5th Generation Lemon Butter Maker

This Girl wants to take over the Kitchen! Cherry was home, sick and the day before I had been talking about making Lemon Butter, because we have a good crop of lemons.

Well didn't she just get it sorted, got out pen and paper, and started to write her recipe, then hasseled me untill I got out my recipe book, for all the measurements. Well she did it, and being the first time she cooked this, took it slow and easy in the micograve, and had great sucess. She also made tart cases from the left over Apple Pie pastry. Yummo!

This is my Great Grandmothers Recipe, I remember my Grandmother making it, my mother uses it on top of her baby Ricotta Cheesecakes, I put it in tart cases, and now my daughter is cooking it, (and eating it from the jar) Isn't it great to have family recipes.

Naturally I'm sworn to secrecy not to give the recipe away, so don't tell anyone- Its a Secret.

Lemon Butter

2 Tbs Butter

4 Tbs Sugar (White)

2 eggs

juice of 2 Lemons

Mix all ingredients in a bowl, and either cook over a double boiler, or microwave for 30 secs at a time. Keep the mixture moving untill it is thick. Serve it with anything sweet, eg cake filling, tart filling, on toast, off your fingers. Put it in a jar in the fridge, it should last a week or so.

Cherrys First Apple Pie

Dinner

It had been wet day, and I was totally over the mob here. During the day, I had helped Cherry make her first apple pie. I tend not to do to much cooking with the kids, they sort of get in the way, and fight, but I have decided to relent on this, and only allow one at a time to cook with me, and be more insistant about them cleaning up as well.

So, she presented my with her peeled apples, when I got back from a seminar at lunch time. We made a short crust pastry, no recipe, I just dump the stuff, in the bowl in the right order and tell her what to do. eg rub the butter into the flour, etc,etc. Rolled, Filled. egg washed, and Ta Da, apple pie.

We had it after one of my no fuss chicken and veg. roasts, because

I wanted to visit a friend close by, it was 5 o,clock, and I really needed to get out of this mad house.

So I filled a baking tray, with chicken legs, potatoes, sweet potato, carrot, and onions, all cut to the same size. added some whole garlic cloves (skins on) the juice and the quarted pieces of a lemon, sprinkled mixed herbs, and splashed olive oil. Bunged it in a moderatly hot over, and left the house.

Walked back in the door at 6.30 took the tray out of the oven, microwaved the brocoli, and dinner was on the table. They all loved it but lamented the fact that there was no gravy. Oh well, the idea was a good dinner with little effort, anyway I made custard, to go with the Apple pie.

Yum oh, apple pie and custard. This girl, had a belly on her like a stuffed pup, after her dinner.

Lets Go St George

Lets Go..Following Jesus, was the theme for a 3 day kids Club, that Redcliffe Uniting Church ran in St George. Looking at the time after Easter, Lets go down the road with Jesus, Lets to upstairs with Jesus, and Lets go fishing with Jesus.
We had singing, games, movie bits, groups, crafts, food, fellowship, and lots of love.
It was a great week, lots of kids having a great time, and young leaders, learning the ropes.
Praise God, for all the things he does, big and small.

LETS GO - St George

A bus load of people from Church, are going to St George, 600K West of here, to run a 3 day Kids Club. It should be great.

Happy Birthday Mum

This is Mum and Dad, Nancy and Geoff.Parents of two, Myself and sister Sue, Grandparents to 5, Alana Rose, Velvet, Cherry, Suede, Beau, and Kurtis.

They are somwhere in their early to mid 70's, Mums age has always been a state secret.

She plays golf, he fluffs around with sandpaper.

Happy Birthday Mum, i'll have a drink for you.

Its Happening

Well I'm finally getting it together, to join the world largest craft market. Yes Etsy. Yeehaa
Its so good to actually be trying to sell my stuff, instead of just accumulating it. I did a festival/Market it was good, and I sold stuff, even better, but not a the prices I would like. Its hard to earn a living wage as a crafts person.
Abit more work figuring it all out, and i'll be department store material.

Mixtape Zine

I'm to be publised, Yeah, a crochet pattern, for these slippers. In Mixtape Zine, out May 6.

Easter

Jesus in the garden at Gesethme, AGONY
Jesus at his trial, MOCKERY

Crucified, FINISHED


These images were created, first by setting up the Church stage in to 3 sceenes, The Garden, the Trial, and Calvery. The sceens were then potographed, and then I painted in images of Jesus. In the image of the trial, the courtyard is a painted backdrop.

Tea Cosy Swap

I particapted in a swap on Down to Earth Blog. This is what Liz at Luv2create made for me. Its been made of recycled fabrics, and has beautiful applique, finished in blanket stitch, my favourite stitch.

This is the tea cosy i made for Liz. If you google rosy cosy, you'll find it.

I really struggled to follow the croctet pattern, because i haven't ever followed a pattern,, so i don't know if it was me or the pattern. I needed to do a lot of figuring out, and maybe even improvising. But mostly i learnt somthing. Swaps are a great way to extend yourself.

