Yum yum yum.....

I did promise some recipes my dears. And so here is my favorite cookie recipe of all times. I adore white chocolate, and macadamia's are so delicious when baked. Which is why white choc chip and macadamia nut cookies are my all time fave. Here is a great recipe that produces a crunchey yet moist cookie (best eaten within 10 minutes of being of the oven- oozy chocolatey goodness).

White Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut Cookies

1 cup butter, softened1 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs2

1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoons baking soda

10 ounces white chocolate (chips or bars cut in chunks)

1 cup macadamia nuts, chopped into chunks

Directions:
Heat oven to 375 F. In large bowl, beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, and salt with electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs, beat well. Stir together flour, and the baking soda; gradually add to butter mixture,beating until well blended. Stir in white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until set. (Edges are golden brown and center is set.) Cool slightly, remove from cookie sheet to wire rack to cool completely.

Soon to come is a lovely recipe, Lauren found in a cooking magazine, for gingerbread lads and lass'. I'm not such a fan of the ones that involve molasses, so this year i am making molasses free gingerbread.

I'll also post my brothers sickeningly sweet recipe for mars bar pie. He is very proud of his creation (which one bite of will clog your arteries and send you into heart failure), and hopefully someone out there has a big enough sweet tooth to enjoy it.

Tis the season

The past few weeks have brought a large amount of Christmas Spirit into Petunia's Onion Patch. The house is oozing with Chrismukkah goodness. We have our gorgeous minora up, with it's blue snowflake candles and dangly Santa canes. There are angel decorations dotted around the place and a Christmas tree with gold and silver dripping from each branch.

Ignore the crummy photography, as i am using a very old camera as a temporary replacement *mourns camera's death*.

Christmas bunnies!

Introducing the newest members of the bunny family: Twinkle and Fred. They are made from 8ply wool using 4mm needles.









Be prepared for some delicious Christmas-inspired recipes. I am certainly going to be baking this December, hopefully with Lauz and other friends at my side.

Brighten up your outfit

Ribbons are such lovely little treats. They come in all shapes, sizes, colors and materials and can be used for any number of things. I recently ventured into the wonderful world of Spotlight and rediscovered the ribbon isle. I have been inspired by the film Marie Antoinette, and decided to buy some gorgeous ribbon which I will transform into necklaces, bracelets and hair ribbons.

If you want to add a little sparkle to your outfit without spending too mcuh money or looking over the top, take a thin ribbon and attach a broach to it, or perhaps a loner necklace charm. It is elegant, pretty and cheap, so why not give it a go?





A metre of ribbon is generally enough for a choker necklace and a bracelet. Thin ribbon is best for necklaces as it keeps the neck looking long and slender.








Thicker ribbon is good for hair, though thin ribbon works equally as well. Play around with color combos and see what suits you.

Open your eyes and take a look around you

Christmas is fast approaching. Carefully prying it's way into our lives. Shops are bright and glistening with decorations. Families are out and about collecting various gifts for various people. The city is buzzing and humming with Christmas whispers. And yet, i hardly feel like bothering with Christmas this year. I'd rather let it pass by me, have nothing to do with it for once, pretend that it simply does not exist. I guess that won't happen, and hopefully i will gain Christmas spirit over the coming weeks as i do generally enjoy such festivities.

On a slightly brighter note, i will be making a Christmas bunny, not because i am a Christmas nut, but because green and red are lovely colours and i may as well attempt to get into the spirit of things. And soon i will be knitting something other than bunnies, as they are becoming extremely tedious. I am currently making a gorgeous dolly, half knitted, half machine sewn, i will reveal her as soon as she is finished.

This morning, after dragging myself from bed, i slipped outside for a quick squiz at the world and noticed that my gorgeous little Hydrangea is in fully bloom. It was originally part of a biology experiment, and seems to have recovered quite nicely and returned to it's stunningly bright shade of blue.

Continuing on the note of beauty in the world, i captured quite a lovely sunset yesterday. One must of course take advantage of Mel's stunning view, which is exactly what i did.

