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Tuesday, March 31, 2015

T for Tuesday Homemade Yoghurt


After hesitating for a long time and misplaced my candy thermometer , I bit the bullet and tried my hand at making homemade yoghurt. A coworker made his own and gave me some to try and it was glorious. So soft and silky and so good for you. We have some great milk here that still has the cream up the top so I used that. It comes from a farm up north and is as close to raw milk as is legal. The farm is called Maleny Diaries and is open for visits so one day when we venture up north we'll go visit to see where our milk comes from.


So this is the "incubator", I kept replenishing the hot water in the hot water bottle to keep it at an even warm temperature. It needs to be in here 12 hours.

This is after the 5 hours, when I put in new hot water. Looks so yummy.

So if you wanted to try making your own yoghurt here and here are the recipe.

It took 10 mins to heat up to 92C and 30 minutes to cool it back down to 38C.

I ate it with muesli every morning, now I will make Mango Lassi as I made a new batch last night.

Joining Bluebeard and Elizabeth for T for Tuesday

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

WOYWW 303


This is my desk last Saturday at stamp club. I throughly enjoyed going and chatting and doing some crafting. I have not been to this stamp club since July last year due to work and family commitments and of course camping commitments LOL.

Stamping Daze stamp club sends out their newsletters as an option via snail mail and members offer to decorate envelopes for this purpose. So I volunteered and made 2 months worth whilst chatting and eating the clubs birthday cake. 

Of course the space I was crafting on was the size of 2 A4 papers so I was sorely restricted. I had my stamp pads on the floor beside me and baby wipes (to clean my stamps) under my chair.

Very interesting to see the blot paper I was using to protect the table turned into a very interesting background of colours and designs that I will be using on a future card I create.

I used eco envelopes in this case, some colours did not work on brown envelopes so I had to restamp them using a darker colour.

I used ImagineCrafts/Tsukineko Memento Inks.



On my desk are my recent purchases, a variety from Darkroom Door and Tim Holtz and card kits from Michelle's Cards and Stamps when I went to stamp day the previous Saturday.

Thanks to a fellow WOYWWer Lisca Meijer I have now signed up to Postcrossing and sent off my first 5 cards. Can't wait to receive my first postcards and share it with you all.

Joining Julia and her Stamping Ground to see more desks around the world.

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

T for Tuesday Guava Season


Our neighbour who is moving out soon has an awesome garden where he has planted stuff I didn't know exist. This is the guava tree that hangs over our fence. The bats have been coming at night and eating the guava and leaving a right old mess. I have had to rescue the guavas to give back to him before the bats get to it.


They smell divine but when ripe smell terrible hahahaha. These ones have a white flesh.

Joining Bluebeard and Elizabeth for T for Tuesday

Monday, March 23, 2015

Gelato Card at Michelle's and Robyn's


This was my favourite card to make as I like to get down and dirty-craft wise so to speak. When I first started crafting my OCD was at its peak, I did not like my fingers stained or dirty at all.

Nowadays I don't care how dirty my fingers get because the results are very satisfying.

I have heard a lot about Gelatos by Faber Castell but was never interested because I didn't come into contact with them until now. I am now sold on it.

Well it is an amazing product and I love what it can do.

Here is a pinterest link to Gelato cards

Sunday, March 22, 2015

Quilt Card at Michelle's and Robyns



This was a card I found abit frustrating. I am not a quilter IRL, putting the pieces together was tedious but the results are gorgeous as you can see.

Another card I made at Michelle's and Robyn's

Thursday, March 19, 2015

PostCrossing what is it

An interesting concept indeed, stemmed from my childhood hobby of pen-friends

When I was about 10 I started my pen-friend craze and put my name into a Malaysian newspaper asking for pen-friends. Lo and behold I got about 34 replies which I kept up for quite awhile. I wonder what my grandma thought of me asking for money for postage. I don't remember getting any flack from her, but I did get eyebrow raises on why I got so much snail mail.

I got replies from more males than females. One male's family owned a business so every now and then I would receive handbags.

I thoroughly enjoyed this period in my life and still do some sort of pen-friending either in written form to friends that down own email, and in email form to friends that do.

Nothing beats the handwritten for of communications, I love it. That is probably why I took up card-making and scrapbooking 14 years ago.

