Oxford Cushion Cover DIY

It's been a while since I've done any sewing and with Kim coming to visit for the weekend, I thought I would try to tick one of my projects off the list..

On a trip to Ikea... (forever ago...) I found a single curtain and also a big cushion in the bargain section... and decided I would attempt to turn the curtain into a cover for the cushion... so for the bargain price of £6 I made myself a pretty swank cushion cover!!

I was pretty lucky that width of the curtain was the perfect size to cover the cushion with about an inch of overlap which saved me the hassle of hemming the two sides! (Gotta love a shortcut!!) I cut off the original bottom hem of the curtain because it was messily hemmed with hemming tape and was about 3 inches high..  I measured the length (26.5") added 2 inches for a hem top and bottom and cut straight across at 28.5" from the bottom of the fabric.

Instead of actually hemming the raw edges, I just turned the fabric inside out (so right sides facing) and sewed up the sides with a zig zag stich. (Hemming AND sewing up the sides all in one go! FABULOUS!)

I was crossing my fingers that the overlap opening would somehow sort itself out when I turned the cushion cover the right side out, and it seemed to work out fine!! I threw the cushion in to check the size of the opening and it fit in easily and I had loads of room to spare. (I wasn't entirely sure I would have room to make the oxford edge.) Just by sheer luck, the pattern even matched up along the overlap!

I figured out pretty quickly that I would have to sew along the outside of the cushion to make the oxford edge.. I was a bit hesitant as my sewing machine has a tendency to do funny things with stitching (probably my own fault for not adjusting the tension properly), but so far everything had been running pretty smoothly so I measured an inch and a half around the entire edge, marked it out with some pins and got to work. It all worked out pretty well and I even managed to release the foot and turn the cover to sew the right angles! WOOHOO!!

So there you have my most recent sewing project! It was actually super easy once I got going.. if my written instructions aren't clear and people would like me to draw up a proper "tutorial", I can attempt it.. just ask!

Well, I hope you've all had a fantastic weekend!
We've had a great weekend with Kim.. it was a shame she had to leave so early today. :( Hopefully we'll see her again soon!!

Fill in the blanks on Black Friday...

Happy Black Friday!

Today is apparently the craziest shopping day if you live in the States.. so good luck for those of you out to bag a bargain!! So far I've bagged 35% off + free shipping @Pree Brulee and gotten matching bracelets for my mummy, one of my "surrogate mums" & me!!  I bought us all this bracelet, orange for me and pink for the two mum's. 

1.   Waking up at the break of dawn to go shopping is my idea of     craziness!! I love to shop and I love a good bargain.. but "the break of dawn" and me really do NOT get along...  .

2.   If I were to go shopping today I would be on the hunt for   a tablet or netbook.. so I can stop lugging my 15" beast around when I go travelling... tho, I might see if I can survive the next trip with my brand spanking new smartphone and no laptop... eek!!   .

3.  The best thing I ate yesterday was    turnip cakes! We don't "do" Thanksgiving... so we didn't eat anything special...    .

4. Something I've been learning lately is    that I seriously lack motivation, especially when there is no structure to my life.. I think I've always known this.. but it has been overtly apparent lately... *sigh*   .

5.  I cannot start my day without    checking emails & facebook.. (so much easier now that I don't even have to get out of bed to do it!)  .

6.  My nighttime attire consists of    a singlet and pj bottoms...  .

7.  I am looking forward to    Kim arriving for the weekend, the last F1 race on Sunday & hitting up the Christmas markets!! Mulled wine & yummy treats?? Yes please!!  .

                                Happy Weekend!!

                             As always, head along to Lauren's to join the fun!!

Home-made Sweet & Sour Pork

I made this recipe months ago, before I went to Canada even, I had intended on posting the recipe while I was on holiday and I think I even promised it to a few people on facebook.. then I realised I never uploaded the photos, then it took me a while to find them... so here I am.. months after the fact... posting this recipe!

What you'll need:

• 200ml Pineapple Juice
• 1/4c cider vinegar (I would probably dial this back to 1/8c)
• 2T soy
• 2T honey
• 2T sugar
• 1/2t paprika
• 1/2t five spice
• 1/2t chilli

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• green pepper, sliced or diced 
• onion, sliced
• 2c pineapple chunks (approx. I think I used most of a 500ml can)
• 4 pork loin steaks, diced

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• 2T cornflour to thicken

• 1c rice to serve

What to do:


Get your rice washed and started cooking if you are cooking rice from scratch.

