It's Show Season

We had a wet day for the local show but we went briefly all the same & managed to dodge most of the rain. BJ was excited to get to ride in the famous car, Lightning McQueen. Very excited & happy! It's lovely when they are to young to know about all the other stuff that comes with the shows. Have to start saving for the years to come I suppose!

I also thought I would have a bit of a go at entering some things in the Home Industries section. Nothing to lose by it really. I was awarded a second place with Monkey. Hahahaha.... he was in the knitted toy section. So now I just have to decided what to do with all that prize money! $2 goes a long way these days! hahahahaha... ok, so you don't enter for the prizes do you, just for fun of course! It was interesting to see what sorts of things win, but overall it is interesting to see what what types of things people are making these days!

What a soggy weekend it is to be! Have a good one all the same.

Another Fabulous Book

Get your hands on this book! It's new out. I had it on order for a few months & finally it arrived! It's as great as it looks! Lovely. So much to pick from & motifs to suit anyone & everything! Really there are so many & wow, I don't know where to start or what to start stitching on. It really is great. If you embroider or just stitch a little grab it. There is a good bit of info at the start if you are a beginner. Plus there are lovely motifs that are the perfect size for beginners. Then you will be addicted. Not only are there all the motifs but there are also some projects included to make. How good is that. Now I just need to find the time to do some!

New Blocks in Store

I've been very busy lately trying to churn out the blocks for my madeit shop. These are a couple of new sets that I have just listed & they are so retro. The first one is The Taxi that Hurried. I just love the style of these pictures. The one below just cracks me up. It is just simply Fire Engines seems to epitomise all the types of book illustrations I remember as a kid, where there were always heroes that saved everyone & every little dog! Too cute.

Click the link on the right to take you to my blocks for sale at madeit.

4 Things

4 things that I always carry
1. Wallet
2. Hankies
3. Keys
4. Sunnies

4 things that are in my bedroom
1. Current read - Eat, Love, Pray (getting through it but slowly)
2. Bunch of clothes I need to put away
3. My knitted flowers that I got from Angelina
4. Vitaman E oil

4 things that I would like to do but haven't done yet
1. Visit Stu's family in England
2. Go to Alaska
3. Get another Norwegian Elkhound & a Bernese Mountain Dog
4. Fit everything into a day that needs to be done

4 things you don't know about me
1. I really, really love dogs
2. I spent 4 horrid years working in a call centre for Readers Digest - very bad job
3. My fav job was working in a gift shop - until I started recently in a quilt shop! Now they are equally favourite
4. I went to North America when I was 19 - on my own! Now I realise it was rather young to do something so huge! lol No wonder my parents stressed about it...

4 things I often wonder
1. What my little boy will grow up to be
2. Which things that my little boy does now & is interested in now will influence him in what he does in the future
3. What my little boy is saying when he tells me so much in his baby talk babble still... Sadly that is getting less & real words are finding there way out of his mouth now
4. What our dog thinks

Well that wasn't as easy as I expected. To see some other things visit here.

Elephant Embroidery

If you saw my previous post of my embroidery experiment with the Laurel Burch fabric & the completed giraffe you won't be surprised to see the next installment of my playing with more of the fabric.

The elephant isn't as bright as the giraffe as the giraffe was orange & yellow. But he still has his bright war paint on. I'm not sure if he is in disguise or going to a fancy dress jungle party or what. But it was quite fun to stitch again though the swirls on his ear got really difficult to put the last row of swirl in. It took a couple of days for my fingers to recover from that. I really enjoy the fill stitching. It's quite fun playing with the shape in the picture. The metallic stitching is not so fun but it needs it for the sparkle. Metallic thread is a pain but pretty.

Once again the elephant is finished in a 6" hoop. Below is a close up of Elephant.

So there you go. That's what else I have been doing this week, inbetween blocks. I will try not to work on the zebra for a few days & get some other stuff done first. These are a bit addictive. I need to get some more fabric to do another giraffe though. The other one is on his way to a new zoo. lol I'm sure he will be very happy there.

My Creative Space

I am trying to get blocks done for Christmas! So there are block sets sitting around all over my work table at the moment. It doesn't leave much room to actually work on them but some how it is getting done!

For more creative people that are more interesting than this visit kootoyoo.

