365 DAYS OF PINTEREST CREATIONS

day 266: 'we're nuts about you'

2012-03-02T21:19:00.000+13:00

a really cute, versatile gift :)

day 266 and i need a quirky little gift to give our real estate agent tomorrow ... i am sure she thinks we are nuts, but to be honest she is the best real estate agent we have ever dealt with and i am sure at some stage will sell our house for us, especially with all the effort she puts in. i am VERY aware it's not often you can say this about a real estate agent, we have had some real duds in the past! anyway, she did some special things for us over the last week so this gift idea from debbie at the happy scraps seems like the perfect little gift for acknowledging her hard work :) the idea is also pinned to my gift wrapping and gift ideas board on pinterest.

i decided on layering a selection of nuts, made a funky tag, added an angel charm my sweet friend dee made, some ribbon ... and we were good as done :)

the bits and bobs

the filled jar .. i love nuts, i hope she doesn't have any nut allergies : 0

done, complete with ribbons, tag, and angel :)

outcome: i'll let you know tomorrow, but i already have four other people who are all happy nuts i plan to gift these jars to also!

my sincere thanks to debbie at the happy scraps for this cool idea that has whimsy and gratitude written all over it, love it and so versatile for so many different occasions :)

day 265: picasso helps me put a mini art gallery together :)

2012-03-01T22:08:00.000+13:00

100 days to go, 100 days to go, la la lala la la, 100 days to go :)

ok now i have that off my chest, welcome to day 265, and it has taken me a while to get to this pinterest creation because i have never graffitied anything in my life before the size of a wall ... but i reckon this creation inspired from sarah's tumblr board and pinned to my home school projects board is totally worth it! in fact, this is one of the first things i pinned about a year ago when i joined pinterest ... who knew then how i would come to depend on my friendship with this spectacular site ;)

any way, let us not get sidetracked from today's creation, where i take to the walls of our classroom with a sharpie and pretend like i am pablo picasso. really nothing could be truer than the half quote i am writing on the wall from picasso,

every child is an artist

the man was an absolute genius as an artist, but when he opened his mouth it was mind blowing. some of my favourite quotes come from this man, for example the other half of the quote above is,

the problem is staying an artist when you grow up

another of my absolute favourites is this one from picasso,

inspiration exists, it just has to find you working

ahhh, the man speaks the truth, even when you don't want to hear it. i have taken so long to put up an art space on the wall as i knew the only way i could achieve it was to hand write it and i really didn't want to have my wonky handwriting on the wall for everyone to see :) but as the team at pinterest says, 'done is better than perfect' and they are totally right. the peeps have been churning out some awesome artwork over the last few weeks and they deserved the bare space on the wall to be turned into a mini gallery to show their wares off. so i set to with sharpie in hand and just DID IT :)

the before :) yes, that is pinterest in on the laptop screen!

the after, before the artwork was installed!

the completed gallery, complete with it's first installations!~

outcome: the artwork looks superb and the peeps are incredibly proud to have their own mini art gallery ... and they should be. today was a lesson in getting over ones self and doing things as opposed to worrying about perfection. i am absolutely certain picasso himself would have been proud of me today, even if aging has taken away my ability to be an awesome artist ;)

i would LOVE to thank the person who's original concept this is, but alas i can not find them :( whoever you are, thank you. it's creations like today,s that make you realise how little things like this can make your children's day, and it certainly did :)

day LEAP DAY! lets make cookies!

2012-02-29T20:41:00.000+13:00

the spreadable, very edible cookies!

day LEAP DAY ... yes in my pinterest 365 this day is a bonus creation day! didn't think to look ahead last year when i started and see how many days were in february, but as it turns out it's a bonus and i decided this sort of day deserved cookies :) who am i kidding, the cupboards where borderline bare and the peeps and my husband are looking for goodies to snack on as the weather cools down for autumn.

this recipe is courtesy of mel's kitchen cafe. after pinning this to my recipe must do's board, i went to check out the her website, this site is full of the most mouth watering yummy things, the pictures alone had me drooling!

the recipe does require the heavy machinery to be lifted out, but apart from that it's a straight forward recipe of just adding in the ingredients as the mixer goes around ... there is something mildly soothing about watching the mixer go around ... ... ... ... ... ... i must get more of a life, honestly ;)

the mix

outcome: these cookies SPREAD, and i mean SPREAD like wildfire .... off the tray and onto the next tray and onto the bottom of my oven (anyone want to come and clean it??). so the next tray's i put in i gave the cookies more room and put less on the tray, that just gave my cookies the all clear to spread EVEN FURTHER! ben was one happy chappy ... why? ... as he was watching the oven while i was preoccupied he asked if he could have the biggest cookie, i said sure absent mindedly as often happens when it gets to the end of a busy day and i am over making sensible decisions. HE was looking at this ....

the happy boy

i told him if he thought he could get dad to agree to go without a cookie, it was his ... he had no chance ... thank goodness! he was proud enough to get one over me not to worry about my reneging! there is no doubt, after the two i had this evening, these cookies are mighty tasty .. unfortunately for my waistline, but i will worry about that tomorrow! if you can figure a way of not getting these to spread so far, these cookies taste so very, very good. and if you don't mind the spread and a thinner cookie these are definitely a must make :)

my thanks to mel's kitchen cafe, i loved the taste of the cookies, if not the fact i now need to clean my oven! luckily it's the taste i care about and i will definitely make them again, just to check i didn't go wrong with the recipe, which is always a definitely possibility!

day 264: ranch dressing mix

2012-02-28T19:40:00.000+13:00

whip this lot together and you have your own homemade ranch dressing mix :)

day 264 and i had a quandary until a few days ago. a LOT of the recipes i was pinning to my recipe must do's board on pinterest called for a ranch dressing mix in the list of ingredients ... no such thing have i found in new zealand, it's hard enough to find the tuscan seasoning ;) this irked me no end because the recipes sounded so good and i wanted to try them! well wouldn't you know it, someone has done me a huge favour and pinned a homemade recipe for a ranch dressing mix to pinterest ... THANK YOU PINNERS!

so today's creation is to make the said ranch dressing mix from scratch so i can have it on hand to make, well, ranch dressing, but more importantly a whole pile of crockpot recipes that have it as a key ingredient! now you are with me, right? thankfully the clever erin from $5 dinners (which i now follow, who wouldn't!) gives us this recipe and the best part is it only has six ingredients~! this took .. oh ... two minutes to make, amazing for a problem that was so serious.

the ingredients ... plus pepper

the finished ranch dressing mix :) yes indeedy, these are happy days :)

outcome: it's getting closer to autumn here and that crockpot is going to get some serious use over the coming months so no ranch dressing mix was becoming almost emergency status ... but alas if like me you can not find it at the grocers, you can now make it at home EASILY! in the meantime, i couldn't wait to taste the flavour of this mix so i put it on the chicken we barbecued tonight and it was sensational ... yes, i love ranch dressing but not as much as i love my new favourite herb mix!

my biggest thanks goes to erin from $5 dinners for solving this major issue for me ... honestly where would i be without the lovely pinners of pinterest and people like erin who try to make the world a much better place for all of us ... my crockpot dinners for the coming season have been saved ;)

day 263: scrabble inspired easter trinket

2012-02-27T18:48:00.000+13:00

the easter decor trinket inspired by all the scrabble tile ideas on pinterest!!

day 263 has arrived and one of my dear friends scared the beegeeze out of me today when she said it was only a month until easter ... holy *$*@*@;^% where is this year going? anyway, while i mildly panic at the fact we haven't yet saved a bean for our 5 week trip away at the end of the year that is coming up WAY too fast, i felt inspired to make some easter decor today to put out in a couple of weeks time.

if you have ever been on pinterest, you would know there is a big love of scrabble tiles for all kinds of uses including wall art, coasters, ornaments, trinkets, cupcakes, tags, necklaces, and most other things you can think off for the home! i have even made scrabble frame art for my niece and nephew as part of pinterest 365 :) today i thought i would kick it up a gear and use letter dice from a game i had as a child called word yahtzee to make a little sideboard easter trinket.

all you need for today's creation is some dice with letters not numbers and some craft glue. then you use a sentiment and glue it all together ..

the word dice

the sentiment that fits with the word dice ... this is the hardest part!

let glueing commence!

the final trinket, finished and ready for when the easter décor goes up :)

outcome: REALLY easy, but you have to admit cute! i love little things like this for decor, understated but people are immediately attracted to them because it's made of something everyone can relate to .... and seriously whether you are good or bad at scrabble, who can't relate to it!

my thanks go to the MANY wonderful creations i have seen on pinterest using scrabble tiles ... it totally inspired today's creation and that is what pinterest and my 365 challenge are all about :)

day 262: a christmas quilt block

2012-02-27T10:34:00.000+13:00

the finished quilt block ... cute even if i do say so myself!

totally forgot to blog about yesterday's creation because it was done first thing in the morning on a busy day! it was a classic case of done and forgotten :)

day 262 and today's creation i have wanted to start for a couple of years but never had the confidence or know how to do. today, i thought i would take the plunge and make a start. a couple of years go when my gran passed away, mum found all these little christmas cross stitches she had been made and also given in cards. i really wanted to preserve them in a quilt but have been so intimidated by the whole quilting craft i have never done anything about it ... until today that is!

i was inspired by a paper piercing quilt block i had seen on pinterest by fairyface designs and that got me thinking ... i could make a paper pierce block each week until christmas and then put the quilt together during december, then it wouldn't be overwhelming or stressful! i decided my blocks would be 8" x 8" squares and i would end up with about 40 of them, so that will make a nice sized quilt for the sofa :)

as i mentioned, i was inspired by this design from fairyface designs (it's pinned to my quilting board) and used it as a guide for making a paper piercing pattern on a sheet of paper. i then photocopied it so i could use the same pattern again throughout the quilt and began sewing with a very cute little vintage santa :)

these are my gran's little christmas cross stitches i want to preserve :)

these quilting fats were given to me by ben for christmas, he was really excited i was going to use them finally, but asked that i make a real quilt not a rag one with them as he didn't like that one! thanks for the honesty ben!

today's little cross stitch i used with my paper piece pattern

outcome: i've started! i was really close to my gran and so this one of those projects that is very dear to my heart ... i didn't want to stuff it up because it's not like i can replace them :) i feel a sense of relief now and am really happy to have it underway ... it was an absolutely bonus the the quilt block lots cute too!

my greatest thanks to fairyface designs for giving me the inspiration to finally start this project ... and also to my dear friend dee who showed me how to paper piece before xmas, which gave me the confidence to undertake this creation ... you rock my sweet :)

day 261: brownie trifle with a neapolitan twist

2012-02-25T21:25:00.000+13:00

brownie trifle with a neapolitan twist :)

day 261 and we are out to dinner tonight and i wanted to take something new and sweet ... enter brownie trifle. i love trifle and the thought of making one with brownies was too good to refuse! this one from positively splendid looked really yummy but i also liked this one from rock recipes with the strawberries. i pinned both of them to my recipe must do's board and figured i could do a mash up recipe that used elements of both :)

for this recipe i am using:

one brownie recipe (see below if you would like this really easy recipe, you can even get the peeps to make this one!)
strawberry jam
strawberry jelly mix
vanilla custard
whipped cream
blueberries for garnishing
chocolate for covering the top

yeah, that's probably enough ingredients for one trifle! make the jelly and let it half set. spread the brownie with a thick layer strawberry jam and then roughly cut into 1-2" pieces. then its a case of layering it together: first the jam covered brownie, then the semi set jelly, then a layer of custard. then repeat the layers one more time. finish the trifle off with a layer of whipped cream and decorate with chocolate roughly chopped or grated on top.

the brownie smothered in jam

half the brownie in the bowl ready for the layering process to begin

layers finished, now for the cream topping followed by blueberries, and roughly grated almond chocolate

the finished trifle ... it was so yummy!

outcome: it was REALLY good! i enjoyed having a trifle that was different from the usual sponge and fruit one. i was worried it would be really dry with the brownie in it and no fruit but it wasn't thanks to the jelly. this is definitely something i will make again, especially when you need to take something as a dessert during summer :)

my thanks to the two awesome recipes i mashed together today, the rock recipes neapolitan one and the full on chocolate and brownie trifle from positively splendid ... both awesome looking recipes that inspired my trifle today :)

brownie recipe

melt 6oz of butter. add 12oz of sugar to the butter and whisk together. add a tsp of vanilla and whisk in. then add 3 eggs and whisk each one well into the mix before adding the next egg. then add 5oz flour, 1 tsp of baking powder, 2 oz of cocoa and whisk it all into the batter. put the batter in a slice tin and bake on 350F for ~ 30-35 minutes.

