May 14, 2012
Meet Moo Cow. Moo Cow is my hot water bottle cover. Moo has been keeping my feet warm for over 15 years now and is still going strong. I adore my hot water bottle in winter. About half and hour before bed, moo heads to where my feet go, and I have 2 wheat bags that go further up, and without fail every night I get into a toasty warm bed.
The only down fall with a hot water bottle is I have had a few hot water scorches over the years, so prefer the kids don’t touch it. Thankfully Kobie made them both a heat bag last year which I use to warm their beds instead (and it means I don’t have to share).
I was most excited when our latest stock arrived and it contained these fabulous Hotties from Annabel Trends.
The safe alternative to a hot water bottle! No chance of leaks or burns from boiling water! Filled with a heatable/chillable silicon beads the Hotties can be used as a hot or cold pack. No fuss, no mess, no stress! Relax and unwind. Washable, removable cover. Simply pop silicon filled insert into microwave for 1 minute, put back into the soft knitted cover and cozy up for long lasting warmth
I cannot wait to try them out on the kids when it gets just that bit colder.
Posted in 
April 29, 2012
I return to paid employment this week – eeek. It has been over 4 years since I left the house, went to a job, and was paid for it, and I am a bit nervous on how I am going to cope. I was really enjoying the freedom that came with having 2 1/2 days per week that the kids were at school, all to myself to get everything done. But what I would consider my dream job came up, I managed to get it, and they are allowing me to work flexible hours, so what more could I ask for?
So I have literally been stuck in the kitchen the last couple of days to fill up my freezer so that on those first few days when I am bound to be tired, all I need to do is pull something out, chuck it in the microwave and dinner is sorted. Plus I have been busy making a few meals for my parents when they return from the big smoke, hopefully this week.
I found these containers in IGA, and they are just great. They are Black & Gold brand and just perfect for a meal for one. I usually use the foil ones as they are perfect for Brad to take away with him as they fit nicely in his cooker.
My list of meals I have made to freeze are:
Chicken & Vegie Soup
Cauliflower Soup
Tomato Macaroni Cheese
Chicken Cacciatore
Mince mix for spag bog
2 batches of muffins (blueberry & banana)
Beef & Red Wine Casserole
Still to finish off this arvo:
Chicken & Spinach lasagne
Muesli Slice
Zucchini Muffins
And then there is the lunches for tomorrow that need to be made (including mine) and uniforms to get ready, and more importantly look at my cupboard and think what am I going to wear, I don’t have work clothes anymore!
April 13, 2012
Last week our sister Marnie was about to head off for a couple of weeks for a trip, so brought along a salad to the family BBQ she called “everything in the bottom of my fridge salad”. It was delicious, so today I decided to try my own version and it went a little something like this:
Everything is finely diced up:
Snow peas
Green Beans
Capsicum
Red Onion
Zucchini
Bean sprouts
Alfalfa sprouts
onion sprouts
corn kernels
Sprout combo (not sure what they are called, those knobbly ones before they sprout)
Tin of chick peas
Tin of kidney beans
Tin of 4 bean mix
Some peas
Spinach leaves
Mushrooms
Because I decided to add so many beans to mine I decided to make a dressing to put over the top. Sometimes the kids can be a bit funny on to much of a raw kidney bean taste, so thought a nice dressing might help.
For my dressing it was a mustard vinaigrette and went a little something like this
about a tablespoon of dijon mustard
about 2 tablespoons of white wine vinegar
teaspoon of sugar.
Bit of a pour of olive oil.
bit of garlic crushed
Give it all a whisk up and pour just enough over it to taste (I didn’t use all of my dressing). Make sure you give it all a really good toss and Bob’s your Uncle.
Next on the list is some chicken meatballs to go with the salad.
April 8, 2012
I don’t normally decorate for Easter. In my house the only time I worry about decorating is at Christmas, however I made an exception yesterday. We were having friends over for a BBQ get together, and I decided I may as well do something with the table, as I had pretty much everything hiding in the shed or house.
The fake grass I use for my market table cloth, and the twigs we went for a walk and got down the river. Earlier during the day I had been at the shops and our local party shop had decorations for 50% off so I managed to pick up a bunch for the grand total of $14.00. And the added bonus is I will use them tomorrow at an Easter Craft Market.
It was a lovely evening, the weather was beautiful and no wind (something that is rare here) and the kids had a great time with glow sticks hiding them and finding them in the garden.
April 1, 2012
I have a fear of cream sauces, they make me gag, even just the smell, so in our house as I am the Chief Cook, it means a white sauce free zone. Everyone in my house loves Macaroni Cheese, except of course me. I have tried those packet Mac N Cheese ones you find in the supermarket, which quite frankly when you add that orange stuff it freaks me out thinking what is in it – so thankfully in steps an old Mum recipe Tomato based macaroni cheese – win win all round, everyone gets mac and cheese and I don’t have to suffer through white sauce.
I love this recipe as it makes heaps, and so as in the case of today, I have enough to freeze for meals for the man who has another week of working away. Here is my mac cheese alternative recipe (for any other white sauce haters out there). I apologise in advance for the old measurements I have been making it so long I know what to do, so don’t need to convert them and never have – sorry 
Ingredients
6 oz Macaroni
3 oz butter
1/ 4 cup plain flour
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon of paprika
1/3 pint of milk
6 oz of cheese grated
1 x tin of tomato soup
couple of rashers of bacon diced
1 onion
1 green capsicum (or red is fine if you have none, I used this today)
Cook macaroni in boiling salted water until tender and set aside in a large bowl. Then fry onion, bacon and capsicum lightly and then I add this to the macaroni and toss through.
