Pasta Necklace

I think it was on the Buttons by Lou Lou blog that I saw this idea recently.

Pasta dyed in food colouring with rubbing alcohol added to help *fix the colour.

Dried on paper towel overnight, which just happens to be the same amount of time it took me to wash the last of the stained food colour off my hands.

They have been made into necklaces, sorted into colour groups and rattled  together to make 'music'.

I think there is plenty of fun left to have with these :)

*The one Blue took an experimental nibble on and drooled over did lose a bit of colour. 

Do NOT trust them with good clothes.

Knitted Cap Sleeve Shirt

Another project off the needles this month.  I suspect Possum has had a growth spurt since I started because this medium size fits perfectly now.

  This is the Cap Sleeve Spring Tee by Shellee Floyd and it is such a quick and easy pattern.  It has been perfect for long drives in the car.

I used Allegro wool found in the Bendigo Mills 'back room'.  It is wonderfully soft and I have loved knitting with it.  I still have a few balls left too so I think a vest might be on the cards :)



I have been busy clearing the needles ready for the Mystery knit-a-long starting in Ravelry by one of my favourite Aussie Designers Georgie Hallam (Tikki).  I signed up to do both the girl and boy mystery knit so will be kept busy.  It should be fun, if a little strange knitting and not knowing what the finished item will look like! Touch wood I can keep up :)

Sew it Together

Are you going? 

I was one of the first to pay my deposit and I can't wait.

Craft time.

Friends.

Shopping.

Fun.

Click on over and put your name down. 

Sheridan is doing a wonderful job to organise fun and sponsors and it will be THE craft event of 2011.

See you there!

Molong

Molong is located on the Mitchell Highway in New South Wales, about 300 kilometres west of Sydney and about 30 kilometres from the city of Orange.

We found a park on the way through town adjacent to the oval where a game of cricket was in progress.  We bought supplies to put together a picnic lunch from the main street not far away.

There are lovely big shade trees at this park, and the side-by-side slippery dip was a winner with the children who would race down to see who got to the bottom first.

There are good bathrooms and a skate park right next door too.

Washing Liquid

I ran out of washing powder the other day and I was reminded that I had seen a recipe for home made laundry liquid on the Down to Earth blog.  I had all the ingredients needed so made a batch.

Method:

1 cup lux flakes, 1/2 cup borax and 1/2 cup of washing soda dissolved in 1.5 litres of water.  Add that to a further 8 litres of water and mix.  Put in containers leaving room to invert as it separates out a lot.

It is doing a good job of cleaning the clothes, but I do use about 2/3 cup rather than the 1/4 cup recommended by Rhonda Jean.  Maybe my average load of clothes is dirtier?  Doesn't matter, it is still easy, and much cheaper than buying washing powder in town.

Craft Fail

Earlier in the month we had Dye Day where Possum dyed her own wool with food colouring.  I had told her I would knit her something using this wool so I thought I had better hop to it.

I choose the Loopy Pixie Beanie from the Amanda Keeys book.  I love that book!  I was really happy with the way Possum's wool was knitting up and she was getting excited to see the little hat come to be.

The 'Craft Fail' part of this story didn't happen right until the end. I think I should have paid more attention to gauge because it would seem that Possum's Pixie hat actually is a much better fit on me...

What do you think, can I pull off a pixie beanie? Or is it just going too far...?

Horses

Last week the children and I went and got the horses in.  That sounds easy, but the horses were turned out and it was a 340km round trip to get them.  I was home alone too, but it all went well and now we get to enjoy having the horses back with us.

Breakfast Crepe

We discovered a new weekend breakfast treat the other day.

Make some crepes using your recipe of choice while 3 diced apples simmer with some brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and some butter.

Tastes wonderful and is a great way to use up some end of week apples from the fruit bowl.

The Edible Garden

I have already shown some photos of the flowers in the garden, but as I am more interested in the edible side of things I thought I should cover that as well.  Half the appeal in moving to this block was that we would have room to grow as much produce as we could for ourselves.  It is more satisfying, healtier and helps the budget too.

These are almonds.  We have about 30 friut and nut trees here and I am really looking forward to working out what is what.  I think a lot of jam will be made.

