My lovely bag lady...

So a few weeks ago I put the call out in blog land and elsewhere and received many suggestions on what to do with this lovely tea towel. Some ideas were to turn it into a cushion cover or apron, frame it, hang it up, and my personal favourite - dry the dishes with it!! A few people suggested turning her into a bag, which is what I did today. I'm not 100% sure that I have done the old girl justice, but none the less, I'm loving my new little bag!

I kept it simple. Just folded the tea towel in half right sides facing and sewed together, going on a slightly diagonal line to change the shape. I then made 2 strong straps using some denim from a pair of old jeans and attached.

I begun by carefully attaching the straps....

....and ended up losing my patience and not so carefully attaching the straps

Thanks for all of your suggestions! I think I'll use my new/old bag a lot! Hooruh for Upcycling!

Mezz xo

2012 Crafty Resolutions Revisted

More Crafternoons with my lovely friends. Done!
Play more family friendly live shows. Done!
Play an acoustic suburban lounge room/backyard tour. Done!
Record a few new tunes. Done!
Figure out how to use youtube.
Learn to crochet Granny squares.
Overcome my fear of sewing in zips.
Bake bread more often then once a year.
Post here regularly. Done!

I set myself a few crafty goals at the beginning of 2012. As we're nearly at the middle of the year (seriously, where has this year gone!!?) I thought I'd share with you where I'm up to with these goals. I figure 5 out of 9 is pretty good, and I've been enjoying the journey, but it does look like I might need to go and get some counselling soon to deal with my fear of sewing in zips and Youtube.

(A recent picture of me thinking about Youtube.)

Crap! It's Cold! Idea #2

Make soup. Then eat it. Maybe with some fresh bread. Then sigh with satisfaction. You could get used to this winter thing....

I never follow a recipe with soup. I just cook off a bit of onion, chuck my choice vegies in a big pot, nearly cover with stock and cook until tender. I then blitz it with a bar mixer and add whatever else needs to be added; fresh herbs, cream etc. This weekend it was potato and leek soup (with a bit of fresh parsley, cream and bacon thrown in.) An oldie but a goodie is always Pumpkin and Coriander soup too.

Whats your favourite soup to make or eat? I'd like some more ideas!

Mezz xo

Crap! It's Cold! Idea #1

Yesterday was a blistery, wintery, wet, dark Melbourne day. My poor sister in law Nicole had just arrived from sunny WA and I don't think she knew what struck her!! As a rare enjoyer of these cooler months, I thought that over the next few weeks I would share some ideas (some creative, some not) to help you embrace this cooler period. So next time you're thinking "Crap! It's cold!" why don't you try...

CONDENSED MILK CHAI TEA

This is simply the best. thing. ever. Now before I go any further, I want to make it clear that this is NOT my idea, it's somone elses, but so yummy and easy that I feel like it would be wrong of me to keep this awesomeness to myself! I recently borrowed (from Ash, another sister in law) Pip Lincoln's book, "Sew La Tea Do" as there was a dress pattern I wanted to try. Towards the back of the book were a few recipes, and this Chai tea is hands down the best thing I've done in a while.

INGREDIENTS

1 X 395 G CAN OF SWEETENED CONDENSED MILK
1 TEASPOON GROUND CARDAMOM
1 TEASPOON GROUND CINNAMON
1 TEASPOON GROUND GINGER
1 TEASPOON GROUND NUTMEG
1/2 TEASPOON GROUND PEPPER
1/2 TEASPOON GROUND CLOVES
1 STAR ANISE

MIX ALL THE INGREDIENTS TOGETHER IN A CONTAINER AND POP IT IN THE FRIDGE.

TO MAKE A YUMMY CHAI TEA, SIMPLY MAKE YOURSELF A STRONG CUP OF BLACK TEA, AND THEN ADD A SPOONFUL OF THIS MIXTURE TO YOUR MUG. (WHEN FEELING EXTRA SWEET, I ADDED TWO.)

I KEPT THIS MIXTURE IN THE FRIDGE FOR OVER A WEEK. I'M NOT SURE HOW LONG IT WILL ACTUALLY LAST, BUT IT WILL GO QUICK BECAUSE IT'S SO YUM!

What better way to warm yourself up on a cold day? (To top it off, try getting everyone in your family out of the house and enjoy your tea on the couch with a heavy doona and a Jane Eyre DVD. Unlikely, but a girl can dream, hey?)

One last thing, Mr. Coleman and I decided a few years ago to never buy Nestle products, based on a few ethical reasons. To put it simply, they're not a very nice company, to the earth and it's people. This has never been a problem except for condensed milk, as it's been very hard to find any other brand that makes it. For a while, I used the black and gold home brand from our local independent supermarket, but we try not to buy too much home brand either. We are lucky enough to live in Footscray (inner Western suburb of Melbourne) with a very high South East Asian population. Every second shop in Foostcray sells this Thai brand of Condensed milk. I'm not sure if you will be as lucky as us in your local area, but I thought I'd at least put it out there for the next time you're shopping.

For more info on why Nestle should be avoided check out:
http://www.oxfam.ca/news-and-publications/news/coffee-companies-doing-little-to-help-struggling-farmers/
http://info.babymilkaction.org/
http://www.stopcorporateabuse.org/communities-think-outside-bottle

MEZZ XOXO

Knitting and Good things!

