Star Wars Pot Holder

My brother recently bought his first house, and since I live across the country, I thought it would be nice to send a house-warming present. I really have no idea what he needs as when I go home, I normally catch up with him at my parents' place. He previously shared a house with a mate, so I have no idea what belonged to him and what was the mate's. I also wanted the present to be a surprise, so I couldn't just ask him.

When it comes to Christmas and birthday presents, I normally go the easy option and buy Star Wars merchandise, but I'm on this crafty, homemade kick, and thought I should be somewhat sensible with the present for a change (he is in his mid-thirties and now has a mortgage!). I decided you can never have enough pot holders, but that I could still go with a Star Wars theme. Here is the end result:

I started by cutting the pieces from black quilters cotton, and the padding is actually an old towel cut up (a thrifty tip from my Mum). I used two layers of towel for the gripping side of the pot holder, and another layer for the side that slips over your hand, to protect you if you're a bit uncoordinated like me and occasionally bump the top of your hand on the next shelf in the oven. It gives it a nice padded feel as well.

I searched for the Star Wars logo using Google image search (I love Google image search!), and printed it out to make a freezer paper (or in my case, wrapper from printer paper) stencil. I was originally just going to make two Star Wars ones. For some insane reason, I decided since The Empire Strikes Back is my brother's favourite Star Wars movie, I'd make one with that logo. I drove myself insane cutting out the stencil for that one (is this where I need a Cricut???).

Anyway, I eventually sorted out the stencilling – I was going to use white fabric paint, but I didn't have any and I wasn't going to the craft store, so used yellow instead. I then sewed up the pieces, using store-bought bias tape:

I posted off the present with a copy of my Mum's Tuna Mornay recipe. My brother is always complaining that she gave me a copy, but never gave it to him! My brother is pleased that he no longer has to try to “use the force” to get things out of the oven!

How to prevent clothes living on the tallboy

Clothes always used to appear on top of the tall boy (chest of drawers) in our bedroom. It was my husband's preferred location to drape his trousers after work, although hardly-worn T-shirts and other clothes would also appear on top (and not all due to my husband, to be honest). Clothes hanging over the edge would get caught in the drawers, and I just hated the sense of clutter.

I'd tried in the past to nag my husband into hanging up and putting his clothes away properly, but funnily enough, that didn't seem to work. There had to be a better way. This is what I came up with:

I draped shell leis around the top, which were actually given to us to welcome us to the lovely island in Fiji where we spent our honeymoon. Oh the memories! In the centre are two little teddy bear figurines that my Mum gave us (I'm not sure when...), and if you look closely, in between the two teddies is a cork from a bottle of Dom Perignon that we got for a bargain price on a cruise holiday (another happy memory!).

Since this rather simple lot of decorating, no clothes have appeared up there. I think the shell leis around the edge were the key. OK, clothes end up on the floor in the bedroom, but they seem to spend less time there, and I've created a little happy memory area, which I love. Maybe on our next big holiday, I'll find a groovy vase or statue to add to my collection!

How do you stop clothes from piling up in the bedroom? Let me know in the comments.

Pineapple Platter

It's the middle of winter here in Australia, and while Brisbane winters are mild, I'm missing the sunshine and fresh fruit of summer. Looking through some photos of our housewaerming last year, I spotted this very summery Pineapple Platter. Maybe those of you in the Northern Hemisphere enjoying their summer holidays could use the recipe sooner than I will. It's a bizarre flavour combination and had a 70s or 80s feel to it, but somehow it works (and the platter has always got stripped whenever I've made it!

Ingredients
1 pineapple with the top still on
Glace cherries - looks much snazzier if you can get multiple colours!
Cheese - tasty, cheddar or something similar
Toothpicks

Procedure
1.  Slice the top off the pineapple - try to keep it as level as possible so it sits flat as the centre-piece.
2.  Slice the pineapple in half from top to bottom. Then slice each piece in half, and then in half again, to end up with 8 long wedges of pineapple.
3.  Carefully cut off the core and skin of each piece - keep the skin for the platter.
4.  Slice the pineapple pieces into mouthful-sized tasty morsels - place the pineapple straight back onto the piece of skin it came from.
5.  Slice the cheese into pieces that will fit on top of the pineapple morsels.
6.  Put a piece of cheese and glace cherry on top of each piece of pineapple, and put a toothpick through to hold it together.
7.  Place the top of the pineapple on the centre of a large round plate, and evenly space the pineapple strips around the top.
8.  Fill in the gaps with other fruit pieces, or nuts, or dried fruit, or whatever takes your fancy...

