Bear Bento

28 Thursday Feb 2013

Posted by lovenotesrestylestudio in Our kitchen

Tags

Bento, Bento Boxes, Cook, Flickr, Fruits and Vegetables, Nori, Omurice

Bear Bento Boxes

We’ve been seeing lots of Bento Boxes floating around and were inspired by Meijo’s Joy Easy Bear Bento. We decided to build our own version.

How did we do it you ask? Here’s a slight breakdown…

Bear Bento Breakdown

Salad contained:

Carrot hearts – inspired by this pin via CraftBits & CraftGossip
Star shape apple piece – inspired by this pin via Elandria At Sea. We used a star shaped cookie cutter
Zucchini Tots – inspired by this pin by raylynntexas, via Flickr

Bear consists of:

Tomato rice (Omurice) – inspired by this pin via christinesrecipes.com – this is for the main face of the bear
Spam – sliced and fried then cut in half to make the main part of the ear. We stuck it into the rice with uncooked spaghetti
Scrambled egg – for the inside of the ears and face
Hand-cut Nori – for the eyes, nose and mouth

Tomorrow we’ll give you the recipes for the Zucchini Tots and the Tomato Rice (Omurice). It took about 1.5 hours all together to get it all together and was so much fun to create.

The most important piece to this post is that Amour’s niece and nephew loved their bento box – huge success!

The kids and their Bento Boxes

Have you ever made a bento box? This was probably one of our proudest moments with cooking as it was so satisfying and quite easy to do 🙂

Take care, until next time…keep restyling!

Gyudon Bento 牛丼弁当 (justonecookbook.com)
What’s in YOUR Bento? The Why and How of the Egg Mold… (mysmallpotatoes.com)
What’s In YOUR Bento? Week 3… (mysmallpotatoes.com)
Learn to Make Tasty, Balanced Lunches with the Bento 101 Course (lifehacker.com)

DIY Jewel Costume

27 Wednesday Feb 2013

Posted by lovenotesrestylestudio in In our studio

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

costume, DIY, Do it yourself, dress up, Jewel

Happy Wednesday!

This is the last installment in regards to my sister’s 30th birthday 🙂 I dressed up as a Jellybean and I made her a Strawberry and Mint Sangria.

My sister’s name is Jade and she stated….actually more commanded that everyone dress up as something beginning with “J”. A week before the party Jade started to stress out because she didn’t have a costume for her 1 year old daughter. So it was Aunty Amour to the rescue!

Jasmine’s Jewel Costume

I created a costume for Jasmine so that she could be a Jewel for the night. I found some bits and bobs to be her bling and made her a t shirt and a headband.

It turned out pretty good – and of course Jasmine was as cute as a button!

Jasmine as a Jewel

If you had come to this party what would you have dressed up as?

Take care, until next time…keep restyling!

Strawberry and Mint Sangria

26 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by lovenotesrestylestudio in Our kitchen

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Apple juice, Chardonnay, cooking, Sangria, Strawberry, Wine

Strawberry and Mint Sangria

In a previous post I shared with you all that I dressed up as Jellybean for my sister’s 30th Birthday.

Jade’s 30th Birthday

She asked that I make a cocktail for her – so a hunting I went in Pinterest for the perfect one for her.

I was inspired by this pin of Strawberry and Basil Sangria. When I went to the store to buy all of the things needed there was no Basil to be seen so I replaced it with Mint.

Tools of the trade…

Ingredients:

1 punnet of strawberries
1 large pink lady apple
1/2 bunch of mint leaves
1 bottle of Chardonnay
1/2 cup low GI sugar
1 cup soda water
1 cup pink lady apple juice

What to do:

Thinly slice the strawberries
Dice apple into small bits
Put all of the mint leaves in a bowl and stab away at it with a fork – the pin describes this in a much more refine way – but the gist is stab stab stab 🙂
In a large jug place the fruit, sugar and mint. Let it marinade for 10-15 minutes
Add soda water – gently stir
Add apple juice and chardonnay – mix well
Enjoy!

Sangria being enjoyed by a Japanese schoolgirl, a princess Jasmine and a Jellybean!

Take care, until next time…keep restyling!