This Speaks for Itself

Family Day

What a fun Sunday out & about Fell Farm. I've been juggling doing blocks most of the weekend with other things that need doing, like mowing the lawn again! I have got a couple of new sets of blocks in my madeit shop. There will be some more in soon as I prepare to have some available for Christmas! I am trying to be organised.

In between the playing & mowing, I arranged a little impromptu picnic afternoon tea on the lawn. BJ thought it was just great! I think it is something that he will ask to do again & again. He really likes routine & doing things in a specific way & having introduced something else he likes we are sure he will ask to do it again. That won't be a problem of course! lol Happy days on Fell Farm. Now off to eat our dinner that mostly came from our garden! Yay! I hope everyone had a good weekend & aren't scared off by the family picture! It's a bad hair day I think for all of us but the dog!

Embroidery Experiment

Are you a fan of Laurel Burch designs? I'm not. Mostly I really dislike it. But I had to move a little from what I do & don't like as I decided this one was a good one to play on. It is Laurel Burch Secret Jungle fabric. I saw this at work & decided I needed to buy a fat quarter to probably completely destroy! lol

So I started to attack it with some threads - metallic, varigated & standard floss. I have been stitching away on it for a couple of days. Here is my giraffe.

A bit closer up...

There are many options I could choose doing this. I was thinking of outlining the leaves around the giraffe with the gold metallic thread, but hey, as this was my first bash & fill in embroidery I can do that on another. I would like to do a bigger chunk of fabric. The cut I had wasn't going to work for me as this giraffe was right on the edge & I didn't have enough fabric for anything else on his left side. So I will just play with the rest of my fat quarter for now & maybe do a couple of these in this 6" hoop size for now. It looks ok. Certainly fun to do something completely random & without rules or patterns to follow. Not that I follow patterns all the time of course - remember that patterns are only suggestions or someone else's ideas. You can change it if you like. (Isn't that right mum!) Anyway, that's my giraffe.

Food week

I've actually had to do quite a bit of cooking this week! Shock horror! Oh well, these things happen. I have just got one of our new favourite dishes in the oven. It's a Baked Beetroot & Red Wine Risotto. It's a "Risotto for Dummies" if you ask me. As it goes in the oven it is too simple. Cheating probably to the risotto experts out there. But I sure don't have time to stand & stir & stir & stir some more! If you love beetroot & especially when you have a surplas growing in your gardens this is terrific! It's also vegetarian but if you aren't like we aren't then it is perfect. We eat a lot of vegetarian but purely by accident usually ( or probably because there is barely any meat in the house!) Susan & Chelsea, you need to make this in your TMX. You should try it as it will be even easier in there!

Last night I made a Cheese Souffle! Let me tell you, this was easy peasy! I looked at the instructions & thought there were an awful lot of them but it was really easy to follow with good info on why you need to do what you read there. It really was easy & really nice too! If you are scared of souffle making then give this a whirl. If I can do it, then so can anyone!

While the souffle was getting all poofed up in the oven I was whipping up a batch of my new favourite snack - Cinnamon Coffee Puffs. I love them & eat ummm... way too many a day but they are soooo good. If you saw my post on these last week then you really need to make these now so you know how good they are!

I have been working on a couple of crafty things instead of doing stuff I should be doing so I will probably get to post something crafty over the weekend! Have a good one!

Big Felt Fun

BJ liked the little owl I did yesterday. I told him I would make him a bigger one sometime. Well that sometime turned into immediately! He went on about Owl big all morning. He was telling everyone that he would get an Owl big. So ... what is one to do, but come home & make Owl big! Yesterday's owl was at the 200% enlarged size. But BJ's owl is 400%. We went to the copy place & asked her to enlarge as big as it would go. So BJ's owl is about 16cm tall. Not too bad. I did get it finished for him last night before bed time. Phew! He cuddled it for a while. He didn't want to take it bed though. He said it had to go in a tree. So here it is in it's tree. lol Ok, so it wasn't there all night, just for his photo now.

Here is Big owl & Little owl. He is quite a bit bigger! I think I will need to make an inbetween owl so we have the full Owl Babies set of Sarah, Percy & Bill. But then again, they need to be white & grey so I may just have to make the whole set in that owl breed! Ekkk... That book is one of his favourites. It is on youtube as a video too which BJ loves. May have to get that book from fishpond though as it isn't to expensive. The one with the dvd of the book is cheaper than the book! Cool. Into my wishlist it goes. lol

Have a very Owly Day!

Hi ho hi ho it's off to work I go.

