gift ideas

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Thinking of Christmas?

It’s not too early to start planning for Christmas.

Puzzles/word games- good for the brain and keep kids and adults busy for hours.

Australian Word Puzzles More then 600 Puzzles from Pan Macmillan is the perfect gift or stocking filler.

Online word games have taken the world by storm. You can now hone your skills with these five-letter word puzzles at any time, at any place, and more than once a day!

More than 600 puzzles.
All spellings are from Australian English.
Puzzles start off simply and build up to a challenging level.
Hints are supplied if needed.

Here are a couple of tasters 🙂 The hint for 9 is tease and the hint for 10 is valley

Instructions: Each puzzle consists of three to six rows. The last row is left blank for you to write the solution word, and the others each contain a “guess” word as a clue. All the words are five letters long.

Every letter in a “guess” word appears in a box with a black, grey or white background.

A grey box contains a letter that appears in the solution in a different position. If a letter in a white box doesn’t appear at all elsewhere in the guess word, that letter is not in the solution at all. If, however, a letter in a white box does appear elsewhere in the “guess” word , count the number of times it appears in a grey or black box. That’s how many times that letter appears in the solution.

Once a letter has been eliminated, you can cross it off in the alphabet which is printed beside each puzzle. That way you can keep track of the letters which may be in the solution.

When all the guesses are combined, there is only one possible word that the solution can be.

Good luck and let me know in the comments what you think the solutions are.

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Tangerine Tempter: Fizz Boom Bath – Isabel Bercaw & Caroline Bercaw

Fizz Boom Bath!

Images and text from Fizz Boom Bath by Isabel Bercaw & Caroline Bercaw, Quarto US, RRP $27.99. Photography by Evie Abeler

 

Fizz Boom Bath © 2018 by Quarto Publishing Group USA Inc. Da Bomb is a registered trademark of Da Bomb, LLC. “Sisterpreneurs” is a trademark of Da Bomb, LLC. Photography: Evi Abeler. First published in 2018 by Rock Point, an imprint of The Quarto Group 142 West 36th Street, 4th Floor New York, NY 10018 USA.

 

Tangerine Tempter

 

Tangerine Tempter (Page 21)

 

MAKES 3–4 BOMBS

 

“WHO DOESN’T LOVE THE TANGY FRAGRANCE OF A FRESH, RIPE TANGERINE? THIS VIBRANT FIZZER WILL HAVE YOU CANCELING YOUR EVENING PLANS IN FAVOR OF A SOAK!” p. 21

 

2¼ CUPS (497 G) BAKING SODA

1¼ CUPS (288 G) GRANULAR CITRIC ACID

¼ CUP (24 G) CORNSTARCH

¾ CUP (180 ML) OIL

1 TEASPOON TANGERINE FRAGRANCE

½ TEASPOON ORANGE LIQUID COLOR

3–4 SPHERE-SHAPED MOLDS

 

1 In a large bowl, mix together the baking soda, citric acid, and cornstarch, and divide into two equal parts.

 

2 Separately, combine the oil and fragrance, and divide into two equal parts, coloring half orange and leave the other half uncolored.

 

3 Add the oil mixtures to each batch of dry ingredients and combine.

 

4 Mix each batch separately with your hands until each mixture becomes the consistency of wet sand. Wash and dry your hands between each mixing segment. (If you don’t like to get your hands messy, you can wear rubber gloves for this part.) The more vigorous your mixing style, the better the ingredients will be distributed, so don’t be shy. Five minutes of stirring, compressing, and kneading should do the trick.

 

5 As you press the mixture into the molds, gently swirl the orange and white mixes together with a spoon handle.

 

6 Press the mold halves together and let the bombs dry for 24–48 hours.

 

7 Once they are completely dry, remove them carefully from the molds. If you only have one mold, you can also gently remove the bombs as you make them and lay them out to dry on a flat surface. Try not to touch them until they harden.

 

 

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Post Script: Julie Goodwin’s Essential Cookbook – Julie Goodwin

Julie Goodwin’s Essential Cookbook

Julie Goodwin

Hachette Australia

ISBN: 9780733637117

 

Description:

Australia’s best-loved home cook and original MASTERCHEF, Julie Goodwin is back with the accessible and practical cookbook every family needs.

Looking for the perfect meal for your family?

