Happy Things

Last night Mum rang me to say her and Dad were coming in to go garage saling and did I want to come - YEP! We had to have a little discussion about the Royal Wedding, we both agreed that her dress was really nice.

I watched the whole thing, from the arrival of the guests to the balconey kiss. How tragic am I? And I am not even a royal lover! The ceremony dragged on for a bit and I didnt love the headress of Princess Eugenie or Beatrice. On the bright side they were a great foil for everyone else! Ha!

Now on to all the good stuff. The first sale was the best by far. I got two dessert bowls, one cream and one blue, now I got these as I am going to slowly change over our crockery PLUS we have dessert in cereal bowls so we are always having way too much. I also got a heart shaped cake tin, they had quite a few others there but I restrained myself.

Amelia got a domino set for free! We have already had a half a dozen games or so.

I love this! I know it is meant for onion keeping but we are using it for our garlic cloves. It is sooo cute and is already doing its job on our kitchen bench.

I also got 3 lots of materials. The pink paisley is a flannel which I will make Amelia a winter nightie from, the red and white will be made into a winter dress as it is quite a thick cotton, I guess a drill cotton if you know what I mean, and the other material will be a dress for next summer. Now altogether the above stuff cost me $5!!!! Now that is goooood.

Other happy stuff is all my jars! I sorted them all and they are now just ready to go. Mum and Dad's next door neighbour sent in a back of chokos for me so guess what is on the to do list?

Here is my newly cleaned pantry. It is so beautiful and tidy! I am happy to say I only had one thing in there that was out of date and unuseable. I did find a bit of brandy, so if Dave can keep his paws off it I think I will make some Brandied Carrot jam.

Aunty Wilma sent me down a box of wool - which is fantastic as the nights are getting ccooler so we are primed for knitting season! Not that I dont knit ear round just that knitting in winter is extra special!
Last happy thing is my garlic. Doesn't it look great? You can just see the onions in the background. Garlic is an easy crop to grow, it is very nearly plant and forget.

So that it is all my happy things for today, except for one other, I got 4 gardening magazines for 50c at the Legacy shop. What a good day.

Long Weekend Roundup

Here are some of my photo's from the weekend. I have heaps more but Blogger is REALLY slow tonight!
Wes on the shovel, getting all the weeds out from where the cucmbers and zucchinis were growing.

Wes posing on the shovel now!
Zucchini Pickles - bit orangey cause i grapped paprika instead of tumeric but only added a teaspoon but it changed the colour but not the taste!
Out they came - my long giving zucchini and cucumbers. I got 2 cucumbers of the vine the day I pulled it out - what a good vine!

Pear Chutney - gave my niece a jar and she was into it about 5 seconds later!

Here we are at McIntyre Falls, you can only see a little of Wes' blue shirt as he tried to scoot out of the photo and just Megs back and bum!

The rocks were just as gorgeous as the falls - maybe more so.

Dave's scones (rather what was left after we had a massive pig on them) he made these this morning for Megan on her way home.

Getting There

Weekend list update number two!

The pear chutney is done and I have given two jars away already! It has a really nice flavour and I think it will go very nicely with pork. Thank you Debbie.

Wesley's stitchery has been started. Though I bought this tracing pen from the material shop and I think I might have made a mistake. It is meant to go through your tracing paper straight onto the material. I am not loving it for two reasons, firstly you have to go over the pattern quite a few times quite firmly for the pen to go through and secondly, it fades very very very quickly. I did the trace this morning went back tonight to start and 75% of it was gone! Plus the stupid thing cost me $9.90 so I feel like I HAVE to use it now.

We had a lovely day at the Ashford caves and McIntyre Falls. It was fun and relaxing. I took some pictures but have got to get the camera out of the car, so will do that in the morning. The Easter bunny was very good to all the kids (and Dave and I too). The kids were up at just past six to see what they got and then went for an egg hunt in the garden. Lovely.

Thinking off doing more stitching tomorrow and I might go feed the ducks! Though I will watch the Anzac march first. Have a great Easter Monday.

