Fantastic Fresh Flowers: Blushing Bride.

The sun finally came out today after nearly a week of miserable weather, and to celebrate I decided to pop in to Pure Flowers for a nice new bunch of blooms.

Blushing Bride

Aren't these just the sweetest? My little brother Cam was adventuring with me today, he wanted another bunch of Ranunculus, but I thought these were just too cute to pass up. He said they were too spikey.

Spikey?

In the end he decided that since I was the one who wanted the flowers I ought to choose. I chose the Blushing Bride. Something a little different to the usual, but totally fantastic.

Presents in the post!

Lucky me! I won a great giveaway over at Bespoke Letterpress Boutique and my special present arrived in the post. Aren't I a lucky girl?

Baker's Twine from Bespoke Letterpress Boutique

Baker's Twine is great for all kinds of things, but I particularly love to use it in gift-wrapping. It looks great as a single bow, or wrapped several times around a package. And how great is this colour? Bespoke stock twine in 12 different colours. They also stock about a billion other awesome things and are well worth checking out.

Terrific tea towels.

Everybody needs tea towels, right? Certainly a frequently used item in my household- I have two going at once- and as such in great demand. I wash them frequently (kitchen germs kinda freak me out) and so I like to have lots as there are always some in the wash.

Tea towels from EcoDownunder

I picked up some great tea towels recently from EcoDownunder, they were on sale ($10 for 4). They are nice and thick and are a gorgeous weave. Available in several colours to match your decor, I couldn't recommend them more highly. They are pictured here with some delicious Dandi spoons. 

A jar full of thanks.

Nothing says 'thank you' quite so well as a little bit of handmade goodness. This week I had a few colleagues that I wanted to thank for helping me out, so I decided to put together a quick and crafty little token of my appreciation.

Dear little 'thank you' jars

This is a speedy and simple DIY that you can whip up in 15 minutes, but your friends or colleagues will appreciate your effort to say a personalised 'thank you'. Of course there are lots of possibilities with this concept, I'm just going to show you a teeny sample.

Gather your supplies

Find a few nice jars, I used a few sourced at the dollar store but you can use recycled ones if you have some around the house. You'll need a few bits of coloured paper, I have used some recycled wrapping paper and a few scraps that I had. I picked my sticker maker up on eBay, and the ribbon I used is from Typo.

I used a bunch of different sweet goodies to fill up my jars, some sugar-free sweets for a diabetic, some 'Reece's Peanut Butter Cups' for a Jewish friend (they're Kosher, you know), and some jelly beans. Being thoughtful about the content is as important as the decoration! There are a million different options for filling the jars, but a little sweet treat is a pretty sweet thank you.

I was going to make little swing-tags (hence the hole punch and washi tape in the materials list) but at the last minute I decided to make little personalised sticky labels using the sticker maker. I do like the look of swing tags though, perhaps next time I will add some.

Gorgeous little jars full of thanks

So there you go! A nice way to show your appreciation that is not only fun to make but is fun to give. I like the concept of a 'little jar full of thanks', I think I might experiment and try filling the jars with all kinds of things. Do you have any dear little suggestions?

Lemon pasta.

Michael requested this super-simple little favourite of mine that I invented in my days as an impoverished student. There's something about it that makes it the perfect comfort food, and I can whip it up with staples that are always in our dear little cupboard.

Simple ingredients

INGREDIENTS
Pasta (I prefer egg noodle pasta)
Fresh lemon juice
Olive oil (or olive oil spread, it makes it creamier)
Rock salt
Herbs to garnish

METHOD
Cook pasta. Stir through the juice of one lemon and a few lugs of olive oil. Add salt to taste and herbs to garnish.

Buon appetito 

I told you it was simple! After a magnificent few days of glorious sunshine and temperatures in the high 20s we've had a shocker of a weekend with rain pouring down almost non stop, to top it all off our whole area had a blackout last night. It's times like these that you revert to your comfort foods, and thank your lucky stars for gas cooking.

Electric!

The electrician has been here this week working on getting the wiring done on our extension. Do you know how hard it is to figure out where you want lights and power points and switches when all you have nothing but an empty box?

Cables, cables everywhere

It's damn hard! We sat down with the plans and marked out where we thought we would like lights, then we figured out the most logical places to put the light switches. Apparently it's not the end of the world if we're not spot on but it is much easier to do all the cabling at this stage than it is down the track when you have pesky things like walls to deal with.

I have to tell you, power points are tricky little buggers. To begin with they are ugly and I don't like them, but unfortunately we need them! Also, thinking logically about where your kitchen appliances will go is not so easy when the kitchen isn't there yet. Hopefully we did okay! Everyone told us to put in more than we think we will need, so are going to be a hell of a lot of power points in this dear little house!

Fantastic Fresh Flowers: Ranunculus

This dear little house was crying out for a fresh bunch of flowers with all this spring in the air! What a glorious start to the season it is, I can't get enough of it. To bring in the season we picked up a beautiful big bunch of Ranunculus.

Fantastic fresh flowers: Ranunculus

What a lovely splash of orange to brighten up the room. I hope that you are all having a wonderful week!

Sticky situation.

Let's face it; sticky tape dispensers are far from a hot decor item. Usually either utilitarian to the max, or over the top kitsch and tacky. They are the kind of item I would prefer to keep in the 'mystical drawer of miscellanea' than have on display. Until I found this.

