Out and About

It has been a busy couple of weeks with appointments and a trip to Brisbane but at last, today, I have a day at home to catch the breath.
Our beautiful daughter, Bonnie, turned 30 this past Monday.  We went to Brisbane and took her to lunch on Sunday and spoiled her a little bit.
This is the card I made for her with one of my new stencils from Crafter’s Workshop.  The stencils were on sale at one of my fave online stores for all things crafty , Craft Online.com.au.  Their service is exceptional and they have a really good overall selection of scrapbooking and craft supplies. 
  
This stencil has a whole lot of possibilities.  I painted the background of the card in the gold colour and used dylusions sprays over the stencil in purple and aqua.  After this photo I toned down the ‘30’ a bit and made it blend in a bit more.  The flowers were accented with a white gel pen from pentel.

When it comes to coffee, I am very conservative and usually order a cappuccino or a latte.  After our lunch at the very nice ‘Boathouse’  at the old Regatta Hotel, I indulged in my fist macchiato.  It could have been hotter for my liking but it was enjoyable and I would definitely have another. It is very strong though and nearly blew my socks off – didn’t need any more caffeine for the rest of the day.  Luke (Bonnie’s fiancee) had a cold coffee which was in layers.  Condensed milk on the bottom, double shot coffee and a top layer of cream.  His could have been more chilled to make it more enjoyable.

It was a glorious sunny winter’s day yesterday, so DH and I went for a little drive to Warwick to take in some of the Jumpers and Jazz Festival which is on all this week.
A lot of trees in the main street were yarn bombed and there were some very creative ones.  The main street of Warwick was ablaze with colour.


The Town Crier was there outside of City Hall and he introduced the Warwick High School band who played some jazzy numbers.
It was lovely to see all the girl saxophonists.  When I learned saxophone at age 13 it was a bit of a novelty.  There weren’t many girls playing saxophone in those years.  Hearing the saxophone still evokes wonderful memories of my teenage years spent playing the sax in a couple of different bands and enjoying entertaining others.  Perhaps I will entertain again one day – in the old people’s home?  LOL. 
There were 2 wonderful exhibitions in the Warwick Art Gallery.  I was thrilled to bits to be able to see the work of Cas Holmes up close and in the flesh.  Her work is an inspiration to me. Do visit her website and be blown away by the work that Cas achieves
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By Cas Holmes.  I think this work was called From the Tea Garden.
There were many more wonderful works of textile art in the Exposition Exhibition by six Australian artists and six international artists.  Of course, I took many more pictures for inspiration.
What about this ‘Knitchen’

This display was amazing!!  Everything in this kitchen was either covered in knit or crochet or made entirely by knitting and/or crocheting.  Yes, even the tiles on the floor.

In the Rose Shopping mall we found another textile exhibition featuring the humble Tea Bag.  The pieces made by the artists were quite extraordinary.

These two pieces were made by Svea Bjornsson of Federal, NSW.  Svea must have drank lots of cups of teas!!

The artist, Jaunita Wellings of Clifton Qld called this piece Zen Tea Tangled.  Very clever.

I loved this piece called Zen Garden by Rhonda Jenner of Clifton Qld. 
A wonderful day out.

Until next time, happy creating……………………….Dianne

Stamping, Printing , Playing & a Quilt Finish

Lilian and I had so much fun playing with our art stuff last week.

We made our own stamps with adhesive foam stuck to pieces of cardboard and also some stamps from foam trays.  We didn’t have a geli plate so we used a plexi glass shelf from an old fridge as our printing plate.  It worked okay, but probably not with the same results you might get from a geli plate.

Here are some prints we did on paper. They will make interesting backgrounds for collage.

This is the foam stamp I made from a supermarket display tray.  I used the end of a paint brush to make the grooves and I was really happy with how it turned out. I have done a pattern on both sides of the tray – good value!!

 

Another stash buster quilt and still the stash is far from diminishing.  The scraps just seem to multiply.

This is Luke’s quilt – made for our younger daughters fiancee for his 30th birthday.  In the top left hand corner I have quilted a surfboard in perle cotton as he loves the ocean (hence the colours chosen for the quilt),  and surfing. 

Each seam has been embroidered with herringbone stitch in perle cotton and the quilt has been tied.  Some of the larger blocks were quilted also.

Grandad put Lilian up in the tree for a photo shoot.  She is not scared of being high up in the tree anymore!!

Until next time….happy creating………………………Dianne.

Warming Foods for Cold Days

My DH loves to cook.  This is a good thing – especially when I am having a ‘slack attack’.

He has always wanted to bake bread, so he set to a couple of days ago and took the journey.

