Category: Father’s Day

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Handmade Father’s Day gift: Chocolate Poster

Now this is a Father’s Day gift you could have some fun with – we’d love to see a version using Aussie chocolates…


Why we love it:
  • This is a fun way to give dad his favourite treats for Father’s Day
  • It’s a personalised gift as you can select their favourites and tailor the message to suit
  • This would look great with some classic Aussie treats, like Caramello Koalas and Freddo Frogs, or another other small treats, like little packets of chips, nuts, etc. 
  • In addition to dads, this would make a fun present for anyone – men, women and kids. 

What chocolates would you choose for your dad? 
We’d love your thoughts – please comment below…

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Father’s Day Recipe: Glamarama Vegetable Dumplings (Pot-Stickers)

Dumplings are awesome. Throw some vegetables in them and they’re healthy. Add half a bottle of Summer Ale and they’re the perfect meal to enjoy with dad on Father’s Day. Now what to do with the other half of that bottle of ale… 

DUMPLING WRAPPERS (or use store bought wrappers)

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups plain flour plus ¼ cup extra for dusting
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ⅔ cup water

Directions:

  • Combine 2 cups of flour, salt, and water in a large mixing bowl. Mix with a wooden spoon until it turns into a lump. Then knead it by hand for a 3-5 minutes until the dough gets a little softer.
  • Cover with cling wrap and let the dough sit for 20 to 30 minutes on the kitchen counter.
  • Take the dough out of the plastic bag. It will be a little softer and moist and easier to handle. Knead it for 5 to 7 minutes, until it’s smooth and elastic.  It should be very stretchy.
  • Place the dough on a cutting board dusted with a bit of flour and divide it into 2 equal pieces. Put one half into the plastic bag to keep it from getting dried out as your work on the other half.
  • Cut the piece of dough into 8 equal sized pieces. Roll each piece out with a rolling pin to round circle disks.
  • Repeat with second half of mixture.
Father’s Day treat for dad – Renae Smith’s Glamarama Vegetable Dumplings



DUMPLING FILLING

Ingredients:

  • 1 leek, thinly sliced
  • 2 carrots, grated
  • 1 cup of mushrooms, chopped
  • ½ block of firm tofu, crumbled
  • 1 handful of green beans, chopped
  • 4 tablespoons of soy sauce
  • ¼ teaspoon of cayenne pepper or 1tbs chilli sauce
  • ½ bottle of Glamarama Summer Ale (reserve the rest for drinking)

Directions:

  • In a dash of oil, fry leek, carrot, mushroom, tofu and green beans in a hot pan for 1 minute. 
  • Add cayenne or chilli sauce and stir through.
  • Add soy sauce and stir until the sauce is almost all evaporated.
  • Add beer, a ‘slosh’ at a time until the beer is all evaporated.
  • Taste mixture and adjust seasoning.
  • To make dumplings, place a small spoonful of the filling in the centre of the skin. Dab a little water with your finger and circle around the edge of the skin, and then fold in half and seal the edges.
  • To pan fry the base of the dumplings, coat a frying pan with a little cooking oil and turn to medium heat. Place the dumplings on the frying pan and then turn the heat to high. Pan fry the dumplings until the bottoms turn golden brown and crisp. Add the water and cover the frying pan with its lid immediately. Cook until water has evaporated and turn the heat to low. Cook the dumplings for another 2 minutes or so, dish out and serve hot with a dipping sauce!

(Dumplings can also be steamed)

This recipe was kindly shared with us by Renae Smith (Masterchef 2014), which she created using a Sydney Brewery beer called Glamarama. Learn more about Renae at www.renaesmith.com.au. 

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Top ten Father’s Day gifts for hard-working dads

Top ten Father's Day gifts for Dad's desk
The countdown to Father’s Day has begun!
Here are ten of our favourite desk gadgets and accessories that will hopefully brighten dad’s day at the office. Working 9-5 has never been so much fun…

We’re also offering FREE DELIVERY on all orders from now until Father’s Day (midnight Saturday 5/9/15).  