day 260: rugby/football subway art

2012-02-24T20:57:00.000+13:00

today's creation thanks to some free subway art from the girls at eighteen25 :)

day 260 and we are in full rugby preparation here today ... we have stocked up on blue foods and treats, got the ingredients for homemade hamburgers, made some team goodie bags, and now we just have to do a little more decorating. we all support the blues EXCEPT my little worm in the apple barrel ben who supports the crusaders :( he adores the players in the crusaders team and no amount of coaxing will make him change his mind!

the treats and the treat bags i made and put together today for the start of the season

today's creation helps that as it's a piece of subway art. unfortunately most of the awesome football subway art i came across on pinterest was for american football, so the sayings on them weren't all totally appropriate for our national code of football, that being rugby union. i did, however, find this piece of subway art from the girls at eighteen25 that was definitely worth doing and worked for whatever team sport you needed it for. the original intention of this subway art was as a gift for coaches (such a cool idea), but for today's creation it is also ideal as subway art for the beginning of the rugby season. even better news is this subway art is also free to download ... yippee~! the idea is pinned to my autumn comfort board, were all things rugby and crafty can be viewed!

all you need to complete today's creation is a printer and a cheap frame ... that's it, just print and fill the frame!

the cheeeap frame and the freeee subway art ... good economising today, steveeee will be happy ;)

now we are looking more like a home that adores the game of rugby!

outcome: thank goodness today's creation was a simple, timely one as we had plenty going on! the subway art looks awesome next to the rugby letters i picked up at typo ($20 for the word and heart) .. love that store and they have a super deal on letters at the moment 3 for $10! well our house is looking much better now and after i have finished this post it will be time to sit down and watch the second half of the rugby .... unfortunately for me the blues are currently behind, needless to say my sweet boy peep is rubbing it in : }
thanks so much to the girls at eighteen25 for another awesome piece of subway art, i think there subway art for all occasions is probably my favourite of everybody's ... have a great weekend you guys :)

day 259: rugby decor

2012-02-23T21:51:00.000+13:00

the rugby season is about to start ...

day 259 and i am VERY excited because tomorrow the rugby season kicks off and i can't wait. i decided this year we would have some rugby decor about the house, starting with today's creation a rugby ball wreath?!?? not exactly sure what you would call it but i plan to use it like a wreath and show my support for our local super rugby team the blues.

this idea is pinned to my autumn comfort board and comes from amanda at my heart's desire. i love how she and her friends got together and made diy decor to support the teams they follow in football, so cool!

we support the blues super rugby team as i mentioned and they are a team made up of the upper north island's best players. as such, my rugby ball had to have a blue's flavour to it and instead of the burlap the girls used to make their's from, i have chosen to do mine in felt. in between the two layers of felt i have used some quilt batting to make it a little more robust and bulky.

what you need for a rugby wreath thingee!

the batting that gives it a bit more substance

going through the process

done, another creation bites the dust!

a closer look!

outcome: this is so cute, such a great idea for a bit of sporting décor in the house! i love that it shows support for our team and is something totally out of the whimsy box i NEVER would have done without pinterest! makes me smile just looking at it :)

my thanks to amanda from my heart's desire for this neat idea. love how you blogged about it and showed us craft challenged people with limited inspiration a great idea that you can't find on store shelves ... well not in this country anyway!

and as for the prizes from last week, here's a closer look! ...

jen's booby prize :)

the real prize pack for michelle aka hey mickey!

day 258: bi-fold wallet

2012-02-22T20:51:00.000+13:00

hey presto ... one hour later and you have a cool, unique wallet :)

day 258 and i am making myself a wallet today as the one i purchased while on holiday is sadly falling apart :( today's bi-fold wallet tutorial comes from modest maven and is pinned to my sewing diy board on pinterest.

i love creations like today's as they give me a chance to use some really pretty fabric's on something small and very handy. i chose my fabrics, and used my handy dandy present from santa (a rotary cutter) to cut out all the pieces of fabric, then began sewing and within an hour i was done!

the pieces for today's creation and my rotary cutter (i'm quite proud i own such a serious craft tool!)

the card pockets ready to go

ready for the finishing touches and turning the lining in.

the finished wallet, in action!

outcome: cute, no coin compartment but this is perfect for all my cards. one day i will learn to sew a zipper into something and solve that small problem. in the meantime i have a really cool wallet that uses very cute fabric and was not too hard to sew together. the tutorial was really easy to follow with plenty of pictures so you can't go wrong :)

my thanks to modest maven for the awesome tutorial that has solve my wallet issue without costing me a cent :) love that, and that it was so easy to put together.

i have heard from both hey mickey (hi michelle) and from jen so their give away boxes will be packaged up tomorrow for everyone to have a REAL peek inside :) the next give away will be around st patrick's day and i am thinking we will go green :)

day 257: pyjama pillow

2012-02-21T21:25:00.000+13:00

the finished pyjama stash pillow!

day 257 and after my mammoth day at the sewing machine yesterday i wanted an easy creation for today. i found this pj pillow tutorial by virginia of gingercake on prudent baby and thought the concept was fantastic. i pinned it to my sewing diy board and thought one of these pillows for ben to stash his pj's in would be perfect because he is forever losing his jammies down the back of his bed.

i can't sew circles and while i absolutely adore the one made by virginia, i needed to create something that used straight lines! i decided a square overlapped pillow would do the job nicely and it sounded easy enough for me to attempt today. i have added a few more pictures than i normally would of the process below to show you how i made a square one. just in case you too were scared of sewing circles and wanted to make a square one!

the pillow uses one piece of fabric and one piece of quilters batting and that's it for what you need bar the sewing machine. as this is for a ten year old boy's pj's i went with an elongated size. if it was square i figured the pillow would flop down too much so i went with a low rectangle shape. i also added in the batting so that if their weren't pj's inside the pillow would still hold it's shape.

all that is required for today's creation.

start by folding over and then folding over again along the shortest side of the fabric.

iron the folds in place so you have a good overlap, then measure your batting to fit. make sure you cut your batting 1/2" narrower than the width of the fabric ...

... the reason you want your batting smaller is so you don't sew it in the first seam of your french seams, this means when you turn it inside out your batting won't cause any bulkiness. it's at this point you realise my sewing knowledge is limited but that the photos help you figure out what i am trying to say ;)

its during the second sewing of the french side seams that you sew the backing in place.

turn out so you have the right side out, the batting should now be sewn in place with the side seams and you are finished

the completed pillow stuffed with the boy peeps pj's!

much better than trying to find the missing top or trunks down the side of his bed :)
HAPPY days, my friends, happy days!

outcome: really cool, and it looks good on ben's bed too, not to mention i will now be able to stop fishing behind his bed looking for missing pj parts! i love when a creation is pretty to look at, easy to make, and has a useful purpose ... they are definitely my favourite kind!

sincere thanks to virginia of gingercake for the wonderful concept AND the tutorial is really indepth and would be easy to follow if you are into sewing circles! as for prudent baby let me just tell you, the tutorials and all they offer are completely addictive ... there were so many projects i wanted to try, i didn't know where to start!

day 256: raw edge quilt

2012-02-20T23:27:00.000+13:00

my first completed quilt .. quite proud am i! it's so late it's actually wet in this picture so the colours appear a lot darker than they actually are :)

day 256 and i am bravely going to start my other new year's resolution today ... to learn to quilt. i have wanted to learn to quilt for ages. a dear friend of mine showed me how to paper piece for quilting mug rugs and i absolutely loved quilting using that technique. i wanted to venture into something bigger with today's creation and make a raw edge quilt. after weeks of not being able to sew because of my torn hamstring, i now feel it's good enough to be able to sew, so this week i am making up for a lack of sewing by doing a whole week of sewing creations from pinterest :)

i am using two tutorials to make my raw edge quilt because they both had brilliant ideas and there were parts from each i wanted to use! the first one is from bloom, the quilt is stunning but the actual quilting bit looked a bit complicated for my first go. as such, i am also using kelly's tutorial from the complete guide to imperfect homemaking, she made her's as a gift for her daughter on christmas eve! kelly uses a simple cross as her quilting and that seemed like something i would be far more capable of doing! both quilts are stunning and the tutorials are also pinned to my quilting board on pinterest.

because i wanted to get this finished today, and it's a monday so i spend most of my day teaching the peeps, i cut out ALL 42 top squares, 42 backing squares, and 42 fusible batting squares last night. it took me 2 1/2 hours so i was VERY pleased i did that part last night!

last nights work .. these are the fabrics i chose to make the quilt out of

this is the part i did last night, 42 tops, 42 backs, 42 fusible inners ... a LOT of cutting :)

you then iron the three pieces together and start sewing ... a lot of sewing! once i had finished that part, i worked on putting seven squares together in a row, then began sewing the six seven square rows together ... are you still with me ;) once that was done, i used a 1/2" seam and sewed right around the outside so i could rag the outer edge aswell instead of binding the quilt. i can't bind, ~~it scares me senseless~~ i have yet to perfect my technique so will leave that part for another day. then it is ideal to sit down in front of some good tv and start cutting all the edges down to the sewn lines ... this take a GOOD while and i saw a number of shows on the food channel before i had finished :) then it was into the washing machine for its first wash ... at this point i was seriously considering whether my first quilt would come out of the wash still in one piece with the amount of cutting i had done ...

the quilt pieces sewn together ready to be cut along the raw edges.

cutting along the raw edges

i took this photo of it in the washing machine in case it came out shredded!

and this is what it looked like after two washes!

outcome: this was a LONG creation day for me at the sewing machine but it was absolutely worth it ... i am totally hooked and if you are a family member it is highly possible you will be gifted a quilt in the future :) as this is my first quilt, this one is destined for my bed. all that cutting and sewing was definitely worth the outcome :) i love it and feel really proud of what i made today ... not perfect, but still beautiful.

my sincere thanks to the raw edge quilting tutorials from bloom and kelly at complete guide to imperfect homemaking, your tutorials got me through my first quilt and have me addicted to yet another craft ... go figure!

and the winner is ....

2012-02-20T23:11:00.000+13:00

Congrats Hey Mickey ... send me your address details during this week and i will get the box of goodies out to you :) If your name is Jen W, please also send me your address, we picked up an extra sheep for you and Luis as well! Thanks so much for playing along, i had lots of fun putting this box of goodies together, I plan to do a green themed one near St Patrick's Day.

Can you both email me at kahoonz@clear.net.nz :)

the last sneak peek

2012-02-20T20:09:00.000+13:00

this is the last sneak peek at what's in the box of goodies to be drawn tonight, so get your comments in and we will have a winner very late this evening ... why late? well i want to give you as much time as possible and also my creation for today is a quilt and so i will be finished that very late tonight :)

sneak peep number 4 for the new zealand goodies give away

2012-02-19T22:03:00.000+13:00

there will be one final sneak peek tomorrow ... or maybe two ;)

ok, here it is as promised sneak peek number four ... if you are new, HI! you have come over at a great time as i am doing a new zealand box of goodies give away :) all you have to do is leave a comment to enter and we are drawing the prize tomorrow night ... so get your comments in!

day 255: muffin success with cinnamon muffins!