I've finished knitting my bright orange oven mitts. I think they are very cheerful (which is nice as everything is getting pretty wintery and grey around here!) This wasn't difficult to knit, but a great way to learn how to follow a pattern and practise some new stitches (mostly stocking stitch and moss stitch.)

My new knitting project are some winter slippers. This is a very easy garter stitch pattern I found last year on a Spotlight leaflet. They are actually children's slippers, I knitted a magenta pair for Miss Coleman last winter. But as I have very small feet, I am just making the 12 year old size for me!

Before I leave, I must apologise for not stopping by too often recently. Life has been pretty hectic, and it's often in these times of craziness that I find myself really needing to appreciate the things in life that bring me joy. If I stop and reflect, there are always HEAPS of GOOD things happening.

Here are a few:

-Some awesome parents organised a coat and school uniform swap at Coleman Jnr's school. I love that our school community is thinking about small ways in which we can share our resources, and reduce the need to buy, buy, buy!
-Looking forward to catching up with my sister in law, Nicole, who I haven't seen in years!
-Spring cleaning our apartment (or is that "autumn cleaning?")
-Watching my singing students perform so confidently at their school concert.
-Going for a walk today with our housemates.
-Reading some great books
-Coleman Jnr's recent discovery that he LOVES being in our community garden, and therefore prioritising time spent there.
-Finished sewing myself a dress (will share with you soon, just need to get someone to take some pics.)
-Starting to get ready for our trip to the UK!!
-Finding nice wintery things to do to celebrate this cool change. (Will share some "Crap! It's cold!" tips soon!)

What GOOD things have been happening in your life?

Mezz

Happy Birthday, Mr. Non Material Girl.

It was Mr. Coleman's birthday over the weekend. Poor guy, his birthday nearly always falls on the same weekend as Mother's Day, so he has to make a fuss over me when it's his turn to be fussed over! My lovely husband is so ridiculously unmaterialistic, which is  very admirable, I know. But also incredibly annoying come birthday and Christmas time. So, WHAT do I make for a man who needs and wants nothing, when I still want to give him something homemade to celebrate his birthday!!? (Oh yeah, he's also not very sentimental, so I'm not sure if a poem or a cheesy framed photo of me and the kids would work either!)

This year I came up with a bookmark, as he usually dog ears all of his library books. Seriously, that's all I could think of! I think he likes it, although Little Miss Coleman mistook it for a hanky and blew her nose on it a soon as he had opened his gift. Nice.

To make your own crazily easy bookmark, choose a sturdy fabric, then using serrated scissors cut out your desired shape and then zig zag stich around the edges. I used bit of denim from an old pair of jeans.

Happy Birthday Honey xoxoxo

Ideas?!

I found this awesome tea towel at the Op Shop a while back. I loved it and was more then happy to fork out the 50c they were asking for it. I do like to use cool tea towels in my kitchen, but decided this one is just a bit too great to get grubby. So it's been shoved away with my craft stuff for a while, doing nothing.

So, crafty ladies (and gents), I'm after ideas! What should I do with it? Should I get creative and turn it into something else, or just keep it and be happy that it's mine!?

All ideas are welcome!!!

I'll keep you posted on what happens to this lovely lady.

Mezz

My new Neck Warmer!

I've officially caught the knitting bug! And it's getting very cold and wet here in Melbourne, which means more indoor time, so more knitting! I'm still a novice, but enjoying it heaps. 
 
As I ride my bike a lot, I decided I needed a neck warmer for when I ride in the cold, rather then wearing a long scarf that can get caught in the wheels! Augh, choke!  

This was a very easy thing to knit. Perfect for a beginner. If you can knit a few stitches, why don't you give something like this ago? It's getting pretty cold out there so a neck warmer might be just the ticket for you to!

Using a chunky wool that you love, and size 6 needles, cast on 18 stitches (or whatever width you'd like yours to be.)
First row: purl, knit, purl, knit etc....to the end of the row
Second row: knit(please note that I stuffed mine up a few times and accidentally knitted the same row twice, which alternated the pattern. This didn’t seem to matter though, so I just went with it! See? Sometimes mistakes work!)

Keep following this simple pattern until it fits around your neck. It should look like a mini scarf. Then find a big chunky button, pop it one side of you mini scarf, and make a small loop from you wool and attach to the other side of the mini scarf so that you can button it around your neck.

Sorry about the dodgy pics, I took them my self, and I am sick with some sort of virus, so am looking a little haggard
Mezz xx

Goodbye, backyards! (see you soon!)

We finished off our Backyard and Lounge Room tour last Sunday, playing a gig at Mel and Andy's place. Our "tour" has taken us to many lovely backyards and lounge rooms in places such as Mt Waverly, Blackburn, Seddon, and Nunuwading. We finished it off this weekend in Cranbourne. It was definitely worth the drive from Footscray, Mel and Andy put on a great spread for their guests (fairy bread, honey joys, muffins, sausage rolls and home brew!)and I caught up with a few mutual friends. It was grand fun, and a nice way to finish off our Backyard and Lounge Room Tour “experiment!” Thanks to Mel and Andy for hosting us, and our other hosts over the last two months.

Three Things we learnt from our tour experiment: 1. Despite a few occasional stresses and hiccups, we loved it! The gigs were so relaxed, and our audiences were so appreciative! 2. Summer would have been better, as it did get dark and cold a bit too early. 3.We're gonna definitely do this again, only it might be bigger and better next time! Stay tuned! Mezz xoxo