All you need to make delicious food to feed your hungry loved ones is contained here in one place. Collected here for the first time you can find Julie’s essential go-to recipes: from making a great omelette, to roasting the perfect chicken, preparing simple and satisfying soups and salads and baking classic cakes, muffins and desserts that will become family favourites. Whatever ingredients you have in the house, no matter the season or occasion, you can put together a tasty feast that will please everyone, every time.

 

 

My View:

“Whatever ingredients you have in the house no matter what the season or occasion, you can put together a tasty feast that will please everyone, every time.” (Back cover)

 

This book is a “collection of everything I think is important to know in order to be able to nourish yourself and the people you love; it’s the recipes that bring back childhood memories for myself and my kids; it’s the little bits of kitchen wisdom that have been handed down through generations, or passed on from friends, or discovered by accident or through trial and error. It is the book I want my boys to have for when they have families of their own.”  (Julie Goodwin, Introduction) Indeed this is a book that when you think engagement present, house warming present, birthday present…this is the “go to” book.  With sections on the basics, and much more – why are my family cooking memories not of laksa, dukkah, baked Camembert with pear and candied walnuts, cannellini bean dip, lemon, pea and ricotta cannelloni?  Why not???  A different generation I suppose – who only cooked basics, who cooked in the pervasive shadow of war time rationing, who were conservative in their tastes. Even when I went to high school I could not avoid the stodge that was offered in the home economic classes I attended.  Thank goodness home cooking has evolved into the sumptuous and nourishing choices we have today (yes food can be both tasty and nutritious).

 

Julie Goodwin provides a resource that is easy to use, inspiring and tasty. This book makes the perfect gift to give or to keep for yourself.

 

 

 

 

 

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Post Script: Snowflake Seashell Star Colouring Adventures In Numberland – Alex Bellos with Edmund Harriss

Snowflake Seashell Star

Snowflake Seashell Star: Colouring Adventures in Numberland

Alex Bellos with Edmund Harriss

Allen & Unwin Australia

Canongate Books Ltd

ISBN: 9781782117889

RRP A$19.99

 

Description:

Bestselling author of Alex’s Adventures in Numberland joins the meditative colouring book craze with this mathematical colouring book.

 

Joyful contemplation of mathematical patterns has long been part of the human experience, from the philosophers of Ancient Greece to the artists of the Renaissance, via Islamic design and Hindu mandalas. Now, Alex Bellos, the bestselling author of Alex’s Adventures in Numberland, takes you on a calming and colourful journey into the magical world of mathematics.

 

Snowflake, Seashell, Star is full of intricate and divinely beautiful illustrations, using patterns such as loops, waves and spirals, created by Alex Bellos in collaboration with his friend and mathematical artist, Edmund Harriss. Stretch your artistic talents and embrace mathematics’ aesthetic and conceptual exquisiteness.

 

In 80 glorious images, Alex will teach you how to convey the wonder of mathematics through colour and design. Snowflake, Seashell, Star is an incredible celebration of the overlaps between mathematics and art, learning and play, concentration and calm.

 

 

 

My View:

The introduction to this visually stunning colouring in book says it all “Snowflake Seashell Star is both a field guide for the mathematical adventurer and therapeutic exercise book designed to bring insight and illumination through the mediative experience in colouring in.

 

Not only are the shapes exquisitely pretty, but they unlock the secrets of an intellectual quest that has been under way for three thousand years. Mathematics is the search to understand the patterns of the universe in their purest form.

 

No mathematical knowledge is required or assumed. But even in the selection of your colours to use, you will be engaging and enhancing your mathematical intuition.”

 

This must be my favourite colouring book of the year! Suitable for adults or middle school children upwards, (I think), this would make the perfect gift in any season or for any purpose!

 

 

 

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Post Script: Under The Sea – Detachable Postcards to Colour In – Mesdemoiselles

The perfect gift for adult or child.

Cover Under The Sea

Under the Sea Postcards (Colouring for Mindfulness)

Mesdemoiselles

Hachette Australia

Octopus Publishing Group, Hamlyn

ISBN: 9780600633099

 

Description:

Enjoy colouring in these 20 intricate postcards, or send them to budding artists, anyone who is passionate about colouring in or who simply loves the sea. There’s a whole world to create here. After a few moments of colouring in you’ll forget the stresses of everyday life.

 

 

My View:

I do love this series of hard covered detachable postcard books – the images are beautiful, some are simple, others intricate. The perfect gift for the bored child sitting in the back of the car (the hard cover makes it easy to colour on your lap) or the perfect gift for the child within you.