Put It On A Kitchen Tray

The thought that my kitchen renovation plan is underway has had me wandering around kitchenware shops these last few days getting inspiration for the kitchen decor for the new kitchen.

 

The extra bench space I'll have to display things on is what is getting me most excited, I won't know what to put where! I don't want it to look cluttered and think that putting items on a kitchen tray or plate keeps them neat and tidy and in their right zones.

 

My coffee machine can finally move from the fish tank wine cabinet and onto the kitchen bench by the sink. I want to put a tray next to it to display my espresso cups and collection of tea pots and the tea/coffee/sugar canisters. Turning this into a coffee station will be so much more practical and I won't be running from one side of the kitchen to get cups and the other to get the sugar like I am now.

 

 

 

 

I've also got my eye on a modern silver oil can (like this Curtis Stone one except a cheaper version if I can find it!) to sit next to the stove top with my new Peugeot Tahiti Salt and Pepper Mills I won thanks to Real Living Magazine 7th Birthday Competition. A pretty plate will probably work here if it's large enough. It will be so much easier to access these every day items right next to the cooker instead of going into the pantry.

 

 

 

 

Is it just me or does everything look so much prettier on a tray?

 

[Images via Pinterest Coffee 1, 2, 3 and Stove 1, 2, 3]

 

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Recipe: Tex Mex Pie

I christened my new pie dish with this Tex Mex Pie it made a really tasty weekend lunch. I made a beef chilli filling on the stove top, poured it into the pie dish and sprinkled cheese on top and then topped with pastry and baked in the oven until golden brown. This pie would work with your favourite beef chilli, the addition of the melted cheese is a nice treat and just one slice is never enough!

TEX MEX PIE

30 minutes stove top

30 minutes in oven

Serves 4

 

500g lean beef mince

1 brown onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 red capsicums, halved, deseeded, cut into 1cm pieces
2 tsp chilli powder
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1/3 cup tomato paste
1 x 420g can red kidney beans, rinsed, drained
1 x 420g can super sweet corn, drained
1 x 400g can diced tomatoes
Handful tasty cheddar cheese, coarsely grated
2-3 Sheets Frozen Puff Pastry, just thawed
1 egg, whisked
Sesame seeds

 

Heat oil in a heavy based pot over medium-high heat.

Add the onion, garlic and capsicum and cook, stirring, for 4 minutes or until onion is soft.

Add the chilli, oregano, cumin and coriander and cook, stirring 1-3 minutes until spices become aromatic.

Add mince and cook, stirring to break up any lumps until the mince changes colour.

Stir in tomato paste, kidney beans and tomato.

Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to medium-low.

Cook, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes or until the liquid evaporates.

Stir in corn and season with salt and pepper.

Pour mixture into a pie dish.

Sprinkle with cheese.

Top with pastry sheets, cut to fit around edges and press to seal around edge of pie dish.

Brush top of pastry with egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Bake at 200 degrees for 20-30 minutes until pastry is golden brown.

Cheesy under the pastry

 

Pastry ready to go into the oven

 

Crisp and ready to eat!

What's your favourite pie recipe?


[All images my own]
 
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Book Club: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

The January Book Club read was Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

I waited over 8 weeks for this book from the Library and then I got my first ever phone call from the Library telling me it was overdue and I had to return it! Now I understand why it took so long for me to get this book - it is a really long book to read and hard to get through.

It also meant I didn't have time to read it before the January Book Club meet up so I felt like the naughty kid in school not being able to contribute to the discussion and hearing snippets of spoilers. Nevermind, here is my better late than never review!

Jane Eyre is a book based in the olden days in England when women were seen but not heard. This was the story of a young orphan child Jane who grew up in a horrible home, then onto boarding school, she leaves there to became a Governess in a nice home and falls in love. The story doesn't end there (although I wish it did) as a number of strange events bring Jane onto another journey where she becomes the one and only teacher of a small village school, then onto another home that she can finally call her own. It also ends with a twist that I didn't expect but it was a nice way to finish.

 

I found the book really hard to read, the sentences were too long and descriptive. First published in the 1800s it's no wonder it's a bit harder to follow than today's language. The first half of the book just dragged for me and I was waiting for this poor girls life to amount to something. Finally chapter 2 things started to happen and I was just aching for Jane to put on a colourful dress, or fall or in love, or just do something.

