

Dip the doily into the colour & gently push it down so it is all covered.

Place the doily gently onto a tray that is covered with a paper towel. Let sit for 10 seconds then carefully urn it over just to soak up any excess water.

Place on a cookie cooling rack until completely dry.

Make sure you have a baking tray under the racks to catch any excess dye.

These beautiful paper doilies are going to come in handing for so many uses!

The possibilities are endless!

For more doily dying ideas, check out these previous posts…

A dyed doily t-shirt

Shabby chic doily bunting

Wordless Wednesday, the week that was.

Linking up at My little drummer boys for Wordless Wednesday

My new old fashioned kitchen display cabinet, DIY

Would you believe that this cupboard above started off like this….

A friend of mine {thanks Kate!} posted on Facebook that her sister was giving this cupboard away.

I knew from the moment I laid eyes on it that I wanted to totally transform this into an old fashioned larder.

It worked out perfect! It is the new home to my ever growing collection of teacups, saucers, jugs, plates, cake stands, etc.

With a little, {ok, a lot} of help from Mr P, we transformed this in one long weekend.

First, I asked very nicely if Mr P would cut out the panels in the doors.

Then we sanded & scraped as much of the old paint off as we could.

Then Mr P cut some bird aviary mesh to size & stapled it onto the inside of the doors.

I gave the inside of the cupboard a spray wit Creation Blue paint. The thing is that it didn’t take to well to all of the wood but that actually gave it the worn look that I was after.

I then masking taped newspaper to the inside of the doors & sprayed primer all over the outside & the wire mesh.

I then did 2 light coats of gloss white spray paint to give it an aged look.

Brought it inside & filled it with all of my favourite things!

This cost $20 to do. The cupboard was free, 4 x spray paint $10, bird aviary mesh $10 & Mr P’s labour was free too!

It is perfect for storing all of your beautiful crockery that is just too pretty to be hidden away in the back of a cupboard. I have also put all of our every day crockery in here too.

I am in love with this & I want to make another one for all of my patchwork quilts & vintage tablecloths.

Joining up with And Sew We Craft

Dot’s Easy apple slice.

 
 

 

On Saturday, I went to a High Tea party where we were treated to some of the most delicious treats.

 

One of the hits of the day was Dot’s easy apple slice. It was that tasty that we all gave Dot our email addresses so that she could share her recipe. And I just had to share it with you all. I know that you will love this as much as we all did!

 

EASY APPLE SLICE

Ingredients:

1 packet Vanilla Cake Mix

1 cup Coconut

½ cup melted Butter

1 large tin of Pie Apples (works with pie apricots or peaches too)

1 large tub of Sour Cream

Cinnamon Sugar for dusting

Method:

Preheat oven to 180C. Grease a lamington tin.

Mix cake mix, coconut and butter together. Press firmly into prepared tin and bake for 15 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool slightly.

Top with pie apples and then spread with sour cream. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Bake for 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

 

I have to let you in on a few little changes that I made to mine. I made this in a square cake pan instead of a lamington tray because the base of this slice is so yummy that I wanted to make it a little thicker.

I also didn’t have any tin pie apples so I used 3 Granny smith apples. It gave a little extra crunch which I loved!