Mix first group of ingredients in a bowl, have a wee taste to judge acidity & flavour. (I didn't do this.. I kinda threw in ingredients as I went, but this would have been a much better way to do it!) Feel free to adjust the flavour to suit your taste. Let me know any changes you make too!

Brown onion
Add peppers
Add pork, cook until pork has started to brown.

Add the sauce mix..

Once it's come to a boil, sieve in the cornflour to thicken up the sauce.. make sure you stir it in well so it doesn't get lumpy.  It would probably be easiest to scoop the solid ingredients to one side and tip the liquid to the other side and just add the cornflour to the liquid.. (does that make sense??)

Stir well, add more cornflour if you want your sauce to be thicker, or you can let it reduce down a bit if this won't overcook the pork.

Throw in the pineapple chunks near the end, a few minutes before you're ready to serve, so they don't get too soggy.

Hopefully your rice is done cooking by this stage!! Spoon plenty of pork and sauce over your rice and enjoy!!

I love the fact that this sweet and sour isn't bright orange! I've never really understood why restaurant sweet n sour is always so fluorescent orange... Maybe they use orange juice instead of pineapple juice but even still... Anywhos.. this is my "healthy" home made sweet & sour! You could essentially use it with chicken I guess as well.

I would love to know if you try this and if you make any changes to the sauce...

Happy Eating!!

Samsung Galaxy S2 Phone Case Review

So I got a new phone recently... Not really because I really wanted to.. but as the screen on my old Nokia 6600 has died for a second time and I wasn't keen to repeat the experience of spending £50 to get it fixed, I decided it was time to upgrade and join the smartphone age...

After ruling out iPhones (I have a thing against iThings.. I own one iThing... it is a black, first gen ipod nano) and Blackberries (I don't like the teeny tiny keys)...  I was pretty much left with Samsungs... so far Nokia smartphones haven't garnished the best reviews... (the much heralded N8 was a flash in the pan with loads of complaints about its operating system)... Sony Ericssons, to me, have the most counter intuitive user interface I've ever come across on a mobile phone of ANY kind... I considered getting an HTC.. well, I considered getting my mother to go and buy me an HTC in Taiwan and sending it to me.. but considering she still uses her old Motorola v150/220 (I don't even think her one has a colour screen!) I thought sending her into a store full of smartphones might just be a bit overwhelming... or probably just too confusing!  Couple that with international shipping with insurance and the love of Royal Mail to charge me tax on anything I get sent in from overseas.. I figure it'd cost just the same for me to get the phone here.... and when Lou mentioned the weight difference between her S2 and JP's HTC, I was pretty much sold on the S2...

Let me just say, this phone feels impossibly thin and light! For some reason, mine came without a manual and I've had to google a few things but I've managed to find my way around it without too much hassle... 

But I digress....  I love my phone so much, that I went a bit crazy buying cases for it... I might have bought 4 cases at once... I started the search and couldn't pick just one... and seeing as they were "only" £4 each.. I thought I'd get them, and if I didn't like any of them... I could always send em back... riiiiight??? Each of the cases also came with a 'free' screen protector & 'polishing cloth'...

Anywhos... in anticipation of Sok also getting her S2... I thought I'd do a little post about the cases I got for mine to help her decide on a case for her phone... :)

This is definitely my "novelty" phone case.. it's full silicone and adds quite a bit of bulk to the phone (you can see how much thicker it is side on if you compare it to the top photo without a case), it is also the only case that wraps around the full front of the screen.. it's fun, but I highly doubt I'd use it as a day to day case... (It is also red, taking photos on the couch via lamp light = not the best lighting conditions!)

This is probably my favourite case, it's slim, hardly adds any bulk to the phone and feels quite tough, it is also the only case that doesn't wrap at top and bottom and has physical cut outs for the volume and power switches on each side. It comes in a variety of colours but I like the black with the white of the phone showing through...

This case is half plastic, half silicone, I like that is has textured sides... makes it feel like I'm less likely to drop it... this one also comes in a variety of colours but I like blue... I think the cases would also look darker if they were used with the black phone rather than white...