Sweet little pretties to buy

Introducing Buttons the bunny.

This cute little knitted bunny is called Buttons. I was informed by my friends that calling a bunny that meant i had to sew some buttons onto her (hence the 3 on her back). She is made from 3 different 4 ply wools. She was a hard one to make, with all the wool changing, but i think she is my favorite of the bunnies so far. If you want to buy a bunny let me know, i charge $10 for the small, $15 for the medium, and $20 for the large.

Above are Mel and my latest invention. They are minute paper cranes, made from 3.5cm by 3.5cm origami paper, attached to silver chains. We will probably be selling them for between $3 and $5 depending on the size. The left are made from metallic silver paper and those on the right are made from green paper with an orange and white floral pattern.

Bunnies!!! <3

I have been in a creative frenzy, i get that way when i am need of a distraction. Hence, in three days i have whipped up 8 bunnies. There are 2 bunny families. The first is the black/yellow bunny family and the second is the blue/purple and pink bunny family.

Not the greatest photo. The middle bunny is obviously half black and half yellow. I wanted to test what that would look like. I think it turned out fairly well. The other two bunnies have a much better shape.

I just love the colours here. The shapes of these bunnies are not overly great, but they were testers in many ways. The purple bunny is well made actually. The baby pink bunny has issues. I ran out of that pink wool just as i finished the body and realized i had left none for the ears, hence the black ears.

Delicious punch recipe

Ingredients (serves 12)
6 fruity tea bags of your choice (lychee, mango or rasberry work very well)
24 mint leaves, torn
4 cups boiling water
2 cups canned pineapple juice, chilled

4 cups of canned lychee juice
2 passionfruit, halved
6 tinned lychees
3 cups ice cubes
2 cups ginger beer, chilled

Method
Place tea bags and half the mint in a large, heatproof jug. Add boiling water. Jiggle tea bags for 4 minute. Discard. Refrigerate tea until cold.
Add passionfruit pulp, halved lychees, pineapple juice, lychee juice and the rest of the mint leaves. Stir until passionfruit seeds separate and tea is well combined. Chill until ready to serve.
Half-fill each glass with tea. Add ice cubes and top with ginger beer. Serve iced tea immediately.

Recent purchases

I attended a lovely little school fate with a friend and her younger sisters on the weekend. There was a a garage-type-sale in the hall, so my friend and i explored and found some wonderous little treasures. Here they are below.

Just thought this tiny tattered box was cute. And considering we were allowed to fill a bag for $1 i decided it deserved to be saved.

Despite the fact that this bag can only fit my phone and perhaps some bank notes, i found it's indie style charming ><

I'm a big fan of Beatrix Potter. Hence, i saw these collectables and snatched them up immediately.

I was hoping that i'd have created or found a wonderful array of Halloween inspired items. Sadly i haven't had the time or money for these creations. Oh well. Instead i have been creating little beaded bookmarks. I saw a bunch in borders which are really lovely, but far too expensive ($15-$20), so i decided to make my own.





1. Clear beads with green swirl pattern, apple dangly. 2. Freshwater pearls, swarofski circles and metal floral bead, heart diamante dangly. 3. Pink swarofski squares and beads, red feature bead with floral design, Egyptian scarab dangly. 4. Purple swarofski squares and beads, specled feature bead, silver 21st key dangly. 5. Glass multicolored bead, orange and purple glass beads, gold fan dangly. 6. Blue and orange swirled beads, gold star dangly.

Biancas' Bling

Bianca is a dear friend of mine, and has a lovely collection of crazy jewelry on etsy.com. She is very talented, and love what she does. Here are some of my personal favorites.

Cute cupcake earrings for $12.

Barbie necklace for $12.

This is my personal favorite. She has transformed a gloomy bear plush into a very cool bag. And it's only $20.

Beady goodness :)

I am in an unusually creative mood lately. In truth, if i were able, i would sew, knit, make jewelry and song write all at the same time. But due to lack of 1000 arms, i shall do those things one at a time. Below are todays earring creations.