I'll go back to pining for warmer weather now...

Linking at:

Weekend Link Love

I've been meaning to share some of the things that have caught my eye in the blog and internet world during the week, but have never quite got around to it.Well, I'm finally giving it a go today. Hopefully it will become a semi-regular feature...So check out:

• The post at Domestic Indecision for tips of a Quick Clean before guests arrive.
• Thoughts on Creativity at From an Igloo
• The great Cozy Coupe remodel at Moody Girl Projects
• I'm definitely going to make this modesty cover for too revealing tops at Shannon Makes Stuff
• 90 minute cinnamon rolls from Gluesticks has been added to my recipes to try pile. They look yummy!

I'd also like to thank the people who have featured my tutorials on their blogs, including:


My toddler pants were also featured at Jean Repair, a blog featuring jeans repairs and refashions.

There have been a few other blogs too - I'm slowly sorting through my emails, and will try to thank them in coming weeks...

Pablo the Panda

A long time ago, Masterchef was just starting, and I announced that I would crochet whilst watching. Well, the finale of Masterchef is tomorrow night, and whilst I've been a bit slow with the blog posts, I have actually completed a few crochet projects (including a crochet plane).

The first project I completed was Pablo the Panda, using a pattern from the Lionbrand website (lots of great FREE knit and crochet patterns). I used black and white wool from my stash – I think it is DK wool from Lincraft. I don't keep my labels so I'm not really sure!

I made a self-taught crocheter mistake by not joining my rounds, so the black band around the middle doesn't really line up properly, but I tried to hide it when I attached the arms. I also added an extra row of black than the pattern as it didn't look enough to me. I didn't quite follow the pattern for the ears because it was really difficult at night to see the stitches in black wool, so I just kinda did what I could and thought it looked good enough (I can't remember exactly what I did now!).

I was originally going to put a bell inside and make it a rattle, but I forgot when I finished it off. I'm now thinking it might be cute on Number 2's cot mobile for the early days when babies love black and white. I'll have to find a couple of other black and white patterns to fill it up.

Cleaning Routine for when it's all too much

Following first-trimester general fatigue and the never-ending second trimester cold (ok, I'm over it now!), I'm heading into the third trimester "I feel like a blimp and it's too much effort to move" phase. Surprise, surprise, cleaning hasn't been a big feature in my life recently, and I doubt it's going to change for quite a while (except for the whole nesting urge - must clean out fridge...).

I'm still trying to maintain some type of routine though - I do get annoyed at an always messy house. My plan is to do 1 hour of household chores each weekday. That's it - the entire plan. What chores do I do when? Whatever is annoying me the most. That means I'm sweeping and vacuuming the downstairs living areas fairly regularly, cleaning the bathrooms occassionally, and dusting upstairs when the sneezing gets out of control. My chores list includes grocery shopping, paying bills, updating the budget so trust me, I'm not spending an hour every day scrubbing and sweeping. I'm also still trying keep up the little habits that prevent things from getting out of control, such as cleaning up spills when they happen etc.

It's not a perfect system, but I feel like I'm at least treading water and am giving myself time to do some of the things I enjoy (blogging, sewing, learning to use my new camera etc) without feeling guilty.

Do you have any tips for surviving "bad patches" when cleaning routines just don't work out? Let me know in the comments!

Perfection-Induced Craft Paralysis

For those of you wondering what happened to my nesting theme, it kinda went out the window with my never-ending cold (which finally ended) and general pregnancy fatigue. I'm still nesting, just not in the order that I originally set, and the list of projects has got a lot shorter as I'm realising my limitations!

The one project I'm really keen to get into is the quilt/doona cover for my son's big boy bed. I'm not impressed with the options in the local shops for boy's bedroom decoration. I'm trying to avoid movie/TV show merchandise since that has such a short shelf-life, but there doesn't seem to be much else. I'd like this room decoration to last well into primary school, so decided I'd just have to design something myself. I picked out the fabrics:

And I have a vision for the design that I want - mostly a plain navy background, with a strip or two of the decorative material, and some transport-themed appliques (he loves cars, planes, bikes etc). I found these templates in a local craft shop that I thought would be perfect:

So I'm all set with all the materials I need, but I'm suffering from Perfection-Induced Craft Paralysis. I really want this quilt cover to turn out nice, firstly because I love the fabric I've chosen, I love the idea of the quilt, I love the thought of seeing it everyday and knowing I created it with love for my son. I really want it to be perfect, and so I'm afraid to start. When I've made clothes for my son, I haven't really worried about perfection since I don't spend too much on the fabric, and I know it will only fit for a short time. This project is different - I want it to last for YEARS... And it's one of my more ambitious projects, particularly with the appliques.

