Thrifty Thursday

I got to pop into one op shop last week, but happy to say I managed to find some goodies :)

A weird find, but great price ... lemons (also had grapefruit, oranges and mandarins) - gold coin donation.

Small pyrex bowl & lid $2

Scrapbook album refill pages $1.50 each, mini baby scrapbook kit $2 and pirate banner 50c (for Cathie to use for Mitch's party next month)

Diane found some more scrap stuff for me last month - more stamps and some punches $5 the lot.

Paper bead kit 50c (original price sticker - $4 each)

Chair for my mum's verandah $4

Lemon Brownies

Tanya recently shared a Lemon Brownie recipe on FB and having brought a bag of lemons I knew I wanted to try it.  The original recipe is here.  I used icing instead of a glaze on my brownies and have changed the recipe to Australian terminology (eg All Purpose Flour - Plain Flour).

The "Brownie" Batter

3/4 cup plain flour 
3/4 cup caster sugar 

1/4 teaspoon salt {Sea Salt}

250g unsalted butter, softened

2 large eggs

2 tablespoons lemon zest

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 180C (160C fan forced). Grease/Spray an 8-by-8-inch baking dish with butter/cooking spray and set aside. 
2. Zest and juice two lemons; set aside

3. Beat the flour, sugar, salt, and softened butter until combined. 

4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, lemon zest, and lemon juice until combined. Pour into the flour mixture and beat at medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. 

5. Pour into baking dish and bake for 23-25 minutes, or until just starting to turn golden around the edges and a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownies comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before icing.  Do not overbake, or the bars will be dry. 

Icing

1 3/4 cup icing sugar

3 tbs lemon juice

15g butter

*I used double this mixture because I like thick icing.

1.  Beat butter, icing sugar and lemon juice together and spread over base

Project Life Layout

Another PL layout completed this week :)  These are very easy to select photos and decide layout / design and then add PL cards / papers and embellishments as you go along.

No Bake Lemon Slice

Mum recently tried this new recipe and it was delicious, so I decided to make it for Simply Crafty this month.  It is so quick and easy - I will be making this again!

Base

1 packet Arrowroot biscuits

1 can condensed milk

125g unsalted butter

1 tbs grated lemon rind

1 cup coconut

1. Crush / process biscuits.

2. Melt butter.

3. Add butter, condensed milk, coconut and lemon rind to biscuits and mix well.

4. Press into a greased tray and refridgerate for approx 1 hour.

Icing

1 3/4 cup icing sugar

3 tbs lemon juice

15g butter

*I doubled this mixture because I like thick icing.

1.  Beat butter, icing sugar and lemon juice together and spread over base.

Scrapbook Layouts

I started 2 new layouts at this month's Simply Crafty and have managed to finish them this week :)  

Project Life Layout

The next pages in Clay's album - 1 month.

Project Life Layout

I decided to give Project Life a try this year - especially for Clay's album.  I knew that there would be LOTS of photos and I didn't want to get overwhelmed trying to scrap layouts of each photo / event, so thought that PL would allow me to use multiple photos (even if they are not of the same event and just the everyday photos that we don't usually scrap) on the one layout.  I was surprised and pleased to find how easy the layouts came together.  I'm pretty positive I will be able to keep up to date with Clay's album using this method of scrapping.  Here's my first layout - Clay's birth!

Scrapbook Layouts

I am so happy to find that my scrapping mojo has finally returned :)  I've had a few layouts that I have been working on recently that were just sitting on my scrap table and needed a few finishing touches to get them completed.  I'm pleased that I managed to get them finished and start working on some more layouts plus start on some Project Life layouts for Clay's album.

Card

I brought a cute set of transport theme stamps recently and thought they would be perfect to make a simple card for my nephew's birthday last week.

Clay's Baby Announcement

Even though it's a bit late I really wanted to create a baby announcement to send out with Thank You cards.  This is the first time I have done this, so I did a bit of searching online and found a website that offered free templates.  I used Greeting Island - it was very simple to use and I love the end result :)  I simply downloaded the announcement and then printed at Kmart.

Now to stop procrastinating and make the Thank You cards and get these posted!

School Holidays

Kate had to work during the school holidays, so mum offered to take the boys, then my brother and nieces decided to visit as well - so lots fun spending time with them all.  We had days at parks and the Botanical Gardens, meals at mum's and just time together.  It was the perfect opportunity to take updated photos of all the cousins (now with Clay!).

Clay had his first train ride :)

This photo makes me laugh out loud every time I look at it - my brother is such a practical joker seeing their faces and the expression on Cohan's face...hilarious!

Tim even surprised us by getting in the kitchen and cooking some delicious scallops for dinner one night :)

Clay's Professional Photos

Cathie & Andrew generously gifted us a newborn baby shoot and we were so excited :)  We booked in with the photographer when Clay was 3 weeks and took along a variety of props to use.  We recently got the images (it took over 9 weeks to finally get them - long story) and were so excited to see them! These are some of our favourites.

These 2 photos were our most favourite and we have enlarged and framed them for display already :)

Pocket Letter

There is a new paper craft trend hitting the www and I had to jump on board...Pocket Letters!  The best explanation of this is on Janette Lane's blog.  Make sure you pop over for a look and check out the tutorials and pictures.  I recently signed up for for my first pocket letter swap and chose a colour swap.  My partner put light pink as her colour (with accents of pastels / white / gold).  I had fun going through my papers and embellishment stash and creating the pocket.  Some cards / papers I kept plain and others I had a go at decorating / embellishing them.

Pocket 1 - Die cut "hello" card and letter

Pocket 2 - Decorated card and die cut DIY bows

Pocket 3 - Plain card and washi tape 

Pocket 4 - Decorated card and stickers

Pocket 5 - Decorated card and clips / pegs

Pocket 6 - Plain card and die cuts

Pocket 7 - Plain card and twine

Pocket 8 - Plain card, mason jar sticker and DIY enamel dots

Pocket 9 - Decorated quote card and decorative tape / stickers

All wrapped up and ready to post!  I hope my swap partner like it :)

I will be participating in more swaps :)