Easy Peasy Recipe #9

Thanks once again for all the lovely comments and emails I've been receiving of late. The lovely comments about my new song "Simple Girl" in particular warmed my heart.

Anyway, here is an Easy Peasy Recipe from a reader and fellow #postcircle member, Liz. Liz lives in East Yorkshire in the UK. She is a writer, and hoping to start writing her own blog soon (can't wait!) Yorkshire just happens to be one of my favourite places on God's earth. There's something sacred about the land up there. Because I love Yorkshire so much, I thought I'd add some pics we took in the area on our trip last year to the UK. (We were in West Yorkshire, not East where Liz lives, but it was very very wonderful.)

Happy cooking people, and feel free to join in the Easy Peasy Recipe fun by either blogging your own recipe and sending me the link so I can share with my readers, or just email me mezzcoleman@hotmail.com like lovely Liz did.

Southwold Tart- from Liz.

 

Here is a dead simple recipe for those left over bits of pastry you don’t quite know what to do with when making pies etc – everyone has them.

 

This is a recipe for something called Southwold Tart. It is light and dead simple, and no-one will believe how you have done it. It comes from a local history book that is 53 years old, and quotes this recipe as being over 100 years old even then, so this is a goody getting on for 200 years at least. Southwold is a great little seaside town in Suffolk.

 

Make your waste shortcrust into either small tartlet pans or a smallish pie pan.

 

Gently heat a tablespoon of golden syrup until it relaxes, not hot. Whisk in one egg until the mixture clears and looks as it did before you started. Pour into pastry cases and cook until done – decide by eye depending upon the size of tin – 10 to 25 minutes.

 

You will have a delicious, light and delicate treacle tart.....and no-one will be able to guess how you have made it. Easy peasy!

 

oH!! i WANT TO GO BACK!!!!
XX

a new song 4 u!!

 

 

Here is a new song I wrote. It's called "Simple Girl."

 

Do you ever feel that the older you get, the more years you have behind you, the more complex and complicated your life becomes? I've been feeling that a lot recently. This song was written after quite a lot of reflecting back on my past few years, and recognising a huge yearning in myself to find the younger, simpler, less complicated me.

 

Because this song is all about that need for simplicity I made sure the song itself was quite simple, both the melody and instrumentation. I rehearsed this the other day with my younger brother Pete, (who happens to be married to the very cute Butter and Buntings blogger, Taz) and we thought we'd film it. So the recording is fairly rough, but we wanted to share it with you anyway. And bonus, you get to see Taz's cute lounge room!

 

Sorry I haven't been blogging much recently about craft! To be honest I haven't been crafting much this past month or so. I often find that when I get really focussed on one area of my life, other parts of it tend to get a bit neglected! For example, when I'm working lots of nights a s a musician, I get tired and a bit less engaged as a mum. But I also know that I'm a  horrible and resentful parent when I'm not making music or creating at all! Finding the balance between everything is hard. I'm sure I'm not the only one, I think a lot of artists feel this way. Balancing work, creativity, parenting, wifing (is that a word!?) relaxing, and being a good friend is something I'm still trying to figure out! However, I have been finding lots of great fabric in Op Shops, so I'm hoping to do a bit of sewing soon!

 

If you enjoyed this song feel free to visit my music website to hear and watch some other stuff!

www.mezzcoleman.com

 

 

Hope you have lovely week!

 

xx

 

PS I had trouble Uploading this clip from YouTube, so used a blogger thingy, not sure how good it is. To watch the YouTube Clip instead click on this link... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBx7XtWB19A

 

 

 

What do your walls say about you?

My walls say that even though I'm 28, I'm still a teenager at heart. I still prefer blue tacking pictures to the walls and proper pictures with nails and hooks and serious stuff seems a bit too grown up for me!

 

 

My walls say that I'm definitely a more is more person. I'm not a big fan of minimalist design and seem to clutter my house and walls with precious little bits and bobs.

 

 

 

 

My walls say that we love travelling. We love looking at our stash of postcards, mementos and pics from our family trips around South East Asia and the UK.

 

 

 

 

My walls say that I love people. I love being surrounded by photos of all the people I love. Friends, family, neighbours, community.

 

 

 

 

My walls say that perhaps I don't take my education seriously enough! My degree (Bachelor of Music/Jazz Improvisation) that I received in 2006 is still in the plastic slip that it came in, I've never thought to frame it like most people do!!

 

 

 

 

My walls say that I'm not a perfect mum (which is ok!) As much as I promised myself I wouldn't do this, I must admit that there are heaps more photos of our oldest child, probably because it was all so new with him. I love our second child just as fiercely by the way, life just gets a bit more hectic once you've had more then one and running down to the shops to print photos suddenly stops appearing on your to do lists!!!

