anniversary gifts

A couple of weeks ago hubby and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. 

Usually our gifts to each other are practical in nature. Sometimes we buy each other a gift, sometimes we share in buying one for us. 

I also have a fun time of trying to think of things that fit within those Anniversary Gift Guides. I refer to this one here.

So seeing as the 5th Anniversary gift guide says "Wood", we bought each other a new buffet. This wasn't planned - I was going to get him a sander! {haha, well, you use that for wood, don't you!} but we happened upon this and we both loved it so it came home with us. 

My husband calls our decorating style "Swedonesian" because we have a huge mix of Ikea and Indonesian furniture. 

Having grown up in Indonesia, I became used to that style of furniture. It was how my Mum furnished most of our home and when I first moved here I really missed it. Slowly we have been building a little collection of pieces we love. 

So in trying to follow the Anniversary Gift Guide a little these are the other gifts we've had over the last few years:

1st Anniversary : Wedding photo album {Traditional US gift: Paper}

2nd Anniversary : New cotton sheets for our new king sized bed {Traditional US gift: Cotton}

3rd Anniversary : New wallet for hubby {Traditional US + UK gift: Leather}

4th Anniversary : Flowering fruit tree {Traditional UK gift: Fruit + flowers}

Do you normally do anniversary gifts? Do you follow the 'gift guide'? I just think it's a bit of fun :o}

Lemon Oatmeal Bars

This is another version of the Oatmeal Bars that we are loving right now, especially as we enter spring time! I was sure it would taste good with lemon so I set about to experiment and it seemed the best way to get the lemon to set was to mix it with condensed milk and a little flour. Well, condensed milk is super sweet! So I use quite a bit of lemon to make this.
It's lovely and fresh and has a good zing to it. It tastes like lemon cheesecake, I am sure you will love it!


If you're looking for a chocolate or apple version of these oatmeal bars, look here.

Lemon Oatmeal Bars

Base + crumble:

1 cup quick oats

1 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup plain flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

115g butter, melted

Lemon Filling:

2 Tbs plain flour

1 x tin condensed milk {i have been using the 99% fat free one!}

juice of 2 x lemon

rind of 1 x lemon

To make the base + crumble:

Mix the oats, brown sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Stir in the butter. But aside 3/4 cup for the top crumble.

Using a lined slice tin, place the oat mixture in and press down firmly to form a base. 

Bake in a 160c degree oven for about 8 minutes. Allow to cool slightly before making the filling.

To make the filling:

Pour the condensed milk into a bowl

Add the juice of 2 lemons and the rind of one. Mix well with a whisk.

Add the flour and mix well with a whisk. 

Pour lemon mixture onto slightly cooled oatmeal base. Gently spread the remaining crumble on top. Place in a 160 degree oven for about 25-30 minutes.

Remove from the oven. Serve warm or cold. Also really great for freezing!

{review} :: my new best friend : the Breville Scraper Mixer

Hi friends!

If you have been a reader for a while you'll know I don't normally do what I am about to do here. You will also know that I LOVE baking.

Today I want to tell you about my new best friend, my Breville Scraper Mixer. 

My husband bought me this beauty a little while ago and I am IN LOVE. I have always wanted a mixer and this one does not disappoint. 

It is pretty {and white, love love love the white} and sturdy too. It's not too heavy to get in and out of the cupboard {I have a tiny kitchen and so sadly my friend can't stay out on the bench all the time}. 

It comes with a nice large bowl with a handle. The handle is oh so useful! It also comes with the fabulous scraper beater, a whisk and a dough hook.

I have made my home made marshmallows in this and they come out perfectly. Our favourite banana bread, cupcakes, frosting, pizza dough and play dough all mixed wonderfully without effort. 

You can see here that the beater hugs the bowl perfectly, and as it beats it scrapes the bowl for you. I tried to take a photo of it in action with some banana bread batter in there but it moves so fast I couldn't get a decent picture. 

There's enough room so that you can add ingredients slowly while the mixer is running, and removing the mixing attachments and the bowl are super simple. As is cleaning them.

I really wanted to share this with you, because I am really loving this mixer. It does everything I want, is lovely to look at, is decently priced and works the way they say it will. I am one happy customer.

And the super exciting bit?

I have one to give to one of you! {Thank you Breville!}
THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. THANK YOU!

Yep. One of these pretty babies could be making it's home on your kitchen bench! :o}

How to enter?

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. THANK YOU!

Easy!

Firstly, you must have an Australian Postal Address

And then,
Send ONE photo of your family's favourite baked treat to a.little.delightful.blog (at) gmail.com

I will upload the photo entries onto a little delightful's facebook page in an album named "Breville Scraper Mixer Entries" and number each photo entry in the order in which they are received in my e-mail inbox. {Make sure you're a facebook liker so you can check that your photo entry has been received!}

Entries close September 30, 2011 at midnight Perth time 

One winner will be chosen by Random.org

One lucky baker will receive 1 (One) Breville Scraper Mixer BEM-410 in White. RRP is $329.95

and your kiddo will love to play with the box it came in :o} 

I will contact the winner by e-mail and also announce the winner on here.