Felt Fun

I got a chance to have a play with some of the crafts in the Fa La La La Felt book at last. Saturday I got the ornament above sewn & beaded! It's quite cute. I did a cross version of the 2 different ornaments like it in the book. It was a bit of an experiment. I think my beads are small compared to the ones used in the book. I used Mill Hill glass beads as that is what I have in large supply! Also had to get the number of strands down to fit through them of course so I will have to keep an eye our for a few in a larger size if I plan to do a few more of these. I haven't put a ribbon hanger on it yet as I need to find something that will put a decent hole in the top! I have a punch but it won't go through one layer of felt & this is 2 felt & wadding in the middle! Anyone recommend a good hole punch for this sort of thing?

Below is Owl. Actually it isn't mine any more. BJ has claimed it I think. He isn't a very Christmasy owl but it is way cute. I will make some more. I have to make BJ a bigger one to play with. He keeps asking this morning for it already! I will see what I can do. It was fun as I got to play with a bunch of stash - felt, floss, ribbon & buttons! Woohoo!

Thanks to Angelina for showing me this great book so I was forced to buy it myself! lol It's a really great book!

Awesome Day at Fell Farm

Ok, now this is something I know I wouldn't have believed if you told me even at the beginning of the year I would be doing. In case there are any family that bother reading this, yes I did! I know you wouldn't believe it but I was out in the paddock this morning picking up cow pats. Hahahaha... Yeah, who woulda thunk it huh? Not me! Ever! Here are the 2 cows that are providing our garden fertilizer. We really need to take advantage of the free manure I think, so I collected a barrow load & have dumped it to do whatever it needs to do before we can do whatever we have to do to it so we can use it on the garden. Lol Did you get that? I'm a novice when it comes to this sort of stuff so I just do what I am told or research & then find out a bit more when it is time. All good. All learning.

The cows, Blackie & Ginger (very boringly named for their colouring) are so brave now. Well Blackie is anyway. Ginger is getting better. I had to wait for Blackie to finish checking out the wheelbarrow & what was in it. Like most animals they are only thinking of food. Since we give them hay & scrap stuff they are quite happy to come to see what we have for them. It is hard not to get attached to them when they are so involved in our little family now! It will be sad when their owners takes them away. I think I will have to tell him he can't!

We finally have all the garden dug a filled with mushroom compost. We got some more beetroot seeds sown too. BJ had a great time watering those & the radishes which he planted a few weeks back. At least a hose is easier. I did spend ages putting water in the can for him so he could water, ummm... all the trees as it turned out!

After all that hard work he wanted some attention from Mum & some cuddle time. Ok, so it ended up being at least 10 minutes of cuddle time in the middle of the yard but I don't mind. I have to treasure the cuddle times I get! I really do, every single second.

Can't forget the dog though. Juneau wanted a bit of her own cuddle time. lol

I was also very excited at lunch time. I did a major happy dance. But not in front of BJ. He ate an egg! One whole egg for lunch! Wow. Once again, for the family that know him they will know that is quite something! He doesn't really eat much. Ever! Prefers milk still. But he ate an egg. Yay! I was very happy! We might see a bit of a turn around now hopefully. He has been eating better over the last couple of days but that was quite huge for him to eat that much of any one thing! So there you go! He'll get there eventually & I know I will be complaining that he is eating us out of the house. One day.... :-)

Now the boys have gone out so I am taking the time to break out the felt book again. I did get something made out of it last night while I was watching the Com Games. Very late... glad the swimming is over now. I can get to bed at a better time. But it was good craft time too. Ok, off to see what to make now. Hope your weekend is a happy & awesome filled time too!

Food & boring stuff

Oh the week has gone way too fast. But spring is here! Finally! With Spring comes daylight savings & that is taking some adjustment for all the gang here! Oh well, such is the sacrifice you make for the onset of summer! lol

Not a great deal going on here. I have been busy working on my puzzle blocks to fill the shop in preparation for Christmas! I am trying to be organised.

I have been making Cinnamon Coffee Puffs as requested by a friend who wanted to try them when she came to visit! I reckon she will definitely make them herself. Also made our favourite new dinner meal, Winter Vegetable Cobbler which is just great for using up different vegies you have left. It includes lentils in it which are really good! It's just delicious. I made it again last night for a friend who needed a treat of someone cooking her dinner! It is so good & they thought so too. Phew!

