Lemon and Poppyseed Cake...Take 2......

Hey there...it's Wednesday...middle of the week...I think that pretty much calls for baking yes???

                                                                             

So, after weeks...and weeks...goodness it felt like yeeears!!..of having a broken oven I am SO happy to report it is up and running again. WOO. HOO. And within minutes of the "oven fixing guy" driving away down the drive I was plotting which recipe to bake whilst already greasing up that cake pan......

                                                                                 

After much thought and deliberation...all of about 5 minutes...I decided to go with an old fave that I could just bake and enjoy without too much fiddling or fussing about. That would be cake. Lemon cake to be exact. I have posted this recipe on here before but thought nobody would mind reading about or looking at pictures of cake again? Surely not!?!! This recipe, even in it's original form, is super easy but since making it a.l.o.t. I have come to the discovery that really...all one has to do is throw all ingredients into a bowl...beat for a few minutes... and throw that sucker in the oven. Done.

                                                                                   

And so...I give you....yet again.....

                                               Lemon and Poppyseed Cake                                              
Ingredients

1 cup self-raising flour - sifted. If you can be bothered.
1/2 cup sugar - I use raw. Use whatever is in your pantry. And what you like.
Rind of 1/2 a lemon
80 grams butter - melted
2 eggs
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon poppyseeds

Method

1. Pre-heat your oven to 160 degrees. Line and grease your cake tin.

2. Place all ingredients into a bowl.

3. Beat for 2 or 3 minutes.

4. Pour mixture into your prepared tin and pop into that pre-heated oven for approx 30 minutes.


                                                                                     

You are set! I always let my cakes cool in their tin for a few minutes before tipping them out onto a cooling rack. I just used plain old vanilla icing to pop on top of this one but feel free to use up that other half of the lemon and add that to your icing. A sprinkling of coconut would work nicely on top of the icing too I'm thinking. And heck...this cake would taste lovely just left as is...plain and tasty.

                                                                                 

So that's it...baking sorted for the day...now off you pop and pre heat that oven!!

Enjoy the rest of you Wednesday....


                                                                      Janelle  xx                          

Monday......

Hey there....and Happy Monday!!

                                                                                     

I hope your week is off to a fab and flying start....here's a little quote my ten year old thought she might write up on the pantry door....I kind of like them!

                                                                                 

 

And this guy always seems to be cheery...must be all the coffee he consumes? Whatever it is I love having his chirpy little self in my kitchen!

                                                                                     

And yes these flowers have seen better days and yes I will be tossing them out shortly but you have to admit... they are a lovely faded pretty colour right now?!!

                                                                                   

                                                                             

And on that note....

It's farewell from me.....

Catch you soon.....


                                               Janelle  xx                                                                              

A knitted cushion........

Hello! Hope you're having a lovely Thursday. Flying through today waving my latest creation at you....as one does.....

                                                                                 

What with the weather slowly changing, days and nights getting chillier, it's only natural that we want to cosy things up...and for me that is always helped along by a good dose of yarn and a pair of needles. I loved working with this chunky wool, which is in fact an acrylic, but is really as soft as soft.....

                                                                                 

I just worked a simple garter stitch on number 7 needles. It took no time at all to knit up...just a big fat square. I happened to have this charcoal coloured chenille fabric laying about which I originally didn't really like that much but when I paired it with the my knitted square they both seemed to look very happy together....

                                                                                   

And that is that. Some yarn, a bit of discarded fabric, a few spare hours and.... voila!!

                                                                                   

Kinda happy!!

Enjoy the rest of your day.....


                                                                           Janelle  xx                                                                                

DIY Tuesday......

Hey there! So how was your Easter break? Any jet setting? Camping? Slumping on the sofa in your pjs scoffing chocolate and feeling kind of queasy??? We had a very quiet time here...a few odd jobs around the house...a day trip to the zoo...as much crafting as I could squeeze in...and of course a holiday period just would not be complete without a little DIY. Of course.
So the victim in question this time was this innocent looking cute little book shelf. I love this book shelf. It originally lived in my grandparent's home and would sit snuggled up next to the fire and my grandpa's chair. It held books, newspapers and crossword puzzles. A lot of memories obviously too. So in it's hey day it sported a varnished timber look which of course perfectly suited my grandparent's farm house but once she came to live in this farm house well...yep...I'm sure you can guess what happened next....