Soooooooooooo happy he did, because ( a ) it was Yummy with a capital Y and ( b ) he wants to make more.

This one was a pull apart with a cheese and herb filling and I wish I could share the aroma of it cooking with you all.

My dear Dad turned 86 on 7 July and my sister and I took some lunch to his house to share with him.  I did a hearty beef casserole and my sister did a soup and his favourite dessert of milky, creamy baked rice and the simple cake dessert with apricot which we used for his candle.  Oh heaven! 

The weather has been cold in the mornings and when the westerly wind comes up the chill factor goes up with it.  My Dad lives on the plains 20 minutes from here and it is ffffffreezing.  It was –1 the morning of his birthday, but the company and food warmed us up.  The delightful Lilian was able to join us too.

My friend, Joan, gifted me a stack of lemons, so of course, I had to do one of our favourite desserts.  It is an easy lemon coconut tart and it is beautiful served with cream, ice cream and blueberries. No calories – ahem.

It is basically like the old impossible pie only lemony.  I am sorry I can’t remember where I originally got this recipe.

 

Easy Lemon Coconut Tart:

1` tablespoon grated lemon rind

1/3 cup (80ml) lemon juice

1 cup 220gr caster suger

4 eggs, beaten lightly

1 2/3 cups (410ml) milk

1/2 cup (75g) flour

1 cup (90gr) desiccated coconut

125 g butter, melted (I use about 110 g)

icing sugar

Grease 24cm pie dish.  Combine all ingredients except icing sugar in large bowl; mix well.  Pour mixture into prepared dish.  Bake in moderate oven about 50 minutes or until browned lightly and set.  Cover loosely with foil if over-browning.   Dust with sifted icing sugar.  Serve tart warm with cream and blueberries if desired.  Serves 8

Another birthday at this time of year is our puppy dog.  Bella is now 13 years old, and although her senses are diminished and her legs aren’t carrying her as well as they used to, she is still going along well and is a big part of our family.  She is a border collie cross and if you have ever had one of these dogs you know how faithful they are, and the great temperament they have. 

It is school holidays and we are looking after Lilian during the day this week while her Mummy is at work.  We are so very proud of our daughter, and the wonderful job she is doing of bringing up Lilian mostly on her own.  Lilian was chuffed when I gave her her very own old book to alter into a little art journal.

Her very first page signed and sealed with a heart and hugs.

Until next time – happy creating………………………Dianne.

Birds, Trees, & A Little bit of Creating

Firstly, Joan LOVED her little memory book.

I have to share with you this most extraordinary stitchery which Alison made for Joan.  It is done on the finest linen and she doesn’t even use a magnifier.  Fantastic work! 

It reads: “ He who loves an old house never loves in vane…how can an old house used to sun and rain to wattle and flame tree and a tall silky oak ever fail to answer the heart that shows it love”.  These trees mentioned are all in Joan and her husband’s garden. 

Left to Right, Alison, Irene, Dianne, Joan, Marleen and Shirley. Vicky was the photographer!

  We had a lovely lunch at a local cafe called “Two Birds” in Duggan St.  I can highly recommend this place.  Hot coffee and delicious light meals and yummy cakes, AND BEST OF ALL, everything is homemade – there on the premises.

Now for some birds of a different kind…..

One of the hardest living things to photograph has to be birds in my opinion.  Just when you press the shutter, they decide to move.  Here are a few I managed to capture on the last trip away to the Gulf.

At Waruma Dam – I think this bird is trying to grow his neck as long as that tree!!

Peacocks at Burdekin Dam – the colours are amazing and he has his very own ‘zentangle’ © on his top wing.

Peahens – not so attractive.  Why is it so?

Red Tailed Black cockatoo at Karumba having breakfast.

One lone pelican at Warumba Dam – This photos shows the cooking and wash up area on our slide on camper. Not a bad view to have while washing up!!

I love, love, love trees and often photograph them on our travels and at home.

Our big, huge tree at the back in wintertime.  All the leaves underneath will be used in the garden as mulch.

These long tall skinny things used to be trees until they were drowned at some time in the past!

Bottle trees near Jandowae in south western Queensland.

Tall Kauri at Paronella Park near Innisfail, northern Queensland.  They were planted in 1933 to form an avenue in this most wonderful park (more about it in another post).

Our poor little mandarin tree which is badly in need of some TLC but still produces fruit faithfully for us.

This is the collage card I made for Joan’s birthday – front and back.

 

First layout of ferris wheel blocks for my daughter’s friend’s quilt.  22 more blocks to go!!!!

This is a Karen Griska pattern and is available here if you would like to whip one up.

Until next time – happy creating – Dianne…………………………………………….