Furniture & a Rug

Monday i painted the white on the kitchen dresser i got from a freecycler & finished off the new towel cupboard.

on Tuesday i sanded the kitchen dresser & put on a coat of varnish. then J & i cleared out a trailer full of ivy & jasmin that had worked its way through a few of our trees & on the wall of the front stairs. Wednesday i mowed & raked the front & back lawns, did a bit of weeding & in the afternoon carried up the dresser to the back veranda. put the clean glass back in the doors & hung them.
A worked on Saturday morning, then went fishing with Scott & dad.

i had started a floor mat a couple of weeks ago {well 1 row}, i spent most of the afternoon working on that.
it is made out off old T-shirts from the 3 boys.
i have been thinking of teaching a class on rag rugs, but I'm not sure how to advertise it.







home made pizza & garlic bread for tea

today i cooked early, orange & raisin slab {mmm my fav}, snicker doodles & my new item this week is passion fruit pudding for after tea. made extra choc chip biscuits last week & froze them so got out half of those. tonight's tea is baked sausages with onion & gravy, mashed potato's, broccoli & carrots.
after lunch made space for my kitchen dresser, in my craft room. filled the top shelves with stacks of fabric, well some of it anyway LOL.





towel cupboard into the bathroom, all the towels are on the line so its a bit empty. the draw holds the flannels & hand towels.

Sunny Sunday

You wouldn't think it wasWinter will all the warm sunny days we are having, fingers Xed for a little rain this week.

the marine ply didn't come home on Friday as the weather man said it was going to rain {but no rain in site Grrrrr}, & i didn't want it all wet before i got a coat of paint on it, so we are working towards next Friday.

i went over to spotlight on Friday & picked up the batting for the quilt, 20% off Woo Hoo.
went through my seed catalogues during the week & have my list all ready to go, just need to sell of some of my stuff so i can put the order in.

Yesterday was the winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year. Winter Magic Festival actually fell on the solstice for the first time in quite a while. i didn't go up there this year, didn't feel like fighting the crowds, it truly is nuts & some people are just so rude. i don't know exactly how short the day was but it sure did get dark pretty quick. i think i will put the solstice on my list of things to learn more about.

no warranty or half price for my filling, it seems dentists or at least mine doesn't guarantee his work, quoted between $180 & $260 to have it refilled. so i am ringing around on Monday to find someone who wont over charge me & does great work.

for today's cooking adventure i baked White Choc & Orange Cookies, Banana Ginger Bread, & a new twist on the Choc Chip Cookies, oh & lets not forget the good old ANZAC's.


Banana Ginger Bread


White Choc & Orange Cookies


also prepared tonight's tea, Zucchini & Carrot Bake {like a quiche i guess, we will see how they like it}, French Onion Potato Bake & Parmesan Cheese Bread. bit of a Veggie meal tonight :o)

yesterday afternoon i finished of a couple of cards for a card class & even did a bit of scrappin {its been a while}, decided to tackle J's year 10 formal photos. finished a page & have all the stuff ready to do the mini book that i will work on this afternoon.
i have noticed quite a few more people reading my blog & i just wanted to say Hello & id lov to hear from you, & if you have a blog ill pop in for a visit :o)

Sunday Guide

Up early & a tidy up after A's lan night. into the garden for some weeding, wood chip mulch around the fruit trees {got it for free. a couple of weeks ago city rail did a clean up & track work weekend which included cutting back trees. they left a huge pile of chip at the end of the fire trail that runs past the back of our place. picked up 3 bucket loads on Friday}.
planted out some more lettuces, gave all the fruit & veg a nice drink of seaweed water.
leveled up the Eco blocks & put the Hen House frame in place. A is bringing home the marine ply from work on Friday, {Wooo Hooo} each piece will already be cut to size.



As its Sunday, its also baking day. so my new recipe for today was Choc Orange Lamingtons, the recipe came with the new tin i picked up on Friday. also on the list was ANZAC, Choc Chip {those two are always on the list they ask for them every week} & Coconut Crisps.



a couple of years ago i had my first filling ever & last night that filling fell out. when i went in, to have it done the hole was very small, when the filling fell out i realised how much he had drilled away, over a quarter of the tooth & as its a molar that is quite a huge chunk. have to make a call & find out how much its going to cost, i think they should have a warranty or at least get half price. but we will see what happens. I'm defiantly not looking forward to going in i hate the dentist.
i also joined a site called Home Growers Exchange. A place where you can swap your surplus fruit & veg. i don't have anything to swap right now but i hope to in the future.

Green Shoots

my little Peas have emerged from the soil this week im very excited :o) the silverbeet has also starting popping up.