                                                                                     

Aahh huh. White it was. Sorry for the rather slap dash pic here but in my diy excitement this was really the only snap I took of "before". So, these shelves now live in my daughter's room, they are usually filled with crap toys, books, sheep etc....but on this day there were obviously decisions to made. Big decisions. Paint decisions!! And we ended up going with.......

                                                                                   

Grey.

                                                                                 

Ok...obviously not the brightest most fun colour on the colours charts but I must say I am really pleased with how it finished up. It's brought a real feeling of cosiness  to the room, it's not too babyish (she's practically a grown up now...she's all of 6 years old) and I like how it brings out the colour of her toys...although these particular colour co-ordinated pretty toys have since been replaced by the crap her own selection of personal items....

                                                                               

Next question of course is......

                                                                                 

What colour to paint the lamp???

                                                                               

And on that note I shall wrap things up here. I have a few more diy/crafty bits and pieces to share...hopefully over the next few days....

In the meantime stay happy...and continue eating any chocolate that may still be loitering around the house....

.........

                                                                                          Janelle  xx                                                                            

A black and white spruce up......

Good evening! How are we this Easter Thursday? We are just cruising along nicely here...finally settling into school holiday mode...just to return back to reality mode next week...hhmmmm....
Ok so I have some show and tell to share...some black and white show and tell...yep, really taking a risk and breaking new ground here...?!?....

                                                                               

I received these delicious cushion covers this week from the very lovely Megan of Bungalow Living. After reading of my desperate desire to add to my already healthy cushion collection over on instagram  Megan kindly offered to help me out of my "dilemma"....

                                                                                   

                                                                               

And how perfectly do they fit in here?? I mean look...there's even polkadots involved.....mmmmmm.....

                                                                                   

And moving onto other rooms in the house....we as in I and only I are in the process of giving a little spruce up to our son's bedroom...that's pretty much me buying more bedlinen and going craft crazy...kind of....

                                                                                   

We are bravely and slowly creeping into new territory here, moving a little away from all the blues and reds and incorporating a few different colours to mix things up a bit for me him...starting with another Cotton On Kids doona cover and a pillow case I whipped up to match...chevron on one side...skeletons on the other...keeping us both happy here. I also hung up some bunting I'd made and have a few other bits and bobs to hang about the place to....soon...did someone mention pom poms?????

                                                                                   

                                                                                                                                                                    I love changing things up around the place and really...it can't get much quicker and easier than stuffing a doona into a new cover and tossing a few new cushions about to get an effective change with not much time or $$$$ involved....

                                                                                   

And that is that from me tonight....

I hope you enjoy your Easter break.....

And for goodness sakes make the most of all that chocolate out there....


                                                                     Janelle  xx
                                                                                         

Chocolate Chip Cookies....again......

Hey there! Happy Sunday!! Thought I'd pop in here quickly this arvo to share an all time favourite recipe with you. So favourite in fact that I believe I may already have shared it on here before but as I've had a few new requests over on instagram for this (awhitefarm over there...pop on over....!!) I figured hey..why not live dangerously on this fine Sunday and share it a.g.a.i.n!!?

                                                                                   

Yep...we have a Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe...woo hoo I say!

                                                                                 

Seriously, I think I could just about write my own choc chip cookie recipe book...love these recipes SO much!! And any new ones...please feel free to throw my way!?!
Ok...on with the business....

                                                     Chocolate Chip Cookies                                                

Ingredients

115 grams butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar - I use blitzed up raw sugar - you use what you please
1 egg
splosh of vanilla
1 3/4 cups self-raising flour, sifted
1/4 cup milk
Choc-chips or choc-melts...however many you feel is necessary.....

Method  

1. Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees

2. Place the butter and sugar in a bowl and beat until pale and creamy.

3. Add the egg and vanilla and beat again until they are well mixed in.

4. Now sift and stir in your flour, milk and choc bits.

5. Blob mixture (a big teaspoon size?) onto greased baking trays.

6. Throw in the oven for approx 12 minutes. Maybe check after 10.

7. Allow to cook on the trays for a few minutes before eating them transferring them to their cooling rack.

Done!