2012-02-19T21:59:00.000+13:00

the finished cinnamon muffins :)

day 255 and i have finally had success with muffins for today's creation. these muffins from king arthur flour are the muffin version of a cinnamon roll/scroll/thing. has anyone else noticed the HUGE amount of cinnamon thingees rolling around pinterest? i have so many versions of them pinned to my recipe must do's board i figured i had better get to and make at least one of them :) i chose the muffin because i am, if nothing else, determined to conquer this humble baked good.

this recipe has layers and requires three bowls for each of the layers. i followed the recipe exactly except for adding the cinnamon/butterscotch chips ... i couldn't find any so i added 1/2 a teaspoon of extra cinnamon to the batter instead. apart from that, the recipe requires no heavy machinery and while it is more time consuming than a one bowl wonder because of the layers, i can promise you it's worth it ;)

the bottom and third layer

the middle layer

the topping

these ones had the bottom layer, the middle layer, and then in the process of putting the third layer

and finally the top layer is added and pressed in.

and finally the finished muffins, complete with a yummy glaze :) SO very very GOOD!

outcome: when i read the comments on the website for this recipe i felt sure there was going to be some disaster but this was a TOTAL muffin success. i was so proud of them i felt some for the real estate agents who had an open home at our place today. even they left a card to say they were "beautiful" ... yes, people i have had a muffin success ... now i can try out jen's pumpkin recipe during autumn without fear :)

my biggest thanks to king arthur flour for providing me with a muffin recipe i could serve up to people without fear of ridicule! even if we sold our house today, this would still be my one one moment of the day, hey maybe even the week :)

sneak peek number three ... new zealand goodies box give away

2012-02-19T10:24:00.000+13:00

oops, totally forgot to put this up yesterday i was so excited about pizza sauce! so we will have to have two sneak peeks today :) look for another later today and the final one tomorrow :) remember all you have to do is leave a comment to go in the draw for a box of new zealand goodies ... prize drawn tomorrow night!

day 254: the BEST pizza sauce

2012-02-18T21:11:00.000+13:00

it was a pinterest day for the pizza ... and the results were outstanding

day 254 and it was a stunning day here ... it seems summer might have finally arrived just before it leaves for autumn :) most saturday's we heat up the pizza oven and have home made pizza's. we have had the pizza oven (built by my sweet husband) for a couple of years now and have never made our own pizza bases or sauce :( shocking really, so today was the day we did both thanks to pinterest.

i love home made pizza's and we have tried all sorts of store bought bases to find the best ones. steve wanted to see if the pita recipe we made on day 226 would work for pizza bases if we rolled it really flat. since making those pita's that day we have made them twice a week, every week ... they are that good, perfect for lunches and easy to make. let me tell you, they also make the best, YES, the BEST pizza bases. these were hands down the best bases we have ever tried in the pizza oven!

ready for the pizza oven with the best pizza base we have ever used

as for today's creation, it involved making a sauce to go with our home made bases. we went with a new york style sauce as we wanted something that was similar to a marinara sauce. this one from the pizza lab at serious eats looked ideal so i pinned it to my recipe must do's board on pinterest. i followed the recipe according to the instructions without changing or adapting anything.

the ingredients for the world's best tomato sauce recipe

reducing down the sauce and adding in the basil

the finished pizza sauce

my mum making her pizza :)

and in it went to cook ...

and out came the most delicious, unheavy, fresh tasting pizzas

outcome: this is a serious pizza lover's sauce ... it was outstanding. the hardest part was waiting for it to reduce so we could add it to the pizza bases ... the reason it was so hard waiting was the smell, it filled the house with the most amazing smell that just made you salivate! it was the absolute bomb on the pizza. even the peeps thought these were the best pizzas they had ever eaten ... high praise, very high praise indeed.

an enormous thanks to the pizza lab at serious eats, this tomato sauce will be made over and over again, and not just for pizzas ... it really is that good and i really did need to gush THAT much!

day 253: truly, madly, deeply.

2012-02-17T22:34:00.001+13:00

i am truly, madly, deeply ... and now i know it all started in 1997 :)

day 253 and i am catching up on a creation i planned to do before valentine's day but never got to it! does anyone else have issues remembering when they were married? my husband and i are both born on the 6th of months, so when we got engaged we decided to get married on the first saturday that was on the 6th so we would both remember ... it turned out that saturday was in september. do you think either of us remember it? i have clean forgotten (and i mean completely) at least twice, we have both forgotten MANY more times and neither of us know how long we have been married. we both do things for valentine's for each other but that's because the worlds advertising is there to remind us of that date!

we had some very dear friends over last weekend and they have been engaged for over 20 years (so cute), one of them asked how long steve and i had been married ... neither of us knew, talk about embarrassing and we couldn't work it out because neither of us knew the year we were married :( it's not that we take our marriage for granted, quite the opposite.

i decided it was time to put a permanent reminder in our bedroom so we would at least know the year we were married. i loved this pillow that was posted on french-knots tumblr page from etsy. it is also pinned to my master bedrooms page on pinterest. i actually wanted to buy it for steve for valentine's but i couldn't find the original maker or the actual pillow. i then decided to make it for him as a gift for the 14th but that too went by the wayside ... so today's the day it is finally going to be created! i am truly, madly, deeply .. with my sweet and after some research i can also tell you we have been since 1997 :)

once you have done your research, for this creation you need to make or purchase a pillow and you also need a sharpie. then you simply use your handwriting (this part scared me senseless) to add the words to the pillow.

pillow inner, cover slip, and a sharpie required for today's creation.

i inserted some card into the cushion cover so the sharpie wouldn't leak through to the other side of the cover.

finished, and happily at home on my bed as a constant reminder of how lucky we are :)

outcome: i love that this pillow has now made a home on my bed, i will always know i was married in 1997 .. i hope! i wish i had beautiful handwriting ... but this pillow means more to me that just the handwriting and for that reason i love it, imperfections and all. and as for my sweet, he arrived home to say "well, that's a good idea" ... couldn't have said it better myself!

my sincere thanks to the very creative person that made this pillow and sells them on etsy (if for some reason you find yourself on my blog, please send me your details as i would still love to buy one for me and one for my sister's bed with her anniversary!).

new zealand goodies give away sneak peep number two

2012-02-17T09:39:00.002+13:00

sneak peek number two

so we have 7 food goodies, a sheep (of some description), and these, i wonder what they are!

... sneak peek three tomorrow :)

i am giving away a box of new zealand goodies to one lucky person this week ... all you have to do is leave a comment (or a few!) during this week and you will go into the draw to win!

prize will be drawn on monday :)

day 252: key issues

2012-02-16T21:52:00.000+13:00

the nail polished keys ... no more guessing for me :)

day 251 and we have lots of keys for our house ... there's front door keys back door keys, shed keys, store room keys and they all look the same, especially to our peeps! it is very tiresome constantly looking at my keys to find the right one so i am going to use one of the cool ideas i found on pinterest to solve this problem :)

this idea of painting your keys with nail polish i pinned from a day in the life of miss kranz onto my ideas for organisation ... i loved reading that she too got the idea from pinterest! who ever did this first ... genius. i am seeing a lot of time in my future simply because my keys have pretty nail polish on them ;) so the family and i are all at the same page with our keys, i did everybodies ... all colour coordinated and finished them off with some hardening top coat nail polish. i did do both sides of the keys, painted the first side then turned them over and painted the other side. to make the process a little quicker i used fast drying nail polish!

the before of my keys!

my sweet mum was on hand for photo taking!

outcome: no more having the peeps come with the keys asking which key is for what door, no more stumbling at the door with my packages searching for the right key for the door, no more *&^%&;%^*(% because i got the key choice wrong ... yes, it is fair to say today's creation is going to enhance the quality of my life no end!

my gratitude to miss kranz for finding the initial pin so we could both make our lives less complicated by using nail polish, and, of course, my favourite friend pinterest for always providing me with life simplifying solutions!

don't forget to keep those comments coming, every comment goes in the draw to win a box of new zealand goodies :) sneak peek number two is coming right up ...

a sneak peek at some of the give away goodies

2012-02-16T09:08:00.000+13:00

sneak peek number one :)

i figured i would give you a sneak peek at some of the food goodies in the give away ... i can tell you there are 7 foodie elements, and thanks to jen and jenny we know there is also a sheep of some description ... more sneak peeks later today :)

remember all you need to do is leave a comment during the week to go in the draw to win a box filled with new zealand goodies. you can leave a comment every day if you like to have more than one chance in the draw ... good luck :)

day 251: buttermilk spice muffins

2012-02-15T19:36:00.000+13:00

this is a good muffin to have butter with

day 251 and we have ALL been filling up on some very tasty, but not so healthy, valentine's food! today it's time to get back on track and start with some healthy eating again. i while ago i pinned 15 healthy muffin recipes from family go to my recipe must do's board on pinterest. i figured these recipes would come in very handy for the peeps morning teas. there were lots of yummy looking options and while they aren't the healthiest recipes i have ever seen, they are better than store bought because at least their are no additives and preservatives in them. definitely worth trying them out and overcoming my fear of muffin making ... i have made some absolute rocks in the past~!

i settled on the buttermilk spice muffins as my first try ... i had all the ingredients and some leftover buttermilk from the red velvet cupcakes, i figured it was a sign ;) AND almost no heavy machinery for this creation today, the arms get a work out with the whisk instead ... except for the topping which uses the food processor, even i couldn't think of a way to get around using this appliance. i always look at a muffin recipe and think "what could possibly go wrong?" they always look so easy to make and yet they are so hard to get right and taste delicious.

as with all muffin recipes i followed this one according to the instructions without deviation. they were made and ready for the oven in 15 minutes which was nice, they dishes with the food processor weren't so nice, but the topping did look so good :)

the batter that i tried not to over mix!

the crumbly topping ... tasted really nice actually!

the finished muffins ... see what i mean about the topping

outcome: as far as muffins go, i think these are probably just ok ... the topping didn't stick to the muffins, so if you do make them, press the topping in as opposed to just sprinkling a tablespoon over like i did. they tasted really nice, not spectacular but definitely not chooky food ;) i don't know that i will make this recipe again simply because of the topping and because the actual muffin was a little on the dry side so needed butter .... but seriously, this could be just my ability to make muffins ... i kid you not, i am a total tragic when it comes to making muffins. i think i will try their lemon raspberry muffins next ... i will not give up on muffins ... YET!

my thanks to family go fro the healthy muffin recipes, while this one probably won't be done again, there are 14 others still to try :)

still to come today, a sneak peek at some of the goodies in my new zealand box give away ... so keep those comments coming :)

day 250: happy valentine's day

2012-02-14T20:44:00.001+13:00

happy valentine's day everyone ... hopefully you have been shown some love by someone special today!

day 250 and we had a lot of hearts around our home today ... i was very lucky and woken at 6am this morning by my sweet husband who had made me a pinterest inspired crepe paper rose ... I KNOW ... apparently he figured he should do something pinteresty to show how much he loved me, well it took my breath away so i'm keeping him for good ;)

our very festive looking dinner for valentines :)

today's creations were inspired by all the hearts i have seen pinned all over pinterest in the last couple of weeks. i started with making the peeps heart shape sandwiches for lunch .. they were very appreciated!

heat shaped sandwiches for lunch

i then made dessert for tonight in heart shaped moulds ... jelly topped with chocolate mousse :) they went down an absolute treat this evening.

everything just tastes better in a heart i reckon!

for our actual dinner we had home made chicken burgers with heart shaped cheese and these egg in a heart shaped basket thingees! the valentine's day egg in the basket things were inspired by these ones from petite kitchenesse. it was a beautiful evening, so everything ended up on the bbq and it looked very romantic with all the hearts floating around!

the ingredients for the heart shaped egg baskets :)

the chicken burgers definitely tasted better with heart shaped cheese ;)

our heart shaped dinner was delicious ... not fabulous for the 17 day diet, but too good to miss!

along with yesterday's red velvet cupcakes and all the heart shaped eating today, the 17 day diet took a day off ... oh well, back to it tomorrow. in the meantime, the valentine's food we ate today was absolutely delicious and perfect for getting us into the spirit created by st valentine :)

my thanks to all the wonderful valentine's inspiration i have seen on pinterest, especially to petite kitchenesse for inspiring such a cool heart shaped eggy bread.

finally don't forget to leave a comment, all those that do throughout this week go in the draw to win a box of new zealand goodies ... i will show you some things we have been collecting tomorrow ... :)

new zealand goodies give away

2012-02-13T22:21:00.001+13:00

it's a give away ... there's a lot of love about this week, so i thought i would share some with my treasured blog friends :)

i have a box full of new zealand goodies to give away ... the goodies are all my favourite things from new zealand. over the next few days i will be sharing some of them with you, the remainder will remain a surprise for the winner!

all you have to do is leave a comment this week even just to say "hi" and you are in to win ... it's my way of saying thank you to all the lovely people that visit my blog during the week. the winner will be drawn next monday.

in the meantime, have a wonderful valentine's day tomorrow!

day 249: red velvet cupcakes

2012-02-13T22:07:00.000+13:00

red velvet cupcakes for valentines day :)

day 249 and is there a recipe more perfect for valentines day than red velvet cupcakes? i think they are the best idea for this day of love so today i am making them for my sweet husband and mum to take to work for their colleagues ... and, of course, the peeps and i will be saving a couple for morning tea tomorrow (totally taking morning tea off my 17 day diet so i can take part in eating one!).

i found this recipe on pinterest from joy of baking and it looked like one i could follow, even if it did require heavy machinery for the batter AND icing :) it's worth it, after all valentine's day only comes once a year and we are talking about cupcakes here! the recipe is pinned to my st valentines love board on pinterest. i didn't sift the flour, i never sift, i should, but i don't. apart from that, the recipe was followed according to instructions :) i didn't watch the video clip, but for those who want a more in-depth recipe, there is a you tube demo provided.

there was a lot of red and pink at my house tonight ...

and things got even redder :)

lucky for me this was a family affair and everyone helped ...

even the peeps, pollyanna was in charge of mixing the frosting :)

and there they are ready to have their chocolate hearts added ... we made almost fifty of them!

outcome: SO GOOD! i love these, definitely going to do green ones for st patrick's and put gold coins on top! they are quite labour intensive and have ingredients for miles but they are totally worth it ... so cool looking and the sneaky taste i had was divine! hopefully everyone at both workplaces will love them too :)

my thanks to the joy of baking website for this cool recipe ... no doubt about it these cupcakes are RED! not surprised with so much red food colouring, totally perfect for valentines :)

the classroom ... for those who want a peek into our home school room :)