As much as I wanted to, I just didn't enjoy this book. I wanted more words and feeling from Jane and she just didn't give it.

I would recommend this book to tweens to see how the world was back in the olden days and how far we have all come. Also to the helpless romantics I'm sure you'll love this one. I give this book 2 stars.

 

Jarrah Jungle's Star Rating:

1 Bad - I'd rather eat brussel sprouts topped with anchovies than read this again
2 Not Good - I'd rather watch re-runs of Neighbours than read this again
3 Ok - I'm sitting on the fence - its not great but not terrible either
4 Good - I'd pass up a pack of tim tams for this read
5 Great - I'd pass up a date with Johnny Depp for this read

 

 

[Image via Good Reads]
 

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Friday's Letters - Dear Future Music Festival

What's that I can smell in the air? Oh yes the sweet scent of a Long Weekend coming up! Yay for Monday's public holiday!

I'm linking up my Friday's Letters over at The Sweet Season head on over here and link up your letters too.

I'm imagining I'm writing this weeks letters from this retro cool office space tapping away with a hot chocolate in hand.

  

Dear Future Music Festival - Sunday I'm heading to my first festival in years I just hope I can keep up with all the festival heads! My friends are going for The Stone Roses but for me it's Bloc Party I can't wait to see them live.

Dear Perks Of Being A Wallflower The Movie - I loved the book and I'm sure I'm going to love Saturday's movie night just as much ... or at least I know I'll love the company with my Tuesday Girls!

Dear Lexi - Week 7 we've had you now and you finally got your teeth into our sprinkler, after it was packed away each and every time it was used, the one time we forgot and you just couldn't resist. I don't know how many more chew toys I can give you to stop you chewing the things that you're not allowed to!

Dear Blog Boss Ecourse - The long awaiting ecourse kicks off this month and I can't wait to get my creativity flowing and learn from the very talented ladies of Decor8.

Dear Long Weekend - Between trips to the hairdressers, shopping for kitchen appliances, a movie night and festival I want to find some me time to sleep in, play with Lexi and get lost in my design books this weekend :D

Head on over here to join in with Friday's Letters

[Image via Pinterest]

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Where I Shop Til I Drop

There are some key places I return to again and again for my hit of affordable homewares around Perth. It's the vases, cushions and art on the walls that start to turn a house into a welcoming home and where you can add your splash of personality and surround yourself with things that you love.

I've been helping friends out lately suggesting shops to go to for certain house and home items so I thought I'd share a list of my favourite places to shop around Perth. This is not a sponsored post these are shops that I love to go to because they offer value for money and pretty shiny items that I can't resist especially when they're on sale!

 

• Target – Sign up for their newsletter they email a different special every day and if you see something you like and can wait for it to be on sale, they rotate the 20-50% off specials weekly. Target have a large variety of wall art and decor items that are good quality and sometimes mistaken for designer pieces. They have a quick turnover of their products so the shelves are changing frequently which means there's always something new and shiny to admire and put into the trolley.  
 
• Kmart – Always low prices although not as fancy looking. They are increasing their small decor range to include a range of lighting, I paid $90 for the Man Cave pendant light from Beacon and Kmart has an almost identical one for only $15. I also just bought a twin set of black/chrome bedside touch lamps from there for $25 after looking for years for that style everywhere else with no luck.
 
• Freedom – This store rocks, it is fun and affordable with designer look pieces. They always have cushions on sale which I can’t stop buying ... I have about 20 at last count! They have stylish kitchenware, vases (like my favourite green one), decor, wall art and a good range of lighting. They often have sales so sign up for their newsletter to get the latest specials, they are giving RACWA members 20% discount this week.
 
• Spotlight – This is my go to place for a huge choice of cushions, table runners and rugs. They also have a variety of kitchenware, homewares and decor items that end up in my hands after browsing the pretty fabrics and crafts in this store.
 
• Ikea – Their stock doesn’t change for the whole year so you can pick what you want from their catalogue and go there on a mission with your list in hand and fill the car! Sign up for their newsletter and they email a discount voucher every month like $20 off if you spend $100. Ikea stock everything from furniture to plants but I find they have a great range of frames (for framing your own art), wall art and decor.

