my creative space.

today in my creative space, i'm working on finishing the couple of projects i started tuesday afternoon.



they're both almost finished so i should have some pretty good finished-feelings pretty soon :D

catch up with all the creative going-ons over here.

tuesday afternoon.

i found myself with an unexpected day off today... so after a bit of houseworking, and subsequently finding a $10 birthday voucher for a certain crafty/homewares megastore, i jumped in the car to get some supplies.
some embroidery floss



for a little project i was pinspired to do...

and some nice thick elastic



to go with this fabric i picked up from the oppy last week, for a fast approaching deadline

what have you been up to on this cold and wet afternoon?

meal planning monday.

after a little hiatus last week... i'm back with a vengeance this week and joining in with ms. ppmj and her meal planning monday.



slow-cooker is a goooooo this week once again... with the large majority of the recipes again coming from sally wise's slow cooker series (yes, series, i bought the first one last week...)
tonight, we're having slow cooked satay chicken. i'll chuck some rice on when i get home from work tonight and steam up some green beans too!
tomorrow night is date night so we'll be heading off to a local vietnamese restaurant, trying to use up some entertainment vouchers before they expire on friday.
wednesday night, i'll be heading off for some crafty adventures but before that, i'll be chucking some chicken and some spices in the slow cooker to make some delicious butter chicken!
on thursday, i'm going to pop a leg of lamb in the slow cooker, again with some spices, to make 'creole lamb' looking forward to that one a LOT!
and for friday, i've got the ingredients together for a beef casserole. put together with some mashed potato, this will be just the comfort food i need! yum!

as for the weekend... i'll leave that one up to bb as i'll be working both days!

what are your meal plans for the week?

sunday snippets.

playing along with sunday snippets today.







what have you been up to this week?

disorganized.

i seem to be having one of those weeks this week... you know the one, where nothing quite goes to plan and everything is a little haphazard?
yup, that one... i'm refusing to let it get me down though.
so what if the washing basket is overflowing? so what if there are dirty dishes? so what if the tiles are in desperate need of a mop and i don't have a meal plan for the week and rent is due and, and, and...
nope, not getting me down!
besides... i have this pretty thing to look at now!



i FINALLY put together my bunting swap flags on saturday and hung them above our lounge room window. i can't believe just how cheerful they make the place :D
how's your week going so far?

real food.

what a wonderful day it's been!
a lovely sleep in, a sneaky look at an auction around the corner from us, some housework, a little shopping
aaaaaaaaand....



some pasta making of the most delicious variety!
this morning, someone posted a link on twitter to this post, letting me know that is was food revolution day!

what better day to whip up some fresh pasta, defrost some of the mammoth supply of pesto i've got in the freezer and have a delicious lunch?



i'm trying to be more and more conscious of the types of foods that i'm putting into my body of recent times, for both the sake of my health and the sustainability of the world and communities around me. it feels good!!

what have you been up to today? cooked up anything delicious to celebrate?

my creative space.

one guess what's happening in my creative space today?

yesterday, i finished my crafty goals which means today i'm playing with my new cottons!! huzzah!



four lovely colours, all different to the last.
clockwise from the top left: honeydew, blue, pink rose and wild lavender.
all of them feel absolutely divine.
aaaaaaaand.....



i may have already gotten my hook stuck into them...
this is the wild lavender, just pretend like it doesn't look grey ok?
i'm still working on the pattern a bit, this feels a little floppy so i'm going to make a few changes in my next one, which i may or may not have already started...

the new home of creative spaces. pop over and have a look!

making it a habit.

no, not knitting or crochet... that's clearly already a habit for me ha ha!

over the last few weeks, i've been trying to make my health a priority.
i've been getting up before work, or just a bit earlier on my days off, and dragging my sorry butt to my local gym. bb and i joined up when he first started at his post-uni job as the rates were quite good but sadly, we have not really gotten our moneys worth over the years.
well i'm getting there now ha ha!
i'm working on a couch to 5k program on the treadmill. this one in fact. and i'm actually finding it quite good!



the first few weeks were quite easy and smooth for me as i took the advice of the program and ran at the slowest speed i could. this fourth week has been a bit harder... but not impossible, i'm enjoying 'feeling the burn' ha ha!

i started the program to increase my fitness a little and to see if i could form the gym habit, and i'm so excited that both are happening!

i've also started to try and improve on the quality (and quantity) of food that i'm eating too which is making me feel pretty great on the inside! it's also having the added benefit of shifting some of the extra kilos i've been carrying around which is never a bad thing either!
now if i could just get a handle on these migraines that are kicking my behind every month, i'll be a lot smilier :D

what have you been up to lately? how are you kicking the (pre)winter blues?

kicking goals

last friday, i set myself a few goals to have done as soon as humanly possible.
well i've got some goals met people!
first up...



my tenth beanie festival beanie, is done and dusted! well i still haven't sewn the ends in but pish! later!
and also...



i'm well over halfway through my second bamcal square for the month! in fact, this one only needs a row of single crochet and it's done! i think i can get this one finished and hopefully the last as well.
that means tomorrow i'll get to open up and play with my delicious package of cottons!
yahooo!!!