2012-02-12T22:01:00.000+13:00

this is our new classroom ... it is a wonderful space for learning, reading, and the odd bit of pinterest creating! actually you can see heaps of pinterest inspiration and past pinterest creations in these photo's ... see i really do use all my creations!

the storage cube (pinterest idea) made of three bookcases and a board on top for the laptop.
the white board is down low for mat time with pollyanna.

moving around the room, next to the laptop and storage are their desks and some more storage.
the map of new zealand and the pins of where they have been is also one of my pinterest creations!

i love storage and in a classroom you can never have too much!

moving around from their desks is our blackboard we painted and that also cemented a long term relationship and overuse of black board paint! the craft table where we can all work together. in the corner is the world map with the pins of places they have been and a bed which the peeps use for reading on ... nothing better than curling up in all the cushions with a good book!

some more pinterest creations and inspirations in this photo, in fact i think i can count 7! my favourite pinterest creation in this photo has to be the library baskets on the wall.

and moving right around to the start (see the white board, this is our entrance and yet more storage in the form of a big bookcase. love that there is still plenty of floor space and that everything has a place to be put away so the peeps can concentrate on what they have in front of them and not anything else :) that's the theory anyway!

day 248: lunch notes for the peeps

2012-02-12T21:45:00.000+13:00

such happy looking lunch notes all laminated and ready to write on :)

day 248 and it's another quick but thoughtful solution today, lunch notes ... today's creation isn't for valentines but will definitely let your peeps know you are thinking of them ... even at school ... or for us home schooler's a good thing to put under a sandwich or on their plate as a bit of fun. there are heaps of lunch notes available to download for free, but i liked these ones from chickabug which can be personalised. i have a whole bunch pinned to my home school projects board on pinterest.

the chickabug notes are freely downloadable for personal use. i decided to laminate them so lunch wouldn't ruin the notes before they found them ... who am i kidding, i just love to laminate things! these notes are ideal for those of us who have both sexes as there is a boys colour combination and a girls one so no one should be unhappy with the colour palette :) there are also blank ones and helpful starters in each colour combo so you don't even have to think too hard in the morning or whenever you are going to write on them .... something i will definitely appreciate as morning is my favourite part of the day ;)

and for a little bit of fun these school joke lunch notes from peonies and poppy seeds (cute name for a blog) are also cool so i printed and laminated them as well. i figured the best idea for lunch notes was to print a whole heap off and then have them ready to go otherwise in the muddle of the morning it might be one of those things that just gets forgotten about :)

love that she provides the versatility of blank lunch notes and ones that are for certain occasions

who doesn't love a good school joke?

does anyone else love laminating as much as i do? or should i seek treatment?

i love that i now have a huge pile of lunch notes ready to last me through term one ... then i can find some more!

outcome: i am a bit of a romantic, so i love this type of thing! hopefully it these "things" my peeps will remember as adults and make the extra effort for their peeps if and when they have them. these lunch notes i never would have thought to do without seeing the inspiration on pinterest, and that's just another reason why i adore ben for starting up pinterest with his crew ... the inspiration and the 'get up and create' it has given me is beyond words :) (ok, gush over!)

my thanks to chickabug and peonies and poppy seeds for the gorgeous free printable lunch notes ... and the fact they were freely available is just awesome.

i am still not able to sit for very long at the computer or a sewing machine thanks to my hamstring, hopefully given another week i will be back to being able to do more craftiness instead of little tidbits :) don't forget my new zealand give away starts tomorrow and i WILL have photo's of the classroom uploaded for those that wanted to see ... in the meantime, enjoy the rest of your weekend :)

day 247: valentine's decor

2012-02-11T23:42:00.000+13:00

some valentine's decor thanks to some chocky hearts and a free vintage printable :)

day 247 and summer is coming to an end in new zealand so i figured some of our current décor could be upgraded to reflect a more valentine's feel around the place :) i am determined to put more lovin' in my house ... teehee, i'm talking about the décor people ... the décor, come on this is a family show ;)

i found this awesome vintage print to frame and replace the summer subway art i had up. given i wanted to reuse the blue frame (see below), i needed something with a hint of blue in it but that was also reflective of the season. the vintage postcard from tattered treasures is just perfect. i copied it into a word document and enlarged it to almost an A4 size then printed it out. the other thing i did for my little valentine's decor was fill a lovely blue heart dish, a very sweet friend of mine gave me for christmas, with red chocolate hearts, keeping in the theme of reds and blues.

the before ....

the after :)

outcome: awesome, love the colours, i have lots of reds about, but i really like the blue accent ... a little untraditional but works really well with everything else going on in my house! the vintage valentine is so cute i am definitely going to look out for more on pinterest that are allowed to be copied (like this one) to add around the place ... i really like vintage things and holidays, they just seem to go so well together!

my gratitude to nancy at tattered treasures for sharing this gorgeous vintage valentine's postcard AND for allowing us to copy and use it in projects ... very sweet :)

day 246: betty crocker mixes made at home!

2012-02-10T22:39:00.000+13:00

the home made betty crocker mix, ready in a jar to gift to my sweetheart :)

day 246 and i am in the swing of all things valentine's at the moment! i am also on a 17 day diet and don't feel like making too many sweet things for anybody seems as i can't taste test them ;) i did find a solution to this on pinterest today, home made betty crocker mixes ... SWEET! much like you do with the cookies in a jar, i figured i could put one of these mixes in a jar and give it to steve as a valentines present ... then i would be giving him the ability to bake biscuits without me having to actually do it .... sneaky aye!

the mix recipes come from fake-it frugal and are pinned to my recipe must do's board. what a cool website that is, i have spent heaps of time trawling around looking at all the goodness she has to offer! i made the chocolate chip cookie mix first, then made the oatmeal cookies mix. i made the oatmeal cookies (steve's fav) as his valentine's gift and put all the ingredients straight into the jar. i added in dried cherries and chocolate chips to fill the jar AND because i know he loves both those things in his oatmeal cookies :)

the ingredients for both the chocolate chip and oatmeal cookie mixes

all you do is put the ingredients in a container, shake to mix :)

then store them in individual bags for using at a later date, or gift them in jars :)

outcome: well he clearly hasn't got the jar yet, but i know i will score some brownie points with this jar! it's a definite favourite of his and this present took me ten minutes to make ... seriously, 10 minutes. there are no excuses for buying betty crocker mixes anymore my friends, this is way too easy. tomorrow i am going to enlist the help of my peeps and make a whole lot more up to put in the cupboard ready for baking when i am pressed for time ... who am i kidding, every day i am pressed!

my sincere thanks to heather at fake-it frugal, i love when the things i buy at the supermarket to make life easy are even easier when you know the tricks of the trade to be able to make them at home without the huge cost ... LOVE THAT! thank you so much heather for your awesome blog, fake-it frugal it's a fantastic read :)

day 245: i "wheelie" like you

2012-02-09T21:56:00.000+13:00

the finished boy friendly valentine's gift :)

day 245 and it is ben's turn to make some valentines for his friends. it had to be the quickest creation today because i needed the buy in from my sweet but very boy like ten year old to come craft with me after dinner ... you're getting the picture now aren't you!

we went with cars for the boy peep as that was the least girly thing i could find on pinterest that a ten year old could give his mates. this idea comes from mique at thirty handmade days and is pinned to my st valentines love board. we went with hot wheels cars as we found we could get all his girl mates and boy mates their favourite colours ... thank goodness, hot wheels had the foresight to bring out pink cars for our creation today!

i made up some quick labels and ben decided as the cars where already pre-packaged we didn't need to put them in the cellophane bags i had thought we would, so we just staple the tags to the cars instead ... good compromise!

yes, i am using 'my memories suite' again!

i matted the tags in yellow (ben's favourite colour) to give them a bit of substance :)

thank goodness hot wheels do cars in girl colours too!

ben writing everyone's name on the tags ..

then carefully stapling them on to each person's favourite colour car!

outcome: again, quick and easy ... just the sort of craft thing to do with tween boys! hopefully his mates/matesses will like the token gift for valentine's day. i think they are really sweet and totally perfect for boys.

my thanks to mique at thirty handmade days for coming up with something for valentines that tween boy's won't mind giving their friends ... it made my day to craft with my boy peep, so this was a really rewarding pinterest creation day for me :)

day 244: bear hugs for valentines

2012-02-08T19:35:00.003+13:00

day 244 and for those who don't do too much for valentines, i apologise for the next week of valentines inspired creations. i figured as valentines was so close i should get busy and make some effort to spread the word of st valentine ;)

we are going for an quick and easy valentines gift today as i wean myself back into crafting with schooling! today i am making polly some valentines for her to gift to her mates ... she's seven so this idea using bear cookies is perfect for her age group. the idea comes from family fun and is pinned to my st valentines love board on pinterest.

for this project you need some cellophane bags, some teddy bear cookies, ribbon, and some card for tags. i made up some cute tags for polly that she could then write on to personalise them for her friends. we then worked together to put the bears in the bags and i tied the ribbon while she wrote on the tags.

outcome: my favourite part of this creation was spending time with my daughter working on gifts for her friends. she loved the idea of giving her friends something on valentines day and i loved helping her make them :) definitely do this with your little girls, they will love you for it, it gives them a nice sense of doing something for someone else, and it's not hard so it makes it fun :)

my thanks to family fun for posting this idea, it definitely was fun spending time with my littlest peep making today's creation.

now for the boy child tomorrow ... wonder how that will go, wish me luck and stay tuned for tomorrow's creation, where i attempt to get him in the spirit of 'love' ... do we think i might be pushing @#%&@$% up hill ;)

new zealand give away starts monday :)

day 243: a fishy valentines gift

2012-02-07T22:03:00.001+13:00

the finished "fishy" valentines treats for the peeps

day 243 and we have had our first day back at school today, tomorrow i will show you pictures of the classroom for those who are interested (it will be in a separate post for those who don't so you can pass it by!). that meant i was a little tired after our first day back so i went for an easy creation this afternoon, a valentines treat for the peeps from me on valentines day.

i love this idea from sara at bateman buzz, love how simple this idea is but totally cute :) the idea is pinned to my newly created st valentines love board on pinterest. we don't have swedish fish candy but we do have chocolate fish in new zealand ... in fact, we specialise in them!

speaking of which i have a give away of new zealand goodies starting monday, so stay tuned if you would like a slice of new zealand to turn up at your door :)

i used my memories (fast becoming my favourite publishing software) to make the tags that are attached to these little valentines gifts. i used the my memories seaside whimsy kit, so cute and perfect for some fishy valentines!

these are the little tags i created for the chocky fish

ready to assemble ...

the finished valentine's gift .. quick, easy, and really inexpensive ... we like that kind of crafting!

outcome: pending ... but i would be stoked if someone near and dear to me gave me a chocky fish for valentines ... are you taking the hint nearest and dearest! i am guessing these will be a hit as neither will be expecting anything on valentine's day as it is a new holiday to new zealand where gift giving generally only happens between adults and teens!

thanks to sara at bateman buzz for giving me a really cute valentine to make on a day when tiredness has overcome me and i was looking for something super quick and simple to make ... today's creation definitely fitted all those criteria!

as for the 17 day diet, still going strong after eight days i have lost 4.6kgs ... not bad as we reach the halfway point :) my favourite part of the diet is the yoghurt and jam at night!

day 242: learn to crochet

2012-02-06T20:58:00.000+13:00

learning to crochet, the start of my new year's resolution :)

day 242 and i am starting on one of my new year's resolutions today ... to learn to crochet. i have been using this crochet lesson from rachel at maybe matilda to learn chain stitching. my sweet friend dee is the most amazing crocheter and she told me this was the first step to achieving this resolution. i have wanted to learn to crochet since my second day on pinterest when i saw all the amazing projects people were completing with this wonderful craft! the tutorial is pinned to my crochet .. my new years resolution board.

i used rachel's tutorial over and over again to practice and i found her combination of photos and words really helpful and easy to follow. rachel has the whole gamete of how to's for crocheting and she is my number one person to go to for instruction when dee is not sitting next to me on the couch giving me advice ;)

i have been working on my chain stitch so today i could go to my sweet friend dee's to learn some crochet stitches that would help me turn wool into flowers :) for a beginner to crochet you need some double knit wool and a 3.5mm hook ... well that's what i began with today and had great success using. the other thing that was highly recommended to me was using metal hooks over plastic as the later break too easily.

what you need, as i mentioned if you only want to begin with one hook grab a 3.5mm one to start with :)

i am on my fourth go round for this flower!

