We’ve had a house guest for a week or so, and today we finally met them!

The other weekend, Luna picked me a most precious gift, a chrysalis for a monarch caterpillar we had in the garden…  oh she couldn’t help herself, and so we carefully tied it onto a stick and gave it to our David to take of.

This weekend, Luna came to me exclaiming, “The butterfly has hatched!” how exciting, I brought David down and set them on the table while I figured out how best to get the butterfly safely outside!

She started flexing those stunning wings…

Luna was very keen to have her on her hand to take outside, but it was just a bit too tickly… and I helped out.

She spent some time in our peach tree, before leaving.

This is one of my regulars, the whole family loves it, and it almost cooks itself, there are times when I have the chance to spend time on a meal, but this one can be ready in about 30 minutes if I’m speedy!

I use my big soup pot, and like my basic tomato soup recipe here, I can start it well ahead of time.

The basic recipe calls for:

Arborio rice (you can use short grain rice too, but it doesn’t seem to hold it’s shape so well..)

vege stock

garlic and/or an onion (shallots are really nice too)

spices, I often use cumin, fennel is good, as are black cumin seeds and mustard seeds.

You can use any number of veges that you might have at hand, we had loads of carrots last week so I made a risotto with a couple of grated and finely chopped carrots, you can use mushrooms (just chop finely, toss them in to cook with the garlic and spices) sliverbeet or spinach, tomatoes, fresh or canned, fresh tomatoes are really good if you chop them and gently mix them through just before you serve up..  Walnuts are divine in risotto, I will add some early on with the rice, and sprinkle them on over the top to serve… YUM.  Fresh herbs and a squeeze of lime of if you don’t have lime, lemon is good too.

You might have noticed I get a bit out of hand with the olive oil, I pour a fair amount into my biggest cooking pot, add finely chopped or grated garlic (you can also add or only use onions, but we love garlic) and the spices.  This you can do in the morning and leave till the evening, all the spices and garlic infuse into the oil and it smells lovely…

When you’re ready to go, just lightly cook off the garlic and spices, remove from heat and add the rice, I usually go for a cup, this makes plenty for the four of us (two big people and two little ones) as well as some left over for lunches.  Stir the rice through the oil, garlic and spices, until the rice is coated, then add twice the amount of stock, so if one cup of rice, two cups of vege stock, I like to have a little hot water at hand just incase, also worth noting, some veges will have higher amounts of water, like tomatoes, so just see how it goes.

I use this stock, it’s the only one I can get that has no msg or palm oil!

So, add your stock, lid on, and bring to the boil, I give it a quick stir as it can stick, then drop the temp right down to low, lid on…

In theory you ought to leave it with the lid on while it gently fluffs up, this takes about 10-15 minutes (I usually check in every 5 minutes and give a gentle stir as mine tends to stick).

This is a good time to add any chopped veges or nuts, I like to wash and reserve greens like silverbeet, rocket etc and toss them in at the end.

Sprinkle veges on to and stir through, or leave all rustic on top if you serve up in the pot!

This is so good, I sometimes add a half a cup or so of just cook lentils and stir them in before serving, a little extra protein and colour.

I get a bit carried away with books I Must Have, but this gets somewhat expensive, so in an effort to control my habit, I’ve been requesting and borrowing many more books from our library… great thing is, I have these wishlists all over the place, and slowly I borrow and read the books, so see if they belong here in our home..

With all my sewing fun times, I’ve been so tempted to get more and more books about fashion and sewing…

So, this book, Fashion; A Visual History from Reghency and Romance to Retro and Revolution by N J Stevenson.  And, no surprise, I Love It.

Here are some teasers, see what’s inside… 1920s.

Some of my most favourite outfits and designers. 1930s…

1940s…

And from my favourite era, 1950s..

and more.

and, yes, more still.

Into the 1960s now, I actually have a gingham stash, and well, seeing this, I’m hoping there’s enough for a shift dress!

Love the red dress too!

1960s sci fi, see?  Pretty much my all time best fashion era.

Chic.

Dior and Chanel would probably be my all time favourite designers, though really so different.  Can you have too many red dresses?  I think not.

And finally, the 1980s…

Woha, this was good, a vegan cheezecake, with frozen feijoa sauce… all raw, ALL good.