I first heard about Postcrossing on WOYWW I play every Wednesday that was posted by Lisca meijer. A wonderful project indeed. I read what it was about and promptly signed up and wrote up 5 postcards (below) and posted them off all in the same day. I also discovered that postcard and letter postage costs are the same. Australia has one of the highest rates of postage to anywhere in the world.

My postcards are going 15,000kms away and I probably won't get one back for a couple of weeks because it is going via snail mail. 4 are going to Russia and 1 to Germany. I am only allowed 5 to start with and when they are received then I can send more. The postcard cost 80c and the postage cost $2.75-this will be the most expensive postage as it's the furthest point from Australia. New Zealand and the Pacific is $1.95 and Asia I have no idea yet.

There are meetups in all countries, either yearly, monthly or regularly.

I have an idea to add an interesting concept to my postcard postings, but for now I shall keep it a secret.

Here is an interesting write up about postcards being obsolette. I must admit I had a hard time finding postcards to send, if they do become obsolette I will have to make my own LOL

I have seen them in touristy places we have visited and wished I had picked up some now. Well we will just have to revisit these places again to pick more up LOL.


About postcrossing:

The project

The goal of this project is to allow people to receive postcards from all over the world, for free. Well, almost free! The main idea is that: if you send a postcard, you will receive one back from a random Postcrosser from somewhere in the world.
Why? Because, like the founder, there are lots of people who like to receive real mail.
The element of surprise of receiving postcards from different places in the world (many of which you probably have never heard of) can turn your mailbox into a box of surprises - and who wouldn't like that?

How does it work?

First, the short version:
  1. request an address from the website
  2. mail the postcard to the address
  3. wait to receive a postcard
  4. register the received postcard in the system
The first step is to request to send a postcard. The website will display (and send you an email) with the address of another member and a Postcard ID (e.g.: US-786). You then mail a postcard to that member.
The member receives the postcard and registers it using the Postcard ID that is on the postcard. At this point, you are eligible to receive a postcard from another user. You are now in line for the next person that requests to send a postcard. Where the postcard comes from is a surprise!
You can have up to 5 postcards traveling at any single time. Every time one of the postcards you send is registered, you can request another address. The number of postcards allowed to travel at any single time goes up the more postcards you send!
Still have questions? Check out the help section, our Community Guidelines and the forum.

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

WOYWW # 302


I've been AWOL for weeks now because I lost my mojo and I have been working long hours too. I went to a card making day on the weekend to Michelle's and Robyn's Cards and Stamps that has certainly brought my mojo back. This is a wonderful mother and daughter business. Robyn makes the most tastiest lunches for us. Next time I will take a photo of the sumptuous lunch we get and the price for the class which includes unlimited beverages and lunch is so reasonable. I can't wait for winter classes, Robyn makes the most wonderful soups. You don't have to bring anything with you, everything is supplied. They also sell the class kits if you can't come. My desk above full of everything including sweeties and off course a hand on the left hee hee


We get to make 5 cards and they are glorious cards, this is one of them. I will post up more cards from that class tomorrow when I get my day off.

Joining Julia and her Stamping Ground to see more desks around the world.

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

T for Tuesday and Markets



Went to the markets again on Saturday, to one of our favourites called Carseldine Markets 


I love the ginger beer stall, I get a bottle every time we go there. The left bottle is Strawberry, the middle is Raspberry but they didn't have any labels made for it and the bottle on the right is Coconut flavoured ginger beer. The normal ginger beer is very gassy so these home made ones are less gassy ad very nice. The only thing I don't like is the kefir flavour. 


We got breakfast, my favourite Malaysian Chicken curry and Canai. Michael had cheese and bacon Canai which is a bread that is amazing to watch when they make it.

Teapots from Mount Tambourine

Joining Elisabeth and Bluebeard for T for Tuesday 

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

T for Tuesday and Weekend Markets

 A year ago we moved to the most beautiful state in Australia, Queensland the Sunshine State and the city of Brisbane where the G20 summit was held last year. We've discovered weekend markets are in abundance here. This is the Redcliffe Markets on the foreshore of Redcliffe Jetty.

