Inspiration # 3

For all the people out there who were told they'd never do it, that they would never amount to anything, this one is for you.

Google images

Anne  xx

Father and daughter

Is there anything more beautiful than a daughter dancing with her Dad.

Valedictory dinner Saturday night.

Anne  xx

A busy week

Hello everyone.  This past week has been busy with not much time for posting or creating.  Last Saturday we drove to Bendigo for my brother-in-law's 60th birthday.  Once we were out of the city we could enjoy views like this.

I made use of time sitting in the car by crocheting a few rows on my giant granny square throw.

Unfortunately Charlotte had to work so was unable to come with us.  Genevieve was able to come though and looks surprisingly cheerful in this photo despite the fact she was studying for a French exam.  (Exams all finished now!)

We had family from Adelaide staying with us for a few days after the party which was lovely.  Before they arrived I was able to go to painting class and start a new portrait.  I've blocked it in which basically means getting rid of the white canvas and painting the basic layout.

This is what I'm painting.  It's the same lady from my first portrait, different angle, different garments and different setting.  I will be using artistic license to edit a few things from the picture which will be fun.

Poor Charlotte had her car break down this week  which is a bit rough when you've only had your license for a week and a half.  From all accounts it looked a bit like this.

Google images

We managed to get the car home from the shopping centre, hubby has identified the problem and in the process of fixing it.  Just waiting for spare parts.

One of our chooks has been working extra hard this week.

Normal size egg

Extra, extra large egg.

The next two eggs laid were broken, so I can only imagine much energy and calcium went into laying that extra large egg.

Flowering in the garden now are roses,

Pandorea, an Australian native climber,

 Campanula,

 

one Sweet Pea seedling that survived winter,

and some carrots in the vege patch that will hopefully one day look like those on the tag.

Unfortunately there are no photos of the lettuce, the chooks decimated them!

This evening we are off to Genevieve's school Valedictory dinner which is a bit of a formal affair.  It's pouring rain here today so I hope all the girls manage to get under cover before their gorgeous dresses get ruined.

Wishing you all a fab weekend,

Anne  xx

Making bags and interesting animal companions

Hello.  The weather is rather warm today, assisted admirably by my internal furnace.  Does anyone else have an furnace working overtime?    I'll move on to other more pleasant things like making bags to organise my suitcase for next years holiday. I started my bag making frenzy in this post

where I made a bag with a zipper to put my smalls in.  Since then I made a laundry bag, some shoe bags, a bag for delicate clothing, (i.e. where the fabric pulls on anything) and a bag for my socks. 

Laundry bag

It's a simple drawstring bag and I applied HeatnBond iron-on vinyl to waterproof the fabric.  Letty  suggested I use oilcloth but I couldn't find any in a fabric I liked.  The fabric was easy to sew with the vinyl ironed on.

This shoebag was also made with HeatnBond applied to the fabric. 

There's enough room in this shoe bag for my thongs (flip flops) and jiffy slippers.

Bag for delicates.

 I had intended using studs for the closure on this bag but when I tried to punch them with the special tool they didn't turn out.  Grrrr.  I've used velcro instead.

The blue and mauve bag on top is for my socks.

I've yet to make some more bags.  One for scarves and belts and one for my hairdryer, brush, comb and hair clips.  I just don't want to have all these things rolling around in my suitcase.

While I was out having acupuncture yesterday, Genevieve took these photos of Sophie our labrador and the chooks sunning themselves together.

Interesting animal companions!

Well I'm off to do some housework type things like cleaning windows and folding up clothes.  Have a great weekend.  We are off to help celebrate my brother-in-law's 60th birthday tomorrow.

Anne  xx

Portrait completion and my family of animals

Hello everyone, how are you?  I finished my portrait yesterday in art class.  Here she is.

 

I am not sure whether to show you the picture it was taken from as the faces really do not look alike at all.  But I suppose for a first attempt it will pass.  I'll be brave and show you anyway.

I can't begin to tell you how much trouble I had with her face and those eyes, well you know the story about them.  There are things I would like to have done differently but will put it down to experience and hope that my next portrait will be a little easier and the likeness better.