I’ve made a number of variations on this recipe, a berry cheezecake, and have found that it barely needs sweetener, I use about half a cup of honey in the cashew cheeze, and it’s plenty, with the fruity sauce (this was made with scooped out feijoa’s frozen overnight then defrosted and blended before pouring deliciously over the set cake…) you really don’t need much honey/sugar/nectar.

Using refined rosehip oil and chamomile floral water, this is a light and very white cream, just lovely to use.

So nice, I have a couple of extra pots to share around…  And it’s really exciting that as Bella Luna I will be teaching some make your own skin creams workshops this year!  A bit of a change of focus for Bella Luna, and I’m really excited about sharing just how easy it can be to make your own skin care products.

Watch this space for more details!

This may sound odd, but when it comes to having a few hours of ‘spare time’ (ie the kids are with Rob or are miraculously asleep at the same time) the first thing I want to do is work.  And that means sewing, drawing or making something.  So when I came across these posts about craftweekends over on the Pea Soup blog I started giggling and jumping up and down inside.  I wanted to email them and ask if could please come too?  Except they’re in Australia, and well, the littlees and I have not had a night apart ever, and will probably not have one for a while yet.

But this month I’m having my first Sew a Long!  My biggest problem now is which projects to take?

Here are but some of my options..  I’m thinking the shorter long sleeved version lower left.  Not sure what the fabric is, will have to suss it out, it is very light and floaty, such a beautiful print, it feels cool to touch and seems to crease.

I like the look of the low waisted sash on the lower right, not sure if there’s enough fabric…

Though I like this pattern too, I think maybe the version with the low neckline and sleeveless, left hand version.  The fabric is a crepe, with a slight stretch to it.

I left a dress out while pinning and ironing darts recently, Luna and Blake came across it grabbed a pin cushion and started ‘pinning’…  I was happy as I could quickly get a bit of seams sewn while they were happily working in their thing behind me…

I was impressed to see Luna (Blake was assisting by passing pins – that’s the thing he loves, the pins…) was creating her own darts in the dress, and adding more to the ones I had made.

And if you’re wondering about the dress, it’s my next sheet dress, just to get the feel for the pattern, and because I love the  look and feel or vintage sheets…

Simplicity 7031…

Were was my iron!!  The fabric is lovely, though slightly worn, its a shame, it makes it just a little light on, so am going to decide soon if it needs a bit of lining, which would be good practice.

I’ve paneled it so the center panel is a nice crisp section, near the edge of the sheet, and the side panels are the slightly faded ones, hopefully it will look good!  I’m making the right hand version, with the longer sleeves.  I’ve also cut the belt, so I can have a play around with that too.

Fun times at nana’s place, Luna and Blake put together this large nest on the back deck, I even got to try  it out myself while Blake snoozed.

Mum’s garden is a bit of a wild one, some veges and herbs self-seeding about the place (cat nip of course).  Some older trees, and plenty of flowers ready to be picked, and nana doesn’t mind a bit…  Quite a lot to explore if you’re small and like flowers and insects and stuff.

Slaters.

Blake loves bugs on him, even reaching out his hand for airplanes to land on.

And skinks!  Are there skinks?  Absolutely everywhere, I managed to catch a few so we could have some close looks, this little one was quite content to look at us as much as we were keen on checking him out.

A lovely woman posted me this pattern to try out, and it’s SO pretty and unused, it’s a style I’ve not tried before, Butterick 8977.

Not sure when I’ll attempt it, I will be doing my first trace and sew with this pattern as that will hopefully preserve it or at least save it from being overly handled.

I found this huge roll of lightweight upholstery fabric at my mums place, and was imediately inspired.. though I’m uncertain how it will feel on, the back (should have taken a photo of the reverse damn!) you see the weave of the fabric, and it actually feels soft… so may be quite good !  I also thought as the fabric is fairly thick it might hold the shape and hang well.. so it’s here for me to look at and think about for a time…

Just cut this dress out while up at mum for a couple of days with the kids… marked the dots, all ready to go!  In theory I could whip it up this evening but the little ones have been wakeful.

I’ve also just spent way too long trying to find the best place to put the ironing board (never thought I’d be excited about bring home an ironing board in my life..) and drinking tea from a new tea cup…

This is another experimental dress, I’m using a vintage sheet as I’m unsure about the design, and am a little sacred of cutting up some really lovely fabrics I have in my stash… not just yet.

I’m doing the right hand version, with longer sleeves – and I decided to cut the belt just in case.