the finished flower, my first ever crochet flower ... yip, just a bit proud of this creation ;)

outcome: I MADE FLOWERS! yes indeedy, the chain stitching tutorial has worked wonders and i found learning all the other different types of stitches easier thanks to the practice i had from maybe matilda. i used her tonight to help me remember some of the stitches i used with dee to finish my large flower which was awesome :)

my sincere thanks to dee, who's patience was incredible and to rachel at maybe matilda, who's tutorials and instructions are so easy to follow. both these ladies have given me the skills to be able to go forth and crochet ... well with some practice and more coaching anyway!

day 241: library book storage

2012-02-05T18:48:00.000+13:00

the finished library book storage .. happy days

day 241 and the final touches are going on in the classroom today so it is all finished for tuesday when we start back at school after the summer holidays. today i am using a pinterest found solution for library book storage as my creation.

i am always chasing library books around our house in order to return them before they are due, it drives me absolutely barmy as both peeps use the library A LOT. that means LOTS of our time is spent finding books and i am sure it's because we have never had a proper place to store library books once we bring them home.

i went on a picture tour of lisa's home school classroom from pieces of us and found heaps of ideas for our classroom and was completely inspired by her family of 8 ... yikes! i pinned her library box idea to my ideas for organisation board on pinterest, knowing that i would begin one this school year.

instead of using a box, i found these wire baskets at the hardware store that will fit the books for each child perfectly. i really liked the idea that it wasn't another thing to house on the floor or on top of a table. we have put them up next to the reading area in the school room and i made name tags for each one so they would know where they were to be returned to. to reinforce this putting back idea, i have added clips to the front of each basket so they can attach their library loans printout so they will know what's to be returned to the basket ready for library day. for those peeps that are able to do this and all books are accounted for on a friday (our library day), without the need for a full scale treasure hunt, there will also be an addition reinforcement of $1 rewarded to them.

the 'handy' baskets for the library book storage :)

i put them right next to the bookcase in the classroom and also next to the reading area which is on the left of this picture

finished and ready for all ben's books, we go to the library once a week so this will hopefully save us a lot of searching time!

outcome: here's hoping that having an immovable place to store, retrieve, and return library books to will stop the valuable time we lose looking for library books. i am hoping the addition reward will help them remember to return the books to the baskets. i will let you know in a couple of weeks just how that is going ;) the good news is at least we now have somewhere to store them that's also away from their own books so the two lots don't get muddled up in the chaos their bookcases are ... looking forward to when that appears on the 52 weeks to an organised home (currently we are in the kitchen organising recipe books and binders)!

my gratitude goes to lisa from pieces of us for this great idea. i absolutely loved reading what she had to say with regards to her home schooling schedule and the organisation of there things, it was brilliant and so inspiring :)

day 240: french toast

2012-02-04T16:06:00.000+13:00

french toast served with maple syrup and powdered sugar :)

day 240 and we have a loaf of home made bread that needs using ... steve suggested he make french toast for breakfast for he and the peeps. i told him i would find a recipe for it on pinterest (given we haven't made it before) and i would help and make it today's creation :) so that is what we did.

this recipe is from southern food on about.com and is pinned to my recipe must do's board. this recipe rates really highly on their boards so i figured we would be fine, even though i was baking in the morning ... i'm not a morning person ;) lucky for us this is quick and simple to make and only requires a whisk and a bowl, now that's my kinda kitchen work early in the morning. the other nice part of this recipe is it doesn't add sugar until serving up, so great for diabetics, and it is a reduced fat version using only one whole egg and two egg whites ... happy days given i have the household on a health kick currently :)

we followed the recipe according to directions and then served them with maple syrup and icing sugar for the peeps. steve had his as they were straight out of the skillet.

the ingredients

my whisking man straight out of bed ... not even the coffee had been drunk!

it smelt really good cooking, not as good as last nights pinterest but still good!

the peeps had there's garnished with maple syrup and sugar :)

outcome: when we asked polly what she thought of them, she asked as if we saw hearts in her eyes and ben, well, he gave us a thumbs up which was pretty much all we got out of him until he was finished eating! steve thought they were just fine as they were out of the pan but if you liked a sweet breakfast definitely add the sugar. all in all a very happy way to start the day for most of the family ... and what did i have for breakfast? a very healthy version of scrambled eggs so i was happy too :)

my thanks to southern food on about.com, i am absolutely certain the peeps will be asking for french toast every weekend thankfully it is easy enough to be able to do that!

day 239: parmigiana roasted potatoes and 17 day diet update

2012-02-03T19:23:00.000+13:00

these smelt so amazing, worth doing for the smell alone!

day 239 and i am making something for those of us NOT on the 17day diet and losing lots of weight (see the bold red weight loss at the bottom ... seriously!). i figured the family not dieting might be getting over all the health i have put into our menu over the last couple of days, so a treat i don't mind missing out on is my creation for today.

this recipe for parmigiana roasted potatoes looks really nice and steve LOVES potatoes ... does every guy consider potatoes as the only other food group to meat? the recipe comes from lovin' from the oven, such a sweet blog with plenty of mouth watering recipes. it is pinned to my pinterest recipe must do's board, which i can barely look at with so many tempting treats to make and pack onto my hips :(

for this recipe you dice the potatoes, toss them in all the ingredients, and then put them in the oven ... you can see why i chose this recipe can't you! yes, it's fair to say limited time in the kitchen when dieting is a VERY good idea :) the only changes i made to the original recipe were to substitute the italian herbs with tuscan and i used grated parmigiana instead of the powdered stuff. i also used 3 cloves of garlic instead of 2 and garlic powder.

the ingredients, plus the parmigiana cheese which is in the fridge :)

ben declared these should be eaten every night ... dream on my boy, the smell would drive me insane not being able to eat them, so much for a tasty treat i didn't mind missing out on ... i stayed strong this time, but next time, i'm not so sure ;)

outcome: steve and the peeps loved them .... that's an understatement, they REALLY appreciated them and me for making them ... check ... brownie points earnt for today ;)

my thanks to kim from lovin' from the oven for this delicious recipe my family loved ... i will definitely be back to visit the sweet treats when i am slim and healthy :)

weight tracker: after three days on the 17 day diet 3.2kgs lost ... i kid you not!

still going strong, surprisingly full, but still would love something sweet :- / ... ah well at least it's working!

day 238: valentines subway art

2012-02-02T20:00:00.000+13:00

i love subway art :)

day 238 and i have just realised valentines day is right around the corner ... it's not a massive holiday in new zealand but it is growing every year. i decided i would add some valentines décor to our home this year to get us all in the mood of love whether it be as friends, family, or one true loves ;)

i am starting with subway art ... always a good way to start! this free printable comes from the girls at eighteen25 and you get two colour choices :) i went with the pinks and reds, if you are going to decorate for valentines, you may as well go all the way. i pinned the idea to my holiday goodness board on pinterest and liked the white frame it was it so much, i decided to copy that as well ... why mess with perfection!~

step one: print free subway art

step two: buy a cheap but nice frame

step three: put in the frame and display :)

outcome: COOL, love how simple and quick subway art is to make! one for every holiday coming up ;)

my thanks to the the sisters from eighteen25, they always have such great ideas, not to mention the best, freshest looking subway art that's always free to download ... love that :)

day 237: multiplication ice block sticks

2012-02-01T19:53:00.000+13:00

multiplication ice block sticks ready for learning

day 237 and i am back to reality and out of holiday mode and once again preparing for the new home school year, which is now less than a week away ... yikes! today i am in maths mode for pollyanna in the form of multiplication tools. there are HEAPS of ideas on pinterest, and i have chosen one to make today ... ice block stick multiplication.

i got this idea from the first grade parade and it is pinned to my home school projects board. mrs carroll uses the ice block sticks for teaching addition and subtraction and i thought the idea seemed so good it could easily translate to multiplication and eventually division.

i used a sharpie to write the problem on one side and the answers on the other. i also used both ends of the ice block to demostrate that, like addition, it doesn't matter which number comes first in the equation.

what you need

the stick, this photo shows what the front side and the back side look like

2 x family ... i am going to give this group to pollyanna first and work our way up from there :)

outcome: i am hoping that this will make learning her times tables more fun for pollyanna and less about just reading and remembering her times tables from a chart. the great thing with these sticks is i can mix them up or keep them as families. the answers are readily assessable to her but not immediately so shw will be able to give it a go and then check whether she is right :)

my gratitude goes to mrs carroll at the first grade parade for uses such a simple everyday item to make maths more exciting for littlies :)

day 236: 17 day diet

2012-01-31T21:39:00.000+13:00

the 17 day diet began today :)

day 236 and the good food of christmas and summer has caught up with me :( we have had a great summer eating, swimming, relaxing, holidaying, and eating, and now we are bursting out of our clothes! i make light but it's something i feel horrible. it's time to lose some weight and try something new doing it. my whimsy board is where i pin all the things i am not sure how to categorise and the 17 day diet is one of those :)

i was given a book to read by a dear friend and also went to the website to investigate the 17 day diet. coming home from our camping holiday and starting fresh for the year seemed like a good idea. the diet has been put together by dr. mike moreno and features a lot of protein, probiotics, and plenty of vegetables. it doesn't include weighing things (except for me!), counting anything, or making lots of soups ... all things i am not good at. in 17 days you are supposed to lose between 10-15 lbs (4-5 kgs) so we shall see.

the book with all you need to know

today i stepped on the scales, keeled over with fright, got angry at myself, and then started the diet with gusto. so today's creation is all about making something, it just happens that i am planning on making myself a lot small ;)

you drink a LOT of green tea on this diet

tonights dinner, it was really filling

outcome: we will know in 17 days but day 1 has been a triumph. i think with all the water i have drunk it has kept me full all day. the food was surprisingly satisfying and i figured for 17 days this diet is definitely worth trying. for my own personal motivation i am going to put a little weight tracker down the bottom of each post daily for the 17 days and after 17 days we will see whether this diet has worked ... this was a hard post to write because it's something very personal to me and more than a little embarrassing, but i figured if i have success with it, it might be worth sharing with those who would like to lose weight ... and if it doesn't work, we can at least scratch this one off the list of diets to try :)

HOME :)

2012-01-31T14:09:00.001+13:00

the lazy hazy days of summer

days 233, 234, 235 were all spent on the road camping in the most beautiful place, it was hard to come home ... which is probably why we didn't get home until fairly late last night :) so we need a quick recap of the three days creations and then there will be another post later today for today's creation, well more of an experiment i think!

day 233 had me making this jello salad. we went camping with friends and one of them and been looking at the camping pins i had pinned to my summer loving board and sent a request through for jello salad. to be honest when she emailed this request all i could think of was lettuce and lime jello ... yuck! as it turns out this recipe from camping cafe is all about fruit, vanilla pudding, cream, and marshmallows, much better and the recipe looked ideal for campers. it was really easy to make, you simply tip all the ingredients into a bowl combine and then put in the chilly bin to cool for 3 hours ... and it was delicious. if you don't like pineapple, you won't like this recipe as their is a really strong pineapple flavour so maybe substitute with two cans of fruit salad instead. it was really good, nice and refreshing, and it does something funny to the marshmallows which is cool :)

A LOT of cool whip goes into this pudding, just as well it was fat free!

cut in some marshmallows

this little girl LOVED the salad!

day 234 and i made a present in the form of a trivet for the sweet family we went camping with. we collected pebbles and sand glass from the beach that were nice and flat. then during the evening i sat down with craft glue and glued them to the felt i had brought along with me. the idea is pinned to my summer loving board and comes from martha stewart weddings! no kidding, its amazing where inspiration will lead you :) it turned out really well and is perfect for camping given the amount of hot food you cook and the more than likely plastic tables you eat on! if you don't live near a beach, i am sure you can purchase bags of pebbles from your local handy man store and still make one. i am going to try and make a table runner for our dinning room using the same method.

what is needed for the trivet

the finished pebble trivet

day 235 and we got home late in the evening. my very sweet, thoughtful mum had sussed out a pinterest recipe for me to make, got all the ingredients sorted, and helped me create some very yummy chocolate chip cookies. the recipe comes from apple a day and states they are the best chewy, soft chocolate chip cookie ever. and actually they are pretty darn hard to beat. the mystery ingredient is cornstarch and you do need to whip out the heavy machinery for these, but let me tell you it is totally worth it. they are so good, it was hard to stop, just as well the recipe makes plenty of them :)

the mix

the chewy cookies :)

my thanks goes to camping cafe for their awesome jello salad (and the hot chocolate mix, it was outstanding ... not too sweet, or chocolately, just perfect), apple a day for the BEST chewy chocolate cookies i have ever tasted AND as a bonus they were easy to make, and also to martha stewart weddings for the trivet idea :) and FINALLY, thank you so much to my family and the ross-smiths for an amazing camping trip and helping me carry on my pinterest creation, and also my sweet, sweet, mum who took care of our open home AND had all creating ready for me to do when i got home so i wouldn't stress about ... love you guys :)

the view from our tent ... not too shabby ;)

these three peeps had a ball

the hot chocolate mix was a hit with my peeps :)

tracy's apple pie, fresh from the dutch oven

tracy's apple pie was absolutely delicious

one of the catch, freshly smoked ... it was delicious :)

the trivet came in very handy the following day for alan's freshly smoked fish!

day 232: i love you because ....

