Desert walk

Wow, I love this time of year.  The weather is perfect, the trees are blossoming the birds are singing and I am walking more.  Today walking home at lunch time, I was in awe of the colours around me, the quietness of the town either at work, asleep waiting for night shift or resting before the onslaught of kids as they come home from school.  I could hear the breeze, the birds and my foot steps.  I felt the warmth of the sun and the warmth of the breeze.  The sky a clear deep blue, the ground a mix of bark mulch and roasted orange sand and between them, the amazing array of greens from the dark bottle green of the Mulga, the silver-grey green of some gums and salt bush and the lime and vibrant green leaves of other native shrubs and trees.  The trunks and branches in varying shades of silver, burnt umber and pink-browns and textures that are just as varied.  They are flowering and vibrant reds and yellows leap from their branches.  The birds play in the warm air currents, lifting and falling, black dots in the sky.

I love the dead trees with their silver to black twisted branches that contrast with the clear blue sky perfectly. 

I can not wait to go camping and be surrounded completely by our wonderful native bush land, but today I am happy to walk and breath in my warm desert air.

More, and so soon!

Tonight I had the joy of crafting with a friend!  It is amazing how motivated you can be with a like minded friend.  I have been playing with more cut outs sent up by Shirley - thank you very much, as you can see I love the butterflies...what girl wouldn't :-)

Any way, here is the result of my craft night, hope you like them.

First project from my new room!

Hi there, 

Well after a long time of no crafting, I have now broken the drought with my first project out of my new craft room.  It is so cute and I am so happy with the result. 

My little ice cream cone pin cushion, topped with blueberry ice cream and sprinkles.

The recipe comes from Quilts and more magazine, Summer 2011 issue.  I had to make it, it contains some of my favourite things, Ice cream, purple and sewing. 

Yay! after all that time my sewing machine still works! and I even remember how to use it.

This is the card that I made at Girls Just Want To Have Fun at Andamooka last night.  Learnt a few new techniques, playing with distress inks, layering (and eating chocolate biscuites).  I love the stamps I used - I don't know the brands, but will find out.  It is funny how things that look so complicated are not out of reach to the average crafter when it is broken down step by step.

A week of colds and cooking

Over the last week, well few weeks, my family has been trying to fight off colds and flues.  I thought I was doing pretty well in avoiding it whilst nursing everyone back to health (or trying to), but this week it hit me as well.  Now I  have learnt that Mum's don't get to rest that much when they are sick, especially when the other members of the family are sick also, so to make my self feel a bit better I purchased a Donna Hay magazine (issue 57), just to read through on the couch.  That done I and needing nourishment and something to take my mind off feeling lousy I bought some ingredients and set about recreating some of her recipes.  Looking at the picture of the beef, Guinness and mushroom pie (p139) made my mouth water and brought back memories of sitting in an Irish pub in Tassy in the winter next to the wood fire with great friends, that is what I started with.  It took longer to make than I was expecting - part of that is due to not feeling crash hot.  I got the filling made and ended up having some of it on toast for tea mixed with Beerenberg Worcestershire Chutney.  Unfortunately due to being sick I couldn't taste anything!  The next night I still didn't get around to making the pastry, but had ready made puff pastry in the freezer.  I assembled the pie using that and was very happy with the result.  I could even taste it :-)

Also sick of buying food magazines and thinking that would be nice and never making it, I decided to try a few more recipes out.  The roasted tomato and thyme soup (p50) was just the thing to make us all better, or at least give us a shove in the right direction and now I have lemon shortbread (p89) in the oven and am going to make the beetroot and horseradish soup (p50) for tea.

The short bread is smelling wonderful. 

feeling crafty

Well, after a long period of no posts, I have finaly had motivation to resume again. I am trying to start up a little craft group in Roxby to give me and other like minded the oomph to get back into our crafting passions. After finally deciding on a night that seemed to suit most that I have asked I have been flicking through magazines and playing with a scrap pack that my partner's mum made up for me. So far I have come up with 4 cards. They are fairly simple but I feel excited again and now am over flowing with ideas for lots of other projects. Hope you like them.

A post script to today's post

YUM!!!!!  Crusty on the outside and soft in the middle.  The kitchenaid did all the hard kneading, I did the second kneading after the prove, so I still feel like I made it :-)  Sonny was very impressed when he came home to the smell of warm bread.

Very slack, but now I'm back

Hi to all out there in Blog land and sorry to my family who have been encouraging me to update my blog.  I have been very slack in this regard, but we will see how I go now.  Today has been a wonderful day!!  A lovely morning with a good friend and a nose through the Andamooka op shop.  A great drive out there seeing all the hard red gibber plains looking fluffy and green; the usual undulations and holes appear flattened and filled with shimmering water; birds soaring and swooping with the air currents, looking like they were have the time of their life.  When we got to the Andamooka boutique there were very exciting finds out there, designer dress with price tag still attached & my size, many great buys for the boys and others for me, my friend picked up some excellent clothes too, most of them new or near enough to it.  We travelled back to Roxby with the back seat loaded up with our amazing cache of wonder and went to have brunch down the street.  Coming back home we did a show and tell over coffee and then went our separate ways, my friend to the V8 super cars with her hubby (on the TV - not in Roxby) and me to my kitchen. 
 This afternoon I have been playing with my new toy... A kitchenaid mixer!!!! and it's purple!  Well boysenberry, but as close as kitchen aid gets to purple.  I have made bread and now have coffee & walnut biscotti in the oven.  The house smells wonderful and I am finding it hard to wait for Sonny to come home before trying the bread.  Mmmm, hot crusty bread, strait from the oven....  resistance is fading.....