I'm telling myself, if I just take things slowly, think things through, and concentrate on what I'm doing, it will turn out fine. I'm also telling myself that I shouldn't worry too much, since it will spend more time in a pile on the floor than on the bed (if my son turns out anything like me...). I'm still paralysed...

Time to break it down into steps and just concentrate on one thing at a time, and not think too much about being perfect. Easier said than done!

Do you ever suffer from Perfection-Induced Craft Paralysis? What do you do to overcome it? Let me know in the comments.

Cheese and Corn Muffins

Here is my latest attempt in the quest to get a few more vegetables into my son's life (and let's face, my diet could use a few more vegies too!). After having cheese sandwiches for lunch a few too many days in a row (and finally feeling better from the eternal cold that's been dragging me down), I decided to try a savoury muffin - and specifically cheese and corn muffins for lunch. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients
2 cups plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup grated cheese
3/4 cup corn kernels
2 tablespoons Italian herbs
1 cup milk
2 eggs

Procedure
1.  Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F)
2.  Sift flour and baking powder together into  a large bowl.
3.  Stir in cheese, corn and herbs.
4.  Mix milk and eggs together in a jug or small bowl.
5.  Stir milk mixture into flour mixture until just combined.
6.  Spoon mixture into a greased or case-lined muffin tin.
7.  Bake in oven for 15-20 minutes.

End result: light and fluffy savoury muffins that my son wouldn't eat them. I found them a little bland, and needed to put a bit of butter on to make them a bit tastier. Next time, I think I'll add some bacon or ham to give them a bit of extra salty zing.

Note: I can hear you ask "Where are the photos?". I swear I took a heap of photos of the muffins because they looked delicious, but when I went to download them from my nice new camera, they weren't there (along with a heap of pictures I took of the steps of another project). I am so embarassed and annoyed, but really wanted to get back in the swing of posting, so you'll just have to imagine they're fluffy, golden, muffin-y appearance. I'll try to do better next time!

Crochet Plane

We live not far from an airfield (thankfully only for light aircraft), and my son is obsessed with pointing out every single plane that goes near our house (whether he can see it or not). In fact, the couple of photos with his arm out in the men's jeans to toddler pants are him pointing to planes!

However, he doesn't have any toy planes in his toy collection. I'm not a big fan of going out and buying more toys for the sake of it, but I thought it would be nice to make a toy plane for him. Right on cue, this post arrived in my feed reader from the blog Muffins and More - a small and very cute crochet plane, based on the tutorial here at Inner Child Crochet. This was a great little project to do while watching TV (Masterchef, to be exact, for the Aussies). Here's how it turned out:

The nose of the plane ended up a little crazy from the way I weaved in the ends (not really sure what I was thinking!), and it wasn't my best work at sewing for the windows, but my son recognises that it's a plane and loves playing with it, so mission accomplished!

Guest Blogger - Tiff from Making the World Cuter

Two guest bloggers in a week - it's saved me from a bare blog while I get over this cold. Today, I'm visiting Making the World Cuter (another fabulous blog with lots of cute projects to add to your to do list. Over to you Tiff:

Hi cleaning, cooking, crafting people!

I'm Tiffany, you can call me Tiff.

I blog here at Making the World Cuter...

I live in an itty bitty small town in Oregon with my hubby hottie of a man, Chad...
...and these three beautiful, funny kids who make me happier than anything, with one more little fella coming this fall! Wow, lucky me!
I hope you'll come join me at Making the World Cuter;

Here's a little glimpse of what goes on, I am pretty consistent, but I will admit I take a break to snuggle my kids once in awhile and will miss a day...

• Monday-Making the World Cuter Mondays-a linky party for you to show off all the cute things you have made in the past week
• Tuesday-Toot Toot Tuesdays-Where I share a new, usually on the cheap, tutorial to make something crafty and fun.
• Wednesday-WooHoo Wednesdays-Sometimes we'll have giveaways, sometimes a yummy recipe, sometimes a bonus crafty something.
• Thursday-Three things Thursdays-Just a day to share three things that have been going on, or talking about my three "things" or whatever.
• Friday-Friendly Friday-Your looking at it! Swapping with the fun and cute blogs all over the place and having a blast making new friends! :)

I always have something going on over there, here are a couple little teasers for you...

