At the Art Gallery

On Saturday we popped into our local art gallery. Amelia really wanted to go as she is going to be an artist when she grows up. She's 7 and was keen to see what they had added since she was last there with her school.

Wes with Amelia leading the way

As you can kind of see in the photo above there is a absolutely lovely mosaic that runs nearly the whole block. It has only been recently completed and was done completely by volunteers. Here are some close ups.

Gorgeous!

The colour of the wattle is even more vibrant in real life

We may not have picked the best day to go as half the gallery was cleared out awaiting the "Waste to Art" exhibition that will be installed over the next week. We will definately stopping in to see that.
In the courtyard was this take on a Tom Roberts work.

Also there was some magpies that someone had made, Amelia decided to go further into the arts and do a dramatic reenactment!

The lady manning the desk was a wealth of knwledge and had we gone a week earlier I would have been able to sign up for a teapot making 2 day course! Boo hoo! There is always next time. The gallery is in the old 'School of Arts' building and is funded by our local council.

Have you been to your local gallery?

Soap ... Out!

The soap is out and cut! I have it resting on cake cooling racks for curing. It smells so nice, I hope 6 weeks go fast!

The green is May Chang. I am so loving the waves on these bars from a silicone cake tin!

More May Chang - less successfully using a lunch box lined in baking paper.

Here are the orange juice box tea tree soap. It has made a really good size cake of soap.

Soap Making

This morning Mum came in so we could make a couple of batches of soap each. I don't know why I don't do this more often, it is so fun!

Here we are waiting for the oils to cool, which didn't take long since it isn't the warmest of days today. We did the making out on the back deck which was warmer than inside and has the bonus of having electricity so we could use the stick blender.

This batch was a tea tree oil one and smells lovely. Actually the whole house smells rather nice.

I poured one of my batches into a orange drink container, If I had some one litre milk containers I would have used those. I will be much better organised next time! My second batch I did with a May Chang scent and green colouring, Mum went with lavender and purple colouring. I also soaked a loofah in some soap, I had read about it and am hoping it turns out.

All going well you will see some bars of soap on here tomorrow!

Ouch!

FYI, getting wisdom teeth out hurts! I kind of look like one of those people afflicated by mumps with a white bandage tied around my head keeping the ice packs in place! Totally gorgeous!

Swelling is supposed to get worse over the next 24 hrs and the pain is meant to get better. So I will be a relatively pain free chipmunk!

How Fun!!!

Stockpiling

This is something that I have been meaning to do for a while but hadn't until this week. I read about stockpiling originally on the Down to Earth blog and have seen it mentioned on a lot of different websites and blogs since then, it just seems so sensible and would definately put a stop to any supermarket dashes before dinner.

I cleaned out three shelves in my laundry cupboard and have just started filling them up. Still have a heap to put in but took a pic anyway to give you the idea of what mine is going to look like.

This should really help so I don't run out of anything, isn't it frustrating when you want cook something and one irreplaceable ingrediant is missing? Irritating, especially since it is your own fault you don't have it. So I am going to spend a little each shopping day on my stockpile.

Incidentally, I have about $15 of free money to spend next shopping day. I have $10 to redeem on my Flybuys and I did a Coles survey and printed off a $5 thank you voucher (though you do have to spend over $100 to use, but not a problem for us), you can actually do the survey once a month, printing off a voucher each time. $60 of free groceries over a year, thats not too bad. I am earmarking the $15 for my stockpile.

I also made a lovely frugal frittata for lunch today. Total cost was $2.90 so it was 73c a serve, not bad at all and it tasted really nice. I got the inspiration from here, though I changed it to suite what I had!

How was your long weekend?

Welcome, You Gorgeous Thing!

I am so in love! In love with my new mixer that is. Dave worked some (a lot) of overtime lately and with it he bought me this;

Isn't it lovely? We have already made a cake with it and made some pizza dough - using the dough hook. The dough was excellent, much better than we could do in the same amount of time.

I have the next week off work as I am having my wisdom teeth out and I am hoping that I am not so sore that I can't use this baby everyday! I am really looking forward to using it for my bread kneading as I am pretty crap at it. I love that this weekend is three days long due to NSW observance of the Queen's birthday, even though we do this a month late!

Have a great (long) weekend!

Wet and Lazy Sunday

I wish I could say I have got a heap of stuff done...but I can't. I did go to the markets this morning, but there weren't many stallholders today and who can blame them with the drizzling raing of this morning? I did go to the tourist info and get some brochures on some possible holiday destinations and I did go and price the collar we need for Mum and Dad's fire. So I guess I did something.....

But it has been reading weather. And I do love to read, so I did do that! I read the first two books in the Dexter series, I have never seen the show but both were there at the library so I nabbed them. I also have a sewing book to look at and a cooking on the cheap book. Guess what I am going to do tonight???

How did you spend your (rainy) weekend?

Hello Winter!

Wow, the second day into winter and it is certainly letting it be known it is well and truely here...Brrrrrr!

I can tell it is winter because......

 The cherry trees leaves are all gone - but do make a colourful spot in the the yard!

 Asparagus is dying off, as is the basil living near it.

 The garlic is already up and about! My little green soldiers.

 Broccoli is getting hammered by caterpillers. But I am now winning since I am doing a pick and squash daily.

 Our house painting still hasn't been finished. I am sure it will be done in another month.....or so!
 

 Now this has nothing to do with winter but I scabbed this from Mum and Dad when they were going to throw it out. I am going to fix the broken bit, paint it and hang it on my fence. I really love it!

How can you tell it is winter/summer at your place??