happy days :D

what have you been achieving lately?

meal planning monday.

today is monday and that means one thing, meal planning!
last week's meal plans kind of fell apart! we had take-away a couple of nights, and i blame the fact i didn't have something bubbling away in the slow-cooker, ready to come home to!
but this week, i'm armed with a new weapon...



i bought this book yesterday in my lunch break, on the recommendation of this lovely lady and boy will it get a workout this week!
i'd been feeling a little uninspired with my slow cooker, having cooked the same dozen or so recipes several time. not this week!
i am well and truly back on the slow-cooker bandwagon, i mean, i've already got more than a dozen bookmarks in the book already!

tonight, i'm actually taking something from the freezer, the osso bucco i was going to defrost last thursday. tonight's the night for that one. some pasta and maybe some fresh rocket. don't feel bad for the slow-cooker though, it cooked my mum and i a lovely lunch this morning, stuffed tomatoes (page 65)! we went for a walk while it was still cooking and bought some fresh crispy bread. so yummy!

tomorrow night, bb's brother will be here for dinner. i'll be cooking tex mex beef (page 159), like kuka! i'll grab some tortillas and make some fresh guacamole :D should be delicious and the two boys should love it!

wednesday night is ncb night. i'll have a lovely dinner guest and we'll be having butter chicken (page 89)! with some fluffy rice of course.

thursday night will be sausage in onion gravy (page 157). after a long day of work, i think this will be perfect and delicious comforty food. yes indeedy :D

friday night is a late night at work for me. i think i'll grab something scrummy from the food court in my lunch (dinner) break, and leave bb to fend for himself. i've discovered 9pm is wayyyy too late for me to be having dinner!

saturday i have the entire day off from work so i might leave saturday to chance... maybe we'll eat out, maybe we'll cook something together, the possibilities are endless ;)

the main reason i want to leave saturday unplanned is so that on sunday morning, we can wake up to rancher's eggs (page 71)! the more i read this recipe, the more i can't wait to try it! i'll let you know how it goes... and as for dinner, heck maybe we could have a sunday roast. i think i'll leave bb in charge of that one though, only fair when i've got the rest of the week taken care of!


so what are your meal plans for the week?
pop over and visit the fabulous ppmj to get inspired :D



ps. sorry eric, no recipes links this week as they're all from my new book :D highly recommend it though! xo

sunday snippets.

playing along again with the lovely cathie and her sunday snippets!











pop over and visit cathie to join in! what have you been up to this week?

making plans.

on tuesday, i went through all the crafty stuff that i'm working on...

and then this morning, this arrived...



so now i'm setting myself some crafty goals before i even open this little bag of cottony goodness!

before opening my new cotton package... i'd like to finish beanie number TEN (i've started casting it on), and also get my bamcal squares done (i'm almost finished the first of three) so probably mid next week i think :D

do you have any crafty goals?

crafty happenings.

at the moment, i've got a fair few things on the go... they're all wooly and delicious and they're just at that tipping point of having too many things happening at once and feeling overwhelmed, and having enough things in progress so that i don't get bored.
it's a thin and fragile line my friends!

i'm still plodding along with my granny stripe



and i whipped up another beanie. this one makes nine, only one to go!



i've got some squares to add to my bamcal blankie. and a few more to make actually...



and i was a bit naughty and cast something onto my big circular needles. this in fact... bb has yet to cotton on to the fact that i haven't started his promised jumper... if he asks i'm still looking at patterns ok?




and speaking of cottons... i've just ordered myself some more from here. in a few different colours this time too... when it arrives i'll be whipping up some more dishcloths for sure!

what crafty happenings have you been up to recently?

meal planning monday.

monday again? goodness me!

well here goes the planning for the week then...

tonight, i've gotten one of the hundreds of portions of bolognaise sauce out of the freezer, so i'll be cooking up some pasta to have with that!

tuesday night is date night!! i'm hoping to drag bb off to he local mexican restaurant! i'm in the mood for some nice spice!

wednesday night i'll be heading into the city! it's my parent's wedding anniversary and they've got a family get together planned on southbank! need to remember to behave as i have a big day of work the next day!

another meal from the freezer on the cards for thursday. this time, some osso bucco! i'll dress up some rocket and cook up some pasta. nice and easy :D

friday, i'm working late again! i think i'll pop a curry in the slow cooker. i like to make sure bb has some food to come home to after work! i didn't have anything planned last week, but i ended up making up some fresh pesto and having a big bowl of pesto pasta waiting for him when he got home (a big bowl for lunch kept me going all day at work today too!)

saturday is another big day of work for me so i'll be delegating the cooking to bb! hopefully he'll come up with something delicious...

another day at work, ho hum! i think i'll ask bb to pop on a roast! maybe a rolled pork roast? yep, that'll do it! love a sunday roast!!

what are your meal plans for the week? or even just general plans?

sunday snippets.

playing along with cathy for sunday snippets,
with a few bits and pieces from my week...












what have you been up to this week? play along over here

april, in photos

like in march, i decided to play along with fatmumslim and post a photo for every day of april on instagram!




i'm really loving doing these challenges every month!
are you on instagram too?