                                                                                           

Now you just need to pour yourself a big tall glass of milk or a steaming mug of coffee/tea/whatever floats your boat and tuck into these little beauties....

                                                                                           

They have a lovely cakey kind of texture even though they are a biscuit but that's just win/win in my books...cake AND cookie at the same time...Hello!!!

                                                                                   

I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend...we have another week left of school holidays.....rather pleased about that one....

See you soon.....


                                             Janelle  xx                          

Project Pillow.....

Hello there! Well this week has kind of flown by hasn't it?! We've had a mix of school holiday activities, playdates and slobbing about the house. The last one is personally my favourite. So, I've kept my crafty hat on this past week too which was directed into the pillowcase arena with the arrival of some new bedding for the kiddos via Cotton On Kids. There has been quite the frenzy surrounding this release and I appear to have been lucky to get anything at all as a lot has already sold out. I decided to forego banging any pillowcases into my cart as I've been stashing away some cute fabric with this project in mind for awhile now. I've only just started but here's a little peek at one I finished for my daughter.....

                                                                                 

And yes...it IS rather bright.....

                                                                                     

But this child is definitely a rainbow kind of girl so really..the brighter the better in here!

                                                                                 

                                                                                 

She chose this quilt cover herself...her favourite colour is orange...I love the pink and orange together in the pillowcase fabric...and the contrast of the green blanket stitch is really pretty I think.....

                                                                                 

The next step in this room involves a new bed. Well, a new bed that has been dragged out from the back of a very generous friend's shed who has kindly donated it to us all in the name of good taste and style!!?! It's a gorgeous iron bed which we will paint up in a lovely bright colour just to add a little bit MORE colour into this rainbow cave...now, what colour......hhmmmm....

                                                                                   

Ok...that's it from me for this fine Friday...what's the plans for the weekend people?? I think a little more slobbing sounds a fantastic idea don't you?? Actually I wouldn't mind a bit of slobbing about with a good book and a pile of knitting in this bed.... it's looking way too cosy here.....

                                                                                   

Happy weekend folks....

                                                                                 

                                                                                       

...........


                                                                                        Janelle  xx
                                                                                                                                         

A weekly round-up......

Well Hello and a big fat Happy Friday to you!! Have you had a fun and fabulous week?? I wouldn't say mine was anything extraordinary but it was rather good...and as I sit here tappity tap tapping away we are officially in school holiday mode...for 2 whole weeks...woo hoo!! Well, at least it will be Woo Hoo in a few days time...always seems to take us a good 1/2 week at least to find our holiday groove but once we do...there's no stopping us!!
Right...so...I thought I'd share a little of what I've been up to this past week...totally digging my knitting, craft and DIY lately...loving it. I whipped up this funky little cushion cover...so quick, so easy, yet kind of effective I reckon? Plain old stocking stitch on the front and a moss stitch happening on the back....I completely winged the cross (can you tell....ahem...) I didn't want to try and centre it way too lazy and impatient for that so thought I'd just kind of dump it randomly somewhere...it did end up bigger than I thought but I think it still works ok.....

                                                                                 

                                                                                     

Previous project is getting a good rotation around the house...started in the living room and has slowly made it's way up to the bedroom.....am already planning my next one...obviously we need more!!

                                                                                 

                                                                                 

I tottered off to the hardware store earlier in the week and bought myself some sisal rope...thought it could make the perfect pick-me-up for an old p.l.a.i.n. as plain lamp base...of course I ran out of rope with only about a centimetre or two left to go but that's ok...I went and bought more...finished her off...and now have enough leftover rope to go gluegun crazy on a few other items laying about the house. This now just needs a new shade...I'm thinking black...maybe....

                                                                                   

                                                                                                                                                                    And we'll now finish with my very fave purchase of the week....my black and white Tarjay rug...love love love it....as I'm sure the husb will too once his eyes adjust...claims it's making his eyes dizzy?!!?....pfffttt......

                                                                                 

 

And that's pretty much it from me.....looking back over these pics I may need to work on a little bit of colour next week?!!?

                                                                               

Have a great weekend all.....

Enjoy!!


                                                                                   Janelle  xx