We aim to visit as many markets as we can on the weekends to find out what awesome stuff is around. So Stay tuned
 There were many wonderful stalls there with food and other items of interest 


I've taken to eating this for lunch or dinner, rye cruskits with avocado, tomato and tuna and my homemade tomato chutney. YUmmmmmm


Here are more teapots from Mt Tambourine Tea shop

Joining Bluebeard and Elisabeth for T for Tuesday




Tuesday, March 03, 2015

T for Tuesday-Homemade Pasta and Bolognese Sauce

Went to the T Centre and bought these tea related items. On the left is the tin for loose tea leaf, my smallish glass cup I take to work, on the right is a tea infuser-I am addicted to these, some work and some don't
I'm on a cooking spree, homemade cooking. I subscribe to Ree Drummond-Pioneer Woman Cooks for years now and she has some wonderful recipes. These two caught my eye. I love homemade noodles and bolognese sauce. I cooked the sauce for 5 hours and added chicken livers.

I have taken to making stuff from scratch and as natural as possible, with all the processed stuff I was introduced to when I moved to Australia from Fiji 30+ years ago, our health is not as it should be. I have always wanted to make my own noodles/pasta from scratch. Even though I work full time hours I like to make stuff. This pasta machine I have owned for yonks, over 10 years and have never used it LOL. I also have never owned a table top mixer, so I knew I had to get one now that I am making stuff. It was a breeze to make dough which took all of 5 mins, a task that usually takes me longer to make. But the mess, oh the mess, there was flour everywhere.

But the noodles/pasta was to die for, so soft and fresh!!  try it some day, oh here is the recipe for noodles:


6 whole eggs
3 cups plain flour

Rule of thumb: 2 eggs per one cup of flour

Make a well in the centre of your pile of flour and crack in your eggs. Slowly mix together with your hands. Turn it out onto a floured surface and knead (roll, punch, push, etc.) by hand until dough becomes smooth and pliable, adding flour to the board as necessary.
Let the dough rest for a little while before rolling it out. You can sort of figure on one egg per person to determine how much dough to make. Example: Two eggs and one cup of flour would make enough pasta dough for a dinner for two.
When you’re ready, roll it out on a floured surface as thinly as it’ll go. The noodles will plump up quite a bit when they boil in the water, so the thinner you can roll it, the better. Cut the noodles really thin. You can use a sharp knife (if you can keep it in a straight line), a pizza wheel, or a long pizza/bread cutter.
To cook the noodles, just boil them in salted water (very important!) for probably two minutes. They cook lightning fast, so don’t let ‘em go too long.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/05/homemade-pasta/

The first batch I made was really from scratch, this was before I found the pasta machine 2 days later:



We ate it with homemade Bolognese Sauce which I cooked for 5 hours
 ½ cup Olive Oil

1- ½ cup Grated Carrots
1 whole Large Red Onion, Diced
2 pounds Ground Beef
2 Tablespoons Dried Oregano
2 Tablespoons Dried Basil Flakes - I used fresh basil from my garden
1 can (6 Ounce) Tomato Paste
5 cloves Garlic, Minced
1 cup (to 2 Cups) Red Wine - next time I will only use 1 cup-2 is too strong for me2 2 Tablespoons Worcestershire
2 cans (28 Ounce) Whole Tomatoes- I also added sundried tomatoes
1 cup Milk
Salt And Pepper, to taste
Fresh Parmesan Cheese

Preparation Instructions

Heat oil in a large Dutch oven or skillet over medium heat. Add grated carrots and onions and cook for a few minutes. Make a well in the centre of the mixture, and then add in the ground beef. Cook for a few minutes until brown, gradually stirring it into the carrot mixture.
Throw in oregano and basil. Use fresh if you have it; if you don’t, it’s fine. When the meat is browned and combined with other ingredients, make another well. Add tomato paste and let it heat. Add garlic and stir to combine.
Make a well in the centre of the mixture and add red wine. Stir together. Add Worcestershire and stir. Add canned tomatoes. Finally, pour in milk, stir, and let simmer for 30 minutes to 2 hours—however long you need.
Serve with pasta and a generous sprinkling of Parmesan cheese.



Here are more teapots from Mt Tambourine Tea shop

Joining Bluebeard and Elisabeth for T for Tuesday

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