2012-01-27T08:23:00.003+13:00

my first try out of my latest creation!

day 232 and today's creation is something i think everybody should have in their house if their are multiple of you. the peeps and my awesome husband have been doing so much for me this past week and i have been too grumpy with myself for getting this injury to thank them for it. i am hoping if today's little creation was sitting on the side table i might be reminded to be more vocal or even write how grateful i am for the things my family does for me and for others in the family.

the inspiration comes from and is pinned to my kids bedrooms board on pinterest. i originally thought i would put one in each of the peeps bedrooms but decided this is something the whole family could take part in. as such, the one i am making today is going to sit in the kitchen.

i simple typeset the words in my memories and then printed it out on already patterned paper. popped it into a frame and then i couldn't help but try it out :)

what you need :)

the typesetting ;)

the finished creation ... simple but totally awesome

outcome: for me this is genius because it's sitting their reminding me (and my family) to thank them for the things they do ... hopefully it will brush off on everybody and we will all feel recognised for keeping the cogs of this house turning.

i have seen lots of these on pinterest and wish i could find the original creative person to thank for the inspiration. whoever you are, thank you, it's something simple like this that could make someone's day, and i love that :)

see you all in a couple of days, the creating will continue on the road camping, but the posting will have to wait until we return as their is no telecommunications coverage where we are heading! have a great weekend everyone, and if you are from auckland .... enjoy the long weekend :)

day 231: kids camping kits

2012-01-26T14:45:00.000+13:00

let's go camping

day 231 and tomorrow we are off bright (well some of us) and early camping in a very remote part of new zealand ... yes our country is remote and yes, there are even remoter places here with no shops, telecommunications, power, or roads ... sounds like an adventure is brewing, especially when you take a torn hamstring with you! exercise can be dangerous ;) as i mentioned yesterday, we are going with some awesome friends who have a daughter pollyanna's age.

normally i would refit the peeps travel kits for the long trip, but i didn't want to leave her out so i decided some camping kits were in order. i found these treat bags on pinterest and figured i could go along with this inspiration ... aren't they gorgeous for a camping party. they were uploaded by pinner lisa cressey and i think they are the perfect take home give for a camping party. clearly, i needed to go a little bigger but i did use her s'mores idea and packed chocolate thins and marshmallows for everyone as well!

as for the actual peeps camping kits, i purchased some book bags and filled them with all sorts of goodies including books, a dvd (for the trip in the car), marshmallows, pens, notebooks, lollies, chips, games, puzzle book, and a few other bits and bobs. i put in enough things so if it rains they have some edible goodies and games to play.

the goodies for inside the bags

the goodies inside as i fill, fill, fill ... i'd love the adult version of this :)

the finished camping bags ready to gift :)

outcome: pending, but the looks on their faces was totally worth the money and effort ... should become my catch cry! if the packs work as well as the travel kits, we will have nothing to worry about and the journey should be a whine free one ;)

my thanks to pinner lisa cressey for providing such great inspiration for today's creation. see you all first thing in the morning for an early creation before we leave to go camping, have a great day :)

day 230: hot chocolate mix

2012-01-25T22:24:00.002+13:00

i have been getting a heap of emails recently (thank you so much i absolutely LOVE getting them) and i want to respond to you all with measurements, know-how, and detailed instructions in some cases! i promise i will reply to you all next week! unfortunately i have torn my hamstring and the pain is making me really tired ... my doctor told today it was a good thing we were going away for the weekend so i would stop trying to move around so much and just relax ... i'm an active relaxer, what can i say. so to those people still waiting i am so sorry, i will get to you very soon :)

day 230 and i reckon camping and hot chocolates are synonymous :) we are off camping this weekend as our last major getaway for this summer. we are going to the tippety top of the coromandel with amazing friends who are good at camping and have all the things that you need ... we don't but we try~! we always come home with the best camping stories, mostly because we camp sporadically and generally go with a "she'll be right" attitude that fails to live up to its promise somewhere along the way! sometimes i look back at our camping adventures and wonder why our two peeps still trust us :)

anyway, i wanted to make sure we pitched in with the things we could provide, mostly food options~! this hot chocolate mix, i figured would be the perfect start. it is on the camping cafe website and they have some awesome looking recipes for campers, so of which i will be trying during our trip away for pinterest. the recipe, along with a whole host of other ones, is pinned to my summer loving board.

this hot chocolate mix will save buying the ready made sachets, and i figured as the nights cool down, this would be a perfect drink for peeps and adults alike to warm up with. the camping cafe then has suggestions on how to make this mix into the worlds best hot cocoa ... which we will definitely also be using while away.

notice the choc bits bag has already been opened.....and some are missing......Steve?

you simply mix powdered sugar, salt, cocoa, powdered milk, and milk chocolate drops together. then when you want to use the mix you add 3 heaped tablespoons to the mug with hot water ... sounds GOOD!

outcome: well it was completely easy to make, seriously grab a big plastic container and add ingredients according to instructions. put the lid on and shake ... really, really hard to see anyone finding this difficult! the mix smells amazing and i think this would fantastic gifts just by putting it in a cute jar, adding a label with the instructions and some marshmallows ... great idea for gifting during the winter, don't you think?

day 229: subway art for the laundry

2012-01-24T22:26:00.000+13:00

perfect wall art for my unloved but overused the laundry

day 229 and my laundry is an unloved place ... it doesn't have a lot of character, space, or storage, but way too much use. i figured given it is used so much and i spend so much time getting washing in and out of the little space i would give it some love ... in the form of subway wall art :)

today's subway art is from simple crafter and is pinned to my mudroom/laundry room board on pinterest. she has a load of free printables, including heaps of subway art. it's free but you do need to have an email account to be able to download them here.

i used an A4 frame and printed it out, put it on the wall ... very easy day for creating today :)

the subway art used today from simple crafter

framed and ready to hang

hung, i think i may need a few more goodies in here before i am completely happy, still a little bland and boring :)

outcome: well at least it adds something that isn't to be washed into the laundry ;) actually the colours are really pretty in it and i may purchase some little things to put in the laundry using this colour palette. i am loving subway art at the moment but its definitely not something i want in every room in the house. in a lot of ways it's the perfect art for the laundry .. ooooh and definitely the perfect art for holidays!

my thanks goes to simple crafter, love the FREE subway art and i will definitely be back for the valentines subway art download in a weeks time :)

day 228: time zone clocks

2012-01-23T22:44:00.000+13:00

the world is entering our classroom :)

day 228 and we are back in the classroom today. i pinned these map and clock ideas from iheart organizing's eldest sons room ... what a great space and i really wanted to re-create some of the effect in our classroom. the time zone clocks are pinned to my kids bedrooms board. you will notice i have LOTS of map decor ideas pinned to my kids bedrooms board on pinterest as ben wants a room full of maps and travel when we move :)

both my peeps love to travel to new places and i wanted to really help pollyanna understand this year how big the world is, but how small it can be. it is somewhat of a theme for our learning this year as we are doing ancient civilisations, exploring cultures through language, and making the most of the london olympics, not to mention planning a trip to explore more of south east asia ... yes, the world is definitely our focus!

i figured some time zone clocks would be a good addition to the classroom with the maps we already have on the wall. i went shopping for this project over the weekend and found this COOL clock. i figured rather than buy multiple clocks this would totally work!

who needs three clocks when you can have one!

then while looking for so cheap canvases for my artist and inventor in focus, i found two awesome canvases that totally sealed the deal with regards to the theme for my classroom walls!

such cool canvases for "our world" themed classroom!

tonight steve and i decided we should carry out this creation and after some debating about how they should be arranged on the wall, we ended up with this layout.

our latest wall in the classroom ... it's getting much closer to being finished :)

outcome: i totally LOVE it! and when we move i am definitely going to re-create it in ben's room because he is absolutely taken with the canvases and clock ... seriously though, who doesn't need to know the time in london when the olympics are there this year ;)

my sincere gratitute to iheart organising's jen. she has made the most of her home, the decor is simply beautiful. it's not the world's biggest home (a lot like mine) but i love how every space is beautifully decorated and organised to make the most of what's on offer. the wall paints are so vibrant and set the mood for the rest of the room. needless to say i was so taken with the blog, i became it's latest follower :)

day 227: banana cake with peanut butter frosting

2012-01-22T16:13:00.000+13:00

banana cake with peanut butter frosting

before i start with day 227's creation i have to apologise to jenny for the combination of flavours ... she always leaves such lovely comments but i am guessing she won't be today as i am putting peanut butter with banana's, not her favourite mix! after making the peanut butter and banana smoothie that we all enjoyed the other day, i was excited to find some more recipes that involved these two ingredients.

when searching on pinterest, i found this banana cake with nutella frosting ... nutella is something we haven't really got into in this house so i figured i would make the same cake and frosting but substitute the nutella with peanut butter :) the recipe comes from toasty biscuit and is pinned to my recipe must do's board. linda describes this cake as indescribably good and foolproof, just the cake needed for a spot of sunday crafting before a birthday party!

apart from the peanut butter substituting the nutella, the cake was made according to directions ... you will need to lift out the heavy machinery for this cake. while it is foolproof it isn't made in five minutes, but that's ok as today there was time.

what's in this creation :)

the finished batter, ready for the oven .,. almost :)

while the cake was in the oven, the frosting was whipped up :)

the baked cake ready for its peanut butter frosting

this is a good looking banana cake!

outcome: the cake is delicious, really good flavour and super moist ... i like that! the peanut butter frosting on top was yum and a really nice change from the other frostings we have had recently had. sorry jenny but this combo of flavours is totally working for me!

today's thanks goes to linda at the toasty biscuit, this cake was yummy (even the land agent for the open home had some and left a note to say so!), the directions were really easy to follow and it was well worth the effort.

day 226: home made pita's

2012-01-21T18:41:00.000+13:00

yes, a home made pita, and yes i do love pepper :)

day 226 and we are making home made pita's for lunch today! family project, we all love pita's and steve saw these amazing pita's i had pinned on pinterest from and declared last night we would be making these tomorrow ... fair enough, given he volunteered to help AND make sure all the ingredients were sourced and ready. the recipe is from under the high chair and everyone who pinned it has said it looks like a really easy recipe, i have to agree ... but the proof will be in the baking!

we went about making the dough and then my sweet husband kneaded the dough for 8 mins ... he got all the hard jobs! you then leave them to rise for a while (we left ours 20 minutes) but they didn't rise too much. i love that she adds to make them all different sizes for the different needs. this is such a great idea as steve made his much larger than the ones designed for the peeps :)

the bits you need

the kneading husband ;)

divided and ready to roll

the puffed up pita's in the oven!

happiness is a rack full of hot pita's

then it was filled and ready to eat!

outcome: oh my gosh i cannot state enough just how good these were. we had them hot from the oven and filled them with roasted chicken and salad bits ... so delicious and they were loved by everyone. only one thing to mention was we forgot to flip them in the oven as we were so excited watching them puff up. that meant we had a more crisp side and a more bready side. i am guessing this is why you flip them, so don't forget this step when you make them at home as i am sure this will even out both sides to be the same texture. i didn't even notice, but my decided straight-laced, needs perfection husband picked up on it ;)

my thanks goes to aimee from under the high chair, the recipe really is easy (especially if you have a loved one to do the kneading for you!) and doesn't take much time at all to make ... i have been spoilt by these pita's and won't be able to have store-bought again!

day 225: first day survival kits

2012-01-20T21:59:00.007+13:00

the finished articles......and maybe a few m&ms missing

day 225 and the school room is still going through its makeover thanks to some time away holidaying. it needs to be finished during next week as we start school in two weeks time! yikes, i can't believe how fast this summer is going and i feel very lucky to have done so much and spent most of it with family and friends.

this year the peeps are moving into uncharted territory, especially for ben who is going to have a huge year of home learning. he is ten but will be starting year 9 english, maths, and science. its going to be a big step up for a boy who loves learning and his mama who realised this week just how big a jump up from primary learning this is going to be ... it's exciting but heart stopping at the same time~!

i was looking through my home school projects board for resources to compliment the curriculum i am putting together and found this first day of school survival kit from bee in our bonnet. i thought this was a great idea for the peeps only to discover when i went to bee in our bonnet for further investigation it was supposed to be for teachers! not easily put off and wanting to set the year off on the right foot i decided to make the peeps first day of school survival kits :) the items all went into an embroidery box for each peep and the bits and pieces that made up the kits were colour coded according to their favourite colours (yellow and green for ben, red and pink for pollyanna).

