To Cook: Pretty Patties

Do your kids love Spongebob Squarepants?

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, I insist you Google Spongebob immediately!

For those who do know the lovable sponge and his underwater friends, you must try these with your little one.

Spongebob is a fry cook who works at the Krusty Krab. He had dreams of creating a Krabby Patty with a twist

And so did the Ankle Biter and I one day when we were filled with boredom and I had nothing for dinner.

I started with:

• 1kg of mince (any kind, I used chicken because that's what we like best)
• Garlic minced
• Mixed herbs
• 1 large onion, grated
• 1 carrot peeled and grated
• And of course, multiple food colourings

1. Wash those grubby hands!!
2. Pull out a few bowls and separate the mince evenly amongst them, mixing through the garlic and herbs (I like to do this with my hands as it's fun for the kids and I find it's the best way to really get the flavour through the meat)
3. Add the grated goodies to each bowl and mix in (I like to include carrot just to add a bit of veg. I've tried capsicum, but that was NOT a hit with the family. You can add anything extra you like, but I'd suggest to make it small)
4. Put in a couple of drops of food colouring, but make sure that you add it gradually. You can easily make them darker, but making them lighter is not so easy!
5. Once you're happy with colour and consistency, heat some Extra Virgin Olive Oil in a pan OR fire up the barbeque
6. Roll your mince into balls and chuck them into your pan/onto the BBQ. I used the end of my potato masher to squish them into little burger patties

(these ones are uncooked but the colour really does stay better than I thought it would once you cook them)

And Voila! You have a gorgeous plate of pretty patties that the kids are bound to enjoy

To Beautify: DFO Shopper's

As I tweeted earlier, the ole ball and chain and I had a stupendous day yesterday!

We started the day by taking Stretch to school. I really enjoyed getting up at 7:20 (NOT)
Once finished up there, we went Wedding Venue shopping. We looked at two places. If you want to hear more about that go to my Wedding blog @Lenton Love

Next stop was a little road trip to Sydney to trek around DFO. What an amazing exercise?! I was seriously exhausted and fell asleep while the Mister drove home.

We visited many stores and made some great finds (spending way too much money in the process) so I thought that I'd share some of my gluttony with you guys.

Ok so I really had to cram all these bits and pieces in to get a photo, whilst hubby-to-be looked at me as though I'd lost my mind. Shall we go left to right? (as much as is humanly possible anyway)

The Pop by Sheridan range of bedding. This black and white stripe is a little variation on a classic with some stripes that look as though they have been painted onto the fabric. It's soooo us. We always have bland quilt covers and really bright sheets so it caught my eye straight away. I am going to load a pic of our bedroom done up with our new bedroom suite soon (including organising our WIR). The quilt came on its own, so we bought two regular sized pillowcases and two European pillowcases with it. The entire set cost us $105.00!

The DC hat is NOT for me by the way. I believe it was $30 but don't quote me.

We went to Form Home and found 2 gigantor mugs! Neither of us drink coffee but I have started to drink green tea again in my Healthy lifestyle regime I'm trying to kick off and the man of the house makes a mean hot milo.
We also got a little plastic shot glass, with measurements along the side which I thought was cute, and Aaron collects shot glasses so why not have a practical one?
A month or two ago we bought a pizza maker, so yesterday we also got a rotary pizza cutter which is pretty stylish.
Everything in there was 50% off. Total price $19

Along the back of the lounge there are some other goodies; jeans jeans jeans.
I got two pairs of Jeanswest jeans for $109. Because I'm really short and a fairly small build, I tried on the Petite Super Skinny jeans and they are amazing! I need to do a little dance to get into them, and in the blue pair there is slight muffin top, but I don't go around showing off my stomach so I don't think that'll be an issue. Black jeans and dark dark blue which I'm in love with.