Typo sticky tape dispenser

I think it's kinda cute! Not to mention it was on sale- a bargain at a mere 50c. It's jazzing up the top of my desk, which currently otherwise looks like a bomb has hit it and a kitchen pantry has exploded in the vicinity (a drawback of shopping at Costco when you have a teeny tiny kitchen is that you have to store the excess somewhere). Not a bad addition to this dear little house.

Invention dinner- Lemon Chicken Wrap edition

The other week I posted about my invention pesto chicken wraps, and Michael loved them so much that I decided to try a different invention wrap, this time with some lemon chicken (also invented). Gee, I really love inventing recipes!

Lemon Chicken Invention Wraps

INGREDIENTS
Tortillas
Chicken breast 500gm
Lettuce
Tomatoes
Capsicum
Hummus
Olives (I used Kalamata)
1 Lemon
1/2 cup white wine
Thyme
Salt to taste

Preparing the ingredients

METHOD
Start browning the chicken in a deep frying pan with a little olive oil, meanwhile gather together your thyme, lemon and olives and white wine. I had whole olives, so I smashed them with the flat of my knife and squished the pits out. Once the chicken is browned, add the aforementioned ingredients to the pan and cover, simmer gently for 15-20 minutes. Salt to taste.

Simmering chicken

While the chicken is simmering prepare your remaining ingredients. Dice the tomato and capsicum, shred some lettuce and set your table. I like to pop the tortillas in the microwaves for a minute to warm them up and make them more malleable. Assemble your ingredients and wrap away!

Ready to wrap

Super tasty! Our wrap components are pictured here in some of the Maxwell & Williams Oslo series serving bowls, available from Giving and Living and other retailers. What a nice dinner we had tonight at our dear little house, even though Michael had to wait while I snapped a few pictures.

Little Golden opportunities.

I was at a garage sale the other week and among the many treasures I brought home with me was a stack of 'Little Golden Books' from the 70s and 80s. Talk about funky retro!

Retro Little Golden Books

How cool are they? Nostalgia plus! I had a few of these books myself when I was a kid, but a brand new delight was reading Never Pat A Bear; A Book About Signs. Rather disturbingly, the sign inside the book about bear patting actually says "Never pat a bear until it is a rug", but the best part of the book says "Some signs give advice. Here is some good advice." then there is a picture of a sign that says; Never rub your eyes except with your elbow.

I haven't decided what to do with them yet, but I'm thinking all these funky illustrations have a fantastic future as some kind of artwork. In the mean time, I might brush up on my alphabet with the slightly politically incorrect Cowboy ABC, or learn more about visiting the forest with Smokey Bear Finds a Helper.

Crazy for cranberry.

I have been wanting to get my hands on some more Murano glass for a while, but it can be pretty pricey, every time I see a nice one at the markets Michael baulks at the price. Luckily for me I came across this gorgeous piece on eBay and won the auction for an amazingly small sum!

Cranberry Murano glass vase

The new cranberry coloured vase looks stunning with my blue one, and it was a total bargain. I love it! Such a rich and vibrant colour, and it really complements my grandmother's blue Murano vase. You can see how strangely it bends perspective in this image, and how magical they look when they catch the light. Here's to a growing collection!

Invention dinner- Pesto Chicken Wrap edition

The eternal question- "What do you want for dinner?"- challenging to say the least. I tend to be a 'shop as you go' kind of person, stopping off at the local shops on my way home to pick up what I need. I really wish I could be one of those people who are organised enough to do all their shopping in one go! Tonight we had a random invention dinner and it was really tasty.

Invention wraps, pesto chicken edition

INGREDIENTS
Tortillas
Chicken breast, 500gm
2 tablespoons pesto
Tabouleh
Hummus
Sun-dried tomatoes

METHOD
Grill the chicken breast (we used a griddle pan; keeps it moist) and chop it roughly, put it in a bowl and add the pesto, stir until the chicken is coated. Zap the tortillas in the microwave for about 30 seconds, whack everything on the table and assemble your wraps! One of the great things about this kind of meal is that you can add as much or as little of the different ingredients as you feel like. Delish!

Tiles for our ensuite.

'Option paralysis'- too many options makes it so much harder to choose! We had a fair idea of what tiles we wanted in the dear little ensuite, but it is difficult when you say "I want big, white tiles" and they show you literally 50 different options! Finally we have made our choices though... well, at least for the ensuite...

Ensuite tiles

We have opted for river stone pebbles in mixed shades on the shower floor- this is still a large area as the shower is massive- the bluestone on the remainder of the floor and the back (shower) wall in 600x300, and then these really funky high-gloss white tiles in 100x600 for the remaining walls. I think it is going to look amazing!

I'm glad we found the white tiles in a kooky shape because we really needed white to balance out all the large, dark bluestone tiles and to match the vanity we have chosen. But white can be so awfully boring! At least in this shape it is a bit funky and different without being too over the top, or too contemporary. There's a fine line between 'future-proof' and 'just plain boring'.

The trick was to choose something interesting and bold that won't date so quickly that I will want to rip it out and start over in 5 years! The neutral colour scheme was a must; I can chop and change accessories to my heart's content and still have a solid base to work with. The pebbles in the shower are going to be magical on my feet, like a foot massage every time I have a shower! Can't wait.