A couple of days ago Stripey decided to revisit that land kittendom and took great delight in playing with a toy mouse in the bath.

Action shot

I love this photo

Since I've been letting the chooks free range, they like to spend a considerable amount of time on the back deck.  They love bread crusts and sometimes I'll go out and sit down to feed them.  The only thing is the dog loves bread crusts too.  I'm trying to feed three animals evenly, no easy feat when two chooks are trying to fly up to peck bread out of your hand and the dog is slobbering all over you.

Such an attentive dog, only when there is food involved though.  :)

On the subject of bread, I took delivery of a new breadmaker today.  Our current one is making very strange noises and it's only a matter of time before it dies.  We make bread in it everyday so it is well worth the cost.  I must say it has rather spoilt us having homemade bread as I really dislike most bought bread.  What is called wholemeal bread looks like coloured white flour with a few husk thrown in.  It would never fill my hubby.  Well I'll be off to read the manual so I can learn how to operate it.

Bye for now,

Anne  xx

Congratulations Charlotte

Congratulations to our beautiful daughter Charlotte who today successfully passed her driving test and is now the proud owner of a set of green P plates.  She's 21 so gets to use green P's straight away.  We are so very happy for her and very proud of her achievement.

She is very excited because now she can drive herself to work, drive to the swimming pool and the shopping centre without having to take the bus or train which takes up so much time waiting for connections or have hubby or me drive with her.  I think the best word in the English language to described how she feels is FREEDOM!!  :)  It's so lovely to see her take this step toward independence.

Wishing everyone a lovely weekend,

Anne  xx

Oil painting portrait update

Hello everyone.  I thought it was time to update you on the portrait I have been working on.  It is very close to being finished, perhaps another two lessons and it will be complete.  I have work to do on the lady's ear and hair, some tidying up of the windows and some other small details.

Yesterday's lesson had me working on the dress and I am very happy with how it has turned out.  In an earlier post, I expressed my distress at my teaching taking over my painting.  What I now do is have a small flat canvas nearby which she can use to show me techniques if she needs too.  I haven't actually said anything to her but I think having the canvas there has given her the message.  

So it's time to start thinking about what to paint next.  Maybe another portrait so I can practise my newly acquired skills.

Have a wonderful day.

Anne  xx

Peanut Butter Crinkles - Biscuits

Two of my gorgeous followers Sarah from Shabby Chic Sarah and Little Blue Mouse
asked if I would share the recipe for Peanut Butter Crinkles which I made for my  Vintage Tea Party.

I'm very happy to share the recipe and here it is.

PEANUT BUTTER CRINKLES

125g (4oz) butter

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon grated lemon rind *

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar, lightly packed

1/3 cup peanut butter **

1 1/4 cups plain flour

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

pinch of salt

1.  Cream butter, vanilla, lemon rind, sugars and peanut butter.

2.  With a wooden spoon work in sifted flour, soda and salt, making a stiff dough.

3.  Roll heaped teaspoonfuls into small balls with floured hands and place on greased oven trays or trays lined with baking paper.  ***

4.  Press biscuits down lightly with a fork, first crosswise and then lengthwise, for a crinkled effect.

5.  Bake in moderate oven for 15 minutes.  Cool biscuits on oven trays.

Makes about 25, but I always manage to get a few extra.

*  The addition of lemon rind isn't necessary but if you have a lemon on hand, it adds a little something extra to these yummy biscuits.

**  Any peanut butter will do, but I use chunky 'cos that's what is in the pantry.

***  I don't usually flour my hands, the mixture doesn't seem to be  too sticky.

Recipe from The Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits - The Australian Women's Weekly Home Library

Here is a photo to remind you just how good these biscuits look.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Anne  xx

P.S.  It feels like the temperature has got to 30C already and it's only 11.10am.  Off to hang out the towels and sheets on the line.

The weekend

This past weekend was an interesting one for hubby and me.  On Saturday hubby decided he would make use of the beer making kit we bought him for Fathers Day and started a batch of beer.  It's brewing away in our study/craft room, exuding strange smells and bubbling away.   Hubby has been collecting stubby bottles from everywhere so he has something to put the beer into when it is ready to bottle.