yellow peanut m&ms.....yumm

red peanut m&ms.....yumm

for the peeps first day of school survival kits i went with the following:

m&m's
erasers
pencils
staplers
yellow pins (for the places they want to visit)
fruit sticks
sharpners
pegs
glue sticks

i then used my new favourite publishing tool (my memories software) to make the kit toppers ... :)

outcome: this little kit will hopefully ensure the peeps (and teachers if you are gifting this) know that you are right behind them for having a successful, fun filled year ... that's what i hope the little bit of effort says anyway! these were really fun to put together, not sure if that's because i love shopping for stationery or whether it's because i know my peeps will laugh when they open up their little boxes and say "did you get these off pinterest mum?" yes, that is almost an automatic question from my peeps nowadays if i try to make something new ... and you know what, more often than not it is!

my sincere thanks to bee in our bonnet for this great idea. whether for peeps or teachers everybody deserves to start the first day of school excited and enthused about the year of learning ahead.

days 223 and 224 and we are safely home

2012-01-19T19:51:00.000+13:00

the peanut butter and banana smoothie

days 223 and 224 coming at you tonight from home ... we are safely home after a three day adventure to a beautiful spot just north of auckland. it was glorious, the peeps were great (most of the time), the company of a dear friend is always the best, and the weather even came to play!

day 223 saw me making cupcakes with a box of vanilla cupcake mix and lemonade. the recipe is pinned to my recipe must do's board and comes from cookies and cups. shelly used a fruity soda can and a funfetti cupcake mix but i went with vanilla and lemon. so i am guessing you could use any flavour cupcake mix and any flavour of soda! as i was away on holiday, i wanted a ~~lazy~~ easy icing so i purchased betty crockers vanilla icing to add to the top of these little beauties.

what i used

look how frothy the mix goes as soon as you add the soda!

fill the cases to 2/3's full

baked and ready to ice

iced and ready to eat!

outcome: who knew you didn't need eggs and butter to make beautiful cupcakes. they were so delicious and just as beautiful and moist today as they were yesterday ... so perfect if you have a party and want to make cupcakes a day ahead of time. my usual cupcake recipe is normally only good for the day they are made so i am stoked these remain just as yummy the day after. i am making these for a gift on sunday, that's how good they are!

my thanks to shelly at cookies and cups for this outstanding cooking secret ... ignore the cake mix packets just add soda for the best, moist baking ever!

day 224 and i was very tired when i got home this afternoon. after eating lots and lots of unhealthy food for the last 3 days i wanted something nice and simple to eat to fill me up. i found this yummy looking smoothie that also looked nice and nutritious as well. this recipe is from the chiquita banana's website and is pinned to my weight watchers recipes happy days board on pinterest. cool website and if your peeps love banana's as much as mine do, this site is definitely worth a look for all sorts of neat recipes.

what you need for the peanut butter smoothie

blend all the ingredients together and serve .. easy!

the finished smoothie ... so yummy and totally filling :)

outcome: i have never had peanut butter and banana's together before and it was surprisingly good. not a combo i would have naturally put together but it was actually really nice and boy was it filling. this is definitely something i will add to the after school snack list as it's pretty darn nutritious, yummy, totally kid friendly, and nice and easy to make ... plus for a growing tween boy, it's much more likely to FILL him up than a lot of other snacks!

my thanks to chiquita banana's for this recipe that i will use again and again with the peeps for after school (whilst filling my glass!) ... love recipes that are filling, healthy, and liked by the peeps ... happy days, happy days ;)

day 222: and p365 hits the road again!

2012-01-17T09:28:00.003+13:00

the places you've been

day 222 and the peeps and i are off with a couple of dear friends to have some midweek fun while my sweet husband heads to work. we are going somewhere i have never been before, the tawharanui peninsula [map] it's supposed to be a beautiful part of new zealand and i am excited to explore it with one of my dearest friends, lana. we are also taking one of polly's sweetest friends, hayley.

the five of us are heading up their to stay until thursday and i am reliably informed there is NO cell coverage in the area .... so there will be no blogging, BUT there will be creating! amazingly i could fly to singapore and still be able to blog each day, but if i head an hour and a half north for relaxation i can't :) one day the entire country will have cell coverage and i will be able to blog till my hearts content no matter where i am in this fine country!

anyway (!) all this travelling got me to thinking about the peeps and knowing where they are going and where they have been ... a while ago i pinned a great idea that cements the above. essentially you put a big map on the wall and the peeps add push pins to the places they have travelled. this idea is not new and i pinned it from jesse papirio and i loved how she pinned the places she had been in blue and the places she wanted to go in yellow.

i purchased a big map of new zealand and a map of the world and put them up in the classroom. the peeps put pins in all the places they had been in blue and then as we study and they find out about new places they can add the yellow pins for the places they want to go in the future.

ben pinning taupo on the new zealand map

the world map

pollyanna pinning singapore

outcome: it's one of those simple ideas that is completely underrated. already it has shown rewards for my youngest peep who has a greater appreciation for scale and distance and for just how big the world is and how many places she can go! what an easy idea for the classroom walls and it is already paying educational dividends :) LOVE pinterest creating!

my thanks to jesse papirio for acting on this idea and then pinning the results to pinterest, it inspired me to get busy and do my own.

day 221: weight watchers egg salad

2012-01-16T21:08:00.001+13:00

egg salad in tomato and pepper nests :)

day 211 and i am looking to start the year with some slimmer recipes to continue slimming down ... christmas is over and the holidays are fast coming to an end so it looks like it might be time to get back on the weight reducing horse!

i figured this egg salad would be the perfect way to ease back into healthy food ... looks delicious and nothing like rabbit food ... teehee! the egg salad is from the yummy life website and is pinned to my weight watchers recipes happy days board on pinterest.

i started off with every intention of following this recipe as per the instructions. unfortunately i had a male look in the fridge and thought i saw plain yoghurt ... it was actually vanilla bean :( don't get me wrong, i LOVE vanilla bean yoghurt just not in an egg salad. i had already boiled and peeled the eggs when i went to retrieve the not so plain yoghurt, so thought i would wing it instead. enter curry powder and hummus! i added 1/2 a teaspoon of curry powder to the eggs and three heaped tablespoons of hummus as well. i also added the salt, pepper, and one tablespoon of mayo that was in the original recipe.

and this is when i discovered the yoghurt wasn't as plain as i had though

the two saving ingredients!

the finished egg salad with it's two extra ingredients!

the recipe then suggests serving it in a variety of ways, i went with the tomato basket option for three of my family members. and for the other two peeps (who are less keen on tomato) i made pepper baskets to serve their egg salad.

the nests for the salad

the finished, filled nests

it went really well with the rest of our dinner :)

outcome: this was delicious! really, who knew hummus would make an egg salad so yummy! we all loved our little egg nests, and while the outcome wasn't quite what i had planned at the start of the day, it did not disappoint, and i even felt a little proud of my concoction!

my thanks to the yummy life, i apologise whole heartedly for butchering your very delicious looking recipe and while mine was a triumph i am very keen to give the original recipe a go in the near future.

day 220: peanut butter m&m cookies and a wrap of pinterest creations on the raod in taupo

2012-01-16T14:32:00.000+13:00

the family bach, is always such a relaxing place for a getaway !

day 220 was yesterday while we were in taupo, which is halfway between wellington and auckland on the north island of new zealand (here is a map if you want to see where in the world i have been this past weekend!) .... so what did we get up to?

this adorable girl and her very sweet poppy did some of this

we three did some time in here ... teaching my littlest sister how to make this cake so she can wow her new flatmates

we did a fair amount of eating

we didn't do any of this as the weather continues to be terrible

we did a fair proportion of this because the weather was foul ...

he did a lot of this when the weather allowed for it

we mostly did this

some of us tried to do this, some better than others

these two did a lot of this which meant we were really well fed

and finally i did some of this to keep p365 going :)

yesterdays creation was another recipe ... peanut butter m&m cookies ... they were REALLY good, not too peanut buttery but the combination between the sweet and salty tastes was an absolute winner :) the recipe was made according to the instructions from the curvy carrot (such a cute name for a website) and it is also pinned to my recipe must do's board. the adorable family i spent the weekend with kept eating the m&m's so the only change i made was to top up the m&m count with some chocolate drops leftover from the banana s'mores.

speaking of which, the s'mores i made for pinterest on saturday were a big hit for dessert. we were all agreed they won't have been half as successful without the crunchy cereal on top, so when you make them don't do it without adding the crunch factor! the recipe is on my summer loving board and is from quick dish by tablespoon .. another cool name for a website :) we had our banana s'mores with ice cream as well, YUMMO. the recipe was SO easy and while the men (my sweet dad and husband) did overcook them on the bbq slightly (the marshmallows disappeared totally from sight, but their lovely sweetness stuck around thankfully!) they were mighty fine and definitely something i would happily make again. they would be perfect for school camps and such things as the peeps could easily make them for an easy sweet treat.

what you need for banana s'mores

filled and ready to be wrapped

i chose to make these while drinking brancott estate rose, that's optional but totally adds to the experience ;)

this lovely man was in charge ....

with this lovely man of the s'mores grilling

the end result ... the crunchy cereal totally makes these divine :)

ok, back later today with day 221's creation :) but in the meantime my gratitude goes to the curvy carrot and quick dish for fantastic recipes that fed the crew with such delicious food while we were relaxing in taupo ... made taking p365 on the road a joy!

day 219: banana s'mores

2012-01-14T20:40:00.001+13:00

Day 219 and we made the most delicious banana s'mores tonight for dessert but the wifi coverage is so poor I can't post with photo's! We return late tomorrow, so I will post when I have a chance :)

day 218: p365 creations take to the road so pinterest came through with some car games!

2012-01-13T14:05:00.000+13:00

we are ready to hit the road!

day 218 and we are off to hatepe (just south of taupo) today to stay with family for the weekend, so pinterest creations 365 will also hit the road and be done while we are down there :) unfortunately the ability to post from there might be a little hard as the cell coverage is terrible! we shall see, my banana s'mores and peanut butter m&m cookies for making saturday and sunday may have to be posted when we return on sunday .... on the plus side at least i have printed the recipes so i can continue with my making and baking while we are away!

as we are taking to the raod, the peeps need some entertainment for the 4 hour car ride so the trusty travel packs i made on day 54 for air travel will also be used to store all their goodies in for car travel! REALLY love these travel packs i made as they have proved so useful over and over again for travel and storing everything in one tidy place.

i wanted some new printables to put in their packs so for today's creation i searched pinterest for travel games and found these awesome car games from the whimsical fig. they are pinned to my whimsy board on pinterest. such a gorgeous blog and the games are ideal for the car. i printed them out at A5 size so they fitted perfectly into the packs ....

the new printables

travel packs with their new printables

outcome: peeps are super excited to see new printables (the old ones also from a pinterest search have been well used!) in their packs and as for whether they entertain, we shall have to see after the 4 hour car ride ... wish me luck!

my sincere thanks to the whimsical fig for providing some very cool printables for car travel. love that they are the old fashioned games that never go out of favour!

day 217: composer art for the classroom wall

2012-01-12T22:03:00.000+13:00

the finished bulletin board with our first composer of the year attached!

day 217 and i am going through all the finishing little bits for our home learning room. i wanted to put something up to remind the peeps who/what we are currently learning about in different focus areas. i have decided to carry on our learning about different composers, inventors, and artists and wanted a bulletin board type of thing to put up a picture and highlights of the person we are currently studying.

this piece of canvas art i picked up last year for $8 no longer has a home and i figured it might make the perfect base for my composers bulletin board. i got out my stash of sticky back felt letters and began to play!

i then went on pinterest and searched for some of my favourite composers to start off this year. several were then pinned to my home school projects board ready for when we begin our studies of them. i decided we would begin with mozart (the peeps current favourite), i want to get in their good books at the beginning of the year with at least one subject! they find mozart's music more mellow than some of his contemporaries ... i adore beethoven, i'm not sure if its because i feel so sad for the life that he lived or whether the emotion of his more powerful music makes me feel more involved. the peeps find beethoven's music too overbearing, poor man his music was so often misunderstood :)

ANYWAY, back on track with today's pinterest creation. i created the board and then used the links from pinterest to find some cool pictures and bio's of composers, which i then printed and laminated ready to attach to the new bulletin board.

what was used for this project

i went with a combination of colours so they would stand out on all the parts of the background

finished! love how well it turned out, the composer is just attached with blue tac :)

outcome: REALLY cool! i now need to find some cheap canvas art that will work for inventors and artists :) it looks sweet on the wall and will hopefully engage and be a constant reminder of who we are currently concentrating our learning on .,. well that's the hope anyway. and if that doesn't work, at least we have some pretty nice looking art on the wall that's multifunctional!

day 216: peanut butter and jelly with strawberries, banana, and granola flat breads