 

This is the case I have on my phone at the moment, as you can see, it's a hard plastic inner with almost like a rubber paint on top, again, it doesn't add much bulk to the phone and wraps all the way around. The paint isn't of the best quality and I've noticed parts of it are starting to rub/chip off already.. but I love the pattern, and there's plenty of colours and pictures to choose from.

So there you have it... a quick review on potential cases... do you have an S2?? What kinda case do you have for it??  What do you think of my choices??

If you want to read a cute advertorial about the phone (or just read some super cute comic strips), visit Miao & WafuPafu...  I am currently addicted to swype... it makes texting so much faster and easier!! I've yet to figure out how to use the voice command... but I'm slowly getting there!!

[I had to google to try and find my mum's phone.. and if you want to take a wander down cellphone memory lane... click here.. Funny how for the longest time, it was about making phones smaller and smaller... and now it's gone to making them thinner with bigger screens..]

Conversations with Mother #4

I am absolutely convinced that my mother is THE most ridiculous person.... possibly... EVER!

So she called this morning and after a brief discussion about what she actually called for... we got onto talking about my weight... it is a pertinent issue for her.... much more for her than for me... but if we carry on in this fashion... I may just develop a complex about it... Keep in mind that this is a conversation with a woman who weights herself EVERYDAY... EVERY SINGLE DAY.... yea...

mum: So, have you lost or gained weight lately?
me: Probably gained... I lost some while I was going to the gym, but with having visitors and going to Morocco, I've probably put weight on again...
mum: Well, you really need to be careful about your weight...
me: .....it's hard when people come to visit and we're eating and going out a lot...
mum: So, you're eating lunch AND dinner!?!
me: ...uhh.. yes? (I'm not suppose to starve myself!?!?)
mum: Well, if you eat a big lunch, you should have a small dinner..
me: I can't really expect my friends not to eat...
mum: Then you should order things lower in calories... like things without cheese...
me: Ok
mum: And you should give your food away, SHARE it with people... give people parts to "try", then you can eat less...
me: Generally if you give people some of your food to try, they give you some back to try too...
mum: Well, then just eat less of it... 
me: ......
mum: And it's ok to leave it as well and not eat it...

WHAT!?!?!  So in my mother's ideal world, I'd go out to eat, order something and give most of it away, then leave the rest that I didn't manage to pawn off on my friends! You should all come eat out with me... I'd just order and pay for the food and you can all eat it off my plate!!

me: ...........*more silence*.............
mum: You have to think about your knees, supporting all that weight... and it's bad for your health to be overweight...
me: I'm not exactly HUGE mum...
mum: It's just you said a while ago you were close to 70kg...
me: About 60 odd, 70....
mum: Once you break that barrier into 70kg, it's hard to come back...
me: ............................
mum: You should just make sure you eat less, because the more you stretch your stomach, the more you'll eat, and the more your stomach will stretch, then you'll eat even more...
me: ..................................
mum: So when your friends are visiting, just give them your food...
me: ...................

This is about when she decided to give up on the subject... Seriously, the way she talks about it, you'd think I weighed 10 million pounds... I know I'm not exactly small, and I'm definitely not by Asian standards (I swear half the women there are anorexic... or at least look that way...)  and I know I could do with losing a few kilos but it drives me crazy that she seems completely fixated on the issue...

Anywhos! Has anyone else had any success in getting their mother's to not obsess about their weight??!! :D Maybe I should just tell her I found a miracle cure and I suddenly woke up 20kg lighter.. hehe..

I also asked if she could send me my birth certificate and she asked me where she'd go to get one...!?!?! Is this normal?? Aren't mothers/parents supposed to have our birth certificates safely squirreled away somewhere!?!?! I suggested that we must have needed them when we immigrated to NZ?? She said she would look up the file... hmmmmmmmmmm....

I then tried to explain the concept of Groupon... in an effort to try and explain how I could afford to holiday in Morocco while I'm not working... Although she seem to lose interest in it fairly quickly... but proceeded to grill me about whether I went to the Mosque while I was there... I told her that only Muslims were allowed in the Mosque.. tho she was adamant that she went to the mosque when she was there... it was one of the biggest in the world (or maybe Morocco) and that it was blue and white!... When I questioned what city it was in.. she didn't seem to know... If anyone knows anything about this blue and white mosque... I'd love to know what she's talking about!!

And thus concludes another edition of Conversations with Mother...

Hope you're having a fabulous weekend!!