Recipe: Blueberry and White Chocolate Muffins

With all the devastation in the news (plus me and the baby having colds) I have lost my blogging and photo-taking mojo this last week. Must try harder this week. Here is a post I drafted at the start of last week. I'm not ignoring what's happening in Christchurch but I thought a light-hearted recipe might be just the ticket to take people's minds off what's been happening - even if it's just for a minute...

I spotted small punnets of fresh blueberries in the supermarket last weekend and couldn't resist buying some. Normally any recipes requiring blueberries are made with frozen ones. I really need to get in the habit of baking and cooking to the seasons so I can use more FRESH produce.

So the punnet of blueberries sat in the fridge for a few days looking up at me every time I opened the fridge and begging me to make good use of them before they went bad.

I didn't fancy run of the mill blueberry muffins. I wanted something even sweeter. So I went with Blueberry and White Chocolate Muffins. And ohmygosh, they are just delicious! I don't think I've had this combination before but I can assure you they are scrummy :-)

I used this recipe but substituted the raspberries for the blueberries. And one of those small punnets is 1 cup exactly - it must be meant to be!

Happy baking :-)

Puts everything into perspective

I spent most of yesterday afternoon and some of this morning sitting here watching the news of the Canterbury earthquake.
It's heartbreaking to watch. Too many lives lost, so many people still trapped, injured, without their homes.
Events like this make day to day life seem so trivial but at the same time the baby still needs fed and changed and to sleep. I am so grateful that my family are safe and well and I am trying to work out what I can do to help.

If you are keen to help you can make donations here and also at the Red Cross although their site seems to be down at the moment.

My thoughts are with everyone that has been affected by this. Stay strong Canterbury - the whole of NZ and further afield are thinking of you and praying for you.

Scrapbooking: A Moment in Time (plus 2 cards)

I went to a scrapbooking and card class on Saturday. Football season starts soon which means our Saturdays will need to work around G's games so I am trying to get out and do a few treat-y things before then.

It was a good class. There were 2 tutors - one for the scrapbooking layout and one for the cards.
The kit and embellishment are really not my usual style at all so it was actually a bit of a challenge making it work for the photos I had.

Here's the scrapbook layout I made...

The photos are from when my Mum came to visit last September when baby was only a few weeks old.
We learnt how to make the tatty fabric flowers at the class which was pretty cool. I haven't done any journalling on the page yet but there is some space for some so will jot something down before I put the layout away in my album.

And here are the cards I made...

To be honest - not too sure what I would use them for. Maybe as notelets rather than greetings cards. They are lovely but again - not my usual style.

Recipe: Tattie (potato) Scones

See how over in my little profile box I mention a Scottish husband? Well for Valentines Day I decided to make him some heart shaped Scottish food!

These tattie scones are best served in a morning roll with square/lorne sausage (recipe to follow!)

Here's how you make them...

Ingredients:

• 225 g boiled and mashed potatoes
• 65g flour
• 3 tablespoons melted butter
• half teaspoon salt

Mash the potatoes while they are still warm and add the butter and salt. 

Add in the flour - enough to make it a pliable dough but without making it too dry. 

Put dough onto a floured surface and roll until about quarter of an inch thick.

Cut into 6 inch circles and then into quarters (instead of doing this I cut out heart shapes with a cookie cutter but I did make some 'normal' shaped ones too!)

Prick all over with a fork and fry in a lightly greased pan for a couple of minutes each side or until golden brown.

These are delicious warm (in a roll with sausage as mentioned above) or you can spread cold ones with butter for a yummy snack. 

Once they are cooked and cooled you can freeze them and just refry them when you want to eat them.

Hmmm, think I might have to have one for morning tea :-)

Happenings

What's been happening around here lately...

: : We have a new friend. His name is Mr Sticky and he lives on the window (outside thankfully!) : :

: : Rhett decided to remove the eyes from his toy cow - mean old puppy : :

: : A half birthday photoshoot : :

: : Some more heart decorations for Valentines Day (from the same lovely shop that I got my Washi Tape) : :

: : I scored an iPod Touch for $10 (plus $5 p+p) from OffTheBacks Lucky loot : :

Hmmm what else?
: : There is much drooling, chewing and some grumpiness from the wee man - could this mean there may be some teeth on the way?! or is he just teasing me? : :
: : I'm still plodding away with A Month of Love - just not got any pages complete to post (hope to rectify that over the weekend) : :
: : I got a beauty treatment voucher from my lovely husband for Christmas and have the appointment booked for tomorrow - yay for some pamper time! : :
: : and I'm debating what heart shaped/themed things I can bake for G for Valentines without being too soppy. Tattie Scones perhaps? : :

Wishing you and yours a lovely weekend wherever you are and whatever you are doing :-)

a WHOLE half a year

What was life like without you baby boy? I'm not sure I can remember. In some ways this last 6 months has flown by in the blink of an eye. In other ways the time without you here seems very distant now.

You make us smile, laugh and worry every day and we would not be without you.

From the first time we knew of your existence you were loved baby boy. And now that you spend your days exploring your world and sharing those big smiles and cute giggles how could anyone not love you?

Here's just a glimpse of your first 6 months in the world...

on the day you were born...

1 week old...

6 weeks old...

9 weeks old...

12 weeks old...

16 weeks old...

20 weeks old...

24 weeks old...

this week...