2012-01-11T12:05:00.000+13:00

the finished wraps ... yummo!

day 216 and the family and i are off to the tennis again today. it's the week of the men's event and the other half of my christmas present ... we have had rain all summer and the weather outside is looking

the tickets i was given by my sweet are for the day and night session, so it's a LONG day for the peeps. luckily they enjoy tennis (when it's not raining) and when they are bored of that, they also love reading and when they are bored of that, they also love eating. eating is a fundamental when you go out for the day and take peeps. i saw these delicious looking flat breads i had pinned a while back on my recipe must do's board and thought they looked like ideal tennis food :)

i absolutely loved visiting the website flatout flat breads where this recipe originated. my family love flat breads of all types and i found some really cool ideas for using flat breads i hadn't seen before. the western flatout omelette looks so yummy i pinned it to my board on pinterest as well! i will definitely be heading back there for some tasty recipes ... but now on with today's!

you need peanut butter, jam/jelly, strawberries, bananas, granola/oats, and some flat breads to wrap it all up in.

the ingredients

firstly spread the flatbread with peanut butter all over .....

then spread half the flatbread with strawberry jam ....

add sliced strawberries and banana .....

sprinkle on some oats .....

full of goodness and very filling!

outcome: well i HAD to take a slice off the end of one before i wrapped them up to take to the tennis! it was really yummy, nice and hearty and had that sweet and salty taste i love together (think peanut butter cups but with strawberry not chocolate). this is definitely something i will make the peeps before their sports and such things because the small piece i had was so filling but tasted really good :)

my thanks to my new favourite flatbread website for recipes, flatout flat breads for this great afternoon tea snack ... great for active people for sure :)

day 215: entrance for our school room

2012-01-10T21:58:00.000+13:00

the finished entry signage for our school room :)

day 215 and our classroom is coming along nicely ... taking longer than i hoped but coming along ... good things take time :) today i found inspiration on my home school projects board, in the form of signage :) sara at august fields has this great little sign on her door and it got me thinking our little school room needed one too!

her classroom looks amazing, so clean and simple, love all the elements and thought she has put into it, including the signage on the door and the gorgeous bell to greet her children as they go into school.

as we know perfection isn't my strong point and as a silhouette machine hasn't mysteriously fallen into my craft area i went with the laid back approach to letter placing! i did use some liquid chalk (left here by one of my sweetest friends) to make sure i didn't go drastically up hill or down.

the supplies

the blank canvas

our motto ... i put a table cloth up behind the door so i could concentrate without looking at the mess still in the classroom!

can you see all the mess that is yet to be organised and the blank canvas walls and the filling that still needs to be done
... the list is still LONG :) rome wasn't built in a day and neither was my learning environment!

outcome: the peeps will love it and i already do ... it's not straight laced because that's not us entirely. we try to have lots of fun in our learning and i wanted our "school signage" to reflect that and the peeps to smile and be proud as they walk through the door into their learning environment. i think the door says that .. i hope it will to my little learners as well :)

my thanks to sara at august fields for the truly inspiring classroom she has ... i would love to have a space like that, but feel incredibly blessed that at least i get to home school my peeps and have a dedicated space to do it in. i will probably dream about her teaching space tonight and tuck it away in my dreams for one day.

day 214: blackboard

2012-01-09T22:10:00.000+13:00

the finished blackboard ... perfect ;)

day 214 and blackboards anywhere, any way seem to be all over pinterest! so i, of course, wanted to have a go and join in on this blackboard craze :) with a new classroom (an old store room) under decoration, painting a blackboard onto one of the newly painted ivory walls seemed like too good an opportunity not to take up ... and besides it's totally practical for a classroom ;) i have pinned lots of blackboard ideas to most of my boards on pinterest, and there are several pins we took inspiration from on my home school projects board.

steve went down to the local hardware store and helped me get the right paint, who knew their were choices ... and while i have pinned many "make your own blackboard paint" i am not that confident yet, especially with a project this size!

what we used :)

ready to paint!

steve and i decided we wouldn't be able to make a perfect square ... what that really means is steve is a perfectionist and as he was helping me (the not so perfect) we decided it was better for our marriage to go for something that required a little less precision! so we went the free styler way ... yeah baby!

blackboard paint is so effective and so instant!

we literally rolled out a pattern for the wall!

outcome: NEW ADDICTION for BOTH of us ... immediately after we had finished steve said to me "don't be surprised if you see blackboard paint on a whole lot of things in the future" ... now i know why so many things had been transformed into blackboards on pinterest! no other way of describing it, it really is totally awesome and once you start, well ... just warning you :)

my thanks goes to all those lovely fellow addicts that have painted with chalkboard paint and then blogged about it. all that wonderful inspiration ended up on pinterest and now i am completely obsessed with it myself!

day 213: perfect present for a teacher starting the new school year and a WINNER :)

2012-01-08T21:30:00.000+13:00

WE HAVE A WINNER

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max:

Result:

15Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Jenny said...

Love the digi card, they're a lot easier to send so definitely have a place in crafting:)
Great new blog header too.
Jenny x

Jenny if you could email me at kahoonz@clear.net.nz, i will email you out the details so you can download the software for FREE :)

THANKS SO MUCH FOR ALL THE LOVELY COMMENTS OVER THE LAST WEEK! I HAVE LOVED READING THEM AND REALLY APPRECIATED ALL YOU HAVE HAD TO SAY ...

WATCH OUT FOR A NEW ZEALAND GOODIES THEMED GIVE AWAY IN TWO WEEKS

lots of fun goodies for a very deserving teacher

day 213 and as i start the process of organising the peeps curriculum for the coming school year (starting february) i have teachers and the amazing job they do at the forefront of my thoughts. i know lots of teachers, some i love, some terrify me, some are amazing, some are born to do the job, some are willing learners, some are misunderstood often, some are sweethearts, some make me cry, some are hilarious, but only one is all of the above ... and she is also an amazing friend.

the peeps and i are going to spend some time with her this week being her classroom slaves! all teachers work SO very hard and all need more hours in the day ... so we are off to help her turn her new classroom into her dream vision. i wanted to make sure she knew what a special teacher she is (we know personally as she was ben's last school teacher) so we are putting together a teachers survival kit for her ... something EVERY teacher should have a the start of a new school year don't you think!

i saw the idea on pinterest ages ago and waited until the right time to make it for her ... what better time than her first day back at school for 2012. this idea comes from lucia at ink me baby one more time and is pinned to my gift wrapping and gift ideas board.

you start with a basket or some form of carry-all and add the following:

animal cookies for when your class seems like a zoo
band-aids for when things get a little rough
chewing gum to help you stick at it
crayons to make your day bright and rosy
a candle for all the late nights you put in marking and planning
an eraser to remind you everyone makes mistakes
lifesavers for when you've had one of those days
marbles to replace the ones you'll lose
paper clips to hold it all together
pencil to "write the wrongs"
rubber bands to remind you to be flexible
a shiny coin to remind you that each will shine in their own special way
starbursts to give you energy when you need it
tissues to wipe away the tears ... yours and theirs
toothpicks to help you pick out the good qualities in them ... and you
a time out bar for when you need to sit a while
smarties because that's what you will create
a prayer/poem for you at the start of each new day

(god) please help me to

strengthen their voices, bodies, and minds

to express their feelings and control them sometimes

to explore what's near and venture afar

but most important to love who they are

a close up of some of the goodies!

some more of the goodies in situ :)

outcome: i LOVE this, it has such incredibly wonderful meaning ... especially when you are giving it to someone so special who you know will appreciate it. we give it to her in a couple of days so the outcome is still pending but i love the sentiments and for me that makes it an instant winner :)

my sincere thanks to lucia from ink me baby one more time, she makes the most beautiful things and clearly puts huge effort into making the people in her life feel super special.

day 212: a bunting for valentines day

2012-01-07T23:28:00.001+13:00

LAST DAY FOR COMMENTING TO WIN THE MY MEMORIES SOFTWARE

so get busy my friends and i will have a winner late tomorrow nz time :)

ready to hang at valentines :)

day 212 and the weather outside is dreadful, it's our wettest summer, bar three, on record ... the up side is there is plenty of time to be creative inside and today i am making a banner in preparation for valentines day :) i loved this one from the girl creative, especially the fact she used denim as the basis for her flags. while i won't be using that part for inspiration today, i definitely will use the denim for an easter bunting as it will fit in nicely with the autumn decor i am planning .... planning, she says hopefully ;)

for today's creation i am using a kit from the my memories range called my funny valentine. i bought it yesterday and downloaded it for making today's bunting. i thought i would print it out on something different today, i am using canvas sheets that are pre-gessoed and normally used by artists for painting with. i figured it would have the same look as fabric hanging but, because of the gesso, would still be able to go through the printer ... here's hoping anyway!

the bias binding and canvas i printed on :)

making the flags using the my memories software

i started with the triangles then added some of the embellishments to each triangle before printing them onto the canvas.

the finished flags, printed on canvas :)

then i used the bias binding, pinned all the flags in place and used fabric adhesive to adhere them all together.

the finished bunting for valentines

a close up of the bunting :)

outcome: happily stoked with the outcome of this little project (especially after an afternoon of painting the new school room). it was really easy to create on my memories and the printing on canvas is so COOL! didn't expect that part to work so well and am already busy thinking of all sorts of different projects i can use this new found printing knowledge on ... heehee :)

my sincere thanks to the girl creative, i loved her bunting for valentines day and her instructions about how to create one without sewing will definitely come in handy for those who don't have access to a machine, for example, when your machine is covered in paint drop cloths ;)

day 211: summer is slipping by and it's time to start some school organising!

2012-01-06T23:11:00.001+13:00

getting all these done was a big task!

day 211 and as some of you know i home school my two little peeps ... i love it, didn't think i would, but it is hands down the best decision we have made since having children. one of the things i LOVE the most about pinterest is the amount and quality of education resources that are pinned every day by so many people.

today's creations are using some of these amazing education finds from pinterest and using them in my home classroom for the coming new school year (school years in nz run from feb to dec to coincide with our summer).

today i concentrated on inspiration for the walls, it's one thing to teach but without the right attitude no learning will take place so i wanted the walls to reflect some of that. all the below posters are available at the vintage poster. the posters can even be individualised so i am going to order some personalised posters for my niece and nephew's walls, tidbits that are special and individual to them. the vintage poster, has awesome designs and its SO cheap to have them printed and sent from her, even internationally! i also laminated the ones i printed because ~~i love my laminator~~ i want them to last the entire year! here are some of the inspiring ones i found on the vintage poster

dr seuss was so before his time!

one of my all time favourite inspirations and one of the hardest things to achieve

every good scientist should have this on their wall!

amazing man, inspiration for my boy peep

the one below is all from ubersuper and will also be heading for my classroom walls :)

picasso so had it right :)

and stylised by sacremento's children's museum, is this wonderful quote i have printed and will be putting on the wall first, it's my favourite :::

this is why i home school :)

once the walls are painted and the new carpet goes down in the classroom i will be able to get into their and show you where we learn ... our classroom is moving into a new space for this year and i can't wait until the boring stuff is finished so i can decorate!

last three days to add some comments to win the fantastic my memories software, so get commenting my friends!

day 210: valentines day card

2012-01-05T22:34:00.001+13:00

the finished card ... should have used the flash sorry!

day 210 and i am making a valentines card today using a very sweet card from K Werner Design for inspiration. i found this card on pinterest and thought it was so cute and loved how simple but effective it was. i pinned it to my paper crafts board for a rainy day. ok so it didn't rain today but i am having so much fun playing with the my memories software i figured trying to replicate this card using it sounded like a good idea for inside play ... so i pretended it was raining so i could stay inside and be crafty!

below is kristina's original card. isn't it perfect for valentines. i absolutely love all the little details with the stitching and the offset button. i became addicted looking at all her beautiful cards this evening and the little details she adds to all her cards are so cool. as an added bonus she does a lot of video tutorials for card making, which is really helpful for non-card makers like myself!

so on to my memories i went ...

and created this ....

not too bad for someone less than tech savvie! the actual square was 5" x 5" when printed out.

i then matted it onto some card 11' by 5.5" so it was nice and sturdy :)

outcome: pretty good, even if i do say so myself! the software made it super duper easy and while i prefer the more 3D effect, at least i know i can make cute, personalised cards i can print in no time if i need something in a hurry ... which is often the case because i am easily distracted by crafts and pretty things on pinterest, and then all the awesome crafty blogs that i find thanks to pinterest ... yeah, that pinterest eats up a lot of your day ;)

a big thanks to kristina at K Werner Design for the gorgeous inspiration and the ideal ~~excuse~~ opportunity to play around with the my memories software again today!

speaking of which, don't forget to leave a comment so you can enter to win the software free, even if it's just to say hi :)