Calling all scrapbooking peeps

I have recently volunteered with TRACC Logan who provide care for children through Foster Care in my local area of Logan. 

My family and I will be putting together care packages and providing them to TRACC Logan who will pass them on to children when they first enter foster care.  It will be a bag of items just for them that they can keep with them no matter where they live.  I will be providing more information on what and how these bags will be coming together for those of you that would like to assist.  I know that since I have shared this idea with some of you that there has been a great response with lots of you keen to asssit, so please bear with me while I finalise the details.

In the meantime I am calling out to all of my scrapbooking peeps.  I have also volunteered to help TRACC Logan put together scrapbooks for their foster children.  The foster carers will be meeting in the coming months to put these books together and to keep the costs minimal for TRACC Logan I would really appreciate donations of any scrapbooking products that you no longer need.  It could be a new packet of embellishments or a partly used sticker sheet. 

If you are able to contribute please contact me at ashestateofmind@bigpond.com for my postal address or if you are local and would like to save some postage I am happy to pickup items from you or have them dropped to my home.

Many thanks for your giving spirit.

Hugs

{ shannon }

               xoxox

Card challenge

Helen has posted another great challenge over on her card and a half blog.  This time the challenge was to create a male card using embossing folders and punches.  I only own one embossing folder (until recently) so I just used my circle punches for this challenge.  Here are two cards I made the other night:

Helen now has her monthly sketch challenge up on her blog, check it out here.  Thanks for the inspiration Helen!

Hugs

{ shannon }

               xoxox

FREE SHIPPING for the long weekend

To celebrate the long weekend I am offering free shipping at my A {she} State Of Mind etsy store for all customers.  This offer is available now, right through to midnight Tuesday 14th June. 
Redeem this offer by entering the coupon code QueensBday at checkout.

Enjoy your weekend

{ shannon }

               xoxox

A little sweetness

I am having a nice quite day at home waiting for a delivery today so decided to do a little baking.

First off I made these choc chip cookies.  They are more of a soft shortbread-y cookie than a chewy cookie but are totally moreish!

250g butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tin condensed milk
1tsp vanilla essence
3 cups flour
2tsp baking powder
1 cup choc chips

Cream butter, sugar, milk and vanilla until light and fluffy.  Sift in flour and baking powder and add chocolate chips and mix until combined.  Roll teaspoonful of mixture into balls, place on a baking tray and flatten slightly with a fork.  Bake at 160c for approx 15minutes and golden.
This mixture makes a big batch of approx 50 cookies so you can half the ingredients if you only want a small batch. 

Now with 1/2 a can of condensed milk left I had two choices, pop it in the fridge (which is another way to say "eat a spoonful every time you open the fridge door until it is gone) or use it in another recipe.  I choose another recipe, so here is my Mum's yummy chocolate caramel slice:

125g butter
75g sugar
1 egg
150g flour
1tbsp cocoa
1 tsp baking powder

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the egg and then dry ingredients.  Press mixture into a baking tray lined with baking paper. (my tray is approx 26cm x 17cm).  Bake for 15mins at 150c.

While the base is baking melt all of the following ingredients on a low heat:

75g butter
3/4 cup sugar
2tbsp golden syrup
1/2tin condensed milk
2tbsp flour
1tsp vanilla essence.

Spread over the cooked base and return it to the over for a further 10minutes.  When cool ice with chocolate icing (mine will be iced when my husband gets home from work with some icing sugar for me ;) )

I'm thinking my family will be happy to see the pantry stocked with these treats when they get home this afternoon!

Hugs
{ shannon }

               xoxox

Holiday Road

We had the best weekend away last weekend.  We all took Friday off school/work and hit the coast road to a beautiful farm stay at Eumundi in the Sunshine Coast hinterland. 

We managed to cram so much into the weekend and had the nicest time doing it.  We had fun exploring the hinterland, shopping at the Eumundi markets, having all meals prepared for us *bliss*, feeding the farm animals, collecting eggs, playing tennis, strawberry picking, relaxing and we returned home on Sunday afternoon with a boot load of fresh produce from a farmers market we stumbled across on the way home.  Here are some snapshots:

We all had such an awesome time that we are hoping to go back for a whole week when the girls finish school at the end of the year...fingers crossed!


Hugs

{ shannon }

               xoxox

Ripple love

I have been wanting to try this ripple pattern for ages so when I found out one of my girlfriends was pregnant I knew this was just the project I wanted to make for her bubba.  Anna is one of those beautiful souls who is always full of colour and joy.  I knew she was too colourful to go for the generic pretty baby pastels so I choose to use the Carnival Soft 8ply mainly because of the funky vibrant colours it is available in.  It was lovely to work with and I am really happy with how it all came together.  Lucy makes all of her patterns/tutorials soooo easy to understand...thank you Lucy!

I have already made one of these bags (in similar colours to the ripple blanket) but I think I made a bit of a boo boo because mine is too huge to hold my yarn (which is what I was making it for) but I have found that it is perfect to hold lots of fresh produce and goodies from the farmers markets!
This colourful stripey blanket is next on my wish list, maybe in a rainbow of colours....yum!

Hugs

{ shannon }

               xoxox

Thrifty finds

Recently I have got into the habit of visiting a thrift shop each week.  There are a couple in my local area that I drive past on a daily basis which makes it ever so convenient to just drop in on a whim ;) 

I enjoy the hunt for treasures and of course the bargin but I also have to make sure I tick all of the boxes before I actually purchase an item.  I made myself a list of things I was specifically looking for and also wrote beside each how much I would be willing to pay.  Over the last few months I have been lucky enough to cross a few things off  that list. 

Today I squeezed in a stop at my favourite little shop (it turned out to be a tight squeeze that left me running 10minutes late for the school pickup...oops) and was lucky enough to find these items:

The typewriter is clean and in fantastic condition and also came with its orignal case.  It was a hit with my girls who have spent most of the afternoon clicking away and totally amazed by it.  I can't wait to use it for journalling on my scrapbooking layouts. $35

This beautiful serving bowl caught my eye because of the pattern, colours and shape and the big bonus was the little stamp on the bottom of it that identifies it as a Churchill England piece...bonus!  I love it so much.  $6

My husband was suprised I paid $35 for the typewriter.  A typewriter has been on my wishlist since the very beginning when I started this indulgent little pleasure. I not only wanted a typewriter that was attractive enough to have on display on my bookcase but a big must was that it had to be functional.     I originally looked in the trading post and at online sites like ebay to get an idea of how much I should expect to pay for one and found that I would be looking around the $50 mark, so for me $35 for a typewriter in fantastic condition and working order was a find that made my heart happy!  I likened it to him finding a NFL superbowl game ball that I would see as an old beaten up ball but that he would certainly part with many $$$ to have.  He got it after that ;)

So after today my thrifty wishlist has reduced again "wahoo" but oh I hope I never get to the end of that list!

Hope you are all enjoying your week

Hugs

{ shannon }

               xoxox