soup swapping

About a year or so ago I signed up to a free newsletter from the website Simple Savings. One of their recent newsletters had the idea of doing a soup swap with friends which I thought was a great idea, especially now that it's getting pretty cold here! Luckily I have a few crafty friends who are also great cooks so at our craft morning last weekend we all brought along enough soup to share with each other. We all made enough for 8 adults, so by making one big pot of soup we got 3 delicious soups to enjoy plus the one we made. 

The soups we swapped were a corn and bacon chowder, an Alison Holst creamy lentil and vegetable soup, a carrot, red lentil and kumara soup and a chorizo and lentil soup.  Loving our lentils!

I made the chorizo and lentil one after seeing it on 'Good Morning' about a month ago. Here's the recipe if you like the sound of it... http://tvnz.co.nz/good-morning/nicola-s-spicy-sausage-lentil-soup-4145740.

Lentil and vege soup with cheese on toast-yum!

We're thinking of doing some more swaps too- maybe a casserole swap and a cookie swap too after seeing Sarah's awesome swap last christmas.   

A good idea don't you think!

Megan x

my creative space: nursery art

I got a lovely email a while back from Melissa who reads my blog and is a primary school teacher in Auckland. (Check out her new blog here http://nzbusybee.blogspot.com.)  She sent me the link to Larissa's blog "mmmcrafts" and the tutorial for these these  cute 'momma bird' cards that she did with her class for Mothers Day. Aren't they gorgeous:)  And Larissa has even kindly made a pdf with the templates for each card- thanks Larissa!

I decided to make the bird art for Jack's nursery as I loved the look of the mummy bird cuddling her little baby. So I printed out the template and enlarged it so the pieces would fit into a frame I bought from Spotlight, and had fun choosing the card from my scrapbooking card stash. (I don't actually do scrapbooking but I love the card you can buy for it!)

The elephant mobile was a fun project too. My drawing skills are very limited so I photocopied the elephant from the Michael Miller fabric I used to make Jack's baby blanket, then enlarged it onto card to make a template. Then I just drew around it a few times on the same card I used to make the bird art. The mobile is one of those ones that is for hanging photo's from so it was easy to clip the elephants on instead!

Thanks so much Melissa for sending me the link. Also I just wanted to say a big thank you to all of you for reading my blog and the lovely comments I get- I really do appreciate them and love reading them (and sorry that I don't always get a chance to reply at the moment!) 

For more creative spaces, click here

Megan x

my creative space: apples

 a crochet apple

By Mixing Ink

a crocheted apple 

(not sure if that's grammatically correct!)

Some times it's good to make something that's a bit frivolous but makes you smile...I made this apple cosy just for the fun of imagining my 4 year old's face when she opens her lunch box :) 

I tried a tutorial first but my cosy was looking more like a sombrero....

so I just started again and played around with my baby ball pattern instead that I modified from Kate's pattern here.

Wish I could see her face (and the teachers' who will probably think I'm a bit crazy) when she opens her lunchbox next week...

For more creative spaces, head on over here

Megan x

a bow brooch

It's been a bit of a rainy weekend here - good weather to get a few crafty projects finished including my brooch for the Flowerpress brooch swap. My swap partner is a really amazing crafter so I spent quite a bit of time thinking about what type of brooch to create. In the end after changing my mind a lot I decided to make a fabric bow brooch after seeing the bow hairclip I won from Amber and Hillary's blog last year.

But after more obessing (I think there were a few of us obsessing about our brooches!) I decided to make a crochet bow brooch as well as my partner loves crochet.

And then I got the idea to make a scarf using the fabric from the bow brooch and some lovely blue merino. (Thank you for the ideas on my Facebook page the other night on where to source merino- I ended up getting some from 'Moreland Fabrics' here in Tauranga but I am going to have a look at some from Global Fabrics too if I make some more.)

I made a few more bows too - some more for brooches and a couple to stitch on to a t-shirt or a bag perhaps.

So the parcel is finally all wrapped up ready to go - hope she likes it!
If you want to check out some of the brooches already made check them out here...I've just had a look and they look amazing, better get mine in the mail before I change my mind again!!
Thanks for a great swap Susie :)
Megan x

my creative space: a little house

I finally got my hands on a copy of the book "Scandinavian Stitches" by Kajsa Wikman, from our local library.

I've seen this book on lots of blogs and it is just gorgeous with heaps of cute projects, my favourite being the little houses.  I was even lucky enough to receive a house from Leonie as part of the kiwi christmas ornament swap which is now on my notice board in my craft space.

So I made a little house for my kitchen, just a bit bigger than the one in the book.

Kajsa's blog is so beautiful and inspiring too- check it out here http://syko.typepad.com/, her facebook page here www.facebook.com/sykodesign and take a look at some of the things in her Etsy shop- how cute is this little village!

 

Little Village

Love machine art print

For more creative spaces, head on over to Our Creative Spaces here

Megan x

Sausage, bean and tomato stew

Here's an easy and economical recipe that I'm loving for these wintry nights - great for the dishes too as you can do the whole meal in one pot. And even a non-cook like me can just about manage this one!

Serves 2 adults + kids
4-6 Pork sausages
1 tin Cannellini beans
1 tin Canned tomatoes
1 clove garlic
1 onion
3-4 sage leaves

1. Brown sausages in large pot, remove and set aside (high heat)
2. Dice onion and garlic and cook in pot until soft and clear (low heat)
3. Add tomatoes and sage leaves to pot
4. Chop sausages in half and return to pot, increase heat back up to high till boiling, then reduce heat to simmer for 10 minutes
5. Drain beans and add to pot
6. Simmer for another 5 minutes, season with salt and pepper
7. Enjoy!

And for a nice winter desert I like this apple and berry crumble recipe from Food in a Minute.

Hope you're having a lovely weekend,
Megan x

my creative space: more busy book pages

Some more busy book pages for your perusal...made before I had Jack in case you are thinking "how has she got time to make these??!!"

The cute Red Riding Hood fabric on the left from Stitchbird fabrics was the inspiration for me to create these pages.  I'd seen some other busy book pages that had a 'weaving' page so first off I thought of making a basket weaving page to go with the Red Riding Hood theme. 

For the second page I appliqued a little Red Riding Hood and made it a page to practice tying bows.

Looking forward to making more pages when I get a chance! If you're interested in making your own busy book and would like to take part in a swap. check out Rochelle's awesome idea here

And for more creative spaces today, click here

Megan x

PS: a big thank you to

Juliet at Craft and nappies

Rochelle at Focussed Lenz

Sarah at Fit, Phat and Fabulous

for nominating me for a blog award lately- much appreciated thank you ladies!