I am looking forward to seeing your family's favourite baked goodies!

Good luck!! :o}

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. THANK YOU!

Disclosure:

The Breville Scraper Mixer was bought by us and I was not paid nor compensated in any way for this review. I just love it that much.

The Breville Scraper Mixer for this giveaway is supplied by Breville Australia. 
THANK YOU Breville!

x

fun with play dough

A few weeks ago I let Noah take his old home made playdough out into the garden. We had had it for a couple of weeks {you can store it in the fridge for quite a while!} or so and it was time for it to go, but before that, I thought why not let him make a real mess of it, stick things in it, make imprints with gumnuts and sticks and all sorts of things. Well didn't he have the best time! Chloe got into it too, and it kept them occupied for ages while we were doing our garden makeover. 

At school the kids always have access to playdough, and one week a lovely Mum from class brought in black playdough. The kids absolutely loved it. I had never thought of making it black.

So we made some black playdough. :o} And added glitter for some outer-space playdough!

Noah had a playdate yesterday and the boys added 'comet bits' {gravel} to the outer space playdough. I love tying things in at home with what they are learning at school, and can you tell they are currently learning about space? :o}

This playdough is not as super soft and squishy as the cooked playdough. But it is easy and quick if you need to find something to occupy the kids with. I find it is not usually too hot to play with straight away because you spend a little while kneading it after you've added the hot water.

This recipe makes enough to give 2 kids a nice big clump of dough.

No cook play-dough

2 cups of plain flour

1 cup of cooking salt

1 Tbs cream of tartar

2 Tbs cooking oil

2 cups of boiling water

food colouring

add the food colour and oil to the water

mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl

then add the water - do this just bit by bit and stir to see if you've got a good consistency. Sometimes I need all the water, sometimes I don't. 

Have fun!

our new playroom : beneath the apple tree reading nook

This is my favourite favourite part of the playroom. I love how it has come together and how it provides a nice cosy spot to read in. Fitting 4 of us in here is a bit difficult, but 3 of us is just perfect. The kids just love it and use it on a daily basis. Chloe doesn't like the apple cushions however, so she always throws them out before she makes herself comfortable. 

I have always wanted a reading nook and really wanted to make one for my kiddos. At first we weren't going to use the wardrobe recess for the nook as I had wanted to use it for storage, but it really was going to be the best space for it in this playroom so I decided to forgo the storage.

This reading nook is almost entirely made of Ikea stuff! I didn't really plan it that way, it just sort of happened. You have got to love Ikea!

One day, we'll raise the foam cushion so that there is book storage underneath, but for now I wanted to make sure even the littlest member of our family had access to the nook and so I decided it needed to be on the floor.

I had a piece of foam cut to size and covered it with a nice hardy beige fabric. The foam is from Clark Rubber and the fabric is from Spoglight.

The grass-like rug was a last minute idea, thanks to Ikea. I love how it turned out and how it adds to the 'beneath the apple tree' theme.

I bought 3 Granat cushions to use for the 'back' of the nook. They are nice and plump cushions, and you can't beat their price tag.

I also bought these very thin curtains to hang from the rail above. I wanted it to let a lot of light in, since this was a spot for reading.  We are only using one curtain here, though it comes in a pair.

I cut out some apples from red fabric, as well as leaves in two shades of green, a nice muted green and a more apple green.

I sewed each of them on in various spots of the top half of the curtain.

We hemmed a bit of thick brown fabric and attached a bit of ribbon so we could tie the curtain back with the cloth to make the trunk of the apple tree. The ribbon attaches to a small hook on the wall.

I also made up a few little apple cushions. I am in love with the green polka dotty ones {fabric from Spotlight}. I used felt for the stalk and leaf on the apples and filled with hobbyfill. I am totally proud of all of this sewing since I am really not good at it. The red apple didn't take too long, but for some reason the larger spotty green apple took me 3 goes and almost a full day. Yeah, I am not good at sewing!

I placed an old picnic basket on the floor with a small selection of books. We are still using their library too, it's just not great right next to the nook, so it is next to the toy storage unit. 

our new playroom : the kitchen daddy built

So I have received A LOT of emails about this little kitchen.

This was our very first attempt at DIY stuff. It was all because I wanted a wooden kitchen for Noah {this is pre-Chloe!}, and all the wooden ones I could find were either huge, or pink. I wanted my son to have a kitchen to play with {I don't believe that kitchens are 'girl' toys} but I didn't want to give him a pink one!

Finally I found a picture and instructions for a kitchen made from Ikea components. Well, we are Ikea nuts and it didn't look too hard to do, so we set out to make our little boy a kitchen ... in March 2009!! 