Use Discount Code DAD in the Discount Code field when you place your order.  

This offer can’t be used in conjunction with other offers, or redeemed for cash. But please feel free to share with family and friends:)
Troika 'Easy Rider' Paper Clip Holder
1. Troika ‘Easy Rider’ Paper Clip Holder $59.95
Troika put the fun back into desk accessories thanks to quirky paper clip holder/paperweights like ‘Easy Rider’. Includes 5 paperclips and a friction motor to keep fidgeting fingers occupied. View the Troika range here…
Mondo Date Calendar
2. Mondo ‘Date’ $39.95
You’ll never have to throw out this desk calendar at the end of the year. This stylish calendar/clock combo has a clear display that’s easy to read. Check out the Mondo range here…
Troika CardSaver Wallet
3. Troika CardSaver Wallet $49.95
Troika have used new Cryptalloy technology to create a card wallet with RFID skimming protection for your credit/debit cards. You can keep your cards in this wallet and rest assured that they won’t be skimmed thanks to this clever technology. Oh, and it looks pretty good too! View the Troika range here…
Mondo Calculate
4. Mondo ‘Calculate’ $39.95
Put the fun back into crunching numbers. Every business man (or woman) would appreciate this Japanese-designed calculator – it’s sleek, stylish, and of course functional. Check out the Mondo range here…
Troika World Map Business Card Case
5. Troika World Map Business Card Case $34.95
This shiny steel business card holder is a wonderful gift option for a frequent traveller, and would also look fantastic engraved with their name or initials. 
Troika Grand Prix Paper Clip Holder
6. Troika ‘Grand Prix 1928’ Paper Clip Holder $54.95
‘Grand Prix 1928’ is a stylish homage to vintage racing cars and includes a strong magnet to hold paperclips and a friction motor so dad can also play with this desk accessory. 
 
Staple Free Stapler
7. Staple-Free Stapler $15.95
Connect up to 4 pages together with this environmentally-friendly eco stapler. It’s easy to use, and you’ll never have to worry about running out of staples again. 
Fisher Bullet Space Pen
8. Fisher Bullet Space Pen $69.95
Fisher take ‘creative writing’ to the next level with the Bullet Space Pen, which can write: upside down, underwater, at any angle, in freezing cold, in burning heat, on most smooth surfaces, on coated papers, on photographs, on wet paper, on X-Rays, and of course…in the gravity free vacuum of outer-space! So now you can write wheneverand wherever inspiration strikes!Check out the Fisher Space Pen range here…
Clip Calculator
9. Calculator with Clip $34.95
This is the perfect calculator for people on the move. The Clip Calculator is designed to ‘clip’ over your notebook so it’s always at your fingertips when you’re in a meeting or travelling. 
Troika Fresh Breeze Paper Clip Holder
10. Troika ‘Fresh Breeze’ Paper Clip Holder $54.95
Sailing enthusiasts will get a kick out of this neat paperclip holder with asilicone sail that doubles as a pen. It also has a friction motor and comes with five paper clips. 
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The best advice my dad gave me: Katherine Vaughn, Milk Tooth

Katherine Vaughn shares her dad’s wise words in our latest installment of The best advice me dad gave me. 

“The best thing my dad taught me was how to be savvy with money. This has helped to get me into a position where I can pursue my entrepreneurial streak and spend more time with my young family.”



Katherine Vaughn is the owner of Milk Tooth, an online store full of beautiful design, decor and toys for babies and children. View the range at www.milktooth.com.au. 

What do you most admire about your dad? 
We’d love your thoughts – please comment below…
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Handmade card of the week: Tie Card

We reckon dad would feel pretty special if he received a lovely handmade card like this for Father’s Day, and the kids will probably have fun making a cute card like this one.

