Sunday, June 29, 2014

Christmas Wish List

Last night I decided to create a Christmas gift list for the household. I took this idea from Blissful Keeper At Home. I was going to just print it out but I thought to myself 'why print it, when I can make it'.

And that's what I did.

I had everything I needed on hand. So all I needed to do was make it.


I actually love the final result so much that I think I may make some Christmas cards and tags to go with it!


Oh I will be back on work placement from tomorrow onwards so I probably wont get to post much. However there are 2 posts I need to make and one of them is a delicious and moist carrot cake. 

Friday, June 27, 2014

Work Placement

I have only done 1 week of my work placement at Palm Lakes Aged Care.

And I came out of it with sore tired feet due to having the wrong type of shoes.

And being quarantine for a week as my other half had viral gastro. So while I was "under lock-down" I went to 3 doctors appointments, had a blood test as well as a urine/stool test. And made sure my hypothyroid was not infected.

So I decided to spend this quality time to catch up on the washing and folding, which now I have more folding to do. Must remind myself to that when the bed free from sleeping bodies.

Sam sleeping under my nice warm (and needing a wash) doona. 

Anyway, during the week I decided to get something that will help me with my work placement (and maybe a job in the near future). I am still waiting on a few other things like a watch and new pair of shoes.



 I think that this will get a lot of use... actually I know that it will. 

Monday, June 23, 2014

DIY Embellishment Frames

A while ago I created these cute embellishment frames using cheap frames that I bought from the Reject Shop and some embellishments that I had lying around. 

I made these to sell but I haven't quite managed to sell them yet. 

I need to do this sort of DIY craft more often and use them as Birthday/Christmas gifts. 

Making something for someone is so much more rewarding.




I might end up keeping these and putting them up somewhere.

Good Morning Sunrise

I had to get up early this morning due to a doctor's appointment and so I used this opportunity to take some photos of the sky just as the sun was rising.

I'm still working on the flower project. I failed at the first attempt, so I will keep on trying. Once I'm happy with the end result I will post it up.


Waning Crescent

Morning Star... I think this is Venus. I'm not 100% sure.


The Sun starting to peep through. This is my favourite, apart from the moon and star.


More of the Sun showing.
Getting brighter.


Sun has risen half way. 


Friday, June 13, 2014

Craft Project

I was hit with some motivation today and took advantage of it while it was still lingering around. While making another sponge cake =)

So I thought I do a craft project that I've always wanted to do.

I don't want to give all the details away right now. But I will tell you this...

It has something to with paper and flowers. And it is going be some form of feature for a table.

So if you have guessed what that part is, then you are on the right track.

I will post up more updates once I've completed the task.

Thursday, June 12, 2014

DIY Recipe Holder

I know it has been a couple of days since my last post. But today I'm bring you something that I made for the kitchen to hold all of new recipes that I want to make.

This morning while waiting for the groceries arrive from Woolworths. I had made myself a recipe holder using an empty Nutri-grain box that I had lying around. I found some pretty wrapping paper and some scissors and tape. And went on making this cute Recipe Holder.


The making of the Recipe folder. 


I love this project as it was a money saver. I had everything I needed on hand. And all it took was 15 minutes of my own time to make this.

The final result of my Recipe Holder. 


I chose this particular wrapping paper, not only because it had blue birds on it (I love birds), but because I knew it would fit in perfectly as to where it would go in the kitchen.


My Recipe Holder in it's perfect spot. 


It is now at home on the kitchen bench next to my lemons (for Lemon Tea) and the unsightly tea towels with the bread. 

I think I need to make a bread box and do something about that basket... 

Sunday, June 8, 2014

DIY Cat Cutness

I have found the cutest cat diy projects that I want to make when I have the time and money.


The first cute cat project on my to do list is Cat Toe Flats. And I would make them in every colour. I would also make some Fox Toe Shoes in the same way. I found this DIY over at Catabotblog

Cat Toe Flats featured over at Catabotblog.

The next one is on my list is a shirt, Again I would make this in every colour. And I would also design a fox and a owl stamp.

DIY Cat Stamped Tee featured over  at Seekatesew 


I found this DIY Cat Stamped Tee over at seekatesew.



The last thing on my to do list (for now) is diy cat stockings. There is no need to buy the expensive ones when making your own costs half the price!

Cat Tights (stockings) is featured over at Sprinkles In Spring.


This cat project was found over at Sprinkles in Spring. I think I will making heaps of these as well.

There are so many other projects that I want to do, They will all go on my list for later.

Sponge Cake Challenge part 3

Ok so it turns out I can make the perfect dense sponge cake. Which is still yummy. It's the perfect coffee cake.

Now that the cake is cooled I went ahead and did the final touches to make this cake pretty.









