Mother’s Day Treats, A new project, & Comforting Food

It was so nice to have both our daughters  at our house on Sunday to share Mother’s Day with me.
Second daughter, Bonnie and DH gave me a big, beautiful bunch of flowers and Bonnie also gave me a relaxing massage.


Isn’t this flower a beautiful colour???



 Our other daughter Rebecca (a mummy herself) cooked my favourite breakfast, eggs benedict and she spoiled me with a new pair of flanny pj’s and a puzzle book to take on our trips.
xxx Love you girls to bits.
Why is it when the colder weather hits, our minds immediately turn to warm comforting food, food and more food.
We noticed recently how much sugar the canned baked beans have in them, so I decided to find a recipe for homemade baked beans.
The one I chose was this one from taste.com.au, leaving out the cloves and molasses.  

They were so delicious and definitely something I will be making over and over.  Lovely to have on toast on a lazy Sunday evening. I used a ham hock for the smoky bacon taste because Coles’ didn’t have any bacon bones – I would use bacon bones next time.  The ham hock didn’t go to waste though, it was used to make a pea and ham soup.

Early in the year I had some chicken carcasses in the freezer and made up my own chicken stock and froze it.  So, last week I made some chicken noodle soup when the temps turned really chilly.  It warms the body and soul.
Now for some brayer love.  Do you have a brayer?  I find them so useful, and last week at quilting someone had the little wooden one for sale.  It is meant to be for seam pressing as you patchwork, but I thought it would make a lovely little brayer to use in mixed media adventures.  Dear Lilian has since painted the roller red one day while I had my back turned.  Perhaps she thought it should match the other rubber one.


Speaking of which, I used Methylated spirits to clean it.  It worked well, so Shirley, when you read this, we now have another use for the ‘metho’. Shirley told me how good it was to remove nikko pen from plastic and it really works!  Thank you Shirley. Everyone probably knew that except me?

Before & After
A NEW PROJECT? – am I insane??
Our daughter would love a quilt for her friend for her 30th birthday.  “When is it, I asked?” 
“September” she replied.  Yikes, can I go away for the whole month of June and meet that deadline?  Of course, I said yes and immediately started searching for something using strips and something easy peasy. 
I ended up purchasing this Ferris Wheel pattern by Karen Griska.  She has the blog :       selvageblog.blogspot.com and she designs and makes the most wonderful quilts.  I bought the pattern HERE
It takes a few blocks to get it, but it is quite fast and easy.  Be sure to check her version out – it is smashing!!!
This is a start, and I am trying to do at least one block a day. (PS the yellow one has been discarded now, too ‘in your face’)
There are also ‘secret’ projects being worked on, and one of them is nearly ready for the big reveal – after some 10 or 11 years!!
An early morning is planned tomorrow to go to Brisbane on the bus to the Quilter’s Picnic which is being held by Queensland Quilters Inc. this year.  One will have to be up and out of bed by 5.30!!!  HELP!!!
Until next time………………………………….Dianne.

A few days in the bush–Good food–Good company

We had a few days getaway in a State Forest about 2 1/2 hours north of here last week.  It was so peaceful and relaxing and the weather was delightful.  Um, until the last day when we got wet tails packing up!!   All in the fun of camping

When we arrived these guys were having siesta time.  They also found it peaceful and relaxing and they were not one bit timid.

Our camp on the edge of the creek. 

Beautiful serene bush walks.

It is such a shame this rotten lantana has taken over a lot of the bushland in this area.  Such a pest and there seems to be no stopping it.

A game of 500 was very popular and proved quite hilarious as we were all very rusty on the rules.

Beef stew done over the camp fire – delish.

There were quite a few of these large goannas about.  They look so prehistoric.

We came across this rather long carpet snake on one of our walks.  He was not interested in us – thankfully.  They are pretty harmless.


Our extremely noisy neighbours, the sulphur crested cockatoos.

This roo was carrying a joey in her pouch.

The blue faced honeyeaters were being very naughty and were relentless in their efforts to get to our honey, bread and tomato sauce.  This one is perched right at the pantry ready to swoop in.

The noisy miners were also very cheeky and one of them was even pecking at my socks to get the fluff for his nest. 
There was no technology for four days and it was blissful.  Now back to reality!
Until next time………………………………………Dianne.