Keepin’ It Real

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Jacinta

– Keepin’ It Real captures the true essence of family life that I know are fleeting, keeping this mama grounded –

If there was an olympic event for procrastinators, I think I would be in contention for a gold medal.  The winning event, avoiding folding the washing pile, or in my case, Mt Washing.  It is my constant companion, haunting my every move while I try to avoid it’s desire to blow it’s top at any given moment.  It is of course a great place to play if you are 3 and provides excellent camouflage while hiding from rogue toys.  So while I avoided making direct eye contact with Mt Washing on this dreary, cold and rainy day, I distracted myself with some craft, applique on a top of course for Jairah, that I can add to the washing pile at any given time.  I need more washing to keep Mt Washing alive and well you see.  I mean, who would I be without Mt Washing, organised? Ha!

Jacinta x

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Singapore Chilli Prawns

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Jacinta

Do you love a good spicy seafood dish?  While searching the internet for a dish using the market fresh prawns Greg had bought for dinner, I came across  this Singapore Chilli Prawns (from Not Quite Nigella) recipe.  It was a quick and easy recipe and the flavour was amazing.  Best of all we had all the ingredients in the cupboard, save fresh chilli, which was substituted with dried chilli and it worked fine. If you aren’t into spicy, you could omit the chilli and the sauce would still taste good.  The prawns were served with saffron rice, which my kids go crazy about.  They aren’t, however, crazy on chilli, so they had garlic prawns instead (they were yummy too!).  I’ll definitely be making the chilli prawns again very soon.

Singapore Chilli Prawns (Recipe originally from Not Quite Nigella)

I hope you try out the recipe!  Jacinta x

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This Moment

Posted on April 20, 2012 by Jacinta

From Soulemama {this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment.  A moment I want to pause, savour and remember.

I love your moments too.  So feel free to leave a link in the comment section for us all to see.  Have a beautiful weekend.  Jacinta x

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Yarn Along

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Jacinta

Joining in with Ginny at Small Things for yarn along this week.

Well I’m sad to say I haven’t come a long way with my lace beret as yet.  I had to pull it out twice, once because I cast on on with the bigger size needles and didn’t realise until I went to size up!  The other time I dropped stitches that couldn’t be revived.  Throw in a holiday too and well, you get the picture.

Hopefully I will have more to sure next week.  As for books, I’ve read a couple of books that followed on from Jacob’s Daughter by Samantha Jillian Bayarr.  The second book in the series is Called Amish Winter Wonderland and the third book is called Unter The Mulberry Tree.  Although the books were fairly short, the story lines were quite sweet.  Best of all they were cheapies on Kindle.  I tend to only read Kindle books (on my phone) these days.  It’s the only way I seem to be able to get a book finished.

I can’t wait to see what you have all been crafting and I am always on the look out for new books to read.  Jacinta x

Jacinta x

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Mum’s BBQ Meatloaf

Posted on April 17, 2012 by Jacinta

I love a good meal that feeds the family and is budget conscious too.  I think this meatloaf recipe fits the bill.  It has a lovely tang to it and it tastes nice both hot and cold.  This is one of those trusty recipes that has been in the family for a good 25 years.  I’m not sure where mum got the recipe from originally, but it’s certainly worthy of sharing with you all.  I think the BBQ sauce would be nice on the likes of spare ribs or grilled chicken too.

Ingredients

Meatloaf:

500gm beef mince
500gm sausage mince
1 cup fresh breadcrumbs
2 onions, finely chopped
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1 egg
1 tsp curry powder (can add up to a dessert spoon if you want it a bit more spicy)
salt & pepper to taste
small amount of parsley optional

BBQ Sauce:

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1/4 cup worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp vinegar
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp instant coffee powder
1 small dob butter

Method:

Combine all the meatloaf ingredients in a large bowl and mix thoroughly.  Add meatloaf mix to a suitable ovenproof dish, making sure there is enough room at the top to add the BBQ sauce later.  Place meatloaf in a preheated oven @180 degrees celsius (350F).  Bake for 30 minutes.  The BBQ sauce ingredients need to be simmered for 5 minutes before pouring over the meatloaf.  Once you remove the meatloaf from the oven, skim off excess liquid, pour the pre-heated BBQ sauce over the meatloaf and return to the oven for a further 45 minutes.  Once cooked, serve with your favourite vegetables.

BBQ Meatloaf

Enjoy!  Jacinta x

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Wee Folk Quilt For My Wee Boy

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Jacinta

Jairah finally has a quilt to call his own and to drag around as he sees fit.  Don’t you just love those cute gnomes and toadstools.  We are fortunate enough to have those toadstools (Amanita Muscaria)  grow in our garden.  They are always such a delight to see.
The quilt pattern is something I put together and is the perfect size for a cot or snuggle quilt.  With winter just around the corner and the fog starting to settle in these hills, I’m sure Jairah is going to get a lot of use out of his wee quilt.