I already had 2 slices of cake (naughty me!). I think I may need to do some yoga tonight to counterbalance for it!!

Sponge Cake Challenge Part 2

I've just spent the last couple of hours prepping and making my first ever sponge cake from scratch.

Following the recipe that I had posted up in my entry Sponge Cake Challenge Part 1.  

I was worried that it wouldn't turn out properly. And with our oven being so small, I was only able to fit one cake in there so I opted to just make the one cake for now, seeing as this was a kind of a test cake. But if it does turn out good, I will make two cakes next time and have a proper sponge cake.

My ingredients I needed to make the sponge cake.

The prepared cake tin.

The mixture before going into a preheated oven 180 degrees fan forced.


After baking for 30 minutes, the cake is out of the oven. 
Cooling for 30 minutes before the final result.


I shall post the final result in another blog. I want the cake to look pretty before I post it up. 

Front Garden

During the week, my partner and I had decided that it was time to tidy up the front garden.

It was a mess! The previous tenants left rubbish in the garden. There was solo bottles, dirty diapers and cigarette buts. It was pretty disgusting. The thing was you couldn't see that they were in there. It was well hidden because of the trees.

The before shot of the front garden. 

We had spend a good 3 hours tiding up the garden, making it beautiful.

Side view no 1 

Side view no 2







Now isn't this way better than the shrub to trees we had. We will add more plants to garden later to make it more pretty.

Friday, June 6, 2014

DIY Hair Bows

Normally I was never a hair bow kinda girl when I was growing up. My hair was either short or I have it up in a ponytail or a plait.

But as life changes you, so do the little things around you change. I started to like hair bows. But not just any kind of hair bow. They have to be cute, of an interest that I like or something geeky.

I only own four hair bows. But if I had the money I would own a lot more.


The four hair bows that I own.

And this is what this post is about....

Making your own hair bows.

Now this project has been on my to do list for a while now. And I still don't have all the equipment required to make them. I'm just needing the clips to go with them.

They are easy to make. I googled a few different DIYs on making hair bows and found the ones that suited to me best in technique wise and I will use these tutorials when I eventually make my own hair bows.

The first one I found is from Rookie mag. I will probably use this tutorial quite a lot due to the glue that is used here. I do have a glue gun, but I'm not good at using it.

Another one I would also use quite regularly is from Little Miss Kimberly Ann. This one is quite easy, and probably the first one I will try.

Life with les deux Has the same principles as the first two I've posted. 

I'm really looking forward to making these lace hair bows from Shanty 2 Chic. I had so many ideas popping into my head when I saw these. I now need to invest in a lot of lace to make them.

I do have another plan with these DIY hair bows, but I'm keeping it a secret for the time being. My hair bow making skills need to be perfect for that project.

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Cinnamon Sugar Crackers

A little while ago, I was on pinterest and looking at all the glorious recipes on there when I came across Cinnamon Chips.

Technically I think they are more of a cracker of sorts. But they are still very delicious. I have adapted this recipe to my style by changing the flat bread that is used. The original recipe is found over at Macaroni and Cheesecake.



Cinnamon Crackers

Ingredients:


  • 1 mountain bread wrap ( I used Chia Mountain Bread. You can check out the other flavours here)
  • 2-3 Tablespoons of melted butter (I do mine in the microwave for about 20 seconds)
  • Cinnamon sugar


To make the Cinnamon sugar you will need:
  • 1/4 cup of white granulated sugar 
  •  4 tablespoons of cinnamon 

Instructions:

  • Pre-heat oven of 170 degrees fan forced
  • Brush melted butter over mountain bread (I have mine in pre-cut squares)
  • Sprinkle cinnamon sugar over buttered squares. 
  • Place on oven tray and place in  pre-heated oven on the top rack.
  • Cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until edges are slightly brown.



They are delicious on their own or you can make a nice Chocolate Dip or Fruit Dip if you desire. I will feature both of these recipes later down the track.

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Sponge Cake Challenge Part 1

When I woke up this morning, I didn't expect to have a challenge thrown at me by my boyfriend.

I had only been awake for at least 10 minutes, and went into the kitchen to make myself a mint tea when the boyfriend says to me " Wendy I have a challenge for you. I want you to make a sponge cake at some point this week. We have all of the ingredients in the fridge/pantry".  Oh and he even found a recipe for me to use.

My jaw dropped a little when he said that to me.

I have never made sponge cake before, especially from scratch. I have made box cakes before and bought the odd pre-made sponge cake. But I have never made one.

I have decided to use this challenge to my advantage and feature it on here.

I found the recipe he was talking about and saved it. I've been told that if I can make scones I can pull off a sponge cake!

http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/homestyle/blogs/tried-and-tasted/how-to-make-a-perfect-sponge-cake-20111011-1li3i.html

I have included the recipe here, if you didn't want to scroll through the whole blog just to get to the recipe.