Love you baby boy

x x x

Scrapbooking: Mini Book ~ Dear Nanny

Remember in this post I mentioned a secret project? Well, I can now share it!
It was a present for my Mum's birthday. Quite a special one and her first one since my baby boy was born.
So I decided to make her a little something especially from him.
It started with a 'photoshoot' and some magnetic alphabet blocks and finished with some pretty paper, a blue inkpad and a bind-it-all...

She was very impressed :-)

Cool Valentines Projects around the Interwebs

There are not enough hours in the day to make all the cool stuff flying around the internet at the moment. And thats just Valentines projects, let alone the other gazillion things I want to make :-)

I thought it would be good to share a couple of links with you in case you fancy getting a little crafty yourself...

• Valentines Day Bunting at Crap I've Made
• Subway Art at Thrifty Finn (just print and frame, done!)
• Fabric Coasters at Shabby Chic Crafts
• Yarn Hearts at Family Chic
• Gooey Gluey Heart Bunting at Tangled Happy

And if thats not enough why not have a look at One Pretty Thing at the Valentines Day ideas over there.

Have fun crafting and if you've found any cool projects please leave a comment and let me know :-)

A Month of Love - Day 6 - New Zealand

Page 6 from my A Month of Love Mini-book...

6th February in New Zealand is Waitangi Day which is basically New Zealand Day. I thought it was the perfect opportunity to talk about how I love living in New Zealand!
I made a NZ flag with some blue paper, some punched red stars and a glittery union jack I had in a sticker pack from the UK. I journalled around the flag, added the date and hand drew the page border. Done :-)

A Month of Love - Day 5 - Chocolate Brownie Ice-cream

Day 5 of my A Month of Love minibook...

We bought Chocolate Brownie ice-cream yesterday and had a bowl each after the baby went to bed. 

He got overtired yesterday so the afternoon/evening was quite a fight. 

Sitting down and relaxing once he was asleep was lovely!

Another simple page. 

Some patterned paper stuck down, the date added and a journalling card and then the borders are hand drawn.

A Month of Love - Day 4 - My new sewing machine

Day 4 of my A Month of Love minibook...

I bought a sewing machine yesterday. I've wanted one for a while and had been thinking I'd ask for one for Mothers Day. I'd even found one for $99 at the Warehouse! But it came up this week on special with $30 off so I decided not to wait! I'm looking forward to playing and need to find some old fabric that I don't mind making a mess of to practice with. I envisage lots of disasters as I have NEVER been good at sewing!

To make the page I sewed a heart shape onto some blue fabric and went round a couple of times with different stitches. Then I added a journalling box, a glittery heart and my date, stuck it all down and hand-drew stitches around everything to go with the sewing machine theme!

A Month of Love - Day 3 - Hubby home for lunch

Day 3 of my A Month of Love mini-book. 

I think most days I will end up posting pages the next day as by the time I get around to making them the lights no good for taking photos. It's still the 3rd of February on some parts of the world though!

Quite a simple page talking about G bringing home Subway for lunch. Lovely to see him in the middle of the day and also great to have a cookie :-)

I covered half the page with some mulberry paper, wrote my journalling on a tag and then stuck it down with some ric-rac either side and the date tag in the bottom corner.

Love you Mum

It's my mum's birthday today so I thought she deserved her own special post.

H A P P Y   B I R T H D A Y  M U M  :-)

Thanks for being awesome. 

Love you lots and hope to see you soon

x x x x x x x x

Photo taken September 2010

A Month of Love - Day 2 - Baby's First Swim

Here's entry 2 into my A Month of Love mini-book

Yesterday was our first swimming lesson. I didn't manage to get any photos at the pool as I was too busy keeping hold of bubby! But I did get this shot before we left the house which shows how excited we were!

The main reason I made my mini-book 4 by 6 sized was so I could print photos like this one and turn the photos into the page. 

I wrote the journalling straight onto the photo using a Slick Writer pen, added my date and a little heart sticker and then stuck it all down onto the back of page 1. Easy as :-)

Do what you love and do it often

I love that saying. So true to make me a happy girl.
So when I found this free printable I couldn't resist and saved the white background with aqua font for printing at a later date.

Yesterday I finally got around to printing it. I had a cheap silver frame that I'd bought on a whim and decided to use that. I fancied it up a little with some washi tape (there's a surprise! expect to see a few projects using that - it gives me an excuse to buy more then!). Here it is sitting on my mantel piece...

and I've zoomed out a little in this one so you can see my little washi covered baby food jars in all their tea-light lantern glory...

As the nights start drawing in it will be lovely to have them casting a warm glow on my mantel.

A Month of Love - Day 1 - Washi Tape

Here's the 1st entry to my A Month of Love mini-book

I recently bought some Washi Tape from Etsy (here) and it arrived in the mail today - all the way from Japan. So that's what today's love is! I decided to use the washi tape to decorate the page and then added a journalling spot (that I'd stamped the other day in preparation) and the date. I've left room in the top right corner for a photo of the tape but I might just leave it as it is.

I started playing with the tape straight away and decorated some baby food jars. I'm thinking about putting tea-lights in them (with the lids off obviously!) - the tape is transparent and I think the little candles will glow beautifully inside the tape covered jars.

Summer Blooms

I took these a couple of weeks ago at the Esplanade. To me, the zing of colour in these flowers is what makes summer summer.

Enjoy some floral eye candy...

You can see more seasonal inspiration and goodness here.