To our delight we already had the main component - a Rast nightstand. {some detailed instructions are in the original link, check them out if you want to build one, too}

So here we attached some Attest knobs and marked out an area to cut from the top to sink an old bowl I had in our kitchen cupboard. We used some mdf to make up the extra bits required, like the shelf, divider, kickboard etc.

We cut some mdf board for the back and also painted the entire thing white.

We then attached some doors and handles as well as a Grundtal towel rail so we could hang pots and pans. Hubby also bought a tap that attached easily and made the sink look more like a real sink. It needed paint and a stove top.

And finally, in August of 2011, 2 years and 5 months later, we have a completed kitchen for our boy {and now that we also have another child, she enjoys it too!}

I painted a small board with chalk board paint and attached it to the side of the kitchen for the kids to draw on.

And I finally attached some little Kaiser craft coasters painted black for the stove top.

It has been a slow process. Why did it take us so long? We got busy building and moving house, and then when we went to Ikea to get the towel rail for the top section we found the Duktig kitchen. Hahaha. Exactly what we had been looking for, for about what we had ended up spending on this. My poor husband was a little disheartened that the one he built wasn't as cool, so I told him we just needed to finish it, and then I bet the kids will love it. 

our nice and easy father's day

This year we had a  nice and easy Father's day.
My darling husband had his Mum visit for Father's day which was a lovely treat for all of us. We don't have any family close by and so it is always lovely to have some visit :o}

We started the day with the obligatory jump on Daddy to wake him up and shower him with love and hugs and kisses and gifts. 

Chloe took great delight in handing Daddy his card. We call her 'mop' as you can see her hair is pretty much a mop!

Noah made the cutest little frame and picture of him and his Dad at school. It was wrapped up in hand made wrapping paper and he carefully hid it in his bedroom so Daddy wouldn't find it before the big day.

We also gave him our Picture of Dad printables and the interview Noah filled out for him. These were a hit, and my hubby loved the answers. 

I bought him a beautiful key ring from The Copper Poppy for Father's day from the kiddos and he loved it.

We then moved on to breakfast, and Noah dutifully took his Daddy's order and we got busy in the kitchen. 

We spent the day just chilling and enjoying some chocolate, a yummy lunch followed by some nap time and then some outside play. Hubby requested a pot roast in the slow cooker for dinner, with vegies, mash and gravy and I am so glad I didn't dissapoint. I've only made a pot roast 3 times now and so each time I get a little nervous that it isn't going to come out right!

Such a lovely day. The kiddos totally love this guy. And he totally loves his kids. 

 I hope all the Dads had a lovely day :o}

garden make-over : the side of our house

Well, we have been living in our 'new' house for just over 2 years and the other weekend we finally finished our garden. I call it the laundry side of our house, and it had been left to look like a rubbish tip. Needless to say it was not pleasant to go out and hang clothes on the washing line - and therefore I used my indoor clothes horse a lot {oh, and the dryer}. 

There's something about their Mum's coming to visit that launch husbands into proactive-ness. Not that I'm complaining, because I am loving the end result and I'm proud of my hubby for executing the carefully thought and drawn garden plan that he scribbled onto paper a few months ago.

So here it is... the rubbish tip. Complete with the compost bin we bought ages and hadn't started using yet, pots of plants that did not get the attention they need, weeds, extra pavers and lots of sand. Eeek, I am cringing and slightly embarrassed, but anyway!

Now this is the side all cleared and plants placed where they need to be planted. We like very low maintenance gardens and although the gravel was not my favourite idea when we first moved in here, we have A LOT of it now, it's just no fuss and easy to maintain. 

Hubby and his little garden gnomes

Looking a billion % better already!

 And the end result, after my husband laid a tonne {literally} of gravel. The jasmine we planted is already blooming and smells beautiful, and it is actually pleasant to go and hang the washing out. 

We keep peeking out the windows on this side of the house, because it's hard to believe that in 2 sundays, this was achieved and now all of a sudden, it's a lovely little space. 

Father's Day Printable : chocolate bar wrappers

I hope you have been enjoying the free Father's Day Printables and that it's helped with some fun ideas for this coming Sunday. 

This is the last of the Father's Day range and it is Exclusive to Lovely Living.

There is a choice of wrappers one to fit most 100g chocolate bars and because I noticed that in my supermarket they have mostly 200g bars, there is a wrapper to fit most of those, too. So here I wrapped a 100g Black and Green chocolate bar and the 100g wrapper fits perfectly as the chocolate is not a really thick bar.
I also just wrapped a 200g Cadbury Hazelnut block and the 200g wrapper fit just perfectly.

I took the original wrapper off the chocolate and then wrapped my wrapper over the foil cover.

On the back is a little spot where you can write "to" and "from".

So head on over to Lovely Living and download your free Father's Day chocolate bar wrappers :o} While you're there have a browse of the fantastic new website!

I hope all the Dads out there have a Sweet Father's Day!

:o}