Items of need.

Lots of the stuff I make is about need, somebody always needs somthing made or mended.
We are currently covering books and naming pens, and pencils for school, by the time we have finished we will have named/covered approx. 170 items.
I have seen pencil/pen/crayon holders on several blogs, I can't remember which one, but the are all basically the same thing, and some are very pretty, and lots of love and care, has been poured in.
Though I love the children, making these has been needs based, because the crayons in the box were just to hard, for them to manage.
I have deconstructed, the whole thing, to reduce the amount of time, to make them. The fabric, is some 100% poly, matress making stuff, it has a bit of a canvas quality. I just cut a strip, left the fluffy selvedge, folded it, ziz zagged, the edge (I don't overlock) and sewed all the little pockets. Finished with an elastic loop, and a pretty button.
And the reaction from the kids 'WOW Mum thats MAD"

This bit of stuff, is what I have prepared for Church this Sunday. We are doing stuff about the relevance of the bible.
This stuff is for an activity. When the early Christians, were sharing the the word of Christ, they shared bits of letters, stories and stuff, different people had different stuff, and they had to come together to get the big picture.
So in this activity, I got 10 great Jesus quotes, on A3, stained the paper, and tore it up. When people get to Church, everyone will be given a piece, and during the service there will be a time when we all wander around and find the people, with the other bits.

3 Things happening

This is the painting I'm working on. It is huge, about twice the size of anything else I've done -- I've only been painting for 12 months.

This is just my foundation image. I did it last week at about 2 one morning, when I was suffering "busy brain" and couldn't sleep.

I'm just waiting for school to start, so I can get on with it.

These are Beau's feet, she is modeling the little slippers I have been working on. I made some for myself, then the kids wanted some. they just love them. I think that I should jigg my pattern again to make baby ones too.

I hope to finish the pattern and post it in the next few days.

This is the kids breakfast, with Home Made Tomato Sauce, They love it.

I was given a box of tomatos, so many, and decided to do somthing special. I adapted the recipe in Stephanie Alaxanders "Cooks Companion" (one of my fav. recipe books)

TOMATO SAUCE

5kg ripe tomatos, chopped

1 table spoon peppercorns and

1tbs clove wrapped in muslin

1tbs ground ginger

1tbs all spice

3/4 bulb of garlic - chopped

30 salt

500ml apple cider vinegar

Boil all these things together for 1 hour, then add

1kg raw sugar

Boil for 2 hours, stir regularly, so that it dosen't

catch on the bottom of your saucepan. Blend it

with a stick blender in your sauce pan. Bottle in

hot sterile jars/ bottles, I used screw cap wine

bottles.

I am absolutly delighted with this sauce, Handy loved it, and licked out the sauce pan. I am totally suprised that the kids like it, I hated the tomato sauce my mother made, I seem to remember it having somthing icky in it, maybe it was the spice, maybe I had an imature pallet.

some things worry me

Some of the e-mail stuff my friends send me, can be a worry. But then sometimes I need somthing to really worry about, besides, being overweight, and what to cook for dinner. Its the "send this to everyone, or no one will love you" stuff that gets me, especially since I can be socially unreliable, and don't always get people. Any way I sort of like this one, and don't want to send it to anyone, in case my friends think I'm lame, so i'll put it here, where i can be as lame as i like. so there.

So other lame/worry stuff, is that the computer has been sick and at the hospital, quite stressfull for me, I've had to read my news on paper, and got my hands dirty. And even more stressfull, is that the camera, needed a battery transplant, which has taken days to find a suitable doner, because the camera is 3 years old, ugg, but Handy to the rescue, I just had to show up at the right place and say "my husband rang and ordered" and hand over the plastic.
All projects have been on hold pending, photographing. There is a new painting in the works, beautiful crochet slippers, my little girls are learning to crochet, and they have taken over the family scrapbooking.

ONLY 5 MORE SLEEPS TILL SCHOOL STARTS. YEAH. I CAN'T WAIT



I GOT RID OF THIS BECAUSE ITS JUST TO DREARY

MUD

Its raining again, again, again, that means that there is a tank full,

(1o 000 L)

of water.

Which means that the FRACTIOUS children, on the 5th week of the holidays, can let off steam, in mud. Loverly. There was no fighting during this time. The last few weeks of the holidays are hard, -- on mothers, not to mention the kids.

Me, Marilyn, and Andy

It's like the portraits Andy Warhol did of famous celebrities like Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor.This is just one of the many fun activities at 'The Silver Factory: Andy Warhol for Kids' at GoMA's Children's Art Centre during the 'Andy Warhol' exhibition until 30 March 2008. (Admission to the Silver Factory is FREE!)Find out more at: www.qag.qld.gov.au/warhol

Blahh, Blahh, Blahh

Yes this is what we did yesterday. The Silver Factory was great, just to get this fantastic image. You go into a little booth, have the photo taken, choose which color ways you like, and email it to your self. I love it.There was also a room full of floating silver pillows, a 15 seconds of fame, interactive film piece, building blocks, made from packaging, some computer, and drawing activities. Not enough for Cherry, as there was no "craft"

.The whole Gallery (GOMA) is totally a buzz with the AW exhibition. I will go with Handy, some time soon.