 

 

 

 

My walls say that I love music. Some of the artists on our walls include the beloved Beatles, Michael Jackson, Jeff Buckley and Claire Bowditch. We also keep a lot of posters from gigs and shows we've played ourselves!

 

 

 

 

My walls say that I'm inspired by words. I love having a lot of special poems, prayers, quotes and sayings around me.

 

 

 

 

My walls say that I love Footscray. It is my home, both physically and spiritually.

 

 

 

 

My walls say how much I loved my nana, Elsie. She has a very special place in my heart (and on our walls!)  She was a wonderful woman who shared stories, was proud of her family history, collected cute sharpeners, cooked amazing food, crocheted, adored Gilbert and Sullivan, and loved her neighbours and family. (One day I'll show you a pic of when she was young...man, she was hot!!!!!)

 

 

My walls say that I have a clever hubby and friends who all make wonderful art.

 

 

 

 

What do your walls say about you?

 

Mezz

 xx

How to make a pretty Paper Garland!!

A lot of you would know that I had a little give away recently. I didn't show you part of what I popped in the parcel, because I hadn't actually made it yet!! So I thought I'd share the cute little garland I made, and also show you how to make it too!!!! Before I start, I'll point out that this project includes cutting up a book... I''m a huge book lover and don't usually approve of this, but you can usually find these little beauties for 20c at Op Shops, and if they're a bit damaged, then why not hey! Books also work particularly well for this project, because the pages are double sided.

So you will need: A Little Golden Book, coloured thread and sewing machine, scissors, whole punch, ribbon and a shape cutter thing(optional!)

 

 Using your shape cutter thingy, cut as many shapes into your book as you want.. I have a circle cutter, so used that. I like using a mix of illustrations and text in my shapes. (You can also just use scissors for this step, but it will take much longer!!)

Choose some pretty thread and thread up the machine!

 

With a simple straight stitch, start sewing all your paper shapes together, by sewing a straight line through the middle, and then feeding the next one through....and the next....and the next...

 

Soon you will have along snake of cuteness!

 

  Find the shapes on either end and punch a hole in them using your hole punch

 

Tie some ribbon through the holes, so that you can now tie up your garland to hang.

 

If you a gifting this, why not use the hard cover from the Little Golden book as wrapping paper? Simply place the garland inside and wrap it up in string so its secure.

After making this I got carried away and found another vintage Little Golden Book full of Children's prayers that no one was really getting into in our house, so thought I'd use pages from this to make some cute stuff too! Here's  a little Banner I made for Little Miss. I've shown a few people and they all like, so I think I might make more of these for gifts, or to sell...Who knows!!?!!!

Hope this post finds you well! Life here hasn't been terribly easy of late, but finding time to be creative sure helps with feeding my soul when it is in serious need of nourishment! Do you find that too?

Mezz x

PS Come find me on Twitter! look for @mezzcoleman

GIVEAWAY WINNER ANNOUNCED!!

Hiya folks,

Thanks to everyone who entered my giveaway on this Blog.

 

I picked a name out of the hat, and the winner is Sarah who writes the lovely blog, The Faerie Factory. Check out her blog here. Thanks to everyone who entered, I'll do another one soon, it was so much fun putting it together.

 

Could the lovely winner please email a postal address to me asap mezzcoleman@hotmail.com

 

And remember that....

 

MUSIC

+ C RAFT

+ OP SHOPPING....

= HAPPY

 

Mezz xx

 

Making bobby pins pretty!!

Hello lovely readers,

Whether you're new to this blog or have been hanging out for a while now, I just want to say welcome and thankyou!! I've been really overwhelmed by how many people have been popping by recently, leaving lots of gorgeous comments and internet love!! (that sounds creepy, but you know what I mean!) As part of my ongoing 2013 resolution to get over myself and embrace technology a bit more, I have recently started using Twitter. I'm still not really sure how it all works, but I have taken like a duck to water with Instagram much more then I expected, so perhaps I'll get into Twitter too. If you are on Twitter, please come find me and say hello!! (Look for mezzcoleman)

Here's a quick and easy crafty project to do if you're feeling a bit pressed for time (which I certainly am) but just want to do SOMETHING!

I've started growing my hair (slightly) just from VERY short to more of a 1920's bob style (well that's what I'm hoping it will look like eventually) and in the meantime, I'm finding bobby pins very useful while its at a very frustrating in between length!!

I have been playing around with the bobby pins and trying to pretty them up a bit.

All very simple ideas, including ribbons, bows, crochet circles, buttons and fake flowes!! Please feel free to share some other ideas for how I can brighten up my bobby pins!!

Mezz xx
PS Don't' forget to say hello on twitter! look for mezzcoleman
PPS Don't forget to check out my pretty new music website, www.mezzcoleman.com
PPPS You still have til Friday to enter my giveaway, when I will draw a name out of a hat and announce a winner!! exciting!