Holiday count down has begun…..

Just 9 sleeps until I fly out to Hawaii…..the tickets have been collected, my suitcase is sitting empty in the corner of my bedroom, I have a list of things that I want to take, and my passport is literally burning a hole in my pocket!!

In the mean time, I have been keeping myself busy, going to a Taylor Swift concert last Tuesday at The Brisbane Entertainment Centre with my sister Wanda, niece Sharna and Leah.  It was a fabulous concert and a very late night, it took me all week to recover!

On Friday my friend Carolyn and I walked up Mount Coot-tha.  The walk took 2 1/2 hours and was both invigorating and exhausting at the same time.  Well worth the effort and a challenge we were very much up to!

The weekend was particularly busy with a Southern Cross Quilters GTG on Saturday, and a family outing on Sunday.

The finished Red and Green scrap quilt was my show and tell at the SCQ GTG. That brings the top total to 9 now.

    

Suttons Beach - Redcliffe

It was a beautiful day out with our children and grandchild….. life doesn’t get much better than this!

 

This week I’m back working on my Carpenters Star blocks, with all the cutting done for another two blocks.  I have an idea in mind for sashings between the four blocks, let’s see how it develops shall we??

Tonight I cooked some chicken balls……500g  minced chicken meat, grated carrot, grated zucchini, shallots, sweet chilli sauce, fresh bread crumbs, seasoning and an egg.

I mixed the ingredients well and then put the balls into a mini muffin pan to cook in the oven.  They were very yummy served with roasted potatoes and peas!

Well that’s about it from me now,

Thanks for visiting…..

Julie xxx

My week in review…..

Last weekend I was feeling the bloom of activity.  I had completed a project and found a few needing work when I cleaned up my sewing room.

If I could remember where, on the www, I found the tutorial to these blocks I began quite some time ago, I would share it once again, for that matter I would have gone there for the cutting and stitching instructions….but alas I have no idea how long ago I began them or what post I first blogged about them, so wing it I did.

I began with three 12 “ (finished) blocks, I had cut the fabrics from my red and green scrap containers, I really liked the combination of colours and once again delved into those scrap containers to add more blocks.

Today I have 16 blocks, and strange, but true, the scrap containers remain quite full!  I have come to think that scraps multiply when left to their own devices!!!

This week I’ve done a little cooking too, my now family famous Banana & Pear cake was once again a hit, and I’ve added a Date Loaf to my weekly repertoire that seems to have as much appeal, even without any custard cream icing!!

What started out as a simple Banana Cake has been tweaked due to a fruit bowl containing less than perfect pears right next to the less than perfect bananas.

Banana & Pear Cake

125g butter softened

1 cup caster sugar

2 mashed banana & 2 peeled, deseeded & mashed pears

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

2 eggs

100ml buttermilk (100ml milk + 1 teasp. white vinegar)

1 1/2 cup SR flour

1/2 teaspoon bi-carb soda

1. Preheat oven to 180 C (160C fan forced) Grease or line a large loaf pan.
2. Place butter, sugar, bananas, pears, eggs & vanilla in a mixing bowl and beat with an electric beater until well combined.
3. Scrape down sides, add buttermilk with beaters still turning.
4. Add flour and bi-carb to bowl and continue beating until combined.
5. Pour into tin
6. Bake for approx. 50 min.
7. Cool cake and ice.

Custard Cream Butter Icing

1. 30g softened butter
2. 2 tbsp. custard powder
3. 1 cup icing sugar
4. 2 teasp. milk

Combine dry ingredients, adding only enough milk to make a spreading consistency,mix until smooth, spread on cooled cake and keep refrigerated.

My icing mix is not an exact science, I add my ingredients to suit my mood, and depending on how much butter I add as I don’t weigh it.

My friend Sue from my LPWC made a Date Loaf for supper one evening last year and shared her recipe with us.  This is the one I have been using with great success.

The first time I made it exactly to Sue’s recipe, the second time I again tweaked it to suit my tastes., this is my version.

Date Loaf

1 1/2 cups chopped pitted dates (extra 1/2 cup my addition)

1 cup chopped pecans (nuts my addition, Sue’s allergic)

1 cup brown sugar

60 g butter chopped

1 3/4 cups SR flour

1 teasp. vanilla essence

1 teasp. bi-carb soda

1. Place chopped dates, sugar and chopped butter in a bowl, add boiling water and stir until butter has melted and sugar dissolved.
2. Combine flour and bi-carb, add to wet mix, along with vanilla essence and pecans,  mix well
3. Pour into a greased or paper lined loaf pan and bake in  moderate oven 45 min.
4. No icing for this little beauty, but I have been known to had a generous slice of butter to the portion I have, but only when I think no one is looking!!!

