New Toys To Play With....

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and New Year!  I sure did, it was one of my best in a few years.

Boy, has it been hot here in NSW and all Australia in fact.  Last Tuesday, 8 January we had 41 degrees in northwest Sydney and even Sydney was 42 degrees and it is always hotter out our way. We are to get in the 40's again today and tomorrow.

I had time off work over Christmas and I ended up getting some things done around home and a couple of new purchases.

My first purchase was dropped off on Christmas Eve....new window awning frames, 18 of them.  This is only the frames as I wanted to paint them before they are put up, to make it easier for me to paint. I have painted half of them but had to stop with the heat we are having. They will have a miniorb roof, I hope they will look good once they are up, they will certainly help protect the windows from with the heat.

Once they are all up I will show you before and after. I have just had all the windows painted ready for them to go up.

On to purchase No. 2.....a new Breville Food Processor. I waited until the Xmas sales and received free Breville Kitchen Scales which includes a thermometer stick...wow now that's real fancy!!

 I have to be honest I haven't even used it yet....but I will. I got it out of the box and found a spot in a cupboard, after moving the whole cupboard around to fit it in....don't you hate that!

No. 3...which wasn't really a purchase is this large garden bed which is from my Dad's, my sisters and I bought for him last Christmas but he hasn't been interest in gardening anymore so I have acquired it....yippy!!

It's so big and is taking me ages to fill it, I have it about 3/4 full, I have been putting in lawn clipping, sugar cane mulch, garden clipping, mushroom compost and neighbours garden clippings too.  I have a heap of seedlings that were given to me for Christmas from my nephew who works at a nursery and I haven't been able to put them in yet. I am hoping to have it full by this weekend and get them planted.

I have already planted the corn behind the old fence where the sweet peas were and they have double in size in over a week....love fresh corn.

 

The tomatoes are still giving me fruit but are starting to die off a bit and the beans behind are growing like crazy....I have had lots of beans...yum!

The beetroot is growing great and I should be able to pick it soon to pickle again.

For Christmas I received a worm farm...I'm slack and haven't even taken it out of the box yet but I will get to it.

One of the eggs in the nest in my lavender plant hatched the week before Christmas, for some reason the other 2 didn't hatch.  I was able to keep an eye on the baby through the bedroom window. I checked it on Christmas night and then the next morning it was gone...so sad..I was so disappointed.  I checked all around the plant in case it had fallen out, but no where to be seen. It was still so small and its eyes weren't even open.  I don't know if a cat or maybe a rat might have taken it.  The nest wasn't disturbed...so it remains a mystery.  I haven't felt like moving the nest or the other eggs so I have left it in the plant and trimmed the plant around it.

On that sad note, I hope you have a good day!

xx



HO HO HO...Merry Christmas...

 

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy 2013!!


 

A Christmas Feast....

 

Last weekend my friends Mary-Jane, Vanessa and I put on a Christmas Dinner for our parents. We decided on a traditional Christmas feast. All the meals were made by the 3 of us. There were 11 people altogether, unfortunately my Dad wasn't well and couldn't make it.

 

Bailey was ready to welcome all the guests...

 

This is the lovely set table, along with menu scrolls, place cards and bon bons.

Everyone seated ready to eat...hope they like it.

 

For entree we had Roasted Pear with a breadcrumb herb crumble, prosciutto wrapped around the pear and fried haloumi cheese on top with a balsamic dressing.

 

For main there was Roast Pork, Leg of Lamb, Roasted Parmesan Potatoes,

 and mixed greens with a garlic herb butter.

 

 Mary-Jane made the bread, one was Multigrain and the other Rye.

 

 For dessert there was a mini Plum Pudding & a mini Lemon Meringue Tart. Mary-Jane did a great job on the plum pudding, perfect shape!

 

 We also made up a gift bag for each person for them to take home.

 

Each bag included a mini Fruit cake (made by Vanessa), a couple of Choc Chip Cookies & mini Honey Jumbles (made by Mary-Jane) and Shortbread (made by me) which I forgot to add to photo.

This is Jake with his bow tie on, he was the hired help for the night, oh that reminds me I haven't paid him yet...haha!



It was a great night and everyone had a wonderful time.  I think it might become an annual event!

 

Busy, busy, busy.....I have been doing some baking for Christmas gifts....

 

Cherry Shortbread



 

Rocky Road

 

 This year I tried a cake I haven't made for a long time...Creamy Light Fruit Cake....it is so yummy. I decided to make mini ones instead of a square cake that way I can give as gifts.

A bit more baking is still to be done this week and a get together on Saturday night then rest until Christmas Day.....hopefully!!

 

A couple of weeks ago I went to trim back the lavender as it was getting untidy and this is what I found....

 

 One of the black birds that make a mess digging in my garden has made a nest at the top of the lavender bush...they originally built a nest in the rose on the arch at the front gate but that obviously wasn't good enough so she built this nest, a weird place as I thought birds nested up high.

I know I shouldn't be encouraging them to make more babies that will dig up my garden, but how could I resist with those cute little blue speckled eggs! How amazing are bird nests, so round and well packed!

Lastly, I would like to say my thoughts are with all the families in the US which have had their loved ones taken from them in such a horrible way.....so young and innocent....

Enjoy your day!
xx

Christmas Card Making....

 

A couple of weeks ago I went to my friend Meighan's house to have an afternoon of card making.  Meighan has been making cards for years so I decided to give it a go.  We had a great afternoon!

 

These are the four patterns that I made, which Meighan designed herself. Quite easy to do and I didn't stuff them up.  We ended up doing 8 cards altogether, 2 of each card. The top left one is upside down...oops!

 

My tomatoes have been growing like crazy so I have been picking them green so the plant will grow more fruit and the bugs don't eat them.  I also picked over the weekend some of my first beans....yippy...love beans!

 

This last Saturday was very hot....40 degrees.  It was so hard to get motivated. On the Saturday I had my neighbours son's 5th birthday party....wow, how were we going to cope in that heat. Well, the kids were fine, there was a mini pool with slide into it, a slip and slide and water pistols, so all the kids had a ball of a time, while the adults were at boiling point.  We would duck inside to the air conditioning to cool off for a while and back out the heatwave. They had a clown for games, making balloon animals and face painting...boy she must of been hot...I kept waiting for her makeup to start running down her face...ha ha.   The main thing was that all the kids had a great time....and they sure did!!







 Enjoy your day!
xx