I love me some rolled up binding!

The finished quilt measures 53.5″ x 40.5″

The print fabric is a charm pack of Wee Folk by moda
The white fabric was in my stash
The spotted fabric for the backing is from Spotlight
The binding fabric is Sock Money Buttons from Spotlight

Jacinta x

Posted in Craft, Quilts, Sewing | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

A Little Ray Of Sunshine

Posted on April 14, 2012 by Jacinta

We were blessed with eight beautiful days in sunny Queensland this past week.  It was a much needed break from our everyday life.  Each day was filled with many adventures and swimming too.  As it is daylight much earlier in Queensland, I was up every morning at 5.30am with the kids.  It’s so much easier to get up when greeted with beautiful sunrises over the ocean and a warm breeze blowing.  Moonrise was just as spectacular.  Our apartment was directly across from the beach and on the first floor, so we had an ideal position to watch the world go by.  I caught myself on numerous occasions lifting my face towards the sun, soaking in the warmth, knowing we are soon to be in Winter’s grips.

Just one of the beautiful sunrises

How gorgeous are Easter moons

By day

By night

We visited a couple of theme parks, Dreamworld and Seaworld.  Scarlett is at the age now where she is keen on trying most of the rides.  In fact, so much so, she went on quite a few rides more than once.  Tenneille got more confident as the day went on and tried some thrill rides too.  Jairah, well he is up for anything!  Especially if it involves water, boats or planes.  But the highlights, the animals!

The Kangaroos at Dreamworld are quiet enough to pat

Ah, the life of a koala!

We were lucky enough to see baby tigers.

We had the privilege of  meeting a friend who I originally ‘met’ via a craft forum in person.  She was just gorgeous as I had imagined and we had a delightful morning tea at her lovely property.  It was such a good time, I forgot to take pictures.

Of course the holiday wouldn’t have been complete without children fighting, meltdowns and the fun behaviour that tired children so wonderfully display.  Alas, we survived and made it home.  In fact, the flight back couldn’t have been better.  We sat the girls in the row in front of us and Jairah was seated between Greg and I.  We were surrounded by families with young children and the girls managed to make friends with a couple of children in front of them.  Was really sweet watching the girls interact with the other children and made the flight home rather fun.

I think the post holiday blues have settled in for me today.  I know I will get over myself soon enough, but I also know it’s a sign that our time away was really special and will certainly give me something to reflect on as the grey winter weather sets in.

Brisbane Botanical Gardens

If only you could smell this

Taken near Eaton's Hill in Brisbane

Jacinta x

 

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This Moment

Posted on April 13, 2012 by Jacinta

From Soulemama {this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment.  A moment I want to pause, savour and remember.

I love your moments too.  So feel free to leave a link in the comment section for us all to see.  Have a beautiful weekend.  Jacinta x

Posted in Family Life, Favourite Places, This Moment | Tagged , , | 15 Comments

Happy Easter

Posted on April 7, 2012 by Jacinta

Excuse my absence from this space. I have a really good reason why. Will share next week, but at this time I wish you and your family a most joyous Easter, however you choose to celebrate.

Jacinta x

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Posted in Celebrations, Family Life | Tagged | 3 Comments

~Nine~

Posted on April 1, 2012 by Jacinta

Our dear Scarlett turned nine this week.  She is the kind of girl that can’t wait to grow up, but still retains a sweet innocence that I hope will linger for a few years yet.  Her only present request was for a porcelain doll, how could I not grant that! In fact, she ended up with two as my mum got her one also.  Scarlett was so excited and has lovingly tucked them up every night since, in her doll’s cradle beside her bed.  It’s so very sweet.

To top off her birthday, she also had a class party.  I swore after the last class party a couple of years ago, I’d never do it again, although I wizened up this time and had the party at a park.  The reason for my lapse in sanity (for holding such a party), was due to the fact we decided to pull Scarlett from her current school, so felt it was a lovely way to have closure after nearly six years with the same kids, starting in playgroup.  There were tears from me as we were presented with a gorgeous needle felted picture that each family contributed their own piece of artwork to.  I’d held it together quite well, up till that point.

Scarlett will be attending the same school as Tenneille from next term.  It will mean over an hour less travelling each day, thus we will have more quality family time during the week and as we all know that is too precious not to strive for.  I am looking forward to this new adventure and Scarlett seems pretty happy too.  She had a trial day at the new school and has already made a couple of friends.

So dear Scarlett, wishing you the sweetest of birthdays and may this year bring you many wonderful new adventures to carry in your heart in the years to come.

Love mama xxx

 

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