Lucky find

Tuesday on the way home from the weekly grocery shopping, I drove past a local op shop and something bright hanging on an outside display caught my eye.  From  distance I was fairly certain what is was.  Closer inspection revealed I was correct.  I paid the grand sum of $8.00 for these two blankets and after a soak, good wash and dry on the line, they have come up looking lovely.  Worn but very acceptable.  I couldn't leave them there in the shop knowing how much work had gone into them.

You can never have too many crocheted blankets.

Have a lovely day everyone,

Anne  xx

Teapot spout stains

I do like my cups of tea and mainly use tea bags but every now and then I like to make a pot of tea, seems to turn having a cup of into something special.   Irish Breakfast is my favourite.

 One thing I find is that after a while the tea leaves stains in the cups and teapot too.  I usually turn to good old trusty bicarb soda to get rid of the tea stains which always works a treat.  Come to think of it bicarb soda is great for lots of things like deodorizing the carpet, cleaning the toilet and many more things I'm sure everyone knows about.

As I was cleaning the teapot the other day I was frustrated as I couldn't get the spout clean.  Light bulb moment...use a dampened cotton wool bud/tip dipped in bicarb, a little scrubbing and voila, a clean teapot spout.

It's gross isn't it?!

Nice clean teapot.

On to other things.  I'd like to say a big thank you to everyone who has left comments about hubby's French clock.  He was really chuffed.

Before I go I can't resist posting a photo of Sophie using hubby's feet as a head rest, SOOOO CUTE!

Notice the dog hair on hubby's work socks, no amount of vacuuming can remove it totally.  :(   Hubby is in outside work trousers as he has started working on the second side of the drystone wall down the front driveway.  A subject for another post.

Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to read my blog.

Anne  xx

Impromtu Valentine's dinner

I like to make the most of opportunities.  When it occurred to me that hubby and I would be home by ourselves on Sunday evening, I decided to turn an ordinary evening into a special occasion and make it a Valentine's dinner.  I will be in Western Australia on Valentine's Day this year and as I like to make it a special day, thought Sunday night was the perfect opportunity to do just that in advance.

I had been pondering what to make for dinner all day as I knew it would be just for two and came up with a simple but tasty meal.

I made salmon patties loosely based on the recipe I found here,

 microwave potatoes in jackets, Waldorf salad, and grated carrot, coconut and currant salad.  I served the potatoes with Greek yogurt and the salmon patties with Tartar sauce.  It was a very simple meal but when you put accompaniments in little glass serving dishes, add some wine, it's all made that little more special.

Can you see hubby's fork on the right of the photo?  Don't know how that happened.  :)

We don't often have dessert but I had stewed some white flesh nectarines in a little brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and ginger earlier in the day and decided to pop some in a glass bowl with vanilla ice cream, some white chocolate shards which you can't see in the photo and some wafer sails/triangles (whatever you think they might be) and called that dessert.  Once again very simple but delicious.

  A little effort on my part made our meal so much more enjoyable.

Anne  xx

Baking day

It had to be done, baking to feed the hungry hoards.

 A dozen blueberry muffins.

Fifty two Anzac biscuits.

 

Two boiled fruit cakes.

 One loaf of wholemeal bread.

Anne  xx

:: 52 weeks of happy, 4/52 ::

Four happy moments from this week, actually five.

1.  Seeing hubby's hand made French clock every time I walk into this room. 

2.  Picking more Hydrangeas, these blossoms are from the same bush.

3.  Admiring the contrast between the blue, blue summer sky and the leaves of the Golden Elm in my neighbour's garden.

3.  Looking at my garden while sitting in the family room.

 

5.  Thinking about my visit to see Dad and Mum in Western Australia in a weeks time.

Wishing you all many happy moments in the coming week.

Anne  xx

Australia Day

To all the Aussies celebrating Australia Day...

Bonnie and Jessie, my brothers sheep dogs.

Gold Coast, Queensland beach from holiday with Charlotte December 2011.

Google images

http://www.7spice.net/dessert/lamingtons-recipe/

 

 

Have a fantastic day.

Anne  xx

French clock

This is the clock that started it all.  A gorgeous old French clock spotted as we were walking around the old city of Gordes in France during our trip to Europe in May/June last year.  Hubby loved it and as we couldn't buy this one and ship it home, he decided to make one.

One of the things about my hubby is that when he plans a project, he does it really well.  I'm continually amazed at his ability to nut things out, research in great detail and then make and create.

The things needed for this project were steel, a welder, angle grinder, clock mechanism with hands, paint and lots of patience.  Hubby had to teach himself to weld, read copious tutorials and watched numerous you tube clips to help him out and then practice, practice, practice.

Here are some photos of how the clock came together.

The clock face metal was bent into a round shape by a work colleague of hubby's who had access to the appropriate tool.

Spacers added to keep the clock face and frame rigid.

Adding the Roman numerals which  were individually cut to shape.  Also the addition of metal  framing to mount the clock mechanism.

The clock sitting on the template.

Ready for painting.

The finished clock.  Isn't it wonderful?

Hubby making adjustment to how it is hanging on the wall.  My man is over 6 foot so you can get an idea of how big the clock actually is.

I am so proud of hubby, the work, time and creativity that has gone into the making of this clock.  I just love it and every time I go into this room I just have to smile.  I'd love to know what you think.

Anne xx

:: 52 weeks of happy, 3/52 ::

Here are four of many happy moments from my week.

1.  Roasting a chook in the slow cooker on a stinking hot day (no hot kitchen with the oven on), with French Tarragon from the garden, paprika and garlic.

2.  The Pandorea (Australian native climber) in the garden room flowering for the first time.  It's been planted for about four years.

3.  Spending a wonderful day at the Australian Open Tennis yesterday and watching amazingly talented athletes like Novak Djokovic and Radek Stepanek play a fantastic game of tennis that was SO entertaining.  Five rows back gave us an incredible view.  Thank you to my sister and brother-in-law for the opportunity to go.

4.  Eating home grown beans fresh from the garden.

Just as I lined up this photo, Stripey decided to sharpen his claws on the wooden garden edging.  So cute!

Wishing you many happy moments in the coming week.

Anne  xx

:: 52 weeks of happy, 2/52 ::

This week there were many things that made me happy, these are my favourite four.

1.  Gardening in the cool of the evening, about 7p.m.

2.  Watching this Eastern Spinebill feeding on nectar in the Chinese Lantern at the side of the house.  I noticed him while I was gardening the same evening the above photo was taken.

 

3.  Marveling at the rich blue of these Hydrangeas picked from the front garden.

4.  Rediscovering, making and eating Waldorf Salad.  Mine is made with pecans instead of walnuts.  Delicious with our barbecue tea tonight spent with our niece and her fiancee.

Wishing you many happy moments in the week ahead.

Anne  xx

At it again

After spending some frustrated time yesterday trying to paint hands, I just couldn't let it alone, I had to have another go.  So I went back to the easel today and made some adjustments.

These look much more like hands to me. 

After working on the hands I decided it was time to start tackling the pattern on the lady's gown.  This really had me really apprehensive because I just didn't know how it was going to approach it, let alone wonder how it would turn out.  Here are my efforts so far.

 

 

A few splodges of colour here and there doesn't look too crash hot but when you stand back...it actually looks o.k.  

 

 

I had forgotten how much I love painting, time just disappeared today.

 

Anne xx