Pea shoots


Silverbeet shoots
the Monday was a holiday so we went down to Penrith, the new Anaconda store opened up, lov that place we purchased a lot of our camping gear from them last year. the new Spotlight store had their grand opening, what a night mare i have never seen so many people & the lines were a joke, Wendy & i just had a quick walk through & we were out of there.
Harvey's & Domain had their 2 years interest free thing on again. we came home with a Dyson vacuum, our old Vax just wasn't sucking that great any more, it was 12 years old so had a pretty good run. the vax will go down to the garage to clean up all the saw dust & what ever else is down there. we also came home with a tv for the bed room, that was something A has wanted for quite a while.

opened the Dyson up on Thursday & vacuumed all the floors, the dust container was pretty much full at the end, the sucksion is awesome. i would highly recommend a Dyson. we didn't get the top of the range, i don't like turbo heads as they get hair & cottons wrapped around them, just too much of a night mare for me. we purchased the DC19. its the cheapest one in the range {$599} we got it for $399.i wanted it because of the new carpet head, its flat so it will go under the couches & my desks with out any problems.



Thursday also saw me painting the second coat on the hen house frame.


in the afternoon i made a Key Lime Pie, equal amounts of tart & sweet, soo Devinne
Friday i went for an interview at Nepean Hospital in the food service department, not too sure how i went, was very nervous.

Grace Bros are having their stock take sale,so went in to have a look. i picked up two square casserole/pie dishes in Red of course,{22cm & 27cm} at 60% off. i have oval ones but the pastry i buy is square so now there will be no wastage when i make my chicken & meat pies. also picked up a lamington tin @ 30% off.

Rainy Day Sewing

it pretty much rained all last week, so i was inside most of the time. Monday i sat down to make a couple of bath mats with some of the old towels i have in my linen press. i cut out all the fabric squares, Tuesday i put together 3 panels & then on Wednesday those 3 panels became a single quilt top & finally on Thursday i used the left overs for a mat.
the 2 Aqua flower & the Red fabric came from a freecycler the Aqua damask was a table cloth that i had already cut up as an apron {it had quite a few thread bare holes in it} & the yellow gingham came from my stash, the whole thing will be backed with a white sheet.
i lov it when you start out making one thing & it ends up being something else. over the next few weeks i hope to get the quilt backed & quilted, well fingers Xed :o) not sure if ill keep it or sell it.

Sunny Saturday

lovely rain all week, woke up Saturday to beautiful blue skies. time for a coat of paint on the hen house frame. Dulux colour "Pea Green" using Wattyl Solaguard so no need to prime, as it was still cool only got the one coat on.



8 loads of washing {dried to just damp}, weeded the garden, cleaned out the Ringnecks cage {9 Rosella's came to clean up the seed that i dumped on the grass}, turned the compost, cleaned out the boys bedrooms {a few things to put up on Freecycle}, Bed of Roses at 7.30 on ABC {my new fav show}.

as its Sunday & raining i baked early this morning, Kiwi & Banana muffin made in a baking tray, Ginger Nuts { i make them soft } & the usual ANZAC & Choc Chip & thats it as i ran out of flour Grrrrrrrr.




Wendy, Gary & Dad are coming for tea & a Games Night {one of our Fave games TV Trivia}. Dinner will be Potato Bake, Baked Sausages with onion & gravy, Honey Carrots, Peas & Crusty Rolls. Kiwi & Banana Muffin with pouring Cream for desert.

First Day of Winter

Woo Hoo i lov winter its my most fav season of the year. lov the cold crisp days, warm woolly clothes, a warm fire, steaming bowls of food with crispy bread, curling up with a blanket & a good book, day trips over the mountain on snowy days for snow ball fights, going back to the car for hot chocolate & a warm sweet roll. all these & more say winter to me & i just love it.

Today had me dragging out the bread machine, haven’t used it in a couple of years. After an hour of searching couldn't find the manual so on to the net to see if could find one. I was in luck as someone had photocopied one & posted it, so 30 mins & 23 pages later i have a copy with recipes. Printed it on pink paper in the hopes that it wont get lost {fingers Xed}. Now its working away making us a nice crusty loaf to go with our tea.

As its baking Sunday ill be making a date & walnut slice, snicker doodle cookies both new recipes also choc cip cookies.

Hen House

yesterday i planted out some carrots & silverbeet, my little veggie garden is getting full. i cant wait until i see some tiny green shoots emerging from the soil.

A & i finally made a start on the new hen house, we had started one a couple of weeks ago but decided to knock it apart & start again, this time i had a better plan in my head. we measured, cut & labeled all the pieces then put together the front wall on the veranda. the back wall was next then stood them both up & add the floor joists & side rails. i think it is coming together very nicely & just how i pictured in my head.
A borrowed the nail gun from work & just before we were finished for the day the hose popped off the compressor, so ended the rein of the nail gun & back to hammers to finish off.
i was going to paint the frame today but its cold & a fine rain is falling on & off. so a tarp to cover it so it doesn't get water logged before the paint goes on.
From a sunny Autumn day to a cold wet Winters day, don't ya just lov the mountains :o)







anyone who pops in id lov it if you stop & say hey :o)