day ninety one: crockpot shredded beef taco's

these were absolutely delicious ... definitely doing these
again really soon :)

day ninety one and we are VERY busy getting ready for the rugby world cup ... i can't WAIT, but i love rugby so that's not a surprise to my family.

these were birthday and christmas presents from my
amazing mum last year :)  SWEET!

every major world sporting event (summer or winter olympics, sporting world cups, commonwealth games etc) i give each member of our family a bag of goodies with a randomly selected country to support as well as our own.  it helps the kids understand more about different countries and their cultures and they love having a second country to cheer for, especially if they are competing against another family member's country!  in their bag they get info about their adopted country, recipes (as they have to cook a meal from their country one night during the event), food from the country, flag templates to colour, some team gear (if i can find it) team information, language worksheets, and a whole lot of other crafts and worksheets that they need to do during the tournament.  we all love it and it makes for an exciting celebration of the event :)

all this takes a little (ok a lot) of preparation but i adore doing it!  on really busy days (like today) i find myself turning to the crockpot.   i am so lucky with pinterest as there are so many wonderful slow cooker recipes to pin.  today's recipe is from ali at gimme some oven website.  it looked so yummy in the picture, it had my taste buds salivating just pinning it to my recipe must do's board!

the ingredients

i couldn't access any chipotle peppers and have actually never seen them in nz before ... i possibly wouldn't have put them in as my peeps are only starting to eat spicy foods and i don't wait to turn them off with too much heat right away ... i figured the chilli powder was probably enough heat for tonight's dinner :)  the only other thing i changed was adding a little 1/2 tsp of ground coriander to the spice rub and that was just a personal choice because i love cumin and ground coriander together.

the filled taco ready to wrap up :) so good it was too!

outcome:  the thing i love about today's recipe is we literally got home and dinner was ready in ten minutes ... all i needed to do was pull the salad stuff for the soft taco's from the fridge, open the sour cream, shred the meat, and heat the tacos .... EASY ... the kids were still setting the table while i was filling it :)  not only that these were absolutely, finger licking delicious ... we raved, the kids asked for them tomorrow night for dinner, and it was slightly embarrassing that i felt i had done very little to deserve such praise ... yeah i got over that really quickly ;)

a big thanks to ali at the gimme some oven website, she has an absolute winner with this recipe, it's a fantastic week night dinner that gets rave reviews!  she has just finished a week of zucchini recipes that look too tempting not to try :)

day ninety: travel toothbrush holder

the girls and the boys toothbrush pouches

day ninety and i headed back to the sewing machine today to make some really cute travel toothbrush holders.  the inspiration and tutorial comes from donna at simple things, sweet life. i loved this idea as a great bathroom pouch for tramping, overnight sleepovers for the kids, long haul flights, and all those times when you want to take your toothbrush and paste but not the bathroom sink on your travels!  this idea is pinned to my general crafts board on pinterest.

the bits and bob's required

the tutorial asks for a sewing machine, a flannel/wash cloth, and some ribbon.  my flannels cost me a whole $1.99 so this is a very good project for the pocket as well (not to mention practising that straight sewing ;))  i decided a girls one and a boys one would be a good idea so purchased two wash cloths.

for both my holders i did four pockets at 3" intervals

i measured my flannel and it was 12" across so my pockets were all pinned at 3" intervals, with the ribbon pinned on the right side as indicated on the tutorial.  if you have a larger family you could easily squeeze the pockets closer together and get six in without trouble.

these are such a cool, usable idea :)

outcome:  fabulous ... this is one of those awesome ideas that is so simple, so easy to achieve, but give you so much satisfaction at the end you want to tell EVERYONE about it ... so do people, do.  if you often need to take your toothbrush and paste overnight and want something hygienic to carry it in this is the cost effective, best option their is ... as it's a towel, i imagine you could even dry your mouth on it afterwards as well! now that's efficient!

my gratitude goes to donna at simple things, sweet life ... i love this idea and the final product, her tutorial was brilliant and as such this was an utter pleasure to create :)

day eighty nine: a perfect card for spring :)

the finished card ... makes me feel like spring :)

day eighty nine and here in new zealand we are ienjoying our first days of spring for 2011 ... i wanted to do something with the feel of spring ... i pinned this gorgeous card by jen from JENerally speaking (such lovely crafty projects on her blog!) to my paper crafts board and it was exactly what i felt like creating today :)

have paper, will create!

i gathered some cardstock and some patterned paper and started with the easy things first ... the card size (6 x 6"), the tree and its trunk, then moved on to the more tricky parts!  i used embroidery floss as i couldn't find a twine that looked nice and nesty :)  the bird was drawn several times before one actually made it into the nest ... and that was the card done and dusted.

the easy bits

the finished card complete with bird number ...
yeah it was a few! maybe number 6 ;)

outcome: if i could come up with a magical fix for my lack of drawing skills i would make this card all the time ... it can be used for SO many occasions and even mine makes me smile and think of spring breezes and clear blue skies!  most of all i love the texture of the finished card, the nest gives it that unmistakable home-made feel and i really like that.