Photo taken by Sarah McInerney from the SMH Article "How to make a sponge cake"




Recipe taken from the SMH article "How to bake a sponge cake"




It does look easy, but there is technique to this cake. And the pictures make me want to make this cake sooner rather than later.

The only ingredient that I'm missing is Strawberry Jam. Which I will have to buy some tomorrow.


Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Yoga Bunny


Just thought I'd share with you all the Yoga Bunny poses I've found.

Yoga bunny is so cute. I just love him!


asanas 1
asanas 2
asanas 3


Now and Then - A deeper look into myself.

5 years ago, If I were to ask myself  "where would you be in 5 years time". Well I never pictured that I would be here writing this and living where I am, and who I am with now.

5 years ago, I was an independent woman who had a full time job. Earning enough money each fortnight to have some spending money to buy things I wanted. Yes, I still lived at home. But I did pay a bit of rent to help dad out. I had the freedom to go out on my own whenever I wanted to. I was single, and just expected the fact I was going to be alone for the rest of my life and become a crazy cat lady, who still lived at home.

I was OK with that, I had a social life and a work life. Life was pretty nice at the time. But I wasn't happy.

Then one Friday night I decided to record Rage on the ABC channel and watched over the weekend.

And then I saw the one song that would change my life completely.

             


Now back then I was wearing a pair of jeans and T-shirt.  I wore either a pair of thongs or sneakers. I didn't own any skirts or dresses except for maybe one or two. And everything I did own was either blue, black and grey. Even my hair short and black. And I was a size 16

Me, 5 years ago,

 
But in the last four years since meeting my boyfriend, my style had begun to change.

Jeans turned into leggings and some shorts.  T-shirts became cute print t-shirts, I still wear thongs for casual outings like shopping and sneakers in the winter time. I own a few pairs of slightly heeled shoes. And I have dresses. Oh and I now have colour in my wardrobe!

Me, in March 2014


Now there is big change in the 5 years that the 2 photos were taken.

Firstly, yes I'm wearing a dress, and make up! The dress is bright blue with cats on it. I'm wearing cat ears. My hair is long and it is my natural hair colour. Oh and I've gained a complete dress size or two.

But it wasn't all that changed. I became a live-in carer. My spending money became my savings. And both my independence and social life got locked away.  I had lost who I once was. But for three of years of losing myself, I was happy and in love.

However, in the last year, I had began to find myself again while still being in love and happy. I started baking/cooking more, making cards (or just any kind of paper craft) and just getting back into the shows and movies I used to watch. I still miss my music (other than the music that I have on my IPhone) and going to concerts. But I am working on that.

I'm doing a Cert 3 in Aged Care and in a couple of weeks, I will be doing 3 weeks work placement. There is lots of work in the Aged Care industry and once I've completed the course I could go straight into a job or I could keep studying.

But right now, I'm still happy and still very much in love. And I'm almost back to being my complete self again.


Sunday, June 1, 2014

30 Day Ab Challenge and Morning Yoga Poses

Well today I have started a challenge to help me lose weight with in regards to my Hypothyroidism that I have diagnosed with just last week.

My plan is to start exercising and get my life back onto the healthy road.

Starting with the 30 day Ab challenge.


Now I may not get abs out of this but it is a start to a flatter tummy and upper body strength which I so desperately need.

So I will be following this daily and will be doing the workouts twice a day. The planks are a real challenge for me. I barely managed to do 3 seconds! And I had to do it for 10 seconds, Boy that was a killer for me.

However when I did the yoga poses for the first time this morning, I actually had fun and worked up a lot more sweat than I thought I would.

But because I'm a beginner at yoga I found a cute little morning yoga guide to help me to do the positions.


 


Now aren't these rabbits cute!

I followed this sequence 4 times and not the 6 like the picture said. But I could have followed the rabbits all day if I had the energy.

Now to help me on this challenge, I needed some motivation.  So I decided to create an exercise wall.


This should help keep me motivated for a while. I also have a "before" photo of me but I'm not quite ready to show that off yet.

Relaunching my blog and an introduction.


I have had this blog for many years but I have never used it. 

So starting today I want to try to blog about things that are interesting to me, whether it is craft related, a recipe I want to try out have have made, photography and just my general interests.

How about we start with an introduction to the person behind the blog... Me.



Selfie photo taken by me.


My name is Wendy. I am 30 years old and I am currently studying Cert 3 in Aged Care. Although I may not look 30 I certainly don't act like it!

My interests and hobbies include cosplay, photography, baking/cooking. crafting, reading, video games, geeky things, cute things, TV shows and movies just to name a few. I have heaps of interests and hobbies that keep me occupied.

Today I have started a 30 day ab challenge with some morning yoga poses, but I will post more on that a little later.