Saturday, February 21, 2009

Gail's BOM part 2!


I've been following Gail Pan's BOM on her blog spot and I'm really enjoying it! It is so much fun I suggested to Gail she makes it a BOD (block of the day) instead of a BOM, but no luck there! LoL

So to get me through a whole month of waiting, I've decided to make a second one! So far I've only sewn the blocks together, no embroidery yet.

I won't be able to get to that until tonight, as we've got a daytrip planned to Ballarat. Yes I know "AGAIN?" you ask? But we have 2 BIG Beatles fans here and both J and D want to go see the John Lennon Photo Exhibition at the Art Gallery! Hopefully I'll get some shopping in as well!

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

What ya working on?



Haven't been working on much lately! It just was too hot for a while to craft! So I just did some doodles, bought some patterns ( gotta prepare for them cold winter nights and days!) and managed to a few things after all in front of the A/C going full blast! I made a doll from a pattern by Chestnut Junction and a Pineapple pin cushion from an old Country Marketplace magazine- what ever happened to that magazine?

Been working on a embroidery have drawn out the pattern, and am ready to start stitching! Not an original Jazy pattern, I saw it somewhere online but can't remember where! And it has been floating in my head for a while now -not much else in there anyway LoL-

Monday, February 16, 2009

Relax!!


I miss my baths! So after months of being a good girl and having 5 minute showers, because of that "lovely" (please note the heavy sarcasm there!) drought, I think I've deserve a bath! And tonight is the night for it! I will stock up on a few magazines to read and below is the recipe for the bubble bath I'm gonna make

( Thank you Prim Creek for the recipe, it in her blog!)


Raspberry Vanilla Bubble Bath********************************

8 oz. unscented liquid soap

2 oz. distilled water

8 drops vanilla fragrance oil

6 drops raspberry fragrance oil

2 drops red food coloring

Mix all and pour into a container.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Doing my Bit!



I've decided to put up a few things on ebay to sell. 100% of the auctions will go to the Red Cross Bushfire Appeal 2009.


At the moment I've only got 1 auction up, but I hope to add more in the next few days!!


Check out my auction




I'm more then happy to mail overseas, so please don't let the fact that I'm in Australia stop you from bidding!

edit: After being shut down by ebay I'm back up with this auction!

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

It can make a Difference!

Cindy at Bugandpop is organizing an auction to help with the Red Cross.
Please check it out and help if you can!
She's set up a new blog for this Handmadehelpsout

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Bush fires

My heart goes out to all the people across Victoria and NSW who are in the areas where the bush fires are raging!

Friday, February 6, 2009

Mum, you need to come get me and take me to the Hospital!


Not the thing you want to hear when you answer the phone!

Ms M was at work, at a local petrol station and works in the kitchen. Some how she managed to get her self burned by some deep frying oil! Lucky it isn't a bad burn, no blistering, just redness. We went to ER and had a nurse put some cream on it and then some dressing. Which of course looks impressive!, but is only there to protect clothes from the cream! According to the nurse it stains a nasty non removable black. M should be fine to go back to work on Sunday morning, and of course she is enjoying the fact that she can't do the dishes, what is not so much fun was having to put on the plastic bag to have a shower!

My Creative Space


While readin Miss Muggins blog I've decided to show my shamefully messy craft room too!

I've already tidied the shelves on the top, and as soon as this infernal heat is gone the desk top will be

cleaned up too! at the moment I'm just pulling things out to get my craft MoJo going again and if it doesn't work it gets thrown on top of the bench, too darn hot to clean up!

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Recipe Tuesday

After our trip back in time on Sunday, I thought I share a recipe from the book I bought at Sovereign Hill, it has recipes from the 1800s.



Dandenong Pork
Get the butcher to put half a pigs head--- with the ear and tongue but minus the brains-- and a long-cut pig's foot in brine for a couple of days. Other ingredients are approximately 1 lb of a cheap and geletatinous cut of beef, such as ox cheek or shin, a large onion, 4 large carrots, a bunch of parsley, 2 bayleaves, 8 to 12 peppercorns, 1 large leek or a couple of sticks of celery, 2 small cloves of garlic, lemon juice

Soak the salted pigs head and foot in cold water for a couple of hours. Put them in a very large saucepan with all the other ingredientsexcept the lemon juice, cover with fresh cold water and simmer them very very gently for a minimum of 4 hours. The slower the cooking the better the result will be, for if they are boiling too fast both beef and pig's head will be ragged and stringyWhen the head and foot are cooked- the meat should come away from the bones at a touch- remove them, with the beef, to a bowl. As soon as they are cool enough to handle, skin the tongue and also the rough parts of the head round the ear and snout where the skin is coarse. Remove all the gristle- what you leave out of a brawn is as impotant as what you put in.
Chop the pig meat and skin which is left on the boned foot, and the beef. ut the tongue into neat slices. Taste to see if extra salt is needed. A brawn should always be fairly highly seasoned or it will be insipid and cloying, so it will probably need extra pepper, freshly milled, possibly salt, and the strained juice of a whole small lemon, a very important ingredient in dishes made of fat meat, but enough used by English cooks.

Now mix the sliced tongue with all the other chopped meat. There will be enough to fill a 3 to 4 pint mould, basin, terrine, or a cake tin. Add about 3 soup laddle- approximatly 3/4 pint- of the hot stock and leave the whole thing to cool. Then cover with a piece of greased paper. a plate which just fits INSIDE the tin or bowl, and a weight. Leave this until the next day. Before turning it out, stand the tin in a bowl of hot water for a few minutes. With a salad, brawn can be served as a main dish for a summer meal, or simply with toast or bread and a mustardy sauce it makes an excellent first course. like a pate

Every time I typed the word tongue I had a shiver going down my back! No way on earth would I touch tongue, let alone cook and eat it!! EEWWWWWW

And I love the remark about it being a nice mains in summer with a salad! Can you imagine cooking for 4 hours in the heat, WITHOUT air conditioning?

recipe from: Australian Settlers' Household Lore, compiled by Mrs. N. Pescott

I tried to find an image of this dish for you ladies, but thank goodness there isn't one!

Another hot one!

Another hot one! Luckily not the horrible mid 40s (mid 110sF) we've been having the last week or so! I am so over Summer!! It was only 37C (98.6F) here today, still not cold enough for me! Bring on Winter I say!!

To help keep cool I locked myself into my craft room and sewed to my hearts content! 1 thing I made was for a swap, so I can't show you that. But I was thinking I needed something to remind me of the cold and I made a little Snowman bag. I've been working on this one for a while, not because it was a hard one, but more because the heat kinda zapped my craft Mojo. But is seems it has returned!! I also got an idea for an embroidered table runner half on paper, still half in my mind! I will need to make a trip to the Quilt shop for more fabric! A girl never can have of that!

Monday, February 2, 2009

Day Trip



We decided to escape the dreaded heat in our hometown and made the 1.5h journey to Ballarat and visited Sovereign Hill. Only 1 of our 3 kids still at home wanted to come so L got to spend quality time with Mum and Dad!

L was also the only one of our 4 kids who hadn't been yet, and boy did he enjoy himself!! He had no luck panning for gold though!


J thought he could do with a new hat (no Sweety, that one!)

To my delight it was soo much cooler in Ballarat! We had a wonderful day exploring the Goldfields in the 1850! I bought a sampler to embroider and a cook book with recipes from the 1800s. May have to try some of those!