Meanwhile melt butter in a saucepan, remove from heat and add in flour and seasonings and mix together well. Return to low heat and cook for approx one minute. Then add milk in gradually stirring the entire time until sauce thickens. Remove from heat and add grated cheese and tomato soup and mix well. Gently return to heat to warm through, do not boil.
Then add the sauce to your bowl of macaroni and mix well. Then pop into an oven proof dish and top with grated cheese and bake in a moderate oven for about 20 minutes.
Voila – my family food compromise, which will be awesome as today I picked up some tasting mini cheesecakes from local business TLC Cheesecakes – yumbo. Now to sort out my dislike of Seafood and it will be one happy home.
March 31, 2012
Of actually being an unorganised person when I have way too many organisational things around my home in a desperate effort to take control of life?
I love the idea around the web and Pinterest of Glass frame “whiteboards”. I have 3 of these in my home for jotting down lists and think they look great.
I also lost the legs to my pretty metal cutout Ikea self unit (cant find the name of it but the one that you can screw to other sizes to give you step shelving in a cupboard) so turned itinto a magnetic board in-between the glass board and the cork pin-up board which is along side a calendar.
There are 3 calendars in my home and I have dozens and dozens of notebooks and post it notes and pads and several ipad and iphone apps for listing and organising.
The trouble with all this is I still don’t seem to be able to organise my self nor remember important dates. Maybe I am far too busy looking organised that I am really very unorganised! Life is just far too busy sometimes. I think what I need to do is take a break…. slow down ……and go make another wipe-able glass board
p.s. Happy Birthday to my newphew …one date I did manage to remember…JUST….
Kobie
March 29, 2012
My little model has me in fits of laughter as she comes up with some very interesting moves when I do a mini photo shoot. It just takes the bribe of a little something sweet afterwards and she is more than happy to oblige. In fact if I now just mention “will you please try this on and I will take your photo” …she responds with a ” yay a choc choc” ….so more than happy with the going wage around here.
Here are a few out takes of some of the photos over the last few months.
This move she understandably calls ”The Rocket”..
It was particularly popular a few weeks later…think it might be her signature move…
And the “cheeeeese” ….big smile with eyes closed whilst saying cheese for a good 30 seconds.
And to make me laugh more, she says “like dis?” before doing every pose. Bit of leg out the side. Funny girl.
And by the end she was throwing in all sorts of sassy moves that it was hard to get her to stand still for even one good pic!
Sabre is missing her old role as Ollie Rose model now that she has outgrown the sizing, but I promised her she can still model jewellery and hair accessories for me along so she was happy with that.
Kobie
March 19, 2012
We have jumped head first into toilet training around here. Miss E has been very interested in the whole process for some time now and physically ready with her nappies staying quite dry but there was a period there where her stubborn personality meant we weren’t anywhere near ready, and really she is quite young so I didnt push anything and just accepted we would need to wait longer. I would keep her potty and toilet seats around to get her used to the idea and offer her “big girl knickers” to wear to get her thinking about it from time to time. No real luck with just the occasional wee if she was in the right mood.
Then about a week ago she didn’t want to wear her nappies and we got out the underwear, lots of play outside made the inevitable messes easier and after a couple of days we had a break through in more wees going in the potty and toilet than in the floor so we were off and running in the toilet training front.
She is now doing really well and it was perfect timing too with the arrival of new stocks of Pat-a-cake wet/dry bags.
I have been using a small bag since Esmae was a baby for our nappies and wipes. I would just take that bag in the pram or my handbag as I have never been a fan of the whole big nappy bag and didnt find we needed to take too much when going out. Now this handy little bag has become perfect for toilet training. It can house a spare pair of dry underwear, shorts, some wipes and a face washer, and if there is an accident I can then hold all the wet items in the waterproof bag until we get home. Loving that!
Sigh, growing up so fast now.
Kobie
January 29, 2012
If you have been following along you will see if I have been hunting out easy things to do with the kids to cope with our run of 40+ days we are experiencing and this is another activity I came across via Pinterest which led me to the blog Share and Remember, and knew we just had to try it out for fun.
This morning I made our iceblocks, trying carefully to only put the smallest amount of food colouring in (a hard task indeed) and then this afternoon it was time to get the water table out and let the kids go for it. They were extremely imperssed, and as suspected their first question was can we eat them.
Definately a fun activity to do on a hot day, and as well as that it also had them talking about colours, which is never a bad thing. The only drawback I can see is we might have coloured hands for the day.
Jemma – ps locals may also have noticed I posted this over on Midwest Kids page, yup that is me
January 28, 2012
When I saw this picture from A Little Delightful on Pinterest I was in love with the pretty pastel Dough and after seeing Jemma’s effort in the post below I did just that today.
We woke to another scorcher with the suns Ray’s at home and I dug out a recipe I had used once before which turns out to be the same as Jemma posted. I remember when I last made it, well over a year ago, it turned out really well. This time …not so well!. It was very sticky and took me adding quite a bit more flour to get the consistency right. It sorta summs me and cooking up though….generally a disaster! So perhaps I should have followed the advice on the Little Delightful Blog and added the water slowly. I just tipped hot water straight in and it was a bit of a mess for a bit there, but lots more extra flour and we got it to feel right eventually.
There are lots of recipes out there in the big wide web and some great suggestions of adding things like cinnamon and vanilla for scent, (or the peppermint oil as Jemma said sounds great) to adding glitter for some sparkle in your day. I guess it just takes a bit of experiment and fun! And that is what it was all about for me and the girls. The bit I couldnt wait for was adding the colour to make the pretty pebbles of dough.
Kobie
Welcome to Ollie Rose! Bringing you unique, funky and quality handmade baby and children's clothing, toys and accessories from around the world.
Welcome to Ollie Rose! Bringing you unique, funky and quality handmade baby and children's clothing, toys and accessories from around the world.