So far no photograph as it goes too quickly….next time perhaps!

Brooklynn has a new game, pushing Georgie around the house in my washing basket!

 

Then she gets in with her and we push her and Georgie around the house!!! Who needs expensive toys when you have grandparents, a dog and a washing basket?

Well once again it’s raining here, I’m a bit over it? Bring back the drought I say!!!LOL

It’s less than three weeks until my trip to Hawaii and I’m beginning to get a little excited!

Thanks for visiting,

Julie xxx

Bad News, Good news, Better News…..Great News!

Firstly, let me get the bad news out there……The airline I was booked on for my holiday to Hawaii went into voluntary receivership! 

The good news is that having 4 weeks before we travel gives us time to get the flights re-arranged, and our travel insurance should come to the rescue, due to the early payment of our flights.  Apparently an email went out sometime in November saying that travel insurance companies were no longer insuring insolvency for flights booked with this particular airline…..??

We are now booked on Hawaiian Airlines flying out three nights earlier, via Sydney, flying home  two days earlier.  The travel insurance claim is in and so far our extra cost will be the accommodation as we need an extra night.

So that’s the Bad News & Good News, the Better News is that as I had reached the point of no return at work and feeling I had nothing to lose I emailed my supervisor’s supervisors a letter of complaint.  I laid it all on the table and as they were visiting our unit the next day, my timing was perfect.

Not getting into the “I said she said” details, I now have the hours I wanted. I feel as if the weight of the world has been lifted off my shoulders.

That brings me to the Great News……I’ve started to find my stitching mojo again!  Between my work issues and Pinterest I had been doing lots of looking but very little doing….

I stitched a pair of wrap around pants from this tutorial I found trawling Pinterest,  Seeing them from this angle I’m thinking Pyjama Pants?

While I was on a roll I started a Carpenters Star block also found on Pinterest.

 

These 18” blocks were simple to cut and piece, using the instructions from the tutorial. I have allocated a few more fat quarters to make at least four more blocks, so I guess there goes my thought I was done with making quilts???

It’s been many years since I received a Valentines Day gift, and I was both surprised and thrilled to received this lovely pen from my ‘Bestie’ Sharon, she’s a darling and very thoughtful too! Thanks again Sharon.

The latest project is a makeup bag from the You Can Sew Girl book by Nicole Mallalieu.  I bought the book at the Melbourne craft show I attended with Sharon in 2011, and this is the very first project from the book, and it won’t be the last.

    

Here are the ‘neighbours’ coming to visit…..both lovely visitors I must say!

Thanks for visiting,

Julie xxx

Wet, Wet, Wet weather again….still……!

Here it is almost the end of January, the first month of 2012 is just about done and dusted, and what do I have to show for the (almost) 31 days?

Well I’m back at work, but no excuses this year I only have 2 1/2 hours a day to take me away from more enjoyable pursuits remember!

I applied for time off for my Hawaii trip, apparently my leave can’t be approved until the boss checks with everyone else to see what plans they have?  I’m sure my 2 1/2 hours a day will really be a big deciding factor!!! Whatever!

On a brighter note, yesterday I found my stitching mojo!  It was really only hiding not actually lost!

Ta! Da!

The two borders added makes this quilt number 8 needing to be quilted, and I have made a commitment to get them all quilted in 2012.  note to self: (I must make a side bar list and check them off as I go)

Next was this Friendship Star block.  The focus fabric was handed out late last year for those wishing to take part in making a block for a charity quilt.  No instructions apart from the finished size, it will be handed in second Saturday in February at the next SCQ GTG.  It’ll be interesting to see what the others have come up with and how they’ll work together.

  

This little pouch is from a pattern that had been sitting on my sewing table since late last year. I used the leftover strips from a jelly roll used in a quilt tops I put together in 2011.  It’s about the size of a pencil case and I’ve added a handmade scissor fob to the zip to give it some bling.  The fob was a gift from Kathryn, who gave everyone in our LPC one at our Christmas breakup last year.

Another pouch, needing completion, I had been procrastinating when the binding didn’t look quite as it should, but after beginning to unpick I knew it was the right thing to do and the finished looks was so much better.