While hubby was making beer, I decided to make Christmas cards.  After the third design attempt, I came up with something very simple as I was fast running out of patience.  My sister is a much better card maker than me.

Sunday was wet and miserable and as hubby and I had a severe case of cabin fever, we decided to get out even though it was wet.  We started off with a bakery lunch in a local town and drove on down to Tooradin, a little town on Western Port Bay.   "The town's name is an Aboriginal term for a monster which the local Aborigines reputedly believed resided in a waterhole at this location.   It has the southernmost mangroves in the southern hemisphere."  http://www.townsinaustralia.com/Tooradin.1662.htm

Google images.  Tooradin is north of French Island, just above the word Gippsland.

 We first visited Tooradin when Genevieve was a baby and I had post natal depression.  Hubby would find somewhere different for us to visit each weekend to get me out of the house and to have something to look forward too.   I find water very soothing and peaceful so Tooradin is still one of my favourite places to visit.

Google images

Google images

We parked our car at the end of this road and looked at gulls and pelicans being buffeted about by the wind and the choppy high tide water.  We were warm and cozy in our car sipping on our coffee and eating a delicious sweet morsel from the bakery.  There were showers of rain about every ten minutes and when there was a break in the rain we went for a walk to the boat ramp which was invigorating in the blustery wind.

Google images

This was our view from the car window.

Through these trees and on the way to the boat ramp, we saw this camper van, complete with t.v. aerial and towing a covered trailer for extra camping bits and pieces.  I didn't consider it a very pleasant spot to camp with no shelter and very exposed, but each to his own.

Hubby and I spent a couple hours relaxing, talking about our trip to Europe next year and making plans.  I did some crochet on my giant granny square blanket and hubby read the paper and did the puzzles.  I suppose this might sound very boring to some, but we relished the time spent together without the interruptions that happen at home.  It's pretty amazing being married to your best friend.  We are both looking forward to the next time we can tootle off for a couple of hours by ourselves.

Thank you for all your comments on the Tea Party.  Sadly the sponge cake is all gone now and the biscuits going fast.


Anne  xx

Vintage Tea Party

When the idea of a virtual Vintage Tea Party was suggested by Mum's Simply Living

blog, I added my name to the list to join in.  I thought it would be a wonderful opportunity to make a strawberry cream sponge cake which I haven't made for ages and show some of the beautiful vintage china my Mum has given me.  Here is the table set for a tea party.

We needed more than sponge cake so I made peanut butter crinkle biscuits.  They melt in your mouth.

The sponge cake was delicious as was my cup of tea being sipped from a beautiful teacup.

I used a white tablecloth with beautiful crosstitch.  It belonged to my maternal Grandmother and was given to me by my Mum a few years ago.  It graced our table for both Charlotte's 21st and Genevieve's 18th birthdays this year.  Isn't the detail pretty?

The tea set was given to my parents as a wedding gift and as my Mum doesn't use it anymore, she gave it to me.  Aren't I lucky?  The set consists of six cups and saucers, six cake plates, a milk jug and sugar bowl.  Look at the detail.

Detail inside the cup.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Markings on the back.

 Also on the table was another piece given tome by my Mum, a gorgeous plate that I love.

Also used were silver cake forks and teaspoons found very inexpensively in an antique shop a few years ago.  The cake pedestal was a wedding present hubby and I received and the BIG teapot one I bought a few years ago for when we have family get togethers.  

Have a look at this beautiful silver tea strainer which was purchased from the same antique shop the forks and teaspoons were bought from.  From memory I paid $10.00 dollars each for the tea strainer, fork and teaspoons sets.

Thank you for visiting my Tea Party and bearing with this photo heavy post.  I had so much fun, I just didn't want to stop taking photos.  This has been a most enjoyable way to spend Melbourne Cup Day.  Not only has the Vintage Tea Party been fun, we now have leftover sponge cake for dessert and biscuits for the family for the next week, or I should say next few days.

  I'm just off to join the other ladies at their Vintage Tea Parties.  The link at the beginning of this post lists the other ladies participating.  Have a lovely day/evening everyone.

Anne  xx