One-Glass White Sangria Recipe (mommyofamonster.com)
Simple Sangria Recipe (popinsomniacs.com)
Get the Skinny: Mardi Gras Cocktails (wgno.com)
Oscar Night Snacks (glitzgirlzglamourguide.com)

St Vinnies

25 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by lovenotesrestylestudio in Trash or treasure

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

charity store, op shop, St Vincent De Paul Society, St Vinnies

St Vinnies

Recently we went to St Vincent De Paul Society at 261 Old Northern Rd, Castle Hill NSW 2154.

It’s just a little store but so many goodies. Here are all the things we got for just $16 in total!

Our treasures…

Take care, until next time…keep restyling!

A Kid’s Yoga Book

22 Friday Feb 2013

Posted by lovenotesrestylestudio in In our studio

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Kid's Yoga Book, Love Tmah, Religion and Spirituality, Smiling sun Sees Me, Yoga

Happy Friday!

Smiling Sun Sees Me by Tanya Maria Mah

My little sister Tanya has a blog over at Love Tmah I love the way she writes – i’m left giggling all the time. She writes about health, happiness, yoga, meditation and hang overs.

I love the kid’s yoga book that she created – Smiling Sun Sees Me by Tanya Maria Mah. Please check it out and download your copy today!

Jellybean Outfit

19 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by lovenotesrestylestudio in In our studio

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

costume, DIY, Do it yourself, dress up, Jellybean

Jellybean Accessories

It’s Amour here again. Last Saturday was my little sister’s (Jade) 30th birthday – I can’t believe she’s now 30 years old! In order to celebrate this special occasion she asked for everyone to dress up as something beginning with the letter ‘J’.

After much thought I decided to come dressed up as a Jellybean. How did I do this? Well it was really quite simple 🙂

Make a headband out of Jellybeans
Make a ring out of Jellybeans
Embellish a t-shirt with the word JELLYBEAN

Here are the steps I took to make my headband:

Lay out Jellybeans on waxed paper
Cover in a layer of clear spray paint make sure all sides are covered
Let dry overnight
Repeat steps 2 and 3 for two more days. This is to make sure that they Jellybean doesn’t melt and get sticky later on
Cut a circle from the lid of a plastic container and glue on a piece of felt to cover it
Starting from the middle of the felt covered side, use a hot glue gun to stick on the Jellybeans
Once one layer is complete do a second layer
Using another piece of felt glue the circle to the headband

Repeat the same process for the ring. For the t-shirt I just cut out the letters and painted on the word JELLYBEAN with different coloured fabric paints. Ta da! What do you think of my outfit?

Amour is a Jellybean

Coming soon is the costume I made for my 1-year-old niece – Jasmine.

Take care, until next time…keep restyling!

Chrysanthemum Mug Cake

18 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by lovenotesrestylestudio in Our kitchen

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Chrysanthemum, Cook, Flower, mug cake, recipe, Tea

chrysanthemum mug cake

My sister and I were looking for mug cakes to try – we came across Kirbie’s Cravings and their Microwave Matcha Mochi Cups.

We decided to make our own version but instead of matcha (green tea) we decided to use chrysanthemum tea.

Chrysanthemum tea is a flower-based tea made from chrysanthemum flowers. It has a floral aroma and the version our family commonly drinks also has a sweet honey taste to it. I have pictured the tin we use below. We get it at our local Asian groceries.

chrysanthemum tea

You can look up the many claimed medicinal qualities of this tea – we drink it because we like the taste 🙂

Here’s what you need (for our version):

4 tbsp wholemeal plain flour
4 tbsp Low GI sugar
1 tsp chrysanthemum powdered tea
1/4 tsp baking powder
5 tbsp skim milk
1 egg

Here’s what you do:

Mix it all together in the mug
Cook in microwave for 2 minutes (depends on microwave)
Stick a skewer into it to make sure it comes out clean
Drizzle a little honey on top
Enjoy

It’s quick – its easy – it’s delicious!