Hippy --Sanitary napkins

Its a monthly thing (ha ha),-- the shopping for Sanitary stuff.
Normally I just buy "home bland" napkins, for 2 reasons.
1. I am overwhelmed by choice, I absolutely don't know what I need, with so much to choose from. So I just pick up the generic, because I figure that they will do the job.----- and they do.
2.The outrageous cost, which I don't remember, because I don't look anymore, and the generic are less than $2.

For many years at night, I'v been useing the old nappies, rolled up, and held in place by nickers. The nappies just get a soak and wash. I'v been very happy with this.
I recently say an article on a blog (can't remember which one) with a link to sewing reusable nappies, and sanitary napkins, and decided to make some.

The fabric, at the top of the picture is moroon, polar fleece, for the bottom layer it acts as a barrier. 1 layer The Grey, is an old towel -1 layer, The black is a cotton/hemp - 2 layers. These have been cut to that smaller pattern piece, and zigzagged together.
The cover, cut from the big pattern piece, is a bright cotton, and the purple is a cotton knit. The cotton grip sort of sticks to the gussett of your nickers and stops the pad from moving.
I wear these with firm fitting black nickers, and I have been very happy with the results.

Hippy?

You are 65% hippie.

You're near the middle of the spectrum, but you've got an open mind. Society needs more people like you.

Are you a hippie?
Quizzes for MySpace

Hats/Beanies

These are the "Pin up Boy" hats, designed by Jared Flood. The light blue one I did first. It has the mistakes, and is to long, so needs to be turned up. The Pinky one next, but i feel that the multi nature of the yarn, decreases the impact of the pattern, but it shows up when worn. The steel blue one is just about perfect, but I probably need to drop 2 rows of rib.

I got all three done, becuse it rained for my whole holiday. I have memorised the pattern, but there would have to be 8 to 10 hours work at least in each.

Alana-Rose being my Model.

I'm happy with this one, (the Kid too)

This one is called Dizzy, its from the knitty.com site, and is knitted in Patons Jet on 5.5mm needles. I like it, and its not as complicated as "pin up boy"

I'm now waiting on a order from oze yarn of discontinued pretty Jet colours, more Hats. They are just the right size project for me.

Things to do today,

Wednesday, its raining,----- again. Hopefully the cachment is getting it.

Things that need doing today,

Birthday dinner,
shop and make Lasange, and finish Ice-cream Balls, for deep fried
ice-cream.
General tidy,
Make bed for Alana-Rose,
Socialise Children
Work on Knitting
Sew sanitary napkins.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALANA-ROSE - 17

17 years ago today, I gave birth to a little black haired baby, that has grown into this young woman. She was born at home in the inner city, after a full night of labor. We had a birthing pool, but water wasn't my thing, it just gave me the chance to behave like a breaching whale, so she was born on the bed. She was born a few minutes after 7am, and one of the most remarkable things is that the room went pink, I guess thats when love entered the room.
She was a beautiful baby, (she thinks she was a bit freaky with long black hair.) I could hardly bare to put her down.
I will be forever thankful to the midwife Olivia, who taught me so much, and totally empowered my to give birth, and breastfeed.

Home birth was not an option, buy the time Handy and I were having babies, Cherry was born in Mt Isa (north west Queenlsand), Beau in Brisbane, and Kurtis, here in Redcliffe.
When Beau was born in Brisbane, by some amazing co-incidence, Alana-Roses midwife, Olivia, was attending in the hospital, and Beau, is named after her, She is acutually Olivia Beau. I like to think that co-incidences, are the message, that we are on the right track.

Alana-Rose, dosen't live with us here, (she prefers an innercity life), so the birthday dinner is tomorrow night, and she will spend a few days with us.

I'm going to have a little weep now.

The dress she is wearing, is the same as the little dresses from a previous post.

Nice.....But

Don't they look fantastic, beautiful shrooms. their yellow tops, with the purple of the native violets, an absolute picture, err but the smell, see that black dot in the middle, well thats a fly, yuck, and they were slimy. ehuuu.

Just like coming home, it was great to be back, but the smell. No eclectricty, -- dead fridge, errrr. I left it to Handy, because I hold him responsible. First because he jinxed the fridge, yes, he was worried about it before we even left the house. Secondly, (which I detected the next day) The electricity failure, was because of his lack of Handiness. We have had a broken window in the kitchen, for over 12 months, in winter I put a bit of cardboard over it. Well it rained, and rained and rained, while we were away, and water came in through the window, shorted the toaster, and ta da, one dead fridge. He cleaned it out, I unpacked the car and ignored his dry retching. It was really rank. and because we are a team, I finished the job off. I got rid of the smell by wiping it out with vanilla essence, and put in a box of bi-carb. Its fine now.