I love these beads. They are multicolored glass squares with silver and gold filagree on the inside. ($10)

Little gold mushroom charms that i found at my local art store. I fell in love with them (they remind me of the mushrooms in Fantasia). I am going back for the tea pot charms, rose charms and trebble cleff charms. (not for sale, but if you want a pair i'll make some for $8)

Same beads as used in the first set. ($8)

These look a lote more spectacular in person. The beads are clear with red centres and floral decorations on. There are silver attachments above and below the beads. ($8)

These beads are equisite. Metallic green interiors, clear green glass and a pink rose decoration. Above are Amethist and glass. ($15)

Metal blue beads with floral patterns and pink wooden beads above. ($5)

Knitted Bunnies

For those of you who like knitting, or want to start knitting, here is a really easy way to knit a bunny. You can make them any size you want, depending on your needle thickness and amount of stitches per row. Personally i like to use quite thin needles, 4-5mm, and 50 stitches with 8 ply wool. For the body you knit a square, try and make sure it is as exact as possible, as it makes it easier. The ears are triangles, knitting 12 stitches for 2 rows, then 10 for 2, then 6 for 2, then 4 for 2, then 2 for 2, and then 1 for 1. The tail can be either a cotton wool glued on, or some white wool made into a small ball and sewn onto the bunnies bottom.

Below are some of the bunnies i have created, one of which i have photographed as i have gone along. Feel free to ask any questions if you are confused.

The yellow bunny is made from a very soft wool that is quite thick. The pale blue bunny is made from pure cotton wool, 4 ply, very hard to use due to it's thinness, i recommend something thicker. And the dark blue and pale purple bunnies are made using furry, metallic wool. I don't recommend using this wool either as it does not turn out as well as other wool. The shape of the bunnies is often unrecognisable with this wool.

The thing on the end of my knitting needle is a row counter. This is very useful when you are trying to remember whether you are on a knit row or a pearl row. With the bunnies you can either knit them in a knit 1 pearl 1 fashion, or simply do all knit or all pearl.

A large collection of wool is always good, this helps with variety, experimenting and means you can cater to anyones taste.

If you want the actual pattern for this bunny please ask and i will send it to you.

Earrings by the bucket full

Here are some more of the earrings i have made. Most of these incorportate Swarofski, glass, pearl and plastic beads. Hope you like them. If you want any tips on how to make them, or what equipment is good for jewelry making feel free to ask. I have plenty of knowledge in that department :)



Orange, purple, pink and green glass beads on gold headpins. ($10)



Clear, green, purple and pink glass beads on thick gold headpins. ($12)





Blue glass hearts with silver filagree and red Swarofski beads. ($12)




Plastic blue and read beads. ($6)




Freshwater pearls with Swarofski encrusted silver loops, and blue tear drop beads. ($20)



Stiped blue, purple and pink ovular beads with metallic blue beads. ($6)





Metal beads, white and purple, with hand painted floral designs, pink Swarofski beads. ($16)





Glass beads with floral painted decoration and silver filagree attached to red wooden beads. ($18)





Green and red Swarofski beads, sterling silver decorative attachments. ($20)





Purple glass beads and sterling silver attachments. ($6)




Glass purple large beads with silver filagree and silver attachments. ($10)







Green and purple glass beads with sterling silver attachments and silver glitter bows. ($8)




Purple and clear glass beads with silver glitter bows. ($6)




Blue Swarofski squares attached to clear glass beads and blue crystals with silver chain. ($10)



Clear square glass beads with blue Swarofski squares dangling from the bottom. ($8)





Blue Swarofski squares attached to white freshwater pearls with thick gold chain. ($12)




Blue, gree, maroon and clear Swarofski beads attaches together with gold chain and gold headpins. ($20)



Opaque blue hearts with floral pattern, red glass beads. ($8)

Purple and green Swarofski beads, pink and orange glass beads. ($8)