Do you have a favourite mug cake that you make? I’d love to hear about it – my next one will be a green tea version – then maybe a red velvet – or peanut butter…hmmm now I’m hungry 🙂

6 Edible Flower Recipe Ideas (theflyingfugu.com)
Recipe: Chocolate-Peanut Butter Mug Cake! (planetmarsz.wordpress.com)
Chocolate Cake In A Coffee Cup (geekalabama.com)

Thank you for the awards…

12 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by lovenotesrestylestudio in In our studio

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

Adored Vintage - the blog, Adorned From Above, Beautiful Blogger Award, Daisy Yellow, FroilanErik Artistry, Hey Lady Spring, I'm Not a Trophy Wife, Inkomplete Design, Jelly Bones, Kate Campbell Designs, Le Reveur, Life on Lakeshore Drive, Love Laughter and a Touch of Insanity, Love Notes Restyle Studio, Meijo's Joy, Naughty Shorts, Pillows A-La-Mode, Poppytalk, Saccharine, Serenity You, Thingiemajingie, Twigg Studios, Twin Dragonfly Designs, Versatile Blogger Award, Winter Owls

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Recently we were blessed with two awards from fellow bloggers in our community. Thank you so much Jennifer at Winter Owls and Jiandra at Thingiemajingie for taking the time to nominate us for these lovely awards!

Versatile Blogger Award

The rules of this award are as follows:

1. Display the award certificate on your website.
2. Announce your win with a post and include a link to whoever presented your award.
3. Present 15 awards to deserving bloggers. Create a post linking to them and drop them a comment to tip them off.
4. Post 7 interesting facts about yourself.

We are both very musical – Amour sings and Renee is a conductor
We love to cook….and eat!
Renee loves black and skulls – Amour loves red and hearts – We both love purple and silver
Renee and Amour met at Hillsong Church during our late teen years. We’ve been friends ever since!
Renee loves the country – Amour loves the city
We are Glee addicts!
We are both girls that would pick dogs over cats any day! 🙂

In no particular order here are our very Versatile Blogger nominees:

Beautiful Blogger Award

The rules of this award are as follows:

Thank the person who nominated you
Post the award image to your page
Tell seven facts about yourself
Nominate 15* other bloggers for the award and let them know about the nomination.

*Some blogs suggest nominating seven other bloggers for the BBA if you find this daunting! Ummm yes!

Seven facts about us – as listed above 🙂

In no particular order the nominees for BBA are:

Please take the time to grab a cuppa, share the love and check out these lovely blogs.

Blueberry Ice Candy

11 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by lovenotesrestylestudio in Our kitchen

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

Australia, Blueberries, Blueberry, Ice Candy, ice cream, icy pole, Philippines, raw sugar, rice milk, Sugar

Blueberry Ice Candy

In the Philippines, ice candy is a popular dessert. Best way to describe it is that it is a homemade creamy icy pole.

Buko Ice Candy from Busog! Sarap!

Normally it is made with milk, sugar and some sort of fruit – mangoes, coconut, avocados – anything! Today’s version I made especially for my niece, Mischa. Mischa has a few allergies so this version was made with this in mind.

What you need?

1 cup blueberries
2 teaspoons raw sugar
1 cup rice milk (this can be replaced with any milk you prefer)

The Process

What you do?

Put a small saucepan onto a medium heat – add the blueberries and the raw sugar
Cook until the sugar has dissolved – the blueberries will start to release it’s water
Keep cooking until the syrup thickens up a little
Set aside to cool
Add in the rice milk
Pour into ice candy plastic bags – or any type of icy pole moulds
Freeze until solid
Enjoy – nom nom nom!

Mischa was my little helper for this project – she particularly loved it when we were cooking down the blueberries because I used the wooden spoon to apply the blueberry syrup as lipstick on her lips – hehehe!

Do you have any special icy pole recipes that you could share with us? It’s super HOT here in Australia – so any excuse to help us cool down would be great!

Take care, until next time…keep restyling!

Pin it and Do it is Back!! February Link Up

11 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by lovenotesrestylestudio in In our studio

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Laugher and a touch of Insanity, Linky Tools, Love, Pinterest

We are a little late in posting this one – but better late than never we always say!

Join us and Trish at Love, Laughter, and a touch of Insanity in a month of PINing goodness. Click here for the details to join. Challenge ends February 28th. Links must be submitted by March 3rd.

We’ve chosen to be Pin Obsessed and try for 8+ pins in the month. We better get a move on then! 🙂

Go on! Join us, it will be so much fun!