List Update

So I have made the zucchini pickles, planted the garlic, pulled out the cucumber vine and zucchini plants and have made a start weeding the veg garden. Today I am hoping to make the pear chutney, finish weeding and start Wesley's stitchery. I have also got do the usual stuff like grocery shopping, washing and cleaning.

We went out to Mum and Dad's yesterday for Good Friday. It was a really nice day, we did take a load of pavers out there too. Ashford is such a nice quiet town, it just feels relaxing,

I have other little projects that I want to start - have you noticed the more you looking around blogs and I guess the Internet in general, the longer your 'must do' list gets? It's crazy! I have sewing and craft that I want to do but firstly I MUST focus on the garden so everything is good to go. Our first frost usually comes around ANZAC day so I have got to be ready soon..

Righto I am off to do some ironing - how exciting is my life? LOL!

Slack or What?

I have been completely neglecting my blog and this is a bad thing! I have been working full time and that is my excuse! I don't have enough hours in the day to do everything I want.

However, I have five whole days off work coming up and I am so going to utilise by playing catchup! My Easter weekend list is thus;

• Make Debbie's Pear Chutney



• Make another load of zucchini pickles



• Pull out my zucchini and cucumber plant - they are officially done.



• Weed the vegie garden



• Plant the garlic - finally!



• Start Wes' stichery



• Make a dishcloth for Down to Earth dishcloth swap.



• Sort out Amelia's wardrobe

I think that's it for now. I also need to re-do my budget and pull myself in a little as I have been a bit spendy lately.

Have a great Easter long weekend!

Patterns

How are these for retro?

Pillowcase Dress

As I mentioned we had a recent trip to Bellingen. In one of the shops was a simple dress made in vintage material (I think it was a sheet) and it had a doily sewn on to the front, which I have seen in about half dozen spots on the web attached to different items of clothing. This dress was about a size 4 and was selling for $57.

I wanted to have a go and the results turned out pretty well and it cost a lot less. Firstly this dress is in a size 8, I bought two pillowcases ($1 each), a doily (50c), extra material for the bottom as the pillowcases werent long enough (20c) and two buttons ($1.25 for both). So for a grand total of $3.95 I made the dress. I haven't counted the pattern I bought for $5 as I will use this heaps but even adding $1 for the pattern (based on using it a minimum of 5 times) the dress still came to $4.95. Time was not very much as it really is an easy pattern and would have been even easier if I hadnt made my own binding for the armholes.

Amelia first asked me 'you want me to wear a pillowcase?" But now she loves it and wants to wear it to Bronwyn's tomorrow. Since she is a showpony she happily posed for the pics.

On gardening news this has brightened up the fairy garden - isnt it gorgeous?

I also had to remember (thanks Google!) how to make a chatterbox, apparently I look like a monkey! (Tip: Don't pick number six).

Lastly here is the new bits of decking done, so though it isn't very handsome, it IS structurely sound with no chance of falling through!

Bellingen

Last Thursday we headed off to Bellingen. It is a cute little town with a very big cafe scene and some nice shops. This is the view from the cabin we were staying in 4 kms out of Bellingen. The dairy cows would wander across the river for milking and at 5 in the afternoon the ducks would land on the river and then head home by all walking in a line. It was very funny to see. We went to the Butterfly Farm and it was better than I remembered. The last time we had been there Wes had been 6 years old. This time Amelia is 6!

And three very beautiful and extremely rare butterflies.

We stopped in at the Honey Place at Urunga on the way to visiting Dave's parents in Macksville for a couple of hours on Saturday.

This is Marilyn the pig and Amelia was so keen to feed her our scraps that she was encouraging us not to eat all our lunch or dinner!

We bought Dave's muesli for only $7.50 a kg from Kombu and I went in and saw a Carman Miranda tea cosy, a bit smaller than the one I made Megs and the purse I made Aunty Wilma for Christmas last year. Obviously I am a lot more hip than I knew!