This is my latest tutorial, I made these for my kids to take to the beach this week to keep them warm and dry after playing in the ocean for what I'm sure will be hours on end-they love them!
-Cute Hooded Towel Ponchos.Or here is my new favorite Monster Cookies recipe, that would be great for taking camping or just to have a bunch of yummy snacks on hand.
Thanks so much Narelle for having me and for making the world cuter!

Masterchef T-Shirt - Freezer Paper Stencilling

My apologies for the lack of blog posts lately (and particularly the lack of cooking posts). I've been struck down by stomach bugs and colds, and am coughing my way through the worst cold I've had in years. I think I need to look after myself a bit better, although a teething toddler struggling to sleep at night isn't helping (poor little man, those molars are mean!). Because of all this, I've been cooking really simple meals which aren't worth blogging about (meat and 3 veg anyone?), and my nesting projects have been put on the backburner. Hopefully I'll get to the living/dining projects soon.

I haven't lived completely without craft though (it's just not possible!). I bought a couple of plain, long-sleeve T-shirts for my son a couple of months ago for $3.50 each, and I thought I'd better embellish them and get them into the clothing rotation quicksmart, before he grows out of them.

It's a difficult job deciding how to personalise boys' clothing, but I settled on the Masterchef logo. It's just about the only TV show I watch (aside from In the Night Garden, hmmm), and quite often, when my son won't settle in the evening, he may join me on the couch. It's also not an obvious TV show logo to non-Masterchef fanatics.

I went with freezer paper stencilling as a quick and easy project. However, as freezer paper isn't readily available here in Australia, I did a bit of googling, and came up with using the outside wrapping on a ream of printer paper as an alternative (environmental bonus: re-using a non-recyclable product!). I printed the image onto the inside (non-shiny) side of the paper, cut out the image with an X-acto-style knife, and ironed it shiny-side (outside of the wrapper) side down onto the T-shirts. I won't go into the full details of the stencilling - there are plenty of tutorials already out there, or just follow the directions on your fabric paint! Here is the end result:

 

They aren't perfect as I wasn't sure how long to hold the iron on, and it was also quite an intricate design (so I couldn't re-use the same paper as I ripped it when pulling it off!). Overall, I'm happy with them as unique clothes for my son, and all the Masterchef fans at the supermarket and in the park have commented on how cute they are.

Have you given freezer-paper stencilling a go? What designs have you used for boys' clothes? Let me know in the comments.

Guest Blogger - Stacey from I'm a Lazy Mom

Well hello there!

If you’re looking for Narelle you won’t find her here today because she’s over at my place instead.

Yes, we’ve done a blog swap! She’s writing on my blog and I’m writing on hers! Isn’t that fun? I think so.

Narelle asked if I’d write a post about cleaning. So I thought I’d share with you one of my best lazy mom techniques for getting my kids to clean their rooms.

So if you need help in this area (or will eventually) read on! 

I’m not sure I should show you what my five year olds bedroom looks like on any given day. 

Well, okay... maybe I should. 

We do encourage lazy mom confessions on our lazy, lazy blog, so see? I should show you.  It's my duty. My duty to encourage you all to confess your mom shortcomings so we can all feel like better moms as a whole. 

Every one take a deep breath in.... and let it out..... 

There. 

Don't you feel like a better mom already?

You're welcome.

So here.  Here's what my daughter's room looks like....

Yup.  It's disastrous.

And this is how my husband chose to handle this disastrous room of hers. He says to our five year old daughter, "Go clean your room."

To which she broke down into tears and said, "I NEED HELP!"

To which he said, "Who made the mess?!"

To which she said, "Me!  But I still need help!" 

To which I decided to step in.

(side note: I'm not picking on my husband... I've had the same conversation with my girl a hundred times, he just happened to be the most recent one to do this).

So I said to my girl, "Honey, here's what I want you to do.  Go pick up five toys off your floor, put them where they belong and when you do that, come back."

She scampered off.  Got her five things put away and reappeared moments later.

"Okay.  Now, go pick up five stuffed animals and put them where they belong."

A few minutes later, she stood in front of me with a smile, "What now, Mama?!"

Now it was a game.  She was happy and we were happy because her room was starting to get clean.

I kept giving her five things to go pick up and put away...  trash... baby dolls... dirty clothes... etc.

Worked like a charm. 

So... are you having trouble getting your kids to clean their rooms?  Then maybe you need to try this lazy mom method. Because being a lazy mom over at our blog isn’t really about being lazy really.

So try it.  Tell me if it works for you in the comments area below.  Or tell me your ideas of how to get your kids to clean their rooms.  I'd love to hear them!

And visit me over at imalazymom.com sometime! Especially if you’re looking for Narelle, because that’s where you’ll find her today!