Afternoon tea...not!

Yesterday the girls came home from their first day of school to a batch of freshly made pikelets with my plum jam YUM! Pikelets lathered with jam, a cuppa and the latest Mollie Makes magazine and I was set for an hour of bliss...unfortunately I was reminded quite quickly that the school year and all it brings had started again so with the go slow pace of the holidays an apparent distant memory I gobbled down my pikelets, only managed to drink half of my tea before it went cold and my magazine is still unread but does have a jam stain on the front now :( 
After school activities and homework on the first day of school is a bit rough people...mainly on the parents!

Plum jam

Because the preservatives in a lot of store bought sauces, jams and chutneys are a migraine trigger for me I have been wanting to make my own for a while but have just never made the time.  A few weeks ago Dad gave us some fruit chutney that he made.  It was freaking delicious and inspired me to pull finger and try some preserves too.  With plums around $3kg at the moment I decided to give this plum jam recipe a go.  The only change I made was the type of plums I used.  Now I have some yummy homemade jam to enjoy and plenty to give away to family *love*

Back to school

My babies headed back to school today.  They were excited and nervous and a little rushed after we slept through the alarm....oopsie!
Here they are all dressed and ready to start Grade 9 and Grade 5

Love is in the air

I have added some handmade Valentine cards and some "just for him" fridge magnets into my MadeIt store.  Here are few of the images:

I'm off to do some baking for school lunches with my girls

Enjoy your day
xoxoxox

Wordie Wednesday

Source: naturecanopy.typepad.com via Shannon on Pinterest

Take time

This year I am trying to be more conscious to "take time" to do things I really love, things that are good for my soul, things that bring me joy.....just for me (selfish mole huh lol!!!).  One of those things is cooking/baking.  I love love love cooking, always have since as far back as I can remember thanks to a Mum that is a whizz in the kitchen and has a recipe arsenal that could kick Martha Stewart's caboose! These days when I cook I am limited by the necessity of it, the family likes/dislikes and of course the weekly food budget!  It is more of a chore now I guess, even though I do still enjoy it, it just doesn't float my boat like it used to.  SO once a month-ish I am going to follow a beautiful recipe that makes me WANT to cook, just for the fun of the process, just because I have never tried it before, just to see if I can pull it off. And I am excited about the thought of it!!!  Today I kicked it off with a blueberry and orange teacake recipe that I found at Woolworths.  The original recipe had almond meal (which would trigger me a  migraine in a heartbeat) so I tweaked some of the other ingredients and added a touch more orange flavour to come up with this recipe.  I have never made a teacake before and am really happy with how this one turned out and was surprised at how easy and quick it was. The cake is lovely and light and the orange sugar sprinkle on top makes it!!!

Blueberry and Orange Tea Cake

2 cups self raising flour
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
75g butter, melted
2 oranges
1 punnet blueberries
3 tbs caster sugar, topping

Preheat over to 180oC.  Grease a 22cm cake tin and line the base with baking paper.
Combine the flour and sugar in a large bowl.
Finely grate find from both oranges and set aside. 
Juice both oranges and whisk with the egg, milk and melted butter until combined.
Pour liquid into the flour mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until well combined. 
Pour into cake time and scatter with blueberries.
Combine the rind and extra sugar, rubbing with your fingers tips and sprinkle over the top of the cake.
Bake for approx 45mins or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Leave in tine for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Enjoy!
xoxox

First gear

So after giving myself a temporary break from blogging and facebook for the last few weeks, I thought it was about time to slowly kick it into first gear and start warming things up again.  Lately our days have been full of sleeping in, eating, reading, resting, more eating, catching up with family and friends and really just hanging out together.  I gave myself a break from creating for a {she} state of mind and spent some of my time finishing off some of those projects that I have had laying around
f o r e v e r, like this 7gypsies tray kit that I purchased at least two years ago.

With a week to go before school starts back we are setting our alarm clocks in the mornings to ever so gently ease ourselves back into the school routine.  We will also be busy covering school books (so glad the girls are old enough to do most of this themselves), cooking yummy treats to pop in the freezer for school lunches and washing those school hats that have been sitting in the laundry waiting for me to attack them with napisan and a scrubbing brush since the end of November...seriously!!!

I have been making goals, ordering stock and creating new product ideas for A {She} State Of Mind too so have decided not to do any markets until approx March which will give me plenty of time to get my stock levels up and continue to supply Homespun, MadeIt and be at markets.  I have a couple of Valentine projects to work on this week which will be listed in my MadeIt store *fingers crossed by the end of the week* wish me luck!

Happy Monday
xoxoxoxox

Wishing you all a happy and healthy 2012

1. HAPPY 2012 !!!, 2. Fireworks, 3. Fireworks, 4. New Years Eve 2006, 5. Fireworks, 6. Fireworks at Tytherington, 7. Fireworks, 8. fireworks tree laser, 9. Fireworks, 10. Fireworks, 11. Fireworks, 12. Fireworks #1, 13. New Years Eve Fireworks at the Eiffel Tower14. Not available15. Not available16. Not available