The spring onions going to seed are beautiful and delicate looking and I love looking out of the house through the grape vine that grows along our front verandah.  More grapes grow along fences and on the side of the workshop.  I hope there are enough for both us and the possums.

We love rhubarb.  It is not something I had tried before meeting the Mr.  This plant originally came from a crown given to us by my in-laws.  We planted it, and have moved it twice since then. 

I have raided it for the rhubarb and lemon cake since taking this photo, but it is the season for growing so it won't be long beofre we get more.

Our potato plants need heaping already.  This year we have 4 varieties in and I am looking forward to harvest time so I can start cooking with them.

We have more veggies in and growing, but these are my favourites this week.

Rhubarb and Lemon Cake

It is for discoveries like this one that I adore Blogland. 

This recipe is one of my favourite culinary finds for this year!

I stumbled across mention of it while visiting Gina, and clicked across to Owlet to see what it was about (as you do!). 

Rhubarb and Lemon Cake

5 rhubarb stalks cut into 2cm bits

1/2 cup brown sugar

125g soft butter

1/2 cup caster sugar

zest 1 lemon

3 eggs

1 tbs lemon juice

1 cup plain flour

1/3 cup SR flour

100ml sour cream

icing sugar to serve

Preheat oven to 180deg.

Butter and line 20cm pan

Toss rhubarb with brown sugar and set aside

Cream butter and sugar

Add lemon zest, then eggs one at a time.

Stir through lemon juice.

Sift flours together and fold in alternating with the sour cream

Fold through Rhubarb.

Bake 40mins and test with a skewer.

Cool 15 minutes and remove.

Dust with icing sugar to serve.

I listed the recipe here again with the volumes I used, which mostly included less sugar.

Birthday Season

Birthday Season starts today.

First his, and not long after, mine.

Happy Birthday, with love.

Garden Flowers

 Yellow Iris and Lavender

Phlox and Everlasting Daisy

   Banksia Rose



There is a lot to be thankful for in our garden at the moment and we are working hard to keep making it better.  We are all benefiting from the extra time outdoors as we play and dig and admire.

Handmade Pizza

We love making pizza for lunch.  Lebanese bread used as the base for simplicity.  Possum loves spreading the tomato paste around.  She also loves placing the other ingredients carefully around the base while eating as much pineapple as she can while she thinks I am not looking :)

I forgot to take a photo of the cooked pizza, and this is the last piece being eaten.  Maybe next time :)

edit: Yes, her fringe is wonky.  I let her go to the barber with Dad last week :(

Clearing Sale

 We went to another local clearing sale last week.  It was wet, cold and windy!

There were Driza-bone coats everywhere as keen bidders looked for a bargain of some kind.

I bought a small sheep crate which did keep the children amused (and out of trouble!) for awhile.

Social and fun, and a good excuse to buy a sausage sandwich, or two :)

Ravelry....

....It's not just for wool craft!

Some of the girls on Ravelry wanted to try a quilting bee and make their first quilt.  I signed on for the swap as a stash busting exercise.

These are for Eryn, who sent out the green sheep fabric which I paired using stash fabrics I had here.  I am going to try very hard not to have to buy any new fabric for this swap, lets see how long that lasts...

This is the fabric I will be sending out, picked because I had enough in my stash to meet the requirements of the swap (and because I like it!).



Lemon Soap

Lemon Soap for my second batch! 

I used the zest from one large lemon from my tree and now suspect I should have used more. 

I also added more oats this batch for extra scrubbing power.  I think it is a little too rough so next time I won't add extra.  I want to make another batch now!

Another 8 square bars to add to the soap stockpile :)

Some Sewing!

Some quilt blocks for the Around the Block quilting bee. 

These are for Gillian and are made using this tutorial.

These were a lot more fun than the hemming and mending I have been doing of late :)

Road Trip

We had another occasion to hit the road the other day and as per usual I had my camera with me:

Cowra's World Peace Bell weighing 477 kilograms and made from melted coins and medals from the countries of the United Nations.  I rang the bell and thought of peace.

Canola near Molong.  I love the yellow of canola at this time of year. 

Modern Art north of Wellington at the turnoff to the Wellington Caves.  I don't often understand modern art and looking at it up close did not help in this instance.

Tambar Springs Cenotaph is said to be the oldest Cenotaph in Australia.