Happy Hour

Finished reading The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet,

Drinking freshly brewed tea,


Listening to the rain outside and dogs snoring at my feet,


Best friends with the English Dictionary,


Following baxter street and watching Sister Wendy video,


Planning to clean up the house but not too much,


Commenced re-reading Pride and Prejudice, just because I can,


Hoping to invent a beautiful dinner tonight for my two sons,


Sewing a new oven mitt because I burnt my one and only last night,


Discarded a large pot of lemon marmalade jam because it didn't set and I don't know how to make it,


Have to get out of my PJ's - Jane Austen would be horrified,


Hope you get to have a happy hour like me.




Cheers

Meet My Dala Horse Babies - Tiny 3D Soft Toys

This is the very mischievous Laila who won't sit still and is often missing from the group.  I had trouble getting her to sit quietly for the photo below, hence it's a bit blurred.

Her brother Thor is featured below.  Thor is already displaying signs of leadership, whether that will change or not remains to be seen, I don't think his brother Bo will give him much grief.  Thor's been having a bit of trouble with Laila, but he is very young and Laila is a handful already and only a couple of days old!  What will become of her?

The other siblings in this decorative family is Inga, she is so shy, oh my goodness, she is cute though.  Quite often she can be found hiding behind Thor and I had a bit of trouble getting her to look at the camera.

Brother Bo, who we think might turn out to be the romantic, was found once or twice peering into the mirror admiring his beautiful adornments.  He can be so vain.

Their mother and father, Darma and Winter were presented to the world last week and it goes without saying that they are very proud parents.  Darma is slightly exhausted with the effort of delivering the four babes into the world and is currently resting.  Winter, the proud dad is keeping an eye on them whilst mum is resting.  Winter has a lot to learn about keeping four frisky, delinquent foals at bay but he has great pride and in time will have the kids under control.

If you would like to see more traditional Dala horse craft then pop by here at Gingerbread Snowflakes as Pam is one of the organisers of the Dala Horse Craftalong.  There is a link to the Craftalong at the top of this page if you would like to see photos of Dala horses made by participants of the Craftalong or click here to view the flickr group.  The other organisers of the Craftalong are Carina at Carina's Craftblog,  Kathryn at the The Pickled Herring and Hanna at  ihanna blog.  These ladies know what a traditional Dala is all about and you'll learn heaps from them.  I, on the other hand have adapted what knowledge I have about these deliriously gorgeous horses and gone completely overboard with their decorations.  I had so much fun, that that was how four more were born and now I have a family of Dala horses.


                              Hope you enjoy my babies.

Crochet Woolly Socks - All For Me

I was determined to get these socks (for me) completed over this weekend.  But of course, I didn't plan it too well, I ran out of the main colour so I had to improvise.  Loving colour as much as I do, I'm happy with them and they are so warm.

It was great doing each section in a different colour as I could get a better understanding of exactly how a crochet sock is constructed.  I've never knitted or crocheted socks before in my life.  A couple of months ago I bought this "I can't believe I'm Crocheting Socks" pattern from Karen Whooley at KRW Knitwear and I'm hoping I can crochet all 9 patterns.  Hopefully, they won't all be for me, have to share my work around.

My dog, Goldie, got into a bit of a pickle last week.  She put her foot in a gap in our backyard fence only to have the dog next door bite her foot.  As a result she had to have one toe amputated and she has some nasty cuts on her leg.  She's much better, but was licking the wound like CRAZY today, so I had to get her a buster collar.  She is not a happy puppy, so I wrapped her up in a cosy blanket and she is 'resting' in a spot which will get the afternoon winter sun.  I've been housebound all week because of this unfortunate accident.

On another note, I am off to the Craft and Design as a Career seminar on Friday in Melbourne at the Melbourne Museum.  It's a chance to get out of the house, the daggy trackie pants and pretend I'm an active community member.  I follow Pip's blog Meet Me At Mikes and she will be one of the presenters there.  Just to mix with humans again will be nice.  I'm a bit in awe of the whole experience as I've not interacted with the human race much these past months.

Any way, that's it from me today.  I wonder what the rest of the day and week have in store for me?

Pom Pom Project

If you want to see what the Pom Pom project  is  all about, check it our here at Meet Me At Mikes blog.  I can see a couple of mine in Pip's third and fourth picture.

They look fantastic.  Pip is closing her shop and this display may be her last hurray.  But I think she has more to post about this so check out her blog it's full of interesting and fun stuff.

Friday What's on my mind

Can I Prune My Cumquat Tree in August in Australia - Link Back to Rhonda at Down To Earth for a treat.

At the moment I have Thyme, Curry Plant, Rosemary, Lemon Balm, Lemon Verbena, Spearmint and Eau De Cologne mint growing.  A couple of decorative pots, one pet grave and an ugly hedge which I think I will take out.  But my main concern is can I prune the centre attraction - the cumquat?

Any suggestions on the perfect herb patch?  Do you have a blog that I can link too that might help?

Thanks for visiting and don't forget to link Back to Rhonda at Down To Earth if you haven't already.  Have a great day or evening.

Thrifty Cooking

Today has been all about thrifty cooking.  I never use a recipe for main course meals, I like to make it up as I go and with what's in the pantry.  Yet, I can't bake sweets or cakes to save myself without a recipe.
I will only do the grocery shopping once a week, mainly because I hate shopping for food and we try and live within a budget.  So I find I often have to 'make do'.

So this is what I did. I raided the pantry and fridge to see what's available, then I waited until I got some divine inspiration.  Once that happened this is what I came up with.

Vegetable & Meat Lasagne with Home Made Pasta 

First I made the pasta, and luckily I had enough eggs.  It takes three egg yolks and two eggs.

Then the messy bit, mixing the egg mixture with the flour.  Not going to show the mess I got into, but it worked out ok.


My recipe makes heaps of pasta and it can be frozen for next time, so no waste.  It's also so easy to cut and get it to fit the dish so much better than the pre-cooked stuff.  Yuk!  If you've never made your own pasta you should.  You will NEVER go back to the pre-cooked stuff.

 Picking herbs from the garden is a must, I didn't have any parsley, but that didn't stop me.  I used what I had; rosemary, curry plant ,thyme and lemon balm (mint) all chopped up and chucked into the meat sauce.

One of the layers is roast pumpkin with a sprinkle of ginger.  This is all the pumpkin I had, better than nothing!

Another layer is onion, chopped mushrooms and sour cream with nutmeg.  I could eat this on it's own.

Then the main part, the meat sauce.  I added lots of carrot, celery, onion, garam marsala, garlic and mince meat to this pot.  If you want a meatless dish, just leave out the meat.  Once the meat was cooked, I put the other bits and pieces in with a tin of diced tomatoes and tomato puree.  I just used enough to give a rich but not too runny texture.

I made the cheese sauce, using margarine, flour, milk, garlic, garam masala and cheese.  Once I had everything cooked and cooled, I assembled the lasagne with meat sauce, pasta sheets, cheese sauce, pumpkin and mushroom, more pasta and repeated until it was all gone.  Sprinkle the top with more cheese.

Pop it into the oven, keep an eye on it until the top has browned and Bob's your uncle.  All done.  

The longest part was resting the pasta dough in the fridge for three hours before rolling it out and then putting the layers together.  As we all know, this dish will be even better tomorrow evening but tonight is the night.