The boy got 2 pairs of jeans too.. 2 for $70 from Quiksilver. They are so nice. The dark blue ones have a kind of washed effect, but it's actually a dirty wash. Love them. And the lighter ones have slight rips but they are gorgeous too.

My little pom pom beanie I bought from Jeanswest too. Can't remember how much that was.

Aaron bought a 4pk of underclothes too for $9.99 which was amazing.

I decided I'd buy the little ones a new surf brand shirt each for chrissie so I bought them in bigger sizes. The yellow one is for the ankle biter and the navy blue one is for the little tacker. They only have one surf brand shirt each at the moment, because they're generally so expensive, but these were $20 each.

The coral coloured shirt next is from Cotton On. It has some great batwings going on. I am not 100% sold on it but Aaron really liked it. The following shirt I LOVED. It's a mullet.. Which I usually hate, but I loved the green and orange geometric shapes and I do tend to go for looser tops.

The black dress hanging over the other clothes is a sweetheart dress and the straps are way too loose so I need to fix those before I can wear it! $10 from Ripcurl.

The two white Billabong Shirts down the bottom are Aaron's. I think they are simply darling, and they were only $20ea (added bonus).
The two hooded jumpers up, grey and charcoal are also from Billabong and they were only $30ea which is basically thievery.

I bought the two Billabong handbags (and yes, the pink and black bags are exactly the same, but I really loved the style!) for only $30. Not each.. $30 for both. I'm not making this up.

And finally, the shirt on the end is from Cotton On and it is a really dressy shirt. It's a satin and there's a zipper up the front.

So, there's a few things that I left out. We also went to a place that I absolutely love.. Ikea

I stumbled across this blog by msTapioca whilst looking on Pinterest and I knew I wanted the Godmorgon compartment box for my makeup bits and pieces. So that's what I bought. I also bought two of the Rajtan spice jar packs of 4 for $3.49ea.

I also got an adaptor from Target, for the boys Leap Frog LeapPad's.

That's well and truly enough from me now. If you want to know anything else about my purchases please comment below.

I'd love to hear what your favourite Ikea item or series is

To Vacation: June Long Weekend Adventures

My Sister and Myself at the Big Banana (and my little Niece or Nephew there too!)

That's right! This June Long Weekend my family and I took a trip to Coffs Harbour

We had such a great time and I took some great photos so I thought I'd share them

To Create: Art and Sewing Show haul

A couple of months ago I went to the
Art and Sewing Show Sydney Expo 2012 and I got some really cool stuff!
(I've had this blog ready to go for ages and forgot to post it)

There was a lot of the same stuff from last year. In fact there were some exact same stalls with the exact same gear but of course I've come across different techniques and arts and crafts so some stuff I wasn't interested in last year but took a second look this year. But I'm rambling

I got some new big XL plates for my Big Shot. The box cutter my fiancé gave me doesn't fit on the regular plate and it doesn't really cut evenly without them.

I also got two new Distress Inks. Weathered wood and Broken china.

11 pens for $20. They are really cool, one end is a big writer marker and the other side is like a felt tip pen. The felt tip pen didn't come out perfectly but I'm hoping it's because I haven't really used them..
A few little chipboard bits n pieces.. Love the little soccer balls for some scrapbook pages for my boys.

I'm just doing our place up and the loungeroom is beachy/nautical theme so I'm thinking about doing a shadow box with the lighthouse and buoy and anchor bits. My sister has that theme in her place already so I might make one for her too.

I got a cute little Cuttlebug embossing folder that is just a heap of die (which I used in my BigShot because I read elsewhere you can use pretty much any plate in any machine-within reason).

I got a few things for the kids. A little Spongebob and two Lightning McQueen stickers. I also got a pack of fabric paints (I am desperately finding ways for them to stay amused inside without plonking them in front of the TV). I can't wait to see what crazy shirts they create haha. I also got three different packs of window/glass paints. When I was younger I painted a frog on a window at my Dads place and when he moved he took it to the new place and it's still kickin'!