my sincere thanks to the talented jen, her cards and general crafty ideas are beautiful, if you have time i would definitely check her creations out :)

hello danielle our nz bottle winner

we still have a bottle of new zealand things to send to danielle ... if you would still like it, please email me on kahoonz@clear.net.nz ...

have a great day everyone, pinterest creation will be up later today :)

day eighty eight: embellished t-shirt

the finished not so linear t-shirt !

day eighty eight and i absolutely love this linear t-shirt design by kacey from the blog stay-at-home artist.  i totally understand what she means by opting for solid colour t-shirts ... that's me and unfortunately i also seem to have the same tendencies with pollyanna's tee's :(  sometimes i find the pictures on little girls t-shirts way over the top and end up making the safe, it will go with everything she owns, solid colour top choice for her too now.

i pinned kacey's tee to my general crafts board months ago determined to find some fabric pens but have not yet found any.  if anyone knows where to get fabric pens in new zealand please drop me a comment.  in the mean time i thought i could achieve this type of design with some ribbons on one of pollyanna's plain white t-shirts.

you need some ribbons and a boring tee :)

i picked out some ribbons from my stash and figured i would sew the ribbons on with some of my straight sewing ;)  i sewed the ribbon bottoms to the underside of the t-shirt first so they would have a nice finish and i figured that sewing would be hidden by the ribbons on the front side (see the picture below).

the under sewn ribbons

half way there :)

the finished embellished tee

who needs linear ribbons ;)

outcome: well clearly after i had sewn the first ribbon line went out the window and i seriously thought this was going to be my first pinterest creation that didn't work out with any success.  i carried on sewing and decided not to work about the straight lines of ribbon but to just sew in the middle of the ribbon and see what would happen ... and this is the end result ... and actually it's absolutely fine!  i am totally ok with the fact the ribbons aren't straight and actually it totally suits pollyanna's personality ... the other amazing thing is that when my sweet husband saw it on her, he thought it was supposed to be like that :)  he made my day, so this ones a keeper!  i am still after some fabric pens so i can do a linear one (which is much more in keeping with my personality!).

thanks so much to kacey and her wonderful creations, she has given me the confidence to alter some of my oh so boring t-shirts, and make pollyanna's ones much more fun :)

day eighty seven: bbq cupcakes for fathers day :)

our bbq cupcakes for a special dad :)

to my dad, my husband, my father-in-law, and all the wonderful fathers who give so much time, energy, support, and love to their children thank you from the bottom of my heart ... i hope your day is full of wonderful memories and that you realise just how special you are to me, our children, your son, and your families ...we love you unconditionally :)  have a very happy fathers day

day eighty seven and its definitely a day worthy of some celebratory cupcakes fit for the dad's in your life ... i think these bbq ones on the disney family fun website should do the trick and they are pinned to my holiday goodness board.

chocolate brownie cupcakes ... mmmmm!

i made up a mix of my brownie recipe and baked up a batch of cupcakes that looked fantastic and smelt delicious!  then the nerves took over as the kids and i hand to start decorating the tops of them to look like bbq's!

kebab maker number one

kebab maker number two

today i discovered piping straight lines of icing is a lot like sewing straight lines ... it takes A LOT of practice!

the finished product!

bbq for dessert any one?

outcome: we used a mix of gummi bears, jersey caramel chews, icing tubes, sugar, food colouring, and toothpicks to help our creations.  it was hilarious trying to make bbq food out of lollies ... there were some disasters and some wonderful successes! the overall effect was cool though and my sweet husband LOVED them ... they were a great dessert after we had finished the real bbq for dinner :)

i have loved what i have made and printed from the disney family fun website, they have such wonderful ideas, the instructions are always brilliant, and i honestly think they have something for every occasion imaginable!

day eighty six: fathers day treat jar

a jar full of goodies, perfect for our
hard working dad :)

day eighty six and its fathers day in new zealand tomorrow and we have a pretty amazing father to celebrate here so it was time to make a creation for him.  pinned to my holiday goodness board was this wonderful idea on eighteen25, inspired by one martha stewart created.

the bits and bobs you need to complete this project

i picked up a cheap square glass jar and then went through my paper scraps to find some tie quality pieces!  i couldn't find a pin stripe i liked so decided to make one with a couple of plain cardstock scraps. martha stewart has a pdf to print a tie (a nice pin stripe!) and collar if you don't feel like making your own or have no coloured card on hand.

the tie making in progress

my children's sweet and very supportive dad is a type 1 diabetic and often forgets to eat properly at work ... typical dad busy at work :)  we thought this jar would be perfect for his desk and good for quick fixes when he's having a low at work so we filled it with his favourite chocolate bars!

ready for filling with your dad's favourite
treats!

honey when you read this tomorrow fyi this is a treat jar, not a lunch jar ;)

the jar filling elves :)

outcome: well it was incredibly easy to make but really effective in terms of a cool jar for an awesome dad ... hopefully he will love it as much as the kids loved filling it with chocolate bars ... i think they are hoping to get lucky tomorrow!

i am a big lover of the projects from the sisters at eighteen25, and this is another one of their inspired beauties ... if you have a minute or two check out their blog its well worth it :)