This covered jar was another thing that wasn’t working for me, and it needed something to brighten it up.  The lace and label did the trick.

The jar is sitting on a table runner I have up to the quilting stage, I’d like to experiment with some machine quilting and used some scraps to put it together.  Stay tuned for the finished work.

Here is another on going project, I see this particular one taking years and years, if ever to complete.  It’s a work in progress that I never get tired of, and enjoy every moment I spend on it, I never seem to lose my mojo where it’s concerned…..

Poppy has fashioned a cubby house using a few quilts and the highchair.  Brooklynn loves to put quilts over her head and hide.

 

How would anyone get tired of watching this darling little project blossom and grow?

It’s still raining but I do need to leave the house to find a new telephone, the battery has died and can’t be revived on the cordless phone, so must find my galoshes and rainy, rainy coat before I venture outside!

Thanks for visiting…..

Julie xxx

Tupperware cupboard envy anyone?

I have a guilty secret, I suffer from Tupperware cupboard envy!  It’s a difficult affliction to live with!  I have so much Tupperware, I think I could be a demonstrator, oh and I love most of it too! BUT my cupboards have reached their capacity!

I am on a strict “no Tupperware diet” and have asked my husband to shoot me if I bring home one more piece of the stuff.

I have even sold my old Tupperware on EBay to make room for new Tupperware, it’s so close to being an investment I have seriously thought about stock piling it to re sell in my retirement!

Those vintage pieces are snapped up by collectors from all over the country.  Especially anyone looking for those colours from the early 80’s, Lime Green, Tangerine, Bright Yellow & Mission Brown (that are in my collection), because they are on the comeback for anyone decorating their kitchens in Retro Style.

A little early for my collection are the Soft Pastel/ Rainbow collection from the late 60’s & 70’s,  I remember in the cupboard of my mother, having said that I have to admit to one or two from that era, let’s face it, surely there isn’t a woman alive who doesn’t have at least one piece of Tupperware in her cupboard that she doesn’t know how she came by!

Last night while visiting the home of a friend I got to see her Tupperware Cupboard…….several times during the evening, and mostly all over the floor as if continually fell out every time it was accessed.

It reminded me of the mess my own Tupperware cupboard was in and as she vowed to tidy it up in the morning, it spurred me on to tackle my own guilty secret.

 

With an unused dish drainer that was lurking under the kitchen sink, I organised the lids.  I sectioned off the different pieces depending on use, cooking, serving and storage.

Let’s hope this organisation rids our household of the constant removal of half the cupboards contents to find the right container, then throwing it all back in and quickly shutting the doors.

It’s not all I’ve been up to, so here’s the rest of my escapades.

A new bag…….being road tested by Brooklynn!

Thanks for visiting.

Julie xxx

Road test has been a success

Today I took my new bag for it’s first outing, and I must say the verdict is in, and my new bag is a triumph!

          

Not only is it extremely comfortable, but very roomy, perfect for my necessities! Not once did I feel that sliding feeling, oh well if you don’t include the bra strap….but that’s a whole other issue!

I was able to access my purse when the time came to pay, getting out my reading glasses was a cinch, changing to my sun glasses a breeze.  When sitting at the coffee shop the bag say quietly and unobtrusively in my lap, fitting perfectly under the table so nothing was dropped on it either.

   

This Sunglasses case was partially prepared back in November, (with guidance from Sharon)  it just needed the closing do-dad to complete it.  Sadly the ones I had were too big and it has taken until this week to get some smaller ones.  I’m pleased to say that my sunglasses still fit, even after the Christmas Break! Oh and the fabric contrasts nicely with my new bag!

Yesterday I did a little cooking, three banana’s lay mouldering in the fruit bowl, and it seemed such a waste to simply toss them in the bin.

The icing was left over from custard kisses made before Christmas, and worked beautifully with the banana flavour. 

Peanut Butter Blossoms now fill the biscuit jars. A new recipe, not sure where it came from but had been printed and filed in my recipe book.  A soft biscuit, flavoured with peanut butter, and a choc drop pressed into the top as soon as they come out of the oven. Very tasty!

It has been hot, hot, hot here for the last few days, Monday was 40.6deg C yesterday a little cooler at 37deg C, Today 37.4deg C we are so very fortunate to have air-con I’m not sure how I would survive without it.

Tomorrow is forecast to be a chilly 32deg C looking forward to that cool change!

Thanks for visiting,

Julie xxx