milky

I was quite excited when I saw this lidded pot at the local Salvation Army store. I thought it was a vintage piece of milk glass and I'm sure I'd seen something similar in a Martha Stewart magazine. I popped it in the pram and headed home to wash it up. As I did I spotted something that disappointed me somewhat a maker's mark or in this case a brand on the bottom, can you guess who made my piece of milk glass???? - Avon! I am a little disappointed that it's not as old as I thought, but I still like it. It's on my bedside table at the moment but with two little ones who like to visit for snuggles in the morning it might need to find a new resting place.

Have you had any fabulous finds at the thrift store that weren't quite what you thought when you got them home? No? Just me then.

new week

I really don't know what went wrong this week, it started off so well. I've been trying hard to keep on top of domestic duties, like clearing the bench of all dishes before bed and organising dinner early or better still in the crock pot. It's a nice feeling to start the day with a clean bench and the morning seems to go so much better. The start of the week went well, bench cleared, washing hung out and put away (rather than just left in a heap on the couch or in a basket) dinner in the crock pot for the first few days = very little dinner dishes to complete, I was feeling quite smug about how organised I was becoming. Then snap, come Wednesday it all turned to custard and quite quickly. By Thursday there was washing everywhere, I found myself making breakfast amongst dirty dishes and also the clean ones that I hadn't put away. I cut up some grapefruit and soaked it overnight to make some marmalade, then discovered that I just couldn't fit the cooking in and had to pop it in the fridge till the following day( I hoped). The dishwasher was empty, but no dirty dishes seemed to be making it in, I was quickly running out of bench space all together. Then Mr A headed outside, ignoring all the mess, we made the most of some sunshine and got to work in the garden, planting and digging together (and mr A, pulling out the plants I'd just planted).

The thing with the housework is it NEVER ends, there will always be more dishes, dinners to cook, washing to fold and toilets to clean. But there won't always be sunshine to garden with your two year old, working together in some winter sunshine. A new week lies ahead, maybe I might be more organised and have a clean and tidy bench or maybe I might just leave it and make the most of some sunshine instead.

I did get around to finish making some marmalade and also some lemon curd, but the bench was a total mess when I'd finished, that's why they are cooling on the windowsill!

updated

I've added a few more Orchid upcycled cards to my etsy shop, a few people asked if I had anymore so I thought I better get a move on and get some listed. I've got a few more things to list too so keep an eye out.

That's all for today, the sun is shining outside and I'm keen to make the most of it!

citrus love

There has been lots of citrus love around here lately, lemon curd, preserved lemons, fresh grapefruit and oranges too. It seems it all can't get eaten and used fast enough. My friend gave me some grapefruit and inside the bag she included a great recipe that I'm excited to share as it's so EASY and well, we all need some easy in our lives. So here it goes:

Natalie's magic orange cake

1 whole orange washed and chopped roughly
125g melted butter
1 C sugar
2 med/large eggs
1 1/2 C flour
1 1/2 t Baking powder ( or 1 1/2 cup of self raising flour)

Preheat the oven to 180 oC

Put all the ingredients into a food processor, yip that's it.

Pour into a cake tin or loaf pan or muffin pans. Cook until springs back when touched. I've found that is around 35 mins for a cake or 15-20 mins for muffins.

You can ice it or drizzle some orange syrup over it or leave it plain. I have made it with a grapefruit instead of a orange and it was nice if you like a tangy muffin. I've also made a version with a cup of grated carrot in it and some raisins as muffins for the school lunchbox. It seems to freeze well too! Yum!!!

clear

The last day of the school holidays was the most stunning day (weather-wise) that we've had in a very long time. Wanting to make the most of it we headed to a local beach to have some fish and chips for lunch. Miss E was very keen and waded into the water! There were actually children swimming! in July! You know like July as in the middle of Winter! Admittedly it was very warm in the sun but still. It was great fun and all the talk on the way home was about the up and coming warm weather and lots more trips to the beach. A perfect way to end the holidays.

walk

We went for a walk in the local botanic gardens today. It's the last day of the school holidays and it was nice to get the kids out for a walk. There were many signs that spring is really on it's way, daffodils budding (flowering in places) magnolias in bloom and a slight change in the light. We saw a peacock and lots of ducks were spotted too. I found these seeds from a Titoki tree, a NZ native to show the children, when I was little our house had a small Titoki tree by the letterbox many years later when I went back to have a look at our old house I was stunned by how tall it had grown over the years. I remember as a small child being fascinated by the seeds, seems that the fascination doesn't end in childhood, aren't they just amazing?


Have a safe and happy weekend.

holidays

Rainy holidays at home, can be fun with just some coloured rice I've discovered! Miss E and I coloured the rice by shaking it in a bottle until the rice absorbed all the colour - the fun and noisy part. Once we made a few batches of different coloured rice, we layered some (briefly) in a jar, if I had been quicker off the mark I probably would have set aside a jar to fill with the layers that we could have put on the windowsill. But the layers were quickly shaken up! We also made some pictures by "drawing" with glue and then sprinkling the rice over the glue. Lots of fun on a rainy day and with things you've probably got on hand, always a bonus.

crack

I found this plate the other day, very pretty but cracked unfortunately. So over the weekend I plan on transforming it into some crochet covered pendants for an up coming market. I hope the weather is rainy otherwise I might just have to sort out my garden instead.

with thanks

My lovely neighbour Kerstin delivered a large lot of homespun wool to me last week. It's a mixture of Angora (from the rabbits that she breeds) and merino with silk. It's so lovely to crochet with and I feel VERY spoilt. I made some beanie style hats for the kids first from an improvised design. Luckily they were very quick to make, as soon as I had finished one, there was a request for another matching one. To stop arguments I crocheted a flower for miss E's one and a circle to put on mr A's one. They love them to bits, thanks again Kerstin! She has a website and a blog that you can find here: www.vivelly-stud.com ( I still can't get the linky thing to work! is it just me?) She sells her lovely Angora fibre too, I must say that it's so soft and warm and spins beautifully with the added bonus of it needing no carding.

I've still got quite a bit left, I'm just trying to decide what to make next.....