I've been out & about with BJ doing playgroup & our music sessions.

I have not done much of the Rainbow Ripple blanket. Sad but just a time shortage this week!

I did get the templates copied from the Fa La La La Felt book so I am hoping & hoping I can get something from that done still over the weekend though the garden is calling too.

Finally have a pea seed sprouting so I was happy dancing when I saw that! Yay! Home grown vegies are on the horizon!

Ok, better go do some digging or cleaning or something! Hopefully something more interesting than boring stuff soon...

Sunday lunch & other bits

I really enjoy our home day on Sunday. As a result I like to make something different for lunch or brunch even. I would love to make Eggs Benedict every day or every Sunday at least but as much as I like the Hollandaise sauce I really can't be bothered with it all the time. Plus it isn't nice to have something so often as then the enjoyment factor can wear thin can't it?

Today I decided we would have some sort of egg & bacon mini pies. I like the thought of mini ones as I always hope it would entice BJ to actually eat it! I went hunting for a recipe & found this Little Bacon & Egg Pies recipe at taste. I really love to use taste.com.au. I quickly glanced over the recipe only to discover I didn't have sour cream or 12 eggs. Ok, I will look. I had a tub of philadelpia cream cheese in the fridge. That will do! So I figure I will make a half batch of what that recipe said. So I made them. Hmmm... I made 12. Even with my 6 eggs... Ok, read their method. Ok, so I didn't do it like that recipe really. Seems like I have done something a bit different. They rose quite high, were rather light & fluffy & totally delicious. The rest will be work lunch tomorrow. & no, unfortunately BJ just picked a little at it like he usually does with food! Grrrr... Anyway here are my pies...

& here is my recipe.

Ingredients.
250g cream cheese
1/4 cup milk
6 eggs
3 rashers bacon
herbs, seasoning to taste
3 sheets puff pastry

Cut bacon up into pieces & lightly fry.
Let cream cheese soften & then mix with milk to make a bit of a smoother mixture.
Beat in eggs & seasonings.
Cut pastry into quarters & place each square into a muffin hole in muffin tin that you have lightly sprayed/greased.
Pour some cheese mixture into each pastry case & spoon some bacon onto each.
Cook in oven at about 180°C for 25-30 mins.
Let stand for a couple minutes & go & eat them.

Now there may be recipes like that out there in recipe land, but I didn't see any in my experimental stage this morning. So this is just how I did mine after not reading the one that I did look at properly! Worked out better if you ask me as I used half the amount of eggs!

While I was going I also had to make another batch of Cinnamon Coffee Puffs. Stuart made these the other night & well, they didn't last long. I tried to tell him the ants made off with the last few but he didn't believe me. If you like doughnuts/donuts you will love these! I like them better than doughnuts for sure! I made them a bit smaller this time then Stu made the other day, so we ended up with 24 little balls of yumminess! mmmmm..... Now again, one little change to the recipe! The recipe doesn't have coffee in it! Rather odd considering they are named with it... so we added a bit of coffee to the milk when adding it in. Gives quite a nice flavour. With the sugar cinnamon coating on them at the end they are truly divine & go just nicely with a cup of coffee! (Chelsea don't cringe at the sugar coating will you! lol) But they really are good! I have to be careful to not make a mess with these as the ants will be here in force! I really don't need to encourage them right now. But really, if you are a doughnut lover, these are easy as anything to make & better than in my opinion!

Well now Sunday lunch is done & dusted I had better get myself out to mow the lawn. Yesterday someone gave the mower a once over so it should be working just nicely now! I was watching him potter there for a little while. He was only pulling bits of grass off around the outside but he was really concentrating on the job like he was really fixing it! Very cute. He is sure inquisitive around things like this!

Ok, must dash. I have a lawn to mow. & I really want to have a play with my Fa La La La Felt book, though I don't think that is going to happen today really & truely. Oh well, I can try to narrow it down to which thing I want to make first. It's going to be a hard choice.

Christmas Tree CAL

I did get a tree done for the CAL that I posted about the other day. It didn't even take that long. I sort of followed the pattern but I really had no idea how many stitches I had each time. I must admit I didn't bother counting & ended when it looked like a good size. The buttons are red - much brighter than the picture shows. I did have to put a red base on as I had no green felt that matched. Oh well, it's done. It's ok, but not terribly exciting as cute as the original was. I joined it with the CAL over at Crafting with Cat Hair just for fun & a challenge!