Get crafty with the kids to create this cute card for Father’s Day
Why we love it:
  • The three-dimensional effect of this card is unique and makes it stand out. 
  • The materials required are minimal and inexpensive. In fact, this is a fun way of using up single sheets of card, odd buttons and left-over stickers 
  • You could play with different colours of card, and printed card would also be fun for the tie. 
  • You don’t have to be an origami expert to master this project – the folding technique is pretty simple and we reckon that school-aged kids would be able to make the tie. 
Who would you make this card for? We’d love your thoughts – please comment below…
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Handmade Father’s Day gift: Nuts and Bolts Mix

You can’t go past a classic nut mix when it comes to homemade treats for blokes, especially when it looks this tasty…

Handmade ‘Nuts and Bolts’ Mix

Why we love it:
  • Who doesn’t love a nut or nibble mix (unless of course you’re allergic to nuts!)
  • You can customise your mix to suit your recipient, using high-quality products. 
  • This is a thoughtful, yet inexpensive gift. 
  • You can have fun with how you present your mix – in a tin as above, in a basket, bottle, plastic container, etc. Hand-write your own label, create a label on the computer, or get the kids to draw a label. 
What would you include in your ‘mix’ and who would you give it to? We’d love your thoughts – please comment below…

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Handmade Father’s Day gift: Golf Tee Jar

You’re about to tee for for a round of golf. Clubs? Check. Golf ball? Check. Tee?…Rummaging through your golf bag for a golf tee before you’re about to tee off is frustrating. This handy jar will ensure that dad won’t run out of golf tees for a while…

Golf tees in a jar – a useful, inexpensive gift for Father’s Day

Why we love it:
  • This is a super-useful gift for golfing dads
  • It’s inexpensive – you can easily pick up a pack of golf tees from a sporting shop for very little expense, and the jar is a recycled jam or sauce jar. 
  • You can hand-write your own label, use a Dymo Label-Maker, create one on the computer, or use a swing-tag and tie it around the neck of the bottle with some lovely ribbon or jute twine. 
  • You could choose a selection of different coloured Tees, or write his initials on the top of the Tee so he can easily recognise his Tees. 
  • You can experiment with putting the Tees in other things – little fabric bags, other interesting boxes you can find from craft shops, plastic containers, etc. 

Do you know a man who plays golf who’d love a gift like this?
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The best advice my dad gave me: Barry Maher

There’s just over a month to go until Father’s Day. If there’s one time of the year we can help people with gifts for men, it’s for Father’s Day. This month, we’ve dedicated our blog posts to everything for Father’s Day – gift ideas, cards, quotes, inspirational stories, recipes and more. 

This post is the first in our series, The best advice my dad gave me. We look forward to sharing more of these stories, gift ideas and Father’s Day goodness throughout the month… 

In our first post, speaker and author Barry Maher shares some of his Father’s wisdom: “The best advice I ever got from my father took me awhile to absorb. But, eventually, while standing in a pool of sewage, holding a sewer rooter with a badly frayed chord, I realized the value of my father’s advice that “You’ve got to have a profession, one where you can make a comfortable living comfortably.” And I understood just exactly why he’d worked so hard to put me and my brothers and sisters through college.

Barry Maher, speaker and author – www.barrymaher.com



The lesson seems obvious. But my father understood it in a way that, growing up with far more advantages, I really didn’t. Because he’d watched his mother clean houses to support her family, and to manage to send him to college. Eventually he worked his way through Harvard Law and built a successful law practice. He tried to tell me repeatedly about the importance of having a good career and later, once it finally dawned on me that he had a point, his example taught me as well. Once it finally did sink in, I did everything I could to develop that kind of career, first building my own business, then working my way through the corporate world and eventually writing and speaking. Now I talk for a living, which I guess is the definition of making a comfortable living comfortably. It certainly beats unplugging toilets.” 

Barry Maher is a speaker and author, who is frequently featured in publications like the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the London Times, Business Week and USA Today. For more info visit www.barrymaher.com. 

What was the best advice your father ever gave you? 
We’d love your thoughts – please comment below…