Monday is nearly over here. The sun is going down and as you are aware I try to get this blog up on Monday and I still have time.
Today D2 had her rostered day off and so we have been setting up a date time around town. With the opening of a new cafe, we meet there at 10.30 and follow that with whatever may pop up with either of us and finish the time together by getting the mail. This comes around fortnightly and I am loving it.
Yesterday was my father-in-laws birthday. He turned 84 and hubby currently has all his siblings here (6 of them) in our little corner of the world. We had a wonderful time of celebrations yesterday and there are plans to catch up again during the week.
The bib I showed you a few weeks ago has been wrapped up with a little card I made for a new little girl called Frankie.
I completed a bib for a baby boy.
Last week was very cold and I needed to get my slippers completed to wear. I had them knitted up, I needed only to put the soles on them and sew them together. The last couple of days had been nice and warm. Looks like we should get some Autumn weather.
While having breakfast today, hubby spotted this colourful parrot outside our window.
Hubby has arrived home for dinner. Bye for now ... Dot
Hello!
This month we have had another long weekend. Of course, we planned to do some things with it and have had a great weekend.
On Friday my preserved lemons were ready to open and try. D2 invited hubby and I for dinner that night and instead of gravy or mint sauce with our lamb we had thinly sliced preserved lemons. She didn't salt the vegetables so they went well with the whole meal.
Surprise surprise, she made dessert for us. It was a parfait made up of mangoes, coconut cream etc. Very delicious.
Over the weekend I finished my gift to send to my March secret IGpal. Her colour preferences were peach, green and blue so I made a Mandala to suit.
Homemade crumpets. Oh my! You will never buy crumpets again. Unless of course, they are homemade. I invite all my readers to find a recipe and if you have a pan, egg rings and some jam or honey you are set. They freeze well to use later in the toaster.
I was watching Martha Stewart one afternoon last week and she made Potato Gnocchi. It looked so easy I had a go. Mmm, I will make it again.
I hope I have inspired you to make something from scratch ... Dot
Hello and welcome to:
AUTUMN
Both ends of the day have turned cooler. The mornings are freezing. I have put my gloves aside today to wear tomorrow on our walk as my hands were frozen. The blankets have all been pulled up from the base of the bed and it won't be long and I will have to wear bed socks.
It is the middle of the day and it is trying to reach 20 degrees but has only made to 15 so far. There is a slight breeze; the turbine out the kitchen window isn't doing much. But Hubby and I love Autumn. It is our favourite season here in Tasmania.
I happily purchased some local honey. There normally isn't much there of the one we like (we don't like it too strong) and I was pleased to see a few there, so I grabbed them. Honey keeps well in the top of the kitchen cupboard and I used it daily and it only costs $10 a bucket.
D2 has the day off today. We walked around town and retrieved some fresh lemons. Every morning on rising I make hubby and I a warm water with half a lemon squeezed into it. We follow this by some clear water. This is a great start to the day and helps cleanse our liver I'm sure.
From the garden: I have some chips in the oven, have boiled some eggs and I am going to make up a salad with fresh lettuce leaves and tiny tomatoes. The tomatoes are very sweet. Delicious.
Some more happy mail. Hope Mondays keep this up. I like it!!!
Time for a cuppa and open my letter. Hope you have a lovely week and enjoy life where you are....Dot
Hello and welcome to another week.
I received my fix today. By mail I received some parcels. They seemed to come all at once. I barely got home from the post office and there was a delivery at the door. There was a bill in the mix too, but the majority of the parcels was happy mail. Happy Dot.
I received my Instragram Secret Pal gift today for February. I found a cushion to put in the cover I received and it is now on my couch. The reversible bag is set to go when I decide how to use it. mmmm!
I received my Sugar'n Cream cotton to replenish my stash. In the back of the basket there, I have some patterns to make up; baby bibs, crocheted owls, scrubbies and beanies. Lots of fun to be had!
Hubby is home today recovering from taking ill over the weekend. He is much improved.
Cuppa tea coming up....Dot
...CROCHET
I really do. I commenced some knitting recently and unraveled it a couple of times, tried again and on the third go gave up and crocheted the same item up. Over the last couple of weeks I have done this twice. Crocheting is very forgiving and so easy to do. I do like to only knit some items as they look much better but give me a crochet hook any day and I am off with ease and limited stress.
I had always wanted to have a go at crocheting some flowers. You can find heaps of different patterns online. I decided to revamp an old sunhat and was pleased with the result.
Today I completed this baby bib pattern I have been wanting to try. I like it. I am now about to crochet another with teal edging. A friend is having a baby soon.
I made this card holder for myself this week. Usually cards go in my bag in a snap lock bag but after a while they deteriorate so I decided to crochet one up with some scraps of cotton yarn I found.
The cards are stowed away in alphabetical order so they are easy to find when shopping.
I have decluttered my card collection but I still have 24.
The yarn I used was Lily Sugar'n Cream with a 5mm hook. I cast on 20 chain. DC in 2nd chain from hook and every stitch along to the end (19 sts). Keep pattern the same until work measures 20cm long. Last row needs to be an indent row, so each end DC2tog. Fold to your liking and sc around the complete item. Sew on a 1.5cm press stud and a button to match on the front. Its working well.
D2 has offered to cook me dinner tonight, so free to so some crocheting....Dot
Hello and welcome to another week.
I woke up this morning and looked outside and everything was wet. While we soundly slept the sky had opened up and given us a bit of rain. Nice to see.
Hubby is still pottering about over the weekend and fixing this and replacing that. He has sanded and painted doors and replaced door handles and switches that were really old. While the weather is warm it is great for drying paint and varnish.
To help with the renovating costs (it does add up, and we often find something extra to do), I decided to make February a NO SPEND month. This means buying only what you need and using up what you have on hand. This certainly brings out the creativeness in us and we are having a lot of fun.
Meal planning is always interesting and I like to use recipes with minimal ingredients yet high on taste.
This was YUMMY!!!. This recipe and many others that use 5 ingredients or less are found
here. I used lentils this time around. Next time I will use chicken.
I have some more simple recipes to try this week and look forward to it.
Something else I tried over the weekend was to make an easy pizza. After making dough and spreading that with tomato paste I put all my toppings in the Thermomix and blended them for 5 seconds on speed 10. Our topping consisted of an array of ingredients that needed using up: lamb, tomato, red onion, cheese, broccolini, capsicum, eggplant and a mushroom. It was very tasty and we have leftovers for lunch today.
mmmm...lunch
Dot
Hello Readers
I am hooked up to social media on my mobile phone and love it to keep in contact with family and friends. For a while now I have been watching my friends take part in different swaps and eager to take one on at some point. One particular swap took my eye at the end of last year and after reading the finer details I felt confident in getting on board for the new year.
After signing up I was given a pal to secretly send a gift to by the end of January. All I needed to do was send something that I can easily put together. I knew what colours my pal preferred and I made a card to send along with it.
Lime green was one of the colours my pal loved so this was sitting in my cupboard so I packed it up and it was happily received.
This week I received a package from my secret pal.
They are absolutely beautiful. I have put the red one away to pull out at Christmas time and the purple and green one matches my kitchen perfectly for everyday use.
This swap is proving to be a lot of fun. I am currently working on getting my gift together for my next pal for February. Cannot let you know anymore as it is hush hush. All will be revealed by the end of this month.
If you would like to check out more on this swap and you are on Instagram, search on #2015igsecretpals
I am off to watch some TV....Dot