 
• The Reject Shop - I go here for the variety of frames and wall art. They also have affordable homewares, candle holders, that kind of thing.

 
• Thingz Living – This store is an off shoot of Thingz Gifts and has home furniture and a huge range of art, admittedly some look a bit cheap but there are some nice pieces like these copper canvasses I got for my living room.
 

• Beaufort St, Mt Lawley – Start at Empire or Baker and Shuhandle they are both great for design ideas but too expensive for me, then visit the funky decor shops all the way down Beaufort St until you get to the florist corner where you can buy a cheap bunch of flowers to take home! I’ve bought lots of homewares from Allure like this cute owl vase they are quite affordable and on trend, they also have a separate room just for their art work. Behind The Monkey a few doors down sell homewares too but they've closed half their store so not as much stock anymore but still great for one of a kind purchases.
 
• Sussan and Sportsgirl - Although these are fashion stores they have a small but fantastic range of quirky homewares that often go on sale, I think because people just don't go there to shop for these things - I've bought a terrarium and yellow wooden clock that everyone comments on asking where they are from, a great place to browse when you're out clothes shopping!
 

 

So that's my list of favourite places to shop around Perth 

If there are any shops on your hit list I've missed I'd love to know about them!

Linking up with Blogs and PR and Talk To Us Thursdays

 

[Images via Pinterest 1 and 2]

 

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How We Party - Tour De Fridge

I know I'm a little slow on the Tour De Fridge recap and I did promise to share photos of our crazy antics so here they are just a few months late!

A Tour De Fridge is getting together with a group of friends and travelling on anything on wheels (bike, skateboard, etc) and going to the 1st house and drinking the fridge dry (or esky in our case) before moving onto the 2nd house and so on. To add to the excitement we pick a fancy dress theme ... this year it was Super Heros in previous years it's been Aerobics and Christmas.

This Tour De Fridge had 3 houses to tour to and once we knew numbers we worked out how much to charge for drinks, nibbles and dinner then collected the money and hit the shops.

We bought as much beer, wine, champagne and alco-pops as we could and the remaining money went towards nibbles like chips, dips, sausage rolls and party pies then for the BBQ dinner sausages, rolls and salads.

We set them all up at the houses the night before so we were ready to roll come Saturday ....

That watermelon is not exactly healthy ... we soaked it in a bottle of vodka the night before!

This is my costume - I went as Pow Girl a made up comic chick inspired by the red material I found at an op shop years ago that became my cape, paired with some stripy socks, my Forever New yellow shorts and a Supre comic tank. I added some stick on glitter letters POW to my arm and gems to my face.

This is the group in action ... we had lots of awesome super heros:

Spiderman, Wonder Woman, Bat Man, Robin, Green Goblin, Green Machine, Suits of Invincibility, Policia, Poison Ivy, Captain Planet, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

and just generally lots of underwear worn on the outside of pants
like Sugar Tits and Candy Pants!

There were 3 houses and mine was the last where we ended up just before evening for a BBQ dinner, drinking games and ping pong.

I decorated the patio with lots of flowers in tins - a tip I saw on Nigella Lawson's show she's not just good at moaning over her easy recipes!

I was even more thrifty and reused the paper wrapped in the flowers by cutting off strips and sticking to the tins.

You are probably thinking that drinking and riding may be a little dangerous and you would be right ... there was a broken elbow among all this fun and excitement and the year before it was a broken wrist.

So from now on we are going to allow bikes only - the skateboards seem to be the easiest thing to fall off of and the biggest esky is at the last house where everyone can stay after a big day out!

So that's how we party Tour De Fridge style!

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[All images my own]

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Take A Shiny White Boot

My eye is constantly drawn to shiny white things and this adorable little boot was no exception. I found it in Myer labelled as a pen holder and better yet it was on sale for less than $10.

 

I put some pretty carnations in it and it made the perfect little vase.
 

Whenever I buy flowers for the house I always put a vase of flowers in the bathroom, in this case it was the granny flat bathroom because we had a party and needed the extra bathroom outside!

[All images my own]

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